Sharing Latino/a/x Stories, Building Community

By Kelly McGowan, Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching

Lucía Suárez designed her course as an antidote to isolation.

“The COVID crisis has deepened student alienation, lowered academic interest, and heightened anxiety and depression,” the associate professor of Spanish and Latinx Studies and director of the Latino/a Studies program wrote in her Miller Faculty Fellowship project abstract. “This course aims to provide a dynamic experience that will counter that, connecting students to each other and Latinx communities.”

With $4,920 in Miller funding to cover transportation and food costs for class gatherings in spring ‘23 and ‘24, the course that resulted is steeped in connection and community. Latinx Oral Histories in Iowa (USLS/SPAN/ENG 3770) has far-reaching impacts that Suárez visualizes as the effects of a stone being thrown into calm water:

Ripple — Iowa State University students connect with each other in the course as they study and discuss memoirs and oral histories.

Ripple — Those students connect with Marshalltown High School’s Mujeres Club, led by teacher Kristin Stuchis. The relationship includes tutoring Marshalltown students in memoir writing skills and together participating in a workshop at the Sloss House and a visit to The Catalyst at Parks Library to learn about archives.

Ripple — Students conduct interviews with Latinx Iowans to produce oral history recordings focused on education after the pandemic in Iowa and the U.S. Stories are archived at Parks Library. They are connected to the original, national Voces of a Pandemic Project, based at the University of Texas at Austin’s Voces Oral History Center.

Ripple — Ames Public Library visitors engage with class projects in an exhibit featuring student-made posters on published memoirs.

It has been “magical” for Suárez to see the course take shape — to “just gather so many different people with an enormous amount of respect, to listen and share and grow. … It makes my heart happy.”

By uplifting the uniqueness of each person’s story, Suárez said those in the class shine a light on the long and diverse history of Latinx populations in Iowa and fight characterizations of the community as a monolith: “There is no singular story … you have stories of some hardship and you have stories of incredible uplift and fabulous teachers and learning and feeling like they belong.”

“There’s no ‘them’ and ‘us,” she said — just “us.”

Iowa State students from a variety of backgrounds and majors have taken the course and connected through their own stories. “We’re all looking forward to being happy in some basic way, right? Part of that is valuing each of our individual stories and connecting those,” Suárez said.

Students are “leaders in their learning” in the course. With its flexible, community-centered approach, she said the course allows the high school students to see themselves as college students, and the Iowa State students “to see themselves as adults in the real world, engaging with other people in a meaningful way.”

Being part of the Miller Faculty Fellowship grant community is an honor for Suárez, and she encourages colleagues to explore the opportunity for themselves. “This class happened as beautifully and dynamically as it did thanks to the Miller grant. I mean, the Miller Grant made it possible.”

Suárez looks forward to seeing the ripple effects continue in a constructive, generative, uplifting way as the course goes on. For example, an open education e-publication with the City University of New York Graduate Center is planned for the next course iteration.

“I think this project has been one of the most dynamic classes I’ve taught and it keeps going. You know, it just keeps expanding in a very constructive, positive way — always focused on Iowa Latina/o/x life stories.”

Lucía Suárez, Associate Professor of Spanish and Latinx Studies and Director of the Latino/a Studies Program
Photo by Nina Wurtzel

Upcoming Miller Events

Prepare a Stellar Miller Proposal
November 15
2 – 3 p.m, via Zoom

Miller Faculty Fellowship Consultations
December 5, December 6, December 12, and December 13
1 – 3 p.m., 2624 Howe Hall
You may sign up for a 30-minute, one-on-one consultation with CELT’s Miller Faculty Fellowship Administrator Paul Hengesteg. Bring your questions to the consultation for discussion.

From the event page, click the link to book a time, and navigate on the MS Bookings page to the desired date for the meeting.