People of Hispanic origin comprise one of the fastest growing segments of the U.S. population and are expected to represent one in four Americans by 2050, according to U.S. Census Bureau projections. Yet, in many ways, this diverse population still struggles to be seen and heard beyond negative stereotypes. In the mainstream media, Latin Americans in particular are often depicted with images of instability, drugs and violence. This Saturday, the Latin American Studies Program of Grand Valley State University plans to shed light on Latinos' and Latin America's fight to be visible ¿ in their full human and national dimension.
The event is the fifth Conference on the Americas, held Saturday, October 14 at GVSU's Eberhard Center in downtown Grand Rapids. Hundreds of participants are expected to take part in the daylong series of panels, workshops, and presentations on a variety of related topics. Sessions analyze the U.S. Census, Latino community organizing, migrant worker rights, peasant land struggle in Brazil and Central America, the political activism of Latino and Latin American women, Maya and Colombian human rights, business relations between Michigan and Latin America, trade relations in South America, Latino gang culture, the Vieques, Puerto Rico dilemma, Latin American visual art, Cuban immigration, and Mexican nationalism in the midwest. The conference reports on the fight against invisibility from Tierra del Fuego to Toronto.
Heading up the event as keynote speaker is Martin Espada, a highly regarded poet. Espada's keynote address, The New Bathroom Policy at English High School: Dispatches from the Language Wars, will analyze the current campaign to eliminate bilingual education. A professor of English at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Espada has been called the Latino poet of his generation and the true poet laureate of the nation. A dynamic speaker with the agility of a former bouncer and tenant lawyer, Espada is most recently the author of A Mayan Astronomer in Hell's Kitchen, published by W.W. Norton.
The fifth Conference on the Americas also features art and photo exhibits, display tables and book sales, as well as a film festival. Films in video feature the U.S. premiere of Palestine of the North, a recent Brazilian documentary that uses the memories of women to make visible the military suppression of a dissident group in the 1970's. Other award winning films, shown here for the first time, tell the tale of fighting invisibility in Mexico, California, and Chile.
The conference wraps up with a Gran Baile from 8:00 to 11:30 p.m., featuring the rich sounds of the Afro-Rican Ensemble of Columbus, Ohio.
Conference sessions run from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., with Espada's keynote address beginning at 2:00 p.m. The conference is open to the public. Students are admitted free. A sliding scale admission fee of $1 to $40 is asked of all other registrants.
