Contributed by Nina Vázquez

La Colectiva Feminista en Construcción of Puerto Rico will be visiting El Instituto from March 23rd through March 27th 2020. El Instituto will be hosting a series of events with la Colectiva’s leaders, Zoan Tanís Dávila Roldán and Shariana Ferrer-Núñez. The purpose of these events is to promote community outreach and to better understand these important issues that impact the Puerto Rican community and the Caribbean on a larger scale. La Colectiva will cover a series of topics such as black feminism, LGBTQIA rights, Women’s rights and the intersections of race, capitalism, and patriarchy. Their visit includes a community facing event in the Hartford Public Library (Tuesday, 24 March, 5-7PM), a student activism how-to session (Konover Auditorium, Wednesday, 25 March, 6-8PM), a Women’s panel at UConn’s Storrs campus (Thursday, 26 March, 6-8PM) and more.
La Colectiva Feminista en Construcción is a grassroots feminist movement that brings together the student, anti-colonialism and LGBTTIQ struggle to oppose the racist and patriarchal colonial system and works towards achieving structural change. They are building a grassroots feminist movement which recognizes that the different manifestations of oppression (including sexism, cis-sexism machismo, racism, xenophobia and capitalism) are interrelated and need to be opposed collectively. Their political project comes from the tradition of black feminism, articulating the fight against hetero-patriarchy, anti-black violence and capitalism.

Zoan Tanís Dávila Roldán is a black feminist activist and lawyer from Puerto Rico, member and spokesperson of La Colectiva Feminista en Construcción. An activist lawyer, Zoán has represented protesters affected by state and police repression, impoverished communities at risk of displacement and advocacy initiatives defending civil rights.

Shariana Ferrer-Núñez is a Black queer feminist Puerto Rican activist, scholar and organizer, co-founder of La Colectiva Feminista en Construcción. Her political practice centers intersectionality as the forefront for dismantling systems of oppression, building movements for social justice through collective and popular power.

Contributed by Samuel Martínez

The contributory volume, Decentering the Nation: Music, Mexicanidad, and Globalization, edited by Music Assistant Professor in Residence and El Instituto Affiliate faculty member, Jesús Ramos-Kittrell, was published by Rowman & Littlefield in December 2019. El Instituto is proudly included among the UConn units whose co-sponsorship made it possible for Dr. Ramos to convene the distinguished panel of musicologists and ethnomusicologists who contributed chapters to this book. Chela Sandoval wrote a foreword to the book, and Mexican studies luminaries, Claudio Lomnitz and Roger Bartra, wrote book jacket endorsements. Leading ethnomusicologist Alejandro de la Madrid wrote the book’s concluding chapter. Queer, indigenous, Afro-descendant, borderlands, and diasporic artistic genealogies, political projects and embodied perspectives are included among the varied organizing principles of the books’ ten chapters. We congratulate Dr. Ramos on this achievement.

By Anne Gebelein

Sixteen students recently returned from 3 weeks in Costa Rica where they had an intensive, 6-credit experience studying human rights in Central America. Students had the opportunity to meet with experts to discuss migration, refugees, gender relations, and interpersonal and state violence. They visited the Interamerican Court of Human Rights, a community of Nicaraguan migrants, a women’s indigenous pottery collaborative and a rainforest, while learning on 2 different campuses hosted by language institute Intercultura.
Students spent time in intensive Spanish courses according to their level of fluency led by faculty at Intercultura, and took a course with Prof Gebelein titled “Human Rights, National Identity and the Arts”. The class considers intersections of national, cultural and ethnic identities in the region; how rights are accorded relative to a group’s position in the national imaginary; and how the arts promote reflection and action on urgent human rights issues in Central America.

In addition to their coursework, students had the opportunity to learn from a leading playwright in Central America, Ailyn Morera, known for her groundbreaking work in exposing domestic violence, systemic discrimination against women, and the darker side of motherhood. Students participated in theatrical exercises with Morera that considered gender dynamics and personal identity. Morera also invited students to consider her collaboration with 2 other UNESCO representatives, Marianne Lizana and Rodrigo Jimenez: a radio and video series that offers healthy modeling of masculine roles titled “Métele un Gol al Machismo”.

Morera was a visiting artist-in-residence at UConn for 8 weeks in 2011, and collaborated with the Dept of Dramatic Arts, El Instituto, the School of Social Work, and Literatures, Cultures and Languages. Conversations during that time led to the development of the Education Abroad program that just completed its 7th successful trip. Susan Randolph of Economics and Anne Gebelein designed the course in collaboration with Morera, who also coordinates unique tours and lectures depending on the faculty teaching in any given year and the course focus.

Student evaluations of the 2020 trip highlighted a series of transformative experiences, including the trip’s impact on student’s view of Latin America and the U.S.’s place in the world; the opportunity to learn about theater from an eminent Costa Rican playwright; an understanding of indigenous issues in Costa Rica and how these lessons can be applied elsewhere in the world; the quality of relationships built between fellow UConn students, faculty, and Costa Ricans, and the ability to immerse oneself in another culture and learn from host families. Consider the following student testimony:

1. “I had the opportunity to step outside of my comfort zone and explore a part of the world I probably would have never had the opportunity to be in.”

2. “I got a better sense of cultural relativism and got more in touch with my Latinidad.”

3. “Living with my homestay family gave me the chance to let go of my insecurities and practice my Spanish outside the classroom.” -Claudia

4. “This program challenged my definition and interpretation of poverty. I got to finally understand the drastic difference between 1st world poverty, and poverty within a developing country.” -Jase

5. “Being immersed into the Costa Rican culture has given me the opportunity to improve myself and broaden my horizons. Not only was I able to improve and become conversant in Spanish, but I was able to challenge myself and overcome those challenges. The experience gave me the opportunity to try new foods, experience infrastructure (or the lack of), gauge different social norms, and understand social structures in terms of race, sex, and sexuality. And the view was always amazing.” -Desira

6. “Through this trip I got to learn about the history of Costa Rica in the classroom, then go home to my Costa Rican family and learn history from the local perspective. I saw how regional and individual identities affected people’s sense of nationality and their political views. Young vs old; mountains vs beach; rural vs urban; woman vs man. An experience I’d never get if I’d learned about Costa Rica in the states.
This experience was a rare chance for a bunch of students from different disciplines to come together and share an experience of a lifetime. We each brought different insights to conversations about culture, nationality, and art which created profound conclusions about both Costa Rican and American society.” -Claudia

7. “Following the completion of my study abroad, my life has changed. This experience provided my life with so much clarity and the formation of new perspectives of life, liberty, and freedom. I dove deeper into myself through an intense spiritual journey of disconnectedness to mindfulness, reflected on the continual development of myself and my Latinidad; and how these experiences unfolded within Costa Rica and extend to the United States.” -Jase

The program will be offered again in the 2020-21 winter session, led by Professor Samuel Martinez. It is one of several ways in which El Instituto and its faculty are committed to life-transformative education.

By Dr. Diana I. Ríos, El Instituto and Communication

For several years we have conducted a case study on La Comunidad Intelectual (LCI) using biography-of-work techniques. LCI co-directors and founders, Diana I. Ríos and Graciela-Quiñones-Rodríguez have led student co-authors toward successful conference submissions. In February 2020, LCI student leaders again figured prominently as core to our self-examination and case study. We presented “Profiles in Courage, ‘Ganas,’ and Belonging at a Major University” at the annual CHEP Conference, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia. Our work highlights the strong motivation, “ganas,” needed for our underrepresented group members to be successful. An abstract of the work:
It takes courage, “ganas” (ambition) and a sense of higher education belonging for a young student to conquer the first year experience at a major research institution. La Comunidad Intelectual (LCI) is the first living-learning community of its kind at the state’s flagship research university. It stands out among similar learning communities of its kind across the United States. LCI nurtures culturally diverse students, strengthening their courage, “ganas,” and sense of belonging. These and other, similar concepts are connected to Latinx academic achievement. The term, “ganas”, for example, declares a cultural rootedness that is felt by Latinx-Caribbean students who feel fueled and obligated by self, family, and community dreams. Students need to feel air beneath their wings. Learning communities that mimic a small-college atmosphere are important for student adjustment into a home-away-from home on a big campus. A multi-prong support system and “ganas” gears a student toward success. In our historic sixth year, the learning community has grown and matured. LCI faculty and staff leadership are solid. LCI alumni, on and off campus, contribute their time and inspiration. Student leaders reach for higher and broader cultural, and professional activities to support the emerging intellectualism of “house” members. This Latinx-Caribbean themed community has flourished, despite a negative political atmosphere which is antagonistic toward Latinx populations. It charges on, in the face of hate crimes such as the slaughter of Mexican heritage people in El Paso, Texas in August 2019. Importantly, LCI extends friendship and welcome through its activities to many others in search of cultural warmth and belonging in a predominantly white institution. Overall, learning community components support courageous journeys for academic achievement, leadership, community service, social and political consciousness, and professional success.

Contributed by Samuel Martínez

The 2019 Robert G Mead, Jr. Lecture was presented on 14 November 2019 by Graciela Mochkofsky, Director of the Spanish-language Journalism Program, Executive Director of the Center for Community and Ethnic Media, and Tow Professor at the CUNY Graduate Center. Professor Mochkofsky joined the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY in February 2016 as the first director of its bilingual Spanish-language Journalism Program.
A native of Argentina, Mochkofsky is the author of six nonfiction books in Spanish, two of them about the relationship between press and political power in her home country.
In her Mead Lecture, “News Media Portrayals of Latinxs Under Trump: A Call for Greater Visibility,” Mochkofsky addressed the need for greater representation of Latinx voices in the editorial offices and among the journalist ranks of the leading US print, on-line and electronic news media outlets. Her talk also underscored the need to overcome class, racial and gender biases that tilt the visibility of those Latinx faces now in leading media positions toward white, male standpoints.
At noon that same day, Professor Mochkofsky also gave a small luncheon colloquium talk, “Bilingual Journalism is on the Rise,” to students and faculty in UConn’s Department of Journalism. In that presentation, she focused on the findings of a survey of local Spanish-language news outlets, using data gathered by her Spanish-language Journalism students at Newmark. The emerging picture of Spanish-language journalism in the US shows a startling variety of outlets, mostly tiny, shoestring independents, at work throughout the American heartland as well as in longer-established urban centers of Latinx settlement.
Robert G. Mead, Jr., whose memory El Instituto honors through the annual Mead Lecture, would no doubt have recognized Graciela Mochkofsky as a fellow intellectual border-crosser for her ability to transcend languages, borders and the academic/public intellectual divide.