Latin American Transnational Children and Youth: Experiences of Nature and Place, Culture and Care across the Americas by Victoria Derr Yolanda Corona (review)

Abstract

Book Review: Latin American Transnational Children and Youth: Experiences… 157 Latin American Transnational Children and Youth: Experiences of Nature and Place, Culture and Care across the Americas Victoria Derr and Yolanda Corona, editors (2021) Oxford and New York: Routledge, 262 pages $160.00 Hardback, $48.95 eBook; ISBN: 9780367463885 Latin American Transnational Children and Youth: Experiences of Nature and Place, Culture and Care across the Americas illustrates how children and youth perceive, learn about, and care for nature. With scholarship from Latin America and the United States in each section, the text offers stories from migrant and immigrant children and youth. Broadly, the book suggests experiences of childhood are changing over time along with the places with which children have contact. The chapters emphasize the role of family and community in creating a sense of place and identity. Part 1: Perspectives on Place illuminates how children and youth experience, recognize, and understand their experiences with nature. The concept of querencia, articulated by Derr in chapter one, provides a particularly powerful framing for this section as it calls attention to the ways children connect and disconnect from places through emotional attachments or lack thereof. This section gathers diverse cases including rural children in Tepoztlán, Mexico (by Corona, Perez, and Montoya, chapter 2), urban children in Mexico City (by Gulgonen, chapter 3), and Latinx immigrant children in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (by Cuevas, Fritzen-Pedicini, and Beyer, chapter 4). While Querencia is a strong theme throughout the book, it particularly resonates through chapter 4 on migrant children who use their sense of connection to land as a way to create a sense of belonging in new places. Part 2: Homeland, Belonging, and Transnational Identity shows how youths’ relationships to their homeland shapes their transnational identities. This section includes chapters on Amuzgo and Kuchumatán indigenous groups (by Trinidad and Otani, chapter 7), migrant youth who live in Insecure Infantile Migration (by Sánchez, chapter 8), and “1.5 generation” immigrants (by Domínguez, chapter 9). A notable theme in this section is that transnational identity is shaped by experiences with territory, land, and nature. The concept of “geographic habitus” presented by Schmalzbauer in chapter 6 is particularly powerful for understanding how place and environment can be part of transnational identity-making and sense of belonging. Chapter 10 by Derr et al. describes how Latina college students’ environmental identities are shaped by cultural ways of being and belonging in nature. Part 3: Learning and Expressing Care features work on emotional attachments and acts of care toward nature. A strong theme in this final section is decolonial and non-hierarchical forms of education and relationships. This section includes chapters with Zapatista children and intergenerational cultural education (by Montoya, chapter 12), the Chilean Mapuche community program “Listening to Elders” (by Ibarra et al., chapter 13), and early significant life experiences for Book Review: Latin American Transnational Children and Youth: Experiences… 158 environmental professionals (by de la Hoz, chapter 16). These works highlight the role of intergenerational relationships in teaching and learning care for nature. Another theme in this section is that youth participation can be unconventional and necessitates adults' commitment to supporting children's agency. The section includes chapters on science curricula that support indigenous and afro-descendent ways of knowing (by Herrera, chapter 14) and indigenous youth participation in climate justice and advocacy (by Corona and Alvarez, chapter 17). These three sections review different areas of children and youths’ experiences with their environments to advance research in a number of ways. Some of the most prominent areas are research on children and nature from a transnational perspective, the role of family and culture in environmental experiences, environmental and intergenerational education, and children and youths’ participation. These areas of research have impacts for policy on children’s rights, indigenous rights, and education. The book offers an overview of children’s participation, providing a transnational perspective and including several chapters with indigenous groups. Its greatest strength is its broad collection of work. Latin American Transnational Children and Youth includes an array of work from diverse disciplines including anthropology, urban planning, public health, and geography. The chapters include methodologies ranging from statistical analysis to drawings and community-engaged...