MIDWEST CONSORTIUM FOR LATINO RESEARCH (MCLR)

MCLR - 1994 Roundtable

SOCIAL SCIENCE GROUP - Part I

Presented By:

Dennis N. Valdés, The University of Minnesota

STATUS

Advances in research on Latinos in the Midwest have been hampered by a number of factors. The source materials available are good in both content and quality, but they are widely scattered in various locations. Thcre are no inventories of archival collections, dissertations reports and other sources. Many other public and private data bases have not been identified and are in danger of being lost. An up to date systematic analysis of the field and resources needs to be undertaken to evaluate the current state of research and to indicate possible future directions of investigation and analysis. The underdevelopment of research in Latinos in the Midwest is partly attributable to weak institutional support for Latino research in the past. The absence of a strong research and publications profile in turn has created the mistaken impression among Latino scholars nationally that the Latino experience in thc Midwcst has not been significant.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Research on Latino peoples and issues in the Midwest should be promoted and empowered in the following ways:

  • Development of a collaborative inter-institutional project to collect and inventory materials with a catalog for researchers and instructors.

  • Generation of an academic journal focusing on the Latino Midwest. MCLR might assume responsibility for this effort in collaboration with one of the existing Latino institutes at a member institution.

  • Improvement of the dialogue with the Latino community at large to meet the demand for knowledge about the Latino experience, and as an avenue for collecting archival materials.

  • Support for local and national exhibits on the diverse Latino experiences in the United States.

  • Application of the concept of "borders" and their crossing in creative ways to highlight the complexity and diversity of cultural exchange among Midwest Latino groups in a variety of settings.
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    Last Updated: March 11, 1996