Research & Outreach on Latinos and Changing Communities in Missouri

Cambio Center News - June, 2007

New fellows

Two faculty members of the MU Department of Romance Languages and Literatures are the newest Cambio Center fellows.  ¡Bienvenidos!  They bring to the Center expertise in needed areas of knowledge.

·         Mónica Marcos-Llinàs, Visiting Assistant Professor of Spanish
“My research areas are second and foreign language learning, language teaching and pragmatics. I think that my lines of investigation and collaboration with Cambio Center can contribute to the development of new knowledge and teaching practices. Also, I hope that my experience and participation in future research projects can be beneficial to the Hispanic and Latino Community in Missouri.”

·         Iván Reyna, Assistant Professor of Spanish
“I am especially interested in the ways in which alternative and marginal discourses are created by Latino newcomers during the process of interacting with their new reality.    I think that a good understanding of these discourses would facilitate our understanding of the Latino community in Missouri and vice versa.”

Available for fellows

·         Sylvia R. Lazos Vargas & Stephen C. Jeanetta: Cambio de Colores. Immigration of Latinos to Missouri, MU Extension, University of Missouri-Columbia, 2002.
For the fellows that need a copy of that breakthrough publication (proceedings of the first Cambio de Colores conference, still current in many respects), we have found a few extra copies that we can send to you via campus mail.  Please send a note to Christiane Quinn (QuinnC@Missouri.edu) if you need one.

Summer hours

The Cambio Center staff will be keeping the following hours through the end of the summer period: 7:30 AM – 4 PM.

Opportunities

·         Call for Papers: Nuestra América in the U.S.?  A U.S. Latino/a Studies Conference
Friday & Saturday, February 8 & 9, 2008, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas (FYI: this is a month before one of the dates being considered for next year’s Cambio de Colores conference, but the topical areas are wider and apply more to Latino studies in general than  to immigrant issues.  Notwithstanding, the Cambio Center will be present at that conference.—DM)
Proposal Deadline: September 15, 2007.
Info: http://www.continuinged.ku.edu/programs/latino_studies/
Quote: “This interdisciplinary conference adopts José Martí’s expansive hemispheric conception of “America” to explore implications of the growth of the U.S. Latino population at the cusp of the 21st century—a century that has seen Latinos/as become the largest U.S. ethnic minority. How have these shifting demographics affected communities, labor, politics, education, and cultural production in the U.S.?”

·         Fulbright Scholar Grants to Spain
3-5 month lecturing or research awards in many disciplines. Applications due in August 7, 2007.
Information: http://www.cies.org/award_book/award2008/country/EuroSpaSP.htm

Publications of Interest

·         U.S. Senate: Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act  (bill S. 1348)
Not actually a publication, but all the official information—including the full text and proposed amendments—about  the act currently being discussed  by the Senate.

·         Pew Hispanic Center Report —Rick Fry: How Far Behind in Math and Reading are English Language Learners
The achievement analysis is based on the 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the “Nation’s Report Card,” and 35 state-administered assessments mandated by the No Child Left Behind law. The report also uses demographic data, for the nation and for some states, to analyze some of the characteristics of limited English speaking students.

·         Pew Hispanic Center factsheet:  Indicators of Recent Migration Flows from Mexico
The Mexican-born population in the U.S. has continued to increase but the rate of growth appears to have slowed beginning in mid-2006. This preliminary assessment is based on data that indirectly reflect the pace of migration over time.

·         Gordon H. Hanson: Emigration, Remittances and Labor Force Participation in Mexico
Institute for the Integration of Latin America and the Caribbean (INTAL), Inter-American Development Bank, Washington, February 2007 (46 pp., PDF)
This paper, examines emigration, remittances, and labor-force participation in Mexico during the 1990s. It uses two samples of households for the analysis: (a) rural households in Mexico in 2000, which vary according to whether they have sent migrants to the United States or received remittances from the United States, and (b) individuals in Mexico in 1990 and 2000 born in states with either high-exposure or low-exposure to U.S. emigration. (Available only online at Institute for the Integration of Latin America and the Caribbean (INTAL), Inter American Development Bank: http://www.iadb.org/intal/)

·         National Center for Cultural Competence - Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development: “A Guide for Advancing Family-Centered and Culturally and Linguistically Competent Care” (PDF 1.4 Mb)
Center site: http://www11.georgetown.edu/research/gucchd/nccc/