Latino/a Heritage Month is being celebrated at Illinois State with speakers, a summit, a concert and a film festival.
Professor Leisy Abrego of the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) will shed light on the U.S. policies that create the need for migration from Central America with her talk, Sacrificing Families: U.S. Policies and the Displacement of Central Americans at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 30, in the Escalante Room of Hewett Hall. Abrego, of the UCLA Chicana and Chicano Studies Program, will explore the reality of these families’ daily living arrangements, while delving deeper to expose the structural context that creates and sustains patterns of inequality that affect their well-being.
The film festival, Celebrating the New Wave of Ibero/Latino American Cinema, will explore Latino and Iberian culture through film. Find out more about the festival.
The community will engage in a conversation about education with the Dual Language Education Summit at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 7, in the Hansen Student Center at Illinois Wesleyan University. This summit is a community-wide event designed to learn about and gauge interest in local dual language education. The event is a joint effort, sponsored by the Latin American and Latino/a Studies Program, Illinois Wesleyan University Office of Diversity and Inclusion, and Conexiones Latinas de McLean County.
Environmental conflicts in Bolivia will be the topic of a talk by Professor Tom Perreault of Syracuse University. Perreault will present Governing From the Ground Up? Trans-local Networks and the Politics of Environmental Suffering in Bolivia at 3 p.m. Friday, Oct. 10, in room 133 of Felmley Hall. He will examine the mobilization of trans-local Bolivian “grassroots” networks and their impact on environmental change policies. Drawing on ethnographic research, this presentation queries the nature of the “grassroots” and the limits of grassroots mobilizing, and raises questions of who is authorized to speak on behalf of community members affected by environmental degradation. The talk is sponsored by the Department of Geography-Geology and Latin American and Latino/a Studies program.
Music will transcend cultures with a Los Lobos concert at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 19, at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts (BCPA). Los Lobos will treat audiences to their classic hits as well as their newest album The Town and the City. The band is known for fusing the traditional folkloric songs from Latin America, including Colombia, Puerto Rico, Cuba and Mexico. Tickets can be purchased at www.ArtsBlooming.org, by calling (309) 434-2777, or at the BCPA Box Office.
The month will wrap up with the annual Latino Cultural Dinner, Monday, Oct. 27 in the Brown Ballroom at the Bone Student Center. This year’s guest of honor will be U.S. veteran and Dancing with the Stars winner J. R. Martinez. Learn more about the dinner, which will be at 5 p.m.
