A free, public screening of the documentary, “Foreigners in Their Own Land,” will be from 6-8:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19, at Arte Américas in downtown Fresno (1630 Van Ness Ave.).
The screening is the first in a series of events funded through a $3,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association to two Fresno State professors, Dr. Maria-Aparecida Lopes and Dr. Andrea Johnson, and university librarian Vang Vang to present “Latino Americans: 500 Years of History.”
The first film, presented as part of Hispanic Heritage Month, examines the period from 1565-1880 as the first Spanish explorers enter North America, the U.S. expands into territories in the Southwest that had been home to Native Americans and English and Spanish colonies, and as the Mexican-American War strips Mexico of half its territories by 1848.
Other events planned include:
- A lecture Nov. 12, “De Colores: A Mosaic of Latino Children’s Literature,” by Jennifer Crow, curator of the Madden Library’s Arne Nixon Center;
- A second “LATINO AMERICANS” documentary, “The New Latinos,” with scholarly discussion led by Johnson at the Tulare County Museum in Visalia (date TBD);
- A Mexican folkloric dance performance April 15 during Vintage Days by Los Danzantes de Aztlan of Fresno State.
INFO: Dr. Maria-Aparecida Lopes, Chicano and Latin American Studies chair, 559.278.2848. Original press release.
