second \u201cUO Authors, Book Talks\u201d<\/a> will take place Feb. 12 in the Browsing Room. It will feature Kirby Brown, associate professor of Native American literatures, and his book \u201cStoking the Fire: Nationhood in Cherokee Writing, 1907-1970.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cI can\u2019t think of a better way to celebrate scholarly work than to put a spotlight on our faculty authors,\u201d said Patrick Phillips, UO\u2019s provost and senior vice president. \u201cUO authors provide a tremendous impact with their original scholarship, and their dedicated efforts enhance the reputation of the entire university by showing the world the important contributions we make to a wide variety of fields.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The events are sponsored by the Office of the Provost, UO Libraries, and the College of Arts and Sciences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yarris, who also directs the UO Global Health Program, spent a year in Managua, Nicaragua, working with Servicio Jesuita a Migrantes, a migrant justice organization. The work included taking testimonials from migrants who returned home and their family members to develop ways to better protect Nicaraguans working in Costa Rica and Mexico through changes in policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Through these testimonials, Yarris was able to meet 24 families and work with many of them to produce material for her dissertation, which later turned into the book. \u201cCare Across Generations\u201dtakes a close look at grandmother care in Nicaraguan transnational families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
University Communications sat down with Yarris to discuss her experiences and her book. Portions of the interview have been edited for brevity and clarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Q: How did you find yourself in Nicaragua?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A: When I was a public health student at UCLA, I taught medical Spanish and was able to meet students who made service learning trips for medical students to go to Latin America. I went with them to Honduras once and then twice to Nicaragua as a translator for volunteer medical brigades. Through that work, I met nonprofit health organizations in Nicaragua, was able to understand the historical and cultural context better, and wanted to go back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I got involved with a social justice organization, Witness for Peace Southwest, which advocates for change in U.S. policy toward mainly Latin America and the Caribbean. I was a volunteer and then became a member on their board of directors. That opened up opportunities for me to work in Managua.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Q: Did you receive any other cultural misconceptions around your book and the roles of grandmothers?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A: One thing that has been challenging for me \u2014 in writing the book, talking about the book, in teaching my students \u2014 is U.S. students, audiences or publics tend to jump to the conclusion that awful patriarchy exists (in other places) and we have it so good (in the U.S.) where there are no problems with gender and equality, which obviously isn\u2019t true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What I\u2019ve tried to do in the book is be sensitive in talking about the layers of social, historical, cultural, economic and legal configurations that leave grandmothers particularly vulnerable to being threatened by children\u2019s fathers who take the remittances mothers send home and why that might be happening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Q: Would you mind explaining the relationship with fathers more?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A: It\u2019s hard because it\u2019s a real thing. Feminists in Nicaragua have this saying, \u201cEl machismo mata,\u201d which means machismo kills. Which is true; there are very high rates of femicide. Women die at high numbers in Nicaragua at the hands of intimate partners, husbands, the fathers of their children. Yes, it\u2019s a real thing. But I also don\u2019t want to paint all Nicaraguan men with that brushstroke that they\u2019re violent or don\u2019t care about their children, because obviously that isn\u2019t true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There have been misconceptions about men, their roles, and why I didn\u2019t talk to more men. The truth is, often they weren\u2019t around. The households are matrifocal. I tried to get men\u2019s voices, but the truth is that most of the care in these families is done by women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The other misconception that I\u2019ve had to be careful to not fall into the trap of is that mother migrants abandon their kids. I go through painstaking measures in the book to not paint mothers that way. I try to describe the factors pushing mothers to migrate and the steps they take to send remittance home for their kids. All of the mothers in my book care about their kids and are thankful their mothers can care for them. They\u2019re waiting for when the \u201cgrand bargain\u201d pays off, and they can be with their kids again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Q: As you continue your work in academia, are you seeing your book complement the research you are conducting?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A: Yes, definitely. After the book, my next project was funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation studying transit immigration in Central America through Mexico. The research questions I asked were less about families in migration but still about the role of migration and family care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I spent a few summers in Sinaloa, Mexico, looking at how women were informally mobilizing along freight train lines to provide care for families in migrant situations. I\u2019m currently working on a local project looking at networks of volunteers, refugee asylum seeker resettlements and sponsorship work in Lane County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Q: You touched on this, but given our political climate, have you faced challenges discussing migration with students?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A: I\u2019ve been glad that I teach classes on migration, that I have a book on migration and that my book is ethnographic. When students and other people read ethnographic work about migrants and their families, it humanizes things in a way that politics, media or tweets dehumanize and desensitize people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Human stories help people and students ask questions like, \u201cWhy is it so hard for people who are here lawfully to bring their children with them lawfully?\u201d They don\u2019t realize that it is so difficult, it takes 10 years or other miscellaneous reasons why people are leaving to create a better life for their children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014By Jessica T. Brown, University Communications<\/em>
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Knight LibraryBrowsing Room https:\/\/around.uoregon.edu\/content\/faculty-books-be-featured-uo-authors-book-talks-series Around the O, October 17, 2019\u2014Kristin Yarris will be the first faculty member featured in the inaugural \u201cUO Authors, Book Talks\u201d series that begins next month. Yarris, an associate professor of international studies, will read excerpts…<\/p>\n
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