Events: Spring 2013

Jan 14

LAII Vamos a Leer Book Group

Time: 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Location: Bookworks, 4022 Rio Grande Blvd NW
Description: Each month educators, teachers, librarians and community members from all over Albuquerque come together at our wonderful local bookstore, Bookworks, to discuss young adult books related to Latin America. All of the books featured in the Vamos a Leer book group are chosen for their representations of Latin America, the Caribbean, and Latinos in the United States. In January we're reading Hurricane Dancers by Margarita Engle.
Sponsors: LAII, Bookworks
Notes: This event is free and open to the public; no registration required. For more information, visit the Vamos a Leer blog or see the event flyer.
Jan 22

SOLAS Brown Bag Lecture Series: Sue Brown - Development Work in Haiti

Time: 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Location: Latin American & Iberian Institute Conference Room
Description: The SOLAS Brown Bag Speaker Series present Sue Brown, who will be speaking about her philosophies as a development worker in Haiti regarding housing, sanitation, humanitarian standards for food, and issues of safety in the face of natural disaster. Sue Brown is a retired physician who worked for Mennonite Central Committee and the Haitian government in the 1970s and 80s. After the 2010 earthquake, she returned with MCC to Haiti for two and a half years.
Sponsors: SOLAS, LAII
Notes: Light refreshments will be served. This event is free and open to the public.
Jan 23

Informational Meeting: Ecuador Field School - Bio-cultural Diversity & Social Justice

Time: 3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Location: UNM Ortega Hall, Reading Room 335
Description: The University of New Mexico, through the Latin American and Iberian Institute, offers a new study abroad opportunity in an intensive program of biology, culture, and language study at UNM and the field site, Quito, Ecuador. The Ecuador program offers students up to seven semester hours of credit and features a three-day orientation session at UNM, a three-week field experience, and three days of closing seminars at UNM upon return. Based on human rights and natural rights of Pacha Mama, Mother Earth, the new constitution of Ecuador, Chapter Two, Article 395 affirms that "The State shall guarantee a sustainable model of development, one that is environmentally balanced and respectful of cultural diversity, conserves biodiversity, and the natural regeneration capacity of ecosystems, and ensures meeting the needs of present and future generations." Join us for an informational meeting to learn how you can become a part of this new study abroad opportunity based in the bio-cultural diversity and social justice of Ecuador.
Sponsors: LAII, Spanish & Portuguese, Interdisciplinary Digital Film & Media Program, and support from Professors Enrique Lamadrid, Miguel Gandert, and Michael Thomas
Notes: For more information, please see the event flyer and the informational Wiki page. For questions, contact LAII graduate assistant Sam Johnson at sgjohnson@unm.edu.
Jan 25

Study Abroad Fair

Time: 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Location: UNM Student Union Building (SUB) Atrium
Description: Join the Global Education Office for a chance to meet representatives of study abroad programs from all regions of the world, talk with returned study abroad students and international student volunteers, and discover the numerous options UNM offers to study abroad or become involved in international affairs here on campus. Please see the event flyer for reference.
Sponsors: Global Education Office (GEO)
Notes: This event is free and open to the public.
Jan 29

SOLAS Brown Bag Lecture Series: Amber Jacks-K'iche' Maya Oral History Project; Ashley Yoder-A Cultura do Drible: Brazil Revealed through World Cup

Time: 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Location: Latin American & Iberian Institute Conference Room
Description: The SOLAS Brown Bag Speaker Series presents Amber Jacks and Ashley Yoder, two UNM graduate students in the Latin American Studies program who have been accepted to present at this year's Student Conference on Latin America, organized by the Institute of Latin American Studies Student Association (ILASSA) at The University of Texas at Austin.
Utilizing the "Maya K'iche' Oral History Project," Amber will present a qualitative analysis of occurrences of Spanish word borrowings within K'iche', a Mayan language of Guatemala. Recent research on languages in contact has shed light on the complex nature of code-switching and word borrowing, eliminating the antiquated idea that suggests borrowing can be explained by linguistic deficiency. The project analyzes word borrowing within the corpus of folkloric stories and suggests that their occurrences can be attributed to culturally unique complexities surrounding contact between the languages and cultures of the region.
Ashley's presentation, titled A Cultura do Drible: Brazil Revealed through World Cup, explores the political and socio-cultural dynamics of Brazil's World Cup victory in 1970, while under the Medici dictatorship, as depicted in Cao Hamburger's 2006 film, O ano em que meus pais saíram de férias. The film pushes the 1970 World Cup to the forefront through the eyes of its protagonist, the 12-year-old Mauro (Michel Joelsas). Analysis reveals that the World Cup functioned only as a momentary veil in a nation wracked by terror, and that ultimately the political reality overwhelms even the most emotionally invested and dedicated soccer fans, embodied in this case, in the most innocent victim: Mauro. However, using soccer for political gain is a practice that preceded the dictatorship and continues into present day World Cup dynamics. Analysis of current cultural production through a lens of cultural studies gives rise to the differentiated rights of various fans, the contested and exclusive nature of the stadiums, and struggles of race and class that persist in the construction of national experience and identity as political projects of Brazilian World Cup participation.
Sponsors: SOLAS, LAII
Notes: Light refreshments will be served. This event is free and open to the public.
Jan 31

LAII Lecture Series: John Ackerman and Lorenzo Meyer - The State of Democracy and Authoritarianism in Mexico after the 2012 Presidential Elections

Time: 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Location: UNM Student Union Building (SUB), Ballroom C
Description: Please join the LAII in welcoming John Ackerman and Lorenzo Meyer, two leading political analysts, for a discussion of the recent presidential elections in Mexico. Dr. Ackerman will discuss "Deconsolidating Authoritarianism: Learning from Mexico's Failed Transition" while Dr. Meyer considers "Mexico: Democratic Authoritarianism."
For reference, please see the event flyer. For more information, including how to access a live webcast of the presentation, please see the LAII's recent news article about the event.
Sponsors: LAII
Notes: This event is free and open to the public. An open reception will follow the presentations from 6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Feb 1

Sin Fronteras Film Festival

Time: 8:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Location: UNM Student Union Building (Room TBD)
Description: The Sin Fronteras Film Festival is an annual film festival hosted by the Student Organization for Latin American Studies (SOLAS). It is held with the purpose of increasing awareness of Hispanic culture and Latin American affairs. This year it is a two-day festival featuring five films, with an opening night focus on "From the Land to Your Table / ¿Que culpa tiene el tomate?" From the Land to Your table presents seven different countries with seven different cultures and points of view, all focusing on the conditions and cultural diversity of popular produce markets in their individual countries.
Sponsors: SOLAS, Instituto Cervantes of Albuquerque, LAII, Graduate and Professional Student Association, and El Centro de la Raza. The festival is further supported by a grant from PRAGDA through the Spanish Film Club initiative.
Notes: This event is ticketed. For more information, please the film festival blog.
Feb 2

Sin Fronteras Film Festival

Time: 1:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.
Location: The Guild Cinema, 3405 Central Ave. NE
Description: The Sin Fronteras Film Festival is an annual film festival hosted by the Student Organization for Latin American Studies (SOLAS). It is held with the purpose of increasing awareness of Hispanic culture and Latin American affairs. This year it is a two-day festival featuring five films, with four back-to-back selections on Saturday. Join SOLAS and its community partners to see "Undertow / Contracorriente" at 1:00 p.m., "The Death of Pinochet / La muerte de Pinochet" at 3:30 p.m., "The Cinema Hold Up / Asalta al cine" at 6:00 p.m., and "Even the Rain / También la lluvia" at 9:00 p.m.
Sponsors: SOLAS, Instituto Cervantes of Albuquerque, LAII, Graduate and Professional Student Association, and El Centro de la Raza. The festival is further supported by a grant from PRAGDA through the Spanish Film Club initiative.
Notes: This event is ticketed. For more information, please the film festival blog.
Feb 4

Field Research Grant (FRG) Proposal Writing Workshop

Time: 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Location: Latin American & Iberian Institute Conference Room
Description: Please join us at the LAII for a workshop on how to write a successful proposal for an LAII field research grant. At this workshop you will learn what research should look like in the Humanities and Social Sciences. This workshop will provide tips on what to do and what not to do regarding proposal and grant writing. This is a great opportunity to gain insight into what the review committee will be looking for.
Sponsors: LAII, SOLAS
Notes: This event is free and open to the public. For more information, please see the event flyer.
Feb 4

LAII Vamos a Leer Book Group

Time: 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Location: Bookworks, 4022 Rio Grande Blvd NW
Description: Each month educators, teachers, librarians and community members from all over Albuquerque come together at our wonderful local bookstore, Bookworks, to discuss young adult books related to Latin America. All of the books featured in the Vamos a Leer book group are chosen for their representations of Latin America, the Caribbean, and Latinos in the United States. In February we're reading Estrella's Quinceañeras by Malín Alegria.
Sponsors: LAII, Bookworks
Notes: This event is free and open to the public; no registration required. For more information, visit the Vamos a Leer blog or see the event flyer.
Feb 5

SOLAS Brown Bag Lecture Series: Elizabeth Halpin - Criminal Queens: Beauty and Power in Contemporary Mexico

Time: 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Location: Latin American & Iberian Institute Conference Room
Description: The SOLAS Brown Bag Speaker Series presents Elizabeth Halpin, a graduate student in the Latin American Studies program who has been accepted to present at this year's Student Conference on Latin America, organized by the Institute of Latin American Studies Student Association (ILASSA) at The University of Texas at Austin. Elizabeth's presentation is Criminal Queens: Beauty and Power in Contemporary Mexico. Through an analysis and exploration of the darker side of beauty pageants and their contestants in contemporary Mexico, she argues that representations of beauty carry connotations of more than aesthetic values. Beauty practices, in the instance of beauty pageants, are a broader reflection of the State's social geography. Using the acclaimed 2011 Mexican film, Miss Bala, Elizabeth will show how the collision of the Drug War and beauty contests complicate the idea of beauty as power. In the case of Mexican beauty queens, fictitious and real, their subtle and sometimes obvious participation in narcotrafficking is an indicator of how embodied beauty impacts the broader social structure. She further argues that participating in a traditional cultural practice, such as the beauty contest, women in Mexico are capable of affecting the outcome of conflict in both positive and negative ways. The coercive and violent power exercised by the drug cartels in contemporary Mexico has not kept beauty queens from participating in their rituals. Through understanding beauty pageants as ritual communication, participants (contestants and audience) accept rather than resist social compulsion through their performance of the ritual. Even though the beauty contests are an enactment of gender norms and expectations, rituals are about what can be - the potential of reality. Accommodating the political, economic, and social changes brought on by the Drug War, beauty practices have come to foster community transformation, impacting the social geography of Mexico.
Sponsors: SOLAS, LAII
Notes: Light refreshments will be served. This event is free and open to the public. For more information, please see the event flyer.
Feb 6

Field Research Grant Information and Help Session

Time: 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Location: Latin American & Iberian Institute Conference Room
Description: Please join us at the LAII for a session to review application guidelines, learn tips for writing research proposals, and ask questions about the LAII's field research grants.
Sponsors: LAII, SOLAS
Notes: This event is free and open to the public. For more information, please see the event flyer.
Feb 7

Greenleaf Visiting Library Scholar: Allison Bigelow - Technical Literacies and Unlettered Work: Women Miners in the Seventeenth Century Andes

Time: 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Location: Zimmerman Library, Waters Room
Description: Join the LAII and University Libraries for a presentation with Allison Bigelow, a recipient of the Greenleaf Visiting Library travel grant. The travel grants, funded by a generous gift to the LAII from Dr. Richard E. Greenleaf, provide faculty and graduate students the opportunity to visit UNM to work with one of the largest and most complete Latin American library collections in the United States. Her research addresses the following: In 1641, an indigenous woman named Bartola Sisa discovered a silver vein while prospecting in the province of Chayanta, about 200 miles northwest of Potosí. With a loan of 300 pesos from an indigenous man, Sisa initiated the protocols of discovery: she named the site, assayed the ore, and contracted miners to extract the material after she had determined its high value. A Spaniard named Cristóbal Cotes eagerly watched this process and appeared one day with a proposal. He told her that because she was a woman, imperial law would not permit her to own the site, so he offered to register the vein under his name in exchange for a share of the profits. Bartola Sisa reluctantly accepted, but when Cotes violated the terms of their agreement by preventing her from returning to the site, she sued him for unlawful occupation of the asset. And she won.
Because Andean legend prohibited women from entering underground tunnels - animate, feminized spaces who expressed their jealousy at the intrusion of biological women by cursing a site - historians, literary scholars, and anthropologists have argued for the need to shift our view of Potosí from the mines to the markets in order to hear women's stories. But colonial archival records prove that native and creole women did enter mines, and that when they did they made good livings as miners, refiners, and managers. This talk explains how women like Bartola Sisa used their technical literacies, or ways of knowing and speaking that were grounded in technical expertise in silver mining and metallurgy, to negotiate overlapping imperial laws and colonial jurisprudence in order to protect their production of silver. The framework of technical literacies allows us to appreciate the substantial contributions that indigenous and creole women made to the largest sector of the colonial economy, and how their unlettered work helped to shape Spanish imperial policies as they were applied in the provinces of Alto Perú.
Sponsors: LAII, University Libraries
Notes: This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided. For more information, please see the event flyer.
Feb 7

K-12 Educators Workshop: Grandes secretos sobre cómo enseñar la gramática española: Una aplicación práctica del enfoque cognitivo en el aula

Time: 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Location: National Hispanic Cultural Center, Domenici Education Building, 1701 4th St. SW
Description: Join the Spanish Resource Center and partners for a special workshop focused on teaching strategies for explaining Spanish grammar. "Si bien se presupone que los profesores saben describir la gramática a sus alumnos, la realidad es que nuestro conocimiento gramatical se basa en una serie de creencias y de descripciones que no siempre responde al auténtico funcionamiento de las formas y que, además, no siempre resultan operativas ni accesibles para los estudiantes. Este taller revisará descripciones, explicaciones y actividades gramaticales al uso y ofrecerá, basándose en las aportaciones teóricas del enfoque cognitivo, maneras distintas de abordar la gramática, a lo largo de todo el proceso de instrucción gramatical, poniendo especial énfasis en los mecanismos que permiten que los estudiantes accedan a los saberes gramaticales. Se tratarán temas como el uso de ser y estar, las diferencias entre el pretérito imperfecto y el pretérito indefinido, los pronombres de objeto directo e indirecto o los pronombres reflexivos."
Sponsors: Spanish Resource Center of Albuquerque, National Hispanic Cultural Center, UNM Continuing Education, New Mexico Public Education Department, LAII
Notes: The workshop will be presented by Carlos Soler, Academic Director for the Instituto Cervantes of Albuquerque. Attendance is free, but please confirm in writing by email cer.albuquerque@mecd.es. For reference, please see the event flyer.
Feb 12

SOLAS Brown Bag Lecture Series: Robbie Burger - The Social Life of a Chilean Rodent

Time: 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Location: Latin American & Iberian Institute Conference Room
Description: The SOLAS Brown Bag Speaker series presents Robbie Burger, a UNM graduate student in biology and recipient of a 2012 LAII/Tinker Field Research Grant. Robbie is a PhD student in the Department of and Fellow in the Program in Interdisciplinary Biological and Biomedical Sciences. His research involves the evolutionary ecology, behavior, and conservation of mammals, including modern humans.
The phenomenon of sociality or group-living has long received attention from diverse fields ranging from evolutionary biology and ecology to sociology and economics. I am collaborating with biologists from the US and Chile to investigate the social behavior of Octodon degus, a small mammal native to central Chile. Degus form social groups that share burrow systems underground at night and forage above ground during the day. Females are core members of groups and assist each other when caring for young. We use field observations to determine social networks among degus. We compare degu sociality between the austral winter, when degus are breeding, and the austral spring, when degus give birth and rear their offspring. We find that degu social networks vary by sex and between seasons. Turnover is higher among male associations than females. Females tend to form stronger associations when caring for young. Conflict is associated with lower fertility within groups. Our results shed light into the evolutionary consequences of sociality.
Sponsors: SOLAS, LAII
Notes: Light refreshments will be served. This event is free and open to the public.
Feb 13

LAII Lecture Series: Roberto Elvira Mathez - MundoVilla: Participatory Journalism in the Villas Miserias (Marginal Neighborhoods) of Buenos Aires

Time: 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Location: Latin American & Iberian Institute Conference Room
Description: Join us for a special presentation with Roberto Elvira Mathez, academic liaison for MundoVilla. MundoVilla is a nonprofit organization in Argentina that prepares new journalists in the Villas Miserias (Argentinean term for marginal neighborhoods) with journalism workshops dedicated to the young and adults in the marginal zones of the city of Buenos Aires. The divulgation of other realities and the stimulation of social integration is the objective of the radio and newspaper that are part of the NGO. For more information, visit the websites for MundoVilla's newspaper (http://www.mundovilla.com) and radio program, Mundo Sur FM (http://new.wellesly.edu).
Sponsors: LAII, SOLAS
Notes: Light refreshments will be served. This event is free and open to the public. For more information, please see the event flyer.
Feb 14

LAII Lecture Series: Eduardo Santana-Castellón - The Sierra de Manantlán Biosphere Reserve: A Case Study in Socio-Environmental Conflict and Collaboration

Time: 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Location: Latin American & Iberian Institute Conference Room
Description: Join us for a special presentation with Dr. Eduardo Santana-Castellón, long-term professor and researcher at the University of Guadalajara (UdG), Jalisco, Mexico. Dr. Santana-Castellón will explore how Mexico was one of the pioneering countries in establishing the first biosphere reserves in the world. The "Mexican Modality" proposed experiments in local participation in reserve management, a policy later adopted by the international MAB-UNESCO network. One such experiment was the Sierra de Manantlán Biosphere Reserve, the sixth of the 42 biosphere reserves created in Mexico. Originally, the reserve developed as an open experiment in sustainable territory management in contrast to the view of reserves as "sieged conservation castles". Santana-Castellón describes the reserve's particular pioneering experiences in aspects such as: birth from a scientific discovery in the context of a paradigm shift in the conservation field; alliance between university conservationists and local communities defending their natural resources against lumber and mining interests; a bio-cultural approach to the conservation of native agricultural cultivars; linkages among management and research institutions to develop an adaptive management strategy; establishment of legitimate stakeholder participation platforms in reserve management; environmental education programs as a multi-directional communication mechanisms; community-based natural resource management programs; catalyzing new conservation "institutionalities" at the inter-municipal level in the reserve's bio-region of influence; and more recently, participating as a pilot project in the implementation of payment-for-ecosystem-services mechanisms. The challenges, successes and failures of this local experience will be the basis for discussing the evolution and adaptation of the biosphere reserve concept.
Sponsors: LAII, Global Education Office
Notes: Light refreshments will be served. This event is free and open to the public. For more information, please see the event flyer.
Feb 19

SOLAS Brown Bag Lecture Series: Cynthia Casas - The Mexican Quetzalcóatl (The Feathered Serpent): Cultural Hero and Modern Aesthetic

Time: 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Location: Latin American & Iberian Institute Conference Room
Description: Join the LAII and SOLAS for a special presentation with Visiting Assistant Professor Cynthia Casas from the UNM Department of Spanish & Portuguese.
This lecture will address an inquiry into the abundant and illuminating appearance of the Feathered Serpent or La Serpiente Emplumada Quetzalcóatl within a modern cultural and literary context. This guardian of civilization, re-creative power, wind, and penitence (in his form as a priest-king) maintains his presence across Mexican history dating back to ancient sources. The recurring references to the Feathered Serpent within modern Mexican literature point to a preoccupation with his significance within the Aztec/Mexica cosmovision as well as outside of it. The foundational value of this Indianist preoccupation in the modern Mexican cultural and literary imagination operates along a distinct paradigm severed and extracted from Aztec mythology and pre-Hispanic primary sources. As disconnected as this paradigm may be, it still heavily depends upon Aztec images and aesthetic leitmotifs transferred into a modern framework on the part of Mexican writers, primarily Octavio Paz and José Vasconcelos, who inscribe this inherited neo-Aztec aesthetic into a political, historical, cultural, and ideological vision.
The discussion will revolve around the intellectual and cultural symbol Quetzalcóatl within Mexican literary and cultural production as an archetypal emblem of revolution, change, renovation, and a vision towards the future while maintaining the anchor of Mexican 'tradition' based on an originary mythical source which resists a eurocentric paradigm of thought. These writers employ this inherited aesthetic, specifically concentrated in Quetzalcóatl as a medium to exercise a political and ideological critique of Mexico after the Revolution.
Sponsors: SOLAS, LAII
Notes: This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided. For reference, please see the event flyer.
Feb 21

LAII Lecture Series: Brian Winkenweder - Refugees, Natives and Kites: Hans Namuth in Spain and Guatemala

Time: 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Location: Latin American & Iberian Institute Conference Room
Description: Join us for a special presentation with Dr. Brian Winkenweder, Associate Professor of Art History and Chair of the Department of Art and Visual Culture at Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon. Hans Namuth, most well-known for his photographs and films of Jackson Pollock painting, enjoyed fame as a leading photographer of visual artists during the second half of the 20th century. This achievement, however, eclipses Namuth's equally significant contributions as a photojournalist. For instance, Namuth was on assignment in Barcelona, Spain to cover the 1936 Worker's Olympiad (a protest against the Berlin Olympics) when Civil War broke out. Although the games were cancelled, Namuth stayed in Spain photographing for Vu Magazine. Namuth's photos were subsequently used as evidence to prove that Robert Capa's famous photo, Death of a Loyalist Soldier, was not faked as is often asserted. Another one of Namuth's Spanish Civil War photographs was used by John Heartfield in a collage. After World War II, Namuth married Carmen Herrera, a Guatemalan citizen. He visited that country for the first time in 1946. While there he met a young anthropologist, Maud Oakes, who asked him to photograph the Mam Indians in the small village of Todos Santos, near Huehuetenango for the book she was writing. After an earthquake devastated the region in 1976, Namuth returned to discover that in the passage of thirty years the Mam Indians were suffering not only from the aftermath of the earthquake but also from the negative effects of corporate colonialism. He began a project to photograph all of the Mam of Todos Santos in order to document their rapidly changing culture. In addition, Namuth is responsible for increasing the world's awareness of Santiago de Sacatepequez, another small village known for the large, colorful kites the Kaqchikel Indians construct and fly from their cemetery on All Saints Day. This presentation examines Hans Namuth's contributions to the history of photography with an emphasis on how his efforts as a photographer in Spain and Guatemala helped promote social justice in the world.
Sponsors: LAII
Notes: This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided. For reference, please see the event flyer.
Feb 21

K-12 Educators Workshop: La integración del español coloquial en la clase de E/LE

Time: 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Location: National Hispanic Cultural Center, Domenici Education Building, 1701 4th St. SW
Description: Join the Spanish Resource Center and partners for a special workshop focused on using colloquial Spanish in classrooms where Spanish is taught as a second language. "Hablar una lengua extranjera no es sólo llegar a dominar sus reglas gramaticales y de construcción de la misma, sino saber comunicar y ser capaz de interactuar, de intercambiar e interpretar la información de forma natural con hablantes nativos. Este taller se centra en la descripción y explicación de los principales rasgos del español coloquial, así como de algunos de los principios que rigen la interacción y la conversación. Se ofrecerán una serie de líneas de actuación para el análisis del español desde este punto de vista, insistiendo en el modo de plantear su estudio en el ámbito del español como lengua extranjera."
Sponsors: Spanish Resource Center of Albuquerque, National Hispanic Cultural Center, UNM Continuing Education, New Mexico Public Education Department, LAII
Notes: The workshop will be presented by Carlos Soler, Academic Director for the Instituto Cervantes of Albuquerque. Attendance is free, but please confirm in writing by email cer.albuquerque@mecd.es. For reference, please see the event flyer.
Feb 22

K-12 Event: Spanish Model UN

Time: 8:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Location: National Hispanic Cultural Center, Domenici Education Building, 1701 4th St. SW
Description: The Spanish Model UN Conference began as a final project in one of the advanced courses at Bosque School. Since the beginning the intent was to help stimulate the dissemination of the Spanish language and culture in a relevant, authentic context. In the last several years this project has expanded by including the advanced students from Sandia Prep and Corrales International School as participants and the Instituto Cervantes and the University of New Mexico Latin American and Iberian Institute as sponsors. One of the purposes of this event is to develop and practice skills for debate, analysis, discussion, conflict resolution and negotiation among its participants, following the model applied by the organization. Similarly, the Model United Nations' goal is to create an awareness of the vital and humanitarian mission of the United Nations in the world.
Sponsors: Spanish Resource Center of Albuquerque, National Hispanic Cultural Center, Instituto Cervantes of Albuquerque, Bosque School, Sandia Prep, Corrales International School, and LAII
Notes: This event is free to observe, but registration must be confirmed in advance by writing to kphilipp@unm.edu.
Feb 22

Biofuel Land Use Change: Using Models to Illuminate Policy Options' Impacts

Time: 2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Location: Economics, Room 1052
Description: Julie Witcover is an Assistant Project Scientist at the Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS), University of California - Davis. Her research focus is indirect land use effects of biofuel policy: understanding sources of varied modeling results, and developing policy options. She is interested in how new demands from a developing bioeconomy can be integrated with existing landscape uses, especially adequate food provision, while protecting key environmental services. She has a PhD in Agricultural and Resource Economics from UC Davis, and worked as a postdoc at ITS before moving to her current position. Prior to ITS, her research focused on drivers of deforestation along agricultural frontiers, especially in the Brazilian Amazon. Her dissertation involved a dynamic optimization model of small-scale settlers' deforestation decisions in a setting of market separability. As a research analyst at the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, DC, she was involved in fieldwork and data analysis (econometrics, household iterative-dynamic optimization model) for a project looking at tropical deforestation drivers in the western Brazilian Amazon. She also performed a rapporteurial role for an ecoregional conference on Agricultural Growth, Environmental Sustainability, and Poverty Alleviation (Tegucigalpa, Honduras - in Spanish).
She holds an M.A. from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Latin American Studies as well as International Economics. She also holds an A.B. in Government from Harvard.
Sponsors: Department of Economics, Latin American Studies
Notes: This event is free and open to the public. For reference, please see the event flyer.
Feb 26

SOLAS Brown Bag Lecture Series: Ralph Bolton, Applying Anthropology in Highland Peru: From Vicos to Chijnaya

Time: 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Location: Latin American & Iberian Institute Conference Room
Description: The SOLAS Brown Bag Speaker series presents Ralph Bolton, Professor of Anthropology at Pamona College and President and Chairman of the Board of The Chijnaya Foundation, an organization which works in partnership with rural communities in Southern Peru to design and implement self-sustaining projects in health, education, and economic development.
In the 1950s, Vicos was a traditional hacienda in the Callejon de Huaylas. The inhabitants of Vicos were serfs who worked for the hacendado in exchange for access to small plots of land to raise subsistence crops. In the late 50s, Cornell University rented the hacienda and launched one of the most significant and controversial projects in the budding field of applied anthropology. As a Peace Corps volunteer several years later, Professor Bolton was the Field Director of a project in the southern highlands of Peru that in many respects replicated the Vicos Project, both of them constituting pilot agrarian reform actions before a national agrarian reform was carried out in the 1970s by the military junta led by Juan Velasco Alvarado. This was the Taraco-Chijnaya Project.
In 2004, Professor Bolton returned to Chijnaya for a reunion with the campesinos with whom he had worked more than four decades earlier. On this festive occasion, he was asked to collaborate with the community again. As a result, a group of ex-Peace Corps Volunteers and friends created The Chijnaya Foundation. In this talk, he will discuss the work of the Foundation in rural villages on the Peruvian Altiplano. The Foundation's approach to improving the quality of life in this impoverished area is fairly unique, but it builds on the lessons learned during the Vicos and Chijnaya projects.
Sponsors: SOLAS, LAII
Notes: This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided. For reference, please see the event flyer.
Mar 1

Exhibiting Latino Popular Religious Traditions: New Mexico in a Transnational Context

Time: 1:00 p.m. - 6:45 p.m.
Location: UNM Mesa del Sol IFDM Building, 5700b University Blvd. SE
Description: Join us for a two-day symposium composed of presentations that, together, represent research and documentation of popular religious celebrations in different places in the Ibero-American world. The presentations explore how community-based religious ceremonies are expressions of local, regional, and transnational affinities. The lecturers themselves come from the disciplines of Hispanic Studies, Anthropology, American Studies, Community & Journalism, and Chicano/Hispano/Mexicano Studies. Related photography exhibitions will be on view to complement the speakers' presentations. See event flyer for a complete itinerary of speakers and their foci, as well descriptions of the photo exhibits.
Sponsors: American Studies, Religious Studies, Interdisciplinary Film & Digital Media Program, Spanish & Portuguese, Center for Regional Studies, the Latin American & Iberian Institute, Museum of Spanish Colonial Art
Notes: This event is free and open to the public.
Mar 1

Exhibition: Challa: Fiesta Carnaval del Valle de Codpa

Time: 5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Location: El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe, 555 Camino de la Familia, Santa Fe, NM
Description: Join us for the opening reception of Challa, a vibrant photography exhibit composed of images taken during 2011 and 2012 by photographer Rodrigo Villalon and produced by Fernando Rivera at carnival in Codpa Valley. It aims to promote traditional culture through photography and cultural management. For more information, please see the event flyer and accompanying descriptive text.
At the point where Chile, Peru, and Bolivia share a beautiful landscape and hostile climate, there a strong and wise culture has lived for centuries under the sun. They have been able to keep alive a rich heritage and an admirable history of the Aymara culture. It is in the village of Codpa, located one hour from Arica City in northern Chile, where there developed one of the most important and crowded activities in the Andean tradition: the carnival. The origins of the carnival are from the European Middle Ages. It was a popular celebration where the social, political, and moral critiques were staged publicly just before the celebration of the Catholic Lent. This festival arrived to Latin America with the Spanish colonization and was merged with a set of beliefs and practices, mainly rites that celebrated and thanked the fertility of the earth and also the ancestor worship. The carnival presents a clear manifestation of cultural syncretism.
Sponsors: LAII, El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe, Cornerstones
Notes: This event is free and open to the public. The exhibit will run until April 1, 2013.
Mar 1

Exhibition: Prints from El Taller Gráfica Popular

Time: 5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Location: El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe, 555 Camino de la Familia, Santa Fe, NM
Description: Join us for an opening reception, concurrent with that for Challa (see above), for an exhibition of prints from El Taller de Gráfica Popular." The exhibit, originally shown at UNM Zimmerman Library in Spring 2012, "explores the imagery of "El Taller de Gráfica Popular" (Popular Graphics Workshop). TGP is a graphic art collective founded in Mexico City in 1937....topics at the core of their prints and addressed in this show include: Mexico's divided heritage and fragmented history; poverty and oppression; defending the nationalization of natural resources; civil liberties for labor movements; education; agrararian reform; free speech; and human rights and social justice for the popular classes" (read more about the original exhibition in UNM Today).
Sponsors: LAII, El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe, UNM University Libraries
Notes: This event is free and open to the public. The exhibit will run until April 1, 2013.
Mar 2

Exhibiting Latino Popular Religious Traditions: New Mexico in a Transnational Context

Time: 1:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Location: Museum of Spanish Colonial Art, Santa Fe, 750 Camino Lejo, Santa Fe, NM
Description: Join us for a two-day symposium composed of presentations that, together, represent research and documentation of popular religious celebrations in different places in the Ibero-American world. The presentations explore how community-based religious ceremonies are expressions of local, regional, and transnational affinities. The lecturers themselves come from the disciplines of Hispanic Studies, Anthropology, American Studies, Community & Journalism, and Chicano/Hispano/Mexicano Studies. Related photography exhibitions will be on view to complement the speakers' presentations. See event flyer for a complete itinerary of speakers and their foci, as well descriptions of the photo exhibits.
Sponsors: American Studies, Religious Studies, Interdisciplinary Film & Digital Media Program, Spanish & Portuguese, Center for Regional Studies, the Latin American & Iberian Institute, Museum of Spanish Colonial Art
Notes: The standard $10 museum entrance fee will be waived will UINM ID. This event is free and open to the public.
Mar 4

LAII Vamos a Leer Book Group

Time: 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Location: Bookworks, 4022 Rio Grande Blvd NW
Description: Each month educators, teachers, librarians and community members from all over Albuquerque come together at our wonderful local bookstore, Bookworks, to discuss young adult books related to Latin America. All of the books featured in the Vamos a Leer book group are chosen for their representations of Latin America, the Caribbean, and Latinos in the United States. In March we're reading Leaving Glorytown: One Boy's Struggle Under Castro by Eduardo Calcines.
Sponsors: LAII, Bookworks
Notes: This event is free and open to the public; no registration required. For more information, visit the Vamos a Leer blog or see the event flyer.
Mar 5

SOLAS Brown Bag Lecture Series: Peace Corps Panel

Time: 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Location: UNM Student Union Building (SUB) Lobo A & B
Description: The SOLAS Brown Bag Speaker series presents a panel discussion for National Peace Corps Week. Have you ever considered volunteering in the Peace Corps? Discover the benefits of Peace Corps service from a panel of returned volunteers and help us celebrate Peace Corps' 52nd birthday. Join us to hear challenging, rewarding, and inspirational moments. Have your questions answered and gain tips to guide you through the application process.
Sponsors: SOLAS, LAII
Notes: This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided. For reference, please see the event flyer.
Mar 5

Panel Discussion and Book Signing: In the Wake of Juárez

Time: 3:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Location: UNM Art Museum
Description: Join the LAII and the UNM Art Museum for a panel presentation and artist lecture focused on the museum's exhibit "In the Wake of Juárez: The Drawings of Alice Leora Briggs," on view in the Clinton Adams Gallery from February 2 to May 25, 2013.
The panel presentation will run from 3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m., offering complementary discussions by Charles Bowden, essayist and author of Dreamland: The Way Out of Juárez (2010), with drawings by Alice Leora Briggs; Julián Cardona, Juárez resident, photographer, and journalist, and collaborator with Charles Bowden on the book Exodus/Éxodo (2008), about the Mexican migration north; and Molly Molloy, Research and Reference Librarian, NMSU, Las Cruces, specializing in Latin American studies and U.S.-Mexico border issues.
Then, from 5:30-6:30 p.m., the artist will present a lecture titled "Basta!" and discuss the work she made in Juárez between 2007 and 2012. The city was an remains the center of the Mexican drug wars, and these drawings are part of a larger mission to understand why the "uncivilized" is such an integral part of the "civilized" in modern life."
With expressionist bravado and technical cool, Briggs' remarkable sgraffito (literally "scratch") drawings capture the Inferno that the city [Juárez] has become. Freely appropriating Renaissance prints and paintings of the Last Judgment, the Crucifixion and other martyrdoms, public executions, tortures, and wars by artists from Holbein to van der Weyden, and immersing herself in literature of Dante and Cormac McCarthy, Briggs merges old world fears with present-day realities to create a disturbing yet compelling picture of the human condition.
Sponsors: The Raymond Jonson Trust and the Allene H. and Walter P. Kleweno Lecture Series, UNM Art Museum, LAII
Notes: This event is free and open to the public. Copies of Dreamland will be available for purchase and signing. For reference, please see the event flyer.
Mar 5

K-12 Educators Workshop: Stitching Resistance: Chilean Arpilleras in the Classroom

Time: 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Location: National Hispanic Cultural Center, Domenici Education Building, 1701 4th St. SW
Description: The National Hispanic Cultural Center and the UNM Latin American & Iberian Institute are coming together once again to provide another in-depth and profound look at Latin America history, art and experience via special events tailored for New Mexico teachers. This pair of workshops will focus on demonstrations and resources designed to bring the history of Chile and the arpillera art form alive in classrooms! Teachers from grades 4-12 will benefit most from this content, though all are welcome to attend.
Nearly 40 years ago, the armed forces of Chile overthrew the administration of Salvador Allende. That day, September 11, 1973, created the necessary conditions for the art form known as arpilleras. These textiles became the most visual (and visible), poignant, and widespread manifestation of opposition to authoritarianism, violation of human rights and the disappearance of loved ones associated with the military government that ruled Chile until 1990.
This workshop will start with a private tour of the NHCC art museum, led by NHCC Education Director Dr. Shelle Sánchez, to provide a face-to-face experience of the artwork of the exhibition Stitching Resistance: The History of Chilean Arpilleras. After the tour, we'll provide different curriculum perspectives for how to bring this history and art into the classroom.
Sponsors: National Hispanic Cultural Center, LAII
Notes: This workshop is free, but teachers are asked to register in advance given limited space and materials. Please contact the LAII at kphilipp@unm.edu or (505) 277-7047. All educator participants will receive a certificate of professional development. Refreshments and copies of the curriculum materials will be provided. Please see the event flyer for reference.
Mar 7

Symposium: Got Rights? Human Ecologies of Ethnicity, Race and Memory in Human Rights Discourses

Time: 2:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Location: UNM Zimmerman Library
Description: Please join the UNM Department of Spanish & Portuguese on March 7 and 8 in the Willard Room of Zimmerman Library on the University of New Mexico Albuquerque campus for their first annual Human Rights Symposium. The symposium will confront three pivotal issues in contemporary human rights: memory and transitional justice; indigenous and environmental rights and race and human rights. On March 7th, cultural critics Rebecca Atencio (Tulane University) and Idelber Avelar (Tulane University), internationally renowned Afro-Brazilian writer Ana Maria Gonçalves, and Brazilian scholar and filmmaker Charles Bicalho will address the aforementioned issues vis-á-vis human rights. On March 7th in the evening Dr. Charles Bicalho will screen Kotkuphi (2011) and Xupapoynãg (2011). On March 8th, selected graduate student papers will be read on a variety of issues that confront themes of human rights.
Sponsors: UNM Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Division of Student Affairs, El Centro de la Raza, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University Libraries' Inter-American Studies Program, and the LAII
Notes: This event is free and open to the public. For more information, please visit the UNM University Libraries website or see the event flyer.
Mar 8

Campus Workshop: Biodiversity & Indigenous Peoples

Time: 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Location: UNM Law School Room #2404
Description: Please join us for a capacity-building forum and workshop on the Convention of Biodiversity, the Protocol of Nagoya, and the protection of traditional knowledge associated with biodiversity. This is a three-day workshop that will be held on March 8,9, and 10. The participants will learn about the Convention on Biodiversity, the Protocol of Nagoya, and their relation [and protection of] to Traditional Knowledge associated to genetic resources. The Position with respect to the Protocol of Nagoya and the reference to Indigenous Peoples will be drafted and sent to the Secretariat of the Convention on Biodiversity. This Positioning paper will also be sent the International Forum on Indigenous Peoples on Biodiversity to be completed for the discussions that will take place in South Korea in 2014. The information will be disseminated in English and Spanish to inform Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities on the implications of the Protocol of Nagoya and the effects it could have on the resources of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities. An emphasis will be placed on understanding and developing capacity building to create and define Community Protocols.
Sponsors: LAII
Notes: This workshop is free, but registration is required. Please visit El Centro for registration and more information. For quick reference, please the event flyer.
Mar 19

SOLAS Brown Bag Lecture Series: Steven Maloney, United States Foreign Service

Time: 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Location: Latin American & Iberian Institute Conference Room
Description: The SOLAS Brown Bag Speaker series presents Ambassador Steven Maloney to speak with students about the United States Foreign Service. Steve Maloney joined the Foreign Service in January 1981. Mr. Maloney earned his B.A. at the University of Maryland in 1974 and received his M.S. in National Resource Strategy from the National Defense University in 2001. He has served overseas at the U.S. Embassies in Bucharest, Amman and Tel Aviv and has had a variety of postings at the State Department in Washington.
Among his other assignments, Mr. Maloney was Consul General in Amman, Jordan and Director of Consular Training at the Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, Virginia. From 2006-2009, he served as a senior officer in Hong Kong and most recently worked as a Senior Career Development Officer (Human Resources) at the State Department in Washington. From 2011 to August 2012, Steve served as Consul General at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan. He has been a career member of the Senior Foreign Service since 2004.
Mr. Maloney's foreign languages are German, Arabic, Hebrew and Romanian. He and his wife Diane make their home in Bethesda, Maryland. They have two grown sons, both recent college graduates who are living and working in California and Colorado, respectively. Steve and his wife are excited to be living and working in New Mexico and Steve looks forward to a great experience at UNM. He is also responsible for visiting campuses and engaging students on other campuses throughout the Rocky Mountains region.
Sponsors: SOLAS, LAII
Notes: This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided.
Mar 19

Lecture: Joseph Gilbert: In from the Cold: Latin America's New Encounter with the Long Cold War

Time: 2:15 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Location: 1104 Mesa Vista Hall, History Department Commons Room
Description: Join the UNM Department of History and the LAII as they welcome Professor Gilbert Joseph, Farnham Professor of History and International Studies at Yale University, for a presentation titled "In from the Cold: Latin America's New Encounter with the Long Cold War." Professor Joseph's interest in the topic stem both from his scholarship and from his personal conviction. In the 1980s he participated or led several interfaith delegations to Nicaragua, one of which gave rise to "Witness for Peace."
He has served on the board of historical journals in Mexico, Venezuela, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and was editor, alongside Stuart Schwartz, of the Hispanic American Historical Review from 1997 to 2002. Recent essay collections for which he served as editor include The Mexico Reader: History, Culture, Politics (Duke, 2002); In from the Cold: Latin America's New Encounter with the Cold War (Duke, 2008); and A Century of Revolution: Insurgent and Counterinsurgent Violence during Latin America's Long Cold War (Duke, 2010). He currently co-edits with Emily Rosenberg the academic monograph series "American Encounters: Global Interactions" for Duke University Press, with more than 50 titles to date.
Sponsors: LAII, Department of History
Notes: This event is free and open to the public. For reference, please see the event flyer.
Mar 19

K-12 Educators Workshop: Stitching Resistance: Bringing an Art Form to Life in the Classroom

Time: 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Location: National Hispanic Cultural Center, Domenici Education Building, 1701 4th St. SW
Description: The National Hispanic Cultural Center and the UNM Latin American & Iberian Institute are coming together once again to provide another in-depth and profound look at Latin America history, art and experience via special events tailored for New Mexico teachers. This pair of workshops will focus on demonstrations and resources designed to bring the history of Chile and the arpillera art form alive in classrooms! Teachers from grades 4-12 will benefit most from this content, though all are welcome to attend.
Nearly 40 years ago, the armed forces of Chile overthrew the administration of Salvador Allende. That day, September 11, 1973, created the necessary conditions for the art form known as arpilleras. These textiles became the most visual (and visible), poignant, and widespread manifestation of opposition to authoritarianism, violation of human rights and the disappearance of loved ones associated with the military government that ruled Chile until 1990.
This workshop will expand on the themes explored in the previous one, but with an emphasis on hands-on activities. Participants will have the opportunity to create their own arpilleras in the workshop, and activity kits will be provided so that they can then share the same experience with their students. Tapas and refreshments from the La Fonda del Bosque Restaurant will be provided.
Sponsors: National Hispanic Cultural Center, LAII
Notes: This workshop is free, but teachers are asked to register in advance given limited space and materials. Please contact the LAII at kphilipp@unm.edu or (505) 277-7047. All educator participants will receive a certificate of professional development. Refreshments and copies of the curriculum materials will be provided. Please see the event flyer for reference.
Mar 20

LAII Lecture Series: Frederick M. Nunn - Threads of History or, The Chile of the Arpilleras: Studies in Imagination, Perspectives, and Intrigue

Time: 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Location: Latin American & Iberian Institute Conference Room
Description: Join us for a special presentation with Dr. Frederick M. Nunn, Professor Emeritus of History and International Studies, Portland State University. Times of stress or crisis produce vivid and dramatic examples of the perpetual relationship between history and politics, and the creative arts. So it was in late twentieth-century Chile when "received" historical and political beliefs proved false, at best misleading. In 1973, Latin America's most professional armed forces and police deposed a democratically elected president, held power for seventeen years, ruling harshly all the while. Chileans in opposition to the regime produced art literature, music, poetry, and theater. They not only expressed their realization about assumptions regarding Chile's past and its institutions, they demanded change. In no genre is this more clearly expressed in than that of the arpilleras. "Threads of History" explores "the Chile of the Arpilleras," the context in which appliqué became the medium of expression for the Chileans' appreciation of their past and present, and perhaps their future.
Sponsors: LAII, Global Education Office
Notes: This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided. For reference, please see the event flyer.
Mar 20

Lecture: Joseph Gilbert: Historical Editing: Academic Journals, Academic Essay Collections, Academic Book Series

Time: 1:00 p.m. - 2:15 p.m.
Location: 1104 Mesa Vista Hall, History Department Commons Room
Description: Join the UNM Department of History and the LAII as they welcome Professor Gilbert Joseph, Farnham Professor of History and International Studies at Yale University, for a presentation titled "Historical Editing: Academic Journals, Academic Essay Collections, Academic Book Series." Professor Joseph has served on the board of historical journals in Mexico, Venezuela, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and was editor, alongside Stuart Schwartz, of the Hispanic American Historical Review from 1997 to 2002. Recent essay collections for which he served as editor include The Mexico Reader: History, Culture, Politics (Duke, 2002); In from the Cold: Latin America's New Encounter with the Cold War (Duke, 2008); and A Century of Revolution: Insurgent and Counterinsurgent Violence during Latin America's Long Cold War (Duke, 2010). He currently co-edits with Emily Rosenberg the academic monograph series "American Encounters: Global Interactions" for Duke University Press, with more than 50 titles to date.
Sponsors: LAII, Department of History
Notes: This event is free and open to the public. For reference, please see the event flyer.
Mar 21

LAII Lecture Series: Ramón Arzápalo: The Colonial Maya Texts: Recent Contributions to the Theory of Semiotic Translation

Time: 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Location: Latin American & Iberian Institute Conference Room
Description: Please join us for a special presentation by Dr. Ramón Arzápalo Marín, a LAII Visiting Scholar from the Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
This presentation will draw upon the research that Dr. Arzápalo has done while here at UNM. He will discuss how "Maya civilization is characterized by the development of a complex writing system that allowed members of this high culture to record their scientific, artistic and especially their historical texts. For a thorough understanding of their messages it is necessary to become acquainted with the script that they used for books, murals, and stellae. We provide an overview of the structure and development of the hieroglyphs or written signs relied on by the Maya for these records until the arrival of the Spaniards.
We offer a critical analysis of the nature of this script based on recent, extensive research on documents of the Colonial period. The analysis of an encoded text taken from The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel is key to laying the foundation for a solid methodology for interpreting pre-Columbian texts written by the Maya. However, in order to correctly interpret the messages indicated by the analytical components, it is important to also consider such pragmatic information as their place in history and the surrounding social interrelations. The heuristic of our analysis should clarify some intercultural phenomena, usually overlooked since the 16th century, that have damaged interethnic relations."
Sponsors: LAII
Notes: This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided. For reference, please see the event flyer.
Mar 26

SOLAS Brown Bag Lecture Series: Emmanuel Ortega, Illustrated Testimonials: Images of Novohispanic Franciscan Martyrs in 18th Century New Mexico

Time: 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Location: Latin American & Iberian Institute Conference Room
Description: The SOLAS Brown Bag Speaker series presents Emmanuel Ortega, Art History Instructor at University of Nevada - Las Vegas. The pictorial history of Franciscan martyrs is one that belongs to an ongoing process of spiritual conquest which began during the early Christian era. The visual techniques employed by missionary members during the Spanish colonial period in the Americas are some that derive essentially from medieval concepts of vision and spiritual devotion. These included representations of violence that were carried, as mentioned by Anthony McCosker, by "a highly affective visual content."
In the particular case of New Mexican missions, such concepts were applied in order to create a Bourbon visual landscape of devotion. While many medieval affective visual techniques were applied to the Novohispanic Franciscan martyr canvasses, colonial approaches to the image of the so called "savage" in the edges of empire were to result in a unique genre of painting. One of the main details these images sought to establish was he will of missionary members to die at the service of any given imperial power.
Such will was exploited by medieval and Novohispanic religious orders through a constant exploration of unknown and newly conquered territories. The images of martyrs thus provided the perfect opportunity to narrate a monk's experience as a spiritual conqueror in estranged lands such as New Mexico in the mid 17th and late 18th centuries. Mendicant orders were in charge of the dissemination of these paintings, and in order for the images to serve their roles as what I call "illustrated testimonials," their principal display grounds were mostly concentrated in monastic spaces of learning and/or prayer.
Sponsors: SOLAS, LAII
Notes: This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided. For reference, please see the event flyer.
Mar 26

K-12 Educators Workshop: In the Wake of Juárez: Teaching Politics Through Art

Time: 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Location: UNM Art Museum
Description: Join the UNM Art Museum and the UNM Latin American & Iberian Institute for a free, art-based professional development workshop for educators. Participants will first engage with the subject and technique of the museum's exhibition, "In the Wake of Juárez: The Drawings of Alice Leora Briggs," and then discuss how to implement it in the classroom. This event is recommended only for teachers of grades 9-12 given the content of the artwork.
In the first half of the workshop, UNM Art Museum Curator of Academic Initiatves, Sara Otto-Diniz, will lead a guided discussion of the art in the exhibit and offer a hands-on experience of working in sgraffito (the artist's method). In the second half, LAII staff members will review the socio-cultural context of Ciudad Juárez and provide Common Core-based curriculum strategies that will allow participants to explore the topic in more depth with their students.
The exhibit of Alice Leora Briggs will form the basis for this workshop. With expressionist bravado and technical cool, Briggs' remarkable sgraffito (literally "scratch") drawings capture the Inferno that the city has become. Freely appropriating Renaissance prints and paintings of the Last Judgment, the Crucifixion and other martyrdoms, public executions, tortures, and wars by artists from Holbein to van der Weyden, and immersing herself in literature of Dante and Cormac McCarthy, Briggs merges old world fears with present-day realities to create a disturbing yet compelling picture of the human condition For more information on the artist, please visit the artist's website.
Sponsors: UNM Art Museum, LAII
Notes: This workshop is free, but teachers are asked to register in advance given limited space and materials. Please contact the LAII at kphilipp@unm.edu or (505) 277-7047. YOU MUST RSVP BY MARCH 20, 2013. All educator participants will receive a certificate of professional development. Refreshments and copies of the curriculum materials will be provided. Please see the event flyer for reference.
Mar 27

LAII Lecture Series: Jessica Budds: Extracting Minerals, Producing Waterscapes: Rethinking the Relationship Between Mining and Water in Peru

Time: 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Location: Latin American & Iberian Institute Conference Room
Description: Please join us for a special presentation with Dr. Jessica Budds, Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Environment and Development at the University of East Anglia in the UK. With a background in Hispanic studies and human geography, she works on political ecologies of water and development in Latin America, with an interest in how power relations shape instances of water (water flows, patterns of access, infrastructure, policies and discourses), and how water counter-shapes social relations and forms of governance, thus configuring 'waterscapes' in particular ways.
In this talk, Budds draws on work undertaken as part of a UK Economic and Social Research Council project to explore the relationship between the expansion of mining and growing demand for water resources in the Andes. While previous research has centred on the contamination and depletion of water resources by mining, Budds argues that the expansion of mineral extraction has both wider and deeper implications for water resources, and, moreover, that the nature of water issues has reshaped practices and debates around mining. In this presentation, she builds on emerging scholarship within political ecology that repositions water from a material resource to a 'socio-nature' that embeds and reflects power relations, both material and discursive. She supports this perspective with field data from Peru, in order to show how the mining sector's thirst for water influences social relations, technologies, institutions, and discourses, which operate over varying spatial and temporal scales, and often beyond the watershed. The concept of the waterscape, she contends, is well suited to examine these multiple ways in which water becomes produced through mineral extraction.
Sponsors: LAII, Department of Geography
Notes: This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided. Please see the event flyer for reference.
Mar 28

LAII Lecture Series: Samuel Roll - Providing Psychoanalytic Training and Psychoanalytic Treatment to a Large Mexican Community

Time: 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Location: Latin American & Iberian Institute Conference Room
Description: Join the LAII for a special presentation with Dr. Samuel Roll, Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychology, for a discussion of the Instituto de Salud Mental in Monterrey, Mexico. The need: Mexico trains a large number of persons with university degrees in psychology but no avenue for advanced training. A large number of children in Mexico are in need of psychotherapy but well-trained therapists are limited in number and expensive. The Limitations: Limited economics resources; limited number of professionals with advanced training; lack of a model that is psychologically sophisticated and culturally relevant. The Resources: A culture of support for education and educational innovation; large number of professionals with intense desire for advanced training; flexible political structures; cultural values that support analytic thinking; a devoted core of international educators; one determined woman. The Obstacles: Too many to list. The Outcome: Instituto de Salud Mental in Monterrey Mexico.
Sponsors: LAII
Notes: This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided. For reference, please see the event flyer.
Apr 1

LAII Informal Presentation & Conversation: Rich Wood - Francis I: First Latin American Pope

Time: 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Location: Latin American & Iberian Institute Conference Room
Description: Join the LAII for an informal presentation and group discussion about Francis I, led by professor Rich Wood, Department of Sociology. Cardinal Bergoglio, who has taken the name of Pope Francis I, is the first Jesuit pope and the first pope from South America. In this informal event, Professor Wood will explore the implications of his election and discuss what it might mean for church and society in Latin America.
Sponsors: LAII
Notes: This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided. For reference, please see the event flyer.
Apr 1

LAII Vamos a Leer Book Group

Time: 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Location: Bookworks, 4022 Rio Grande Blvd NW
Description: Each month educators, teachers, librarians and community members from all over Albuquerque come together at our wonderful local bookstore, Bookworks, to discuss young adult books related to Latin America. All of the books featured in the Vamos a Leer book group are chosen for their representations of Latin America, the Caribbean, and Latinos in the United States. In April we're reading Journey of Dreams by Marge Pellegrino.
Sponsors: LAII, Bookworks
Notes: This event is free and open to the public; no registration required. For more information, visit the Vamos a Leer blog or see the event flyer.
Apr 2

SOLAS Brown Bag Lecture Series: Fernando Rivera and Beatriz Yuste: Fundación Altiplano: Sustainable Economic Development Initiatives in Northern Chile

Time: 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Location: Latin American & Iberian Institute Conference Room
Description: The SOLAS Brown Bag Speaker series presents Fernando Rivera and Bea Yuste, who will together discuss the nonprofit organization Fundación Altiplano, an integral project of sustainable development carried out in the northern Chilean region Arica y Parinacota. The organization's mission involves "promoting sustainable development among rural and Andean communities through the strengthening of cultural traditions." It carries this out through the restoration, historical and anthropological evaluation of the Andean churches in the region; involvement with the tourist-patrimonial circuit in the Andean foothills; and, the diffusion of audiovisual projects. For more information about Fundación Altiplano, visit the organization's website.
The project is co-presented by Beatriz Yuste, a Spanish architecture, and Fernando Rivera, a Chilean producer, both of whom have worked with the organization in Chile. Yuste and Rivera will explain the organization itself and discuss their work in the field. Then, Yuste and Rivera will touch upon the community-based work they currently do in Santa Fe, drawing connections between the Santa Fe organization Cornerstone and Fundación Altiplano. The presentation will explore parallels between the two organizations, finding similarities in the way that communities in the Southwestern US and northern Chile independently struggle with historic preservation and cultural management.
Sponsors: SOLAS, LAII
Notes: This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided. For reference, please see the event flyer.
Apr 3
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Apr 6

60th Annual Rocky Mountain Council for Latin American Studies (RMCLAS) Conference

Time: All Day
Location: Hotel Santa Fe, 1501 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe, NM, 87501
Description: The Rocky Mountain Council for Latin American Studies (RMCLAS) is the oldest Latin American academic organization in the world. Formation of the organization began in 1953 at the University of New Mexico (UNM) and the first annual meeting was held in 1954. This year RMCLAS celebrates a landmark year with its 60th Annual Conference of the Rocky Mountain Council for Latin American Studies. The RMCLAS Annual Conference provides an opportunity for scholars and graduate students to share original research on Latin America.
Sponsors: RMCLAS, LAII, others
Notes: For more information, please see the RMCLAS website.
Apr 4

Lecture: Dr. Alejandro Lugo: Border Landscapes: The Outsider Within and the Occupied Borderlands

Time: 3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Location: Hibben Center, Rm 105
Description: Dr. Lugo is Professor of Anthropology and Latina/o Studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His book Fragmented Lives Assembled Parts: Culture, Capitalism, and Conquest at the US-Mexico Border (University of Texas Press 2008) received two national book prizes, including the Southwest Book Prize and the Association of Latina/o Anthropologists Book Prize. His ethnographic photographs have been exhibited in several museums including two works selected for the permanent collection by the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago, IL.
Sponsors: Department of Anthropology, Ortiz Center, American Studies, Chicana/o Studies, and the LAII
Notes: This event is free and open to the public. For more information, please see the event flyer.
Apr 4

Author Reading and Presentation: Jesús Vázquez Mendoza, Ráfagas

Time: 6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Location: National Hispanic Cultural Center, Domenici Education Building, 1701 4th St. SW
Description: Join author Jesús Vázquez Mendoza for a special author reading, book-signing, and discussion of his forthcoming book, Ráfagas. From Amazon, "Ráfagas es un libro producto de muchos años de búsqueda por los caminos de la escritura y la fotografía; en él, se recopilan textos realizados por el autor hace ya algún tiempo y en ese sentido constituye un trabajo de recuperación, una obligada puesta al día con el oficio. Asimismo, apoyándose en el contenido visual, Ráfagas emprende una travesía cuyas escalas arriban a espacios heterogéneos: las calles de París, la legendaria Ruta 66 norteamericana, el territorio fronterizo entre México y los Estados Unidos. Y es a partir de la confluencia entre palabra e imagen que Ráfagas explora sus posibilidades de significación, a la vez que asume una actitud crítica respecto a la violencia imperante en la zona de la cual proviene: Ciudad Juárez. No obstante, su temática es diversa y se halla lejos de centrarse únicamente en esa dolorosa realidad fronteriza, ya que en esta colección también encuentran lugar el erotismo, la nostalgia, la cotidianidad urbana, el autoexilio y el lenguaje como asunto mismo de la escritura. Este último punto explica, al menos en parte, el empleo del neologismo, el juego textual y el sarcasmo como estrategias discursivas capaces de apropiarse de los motivos tradicionales de la poesía."
Jesús Vázquez-Mendoza has a Ph.D. from the University of Kansas in Spanish & Spanish American Literature. During the last 25 years, his professional use of Spanish has taken him to live in cities like Chicago, Houston, Kansas City and Albuquerque. Most recently, Dr. Vazquez's career has span 12 years in television and radio broadcasting with the Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation, Univision Radio and Telemundo by hosting regional talk shows in technology, and commentating on important cultural highlights. Throughout his career, he has also been an editor of a newspaper, reporter, and internet website manager producing virtual communities for Hispanics in the United States (Barnes & Noble ).
Sponsors: Spanish Resource Center of Albuquerque, National Hispanic Cultural Center, UNM Continuing Education, New Mexico Public Education Department, and LAII
Notes: The presentation will be primarily in Spanish; no interpretation provided. For reference, please see the event flyer.
Apr 9

SOLAS Brown Bag Lecture Series: Scott Crago, Guitarreros Caminantes and Rural Reform: Plan Perquenco and Mapuche Cultural Revival Under Chilean Authoritarianism, 1973-1990

Time: 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Location: Latin American & Iberian Institute Conference Room
Description: The SOLAS Brown Bag Speaker series presents Scott Crago, PhD student in the Department of History and recipient of a 2012 LAII/Tinker Field Research Grant.
Through a focus on a pilot project for indigenous Mapuche integration known as Plan Perquenco, this presentation examines the intersections between ethnicity, gender, state building and Mapuche collective memory under Chilean authoritarianism in the 1970s and '80s. His study of Plan Perquenco demonstrates that while neoliberal reforms under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet required a fundamental transformation of Mapuche familial, cultural, and political organization, administrative decentralization permitted Mapuche a means to manipulate these rural reform programs to the benefit of their communities.
Under Plan Perquenco, Mapuche used mandatory monthly meetings overseen by young agricultural technicians less than sympathetic to the military regime to come together and share collective memories of loss and devastation suffered under the dictatorship. In these meetings, Mapuche utilized both their oral tradition and Chilean folk music to reconstruct a history that reinforced their sense of collective community belonging and cultural identity that challenged the ideals of masculinity and femininity espoused by the military regime.
Mapuche, therefore, remember Plan Perquenco as a time when they began to recover historical memory and community organization through new modes of cultural production like Chilean folk music.
Sponsors: SOLAS, LAII
Notes: This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided. For reference, please see the event flyer.
Apr 10
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Apr 11

A Richard E. Greenleaf Symposium on Latin America: Authority and Identity in Colonial Ibero-America

Time: 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Location: UNM Student Union Building (SUB) Lobo A & B
Description: Please join the Latin American & Iberian Institute "A Richard E. Greenleaf Symposium on Latin America: Authority and Identity in the Colonial Ibero-America World," a two-day interdisciplinary conference that will be held April 10-11, 2013.
This symposium brings to UNM eight prominent colonial scholars from History, Art History, and Literary and Cultural Studies for an interdisciplinary dialogue. Their talks examine the meanings that indigenous, European, and Creole peoples produced in their festivals, rituals, codices and chronicles, legal dictates and practices, their bodies, and the very space they built and inhabited. With a constant focus on authority, presenters will discuss the complexity of colonial subjects' interactions with each other and the particularly colonial identities that emerged from these interactions. Panel titles are "Documenting & Structuring Knowledge outside of European Forms," "Contesting and Redefining Imperial Subjectivities," "Disciplining and Reinscribing the Body," and "Shaping and Performing Urban Space." Afternoon sessions will be followed by an opportunity for extended dialogue with the panelists.
Sponsors: LAII
Notes: This symposium is free and open to the public; no registration required. For reference, please see the event flyer and agenda. Additional details are available on the symposium webpage.
Apr 12

Film Screening: MY VILLAGE, MY LOBSTER

Time: 3:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Location: UNM Student Union Building (SUB) Theater
Description: Please join us for a FREE screening of the acclaimed documentary "MY VILLAGE, MY LOBSTER," the powerful and shocking story of the indigenous Miskito lobster divers along Nicaragua's Atlantic Coast who risk their lives diving for the region's most lucrative resource - the Caribbean spiny lobster. Over the past 20 years, hundreds of Miskito divers have died and thousands of have become paralyzed from decompression sickness, a diving-related condition commonly known as the bends. Through the voices of Miskito lobster divers and their families, as well as boat owners, captains, and doctors, MY VILLAGE, MY LOBSTER tells the story of an industry and a community in crisis.
A Q & A with the Director/Producer, Brad Allgood, will follow the screening.
Sponsors: LAII, Department of Economics, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center for Health Policy at UNM, Nourish International, and Peace Corps
Notes: This event is free and open to the public. Click to see the poster for the film screening event.
Apr 16

SOLAS Brown Bag Lecture Series: Joseph Sorrentino, Aquí y Allá

Time: 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Location: Latin American & Iberian Institute Conference Room
Description: Joseph Sorrentino began documenting the lives of farmworkers in western New York in 2002. The vast majority of farmworkers in this area-and in the US-are from Mexico and it's generally agreed that well over half of them are here illegally. After seeing the difficult conditions under which they live and work here, he decided to travel to remote villages in southern Mexico in 2003 to see first-hand the conditions that were driving them to make the dangerous journey across the border. His trip took him to the coffee-growing regions in the Sierra Juarez in Oaxaca and to Cuetzalan, Puebla where he found extreme poverty. He has since made three more trips to rural Mexico (the most recent being January and February, 2012) while continuing to document conditions for farmworkers in New York. In Aquí y Allá, he tries to show how Mexico's agricultural policies and trade agreements with the US have increased poverty in rural Mexico, forcing people off their lands to search for work in the US. He also tries to show how necessary Mexican farmworkers are to the US.
His articles and photographs have appeared in a number of publications including City Paper (Philadelphia), City Paper (Rochester, NY), Rochester Magazine, Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine, La Jornada del Campo (Mexico City) and Commonweal Magazine. He has had close to 40 solo photography exhibits, including several in Mexico. His photographs will appear in La Hora del Café, Dos Siglos de Café Mexicano, which will be published by Instituto Maya later this year.
Sponsors: SOLAS, LAII
Notes: This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided. For reference, please see the event flyer.
Apr 19

LAII Lecture Series: Mary Alice Scott - El enfermo se me muere: An Ethnographic Analysis of Fragmented Neoliberalization in Mexico's Health Care Reform

Time: 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Location: Latin American & Iberian Institute Conference Room
Description: Join us for a presentation with Dr. Mary Alice Scott, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at New Mexico State University. Dr. Scott's presentation will address the following: In the year 2000, the Mexican government introduced the public health program Social Protection in Health, aiming to attain 100% health insurance coverage for the Mexican population. Official program evaluations to date have focused on quantitative measures of health outcomes, but little qualitative research on the experiences of patients has been conducted in the evaluation process. This presentation uses data collected in an ethnographic study of 72 women in an agricultural community in southern Veracruz to analyze the experiences of women who participate in Social Protection in Health through its health insurance program known as Seguro Popular. Although recent research demonstrates national improvement in some health outcomes following program implementation, women in the ethnographic study often claimed that health care through the program was inadequate and did not serve their health needs. I argue that the disconnect between improved national health outcomes and women's experiences of care is in part due to the fragmented and partial neoliberalization of health care programs and discourses that both patients and personnel adopt and that supports changes in public health clinic infrastructure and care delivery.
Sponsors: LAII
Notes: This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided. For reference, please see the event flyer.
Apr 23

K-12 Event: Poesía eres tú

Time: 8:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Location: National Hispanic Cultural Center, Domenici Education Building, 1701 4th St. SW
Description: In 2013, the LAII and the Spanish Resource Center will partner for the 13th edition of this elementary school student poetry contest. Elementary school kids (from first to fifth grade) will recite a poem in Spanish in the most artistic and beautiful way in front of a crowd of over 300 people.
Sponsors: Spanish Resource Center of Albuquerque, National Hispanic Cultural Center, UNM Continuing Education, New Mexico Public Education Department, and LAII
Notes: This event is free to observe, but registration must be confirmed in advance by writing to kphilipp@unm.edu.
Apr 23

K-12 Event: Cuentistas

Time: 8:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Location: National Hispanic Cultural Center, Domenici Education Building, 1701 4th St. SW
Description: 2013 marks the 13th year of the Spanish Resource Center's annual Spanish literary contest, Cuentistas, for high school students. This contest, honoring the Día del Libro, April 23rd, is made possible by the New Mexico / Spain educational partnership. This year's topic will be free and the only requirement is that students are encouraged to further their writing skills and their knowledge of Spanish language by writing in Spanish a short story (fiction or non-fiction).
Sponsors: Spanish Resource Center of Albuquerque, National Hispanic Cultural Center, UNM Continuing Education, New Mexico Public Education Department, and LAII
Notes: This event is free to observe, but registration must be confirmed in advance by writing to kphilipp@unm.edu.
Apr 30

SOLAS Brown Bag Lecture Series: Luke Smith - Farrapos' politics in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Time: 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Location: Latin American & Iberian Institute Conference Room
Description: The SOLAS Brown Bag Speaker series presents Luke Smith, UNM graduate student in the Department of History and recipient of a 2012 LAII/Tinker Field Research Grant.
Sponsors: SOLAS, LAII
Notes: This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.
May 6

LAII Vamos a Leer Book Group

Time: 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Location: Bookworks, 4022 Rio Grande Blvd NW
Description: Each month educators, teachers, librarians and community members from all over Albuquerque come together at our wonderful local bookstore, Bookworks, to discuss young adult books related to Latin America. All of the books featured in the Vamos a Leer book group are chosen for their representations of Latin America, the Caribbean, and Latinos in the United States. In May we're reading Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe García McCall.
Sponsors: LAII, Bookworks
Notes: This event is free and open to the public; no registration required. For more information, visit the Vamos a Leer blog or see the event flyer.
May 10

Latin American Studies Convocation

Time: 2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Location: UNM Hibben Center, Atrium
Description: The Latin American Studies (LAS) program will hold its Spring 2013 Convocation, honoring those undergraduate and graduate students who will receive LAS degrees in May and August. The keynote speaker will be LAS alum Melina Salvador, program manager and medical anthropologist at the UNM Center for Rural and Community Behavioral Health.
Sponsors: LAII
Notes: Light refreshments will be provided.
May 30
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Jun 2

¡Cine Magnífico! Albuquerque's Latino Film Festival

Time: Varies
Location: Varies
Description: Join the LAII and Instituto Cervantes of Albuquerque as they celebrate the inaugural year for ¡Cine Magnífico!, New Mexico's only film festival presenting the voice and vision of Latin@ cinema. The festival exhibits contemporary documentaries, short films, and feature films about Spain, Portugal, Latin America, and Latinos in the U.S. In doing so it promotes intercultural awareness and celebrates the diversity of Ibero-American cultures throughout the world.
Sponsors: LAII, Instituto Cervantes of Albuquerque, and supporting community members.
Notes: This is a ticketed event. For more information, please visit the film festival website.