Restoring and reconstructing Latinx history at Duke and Durham: 100 years of connections

On the evening of Oct. 4, Duke academic departments and cultural organizations celebrated the connections between Duke University and Durham’s Hispanic, Latino and Latinx communities in an event at the Friedl Building’s Fredric Jameson Gallery. The celebration consisted of presentations and performances that centered the experiences and work of the students, faculty and community members who have helped build the Duke-Durham relationship. 

“100 Years of Connections. Hisp@nos in Duke, Durham y más allá” opened with a warm welcome from moderator Bethzaida Fernandez, Senior Lecturer of Romance Studies, who does community work in Duke and Durham, followed by remarks from faculty members in the Spanish Language Program and the Romance Studies Department’s Service-Learning Program (SLP). Duke SLP emphasizes building connections with local communities by pairing traditional learning with community-based service learning.

Next, Senior Lecturer Joan Munné and several of his students presented their SLP project: a bilingual exhibit about the history of Latinx students at Duke. Building on efforts from two generations of service-learning program students, Munné identified the Latinx community’s place in significant moments in Duke history. The exhibit – which can also be viewed online – includes interactive historical panels and artistic creations that explore Latinx community life and Latinx underrepresentation at Duke. 

Silvia Serrano and Stephanie Contreras, both Lecturing Fellows of Romance Studies, offered insights into the community research they do through the Bass Connection project “Celebra mi herencia.” It celebrates linguistic diversity and elevates the Spanish reading skills of Latinx youths in Durham. Building on the work of three generations of students, “Celebra mi herencia" is a year-round project that pairs Latino/a families with Duke undergraduate students to read children's books – often written by Latino/a and Latin American authors – in Spanish. 

Contretras shared three core values of the service research project: ethnic identity, reading motivation and effect (increasing local families’ access to book resources). The student and faculty group conducted their research through seven student-assisted Zoom reading sessions with local families, selecting books based on the children’s interests. With treatment and control methods implemented, the project helped increase not only the Spanish ability of elementary children but also their fluency in English. Most importantly, the group found that the project was correlated with an increase in children’s reading motivations and their connections to their ethnic and cultural identities. 

After the “Celebria mi herencia” presentation, students in Spanish 313 talked about how they actively engaged in community service in multiple areas, including the La Fiesta Del Pueblo in Raleigh – the Triangle’s largest and most diverse festival of Latin American culture. Following Spanish 313 was the presentation of Two-Way Bridges, a program that works to establish bi-directional connections between Duke and Durham Hispanic, Latino/a and Latinx communities. Two-way Bridges aims to uplift local Latino/a youths through art connections and has partnered with universities, NGOs and local organizations to create murals, painting, videographies and other collaborative artworks.

Art has always been a vital part of community-building due to its emotional appeal to individuals with shared experiences and backgrounds. More importantly, community-based art projects can give voices to underrepresented individuals and preserve marginalized cultural spaces that have oftentimes been intruded on and dominated by the mainstream. Raíces, rutas y ritmos, which presented after Two-Way Bridges, is one such organization, and it connects N.C.-based Latino/a/x artists through collective storytelling, exhibitions, events and collaborations with public and private institutions. 

Mexican photographer Alex Cordova then presented, focusing on themes of connecting North Carolina’s Latino/a/x communities with Latin America and preserving spaces for cultural practices. Cordova shared his experiences in building LGBTQ+ Latino community through Lila, the first N.C.-based non-profit organization supporting equity and rights across queer communities in the triangle and Latin America. Finally, the presentations closed with a performance of Afro-Colombian music from musician Daira Quinones.