¡Buenos días!
In light of the devastating news of Deferred Action Childhood Arrival (DACA) being revoked, we would like to share some resources for teaching about DACA in the classroom. Here at the Latin American & Iberian Institute of The University of New Mexico, we are all seeking ways to address this policy announcement and emphasize that we support our undocumented students.
At Vamos a Leer, we also acknowledge that this affects students and classrooms all over the United States. It is more important than ever for teachers to be allies for their immigrant student.
For those seeking more generalized resources on teaching about immigration, we invite you to look at our past posts on immigration. The Reading Roundup about Immigration may be particularly helpful when working with younger students. .
We hope you find these resources useful!
En solidaridad,
Kalyn
Videos & Films
We would like to highlight the following interview with immigrant rights activist Jonatan Martinez, conducted here at The University of New Mexico. Jonatan participated in a walk to D.C., which resulted in the documentary American DREAMers, which we recommend checking out.
At UNM, our undocumented students have mobilized into an incredible, youth-led organization called the New Mexico Dream Team. As part of their efforts to create a safe, more inclusive campus and community for undocumented students and their families, they offer campus trainings. These are the “Dreamzone trainings,” and even if you can’t attend in person, their introductory video offers some important starting points about why and how educators should become active allies and how they can serve as resources for undocumented students.
We also invite you to check out two films recently released which talk about DACA from personal standpoints. We have only watched the trailers, so if you watch them, please let us know what you think! The directors are offering free streams of these films for the month of September in solidarity with DREAMers around the country.
Articles
Teachers might find the succinct article, posted by United We Dream, useful for addressing prevalent questions regarding what this all means for current DACA holders.
Grace Cornell Gonzales with Rethinking Schools wrote a post titled “800,000 Reasons to Teach About DACA.” In her article, she highlights the importance of understanding and teaching what it means to be undocumented, and the fears with which undocumented youth are faced. In order to do so, Gonzales links Sandra Osorio’s article about teaching about deportation. She links a few videos explaining DACA, some of which are for more of a high school audience. Gonzales closes with ways that students and teachers can take action to support undocumented immigrants in the US.
The Southern Poverty Law Center also published an article regarding DACA, which we recommend checking out.
Sana Makke with Teaching For Change also wrote an article this week about high school students in Washington D.C. walking out to protest DACA.
What can you do?
Here is an article with ideas for what we can do in order to support DACA. Organizations like Cosecha and United We Dream are good places to start when looking for how to offer support.
Vamos a Leer 