Recent graduate 

Lorena Chica
lchica2@illinois.edu

Lorena Chica joined CLACS in 2021, with a BA in History and minors in Women & Gender Studies and Sociology from Bradley University, as well as 5 years of experience in the Interactive Media department at Bradley. She chose CLACS because of the excellent resources available through the LAC collection in the International and Area Studies Library and the diverse funding opportunities through CLACS and on campus. Her research focuses on El Salvador, gendered violence, and state sanctioned violence. Lorena is also teaching discussion sections of our core LACS course for undergraduate majors and minors, LAST 170: Intro to Latin America.

Leonardo E Silva Ventura 
lev4@illinois.edu

Prior to joining us at CLACS, Leonardo received his BA in Social Science from the Pontifical University Catholic of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio). For his BA final paper, he used data on extrajudicial killing and police violence to argue that the discourse and promises made by politicians (1987-2019) to eradicate the drug trade in Rio de Janeiro led to the genocide of Black people and Anti-Blackness instead of public security. For his M.A. thesis at CLACS, he is investigating Amilcar Cabral and Abdias Nascimento trajectory, goal, strategy, political thoughts, and practices toward Global Black Liberation. His main field of study is African Diaspora, specifically Black liberation in the age of decolonization.