Teaching for Black Lives study group members, university staff, and students
Nine teacher educators from Interamerican University of Puerto Rico formed a Teaching for Black Lives study group from 2023 to 2025 with the “aspiration to disseminate knowledge in teacher education preparation courses and internships. We are looking to evolve as human beings, to understand and acknowledge our biases in order to work toward inclusion and equity. We are hungry for justice, but justice comes from knowledge and acceptance.”
Margarita Marichal, study group coordinator, shared the update below after the first meeting:
It was a transformational experience. We identified short and long-term goals that work on the intersectionality of race, gender, institutional racism, and Black history in Puerto Rico. The group identified Puerto Rican literature that deals with racism, Blackness, and other essential themes to combine with the Teaching for Black Lives readings.
- Narciso Descubre Su Trasero: El Negro en la Cultura Puertorriqueña by Isabelo Zenón Cruz
- Insularismo by Antonio S. Pedreira
- El Entierro de Cortijo by Edgardo Rodríguez Juliá
We discussed how most Puerto Ricans identified as white in the U.S. Census, denying their true self because of social stigmatization. We explored our own racism and prejudices. Most of us have been born under the privilege of whiteness and it takes knowledge, time, effort, willingness, and empathy to understand all the suffering, persecution, and social isolation of Afro-Caribbean peers. We also decided we want our group to be called Puerto Rican(s) Matters. This name has a double meaning: that we as individuals from a Caribbean island matter, and that Puerto Rican issues or matters are meaningful and deserve attention.
Building Community and Solidarity
During the 2023–2024 school year, study group members organized a Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action. Tere Marichal, a study group member and storyteller, integrated each of the 13 guiding principles with a book written by Pura Belpré. Marichal said,
Pura Belpré is one of the most important people who collected our African stories from Puerto Rico.
During the 2024–2025 school year, educators organized a series of events:
- “Mujer y País,” a panel discussion about women’s role in the transformation of Puerto Rico. The all women panel — a community leader, a public health worker, a microbiologist, and a syndicate leader and professor — discussed how women have been in charge of defining the island’s future and have fought against discrimination and marginalization.
- Kmaishibai stories by confined people (inmates), an activity aligned to the Teaching for Black Lives Section 4: “Discipline, The Schools-to-Prison Pipeline, and Mass Incarceration.” Event attendees learned about the power of education in rehabilitation and the life stories of the presenters. Margarita Marichal, group coordinator, said,
This activity was fruitful as students empathized and comprehended that some confined people were victims of a twisted system that abandoned them early on in their lives. All the stories written and illustrated were about their childhood memories.
- “Saturdays for Families,” cultural and educational activities at the university library to meet and integrate the marginalized families and community near campus.
- Inauguration of “Alacena Solidaria,” a place where students can grab something to eat and necessary hygiene products. Marichal said,
Much of our efforts have been towards the functioning of the Alacena because we have students who have scarce resources and are having difficult times.
- Annual celebration of Pura Belpré, librarian, storyteller, folklorist, and puppeteer, with an activity in the university library in February.
Melinda Maxwell-Gibb, professor and study group member, said,
Our group celebrated authors and books written by Puerto Ricans of color, we participated in voicing support for Palestine, worked with local feminist professionals to assist incarcerated women, protested against ICE activity on the island, and more.
Teaching Truth
2024 Teach Truth Day of Action in San Juan, Puerto Rico
The study group has participated in the Teach Truth Days of Action for two consecutive years. In 2025, they hosted an interactive pop-up display at the artisan’s market in Callejón Del Carmen and reported,
We directly impacted over sixty individuals who stopped at the table and received information about the Zinn Education Project initiative. We also collected signatures for the PS1282 Ley contra el discrimen por razones de cabello, and had a display of Puerto Rican and U.S.A. banned books.
Many visitors were surprised they did not know about all the repression that is going on in and out the island. We connected with an ally, “Otro Puerto Rico es Posible” that is working against gentrification in Puerto Rico and wants to join our group. We also gave away the mini book “Carla Feliz” which is a short story about a trans girl that was censored. We were able to print it and distribute it to everyone that visited the table. We distributed copies of the Spanish version of the Black Lives Matter 13 Principles mini coloring book. In addition, we had the Butai with the Kamishibai story “La Chivita” about inclusion and diversity. As a group, we felt very satisfied with the outcomes of the day and we are more confident, than ever, that social change is possible and that, Si Se Puede!
In 2025, Margarita set-up an information table in Rincón where citizens are fighting for the conservation of public beaches that are being threatened by private investors and their projects.
Study group members have taken every opportunity to share their wealth of knowledge with their school community and beyond. For the 2025–2026 school year, they are reading Rethinking Schools’ Teaching Palestine. Margarita said,
We created the “Educadorxs por Palestina” group to join forces educating the youth. We are supporting “Madres contra la Guerra” in protesting in front of Israel’s Embassy in Puerto Rico to create awareness to stop the genocide. We have been discussing Teaching Palestine and learning ways to educate others to search and learn the truth.
