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"A lot more connected, a lot less hopeless": Innovative class helps deportees in Mexico

Posted on November 28, 2017

Students and friends in Mexico City. (Photo by Ernesto Méndez.)

"I always knew that I was Mexican. What I didn't know is that I wasn't legal." Pablo*, one of the speakers on a panel discussion of exile in Mexico City last March, spoke for many other young people who live with the fear of deportation—or, as in his case, have already experienced it. Pablo arrived in the U.S. as a toddler, and was deported when he was in his twenties.

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The Fight for Civil Rights, Continued: "I Am Not Your Cholo"

Posted on November 15, 2017

According to his biography, Peruvian author Marco Avilés is currently working on a memoir about being "a Latino immigrant in a not very nice time for Latino immigrants." The same witty understatement and sense of perspective is evident in his essay "I Am Not Your Cholo" (translated from Spanish by Sophie Hughes), published as part of Words Without Borders' issue of literature in translation, written by authors living in the United States.

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"Flipping" World Literature: Four Texts to Try

Posted on October 09, 2017

Like many other educational terms, "flipped instruction" if often tossed (or flipped) around, but rarely discussed in depth. Even more rarely is it considered for use in the English and literature classroom. Yet, any student who's ever drowsed through an hour-long lecture, or educator who's searched for ways to help students understand complex texts, will intuitively grasp the benefits of using class time for challenging, collaborative work.

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New Writing from Colombia

Posted on September 25, 2017

"For you to remember, my star, that some things do still shine.” In an excerpt from the novel An Orphan World, Giuseppe Caputo depicts a father and son's loving relationship amidst poverty and violence. If you teach students from South or Central America, or if your students are wondering about immigration from that region, this story will be of particular interest.

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