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Latino Americans: 500 Years Of History Series Part 1: "Foreigners in Their Own Land (1565-1880)"

When

Monday January 18, 2016: 6:30pm to 8:30pm  Add to Calendar /   Add to Google Calendar

Where

Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room

For Whom

Grade 9 - Adult

Description

This session is in English and will be repeated in Spanish on Wednesday, January 20 from 6:30 – 8:30 pm.

Explore the rich and varied history and experiences of Latinos, who have helped shape the United States over the last five centuries when the Ann Arbor District Library presents Latino Americans: 500 Years of History. Created by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association, this six-episode series features documentary film screenings and discussions at the Downtown Library.

Dr. Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes, Director Latina/o Studies Program, Associate Professor of American Culture leads tonight’s screening and discussion. Tonight’s film, "Foreigners in their Own Land (1565-1880)," begins one hundred years after Columbus' arrival in the Caribbean, as Spanish Conquistadors and Priests push into North America in search of gold and to spread Catholicism. With the arrival of the British in North America, the two colonial systems produce contrasting societies that come in conflict as Manifest Destiny pushes the U.S into the Mexican territories of the Southwest.

Through the Mexican American War, the U.S. takes a full half of Mexico's territory by 1848. Over seventy thousand Mexicans are caught in a strange land and many become American citizens.

As the Gold Rush floods California with settlers, complex and vital communities are overwhelmed. Mexicans and Mexican Americans are treated as second-class citizens, facing discrimination and racial violence. Resistance to this injustice appears in New Mexico as Las Gorras Blancas (The White Caps), burn Anglo ranches and cut through barbed wire to prevent Anglo encroachment.

At the same time, New Mexicans manage to transform themselves through education, managing to preserve Hispano culture in New Mexico and their standing in the midst of an era of conquest and dispossession.

The Ann Arbor District Library is one of 203 sites nationwide to host this series, which has been made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association. The AADL series is also co-sponsored by Michigan Radio and the U-M Latina/o Studies Program and is part of an NEH initiative, The Common Good: The Humanities In the Public Square. For more information about this AADL series, visit aadl.org/latinoamericans

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