Dec. 2022
Lecture Series: A Talk Talk with Lalo Alcaraz: Editorial Cartoonist, Chicano Artist, TV Writer and Producer."
Lalo Alcaraz is an award-winning visual/media artist and television/film writer, and a New York Times best-selling author. Alcaraz has been chronicling the ascendancy of Latinos in the U.S. for over a quarter-century with his syndicated daily comic strip La Cucaracha. In 2022, Alcaraz won the prestigious Herb Block Prize. He has worked in popular films and TV shows such as Pixar's Coco, Fox's Bordertown, and Nickelodeon's The Casagrandes.
Nov. 2022
Lecture Series/Masterclass: Beyond their Borders: Mariachi Masterclass with Los Camperos musician Sergio "Checo" Alonso
Grammy award-winning Los Camperos mariachi musician Sergio “Checo” Alonso, is a committed advocate for the preservation and dissemination of traditional Mexican music in the US. Join Sergio as he shares his story as a Mexican-American mariachi musician and conducts a masterclass for Chapman University’s Mariachi Panteras.
Lecture Series: A Night of Remembrance: Honoring America's Latino Veterans
Latinos have served in the U.S. military since the nation’s founding. As their numbers have grown, they have played an increasingly important role in the military and national defense. Their sacrifices have been substantial and continue in 2022. Chapman University, led by the War, Diplomacy, and Society Program, recognized their sacrifices and will had a ceremony to honor Latino veterans dating back to those who served in WWII (as well as the memory of those who fought before). At the event there were special presentations by President Danielle Struppa, Congressman Lou Correa, and Judge Rick Aguirre. Co-sponsor: Office of the President and War, Diplomacy, and Society Program
Lecture Series: Aiden Thomas, Author, Cemetery Boys
Aiden Thomas, author of Lost in the Never Woods and The Sunbearer Trials gave a reading of Cemetery Boys and talked about writing Young Adult Speculative Fiction. Co-sponsor: Department of English
Lecture Series:
Irreverent Representations: From Reservation Dogs to 1491s - A Conversation with Ryan RedCornRyan RedCorn (Osage) is a Staff Writer for the FX's hit tv show Reservation Dogs, a comedy drama about four Native American teenagers in rural Oklahoma. RedCorn talked about his experiences as a Native media creator, through both his work with Reservation Dogs and the Native comedy troupe 1491s, as well as his new short film Dead Bird Hearts - all three pieces that challenge stereotypical Native representations through satire and story. This event included a screening of Dead Bird Hearts.
Film Series: Everything Everywhere All at Once
An aging Chinese immigrant is swept up in an insane adventure, where she alone can save the world by exploring other universes connecting with the lives she could have led. She must channel her newfound powers to fight bizarre and bewildering dangers as the fate of the world hangs in the balance.
Lecture Series: An Evening with George Takei: Actor, Author, and Activist
Known around the world for his role as Hikaru Sulu in the TV and film series Star Trek, actor, activist, and social media sensation George Takei has since become a prominent voice for immigrant and LGBTQIA+ rights, particularly in his poignant recollections of his childhood spent behind the barbed-wire enclosures of Japanese-American internment camps during WWII.
Oct. 2022
Film Series:Pariah
Pariah follows Brooklyn teenager Alike, who is navigating the emotional minefields of first love and heartache and the disapproval of her family as she expresses her gender and sexual identities within a system that does not make space for them.
Lecture Series: The Kindness of Color
The Kindness of Color tells the true story of two immigrant families who came to Southern California for better lives, only to face their own separate battles against racism in the midst of World War II. One family came by land from Mexico and the other by sea from Japan. Little did they expect their paths would meet and lead to justice and desegregation for all the school children of California in Mendez v. Westminster (1947) - seven years before Brown v. Education (1954).
Film Series: Pa'lante, Siempre Pa'lante!: The Young Lords with director/activist Iris Morales
The Young Lords Party was a militant Puerto Rican civil rights organization based in New York. Today, many of their leaders are notable mainstream journalists, including Juan Gonzalez, Felipe Luciano, and Pablo Guzman. Iris Morales makes history come alive as veterans of the movement recall their fight for equality, jobs, health care, and education.
Co-sponsor: Dodge College of Film and Media Arts
Lecture Series: They Called Us Enemy Book Conversation
A discussion of the graphic memoir They Called Us Enemy by author, actor, and activist George Takei. Long before Star Trek, Takei woke up as a four-year-old to find his own birth country at war with his father's --- and their entire family forced from their home into an uncertain future. This book is Takei's firsthand account of those years inside one of ten Japanese-American "relocation centers" where they were held under armed guard during WWII.
Film Series: Los Tigres del Norte: Stories to Tell
Los Tigres del Norte have recorded more than 600 songs, sold 60 million albums, won 7 Grammy Awards and 9 Latin Grammy’s during their amazing career. Throughout this voyage through their musical journey, Don Jorge, Hernán, Oscar, Eduardo, and Luis share exclusive concert stories, photos, videos, and invite us to enjoy some of the most intimate moments of their life throughout their rise to stardom.
Film Series: Mariposas del Campo Film Screening and Producer Q&A
Mariposas del Campo, an award-winning film by Bill Yahraus and Robin Rosenthal, shares the stories of indigenous Mixtec, Zapotec, and Purépecha teenagers from Mexico striving to change their families’ destinies in the strawberry fields of Oxnard, California. The documentary captures their journeys—with help from the characters’ own intimate videos—as they navigate cultural identity, parental expectations, economic challenges, and the justice needs of their migrant farmworker community. For young people whose lives have always been steeped in uncertainty, it takes a leap of faith to chase a dream.
Lecture Series: Cultural Appreciation, Appropriation or Assimilation? The Sikh Experience in America
The stories we read, listen to, and tell influence can how we see others, the world, and our place in it. The Sikh community has been the target of numerous hate crimes, but these events only partially define what is means to be a Sikh living the United States. This conversation explored the nuances of the multifaceted Sikh community and the role of cultural humility in story-telling.
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Lecture Series: Reclaiming Our Voice: The Ethnic Studies Movement in Santa Ana Unified School District
Santa Ana Unified School District is one of the first districts in the country to build an Ethnic Studies Program not only as a high school requirement but embedded throughout the K-12 curriculum. For this event, district and community leaders discussed their efforts to address local obstacles and broader challenges to advance and promote Ethnic Studies as a labor of love and community movement.
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Sept. 2022
Film Series:Agents of Change with Director and Producer Frank Dawson
Agents of Change examines the untold story of the racial conditions on college campuses and in the country that led to protests in the 1960s, revealing how unprepared these institutions were when confronted by demands for black studies programs, safer housing; fairer judicial proceedings and changes to democratize the institutions. The film’s characters were at the crossroads of change and controversy at a pivotal time in America’s history.
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Film Series: Bontoc Eulogy with Director Marlon Fuentes
This docudrama examines the Filipino experience at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, focusing on the filmmaker's grandfather, an Igorot warrior, one of the 1,100 tribal natives displayed as anthropological "specimens" in the notorious Philippine Village exhibit. A unique fusion of rare archival images, and carefully orchestrated visual sequences shot in the present, Bontoc Eulogy is an original and innovative investigation of, memory and the spectacle of the "Other" in turn-of-the-century America.
Artist Series: Creative Sovereignty: A Conversation with artist Gerald Clarke
As a visual artist, Gerald Clarke has exhibited his work extensively and can be seen in numerous exhibitions as well as major museum collections. In 2007, Gerald was awarded an Eiteljorg Museum Fellowship for Native American Fine Art and served as an Artist-in-Residence at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2015. Earlier this year, Gerald received a Harpo Foundation Native American Fellowship to the Vermont Studio Center.
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Lecture Series: Diana Khoi Nguyen Poetry Talk and Reading
Diana Khoi Nguyen, author and poety of Ghost Of (Omnidawn Publishing, 2018), her debut poetry collection. Ghost Of was a finalist for the National Book Award, L.A. Times Book Prize, and received awards, including the 2019 Kate Tufts Discovery Award & Colorado Book Award.
Apr. 2022
Lecture Series: Ethnic Studies Summit with Gustavo Arellano
Gustavo Arellano is author of Orange County: A Personal History and Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times and host of its daily news podcast “The Times,” and has been an essayist and reporter for various publications and a frequent commentator on radio and television. He was formerly editor of OC Weekly, an alternative newspaper in Orange County, California, and penned the award-winning “¡Ask a Mexican!,” a nationally syndicated column in which he answered any and all questions about America's spiciest and largest minority. Gustavo is the recipient of awards ranging from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies for Best Columnist to the Los Angeles Press Club President's Award to an Impacto Award from the National Hispanic Media Coalition, and was recognized by the California Latino Legislative Caucus with a 2008 Spirit Award for his “exceptional vision, creativity, and work ethic.” Gustavo is a lifelong resident of Orange County and is the proud son of two Mexican immigrants, one whom came to this country in the trunk of a Chevy.
May 2022
Lecture Series: A History of Boxing and Cinco de Mayo with Roberto Jose Andrade Franco
Cinco de Mayo is one of the biggest weekends in professional prizefighting. The sport utilizes Mexican ethnic representation throughout the year, but especially on Cinco de Mayo. Dr. Andrade Franco discussed how Mexicans and Mexican Americans mobilized to make Cinco de Mayo an important date for the sport.
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