“Cosecha Voices—Documenting The Voice Of The Migrant” In Fall 2007

The University of Texas-Pan American’s College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP), Humanities Texas, and the Department of Modern Languages and Literature proudly announce a special project; “Cosecha Voices—Documenting the Voice of the Migrant” in Fall 2007.  Cosecha Voices is a collaborative project in which migrant students who currently participate in the CAMP program, as well as CAMP alumni, and any students classified as migrant take a Spanish class that is designed to explore and document the migrant experience while at the same time strengthening the students’ Spanish creative writing skills.  In this class, Students partake in regular class activities, an oral history workshop given by the Department of History, and 7 bi-weekly intensive writing workshops led by American Book Award winner and Best-Selling Latino Poet in the United States, Tato Laviera.  Additionally, graduate students from Spanish help facilitate the workshops making this course truly unique. Based on the student’s knowledge, experience, and oral histories, Mr. Laviera instructs the students on how to turn that knowledge into an original/creative piece.  These workshops use a humanistic approach to the complicated social experiences of migrants and allow migrant students to come to terms with the affirmation and celebration of their status as important contributors to U.S. society.  Their documentation and sharing of their experiences with the public, could potentially allow society itself to gain a better appreciation and understanding of the contributions migrants make to the U.S. Additionally, because this group is one of the most vulnerable in terms of dropping out of college, we believe that a class such as this one could potentially lead to a greater understanding of self, higher self-esteem, and motivation to end the migrant cycle by graduating from college.  Moreover, the outcome of the class would be to provide documentation of the migrant experiences of the Río Grande Valley of South Texas.  Additionally, UTPA and the Museum of South Texas History are collaborating to make a public presentation of the outcomes of Cosecha Voices at the museum in late March during Farmworker Awareness Week.  Furthermore, the museum is interested in archiving the work of the students and Arte Público Press has already expressed an interest in publishing the students’ work.  Therefore, with the assistance of a grant from Humanities Texas the primary goal of the class is to not only document the experiences of the migrant, but also share that experience with the public on a large scale through public presentations, archival of documents, and possible publication of the students’ work.