As a Title VI National Resource Center, the Center for Latin American Studies has a strong dedication to enhancing awareness, knowledge, and engagement with Latin America. One of our key efforts involves reaching out to K12 educators in local communities and across the nation. Our goal is to assist and empower teachers by offering them various avenues to enrich their understanding of Latin America and integrate this knowledge into their classrooms.
We’re committed to creating supportive environments where educators can collaboratively generate, improve, and broaden their grasp of Latin American subjects. Our partnership extends to teachers across different grade levels and subjects. We’re here to provide valuable resources that include professional development workshops, curricula materials, a speakers bureau, and a lending library for both films and books.
K-12 and Outreach Resources
The Center for Latin American Studies’ outreach mission is to provide professional development, informational and instructional resources to K-16 educators under a grant from the Title VI Department of Education. We offer a variety of materials for educators, including curriculum units, videos and books, and guest speakers.
Special Events and Workshops
We host between five and eight K-16 educator’s workshops annually. Topics range from historical to contemporary, intellectual to popular culture, and span all of Latin America.
The Center also collaborates closely with the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, to bring comparative perspectives to many of our events. Other collaborators include the Arizona State Museum, Tucson Museum of Art, Language Reading and Culture Program, and many more. We also offer an annual one-week Field Study to Sonora, Mexico on “Understanding the Mexican Education System.”
We also collaborate on cultural events to mark important traditions and customs in Latin America, such as Día de los Muertos, Christmas, Easter, Columbus Day, and a variety of independence days from many countries. See our calendar for the most up-to-date listing of events.
Speakers Bureau
Our bureau of student speakers is designed to serve as a resource for K-16 teachers. Some of our current graduate students have given talks on Mexico, Peru, NAFTA, border issues, Day of the Dead, tourism, and sustainable development. These speakers frequently have field experience in the areas they are willing to talk about and are able to modify their presentations to fit your needs.
If you have a specific topic in mind, such as a Latin American country, event, or issue, please feel free to give us a call and we can probably find someone to help you.
Books and Curriculum Materials
The Center houses a resource room filled with books, curriculum materials, and cultural artifacts, and more, available free of charge to educators. Stop by to check out our collection, or browse online to get a better idea. Materials are available for two days for students and five days for all teachers. Complete Curriculum sets are available for download on our website in our curriculum section. Some topics include:
- LA Film Units
- Taste of LA Units
- Puerto Rico Units
- Mariachi Units
- Carnaval Units
- Central America Units
- Tango Units
- Salsa Units
- Frida Kahlo
- Day of the Dead
Video Collection
Our video library consists of more than 1000 movies, documentaries, and instructional videos related to Latin America. Our online database is searchable by country or topic through our website. Videos are free for teachers to check out in person or via mail.