{"id":1830,"date":"2012-10-05T18:55:50","date_gmt":"2012-10-05T18:55:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/166.62.41.2\/~holaamericanews\/2012\/10\/05\/the-latino-midwest\/"},"modified":"2012-10-05T18:55:50","modified_gmt":"2012-10-05T18:55:50","slug":"the-latino-midwest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/the-latino-midwest\/","title":{"rendered":"The Latino Midwest"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Symposium takes a look at the history, education, literature, art, and civil rights struggles of Latinos in the Midwest<\/span><\/h1>\n

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While food, culture, and music are the most visible manifestations of Latinos\u2019 presence in the Midwest, their influence in the region is more widespread but less known. Latino workers have harvested the region\u2019s crops, manufactured its industrial goods, and processed its livestock. Moreover, Latino business owners have rejuvenated abandoned downtowns, while students have increased enrollments and diversified schools.<\/p>\n

The contributions of Latinos to the nation\u2019s heartland are the focus of The Latino Midwest, the 2012-13 University of Iowa Obermann-International Programs Humanities symposium. This interdisciplinary conference will examine the history, education, literature, art, and civil rights struggles of Latinos in light of the demographic changes experienced by Midwestern states with growing Latino populations.<\/p>

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\u201cPeople often think of Latinos as recent immigrants to the Midwest,\u201d says Omar Valerio-Jim\u00e9nez, associate professor of history and symposium co-director, \u201cbut Latinos have been in the region since the late nineteenth century. The symposium will showcase Latinos\u2019 long history in the Midwest and highlight their dramatic population growth, increasing political clout, and crucial economic contributions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The main symposium takes place Oct. 11-13 and will include panels, lectures, performances, and literary readings. The Latino Midwest is organized by three faculty members in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences: Claire Fox, associate professor of English and Spanish and Portuguese, whose teaching and research interests include the literature and arts of the Americas; Valerio-Jim\u00e9nez, who is currently working on a study of Latinos in early 20th-century Iowa that explores acculturation, labor, and gender relations; and Santiago Vaquera-V\u00e1squez, assistant professor of Spanish and Portuguese, a Chicano writer, and member of the creative writing section in Spanish whose current research focuses on literature and art from the U.S.\/Mexico borderlands.<\/p>\n

Related events extend beyond the main symposium. All of the events, with the exception of the Lila Downs concert, are free and open to the public. Highlights of the schedule follow. For fuller details on the symposium, visit: dsph.uiowa.edu\/conferences\/uilmw\/wp\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n