Upcoming Events

4:00-6:00, 3107 Taliaferro Hall

Cafe Break Seminar Series: "A Wise Latina Avant a Lettre: The Story of Graciela Nemes"

Presenter: Dr. Eyda Merediz

Description: Presentation and discussion of a documentary that narrates the journey of Professor Emerita Graciela Nemes from Cuba to Puerto Rico to the University of Maryland. She was the pioneer who developed the Latin American Literature program at Maryland and was the force behind the Nobel Prize won by the poet Juan Ramon Jimenez.

3:00-4:30, 2120 Francis Scott Key Hall

Café Break Seminar: Building the Nation, Forging the Myths: Antinomies in the Historical Cinema in Argentina and Brazil, 1966-1978

Presenter: Paula Halperin, Graduate Student, Department of History

Description: This presentation seeks to explore the role that historical cinema played in the configuration of discourses about the nation in both Argentina and Brazil in a period of extreme political instability, marked by alternation of weak civilian governments and dictatorships. After 1968/69, political and cultural repression had the effect of intensifying national feelings among imagemakers, stimulating the creation of a visual language that would speak to power. Commercial and art cinema used the past as a metaphor to talk about national projects.

Wednesday 7

Film: Herskovits at the Heart of Blackness

Presenter: Vincent Brown, Associate Professor, Harvard University

Description: Professor Brown will present his documentary film and then host a Q & A.

Latino/as and Media

Presenter: Felix Contreras, Reporter/Producer, National Public Radio

Interpreting 500 Years of Panamanian History

Presenter: Historical Society of Washington DC

Description: Discover 500 years of Panamanian history in a three-part lecture by some of the most dynamic scholars in the field: Alfredo Castillero Calvo (independent scholar), Aims McGuinness (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee), and Julia Greene (University of Maryland, College Park). Covering the colonial period, the 19th, and 20th centuries, this lecture will address topics like the economics of early globalization, imperialism, labor and ethnicity, and Panamanian sovereignty. This program is being organized by the Smithsonian Latino Center, and the History Department and the Latin American Studies Center of the University of Maryland, College Park, with the support of the Historical Society of Washington DC.

Café Break Seminar: Whose National Anthem? Clotilde Arias’ Translation of the Star Spangled Banner

Presenter: Marvette Pérez, Curator, National Museum of American History

Description: On April 26th 2006, the release of a song called Nuestro Himno (Our Anthem) created much controversy in the halls of Congress, the blogosphere, and in the press. Nuestro Himno, a sung translation of the Star Spangled Banner by nineteen Latino and Latin American performers, created an uproar. At a time in which immigration reform was being discussed, the recording and music video even stirred a comment from then President Bush: “I think the national anthem ought to be sung in English.” In this talk, the translation of this American Sacred song will be used as an avenue for exploring citizenship, language, immigration, nationalism, and patriotism in the United States.

"The Day that Changed My Life Forever:” a Guatemalan torture survivor speaks our on violence, impunity and immigration reform.

Presenter: Gladys Monterroso

Description: On March 25, 2009, Gladys Monterroso’s life changed forever. After stepping out of a morning brunch with fellow lawyers, she was kidnapped, tortured and left drugged and confused in a park in Guatemala City. Monterroso is a lawyer and professor at Guatemala’s San Carlos University. Despite her desire to bring those reponsible to justice, the investigation into her case was dropped. Monterroso is courageously speaking out on behalf of the thousands of women in Guatemala who are victims of violent crimes. Many of them did not live to tell their story. In Guatemala, victims have limited access to services and victimizers are rarely brought to justice. Sponsered by Guatamalan Human Rights Commission and LASC

Surviving Gang Land

Inter-American Grassroots Development Fellowship Information Session

Presenter: MarDestinee Pérez

Description: Please come to an information session about a funding opportunity for Ph.D. students conducting research in Latin America or the Caribbean through the Inter-American Foundation (IAF) Grassroots Development Fellowship. The fellowship includes round-trip international transportation, research and living allowances, health
insurance, and attendance at a mid-year conference in a country in the region. Visit www.iie.org/iaf for specific
benefits, eligibility requirements, and application instructions.

Café Break Seminar: Popular Royalists and Revolution in Colombia, 1808-1820

Presenter: Marcela Echeverri, LASC Visiting Scholar, College of Staten Island, CUNY

Description: This talk will examine Latin American independence from Spain, focusing on the royalist forces that rose in defense of the colonial order in almost every corner of Spanish America. It will concentrate on Colombia’s southwestern city of Popayan, a royalist stronghold where slaves, local Indians, and maroons united with Spanish forces to fight against independence armies. The talk will address the conceptual implications of exploring why and how people who were the objects of imperial rule became its defenders.

Film: Poto Mitan

Told through compelling lives of five courageous Haitian women workers, Poto Mitan gives the global economy a human face, Each woman's personal story explains neoliberal globalization, how it is gendered, and how it impacts Haiti: inhumane working/living conditions, violence, poverty, lack of education, and poor health care. While Poto Mitan offers in-depth understanding of Haiti, its focus on women[s subjugation, worker exploitation, poverty, and resistance these are global struggles. Finally, through their collective activism, these women demonstrate that despite monumental obstacles in a poor country like Haiti, collective action makes change possible.