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 […]

Contributed by Professor and Director Charles R. Venator-Santiago. Announcing the creation of the Puerto Rican Data and Research Consortium The Puerto Rican Research and Data Consortium is a collaboration among research centers, hubs, programs, and initiatives that study the Puerto Rican experience. Central to this collaboration is an effort to share and disseminate data, information, […]

Contributed by Professor and Director Charles R. Venator-Santiago. Puerto Rico and the United Nations, A Preliminary Bibliography of United Nations Documents and Speeches Addressing Puerto Rico’s Political Status, 1953-2025 This report provides a preliminary bibliographical overview of all United Nations documents and speeches addressing various dimensions of Puerto Rico’s political status. This research bibliography is […]

Contributed by professor Beatriz Aldana Marquez. I remember the first time I did not belong. I was five years old, fresh from a long and terrifying journey into the United States, standing in front of a typical classroom of American children, all smiling and eating ice cream without the burden of responsibility. At the time, […]