The meeting aims to foster a convergence of leaders and activists of social transformation who, through various alternative pedagogical practices, seek to forge more just, equitable, sustainable and participatory societies for Our America.

Representatives from different countries in Latin America and the Caribbean will meet at the University of La Serena in the Fifth Meeting of “Our America” (ENA 2019), an event supported by the Rector's Office and whose purpose is to generate a deep dialogue and reflection on different topics linked to education, conceived as a channel for human development.

The ENA was born in Puerto Rico with the challenge of getting closer to the southern countries. The next meetings were planned there: in Bolivia 2013, El Salvador in 2015, Brazil 2017 and, finally, Chile 2019. It is a meeting space between peers; a search to build, through education, alternative forms for Our America.

“Our Latin America is populated by stories of oppression that pulse active resistance, founded on the bond of love, on the mutual care of those below, and from below. That is one of the meanings that we want to share from the ENA organization, largely based on our work and feelings during the event, but we also understand that something else is needed, something that reflects the harshness of our situation. "It begins a fabric that transcends nationalities and is found in the nuances of Latin American cultures to build a platform that contains us and gives us impetus," said the organizing committee, which on the part of the ULS is led by academics from the Department of Education, Silvia López de Maturana and Yanola González, and the former academic Carlos Calvo.

The organizing committee added that “a clear decision emerges to establish the Nuestra América Network, a meeting space in different spaces for views, conversations and mutual enrichment. A network that has not yet shown its shape, but is present in the links, by recognizing us as peers, by taking us into account in this path of 'our American' emancipation through education. Education that is just another space for struggle and action, which is only accompanied by the diverse and innumerable causes that advance for that same emancipation of the region.”

ENA 2019 is held under the slogan “Decolonization, transformation and emancipation” and is open to the entire community through prior registration on the website: http://www.encuentrodenuestraamerica.org/encuentros/chile-2019/.

According to the schedule, an intimate session will be held between May 6 and 8, while a massive meeting will be held on May 9 and 10 at the ULS open to the entire interested community. Finally, on May 12, a festival will be held in Santiago to disseminate successful experiences in favor of the common objectives of the organization.