We may not be holding a rally like Jon Stewart did, but we do hope that our newly revised curriculum New Faces: Latinos in North Carolina will bring more sanity to conversations about culture, identity, immigration and globalization in classrooms and communities across North Carolina. With laws like the one passed this spring in Arizona and politicians running ads saying things like “This is Alabama; we speak English. If you want to live here, learn it,” it’s clear that anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States certainly isn’t diminishing. There is clearly a lot of education that we need to do.

New Faces Video: From Latin America to North Carolina

Here’s a sample of one of the videos from the New Faces curriculum explaining why a diverse range of Latinos have moved to North Craolina from Latin America.

Unfortunately Latinos are the primary targets of this backlash. When I listen to media reports or even participate in conversations with friends and acquaintances I realize that often this sentiment is fueled by a lack of factual information related to Latino communities and to the subset of Latino immigrants. We need more opportunities to get the facts and to have civil dialogues about these important issues. Our multimedia curriculum, New Faces: Latinos in North Carolina uses documentary film clips, discussion and engaging learning activities to help learners understand more about themselves and about the Latino community in North Carolina. It has been re-designed to spark meaningful conversations and consciousness-raising on issues such as the roots causes of migration, the immigration system, the breakdown of stereotypes and prejudice, characteristics of Latino cultures, and struggles for workers rights. New Faces is a multimedia curriculum for use in middle and high schools classroom and for adults in professional development or popular education settings.

We’ve worked hard to revamp New Faces so that it encourages learners of all backgrounds to reflect on their own cultural identities and immigration histories, giving them important context for learning more about North Carolina’s multifaceted Latino communities. The curriculum was first released in 2007 and well received by educators, human service professionals, and community groups alike. We’ve expanded the curriculum to include 5 units and better indexed the lesson plans so that teachers and community leaders can pick lessons that will be most useful for their particular purposes. We’ve also added new content and shifted the framing of some of the original content to make it more approachable for learners from all walks of life. All the New Faces lesson plans and documentary films clips are available for free at www.workingfilms.org/newfaces, and a DVD of the films clips is available at no charge for teachers and non-profits in North Carolina

Thanks to generous support from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, Working Films is revising and expanding New Faces: Latinos in North Carolina, a multi-media curriculum.  This resource for educators models a popular education approach to learning, incorporating independent film clips into lesson plans aimed at 8th-12th grade students, with the goal of combating stereotypes and misinformation about Latinos in North Carolina. The curriculum’s design is also informed by an overarching goal of economic justice for all North Carolinians.  The curriculum was originally released in 2007, and implemented in a broader range of classroom environments than initially intended.  We found that it was being used minimally by targeted 8th-12th grade social studies teachers, and more often facilitated in Spanish and ESOL classes, professional development settings where themes of cultural competency were the focus, and within other adult learning environments.

I arrived in Wilmington from Philadelphia a few weeks ago, as the Working Films George Stoney Fellow, and immediately launched into this project of updating and revising the curriculum with Anna, who had a hand in the creation of the initial project.  Together we decided that there are holes in the content of the original lesson plans and video clips, as well as outdated information. Sadly the fact that some of the content is out of date speaks to the reality that North Carolina has only moved backwards in the last few years when it comes to the rights of immigrants and that xenophobia has increased during these desperate times of economic crisis. But given that sad reality we are more driven to improve the curriculum and expand its use.

We also wanted to make it more appropriate for a wider span of learners and contexts, by creating specific teacher guides geared toward the various settings that it might be used.  We began by assessing the previous use of the curriculum, contacting educators and facilitators that used the material, and documenting the feedback that we received.  We then created an advisory board made up of a pool of leaders at the helm of local movements in support of social and economic justice for Latinos and immigrants in the state.  We had our first advisory board phone call last week; what an inspiration to convene with such powerful leaders, and move forward with this project.  Keep an eye out for a revised version of the curriculum toward the end of August!

Arts Engine presents Media That Matters: More than a Festival on Wednesday, June 3, 2009 at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. This year’s festival includes a spectacular line up of 12 jury selected short films (each 12 minutes or less) on issues of social and environmental concern.

Exiled in America won Working Films’ Changemaker Award, a prize we bestow annually. This moving piece explores immigration issues in the United States related to detention and deportation from the point of view of five siblings struggling to live in America after their mother was deported to Mexico.

The festival will kick off a full year of action tied to the films aimed at making positive impact around the globe. The films will be made available in their entirety online and distributed on DVD for use in community based screenings. Organize a screening where you live! Visit www.mediathatmattersfest.org for more information, take action links, and a DIY guide to using films to inspire change.

North Carolina made headlines this week in the national immigration debate. The state’s community colleges will no longer admit undocumented immigrants. At least until federal officials determine whether or not it is legal to do so. This reverses a decision made by the college system last year that permitted the 58 individual campuses across the state to make their own individual enrollment decisions.

For those who do not know, Working Films is based on the coast of North Carolina. I remember being inspired and moved by the stand our local community college took this past winter, admist intense anti-immigrant criticism, pledging to continue to allow undocumented students to enroll in degree programs so long as they were 18 and had graduated from high school. It seems now they have no choice but to renege.

The Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center, has released a number of reports on the educational and economic challenges facing Latino youth. They have found that by the time the average immigrant reaches the age 25, due to lack of access to higher education, their earnings fall far below their native born counterparts. Undocumented students are already prohibited from advancing their education through the four year University and College system because of their “illegal” status. Associates degrees have offered an opportunity for education and training that enable immigrants a better likelihood of economic livelihood as they enter adulthood.

What’s especially saddening to me is that the decisions being made by the state and federal government which are blocking the opportunities for immigrant youth to advance are resulting from anti-immigrant public pressure. It makes me question the perspective of these people, which I know is driven by fear, fueled by slanted media coverage and conservative radio shows.

So what do we do? Part of the solution has to lie in debunking negative stereotypes. Public schools are an important place to start since they still allow immigrants and non-immigrants to participate in the learning experience together.

That’s the intent of New Faces: Latinos in North Carolina, the curriculum unit developed by Working Films to teach students about the economic and cultural contributions of Latin American citizens living in the state. The New Faces educational materials utilize film clips and lesson plans to spark learning and discussion. The curriculum’s release in more than 500 classrooms across the state has caused interest from many schools outside the state, businesses, and organizations searching for resources to bridge the cultural and economic divide. We’re now exploring how to expand the curriculum to meet the demand outside of North Carolina schools.

The fact that there is a demand leaves me hopeful that we can dispel the myths and scare tactics feeding the anti-immigrant movement and eventually we can send this issue to its grave.

“If there’s one thing that Latinos have in common, it’s a complete lack of commonality.”

This line in an NPR commentary by Daniel Hernandez caught my attention as I drove home from work recently. Hernandez, a Mexican American blogger in his 20s, was expressing his indignation at pundits’ stereotypical assumptions about the “Latino Vote” in the democratic primaries of Super Tuesday.

As Hernandez spoke, my mind jumped to the photos that illustrate the homepage of Working Films’ multi-media curriculum project New Faces: Latinos in North Carolina – the youthful grin of a middle school student, another face lined from work in the sun, the wire rimed glasses of a hotel manager, the black curly hair of a parent liaison… their skin ranging in shades from beige to coffee. The faces in these photos introduce website visitors to a curriculum project designed to challenge stereotypes and illustrate the varied realities and contributions of North Carolina’s growing Latino population.

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