On Monday, May 23, 2016, over 500 students and teachers gathered at the Augusta Civic Center for the Civil Rights Team Project State Conference. Hosted by the Office of the Maine Attorney General, the conference was the first event of its kind since 2010. In addition to schools attending from across the state, the event was also attended by guests Pigeon, a Portland based street artist whose “Mainer” project is currently showing at the Maine Historical Society, and Vishavjit Singh, a writer, cartoonist, and performance artist who travels across the U.S. sharing his passion for art, tolerance, diversity, and social justice.  

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

 

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Isabel Alvarez-Borland, Distinguished Professor of Arts and Humanities in the Department of Spanish at the College of the Holy Cross, examines of the role of language and identity in One Hundred Years of Solitude at Winter Weekend 2016.

Her books include Cuban-American Literature of Exile: From Person to Persona (1999) and Discontinuidad y ruptura en Guillermo Cabrera Infante (1982). She is also co-editor of Negotiating Identities in Cuban American Art and Literature (2009) and Identity, Memory, and Diaspora (2008). She is currently Associate Editor of Hispania and was Co-Director of the 2006 NEH Seminar for College Teachers: Negotiating Identities in Art, Literature and Philosophy: Cuban Americans and American Culture. She has published essays on Cuban and Latin American Literature in scholarly journals such as Hispanic Review, MLN, and Revista Iberoamericana.

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Matthew Pettway completed his doctorate in Hispanic Cultural Studies at Michigan State University in June 2010. Dr. Pettway joined the faculty at Bates College in August of the same year where he serves as Assistant Professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies and is affiliated with the African-American Studies program. Professor Pettway examines the African cultural archive within Cuban colonial literature; placing an emphasis on the dynamics of race, religion and ritual.

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Allen Wells discusses "Interpreting the Past through the Prism of the Present:  The Banana Strike, La Violencia, and the Cuban Revolution’s Impact on García Márquez’ One Hundred Years of Solitude". Allen Wells is the Roger Howell, Jr. Professor of History at Bowdoin College. His scholarship focuses on modern Mexican history, especially Yucatán, the history of commodities, and U.S.-Latin American relations.  

Professor Ilan Stavans was the keynote speaker at Winter Weekend 2016. He is the Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College where his teaching interests include popular culture in Hispanic America, world Jewish writers, and the cultural history of the Spanish language.