I'm headed shortly to the American Educational Research Association in Toronto, Ontario, that overlaps with this event. A few sessions I'm on will similarly address Ethnic Studies, so at least that will be a continuing focus.
I hope these convenings work to help expand all of our important work in Ethnic Studies.
-Angela Valenzuela
yesterday
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Mexican American
scholars from universities across the
country are gathering in New Mexico this
week for an annual national conference amid
uncertainty over immigration and
the future of ethnic studies at some colleges.
Members of the National Association for Chicana and Chicano
Studies are
scheduled Wednesday to start their four-day conference in
Albuquerque as
President Donald Trump has pledged to close a section of the
U.S-Mexico border.
The conference also comes as activists work to save sites linked
to Latino civil
rights history across the U.S. For example, activists want to
launch preservation
efforts for the birthplace of civil rights leader Dolores
Huerta in Dawson, a
northern New Mexico ghost town.
Aureliano DeSoto, chair of the National Association for Chicana
and Chicano
Studies and a professor at Metropolitan State University in St,
Paul, Minnesota,
said the group was happy to hold the event in New Mexico
because of its long
Chicano history.
DeSoto said the current political climate will be on the minds
of many scholars
but that “it’s also important to remember that this is not new
and there has
always been a pattern of seeing Mexican people are foreign and
outsiders,”
DeSoto said.
Trump has threatened to close sections of the border over the
rise of migrants
from largely Central American countries seeking asylum.
Meanwhile, shelters
in El Paso, Texas, and Las Cruces, New Mexico, are
struggling to keep up to
provide temporary shelter for migrants.
Irene Vasquez, chair of the Chicana and Chicano Studies
Department at the
University of New Mexico, said the national group is coming
to the state at
a time when advocates are pushing for the expansion of ethnic
studies.
For example, the University of New Mexico recently approved a
plan for its
Chicano Studies department to start issuing master’s and doctoral
degrees
because of vocal support from local advocates, she said.
That’s a different climate from some campuses. Last week, 13
Yale faculty
members announced their withdrawal from the university’s
Ethnicity, Race,
and Migration Program over allegations the administration was
ignoring the
program and failing to fulfill promises to strengthen it.
Yale President Peter Salovey said it hired two new senior
faculty members
for the program last year and expects to hire two others this
year.
DeSoto said Chicano and Ethnic Studies are constantly under
attack from critics
who question its purpose but universities now have more
diverse student bodies
who are seeking such classes.
Chicano, which refers to Mexican Americans, gained popularity
during the
militant Chicano Movement of the 1970s, when advocates staged school
walkouts and protested the war in Vietnam.
About 500 professors and students from Arizona, California,
Texas and the
Midwest are expected to attend the conference, DeSoto said.
Founded in 1972, the National Association for Chicana and
Chicano Studies
supports Mexican American academics in social sciences, the
arts and the
humanities. The group pushes for faculty diversity at the nation’s
universities.
___
Russell Contreras is a member of The Associated Press’ race and
ethnicity team.
Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/russcontreras
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