Contributed by Director Charles Rob Venator-Santiago 

In the case of Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo (September 8, 2025), a majority of the Supreme Court temporarily upheld the authority of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain and interrogate Latinos in California based on four criteria. Justice Sotomayor, in her dissenting opinion, noted, “Based on the evidence before it, the court held that the Government was stopping individuals based solely on four factors: (1) their apparent race or ethnicity; (2) whether they spoke Spanish or English with an accent; (3) the type of location where they were found (such as a car wash or bus stop); and (4) the type of job they appeared to do.”

Contributed by Director Charles Rob Venator-Santiago 

The UConn Puerto Rican Studies Initiative (UConnPRSI) was launched in the fall of 2022. Initially funded by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), it is now supported by the Connecticut General Assembly’s Puerto Rican and Latino Legislative Caucus. We are pleased to announce that we have secured funding for the next two years, from 2025 to 2027.

On 4 October 2025, we co-sponsored the second statewide 2nd annual Charting our Path: The Connecticut Latino Policy Agenda Summit at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford, CT. The goal of this year’s summit was to anticipate the potential impact of federal funding cuts on Latinos in the state of Connecticut. Among the topics discussed in this forum were funding cuts for Medicaid, affordable housing, food insecurity, and immigration challenges in Connecticut. Upwards of 400 persons attended our meeting.

We are also happy to announce that the UConnPRSI is working with the CT Puerto Rican and Latino Legislative Caucus to sponsor the second Puerto Rico|Puerto Ricans in Connecticut annual public policy summit. This two-day conference will address various dimensions of Puerto Rican’s economic insecurity. Day one will provide an introduction to the Puerto Rican economy, and day two will focus on the economic insecurity of Puerto Ricans in Connecticut. The summit will be held at the Capitol (Friday, March 20, 2026) and the Legislative Office Building (Saturday, March 21, 2026) in Hartford, CT.

Contributed by Graduate Student Adrian Chavarria

This is a short synthesis of my understanding of this past weekend’s discussion on housing: The U.S. The Chamber of Commerce estimates a national 4.7 million home shortage.1 According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), 73% of extremely low-income renter households are severely cost-burdened.2 In addition, the NLIHC also highlights that in the State of Connecticut a household must earn $73,664 annually in order to pay 30% or less of their income in housing.3 The panelists highlighted that most working–class Latinos cannot reach this. They point out that Latino families face alienation, discrimination, and predatory practices in both rental and ownership markets. For example, new Latino landlords are often sold neglected properties, creating cycles of debt and poor housing conditions. The state as a whole is facing millions in cuts to already appropriated funding which is anticipated to severely disrupt ongoing community-based affordable housing development. 4 One could expect the state to step in and fill these gaps caused by federal cuts, however, State Representative Antonio Felipe emphasized that over 70% of Connecticut’s housing committee is composed of landlords or their lawyers, skewing legislation in their favor. Despite this, the house and senate passed HB 5002 “An Act Concerning Housing And The Needs Of Homeless Persons” which went on to be vetoed by Governor Ned Lamont which demonstrates the gap between policy need and political will. Policy recommendations exist, the question becomes, how can the legislature avoid another veto without compromising the effectiveness of the bill?

While this reflects my perspective on the policy recommendations provided by the panel, they are not officially endorsed by El Instituto or the summit organizers:

1. Implement Rent Stabilization and Cap Increases
   1. Why it matters: Without rent caps, renters face unaffordable and volatile increases (e.g.,30–80%).
   2. Policy Example: Adopt rent stabilization laws similar to CA or NY to protect tenants from excessive increases and promote housing stability.
2. Expand Community-Based Home ownership Programs
   1. Why it matters: There is no clear bridge from college graduation to home ownership for Latinos.
   2. Policy Example: Scale and better fund programs like “Time to Own” and provide grants—not just loans—to first-time buyers from historically underserved communities.
3. Invest Surplus and Rainy Day Funds into Affordable Housing at Scale
   1. Why it matters: State surpluses should be redirected to directly address structural housing deficits in marginalized communities.
   2. Policy Example: Fund large-scale, place-based neighborhood revitalization initiatives with housing, parks, transportation, and safety infrastructure.
4. Create Tenant and Small Landlord Protection Reforms
   1. Why it matters: Small Latino landlords need support, and tenants need better protections.
   2. Policy Example: Regulate AI-driven rent pricing, prohibit predatory property sales, and offer repair grants and tax incentives to small landlords committed to affordability and quality.
5. Democratize Housing Policy Governance
   1. Why it matters: Legislative bodies overrepresented by landlords cannot fairly legislate for renters.
   2. Policy Example: Establish independent housing equity commissions, increase

Panelists:
❖ Maribel La Cruz- CT Dept. of Housing
❖ Fernando Betancourt-The San Juan Center
❖ Wildaliz Bermudez-Executive Director of Fair Rent New Haven
Moderator: State Representative Antonio Felipe
Notetaker: Adrian Chavarria-UConn’s El Instituto

Closing thoughts:

Contributed by affiliate faculty Scott Wallace

Associate Professor of Journalism Scott Wallace’s memoir of images and text, Central America in the Crosshairs of War, has won the Foreword INDIES Best Book in Political & Social Sciences and a Gold IPPY Winner for Independent Publisher Book Awards for best History Book. Scott’s book is also an International Latino Book Awards finalist in two categories, Political/Current Events and History.

In July, Scott returned to Brazil’s Javari Valley Indigenous Territory, the setting for his bestselling book, The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon’s Last Uncontacted Tribes. His story about his return to the Javari for the first time in 23 years and the old friends he met there will appear in the October issue of Americas Quarterly.

Contributed by Graduate Student Lorraine Pérez

My research evaluates the interactions between birds and the parasites that affect them. Specifically, I get to study Darwin’s finch birds in the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador, and examine how urban vs. non-urban finch populations are affected by an invasive parasite that can cause up to 100% chick mortalities. For my thesis, I am interested in examining whether the behavior of finch parents influences the parasitism risk and survival of urban vs. non-urban chicks.

Between February-May 2025, I conducted field work in San Cristobal, Galapagos Islands along with my PI Sarah Knutie, Isabela Vargas (MS student at the University of Brussels), and Elizabeth Tituaña (field technician) (Fig. 1). During this time, we monitored the nests of small ground finches in the town of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno and the rural site of Jardin de las Opuntias (Fig. 2). Most of the field work consisted of placing in-nest cameras to collect video footage on the behavior of finch parents (Fig. 3).

We successfully obtained footage from 11 non-urban nests and 9 urban nests, and currently, a group of undergraduate students (Hailey Wildman, Chuanmai Husu, and Gabriel Lee) and I are extracting behavioral data from these videos using BORIS software. I do not have preliminary results for my study yet (since I am still collecting data from the videos), but I plan to start statistical analysis in the late Fall.

Contributed by affiliate faculty Michele Back 

On September 5^th The Modern Language Journal released a special issue entitled “Critical Reflections on Colonial Pedagogies: Lessons Learned for Language Teacher Education.” The issue was co-edited by Michele Back (Associate Professor, World Language Education, Neag School of Education), Romina Peña-Pincheira (Gustavus Adolphus College), and Daniela Silva (University of Texas at San Antonio). The issue focuses on how language teacher education (LTE) can move away from harmful colonial traditions by examining language teaching practices shaped by colonial history and clarifying differences and overlaps between anti-racist, critical, and decolonial approaches in LTE. The issue also highlights the importance of valuing Indigenous knowledge and multiple ways of learning. Contributing authors used the framework of critical reflection (Liu 2015, Liu et al. 2024) to interrogate teaching methods, curriculum, and assessment.

Contributions came from established and emerging scholars in Norway, Canada, Peru, and the United States and examined LTE practices in several Latin American contexts, including Chile, Guatemala, Peru, and Mexico. Authors also looked at how indigenous languages and ways of knowing can be incorporated into Canadian LTE; incorporating critical reflection into courses for bilingual teacher candidates in the U.S.; and how world language teachers in the U.S. can leverage student home languages (translanguaging) in their classes. In all of the articles, contributors demonstrated how to expose colonial logics and imagine relational, justice-affirming approaches to LTE. Two invited commentaries offer next steps for the important work of decolonizing LTE through critical reflection.

A virtual launch event of the special issue on September 4^th attracted nearly 100 registrants from around the world, and a recording of the event is available for anyone interested in learning more. The special issue itself is available now at this link; four of the articles are open access.

Contributed by Graduate Student Santiago Mayochi

I spent this summer in Buenos Aires, Argentina, doing research for my Ph.D project, which focuses on the Argentine response to the U.S. expansion over the Caribbean, especially Cuba. The Pan American conferences and the interventions in the Caribbean raised the alarms for many people in Argentina who gave speeches and wrote in newspapers and magazines of that time against the United States and its increasing influence in Latin America. While some viewed the United States as an existential threat to Latin American independence, others saw it as a threat to Argentina’s economic growth and geopolitical ambitions. For many of them, this opposition to U.S. dominance became a defense of Latin Americanism or Hispanism because of the cultural differences between the United States and Latin America. For others, the opposition came in the form of what can be considered as anti-Americanism.

To access the documents regarding this, I traveled to Buenos Aires and visited the newspaper archive of the Library of Congress. The repository holds magazines from the time where many intellectuals of the time wrote and microfilms of newspapers back then, where many intellectuals and politicians expressed their opinions about the events in the Caribbean.  I also visited the Foreign Relations Archive, which contains the records of the Pan American Conferences and related articles.

Over my weeks there, I found the letters that José Martí wrote for the newspaper La Nación about the First Pan American Conference (1899-1890). During those years, the revolutionary, poet, and father of Cuban nationalism, José Martí, was living in New York and was a correspondent for La Nación, the most important newspaper of Argentina back then. In his letters, Martí denounced the Conference as an attempt of the United States to formalize his dominance in the Caribbean and to create an economic scheme that would benefit them over the Latin American countries. Martí also praised the action of the Argentinean delegation, led by Roque Sáenz Peña, who stood against the customs union proposed by the United States. I also found these speeches from Saenz Peña and comments on them. This allowed me to compare the ideas of José Martí and Roque Sáenz Peña, who, despite being from very different countries, shared very similar ideas.

Furthermore, I found news related to later events, like the Spanish-American War, the occupation of Cuba, the blockade of Venezuela, the Drago Doctrine, the second, third, and fourth Pan American Conferences, and the protest and repression of the PIC (Partido Independiente de Color) in Cuba in 1912. For this, I did not just search La Nación, but another important newspapers of the moment, like El País, La Tribuna, and Sudamericano. This will help me get a better understanding of the opinions of these events, not only from the press but some intellectuals, like Manuel Ugarte, who signed some of the articles. All these articles were scanned from the microfilm and sent to me by email.

Regarding the Foreign Relations Archive, I consulted memorandums, ratifications, and related newspaper articles from other countries. As expected, the conference I found more information about was the fourth one, carried out in Buenos Aires in 1910. These documents, I hope, will provide more precise information about the events of those conferences and Argentina’s stand in them.

All of this was possible thanks to the sponsor of El Instituto to whom I send my infinite gratitude.

Contributed by Graduate Student Olin Green

Earlier this year, I was fortunate to have been awarded the 2024-2025 El Instituto Predoctoral Fellowship, supported by the Elizabeth Mahan Fund. These awards allowed me to continue my research during the summer on a project titled The Hidden Dimensions of Road Safety: Exploring Socioeconomic and Built Environment Factors in Latin American and Underserved Communities, which examines how characteristics of the built environment and driver behavior contribute to the inequitable distribution of crashes and near-crashes in underserved areas. This analysis uses real-world driving data collected from individuals through the SHRP2 Naturalistic Driving Study (NDS), which includes numerous variables that describe the behavior, characteristics, and performance of drivers. Even though this data is available for several cities in the United States, it was only obtained for Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties in Florida due to this area’s diversity in socioeconomic and transportation-related characteristics, which may disproportionately impact residents of underserved communities due to their intersectional nature. To determine the characteristics of areas where disparities in safety occur, I clustered (i.e., grouped) each census tract in the study area based on socioeconomic and transportation-related characteristics. Three of these clusters had high population of Hispanic or Latino or Black or African Americans, and a brief description of these clusters can be found below:

• Cluster 2: more Hispanic/Latino residents, younger population
• Cluster 4: more Black/African American residents, less economically secure, more public transit commuters
• Cluster 5: more Black/African American residents, more public transit commuters, higher walkability

Each case in the NDS data is referred to as an “event” and each event is categorized based on its severity. Safety-critical events include crashes and near-crashes (i.e., a circumstance that required the driver of the vehicle to perform some sort of evasive maneuver to avoid a crash). Since each event was tagged with the cluster in which it occurred, I aggregated the events within each cluster and calculated a series of percentages and ratios to identify areas where disparities may occur. These values can be found in Table 1. Here, Column 1 indicates the cluster in which the events occurred, and the other columns contain either percentages or relative ratios. Columns 2 and 3, which visualize the relationship between the percentage of events or the percentage of crashes and near-crashes in each cluster to the percentage of participants, contain several ratios greater than 1.0. This indicates that these clusters have a higher percentage of events or crashes and near-crashes compared to the percentage of participants who live in that cluster. For example, the percentage of crashes and near-crashes in clusters 2 and 4 are 1.352 and 2.181 times higher than the percentage of participants. When comparing the percentage of crashes and near-crashes (Column 3), we can see that a higher percentage of events result in crashes or near-crashes in clusters 2 and 5, while clusters 1, 6, 7, 8, and 9 have lower crash or near-crash probability.

When looking at the values in Table 1, specifically columns 3, 5, and 8, crashes and near-crashes disproportionately occurred in areas with high Hispanic or Latino or Black or African American population (i.e., clusters 2, 4, and 5). Relative to both the population and number of participants, these areas have a significantly higher percentage of crashes and near-crashes, and most of these safety-critical events involve non-resident (e.g., more than 86% of crashes in Cluster 4 involve non-resident drivers). These findings indicate that people living in clusters 2, 4, and 5 are overexposed to roadway safety inequities involving drivers who live in different clusters as a result of increased driving activity and, subsequently, an increased number of crashes and near-crashes. I am planning to build off this by determining whether non-resident drivers are more likely to be at-fault and whether non-resident drivers are more likely to engage in unsafe behaviors, such as distracted driving.

I am currently in the process of conducting approximate permutation tests to quantitatively confirm the validity of these findings, and I will write a journal article that further describes the transportation-related inequities faced by people living in underserved areas. I look forward to presenting my findings at El Instituto once my research is complete, and I am truly appreciative for receiving these awards.