I. SURCLA Seminar Series
Dr Justo Díaz (Music Director, Cafe Carnivale)
“Music and Politics in the 1980: Papalote and La Peña's experience.”
When: Tuesday 22 March, 5.30pm
Where: Old Teachers College 306
Abstract
Papalote and La Peña (The Latin American Cultural Centre) were early expressions of ‘world music’ in Australia but also played an important role in the cultural politics of the 1980,s. They expressed the many exiled and displaced Latin Americans in Australia in the ‘80’s and focused on solidarity, music and politics expressing a community striving for hope, visibility and aiming to create a better world. All this in contrast with today’s market orientated trends in ‘world music’ and popular culture.
About Justo Díaz (B. Mus. Ed, M.A. UNSW, PhD UWS)
Justo Diaz is Music Director and creator of Papalote and Musica Viva's Cafe Carnivale. Justo was the Ministry for the Arts NSW Multicultural Music Coordinator and music director for Carnivale Multicultural Arts Festival until 2004. He is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, composer, researcher, educator and cultural activist. Justo has performed widely in Latin America, Spain and France, arriving to Australia in 1979 (on tour with a French Argentinean dance troupe, performing at Perth and Adelaide Festivals). He has played guitar with legendary Uña Ramos and Marián Farías Gómez.
Justo was one of the creators and music teachers of La Peña Latin American Cultural Centre in Newtown, as well as with Papalote, of one of the first multicultural music projects for schools in Australia. Justo has a collection of more than 300 musical instruments, many sourced during a research project funded by the Music Board of the Australia Council. Justo has also been a source of ideas for many projects such as "TWANG" at the Australian Museum and Café Carnivale.
As a music consultant he has worked on TV documentaries such as "South of the Border", "Tropical Beat" and "Pilgrim Notes" amongst others. He has produced music programs for SBS Radio and composed music for ABC National, for SBS TV and has made video documentaries on El Salvador, Guatemala and Australia. Justo has participated in many recording sessions singing and playing many instruments (strings, percussion and flutes).
Justo trained in Classical Guitar and in Jazz studies at the Sydney Conservatorium and completed his PHD at UWS in 2010. He created the course “From Tango to Salsa” for Sydney University and has published books of original and traditional Latin American music with Orpheus Music and an article on the local Latin American cultural scene for the Currency Companion of Music and Dance in Australia.
Nominated by SBS for Australian of the Year for 2004 awards, Justo has been a familiar face in the Australian music scene for the last 32 years, Justo frequently performs as a guest at Café Carnivale, leads his band Papalote, and also performs with Tango Bar and Cecilia Vilardo.
Note:
Access venue location by clicking on http://db.auth.usyd.edu.au/directories/map/building.stm?location=12G
II. SURCLA | COLECTIVO MUJER | Documentary Series
Continuing with this important theme, given that 2011 marks the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, SURCLA has joined forces with Colectivo Mujer; together, we have selected a number of documentaries which are entirely devoted to Latin American women.
Botín de guerra
(Spoils of War),
David Blaustein, 2000, 120 min [Spanish, English Subtitles]
When: Tuesday 29 March, 5.30pm
Where: Old Teachers College 306
This screening will presented by Zulema Cappielli ( from the Support Group for Madres de Plaza de Mayo)
Film Synopsis
Botín de guerra is a documentary about the ‘disappeared’ children of the last Argentine dictatorship (1976-1983), some of whom were abducted from their kidnapped parents by the military forces, whilst others were born when their mothers were in captivity in clandestine concentration camps. Hence its title: those children were the ‘spoils’ of the ‘dirty war’, systematically appropriated by those who won it, the armed forces and the police. It is estimated that more than 500 children went missing during those years, and by the time the film was made, 66 of them had been found thanks to the work of the Association ‘Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo’. Today that number has increased to 82 cases. The film is partly a detailed chronicle of the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo from their beginnings in 1977 through to 2000, and their tireless work searching for their grandchildren. But it is also a document of the recent reunions, from both the grandmothers’ and the grandchildren’s perspectives.
Note:
Access venue location by clicking on http://db.auth.usyd.edu.au/directories/map/building.stm?location=12G
III. Full list of upcoming Seminars
Eric Courthès (Novelist, Literary Critic)
“Amado Bonpland: Generador de re-escrituras transgenéricas”
[This talk will be in Spanish]
When: Tuesday 5 April, 5.30pm
Where: Old Teachers College 306
Acerca de Eric Courthès
Eric Courthès es profesor de español en Tahití. Además de crítico literario y especialista en la obra del escritor paraguayo Augusto Roa Bastos, es novelista, traductor y lingüista. Su tesis doctoral versó sobre las influencias del quichua en el español del Noroeste de Argentina. Su novela, Memorias de un muerto, el viaje sin retorno de Amado Bonpland (Asunción: Servilibro, 2010), trata sobre la vida del célebre explorador francés epónimo.
Resumen de la ponencia
En esta conferencia, Eric Courthès ofrece un recorrido por la azarosa vida de Bonpland, desde su nacimiento en " Charente Marítimo, en La Rochela, y el viaje mítico que compartió con Alejandro de Humboldt a comienzos del siglo XIX en busca de las fuentes comunes del Amazonas y el Orinoco, su subsiguiente carrera como botánico errante y por último, su involucración en la Guerra Grande en Argentina. La conferencia resumirá la creciente bibliografía sobre Bonpland, que incluye desde biografías hasta novelas, pasando por numerosos artículos, además de obras teatrales y cinematográficas. Finalmente, el conferenciante comentará su propia novela sobre Bonpland, un ejercicio hipertextual de fuentes históricas y ficcionales, en el cual se cuestiona la noción misma del autor, un creador en busca de un narrador-personaje llamado Bonpland que se apodera de la escritura del libro.
About Eric Courthes
Eric Courthes is a professor of Spanish in Tahiti. A literary critic specialising in the works of the Paraguayan writer Augusto Roa Bastos, he is also a novelist, translator and linguist. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on the Quechua influences on the Spanish of Northeastern Argentina. His novel, Memorias de un muerto, el viaje sin retorno de Amado Bonpland (Asunción: Servilibro, 2010), narrates the life of the celebrated, eponymous French explorer.
Abstract
This lecture deals with Bonpland's adventurous life, from his birth in La Rochelle, Charente Maritime, and his mythical journey with Alexander von Humboldt at the beginning of the nineteenth century in search of the common sources of the Amazon and the Orinoco, through his subsequent career as a wandering botanist and at last, his involvement in Argentina's Great War. The lecture summarises the growing bibliography about Bonpland, which includes biographies, novels, and numerous articles, as well as plays and films. Eric Courthès also discusses his own novel about Bonpland, an hypertextual experiment based upon historical and fictional sources which interrogates the very notion of "the author", a creator in search of a narrator-protagonist called Bonpland who appropriates the writing of the book in question.
Gabina Funegra (University of New South Wales)
“Quechua: the Fading Inca Language”
When: Tuesday 19 April, 5.30pm
Where: Old Teachers College 306
Abstract
Gabina Funegra will present her award winning documentary, QUECHUA – THE FADING INCA LANGUAGE. The documentary captures the passing of the Quechua language in a remote mining town, Huallanca, high in the Peruvian Andes. Once the language of the great Inca Empire, the documentary reveals the abandonment of Quechua in Peru. This is Gabina Funegra’s first documentary and it is a personal journey to the place of her mother’s indigenous origins. Along with her daughter, Gabina travels to this remote village to discover her mother’s language and find the resilience of a small indigenous community and their fading language. The film is the result of original research conducted on linguistics policies in Peru and the use of the Quechua language in the central Andes of Peru. The documentary explores the changing attitude of people and the impact of language on identity. The film was co-produced with Ms Fuengra’s daughter, Erika Bonifaz.This is a bilingual session in English and Spanish. Ms Funegra will discuss her experience of producing the documentary and her research. The session includes a screening of the documentary, and question time.
Fernando Serrano (University of Sydney)
“Challenging or Reshaping Heteronormativity with Public Policies? A Case Study from Bogotá, Colombia”
When: Tuesday 3 May, 5.30pm
Where: Old Teachers College 306
Abstract
On 28 December 2007 the then Mayor of Bogotá signed a Decree which established the guidelines of the public policy for the full guarantee of the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in the city. This legal
measure was the end point of a long lobbying and advocacy strategy implemented by activists and organisations working on gender and sexual diversity. This Paper presents that experience as part of the process in
which subordinated social sectors, such as gender diverse and sexually diverse people make themselves political subjects. In spite of the novelty in Colombia and in Latin America of this kind of public policy targeting LGBT
people as subjects of rights, it is also an opportunity for normative systems to readjust and to create new ways to normalise people. The promotion of certain queer people as proper citizens, the regulation of ways to interact with the
state, the co-option of social mobilisations and the transformation of grassroots organisations into private service providers, are just some of the risks that a scheme like this faces. The author was part of the social mobilisation that
motivated this particular public policy scheme in the early 2000s and was involved in its design, planning and initial implementation between 2007 and 2010. This paper is situated in a problematic position between political
activism, consultancy work and construction of knowledge based on the practice. It is a contribution to the memory of a rich, and in many ways unique, experience.
Annick Pellegrin (University of Sydney)
“Do You Think US Comics are the Only Ones With Strong Men?”: Traitors and National Heroes in Rius’s Los Supermachos and the (de)Configuration of the Mexican Nation.
When: Tuesday 17 May, 5.30pm
Where: Old Teachers College 306
Abstract
Early issues of the comic series Los Supermachos, by Rius, often refer to the “supermales”, Superman and the importance of the Olympics (2004d: 9; 2004c:117). In these episodes, the inhabitants of the fictional village of San Garabato remind each other that “we must put up with absolutely everything!” (2004b: 52, my translation). The character who best explains this attitude is Calzónzin: “[Cuauhtémoc] was our very hero…! And to honour him we behave like supermales! We don’t have food, but we endure it!… We are pestered by despots, by the police, by the rich… but we endure it!” (2009b: 49, my translation). Don Perpetuo, for his part, is a malinchista who nationalises industries by encouraging foreign investment (2004a: 324). Bearing in mind that the nation is synonymous with machismo in this symbolic and historical configuration, a fact that implies the need to go through a rite of passage before reaching masculinity, and that the 1968 Olympics (and the notorious Tlatelolco massacre that came with them) were considered to be a way for Mexico to prove itself, what are the implications of the use of the term “supermale” in this famous comic series? What do the Olympics, with respect to their repercussions on Mexican history at the political level, have to do with being a supermale? (Lewis 2009a: 184; Brewster & Brewster 2006a: 107) If being a supermale entails enduring everything, how is it that Rius got into trouble with censorship? What critique of the institutionalised image of the nation, and its associated mythical hypermasculinity, both promoted for a long time by the state under PRI rule (Institutional Revolutionary Party, 1924-2000), comes to be understood in the male iconicity which is ridiculed through Rius’s work? Using an approach informed by queer and decolonial critique, these are the questions that I propose to explore in this talk.
Claudia Alarcón (University of Sydney)
“Television, Gender and the Representation of Tragedy: the 2010 Earthquake in Chile”
[This talk will be in Spanish and English]
When: Tuesday 31 May, 5.30pm
Where: Old Teachers College 306
Abstract
This paper is based on empirical findings resulting from an on-screen content broadcast survey conducted by the National Television Council of Chile. Drawing on both, quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, the focus of this presentations is on the media coverage of the catastrophic earthquake that struck Chile in February 2010, which is one of the most severe in the country's history. According to some reports, the magnitude-8.8 quake was felt by 3-million people. Though the tsunami that struck coastal cities around the Pacific was relatively minor, the Chilean government estimates that the earthquake left 2-million people homeless. This study focuses on gender constructions and the television coverage of this catastrophic event. The paper offers an insight on gender inequality in media representation, and therefore, it raises questions on the participation and position of women in the media, and the persistence of patriarchal structures in society which, in turn, challenge the full application of democratic values in Chile.
IV. Full list of upcoming Documentary Screenings – SURCLA | COLECTIVO MUJER
Poto Mitan, Haitian Women: Pillars of the Global Economy
Renée Bergan & Mark Schuller, 2009, 50 min [French, Creole with English Subtitles]
When: Tuesday 12 April, 5.30pm
Where: Old Teachers College 306
Film Synopsis
Told through compelling lives of five courageous Haitian women workers, Poto Mitan gives the global economy a human face. Each woman's personal story explains neoliberal globalization, how it is gendered, and how it impacts Haiti: inhumane working/living conditions, violence, poverty, lack of education, and poor health care. While Poto Mitan offers in-depth understanding of Haiti, its focus on women's subjugation, worker exploitation, poverty, and resistance demonstrates these are global struggles. Finally, through their collective activism, these women demonstrate that despite monumental obstacles in a poor country like Haiti, collective action makes change possible.
Made in LA
Almudena Carracedo, 70 min [Spanish, English Subtitles]
When: Tuesday 10 May, 5.30pm
Where: Old Teachers College 306
Film Synopsis
Made in L.A. is an Emmy award-winning feature documentary that follows the remarkable story of three Latina immigrants working in Los Angeles garment sweatshops as they embark on a three-year odyssey to win basic labor protections from a trendy clothing retailer. In intimate verite style, Made in L.A. reveals the impact of the struggle on each woman’s life as they are gradually transformed by the experience. Compelling, humorous, deeply human, Made in L.A. is a story about immigration, the power of unity, and the courage it takes to find your voice.
La Batalla de las cruces
(Battle of the Crosses)
Rafael Bonilla Pedroza, 2005, 82 min [Spanish with, English Subtitles]
When: Tuesday 24 May, 5.30pm
Where: Old Teachers College 306
This screening will presented by Sydney Action for Juárez
Film Synopsis
This film is the product of research undertaken by a group of social scientists led by Patricia Ravelo Blancas, from the Centre for Research and Studies in Social Anthropology, Mexico. The documentary attempts to list or catalogue the myriad complex intersecting sets of public and private actors who, with massive amounts of private money and political power at their disposal, managed to directly or indirectly violate the human rights of scores of young Mexican women, their families and defenders, falsely accused defendants, their murdered lawyers, and journalists without anyone being held accountable. This documentary is invaluable for illuminating the context surrounding the hundreds of murders and disappearances of women in Juárez.
Dr FERNANDA PEÑALOZA| Lecturer in Latin American Studies &
Coordinator of SURCLA (Sydney University Research Community for Latin America)
Spanish and Latin American Studies |School of Languages and Cultures
THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
Rm No,722 Brennan MacCallum A18 | The University of Sydney | NSW | 2006
T +61 2 9351 6893 | F +61 2 9351 2319
E fernanda.penaloza@sydney.edu.au |
W http://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/spanish_latin_american/staff/profiles/penaloza.shtml
