Latino American documentary film series set at UW-Stevens Point
2/22/2016
 

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.

 

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