The first film, “Mama Irene: Healer of the Andes” (Directed by Elizabeth Mölhmann, PerĂş-USA, 2022) was screened on March 2. The documentary follows an indigenous healer, Mama Irene, from the Quechua Culture in the Peruvian Andes. She dedicates her life to helping other people with traditional methods and sacred indigenous medicines. The movie emphasizes a message to believe in the power of individual and collective healing, especially in communities confronting the lack of functional state health systems in remote areas. The screening was followed by a virtual conversation with the film director, Elizabeth Mölhmann, who shared with the audience her experience developing an audiovisual project based on non-Western epistemologies, and highlighted the relevance of empowering indigenous women in present times.

The second film, “They Are Killing Us/Nos están matando” (Directed by Emily Wright and Tom Laffay, Colombia-USA, 2022) was screened on April 4. This film focuses on the persecution of indigenous and Afro-descendent leaders in Colombia, who are confronting the multinational corporations’ mining projects. The documentary denounces the systematic killing of community leaders in the context of the failure of the peace agreement signed by Colombian armed groups and the government in 2016. As part of this event, local and international activists from the U.S.-based organization Witness for Peace joined a conversation with the Elon community. In the session, Witness For Peace activists shared a first-hand perspective of the current human rights issues and environmental crisis in Colombia as well as opportunities for students to be involved in projects seeking to promote solidarity with racial minority communities.

The last screening of the festival was “Los Lobos” (Directed by Samuel Kishi, Mexico, 2019), on April 24. The movie follows brothers Max and Leo, two kids who have crossed the border from Mexico into the United States with their mother, LucĂ­a. They are in search of better life conditions on the other side. In a significant scene of the movie, Max and Leo build an imaginary universe with their drawings and think about Mom’s promise of “Disneyland,” their land of dreams. The film faces the audience with reality from the point of view of the kids, who wanted to experience the so-called American dream but instead ended up facing hard social conditions in the United States.

The foreign film festival of the 2024 Spring Semester offered unique opportunities to promote interculturality and diversity on Elon campus. The movies enriched students’ civic engagement in a global context and encouraged awareness of social, gender and racial issues concerning Latin American subaltern groups.

The 2024 Spring Semester Foreign Film Festival was presented by the Department of World Languages and Cultures; Latin American Studies; and Peace and Conflict Studies. It was also sponsored by Women’s, Gender, and Sexualities Studies; International and Global Studies; the Isabella Cannon Global Education Center; El Centro; Belk Library; ElonDocs; the Department of Sociology and Anthropology; and the Department of Philosophy.

This exhibition consists of thirteen posters created by artists Calixto Robles (Mexico, born 1957) and René Castro (Chile, born 1943). The images concern an artistic initiative called Mission Gráfica based in San Francisco, which has produced graphic art since the late seventies until today.

These artworks have been created in solidarity with Latin American and Latinx communities. They cover diverse topics of historical memory and racial justice, including the representation of indigenous identities and cosmovision, the defense of human rights during dictatorships and civil wars in the 20th century, and calls by social organizations to stop the United States’ support of Latin American violent regimes.

The images have been exhibited in museums such as the Smithsonian Museum of National Art and published in the edited book Mission Gráfica: Reflecting a Community in Print (Art Hazelwood, Pacific View Press, 2022). The posters currently on display on Elon’s campus are reprints from original artworks held at the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress, which preserves a rich collection of images produced by the Mission Gráfica’s project and other brigades and collectives that expressed solidarity with Latin America through political art.

During the opening of the art exhibition on Oct. 26, faculty, students, and staff shared in a reception at Carlton Commons after attending the 2023 Fall Semester Latin American Studies Research Series. This semester, Hannah Gill addressed the keynote conference at El Centro. Gill is the Associate Director of the Institute for the Study of the Americas at UNC-Chapel Hill and the Director of the Latino Migration Project. She is the author of North Carolina and the Latino Migration Experience: New Roots in the Old North State. Nuevas RaĂ­ces (UNC Press, 2018).

In Gill’s presentation at Elon, “Migration, settlement, and integration: Perspectives from North Carolina leaders,” attendees were encouraged to reflect on the causes and current policies concerning the migratory phenomenon as well as on the challenges faced by immigrant populations in the state. Gill presented a unique research project that advocates for social justice for Mexican and Central American populations in North Carolina, as well as shared multiple local opportunities for undergraduates and Elon’s community to support these communities.

The LAS Research Series and the opening of the art exhibition were significant instances of promoting diversity and social justice through campus cultural events. The events explored Latin American history and culture from a global perspective and fostered civic engagement with local issues. They also enriched student’s learning experience beyond the classroom thanks to the support of the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (CATL). Elon’s programs’ collaboration motivated a campus reflection with a transdisciplinary focus on Latin American art and immigration issues in the United States. The events were sponsored by WLC, LAS, PCS, El Centro, CATL, International and Global Studies, the Isabella Cannon Global Education Center, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexualities Studies.

Valdivia’s conference explored environmental issues in Ecuador, a country that has been impacted by the oil industry and faced critical social challenges with indigenous communities in the Amazonian.

Valdivia was motivated to conduct research projects and work with underrepresented minorities after reading “Open Veins of Latin American” by the Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano – a key book to understanding the dynamics of economic dependence and (neo)colonialism in Latin American countries.

The talk covered several initiatives  Valdivia has been participating in the last years with the Waorani people. This indigenous group inhabits the Ecuadorian Amazonia and is one of the most affected communities by the contemporary extraction of oil. Valdivia’s work with the Waorani people has been conducted in collaboration with Flora Lu, professor of environmental science at UC Santa Cruz, and financed by the National Science Foundation.

The conference approached several layers that expose a complex issue faced by indigenous communities and offered an open pathway to reflect on this scenario in the critical moment of contemporary environmental destruction.

The conference assessed the negative consequences of pipelines in the rainforest and explored the issue of “Sacrifice zones,” which are territories left unprotected and highly contaminated. The conference also focused on Ecuadorian political powers that manage to bypass laws created to protect indigenous communities, such as the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention by the International Labour Organization. Furthermore, the conference covered the recent history of transnational investments and their impacts on communities that became economically dependent on employment opportunities in refineries.

Valdivia approached the question of environmental justice and promoted a proper understanding of Amazonian indigenous communities confronting the unseen side of natural resources’ extractions. She shared her cooperation with Waorani leaders and her experience with the community, highlighting how collaborative projects foster spaces beyond identitarian differences. She also narrated her experience traveling with the Waorani people in North Carolina, sharing her perspective of the benefits of that trip to promoting diversity globally and enriching cultural interchanges.

Valdivia’s conference argued for defending the rights of the Earth and explained the relevance of ecofeminism today. Students and Elon community learned about a theory of healing presented by the speaker, who pursues environmental and social justice through research and community work.

The event was presented by the Latin American Studies Minor Program and sponsored by the Department of World Languages and Cultures and the Peace and Conflict Studies Program.

• Monday, April 25, at 6:30 p.m. “Stateless” (97 minutes). Directed by Michèle Stephenson. Dominican Republic, 2020. In Haitian Creole and Spanish with English Subtitles.
• Monday, May 2, at 6:30 p.m. “The Cordillera of Dreams” (84 minutes). Directed by Patricio Guzmán. Chile, 2019. In Spanish with English subtitles.
• Monday, May 9, at 6:30 p.m: “The Search” (75 minutes). Directed by Mariano Agudo and Daniel Lagares. PerĂş, 2018. In Spanish and Quechua with English subtitles. 

The first movie, “Stateless,” directed by innovative woman filmmaker Michèle Stephenson, explores the racial violence against Haitians in the Dominican Republic. The film exposes a critical perspective on anti-black discrimination in the Caribbean country, from the “Parsley Massacre” ordered by former dictator RafaĂ©l Trujillo in 1937 to a controversial law passed in 2013 that revoked citizenships to people born to non-Dominican parents. By covering those issues, the documentary approaches historical and contemporary racism confronted by Haitian creole-speaking people.

The second movie, “The Cordillera of Dreams” by the acclaimed Chilean director Patricio Guzmán, explores the consequences of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship in the South American country and the development of neoliberalism as the main legacy of that authoritarian regime. The movie, winner of the Best Documentary Cannes Film Award, offers a singular perspective on how the sublime Andean mountains have shaped Chilean political and economic history.

Finally, “The Search” follows the exhumation of a mass grave found after a massacre in 1984 in a remote Andean village in PerĂş, a country impacted by an  armed conflict between the government and the guerrilla “Shining Path” in the 80s and 90s. The documentary approaches the relevance of identifying unknown remains of victims and seeks ways of reparation of past human right abuses.

The LAS Documentary Film Series is presented by Elon’s Latin American Studies Program and sponsored by Belk Library and ElonDocs. For questions, please contact Pablo Celis-Castillo at pceliscastillo@elon.edu or Juan Leal-Ugalde at jlealugalde@elon.edu.

In the event, they explored the migratory crisis and ongoing violent conflicts in Latin America, urging a critical reexamination of the human rights situation in the area and the roots of forced displacement. Both speakers have a recognized trajectory in documenting contemporary conflicts and promoting politics of well-being to affected communities.

From extreme poverty to drug wars, underrepresented people remain unprotected by their home states and seek migratory routes to survive. Frank-Vitale shared her experiences with Central American populations, explaining that the main reasons for migration to the U.S. are not only economic but security concerns based from the gang presence in some marginalized communities.

She focused her work on those communities, specifically in the city of San Pedro de Sula, Honduras. She also explained how her activism and solidarity moved her to participate in the immigrant caravans that have sparked international attention in recent years. In one of these caravans, in Tijuana, she met Ayuso, who has held continuous collaborations regarding activism and work with migrant communities.

During the conversation, Ayuso explained the relevance of images to communicate migratory issues to a massive population. He remarked how social media may be used to catch the attention of minor situations in a global context, as happened with underrepresented communities in Honduras.

Ayuso also shared his experience living with Mexican Cartels and the guerrilla army in Colombia, explaining how these challenging contexts impacted his career as a photojournalist by providing a deeper understanding of Latin American conflicts. He opened a pathway to discuss the role photographic documentation and storytelling play in approaching those conflicts.

Through an ongoing publication of his photographs on multiple free access online platforms, Ayuso’s photographs have also promoted knowledge about his home country of Honduras. His work seeks to avoid forgetting the humanitarian crisis that affects the Central American country.

His democratic approach to photography makes a global impact by sharing stories that are not commonly represented by mainstream media, according to Frank-Vitale.

The event was complemented by a presentation by the former director of the North Carolina-based organization Witness for Peace Southeast (WFPSE), Emily Rhyne. The presentation covered the experience of the WFPSE delegation with Ilhan Omar and three other US Congress Representatives in Honduras last March. Rhyne also shared information regarding opportunities to participate in community service with local organizations.

The virtual conversation was sponsored by the Department of World Languages and Cultures, Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences, Strategic Communications Department, The Department of Sociology and Anthropology, El Centro, Latin American Studies Minor Program, Peace and Conflict Studies, International and Global Studies and Women’s, Gender and Sexualities Studies.

From an ethnomusicological perspective, Enriquez’s talk explored the social and political spheres of the Latinx musical traditions of migrant farmworkers in North Carolina during the second half of the 20th century. The lecture introduced a distinctive perspective on how creative practices are crucial to understanding diverse identities that have shaped the Southern culture of the U.S. Enriquez’s research on the emergence of Latinx music traditions and their consequence in the everyday lives of migrant people offered a unique opportunity to approach Latinx contributions to the Appalachian culture.

Enriquez’s conference explored how the musical activities of farmworkers became a way to tell more complete stories about Latinx people in North Carolina and show their longstanding contributions to local and regional expressive culture. Her background in ethnomusicology and her knowledge of folklore fostered the understanding of diverse identities in the Appalachian region by highlighting the historical and present contributions of the Latinx communities.

She focused on ranchera, cumbia and other Latinx musical styles that have played a crucial role in representing the past and present challenges that have been historically faced by immigrants in the U.S., especially in the countryside. Enriquez’s talk demonstrated that creative practices have long been at the center of how farmworker communities form and navigate complex relationships to place.

The event reflected on creativeness and music as crucial practices to explore history and social issues around the history of migration. It fostered critical reflection by asking: What can we learn from understories told through music?

Enriquez’s talk approached that question by referring, among other resources, to archival materials from the Student Action with Farmworkers Collection (SAF). Her research based on the SAF archive also provided a unique approach to materials that are not only a matter of the past but have a meaningful impact in present society.

Indeed, SAF is an organization that has benefited more than 100,000 farmworkers migrants to obtain proper education and health services while allowing students to advocate for social justice and help to improve the condition of the farmworkers. Currently, SAF offers an opportunity for students to conduct summer internships, which combines social and human services with a chance to improve Spanish language skills.

The event enhanced Elon’s commitment to diversity and inclusion by studying the roots of Latinx identity from musical traditions and approaching folkloric lyrics as fundamental practices to tell stories of underrepresented communities. The event also fostered intercultural competence among the Elon community by considering the relevance of the Latinx culture in North Carolina and the Appalachian cultures.

Enriquez’s conference motived a deeper comprehension of the positive consequences of migration phenomena in the region and promoted a proper understanding of multiculturalism as a fundamental aspect of contemporary social relationships.

The event enriched campus life in the 2022 Winter Term and enhanced student’s learning experience at Elon thanks to the support of the Center of Advancement of Teaching & Learning (CATL). The event was also sponsored by the Department of World Languages & Cultures, El Centro and the Latin American Studies minor. 

The events, which ended on Nov. 9, explored contemporary environmental issues and the representation of the politics of expropriation. They fostered a space for the Elon community to explore eco-political and historical justice from a multidisciplinary perspective focusing on the cases of Guatemala, Colombia and Argentina. The conferences strengthened critical reflection and intercultural competence by approaching the question of political justice and ecological problems concerning historical contexts in the region and Latin American communities nowadays. The events were complemented by an art exhibition still open at the Carlton Commons.

The first conference took place on Oct. 5 and was given by the Fulbright Visiting Scholar from Universidad del Valle and Clemson University, Irene Vélez-Torres. It was titled “Context and transdisciplinary collaborations to build meaningful knowledge on Mercury pollution in AGM, Colombia.”

The talk shared the outcomes of a five-year project, in which a team of researchers has joined efforts with Afro-Colombian miners from north Cauca to assess mercury contamination and generate knowledge that can be appropriated by inhabitants and traditional mining communities. The event offered a unique opportunity to Elon students to approach current environmental issues in Latin America and fostered their motivation to further explore projects based on the link between the academy and community work.

Irene Velez’s talk was complemented by the opening of the art exhibition “The Faces of Colombia: The Invisible Communities” by the North Carolina artist Donna Slade at the Carlton Commons. The opening fostered an exceptional occasion for Elon students and enriched the academic learning space by critically reflecting on the artistic representation of identities and cultural issues. The art exhibition, currently displayed, shows the faces of displaced people and victims of the long-historical conflict that has affected Colombia for more than five decades. It exposes portraits of women and children who are still seeking better conditions and facing the violence of paramilitary and other armed groups.

The second conference took place on Oct. 20. In the event, the Casa de las Americas’ award-winning and Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Emil’ Keme, presented “Humberto Ak’abal’s The Animal Gathering: The Maya Environmental Imagination.”

The conference was held on Zoom and created a virtual space to discuss indigenous poetry. Keme argued that the invocation of animals by the poet Ak’abal develops a critique of Western modernity and, more specifically, of the indigenous genocide in Guatemala. The conference explored how Ak’abal’s work suggests critically analyzing a profound crisis in humanity that has come to undermine a loss in our original relationship with animals, mother nature and the planet as a whole; such crisis manifests itself today with climate change.

The conference allowed the Elon community to strengthen its abilities to understand the indigenous cultures of Central America by reassessing the positive impacts of studying their native poetry and reflecting on the racial consequences of environmental exploitation.

Finally, the series of conferences ended on Nov. 9 with a talk by Distinguished Professor at North Carolina State University Greg Dawes at Carlton Commons. Dawes presented “The Persistence of the Nightmare: Argentine Narrative of the 21st Century.”

The conference approached, through literary representation, the authoritarian regime of Argentina during the years known as the “Dirty War” (1976-1983). Dawes critically reflected on the conditions of political justice concerning literary productions that played a crucial role in representing the contexts of extreme repression by an authoritarian military government. The talk approached the work of Leopoldo Brizuela and other renowned Argentinean writers, highlighting the relevance of maintaining a historical memory of human rights violations.

The events strengthened relationship between departments, programs, and interdisciplinary minors across Elon campus. They were hosted by the Department of World Languages and Cultures and sponsored by Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences; the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning; the Isabella Cannon Global Education Center; El Centro; the Latin American Studies Interdisciplinary Minor Program; Peace and Conflict Studies Program; Women’s, Gender, and Sexualities Studies Program; International and Global Studies; the Department of Sociology and Anthropology; Geography and Human Service Studies Department.

This year, the conference, titled “Putas y Discas: Sex Work Activism and Disability Justice in Argentina,” will take place on Monday, Nov. 1 at 5:30 p.m. at the Global Commons Media Room 103. It is open and free to students, faculty and staff.

The Latin American Studies Research series is held each year at Elon to explore critical issues concerning the history, culture, communities, politics and art of Latin America from different disciplines and approaches. It has provided the opportunity to discuss a wide range of topics that affect the continent, with renowned scholars advocating to study and research the region’s issues.

The research series has continuously fostered a space to critically reflect on Latin America’s global position and the internal subjects that make the region a particular geopolitical area in the world. It has been committed to endorsing civic engagement on Latin American social, racial and gender matters and promotes diversity and inclusion of other cultures and identities at Elon. It has been a key yearly occasion to explore the interculturality of a diverse and unique area, while simultaneously reflecting on past and contemporary violent social and political conflicts that have been faced in the region.

The event will be a significant opportunity to follow that line of discussions by introducing the innovative and pioneering perspective of Savloff, who recently joined Elon’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology in 2020.

The conference will focus on “Putas y Discas,” an Instagram Live event where two activists conversed about how sex work and disability intersect in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

“Putas” is a reclaimed term that sex workers often use to identify their labor and political identities. “Discas” refers to the political identity of organized disabled people and people with functional diversity. Through an analysis of this virtual public conversation, Savloff will consider how the lens of disability justice challenges constrictive notions of sexuality.

Drawing on the concept of “access intimacy’ developed by Mia Mingus, Savloff argues that “Putas y Discas” offers an instance where non-disabled people are called upon to disrupt the dominance of ableism, not by running away from disability but by moving towards it. As organized sex workers and disability activists imagined new worlds and advocated for sexual recognition, they also challenged institutional violence for its abuses and neglects, displaying the vitality of political organizations and the possibilities for digital activism.

By building networks of interdependence, sex work activists and disability justice activists ensure sex life becomes a part of public discourse in ways that undoes normative constructions of sex.

Savloff has an important long trajectory of community service and ethnographic work with criminalized women in Argentina. Her research has focused on gender disparities and sexual minorities. Among other areas, she investigates how feminist collectives in Latin America contest policing techniques and instead promote community-based initiatives to dismantle institutional violence.

In her doctoral dissertation, “Entre Nosotres: The Social and Political Spheres of Women Against Prisons,” Savloff examines enactments of freedom and creative responses to the criminal justice system in Argentina by women organized in a collective that promotes self-determination and empowers networks of interdependence. She has developed research on critical prison studies, gender and sexualities, anthropology of visual media and social movements in Latin America.

Her concern is how women organize collectively to contest gender-based oppressions and promote feminist approaches on issues pertaining to policing and surveillance, labor practices, family and care.

The first webinar “Siwar Mayu, A river of hummingbirds” was led by writer and poet Juan Sánchez, who works for the online multilingual publication The Siwar Mayu Project. The words “Siwar” and “Mayu” in the native Quechua language translate into “hummingbird and river”, symbolizing how The Siwar Mayu Project works to share the messages of the ancestors and cross the borders of language.

During the webinar, Sánchez shared pieces of poetry and art from indigenous writers and artists, and he also describes how the project creates a space for indigenous creators to collaborate through dialogue, art, poetry, short stories, oral histories, and more. Instead of immediately translating the indigenous works into languages such as English, Spanish, Portuguese and French, Siwar Mayu includes the works in their native language, and in some cases, will translate them from their original indigenous language in hopes to keep original poetics and epistemologies alive. Visit to learn more about the project.

The second webinar, “Human Rights after the Colombian Peace Accords’,’ was led by Yohana Milena Castaño and Santiago Salinas, members of the People’s Congress (Congreso de los Pueblos) and was supported by the U.S. organization Witness for Peace Southeast. Formed in 2010, the People’s Congress works to create an intersectional, unified front against environmental destruction, war, and violence that harms marginalized communities in Colombia.

Since the 2016 Colombian Peace Accords intended to end the armed conflict that has been occurring in the country, the People’s Congress has played a crucial role in Colombian politics by supporting indigenous communities to defend their rights for life, land, and self-determination while violence in the country still increases. Colombia is experiencing a critical situation, where more than 300 human rights and environmental activists were assassinated in 2019, and important groups such as the People’s Congress are necessary for finding solutions to the violence that negatively impacts indigenous and marginalized communities.

The third and final webinar, “¡Turpü gelayay konkülenaliyiñ iñchiñ! / Never again without us!,” was led by Antonio Catrileo and Manuel Carrión, who are two spiritual and queer members of the Mapuche community. The Mapuche are an indigenous community that lives in the Southern and Central parts of Chile and Argentina, and oftentimes they face misrecognition, violence from the Chilean government and territorial displacement from corporations seeking to extract natural resources.

Catrileo and Carrión use poetry and art as a way to raise awareness and elevate the voices of the Mapuche, and also to share the experiences of queer members of the community. They use “Affectionate conversation”, or Poyewün nütramkan, and the art of weaving to build relationships and have open and honest conversations with others who can emphasize with the queer Mapuche experience. The act of weaving is both artistic and symbolic, as it represents weaving together knowledge and experience and sharing this with those involved in Poyewün nütramkan. The practice of “weaving knowledge sharing”, or trafkin kimün witral, helps to breed normativity of queerness and spirituality in the Mapuche community.

In “Never again without us!”, Catrileo and CarriĂłn brought attention to the Mapuche artists whose work sheds light on the complex relationship between indigenous visibility and colonial violence. “We don’t forget” (Ngoymalayiñ, No olvidamos) is a part of the project that cultivates memories of indigenous treatment and colonial state violence through audiovisual archives.

The photo exhibit in Carlton Commons is titled “Defending Truth and Memory: The Path Towards Justice in Guatemala” and consists of 12 photographs, many of which were taken by the Mayan-Kaqchikel photographer Roderico Y. DĂ­az. The exhibit continues the conversation of indigenous resistance as it focuses on the question of historical truth and the pursuit of justice and reparations for the indigenous population that suffered the genocide during the Guatemalan Civil War. The photographs allow viewers to learn more about the Mayan people’s recent struggles for justice, and also encourage viewers to reflect on how photography plays a crucial role in remembering the past.

Throughout four webinars, the symposium covered some of the most urgent social justice issues related to the coronavirus pandemic and its consequences in a global society. The symposium explored how COVID-19 has impacted different communities in the United States and Latin America, including immigrant workers in rural North Carolina, inmates in the prison industrial complex, the indigenous people of Central America, and social justice organizations in Portland, Oregon. While the virus has enhanced the challenges faced by these communities, it has also provoked resiliency and social justice movements to combat the challenges.

The first symposium, “Temporary Migrant Workers and Contemporary Struggles in the Fields of North Carolina,” was led by Leticia Zavala, former vice president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee. FLOC has been working for more than 50 years to pursue social justice for domestic, undocumented, and migrant farmworkers in the United States, and it has been internationally recognized for its work. Zavala discussed the dangerous conditions and strict regulations that farmworkers endure while working, and how FLOC works to push more responsibility onto big farming corporations so that farmworkers are better supported.

The second symposium, “Prison Abolition in Times of Pandemia,” was led by Alejo Stark, a founding member of the project Rustbelt Abolition Radio that produces podcasts about prisoners and prisons in the U.S. and the world. Stark discussed how the pandemic raises the question of safety in the incarceration system, and he also explored prison abolition as an evolving social movement. One of the main ideas presented at the webinar was that U.S. prisons confuse security with safety. Many inmates are not safe from the health risks associated with prisons, especially when these risks are being exacerbated by the pandemic.

The third symposium, “Remembering Berta Cáceres and the Struggles of Indigenous People in Honduras,” was led by Emily Rhyne, director of Witness for Peace Southeast, who was accompanied by Meghan Krausch, a public sociologist whose work is related to environmental conflicts in Honduras, and Dunia Sanchez Dominguez, member of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras. In the webinar, they discussed the case of Berta Cáceres, a feminist leader and environmental defender, who was killed in 2016 after opposing a hydroelectric project in Honduras. With portions of the discussion in Spanish, they described the ongoing struggles of indigenous communities in Honduras and how the coronavirus has negatively impacted Latin America.

The fourth and final symposium, “Notes from Portland: Mutual Aid in Pandemic and Protest,” was led by MagalĂ­ Rabasa, assistant professor of Hispanic studies at Lewis & Clark College and author of “The Book in Movement: Autonomous Politics and the Lettered City Underground.” As an activist, she discussed her experiences with community-based projects and social movements in Portland, which has become a center of the reemergence of the Black Lives Matter Movement. She described a brief history of Oregon, including the strong presence of ANTIFA and ICE protests in Portland and how the state once closed its borders to African Americans seeking to settle. Rabasa expressed how police abolition is a “horizon,” and that it dares people to imagine something that seems unimaginable.

The symposium encouraged students and faculty to take part in learning about the challenges being faced by different communities in the United States and Latin America. It provided a safe space for questions and it emphasized the importance of listening to other communities.