Jorell Meléndez-Badillo Visits Upper School

Jorell Meléndez-Badillo, historian, author and associate professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, came to University School of Milwaukee on Thursday, Sept. 24 and Friday, Sept. 25 for a wide-ranging visit beginning with a talk to the entire Upper School, followed by tailored visits with USM’s Global Scholars students and students enrolled in Upper School Spanish classes.

Meléndez-Badillo discussed his latest book, “Puerto Rico: A National History,” with Global Scholars students, who read it as their required reading for the summer. He helped students navigate their roles as country delegates in their crisis simulation around the Caribbean and Latin American studies. They discussed what’s happening in the region now, and what the Caribbean peoples can do independently for energy, health care, infrastructure, and resilience in the face of natural disasters. Meléndez-Badillo further helped to set the stage for this year’s Global Scholar Crisis Simulation over the Caribbean by emphasizing not just challenges for the region, but also regional assets such as geography, cultural production, and resources. He especially stressed the “cultural gold” of Caribbean musical and artistic exports to the world.

In addition, Meléndez-Badillo met with Upper School Spanish classes and discussed a wide range of issues, including the impact and importance of Puerto Rican authors in the diaspora of Spanish literature, the importance of Spanish in the post-high school academic and professional world, recognition of strained relationships throughout history, the ongoing impact of colonialism, the value of using many authentic resources to scrutinize our historical lens, and his experience working with musician Bad Bunny. 

His visit was supported through the Stratton Upper School Library and the Global Scholars/Crisis Simulation fund, provided in recent years by a small group of parents, alumni, and parents of alumni, resulting in a matching grant from the Edward E. Ford Foundation. His visit was coordinated by Laura Klein, Upper School librarian, with assistance from Dr. Henry Wend and Adrienne Borders, Upper School history teacher, and Upper School World Language teachers Keenan McAuliffe, Jean Plum, Cristina de Vizcarrondo, Andreia Whystell and Laith Al-Msaibeeh.