Using Bronfenbrenner's Social Ecological Model, this systematic critical literature review investigated factors that contributed to the development of colorism, as well as the effects of colorism on Afro-Latinx persons, in Brazil, Mexico, and Puerto Rico, and the wider Latin American region. Agencies within the macrosystem and chronosystem were…

The initiative to investigate the themes of migration, art and culture in this research arose from our experiences after Hurricane Maria. We begin with the view that culture, in the form of art etc., is threaded through the entire post-hurricane experience, from response and resilience to recovery and resistance. We wish to consider how our…

Through a focus on liberal academic and policy networks, this article considers how ideas and practices central to an educational "war on poverty" grew through connections between postwar Puerto Rico, Latin America, and New York. In particular, it analyzes how social scientific ideas about education's role in economic development found…

This research study focuses on how the racialized experiences of second-generation Puerto Rican student activists in Chicago during the social movement era increased their political identity to demand structural changes in secondary and college contexts. Drawing from over a dozen interviews and 100 source materials, this research uncovers the…

Carmen Montañez's novel "Pelo bueno, pelo malo" acknowledges the struggle that some Caribbean individuals face in accepting their blackness. The novel integrates the union of ancestors with the living, thus reflecting the Bantu concept known as "Muntu". This Puerto Rican novel presents a deep social problem of internalized…

Historically, black women's hair has been a site where power and social relations are defined. In Puerto Rico, cultural production has been critical in perpetuating as well as in contesting the prevailing white European ideal of beauty and its impact on women's hairstyling practices. Nevertheless, the link between aesthetic preferences and the…

Detailing the integration of Spanish language teaching in an authentic setting, this article contributes to empirical research on the positive value of community-engaged learning in foreign language pedagogy. "Reading to Play, Playing to Read" is an innovative model for community-engaged teaching that combines learning goals from…

In the Puerto Rican Carnivale, a traditional figure seen in many parades is the "vejigante," a clown-like character who wears a colorful mask. The author's kindergarteners were learning about Carnivale in Spanish class, so making vejigante masks of their own in art class was a great idea--and an opportunity to teach them papier-mache…

Puerto Rican author Luis Rafael Sanchez's "La guagua aerea" explores the duality, hybridity, and fluidity of US-Puerto Rican identity through the frequent travel of migrants between New York City (the traditional destination city for Puerto Rican migrants) and the island. In recent years, however, the "flying bus" has adopted a…

This article is based on a multiple embedded case study, the purpose of which was to explore adolescent choral students' perceptions of culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) in three demographically contrasting choirs of an urban nonprofit children's choir organization. The case presented here focused on an after-school choir situated in a Puerto…

This article follows a research project that collects oral histories of bilingual education teachers from Puerto Rico who migrated to the US Virgin Islands in the late twentieth century. The teachers' oral histories are used as a case study that provides in-depth analysis of competing discourses related to education and globalization in these two…

This article focuses on the complex web of issues involved in Esmeralda Santiago's acculturation to US society after arriving from Puerto Rico as a girl. The article is based on examples from Santiago's second memoir, "Almost a Woman" (1998) and the 2001 film adaptation of this memoir; the observations of critics who have written about…

Examined the inclusion of a cultural component in an assertiveness training program for 40 low income Puerto Rican women. Assertiveness scores of the training group were significantly higher than those of the no-training group. This effect was true regardless of level of education. (Author/ABB)

Investigated construct validity of the Spanish translation of the Bracken Basic Concept Scale (BBCS) in Latino children (n=293) including monolingual Spanish-speaking children from Puerto Rico and Venezuela and Spanish-dominant bilingual Latino children from Texas. Results provided support for construct validity of the Spanish version of the…

Latino men who have sex with men are a group at high risk for HIV infection. Much of the research addressing attitudes and behaviors related to HIV among Latinos in the United States has overlooked differences based on nationality. Brazilian immigrants, in particular, are an understudied subgroup of Latinos. This study compared HIV-positive…