Trinity University will celebrate Latinx Heritage Month with five separate presentations by a diverse group of artists who will showcase their cultural experiences. All events are on campus and are free and open to the public.
Scheduled events are:
Jim Mendiola, independent filmmaker, programmer, and writer at 3 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 14 in Northrup Hall 040. He will screen the film Making Viva Max: A Personal History of the Alamo. Mendiola’s new documentary is told in the style of a 1969 movie of the same name, but this time, a Mexican general takes over the “sacred shrine.” This showing is a sneak preview of a television broadcast scheduled for 2018. Mendiola, a Rockefeller Intercultural Media Fellow, has made award-winning films that have screened in film festivals, museums, and colleges in the U.S., Mexico, and Europe. He is director of the San Antonio CineFestival and artist-in-residence at the University of Texas at Austin.
Cristina Ibarra, director and producer, at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 20 in Ruth Taylor Recital Hall. She will lead a conversation via Skype about her film, Las Martas, which also will be screened. Ibarra has made award-winning films that explore the U.S.-Mexico border for the last 16 years. The New York Times calls Las Martas, “a striking alternative portrait of border life.” She is a Sundance Women’s Initiative fellow and serves on the Sundance Alumni Diversity Outreach Committee. Her new documentary feature, The Infiltrators, will be completed next year.
Laura Varela, documentary filmmaker and media artist, at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 27 in Ruth Taylor Recital Hall. Varela will screen As Long as I Remember: American Veteranos, with a preview of a film in progress, Raul Salinas: Poetry of Liberation. Her documentary has been aired on PBS and will be used as a curricular platform for grades 9-12. Varela has dedicated her career as a filmmaker and artist as a form of cultural preservation and activism for the individual and communal healing and justice. She has won awards from the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture, Humanities Texas, and Latino Public Broadcasting’s Public Media Content Fund and has taught courses on documentary film at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Her newest project explores about the life and times of Xicano poet and activist Raul Salinas.
Bárbara Renaud González, freelance writer, activist, and journalist, at 3 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 5, Chapman Center, Great Hall. Renaud’s presentation “Get Woke. Join the Global Tribe,” will include a reading from Las Nalgas de JLo. Renaud is a freelance journalist and prolific author of books about and for Latino children as well as volumes of poetry. She has organized cultural and outreach events, developed school curriculum, and taught at the collegiate level, winning numerous awards in the process for her writing, teaching, and presenting. A Tejana born in South Texas who grew up in the Texas Panhandle, she earned a bachelor’s in social work from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and a master’s of social work from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, followed by working in Washington, D.C., and post-graduate work at the Harvard Kennedy School studying immigration and labor.
Virginia Grise, playwright and director, at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 12, Holt Center, 106 Oakmont Court. She will read from Your Healing is Killing Me. The recipient of the Whiting Writers' Award, Princess Grace Award in Theatre Directing, and the Yale Drama Series Award, Grise’s published work includes a series of plays, monologues, and communiqués. She earned her master’s in fine arts from the California Institute of the Arts and currently lives and writes in the Bronx.
The Latinx Heritage Month series is made possible by Norma E. Cantú, the Norine R. and T. Frank Murchison Professor of the Humanities at Trinity University; the MAS Program; the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures; and Women and Gender Studies.
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