Tag: autobiography

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Book Reviews Humanities Washington Talks Uncategorized

EL CAMINO, A BOOK REVIEW (Life in a Spanish village in the 1940s)

[See Spanish below]

El Camino (Barcelona, Austral/Destino, 2009).  Delibes received several awards in his native land and, based on this novel, considered his best work, these honors, I think, are totally fitting. I discovered him to be an excellent writer and an authority of his fellow Spaniards (he died in 2010).

This 285-page book, edited by Marisa Sotelo, is divided into three parts. The first offers an introduction written by Sotelo concerning the author’s work, she an expert in Spanish literature. The novel itself occupies the second section, and the third takes the form of a curious “Reading Guide” alluding to Delibes’ work, conceived and written by Fernando de Miguel.

El Camino is about the life of three boys living in a northern Spanish village in the 1940s (I discovered a passage that refers to the Spanish Civil War of the late 1930s). It unfolded so serenely that I began to judge it as a string of trivial though colorful portraits. Soon, I noticed, however, the way in which the lives of the young characters mirrored more profound reflections about small town life. I found that Delibes handled his written work with impressive mastery revealing both detailed knowledge and amusing portraits of the villagers, like the blacksmith, the priest, the cheesemaker, the godless man, the train station manager, and others.

Delibes did this by following the lives of the three little friends, Daniel, the Owl, Roque the Stooge, and Germán, the Scab, looking especially at their mischief and tomfoolery. This device allows the author to unveil the relations between the adults of the town. For this reason I place  El Camino inside the literary genre that owns the Hardy Boys in the world of English literature, but showing greater literary complexity. His style is simple but solid. It was a delicious read.

Delibes ha sido galardonado con varios premios españoles y, basado en esta novela considerada como su mejor trabajo, pienso que dichos reconocimientos están en lo correcto. Leyendo su libro descubrí que Delibes fue un excelente escritor y conocedor de su país (murió en 2010).

Este libro, de 285 páginas, editado por Marisa Sotelo, contiene tres partes. La primera ofrece una introducción que Sotelo escribe concerniente a la obra del autor. La novela ocupa la segunda sección, y la tercera toma la forma de un curioso “Guía de Lectura” alusivo al trabajo de Delibes, concebido y escrito por Fernando de Miguel.

El Camino trata de la vida de tres chicos, naturales de a una aldea española en los años cuarenta del siglo veinte (descubrí un fragmento que hace alusión a la guerra civil). Esta se desenvuelve tan plácidamente que me pareció, al principio, como un hilo de retratos pueblerinos triviales. Pero pronto me di cuenta de la forma en que dichas efemérides encerraban reflexiones profundas. Es más, hallé que Delibes manejó su trabajo escrito con una maestría impresionante revelando un detallado conocimiento de la vida de los vecinos, tales como el herrero, el señor cura, el quesero, el sin dios, las “guindillas” y las “lepóridas,” y otros.

Pero mas que nada, Delibe protagoniza a los tres amiguitos, Daniel, el Mochuelo, Roque el Moñigo, Germán el Tiñoso, y sigue sus picardías y pillerías, las que corren el velo a las relaciones entre los adultos del pueblo. El Camino pertenece al género de cuentos protagonizados en el mundo de literatura inglés por los Hardy Boys, pero ostentando mayor profundidad literaria. Su estilo es sencillo pero firme. Fue una grata lectura.  [October 2019]

 

Categories
We Became Mexican American, a book

THERE’S A GOOD REASON WHY NOBODY STUDIES HISTORY…

…IT JUST TEACHES YOU TOO MUCH!

This truism is attributed to Noam Chomsky, one of the most celebrated and controversial American intellectuals ever (the quote appears on his FaceBook page, as you can see!). He has been a rabble-rousing thinker and speaker for many years. People with a lot of power (including billionaires, of course) stay away from him, if they know anything about him.

He speaks for the rest of us who live by what we think  and teach–the kind of person dictators hate; I think it’s fair to say that Donald Trump abhors thinkers of any kind.

If this were Germany in the 1940s, Russia in the 1950s, Cuba in the 1960s, or Chile in the 1970s, Chomsky (an intellectual Jew, of course!) would have been thrown out of the U.S. (he’s too famous for anything worse). But guys like me would be on the list to disappear. I say this because this has happened before in the countries cited and many others.

So, beware! Don’t learn too much!

P.S. I thank Dr. Jesus Perez of Cascadia College for directing me to this quote by Chomsky.

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Humanities Washington Talks Mexico Talks and other events Trump u.s.-mexico border Uncategorized United States

THEY LOOK LIKE ME….NEXT TIME IT MIGHT BE YOU OR ME

They look like me. In the victims and survivors of the Ohio and El Paso shootings, today, August 5, 2019, I saw people who look like me, or my relatives or my friends. The El Paso shooter was attacking “Hispanic immigrants.”

Well, that’s me, folks, even if I might feel safe because I’m not an immigrant. The psychos out there don’t know the difference between a Hispanic immigrant and one who is not an immigrant (most Americans can’t distinguish between a different-looking immigrant and an American born one). So, I say to my relatives and my friends, we can’t get too comfortable in our middle class homes and middle class cars, going to our middle class jobs. Why?

Because here is one more bit of proof that we must be forever vigilant. We run a great risk in dismissing these things because, who knows, the next time, it might be you or me.

We can’t be shocked. Mentally unstable people abound on our streets. Guns abound too; our gun laws encourage their being everywhere—even military type guns. And, we now have a racist president who openly attacks Americans of color.

So, there you have it. The psychos will pick up a gun or a knife and go after someone who looks like you or me because our simple-minded president mentioned it as an American problem. They’ll think they’re helping him out, like the El Paso shooter. It’s happened before.

What can we do?

1) Let’s be vigilant and avoid losing ourselves in the banality of our lives;

2) Let’s pay more attention to our leaders and what they do or don’t do,

3) And, keep score.

3) Our turn will come when we vote, when we fill out a ballot and give our support to a government leader who is not what we have today. Save our democracy, save our nation and save ourselves.

 

Categories
History of Mexico Humanities Washington Talks We Became Mexican American, a book

Announcing a Centennial Event in our Family

Our family, the Gil Family, immigrated to the United States a hundred years ago! We occupy a place in one of the earliest recorded waves of Mexican immigrants arriving in the United States, those who were pushed out by the Mexican Revolution of 1910 and drawn into California by an economic boom. April 2019 marks a centennial.

Writing by hand, in her late 80’s, my mother (Grandma Lupe) recorded that she and her mother (Great Grandma Carlota) and brother (Uncle Miguel) walked away from the hacienda where they had lived as peasants, near Mascota, Jalisco, on or about April 15, 1919. Mom was 14, Grandma Carlota 39, and our Tio (uncle) 17. They aimed to join our other uncle, Tio Pascual, who had bolted on his own five years earlier, and found himself in Fresno, California; he was 19. After they came together, they moved to San Fernando.

While I’m estimating the actual date they stepped away once and for all, we do know that Mom wrote, with her trembling hand, that on March 19, 1919, they trekked from the Hacienda Santa Rosa to Talpa (a nearby village that venerates a local version of Jesus’s Mary) to say goodbye to Mom’s aunt. After that, they walked away from the hacienda “in April” of that same year. Mom wrote:

“We left before dawn. We passed the village of El Cimarrón while it was still dark and, as we climbed away from it, the glimmer of the morning light began to grow. We all stopped to look back, to take our last look at Santa Rosa as if we wanted to stamp on our memory that  piece of earth that saw our birth, that we’d never forget, and that we grieved to leave behind.” (p. 47)

Take a second look at Mom’s writing above. Not bad for someone who attended only two years of school but kept on writing anyway, in her own way.

 

 

Categories
Book Reviews Humanities Washington Talks Talks and other events We Became Mexican American, a book

Video of Carlos Gil discussing his Humanities Washington talk

In the link below you’ll find a short video clip of me explaining what my Humanities Washington talk (“From Mexican to Mexican-American: A Family Immigrant Story”) offers to the listener. My talks, featured throughout 2019, have already started and, so far, it’s been delightful. See a separate posting for dates and places.

Carlos Gil

 

Categories
Book Reviews Humanities Washington Talks Talks and other events We Became Mexican American, a book

CARLOS B. GIL’S SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS IN 2019

The following talks are sponsored by the Humanities Washington Office:

March 2, 2019           11:00 a.m.      Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner WA

March 23, 2019        1:00 p.m.       Lynden Library, Lynden WA

March 23, 2019        3:30 p.m.       Ferndale Library, Ferndale WA

March 27, 2019         6:00 p.m.       Jefferson County Library, Port Hadlock WA

April 2, 2019             5:00 p.m.       George Public Library, George WA

April 3, 2019             6:00 p.m.       Quincy Public Library, Quincy WA

April 4, 2019             6:00 p.m.       Twisp Public Library, Twisp WA

April 5, 2019             6:00 p.m.       Cashmere Public Library, Cashmere WA

April 15, 2019            10:30 a.m.     University House Wallingford, Seattle WA

April 24, 2019           12 noon          Yakima Valley Museum, Yakima WA

 

 

Categories
Book Reviews Humanities Washington Talks Talks and other events u.s.-mexico border United States We Became Mexican American, a book

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY ON MEXICAN IMMIGRATION

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY ON MEXICAN IMMIGRATION TO THE U.S.

 

For the talk, “From Mexican to Mexican-American:

A Family Immigration Story”

By Carlos B.Gil,  Ph.D.

 Humanities Washington Speaker 2019

 

Acuña, Rodolfo.Occupied America (1988). Contentious text.

Becoming American: Personal Essays by First Generation Immigrant Women (2000).

Brown, Theresa Cardinal and Jeff Mason, “Immigration Trends and the Immigration Debate,” Bi Partisan Policy Center, August 2017. https://bipartisanpolicy.org/library/immigration-trends-and-the-immigration-debate/

De la Garza, Rodolfo O. Et al. Latino Voices: Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban Perspectives on American Politics (1992).

Foley, Neil. Mexicans in the Making of America (2014).

Galarza, Ernesto. Barrio Boy: The Story of a Boy’s Acculturation (1971).

Gamboa, Erasmo. Bracero Railroad Workers: The Forgotten World War II Story of Mexican Workers in the U.S. West (2016).

Gamboa, Erasmo. Mexican Labor and World War II: Braceros in the Pacific Northwest, 1942-1947 (1990).

Gamio, Manuel. Mexican Immigration to the United States (1939).

García, Mario T. Mexican Americans: Leadership, Ideology and Identity, 1930–1960 (1989).

Gil, Carlos B. We Became Mexican American: How Our Immigrant Family Survived to Pursue the American Dream (2012, 2014).

Griswold del Castillo and Arnoldo de León. North to Aztlán: A History of Mexican Americans in the United States (1997).

Hart, Elva Treviño Barefoot Heart, Stories of a Migrant Child (1999). Autobiography, south Texas.

Limón, José. José Limón: An Unfinished Memoir (1998?). Late Chicano/Mexican American choreographer.

McWilliams, Carey. North from Mexico: The Spanish Speaking People of the United States (1948 ed.) Old classic.

Ramón, Cristobal and Tim O’Shea. “Immigrants and Public Benefits: What Does the Research Say?” Bi Partisan Policy Center, November 2018. https://bipartisanpolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Immigrants-and-Public-Benefits-What-Does-the-Research-Say.pdf

Ruiz, Vicki L. From Out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in Twentieth-Century America (1998).

Sanchez, George J. Becoming Mexican American:Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles (1993).

Suárez-Orozco, Marcelo M. And Mariela M. Páez. Latinos: Remaking America (2002).

Young, Biloine W. A Dream for Gilberto: An Immigrant’s Family’s Struggle to Become American (1999). Colombian Americans.

Categories
Book Reviews History of Mexico Movie Reviews

“Roma,” a movie directed by Alfonso Cuarón: a review

[Ver español abajo]

“Roma” is another in the wave of Hollywood movies made, these days, by Mexican directors, this one by Alfonso Cuarón who won a Golden Globe Best Director Award for “Roma” and another for Best Foreign Film. The other directors include Alejandro González Iñárritu (“The Revenant,” 2015) and Guillermo del Toro (“Pan’s Labyrinth,” 2006).

“Roma” is a look back at the director’s family. They lived in the Colonia Roma of Mexico City in the 1960’s (colonia refers to a housing district), and this is where I met my wife, Barbara, at about the time Cuarón was running around as a teenager. Barb and I shared some unforgettable moments there, including the horrible earthquake of 1985. Nowadays we stay there whenever we visit that megalopolis.

I consider “Roma” a significant film because it is a multifaceted re-creation of middle-class life in the colonia, in 1970-1971. My study of Mexico allowed me to see it as a valuable filmic document right away.

The social dimensions of the film are many but Cuarón puts the spot light directly on Cleo, the domestic worker who cared for him as a supplementary mother, played by Yalitza Aparicio. In the film, as in real life, Cleo is a Mixtec Indian from Oaxaca, as are thousands of maids in that city, also known as empleadas or more derisively as gatas. They are the ones who make dinner, scrub the floors, wash the family car—and tuck in the kids at night, all for a next-to-nothing salary. And, not all may be treated as well as Cleo is in this movie.

The socio-cultural aspects in this picture are true to life, even to this day. The man of the house, a youngish medical doctor who works in one of the city’s hospitals, abandons his wife and children, including young Cuarón, for another woman. This must hit home for many viewers because it is a regretful reminder of Mexican machismo, very much alive.

The apartment in which the family lives is also a perfect re-creation of the many such living units in residential buildings, called vecindades, still standing today in Mexican cities. My sister, Soledad, commented to me after watching the movie, that she had seen home interiors like the ones shown in “Roma” many times, in old Mexican movies. Indeed. Their reproduction by Cuarón, right down to the kitchens with windows that look in to a back washroom, must be admired by anthropologists and archaeologists.

 

The politics raging in 1971 also appear in “Roma,” though tangentially—but that too, I think, is part of the Cuarón’s factual memorization of his early years. The movie allows us to see the events that he witnessed as a boy, but not the larger story behind them: the political demonstrations that turned bloody, right before his own eyes while visiting a department store in the company of his grandmother.

The director re-created the infamous suppression of students, known as the halconazo on the feast of Corpus Christi (Jueves de Corpus), which fell on Thursday, June 10, 1971. Many students were killed that day and many more were killed on a related carnage, October 2, 1968, the notorious Tlaltelolco massacre. What we see in the movie is an aftermath of October 2nd.

The event is known as the halconazo (halcón = hawk) because the men, who beat up the students with sticks, and some with armed weapons, as we witness in the movie, were referred to as halcones. Like a hawk, they could swoop down and catch or harm their prey, the demonstrating students, and then disappear, and the government could not be blamed directly. Cleo’s boyfriend is one of the halcones, having been trained specially to suppress and get away with it, as “Roma” shows us. Halcones are also referred to as paramilitary agents. Cuaróns insistence on making the film in black and white simply adds to its authenticity.

In summary, Cuarón’s movie, about his childhood in the Colonia Roma, provided me with abundant details of life behind the doors and walls Barbara and I walked past so many times.

If you read Spanish you might enjoy a short story about middle class life in the Colonia Roma, also in the 1960’s and 1970’s, by Jose Emilio Pacheco, Las batallas en el desierto (Ediciones Era, 1981).

                                                              

“Roma”, reseña de una película dirigida por Alfonso Cuarón.

“Roma” es otra en la cresta de películas de Hollywood hechas por directores mexicanos en estos días, esta por Alfonso Cuarón, quien ganó el premio Globo de Oro por Mejor Director de la película “Roma” y otro por la Mejor Película Extranjera. Los otros directores incluyen a Alejandro González Iñárritu (“The Revenant, “2015) y Guillermo del Toro (” Pan’s Labyrinth “, 2006).

“Roma” es una mirada atrás a la familia del director. Vivían en la Colonia Roma de la Ciudad de México en la década de 1960 (Aquí es donde conocí a mi esposa, Barbara, cuando Cuarón se paseaba como adolescente por las calles de la colonia. Barb y yo compartimos momentos inolvidables, incluyendo el horrible terremoto de 1985. Hoy en día nos quedamos allí cuando visitamos esa megalópolis).

Considero “Roma” una película importante porque es una recreación multifacética de la vida clase-mediera en la colonia, en los años 1970-1971. Mi estudio de México me permitió reconocer su valor cinematográfico inmediatamente.

Las dimensiones sociales son muchas, pero Cuarón puso el foco directamente sobre Cleo, la trabajadora doméstica que lo cuidó como madre suplementaria, papel interpretado por Yalitza Aparicio. En la película, como en la vida real, Cleo es una mixteca de Oaxaca, al igual que miles de sirvientas en esa ciudad, también conocidas como “empleadas” o más groseramente, como “gatas.” Ellas son las que preparan la cena, limpian los pisos, lavan el auto familiar y arropan a los niños por la noche, todo por un salario exiguo. Y es posible que no todas sean tratadas tan bien como Cleo en esta película.

Pienso que los aspectos socioculturales en este cuadro son fieles a la vida, hoy mismo. El hombre de la casa, un médico joven que trabaja en uno de los hospitales de la ciudad, abandona a su esposa e hijos, incluido el joven Cuarón, por otra mujer. Esto debe afectar a muchos cinéfilos porque es un recordatorio penoso del machismo mexicano, muy vivo.

El apartamento en el que vive la familia también es una recreación perfecta de las muchas viviendas, llamadas vecindades, que aún hoy se encuentran en ciudades mexicanas. Mi hermana, Soledad, me comentó después de ver la película, que había visto interiores de casas, como las que se ven en “Roma,” muchas veces en películas viejas mexicanas. Sin duda. Su reproducción por Cuarón, hasta las cocinas con ventanas que dan a un baño trasero, debe ser admirada por antropólogos y arqueólogos.

La política que se libra en 1971 también aparece en “Roma”, aunque tangencialmente, pero eso también, creo, es parte de la memorización objetiva de Cuarón cuando era niño. La película nos permite ver los eventos que presenció de chico, pero no la historia detrás de ellos: las manifestaciones políticas que se volvieron sangrientas, ante sus propios ojos, en el momento que visitaba una tienda de departamentos en compañía de su abuela.

El director recrea la infame supresión de los estudiantes, conocida como el Halconazo de Jueves de Corpus, que cayó el 10 de junio de 1971. Muchos estudiantes fueron asesinados ese día y muchos más liquidados en una carnicería del 2 de octubre de 1968, la notoria masacre de Tlaltelolco. Lo que vemos en la película es una consecuencia del 2 de octubre.

El evento se conoce como el halconazo porque se les llamó halcones a los hombres que golpearon a los estudiantes con palos, y algunos con armas de fuego, como vemos en la película. Como un halcón, podían descender en picado y dañar a sus presas, a los estudiantes, y luego desaparecer, y no se podía culpar al gobierno directamente. El novio de Cleo es uno de los halcones, y vemos que ha sido entrenado especialmente para reprimir y salirse con la suya, como nos muestra “Roma”. Los halcones también se conocen como agentes paramilitares. La insistencia de Cuarón en hacer la película en blanco y negro simplemente aumenta su autenticidad.

En resumen, la película de Cuarón, sobre su infancia en la Colonia Roma, me prestó abundantes detalles de la vida detrás de las puertas y las paredes que Barbara y yo pasamos muchas veces.

Si te gusta leer, puedes disfrutar de un cuento escrito sobre la vida clase-mediera en la Colonia Roma, también en los años 60 y 70, de José Emilio Pacheco, Las batallas en el desierto (Ediciones Era, 1981, y ediciones subsecuentes).

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Book Reviews

El olvido que seremos (Colombia’s “violence” from a personal perspective)–a book review

Abad Faciolince, Hector. El olvido que seremos (Bogotá: Planeta, 2006). [English below]

El autor escribe un elogio apasionante a su padre en El olvido que seremos y una denuncia enérgica de sus asesinos, al mismo tiempo. También es una memoria de su infancia y su íntima relación con su padre, tierna evocación que además nos ofrece una mirada conmovedora a la “violencia” colombiana, tan larga y tan dolorosa.

Abad pinta a su padre como un educador totalmente entregado a tender una mano a sus prójimos y abrir las puertas a jóvenes estudiosos pero desprovistos. Nos habla de su devoción total por levantar los estándares de vida de la gente pobre. Y también nos cuenta como esta mentalidad se vuelve subversiva en un conservadurismo empedernido y salvajemente criminal, incluyendo al clero católico. Es asesinado. Irónicamente, el autor nos hace ver, además, que sus familiares pertenecen a esta corriente tradicional retrógrada como obispos, monseñores y monjes, y por ende el lector descubre a nivel personal el laberinto enredoso atrás de estas circunstancias.

A pesar de incluir varias páginas verborreadas que parecen ser productos de la emoción causada al recordar ciertos eventos, El olvido me ayudó a entender la tal llamada “violencia” colombiana. Por eso vale este libro. Creo que a los colombianos les faltó una revolución para deshacerse de un conservadurismo de corte colonial.

The author writes an enthralling eulogy to his father in El olvido que seremos (The Forgotten That We’ll Become) and an energetic condemnation of his murderers, at the same time. It is also a memory of his childhood and his intimate relationship with his father, a tender recall that also provides the reader a distressing look at Colombia’s long and painful “violence.”

Abad describes his father as a totally dedicated educator who reaches out to his community by opening doors to young but destitute scholars. He tells us of his father’s total devotion to raising the living standards of poor people, and how this world view became subversive to hardened and criminal conservatives, including the Catholic clergy. He’s assassinated. Ironically, the author’s family members belong to these retrograde institutions as bishops, monsignors and monks, so the reader can catch a glimpse of how intricate and complicated these situations can be up close.

Despite pages in which a verbal diarrhea seizes the author, no doubt triggered by the emotion that comes from remembering certain events, El olvido helped me understand Colombia’s infamous “violence.” That’s why this book is worth reading. I believe that Colombia missed having a revolution that might have shaken away its colonial conservatism.

Categories
Talks and other events We Became Mexican American, a book

INVITE CARLOS B. GIL TO TALK ON MEXICAN IMMIGRATION

INVITE CARLOS B. GIL TO TALK ON MEXICAN IMMIGRATION TO THE MEMBERS OF YOUR ORGANIZATION IN ENGLISH OR SPANISH THROUGH HUMANITIES WASHINGTON

 

 How?                                                                                             (See Spanish below)

Applications are open to host a Speakers Bureau event for 2019. Learn more and apply today at https//www.humanities.org/program/speakers-bureau/

If you have any questions? Contact Hannah Schwendeman at hannah@humanities.org or call 206-682-1770 ext. 101

 What is Humanities Washington?

 Humanities Washington’s Speakers Bureau is a statewide program that offers high-quality speakers who give engaging presentations on history, politics, art, and everything in between. Funding, resources, and promotion are provided to create successful events in your community. Last year, we partnered with over 175 organizations to reach more than 12,000 Washington residents.

Take a look at our 33 new speakers, carefully selected for their expertise, exciting topics, and ability to inspire discussion at, https//www.humanities.org/programs/upcoming-speakers/

Check out Carlos B. Gil as the Humanities Washington speaker on Mexican immigration here: https://www.humanities.org/speaker/carlos-gil/

 Name of Gil’s talk:                                      

 “From Mexican to Mexican-American: A Family Immigration Story.”

As immigration has become more hotly debated in the United States, the arguments have become cartoonish, with one side often painted as naïve and another as xenophobic. What has become lost is the human story of immigration to America, with all its complexity, heartache, and hope.

Carlos B. Gil sought to understand Mexican immigration to the United States by tracing his family’s history from the 1920’s to the 1970’s. In the process, he discovered the excitement, culture shock, inter-family conflict, and questions of identity that so many face who are seeking a better life in another place. Based on his book, We Became Mexican-American: How Our Immigrant Family Survived to Pursue the American Dream, his talk explores these topics, including immigration to Washington State, all through the lens of a single family’s story.

Carlos B. Gil is an Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Washington, where he taught the history of Mexico and other Latin American countries for over thirty years. He previously toured the state offering a public lecture entitled, “The Hispanization of the United States.” A Spanish language version of his book will be available in early 2019.

Gil lives in Seattle.

This talk is available in both English and Spanish.

INVITA A QUE CARLOS B. GIL DÉ UNA CHARLA ACERCA DE LA INMIGRACIÓN MEXICANA A LOS MIEMBROS DE TU ORGANIZACIÓN A TRAVÉS DE HUMANITIES WASHINGTON

 ¿Cómo?

Haz tu solicitud. Las solicitudes están abiertas para presentar la charla del profesor Gil o cualquier otro evento del Buró de Conferencistas de Humanities Washington para el año 2019. P       uedes obtener más información y presentar tu solicitud hoy en https // www.humanities.org / program / speakers-bureau /

¿Si tienes alguna pregunta? Pónte en contacto con Hannah Schwendeman en hannah@humanities.org o llama al 206-682-1770 ext. 101.

Nombre de la charla del profesor Gil:

 De mexicano a mexicano-americano: la historia de una familia inmigrante.

A medida que la inmigración se ha debatido más acaloradamente en los Estados Unidos, los argumentos se han vuelto caricaturescos, con un lado pintado a menudo como ingenuo y otro como xenófobo. Lo que se ha perdido es la historia humana de la inmigración a Estados Unidos, con toda su complejidad, angustia y esperanza.

El profesor Gil trató de entender la inmigración mexicana a Estados Unidos al rastrear la historia de su propia familia desde la década de 1920 hasta la de 1970. En el proceso, descubrió la emoción, el choque cultural, el conflicto entre familias y las cuestiones de identidad que enfrentan muchos que buscan una vida mejor en otro lugar.

Basada en su libro, We Became Mexican American: How Our Immigrant Family Survived to Pursue the American Dream, esta charla explora estos temas, incluyendo la inmigración al estado de Washington, todo a través de un lente puesto a la historia de su familia.

Carlos B. Gil es profesor emérito de historia en la Universidad de Washington, donde dictó clases de la historia de México y otros países de América Latina durante más de treinta años. Anteriormente, realizó una gira por el estado ofreciendo una conferencia pública titulada “La hispanización de los Estados Unidos.” Una versión en español de su libro estará disponible en los primeros meses de 2019.

El Profesor Gil vive en Seattle.

Él puede dar esta charla en inglés y español.