Listen: Cinthia Téllez Silva (pictured above) was recently interviewed by Maureen McCollum, the host and producer for Wisconsin Life on Wisconsin Public Radio.
Cinthia Téllez Silva moved to the United States from Mexico on her 12th birthday. After living in California, her family eventually settled in Janesville, where Téllez Silva went to high school. She went on to study and play soccer at University of Wisconsin- Rock County and graduated from University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee with a communication degree. While there, Téllez Silva advocated for undocumented college students like herself. She still lives in Milwaukee, where she works as the Healthy Schools Program coordinator at Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers.
"I love Milwaukee. I’m very appreciative of everything that it has given me. But I also know there’s so much work to do and I know there are issues that don’t make Milwaukee the best city," Téllez Silva recently told Maureen McCollum in an interview for Wisconsin Life. Her audio essay was featured on Wisconsin Public Radio on Friday, September 11th.
Téllez Silva’s story is one of eight featured in “Immigrant Journeys From South Of The Border." The traveling exhibit was created by Wisconsin Humanities in partnership with Centro Hispano of Dane County. After touring Dane County in 2019, a state-wide tour was planned for 2020, but postponed due to COVID-19.
As some venues have found ways to re-open safely, the exhibit has started to tour again. You can check it out at Beloit Public Library through September 22nd and at UW-Eau Claire Barron County's Salter Art Gallery through October 5th.
In this next phase of the Immigrant Journeys project, we are excited to be partnering with the Local Voices Network (LVN)! LVN has technical expertise and an innovative media platform to help us facilitate virtual conversations for small groups of people. "Immigrant Journeys Conversations" will be recorded (anonymously if participants wish) and later shared with leaders, media, and public officials. Our goal is to dig into the issue of immigration in a safe and productive space, then to make the experiences, concerns, and testimonies relevant and useful in places of influence in our state.
Would you like to be part of a reflective conversation on the themes in the exhibit among an intimate group? Or maybe you or someone from your organization would like to be part of a facilitator training through Wisconsin Humanities and LVN? Facilitators would be responsible for recruiting the 4-8 community members for a conversation and moderating the conversation using prompts. We invite you to be in touch with Cristopher Font-Santiago, the Immigrant Journeys Project Manager, to learn more and discuss opportunities!
