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Newsletter
Volume 23, Issue 1
Fall 2008
Welcome back! As August comes to a close and schools jump back into a new year, this fall's newsletter will highlight LARC's past events as well as introduce some new resources which are ready to be used and incorporated into your curricula. The Latin American Resource Center has been busy over the summer with this year's summer teacher institute, "Performance in Latin America: Retracing African Culture." To read the final report on this summer's teacher institute, you can download it here.
This fall will be filled with opportunities to bring Latin America into the classroom. Hispanic Heritage month is around the corner and LARC always provides wonderful resources from our lending library to many schools interested in celebrating this month beginning September 15. Every year, LARC hosts a Day of the Dead teacher workshop and celebration which is always a fun way of incorporating Latin American culture around Halloween. There are many activities planned for this semester so please keep checking our website as new events are added all the time. Also please remember to contact us if you need any help integrating our resources into your curriculum. We also are available to come out to your school for in-service workshops so please stay in touch.
All the best,
Denise Woltering
LARC Program Manager
In this issue of the LARC Newsletter:
Professional Development
Lagniappe Learning: Teacher Expo
Saturday September 20, 2008
10 am - 3 pm
Louisiana State Museum's, Cabildo
701 Chartres St
The Latin American Resource Center is a member of "Informal Educators," a group of New Orleans area organizations, museums, libraries, and institutes that provide educational outreach and professional development opportunities for K12 educators. "Informal Educators" is hosting a teacher expo designed to bring all New Orleans area education resources to one place so teachers can learn about bringing outside resources into the classroom. Come on out and visit us at the expo as well as many others such as the WWII D-Day Museum, the Audubon Zoo, or the New Orleans Public Library and many more! For more information, please visit: <http://www.informaleducators.org/>
Louisiana Council for Social Studies
October 17-18, 2008
Airport Hilton - Kenner, LA
The Latin American Resource Center will present a workshop on using film in the classroom. Presenters will discuss best practices in the integration of film in the Social Studies classroom to explore the roles of the citizen, geography and cultural restoration. Come to this year's conference and hear all the presentations.
Day of the Dead in the Classroom
Louisiana State Museum's Cabildo at Jackson Square
701 Chartres St.
November 1, 2008 at 10:30 am
November 2, 2008 at 2 pm
Sponsored by the Stone Center for Latin American Studies and the Louisiana State Museum, this family-oriented event will showcase art, craft, music and teaching resources on Día de los muertos. On Saturday November 1st, local artist, Cynthia Ramirez will build and present an altar to celebrate this rich tradition. Tulane Anthropologist, Christopher Jones will then present a discussion on the contemporary and traditional perspectives of Day of the Dead across cultures. Classroom-ready materials will be presented and available for all K-12 teachers to prepare for teaching Day of the Dead. All classroom materials are aligned with LA State Content Standards.The altar will remain on display through Sunday, November 2nd when Day of the Dead will be celebrated at 2:00 pm. Event is free and open to the public. To download and print the poster click here. For more information please email <crcrts@tulane.edu>.
Visitor Speakers Bureau
Bring the excitement
of first-hand experience in Latin America into your classroom.
Invite a Latin American Studies student or faculty member to share their experiences and
expertise. Check out our list of speaker topics for this Fall 2008, click here.
Spring 2008
Sixth Annual Maya Symposium and Workshop: Maya Calendars and Creation
Teacher Workshop
Tulane University
February 6, 2009
The teacher's workshop is run in conjunction with the Sixth Annual Maya Symposium and is sponsored by the Stone Center for Latin American Studies and the Latin American Library, and the Middle American Research Institute. Details on the teacher workshop will be available shortly. For more information, contact Denise Woltering or visit: http://stonecenter.tulane.edu/MayaSymposium/
Outreach
World Features Title VI Resource Materials!
The site contains contact information
for all National and Language Resource Centers. It also list all professional
development activities sponsored by these centers.
Visit www.outreachworld.org
today!
Latin American Fall Film Series
The Latin American Film Series is a free preview of films and documentaries related to Latin America. The series is hosted by the Cuban and Caribbean Studies Institute, The Stone Center for Latin American Studies and Las Américas Film Network. All films will be screened September 18 throughl October 16th, 2008 on Thursday nights at 7pm in Jones Hall 102 Tulane University. For more information please visit: http://www.lasamericasfilms.org/no/TUfall2008.htm
New
Purchases and Acquisitions
Below is a sample of
the new items LARC has purchased for the Lending Library. For a complete
list click here:
Documentaries
and Videos:
*All film descriptions come from synopsis on
packaging.
The Kidnapping of Ingrid Betancourt
In February 2002, in the midst of her controversial campaign for president, Senator Ingrid Betancourt was kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and became one of the thousands of victims of Colombia’s 40-year-old civil war. Her impassioned calls for an end to political corruption and Colombia's vicious civil war had made her a popular public figure, but a dangerous instigator to many within her country's political machine. Following Betancourt up to the moments before her disappearance, this remarkable film goes on to document her family's desperate and continuing quest to free her and keep her campaign alive. Two years after the abduction, Betancourt is still missing, victim of the corrupt system she tried so desperately to reform. Through voiceovers from radio interviews taken before she was abducted, footage from the campaign trail and a chilling proof of life video released by her captors, Betancourt herself narrates much of the story. Unsettling and unforgettable, this ripping film captures with intensity the remarkable dedication of ordinary Colombians to persevere and free their country from the grip of corruption and the horror and turmoil of civil war.
Sipakapa is not for sale
Montana Exploradora, subsidiary of the Canadian/US transnational company Glamis Gold, received 45 million US dollars in financing from the World Bank to exploit an open-pit gold mine in Sipakapa, Guatemala. In accordance with ILO Convention 169, a Community Consultation was held in this Maya region to establish whether the population would accept or reject mining exploitation in its territory. The result was a resounding "NO" to mining. Sipakapa Is Not For Sale analyses the debate on mining exploitation and demonstrates the dignity of the Sipakapan People as they fight to defend their autonomy in the face of encroaching neoliberal megaprojects.
The Man of the Year
Maiquel (Murilo Benicio) has lost a bet and dyed his hair blond. This little event triggers a head-on collision with destiny in which Maiquel goes from nobody to hero to outlaw… all in 24 hours. Based on the award-winning novel, O Matador by Patricia Melo, this vibrant and brazen crime saga follows in the vein of recent Brazilian cinema such as Vincent Amorim’s The Middle of the World, Walters Salles’ Central Station and Fernando Mierelles’ City of God.
Cocalero
Born out of the US war on drugs, an Aymara Indian coca leaf grower (‘cocalero’) named Evo Morales travels through the Andes and Amazon in jeans and sneakers, leading an historic bid to become Bolivia’s first indigenous president. The filmmakers, granted astonishing up close and personal access to Evo, capture the intimate moments of this controversial figure and his triumphant rise to power. A story of geopolitics, people’s movements, indigenous culture, and one man’s impressive determination. Cocalero is a luminous portrait of working people in rare triumph against U.S imperialism.
Metal and Melancholy
In this offbeat "road movie," documentarian Heddy Honigmann travels with taxi drivers in Lima, Peru. In the early 1990s, in response to Peru's inflationary economy and a government destabilized by correuption and Shining Path terrorism, many middle-class professionals used their cars to moonlight as taxi drivers. Honigmann learns how these part-time cabbies manage to navigate through Lima's congested, pothole-filled streets in dilapidated cars whose survival techniques are as fascinating as those of their owners.
Featured
Web sites:
Resources for Teaching about the Americas/Latin American Database - University of New Mexico
http://retanet.unm.edu/
The Latin America Data Base (LADB)is the longest running, premier, exclusively on-line, English language news service about Latin America. LADB produces three weekly electronic publications (Sourcemex, NotiCen and NotiSur) and maintains an on-line searchable data base of over 24,000 articles as well as Latin American journals.
The Latin American Library - Tulane University
http://www.tulane.edu/~latinlib/
The Latin American Library has an impressive collection of rare printed materials, manuscripts, Latin American government publications, one of the few Latin American image archives in the country, and over 2,000 rubbings of Maya relief sculpture. Among many other unique holdings, the collection includes over 4,500 maps and broadsides, a large number of historic newspapers, original drawings by William Spratling and other silver designers from Taxco, Mexico, and substantial collections of printed ephemera. Most holdings are in English, Spanish or Portuguese although many other languages are also represented.
Sources and General Resources on Latin America
http://www.oberlin.edu/faculty/svolk/latinam.htm
Oberlin College's website compiles many resources on Latin America into one place accessible for all teachers and students.
www.college.gov
http://www.college.gov/
The U.S. Department of Education unveiled College.gov, a new website that aims to motivate students with inspirational stories and information about planning, preparing and paying for college. Designed with students’ input and participation, College.gov was created by the U.S. Department of Education to be a go-to online resource for credible information about college that also provides real life experiences of peers who are already attending college.
If you would like to make a recommendation
for a website to be added to the LARC featured sites listing, please
a link and a description to crcrts@tulane.edu
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