Campus Connection

UWL celebrates with presentation and film screenings starting Sept. 21

UW-La Crosse will kick off a celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month Thursday, Sept. 21. Events include a presentation and film screenings. This year’s theme is “social movements.” All events are free and in the new Student Union.

• Gerardo Licón, assistant professor of Latin American Studies at UW-Eau Claire, will present “Pachucos! Mexican American Youth Culture in the U.S. Southwest 1910-1955” at 5 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 21, in room 3314. Licón’s research focuses on Pachucas/os and Mexican American Youth Culture in the Southwest, as well as U.S., Mexican, Southwestern and Latina/o, and Cultural History. Licón’s work broadens the geographical scope of the existing research on Pachucas/os by comparing youth culture in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua Mexico and El Paso, Texas with the extensive historical scholarship on Los Angeles. The presentation also broadens the temporal scope of this topic by investigating the subcultures and cultural identities that both preceded and followed pachuco culture in the 1940s.
• UWL Professor Víctor Macías-González, History and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, will lead an introduction and discussion preceding a screening of the documentary “Forbidden: Undocumented and Queer in Rural America” at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 27, at the movie theater. The film is about Moises Serrano who came to the U.S. from Mexico when he was 18 months old. Since he was not born in the U.S., Moises is not a legal immigrant. Moises also happens to be gay. In North Carolina, that presents another set of challenges. Moises’ larger crusade as an activist is to expand the rights of undocumented people trying to survive discrimination. An urgent and necessary documentary, this film humanizes the issues surrounding DACA and the DREAM Act. Forbidden highlights the need for advocacy and awareness surrounding immigration reform and LGBTQ rights, proving eye-opening and inspiring to audiences. This film showing is made possible with the support of the UWL Pride Center, the Office of Multicultural Student Services, and Department of History.
• Omar Granados, UWL associate professor of Global Cultures and Languages, will give an introduction before screening the film “Millie and the Lords” starting at 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 12, at the movie theater. Millie is a Puerto Rican woman in Spanish Harlem who spends her nights working at a local grocery market while she fantasizes about going to college and becoming a writer. When Millie meets Mateo, a former Young Lord, her life is transformed. As she discovers the history of the Puerto Rican revolutionary group, The Young Lords, Millie’s life is transformed. Incorporating original presentations from the founding members of the Young Lords Party with a deeply emotional story written by Jennica Carmona, Millie and the Lords is an inspiring film about one woman’s journey from isolation and helplessness to strength and empowerment.

UWL’s Hispanic Heritage Month is organized by the Institute for Latin American Studies (ILAS), with the support of the Department Global Cultures and Languages, the Office of Multicultural Student Services, the Pride Center, the Latin American Student Association (LASO) and Mujeres Orgullosas. Events are made possible with the support from the Office of the Dean of the College of Liberal Studies. For more information, contact Omar Granados at ogranados@uwlax.edu.