Contributed by Julia Marchese

On October 10th, 2018, Dr. Solsiree del Moral (Visiting Professor in History from UMass Amherst)
discussed her forthcoming book Street Children, Crime, and Punishment. It is the first historical study of
street children and incarcerated youth in post-World War II Puerto Rico. Minors in jails and correctional
schools suffered from dire conditions that to this day remain little known in Puerto Rico. Professor del
Moral described how, decades later, she was the first to touch many of the archival documents consulted
in her research.

Her presentation was divided up according to the chapters of her book: How the public saw the street
children and how the street children saw themselves; the history of holding minors in penal institutions;
the children’s stories; and the consequences of these reprehensible acts under the government of Luis
Muñoz Marín.

During the late 1940’s and early 50’s, many rural Puerto Rican workers were being recruited to urban parts of the island to work in the factories as a part of Operation Bootstrap, an industrialization program implemented by Muñoz Marín. This rural-to-urban migration sparked the formation of shantytowns in thecities. Many parents would work in the factories while children, ages nine to sixteen years old, roamed the streets with minimal adult supervision. These “street children,” not all of whom knew their parents, would sleep in allies, idle on streets, and work selling food and guarding cars. In the words of del Moral, the street children’s presence “offended the bourgeoisie,” prompting many upper-class Puerto Ricans to write to the government of Muñoz to fix the problem of the “pre-delinquent children.”

The minors were jailed in penal institutions, prisons, and correctional schools. Dilapidated conditions were common, and many of the incarcerated minors experienced overcrowding, lack of sanitation, poor
hygiene, insufficient food, prolonged solitary confinement, physical abuse, and sexual violence.
Incarcerated children were jailed with the mentally ill or with criminals. It was not until 1955 that federal and international attention was given to their predicament. When the government decided to release the children due to overcrowding, they soon realized the institutions into whose care they attempted to release these children were understaffed, negligent, and simply lacked sufficient services. The government realized they did not have good records of the detained children and many of the minors ran away and lived independently on the streets of cities such as Ponce.

Preliminary conclusions of del Moral’s book illustrate the challenges confronting Muñoz Marín in responding to the problem of unsupervised minors and the life-lasting effects that government initiatives had on this population. While the government romanticized the rural jíbaro lifestyle, the realities of the shantytowns were vastly different. For decades these stories have gone untold, and that is what del Moral’s book attempts to change.

Contributed by Rocio Orozco

 

A vison in red and black six inch heels, Maria Hinojosa shared the Jorgensen Auditorium stage on the
evening of 10 September 2018 with PR/LACC director Fany Hannon, to share the wisdom of her
experience as a journalist and media entrepreneur. Hinojosa is best known for her NPR show, Latino
USA, but also runs her own company, Futuro Media, and produces another news opinion and analysis
podcast series, In the Thick.

Hinojosa was born in Mexico and grew up on the south side of Chicago. Reflecting on Trump’s policy of
separating immigrant families at the border, Hinojosa shared her own story of immigration and border
harassment. In 1963, her family received green cards when her dad was offered a job at the University of
Chicago. When her family arrived from Mexico, immigration officials told her mother that they had to keep
the infant Maria in quarantine because she had a rash, while letting her mom and the rest of her siblings
enter without the baby. Her mother refused to leave Maria behind, asserting herself vocally with such
determination that the immigration officials relented and let the whole family come into the U.S. together.
So traumatic was the prospect of being separated from baby Maria that it took many years before
Hinojosa’s mom could share this story with her.

Hinojosa equated the policy of family separation to children being kidnapped, trafficked across state lines
and held for ransom. She asked for critical attention to be given to the language being used to justify
family separation: “For their own good, for their safety.” She also warned about the long-term
psychological effects these traumatic events are causing the children and their families: “Some kids will
recuperate and some will never recuperate. It’s painful, it’s deep.” “A foreign government is taking
children from their parents.” She asked the audience to reflect on this question, “What if they were white?”
Hinojosa fights to combat the myth of the criminal immigrant. She reminded the audience that people are
not illegal, migrants commit less crimes than natural born citizens, and that we need to “bring the
humanity back to the conversation.” Hinojosa explained the importance of knowing your individual origin
story. We Latinos have not been in control of our own narrative and, for Hinojosa, it is vital that we take
control of it.

Hinojosa did not at first aspire to become a journalist. When she was young, there were not many
journalists who looked like her on TV. Hinojosa wanted to be an actress but a New York casting director
dashed her dreams when he told her that she did not stand out enough.
Hinojosa had experience doing a radio show while in college, and even though she was intimidated, she
applied for an internship at NPR and became the first Latina hired at the company. Hinojosa loved her job
at NPR but found that she needed to find her voice and decided to leave the company. She explored
other fields and worked many jobs simultaneously. Eventually, she came back to NPR in the 1990’s.
She said she understands she comes from place of relative privilege and with that comes responsibilities.
“We do not have time for imposter syndrome.” She says that she forced herself through the
uncomfortableness to pitch ideas in the newsroom and to focus not on the discrimination but on her
responsibility. Just like everyone else, she would at times doubt her ability to follow through on
assignments. She said that she built a support group to help her get through the difficult times and
encouraged the audience to make sure they have their own support group, too.
Latino USA is now celebrating its 25 th anniversary, over which time the show has won many awards
including a Peabody.

Maria Hinojosa was truly inspirational: “The perspective that you have from your experience matters,”
she said. “Own your voice, power, authenticity, authority.”

Dr. Fiona Vernal’s research on Connecticut’s West Indian immigration history has been featured on the Uconn Today page. Dr. Vernal’s research discusses–

“Guest workers arrived in America through bilateral labor agreements between British West Indian colonies and the United States, says Vernal, whose family origins are in Jamaica. They were men who replaced the thousands of Americans who left their jobs to fight in the war, some working in industry, but most in agriculture.

The shade tobacco workers from the West Indies islands lived in camps at Bradley Field and other locations, and soon began to develop a sense of community, Vernal says, when for the first time people from the island nations in the Caribbean got to know each other through a broader West Indian lens. Other than workers laboring in the banana and sugar industries, the only other large scale effort that previously brought men from the Caribbean island nations together was the building of the Panama Canal.”

Fiona Vernal is a native of Trelawny, Jamaica and grew up in Trenton, New Jersey. She earned her BA in history with a certificate in African American Studies from Princeton University in 1995 and her MA and PhD from Yale. After completing her doctoral work in December 2003, she served as director of African Studies at Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, Michigan. Since 2005 she has taught at the University of Connecticut’s Department of History where her courses focus on precolonial, and colonial Africa, the history of South Africa, slavery, and the African diaspora. Since 2015, her teaching pedagogy has shifted to incorporate inquiry-based learning and human rights practice, yielding the exhibits: “Children of the Soil: Generations of South Africans under Apartheid” (April 2016) and the upcoming “Child Labor and Human Rights in Africa” in 2018.

Dr. Maria Martinez, Assistant Vice Provost for Student Success, will be receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Connecticut Association of Latinos in Higher Education (CALAHE) on Friday, November 16, at the Association’s annual meeting at Goodwin College. This is CALAHE’s highest honor, recognizing those individuals who have made significant contributions to the educational and social advancement of Latinxs at all levels of higher education within the state of Connecticut.

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Martinez on this well-deserved honor.

Contributed by Victoria Almodóvar

 

Students, friends, and faculty gathered in the UConn Puerto Rican and Latin American Cultural
Center community room on October 22nd to get a preview of Dr. Daisy Verduzco Reyes’ book, Learning
to Be Latino, a book she just published with Rutgers University Press. Reyes, an Assistant Professor with
a joint appointment in the Sociology department and El Instituto, joined the UConn community in 2013.
Learning to Be Latino is an ethnographic exploration of how college campuses shape students’ political
identities.

Reyes began her presentation by talking about what sparked her interest in college environments’
influence on Latinx identity, or how Latinx students identify, understand themselves, and interact with
others. Reyes highlighted the significance of her own experiences as a Chicana and those of some of her
close family members.

Reyes then explained her use of ethnographic methods at three campuses, a small liberal arts
college, a large research university, and a regional public university. At each school, she observed and
interacted with similar Latino student groups. Reyes’ data shows that factors like the amount of time
students spend on campus, the quantity of resources made available to them, and the demographic
makeup of the student bodies influence the lived experiences of Latinx college students. For instance,
Latinx students at the small liberal arts college had more access to powerful figures on campus, whereas
students at the other campuses had less. Reyes argues that such differences affect how students see
themselves, and how they frame and tackle issues.

Reyes set the room abuzz when she asked audience members to pair and share their UConn
experiences as Latinxs, and what they had observed about other Latinx students’ experiences at UConn.
Reyes’ work clearly hit home for many in attendance. Learning to Be Latino is a contribution to the
academic literature that also has the potential to effect change in how universities like UConn support
their Latinx students. 

Click here to view Daisy Reye’s video.

Click here for information on the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS)

 

 

Contributed by Julia Marchese

Last Tribes of the Amazon: Protecting Earth’s Most Threatened People can be found on the following link:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/10/isolated-brazil-peru-amazon-tribes-remote-protected/

Photographs by Charlie Hamilton James / National Geographic

On September 20^th, 2018, Professor Scott Wallace (UConn, Journalism) gave a talk at El Instituto titled, Speaking for Those Who Cannot Speak for Themselves: The Struggle to Defend the Rights of Isolated Tribes in the Amazon. As a journalist, Wallace has travelled all over the world exploring and researching indigenous and human rights, vanishing cultures, and conflict over land and resources. He is a frequent contributor to National Geographic and during this Tertulia discussed his most recent cover story, Last Tribes of the Amazon: Protecting Earth’s Most Threatened People.

Wallace discussed how one of Brazil’s government protection agencies for Indian interests, land, and culture, FUNAI (Fundação Nacional do Índio), has been fighting for decades for the protection of uncontacted, isolated tribes in the Amazon. Because of policies implemented by FUNAI and the Brazilian government, it is now illegal for non-tribal members to enter the lands of these tribes. Wallace argues that these tribes cannot be protected unless you protect their land. He recently completed a three-month expedition through the remote territories of the Flecheiro people in the Javari region and the Awá people of Maranhão, to investigate recent conflicts regarding illegal logging, drug trafficking, illegal intrusion and gold dredging, and even the suspected killings of some of the people of these tribes.

A week into the trip that Wallace “felt like he was trespassing on land that belonged to someone else.” Using just a compass and topographical map, Wallace and about 35 other expeditioners walked through paths filled with 150 foot trees in primal forest and permanent twilight caused by the tree’s shadows.

These are Earth’s most threatened and vulnerable people. With FUNAI’s funding being slashed and the upcoming tense elections in Brazil, the future of these people is more than ever before in doubt. Indigenous groups have in response been taking a more militant role by forming tribal militias. Stories like those by Wallace publicize their struggles for a global audience.

July 17, 2018 – Combined Reports – UConn Communications

About 13,000 residents of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands who arrived in Connecticut in the aftermath of the hurricanes Maria and Irma continue to struggle with obtaining basic needs including adequate housing, food, medical care, and jobs, according to a survey by UConn researchers for the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.

The vast majority of those who have come to Connecticut, over 70 percent, have extremely low incomes — under $30,000 — and their needs are adding a heavy responsibility on an already over-extended and resource-limited Puerto Rican community in Connecticut, given the extreme levels of need that are present in the community, even before the storms.

About 1,300 people participated in the survey, which utilized online and in-person questionnaires in English and Spanish and field research, and was led by the University of Connecticut’s El Instituto: Institute for Latina/o Caribbean and Latin American Studies and with the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College.

Researchers sought to understand the long-term impact of displacement on Puerto Rican households in the Greater Hartford region.

They found that while some households surveyed relied on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for funding for basic needs, the majority of those affected relied on the Greater Hartford’s nonprofit organizations, school districts, and family members for support.

In Connecticut, relief has also been provided through a $4.4 million education and housing assistance for displaced residents, which was approved by the state’s General Assembly during the 2018 Legislative Session.

“The Hartford region has one of the highest concentrations of people of Puerto Rican origin outside Puerto Rico and last year’s hurricanes brought thousands more to the region, many of whom will likely stay,” said Scott Gaul, the Hartford Foundation’s director of Research and Evaluation. “The hurricanes were an unprecedented event, but we can anticipate similar crises will happen again. The survey is one tool to help the Hartford region understand the needs of evacuees and the potential long-term impacts of displacement.”

Among this population:

• More than half of those surveyed (56%) mentioned that it was very likely (36%) or somewhat likely (22%) that kin would relocate from the Caribbean to Connecticut, with most of those relatives and friends staying with respondents.
• Respondents expected displaced kin to remain in Connecticut into the medium and long terms. Nearly a third of respondents (32%) reported that kin would stay in Connecticut for a few months, and a quarter (26%) would remain for a few years.
• The most pressing need for respondents hosting displaced Puerto Ricans is lodging, with fully one-third of them indicating that housing was one the biggest needs they face.
• Nearly three-fifths of respondents indicated housing was displaced person’s first order need, followed by 16 percent who mentioned it in second order.
• Food was a first order need for one-fifth of survey respondents’ displaced friends and relatives and second order need for 35 percent.
• Respondents expect nearly 1,500 additional people to arrive from Puerto Rico in the wake of the hurricane.
• Respondents living in Hartford’s outer ring suburbs were relatively less likely (72%) to have kin in the Caribbean than those living in Hartford or its immediate suburbs.

“Survey respondents identify housing issues and insufficient food as the most critical needs they are facing in Connecticut, along with healthcare, in the after aftermath of the crisis,” said Charles R. Venator-Santiago, associate professor of political science at UConn. “These are needs not only of those who are in the state already, but of those who are very likely to arrive in the short term.”

Results from the survey will help inform long-term planning and action by funders, nonprofits, municipalities and schools. The Foundation will work with community organizations and leaders in the region to disseminate and act on survey results.

The Hartford Foundation recently awarded $230,000 in grants from its Respond-Rebuild-Renew Fund to provide support services to residents impacted by relocation from the Caribbean and other disaster areas.

Click Here to see the full report: PR_Survey_Booklet_print_Final

As leaders of centers, institutes, and programs at the University of Connecticut dedicated to advancing critical understanding of social justice and human rights, we are fully committed to the aim, outlined in the university’s mission, of helping students grow intellectually and become contributing members of society. We pursue this work with full consciousness that many of our programs were created in the wake of social justice movements that sought recognition not only of the rights of marginalized peoples, but also of the obligation on the part of higher education to embrace diversity, cultivate civic responsibility, and promote equity and justice. Our centers, institutes, and programs support research and teaching in fields of knowledge that would not exist but for hard won protections of First Amendment values and academic freedom, and we strive to create robust, rigorous, and responsible intellectual communities among faculty and students of different backgrounds, opinions, and orientations. Critical and productive scholarly inquiry requires environments that foster diverse viewpoints and free and responsible exchange, even – and especially – when those contributions challenge orthodox thinking, wherever on the political spectrum it may be situated.

The invitation to author and media personality Ben Shapiro has provided us an opportunity to reflect on these histories and current objectives of our centers, institutes, and programs, and to reaffirm our essential roles in promoting the university’s core mission of enhancing the social, economic, and cultural well-being of our students and the wider community. We reject the claims of Mr. Shapiro, and those of like-minded individuals and organizations, that our programs are illegitimate or unnecessary university endeavors, and that challenging systemic oppression and seeking more just societies constitutes “brainwashing.” Freedom of expression and academic freedom are essential to promoting diversity of thought and opinion of all members of the community and enable us to engage productively in the pursuit of knowledge and understanding. Broad participation in these pursuits, however, requires not only speaking but also listening – not only “free speech” but also responsible efforts to understand the speech of others. We urge all members of the community to demonstrate our commitment to these values both in this week and beyond.

The following links showcase our centers, institutes, and programs, and indicate some of the ways in which we are working to promote – through efforts such as the Initiative on Campus Dialogues (https://humilityandconviction.uconn.edu/initiative-on-campus-dialogues/) and the metanoia Together: Confronting Racism (https://together.uconn.edu/) – open and mutually respectful exchange on the burning issues of today. Only through such sustained, painstaking, at times uncomfortable work can we hope to advance our collective understanding of ourselves, each other, and the world around us.

Africana Studies Institute
https://africana.uconn.edu/
American Studies Program
https://americanstudies.uconn.edu/about/
Asian and Asian American Studies Institute
https://asianamerican.uconn.edu/profile/mission_statement/
Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life
https://judaicstudies.uconn.edu/about/
El Instituto: Institute of Latina/o, Caribbean, and Latin American Studies
https://elin.uconn.edu/
Humanities Institute
https://humanities.uconn.edu/
Human Rights Institute
https://humanrights.uconn.edu/about/about/
Thomas J. Dodd Research Center
https://thedoddcenter.uconn.edu/about/history/
Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program
https://wgss.uconn.edu/our-mission/

Sebastian Wogenstein, Interim Director, Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life
Samuel Martinez, Interim Director, El Instituto: Institute of Latina/o, Caribbean and Latin American Studies
Glenn Mitoma, Director, Thomas J. Dodd Research Center
Melina Pappademos, Interim Director, Africana Studies Institute
Michael P. Lynch, Director, Humanities Institute
Alexis L. Boylan, Associate Director, Humanities Institute
Cathy J. Schlund-Vials, Director, Asian and Asian American Studies Institute
Kathryn Libal, Director, Human Rights Institute
Molly Land, Associate Director, Human Rights Institute
Micki McElya, Director, Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program
Christopher R. Vials, Director, American Studies Program

El Instituto announces the establishment of a Puerto Rican Crisis Research Group. This initiative aims to channel information within and beyond the UConn community about the background to the PROMESA/Hurricane María crisis, its nature and magnitude, and the prospects and initiatives for recovery.

Our first priority at this stage is gathering and sharing information: Are you, your UConn colleagues or Connecticut neighbors providing or planning to provide support for civil society initiatives, scholarly partners, government planning or other reconstruction efforts? Please let us know if you would like us to share word of your UConn-related initiatives through the Instituto mailing list or social media.

The research group will also be organizing a series of public lectures and scholarly workshops all the way through spring 2018 and possibly beyond.

Our first speaker is human rights lawyer and community activist Ariadna Godreau, who will present a public lecture on Monday 27 November, 4:30PM, Class of ‘47 Room, “The Politics of Disaster Relief: Austerity and Human Rights in Puerto Rico Post-María.”

Godreau will also workshop a paper in progress, Tuesday, 28 November, 12:30-2:00PM, Dodd 162, “Whose Rights? Whose Debris?  Access to Justice and Shared Responsibility in Puerto Rico Post-María.”

The speaker series will be multidisciplinary and your suggestions for future speakers are welcome.

Another research group initiative is a faculty/grad reading group, “Theorizing Catastrophes,” co-sponsored with the UCONN Humanities Institute. Once more details are set, we will reach out again with word of this reading group’s agenda and schedule.

Please feel free to contact any of the research group’s co-organizers, Rob Venator (charles.venator@uconn.edu), Guillermo Irizarry (Guillermo.irizarry@uconn.edu) or Samuel Martínez (Samuel.martinez@uconn.edu).