Library in Guanajuato Opens Up Worlds

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Interior and exterior of a small library

In an effort to promote economic development through education, UArizona scholars are making literacy more accessible binationally.

Feb. 19, 2021

At the top of a three-story building in Cajones Guanajuato, Mexico, you will find worlds upon worlds.

There you will find a library.

The library is housed inside Resplandor International, a humanitarian and educational non-profit organization that collaborates with individuals, families and communities in Guanajuato, Mexico. Resplandor was borne out of a desire by members of the UArizona community to encourage cross-border cultural competence and promote economic development in Mexico through education.

“Mexicans are great storytellers” but “[many families] don’t have books in their home” says Todd Fletcher, Resplandor’s founding director and an Emeritus Professor in the UArizona Department of Disability and Psychoeducational Studies in the College of Education.

Resplandor’s library, inaugurated in the summer of 2016, helps to fill in for the lack of home libraries and is a result of a partnership with Worlds of Words and director Kathy Short.

The library serves as a resource to the local community, with books in both Spanish and English. The books are sorted around themes and categories so that children can easily find books that interest them.

Representation Matters

Children also have unprecedented access to books with people who look like and act like them. “When children do not see their cultures represented in books, they receive the message that their cultural identities are not valued,” says Short, who is also a professor in the UArizona Department of Teaching, Learning and Sociocultural Studies in the College of Education.

At the same time, reading builds intercultural understanding, an important tenant of Resplandor and WOW. “Knowledge and experiences acquired through reading promotes greater understanding, acceptance and compassion for others,” Fletcher says.

Both Fletcher and Short emphasize the importance of reading for the sake of reading. “Books are not written to teach reading but to experience life,” says Short.

“Reading books in which their lives are reflected support children in deepening their understandings and comprehension,” says Short. “They have more experiences and knowledge to bring to those books and allows them to develop comprehension strategies and confidence to bring to literature reflecting less familiar experiences.”

A Rich History of Partnership

Resplandor opened its doors in 2009, but Fletcher, who has worked in Mexico since his undergraduate days, has collaborated with the communities surrounding Guanajuato for decades. Members of the UArizona community have benefitted from Fletcher’s connection to Mexico since 1986, when he started the Verano en México program.

The summer program is designed to introduce undergraduate and graduate students to the culture, history and education of Mexico, so that participants gain a context for, not only the lives of school-aged students in Guanajuato, but also children arriving into U.S. schools from Mexico. Participants complete educational projects, many related to literacy, and volunteer in the first week of a 2-week summer school Resplandor holds for 150 local students.

Fletcher and Short also initiated the Richard Ruiz Scholar/Artist in Residency program in honor of the late Richard Ruiz, former head of the UA Department of Mexican American Studies and faculty member in the College of Education.

“The purpose of the residency is to promote the love of reading for reading’s sake and literacy in the greater Guanajuato community,” says Fletcher.

There have been four Richard Ruiz scholars to date, and these scholars have provided classes, workshops and activities to the local communities surrounding Resplandor and in the state of Guanajuato. One previous scholar used art, poetry and theater to engage community members in literacy education.

“Our volunteers and team members feel very strongly, and we work to ensure that our efforts in teaching reading, writing, art and music are based in a pedagogy of love that connects in authentic ways with the kids we serve,” says Fletcher.

Overall, Resplandor’s library and the Verano en Mexico and the Richard Ruiz Scholar/Artist in Residency programs are meant to open up people to experiences and cultures beyond their own. “Differences create dilemmas and the most effective way to address and solve the issues and problems that result from these dilemmas and conflicts is through education,” Fletcher says.

“The border provides opportunities to build collaborations that pull from the richness of both Mexican and U.S. cultures, to use difference as a resource for creating something new that goes beyond what each culture could do separately,” adds Short.

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