Latino Americans: 500 Years of History, produced by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the American Library Association (ALA), is a nationwide public programming initiative that supports the exploration of the rich and varied history and experiences of Latinos, who have helped shape the United States over the last five centuries and who have become, with more than 50 million people, the country’s largest minority group. Additional information about the project can be found at: https://apply.ala.org/latinoamericans/.

The Columbia College Chicago Library was one of over 200 recipients across the country awarded grant funding to create programs supporting this project. We are pleased to announce them here, are all free and open to the public. For more information, contact Kim Hale, Head of Community Engagement and Special Initiatives, at khale@colum.edu.

Latino Americans: 500 Years of History Screening: Prejudice and Pride

Thursday, October 22 at 6:00pm to 8:00pm

Library, 3rd Fl North 624 S. Michigan Ave.

Join us for a screening of Prejudice and Pride (1965-1980), an episode from the Latino Americans documentary series produced by PBS followed by a discussion with Professor Teresa Puente, Columbia College Chicago Journalism Department.

In the 1960s and 1970s a generation of Mexican Americans, frustrated by persistent discrimination and poverty, find a new way forward, through social action and the building of a new “Chicano” identity. The movement is ignited when farm workers in the fields of California, led by César Chavez and Dolores Huerta, march on Sacramento for equal pay and humane working conditions.

Latino Americans: 500 Years of History Screening: Peril and Promise

Thursday, October 29 at 6:00pm to 8:00pm

Library, 3rd Fl North 624 S. Michigan Ave.

Join us for a screening of Peril and Promise (1980-2000), an episode from the Latino Americans documentary series produced by PBS, followed by a discussion with Professor Elio Leturia, Columbia College Chicago Journalism Department.

In the 80s the nature of the Latino Diaspora changes again. From Cuba a second wave of refugees to United States – the Mariel exodus – floods Miami . The same decade sees the sudden arrival of hundreds of thousands of Central Americans (Salvadorans, Guatemalans, and Nicaraguans) fleeing death squads and mass murders at home like activist, Carlos Vaquerano. By the early 1990s, a political debate over illegal immigration – has begun.

Latino Americans: 500 Years of History Panel Discussion: Immigration and Imagination

Tuesday, November 3 at 6:00pm to 8:00pm

Chicago Public Library, Rudy Lozano Branch 1805 S Loomis St, Chicago, IL 60608

As part of the Latino Americans: 500 Years of History programming, a panel of three emerging and prominent artists, educators and activists, Ruth Camargo, Jesús Macarena-Ávila and Tito Moreno, explore the theme of ‘immigration’ where creativity, diaspora, history and politics come together.

Ruth Camargo is a writer, director, and bilingual educator from Montevideo, Uruguay. She has lectured on multiculturalism and storytelling in Uruguay, Argentina, Malaysia, and Kosovo. Ruth is a Professor of Hispanic American Literature and English at St Augustine College, and she teaches Spanish at UNAM-Chicago. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia College Chicago.

Jesús Macarena-Ávila, artist, curator, activist, and educator has an MFA degree from Norwich University and a BFA from SAIC. His work has been shown in the United States and internationally including Australia, France, Mexico, South Africa, Senegal, Spain and Zambia.

Tito Moreno, community organizer and social justice activist, is from El Salvador and has resided in Chicago since 1981. He has worked with Casa El Salvador (now defunct), a non-profit organization which functioned as a cultural and political center. Currently, Moreno works with the Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latino America at Iglesia Unidad in Berwyn, Illinois.

Latino Americans: 500 Years of History: Tour and Discussion of “Nuestras Historias” exhibit

Wednesday, November 11 at 3:00pm to 4:30pm

National Museum of Mexican Art 1852 W. 19th Street Chicago, IL 60608

English/Spanish language tour and discussion of “Nuestras Historias” (Our Histories) with Chief Curator Cesáreo Moreno at the National Museum of Mexican Art in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago.

This exhibit highlights the Museum’s Permanent Collection to showcase the dynamic and diverse stories of Mexican identity in North America. The exhibition presents cultural identity as something that continually evolves across time, regions, and communities, rather than as a static, unchanging entity, and features ancient Mesoamerican and colonial artifacts, modern Mexican art, folk art, and contemporary works from both sides of the U.S.–Mexican border. The vast diversity of Mexican identities demonstrated in these works defies the notion of one linear history and a singular identity.