Contributed by Charles R. Venator-Santiago (Director, UConnPRSI)

            The UConn Puerto Rican Studies Initiative for Civic Engagement and Public Policy is a research initiative housed in El Instituto. This initiative is funded by the Connecticut General Assembly and is tasked with providing research support to community-based organizations, community leaders, academics, and elected officials. Central to UConnPRSI mission is to use research resources to help social and political actors to re-think and propose new public policies that will address the inequalities impacting Puerto Ricans in the state of Connecticut.

            This spring, our research on energy received significant attention. A copy of our report, Connecticut Electrical Markets Policy Reports outlines our key recommendations.

Back in November 2024, prior to the elections, we met with Representative Hilda Santiago (D-Meriden).  She expressed the need to better understand why electricity rates are so high in Connecticut, which has the third-highest rates in the nation, following California and Hawai’i. Central to the concerns of Puerto Rican and Latino legislators is the belief that Puerto Rican and Latino residents in Connecticut are subsidizing wealthier residents. It is important to note that more than 64% of Puerto Ricans and Latinos in Connecticut are renters. As such, they do not benefit from the energy subsidies that homeowners receive in the state.

Our most recent recommendations focus on two dimensions of energy supply. While most proposed reforms focus on the tail end of debates (i.e. lowering costs and benefits of a final bill), we suggest shifting the focus to energy wholesale marketers. These marketers often purchase and sell energy at rates up to 150% above market prices to distributors such as Eversource and United Illuminating. Among our recommendations is the establishment of a non-profit, state-run wholesale marketer that can offer energy at more competitive prices. We also advocate for taxing excessive profits in the industry. Additionally, we propose amendments to the Renewable Portfolio Standards to eliminate accounting gimmicks that artificially inflate the costs of imported renewable energy. Our call is for increased transparency and accountability in the supply of green or renewable energy.

Ironically, while we are not proposing any measures that would oppose Connecticut’s green or renewable energy initiatives, we are facing significant pushback from environmentalist political actors. Furthermore, although our recommendations could greatly stabilize Connecticut’s wholesale energy markets, we often encounter resistance from progressive voices who claim to represent Puerto Rican, Latino, and working-class communities in Connecticut. More importantly, this project showcases the exceptional talent of students at the University of Connecticut. This research was conducted by Ph.D. student, Volodymyr Gupan, working with UConnPRSI.

 

Contributed by Apoliana da Conceição dos Santos

What happens when graduate students from different departments come together to share their research, questions, and passions? ELIN’s Graduate Research Forum, held on March 1st, 2025, created just such a space — one filled with insightful presentations, lively discussion, and meaningful connections.

The forum featured a wide range of presentations—from archival work reclaiming 19th-century Afro-Brazilian literature to explorations of queer identity, space, and time in Egypt. Topics included debt, inheritance, and ecological justice in Mara Pastor’s Deuda Natal, the maternal voice in Nuyorican poetry, and historiopoetics in Levente no. Yolayorkdominicanoyork. Other research addressed Egyptian surrealists reclaiming degeneracy through the Vive l’Art Dégénéré manifesto, contradictions in state-indigenous relations in the Andes, and cannabis, labor, and empire in the Panama Canal Zone. Presentations also explored themes such as migration, colonial legacies in Peru, and the role of constitutional recognition of Indigenous cosmovisions in Latin America. This rich variety of research not only showcased the interdisciplinarity of the forum but also sparked meaningful conversations across regions, methodologies, and fields.

Presenters included both first-year students and those preparing to graduate this May, all eager to share their research and support one another along the academic journey. Faculty members from El Instituto, History, Political Science, Geography, and Anthropology attended the panels and provided thoughtful feedback on the students’ work.

The event concluded with a mid-afternoon lunch where participants continued their conversations and exchanged experiences. This forum served as an important space for building confidence, fostering academic community, and encouraging graduate students to share their research and engage with the work of their peers.

Contributed by Olin Green

The Hidden Dimensions of Road Safety: Exploring Socioeconomic and Built Environment Factors in Latin American and Minority Communities

     Marginalized groups are overrepresented in fatal car crashes, an inequity likely exacerbated by the intersectionality of location-based and socioeconomic factors that affect vulnerable communities. For instance, low-income neighborhoods with limited access to cars or public transportation often also lack sidewalks and bike lanes. As a result, groups such as Alaskan Native/Native American, African American, and Latino or Hispanic men are more likely to die in car crashes than white men. Driver-related factors and behaviors – including speeding, distracted driving, and aggressive driving – contribute to nearly 90% of all automobile crashes in the U.S. and drastically impact the lives of thousands of people each year. Past research also shows that low-income areas and disadvantaged communities are more likely to be adversely impacted by these harmful events on roadways. While most crashes involve human or driver-related behavioral factors, the interplay between these key factors and the built environment remains underexplored, particularly as a contributor to the disproportionate rates of injuries and fatalities in Latino and other minority communities. This research attempts to bridge this literature gap and advance a comprehensive understanding of traffic safety.

            To investigate safety disparities, this study employs an area-based approach that incorporates socioeconomic and transportation-related variables at the census tract level for Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties in Florida, alongside data from the SHRP2 Naturalistic Driving Study (NDS). The NDS data provides detailed information on numerous factors that describe the behavior, condition, and performance of drivers, for the same geographic area. This region was selected due to its varied socioeconomic and transportation-related characteristics, which offer an opportunity to explore the disproportionate impact of unsafe conditions on Latino and African American communities from an intersectional perspective. A geographical clustering approach is used to group census tracts with similar socioeconomic and transportation attributes. These clusters are combined with NDS data and analyzed using regression models to determine whether a driver’s behavior changes in different areas or when traveling in census tracts with different characteristics than their home location. Along with this, regression models can be used to identify the types of areas that are adversely impacted by safety critical events. Both analyses can provide insight into the specific areas where the above communities are overexposed to an unsafe transportation landscape.

This work will investigate the often difficult-to-observe characteristics of safety inequity by uncovering the behavioral factors that contribute to the unequal distribution of unsafe driver behaviors, crashes, and near-crash events in disadvantaged communities. It also identifies the types of areas that experience disproportionately more safety critical events, and the factors linked to them. By deepening our understanding of how driver behavior and place-based characteristics interact, this study aims to inform future research and policy proposals focused on improving transportation safety inequity in marginalized communities. Although this research focuses on inequities in Florida, the findings are likely transferable to other geographic contexts or cities, such as Hartford, Connecticut, where more than 40% of the city’s population is Latino.

 

 

Contributed by Javier Garcia

Contradictions in State-Indigenous Relations: Reconciling Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Cosmovisions with Human Rights Violations in Ecuador and Colombia

Contributed by Dr. Lisa Werkmeister Rozas

Deinstitutionalization of Child Welfare in Peru

With the help of El lnstituto’s Seed grant in 2024, I conducted a small pilot study. As a result of this study I was able to connect to state officials in Peru and through my collaborations with NGOs am proposing education and training for social workers in child welfare settings.

This study examines whether Peru’s child welfare deinstitutionalization efforts align with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), especially in protecting children’s rights to family life, identity, and cultural background. Through interviews with child welfare professionals, caregivers, parents, and community elders, key themes emerged around how these rights are implemented–or overlooked–in practice.

Participants agree that Peru’s laws are partially aligned with the CRC, particularly in efforts to protect children from violence and promote nurturing care. However, no centralized institution exists to enforce the CRC directly, and implementation varies across regions. Although the state supports the rights outlined in the Convention, children’s opinions are often excluded from decisions that directly impact them. Multiple examples revealed how children were removed from residential homes and placed with unfamiliar relatives or returned to unsafe environments, despite their protests. These abrupt transitions contributed to further trauma, suggesting a gap between policy and practice.

Cultural and religious identity, a core part of the CRC, is inconsistently addressed. In faith-based homes, particularly evangelical ones, children are raised with Christian principles but are reportedly allowed to choose their beliefs when they reach adulthood. In terms of cultural identity, some efforts exist to honor children’s backgrounds. For example, children from rural Andean areas have been allowed to maintain their traditional dress, and outings to places like Machu Picchu and museums are organized to promote cultural knowledge. However, there is minimal support for preserving indigenous languages like Quechua, because of the fear they will be discriminated against.

When considering who is best suited to raise children outside of parental care, responses emphasized that empathy, calling, and willingness to learn are more important than academic qualifications alone. Some highly trained professionals reportedly lacked the compassion needed to connect with children. A recurring concern is that Peruvian families are not culturally inclined to take in non-biological children, limiting the effectiveness of foster care as an alternative. Residential homes offer more structure and supervision, but family-based care is seen as more emotionally beneficial, providing consistent relationships, love, and individualized attention.

In conclusion, while Perú has taken steps to align with the CRC in its child welfare reforms, significant gaps remain. Greater attention must be given to education and training of child welfare workers, listening to children, supporting culturally inclusive care, and building family-based alternatives that ensure emotional, psychological, and identity development for children transitioning out of institutional settings.

Contributed by Charles R. Venator-Santiago

Puerto Rico, Puerto Ricans|Connecticut

Creating a Collective Agenda

Connecticut Legislative Office Building

Saturday, 11 January 2025

As the UConnPRSI has documented, Puerto Ricans consistently experience the highest inequalities among all racial and ethnic groups in the state in the state of Connecticut. The goal of this inaugural summit was to retake the conversation on how to develop a Puerto Rican collective agenda for the state of Connecticut. The Puerto Rico, Puerto Ricans|Connecticut summit sought to provide a safe space for the discussion of policy issues and the articulation of community responses to develop a collective agenda that could address the particular experiences of Puerto Ricans in Connecticut. We brought together the perspectives of stateside Puerto Ricans and other stakeholders in Connecticut to develop a collective agenda that can help shape public policies and legislation that address the inequalities experienced by Puerto Ricans in Connecticut.

The summit sponsored ten roundtable sessions that included wide-ranging topics such as housing inequalities, health disparities, Puerto Ricans and the Media, education inequities, Puerto Rican Day Parades in Connecticut, Hispanic Serving Institutions, elections, Boards, Councils, and Commissions, environmental justice and Puerto Rican Women and Leadership in Connecticut. For more information on the program and related events, please visit the following site: 2025 Puerto Rico, Puerto Ricans|Connecticut | Puerto Rican Studies Initiative for Civic Engagement and Public Policy

The Puerto Rico, Puerto Ricans|Connecticut will be meeting every January in Connecticut.

 

Contributed by Charles R. Venator-Santiago

              Congress possesses the constitutional power to unilaterally enact legislation abolishing birthright citizenship in the United States territories. While Congress cannot unilaterally enact legislation stripping persons born in a U.S. territory of their birthright citizenship, it can enact a statute that prevents persons from subsequently acquiring a jus soli or birthright citizenship. This was not always so.

            The original Constitution did not contain a Citizenship Clause. In 1866, Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act to grant birthright citizenship to back Americans while excluding Native Americans and the children of ambassadors born on U.S. soil. Following the enactment of the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause, Congress began to extend birthright citizenship to the territories via legislation or statute. By 1898, the Supreme Court had already opined that territories were a part of the United States, and the Constitution applied on its own force. That is, birth in a territory was tantamount to birth in the United States to acquire birthright citizenship.

            However, following the Spanish-American War of 1898, Congress embraced the idea that the United States could annex two types of territories: incorporated and unincorporated. Incorporated territories were treated as a part of the United States and were destined to become states of the Union. Alternatively, unincorporated territories could be selectively ruled as foreign possessions in a domestic or constitutional sense. In 1901, the Supreme Court began to affirm this new vision of territorial expansionism in a series of opinions generally known as the Insular Cases. It followed that so long as a territory remained a foreign location, then birth in this territory was equivalent to birth outside the United States. Thus, like other persons born outside of the United States, racially eligible persons born in an unincorporated territory could only acquire citizenship via a naturalization statute.

            Between 1898 and 1900, Congress invented a non-citizen nationality to rule persons born in Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines, territories acquired after the War of 1898. For example, persons born in Puerto Rico acquired Puerto Rican citizenship. Administrative courts subsequently adopted the position that the inhabitants of annexed territories would retain their non-citizen nationality until Congress enacted an organic or territorial act providing for the collective naturalization of the territory’s inhabitants. Congress has neither enacted an organic act for American Samoa nor enacted citizenship legislation for its residents. For more than a century, persons born in American Samoa have acquired citizenship of American Samoa.

            Early citizenship legislation provided for the individual naturalization of some residents of the unincorporated territories, in the case of Puerto Rico. Puerto Rican women could acquire U.S. citizenship under the terms of the doctrine of Coverture (1898-1934), that is, by marrying a U.S. citizen. In 1906, Congress enacted an immigration act that enabled Filipinos and Puerto Ricans to naturalize and acquire U.S. citizenship. In 1914, Congress passed legislation allowing persons born in the insular areas or territories to treat their time serving in the U.S. Coast Guard as a form of residency in a state for naturalization purposes. Again, in the case of Puerto Rico, in 1917, Congress enacted legislation that collectively naturalized Puerto Rican citizens and the residents of the islands more generally (1917-1940). Yet, because Puerto Rico and the other unincorporated territories were governed as foreign possessions for domestic or constitutional purposes, birth in an unincorporated territory was tantamount to birth outside the United States. Thus, persons born in unincorporated territories could only acquire a “naturalized” citizenship.

            Because naturalized citizenship created numerous administrative problems for its bearers, Congress began to enact legislation or statutes that treated unincorporated territories as part of the United States to extend jus soli or birthright citizenship. In 1927, Congress passed legislation extending the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Virgin Islands. In 1940, under the terms of the Nationality Act, Congress applied this precedent to Puerto Rico. By 1952, Congress had enacted statutes providing for the collective naturalization and extension of birthright citizenship to persons born in Guam. Since then, millions of persons born in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Guam have acquired birthright citizenship.

            However, because Congress or the Supreme Court has not incorporated these territories, these islands remain foreign in a domestic or constitutional sense. That is, the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment does not apply on its own force. Birthright citizenship in unincorporated territories is legislated. Thus, Congress can unilaterally pass legislation that abolishes birthright citizenship in its U.S. territories.

Contributed by Bessy Reyna 

I can’t remember when I first learned about El Instituto. Sadly, when I was a grad student at UCONN (1970-72 MA) and a PhD candidate later, there were no Latino groups I could be involved with. The Puerto Rican Center was the first of the student centers to be created. I was part of the Women’s Center and advocated for gay and lesbian rights. I don’t remember exactly how I first knew about El Instituto; maybe a friend told me, or I decided to introduce myself to the then-director. That first introduction resulted in a warm welcome, and I felt comfortable sharing information about my writing and upcoming poetry readings. That relationship has continued to this day, and I am very grateful to the staff for their support of my work.  I hope El Instituto will continue to be allowed to serve not only as an anchor for Latinos at UCONN but also to extend knowledge and appreciation of our culture to the general population. 

 -Bessy Reyna MA 1972, JD 1986..(www.bessyreyna.com) 

 

Bessy Reyna is a poet, memoirist, and journalist. Born in Cuba and raised in Panama, Bessy is a graduate of Mt Holyoke College (BA Magna Cum  Laude) and earned her Masters and Law degrees from the University of Connecticut. She had the opportunity for a poetry reading at the CT’s Old State House in October 12, 2024.  She is the author of two bilingual books of poetry, The Battlefield of Your Body (Hill-Stead Museum, 2005) and Memoirs of the Unfaithful Lover/ Memorias de la amante infiel (tunAstral, A.C., 2010, Toluca Mexico). Born in Cuba and raised in Panama, Bessy is a graduate of Mt Holyoke College (BA Magna Cum  Laude) and earned her Masters and Law degrees from the University of Connecticut. For nine years, she was a monthly opinion columnist for The Hartford Courant and a frequent contributor to Northeast, the Sunday magazine of the Hartford Courant. She conducted radio interviews with poets appearing at Hill-Stead Museum’s renowned Sunken Garden Poetry Festival in Farmington, CT, for several years. She wrote an arts-and-culture page for the Hispanic newspaper Identidad Latina and  www.CTLatinoNews.com.   

 

Contributed by Anne Gebelein 

El Instituto and the Human Rights Institute hosted filmmakers Pamela Yates and Paco de Onís February 12th for a showing of their new documentary “Borderland: The Line Within”.  

Pamela Yates is the Founder and Creative Director, and Paco de Onís the Executive Director and Executive Producer of Skylight, a non-profit media organization that seeks to highlight the courage of activists defending human rights. Yates has a long history of working in Latin America, and her first film “When the Mountains Tremble” of 1983 is a classic. The film introduced many in the world to Rigoberta Menchú at a time in which news from the violence in Central America was being heavily censored by the Reagan administration. Yates created other films about Guatemala: “Witness to War”, “500 Years” and “Granito: How to Nail a Dictator” that contributed to Rios Montt’s conviction for genocide. She also made a film about Fujimori’s use of the fear of terrorism to weaken democracy in Peru in “State of Fear: The Truth about Terrorism”. 

“Borderland” profiles 2 activists: Gabriela Castañeda, a immigrant leadership trainer at the Border Network for Human Rights in El Paso, and Kaxh Mura’l, an environmental activist and defender of ancestral Maya-Ixil lands. Kaxh needed to flee Guatemala when he received death threats for trying to keep mining companies from extracting barite, and he fled to the U.S. border seeking asylum. Gabriela suffered her husband’s deportation, leaving her with 3 children, and the government revoking her DACA for her activism. A third thread of the film is a team of digital humanists who build a database exposing the border industrial complex and its web of private prison contracts across the U.S. 

Borderlands is true to Skylight’s spirit of inspiring activists by highlighting the courage of people who risk their country, time with their family, and their very lives for causes they believe in. It reveals the need for persistence in fighting back against mining and prison corporations, as well as against unfair immigration policies of the United States, revealing the damage both inflict on families, communities and the environment.  

BORDERLAND | The Line Within is the website for the movie, and viewers can find not only a study guide to accompany the film, but data on the amount of money each county in each state receives in contracts to support the border industrial complex.  

The documentary is available streaming from Babbidge library. Because Skylight is a non-profit organization, the filmmakers invite human rights and activist groups to use their film for fundraising events as well. Yates and de Onís are quite busy given the renewed interest in the border with Trump’s declared emergency over immigration; they showed the film 30x between Sept 10 (Hartford Real Art Ways) and Nov 4, 2024 (Yale) and their inboxes are full of requests. Even though they had a showing the day after their Wednesday UConn presentation, Q & A and reception, they were generous enough to spend time in Anne Gebelein’s Human Rights on the U.S./Mexican Border class before they left town on Thursday to share their thoughts about the power of storytelling in the defense of human rights.  

“Borderlands II” is currently in production, so hopefully we will be seeing Yates and de Onís again soon.  

 

Contributed by Apoliana da Conceição dos Santos

With the support of travel funding of El Instituto, I attended and presented at the II Congresso Nacional de Linguística Aplicada (CONALA) & I Congresso Internacional de Linguagem, Literatura e Discurso (CILLID) in Maranhão, Brazil. My presentation, “XIX-Century Brazilian and Cuban Racial Realities: Aluísio Azevedo’s Mulatto and Manzano’s Autobiography of a Slave,” explored how both works reflect racial and social hierarchies in 19th-century Brazil and Cuba, particularly through the concept of social death and its role in shaping racial identity. 

This congress was an enriching experience, and among all levels of academic research presented, I was particularly impressed by the undergraduates. Unlike the U.S., undergraduate studies in Latin America span four years with fewer courses per semester, and witnessing young scholars present such rigorous work in an international setting was both nostalgic and inspiring. 

The opening talk by Dr. Josimayre Novelli (UEM) on “Formação de professores de línguas: dilemas e perspectivas no contexto das TDIC e IA” was especially impactful. Her commitment to teacher education and deep understanding of Federal Public Universities in Brazil highlighted her dedication to her students’ professional development. 

I attended a diverse range of presentations, including those in French, and from scholars affiliated with institutions in Germany, Chile, Austria, and the U.S., reinforcing the importance of global academic collaboration. One of the highlights was the closing keynote by Dr. Jerome Branche (University of Pittsburgh) on “Beyond Socialism or The Revolution Will Not Be Sacralized: Memory, Maroonage, and Animism in the Poetics of Jesus Cos Causse.” The Q&A session afterward, discussing Manzano, Césaire, and the Caribbean, provided invaluable insights for my research at ELIN. 

This congress significantly contributed to my academic growth, deepening my understanding of transnational literary studies and shaping my thesis. Engaging with experts like Dr. Branche was particularly valuable in refining my work. 

Attending CONALA & CILLID was one of the most intellectually stimulating experiences I have had. I am deeply grateful to Dr. Naiara Sales Araújo for organizing such an exceptional event that fostered rich academic exchange. I also appreciate the funding that enabled me to participate and share my research on an international stage.