Latino/Latin American Studies

Latino/Latin American Studies consists of three intertwined programs: an academic minor, a co-curricular learning community, and study abroad programs in Chile and Guatemala.

Events Series and Reading Circle -  Latin America and Human Rights in the 21st Century

Fall 2012:
Wednesday October 17, SJU Alumni Lounge, 7:00pm.  Tomás Gómez Membreño will present "United States Intervention in Honduras and the Effects on Indigenous Peoples"
Tomás Gómez Membreño is visiting from Honduras, where he works for the non-profit Indigenous rights organization COPINH (Civic Council of Popular Indigenous Organizations). COPINH has been working to expose the role of the United States in the coup and its aftermath. Gomez is a member of the Lencan people, an indigenous community in the southwest of Honduras.

Wednesday October 31, CSB Gorecki 240C, 7:00pm.   Diana Taylor will present "The Politics of Passion".
What options for political and economic justice do people have when the electoral process has been violated or corrupted, the media sequestered in the hands of power-brokers, and official institutions cannot adjudicate in a way that is seen as transparent and legitimate? The politics of passion explains the resurgence and even centrality of the body in politics. As political parties fail to represent their constituencies, people are re-learning to represent themselves.

Wednesday, December 5, SJU (Q264), 7:00pm.    Kathryn Sikkink will present "Latin America and the Justice Cascade" 
The groundbreaking emergence of human rights trials as modern political tool is changing the face of global politics. To the unprecedented violence of the twentieth century, the justice cascade is a shift in the legitimacy of the norm of individual criminal accountability for human rights violations and an increase in criminal prosecutions on behalf of that norm. 

Past Events:

Spring 2012

• Samual Regalado, " 'In the New World:' The Latin Ballplayer and Awakened Latino Image"  View video.
• Corey Shouse Tourino, Sport Obsession and National Reinvention: The Spectacle of Professional Cycling in Colombia.  View video.
• Juan Javier Pescador, Wearing La Camieseta Nacional, February 2012.  View video.

Fall 2011

• Nicholas Bruckman, La Americana, November 2011.  Video coming soon.
• Nancy Garcia, Railroaded by NAFTA/CAFTA: the Perilous Journey from Central America to the States, October 2011,  View video.
• Douglas Sofer, Tennessee Taquerías: How Latinos Are Redefining the U.S. South, September 2011. View video.

Fall 2010-Spring 2011

• Patricia Ariza, Human Rights Violations in Times of War and Peace, March 2011.  View video.
• Margaret Randall, Feminism in America, March 2011. View video.
• Michele Garnett McKenzie, Sex Trafficking, March 2011.  View video. 
• Michael Gonzales, The Origins of the Mexican Revolution of 1910 .  View video.
• Juan Dies, Mexican musical traditions and Chicano culture. March 2010. View video.

A Journey Across Our America: Latino Reflections on Culture, Change, and Belonging. In 2007 University of Minnesota Professor Louis Mendoza took a 12,000 mile bicycle trip around the United States to explore the relationship between place, language and experience that shapes American culture and identity. Feb. 11, 2010. View video.

"The Cuban Revolution in the Context of 200 Years of U.S. -Cuban Relations." Presented by Dr. Gary Prevost, CSB/SJU Professor of Political Science. Lecture video taped Sept. 16, 2009 as part of the Fall 2009 Reading Circle Events. View video.

Ann Marie Stock: “On Location in Cuba: Young Audiovisual Artists Film an Island Nation in Transition” Oct. 22, 2009. View video.

Dr. Carlos Oliva, professor of History University of Havana, Cuba. Title "Why talk of Revolution 50 Years After the Fact." Sept. 16, 2009. View video.