Serving Refugee Children

Montse Feu (Ph.D., University of Houston) is Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies at Sam Houston State University. She is the author of Correspondencia personal y política de un anarcosindicalista exiliado: Jesús González Malo (1943-1965) (2016) and Fighting Fascist Spain (2020). She is the co-editor of Writing Revolution: Hispanic Anarchism in the United States (2019). Amanda Venta (Ph.D., University of Houston) is Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Houston. Her research focuses on how relationships between children and caregivers affect mental health with more than 100 publications and funding from the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities.

“For reasons both ethical and bureaucratic, child migrants rarely tell their own stories. Yet the world needs to hear them if we are to find a way to end their suffering. In this valuable collection of reflections by activists and scholars, the reader begins to hear children’s voices, to understand the lives of their caregivers, and to gain the possibility to stand with them in solidarity.”—Donna R. Gabaccia, Professor Emerita, University of Toronto

• Preface – Acknowledgments – Introduction, Serving Refugee Children and Their Families – Escapes and Crossings – Seth Michelson, “Looking for Luz” (Buscando a Luz) – Paloma Villegas, “Los niños florero. Cruzaron como floreros” (They Crossed the Border Inside Floreros) – Cassandra Bailey, “Growing Up Too Fast” (Crecer muy rápido) – Memories and Bonds – Melissa Briones, Alfonso Mercado, Abigail Nunez-Saenz, Paola Quijano, and Andy Torres, “Buscando un destino” (Looking for a Destino) – Yessica Colin, “Camila” (Camila) – Ana Maria Fores Tamayo, “Elegy to a Refugee Girl” (Oda a una niña refugiada) – Silencing – Maria Baños Jordan, “Spanish Silencio” (Silencio) – Francisco Villegas and Paloma Villegas, “Reflection on schooling experiences as undocumented migrants in the U.S.” (Una reflexión sobre nuestra propia escolarización como migrantes indocumentados en los EE.UU.) – Estrella Godinez, “A Yearning Desire” (Un deseo anhelante) – Jaime Retamales, “Jeremías” (Jeremías) – The Love of Strangers – Luz M. Garcini and Martin La Roche, “An Undocumented Journey in Search of a Heart” (Un viaje indocumentado en busca de un corazón) – Juan A. Ríos Vega, “An ESL Classroom as a Healing Space” (El aula de inglés como segunda lengua: un lugar de sanación) – Amelia Cotter, “The Love of Strangers” (El amor de extraños) – About the Authors.