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.