From Beautiful Cockroaches to Beverly Hills Chihuahuas: A Humane Education Approach to Cultural Products for Latinx Children

The growing field of Humane Education provides a fruitful approach to teaching critical thinking while fostering empathy through the careful study of the cultural production of Hispanophone cultures. This solution-focused pedagogic framework invites students to think deeply about the roots, impact and potential remedies of some of the most pressing issues facing these cultures today. A newly created course I am offering this semester, Latinx Studies, guides students to explore how works of literature, film, art and music reflect and shape elements of U.S. culture. By sharing excerpts from two of my recent publications, included in the syllabus, I will demonstrate how Latinx characters in children’s materials engage, interrogate and subvert well-worn stereotypes while opening new spaces for cross-cultural dialogue and understanding. In bringing a Humane Education lens to our close readings of these disparate texts, I aim to model the respect, reverence and compassion for diverse cultures that will be indispensable for our graduates as leaders and servants in church and society.