Diaspora Studies, Spring 2022
by Prof.
Mirelsie
Velazquez

There is something even more profound about teaching a course on Diasporic communities when you are forced to reimagine home even for a short period of time. As Gloria Anzaldua wrote, “I am a turtle, wherever I go, I carry ‘home’ on my back.” Coming to Arezzo, Italy to teach my course Diaspora Studies: Race, Gender, Resistance, reminded me of the importance of those words. Many of us come from communities defined by a history of colonialism, displacement, migration, and violence that force us to carry home on our backs. But it is important to also understand and unpack what comes after…what do diasporic communities create for themselves? How are their identities framed by their relationship to home or history?  

These are the conversations I was interested in engaging during the term.  

 

My hope was during our time together students would bring in their own histories, recreate community, and see one another and others through their humanity. Whether they knew it, being here in Arezzo together, gave them an opportunity to create a new community, and for many, a new attachment to a space, a new home. For some of us there is a familiarity in this, as we come from populations who are constantly negotiating our claims to space. A course on Diaspora Studies helped us think of how communities make meaning of their lives, organize themselves to confront issues of inequality, and reimagine space. Italy’s rich history and physical location offered the perfect location for these discussions to occur as communities here, both racialized and migratory communities, are challenging monolithic understandings on identity as their claims to an Italian identity is questioned. The Tuscany region, for example, is home to a growing Latin American migratory population, a growing African community, a historical Black-Italian community because of the country’s colonial past, and an active LGBTQ and feminist activist community. A class on gender, race, and resistance helped us understand the humanity in people a bit more, and how these communities have already been organizing to meet their own needs and create meaningful change for their own people by recording their stories. I know I learned a lot during my short time here, and I am thankful for the lesson’s students taught me.  

For more info, here is the link to the Zine:

IAS3003Spring2022