Teaching Central America Goes to University of Arkansas

The Central American Student Alliance (CASA) at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas hosted Teaching Central America program specialist Jonathan Peraza Campos to lead a workshop about Central American history and Central American studies education. Salvadoran undergraduates Daniella Fernandez and Nurian Chavez founded CASA in 2023 to increase access to Central American education, resources for underrepresented groups, and unifying the Central American population alongside their executive board members: Alejandra Gomez, Flor Sanchez-Soto, Kathy Ortiz, and Mark Trejo.

CASA invited members of their student body to learn about Central America while they enjoyed dinner from a local Salvadoran restaurant. Peraza Campos addressed the need for Central Americans to recover their historical memory as Central Americans and to build infrastructure for truthful and critical histories and stories in K–16 education. He facilitated activities from TeachingCentralAmerica.org’s Geography is History and Introduction to Central America lessons. Students were engaged and eager to learn, getting into character and actively participating in the discussion. 

For most of those students — some of Salvadoran, Guatemalan, and Mexican descent — this was the first time they ever learned about their heritage in a classroom. Many learned about key figures (and their significance) in Central American and related U.S. history for the first time, such as Archbishop Oscar Romero and Ronald Reagan. 

Peraza Campos’ mother, Marina Emely Peraza, lives in the area. She attended and shared her testimonies as a survivor of the Salvadoran Civil War. Her stories of witnessing massacres and warfare provided context about the brutality of the U.S.-funded war and it showed students that this is recent history, connected to our modern lived experiences. 

Having grown up in Northwest Arkansas, where he attended elementary and middle school, Peraza Campos appreciated returning to provide support to young people and teachers building much needed institutions for Latinx and Central American student advocacy. He said: 

When I grew up in Springdale, I went to segregated schools where curriculum and pedagogy did not reflect my experiences and where Latinx and Marshallese students were criminalized and disenfranchised. Little has changed, but I am hopeful that with the work of CASA putting Central America on the map and in their educational institutions, they can make a huge difference that empowers our community.

Jonathan concluded his presentation with a call to action for the students and staff in attendance. 

• Become the teachers that we need to teach the truth about who we are and where we come from as Latines and Central Americans. We need young people now to be inspired and empowered to be the next generation of critical ethnic studies educators. 

• Organize and advocate to build infrastructure for both Latinx and Central American studies at their universities but also for ethnic studies education and Central American studies in K–12 schools and communities in Northwest Arkansas that have a significant Latinx and Central American student population. 

• Continue to build institutions like CASA to advocate for and empower our communities in overlooked states like Arkansas.

• Dedicate themselves to unearthing and documenting our stories as Central Americans in Arkansas and the South, whether it be as scholars, writers, activists, artists, and more. 

This event affirmed the key role student organizations can play in disrupting curricular silences and fortifying student connections with Central America’s past, present, and future.