LACLS program sponsors many events for the university community. Join us in celebrating and learning about Latin America, the Caribbean, and Latinx Americans! Our series of film screenings features some of the most critically-acclaimed international films from the Latin American region. Similarly, the Speaker Series hosts outstanding LACLS-affiliated scholars to discuss their recent research in the LACLS area. Students attending can receive LACLS swag!
Check the LACLS calendar for details on upcoming events.
Current Film Series
- Pelo malo (Rondón 2013): Jan. 24, 6:00 pm, Gorgas Library Yellowhammer Room
This is the coming-of-age tale of Junior, a young Venezuelan boy who is obsessed with straightening his naturally curly hair so he can look like the long-haired singer he fantasizes about becoming. His mother is afraid of what this obsession means for Junior’s sexuality, and she takes measures to stifle his burgeoning sense of identity. - Entre fuego y agua (Gómez Echeverry & Wenzel, 2020): Feb. 21, 6:00, pm, Gorgas Library Yellowhammer Room
Camilo is a young black man adopted by an indigenous couple in rural Colombia, and he has wondered for years about his biological parents. This documentary traces the journey he takes to find his true identity and understand his two races. - Sueño en otro idioma (Contreras 2017): March 21, 6:00 pm, Gorgas Library Yellowhammer Room
Martín is a young linguist who studies Zikril, a fictitious indigenous language spoken in Veracruz, Mexico. This language, as he discovers, is on the brink of disappearing since its last two speakers had a fight fifty years ago and refuse to speak a word with each other. - Museo (Ruizpalacios 2018): April 18, 6:00 pm, Gorgas Library Yellowhammer Room
Two veterinary students plan on robbing the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City and stealing precious Mayan, Mixtec, and Zapotec artifacts. While everyone else celebrates Christmas in 1985, the two thieves manage to pull off the heist. When they return home to see news reports describing the theft as an attack on the entire nation, they realize there is no turning back.
Current Speaker Series
- Dr. Andrew Raffo Dewar (UA Music): March 2, in the Gorgas Library Yellowhammer Room, Volver: Fusing Oral History & Experimental Electronic Music
- Sarah Marshall (UA Art & Art History): March 23, in the Gorgas Library Camellia Room, Taller Experimental de Gráfica de La Habana: The Art of Printmaking in Cuba
- Dr. Briana Royster (UA Gender & Race Studies): April 6, in Bevill 0009, “The Woman Century, All Over the World”: Black Women and Missionary Work in British and Dutch Guiana, 1900-1950
Previous Speaker Series
Fall 2022
- Dr. Lisa Pawloski (Anthropology): Oct. 6, 4:00, in Gallalee 227, Nutrition and Health in Nicaragua and Cuba: An Anthropologist’s Perspective
- Dr. Michael Steinberg (Geography & New College): Oct. 20, 4:00, in Gallalee 227, Mangroves and Fishery Conservation in Belize
- Dr. Jenny Shaw (History): Nov. 3, 4:00, in Gallalee 227, The Women of Rendezvous: Writing Histories of Family and Slavery in Seventeenth Century Barbados
Fall 2021
- Dr. Teresa Cribelli (History): Oct. 8, Insults and Accusations: Public Letters in Nineteenth-Century Brazil.
- Dr. Juan López-Bautista (Biology and MFA candidate in studio art): Oct. 20, Border Stories.
- Dr. Katherine Chiou (Anthropology): Nov. 3, Searching for the Origins of Chili Peppers in the Americas: An Archaeological Perspective.
Spring 2021
- Dr. Holly Horan (Anthropology): March 8, Understanding Perinatal Care and Maternal Stress in Puerto Rico
- Dr. Marcello Minzoni (Geology): March 25, Reefs of Cuba: A Tale of Three Oceans
- Dr. Juan José Ponce Vázquez (History): April 8, Islanders and Empire: Smuggling and Political Defiance in Hispaniola, 1580-1690
Previous Film Series
Fall 2022
- Bacurau (Mendonça & Dornelles 2019): Sept. 7, 6:00, Yellowhammer Room (Gorgas Library, Room 2019)
- In this genre-bending spin on the Western, Bacurau, a fictional small town in the Brazilian sertão, is beset by strange happenings following the death of its matriarch that force the townspeople to band together to protect themselves from villainous outsiders and maintain their community.
- Canción sin nombre (León 2019): Oct. 11, 6:00, Yellowhammer Room (Gorgas Library, Room 2019
- In late-1980s Peru, Georgina, an indigenous Andean woman, gives birth to a baby in a clinic in Lima. The baby is whisked away and never returned. Stonewalled by the legal system, Georgina tells her story to a journalist who uncovers a web of fake clinics and abductions abetted by deep-seated corruption in Peruvian society.
- Plaza Catedral (Benaim 2021): Nov. 8, 6:00, Yellowhammer Room (Gorgas Library, Room 2019)
- Alicia, who is grieving the loss of her young son, lives in the old quarter of Panama City, a rich colonial enclave surrounded by the city’s poorest neighborhoods. There she meets Chief, a street-smart boy who takes care of cars in front of her apartment and insists on getting paid for his job. Alicia keeps a safe distance from him, until one night Chief arrives at Alicia’s apartment bleeding from a gunshot wound, and begs her for help.
Fall 2021
- Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho [The Way He Looks] (Ribeiro 2014): Sept. 15
- Leonardo is a blind teenager searching for independence. His everyday life, his relationship with his best friend, Giovana, and the way he sees the world change completely with the arrival of Gabriel.
- Que Horas Ela Volta [The Second Mother] (Muylaert 2015): Oct. 20
- When the estranged daughter of a hard-working live-in housekeeper suddenly appears, unspoken class barriers that exist within a Brazilian home are thrown into disarray.
- As Boas Maneiras [Good Manners] (Rojas & Dutra, 2017): Nov. 17
- São Paulo is transformed into a spooky fairytale landscape in this elegant, unsettling tale. Clara, a lonely nurse from the outskirts of the city is hired by mysterious and wealthy Ana to be the nanny of her soon to be born child. Against all odds, the two women develop a strong bond. A fateful night marked by a full moon changes their plans.
Hispanic-Latino Heritage Month
2022
- Dr. Aisha Finch (Emory University): Oct. 10, 4:00, in Gordon Palmer 208, Black Feminist Worldmaking and the Memory of Slavery in Latin America
2021
In honor of Hispanic-Latino Heritage Month 2021 (Sept. 15-Oct. 15), LACLS hosted a series of events, supported by the Department of Modern Languages & Classics and the UA Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, to highlight the award-winning novel Signs Preceding the End of the World by Mexican political scientist and author Yuri Herrera:
- Book club at the Intercultural Diversity Center: Sept. 20
- Zoom visit with award-winning translator Lisa Dillman: Sept. 27
- Author visit and talk by award-winning novelist Yuri Herrera: Oct. 4
This series was thematically connected to the interactive art installation Hostile Terrain 94 in Maxwell Hall and the Intercultural Diversity Center.
Black History Month
For Black History Month 2021, LACLS presented a speaker series featuring scholarly research:
- Dr. Matthew Pettway (University of South Alabama): Feb. 10, Cuban Literature in the Age of Black Insurrection: Manzano, Placido and Afro-Latino Religion
- Dr. Roberto Saba (Wesleyan University): Feb. 24, American Mirror: The United States and Brazil in the Age of Emancipation