About this event

Session Block E, 3:20-4:20

Room 356, Rita Laden Senate Chambers

Title: Cultural Inheritance is Shaping U.S. Medical Innovation: The Latin American Ancestry Behind Raphi

Description: Rodrigo Bravo, a Bolivian-American MD candidate at the University of Arizona, is the first Reiki Master to integrate energy medicine into the school’s Integrative Medicine Clinic. He co-founded Raphi, which creates tools to help patients and physicians safely navigate global healing traditions, particularly for complex or chronic conditions. Rooted in Bolivia’s Andean-Catholic pluralism, Bravo’s worldview was shaped by his own childhood illness, spiritual practices, and a medically unexplained remission. His training at Harvard, Yale, and the Osher Center deepened his commitment to bridging biomedical and spiritual approaches. Bravo’s work highlights how Latino presence in medicine expands not only representation but also the very definitions of healing and integrative care.

Presenters: Rod Bravo & Ron Aryel

Format: Panel Session (fireside chat-style)

Complexity: Intermediate

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Room 403, The Great Room

Title: Lost Words and Found Voices: Auto Ethnography as a Method in Heritage Language Research

Description: This paper offers an autoethnographic reflection on growing up bilingual in the U.S., situating personal and family experiences within broader struggles over language, identity, and belonging. It recounts moments of linguistic policing, generational language loss, and empowerment through reclaiming Spanish in teaching and scholarship. Using sociolinguistic and critical frameworks, the paper frames bilingualism as both a site of struggle and resilience, highlighting the tension between loss and recovery. By weaving narrative with analysis, it affirms bilingualism as a dynamic cultural practice and a central part of U.S. Latino life. Ultimately, it positions heritage bilingualism as resistance and cultural affirmation, challenging deficit views and underscoring Latino presence in American culture.

Presenters: Laura Walls

Format: Research Paper

Complexity: Intermediate

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Room 422

Title: “Sin, Contra y desde el Estado”: A Multifaceted Response to the 2023 Chicago Migrant Crisis

Description: Between August 2022 and March 2023, over 40,000 refugees arrived in Chicago through Texas’s Operation Lone Star, prompting the city to declare a humanitarian crisis. In response, residents organized mutual aid networks to support migrants in the absence of adequate state infrastructure. This study, based on 35 interviews with mutual aid participants and city officials, explores the relationship between grassroots responses and local government efforts. Findings reveal a dialectical dynamic in which city actions sometimes hindered but also indirectly strengthened community initiatives. The research highlights both the challenges and potential of mutual aid in shaping crisis response and urban governance.

Presenters: Cynthia Brito

Format: Research Paper

Complexity: Intermediate

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Room 423

Title: Crossing Borders: Poetry as Resistance in the “ICE Age”

Description: The panel Crossing Borders: Poetry as Resistance in the 'ICE Age' explores poetry as a tool of defiance and cultural preservation in today’s sociopolitical climate. Featuring creative writers from the El Paso–Ciudad Juárez border, it highlights how bilingualism shapes poetic expression. The discussion examines how poets use language to navigate and intertwine cultures, framing this practice as resistance to efforts that undermine Latinx communities. Ultimately, the panel underscores poetry’s role as resilience, liberty, and connection across both linguistic and physical borders.

Presenters: Daniel Chacón, Lex Váldez, & Giselle Giménez Gayosso

Format: Panel Session

Complexity: Introductory

Additional information

• Attendance type: In person