Latinos in the Heartland : Migration and Shifting Human Landscapes: Proceedings of the tenth annual conference Kansas City, Missouri, June 08-10, 2011

Abstract

This is the book of proceedings for the tenth annual conference of Cambio de Colores, Change of Colors, Latinos in the Heartland, that took place in Kansas City June 8-10th 2011. The theme of this year's conference was Migration and Shifting Human Landscapes. Cambio de Colores is an institution that evolved from a Call to Action in Missouri, in 2002, to a Community of Practice about the integration of Latino newcomers to the heartland. The first conference, which took place in Columbia, Missouri, was a fact-finding mission. Participants learned from other states, and explored issues related to immigration, specifically the fast pace of growth and what it meant to rural communities. The conference was literally a call to action. Since then, several institutions have been created at the University of Missouri, such as the University of Missouri Extension Alianzas program (2002), the University of Missouri Cambio Center (2004), and a Latino/Latina Studies program at university of Missouri, Kansas City (2011). It was difficult to find people for the first conference who had research about what was happening in Missouri. Now, there are dozens of projects underway, with researchers and practitioners involved in many impressive collaborative efforts in communities throughout our own state, and across other states. As an institution, Cambio de Colores has been shaped by its stakeholders, who are practitioners, extension professionals, researchers, educators, policy makers, and the community at large, who have "aligned missions," that all seek to foster community wellbeing, and help facilitate the integration of Latino/a newcomers to the economic and social fabric of communities in the Heartland. Every year this conference blends best practices with research, and policy, in order to provide all of its participants with a comprehensive, holistic, and multidisciplinary, view of the factors currently shaping the status of Latinos in the Heartland. This conference also provides knowledge that informs actions and new ways to facilitate integration, education, health, entrepreneurship, and civic participation. In 2011 Cambio de Colores benefited from the participation of the North Central Extension & Research Activity NCERA 216: Latinos and Immigrants in Midwestern Communities, and SERA 37: The New Hispanic South, increasing the regions where human landscapes are shifting as a result of immigration.