Latin American Studies is pleased to present several events in Fall 2010 in connection with this year's program theme, Latin American Environments (with thanks to Environmental Studies, Art History, SASW & OCSE for co-sponsorship).  

TUESDAY, October 5, 2010

Environmental Portents, Peruvian Enslavement, and the Extinction of Easter Island'sBirdmen, 1862-1888

Dr. Greg Cushman, History, The University of Kansas

Emerson Auditorium, 7pm

The Rapanui are notorious for their destructive treatment of the environment of Easter Island.  But little-used oral histories from Rapanui elders from the mid-19th century demonstrate that this indigenous people had developed an elaborate ecological understanding of and adaptation to their isolated home and its difficult environment.  A La Niña event during the U.S. Civil War brought severe drought to the Central Pacific and mobilization of migrant peoples and organisms across much of the earth.  Several indications, including reconstruction of 1862 celestial portents visible to the Rapanui, suggest that many left Easter Island by choice, bringing slave traders and epidemic disease in their wake.  These circumstances compel us to reconsider the usual explanations for Easter Island's colonization, including self-induced "ecocide" and illustrate, more broadly, the significance of Latin America's historical membership as part of the Pacific World.

Greg Cushman is Assistant Professor of International Environmental History (Ph.D. UT Austin, 2003) at the University of Kansas.   He has an ongoing fascination with the ecological importance of "all things foul and ugly, all creatures short and squat.".  His book, Guano & the Opening of the Pacific World: A Global Ecological History (Cambridge U. Press, 2011) demonstrates that marine bird excrement lies at the root of modern existence and profoundly influenced the Pacific Ocean's incorporation into global history, from New Zealand and Australia's rise to First World status, and the identify of several indigenous Pacific peoples.  He teaches ecological history from a big history perspective transcending traditional geographical and temporal disciplinary boundaries. He currently researches the history of international understanding of the El Niño phenomenon, and its invention as a global disaster, and is engaged with KU's NSF-funded C-CHANGE IGERT program focused on human dimensions of climate change. 

(Co-sponsored by Environmental Studies)

WEDNESDAY, October 6
Planting Hope

11:30-1:30 pm:  Fair Trade Craft Table, Case Center

4:00-5:00 pm:   Sandino's Grandchildren:  education and the economics of survival in the coffee-growing regions of Nicaragua, Davis Auditorium

TUESDAY, October 12

Aqua-ecology and ideology in Aztec and colonial Mexico City.
Barbara Mundy, Art History, Fordham University

Palamountain 301, 7pm

The drive to empty the shallow inland seas of the Valley of Mexico led to the well-known desague (drainage) campaigns of the colonial city. But these were only the last stages of centuries of ecological manipulation here. The control and management of water was essential to the creation of Aztec Mexico City (Tenochtitlan) and the survival of its residents, and ideologies about water found their visual expression in works of art. In this lecture, I will explore both the complex hydraulic system created by Aztecs and look at the instrumental role that sculpture played within that system, as well as its colonial legacy.  

Barbara Mundy is Associate Professor of Art History at Fordham University.  Professor Mundy specializes in Latin American art of the colonial period (16th through 18th centuries). Her book,The Mapping of New Spain was awarded the Nebenzahl Prize in the History of Cartography in 1996. A current project,Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America,1520-1820 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2010), can be seen online at www.smith.edu/vistas. Research interests center on indigenous art created in the Spanish colony, especially in New Spain, cartography in the early modern period, and the role of collections in pre-Columbian art history.

(Co-Sponsored by Art History)

AND FURTHER INTO THE SEMSETER:

NOVEMBER 2 (Tentative)  Karina Yager, Post-Doc, NASA 

[Organized with Anthropology]

Remote Sensing Analysis of Andean Peatbogs (bofedales):  A Study of the Area and Condition of High-altitude Peatbogs in Relation to Recent Rapid Deglaciation in the Central Andes of  South America  [for lay people: high altitude climate change/cultural adaption]

MONDAY, November 8
FEDICAMP - Re-Greening Northern Nicaraqua
Miguel Marin and Jim Burchell
7 pm, Emerson Auditorium

Miguel Ángel Marín Vásquez, President of FEDICAMP, and Jim Burchell, Director of PeaceWorks in New Jersey, will speak on their organization's involvement with rural Nicaraguan communities, emphasizing  the environmental, community development and gender issues faced in this third-world country.

PeaceWorks is a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization that works to aid the peoples of the Americas and support progressive change by empowering people to act for justice throughout the Americas. PeaceWorks has sponsored Miguel Marin's visit to the United States to help inform the public of FEDICAMP's work first hand. FEDICAMP is a Nicaraguan nonprofit organization founded in February, 2002 that promotes the holistic development of rural communities through the implementation of sustainable programs and projects.  FEDICAMP seeks the full and long-term participation of families as their principal vehicle of the social development process. FEDICAMP fosters agricultural development by promoting programs and projects on sustainable agriculture, food security and the environment, that expand peoples' livelihoods and diet.  They achieve this by developing technical, methodological and organizational capacity among community leaders and organizers through a "peasant to peasant" peer learning approach.

Organized by ES major Kim Delli Paoli (contact: kdellipa@skidmore.edu); co-sponsored by ES and LAS.  Kim adds: Miguel recently wrote this appeal: "I'm writing to let you know about the situation that we face in the communities where FEDICAMP works, where most families have been affected by heavy rains that have prevented their gardens from yielding produce. The basic grain crops in these areas have been almost totally lost, which will create a food shortage affecting rural families the most. Various municipalities have already declared an emergency . . . as well as the various illnesses among their populations that have resulted from the rains." We will be raising funds for FEDICAMP to help them address this crisis as well as to promote the long-term reforestation needed to prevent such massive erosion and flooding.

TUESDAY, November 16   
Alyson B.K. Dagang, SIT Study Abroad Panamá, Forest Resources

Title: Cattle Ranching and Conservation:  Adversaries or Co-Dependent Bedfellows?

Davis Auditorium, 7pm (Videoconference as part of OCSE's International Studies Week)

A look at the changing role of cattle ranching in the quest for sustaining biodiverse ecosystems in Latin America.

Dr. Alyson Dagang first came to Panama with the Peace Corps after receiving her bachelor's degree in international development from American University in Washington, D.C. Dr. Dagang served as academic director of the SIT Study Abroad Panama program from 2002 to 2005 while also pursuing research and working with local small-scale farmers on the potential for agroforestry systems to augment forest cover and diversify production in cattle pastures. After completing her research, Dr. Dagang received her Ph.D. in 2007 from the School of Forest Resources and Conservation at the University of Florida. At that time, she resumed her role as the Panama program's academic director until the summer of 2009 when she assumed her current position as associate academic dean.  Dr. Dagang's research portfolio includes various development and environmental projects related to community forest management, gender and development, soil conservation, and the environmental effects of road construction. She is also an active proponent of organic agriculture and accessible organic certification.

Campus

• LATIN AMERICA: RACE, FILM & NATION
  APRIL 11-12
  
  Latin American Studies is bringing a Cuban scholar and Mexican filmmaker to Skidmore on Monday, April 11, and Tuesday, April 12.
  
  In addition to meeting with classes in Spanish & History, these visitors will be making informal presentations, screening films, and lunching with students.
  
  April 11
  
  Rafael Duharte Jiménez, Cuba
  Oficina del Historiador de la Ciudad de Santiago de Cuba
   
  1:00 PM, Informal presentation/conversation.  Location: Case Center, Inter Cultural Center
  Contemporary Cuba: Race, Migration & Other issues
  
  RAFAEL DUHARTE JIMENEZ
  
  Rafael Duharte Jiménez is a historian of slavery, race, tourism &  migration in Santiago de Cuba, where he runs a cultural center focused on the city's history and also has recently started scriptwriting and producing documentaries.  He is in the area to participate in a conference on Abolishing Slavery in the Atlantic World; The Underground Railroad in the Americas (April 8-10) --info at  http://ugrworkshop.com/?page_id=669.
  
  A university professor since 1973, Duharte Jiménez has published nearly a dozen books on the local history of Santiago de Cuba and on subjects related to slavery in Cuba and the Caribbean. In 1983, he helped found the Casa del Caribe, a prestigious cultural institution in Santiago de Cuba. He has lectured and conducted seminars throughout the Caribbean and in Latin America, Europe and the U.S. More recently, Duharte Jiménez has developed a scriptwriting career on a Cuban TV show, and he produced a series of documentaries, "History and its Protagonists," about history in Santiago.  He is in the Capital District to participate in the Underground Railroad Workshop Conference (April 8-10) Abolishing Slavery in the Atlantic World:The 'Underground Railroad' in the Americas, Africa, and Europe. (http://ugrworkshop.com/?page_id=669)
   
  Fundador de la Casa del Caribe de Santiago de Cuba. Organizador del Coloquio Internacional "El Caribe que nos une" y el Encuentro de Historiadores Locales durante diecisiete años consecutivos. Además ha coordinado congresos y eventos nacionales e internacionales auspiciados por la Casa del Caribe y la Oficina del Historiador de la Ciudad de Santiago de Cuba. Colaboró con el Proyecto de la UNESCO Ruta del esclavo. Trabajó en la fundación de espacios de reflexión académica: Aula San Basilio Magno (Seminario San Basilio Magno); Aula "Ernesto Buch López", y Conversando entre historiadores (Oficina del Historiador de la Ciudad).
   
  Books include:
   
  -  El negro en la sociedad colonial. Editorial Oriente, Santiago de Cuba, 1988
  -  La huella francesa en Santiago de Cuba. Editorial L´Harmattan, París, 1988
  -  Nacionalidad e Historia. Editorial Oriente, Santiago de Cuba, 1989
  -  Rebeldía esclava en el Caribe. Comisión V Centenario. Gbno. del Estado, Veracruz, México, 1992
  -  El Fantasma de la Esclavitud. Prejuicios raciales en la América Latina y el Caribe. Editorial Pahl- Rugestein, Alemania, 1997 (Elsa Santos, coautora)
  -  Hombres y Dioses. Panorama de las religiones populares cubanas (Elsa Santos, coautora)
  -  Santiago de Cuba y África: un diálogo en el tiempo, Santiago de Cuba, 2002
  -  Santiago de Cuba, siglo XX. Cronistas y viajeros miran la ciudad. Compiladores Rafael Duharte y Elizabet Recio, Editorial Oriente, 2005
  -  Pensar el Pasado; Ensayos sobre la historia de Santiago de Cuba. Ediciones Caserón, UNEAC, Santiago de Cuba, 2006
  -  Lo real maravilloso – santiaguero. Premio ensayo "José María Heredia", UNEAC, 2008

April 12

Francesco Taboada Tabone, Mexico - Independent documentary filmmaker 

12:40-2:00 PM, Discussion of Los Últimos Zapatistas, HI 111C (TLC 301; open) Pre-screening on Wednesday, April 6, 7:30 pm, Location: TLC 301

3:30 PM, Informal Discussion of Mexico/filmmaking. Location: TBA

7:00 PM, Screening: Maguey (http://www.vivaelmaguey.com).  Location: Davis Auditorium

Francesco Taboada Tabone is a Mexican documentary filmmaker whose work draws on oral history and Mesoamerican studies to uncover the experiences of the last living members of Emiliano Zapata's revolutionary supporters, indigenous activists working to save water, land, air and lifeways, and other contemporary topics.

FRANCESCO TABOADA TABONE, MEXICO (www.francescotaboada.com)

With degrees in Communications Sciences and Mesoamerican Studies, Francesco Taboada is focused on research and rescue of Mexico's oral history through documentary films, journalism, and academic talks on subjects ranging from history and environment to participative democracy, cinematography, Zapatismo and Villismo, among others.  He began his film career with the short La Julia (México, 1996) and Enchilada Suizas (Suiza, 1997), and has twice won the "Prix des Jeunes Realisateurs" at the Festival de los Jóvenes Realizadores in Switzerland.

His first feature film, Los Últimos Zapatistas (México, 2003) [The Last Zapatistas]—an oral history of the last members of Emiliano Zapata's followers in the Mexican Revolution—put him at the vanguard of Latin American documentary cinema, and the film won 10 prizes, including Best First Work at the Festival de Cine Documental Santiago Álvarez, Santiago de Cuba and Best Documentary and Photography,  Festival de Cine Chicano de Los Angeles. The film has been an official selection at more than 20 film festivals on 3 continents.  In 2004, he made the radio series, Heros on the Radio: Zapatista Voices, and has twice won fellowships from the Mexican State & National Funds for Culture & Arts. In 2005 President Hugo Chávez  of Venezuela interviewed him on the Sunday show "Aló Presidente," which led to a current documentary Project on the "Revolución Bolivariana" (Bolivia-Ecuador-México-Venezuela, 2009).  His feature length films include Pancho Villa, La Revolución no ha terminado; Tin Tan (México, 2010), on language; and Maguey (México, 2010 and "13 PUEBLOS, en defensa del Agua, el Aire y la Tierra" (México, 2008, which tackle environmental and social issues of land, wáter and agriculture in rural Mexico. 13 Pueblos has won 8 prizes, including the Rigoberta Menchú prize at the Festival of Indigenous Cinema in Montreal, and Special MEntion by the Jury in the International Latino Film Festival (Los Angeles) and social organization prize at the International Festival of Cinema and Video of Indigenous Peopules La Paz (Bolivia).

• RAICES Webpage
  • Skidmore's Student-run club for Latin American/Latino students
  • November: Latino Heritage Month

 

Latin American Studies is pleased to present several events in Fall 2011 in connection with this year's program theme, Latin American Food Cultures.

SPEAKERS

Wednesday and Thursday, September 21 and 22, 2011
Location and time: Varied
Visit of Rafael Duharte Jiménez

Rafael Duharte Jiménez is a historian of slavery, race, tourism &  migration in Santiago de Cuba, where he runs a cultural center focused on the city's history and also has recently started scriptwriting and producing documentaries.  He is in the area to participate in a conference on Abolishing Slavery in the Atlantic World; The Underground Railroad in the Americas (April 8-10) --info at  http://ugrworkshop.com/?page_id=669.08

Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Location and time: TBA
Elizabeth Newman, Archaeology of Colonial Foodways in Puebla, Mexico

Friday, November 11, 2011
Location and time: TBA
Vera Candiani, Mexico City's water drainage project: the health of a colonial and contemporary city. 

FILM SERIES

Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Location and time: Emerson Auditorium, 6:00 PM
MEXICO: Like Water for Chocolate

Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Location: Emerson Auditorium, 6:00 PM
CARIBBEAN: The Price of Sugar

Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Location: Davis Auditorium, 6:00 PM
BRAZIL: Estomago

Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Location and time: Emerson Auditorium, 6:00 PM
VENEZUELA: A mi me gusta. Una historia romantica...