51����

As we commemorate the 60th anniversary of CLACS’s founding in 1965, our center took the opportunity to check in with campus, community, and regional partners about how our collaborations have shaped their work.

All of these partnerships have furthered our core mission of deepening the understanding of Latin America in the Caribbean on campus and beyond. Read on to learn about what this work has meant for some of our collaborators and their own communities!

Professional Development and Supporting College Readiness: Mr. Nick Sprague (South Division High School, Milwaukee Public Schools, Social Studies)

• • Connected with CLACS in 2022
• • Teaches college-credit Dual Enrollment class at SDHS: LACS 101 (Introduction to Latin America and the Caribbean)

Having the opportunity to teach Latin American and Caribbean Studies at South Division High School through the Dual Enrollment Program has been a game-changer. The students that register for the class are college-bound and are ready for the challenge of learning at a post-secondary level. I am energized by the content I’m teaching and by the excitement that the students bring to the class. I am so grateful for the opportunity to prepare students for the next step in their education through such important coursework. On a personal note, I received an email from a former student that took the Dual Enrollment course and she said that it helped her feel prepared for her college experience.

The Summer Institutes offered by CLACS are one of the highlights of my summer!

Interdisciplinary Collaboration and Program Development Support: Professor Susana Antunes (UW-Milwaukee, World Languages & Cultures)

• • Connected with CLACS in 2016
• • Directs 51����’s Portuguese program on language and Lusophone cultures

My connection to CLACS has benefited me both professionally and personally in meaningful ways. Professionally, it has expanded my academic network, creating opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration and allowing me to engage with colleagues working on innovative research across Latin America and the Caribbean. This connection has also supported the growth of the Portuguese Program by providing visibility, resources, and a stronger platform to develop new initiatives, events, and partnerships. In particular, CLACS’s support for FLAS fellowships has been essential for our Portuguese students, offering them unique opportunities to deepen their language study, engage in research, and advance academically in ways that would otherwise be inaccessible.

Secondly, [when I joined 51����] the Director of CLACS invited me to meet with her, Julie Kline, and Thomas Danner for introductions and to talk about my research fields, upcoming opportunities, and possible collaborations. We also discussed the different ways CLACS can continue to support my work and strengthen the experiences of our Portuguese students, especially through initiatives such as FLAS fellowships, academic events, and community partnerships. It was a very productive and encouraging conversation, and I am grateful for the openness and support they offered, encouraging me to building the Portuguese program.

On a personal level, being part of CLACS has enriched my sense of community at 51����. It has allowed me to connect with scholars, students, and cultural practitioners whose perspectives continually inspire my work. The exchange of ideas and the collaborative spirit within CLACS have strengthened my commitment to fostering inclusive, intercultural learning spaces and have made my professional journey more fulfilling.

Over almost ten years, our collaboration has grown stronger and increasingly productive, and I am truly grateful for the openness and support that CLACS continues to offer. I honestly cannot imagine being at 51���� without the consistent support, kindness, and encouragement I have received from CLACS.

New Study-Away Courses and Belonging in Wisconsin: Professor Marcelo Cruz (UW-Green Bay, Public and Environmental Affairs)

• • Connected with CLACS in 1994
• • Participates in regional CLACS conferences and other exchanges
• • Developed four faculty-led travel courses to South America

Arriving in Green Bay, Wisconsin from Los Angeles, California some 31 years ago was a bit of a culture shock to say the least. It was a tad alienating, not only the urban experience and climate were challenging to adapt, but the lack of diversity that I found in Green Bay coming from a metropole like Los Angeles was surreal to me, and a throwback to another time and place. CLACS was instrumental in helping me make a huge adjustment to the world I entered in 1994. Thinking back, my connection with CLACS began early in my career here. My colleague, Dr. McKenna Brown, here at UW Green Bay, introduced me to colleagues at CLACS at UW Milwaukee and it anchored me to Wisconsin. CLACS did this in two important ways. CLACS funded my research and conference presentations and encouraged me and supported me to develop and grow through faculty led travel courses to South America.

To give a bit of context, during the 1990s there began a significant demographic change in Green Bay. When I arrived here in 1994, there were 1500 Latinos in all of Brown County. Today, Latinos make up 20% of the city of Green Bay and represent more than one third of the Green Bay school district (34.9%). I guess I was a part of this migration to Green Bay and Northeast Wisconsin. This demographic growth among Latinos sparked a new research agenda for me, studying enclave formation and community formation among Latinos in Green Bay.��The wonderful staff at CLACS provided funding for the research which has expanded to study the Latino urban experience in the state of Wisconsin. The funding was fundamental for me to publish and present papers on the subject.

Moreover, CLACS provided venues for colleagues throughout the region to come together and share our work and gain new insights from our colleagues. One memorable event was when members of CLACS travelled to Guadalajara, Mexico for the LASA conference in 1997 I believe. It was a wonderful experience. Not only was the intellectual activity enhanced by sharing ideas and methodologies through our work and meeting fellow researchers working on similar projects as my own, but I got to know my CLACS members more at a personal level. This began long friendships with the great people administering CLACS, sharing the many events that CLACS organizes throughout the academic year.

CLACS also encouraged me to develop a travel course to Ecuador that has become one of the longest-running faculty-led travel courses at UW Green Bay. It took some convincing to be responsible for students learning abroad, but it has been one of my most gratifying experiences at the university. In my first endeavor, I took only two students to see how it would work, and their experience was published in the Inside University of Wisconsin Green Bay. [See this write-up in the UWGB magazine – Inside UW-Green Bay, 1997, Ecuador article]

On my second trip, in 1998, I took 14 students who were interviewed by the local press in Quito at the airport when they were returning to the States (see below). This led to 27 years of taking Wisconsin students and community members twice a year to Ecuador’s four worlds. I was able to design four distinct travel and learning experiences for my students. CLACS was a tremendous help in reaching out to students and community members in our region.

Lastly, through CLACS I was able to meet and work with Ms. Aimee Orndorf (CLACS Assistant Director) the last years of the travel course experience. Her professional and patient manner made the travel experience a delight. Having Aimee as my co-leader my last three faculty led travel courses to Ecuador only strengthen my ties to CLACS. I have been grateful to be a member of CLACS and to acknowledge that CLACS has been an integral part of my career here at UW Green Bay.

From the beginning of my tenure here to the very end [Cruz retired in 2025], CLACS has been there for me. It’s been real as we say!

Saturday, December 6
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Manfred Olson Planetarium, 51���� Physics Building
2200 E. 51����., Milwaukee WI 53211
Detailed map and directions at this page

Free and open to the public. Limited seating is first-come, first-served, so please plan accordingly.

Storytime in the Caribbean, at the 51���� Planetarium

Enjoy a read-along of two about the Caribbean featuring astronomical themes, followed by stargazing and a craft activity at the 51���� Planetarium. This event is aimed at children aged 4-10 years old and their families.

The program will include an indoor stargazing session of the night sky followed by the opportunity to ask questions. Not recommended for children under 4. No advance registration is required.

Doors close 5 minutes after the planetarium show starts. Sorry, no late admissions. Additional details about attending a planetarium show, along with parking information and directions, are on this page.

Presented in partnership with the 51���� Manfred Olson Planetarium, School of Education Reading Education Program, Student Parent Success Program, and Women’s Resource Center.

Thursday, November 20
5:30 PM
51���� Student Union, Wisconsin Room C
Building map and directions below
2200 E. 51����., Milwaukee WI 53211

Free and open to the public
No RSVP required – contact clacs@uwm.edu for access needs

The Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies is delighted to partner with students in the course “Media and the Public Interest” (JAMS 380) and 51���� Sociocultural Programming to present

Media as Oppression and Expression: a Panel Discussion

This panel of journalists, academics, and media professionals will discuss how media systems shape the lives of historically suppressed communities and how alternative forms of media are used to resist control and reclaim power.

Speakers include Rick Rockwell, author of��The History of Journalism in Latin America; Dr. Robert “Biko” Baker, 51���� professor and hip-hop historian; Atinc “Ati” Gurcay, a Turkish academic focused on protest movements; and Milwaukee-based audio editor and journalist, Jimmy Gutierrez.

Campus directions

The most reliable parking is available in the 51���� Student Union Garage, entrance off of E. 51���� (westbound). Parking here requires hourly payment. Entry from the parking garage directly into the Student Union takes you to the (lower) Street Level.

The Wisconsin Room C is on the Second Floor (html building map, Second Floor). It is two levels above the large open concourse on the Street Level of the building.

Tuesday, December 2
1:00 PM – 2:15 PM
51���� Zelazo Center, room 250
(2419 E. 51����.)

This event is free and open to the public!
For access needs, email clacs@uwm.edu

Puerto Rican Bomba: a Drum and Dance Workshop

Back by popular demand: de-stress with a drum and dance workshop as we wrap up the semester! Join renowned percussionist and Bembé Artist-in-Residence Beto Torrens for a hands-on workshop on Puerto Rican bomba, an Afro-Indigenous genre that is the island’s oldest music and dance tradition. Try out different traditional instruments and learn some dance moves from 51���� alum Imani Jalil of Milwaukee’s own community arts organization . No experience necessary – come learn about this rich musical genre!

Presented by the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, the Roberto Hernández Center, the Puerto Rican Student Union, and the Percussion Area of the Music Department.

The North Central Council of Latin Americanists (NCCLA) has promoted Latin American studies in Wisconsin and the surrounding area since 1966 – and its organizational headquarters are right here in Milwaukee, at 51����’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS).��

NCCLA recently hosted its annual conference September 26-27, 2025, at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN – drawing over 70 faculty, graduate students, and advanced undergraduates to share their latest work under the theme Conference sessions included research on immigrant experiences in the Midwest, discussion of collaborative and community-based learning experiences (at and ), and special presentations from and . As NCCLA Secretariat officers, CLACS staff were essential to the organization of the conference, which developed and celebrated the work of Latin Americanists across the Upper Midwest.

Conference attendees queue for a book signing by authors Reyna Grande and Sonia Guiñansaca

The interdisciplinary audience of established scholars and emerging voices allowed many the opportunity to receive valuable feedback on works-in-progress. Victor Cruz, a PhD candidate in history at Binghamton University, appreciated “the exceptionally welcoming faculty and the vibrant network of scholars [the conference] brought together.” Cruz won the 2025 Graduate Research Award for his paper “Reimagining Nationalist Women: Emelí Vélez de Vando,” and noted that the conference atmosphere and lively discussion have inspired his research going forward.��

Other student participants similarly emphasized that participating in a Latin Americanist conference inspired them to continue deepening their research. Fátima Ortega Barba, who is currently pursuing a master’s in Library Science and presented a portion of her undergraduate thesis on nationalist masculinities, said “I was shocked by the great questions and comments I got about my research…[NCCLA] cemented that I want to return to this project; it was great to be in a [Latin Americanist] space like that.” And Paulina Santizo Murúa, a master’s student in Human Rights at the University of Minnesota, similarly remarked, “NCCLA was my first academic conference! It was such an amazing experience to be able to share a little bit of my research with people from all over the country who are interested in the Latin American region as well. Above all, attending NCCLA sparked my interest in going to more conferences in the future!”��

The keynote address was given by Professor John Tutino, a historian of Mexico��

The conference likewise celebrated the work of established scholars: the keynote provided a thoughtful career retrospective from Professor John Tutino (Georgetown University), a distinguished historian in Latin American studies who summarized his life’s work in the lecture “Mexico in the World: Making Capital, Seeking Sustainable Lives, Facing Exclusions and Migrations” (). The lecture drew nearly 70 attendees on a Friday night! And the following day’s Award of Merit ceremony offered additional opportunities to recognize the impact of exceptional faculty: both Windy González Roberts (University of Minnesota-Morris, ) and Kristina Medina-Vilariño (St. Olaf College; ) were recognized “for outstanding achievement in bringing to the general public a greater awareness of the nations, peoples and cultures of Latin America.” Finally, the organization recognized anthropology professor María Moreno Parra (UW-La Crosse, ) with the Raquel Kersten Professional Research Award for her paper “¿Vale la pena llevar la lucha antirracista a las cortes? Reflexiones a partir de la primera sentencia por delito de odio en Ecuador.”��

NCCLA President Benjamin Narvaez (center; University of Minnesota, Morris) with the two recipients of this year’s Award of Merit: Kristina Medina-Vilariño (left; St. Olaf College) and Windy González Roberts (right; University of Minnesota, Morris)

The NCCLA is already gearing up for a spring semester teaching workshop at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University, continuing its mission to promote a robust Latin American studies network in the upper Midwest. Secretariat officers at 51����’s CLACS are eager to continue expanding this professional community.

Thursday, November 13
6:00pm – 7:30pm CT
51���� Student Union, Alumni Fireside Lounge
building map and directions below
2200 E. 51����., Milwaukee WI 53211

Free and open to the public
No RSVP required – contact clacs@uwm.edu for access needs

The Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and the Institute of World Affairs present

Migration in the Americas, Yesterday and Today

Join us for a panel conversation on how U.S. immigration policy relates to the broader shared history of North, Central, and South America. Speakers Silvia Giorguli (Sociology and former President, El Colegio de México) and María Fernanda Bozmoski (Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center, The Atlantic Council) will discuss past and present migration trends in the Americas, including the historical roots and driving factors in Central America and Mexico, situating current U.S. policy debates within this larger hemispheric context. The discussion will be moderated by 51���� Institute of World Affairs Director Doug Savage.

Silvia Giorguli Saucedo is a sociologist and demographer who was president of El Colegio de México from 2015 until 2025. She studied a B.A. in Sociology at Mexico’s National University (UNAM) and received a Master’s in Demography at El Colegio de México. In 2004, she earned her PhD in Sociology from Brown University. She has been Professor and Researcher at the Center for Demographic, Urban and Environmental Studies (CEDUA) of El Colegio de México since 2003. She was a Visiting Fellow at the Center for the Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University (2007-2008), and she is currently a Tinker Fellow at the University of Chicago. She is a member of the prestigious El Colegio Nacional in Mexico.

Giorguli’s demographic research has concentrated on three main lines of research: (i) international migration in the Americas; (ii) transitions to adulthood in Mexico and Latin America; (iii) the intersection between demographic dynamics, education, and public policies. She is currently the principal co-investigator in the Mesoamerican Migration Project and the Latin American Migration Project.

María Fernanda Bozmoski is Lead for Central America and Director of Impact and Operations at the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center, where she leads the center’s work on Mexico and Central America and supports the director with the center’s operations. During her time at the Atlantic Council, she has co-led the center’s Northern Triangle Task Force, helped shape the center’s trade work, and scheduled events in Asia for US policymakers. Bozmoski is a frequent commentator in several U.S. and regional outlets including Voice of America, El Financiero-Bloomberg, and Univision, among others.

Originally from Costa Rica, Bozmoski earned a BA in European studies from the Sorbonne University in France as well as a MA in Latin American studies and political economy from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and a MA in international law and human rights from the United Nations University for Peace. Before joining the Atlantic Council, Bozmoski completed an externship at the Inter-American Dialogue and worked at the Cato Institute and the Council of the Americas.

Campus directions

The most reliable parking is available in the 51���� Student Union Garage, entrance off of E. 51���� (westbound). Parking here requires hourly payment. Entry from the parking garage directly into the Student Union takes you to the (lower) Street Level.

The Alumni Fireside Lounge in the Student Union is on the Campus Level, one level above the large open concourse on the street level of the building.��Follow signs for “Campus Level – West – Milwaukee Conference Center”

See below for a building map of the Student Union Campus Level, with the Fireside Lounge circled in blue:

Or, click below for building maps of each level of the 51���� student union:

• 51���� Union, street level
• 51���� Union, campus level (including Alumni Fireside Lounge)

Friday, November 7
12 noon – 1pm CT
Holton Hall, room 341
(2442 E Hartford Ave)
Free and open to the public

Hybrid event: join us on campus, or by zoom using the below meeting information

Zoom link:

Meeting ID: 979 0719 2581 / Passcode: 981448

The 51���� History Department and the Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies��welcome Dr. Diana Aldrete to campus to share her current research.

This event is part of the History Department’s Brown Bag Lunch series. Refreshments will be served and all are welcome.

Literature and Justice: Language and the Fight Against Feminicides

This talk explores how contemporary Mexican women writers transform literature into a space of ethical and political resistance amid feminicidal violence and systemic impunity. It examines how language itself becomes an instrument of justice—naming violence, preserving memory, and refusing erasure when institutions fail to protect or acknowledge victims. Engaging feminist, decolonial, and human rights frameworks, the talk considers how writing practices grounded in care, mourning, and collective testimony redefine justice beyond the confines of law. Ultimately, it argues for a defense of literature as integral to political and human rights work: not as a supplement to activism or legal reform, but as a vital mode of articulating rights denied and envisioning forms of justice that legal and institutional systems have yet to realize.

Dr. Diana Aldrete is Assistant Professor of Language and Culture Studies and Human Rights at Trinity College. Her research, pedagogy, and artistic production, interrogates the intersections of contemporary Mexican/Latin American/Latinx literary, film and cultural studies, Mexico-U.S. border studies, feminist and queer theory, environmental humanities, and Human Rights studies. She is currently working on her first monographic book project tentatively titled Between Land and Death: Women Writing for Justice in Mexico, which examines how literary production, primarily by contemporary Mexican women writers, have become part of the political dialectic on anti-feminicidal violence as they question notions of justice, and place literature in conversation with activism.

Professor Aldrete is also an abstract visual artist and writer, who often infuses literary, musical, and cultural references in her visual art and writing.

“Developing a Community-Led Ecotourism Museum in Oaxaca, Mexico”

📆 Monday, November 10, 2025
🕚 1:00pm – 2:00pm
📍 American Geographical Society Library (AGSL)
🏫 51���� Libraries, 3rd floor east wing

La Ventanilla is a small community on the Pacific Coast of Oaxaca, Mexico, and has, since the mid-1990s, become an ecotourism destination. Situated next to a mangrove, the human inhabitants of La Ventanilla made a major shift away from a primarily extractive relationship with the mangrove and formed a cooperative focused on its sustainable management in order to better serve all of those who call it their home, or who come to visit. Their programs focused on the non-humans of the mangrove include reestablishing the crocodile population, a reforestation program, and sea turtle nest patrolling and monitoring, among others. Visitors are introduced to these programs through guided tours, a nascent museum, and other opportunities to participate in the stewardship of the mangrove.

Beginning in 2017, six members of the community began photographing these activities as part of a Participatory Action Research (PAR) project that employed “photo-voice” as a methodology. Some of the resulting photographs to be used in a forthcoming museum exhibition are the focus of this talk. While a handful of museum anthropologists have discussed the use of PAR in museum contexts, this project and talk reorients PAR toward some of the unique characteristics of museum work—a version of collaborative museum work called Participatory Action Museography.

Three people on a sea turtle nest patrol near La Ventanilla, Mexico

Professor W. Warner Wood (UW-Milwaukee, Anthropology) researches the cultural politics of heritage in global context, primarily through ecotourism and cultural tourism sites in Oaxaca, Mexico. He is interested in museums as important sites for the production of meaning, studying the differing interpretations of material culture items and the environment that are constructed/contested by various stakeholders. Professor Wood currently serves as Coordinator of 51����’s Museum Studies Graduate Certificate Program and as an Adjunct Curator at the Milwaukee Public Museum, and is Past-President of the Council for Museum Anthropology.

Join us to learn about the many topics you can study through the interdisciplinary LACUSL major at 51����. Thanks for participating in the Fall 2025 LACUSL Speaker Series!

Free & open to the public
No registration required
For questions or accessibility accommodations, please contact: clacs@uwm.edu

Did you know CLACS was a 1993 co-founder of the ? CLACS Associate Director Emerita, Julie Kline, teamed up with colleagues at other centers for Latin American studies to establish this honor, which now designates an exceptional (and still growing!) catalogue of titles.

Each year the committee recognizes two winners – one picture book and one young adult or middle-grade book – and may additionally recognize up to four honor books and other titles commended for their cultural and pedagogical value.

Following a record number of submissions for the 2025 award (all books published in 2024), the award committee recently recruited enthusiastic young students to share a joyful announcement video ( / ) to announce the winners and honor titles:

2025 winners

• , Belen Medina, illustrated by Natalia Rojas Castro
• , Bessie Flores Zaldivar

2025 honor titles

• , Karina N. Gonzalez, illustrated by Krystal Quiles
• , Monique Duncan, illustrated by Oboh Moses
• , Jonny Garza Villa
• , Nadine Pinede

Interested in using these books in your own classroom, or sharing them with other children in your life? Check out these resources!

As a founder of the Américas Award, 51���� CLACS receives a copy of all award submissions to continue maintaining the .

The Américas Award serves to: (1) recognize the work of authors and illustrators who sensitively portray Latin American, Caribbean, or Latinx cultures in their work; (2) encourage the publication and circulation of such books; (3) provide teachers with potential classroom resources; and (4) offer librarians suggestions for culturally diverse collection development.

Please share these titles with your local public and school libraries, and stay tuned for a December 2025 storytime event at 51���� with past winners!

In May 2025, 51���� teaching faculty Brian Mueller (History) traveled with CLACS support to conduct research in Berkeley, California. His destination? The Graduate Theological Union (GTU), whose archives possess an invaluable collection of documents related to the Sanctuary Movement, the subject of Mueller’s forthcoming book.

The Sanctuary Movement took shape in the United States in the 1980s as a joint political and religious campaign to support Central American refugees fleeing conflict. Decades later, the movement and its legacy shape our contemporary conversations about immigration in the U.S.

Records from the Sanctuary Oral History Project (about the Salvadoran Humanitarian Aid, Research, and Education [SHARE] Foundation) at the Graduate Theological Union archives

Detail from records in the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant Collection at the Graduate Theological Union archives

Mueller’s study of the Sanctuary Movement is provisionally titled Sanctuary from Empire: Cold War Refugees and Reagan’s Central American Killing Fields. He shared details about the many useful records he was able to access during his time at the GTU archives:

The GTU Archives possess an invaluable collection of documents related to the Sanctuary Movement. While there, I looked at the Sanctuary Oral History Project Records, the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant Collection, and the SHARE Foundation Collection.

The documents in these collections provided evidence not only about migrants and refugees receiving sanctuary in the United States in the 1980s, but also U.S. citizens who offered protection to Salvadorans as they returned home amid a civil war.

As revealed through the archival documents, sanctuary extended well beyond the United States as groups like the SHARE Foundation followed in the footsteps of earlier missionaries that risked their lives to protect innocent Central Americans during U.S.-sponsored wars in the region.

While Mueller’s completed research is forthcoming, you may be interested in reading this , published in August 2025 by a historian of migration.