Beyond Mango Street: Updating and Diversifying Your 6-12 Curriculum

Mar 12, 2025 5:00pm - 6:30pm
University Library - Room 251 and Online

Sponsored by the Karin J. Durán and Richard Nupoll Endowment

Workshop

This workshop aims to widen the knowledge and understanding of YA literature specifically through the lens and perspectives of Latinx/AfroLatinx/Queer protagonists. It has been 40 years since the publication of Sandra Cisneros' critically acclaimed The House on Mango Street, and YA literature as a genre has grown in popularity and perspectives. However, curriculums have remained frozen in time and have tokenized certain authors. This workshop will allow us to break open the canon to multiple more pertinent perspectives, identities, voices, and stories, reinforcing the essential idea that the Latinx experience is not monolithic. We aim to enable participants to use these books in the classroom with possible writing prompts, project ideas, and discussion topics.

Guest Speakers

Luivette Resto

Luivette Resto is an award-winning poet, a mother of three revolutionary humans, and a middle school English teacher. She was born in Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico but proudly raised in the Bronx. She is a CantoMundo and Macondo Fellow and a Pushcart Prize nominee. She has three books of poetry: Unfinished Portrait, Ascension, and Living on Islands Not Found on Maps. Her work has been mentioned in the LA Times and Ms. Magazine. She is the associate editor of Tía Chucha Press, and she sits on the boards for Women Who Submit and Beyond Baroque.

Angie Nevárez

With over 30 years of teaching experience, Angie has taught every level of Spanish from 6th grade to college level courses at Emory University (Atlanta, GA) Duke University (Durham, NC), Pilgrim School (Los Angeles, CA), The Archer School for Girls (Brentwood, CA) and Chadwick School (Palos Verdes, CA). She has a BA and an MA in Spanish Literature and Anthropology from Emory University and a second Masters in Latin American Literature from Duke University. All her professional life has hinged around being completely bilingual, and she strives to convey to her students how many doors and world views being (at least) bilingual can open for them. Her main goal has been to ensure that all her students build a strong foundation in Spanish and develop a joyful love of the language that will make them life-long learners. She lives in Venice, CA, and enjoys practicing her French and playing the steel drum in her spare time.

Angie Nevárez joined Chadwick School as a Spanish teacher in 2014. She is originally from Puerto Rico and married to a French woman; she has thus been involved in opening and widening spaces for Latin X and Queer people specifically and in DEI work for a long time. She is an advisor for Latinos Unidos, Belonging Project, and Safe Space. She has been Director of the Upper School at Pilgrim School, MS Dean of Students at Archer School, and is a founding member of Chadwick’s Equity Team.

Online (Zoom) RSVP

Please register for the event on our online Zoom registration form.

In Person Attendance RSVP

Assistive Services

Requests for accommodation services (e.g. sign language interpreters or transcribers) must be made at least five (5) business days in advance. Please email library.event@csun.edu in advance of the event.