In honor of American Indian/Raza Heritage month, from October 12 to November 19th Palo Alto College will be hosting an amazing event/platica series in San Antonio, Texas. This event is free and open to the public and will be live streamed here: http://pacms.alamo.edu/Mediasite/Catalog/Full/d9aa451c50b74896bdd530a3f241a54321
PALO ALTO COLLEGE
AMERICAN INDIAN/RAZA HERITAGE MONTH CELEBRATION 2015
TENTATIVE SCHEDULE
Mon Oct 12 Indigenous Opening Ceremony & Blessing
12-1:30pm: Dr. Michael Flores/President, Palo Alto College
Central Courtyard San Antonio Poet Laureate Laurie Ann Guerrero
Free Food/Drinks American Indians in Texas Yanaguana Drummers Nina Diaz In Concert
Nina Diaz is the former lead vocalist and guitarist for the award-winning San Antonio all- female rock band Girl in a Coma. She will be performing with her new band.
Fri Oct 16 Free Friday Film Series
9am-5pm/SC Annex 9am & 1:15pm Selena
The true and tragic story of Selena Quintanilla-Perez, a Tejana singer who rose from cult status to performing at the Astrodome, as well as having chart topping albums on the Latin music charts.
11:15am & 3:30pm La Bamba
Biographical story of the rise from nowhere of early rock and roll singer Ritchie Valens (Ricardo Valenzuela) from California who died at age 17 in a plane crash with Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper.
Sat Oct 17 World Premiere of 100% NDN
8-9:30pm Theater/Dance production by Isaac Álvarez Cárdenas featuring Jesse Borrego
9:30-10:15pm Dr. Carmen Tafolla will moderate and lead a panel discussion on Indigenous Identity Performing Arts Center with Isaac Cárdenas and Jesse Borrego.
Main Theater Carmen Tafolla is an award-winning author of more than twenty books, and currently the 2015 Texas Poet Laureate and Associate Professor of Transformative Children’s Literature at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
Mon Oct 19 Juan Tejeda
2-3:30pm/Ozuna Library The Civil Rights Movement/Latino Americans “Peril & Promise” Film & Discussion
Juan Tejeda is an Instructor of Mexican American Studies & Music and Lead Faculty for the Center for Mexican American Studies at Palo Alto College, as well as a writer, publisher and button accordionist for the Conjunto Aztlan.
Wed Oct 21 John Phillip Santos
12-1:15pm/SC Annex “Ancestral Journeys to Now: Reflecting on Chicano/a Identities in Deep Time”
John Phillip Santos is the University Distinguished Scholar in Mestizo Cultural Studies, teaching in the Honors College, at the University of Texas at San Antonio, a Rhodes Scholar, award-winning media producer and author of three books including Places Left Unfinished at the Time of Creation.
Thurs Oct 22 PAC Poetry Rap/Slam
12-1:15pm/SC Annex National Grand Slam Poetry Champions Anthony The Poet & Amanda Flores perform their poetry and host PAC students as they slam their original poetry and raps.
Tues Oct 27 Dr. Josie Méndez-Negrete
12-1:15pm/SC Annex “Embodied Epistemologies: Life’s Lessons”
Josie Méndez-Negrete is an Associate Professor of Mexican American Studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio, scholar, editor, activist and author of Las Hijas de Juan: Daughters Betrayed, an autoethnography, and A Life on Hold: Living with Schizophrenia.
Thurs Oct 29 Adriana García, Dr. Ellen Riojas Clark & Daniel González
12-1:15pm/SC Annex Excerpts from the documentary film Latina Artist Exploring Who I Am: Adriana García, with a panel discussion that includes visual artist Adriana García, Dr. Ellen Riojas Clark and Daniel González.
Adriana García is an award winning artist, muralist and scenic designer. Born and raised in the west-side of San Antonio, she has created community murals with Southwest Workers Union, Bill Haus Arts, San Anto Cultural Arts Center and Casa de la Cultura in Del Rio, Texas.
Ellen Riojas Clark, PhD, is Professor Emerita of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies at The University of Texas at San Antonio. Her research examines self-concept, teacher identity, ethnic identity, efficacy, and Latino cultural studies.
Daniel Alejandro González, MA, is a researcher and ethnographic filmmaker from San Antonio, Texas. His work examines visual arts, identity, communities of practice, community organizing, and organizational structures.
Wed Nov 4 Juan Felipe Herrera/U.S. Poet Laureate
12-1:15pm/SC Annex Reading & Discussion
6-7pm Free Reception & Book Signing
7-9pm Free Public Reading & Discussion
Performing Arts Center Introduction by Texas Poet Laureate Carmen Tafolla and
Main Theater San Antonio Poet Laureate Laurie Ann Guerrero
Juan Felipe Herrera is the first Chicano/Latino U.S. Poet Laureate in history (2015- 2016). A former California Poet Laureate (2012-2014), Herrera is the author of thirty books, including collections of poetry, prose, short stories, young adult novels and picture books for children. His collections of poetry include Notes of the Assemblage (2015), Senegal Taxi (2013), Half of the World in Light: New and Selected Poems (2008), a recipient of the PEN/Beyond Margins Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler (2002). He recently retired from the Creative Writing Program at the University of California Davis.
Fri Nov 6 Free Friday Film Series/Indigenous Documentaries
10am-9pm 10am Reel Injun
Peabody Award-winning documentary that explores the “Hollywood Indian” portrayal of North American Natives through a century of cinema.
Performing Arts Center 11:35am Gente de Razón: People of the Missions
Main Theater Journey through the changing landscape of the San Antonio River Valley capturing the essence of the indigenous people who occupied the valley before, during and after the Spanish colonization of the
land and “missionization” of the Indians.
12:05pm Yaquis: The Story of a Peoples’ War and a Genocide in Mexico The longest-running armed struggle in Mexico’s history (1867-1909); a righteous struggle that was dragged to its end through a malignant ten year program of brutal “systematic military destruction” against the Yaqui people.
1:10pm Huicholes: The Last Peyote Guardians
The urgent story of the mystical Wixarika People, the Huicholes: one of the last pre-Hispanic cultures alive in Latin America, and their struggle against the Mexican government and multinational mining corporations to preserve Wirikuta, their most sacred territory and home of the famous peyote cactus.
3:15pm The Doctrine of Discovery: Unmasking the Domination Code
This film tells the story of how little known Vatican documents of the fifteenth century resulted in a tragic global momentum of domination and dehumanization that led to law systems in the United States, Canada and elsewhere in the world, that are still being used against Original Nations and Peoples to this day.
4:20pm Cartel Land
A physician in Michoacán, Mexico leads a citizen uprising against the drug cartel that has wreaked havoc on the region for years. Across the U.S. border, a veteran heads a paramilitary group working to prevent Mexico’s drug wars from entering U.S. territory.
6:10pm Children of Giant
Unearthing deeply wrought emotions surrounding de-facto segregation of Anglos and Mexican Americans in the small West Texas town of Marfa, before, during and after the month-long production of George Stevens’ 1956 Hollywood film, Giant, filmmaker Hector Galan weaves clips from the feature film with the voices of the Mexican American and Anglo townspeople, cast and crew who experienced this unique conjunction of art and life.
7:45pm Discussion with Hector Galán, award-winning film and television Producer/Director of Children of Giant
Tues Nov 10 Dr. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
12-1:15pm/SC Annex “Culture of Conquest and the Doctrine of Discovery: The United States
as a Colonialist Settler-State”
6-8pm Lecture, Discussion & Book Signing
Performing Arts Center Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz is a veteran social justice activist, historian, and professor
Recital Hall emerita of Ethnic Studies. She is author or editor of twelve books, including Indians of the Americas: Human Rights and Self-Determination and An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, which was selected for the American Book Award in 2015.
Wed Nov 11 Dr. Antonia I. Castañeda
12-1:15pm/ SC Annex “Writing Chicanas into History”
Antonia I. Castañeda is a scholar/activist and recently retired Chicana feminist historian who received her Ph.D. in U.S. History at Stanford University. A collection of Castañeda’s scholarly essays, Three Decades of Engendering History: Selected Works of Antonia I. Castañeda, was published by the University of North Texas Press in 2014.
Wed Nov 18 Juan Mancías & Ramón Juan Vásquez
12-2pm/SC Annex Discussion & Open Forum on Indigenous Identity & Rights
Juan B. Mancías is the Tribal Chair of the Yen Nawi’s Kiapan’k Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas and promotes the preservation, maintenance and respect of tribal identity, tribal Language, and tribal self-determination.
Ramón Juan Vásquez is the Executive Director of American Indians in Texas at the Spanish Colonial Missions. AIT is a non-profit organization located in San Antonio that serves the indigenous population of Central and South Texas.
Thurs Nov 19 Palo Alto College Music Ensembles Concert
12-1:30pm/SC Annex PAC Jazz Ensemble, Mariachi Palomino & Conjunto Palo Alto perform
Sep-Oct Mexico: Splendors of 30 Centuries Exhibit
Ozuna Library
Oct-Nov Perú Mestizo: Life & Art in a Colonial Kingdom Exhibit
Ozuna Library