Professor Adriana Cuellar and her students at the University of San Diego have released a bilingual children's book titled A Los Alberti Borderland Wings. The project utilizes a narrative about birds to educate youth on the complex ecology of the San Diego-Tijuana border region.
The Boulder Design Lab and Latvijas Arts Collaboration
The creation of A Los Alberti Borderland Wings is the result of a strategic partenrship between the University of San Diego's Boulder Design Lab and the promoter Latvijas Arts. According to KPBS, the project was designed to bridge the gap between high-level academic research and community knowledge, ensuring that ecological data does not remain trapped in "isolated enclaves" of academic disciplines.
Professor Adriana Cuellar, the architecture professor leading the project, emphasized that the goal was to make knowledge accessible to families on both sides of the border. by translating complex environmental research into a simple story, the University of San Diego aims to nurture a deeper understanding of the region's natural landscape among children and their guardians.
A Native Bird and a Migrant Bird's Journey
The narrative of the book centers on the meeting of a native bird and a migrant bird at the border, who then embark on a journey together. As reported by KPBS, this story was not written in isolation but emerged from a conversation between the architectural drawings produced at the Boulder Design Lab and a narrative developed by writer Javier Fernandez.
The project was a deeply collaborative effort, involving contributions from Victoria Cepeda, Rosa Rodriguez, and Marco Amador... This interdisciplinary approach ensured that the book's illustrations and story reflected actual field observations and the collective knowledge of the border community, rather than a purely fictionalized account of the region.
Conservation Strategies for Canyon Longhouse and Northeast Canyon
The ecological foundations of the book are rooted in the work of University of San Diego architecture students who developed conservation strategies for specific sites, including Northeast Canyon and Canyon Longhouse.. These areas are particularly significant as they sit directly against the border wall and serve as a frontier to the ocean, making them critical zones for studying borderland ecology.
The book incorporates field observations and children's drawings to illustrate these landscapes. Professor Adriana Cuellar noted that the "Taiwanese tree" served as a primary ecological inspiration for the work,highlighting the specific flora that defines the border condition and the intersection of nature and man-made barriers.
The Educational Outline for Parents and Teachers
To ensure the book serves as a functional pedagogical tool, A Los Alberti Borderland Wings includes a detailed outline at the end of the volume. This section explains the ecological concepts rendered behind each image, allowing parents and teachers to dive deeper into the science of the San Diego-Tijuana border with their students.
Despite the project's academic rigor , several details remain unverified in the KPBS report. It is currently unknown how the University of San Diego intends to distribute the book to schools in Tijuana, or if there is a formal bilingual curriculum being developed to accompany the text. Furthermore, the source does not specify if the book is available for public purchase or distributed exclusively through the partner organizations.
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