THE UNC-CH LATINA/O CULTURE(S) SPEAKERS SERIES:

Dr. María DeGuzmán is the conceiver and organizer of the UNC-CH Latina/o Culture(s) Speakers' series sponsored by the UNC-Chapel Hill English Department and the College of Arts and Sciences. The Series, begun Fall 1999, is the first of its kind at UNC-CH. It is dedicated to exploring Latina/o Studies as an interdisciplinary endeavor that draws on, among other areas of inquiry, literary and cultural studies, visual culture and media studies, creative writing and performance studies, philosophy and aesthetics, history, sociology, comparative ethnic studies and postcolonial studies, Americas studies, health and environmental studies, and gender and sexuality studies. It has served to create dialogue between ethnic studies areas on campus. The Series has hosted creative writers and scholars addressing the intersections between Latina/o and African-American cultural production, between specifically Chicana/o and Native American Studies, and common ground (LatinAsia or AsiaLat Studies) between Latina/o Studies and Asian Diaspora Studies.

Fall 1999 Chicana novelist and academic Sheila Ortiz Taylor gave a talk entitled "Coachella: The Novel as Community" and spoke at length with Marianne Gingher's Creative Writing class. Spring 2000 Miguel Algarín, poet and founder of the Nuyorican Poets Café, translator of Pablo Neruda, teacher of Shakespeare, and winner of numerous American Book Awards conducted a well-attended open poetry reading at the Skylight Exchange and gave a talk entitled "Four Hundred Year-Old American" on his relation as a Puerto Rican Afro-Latino to the work of William Shakespeare, in particular Othello and The Merchant of Venice.

During the Fall semester of academic year 2000-2001, the series hosted Chicana-Latina novelist and chair of Chicana/o Studies at Loyola Marymount University Graciela Limón, winner of The Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award (1994). Its next guest was Dr. Rane Ramón Arroyo, poet and playwright of Puerto Rican heritage who grew up in the midwest and is currently associate chair of the English Department at the University of Toledo, Ohio. After Arroyo's visit, the series hosted the Puerto Rican writer, winner of the Letras de Oro Prize and the Juan Rulfo Prize, and author of the acclaimed Sirena Selena, Mayra Santos-Febres. She was followed by Puerto Rican academic and professor of Spanish at Mount Holyoke College Alberto Sandoval-Sánchez author of José Can You See?: Latinos On and Off Broadway and editor of Puro Teatro: A Latina Anthology.

This Fall 2001 Roberto Márquez--translator, editor, essayist, literary critic, cultural historian and William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Latin American and Caribbean Studies at Mount Holyoke College--gave a talk entitled "Notes of an Other Rican: Race, Nationality, and Identity in the Caribbean Americas."

March 25, 2002 Native American scholar and associate professor of Women's Studies M. A. Jaimes-Guerrero spoke on the topic of "Women, La Raza, and Indigenism" about the historical relation between Native American and Chicana/o identities and statuses. April 29, 2002 Dr. Arturo J. Aldama, professor of Chicana/o Studies at Arizona State University presented from his new book Disrupting Savagism: Intersecting Chicana/o, Mexicana/o, and Native American Struggles for Representation (Duke University Press).

This Fall 2002, Nov. 21 and 22, Evelyn Hu-DeHart, Professor of History and the Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University, spoke about the historical bases for the intersection of Latina/o and Asian Diaspora Studies in the Americas as well as the work of comparative ethnic studies. November 21st at 7:30 PM in Greenlaw 101 (Auditorium), UNC-Chapel Hill Dr. Hu-DeHart lectured on "Racial Construction and Race Relations: Chinese and Blacks in Nineteenth-Century Cuba." Friday November 22 at 12 noon in Donovan Lounge, Greenlaw, 2nd floor, Dr. Hu-DeHart led a brown bag lunch discussion on the questions "What is Ethnic Studies? Ethnic Studies at UNC?"

February 12, 2003 poet, journalist, and nonfiction writer Luis Francia, author of, among other books, Eye of the Fish: A Personal Archipelago (2001) and co-editor of Vestiges of War: The Philippine-American War and the Aftermath of an Imperial Dream 1899–1999 gave a talk entitled "Navigating Three Rivers: A Filipino Writer in a Postcolonial World" on cross-currents in his own work of Latino/Anglo/Malay-Pilipino histories and cultures.

Wednesday March 26, 2003 at 7:00 PM Karen Tei Yamashita, writer and associate professor of Literature & Creative Writing at the University of California-Santa Cruz, gave a public talk entitled "The Floating Tropic: São Paulo/L.A./Tokyo" (on Japanese in Brazil, Brazilians in Japan, Los Angeles, Transculturation, and "LatinAsia"). In the Frank Porter Graham Student Union Expansion, Room 1505 (bottom floor, South Road level). UNC-Chapel Hill campus. Book signing after the talk.

Monday November 10, 2003 at 4:00 PM Silvio Torres-Saillant, associate professor of English, Director of the Latino-Latin American Studies Program at Syracuse, and founding Director of the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute at City College, spoke on "Latino Discourses: Autobiography, Community Identity, and the Contours of Americanness" in the University Room of Hyde Hall. The event is free and open to the public.

Monday February 16, 2004 Achy Obejas, Cuban-American fiction writer, journalist, poet, explorer of queer Latina/o cultures and of Jewish Latinidades, and author of We Came All the Way from Cuba so You Could Dress Like This? (1994), Memory Mambo (1996), and Days of Awe (2001), and Springer Writer-in-Residence in the English Department at the University of Chicago delivered a talk entitled "Identity and Dislocation" at 4:00 PM in the University Room, Hyde Hall, Institute for the Arts & Humanities. A question answer period and a book-signing followed.

Monday April 19, 2004 Kirsten Silva Gruesz, associate professor of literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz and author of Ambassadors of Culture: The Transamerican Origins of Latino Writing (Princeton University Press, 2001), gave a talk entitled "Thinking Back from the Latino Future" at 3:30 PM in Louis Round Wilson Library.

Monday September 20, 2004 Frances Aparicio, professor and director of the Latin American and Latino Studies Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago, gave a talk "Gendered Transculturations in Six Feet Under: Rethinking Disciplinary Boundaries."

Tuesday March 1, 2005 Arturo Arias, Guatemalan novelist and screen-writer as well as Director of Latin American Studies at the University of the Redlands in California spoke in Hanes Art Auditorium 121 at 5:30 PM. His presentation was entitled " 'The Tattooed Soldier' and 'Odyssey to the North': Central Americans' Emerging Visibility and Representation in the United States." Followed by a book-signing.

Tuesday April 26, 2005 Antonia Darder, Professor of Educational Policy Studies and Latino/a Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, gave a talk entitled "Latinos and School Desegregation 75 Years after the Lemon Grove Incident" at 4:30 PM in Toy Lounge, Dey Hall, followed by a book-signing.

Wednesday October 5, 2005 Suzanne Oboler, Associate Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, presented "Re-racializing Latino/as: The Politics of Citizenship, Labeling, and Alliance Building in the Post 9-11 Context." 5:00 PM at Hyde Hall, Institute for the Arts & Humanities, UNC, Chapel Hill. A book-signing followed the talk.

Wednesday November 16, 2005 Loida Maritza Pérez, Dominican-American author of the acclaimed novel Geographies of Home, gave a talk entitled "Dominican Identity as Construct" (followed by Q & A and book-signing) at Fox Auditorium, Carrington Hall addition, School of Nursing, corner of South Columbia Street and Medical Drive, Chapel Hill, at 5:00 PM. Free parking in the Bell Tower lot after 5:00 PM.

Tuesday April 4, 2006 Junot Díaz, Dominican-American author of Drown and associate professor at M.I.T., spoke at UNC-Chapel Hill in the Hitchcock Multi-purpose Room of the Sonja Haynes Center for Black Culture at 7:00 PM. This event was sponsored by the UNC Latina/o Cultures Speakers Series, the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture, the Institute of African American Research, and the Office of Multicultural & Diversity Affairs.

Monday October 9, 2006 Cecile Pineda gave a presentation entitled "Writing at the Edge of Being" and participated in a book-signing of a number of her works. This event was held in the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture & History's Theatre at 7:00 PM and was sponsored by the UNC Latina/o Cultures Speakers Series. Tuesday October 10 she conducted a creative writing workshop in Randall Kenan's senior seminar that started at 2:00 PM in Greenlaw Hall 526B.

Tuesday January 9, 2007 Federico Subervi, professor at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Texas State University - San Marcos, presented on Latino communication research in the era of Hispanic marketing growth, media conglomeration, electoral wooing, and immigration backlash. 4:00 - 5:00 PM, 305 Carroll Hall - Freedom Forum Conference Room. Sponsored by UNC Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the UNC Chapel Hill Latina/o Cultures Speakers Series. Questions, contact Dr. Lucila Vargas at lcvargas@email.unc.edu.

Wednesday April 4, 2007 Renato Rosaldo, inaugural Director of Latino Studies and professor of anthropology at New York University, gave a talk entitled "Huntington's Language Problem: The Case for the Polyglot Citizen." This talk was followed by a question and answer period and a book-signing. The talk began at 6:00 PM at the Hitchcock Multipurpose Room of the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture & History.

Monday October 1, 2007 Jorge Huerta, Associate Chancellor and Chief Diversity Officer of the University of California at San Diego, will be giving a talk entitled "Dangerous Laughter: Comedy in Chicano Theatre. " Q & A and book-signing to follow. The talk will begin at 6:00 PM at the Hitchcock Multipurpose Room of the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture & History. Questions, contact Dr. DeGuzmán at deguzman@email.unc.edu.

Thursday October 25, 2007 José Galvez, Pulitzer-Prize winning photographer who has been documenting Mexican American communities for years in the Southwest and in North Carolina, gave a talk about his work entitled "Images of Self – Then and Now," Freedom Forum Center, Room 305, Carroll Hall, School of Journalism, UNC - Chapel Hill. Questions, contact Dr. Lucila Vargas at lcvargas@email.unc.edu. Also, please visit www.josegalvez.com.

Tuesday November 13, 2007 Malaquias Montoya, professor and artist at the University of California at Davis, gave a talk entitled "The Social Responsibility of the Artist." Q & A and book-signing to follow. The talk began at 6:00 PM at the Hitchcock Multipurpose Room of the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture & History. Questions, contact Dr. DeGuzmán at deguzman@email.unc.edu. Also, please visit www.malaquiasmontoya.com.

Tuesday April 1, 2008 Helena María Viramontes, professor and creative writer at Cornell University, gave a talk entitled "Cemeteries, Freeways, and the Bones of the Forgotten: How Geography Shaped One Writer's Inspiration." The talk began at 6:00 PM at the Hitchcock Multipurpose Room of the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture & History. Q & A and book-signing followed the talk. Questions, contact Dr. DeGuzmán at deguzman@email.unc.edu. Also, please visit www.stuartbernstein.com/viramontes.

Thursday November 13, 2008 Cristina Henríquez, author of the collection of stories and a novella Come Together, Fall Apart (2006) and the forthcoming novel The World in Half (Riverside Books, 2009) and recipient of an Alfredo Cisneros Del Moral Foundation Award (founded by Sandra Cisneros), gave a talk entitled "Writing Who You Are (and Who You Are Not)" at 6:00 PM in the University Room of Hyde Hall, Institute for the Arts and Humanities. Q & A and book-signing followed the talk. For further information about Cristina Henríquez, please consult the following website: www.cristinahenriquez.com. Questions, contact Dr. DeGuzmán at deguzman@email.unc.edu.

Tuesday March 3, 2009 Ana Celia Zentella, anthro-political linguist and Professor Emerita in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, San Diego, gave a presentation entitled "Transfronterizo Talk: Policentric Identities and Conflicting Constructions of Bilingualism along the Tijuana-San Diego Border." The talk will start at 6 PM in the University Room of Hyde Hall, Institute for the Arts & Humanities. Q & A and a book-signing followed the presentation. For more information, contact Dr. DeGuzmán at deguzman@email.unc.edu or Ashley Lucas at lucasa@email.unc.edu.

Tuesday March 24, 2009 Cuban American author Cristina García will give a talk entitled "Beyond Dreaming in Cuban: A Reading with Cristina García." The talk will begin at 6 PM in the Sonja Haynes Stone Center Auditorium/Theatre. Q & A and a book-signing will follow the presentation. For more information, contact Dr. Halperin at lhalperi@email.unc.edu. Generous co-sponsors for this event are the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture & History, the Carolina Women's Center, and the Program in Creative Writing.

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