Lawrence University associate professor of Spanish and Italian Patricia Vilches examines issues of national and cultural identity in a Lawrence Main Hall Forum.
Vilches presents “Is it Your Border or Mine,” Tuesday, Feb. 3 at 4:30 p.m. in Main Hall, Room 201. The event is free and open to the public.
Vilches will discuss examples of modern Latin American cinema and literature that deal with physical as well as metaphysical border issues and the cultural identity issues that can ensue. Included in her discussion will be a look at “borders” that result when people return to a country after many years away, such as Chileans who lived in the United States during General Augusto Pinochet’s regime then returned to Chile after the dictatorship ended. Among the works Vilches will examine are the films “El jardin del Eden” by Maria Novaro and “El Norte” by Gregory Navas and the book “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents” by Julia Alvarez.
A specialist in Latin American culture and literature, Vilches joined the Lawrence faculty in 2000. She earned her doctorate in romance languages and literatures at the University of Chicago.
