Claudio Durán, an award winning Latin American musician, will visit Fresno State this week for two events centered around his film, “Archeology of Memory” in commemoration of the 41st anniversary of the coup d’état in Chile, Sept. 11.
The Chilean author, composer and filmmaker – also known as Quique Cruz — is a former political prisoner of the Pinochet dictatorship.
Durán’s visit is part of a class taught by Dr. Gloria Medina-Sancho, a native of Chile who is associate professor of Spanish in Fresno State’s Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures, which is sponsoring the events.
The first event, from 3:30-4:45 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 10, in McLane 161 is a lecture and workshop on memory, aesthetics and terror. It features a music and multidisciplinary presentation by Durán, including readings and discussion of his book, “Memorias de un ex-jugador de ajedrez” (Memories of an Ex-Chess Player).
The second event, from 6-8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 11, in the Leon and Pete Peters Education Center will be a screening of Durán’s documentary, “Archeology of Memory: Villa Grimaldi — the Power of a Multidisciplinary Approach in the Exploration of Political and Historical Memory,” followed by a lecture and demonstration on the relationship of music and narrative in filmmaking and ancient elements in modern Latin American music.
The film follows the exiled Chilean musician Quique Cruz from San Francisco to Chile and back as he creates a multimedia installation and musical suite to heal the emotional wounds inflicted on him by the state-sponsored torture of the Pinochet regime, according to film promotional material.
The documentary, co-directed and co-produced by Durán, has aired on PBS and is being featured in national and international film festivals around the world.
He earned an undergraduate degree in history from the University of California at Berkeley and a master’s degree in Latin American Studies from Stanford University. He is presently a Ph. D. candidate in modern thought and literature at Stanford.
Campus co-sponsors of the events are the Department of Music, Department of Chicano and Latin-American Studies and the College of Arts and Humanities.
Medina-Sancho, who joined the Fresno State faculty in 2005, specializes in 19th to 21st century Latin American literature, gender studies, testimonial narrative and film studies and serves as adviser for Spanish majors and minors at Fresno State.
For more information, contact Medina-Sancho at 559.278.2386 or gmedina@csufresno.edu.
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