Common media portrayals of college students aren’t always very favorable.
But Jorge Guerra says he leaves his classes and other interactions with University of Iowa students feeling optimistic about the future.
“You always hear negative things about today’s college students,” says Guerra, lecturer in the Latina/o/x Studies Program and the Magid Center for Undergraduate Writing. “But I don’t see that in my students. They are sweet and respectful and generous. They are here to learn. They are here to ask questions. They are here to be critical thinkers. And it’s beautiful to see all these students from different backgrounds wanting to be here, wanting to engage with the material, and wanting to gain and use new tools to think about how they can be better community members, better friends, and better advocates of so many issues. It’s wonderful to see and witness.”
Guerra is entering his 10th year at the University of Iowa, spending the first two in the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where he was a Dean’s Graduate Research Fellow, before joining the university’s faculty.
Iowa City is a long way from where Guerra grew up—both in location and culture.
Guerra was raised in South Central Los Angeles by his mother, who came to the United States from Guatemala in 1980. They were surrounded by extended family, sharing a home with an aunt, uncle, and cousins.
“I grew up in this family atmosphere, and when I walked outside, it was a predominantly Mexican American and Mexican immigrant neighborhood that also was historically African American,” Guerra says. “My family was part of a wave of Central American families who moved there in the 1980s and ’90s.”