Central American Diaspora

Project Description 

This website grew out of the curiosity and appreciation of four Yale students who care deeply about Central American cultural expression. In Fall 2025, we took the course “Central Americans in the United States” with Profe Hidalgo and Katy Maldonado Dominguez. Wanting to understand how Central American identity and belonging take shape across the diaspora, we designed a research and interview project that looked at everything from Punta Rock on the East Coast to Freestyle Rap on the West Coast. This work was in collaboration with Teach Central America, emphasizing an Ethnic Studies Pedagogical Approach to learning.  This website includes resources, works cited, interviews, and an accompanying lesson plan for individuals to openly use. Our attended audience is curated to older elementary to younger middle school United States students. 

This project aims to illustrate how identity and belonging appear in the Freestyle Rap of Salvadorans in Los Angeles and in the experiences of Central American community members at Yale in New Haven. Freestyle Rap and Punta Rock are founded in the rich culture of historically marginalized identity, and each has created spaces of belonging for Central Americans in the diaspora. Freestyle Rap is deeply influenced by Black communities, while Punta Rock comes from the Afro-Indigenous Garifuna people. By highlighting these two forms of cultural expression, our project challenges dominant narratives (mestizaje) that erase Black and Indigenous presence in Central America.