We start a new academic year facing unprecedented changes and challenges. Uncertainties about COVID-19, limitations on the Program’s spending, and an online/in-person hybrid curriculum will be mighty high hurdles for all of us to clear. These problems compound our ongoing efforts to make the Michigan campus more inclusive and supportive for Latinx academic success. Too many of us remain the “only” in our academic programs: The only Latinx-heritage faculty member in a unit; the only Latinx student trailblazing new knowledge; or the only ally advocating for Latinx inclusion in departments where there is none. All of that difficult work takes place as a dangerous xenophobic rhetoric pervades local and national politics.
The Latina/o Studies Program welcomes all who know these struggles to join our supportive intellectual community. As Michigan scholars and students, we share an urgent commitment to understanding the experiences, challenges, and accomplishments of Latinx people in the United States. Doing so defeats a racist legacy that erases Latinx people's 170 year history in the nation and refuses efforts to make the largest minority population invisible today. Even in these turbulent times, we can come together to admire and celebrate the important work we each do.
Although distanced, I look forward to the times when we will meet virtually in the coming year. We are hard at work thinking about innovative programming and new teaching strategies. In the meantime, please reach out to me if you have ideas about how the Program might best meet the challenges ahead. For now, I wish you all the best for the next year.
Saludos,
Anthony Mora, Interim Director
