Contributed by Professor Charles R. Venator-Santiago. Director Charles R. Venator Santiago had a wonderful opportunity to join Puerto Rico’s Resident Commissioner Pablo José Hernandez Rivera, along with various members of the Connecticut General Assembly’s Puerto Rican and Latino Legislative Caucus, in an event for Federal Representative John Larson in Hartford, Connecticut. We look forward to […]

Contributed by Professor Charles R. Venator-Santiago.  El Instituto|UConn Puerto Rican Studies Initiative is in the process of signing several memoranda of agreements with various institutions in the mainland and in Puerto Rico. The current batch of agreements is designed to support the rescue and preservation of Puerto Rico’s labor history. The UConnPRSI is now collaborating […]

Contributed by Professor Anne Gebelein.    El Instituto and LCI hosted the 8th graders of FAME Middle School of New Haven on Thursday, April 23, 2026. The Family Academy of Multilingual Exploration (FAME), situated in the heart of the Latino community of the city, promotes true bilingualism, rather than the standard CT model of transition […]

Contributed by Professor Anne Gebelein.  5 LLAS majors presented their 4994W capstone projects to the faculty on April 21st. Students focused on contemporary challenges to Latino and Latin American people’s well being, creating original research that included surveys, examination of government and international data, interviews, and critical comparative analysis. Faculty were impressed with the originality, […]

By Researcher and Curator Catalina Alvarado Cañuta.  An Art Exhibit at The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum in Hartford public opening on Thursday, May 7, 2026. Weaving Images of Healing: Caring for the Ancestors of the Future is an exhibition proposal that forms part of the doctoral thesis process of Mapuche academic Catalina Alvarado-Cañuta. Catalina is a […]

Contributed by Graduate Student Ms. Amelia Hickey When we think about trafficking networks in Latin America, the image that often comes to mind is a male‑dominated world of cartel leaders, smugglers, and violent enforcers. But new research is beginning to challenge this narrow view. Emerging scholarship is revealing a more complex and far less visible […]

Contributed by Graduate Student Beatriz Torres Do Nascimento My experiences at the MACLAS 2026 conference and at “Cultures From Below” were both incredible, though in different ways. At the first, which took place at the University of PennWest, California campus, I must admit I was very tense and anxious, as it was my first time […]