Call For Papers: Afro-Latin@s Now! Strategies for Visibility and Action

Call For Papers: Afro-Latin@s Now! Strategies for Visibility and Action

The afrolatin@ forum invites proposals for “Afro-Latin@s Now: Strategies for Visibility & Action” a conference to be held November 3-5, 2011 in New York City. The three-day international conference will gather scholars, community leaders and artists to advance a dialogue on issues of importance to Black Latin@s in the United States as well as foster positive relations between Latin@s, African Americans and other peoples of color. Recognizing that studies of Afro-Latin@s are multidisciplinary, we seek proposals for papers, panels, performances (music or theater), film, and graphic arts from any branch of Afro-Latin@ studies. The goal of the conference will be to promote dialogue and mutual understanding amongst and between Afro-Latin@s, the broader Latin@ and African American populations, and the general public including other peoples of color. We aim to expand and solidify the widening network of educators and activists working on related themes, and to begin defining the key educational and policy issues that bear on the recognition and empowerment of this largely overlooked and underserved population. The afrolatin@ forum, as an institution founded in New York City, is proud to partner with the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The Center for the Humanities of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, El Museo del Barrio, and the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research in presenting this conference. The afrolatin@ forum works to build and strengthen research and activist networks among Latin@s of African descent in the United States. Our focus is on Black Latin@s in the United States and their relationships with other communities of color. This emphasis is guided by a transnational perspective that recognizes the centrality of race in understanding today's global reality and the struggle for social justice.

Papers and submission

Individual abstracts should be 250 words or less. Abstracts should be submitted by Monday, May 16, 2011. Please include a five-line biography, and your institutional/organizational affiliation and contact information. Direct all submissions to Guesnerth Josúe Perea at gjperea@ http://www.facebook.com/l/6928ax3uR8Xm6KPhCzMiYYKFbiA/gmail.com or info@ http://www.facebook.com/l/6928aY69tumdi7ez-sayor0RKJA/afrolatinoforum.org. You can also visit the forum's conference website: http://www.facebook.com/l/6928afC4oaOmFJ_Aq4CmNCzcV2g/www.afrolatinoforum.org/call-for-papers.html to submit your paper or presentation proposal. This three-day conference will be held at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the CUNY Graduate Center and El Museo del Barrio on November 3-5, 2011, for more information on the conference please visit:http://www.facebook.com/l/6928aMC2NYNy1a1X985t6maX9tA/www.afrolatinoforum.org

CFP: Symposium on African American Culture & Philosophy: "Afro-Latin America: Rethinking, Identity, Politics and Culture"

Call for Papers

The 27th Annual Symposium on African American Culture & Philosophy

Afro-Latin America:
Rethinking, Identity, Politics and Culture

Plenary Speaker: Dr. Gwendolyn Midlo-Hall, Michigan State University

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Kim Butler, Rutgers University

African American Studies and Research Center
Purdue University
West Lafayette, Indiana
December 1-3, 2011

In recent decades we have witnessed an outpouring of new research on African-descended
communities throughout Latin America. Black political organizing and grassroots activism have
also exploded in the region, as activists from Colombia to Puerto Rico have sought to increase
the visibility of ongoing questions related to black socioeconomic marginalization. These
endeavors continue to unfold however, within colonial and neoliberal contexts that frequently
interpret Afro-Latin histories and political mobilizations as auxiliary to or subsumed within other
local or national narratives. In particular, black cultural expressions are frequently depoliticized
within the realm of “folklore,” or highly racialized within Latin American film, performance culture,
and national mythology.

Though Latin America has the largest populations of African-descended people outside of
Africa, recent events illuminate the recurring tendency for black histories, cultures and political
expressions to be pushed to the margins of conferences on Latin America, minimizing of the
roles of the multitude of communities of African descent in shaping the contemporary realities
and interactions with nation states. For this reason, there remains an acute need for public
intellectual spaces that privilege Latin American blackness, and rigorously examine the
discourses around it. Thus, the time is certainly propitious to assess the state and direction of
the field of the African Diaspora in Latin America. The symposium responds to this call by
exploring various ways to locate interrogations of Afro-Latin America squarely within the larger
framework of the African Diaspora.

Our focus is designed: (1) to initiate interventionist dialogues about the African presence in Latin
America (2) to generate interaction and discussion around some of the more salient concerns in
the field and (3) to publish selected papers from the proceedings. Through a variety of prisms,
our sessions will promote a reevaluation of African-descended communities vis-à-vis their
agency and objectives past and present. In this manner, we will consider exciting new directions
that African diasporic research is capable of taking when Latin American blackness is placed at
the center.

This conference is framed with the eve of 2012 in mind, a year that marks the bicentennial of
Cuba’s “Aponte Movement” of 1812, and the centennial of Cuba’s “Little War of 1912,” which
followed the organization of the first black political party in the western hemisphere. Albeit one
hundred years apart, both episodes were met with bloody state repressions that became crucial
barometers for the possibilities of racial equity throughout the region. Furthermore, both
anniversaries point to many forms of black resistance throughout the Americas, in colonial and
postcolonial times.

We seek papers and panels from across the disciplines on such sample topics as:

African-descended Communities in Iberia from Medieval to Early Modern Times
The Experiences of Afro-Jamaicans under Spanish Rule
African-descended Women in Colonial and or Post Colonial Latin America
Relations among Native, African, and Asian Communities in Latin America
Religious Interactions among African Theologies, Christianity, and Islam
Relations among Hispanic and non-Hispanic Antilleans at Home and Abroad
Dominicans, Haitians, and Africans in the United States and Spain
Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking Communities in Belize, Curaçao, St. Croix, and Trinidad-Tobago
Marronage and other Forms of Militant Resistance
Afro-Latin Americans in the Military
Afro-Latin Americans in Sports Industries
Afro-Latin Americans in Entertainment Industries
Afro-Latin Americans as Authors and Protagonists in Literature
Afro-Cuban Exiles, 1845-2010
Gender, Sexuality and Hip-hop Culture
Blackness and the Spanish American Wars of Independence
Black History, Culture, and Politics in Argentina and the Andes
Black Identity and Spanish Identity in the Central American Republics
Recent Research on Afro-Mexican History and Culture
Racial Belonging and Exclusion in Post-special Cuba

Send paper and panel submissions by May 2, 2011 to:

Venetria K. Patton, Director African American Studies
27th Annual Symposium on Philosophy & Culture
Beering Hall, Room 6182
100 North University Street
West Lafayette, IN 47907-2098
Email abstracts to: aasrc@purdue.edu [Include “Abstract” in subject line]
Website: http://www.cla.purdue.edu/african-american/

NY Folklore Society Graduate Student Conference: Latino Folk Culture and Expressive Traditions

NY Folklore Society Graduate Student Conference
Latino Folk Culture and Expressive Traditions

November 20, 2010
New York University
New York, NY 10012
Call for Proposals


For over 65 years, the New York Folklore Society (NYFS) has held an annual conference, typically with guest speakers, such as master artists and academic scholars, who have addressed a particular theme. This year, in collaboration with NYU’s Latino Studies and Latin American Studies Departments, we invite graduate students to present their work on Latino Folk Culture and Expressive Traditions. In this way, students will be given a platform at a local conference to share their work and connect with other young academics from around the state. The NYFS seeks to encourage young scholars to continue their studies and become active contributors to the fields of folklore, ethnomusicology, anthropology and more.

Theme: Latino Folk Culture and Expressive Traditions
A cumbia group belting-out Colombian tunes at an outdoor cumbiamba, a Peruvian curandero diagnosing a patient through the use of animals, a Mexican family building a Diá de los Muertos altar in their home, a décima verse sung by a Puerto Rican jibaro—all of these are examples of Latino Expressive Traditions. While some of these forms have roots in African traditions and others have roots in Indigenous traditions, all are considered Latino Expressive Traditions or Folk Arts. These traditions speak to what Latinos say, believe, make, know and do---things that they first learned from their families and community.

The length and breadth of Latino traditions literally covers two continents; and transnational migration to major US cities such as Miami, Chicago, San Antonio, Newark and New York have ensured that the impact of Latino culture continues to be profound. We support papers which explore the topic of Latino Expressive Traditions from both the homeland perspective and immigrant perspective. We particularly encourage papers that address Latino traditions in New York’s tri-state area.

Students can cover any number of topics related to traditional performing arts, materials arts, vernacular culture, sacred arts, etc. as long as the research is with a particular Latino group. While attendees should be graduate students from any academic program; they do not have to major in folklore or Latino studies. Participants can be ethnomusicologists, anthropologists, historians, etc.

Questions? Please contact: Dr. Ellen McHale, nyfs@nyfolklore.org, 518-346-7008

II ENCUENTRO AFRO-LATINO

En respuesta al compromiso adquirido en Cartagena durante el Primer Encuentro Iberoamericano para la Agenda Afrodescendiente del 2008, el Ministerio de Cultura y la Fundación Cultural Palmares realizan del 25 al 28 de mayo de 2010, en Salvador-Bahía (Brasil), el II Encuentro Afro –Latino, con el objetivo de poner de manifiesto el debate y el desarrollo de un programa de ascendencia africana en las Américas.

La reunión tiene la intención de poner en la agenda el debate sobre las políticas públicas de acción positiva para la igualdad racial, y los avances en los proyectos y propuestas de cooperación entre los 20 países que participan mediante la cooperación conjunta, el intercambio, la promoción y divulgación de la cultura africana en América Latina y el Caribe.

El primer evento fue considerado un hito en la cooperación de propuestas multilaterales entre los países latinoamericanos que han optado por la diversidad cultural como un objetivo de un proyecto de integración que debe tomar forma en esta segunda edición, cuyo tema será "El poder de la diáspora africana".

Se estima que en la actualidad, América Latina y el Caribe concentran una población de 150 millones de descendientes africanos. La diáspora africana en la región representa el 30% de la población total. Sin embargo, existe todavía una falta generalizada de atención a los varios siglos que ha representado la contribución de material cultural, inmaterial y simbólico de ascendencia africana en la región.

El programa combinará sesiones, conferencias, talleres y actividades artísticas en un esfuerzo concentrado para movilizar la atención pública entre gestores y artistas para ejecutar un proyecto con las directrices que guíen la acción de los países de América en el contexto de las políticas culturales y la reparación social.

La Cooperación entre países
La Declaración de Cartagena "Agenda para la Ascendencia Africana en las Américas” ha contribuido a la creación de nuevos horizontes en la agenda de la cooperación multilateral en la cultura, y fue fundamental para que la ONU declarara el 2011 como" Año de la Ascendencia Africana de las Naciones Unidas”.

En la de Declaración de Cartagena, se lograron algunos avances y acuerdos bilaterales como el “Plan de Acción Conjunto para el avance de la Población Afrodescendiente ", firmado entre los gobiernos de los Estados Unidos, Brasil y Colombia.

2010 es también un año de especial importancia ya que marca el bicentenario de la independencia de seis países de las Américas. A pesar de los contextos y significados diferentes, este es un momento importante para algunas naciones en las que es posible, reinterpretar y reescribir la historia, destacando la contribución de diversos grupos de población, incluidos los de ascendencia africana, la construcción y el desarrollo cultural de los países. Estos factores se tendrán en cuenta durante la reunión en Salvador de Bahía para avanzar en la Agenda Cultural para la Ascendencia Africana firmada por todos los países presentes en Cartagena de Indias en 2008.

La idea central del II Encuentro Afro Latino en Salvador, que inspiró la Declaración de Cartagena de Indias, es que los países de las Américas, comparten raíces históricas, y que están presentes en estas raíces, la herencia africana y la experiencia de la diáspora. Que hay entre 150 millones de descendientes africanos en América Latina y el Caribe e importantes relaciones culturales y espirituales. Mejorar el patrimonio cultural y espiritual de las personas de ascendencia africana es un deber de los Estados y una oportunidad para la inclusión justa e inclusiva de esta población.

Centro Afro-Latino
En la primera reunión se discutió mucho acerca de cómo los medios pueden contribuir al acceso y difusión de las manifestaciones culturales de origen africano y para la consolidación de una sociedad justa e igualitaria. Aprobó la recomendación de que los procesos de comunicación son estimulados de diferentes maneras para superar la exclusión social, a través de la producción de sus propios contenidos de las comunidades de ascendencia africana y el fomento de la adopción de formas de representación adecuadas y coherentes con su cultura y sus aspiraciones.

El Centro Afro-Latino es un programa de la Fundación Cultural Palmares, que tiene como objetivo compartir ideas y propuestas de pensamiento sobre la cuestión de los negros en América Latina. La herramienta es virtual y quiere estar permanentemente en construcción, con la colaboración de todos los que participan en la lucha por el reconocimiento de la contribución en la construcción de las sociedades africanas. El objetivo del Centro es difundir los eventos culturales en América Latina y ofrecer una reflexión crítica por la preservación y desarrollo de estas manifestaciones.

Durante II Encuentro Afro-Latino, la idea es que el Centro esté abierto las 24 horas, todos los días, con transmisión de información, contenido, imágenes, que se impartirán durante el evento. Ésto permitirá la expansión ilimitada de la discusión, el intercambio de ideas de todas las redes sociales que se conecten pero que no están presentes físicamente. La red virtual permitirá a los interesados participar en los debates en diversos lugares del mundo, documentando comentarios y contenidos, y permitiendo la democratización del evento y, en consecuencia, las decisiones.

El papel del Estado
El II Encuentro Afro-Latino es una oportunidad de ofrecer una valiosa contribución a los estados colectivos, especialmente los Ministerios de Cultura, acerca de la contribución indiscutible de la población de ascendencia africana para la construcción de sociedades pan-americanas y sus avances. En este punto, la atención se dirige a los Ministerios de Cultura de los países de la región, teniendo en cuenta que el reconocimiento cultural es un objetivo de desarrollo importante. A ellos se recomendó entonces aunar los esfuerzos por buscar soluciones para enfrentar la desigualdad y el conflicto.

La Reunión de Pensadores
La reunión de pensadores es una de las acciones del Encuentro Afro-latino. Esta es una reunión de políticos, sociales y especialistas en el área de la cultura negra en América Latina y el Caribe.

El propósito de la reunión de pensadores es ser un diálogo abierto con el fin de recabar información y directrices de política pública a favor de la cultura y la apreciación de la población de ascendencia africana en América Latina y el Caribe.

Esta reunión contará con representantes de los pensadores de diversos países de América Latina y el Caribe, e investigadores y académicos brasileños y representantes de los movimientos negros.


Metodología
La organización del evento de los pensadores se centra en conferencias, mesas redondas, talleres y debates sobre tres temas principales y por lo tanto tres mesas redondas.

Eje temático 1: La memoria histórica de las comunidades de ascendencia africana y la diáspora africana, su significado, el valor y la visibilidad de las narraciones históricas de los países.
- Los esfuerzos de los países para revisar, recuperar y volver a contextualizar la narrativa histórica nacional, teniendo en cuenta el papel de los afrodescendientes en la construcción y desarrollo de los países de las Américas.
- Restauración de los procesos históricos y los movimientos sociales de ascendencia africana, los estados locales y regionales, la libertad, la igualdad, la justicia y la dignidad.
- El papel de las mujeres de ascendencia africana en las luchas sociales.

Eje temático 2: La comunicación y la apropiación social de la historia y los valores culturales de origen africano.
- Papel de la escuela en la apropiación social de la nueva historia.
- Una expresión cultural, el arte en particular, la memoria colectiva de ascendencia africana.
- El papel de los medios de comunicación y nuevas tecnologías de comunicación.
- Turismo cultural como una oportunidad para el empoderamiento de las personas de ascendencia africana.

Eje temático 3: La fuerza de la diáspora africana como fuente de inspiración para estrechar los lazos de fraternidad, cooperación y unidad cultural entre los pueblos de las Américas y su futuro.
- Participación social y política de los movimientos sociales de ascendencia africana. Impacto social, los movimientos sociales, políticos y económicos de ascendencia africana.
- La solidaridad y la cooperación horizontal entre las organizaciones sociales. La formación de redes sociales.
- Objetivos y perspectivas del Programa de las Américas. Papel de la cooperación internacional.

Este es el marco teórico del evento en el que participará el Grupo Bahía Trío más Cantante. Tiene prevista su intervención musical el 25 de mayo próximo, en el concierto Afro-Latino con músicos iberoamericanos; alternando con Carlinhos Brown de Brasil. La presentación se realizará en el Teatro Castro Alves.

MÁS INFORMACIÓN EN: http://www.palmares.gov.br/

CFP: "Wrestling with Violence: the Performance of Violence in Latin American and Latino Letters, Theater, Film, and Popular Culture"

This critical volume seeks to explore the deployment and performance of violence in contemporary Latin American and Latino narrative fiction, theater, cinema, sports and other forms of popular culture. In recent years there have been some important explorations of the manifestations of violence in Latin American letters, including Diana Taylor’s Disappearing Acts: Spectacles of Gender and Nationalism in Argentina's "Dirty War" (1998) Daniel Goldstein’s The Spectacular City: Performance and Violence in Bolivia (2004), Idelber Avelar’s The Letter of Violence. Esays on Narrative, Ethics and Politics (2005), as well as an important and substantial body of work on violence and trauma in testimonial fictions, memoirs and films. Our volume proposes to build on the critical and theoretical grounding provided by these earlier studies by creating a space for considering the production and reception of violence across a broad and varied spectrum of genres, media and public spaces, with special consideration to cultural and literary productions and performances in the new millennium.

Outside of Latin America, the representation and/or the performance of violence in art and popular culture has been heatedly debated by philosophers, anthropologists and critics from outside of Latin America as well. In the past two decades, Giorgio Agamben, Alain Badiou, Judith Butler, Paul Virilio and Slavoj Zizek have been only some of the better known theorists to engage in complex and diverse critiques violence. Along with other thinkers, social critics and bioethicists, these critics have responded to the seemingly unstoppable presence of visual, audio and textual violence in our midst by theorizing the ways in which the mechanisms of violence can be and have been mobilized so as to produce particular social, political, and textual effects. While Virilio decries the “spectacularization” of violence and issues a clear condemnation of all violence-inflected art and culture, theorists at the other end of the philosophical-sociological spectrum argue that the performance –textual, graphic, theatrical--of various kind of violence can have liberating or cathartic effects. We trust that collaborators interested in participating in this volume will engage some of the questions that drive these critical debates. We welcome all critical approaches to the analysis of textual, visual or performative violence, including those centered on psychoanalysis, philosophy, cultural studies, queer and gender studies, critical race studies, diasporas and transnational studies, film studies and contemporary pop culture studies.

Thematic considerations may include but are not limited to:

*The aestheticization or representation of violence in Latin American and Latino narratives and theater (e.g., Argentine fiction on the Malvina’s War, Mexican and Latino literary interpretations of the Juárez killings; narco (sub) cultures; the role of violence in women-authored fiction and theater).

*The spectacle of violence in Latin American film and Latino films, photography and performance art.

*Boxing and Wrestling as performance (e.g. the ring as a space for the enactment of justice, equality, retribution and empowerment, attributes and values absent beyond the ropes; the prominence of boxing/wrestling in contemporary Mexican and Latino novels and plays --e.g., Palau’s Casa de la magnolia or Kristoffer Diaz’s The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity; the glamorization and commercialization of violence in popular Latin American and Latino cultures or in US-produced shows featuring Latin(o)-style sex and violence (e.g., Lucha Va Voom: Sexo y violencia).

* Martial arts and the highly disciplined body (masculinity and containment). Issues of manhood, masculinity and violence.

Please send an abstract of 300-500 words to Paola Ehrmantraut (ehrm7444@stthomas.edu) or Dianna Niebylski (dcn@uic.edu) by April 5, 2010. If your proposal is accepted, we will expect your finished essay by August 20, 2010.

CFP: "Crises and Opportunities in Latin America" Conference ($500 for best grad student paper!)

"Crises and Opportunities in Latin America"

April 23-24, 2010

Keynote Speakers:

Román de la Campa - University of Pennsylvania;
Carolyn Dean - University of California Santa Cruz;
Ana Maria Ochoa - Colombia University;
Jonh A. Zemko - Center for International Enterprise

The conference site is at:
http://sites.google.com/site/ucrlasconference/home


We invite papers from across the social sciences, arts, and the humanities
to examine the cultural, economic, and political reconfigurations produced
by local or global transformations in Latin America and the Caribbean.
“Crises and Opportunities in Latin America,” is an interdisciplinary
conference to reflect on unsettling conditions in Latin America produced by
historical, political, cultural or economic changes, the types of new
conceptualizations and claims these have produced, and the potential
transformations and opportunities they imply for the present and future.

The conference will have both invited and contributed papers. Researchers
from all disciplines are invited to share their research, views, and
experiences.

You may choose to propose a panel of 4 speakers or send your paper
individually. We invite you to submit an abstract/paper or a panel by
February 28th, by e-mail to:

Jorge M. Aguero at Jorge.aguero@ucr.edu


including the following information:
- authors’ name and affiliations
- authors' detailed contact information
- Keywords (at least 4)
- Discipline
- Please write LAS CONFERENCE in the subject

Decision about the papers will be made by March 8th, 2010.

The Latin American Studies Program will award a prize of US$ 500 for the
best paper presented by a graduate student. Graduate students' electronic
submissions should be followed up by a letter from a professor certifying
that the submitter is a graduate student in good standing in the professor's
department. This letter should be sent via mail or email to the address
below. If you send by email, please write LAS CONFERENCE in the subject.

c/o Marcelle Chauvet
Latin American Studies Program
3111 Interdisciplinary Building South
University of California Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
or
email: jorge.aguero@ucr.edu

blog sobre teatro en afroamérica...

http://teatrodeafroamerica.wordpress.com/

September 3, 2009 Issue No.1 LAUNCH OF WWW.AFROLATINOS.TV "Afro-Latinos: The Untaught Story" Official Website Release September 3, 2009 New York / Bogota-on September 3, 2009, Executive Producer, Renzo Devia and Writer / Co-Producer Alicia Anabel Santos invite you to the website release for the documentary series Afro Latinos: La Historia Que Nunca Nos Contaron (Afro-Latinos: The Untaught Story), join us at www.Afrolatinos.tv and be the first to have a sneak peak of the documentary still in production and due to air in late 2010. Afro-Latinos: The Untaught Story is a documentary television series independently produced by Creador Pictures, LLC. The film will be a seven part series covering segments such as: history, language, religion, food, identity, art, music and social issues. Who are Afro-Latinos? Afro-Latinos are the descendents of the enslaved Africans who were forcibly taken from their land and dispersed throughout Latin America. There are an estimated 200 million Afro-descendants throughout Latin America; yet the majority, have no political or economic power. Afro-Latinos: The Untaught Story will take you on a journey to meet Afro-Latinos throughout Spanish and Portuguese speaking nations of Central and South America and the Caribbean. It is the story of a shared history not found in textbooks. This film gives a voice to communities who have been invisible until now. Be the first to view the official website for Afro-Latino's: La Historia Que Nunca Nos Contaron. This site is the one stop shop for all information on Afro-Latinos in the Caribbean, Central and South America. Viewers will be able to live the producer's journeys through pictures and videos. There you can learn more about the history that was never taught and the people who live in these Afro-Latino communities. Visit www.Afrolatinos.tv to download free screensavers with images shot during filming. Check out the trailer on the main page for an inside look at the television series. Visitors will also be able to download radio shows containing Afro-Latino tunes, Latin Reggae and African beats that have inspired Latin music. There are links to organizations for each country that inform communities where to go if they are discriminated against, as well as resources to encourage viewers to continue to investigate history and a collection of books the crew picked up during their travels. About Creador Pictures.LLC Creador Pictures is an independent production company based in Bogota, Colombia created by Renzo Devia. Renzo has over 14 years of experience producing television in the United States, developing English language programming for Latinos with shows like Urban Latino TV, American Latino (www.AmericanLatino.tv) and LatiNation (www.LatiNation.tv). Creador Pictures is his new venture where he plans to produce Latino-themed content for Latin America in Spanish. About Alicia Anabel Santos Alicia Anabel is a proud New York-born Dominicana who is passionate about writing works that empower and inspire women to find their voices, speak up and demand that they be respected. Founder of the New York City Latina Writers Group, Alicia's extensive writing experience includes hosting, writing scripts for, and serving as co-editor of Latina Source Podcast. She's worked for renowned magazines such as BusinessWeek, Glamour and Domino, but it was an article published in Urban Latino Magazine (www.urbanlatino.com), "Two Cultures Marching to One Drum," that gained the attention of Producer, Renzo Devia. He invited her to partner with him on a project that will change the way the world sees color and race relations in Latin America. The Producers thoughts on the project: Renzo: "I couldn't stop asking myself: Why did I not learn about this history? Why didn't I know-how large this population is? Why are there so many Latinos that negate their African roots, who aren't proud of where they come from?" Alicia: "Renzo and I wanted to delve deeper into what it means for us to be Latino. We recognized that we might share a bloodline with Africa and that this idea is hard to accept for some. Our mission is to create awareness and be apart of a dialogue on Afro-Latino issues. Through Renzo's vision behind the lens and my words on the page, we hope to have created a project that will be everlasting." This is the history of our ancestors and the descendents they left behind, who today live in hidden communities. These are the underprivileged, those with their rights violated, who are excluded from society. This is the story of those who are not seen or heard... these are the invisibles! On this journey Alicia and Renzo discovered that their history is more beautiful than they imagined. The documentary is filled with stories of strength, steel spirits, cultural preservation, faith, hope, love, gratitude, generosity, and kindness. The mission of the producers is to promote equality within Latin America and put an end to discrimination. Visit us at: www.Afrolatinos.tv Sincerely, Creador Pictures, LLC Press Contact: info@creadorpictures.tv Join our mailing list!

Conference: Reconfigurations of Racism and New Scenarios of Power After 2001 / Reconfiguraciones del racismo y nuevos escenarios de poder

Reconfigurations of Racism and New Scenarios of Power After 2001
Reconfiguraciones del racismo y nuevos escenarios de poder despues del 2001
RECONFIGURAÇÕES DO RACISMO E OS NOVOS CENÁRIOS DE PODER APÓS 2001

December 8 and 9, 2008 at the Campus Center, Reading Room, University of Massachusetts Amherst .

Since the 2001 World Conference against Racism, held in Durban , South Africa , in 2001, Latin America has emerged as a primary region in global constellations of racial politics and race-specific policies. The rise of Black movements across the region has been met by the elaboration for the first time of state policies explicitly designed for Afro-descendant populations. Yet social indicators reveal that the majority of the Afro-Latinos still suffer from serious social inequalities and persistent political and economic disenfranchisement. This international conference brings together leading Black movement activists and specialists in comparative race relations to assess the status of racial inequality, the current state of racial politics, and the efficacy of racial policies pertaining to Afro-descendants in the Latin American region and, comparatively, in the Americas as a whole since Durban.

Desde la Conferencia Mundial 2001 en contra de racismo que tomó lugar en Durban, Suráfrica, en 2001, América Latina ha sobresalido como una primera región en las constelaciones globales de políticas raciales y específicas a razas. El auge de los movimientos negros en la región ha enfrentado con la elaboración por primera vez de políticas estatales explícitmante diseñadas por poblaciones afrodescendientes. Mas los indicadores sciales revelan que la mayoría de los Afro-latinos siguen sufriendo de las inequidades cosiales y persistente marginalzación política y económica. Esta conferencia internacional convoca activistas sobresalientes del movimiento negro y especialistas en relaciones raciales comparativas para medir el estado de las inequidades raciales, de las políticas raciales, y la eficacia de las políticas raciales a facvor de los afrodescendientes en la región latinoamericana y, comparativamente, en Ámerica generalmente.

Confirmed speakers include:
Entre los ponentes estarán:
Jhon Anton (Corporación de Desarrollo Afroecuatoriana, Ecuador); María Inés Barbosa (UNIFEM); Humberto Brown (Alianza Estratégica Afro-descendiente); Nirva Camacho, Red de Organizaciones Afro-Venezolanas); Epsy Campbell (Black Latin American Parliament, Costa Rica); Suely Carneiro (Geledés, Brazil); Sergia Galvan (Red de Mujeres Afro latinoamericanas, Caribeñas y de la Diaspora); Libia Grueso (Observatorio de Discriminación Racial-Universidad de los Andes, Proceso de Comunidades Negras); Joseph Jordan (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill); Claudia Mosquera (Universidad Nacional de Colombia-Bogota); Tianna Paschel (Uiversity of California at Berkeley); Seth Racusen (Anna Maria College); Matilde Ribeiro (Former Minister of Racial Equality, Brazil); Romero Rodríguez (Mundo Afro, Uruguay); Rosita Romero (Centro de Desarrollo de la Mujer Dominicana); Edward Telles (Princeton University); J. Michael Turner (Caribbean Cultural Center, GALCI) and Tukufu Zuberi (University of Pennsylvania).

For program details and other information, please contact the Center for Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies, UMass Amherst at 413-545-4648, write to us at afrolat@polsci.umass.edu, or consult our website at http://www.umass.edu/clacls/events.htm

Cumbre cultural iberoamericano sobre los Afrodescendientes/ Latin American Policy-makers meet on Afro-Latin Culture

Según Semana.com:
(enlace)
Link (translated from Spanish)

Los líderes culturales de Iberoamérica se reúnen en Cartagena para definir políticas en el trabajo con las comunidades afrodescendientes, cuya población es de 150 millones de habitantes en América Latina y el Caribe. Desde este jueves y hasta el sábado, 9 ministros de Cultura de la región y 31 expertos internacionales estarán participando con el liderazgo de Colombia
...
Los acuerdos y compromisos a los que lleguen estos líderes no sólo quedarán consignados en la Declaratoria de Cartagena, al final de la jornada, sino que estarán bajo la lupa del Observatorio Afrolatino que lanzarán el minCultura de Brasil, Juca Ferreira, y el experto Zulú Araujo.

Entre los participantes internacionales hay representantes del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID), las Naciones Unidas y la Organización Internacional para las Migraciones (OIM).

Update/Actualizado:
Todavía no tengo muy claro qué son el Encuentro Iberoamericano de Afrodescendencia, el Observatorio Afro, o la Declaración de Cartagena, pues lo único que encontré online fueron estos:
Enlace
Enlace

A different tack in Latin American war on drugs

"Latin Americans ... are challenging Washington's aggressive war on drugs in the world's top cocaine-producing region. These governments are shaking off U.S. influence in the region and building defense and trade alliances that exclude the United States. Some now say they can better fight drugs without U.S. help and are rejecting policies they do not like.... For Correa and other leaders, the plight of people like Vivas, coupled with stubbornly high smuggling rates, is proof of the failure of a drugs war focused on prison sentences and eradication of the coca crop, the raw material for making cocaine. They resent prescriptions handed down from Washington that they say cram courts and prisons with the poor without slowing demand for cocaine in U.S. cities."
Link

Conference: Contested Modernities: Indigenous and Afro-descendant Struggles in Latin America

The 2009 Lozano Long Conference sponsored by the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies will have as a topic Contested Modernities: Indigenous and Afrodescendant Experiences in Latin America. This will be a scholarly gathering to discuss the specific contours of disparate modern experiences in Mesoamerica, the Caribbean and the Andes, where ethnic markers led to fundamentally distinct modernizing processes than elsewhere in the continent.

Considerable progress has been made in scholarship over the past two decades, to address the numerous conceptual failings that had left Afro-descendant and indigenous peoples invisible or marginalized in relation to dominant narratives and analytical frames. To an important degree, these contestations have been carried out by indigenous and Afro-descendant intellectuals themselves, in a way that has served to highlight the closely intertwined relationship between scholarly trends and societal politics. Yet an important facet of this scholarly transformation remains woefully incomplete, perhaps reflecting the difficulties of the corresponding political challenge. It is generally acknowledged that Afro-descendant and indigenous peoples face parallel histories of racism and oppression, and that their struggles for rights and redress follow similar patterns as well. But when it comes to empirical research and sustained analytical work, the most common pattern is to address the two separately, rather than viewing both in the same analytical lens. In the realm of literature and literary analysis a similar pattern holds. There surely are sound political and analytical reasons in particular cases. But the divide itself, and the different emphases within each body of scholarship, also betray some suspicious parallels to the racial ideologies to which both peoples have been subjected over the past 500 years.

This conference will be dedicated to probing this divide, by showcasing scholarship and political interventions that place indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples in the same analytical lens. We seek to explore and problematize this divide, without assuming that it should be eliminated, or that it should stay in place. Rather, our guiding premise is that rigorous historical, humanistic, and social analysis of the underlying question will both energize scholarly debates, and contribute to the bridge-building of commonality and difference, from which the struggles of both peoples stand to benefit.

The conference will be held at the University of Texas at Austin on 26 to 28 February 2009.

The Keynote Speaker will be Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Professor of Sociology at the School of Economics, University of Coimbra (Portugal), Distinguished Legal Scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School, Director of the Center for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra and Director of the Center of Documentation on the Revolution of 1974 at the same University. His most recent books in English are Democratizing Democracy: Beyond the Liberal Democratic Canon (2007), and The Rise of the Global Left: The World Social Forum and Beyond (2006). He is one of the founders of the World Social Forum.

Other invited speakers include James Anaya, James J. Lenoir Professor of Human Rights Law and Policy at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law and United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people; Ginetta Candelario, Associate Professor of Sociology and Latin American and Latino/a Studies at Smith College, an expert on Dominican communities and identity formations, race and ethnicity in the Americas, Latina/o communities and identity formations, and Latina feminisms; Arturo Escobar, Distinguished Kenan Professor of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, whose most recent work identifies the political ecology framework developed by the Colombian region's social movement of black communities, and suggests that this framework contains important elements for rethinking sustainability and biodiversity conservation; Michael Hanchard, Professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University who has written widely on black politics, race in Latin America, and comparative racial politics; Aida Hernandez, Researcher-Professor at CIESAS (Center for Advanced Studies in Social Anthropology) in Mexico City who has worked and lived among Guatemalan refugees and Chiapas' indigenous peoples on the southern Mexican border since 1986 and is the author of Histories and Stories from Chiapas: Border Identities in Southern Mexico; Bettina Ngweno, Assistant Professor of African and African American Studies at the University of California, Davis, whose recent book, Turf Wars: Territory and Citizenship in the Contemporary State analyzes the local, national, and international construction and transformation of the state by examining Afro-Colombian struggles over territory and citizenship; Irmalicia Velasquez Nimatuj, Guatemalan K'iche', Maya anthropologist working on ethnicity, gender, democratization, and globalization; and Catherine Walsh, Professor of Social and Global Studies and Director of Latin American Cultural Studies at the Universidad Andina Simon Bolivar, in Ecuador, who has worked with Indigenous movements for many years, and is now involved with the emergent Afro-Ecuadorian movement.

These scholars have all been centrally involved in debates about Afro-descendant and/or indigenous politics, culture, and history in Latin America. They will anchor the various thematic areas around which the conference panels will be organized, which include but are not limited to:

1) Post-capitalist, post-liberal, and post-statist societies; 2) Alternative modernizations or the end of coloniality; 3)Artistic manifestations of disparate cultural experiences; 4) Points of convergence and points of divergence in indigenous and Afrodescendant experiences; 5) Legal and political struggles for rights and new citizenship regimes; 6) Communal systems, stability, non-capitalist practices and non-state forms of power; 7) Human rights, indigenous communities, and Afrodescendant communities; and 8) Religious practices and alternative modernizations.

Those interested in participating should send their abstracts (between 250 and 300 words) as
well as a short bio-bibliographical notice (200 words) to the two convenors: Dr. Arturo Arias and Dr. Charles R. Hale, at Arturo_arias@mail.utexas.edu and crhale@mail.utexas.edu. The deadline for sending the proposals is October 1, 2008. Acceptance will be notified by November 15, 2008. Be sure that the abstract makes clear the connection between your paper proposal and the concept statement of the Conference

This Conference is organized by an eight-member Conference Steering Committee from across the UT campus. All decisions are made collectively. Members are Arturo Arias (Spanish and Portuguese); Jossianna Arroyo Martínez (Spanish and Portuguese); Karen Engle (Law);Virginia Garrard Burnett (History);Frank Guridy (History); Charles R. Hale (Anthropology); Juliet Hooker (Government); and Shannon Speed (Anthropology).

Conference: Latin America and Opposition to Neo-Liberalism

So, somebody who doesn't have to finish two chapters before they go to Colombia on Tuesday (like me), please go to this and tell me how it was:

Latin American Opposition to Neo-Liberalism: Janey Program Annual Conference at the New School

Friday, April 11, 2008 9:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m.
New School
79 Fifth Ave, Room 906

The Latin American region has witnessed mounting opposition to neoliberalism over the course of the last decade. Recent developments in Bolivia and Venezuela in particular raise questions with critical implications for various fields of study, from political economy to political theory. Are these 21st-century revolutions turning the tide against the neoliberal consensus, or do they represent a regression to statist models of growth discredited long ago? Is Latin America finally finding its own way to participatory democracy, or are these recent political trends part of a worrisome global movement away from freedom and liberal rights? Do these developments suggest the possibility of forms of social reproduction that escape the logic of liberal capitalism by opening a space to the people? Must we then completely rethink the meaning of “populism,” or will it always be equivalent to demagogy?

These questions will be addressed by a panel of experts including Sujatha Fernandes, Greg Grandin, Bernardo Kliksberg, Philip Oxhorn, Fred Rosen, and David Schneiderman. The keynote speech will be delivered by Mario Gustavo Guzmán Saldaña, Bolivian ambassador to the United States. Estela Carlotto, president of the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo and recipient of the 2006 New School University in Exile Award, will be the special guest speaker.

9:45 a.m.
Opening remarks
Michael Cohen, Director, graduate program in International Affairs, and Courtney Jung, Director, Janey Program in Latin American Studies

10:00–11:30 a.m.
Panel 1:
Latin America’s New Consensus?”
Greg Grandin, New York University
“Against Neoliberalism: Confronting Obsolescence and Insecurity in Mexico”
Fred Rosen, North American Congress on Latin America
"A Turn to the Left or a U-Turn? Understanding Voter Opposition to Neoliberal Economic Reforms”
Philip Oxhorn, McGill University

11:30 a.m.–1:00 p.m.
Panel 2:
“Investment Rules, the Immobilized State, and the Difficulties of Counterhegemonic Resistance”
David Schneiderman, University of Toronto
“Everyday Wars of Position: Media, Social Movements, and the State in Chavez’s Venezuela”
Sujatha Fernandes, Queens College, City University of New York
“Violence and Inequality in Latin America”
Bernardo Kliksberg, United Nations Development Program

1:00–2:30 p.m.
Lunch break

2:30–4:00 p.m.
Keynote speech
Mario Gustavo Guzmán Saldaña, Ambassador of the Republic of Bolivia to the United States

4:00–4:30 p.m.
Coffee break

4:30–5:30 p.m.
Special guest speaker
Estela Carlotto, President of the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo and recipient of the 2006 New School University in Exile Award

5:30 p.m.
Wine and cheese reception

Latin America underreported (duh!)

• Miami Herald columnist Andrés Oppenheimer bemoans the near-total absence of Latin America coverage in the U.S. media. He interviews the authors of a recent study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism:

“Latin America was not measured as a separate category, but it is safe to assume that it accounted for less than the 0.5 percent devoted to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The study’s authors told me that even some of the most dramatic events in Latin America got very little coverage in the mainstream U.S. media.”

First Conference on Ethnicity, Race, and Indigenous

CALL FOR PAPERS

First Conference on Ethnicity, Race, and Indigenous

Peoples in Latin America and the Caribbean

May 22-23, 2008

University of California, San Diego

Individual papers and organized panel proposals are invited for the First Conference on

Ethnicity, Race, and Indigenous Peoples in Latin America and the Caribbean, May 22-23 2008,

at the University of California, San Diego. The event is organized and sponsored by ERIP

(LASA Section on Ethnicity, Race, and Indigenous Peoples), CILAS-UCSD (Center for Iberian

and Latin American Studies, University of California, San Diego) and LACES (Latin American

and Caribbean Ethnic Studies, journal published by Taylor & Francis).

The conference will include panels, proposed and organized by CILAS-UCSD, on indigenous

peoples and natural resources (land, water, trees and forests, herbs, oil, natural gas, and other

resources). We encourage other institutions such as regional or country-focused scholarly

associations and university departments, to propose "sponsored panels" organized by the

institution, involving their members and receiving their imprimatur.

The conference’s Program Committee will consider panels and individual paper proposals on

any topic related to ethnicity, race relations, Indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants and other

ethnic or racial groups in Latin America and the Caribbean. The committee accepts electronic

submissions only. Proponents should fill in an Individual Paper Proposal Form or, in the case of

panels, a Pre-organized Panel Proposal Form, Please visit the following website to download

the forms: http://cilas.ucsd.edu/events/conferences.php. The completed form should then be

attached to an email addressed to ERIP Conference Program (eripprog@dss.ucsd.edu).

Proposals and Forms must be received by: October 31, 2007

Any questions regarding pre-registration or registration matters, local arrangements, and mailed

or faxed invitation letters to support an application for a visa or travel funds: ERIP Conference

Administration (email: eripadm@dss.ucsd.edu or call: 858-534-6050).

Communications about paper or panel proposal submissions, program matters, and travel support applications:

ERIP Conference Program (email: eripprog@dss.ucsd.edu).

Scientific freedom vs. biopiracy legislation

More sticky stuff about intellectual property, or really, how to enforce it without being draconian - link

Racism in Latin America

The Post's Latino blog has an interesting post on racism in Latin America. New York being New York, it's mostly about the Dominican Republic and most of the responses are from Dominicans, but the things that come up show that these problems are bigger than just one country and in fact are common to Latin America. The idea that Latino is not a race, but that in fact we are split by our own internal hierarchies, is something that is not too often aired publicly in front of the Anglos, but it's important. But where does it leave us? Do national links get divided along racial lines as black Latinos squeeze into the dominant African-(North) American mold (despite cultural differences) and white Latinos make themselves into "the new white ethnic" (and take advantage of both relative privilege viz-a-viz their black countrymen and the underdog privilege of non-whites in a white world)? Does class get factored out? Complicated stuff, and difficult to make proscriptions about, but a useful discussion...

LAtin American Theater in NY/Teatro Latinoamericano en NY

Looks good - if they have student-priced tix I might go!



Gemelos
Compañía Teatro Cinema from Chile


July 10-14 at 8:30
Pope Auditorium at Fordham University
Tickets $50

Gemelos is a chilling play about twin brothers
who live with their grandmother while learning
the harsh reality of a devastating war. The
three renowned Chilean actors wear a variety of
half-masks and perform all the roles on a
small-scale stage, creating a forced perspective
that gives the illusion that they are the size of puppets.



Un Hombre que se Ahoga
Proyecto Chejov from Argentina

July 17-19 at 8:00

Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater

Tickets $50



A new adaptation of Chekhov’s The Three Sisters
from director Daniel Veronese featuring
minimalist staging and gender reversal. This
imaginative adaptation captures Chekhovian themes
relating to the tedium of provincial life.



De Monstruos y Prodigios: La Historia de los Castrati
Teatro de Ciertos Habitantes from Mexico

July 20-21 at 8:00
July 22 at 3:00
Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College
Tickets $50


Extreme physical comedy combines with live music
in this play that explores the contradictions,
romances, and whims of the castrati. Directed by
Claudio Valdés Kuri for the Mexico City based
Teatro de Ciertos Habitantes, the work has toured
to Europe, Mexico and South America.


Performed in Spanish with English supertitles


Divinas Palabras
Centro Dramático Nacional from Spain

July 26-28 at 8:00
Rose Theater
Tickets: $20, 30, 40, 50


Written by Spanish playwright Ramón del
Valle-Inclán, this spectacle examines the
struggle between the religious fervor of a
conservative rural community and the search for
personal fulfillment and sexual awakening.


Performed in Spanish with English supertitles.
All tickets $50 unless otherwise indicated.

Sponsored by Altria Group, Inc. and Telemundo 47.

For tickets and complete program information
www.LincolnCenter.org/lcfestival