International Poets to Speak at Trinity University
Daylong Madrid Symposium and Lecture to highlight Latina artists

In celebration of Latina artists, Trinity University will host the second Madrid Lecture and Symposium on Thursday, April 12, with the theme of “Latina Poetry across the Americas.”

Poets from Chile, Venezuela, Ecuador, Mexico, and the United States will gather at the daylong event to present their work and celebrate poetry. The symposium will take place from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Holt Center, 106 Oakmont Court, west of the Trinity campus. The event is free but registration is requested.

Keynote lectures will be delivered by poets Carmen Tafolla and Rosemary Catacalos of San Antonio and Lucha Corpi from California. Among the featured poets are Eugenia Kaiser Toledo from Chile, Eleonora Requeña from Venezuela, Angeles Martínez Donoso from Ecuador, and Minerva Margarita Villarreal from Mexico.

Several poets from the United States will present their work, including Ivonne Gordon, Rossy Evelin Lima, Judith Santopietro, Liliana Valenzuela, ire’ne lara silva, and Celeste Guzman Mendoza. Sessions will be in Spanish or English.

The Madrid Fund for Latin@ Artists celebrates, promotes, and makes available to the Trinity University and San Antonio communities the rich and varied artistic production of Latin@ artists.  The creations of Latin@ artists serve as catchments of memory, as reminders of the range and depth of human emotion and thought, and as markers of beliefs, hopes, and dreams. They are the product of the long-lived and complex cultural heritage and historical experience of the Latin@ communities of the United States.

The soul of that cultural heritage and historical experience is given body via art in all its forms—in historical lullabies, ballads and boleros as well as in contemporary musical forms;  in the narrative and poetic expression utilized by our ancestors as well as in the stories, novels and poetry of our present-day writers; in the traditional arts that so distinctively mark our artistic legacy as well as in modern-day murals, paintings, and sculpture; in traditional performances, whether the dance of the matachines or el teatro de carpa, as well as in contemporary dance, theater, and performance.

The Madrid Fund for Latin@ Artists was made possible by a grant to Trinity University by the Belo Corporation in honor of Arturo Madrid, Emeritus Norine R. and T. Frank Murchison Distinguished Professor of the Humanities (1993-2017), who served on the Belo Board of Trustees. Additional funding is provided by Trinity’s Mexico, Americas, and Spain Program (MAS) and by a grant to Trinity University by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to fund presidential initiatives.

For more information or photographs, contact Norma E. Cantú, the Norine and Frank Murchison Distinguished Professor of the Humanities, at ncantu@trinity.edu or Laura Rodriguez at mrodrig7@trinity.edu.

*The @ symbol is commonly used to indicate both Latina and Latino. Latinx is a word that includes gender fluidity.

Susie P. Gonzalez helped tell Trinity's story as part of the University communications team.

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