Contributed by professor Beatriz Aldana Marquez.

I remember the first time I did not belong. I was five years old, fresh from a long and terrifying journey into the United States, standing in front of a typical classroom of American children, all smiling and eating ice cream without the burden of responsibility. At the time, I was an undocumented Mexican eldest daughter, living in a small trailer next to the dairy farm that employed my father. My parents were chasing an American dream, one that my classmates were already enjoying.

While children from my class enjoyed summer breaks, I rotated a work schedule with my sister to clean houses with my mother for White American families who ignored us in public. Even their children knew not talk to us, as the “help” was not meant for friendship. Stark divisions followed me all throughout my education, reminding me that Latinos are viewed differently. Even popular culture taught me that Mexicans were meant for comic relief, giving my American peers permission to joke about “illegal Mexicans invading” their small town. Belonging was not about being an equal, but about playing the role of the subservient, disposable, and entertaining Mexican immigrant.

Responsibility meant ignoring the flashbacks of the border and of my abusive household. My focus became mastering English, understanding American culture, and learning all I could about immigration policies. No one noticed, and I was alone among my American friends. The differences between us were inescapable, leading me to blame myself for not pushing past the loneliness of being one the few Latino immigrants in town. Again, I did not belong. Latinos continued to be seen as suppliers of labor for White American families, and their suffering at the hands of immigration enforcement remain irrelevant outside business negotiations.

Thirty years after my arrival, the fear has never left. Fear still controls my life even when others tell me I should not be afraid. How do I explain that the fear of La Migra knocking at my door is my oldest recurring nightmare? Nothing feels secure as of lately and yet Latinos are told to remain compliant in face of violence and racial profiling. Even as a professor, I cannot escape this fear because ICE continues to look for us and target our safety.

I cannot offer a solution, only solidarity in this struggle to survive as Latino immigrants in this era of ICE enforcement. Sometimes, the first step is simply recognizing the existence of fear so that we can understand that we are not alone.

Contributed by undergraduate student Sol Ramirez. 

I am happy to provide a summary of the expenses covered by El Instituto’s generous sponsorship of $200 for the Somos Uno Puppet Show. Your support made it possible for us to bring this celebration of Mexican and Latine culture to life through puppetry, music, poetry and dance.

A portion of the sponsorship supported the materials and supplies needed to create the puppets and stage components for the show. This included many types, shapes and sizes of paint, glue, elastic, and the construction of 30 unique puppets. These materials were essential to developing the visual and tactile aspects of the production and bringing the characters to life.

In addition, your contribution helped cover music and artist compensation. Musician Omar Ruiz Lopez composed and recorded original pieces for the show, including guitar, violin, percussion, and mandolin, as well as the overall score. This original music was integral to the storytelling, complementing the movement and shadows to enhance the audience’s experience.

Show Description – Somos Uno Somos Uno utilizes puppetry, shadows, music, and dance to celebrate both Mexican and Latine culture. The performance showcases the roots of these cultures, the hardships they have endured, and the power of unity to overcome challenges and thrive. Through this creative and collaborative approach, we aim to educate, inspire, and bring communities together around shared cultural experiences.

 

We are deeply grateful to El Instituto: Institute of Latina/o, Caribbean, and Latin American Studies for supporting our work and enabling us to create a meaningful, culturally rich experience for our audience. Your sponsorship played a vital role in ensuring the success of this production. Thank you again for your generosity and support.

Contributed by graduate student Jhinia Garcia.

My research focuses on understanding the structural determinants of health among Hispanic populations in the United States. Using national survey data and quantitative methods, I examine how socioeconomic conditions shape overall health through four key mediating pathways: access to healthcare, health behaviors, mental health, and physical health. In this context, attending the ASSA 2026 Annual Meeting (January 3–5, 2026, Philadelphia) strengthened my methodological approach and informed refinements to my research design. The conference also facilitated engagement with current research in health economics and health policy that directly informs my analysis of structural health disparities.

The Whetten Latin American Studies Fellowship Fund provided USD 655 in Fall 2025, which was used only for conference expenses. The funds covered round-trip transportation, three nights of lodging near the venue, student registration, and local transportation and meals. These expenses enabled full participation in conference sessions and professional events.

I attended multiple sessions directly related to my research on the structural determinants of health, including The Economics of International Health, Economics of the Health Gradient, Economics of Mental Health, Economic Impact of Childcare Interventions, and Value of Health and Longevity. Session chairs included Shiko Maruyama, Karen Eggleston, James Heckman, Anna Chorniy, Emily Beam, and Robert Topel. These sessions examined how institutional arrangements, labor market conditions, early-life environments, and public policies shape health outcomes across the life course and contribute to persistent socioeconomic gradients in health.

The conference helped with concrete methodological insights relevant to my research framework, particularly for modeling indirect effects and identifying policy-relevant mechanisms linking socioeconomic disadvantage to physical and mental health outcomes. Discussions of childcare interventions and school-based health programs strengthened the life-course perspective of my research, reinforcing the importance of early institutional contexts in shaping later health disparities. In addition, presentations on health system reforms and incentive structures in international settings helped contextualize my work within broader debates on healthcare access and quality.

Overall, the fellowship enabled full participation in the ASSA 2026. The training, feedback, and methodological exposure gained during the conference will inform refinements to my MA research design and guide the next stages of my research projects.

Contributed by graduate student Ivonne Cotorruelo.

The fellowship funds were used to support transportation expenses related to my travel to the University of Tulane for Moving Media in the Americas, Conference, December 4, 5 and 6. Specifically, the funds covered the cost of my round-trip airline ticket and taxi transportation to and from the airport. No additional expenses were incurred.

The primary purpose of my visit to Tulane University was to advance my ongoing research through direct engagement with academic resources and scholarly communities relevant to my field of study. During my time at Tulane, I presented my project – related to curatorial justice within the context of Latin American Film, which is crucial to my research and dissertation. Access to Tulane’s academic environment and to this conference refine key research questions and enhance the methodological framework of my work.

In addition, the visit provided an opportunity to establish academic connections with faculty and researchers whose work aligns closely with my own. One of the colleagues at the conference presented a work that is related to mine and we are thinking about editing a volume of academic essays in the future. The interactions at the Conference were valuable not only for immediate feedback on my research but also for fostering future collaboration and intellectual exchange.

Overall, the travel fellowship played a crucial role in supporting the progress of my research by enabling in-person access to networking, expertise, and academic networks that would not have been possible otherwise. I am grateful for this support and for the opportunity to further develop my project in such a stimulating academic setting.

Contributed by graduate student Luis Palomino.

My research focuses on spatial economics and regional development. I study local development economics using unstructured and structured data and machine learning methods. A key goal of my doctoral preparation is to build fine-grained measures of economic activity that can be linked to official statistics and applied across countries. In this context, attending the ASSA 2026 Annual Meeting (January 3–5, 2026, Philadelphia) was important for improving my methods, refining my research direction, and connecting with scholars in urban, spatial, and development economics.

The Whetten Latin American Studies Fellowship Fund provided USD 685 in Fall 2025, which was used only for conference expenses. The funds covered round-trip transportation, three nights of lodging near the venue, student registration, the AEA Mentoring and Networking Luncheon fee, and local transportation and meals. These expenses enabled full participation in conference sessions and professional events.

I attended multiple sessions: Advances in Computational Economics; Studies in Development Economics; Measuring Development – New Tools; Advances in Spatial Economics; Machine Learning, Prediction Errors, and Causal Inference; Measuring Misallocation and Reallocation. Chairs included Jesús Fernández-Villaverde, Manaswini Rao, Edward Glaeser, Pascaline Dupas, Dave Donaldson, Matthew Gordon, Jonathan Dingel, Stuart Rosenthal, and Kunal Sangani. The presentations highlighted new ways in spatial economics and economic measurement using machine learning for unstructured data — such as satellite imagery, text, and mobile phone records — which are central to my current work.

I also participated in the AEA Mentoring and Networking Luncheon at the Urban and Spatial Economics table led by Professor Edward Glaeser. The discussion focused on the research of each panel member, urban and spatial economics research, and career development. At the ASSA sessions and events, I spoke with graduate students and researchers about data construction, replication, and collaboration using large-scale spatial datasets.

The conference helped refine how I will incorporate uncertainty and benchmarking into spatial allocation models. These ideas apply to my dissertation on regional development in Peru and to a related project on fine-grained GDP measurement in the United States using satellite and labor data, aligned with current NBER priorities on economic measurement.

Overall, the fellowship enabled full participation in ASSA 2026. The training, feedback, and professional connections gained will guide the next stages of my doctoral research and future grant proposals.

Contributed by graduate student Beatriz Torres Do Nascimento.

I am very happy to have completed my initial research prospectus. At this stage, my research, entitled “From Brazil to the United States: The Reconfiguration of Privilege and Racial Identity among Brazilian Immigrants,” feels much clearer and more structured, which brings me a great sense of relief and motivation to move forward with it throughout this semester. Reaching this milestone has strengthened my confidence in the direction of my work and reaffirmed the relevance of my research questions and theoretical framework.

At the end of last year, in December, I also had the opportunity to carry out a meaningful and impactful project alongside highly engaged undergraduate students and my academic advisor Professor Camilo Ruiz, which was even published by the CT Mirror website. Together, we presented valuable and accessible information to the immigrant community in Hartford, with a particular focus on immigrants’ rights, safety, and health. This experience was especially rewarding, as it allowed us to bridge academic knowledge and community engagement, ensuring that our work had practical implications for the population we aim to support.

Finally, I am very excited to present my research at the MACLAS 2026 conference. This will be my first academic conference presentation, and I am genuinely enthusiastic about the opportunity. I see a significant gap in the existing literature on Brazilian immigrants living in the United States, particularly regarding issues of racial identity, privilege, and social positioning, so it is important to occupy these spaces and fill this gap.

Contributed by graduate student Michelle Miller.

With the support of the El Instituto Pre-Doctoral Fellowship, I was able to center the lived experience of Latine₁ UConn undergraduate students and complete the first phase of data collection for my dissertation research. My dissertation focuses on acculturative stress, which refers to the stress that occurs when navigating competing cultural norms and identities, and its role in youth adjustment. Investigating the salience and role of cultural values is another important aspect of my dissertation. More specifically, I’m interested in the role of cultural values in the relationship between acculturative stress and adjustment.

To explore my research questions, I conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with twenty Latine students across UConn including Storrs, Hartford, Stamford and Waterbury campuses. The fellowship funds were used to provide incentives for participants and to support transcription costs. Recruitment was intentional to capture differences across campuses, especially given that the aforementioned regional campuses are designated as Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) or an emerging-HSI, whereas the Storrs campus is a Predominantly White Institution. Students interviewed represented a wide range of identities, including male, female, and non-binary students, and had origins from over ten different Latin and Central American countries. These conversations offered rich insights into how students make sense of their cultural identities, the pressures they face as Latine university students, the sources of support they rely on, and the deep pride many feel in being Latine.

Although my analysis is still ongoing, several meaningful insights have already emerged. Students experienced acculturative stress in many different forms that included: language-related pressures, moments of not feeling “Latine enough”, fear of losing their families’ culture or language, and challenges related to belongingness. Others shared that they did not experience acculturative stress at all or mostly did when they were younger. The broader political climate also surfaced as a source of stress for many students, creating worry not only for themselves, but for their families as well.

Students also discussed the role of cultural values (e.g., familismo, respeto) in depth.  All students interviewed found the cultural values we discussed important to their lives whether it was through their family or values they endorsed individually. However, the way these values functioned varied widely. For example, familismo was often described as a powerful source of support during difficult times, yet it could also intensify pressures related to meeting family expectations. As one student described, familismo can feel like “a double-edged sword”, offering comfort while also heightening feelings of guilt, homesickness, or pressure to succeed for one’s family. Students also reflected on values such as machismo, marianismo, and respeto, noting how these could create rigid roles or expectations that sometimes conflicted with their personal values.

Campus context also matters to students. Differences emerged in how students navigate belongingness and find community at each campus, especially those who have attended multiple campuses. Despite differences, students across all campuses expressed appreciation for the community centers and organizations that exist to support Latine students.

Overall, my analysis so far reveals a nuanced picture of Latine students’ experience with acculturative stress and cultural values. Students are actively navigating who they are, and who they want to become, in addition to staying connected to family and completing academic responsibilities. Their experiences are shaped by campus environment, cultural values, and relationships. Importantly, students exhibited a proud Latine identity that helps them persevere, regardless of Spanish language proficiency or generation status.

My next steps involve using the interview data to help inform a survey that will capture a more representative understanding of what Latine college students are experiencing. These early findings have important implications for educators, researchers, and others working to support Latine students by affirming their identities and lived experiences. I am grateful to the UConn students who shared their stories with me and made this work meaningful and possible. Hearing and relating to their stories inspires me to keep going as a Latina in higher education and reaffirms my commitment to taking part in research and creating spaces that highlight our experiences. I look forward to presenting my findings to the El Instituto community once my analysis is complete and I am truly appreciative of the support provided through the fellowship.

 

1. “I use the term Latine as a gender-inclusive alternative to Latino and Latina that aligns more naturally with the Spanish language. I also recognize that individuals and communities may identify with other terms such as Latino/a, Latinx, Hispanic, Chicanx, or culturally specific identities (e.g., Mexican-American, Dominican, Maya K’iche).”

 

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: