By Darlene Arvelo Almonte
The Woody Tanger auditorium was occupied by an audience of students, staff, and faculty for the
presentation of Dr. Carla España’s “Narrative Writing with Latinx Teens: Testimonios, Texts, and Teachings.” In conjunction with several Brooklyn College graduates, España, an assistant professor of Bilingual Education and Puerto Rican, and Latinx Studies at BC, presented her life’s work. This included her past seasons of planting, the present fruit and the blooming future of ethnic studies and literature by marginalized voices in the face of current censorship and removal threats.
España, who is of Chilean origin, has also authored several other texts including “En Comunidad: Lessons for Centering the Voices and Experiences of Bilingual Latinx Students” in conjunction with her former student Dr. Luz Yadira Herrera,“Translanguaging Collection: Affirming Bilingual and Multilingual Readers,” “Latinidad: Celebrating 40 Big Dreamers,” as well as several book chapters, educator guides and journal articles.
Described on España’s website as “the book of [her] heart,” “Narrative Writing with Latinx Teens” sews a thread through España’s trajectory as an educator of writing, ethnic studies and Latinx youth literature – fields that, throughout her journey, have often bled onto each other. Inspired by her past students’ testimonies on writing as a means for “desahogo” or “undrowning,” the book includes poetry, middle-grade, and young adult literature in lesson sequences introduced by and featuring interactive mixed media and texts across its chapters. The book intends to spark and guide the conversations on ethnic studies, bilingual curriculums, and educator readiness.
In this presentation of her latest work, España was accompanied by several BC graduates in the K-12 classroom. Maricruz Sanchez Hernandez, a former student of España’s, joined the presentation with a virtual tour of her classroom – showcasing the various tools and techniques she utilizes to encourage the success of her bilingual students. Miguel Figueroa, current BC student and former winner of the 2024 Humanities and Social Sciences Expo, shared his story and accentuated the importance of España’s “generative” work.
Reflecting on his personal experience as a bilingual educator and student, Manuel Martinez Valdez shared interpretive statements on the bilingual “word walls” that share space for both Spanish and English words in the multilingual classroom. Martinez Valdez shared that, in his bilingual brain, “there [are] no separate English wall and Spanish wall[s]. They mix.”
This pointed again to España’s career-long work in translanguaging – a pedagogical approach allowing multilingual learners to utilize the full linguistic repertoire available to them to learn and communicate.
España began her journey as an educator as a middle-grade bilingual teacher in the New York City public school “P.S. 161 Don Pedro Albizu Campos School.” Later, she became an adjunct lecturer and clinical doctoral lecturer at Hunter College, and a literacy consultant to schools across the United States, Mexico, Chile, and Colombia. Open access to education is a pillar of España’s work as many of her courses are Open Educational Resources/Zero Textbook Cost classes. Several of her courses, including “Banned Books: Teaching Latinx Children and Youth Literature,” “Bilingualism in the 21st century,” and “Spanish for Teachers and Other Bilingual Professionals” are currently accessible on CUNY Academic Commons.
Outside of her academic work, España is the co-founder of En Comunidad Collective – a partnership which “seeks to be in community with educators, education leaders, and children’s book publishers to reimagine the education of bilingual and multilingual children,” according to their digital home.
The teachers and students whom she has encountered across schools in New York City and beyond are the nurturers of España’s work – a cyclical process in which España strives to nurture the same community that has for years nurtured her as both an educator and a student.