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Convergence of Cultures - A Lecture Series
Presented by WOW! (Windows on the World)
and PDAC (The President's Diversity Advisory Committee)
What is a Sanctuary City? Religion and Immigration in a Secular Age
Aimee V. Garza, Feb. 10, 12:00-1:30, SFCC Boardroom, Rm. 223
This lecture unravels the idea of the "sanctuary city" as an interface between religion and politics in Santa Fe, New Mexico. As immigrant rights activists, public officials, and law enforcement negotiate the measures to remake Santa Fe as an immigrant-friendly place, Mexican migrants create a different kind of "sanctuary" based at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church that aims to revive the spirit of Catholicism through charismatic religiosity. Bringing these two sites of sanctuary place-making together, I ponder the meaning of "cultural convergence" in a post-migration landscape where multiple kinds of difference overlap and collide. I attempt to understand the "sanctuary city" not as a fixed place, but as social space that generates new kinds of solidarities to resist the rising tide of anti-immigrant racism and intolerance in the United States.
Aztlán Sin Fronteras
Erwin Rivera, Tuesday, February 22, 12:00-1:30, SFCC Boardroom, Rm. 223
Santa Fe—The City of Holy Faith—is historically a place of cultural crossroads. This presentation explores the history and contemporary understandings of Aztlán both geographically and metaphorically. We'll follow turquoise again on its historical journeys and deepen our understandings about its cultural and spiritual significance for both ancient peoples and today. We expand upon our understandings of "Convergence of Cultures" beyond the cultural and geographical, and into the spiritual.
Human Rights in Juárez/Derechos Humanos en Juárez (Bilingual presentation/Presentación bilingüe)
Cipriana Jurado, Thursday, February 24, 12:00-2:30, Rm. 488, Health and Sciences Building
This presentation is devoted to a first-person account relating the current events and turbulent political climate in Juárez, México. Cipriana Jurado, a community organizer and human rights activist, shares her testimony of everyday life and survival in Juárez, a city besieged by drug-cartel violence and police brutality. She links the current situation in Juárez to unfettered industrialization and its human costs for both workers and residents who continue to resist ongoing human rights abuses and corruption on many different fronts. This lecture will be given in Spanish, with English interpretation.
Turquoise: Explorations of Migration and Immigration in the Southwest
Dawn Wink, Tues., March 1, 4-5 p.m. SFCC Board Room 223
This presentation explores historical and contemporary migration and immigration in the Southwest through the lens of turquoise. For thousands of years, turquoise traveled the vein connecting the Mayans and Aztecs with the people of the Southwest. The Pueblo people say turquoise steals its color from the sky—the stone has been spiritually, economically, and aesthetically significant to indigenous people since A.D. 300. Later, the Turquoise Trail came to symbolize a convergence of cultures. What can we learn from the historic role of turquoise in the Southwest and how can this inform our understandings of current immigration policies?
For more information, please contact Dawn Wink, (505) 428-1347, dawn.wink@sfcc.edu.