Sydney Hare ’12.

Three recent ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College alumni return to campus to discuss how their experiences in Latin America have influenced their working lives in a panel presentation at 4:15 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 2, in the Keck Classroom, Room G52 of Pettengill Hall, 4 Andrews Road (Alumni Walk).

Refreshments will be offered. The event has been organized by the Latin American studies program, in co-sponsorship with the Alumni Engagement office, the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Career Development Center, the interdisciplinary studies division, the departments of politics and anthropology, and the Purposeful Work Initiative.

In a related event, the Latin American studies program, in collaboration with the Spanish department, presents an evening of Latin American music for guitar performed by Gregoíre Pearce, of Portland, Maine, at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 1, in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Ave.

Both events are open to the public at no cost. For more information, please call 207-786-8204.

Alberto Means ’10.

The panel will discuss “purposeful work in Latin America by students who have engaged with the region through their ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ educations,” explains Sonja Pieck, an associate professor of environmental studies and chair of the Latin American studies program, and one of the panel’s organizers.

“As a new major in the college curriculum, we want to raise awareness of the diversity of opportunities in the working world for LAS majors, and also see how an engagement with Latin America in the liberal arts tradition shaped these alumni.”

The panel speaks broadly to how young people can engage the world at large, in their intellectual pursuits, their volunteering, their activism and, finally, their careers.

The panelists are:

• Sydney Hare, a member of the class of 2012 who studied extensively in Chile during her ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ education and now works in institutional equity sales at Deutsche Bank
  Securities in New York City;

Hannah Rae Porst ’11.

• Alberto Means, a member of the class of 2010 who studied in Brazil and now works in public engagement technology for Purpose, a New York City consultancy;
• Hannah Rae Porst, a member of the class of 2011 who has continued a project she started during her junior year at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, working to support the indigenous culture of a Quechua community in Peru.

Hare majored in anthropology and Latin American studies at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. She spent half of her junior year in Arica, Chile, where she worked closely with the transgender population in the city, and eventually wrote her thesis on the complexities of gender and citizenship in Chile.

At Deutsche Bank Securities, she focuses on delivering global research and products to U.S.-based clients. She credits her liberal arts background for distinguishing her in an industry where most of her peers come in with technical training. Her interest in international relations attracted her to an industry where she is constantly analyzing how world events inform financial conditions and policy.

Means’ early interest in Brazilian music and culture inspired him to study there during his junior year. While living in home-stays in Sao Paolo and Salvador, this politics major studied Portuguese, international economics and music, and worked with local musicians at a youth cultural center in Saramandaia.

In 2011, Means joined Purpose. That firm incubated Minhas Cidades, a cutting-edge Brazilian mobilization platform, and in 2013 Means worked in Rio de Janeiro advising a local social entrepreneur on mobilizing Brazilian youth on environmental justice issues. He is now developing strategy for a multinational food company that hopes to mobilize its global customer community to take action against tropical deforestation.

Since graduation, Porst has lived in Cusco, Peru, supporting the indigenous people of Q’eros, a remote region high in the Andes whose people are recognized as a “national living patrimony” because of the continuity of their ancient traditions. This work began in 2010 when she lived there while doing research as a junior majoring in Spanish and in art and visual culture.

As a senior, she received a Davis Projects for Peace grant to build the first primary school in the Q’eros village of Ch’allmachimpana. Porst founded the nonprofit Willka Yachay (“sacred wisdom” in the Quechua language) to develop programs enabling the Q’eros people to preserve their culture and develop their communities sustainably. She founded, built and administers a preschool, two primary schools, high school and adult school, in addition to other projects that support the community in myriad ways.

Julieta Zylberberg stars in Diego Lerman’s film “The Invisible Eye.”

Celebrating the introduction of its Program in Latin American Studies, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ presents a festival of independent films set in Latin America in screenings Friday through Sunday, Oct. 11-13, in Room 104 of the Olin Arts Center, 75 Russell St.

Titled Memories of the Present Past/Memorias del Pasado Presente, the series opens at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 11, with The Invisible Eye, an exploration of surveillance, repression and insurrection during the military regime in Argentina.

A scene from “Fat, Bald, Short Man,” a 2011 production in rotoscope by Colombian director Carlos Osuna.

Showing on Saturday, Oct. 12, are Fat, Bald, Short Man at 3 p.m. and The Prize at 7. Sunday’s films are The Finger at 3 p.m. and A Useful Life at 7. (Descriptions appear below.)

Admission is open to the public at no cost. The series is presented by the Latin American studies program, the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Museum of Art and the college’s George and Helen Ladd Library. For more information, please call 207-786-8212.

These five critically acclaimed films reflect on the contested memories of the past, the reverberations of state repression in everyday life and the restoration of democracy in the region.

They are drawn from the Global Lens series of international films. Created by the Global Film Initiative and regularly featured at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, Global Lens celebrates the artistry of independent and emerging filmmakers in countries outside the film industry mainstream.

A scene from the film “The Prize.”

Formalizing the college’s longstanding interest in Latin America, the new program enables ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ to offer, for the first time, a formal major in the field. Geographically, the program encompasses Mexico, Central America, South America and the Caribbean. Course offerings cover anthropology, economics, environmental studies, history, politics and Spanish.

“You can’t understand the United States without understanding Latin America, and you cannot understand Latin America without understanding the United States,” says film series co-coordinator Jennifer Adair, visiting assistant professor of history. A specialist in Latin American history, Adair organized Memories of the Present Past with Baltasar Fra-Molinero, professor of Spanish and of African American studies, and with staff at the art museum.

Politically, socially, economically and culturally, the Americas are connected in ways both apparent and subtle, Adair says. “Understanding what unites the Americas is really resonant today, so it’s timely that ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ can now integrate these different aspects of what it is to be American — meaning North, Central and South America.”

A scene from Argentinian director Sergio Teubal’s 2011 film “The Finger.”

The film series has its own timeliness. 2013 is the 40th anniversary of the military coup in Chile that overthrew the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende and epitomized a period of state terror throughout Latin America. This year also marks the 30th anniversary of democracy’s return to Argentina after a military dictatorship notorious for its brutally repressive tactics.

Those events shape the stories and characters in this film series. And film, in turn, is a uniquely effective medium for these stories.

Film, says Fra-Molinero, is “a showcase of the diversity of cultural, political and artistic experiences of Latin America.” And Latin American film is an up-and-coming force in the film world. “Film is such a strong cultural product,” he says.

These filmmakers, Adair says, are “children of the dictatorships.”

Jorge Jellinek plays a dedicated cinema employee in Federico Veiroj’s 2010 film “A Useful Life.”

“Each film in the series is in direct conversation with some aspect of the recent past, and speaks to the ways that memory has somehow become part of politics today.”

In that sense, says Fra-Molinero, the films offer valuable lessons for ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students coming to grips with pivotal moments in the recent history of their own country that took place when they were very young, such as the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11.

Here are the films of Memories of the Present Past/Memorias del Pasado Presente:

• The Invisible Eye (La Miranda Invisible; Argentina, 2010. 95 min.). Director Diego Lerman tells the story of a lonely and obedient teacher at an elite Buenos Aires school. At first adopting the school’s totalitarian oversight policies, she soon finds herself amidst a breakdown in structure and discipline at the school that mirrors the rebellion outside.
• Fat, Bald, Short Man (Gordo, Calvo y Bajito; Colombia, 2011. 91 min.). In this film by Carlos Osuna, the prospects for a lonely middle-aged notary unexpectedly change after he joins a self-improvement group and his charismatic new boss — and strangely affable doppelgänger — takes an interest in his life. Filmed in rotoscope.
• The Prize (El Premio; Argentina, 2011. 99 min.) A political activist’s life-in-hiding on an isolated stretch of Argentina’s coast is jeopardized after her 7-year-old daughter is selected to participate in a local school’s patriotic essay contest. Directed by Paula Markovitch.
• The Finger (El Dedo; Argentina, 2011. 93 min.) In the face of electoral fraud and intimidation, the severed finger of a respected local leader points the way forward for independent-minded citizens and their town’s quest for democracy. Directed by Sergio Teubal.
• A Useful Life (La Vida Util; Spanish, 2010. 63 min.) In director Federico Veiroj’s story, a cinema in Uruguay closes due to dwindling support, forcing loyal employee Jorge to find a new passion and navigate his world beyond the screen.

Davíd Carrasco. (Photograph courtesy of Harvard Divinity School)

Davíd Carrasco, a Mexican American historian of religions, offers the inaugural lecture in ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College’s Latin American studies program at 4:15 p.m. Monday, Sept. 16, in the Keck Classroom, Room G52 in Pettengill Hall, 4 Andrews Road (Alumni Walk).

Titled Origins, Cities and Crossroads: Latin American Studies Through the Lens of a Colonial Mexican Map, the talk is open to the public at no cost. Refreshments will be provided. For more information, please call 207-786-8204.

Carrasco is the Neil L. Rudenstine Professor of the Study of Latin America at Harvard Divinity School, with a joint appointment with the anthropology department in the faculty of arts and sciences. He has a particular interest in Mesoamerican cities as symbols and in the Mexican-American borderlands.

The new Latin American studies program enhances ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ stated mission to become a center of learning in today’s global culture. Encompassing multiple approaches to the study of Latin America, the program aims to broaden students’ worldviews, challenge ethnocentric attitudes, expand understandings of diversity and develop tools for cross-cultural communication.

The fields of anthropology, economics, environmental studies, history, politics and Spanish contribute to the major. Focusing on this region that includes Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean, courses in the program explore history, culture, language and politics from initial European encounters to the present.

More about Davíd Carrasco

Carrasco’s studies with historians of religions at the University of Chicago inspired him to work on the question “Where is your sacred place?”; on the challenges of postcolonial ethnography and theory; and on the practices and symbolic nature of ritual violence in comparative perspective.

Working with Mexican archaeologists, he has carried out research in the excavations and archives associated with the sites of Teotihuacan and Mexico-Tenochtitlan. An award-winning teacher, he has participated in spirited debates at Harvard with Cornel West and Samuel Huntington on the topics of race, culture and religion in the Americas. His several collaborative publications include Mysteries of the Maya Calendar Museum with Laanna Carrasco (Cruce de Caminos, 2012).

He was co-producer of the film Alambrista: The Director’s Cut, which puts a human face on the lives and struggles of undocumented Mexican farm workers in the United States, and he edited Alambrista and the U.S.-Mexico Border: Film, Music, and Stories of Undocumented Immigrants (University of New Mexico Press, 2004).

Carrasco’s most recent publication is a new abridgement of Bernal Díaz del Castillo’s memoir of the conquest of Mexico, History of the Conquest of New Spain (University of New Mexico Press, 2009).

He has received the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle, the highest honor the Mexican government gives to a foreign national. He has been chosen as University of Chicago’s Alumnus of the Year for 2014

An analyst from the National Security Archive and scholars from Duke and New York universities take part in the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College symposium Latin American Revolutions in afternoon and evening sessions on Wednesday and Thursday, March 9 and 10.

Hosted by the Latin American studies faculty, with support from the Mellon Innovation Fund, the symposium is open to the public at no cost. For more information, please contact 207-786-8295.

Sibylle Fischer, associate professor and chair of the Spanish and Portuguese department at New York University, offers the lecture Haiti and the Revolutions in Spanish America at 4:15 p.m. Wednesday, March 9, in Room 204, Carnegie Science Hall, 44 Campus Ave.

At 7:30 p.m. that day, Jocelyn Olcott, associate professor of history at Duke University, gives a talk titled Soldiers, Suffragists and Sex Radicals: Women, Gender and the Mexican Revolution, also in Carnegie 204.

Peter Kornbluh, a senior analyst at the National Security Archive who directs the archive’s Cuba and Chile Documentation Projects, presents the lecture The Cuban Revolution: 50 Years of Bedeviling U.S. Foreign Policy at 4:15 p.m. Thursday, March 10, in the Keck Classroom (G52) in Pettengill Hall, 4 Andrews Road (Alumni Walk).

Concluding the symposium is a roundtable discussion with the three guest speakers on the theme Latin America’s Many Revolutions at 7:30 p.m. that day, also in the Keck Classroom.

Fischer’s scholarship covers, among other areas, Caribbean and Latin American literatures in Spanish, Portuguese and French; 19th-century culture and politics; the intersections of literature, dictatorship and philosophy; and the Black Atlantic.

Olcott researches the feminist history of modern Mexico. Her first book, Revolutionary Women in Postrevolutionary Mexico (Duke University Press, 2005) explores questions of gender and citizenship in the 1930s. She is also a co-editor of “Sex in Revolution: Gender, Politics, and Power in Modern Mexico” (Duke University Press, 2006).

Olcott is working on two book-length projects: a history of the 1975 UN International Women’s Year Conference in Mexico City, under contract with Oxford University Press; and a biography of the activist and folksinger Concha Michel. She is also developing a long-term project on the labor, political and conceptual history of motherhood in 20th-century Mexico.

The National Security Archive is an independent, nongovernmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University. Kornbluh was co-director of the Iran-Contra documentation project and director of the archive’s project on U.S. policy toward Nicaragua. Through the 1990s, he taught at Columbia University as an adjunct assistant professor of international and public affairs.

He is the author, editor or co-editor of several National Security Archive books, including Bay of Pigs Declassified: The Secret CIA Report on the Invasion of Cuba (The New Press, 1998) and The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability (The New Press, 2004), which the Los Angeles Times selected as a “best book of the year.”

Kornbluh’s articles have been published in Foreign Policy, The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and many other journals and newspapers. He has appeared on national broadcasts including 60 Minutes, The Charlie Rose Show, Nightline, All Things Considered and Fresh Air with Terry Gross. He has also worked on and appeared in numerous documentary films, including the Oscar-winning Panama Deception.

Smith, author of Talons of the Eagle: Dynamics of U.S.-Latin American Relations (Oxford University Press, 1996), has served as co-director of the Bilateral Commission on the Future of U.S.-Mexican Relations and the Inter American Commission on Drug Policy. These two blue-ribbon panels issued policy recommendations for the benefit of governments, media and citizens throughout the Americas.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, Smith received his Ph.D. from Columbia University. He has taught at Dartmouth College and the University of Wisconsin, where he received an outstanding teaching award and served as associate dean of the graduate school. He also has been associate dean for humanities programs at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Distinguished Fulbright Lecturer in Mexico and president of the Latin American Studies Association.