Menampilkan postingan dari Mei, 2019

May 2019— Special Issue: Puerto Rico

Unlocked online content— Read a sample below.

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*Beautifully designed PDF edition. Bilingual Spanish & English issue. 65 pages. Available for order soon.

Beautiful original cover art by Rosa Colón Guerra. © Copyright 2019 Rosa Colón Guerra.

Foreword / Prefacio

• Y este cuento (no) ha terminado: Rebuilding, Rewriting and Resisting in Puerto Rico by Sujei Lugo Vázquez , Issue Editor

Nonfiction / No ficción
• Re-Writing Hurricane María: Owning our Stories and Creating New Narratives by Adriana De Persia Colón

• En escribir Mi ISLA bella, mi ISLA hermosa / On Writing Mi ISLA bella, mi ISLA hermosa by Isset M. Pastrana Andino

• Leamos Más, Puerto Rico / Read More, Puerto Rico by Mel Solórzano García

• The Use of Children’s Literature in Puerto Rican Learning Institutions— a conversation between Dr. Melissa Lee García Vega and Yazmín Méndez Bonet

• El Centro de Recursos de Aprendizaje en la Universidad de Puerto Rico promueve la alf…


Howling winds and roaring waters still ring in my ears two years after Hurricane María ravaged the archipelago of Puerto Rico. I had often heard of storms that destroyed villages and cities, about people who had been forced to evacuate if they wanted to survive, who returned to nothing and had to start anew. But what happens when you can’t simply drive away? When you can’t just jump on an airplane to escape assured devastation? It wasn’t just a city or a town that needed to be evacuated—it was our entire archipelago, the place and space that held our memories, dreams, and hearts. What do you do then?

You wait. You wait and hope that you’ll make it through this because you know you’ve endured so much already. You see the hurricane slash through everything before you. You see it flood your surroundings. You see it pass and marvel at the destruction. You hope your family is okay, both those who live on the archipelago and those who live elsewhere. Your friends and relatives abroad are…

Puerto Rico Necesita Bibliotecas (Puerto Rico Needs Libraries)

Libraries are spaces for intellectual growth, social development, empowerment, and leisure. They are spaces dedicated to making reading and learning available for everyone as a way to invest in the social and cultural capital of a community. At the Puerto Rico Necesita Bibliotecas (Puerto Rico Needs Libraries) Advocacy Project , we believe that libraries must be a primary part of a country's educational plan.

Puerto Rico does not have a national system of libraries that includes school libraries, public libraries, academic libraries and specialized libraries, despite the fact that Puerto Rico’s public policy related to the development of our libraries (Law No. 188 of 2003) makes such a system mandatory. Therefore, we cannot expect that the current controversial plan for the educational restructuring of Puerto Rico will prioritize libraries.

The information access, reading and recreational needs of Puerto Rico’s children and youth are not being addressed by Puerto Rico’s Dep…

[Fiction] Together as One

Crash! Bang! Crash! Bang!

Hurricane María whipped the island. Through a gap in the storm shutter, Julia saw the wind spit out a palm tree, like a toothpick. A roof hurtled toward the beach. Time to hurry to Julia’s school, which was being used as an emergency shelter.

They drove through the pounding rain in tense silence. The curtain of rain hid the top of the hill where Don Alonso lived. This wind could easily blow away his tiny house—and him!

"Did somebody take Don Alonso to the shelter?" Julia already knew the answer: Don Alonso would never abandon his house.

All around them, branches cracked. BANG! Julia watched as a huge quenepa tree crashed down onto a tienda.

At the school, Julia was glad to see her guaraguao tree still standing. But . . . ¡Ay, bendito! In the music room, the cuatros were shattered. Julia would no longer get to play her favorite dance song, the seis chorreao.

The gym was hot and loud with babies crying, children running around, their par…


Foreword to Anansesem's Special Issue on Puerto Rico, by issue editor, Sujei Lugo Vázquez

Literacy, education, and activism have played, and continue to play, a major role in moving Puerto Rico and our communities forward, serving as vehicles for resistance, change, and empowerment for our islands, people, and youth. The impact of, and challenges resulting from, our history of colonialism and imperialism, have ignited and compelled us to organize, educate, write, illustrate, and share our histories and experiences through storytelling and social activism. The ongoing economic and political crisis, along with the impact of Hurricane María, have foregrounded the need for Puerto Rican self-determination. We have become even more aware of the power of community organizing, the importance of education and literacy projects, the crucial role of youth in the present and future, and the tools we have at our disposal for recording our memories, reflections, and stories.

In this special…

El Centro de Recursos para el Aprendizaje en la Universidad de Puerto Rico promueve la alfabetización infantil culturalmente relevante

*Read an English translation of this article here.
*Lee una traducción al inglés de este artículo aquí.

El Centro de Recursos para el Aprendizaje (CRA) de la Universidad de Puerto Rico (UPR), Recinto de Bayamón es un espacio para el estudio, la investigación y el enriquecimiento sociocultural de todos los que la visitan. Nuestra biblioteca ofrece el acceso a la información en muchos formatos, a la vez que su personal educa a la comunidad universitaria en la búsqueda efectiva de la información, y su uso ético y crítico. La comunidad universitaria se comprende de alrededor de cinco mil estudiantes sub graduados, la facultad, los empleados no académicos, y también incluye a los niños que asisten al Laboratorio Preescolar.

Albergada en la biblioteca, en la Sala de Niños y Jóvenes Isabel Freire de Matos, es una colección especializada en literatura infantil y juvenil puertorriqueña e internacional. Con esta colección, esperamos fomentar el amor por la lectura y plantar semillas de autocon…