This session is in English and will be repeated in Spanish on Wednesday, January 20 from 6:30 – 8:30 pm.

Explore the rich and varied history and experiences of Latinos, who have helped shape the United States over the last five centuries when the Ann Arbor District Library presents Latino Americans: 500 Years of History. Created by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association, this six-episode series features documentary film screenings and discussions at the Downtown Library.

Dr. Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes, Director Latina/o Studies Program, Associate Professor of American Culture leads tonight’s screening and discussion. Tonight’s film, "Foreigners in their Own Land (1565-1880)," begins one hundred years after Columbus' arrival in the Caribbean, as Spanish Conquistadors and Priests push into North America in search of gold and to spread Catholicism. With the arrival of the British in North America, the two colonial systems produce contrasting societies that come in conflict as Manifest Destiny pushes the U.S into the Mexican territories of the Southwest.

Through the Mexican American War, the U.S. takes a full half of Mexico's territory by 1848. Over seventy thousand Mexicans are caught in a strange land and many become American citizens.

As the Gold Rush floods California with settlers, complex and vital communities are overwhelmed. Mexicans and Mexican Americans are treated as second-class citizens, facing discrimination and racial violence. Resistance to this injustice appears in New Mexico as Las Gorras Blancas (The White Caps), burn Anglo ranches and cut through barbed wire to prevent Anglo encroachment.

At the same time, New Mexicans manage to transform themselves through education, managing to preserve Hispano culture in New Mexico and their standing in the midst of an era of conquest and dispossession.

The Ann Arbor District Library is one of 203 sites nationwide to host this series, which has been made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association. The AADL series is also co-sponsored by Michigan Radio and the U-M Latina/o Studies Program and is part of an NEH initiative, The Common Good: The Humanities In the Public Square. For more information about this AADL series, visit aadl.org/latinoamericans

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Join us for this opening concert for the Ann Arbor District Library’s film & discussion series "Latino Americans: 500 Years of History".

Created by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association, this six-episode series features documentary film screenings and discussions exploring the rich and varied history and experiences of Latinos, who have helped shape the United States over the last five centuries and who have become, with more than 50 million people, the country's largest minority group.

This opening concert features the music of the exciting Cuban jazz combo Tumbao Bravo. Formed in August 2003 by reedman Paul VornHagen and conguero Alberto Nacif, Tumbao Bravo is known for their authentic Cuban polyrhythms including mambos, cha chas, rhumbas, boleros, and danzones all based on the Cuban montuno.

The opening event also includes a preview/film montage of the upcoming films in the series and remarks from Dr. Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes, Director of the University of Michigan, Department of American Culture, Latina/o Studies Program.

Films in the series will be screened from January – April on selected Mondays (English version) and Wednesdays (Spanish version) with discussions to follow led by University of Michigan faculty from the School of Literature, Science & Arts, Department of American Culture Latina/o Studies.

Join us for a delightful evening of music and learn more about upcoming films in the series.

The Ann Arbor District Library is one of 203 sites nationwide to host this series, which has been made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association. The AADL series is also co-sponsored by Michigan Radio and the U-M Latina/o Studies Program and is part of an NEH initiative, The Common Good: The Humanities In the Public Square. For more information about this AADL series, visit aadl.org/latinoamericans

Make your own documentary film in this hands-on workshop. Explore how filmmakers create meaning using image, voice, and audio.

You’ll edit video clips from public domain films and add music of your choosing. Tie it all together by adding your own narration track. Documentary filmmaker Justin Schell will lead the participants through the process. At the end of the workshop, participants will have completed a 30 second film.

Justin Schell is a filmmaker, writer, and Learning Design Specialist for the U-M Libraries, where he heads the Shapiro Design Lab. His first documentary, Travel in Spirals, tells the powerful story of Hmong hip-hop artist Tou SaiKo Lee's journey back to Thailand, 30 years after he was born in a refugee camp there.

His other video work has been shown in the Walker Art Center, Twin Cities Public Television, and online at the Huffington Post and the Progressive and screened in the Twin Cities Film Fest, Twin Cities Underground Film Festival, and the Qhia Dab Neeg Hmong Film Festival. He regularly teaches courses on documentary production, interviewing, and editing.

UM North Quad is located at the corner of S. State St. and E. Washington St. – enter from S. State St. to find Space 2435.

This 2014 documentary plunges viewers into the world of three New Orleans school marching bands. It closely follows several groups of kids growing up in America's most musical city, and one of its most dangerous, as their band directors get them ready to perform in the Mardi Gras parades. The band leaders also teach them to succeed and to survive.

The story is also a unique portrayal of an American inner city, highlighting men with an open-eyed, deep commitment to the community they've grown up in and the children in their charge. Viewers will find a celebration of the strength and insight of these men, and the potential and resilience of their students. Navigating the urban minefield through moments of setback, loss, discovery, and triumph, these children and their adult leaders reveal the power and resilience of a culture.

The 90-minute film (which is not rated) features three marching bands in the years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city. As Mardi Gras approaches and the young musicians progress, we discover their passions and quirks, their personal struggles and tragedies. We come to see the powerful positive role being in the band plays in their lives.

The film culminates in a different kind of musical performance: a moving funeral tribute by band members from across the city to a young man who was one of their own.

The Ann Arbor Film Festival, the longest-running independent and experimental film festival in North America, hosts this evening of outstanding films from last year's festival. If you did not get a chance to attend all of last year's festival, or if you want to revisit your favorite screenings - this is an excellent opportunity.

The eight films include:
- audience favorites such as the animated films "Symphony No. 42," a series of 47 surreal, absurd, and poignant vignettes by Hungarian animator Réka Busci;
- Daisy Jacobs’ innovative "The Bigger Picture," which received the 53rdAAFF Award for Best Animated Film and
- "Two Ways Down," Portland animator Laura Heit’s most recent work.

Other works include:
- Mike Hoolboom’s "Scrapbook," winner of the 53rd AAFF Audience Award and the Pat O'Neill Perseverance Furthers Award;
- Brazilian artist Pablo Lobato’s "Corda," a kinetic close-up observation of Círio de Nazaré, one of the world’s biggest Catholic processions;
- "Babash," Lisa Truttmann and Behrouz Rae’s beguiling observational portrait of a Farsi-speaking parrot;
- "Layover," Vanessa Renwick's exhilarating document of the Vaux's Swifts descent in Portland during their annual migration to South America; and
- "Herd," Ashley Sabin and David Redmon’s mysterious portraits filmed within a donkey sanctuary.

The Ann Arbor Film Festival receives more than 3,000 submissions annually from more than 65 countries and serves as one of a handful of Academy Award-qualifying festivals in the United States.

This film and discussion will be presented in Spanish. This program will also be presented in English on Monday, February 1.

Dr. Silvia Pedraza, U-M Professor of Sociology and American Culture leads tonight’s screening and discussion of the film War and Peace (1942-1954). World War II is a watershed event for Latino Americans with hundreds of thousands of men and women serving in the armed forces, most fighting side by side with Anglos. But on the home front, discrimination is not dead: in 1943, Anglo servicemen battle hip young "Zoot suitors" in racially charged riots in southern California.

After the war, Macario Garcia becomes the first Mexican National to earn the Congressional Medal of Honor for his exploits fighting in Europe, only to be refused service in a Texas diner. The experience during the war pushes Latinos to fight for civil rights back home. A doctor from South Texas, Hector Garcia, organizes the American GI Forum, transforming himself into a tireless advocate for civil rights and the friend of a future president. Although Latinos make significant gains, the journey for equality is far from over.

The Ann Arbor District Library is one of 203 sites nationwide to host this series, which has been made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association. The AADL series is also co-sponsored by Michigan Radio and the U-M Latina/o Studies Program and is part of an NEH initiative, The Common Good: The Humanities In the Public Square. For more information on Latino Americans: 500 Years of History programs at AADL, please visit aadl.org/latinoamericans.

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This session is in Spanish and will be presented in English on Monday, January 25 from 6:30 – 8:30 pm.

Explore the rich and varied history and experiences of Latinos, who have helped shape the United States over the last five centuries when the Ann Arbor District Library presents Latino Americans: 500 Years of History. Created by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association, this six-episode series features documentary film screenings and discussions at the Downtown Library.

Dr. Jesse Hoffnung-Garskof, U-M Associate Professor of History and American Culture leads tonight’s screening and discussion. After the film, Dr. Hoffnung-Garskof will introduce the legal and political status of Puerto Rico, its inhabitants, and migrants to the mainland in the wake of the Cuban-Spanish-American War, making comparisons and drawing contrasts with the simultaneous experience of immigration from Mexico.

Tonight’s film is "Empire of Dreams (1880-1942)." Widespread immigration to the U.S. from Latin countries begins – first with a small group from Cuba, then a larger one from Mexico. Both flee chaos and violence in their home country and are attracted by opportunities in the United States. In 1898, the U.S. helps liberate Cuba and Puerto Rico from Spain but then seizes Puerto Rico as its colony. The first Puerto Rican arrivals (now U.S. citizens) establish a network in New York.

During the 1920s, immigration is encouraged with the expanding U.S. economy. Mexicans and Mexican Americans build a thriving community in Los Angeles and look forward to a bright future. But when the economic boom of that 1920s ends with the catastrophic Depression of the thirties, the pendulum swings. Immigrants encouraged to immigrate in the 20s are deported en masse in the 30s.

Puerto Ricans, also caught in the depths of the Depression, rebel against U.S. rule on the Island, and eventually gain Commonwealth status from the U.S. Government.

The Ann Arbor District Library is one of 203 sites nationwide to host this series, which has been made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association. The AADL series is also co-sponsored by Michigan Radio and the U-M Latina/o Studies Program and is part of an NEH initiative, The Common Good: The Humanities In the Public Square. For more information about this AADL series, visit aadl.org/latinoamericans.

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Cristhian Espinoza-Pino, Lecturer IV in the Spanish Department and PALMA Faculty Advisor at the University of Michigan Residential College leads this screening and discussion of the film Peril and Promise (1980–2000). In the 80s, the nature of the Latino Diaspora changes again. From Cuba a second wave of refugees to the United States—the Mariel exodus—floods Miami . The same decade sees the sudden arrival of hundreds of thousands of Central Americans (Salvadorans, Guatemalans, and Nicaraguans) fleeing death squads and mass murders at home, including activist Carlos Vaquerano. By the early 1990s, a political debate over illegal immigration has begun. Globalization, empowered by NAFTA, means that as U.S. manufacturers move south, Mexican workers head north in record numbers. A backlash ensues: tightened borders, anti-bilingualism, state laws to declare all illegal immigrants felons. But a sea change is underway: the coalescence of a new phenomenon called Latino American culture as Latinos spread geographically and make their mark in music, sports, politics, business, and education. Gloria Estefan leads the Miami Sound Machine creating crossover hits in Spanish and English. Oscar de la Hoya, a Mexican-American boxer from L.A., becomes an Olympic gold medalist and the nation's Golden Boy. Is a new Latino world being created here as the Latino population and influence continues to grow? Alternatively, will Latinos in America eventually assimilate into invisibility, as other groups have done so many times?

Latinos present a challenge and an opportunity for the United States. America's largest and youngest growing sector of the population presents what project advisor Professor Marta Tienda calls The Hispanic Moment. Their success could determine the growth of the United States in the twenty-first century; however, their failure contributing to an underclass could also pull this country down. The key, according to Tienda and Eduardo J. Padron, Ph.D., President of Miami Dade Community College, is education.

The Ann Arbor District Library is one of 203 sites nationwide to host this series, which has been made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association. The AADL series is also co-sponsored by Michigan Radio and the U-M Latina/o Studies Program and is part of an NEH initiative, The Common Good: The Humanities In the Public Square. For more information on Latino Americans: 500 Years of History programs at AADL, please visit aadl.org/latinoamericans.

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This film and discussion will be presented in English. This program will also be presented in Spanish on Wednesday, March 23.

Cristhian Espinoza-Pino, Lecturer IV in the Spanish Department and PALMA Faculty Advisor at the University of Michigan Residential College leads this screening and discussion of the film Peril and Promise (1980–2000). In the 80s, the nature of the Latino Diaspora changes again. From Cuba a second wave of refugees to the United States—the Mariel exodus—floods Miami. The same decade sees the sudden arrival of hundreds of thousands of Central Americans (Salvadorans, Guatemalans, and Nicaraguans) fleeing death squads and mass murders at home, including activist Carlos Vaquerano. By the early 1990s, a political debate over illegal immigration has begun. Globalization, empowered by NAFTA, means that as U.S. manufacturers move south, Mexican workers head north in record numbers. A backlash ensues: tightened borders, anti-bilingualism, state laws to declare all illegal immigrants felons. But a sea change is underway: the coalescence of a new phenomenon called Latino American culture as Latinos spread geographically and make their mark in music, sports, politics, business, and education. Gloria Estefan leads the Miami Sound Machine creating crossover hits in Spanish and English. Oscar de la Hoya, a Mexican-American boxer from L.A., becomes an Olympic gold medalist and the nation's Golden Boy. Is a new Latino world being created here as the Latino population and influence continues to grow? Alternatively, will Latinos in America eventually assimilate into invisibility, as other groups have done so many times?

Latinos present a challenge and an opportunity for the United States. America's largest and youngest growing sector of the population presents what project advisor Professor Marta Tienda calls The Hispanic Moment. Their success could determine the growth of the United States in the twenty-first century; however, their failure contributing to an underclass could also pull this country down. The key, according to Tienda and Eduardo J. Padron, Ph.D., President of Miami Dade Community College, is education.

The Ann Arbor District Library is one of 203 sites nationwide to host this series, which has been made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association. The AADL series is also co-sponsored by Michigan Radio and the U-M Latina/o Studies Program and is part of an NEH initiative, The Common Good: The Humanities In the Public Square. For more information on Latino Americans: 500 Years of History programs at AADL, please visit aadl.org/latinoamericans.

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This film and discussion will be presented in Spanish. This program will also be presented in English on Monday, March 14.

Mabel Rodriguez, Lecturer at the University of Michigan Spanish Department and Residential College will lead this screening and discussion of Prejudice and Pride (1965-1980). Ms. Rodriguez will bring additional information as to how the political and educational scene has changed since the protests depicted in the documentary, as well as issues that continue to affect the Hispanic community today.

In the 1960s and 1970s a generation of Mexican Americans, frustrated by persistent discrimination and poverty, find a new way forward, through social action and the building of a new "Chicano" identity. The movement is ignited when farm workers in the fields of California, led by César Chavez and Dolores Huerta, march on Sacramento for equal pay and humane working conditions. Through plays, poetry and film, Luis Valdez and activist Corky Gonzalez create a new appreciation of the long history of Mexicans in the South West and the Mestizo roots of Mexican Americans. In Los Angeles, Sal Castro, a schoolteacher, leads the largest high school student walkout in American history, demanding that Chicano students be given the same educational opportunities as Anglos. In Texas, activists such as José Ángel Gutiérrez, create a new political party and change the rules of the electoral game. By the end of the 1970s, Chicanos' activism and identity have transformed what it means to be an American. Chicano and Latino studies are incorporated into school curriculum; Latinos are included in the political process.

The Ann Arbor District Library is one of 203 sites nationwide to host this series, which has been made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association. The AADL series is also co-sponsored by Michigan Radio and the U-M Latina/o Studies Program and is part of an NEH initiative, The Common Good: The Humanities In the Public Square. For more information on Latino Americans: 500 Years of History programs at AADL, please visit aadl.org/latinoamericans.

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