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University plans diverse events for Hispanic Heritage Month

KINGSVILLE (September 12, 2005) — The Hispanic Heritage Month committee at Texas A&M University-Kingsville has planned a month full of activities ranging from movies to seminars and concluding with a gathering of Chicano activists. This year’s theme is Yesterday’s Voices, Today’s Dreams.

The kick off celebration will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 15, in the courtyard of the Memorial Student Union Building. Frank Ureño, assistant vice president and dean of students, will read a proclamation naming Sept. 15 through Oct. 15 Hispanic Heritage Month on campus.

In addition, there will be music, salsa dancing lessons, piñata making, games, food and much more.

The first of several speakers will be Dr. James Garza who will present Conspiracy on the Border: Dr. Ignacio Martinez and the Master of Mexico at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 20, in room 100 of the Biology Earth Sciences building. On Feb. 3, 1891, Martinez, a well-known and fiery revolutionary opposed to the regime of the Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz, was gunned down on the streets of Laredo by unknown assassins. His murder sparked outrage on both sides of the border, but also created sighs of relief.

Garza is an assistant history professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His book, Imagining an Underworld, Creating the Nation: Sex, Crime and Vice in Porfirian Mexico City, 1876-1911, will be published soon by University of Nebraska Press. Garza is currently working on a Mexican-American primary documents reader with Dr. Shannon Baker, assistant history professor at A&M-Kingsville, and Dr. Victor Macias-Gonzales at University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse.

The first in a series of Brown Bag Seminars is scheduled at noon Wednesday, Sept. 21, in the Alumni Room of Honor in the Memorial Student Union Building. The video, Chicano! Quest for a Homeland, will be shown with discussion following. The film examines the events at Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico that sparked a national movement for social justice. It focuses on the 1967 struggles by Mexican-Americans to regain ownership of New Mexico lands guaranteed them by the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and then visits the landmark Denver Youth Conference in 1969, where hundreds of Mexican-American youth met to plan the national agenda. The program concludes with the Chicano Moratorium March against the Vietnam War, held in East Los Angeles in 1970—an event that turned into a tragic riot resulting in the death of renowned journalist Rúben Salazar.

To keep the fun moving along, the committee will sponsor a dance featuring Jimmy Gonzalez y Mazz from 8 to 11 p.m. Sept. 21 in the ballrooms of the Memorial Student Union Building.

The movie, The Motorcycle Diaries, will be shown at 7 and 9:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 23, in room 100 of the Biology Earth Sciences building. The movie was directed by Walter Salles and stars Gael Garcia Bernal, Rodrigo de la Serna, Mia Maestro and Mercedes Moran. It follows the journey of Che Guevara and his best friend, Alberto Granado, in their motorcycle trip across South America in the early 1950s. This film is rated R.

Elisa Garza is the featured poet during an evening of poetry beginning at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 26, in the Ben Bailey Art Gallery. Garza and others will recite their original poetry. Garza received her bachelor’s degree in English from Rice University and her master’s degree in creative writing from Pennsylvania State University. Her poems have appeared in journals including Southwestern American Literature and New Texas. A collection of her poetry won the Portlandia Poetry Chapbook Contest that paved the way for her book, Familia. Her work evokes the experiences of Mexican-American existence in South Texas.

A showing of the locally filmed and produced Atanasia will be shown at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 27 in room 100 of the Biology Earth Sciences building. The film was filmed entirely in the Riviera and Kingsville area with local producers, directors and actors. It tells the story of the life of a strong woman’s journey to search for a better life during the violence of 19 th century Mexico and South Texas.

The next Brown Bag Seminar will be held at noon Wednesday, Sept. 28, in the Alumni Room of Honor in the Memorial Student Union Building. It is another part of the Chicano! film series. This segment, Taking Back the Schools, documents the Mexican-American struggle to reform an educational system that failed to properly educate Chicano students, causing more than 50 percent to drop out and leaving many others illiterate and unskilled. It focuses on the 1968 walkouts by thousands of Mexican-American high school students in East Los Angeles, which resulted in conspiracy indictments against 13 community leaders—each of them facing a possible sentence of 66 years. This event was emblematic of a national movement for improved educational opportunities.

The Fiesta Javelina also will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. Sept. 28 in the courtyard of the Memorial Student Union Building. The Fiesta Javelina has become an annual event during A&M-Kingsville’s Hispanic Heritage celebration. Student organizations choose a Latin American country and decorate a booth depicting the culture. There are games and food for everyone.

New to this year’s Fiesta Javelina will be a Tardiada or afternoon of music. The group, Los Estrenos, will be featured.

A second featured speaker will be talking about the Popular Origins of Mexican National Identity at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 3, in room 100 of the Biology Earth Sciences Building. Dr. Bill Beezley, history professor at University of Arizona-Tucson, will talk about the traveling puppet companies that toured Mexico during the 19 th century. The plays expressed a popular view of the nation and its people. Several of the puppets, El Negrito, Vale Coyote and others, became well-known figures in the common history of Mexico. The plays taught politics, history, music and folklore.

Beezley is one of the leading historians in Mexican history. He has published numerous books and articles Judas at the Jockey Club and Other Episodes of Porfirian Mexico and El Gran Pueblo: A History of Greater Mexico.

The university’s communications and theatre arts department will host three performances of the play, Confessions of Women from East LA, beginning at 7 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, Oct. 4-6, in room 123 of the Drama Arts Building. This play is for mature audiences only. The play reflects stories of triumph and tragedy from the East LA barrio.

The movie, A Day without a Mexican, will be presented at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 6, in room 100 of the Biology Earth Sciences Building. The film delves into the life of four characters that wake up one day and discover that there is not one Latino left in California. It is directed by Sergio Arau. This film is rated R.

A third Brown Bag Seminar will be held at noon Friday, Oct. 7, in the Mesquite Room of the Memorial Student Union Building. The topic of the seminar will be tolerance.

The final Brown Bag Seminar will be held at noon Monday, Oct. 10, in the Mesquite Room of the Memorial Student Union Building. The documentary, Civil Rights: How Did We Get Here from There, Reflection on Mexican American Civil Rights Since 1848, will be shown. Discussion will follow the conclusion of the film.

Beginning Monday, Oct. 10 and continuing through Wednesday, Nov. 2, an artist from Oaxaca will construct and display a large sand painting in the mall area of the Memorial Student Union Building. Liliant Alanis Martinez will construct a sand sculpture celebrating the Day of the Dead. She will work on the sculpture for several days and when complete, it will remain on display for the rest of the month allotted.

Martinez also will give workshops to university and local high school art students while at A&M-Kingsville. She has studied at la Escuela de Bellas Artes de la Universidad Autonoma Benito Juarez de Oaxaca and has learned under Maestros Yasuhico Miyazake and Shinzaburo Takeda from Japan. She has various collections and exhibitions and has received a number of awards and distinctions for her work.

One of the highlights of Hispanic Heritage Month is the A&I Chicano Activist Colloquium from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 12, in the Memorial Student Union Building. Alumni from Texas A&I University from 1965 to 1975 will be on hand to discuss the advances in civil rights made in and around the university at that time. For more information about the colloquium may visit the website at http://archives.tamuk.edu/chicano.htm.

One of the featured speakers is Carlos Guerra. Guerra is a metro columnist for the San Antonio Express-News and his work is syndicated in other newspapers. He also contributes articles to several national publications. He was a front-page columnist for the San Antonio Light for a number of years. He is a 1969 graduate of Texas A&I University.

He also has worked for several philanthropic foundations on the East Coast and has traveled extensively throughout the United States and Latin America. Guerra was one of the first Americans invited to travel to China after World War II.

A native of Robstown, Guerra was active in civil rights efforts from the 1960s through the 1980s. He helped found the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO) and Raza Unida Party.

Round table and panel discussions will be held throughout the day for alumni, students and other interested individuals.

Hispanic Heritage Month will conclude with the annual banquet at 6 p.m. Oct. 12 in the ballrooms of the Memorial Student Union Building. Dinner tickets are $10 each. The banquet also will act as a conclusion to the colloquium with 1966 alumnus Jose Angel Gutierrez as the keynote speaker.

Gutierrez was lead organizer, founder and co-founder of several organizations including the Mexican-American Youth Organization, Mexican-American Unity Council, Cuidadanos Unidos, Obreros Unidos Independientes, La Raza Unida Party and more.

He is currently political science professor at the University of Texas-Arlington, where he has worked since 1993. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Texas A&I, a master’s degree in government from St. Mary’s University and a doctorate from the University of Texas. All are in government. He also earned a law degree from University of Houston, Bates College of Law.

Several displays will be in place through the entire month including the exhibit in the west gallery of the John E. Conner Museum. The exhibit, Hecho en Oaxaca (Made in Oaxaxa), will be on display from Sept. 15 through Oct. 15. There will be approximately 20 pieces from a variety of artists from Oaxaca. A reception will be held from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 16, to officially open the exhibit.

A mini exhibit of underground newspapers from the 1960s and 1970s will be on display in the Javelina Café in the Memorial Student Union Building. There also will be displays in the Jernigan Library and near the ballrooms in the Memorial Student Union Building.

For more information about any of the Hispanic Heritage Month events, call 361-593-2760.