Volunteers Needed: Bridging Latino Immigrants and Local Communities Through Service Learning and Critical Analytic Practice Ethnography

Abstract

This essay presents a brief ethnography of a small Latino community in Tennessee and their interaction with local volunteers following a disastrous flood that occurred in July 2014. The ethnography, in this case in the form of a screenplay, depicts the overall intercultural sensitivity of the volunteers, the affected, and the interpreters. In the process, this essay also considers such creative analytic practice (CAP) ethnographies may help students involved in Spanish and community service-learning courses as well as communities bridge the “self”/“other” gap that so often distances Latino immigrants and locals.