October, 2019

Vamos a Leer Book Group: Because of the Sun

Join the UNM Latin American & Iberian Institute for our casual Vamos a Leer book group, a space dedicated to teachers discussing authentic and engaging Latinx literature for elementary, middle and high school classrooms. We meet each month at Red Door Brewing (509 Central Avenue), and welcome your participation whether you've read the whole book or just a few pages.

Interdisciplinary Lecture Series in Linguistics: Switching On and Off Spanish Grammatical Gender in Bilingual Scenarios

Dr. Maria del Carmen Parafita-Couto , Leiden University

Gender agreement in Spanish is relatively transparent (Roca 1989). Spanish-speaking children acquire gender agreement before the age of five (Mariscal 2009) and adult speakers do not generally show any difficulties with agreement. However, what happens in bilingual situations when a speaker of Spanish also speaks another language that lacks a grammatical gender distinction? This talk will report a series of production and acceptability tasks designed to explore the behavior of Spanish grammatical gender when Spanish is spoken alongside a language that lacks grammatical gender (English, Purepecha, Basque, Papiamento). Dr. Maria del Carmen Parafita-Couto will focus on two linguistic phenomena.

LAII 40th Anniversary Celebration

Join us in celebrating the 40th anniversary of the UNM Latin American & Iberian Institute! The evening will include a performance from Mariachi Juvenil and a casual presentation with alumni from each of the last four decades on how the LAII has positively influenced their professional trajectories.

Revolution in Development: Mexico and the Governance of the Global Economy

Dr. Christy Thornton , John Hopkins University

Join the LAII, Department of History, and the International Studies Institute for a presentation with Dr. Christy Thornton, assistant professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University, as she discusses her current manuscript project, “Revolution in Development: Mexico and the Governance of the Global Economy.” This talk will uncover the hidden role of politicians, diplomats, and economists from post-revolutionary Mexico in shaping the governance of the global economy.

Climate Vulnerability & Conflict in the Central American Dry Corridor

Join the LAII, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, and the Department of Political Science for a panel discussion to explore how vulnerability to climate change in Central America is driving violence, migration, and other social changes throughout the region.

5th Annual Field Research Grant Colloquium

Join us for the LAII's fifth annual Field Research Grant Colloquium, where we will highlight graduate student scholarship. Recent FRG recipients will share their respective research experiences and findings in a series of presentations.

Car Trunk: A Multimodal Migration

Melisa Garcia

"Car Trunk: a Multimodal Migration" is an exhibition of the reconstruction of the car trunk that Melisa’s mother, as a young child, migrated to the United States inside of. The installation utilizes multimodality, testimonio, art, and storytelling to reconstruct the memory and experience of her journey to the United States in the late 1970’s when she escaped the civil war in El Salvador with her mother and two sisters. The nature of the art project is so that through the model of the testimonio others are able to also interact, engage with the art pieces at a technological intimacy. This means that participants will be able to read about the emotional, political, and traumatic history of El Salvador through QR codes that will be on the car trunk. As well, social media will be utilized to have the participants experience surpass the installation state and reach others.