Ivelisse Rodriguez Visits UConn

May 9, 2022

Contributed by Katerina Gonzalez Seligmann

Professor Katerina Gonzalez Seligmann to the left and guest speaker Ivelisse Rodriguez sit in a classroom-style setting with a whiteboard behind them. Katerina sits in a chair with legs crossed, wearing dark pants, a light-colored jacket, and a face mask. Ivelisse on the right sits in another chair, holding an open book and reading aloud. She is wearing a polka‑dot dress and a face mask.

On Friday, April 22nd, El Instituto had the pleasure of hosting award-winning fiction writer and author of the short story collection Love War Stories, Ivelisse Rodriguez. Rodriguez is from Puerto Rico and grew up in nearby Holyoke, MA. She visited my LLAS/SPAN 1009 “Introduction to Latino Literature, Culture, and Society” class to answer our questions about her short stories that we read for class. Rodriguez also met with my students from the fall 2021 LLAS 3230 /WGSS 3258 “Latina Narrative” course where we also read the Love War Stories collection for coffee at the Benton Museum café, and she discussed her research for her historical novel in progress with Prof. Guillermo Irizarry and me over lunch. The visit culminated with a reading co-sponsored with the UConn Humanities Institute, the Literatures, Cultures, and Languages Department, the Africana Studies Institute, and the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program.

The reading was attended by undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, and staff. She read from one of the highlight stories of the collection, “Holyoke, MA: An Ethnography,” a story that responds critically to an ethnographic photography project of the Puerto Rican community of Holyoke by taking a close look at the life of a popular high schooler named Veronica alongside a history of the city in which she resides. After the reading, we were all so eager to talk to Ivelisse Rodriguez about her work that we kept talking with her for informally for over an hour. Many members of our community were inspired by the opportunity to hear from her, to connect with her, and to hear her read her work. It was a very special day for El Instituto and for UConn.

A group picture. From left to right guest speaker Ivelisse Rodriguez, a graduate students, Professor Katerina Gonzalez Seligmann, Professor Anne Gebelein, graduate student, and Professor Samuel Martinez smiling at the camera. — Photo taken by Irizarry, Guillermo (Associate Professor, UConn Spanish Studies)

Painting the U.S./Mexico Border Event

Contributed by Anne Gebelein

On Monday April 11th, Dodd Impact, El Instituto, and the Human Rights Institute, in collaboration with Skidmore College, celebrated the opening of an exhibit on children’s art created in the MPP camp of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. The exhibit “Painting the Border” will be in the Dodd Center until the end of June.

To mark the opening of the exhibit, a panel of faculty and activists discussed the current situation of children in refugee camps created by the United States’ “Remain in Mexico” policy, as well as pressing concerns of youth who have arrived in CT. The panel “Youth Seeking Refuge: U.S. Immigration Policy, Mobility Justice and Human Rights” included speakers Dr Diana Barnes of A panel discussion takes place in an auditorium. Three individuals sit on patterned armchairs on a stage in front of an audience. Behind them, a large projection screen displays a video call showing another individual participating virtually, appearing in a room with framed artwork on the wall. Skidmore College, who created the exhibit; Dr Anne Gebelein of El Instituto; Katia Daley, Healthcare Campaign Organizer for CT Students for a Dream; and Lucero Claudia De Alva Fernandez, industrial engineer, business owner, and the lead creator and organizer of a 9-shelter school system for 484 migrant youth in Ciudad Juarez.

Panelists discussed the many consequences of the closing of the border under Title 42, from foreign nationals not being allowed to exercise their right to request asylum; to a buildup of people seeking entry since 2019; to gangs making fortunes from charging tolls to cross their territory, from kidnapping and extortion, and from human trafficking and slavery. Citizens in Ciudad Juarez worked hard to convert 24 unoccupied buildings into shelters to bring families off the streets in one of the most dangerous cities in the hemisphere, and to create a school system in which to give primarily Central American children some sense of normalcy. Even so, the pictures these children painted in an art workshop reveal anxiety about leaving their homes and traumas in confronting additional violence in their journeys to our border.

A gallery wall displays three pieces related to the exhibit “Painting the Border: A Child’s Voice.” On the left is a large white text panel explaining the exhibit’s background, including information about migrant families, the project’s creation, and its timeline. In the center is a collage made up of many small photographs arranged in a grid, showing children participating in an art activity; the images include close‑up portraits and children holding or creating artwork. On the right is a blue poster featuring an abstract illustration of two figures embracing, with yellow text that reads “Painting the Border: A Child’s Voice,” and exhibit dates listed as April 11th–June 30th, 2022. All three pieces are mounted on a smooth gray wall in a well‑lit hallway or gallery space.

A long gallery wall displays a row of children’s framed drawings, each hung by two thin wires attached to hooks near the ceiling. There are eleven framed artworks visible, spaced evenly across the light gray wall. Each drawing features bright colors and simple figures, depicting scenes such as houses, people, landscapes, and animals. Below each frame is a small white label mounted to the wall.

A gallery wall displays four framed children’s artworks hung in a row using thin wires attached to a rail near the ceiling. Each painting features bold colors and simple shapes. From left to right: the first artwork shows a blue river with multicolored dots above it; the second features layered red and brown brushstrokes with small figures and shapes; the third depicts a landscape with a body of water, brown ground, and light-colored buildings or structures in the background; the fourth shows a scene with dark hills, a building, and a tan structure on the right. Each frame has a small white label mounted directly below it. On the far right of the wall is a printed sign that reads, “Nuestra Realidad / Our Reality.” The wall is painted a light gray and the space is evenly lit from above.