Finding Mañana: Booksigning & Reading with Mirta Ojito - Wed, April 20 7-8pm

FINDING MAÑANA: Booksigning & Reading with Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist Mirta Ojito

Octavia Books - 513 Octavia Street

Please join us for a booksigning and reading with Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Mirta Ojito featuring her just released book, FINDING MAÑANA: A Memoir of a Cuban Exodus. Over five months in 1980 some 125,000 Cubans made the trip from Mariel Harbor to South Florida, some transported from the embassy courtyard, some from the jails, and many escorted by police from their homes, none with more than they could carry. Their chaotic and widely publicized exodus dominated American politics for most of the year and forever changed the Cuban émigré community. Today Mariel remains a reference point in immigration policy and a flashpoint for Cuban-Americans, who continue to debate its merits. Now, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Mariel boatlift, Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times reporter Mirta Ojito's new memoir, FINDING MAÑANA: A Memoir of Cuban Exodus (April 2005; The Penguin Press) illuminates this historical event through the story of her own family's life in Cuba and their wrenching departure.

Growing up, Mirta Ojito was eager to excel and fit in, but her parents'-and eventually her own-partial devotion to the revolution held her back. As a schoolgirl, she yearned to join Castro's Young Pioneers, but as a teenager, having understood the darker side of the revolution, she questioned whether she and her family would be happier elsewhere. When Castro announced that he was opening Cuba's borders, she was ready to go; her parents were more than ready: they had been waiting for this opportunity since they were married, having planned leaving shortly after the wedding, only to watch the Cuban Missile Crisis unfold on their honeymoon.

FINDING MAÑANA gives us Ojito's own story, with all of the determination and intelligence that carried her through the boatlift and made her a prizewinning journalist. The recipient of the American Society of Newspaper Editors' award for best foreign reporting and having shared the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for her contribution to the series "How Race is Lived in America," Ojito puts her reporting skills to work on the events closest to her heart, finding the boatlift's key players twenty-five years later-from the exiles who negotiated with Castro to the Vietnam vet on whose boat, Mañana, she finally crossed the treacherous Florida Straits. FINDING MAÑANA is the engrossing and enduring story of a family caught in the midst of the tumultuous politics of the twentieth century.

Fostering Democracy in Trouble Spots and America's Role - Thursday, April 28 12:30-1:30pm

Loyola University, Miller Hall Room 208

This lecture will be given by Gene Bigler, the Office Director for Strategic and External Affairs (DRL/SEA) Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. Pizza will be provided

Workshop on folktales - April 8th

Post comments and suggestions, as well as ideas for lessons involving folktales, here.

Website Project

Here is where you should post on the five websites you have found that could be used in your classroom, including lesson ideas and specific uses for each one. Please include a description of the website, its URL, and developed lesson ideas and uses.

Latino Culture and Politics into the 21st Century: Latino Mental Health - Tues, April 19, 7-9pm

Presented by Enrique Varela, Professor of Psychology, Tulane University and Lauren Dito, Doctoral student in Psychology, Tulane University.

This event will take place in the Earl K Long Library

Democracy Interrupted: Public (Mis)Trust in the Modern Latin American State - Thurs, March 30, 3 pm

Three leading experts on Latin America, including the deputy assistant secretary for Inter-American affairs in the Clinton administration, will discuss the volatile state of democracy in Latin America, a region with vast economic and cultural ties to the United States, at the Tulane University Presidential Symposium March 31 at 3 p.m. in the Freeman Auditorium of the Woldenberg Art Center. The event is free and open to the public.

"Democracy Interrupted: Public (Mis)Trust in the Modern Latin American State" will examine the intense economic and political reform that took place in Latin America in the 1990s, its painful side effects and the mistrust it engendered among the region's citizenry who are now mobilizing for change.

The symposium will consider the future of democracy in the region and the implications Latin America's process of economic and political reform holds for the United States and world.
Symposium speakers include Nancy Birdsall, president of the Center for Global Development and former senior associate and director of the Economic Reform Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, former executive vice-president of the Inter-American development bank and former director of the Policy Research Department at the World Bank; Arturo Valenzuela, professor of government and director of the Center for Latin American Studies in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and former deputy assistant secretary for Inter- American Affairs in the Department of State under Bill Clinton; and Eugenio Raýl Zaffaroni, director of the Department of Penal Law and Criminology at the National University of Buenos Aires and minister of the Supreme Court of Argentina.
For more symposium information visit http://www2.tulane.edu/president_symposium.cfm

Drum Talk and Oricha Worship: Toward a Theology of Sound - Thursday, March 17, 3:30-4:30pm

2nd Gilbert Chase Memorial Lecture on Latin American Music: “Drum Talk and Oricha Worship: Toward a Theology of Sound,” by Katherine Hagedorn, Pomona College (Los Angeles). The talk will discuss the way in which Afro-Cuban rhythmic patterns used by batá drummers during santería ceremonies can be understood as sonic portraits of the different orichas (saints/deities). The talk will also feature video and audio examples as well as live demonstrations of batá drumming by Michael Skinkus and members of the local santería group Moyuba. Reception to follow. Admission is free of charge. This event is open to the public. For more information, call or e-mail Javier León at 504.865.5273 or jleón@tulane.edu respectively. The event is being hosted by: Latin American Studies, and is sponsored by: Department of Music.

This event will take place in Dixon Annex Recital Hall

Latin American Environmental Media Festival - April 15-17

The Stone Center of Latin American Studies at Tulane University announces the inauguration of a project that will establish a new Latin American Environmental Media Festival in New Orleans to open in April 2005. This four-day event will bring to audiences films, videos, and innovative works in digital media whose subjects bring critical attention to major environmental challenges in Latin America and the Caribbean. This new festival, which will be held on the Tulane University campus and at venues in the city, will screen a curated, non-competitive series of innovative works and a new productions submitted as part of a juried competition. A distinguished jury will award prizes in four categories at the opening of the festival in April. This new initiative is being developed with assistance from the New Orleans Film Festival. For more information, please visit <http://stonecenter.tulane.edu/EFF/>

Robert Antoni Reading - Monday, March 14th, 4pm

Acclaimed author, Robert Antoni, will be reading from his latest novel, Carnival, which explores themes of race and sexuality in a parodic re-casting of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises transported to the West Indies. Antoni's previous novels, Divina Trace and Blessed the Fruit, in addition to his collection My Grandmother's Erotic Folktales, have established him as one of the most innovative and vital voices to emerge from the Caribbean and the Americas. The author was an Associate Professor at the University of Miami, where he taught for nine years. Most recently he taught fiction writing at Columbia University in fall 2004.

The event will take place in the Greenleaf Conference Room, Jones Hall 100A. Reception to follow.

Carlos Consalvi and Radio Venceremos - Wed., Feb. 16, 2005, 7:00 PM

Carlos Henriquez Consalvi, better known in El Salvador as Comandante Santiago, founded Radio Venceremos in 1980. The founding of Radio Venceremos corresponded with the beginning of a civil war in El Salvador that pitted a group of militant rebels, the FMLN, against a brutal military dictatorship. For the next 11 years, Santiago served as the voice of the clandestine FMLN radio, broadcasting his reports with a 40-yr-old transmitter that had seen service in World War II while constantly evading capture by the military in the northeastern hills of the nation. Radio Venceremos was one of the few sources of oppositional press in El Salvador during the reign of the repressive military regime. As such, Santiago and his team were among the first to report on the infamous massacre at El Mozote and other atrocities commited by government troops, played a major role in recruiting campesino support for the rebel cause, and provided popular education about socialist ideals and Salvadoran history. Radio Venceremos was also used to assist in military operations. After the war ended in a negotiated peace settlement in 1992, Consalvi turned his attention to documenting the history of El Salvador, because he felt that so much of the historical record had been lost during the war. He founded a museum, El Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen, has collected an impressive collection of archival information, and has produced several documentary films. His visit will be of interest to scholars of communication, social movements, democratization, war, and history.

Event will take place in 102 Jones Hall.

Landscape change and long-term variation in bird abundance in Amazonian rainforest fragments - Fri, March 4, 12-1pm

Part of the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Seminar Series. This lecture will be given by Dr. Philip Stouffer, Louisiana State University. Refreshments will be served prior to the talks. For more information, contact Shea Heath x 5191.

This event will take place in Alcee Fortier, room 301

A mathematical model of the screwworm eradication program barrier zone in Panama - Fri, April 15, 12-1pm

Part of the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Seminar Series. This lecture will be given by Dr. Robert Matlock, Tulane University. Refreshments will be served prior to the talks. For more information, contact Shea Heath x 5191.

This event will take place in Alcee Fortier, room 301

TV news and political change in Brazil: The impact of democratization on TV Globo's journalism - Monday, Feb 28, 4-5pm

This lecture will be given by Communications Candidate Mauro Pereira Porto, Visiting Professor, Tulane University; Professor, Universidade de Brasilia.

This event will take place in Newcomb Hall, room 207

Cuba Connections - March 16, 30, April 6, 6-8:30pm

Ashé Cultural Arts Center, 1712 Oretha Castle Haley, New Orleans, LA

Cuba Connections is a series of public lectures, teacher workshops and concerts about Cuban music and its connections to New Orleans. Cuba and New Orleans are two undeniable focal points in the history of Latin Jazz. Five Cuban music experts will speak about different aspects of Cuban music and how it relates to New Orleans. Every event will end with a 30-minute teacher session on integration strategies and lesson plan development. A handout of benchmarks and GLEs covered during each session will be made available. This event is co-presented with CubaNOLA. For a further description of the lectures, please visit the LARC website.

The schedule and speakers are as follows:

Wednesday, March 16, 6:00 - 8:30 PM
Bill Summers - "Afro-Cuban Yoruba Sacred Music and Dance"Grammy award nominated percussionist of Los Hombres Caliente. Mr. Summers is a New Orleans resident and has traveled extensively to Cuba over the last 30 years to study Afro-Cuban drumming. He will talk about Afro-Cuban sacred music and dance.

Ned Sublette - "Other Afro-Cuban Religions"Author of Cuba and It’s Music: From the first drums to the mambo, an in-depth history of Cuban music, and a professional musician. Mr. Sublette was born in Louisiana and he’s currently a Rockefeller Fellow at Tulane. He will present on the European and African roots of Cuban music as well as Cuban influences on American popular music.

Wednesday, March 30, 6:00 - 8:30 PM
Arturo O'Farrill - "Jazz and Latin jazz"The director for Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Afro-Cuban Latin Jazz Orchestra, the son of Chico O’Farrill (the father of Afro-Cuban jazz in New York City during the 1950’s and 60’s), and an accomplished jazz musician in his own right. Mr. O’Farrill will be traveling to New Orleans from New York City, and he will look at the complex relationship between jazz and Latin jazz.

Tomás Montoya - "Street Parades: Second Lines and Congas"A resident of Santiago de Cuba, Mr. Montoya will add a distinctly Cuban perspective to the series by looking at “Conga” street parades in Santiago de Cuba and Second Lines in New Orleans. Mr. Montoya’s participation is a unique opportunity since he is one of only a handful of scholars from Cuba to have received visas to enter the United States in the last year. He is in New Orleans to do comparative research on Congas and Second Lines.

Wednesday, April 6, 6:00 -8:30 PM
Ned Sublette - "African and European Roots of Cuban Music" Author of Cuba and It’s Music: From the first drums to the mambo, an in-depth history of Cuban music, and a professional musician. Mr. Sublette was born in Louisiana and he’s currently a Rockefeller Fellow at Tulane. He will present on the European and African roots of Cuban music as well as Cuban influences on American popular music.

Michael Skinkus - "Transmission of musical traditions in Cuba and in New Orleans"A local musician and scholar, Mr. Skinkus performs with many popular local ensembles and holds a Master’s degree from Tulane Latin American Studies. He has traveled to Cuba many times to study Cuban percussion and he will present on the transmission of musical traditions in Cuba and in New Orleans.

Learning From Everyday People: Teaching Your Students to do Cultural Research with the Garifuna of Central America and New Orleans - Thurs 3/10 4-8pm

The Garífuna culture was born in 1635 when Africans headed for slavery in the New World escaped from a Spanish shipwreck and began to mix with the Carib-Arawak inhabitants of the island of Saint Vincent. After a series of conflicts with the British they were exiled and landed on the shores of present day Honduras in 1797. This workshop will explore present day Garífuna in Central America and the large population of Garífuna in New Orleans. During this workshop, Prof. Donna Bonner will present strategies and techniques for teachers to increase their knowledge and understanding of ethnographies for use in the classroom. Prof. Carmen Rogers, Xavier University, will also present her research and findings of present Garífuna in New Orleans. The workshop will close with a panel of local Garífuna who will discuss their unique place in New Orleans and the World.

This event will take place in the Greenleaf Conference Room, 100A Jones Hall, Tulane University

Latin American Studies Film Series - Spring 2005

The Latin American Film Series is a free preview of films and documentaries related to Latin America chosen and hosted by our graduate student body. The film series take place on Thursday nights at 7pm in room 102 of Jones Hall.

Screenings are free and open to the public.

February 17: The Sixth Section (U.S./Mexico, 2004)
Alex Rivera's "The Sixth Section" tells a contemporary story that reveals a new perspective on Mexican migrant labor life. Rivera and co-producer Bernardo Ruiz followed José Garcia, a young man from the small Mexican town of Boqueron. Garcia decided to leave to support his wife and family, coming to the U.S. hidden in the trunk of a car. Once here, he moved to Newburgh, New York, and found much more than a job — he saw that he could use his own labor in America to relieve the stark poverty of his hometown. Directed by Alex Rivera.

February 24: Burnt Money (Plata Quemada) (Argentina, 2002)
When two gay thugs Angel and El Nene join a plan to hold up an armored truck with a group of seasoned gangsters, their love and loyalty to each other is tested. Angel is wounded by police gunfire during the robbery, forcing El Nene to kill them all in a fit of rage. Things become complicated when they escape to Uruguay and the police threaten to torture the driver’s mom if she doesn’t tell them where they are. With their pictures plastered on the cover of every paper, drowning in drugs and alcohol, the gang begins to bicker. Against his boss’s wishes El Nene leaves the apartment and roams the streets where he meets a prostitute called Giselle in whom he begins to trust. Director Marcelo Piñeyro whose films have been both critically acclaimed and commercially successful is one of the most important figures in contemporary cinema in Argentina. His fourth film is a delicate balance of a crime and love story. Burnt Money is based on a book by Ricardo Piglia and was inspired by a famous bank robbery in Buenos Aires in the 1960s. Directed by: Marcelo Piñeyro. Presented by: Denise Frazier.

March 3: Maria Full of Grace (U.S./Colombia, 2004)
Maria Alvarez is a Colombian teenager who lives with three generations of her family in a cramped house in rural Colombia.. Desperate to leave her job stripping thorns from roses, Maria accepts a large paycheck, agrees to be a mule for drug-runners: she has to swallow dozens of thumb-sized capsules of heroin and smuggle them into New York. This debilitating process is painstakingly described, and of course not everything goes as planned when Maria and her fellow mules land in America. The trump card is the lead performance of Catalina Sandrino Moreno, who won awards at the Seattle and Newport Film Festivals.. Her empathetic face carries us along on Maria's journey, and humanizes a problem that is too easily relegated to a headline. The dramatic thriller builds toward a conclusion that could only be based on a thousand true stories. Directed by: Joshua Martin. Presented by: Gray Miles.

March 31: Untamed Women (Mujeres Insumisas) (Mexico, 1995)
Frustrated by their confined existences and of being mistreated by their husbands, four housewives from a small Mexican town leave their husbands and children behind as they try to build new and more satisfying lives. They find work and adventure in a Guadalajara cabaret,though danger looms when one of the women becomes involved with a drug dealer. Some stolen money offers another chance for freedom in Los Angeles, but one determined husband will not give up his search for the woman who abandoned him. It was nominated for 14 Mexican Academy Award. Presented by: Amy George Hirons.

April 21: Domésticas/Maids (Brazil, 2001)
A fast, sexy, and life-affirming film from the director of City of God, Maids offers both superb slice-of-life acting and sophisticated film work. In Brazil, there are no less than three million housemaids, each with her own, yet universal story of loneliness, ambitions and loss but also of mutual solidarity and love. Based on one of the most popular and widely praised modern Brazilian stage plays, this defiant and original film, follows the stories of five maids who are brought together by the drudgery of their work and the bus they ride. Set to the rhythm of a samba, the film draws an intimate portrait of these characters and their problems. Directed by Fernando Meirelles and Nando Olival

April 28: Life+Debt (Jamaica, 2001)
With twenty-five years of "help" from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank intended to bring Third World nations such as Jamaica into the fold of free market economies, these "restructuring" policies have crippled Jamaica's efforts toward self-reliant development while enriching the lenders. This scathing film is an unapologetic look at the "new world order" from the point of view of Jamaican workers and farmers, as well as government and policy officials. Featuring a dynamic reggae soundtrack and a searing voice over based on text by Jamaica Kincaid, as well as interviews with former Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley, Deputy Director of the IMF Stanley Fisher and President of Haiti Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Life and Debt portrays the relationship between Jamaican poverty and the practices of the World Bank while driving home the devastating consequences of globalization. Directed by Stephanie Black Presented by: Xela Korda

Welcome

Here's how we will use this blog.

Each time an event is chosen for the program, the title, time and date will be posted as a heading. Under the heading you will find a description; the location will be posted at the bottom of the description.

After you attend an event of your chosing, you will return to the blog to post your reflection as a "comment" on the blog posting (under the original event listing). These reflections should include the following:

• Title of event
• Who was the presenter and why were they significant in relation to the topic
• What was the event about- this is the most crucial part of the reflection. Details related to history, events, etc. should be included in this section.
  
• What did you learn from this event
• How do you think you be able to incorporate this information into your classroom- you can include lesson and activity suggestions if you like.
  

Your reflection should be written in narrative format. They will be read by myself and Erica Roggeveen, a graduate student in Latin American Studies. We will comment on your reflections for accurancy, make suggestions for points you may have missed or properly highlighted, or make suggestions for furthering reading. The purpose of the experience is to increase your knowledge of Latin America and we want to make sure you are on the right path.

Enjoy the program. If you have any questions, please contact Erica or myself.

Take care,

Brian Knighten