Latin American & Iberian Institute -- University of New Mexico
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Events

"Unlikely Neighbors" Conference

For more information, including registration, on the upcoming conference "Unlikely Neighbors? The Jewish Experience in the 'New World',  please click here.


"Animal Symbolism"  Conference

For more information, including registration, on the upcoming conference "Animal Symbolism in the Mesoamerican Codex Tradition," please click here.


November 5,  2009

Film: 7 pm at the  National Hispanic Cultural Center (NHCC)  Bank of America Theatre. El último Sefardí / The Last Sephardic Jew, Free ticketed event.   1701 4th St. SW, Albuquerque

This award-winning Spanish film documents the story of a young rabbi originally from Sarajevo, who journeys from Jerusalem throughout the Jewish Diaspora to Toledo, Spain looking for places where his Sephardic ancestors lived for five centuries.  Through interviews and visits to historic sites, he explains his efforts to keep alive the Sephardic legacy and culture for future generations.  Sponsored by the NM Anti-Defamation League, Instituto Cervantes, National Hispanic Cultural Center and Israeli Consulate.  Reception following the movie sponsored by the Israeli Consulate and the Isaac Liberman Foundation.  Presented in Ladino with English subtitles.

Cuisine: 6 pm – 9 pm, Las Cosas Cooking School, Delicious Jewish-Latino Cookery, $75 (limited to 15 participants) Call 505/988-3394 for information and registration.  188 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe.

Join Chef Johnny Vee as he explores the connection between European Jewish cooking and its melding into the ancient cuisines of Mexico and Northern New Mexico.  A history lesson and hands-on cooking class will touch on the Crypto-Jewish culture and its effect on Mexican and American Indian cookery. Prepare and sample dishes from this unique culinary melting pot heritage.  Sponsored by The Jewish Arts and Culture Group of Santa Fe.


November 6 – 8

Theater: 7 pm Fri. & Sat., 2 pm Sun., James A. Little Theater, Light in My Soul / Una Luz en mi Alma, $20 adults, $15 students & seniors; tickets at www.ticketmaster.com or 505/988-1234.   Located at 1060 Cerrillos Rd., Santa Fe.

A riveting drama created from the actual words and life stories of New Mexican conversos or crypto-Jews who trace their journeys of faith and identity to the Diaspora ignited by the Inquisition.  Presented by Working Classroom.  Sponsored by Tesuque Land Trust.


November 7

Art Exhibit: 5 pm – 7 pm,  El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe,Unified Borders at 615 Paseo de Peralta @ The Railyard, Santa Fe

An exciting contemporary Mexican art exhibit and reception with the artist, Beatriz Ezban, a Sephardic Jewish Mexican painter whose works are part of important collections such as The Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City, The Contemporary Museum of Art in Oaxaca, the National Presidential House in Mexico and the Mexican Foreign Ministry.

Also on display at El Museo Cultural is Voyages to Freedom: 500 Years of Jewish Life in Latin America and the Caribbean a historical exhibit produced by the Anti-Defamation League.  Sponsored by the Mexican Consulate, The NM Anti-Defamation League, The Latin American and Iberian Institute at UNM and El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe.


November 8

Music: 1:00 p.m at the National Hispanic Cultural Center (NHCC)  Bank of America Theater, Discovering My Jewish Roots Through Music , $12 NHCC  at 1701 4th St. SW, Albuquerque

Guillermo Figueroa, Music Director and Conductor , New Mexico Symphony Orchestra.

A personal journey through music, stories and photographs chronicling the discovery of Figueroa’s  Jewish roots in Puerto Rico, tracing his family from Spain to Europe to the Americas.  With violin and piano.  Sponsored by the New Mexico Anti-Defamation League, the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra and the National Hispanic Cultural Center.

Film: 3 pm,  at the National Hispanic Cultural Center Bank of America (NHCC) Theatre, Un Beso a Esta Tierra / A Kiss to This Land, Free ticketed event. NHCC located  at 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque

Presented in Spanish with English subtitles and followed by a Q&A with Mexican Director and Producer Daniel Goldberg.

This Mexican documentary chronicles the experiences of Jewish refugees who came from Europe to settle in Mexico during the 1920s and 30s, escaping anti-Semitism and the forced economic hardships they endured in their homelands.  Many had hoped that “America” was the U.S., but strict quota laws sent people to Mexico, Central and South America.     The stories of these refugees are told via interviews, archival film clips, photographs and other resources.  Sponsored by the Mexican Consulate and the Sokolove/Singer/Buchwald families in honor of Dr. David Buchwald in conjunction with the NM Anti-Defamation League, Instituto Cervantes and the National Hispanic Cultural Center.


November 10

History Exhibit: 5:30 pm – 7 pm, The Ronald Gardenswartz Jewish Community Center Voyages to Freedom Opening Reception, 5520 Wyoming Blvd. NE, Albuquerque.  Free event.

Please join us for the important exhibition Voyages to Freedom: 500 Years of Jewish History in Latin America and the Caribbean, opening reception.  The exhibit runs 11/5 – 11/15.  Sponsored by the Ronald Gardenswartz Jewish Community Center, the NM Anti-Defamation League, and the Latin American and Iberian Institute at UNM.


November 12

Conference: 1 pm – 5 pm at the University of New Mexico Student Union Bldg., Lobo Rooms A & B Unlikely Neighbors? The Jewish Experience in the “New World”

Conference registration is recommended at http://laii.unm.edu/celebrate-festival/registration/

  • Seth Ward, University of Wyoming: From Convivencia to Concealment: The History of the Jews and Crypto-Jews of Spain
  • Stanley M. Hordes, University of New Mexico: The Sephardic Legacy in Spanish America: A History of the Crypto-Jews
  • Sandra McGee Deutsch, University of Texas El Paso: A Bad Reputation? The Intimate Lives of Argentine Jewish Women, 1890s – 1940s.”
  • Ruth Behar, University of Michigan: Always Searching for Home: Stories of the Jews of Cuba


Sponsored by the NM Anti-Defamation League and the Lain American and Iberian Institute at UNM.  Organized by Dr. Stanley Hordes of the Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies and the NM Jewish Historical Society.


Film: 7 pm, National Hispanic Cultural Center (NHCC) Bank of America Theatre, Adio Kerida (Good-bye My Love, The Jews of Cuba) Free ticketed event, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque

A moving documentary produced and directed by Cuban-American anthropologist, author and filmmaker Ruth Behar who left Cuba as a child.  Unable to recall her island childhood, Behar searches for memory among her fellow Sephardic Jews in Cuban, Miami, New York, and Philadelphia.  Viewing her subject with the soul of a poet and the curiosity of an anthropologist, Ruth Behar meshes personal reflections, intimate interviews with strangers and relatives, and music from both Sephardic and Cuban traditions.  Sponsored by the NM Anti-Defamation League, Instituto Cervantes, National Hispanic Cultural Center and the Latin American and Iberian Institute at UNM.  Presented in Spanish with English subtitles followed by a Q and A with Director/Producer Ruth Behar


November 13

Sephardic Shabbat Service: 8 pm, Congregation Nahalat Shalom, 3606 Rio Grande Blvd. NW, Albuquerque, Free

Open to the public.  Sabbath service is in Hebrew, Ladino and Spanish.  Sponsored by Congregation Nahalat Shalom and the NM Anti-Defamation League in cooperation with the Rabbinical and Cantorial Association of Albuquerque, Congregation Albert, Congregation B’nai Israel, and Jewish Family Service.


November 13 – 14

Theater: 7 pm, Taos Center for the Arts, Light in My Soul / Una Luz en mi Alma, Tickets at www.tic.org or FX-18 Gifts & Jewelry, 133 Paseo del Pueblo Norte, Taos

A riveting drama created from the actual words and life stories of New Mexican conversos or crypto-Jews who trace their journeys of faith and identity to the Diaspora ignited by the Inquisition.  Presented by Working Classroom.  Sponsored by Tesuque Land Trust.


November 14

Music: 8 pm, National Hispanic Cultural Center, Albuquerque Journal Theatre, The Sarah Aroeste Band: Contemporary Sephardic Musi,  $15, $10 seniors, students and NHCC members.  1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque

Join us for a rocking evening of Ladino music!  Sarah Aroeste’s innovative fusion of Spanish, Middle Eastern, and Western musical traditions is a concert not to be missed.  Aroeste adds a contemporary sound to the Ladino music of her Spanish and Greek Sephardic roots to keep alive the culture originated by Spanish Jews after their expulsion from Spain in 1492.  Sponsored by the NM Anti-Defamation League, Casa Sefarad-Israel, Instituto Cervantes and National Hispanic Cultural Center.


November 15

Lecture: The Jewish Experience in Latin America,

1 pm, New Mexico History Museum, 113 Lincoln, Santa Fe

4 pm, NHCC Bank of America Theatre, National Hispanic Cultural Center, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque

Free ticketed event

5:30 pm, Tapas and wine reception w/ Ilan Stavans, NHCC, by reservation

Ilan Stavans is a Mexican-American essayist, lexicographer, cultural commentator, translator, short-story author, TV personality, and teacher known for his insights into American, Hispanic, and Jewish cultures.  Stavans has been called “the czar of Latino culture in the United States” by the New York Times and “Latin America’s liveliest and boldest critic and most innovative cultural enthusiast” by the Washington Post.  Stavans, whose Jewish family emigrated from Poland to Mexico, is the Lewis-Sebring Professor of Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College and the recipient of numerous honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Latino Literature Prize, Chile’s Presidential Medal, and the Rubén Darío Distinction. He earned an Emmy nomination as host of the PBS show La Plaza: Conversations with Ilan Stavans.  Sponsored by the NM Anti-Defamation League, the NM History Museum and National Hispanic Cultural Center.


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