A celebration of the role of Oregon’s Latino community in helping shape the state’s cultural, social and political history will be held June 6 in Knight Library on the University of Oregon campus.
“Latino Roots Celebration,” running from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., features music, speakers, a display of student work completed in a Latino studies class and more.
Organized by the Oregon Latino Heritage Collaborative, the event will showcase a series of short video documentaries made by UO students in a class taught by UO professors Lynn Stephen and Gabriela Martínez.
The Latino Roots course traces Latino and Latin American immigration, settlement, social movements and civic and political integration in Oregon during the 20th and 21st centuries.
As part of the course, students use oral histories to produce narratives capturing the experiences of individual Latinos and Latino families in Oregon. The students’ class projects will be placed among the holdings of the university’s Special Collections and University Archives for use by researchers in many different fields.
Other speakers who will discuss the importance of Latino contributions, past and present, to Oregon’s cultural and social fabric include UO President Michael Gottfredson; UO Senior Vice Provost Doug Blandy; Ramon Ramirez, president of the labor organization Pineros y Campesinos Unidos (PCUN); Emily Afanador, of Oregon Folklife Network; and Antonio Huerta, from the Division of Undergraduate Studies at the UO.
Core members of the Oregon Latino Heritage Collaborative include the Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies, UO Libraries, UO School of Journalism and Communication, Pineros y Campesinos Unidos (PCUN) and CAPACES Leadership Institute, Oregon Folklife Network, UO College of Arts and Sciences, Labor Education and Research Center, UO College of Education, UO Division of Undergraduate Studies and Amigos Multicultural Services Center.
The event is sponsored by the Tom and Carol Williams Fund for Undergraduate Education, UO Libraries and SELCO Community Credit Union. Email olhc@uoregon.edu for more information.
- by UO Libraries