Nieves Quiles, Michelle

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    Teaching magic and superpowers: Contemporary young adult diasporican literature in the Puerto Rican classroom
    (2023-12-10) Nieves Quiles, Michelle; Chansky, Ricia A.; College of Arts and Sciences - Art; Lamore, Eric D.; Rodríguez , Linda M.; Department of English; Zapata Medina, Rocío
    In the spring semester of 2018, I was given the opportunity to participate in the Interuniversity Relief Program that Cornell University created in order to aid students from the Universities of Puerto Rico. During that experience, I took a course titled “New Latinx Writing”. When I came back to Puerto Rico, I kept asking myself why I had never been exposed to a course like that one, here, in the island. Therefore, once it was time to apply to a master’s program I was looking up universities that taught courses similar to the one I took at Cornell. That is when I found the Master of Arts in English Education at the University of Puerto Rico in Mayagüez (UPRM). Consequently, I applied and was admitted. Most importantly, I took a course titled “Puerto Rican Literature in English”. To my surprise this course was mainly focused on the first and second wave of Diasporicans. I enjoyed this course, however, it allowed me to notice that this is the literature most students are exposed to and at times it can be mainly negatively stereotypical. The “New Latinx Writing” course and “Puerto Rican Literature in English” inspired my thesis. Also, the UPRM allowed me to get creative and actually implement the readings I wanted to expose students to in the Intermediate English II course. That is how I came to analyze the readings Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older (2015) and America Vol. 1: The Life and Times of America Chavez by Gabby Rivera (2017). These texts include powerful Afro-Boricua women who are strengthened by their identities. Lastly, as part of my thesis I created a website, which allows me to adjust to students different learning styles (VARK). Additionally, this website provided more information on the aforementioned texts along with instructions on how to construct essays.