It was a magical fall evening in the beautiful therapeutic green space at El Futuro where more than 50 people gathered to meet author Jeremy Dae Paden for El Futuro’s first book reading. Jeremy Dae Paden charmed us with his lyrical voice and effortless banter as he read Under the Ocelot Sun, easily transitioning between English and Spanish.
Written in response to the 2018 migrant caravan and current US border politics, the story, told in the voice of a mother to her daughter, recounts the reasons they escaped Honduras to embark on a perilous journey to the United States.
Jeremy’s emotional narrative celebrates Mesoamerican culture and resilience while the lavish illustrations by Annelisa Hermosilla, a Panamanian artist who resides in Virginia, help bring the story of hope and survival to life. The story kindled compassion within us “for all those who dream of a better life in a new land.”
We loved gathering with our comunidad in person (and virtually) for our first book reading event. Stay tuned for information on additional book readings with relevant topics.
About the Author
Jeremy Paden (Milán, Italia, 1974) is an American raised in Nicaragua, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. He has a PhD in Latin American Colonial Literature from Emory (2004). And the author of several collections of poems. Among his books are ruina montium (Broadstone Press, 2016, en inglés; Valparaíso Ediciones, 2018, en español), a collection of poems on the Chilean mining collapse of 2010, prison recipes (Broadstone Press, 2018), a collection of poems on the period state sponsored violence in Argentina in the late 70s, world as sacred burning heart (3: A Taos Press, 2020), a collection of poems based on the first century of the Spanish colonization of the Americas, and Autorretrato como una iguana (Valaparíso USA, 2021) named co-winner of the Premio Poeta en Nueva York 2019.
Alvely Alcántara, LCSW
Rossy C. Garcia, MEd 
Katy Sims, MD 
Everardo Aviles, LCSW, LCAS (Eve)
As a medical anthropologist and social work researcher, Dr. Gulbas’ research embodies interdisciplinarity through the integration of applied theories of health and human development with qualitative and ethnographic methodologies. Her work seeks to understand how people—children, families, and providers—navigate complex sociocultural landscapes in the pursuit of mental health. Most of her work, to date, focuses attention on developing more robust interpretations of suicide risk. With funding from the National Institutes of Mental Health, this body of research has contributed to advancements in theoretical and empirical knowledge of the broader contexts within which youth suicide risk is situated. 
R. Gabriela Barajas-Gonzalez is a developmental psychologist and an assistant professor of Population Health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Dr. Barajas-Gonzalez is the principal investigator of a study that examines the impact of immigration-related threat and stress on school communities. She earned a PhD in developmental psychology from Columbia University and hold a BA in human biology from Stanford University. Dr. Barajas-Gonzalez is the daughter of Mexican immigrants and a first gen college student.
Dr. Parra-Cardona is an Associate Professor in the Steve Hicks School of Social Work (SHSSW) at the University of Texas at Austin. At the SHSSW, he serves as Coordinator for Mexico and Latin American initiatives. He also serves as Area Director for Research at the UT Austin Latino Research Institute. Dr. Parra-Cardona’s program of research is focused on the cultural adaptation of evidence-based parenting interventions for low-income Latinx populations in the US and Latin America.
Bianka Reese, PhD, MSPH is a research scientist and program evaluator specializing in adolescent and young adult sexual and reproductive health. Her previous research in the experiences of Latinx LGBTQ+ youth stems from her work as the Research and Evaluation Manager at SHIFT NC (Sexual Initiatives For Teens), where she led largescale evaluations of multilevel, community-based sexual health promotion initiatives and research projects aimed at elevating the voices of diverse youth in North Carolina. Dr. Reese is currently the Senior Research Strategist at Creative Research Solutions, LLC, an award-winning national evaluation, research, and assessment firm.
Tania Connaughton-Espino, MPH is an independent researcher focused on adolescent and young adult sexual and reproductive health. Her interest in the experiences of Latinx LGBTQ+ youth stems from her previous work with SHIFT NC (Sexual Initiatives For Teens), where she led the training and evaluation department, conducted capacity-building workshops for youth serving professionals including on the topic of how to be more affirming of LGBTQ youth, and from her extensive experience working with the Latinx population in NC.
Maru Gonzalez, EdD is an Assistant Professor and Youth Development Specialist in the Department of Agricultural and Human Sciences at North Carolina State University. Her areas of inquiry include youth development with a focus on activism, social justice, and the experiences of LGBTQ+ young people across familial, school, and community contexts. 
Nayeli Y. Chavez-Dueñas, PhD
Hector Y. Adames, PsyD