06 Nov XVII Colloquium on Mexican Literature
Thursday, November 6, 2014/ 4:30 PM
Centennial House
Friday, November 7, 2014 / 9:00 AM
Graduate Student Lounge, MultiCultural Center, UCSB
Saturday, November 8, 2014/ 9:00 AM
Casa De La Guerra
This year, the theme is the binational relationship between the United States and Mexico. We will be exploring the history, culture, different disciplines, literature and other arts that Mexico has contributed to life in the United States, and vice versa. That is, the cultural impressions Mexico has had on the U.S., and to a lesser extent, the U.S. presence in Mexico. This relationship of ” bridges coming and going”, as Elena Poniatowska –Premio Cervantes (2013), and a member of the UC-Mexicanistas– has called it, is even more marked between Mexico and California. Our university finds itself in an important historical context with respect to the geographical relationship –let us say a unifying bridge between the two cultures– allowing our colloquium to have its deserved attention and corresponding to the daily lives of all our students: the voluminous number of students with Hispanic roots who thereby share in their own culture along with the cultural richness of our university. The interest our students have for the Mexican culture is significant, as evidenced by the number of theses since 1991, 25 in total completed and several more work in progress, along with others which I have co-chaired or served on committees. The title of the 2014 colloquium is, “Tan lejos de Dios/So far from God” (of course referring to Mexico), yet in reality noting the cultural flow between the two countries, and an analysis of the Mexican cultural influences on the U.S., its repercussions and transcendence. The quote also hints at the current situation in Mexico. Our colloquium shall faithfully show that the Mexican culture, internally and externally, shatters borders and is an integral part of the daily living inCalifornia, its language, customs, and on its academic life.
Organized by the Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese (University of California, Santa Barbara) and UC-Mexicanistas (Intercampus Research Program). Participants include writers and professors from Mexico, the U.S. and Europe, as well as current and former students. The theme of this year’s colloquium is Tan Lejos de Dios/So far from God, exploring the cultural and artistic influences from Mexico on the United States and especially on California. International writers and scholars will present on this theme and interact with students. As always, we will have reading sessions, presentations of books published in 2014, and cultural activities related to the theme of the colloquium.
Sponsored by Casa de la Guerra Center for Research on Women and Social Justice/ Hull Chair Chicano Studies Institute Comparative Literature CONACULTA (Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes) Coordinación Nacional de Literatura del Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes Department of Spanish and Portuguese Graduate Division Interdisciplinary Humanities Center Latin American and Iberian Studies Luis Leal Endowed Chair Office of the Associate Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Academic Policy Secretaría de la Cultura y las Artes (SEDECULTA), UC-Mexicanistas (Intercampus Research Program)
Website: http://www.spanport.ucsb.edu/news/event/370