'Storytelling as Sanctuary: On Salvadoran Displacement and Defiance', 2026 Galarza Lecture with Leisy Abrego

For the 2026 Galarza-Camarillo Lecture, Chicana/o-Latina/o Studies is pleased to welcome Dr. Leisy Abrego, Professor and Chair of Chicana/o and Central American Studies at UCLA. In her lecture, Storytelling as Sanctuary: On Salvadoran Displacement and Defiance, Dr. Abrego asks:

What does it mean to transmit histories of resistance and struggle to the generations that follow? Central American Studies is a budding field in the United States where increasingly, members of the diaspora are using research to better understand the experiences of war, displacement, migration, and denial of legal protections. This talk will consider the ethics of having these conversations with people made vulnerable and harmed by the state. Do they owe us their stories? Should we risk retraumatizing them? Who is the audience for those projects? How can we honor them and their stories?