Explore
the experiences of Latino Americans in a three-night film series this March at
the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
Hosted
by the College of Letters and Science as part of the Latin American/Caribbean
Speaker Series, the three documentaries are from the landmark six-part “Latino
Americans: 500 Years of History” produced in 2013 for PBS (www.pbs.org/latino-americans/en).
The
film screenings will be held at 7 p.m. in the Dreyfus University Center Theater
on the following Tuesday evenings. All are free and open to the public:
- March 1: “The New
Latinos (1946-1965)” highlights the growth of economically driven migration
from Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, and immigration from Cuba and the Dominican
Republic from the end of World War II to the early 1960s.
- March 15:
“Prejudice and Pride (1965-1980)” details the progression of a proud Chicano
(Mexican American) identity, the expansion of the migrant farmworkers’
movement, the establishment of Chicano/Latino Studies programs in U.S. schools
and universities, and Latinos’ growing empowerment in the political process.
- March 29: “Peril
and Promise (1980-2000)” documents the wave of Cubans arriving in South Florida
during the Mariel Boatlift exodus in 1980 and the flight
of hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans, Nicaraguans and Guatemalans fleeing
civil wars, death squads and unrest, which brought the Cold War to U.S.
doorsteps. It also considers Latino success stories while taking into account
the challenges of U.S. immigration today.
UW-Stevens Point faculty Anju Reejhsinghani of History,
Jennifer Collins of Political Science and Dan Breining, World Languages and Literatures
will moderate the viewings. The films will be aired in English with Spanish
subtitles.
The film series is a fantastic opportunity for Latinos
and non-Latinos to learn more about the history and development of this
community in the past seven decades, Reejhsinghani said. “Latino stories are
American stories, but concerns over issues such as immigration have at times
obscured that. In a particularly fraught political climate, this documentary
series does a nice job of bringing some of those stories to light.”
Concluding
the film series is a presentation April 4 by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
and author Sonia Nazario, author of the acclaimed book “Enrique’s Journey,” at
UW-Stevens Point.
The
Latin American/Caribbean Speaker Series was founded in 2011 to promote
awareness of political, social, economic, environmental and cultural issues in
Mexico, Central America, South America and the Caribbean. In 2015, the series
received a competitive grant to promote public programming on Latino history
and culture from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American
Library Association.