Throughout the spring semester, the Hispanic Studies and Latin American Studies programs of the UMD Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures hosted a series of films and faculty lectures called Equity and Diversity in Latin America and Spain.
The series began on March 1 with the Guatemalan film, Ixcanul (Volcano), which was presented by Dr. Jennifer Gómez Menjívar, Associate Professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies. This 2015 film marks the debut of Guatemalan director Jayro Bustamante and is the first film ever made entirely in the Kaqchiquel Mayan language. The film is the story of a young Mayan woman who must make a decision that will change her life forever. Next on March 2, the Spanish film, Retorno a Hansala (Return to Hansala) was presented by Dr. Jennifer Brady, Assistant Professor of Spanish/Hispanic Studies. This 2009 film explores the perilous lives of migrants through the story of Leila, an undocumented Moroccan migrant living and working in southern Spain, who loses her brother to the treacherous waters between northern Africa and southern Spain and begins a quest to return his body to their homeland.
The lecture series treated a wide variety of topics, from gender and race to migration, violence and the environment, in the literature and arts of Latin America and Spain:
- “Confessions of Violence in Contemporary Guatemalan Performance” by Dr. Jamie Ratliff
- “The Transformative Gaze of the Eroticized and Exoticized Other in Spanish Im/migration Cinema” by Dr. Maureen Tobin-Stanley.
- “African Roots/Puerto Rican Skies: Mythology and the Environment in Two Puerto Rican Children’s Books” by Dr. Carol Wallace.
- “Language and (Dis)ability: Alternative Ways of Being in a Recent Spanish Novel by Juan José Millás” by Dr. Jennifer Brady.
- “La subjetividad femenina en manos de Eros: Demasiado amor de Sara Sefchovich” by Dr. Milagros Gómez.
- “Literatura latinoamericana contemporánea: Una lectura de Late Victorian Holocaust de Salvador Luis” by Dr. Salvador Raggio.
This series was supported by a grant from the University of Minnesota Office of Equity and Diversity.
Click on the image to see the series poster.
Contact Dr. Jennifer Brady ([email protected]) if you have questions.