Notre Dame News | Notre Dame News | News

Institute for Latino 91��Ƶ partners with Library of America for Letras Latinas poetry and conversation event

2024-10-09T12:00:00-04:00

The University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino 91��Ƶ (ILS) is partnering with the Library of America to present an evening of poetry and conversation at 5 p.m. Oct. 16. The program will showcase two poets: 2023 National Humanities Medal awardee Richard Blanco, and award-winning poet, editor and critic Rigoberto González, whose most recent book as an editor, “Latino Poetry: The Library of America Anthology,” was released last month.

The reading and discussion will take place in the Reyes Family Board Room in McKenna Hall and is free and open to the public. Susana Plotts-Pineda, the Library of America’s Latino Poetry Project Fellow, will serve as moderator and deliver remarks about Places We Call Home, a major humanities initiative planned for 2024-25 centered on the Library of America’s groundbreaking anthology. A reception and book signing will follow at 6:30 p.m.

“The goal of this initiative is to encourage readers to connect with the vibrant and multifaceted strands of the Latino poetic tradition,” Plotts-Pineda said. “The programs, which range from library discussion groups to large-scale launches at major festivals, are meant to bring the work of more than 180 poets, spanning a myriad of cultures, languages and facets of diasporic experience to people’s lives and communities in personal, embodied and meaningful ways.”

Francisco Aragón, the founding director of the ILS’ literary initiative, Letras Latinas, has been laying the additional groundwork in the South Bend community by arranging three book club discussions with the St. Joe County Public Library. The discussions, led by recent Notre Dame MFA graduate Alaina Johansson, will take place in the weeks leading up to the Oct. 16 event.

“Given that we are in the middle of election season, what emerged from my conversations with Melody Lutz at the downtown branch was the idea of adopting Richard Blanco’s poetry collection, ‘How to Love A Country,’ as our book club selection,” Aragón said. “Our hope is that these book discussions among members of the public will coax them to venture onto campus to experience Richard’s poems in person. Engaging with local citizens in this manner is Letras Latinas’ way of taking to heart Notre Dame’s strategic framework, which challenges the University to make a difference in South Bend.”

The mid-October program completes Notre Dame’s Hispanic Heritage Month activities.

The campus event will also count on the special collaboration of Emma Trelles, the former poet laureate of Santa Barbara, California, who will travel to Notre Dame from Southern California to introduce Blanco, a fellow Cuban American poet. Trelles will also conduct an oral history interview with Blanco and be the subject of an interview herself — conducted by 2024-25 Letras Latinas Poetry Coalition fellow, Cloud Cardona, who is visiting from San Antonio, Texas.

Current Notre Dame MFA candidate Emiliano Gomez will introduce González, a fellow California native. And, on the morning of Oct. 16, Blanco and González will jointly visit Aragón’s undergraduate literature course, Latinx Poetry Now.

Blanco’s most recent volume, “Homeland of My Body,” assembles his new and selected poems and was published in 2023 by Beacon Press. Blanco was also President Barack Obama’s second inaugural poet in 2013. He is currently an associate professor at Florida International University and serves as education ambassador for the Academy of American Poets.

González’s most recent collection, “To the Boy Who Was Night,” also gathers his new and selected poems and was published by Four Way Books earlier this year. In all, González has published 18 books as an author, editor and critic. He is a distinguished professor of English at Rutgers University-Newark. Among his many other distinctions are fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The event on Oct. 16 is the seventh installment in a nine-episode series to mark Letras Latinas’ 20th anniversary. The remaining two events are slated to take place in Washington, D.C., in November, and Venice, California, in December.

December will also mark the release of Letras Latinas’ anniversary folio in POETRY Magazine, featuring the work of more than 25 poets. This “One Poem Festival” in print was guest-edited by Aragón and Letras Latinas associate Laura Villareal. Both Aragón’s and Villareal’s own poetry also appear in the Library of America anthology.

Originally published by Institute for Latino 91��Ƶ at latinostudies.nd.edu on Oct. 1.

Rita Moreno, legend of stage and screen, to discuss her career and issues facing Latinos in entertainment

2019-02-04T14:00:00-05:00

Rita Moreno — American actress, dancer and singer of Puerto Rican descent — will speak at 5 p.m. Feb. 21 (Thursday) in the Leighton Concert Hall at the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center. Moreno is the first and only Latina to win an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony (EGOT), and she will be the guest of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino 91��Ƶ (ILS) as part of its Transformative Latino Leadership Lecture Series. This is a free, but ticketed, event and is open to the public.

Her career has spanned more than 70 years in Broadway shows, studio films and multiple TV series. Moreno's best-known role is Anita in “West Side Story” — a performance that earned her an Academy Award for best supporting actress. Moreno also starred in “The King and I,” as well as “The Electric Company” and “Oz.” Moreno currently stars in the Netflix series “One Day at a Time.” In this critically acclaimed re-imagination of the classic CBS sitcom, Moreno plays the matriarch of a Cuban-American family, and its episodes tackle issues such as mental illness, immigration, sexism, homophobia and racism.

“Rita Moreno is among the best examples of the rich cultural contributions made by Latinas to many aspects of the arts and entertainment industries,” said ILS Director Luis R. Fraga, the Rev. Donald P. McNeill, C.S.C., Professor of Transformative Latino Leadership and Joseph and Elizabeth Robbie Professor of Political Science. “We will all learn from her commitment, professionalism and unquestioned success.”

The Transformative Latino Leadership Lecture Series brings prominent figures in law, entertainment, business, the Catholic Church and other fields to campus in order to impart their personal experiences and a vision of effective leadership. Past guests include Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor; former San Antonio mayor and U.S. secretary of health and human services Julián Castro; the Most Rev. Jose H. Gómez, archbishop of Los Angeles; and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta.

Jason Ruiz — associate professor of American 91��Ƶ, interim department chair and ILS faculty fellow — spearheaded the effort to bring Moreno to Notre Dame as part of his research and teaching on Latinx popular culture. He will moderate a conversation with Moreno on her life and career, with a focus on the cultural politics of representing Latinos.

“Our conversation will show that Moreno is not just a practitioner of the arts but also a leading thinker on Latino and Latina media, demonstrated by her propensity for speaking out against stereotyping, ‘brownface’ and other problems associated with Hollywood’s representations of Latinos,” Ruiz said. “This event is the result of my interest in Moreno’s career that started when I first saw 'West Side Story' at age 10.”

Moreno's career began at age 11 dubbing Spanish language versions of American films. After her Broadway debut at age 14, Moreno struggled with typecasting — being offered only “exotic” roles or those portraying a sexualized woman. Over the next several decades, Moreno grew to know and respect herself as an artist and become the role model she did not have growing up in the entertainment industry.

A 2004 recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor bestowed upon an American civilian, and a 2010 recipient of the National Medal of Arts, Moreno has also received the Here I Stand Award for activism in the arts.

In anticipation of Moreno's visit, ILS will co-sponsor a screening of “West Side Story” at 3 p.m. Feb. 17 (Sunday) in the Browning Cinema at the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center. This event is also free, but ticketed, and open to the public.

Tickets for both events can be reserved through the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center.

Originally published by Institute for Latino 91��Ƶ at latinostudies.nd.edu on Jan. 29.

ILS Director Luis Fraga honored with MALDEF lifetime achievement award

2018-06-25T15:00:00-04:00

Luis Ricardo Fraga, director of the Institute for Latino 91��Ƶ at the University of Notre Dame, has received a lifetime achievement award for excellence in community service from the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF).

Founded in 1968, the Los Angeles-based MALDEF is the leading Latino legal civil rights organization in the United States. Fraga received the honor from the organization in recognition of his continued work serving students as well as the community and his efforts to bring these two groups together.

“Luis’ legacy lies in all of the students he has mentored, both undergraduates and graduates. It lies in the research he has done that has made an impact in a practical way. And it lies, finally, in his leadership administrative capacity,” said Tom Saenz, MALDEF’s president and general counsel. “He has established a strong record of a Latino administrator thriving and making new contributions, innovating and ensuring that universities are coming closer and closer to communities that they serve.”

Fraga has contributed research to lawsuits filed by MALDEF and other civil rights organizations, such as the NAACP and ACLU, on numerous cases, including work on the 1965 Voting Rights Act with Chandler Davidson, research professor and Tsanoff Chair of Public Affairs Emeritus at Rice University.

Through that legal work, Fraga learned how academic research could be used to make influential decisions within the court system.

“What we do as scholars isn’t just research for research’s sake if we can apply our work to affecting people’s lives to help democracy become stronger,” Fraga said.

His research has had an invaluable impact, enabling important court cases to be decided in favor of those being marginalized. Fraga has provided expert testimony in voting rights cases in California and Washington.

Working with the New Language Program through Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education, Fraga helped establish the first-ever Spanish-English, two-way immersion program in a Catholic school in the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend at Holy Cross 91��Ƶ in South Bend.

Fraga also collaborated with the Notre Dame Office of the Provost to bring the Warrior-Scholar Project to campus. This program provides a one-week academic boot camp enrichment opportunity to military veterans and those planning to leave military service. This program further strengthens the University’s commitment to the armed forces and to share its resources with those who have given to this country, just as Fraga’s father did through his Navy service during World War II.

Luis Fraga with founding ILS director Gil Cardenas and wife Dolores Garcia

Previous winners of the MALDEF excellence in community service award include Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the National Farm Workers Association and president of the Dolores Huerta Foundation; Brent A. Wilkes, former CEO of United Latin American Citizens; Cynthia Telles, director of the UCLA Spanish-Speaking Psychosocial Clinic; and Paul Schrade, coordinator of the RFK-12 Community Task Force.

A native of Corpus Christi, Texas, Fraga has spent his career bringing a distinct and enriching voice to the intellectual capacities of universities across the country, enabling them to better serve all students — including those whom universities are not accustomed to serving in their research and teaching.

“I have held my work to a higher standard because it is not enough to develop a theory that is parsimonious, replicable and salient — it must be meaningful and viable,” Fraga said. “Can it actually work in a way that might contribute to improving peoples’ lives, work to give more people a chance to improving their own lives?”

Fraga also works to inspire transformative leaders who he encourages to use their values and vision to serve those who are not traditionally served and find inspiration for a bigger, more inclusive future. He has served on the Notre Dame Task Force on DACAmented and Undocumented Students to support cohorts of undergraduate students otherwise overlooked.

ILS’ Transformative Latino Leadership Lecture series was initiated by Fraga with the goal of engaging prominent figures in politics, entertainment, the arts, business, activism, the church and other fields. These influential leaders present both their personal experiences and a vision of effective leadership in their spheres of influence with the goal of inspiring and informing young leaders about the possibilities, pitfalls and principles they should know as leaders in our contemporary world.

Helping students “understand the public consequences of their private decisions” has been a goal of Fraga’s. He also allows this lesson to guide his own work, using his knowledge, resources and support to give back.

“Someone who has had as many privileges as I’ve had carries a great deal of responsibility,” he said.

A graduate of Harvard University, Fraga received his master’s degree and Ph.D. in political science from Rice University. His primary research interests are in American politics, where he specializes in the politics of race and ethnicity, Latino politics, immigration policy, education politics, voting rights policy and urban politics. Fraga’s two recent books highlight this research, the co-authored "Latino Lives in America: Making It Home" and "United States Government: Principles in Practice," a high school textbook.

Fraga was one of six principal investigators on the Latino National Survey, the first-ever state-stratified survey of Latinos in the U.S. This survey explores questions regarding political attitudes, beliefs, behavior and policy preferences.

Luis Fraga with ILS Director of Undergraduate 91��Ƶ, Karen Richman, and the Cross Cultural Leadership Program Chicago interns.

In 2011, Fraga was named one of the top “100 Influentials” in the U.S. by Hispanic Business magazine and served as a member of Barack Obama’s President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics.

Fraga is currently the acting chair of the Department of Political Science, the Notre Dame Professor of Transformative Latino Leadership, the Joseph and Elizabeth Robbie Professor of Political Science, and a fellow in the Institute for Educational Initiatives. He has previously served on the faculty at the University of Washington, Stanford University and the University of Oklahoma.

All of Fraga’s work intimately aligns with the mission of the Institute for Latino 91��Ƶ and the University of Notre Dame by advancing the understanding of the fastest-growing and youngest population in the United States and the U.S. Catholic Church and preparing transformative leaders in all disciplines of study.

“Notre Dame allows me to live my Catholic faith, pursue my research on American political development and teach the next generation of leaders in the country, the world and the Church as no other university can,” he said. “I can live my Catholic values in all aspects of my life — my family, community and work — without any artificial boundaries. I cherish this gift that Notre Dame has given me and my family.”

Originally published by Institute for Latino 91��Ƶ at latinostudies.nd.edu on June 21.

Latino Youth Leaders

2009-09-04T00:00:00-04:00

South Bend high school and eighth grade students visited the University of Notre Dame for the 2009 Latino Youth Leadership Conference “Sueños sin Fronteras: Making College Dreams a Reality.” The conference is run by Notre Dame students and strives to encourage Latino high school students to pursue higher education while embracing their culture and giving back to their community.