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Celebrate Hispanic/Latino Heritage Month at UK

by Gail Hairston

 

Latino and Hispanic students, faculty and staff will have the opportunity to come together to build relationships and network with each other at the next event of the University of Kentucky 2012 Hispanic/Latino Heritage Month (H/LHM) Celebration. Hispanic/Latino Heritage Month is observed Sept. 15-Oct. 15.

The celebration is a collaboration between UK students, staff, faculty and the community with the consolidated and supported efforts cultivated by Latin American Studies, Hispanic Studies, and Fine Arts.

The entire community is invited to the next event, a Latino/Hispanic Student and Faculty Mixer, sponsored by the H/LHM Core Planning Team. The free event is slated from 5-7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 27, at the UK Martin Luther King Jr. Cultural Center, 133 Student Center. For more information, contact Kairise Conwell, assistant director of CARES, k.conwell@uky.edu.

Limited transportation will be available to “Sin País (Without Country): Documentary & Dialogue” at 6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 28, at the Consolidated Baptist Church in Lexington. Sponsored by  the Center for Family & Community Services, “Sin País (Without Country)” attempts to get beyond the partisan politics and mainstream media’s talking point approach to immigration issues by exploring one family’s complex and emotional journey involving deportation.

The film begins two weeks before Sam and Elida’s scheduled deportation date. After a passionate fight to keep the family together, Sam and Elida are deported and take Dulce with them back to Guatemala. With intimate access and striking imagery, “Sin País” explores the complexities of the Mejia’s new reality of a separated family – parents without their children, and children without their parents.

Contact Rebecca Comage, assistant director, Student Involvement, at rebecca.comage@uky.edu to reserve transportation for the first 20 students.

The H/LHM Core Planning Team and the College of Arts and Sciences Latin American Studies is sponsoring the Hispanic & Latino Heritage Campus Celebration at 6-9 p.m. Oct. 4 at the  Small Ballroom in the Student Center.

The campus community is invited to learn and celebrate Hispanic and Latino cultures at the campus celebration where student organizations will distribute information. The event also features door prizes and authentic food representing various Latin cultures. For more information, contact Tori Amason, program director, Leadership Education, at tori.amason@uky.edu

A discussion of the politics of Latin American migration, sponsored by the Latin American Studies Program, brings the UK Hispanic/Latino Heritage Month Celebration to a close from noon to 2 p.m. Oct. 12 in 231 Student Center.

Professor David Cook-Martin, author of “The Scramble for Citizens” (Stanford University Press), will address “From Eugenics to Anti-Racism: How International Organizations and Geopolitics Reshaped Immigration Policies in the Americas.” Professor Christian Zlolniski from the University of Texas, author of “Janitors, Street Vendors and Activists: The Lives of Mexican Immigrants in the Silicon Valley” (University of California Press) will talk about “Confronting the Risks of Undocumented Migration in the US-Mexico Border and Beyond.”

For more information, contact Carmen Martínez Novo, director of the Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies Program, at carmen.martinez@uky.edu.