Latino/a Heritage Month, which runs from Sept. 15 through Oct. 15, is an annual month-long series of speakers, screenings, performances and gatherings organized by the community of Latino/a students at Oberlin College around topics related to the Latino/a Heritage. This year’s heritage month will deal with issues of Latinos in cultural production, and includes a varied number of events to complement the theme.

The issues focused on this year fall under various areas of study, including anthropology, history, sociology, English, Gender and Women’s Studies, and Latino/a and Latin American Studies. In addition to academic lectures, however, the month also features a variety of arts-related events, giving you the opportunity to see various extraordinary Latino artists and performers (several of whom are students here at Oberlin.)

The first event of the year will be a screening of the feature length film Urban Poets, directed by Antonio Franceschi, which debuted at the 2003 Chicago Latino Film Festival.

The film, set in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood, follows a Puerto Rican woman who deals with the loss of her community to gentrification by finding an outlet for her angst in the poetry slam circuit. The film was inspired by the redeeming social messages seen in poetry slams.

“When we were out there hearing young Latinos, a lot of their poetry was really powerful,” says Franceschi. “It expresses the way that they deal with their struggles in a more positive light.”

Slam veterans including Michael Reyes, perform their own poetry in the film. Franceschi and Reyes will be present at the screening and are scheduled to speak afterward. In keeping with the theme of the movie, students are invited to share their poetry, fiction and other artwork at the Café Latino Open Mic following the film.

Later in the month, artist Guillermo Gómez-Peña is scheduled to give a performative lecture entitled “Poetic Declaration of Disobedience.” In this performance, Gómez-Peña performs as a spoken word brujo-poeta exploring issues that challenge the community: fear of immigration, the dark side effects of globalization, the digital divide, censorship and interracial sexuality. Continually developing multi-centric narratives from a border perspective, Gómez-Peña creates what critics have termed “Chicano cyber-punk performances.” The artist uses spoken word, multilingualism, humor and hybrid literary genres as subversive strategies in his performances.

While the month is a declaration and tribute to the Latino/a heritage and its marginalized community, its primary goals are to be a resource to the community at large here on campus and beyond and to celebrate Latinidad as a diverse, transnational and changing phenomenon in the Americas and the rest of the world. By showcasing cutting edge Latino scholarship, cultural production and performance, we hope to highlight the achievements and creativity of the members of Oberlin’s Latino communities. We invite all of you to be there to share and learn from this unique experience with us.