While the structure of this unit presents a wide-ranging, and at times disconnected, collection of voices who talk back to empire, the motivation to impact students’ ability to analyze imperialism with a critical lens remains the consistent through line. Too often, classrooms rely on dominant narratives without peeling back the layers to consider how these dominant narratives were crafted and what counter narratives exist. As a result, the inclusion of letters, speeches, poems, manifestos, newspaper articles, and other works of resistance is intended to support students as they learn about the counter narratives that are just as much a part of the history of international issues and current events. As a matter of fact, the week before the due date for this unit, protestors in Puerto Rico successfully toppled a sitting governor for the first time in history.65 With more time and more space, these voices of students, families, artists, the young, and the old could have been included in this work.66 Perhaps it can come as a relief that no unit, no volume, no collection of resources can be comprehensive in its celebration and centering of voices of resistance. Not only is the canon of these voices of resistance too numerous, but as more and more students study these examples, they become more able to learn from them and eventually create their own.
