CLACS Institute takes teachers on a deep d This July at the southern border, thousands of migrants waited to cross into the United States in hopes of seeking asylum from political unrest and crushing poverty.
only migration to the United States, but the current societal and political situations in Central American countries like El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala.
Hundreds of miles north, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, dozens of teachers gathered at the CLACS annual summer institute in July to learn about the circumstances driving that migration.
“It would have been hard not to choose this theme,” Kline said. “It matters in terms of listening to the news, making informed decisions about what you read and what you see, and noticing who’s telling the story.”
“It comes down to the lack of opportunity, lack of education, lack of ability to make a living and support a family. Violence, certainly,” said Julie Kline, the assistant director of the UWM Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. “If people had a choice as to what was possible for them in the country they were born in, they would stay in a heartbeat. But somehow to them, the better choice is taking on a journey that is very dangerous and very uncertain.”
From top to bottom: The flags of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Panama, all Central American countries discussed at the annual summer institute of UWM’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies in July.
8 • IN FOCUS • August, 2019
The UWM Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, or CLACS, is a federally funded entity tasked with helping students and educators alike understand the politics, history, and culture of Latino and Caribbean countries. As part of their ongoing mission to conduct teacher training, CLACS hosts a yearly summer institute devoted to a particular aspect of Central American or Caribbean studies, cosponsored with UW-Madison. This year, Florida International University also participated as a cosponsor. This year, the theme centered on “Society and Politics in Contemporary Central America,” which explored not
Though the topic had the potential to be controversial, given the current divisive state of American politics surrounding immigration policy, CLACS administrators strove to keep discussions as factual and unbiased as possible. “My goal is not to sway anyone in terms of their political opinion; my goal is to give them the tools to think about problems and analyze what’s going on either historically or contemporarily,” said Natasha Borges Sugiyama, the director of CLACS. “We want to provide our educators with both broad and deep knowledge so that they can talk about what is appearing in the headlines with nuance and understanding.” To help their attendees understand those nuances, organizer Seth Meisel at Northwestern University, with assistance from Kline, lined up a series of talks by speakers uniquely qualified to discuss the current state of affairs in Central America. The past president of Costa Rica spoke to the group via video conference one morning, while Salvadoran poet Jorge Argueta talked to the attendees via a shaky internet
