The Center for Latin American Studies and the Latin American Studies Student Organization (LASSO) sponsor a number on-going lecture series as well as special events. Here is a listing of some of the past events that we have sponsored.

Killing Pablo

Thursday December 2, 6:00pm in COM 207 the Center for Latin American Studies will be presenting the film "Killing Pablo" which is a dramatic vision of Pablo Escobar's life. This is the true story of how the Colombian gangster and terrorist, Pablo Escobar, was assassinated and his Medellin cocaine cartel was dismantled by US special forces and intelligence, the Colombian military, and a vigilante gang controlled by the Cali cartel. The film is based on the best selling novel by Mark bowden who also wrote Blackhawk Down. The film will be followed by a discussion led by Chicano and Chichana Studies faculty member Alex Gomez. this film is part of the Ventana Latina film Series and is sponsored by the Center for Latin American Studies

UNAFF Traveling Film Festival

Friday November 12th and Saturday Novemebr 13th Scripps Cottage CLAS will be cosponsoring the SDSU United Nations Student Alliance UNAFF Traveling Film Festival, which features a number films dealing with Latin America. This is a unique festival showing seventeen outstanding films dealing with issues in Afghanistan, Brazil, Canada, Columbia, Cuba, Guatemala, Iran, Kenya, Mexico, Senegal, Somalia, the United States, and Vietnam which celebrate the efforts of documentary filmmakers to fight for justice and dignity for all humankind around the world.

Friday, November 12th
Session I
1:00pm: The Friendship Village 51' Canada/Vietnam
2:00pm: Behind The Labels 45' USA
3:00pm: In Whose Interest 26' USA

Session II
4:00pm: Afghanistan Unveiled 52' Afghanistan/France/USA
5:00pm: Against the Tide of History 27' Senegal/USA
5:30pm: The Tree That Remembers 50' Canada/Iran/USA

Opening Night Reception
6:30pm: Refreshments and Guest Speaker

Session III
7:30pm: A Life of Death 7' USA
8:00pm: Plan Colombia 57' Colombia/USA
9:00pm: When Abortion Was Illegal 27' USA

Session IV
1:30pm: I Was Born A Black Woman 44' Brazil/USA
2:30pm: Sin Embargo 49' Cuba/USA

Session V
4:00pm: Discovering Dominga 58' Guatemala/USA
5:00pm: Talk Mogadishu 50' Canada/Somalia/USA

Closing Night Reception
6:00pm: Refreshments and Guest Speaker

Session VI
7:00pm: Farmingville 78' USA
8:30pm: Looking Down 4'35'' USA
8:40pm: I Promise Africa 2'47'' Kenya/USA

Cosponsored by the United Nations Student Alliance, CASE, and the Center for Latin American Studies

For More Information please go to the UNSA website

"Community Centered Globalization: Modernization Under Control in Rural Costa Rica"

Wednesday March 16, 2005 Dr. Edward Jackiewicz is an Assistant Professor and Graduate Coordinator at the Department of Geography at the California State University Northridge. This talk will examine the community development process in a small rural community in Costa Rica to demonstrate that some places are succeeding in sustaining and enhancing their economic potential and standard of living.

"Globalization and the Implications for Our Hemisphere"

Tuesday October 12, 12:00pm SH 146 José Cademartori is a Chilean economist who focuses on Latin American economics and the US-Latin American Relations. The topic of his most recent research in the US-Chile free trade agreement, and he is working on a new book Globalization and the Implications for Our Hemisphere, which will be the topic of his presentation. Mr. Cademartori, a former exile of Chile, has worked for the Chilean and Venezuelan governments and seen the effects of globalization first hand. He offers a unique perspective on the current happenings in Latin America and its future.

Argentina's Dicatatorship: Memories and Reflections of a Former "Desaparecido"

Wendesday October 20th 7:00pm-9:00pm LL-430 Mario Villani will give the presentation: "Argentina's dictatorship: Memories and reflections of a Former Desaparecido" Mario Villani is a survivor of five different Argentinean concentration camps. He experienced first hand the military repression and torture by the Military Junta in Argentina. Ever since his release he has been spreading his testimony against the Military group and has testified against them in the public trials in Argentina and in collaboration with Garzon in Spain.

Sponsored by the Center for Latin American Studies

"The Emerging Integration of the California and Mexican Economies"

Tuesday October 5th 5:00pm West Commons Room 201 Howard Shatz, a Research Fellow from the Public Policy Institute of California will give a talk titled "The Emerging Integration of the California and Mexican Economies." Trade between california and Mexico has grown at a rate of more than 13% a year for more than a decade. Dr. shatz will discuss the impact on jobs, income, infrastructure, and other changes created by the deepening integration of the California and Mexican economies.

Sponsored by CLAS

CLAS Announces New Associate Director

Dear current and former LAS Students,

I am extremely pleased to announce that Dr. Ramona Pérez from the Department of Anthropology has agreed to accept the position of Associate Director of the Center for Latin American Studies.

Dr. Pérez received her Ph.D. from UC Riverside and taught at the University of North Texas before coming to SDSU in 2001. She brings to the Center her background as a business professional, and a wide range of skills and expertise. Her research and teaching focus on applied anthropology, the cultures of Mexico, and the Mexican American experience. She has worked with numerous professional and civic organizations and has developed research training programs for minority students. She is currently the coordinator of the SDSU Mixtec Language Program in Oaxaca, where she also did fieldwork for her dissertation. Those of you who have worked with her will know how fortunate it is for the Center that she agreed to become a central part of the CLAS team.

Ramona takes over from Dr. Hugo Murillo in January, but Hugo will not be leaving Latin American Studies. He will continue to teach some of the cornerstone classes in the program and to develop LAS summer and semester abroad programs in Costa Rica. In addition, Hugo will concentrate on the development of a Language Across the Curriculum (LAC) program, a task for which he is ideally suited. He was Associate Director under the former director, Dr. Tom Davies, and served as Interim Director of Latin American Studies from 2000 until 2002, when he returned to his position as Associate Director. The University and the Center owe a debt of gratitude to Hugo for seeing us through the last few years, and I look forward to working with him on the development of a LAC program at SDSU.

Dr. Pérez, Dr. Murillo, and I, will share advising duties next semester, so please feel free to bring your questions to any of us. Dr. Pérez's office is in Nasatir Hall, 333.

Jim Gerber
Director of CLAS

LASSO

November 20, 2003 The Fourth World War - Hepner Hall 130- 7:00 -10:00 pm LASSO is co-sponsoring a showing of this documentary with a discussion of the film with the film makers afterwards. From the front-lines of conflicts in Mexico, Argentina, South Africa, Palestine, Korea, 'the North' from Seattle to Genova, and the 'War on Terror' in New York, Afghanistan, and Iraq. It is the story of men and women around the world who resist being annihilated in this war. Co-sponsored by Big Noise Films, The San Diego Independent Media Center, and Schools for Chiapas.

First Peoples of the Americas Series

April 14, 2004 430pm Love Library 430 Visiting Fulbright Scholar at SDSU, Gabriel Weisz, will be giving the presentation "Shamantic Text: The Literature of Alterity" as part of the First Peoples of the Americas Series.

Dr. Gabriel Weisz is a Fulbright visitor scholar from the UNAM (The National Autonomous University of Mexico) hosted by the Spanish and Portuguese Department at SDSU. Weisz is currently doing his research in a Comparative Literature project on the exotic subject in literature as well as teaching a course in the Spanish Department based on the subject of his research. Throughout his academic life he has given lectures and courses in different places of the world. His lines of research are often coupled to shamanism, literature, the body, and performing arts.

Weisz has received the Medalla Gabino Barreda twice, in 1978 and in 1994. He has written several books linking anthropology to literature, including "Shamanism, Ancient Theater, and Ethnodrama", "La Máscara de Genet", "El Juego Viviente: Indagación sobre las partes ocultas del objeto lúdico", "Tribu del Infinito: Un estudio sobre las matemáticas, la antropología y la representación", "Palacio Chamánico: Filosofía corporal de Artaud y distintas culturas chamánicas". The Dark Book, a poetry book, etchings by Leonora Carrington, shown in New York. December 1997. Texto bilingüe (Inglés/Español). Dioses de la Peste. Col. Lingüística y teoría literaria México: UNAM and Siglo XXI. 1998.

Presentation will be held in English.

There will be a brief screening of the documentary Brujos y Curanderos

Event co-sponsored by the Love Library and the Spanish and Portuguese Department.

March 23, 2004 4:30pm to 6:00pm Love Library - LL 430 Professors Juan Julian Caballero and Marcos Cruz Bautista will present Language and Culture Preservation in the Mixtec Diaspora as part of the First Peoples of the Americas Series.

Professors Juan Julian Caballero (Huitepec variation) and Marcos Cruz Bautista (Mixtepec variation) are native Mixtec speakers with formal training in ethnolinguistics and second language (Mixtec) acquisition from Mexico's Universidad Pedagógica Nacional (UPN).

Prof. Julian Caballero teaches at the Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (CIESAS). Prof. Cruz Bautista teaches at the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional (UPN), Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca campus.

Event co-sponsored by the Love Library, Presentation will be held in Spanish.

November 18, 2003 LA 2203 4:00-7:00 Presentation and Discussion "Mitología y Mesoamerica" - Alfredo López Austin Alfredo López-Austin is a researcher and teacher at the UNAM in Mexico City. He works at the Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas and offers courses through the Facultad de Filosofía y Letras. Throughout his long career, he has been honored with important academic distinctions in Mexico and other countries.

A world class expert on Mesoamerican cultures, Professor López-Austin is known for having created visual models for complex mythological ideas. Another conceptual feature of his work is the comparative discourse he has developed that links contemporary Mexican magical traditions with the broader Nahuatl mythology. His approach to this subject matter is startlingly original, as for example when he uncovers the traditional knowledge that allows us to understand how a body was cured and governed by powerful cosmological forces in Mesoamerican cultures.

Southern Cone Writers Series

April 6, 2004 430pm to 600pm Love Library 430 Argentinean writer Alicia Kozameh will be presenting "Escribir la vida o vivir la escritura: la experiencia como palabra" as part of the Southern Cone Writers Series.

Alicia Kozameh nació en Argentina, en la ciudad de Rosario, en marzo de 1953. Comenzó a escribir desde muy temprana edad. Estudió Filosofía y Letras en la Universidad de Rosario y en la Universidad de Buenos Aires. Desde septiembre de 1975 hasta diciembre de 1978 fue prisionera política de la dictadura militar en Argentina. Testimonios de esa experiencia son evidentes en algunas de sus obras. En 1980, debido a las persecuciones y la insistente represión, se exilió en California, y luego en México. Durante ese período escribió la novela El séptimo sueño. De regreso del exilio, editorial Contrapunto publicó en Buenos Aires, en 1987, Pasos bajo el agua. Durante su estadía en Buenos Aires escribió el guión cinematográfico basado en la novela. Al capítulo "Carta a Aubervilliers" de este libro le fue otorgado el premio "Crisis" en 1986. Reside desde 1988 en Los Angeles, donde terminó la novela Patas de avestruz. Fue fundadora y directora de la revista literaria Monóculo. Ha publicado numerosos cuentos y artículos en diversos medios de Argentina, América y Europa. Sus obras han sido traducidas al inglés y al alemán.

The presentation will be in Spanish.

Event co-sponsored by the Spanish and Portuguese Department, LARC, and Love Library

March 23, 2004 4:30pm to 6:00pm Love Library - LL 430 Alejandra Naftal will present Memory and Human Rights in Argentina, Past and Present as part of the Southern Cone Writers Series. Naftal is Director of the Oral Archive “Memoria Abierta”

Alejandra Naftal was born in Buenos Aires in 1960. She was only 17 years old when, in 1978 at the peak of the military dictatorship, she was kidnapped by members of the Argentine Army. Naftal spent six months at the concentration camp “El Vesubio”. She later flew to Israel where she studied chemistry and returned to Argentina in 1983, after democracy was restored. Back in Buenos Aires, Naftal studied museology and, since then, has worked on human rights issues with several non-governmental organizations as well as with the National Government and the Buenos Aires city government.

Naftal currently directs the oral archive at Memoria Abierta, an alliance of eight human rights organizations dedicated to keep alive the memory of those who suffered human rights violations during the last Argentine dictatorship. Among other initiatives, Memoria Abierta is developing an oral archive with the voices of victims, relatives, witnesses and ordinary people that went through the experience of State terrorism.

Event co-sponsored by the Love Library, Spanish and Portuguese Department, and LARC

March 9, 2004 4:30 to 6:00pm LL 430 Argentinean Author Cristina Feijóo will give the presentation Argentinean Narrative: Experiencia y Escritura as part of the Southern Cone Writers Series.

Cristina Feijóo was born in Buenos Aires in 1944. A militant of the Peronist Left, she was siezed by the government two times: between 1971 and 1973 and later between 1976 and 1979. She was exiled in Stockholm until 1983. Her first cook of stories, En Celdas Diferentes (1992) recieved the Council for Swiss Culture Award. Some of her stories have been included in the anthologies: "Como en las películas" which is in the Anthology of Latin American Stories in Switzerland (1995); "Streams of Love," which received an award from a jury comprised of por Nicolás Cócaro, Agustín Pérez Zelaschi and Isidoro Blaisten (1995); and "Las cosas en orden," in the collection Networks of Memory (2001). She also has two unedited books: El Corral de los Corderos (stories) and Peces de Acuario, a novel. Memorias del Río Inmóvil, written in 1999, received the Clarín Award for a Novel 2001.

The presentation will be conducted in Spanish.

March 4, 2004 3:00-5:00pm LL430 Chilean Author Naín Nómez Díaz will give the presentation Los Orígenes de la Poesía Chilena Moderna as part of the Southern Cone Writers Series.

Academic, Critic, Poet. Naín Nómez Díaz received an MA from Carleton University, Canada and Ph.D in Literature from the University of Toronto. He has published a dozen books of criticism, anthological works, and books of poetry. Among these are Pablo de Rokha: una escritura en movimiento (1988), Pablo de Rokha: historia, utopia y produccion literaria (1991); Pablo de Rokha y Pablo Neruda: la escritura total (1992) with Manuel Jofre; Critical Anthology of Chilean Poetry Volumes I-II-III (1996, 2000, 2003); Paises como puentes levadizos (1986); Burning Bridges (1987); El fuego va borrando (1989) y Movimiento de las salamandras (1999). The last book received the National Award from the Fondo del Libro y la Lectura for best published work in 2000. he has been a professor at Universidad de Chile, de la Universidad Técnica del Estado, University of Toronto, Queen's University en Kingston, Canada, and California State University en Long Beach. Currently he is a professor of Philosophy and a member of the Academic Council of la Universidad de Santiago de Chile.

The presentation will be conducted in Spanish.

January 27, 2004 5pm-6pm LL 430 Roberto Rivera, will present Chilean Narrative before and after the Dictatorship. Roberto Rivera is a Chilean writer and journalist, as well as author of A fuego eterno condenados (Condemned to Eternal Fire, 1994), and La pradera ortopédica (The Orthopedic Prairie, 1986). His work is a brilliant, symbolic and at the same time realistic picture of the Pinochet era and its aftermath. His short stories have been published in Mexico, Sweden, Spain, Argentina, and Chile. He has been granted several literary awards, and the Fellowship of the National Board of the Book in 1998. This event is co-sponsored by the Spanish and Portuguese Department, the Love Library, and LARC

November 11, 2003 5-6pm LL430 "Chilean Poetry During the Dictatorship" - Gonzalo Contreras is a Chilean poet who is compling an anthology of poems from chilean poets that are little known outside of Chile. He also organized a literature review journal during the Pinochet dictatorship.

Other Lectures

April 28th, 1pm GMCS 214 Gioconda Belli, acclaimed Nicaraguan poet, novelist, and Sandinista comandante will read from her memoirs: The Country Under My Skin: A Memoir of Love and War

The Country Under My Skin: A Memoir of Love and War
An electrifying memoir from the acclaimed Nicaraguan writer and central figure in the Sandinista Revolution. Her memoir is both a revelatory insider’s account of the Revolution and a vivid, intensely felt story about coming of age under extraordinary circumstances. Belli writes with both striking lyricism and candor about her personal and political lives: about her family, her children, the men in her life; about her poetry; about the dichotomies between her birth-right and the life she chose for herself; about the failures and triumphs of the Revolution; about her current life, divided between California (with her American husband and their children) and Nicaragua; and about her sustained and sustaining passion for her country and its people.

Sponsored by: Phi Alpha Theta, The Center for Latin American Studies, The Cross Cultural Center and The Departments of History and Women’s Studies

April 29th, 7-8:30pm North Education Building, Room 60
The Department of Women's Studies will be hosting Puerto Rican poet, historian, and activist Aurora Levins Morales. She will give the presentation "Healing Through Story"

Aurora Levins Morales is a poet, historian and activist. She writes powerfully and personally about the current state of the world from the perspective of a feminist who is both a Puerto Rican and Jewish, and her poetry is broadcast regularly on the Pacifica Radio program Flashpoints. Her 9-11 poem "Shema," which was widely shared on the Internet, has been read at rallies and religious services across the country and aired repeatedly on Pacifica Radio. She is also a community historian, collecting, preserving and sharing the stories of disenfranchised peoples, and using their life histories as a basis for community organizing and development.

Levins Morales' most recent books are Remedios: Stories of Earth and Iron from the History of Puertorriqueñas, a riveting and sensual retelling of thousands of years of history through Latina eyes; Medicine Stories, a collection of essays on cultural activism and the power of radical history, and Telling to Live: Latina Feminist Testimonios, a collectively written and edited book that grew out of a remarkable process of mutual interviewing and analysis by eighteen Latina feminist scholars.

At this annual Spring event, the Department of Women's Studies will also award scholarships to deserving students. Scholarships to be awarded are the Betty Nesvold, the Andrea O'Donnell Memorial, the Aureet Bar-Yam/Oliva Espín, the Joanne Davis and the Deb Pedersdotter Scholarships.

This event is sponsored by Women's Studies and co-cponsored by: The Fund for Instructionally Related Activities, The SDSU Cross-Cultural Center, the Center for Latin American Studies and the Departments of Africana Studies, Chicana/Chicano Studies, English, and Religious Studies.

November 10, 2003 SH 146 12:00-1:30pm "Human Rights in Chile 2003: How much justice? How much truth?" Elizabeth Lira is a psychologist and researcher at the Center for Ethics, Universidad de Alberto Hurtado in Santiago, Chile. Her current research is on Chilean reconciliation and resistance of memory.

Since 1977 she has worked mainly in the field of mental health and human rights in clinical services, psycosocial research and national and international advocacy. She currently supervises clinical teams working in the ares of domestic violence and abuse and with victims of the human rights violations for the PRAIS Program (Public Health and Mental Health Program for victims of human rights violations during the dictatorship).

Professor Lira has co-authored six books on political reconciliation with SDSU Professor Brian Loveman and she has written other books related to therapy and memory for victims of human rights violations.

Social Movements Series

November 6, 2003 4-6pm GMCS 309 "Environmental History of Baja California" - Micheline Cariño. Micheline Cariño is a Professor of History at the Universidad Autonoma de Baja California Sur (UABCS). She is the author of the book Historia de las Relaciones Hombre Naturaleza en Baja California Sur 1500-1940 and she has co-authored two others: El Primer Emporio Perlero Sustentable del Mundo and Comercio y Desarrollo Sustentable en Sudcalifornia (Siglos XIX y XX)

April 12, 2004 SH 136 6pm Amelia Simpson, Director for the Environmental Health Coalition’s Border Environmental Justice Campaign, will be presenting the report Globalization at the Crossroads as part of the Center for Latin American Studies’ Social Movement Series. This report looks at the economic, labor rights, environmental and health impacts to the cross border communities of Tijuana and San Diego.

The Environmental Health Coalition’s Border Environmental Justice Campaign works in solidarity with social justice groups in the border region to promote worker and community right-to-know about the chemicals used by maquiladoras, to increase their capacity to influence conditions that directly affect their health, and to demand cleanup of abandoned and contaminated sites.

This event is sponsored by The Center for Latin American Studies, The Environmental Health Coalition, and
Latin American Studies Student Organization

April 13, 2004 Nora Cortiñas, a co-founder of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo movement from Argentina will be giving the presentation "Justice, Truth, Resistance" as part of the Social Movement Series.

Nora Cortiñas, cofounder of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo movement (Línea Fundadora), is an internationally well-known human rights activist. She has not only struggled for the cause of the desaparecidos (the disappeared), after her son Carlos Gustavo Cortiñas was disappeared in Argentina on April 15, 1977, but also has disseminated her ideas for Social Justice throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. Cortiñas has participated in numerous Human Rights and Women's Congresses including the Human Rights Commission of the OAS and UN. She has taught seminars and courses in Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Spain, United States, France, Haiti, Netherlands, Italy, Mexico, Nicaragua, Norway, Dominican Republic, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Uruguay, Venezuela.

Presentation will be held in Spanish. Translation will be available.

Event co-sponsored by the Spanish and Portuguese Department, LARC, and Love Library

LAS Career Series

October 13, 2003 3:30-5:30pm in GMCS 214 "Opportunities for Philanthropy in Baja California and Beyond." Richard Kiy President and CEO of the International Community Foundation will talk about opportunities for students to work with the International Community Foundation, the role of the ICF in Latin America (specifically Baja California) and elsewhere, and the importance of language and cross-cultural understanding in building a successful career. Sponsored by CLAS, ISCOR, International Business, and The Career Center at SDSU.

2003 Summer Intensive Mixtec Language Program

When: June 23 - Aug 1
Where: Oaxaca City, Oaxaca Mexico

SDSU's program offers beginning and intermediate instruction in Mixtec, an indigenous language spoken in the states of Oaxaca, Guerrero and Puebla. This program meets the US Department of Education guidelines for Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) summer intensive language fellowships. Applications for this program may be obtained through the Center for Latin American Studies, San Diego State University. Please phone, email, or write to request application materials. This program is limited to 25 students. Early applications will be given priority.

For additional information, or an application, contact: Elizabeth Sáenz-Ackermann; Center for Latin American Studies; San Diego State University; San Diego, CA 92182-4446.

Phone: (619) 594-1104.
Email: esaenz@mail.sdsu.edu

Coffee Hour with a Brazilian Flavor!

Friday May 2
12 noon to 1:30pm
At the International Student Center

The Center for Latin American Studies & Latin American Studies Student Organization join The International Student Center Traditional Coffee Hour with Live Brazilian Music and Dancers by Super Sonic Samba School, Brazilian Cuisine and Refreshments.

Free, but donations most welcome.

Proceeds will go to benefit the Relief for Patients with SARS in China

Questions? Call CLAS at 594.1103 or ISC at 594.1981

Ventana Latina Film Series

Latin American Studies Student Organization presented Ventana Latina Film Series

When: Tuesdays February 25-March 25
Where: Hepner Hall 130
All films begin at 7:00pm, Admission is free!

El Mariachi
Tuesday February 25
An aspiring mariachi enters a violent world of bandidos when he chooses the gun over his guitar. This movie was shot without any second takes with a dramatically acclaimed unknown cast. Film is in Spanish and English with subtitles.

Eu, Tu, Eles
Tuesday March 4
This is a Brazilian human comic drama staring Regina Case, as Darlene, trying to manage a complex family saga. This contemporary film blends the sights and sounds of rural Brazil into this comedic domestic adventure. Film is in Portuguese with English subtitles.

The Missing
Tuesday March 11
Based on the book by Thomas Hauser, this film tells the story of a wife and father's desperate search for a young North American desaparecido who fear he has fallen victim to a violently repressive military regime in South America. Film is in English.

Fresa Y Chocolate
Tuesday March 25
The lives of David, an intellectual homosexual and Diego, a member of the communist youth brigade become uniquely intertwined. Tomás Gutierrez Alea & Juan Carlos Tabío direct a masterpiece that depicts the contradictions of post-revolutionary Cuba. In Spanish with English Subtitles.

San Diego, California
Visit Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies (CILAS) at UCSD. CILAS is an excellent source to update you on Latin America studies events in our community.

Tijuana, Mexico
Visit Bitacora and Instituto de Cultura de Baja California (ICBC) to find more about upcoming events.