Narrative Writing with Latinx Teens: Testimonios, Texts, and Teaching

How can we create writing instruction that allows Latine youth to desahogarse, where writing is a release? How can we learn more about Latinx youth and the issues that matter to them so that we can all reimagine a better world?

In Narrative Writing with Latinx Teens: Testimonios, Texts, and Teaching, Dr. Carla España introduces the Writing for Desahogo Teaching Framework, a foundation for twenty writing lessons that immerse students in texts on topics that include (im)migration, mental health, language, resilience, and community to facilitate their discussions and writing.

Inspired by research with Latinx teens and young adults, Dr. España bookends each chapter with the words of Latinx youth and testimonios by Latinx educators while inviting teachers to share in the vulnerability of writing to heal with her own creative writing expanding on these topics. Poems and narratives give readers a lens into Dr. España’s particular experience while setting up teacher and student text sets as entry points into the topic of study. Each chapter’s lesson sequences include four text types for study:

● Multimedia introduction

● Poetry immersion

● Middle-grade literature

● Young adult literature

Narrative Writing with Latinx Teens is a weaving of Dr. España’s teaching in different settings with Latinx teens in middle grade classrooms and presently, in the Department of Puerto Rican and Latinx Studies at Brooklyn College. It’s reimagined writing workshops meets Ethnic Studies.

Ultimately, this book invites educators to consider the complexity of the Latinx diaspora, dispel myths of Latinidad, and consider the ways we can create spaces for the writers in our midst to feel like they can flourish in their criticality and in their joy.

With a foreword by award-winning author, arts activist, and translator, Aida Salazar, Narrative Writing with Latinx Teens calls us to grow in our courage, curiosity, and criticality, following the examples of the youth and creators of Latin American descent it features and celebrates.