This July 7-9, 51ÁÔĆć’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies welcomed 25 K-16 educators to campus for our annual Summer Teacher Institute, supported in part by a National Resource Center grant from the U.S. Department of Education and in partnership with sister centers at UW-Madison and Florida International University.
Representing the full range of grade levels and many disciplines, educators from across Wisconsin and eight other states quickly jumped into collaborations, taking in expert presentations and buzzing in small group discussion on this year’s topic of Childhood and Youth in Latin America.
On day one, participants learned from Prof. Gabriel Velez (Marquette University, Educational Policy and Leadership) about how Colombian youth are affected by the country’s long history of violence. Dr. Velez shared how internal displacement has affected school systems, and discussed the 2015 implementation of a . Participants were quick to draw connections on incorporating these Colombian examples in their classrooms, including units on civics, Macbeth, and petroleum’s role in the drug trade.
The group rounded out the day with a visit to 51ÁÔĆć Libraries’ Research Collection, introduced by cofounder Julie Kline (UW-Milwaukee academic staff emerita): holds over 400 published children’s and young adult books that portray Latin America, the Caribbean, or Latinos in the United States. (And it is free and !)
The second institute day focused on Latin America’s rich history of youth activism, presented by Prof. Jessica Taft (University of California Santa Cruz, Latin American and Latino Studies). Returning participant Michelle Roberts (high school English, VA) was impressed to learn about a Latin American student culture of broad reading in social and political theory: a widespread practice that allows Latin American students to pair their own experiences with deeply-researched knowledge to advocate for change. Roberts plans to incorporate material about the Peruvian Working Children’s Movement, and (dignified work), to help her own students reflect on how their own extensive work experiences can help them keep learning and growing as whole people.
Later that day, participant Stephany Virrueta Herrera (Loyola University Chicago, School of Environmental Sustainability) appreciated a presentation from photojournalist Misha Vallejo Prut, who shared on how solar power supports school infrastructure in Ecuador’s Amazon: said Virrueta Herrera, “a lot of my students are majors in environmental sustainability, and sometimes it’s hard to find stories of hope amid these [climate] changes that are happening…I’ll definitely be bringing that story to a few of my classes.”
Vallejo’s reporting was supported by the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting. The nonprofit – committed to reporting on systemic, global issues – sees classroom teachers as key partners in this endeavor, and offers abundant free resources developed specifically for K-12 and university educators.
An important throughline in institute conversations was the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. In this vein, MarĂa MorfĂn shared about her organization , which promotes children’s right to participate in their communities: the nonprofit facilitates play groups that center democratic decision-making among migrant youth and other vulnerable populations across Mexico.
The institute concluded with a discussion of how young people are portrayed in Latin American films. Prof. Erin Hogan (U of Maryland Baltimore County, Spanish) shared core principles for using screen studies to build intercultural competence, along with dozens of film titles for teachers to use. Participants watched one such title – – in preparation for the event, and filmmakers Carlos Hagerman and Jorge Villalobos joined for a discussion of how they created this groundbreaking animated documentary, which depicts the varied migration stories of three Mexican-American youth.
For first-time participant Aaron Kaio (high school social studies, Madison), the institute helped him reconsider existing units and provided new resources for a Latin American studies class he’ll be teaching for the first time this fall. And for 51ÁÔĆć’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, that is a sure sign the event was a success: helping educators bring more Latin American content to their classrooms – in Milwaukee, Wauwatosa, Madison, La Crosse, and beyond – and preparing students to be informed and empowered global citizens.
Speaker Bios
- Carlos Hagerman and Jorge Villalobos are Mexican filmmakers known for their award-winning film Home is Somewhere Else (2023), a documentary animation that shares the rich complexity of the emotional experiences of immigrant children and families to better understand and empathize with them.
- Carlos Hagerman was born in Mexico City. He received his MFA in Film at NYU as a Fulbright scholar. He worked for eight years as a director in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s production company Zeta Films, before opening his own company. There, he produced and directed award-winning documentaries like Those Who Remain (IDA Humanitas Award 2009), Back to Life, and No Place Like Home. He also co-produced Plaza de la Soledad (Sundance 2013) and Rush Hour (SXSW 2018). He is a founding partner of Brinca Animation Studio.
- Jorge Villalobos is a writer, director, and producer of animated and live-action projects. He directed several children’s series for Canal Once, Mexico’s Public TV channel. His animated and fiction short films won over 20 international awards. Since co-founding Brinca Animation Studio in 2012, Jorge and Carlos Hagerman have worked as a team, co-producing and co-directing animation projects for children and communication tools for human rights organizations like UNICEF and the Mexican Human Rights Commission.
- Dr. Erin Hogan is Professor of Spanish at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). Dr. Hogan’s broader areas of research range from 17th century Spain to contemporary Latin America, and span the transnational screen arts, intercultural pedagogy, and videographic criticism. Her research particularly examines the child and the patriarchal corpse as biopolitical figures, gynocentric filmic representations of and by women, and the uses of comedy and satire for social justice. Dr. Hogan is the author of The Two cines con niño: Genre and the Child Protagonist in Over Fifty Years of Spanish Film (1955-2010) (Edinburgh University Press, 2018) and Patriarchy’s Remains: An Autopsy of Iberian Cinematic Dark Humour (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2024), and has taught courses including “Film and Society in Latin America” and “Political Childhood and Children’s Political Citizenship in Western Culture”.
- Julie Kline worked in the UW-Milwaukee Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies for 38 years until her retirement in 2024. She holds a BA from the Ohio State University (International Relations) and an MA from UW-Madison (Ibero-American Studies). A long-standing interest in international children’s literature was shaped by a 1988 fellowship at the International Youth Library, Munich. That experience helped lay the groundwork for creation of the AmĂ©ricas Award for Children’s and Young Adult Literature, with the Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs (CLASP), and coordination of the award for its first 18 years, including an annual award presentation at the Library of Congress. While with 51ÁÔĆć CLACS, Kline also taught a children’s literature course online with the 51ÁÔĆć School of Education, focused on Latin American/Latinx cultural heritages, and co-organized multiple related public events, including the 2021 series “Latin American Children’s Book Creators.”
- MarĂa MorfĂn Stoopen is founder and Director of La Jugarreta Espacios de ParticipaciĂłn AC, an organization in Tepoztlán, Morelos, MĂ©xico, that since 2000 supports children in proposing and directing collective projects for the good of the community based on their own interests. MorfĂn has a degree in Social Communication from Mexico’s Autonomous Metropolitan University and has consulted for multiple institutions on the implementation of programs promoting child and youth participation (including UNICEF, National System for the Integral Development of the Family, Ministry of Culture, National Electoral Institute). In addition to offering extensive trainings for educators and parents, she is the author of various books, guides, and articles on child and youth participation, such as Child and Youth Participation: A Guide for its Promotion (2012).
- Dr. Jessica Taft is Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies at the University of California Santa Cruz and the Faculty Director of the Dolores Huerta Research Center for the Americas. Her research focuses on young people’s contributions to social change through activism and social movements in North and South America. She is the author of Rebel Girls: Youth Activism and Social Change Across the Americas (NYU Press, 2011), The Kids Are in Charge: Activism and Power in Peru’s Movement of Working Children (NYU Press, 2019), and numerous journal articles on girls’ activism, children’s participation, youth politics, and intergenerational dynamics within social movements. Dr. Taft is part of a variety of local, national, and international collaborative projects focused on child and youth participation and has worked with funders and non-governmental organizations to deepen their analysis of the challenges and possibilities of meaningful engagement with young people.
- Misha Vallejo Prut is an Ecuadorian audiovisual artist and storyteller whose work blurs the line between documentary and art. His projects explore glocal issues: themes that appear local but reveal global dimensions through his lens. With an MA in Documentary Photography from the University of the Arts London, Misha is the author of three internationally award-winning photobooks as well as the interactive documentary secretsarayaku.net. His photography has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, VICE, GEO, Stern, and Marie Claire, among others, and his exhibitions have also traveled globally. Misha is currently based in Ecuador, where he continues to develop new audiovisual projects.
- Dr. Gabriel Velez is Associate Professor in Educational Policy and Leadership in the College of Education at Marquette University. Dr. Velez studies identity development in adolescents, particularly in relation to citizenship, human rights, restorative justice, and peace. Dr. Velez has a forthcoming book entitled Making Meaning of Justice and Peace: A Developmental Lens to Restorative Justice and Peace Education, and is working on another manuscript on adolescent development, education, and artificial intelligence, both with Cambridge University Press. He was a secondary educator in Peru and Colombia for 5 years and has worked with a number of Colombian universities as a Fulbright Specialist.