News 

On Nov. 2nd, Books in the Barrio joined the Mexican American Studies Program at St. Philip’s College for the Día de los Muertos Symposium. It’s now been two weeks since that event and it’s difficult to put into words the significance of the experience. We began the day with a panel discussion on the importance of culturally grounding the work that we do. Professor Kelli Rolland-Adkins and UTSA graduate student Cynthia Aguilar both spoke about the need to understand a person’s

Last month Bryan Hummel came down to the Huasteca Regenerative Research Center to help us get the land prepped on contour. With his trusty laser level in one hand and an azadone (hoe) in the other, Bryan helped us flag out all of the contour lines on the land. He worked with locals to plow the field with oxen and coordinate the finishing hand work. This land preparation sets us up to start our vetiver plantings, and start our polycrop food forest. We are extremely thankful

Last week we had the pleasure of meeting Antonio Carillo Bolea in the Los Tuxtlas region of Southern Veracruz. We had spoken a couple of times prior to our trip about Vetiver, hydrologic keyline design, agroecology, permaculture, and many other more philosophical topics. It was clear to me that Antonio was doing amazing work in the Tuxtlas region. He invited us down to see his projects, explore around them, and meet some like-minded restorationists doing similar projects

Working with our partners in Mexico at the Huasteca Regenerative Research Center and Texas State University , Terra Advocati has been awarded a Scientific Cooperation Research Program (SCRP) grant through the USDA Department of Foreign Agriculture Service . Check out this video presentation that explains the research project in detail! Check out this video that explains what Vetiver Grass is, and some of its many uses!

PRESS RELEASE FROM USDA FAS WEBSITE: SEE ARTICLE "WASHINGTON, Sept. 19, 2022 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service is awarding $300,000 to six U.S. universities – including three minority-serving institutions – for research and educational partnerships focused on climate-smart agriculture in tropical countries, FAS Administrator Daniel Whitley announced today. FAS is awarding the funds under the Scientific Cooperation Research Program (SCRP) . “

Books in the Barrio remains committed to creating spaces that blur the boundaries between literacy, education, and art. As part of this work, we joined the Mexican American Studies Program at St. Philip’s College (SPC) on September 15th for Noche de Orgullo , an evening of music, tacos, familia, community, and education. The intent was to mark National Hispanic Serving Institution Week and to draw attention to the underrepresentation of Chican@s in STEM fields. The event was