Latino Americans: 500 Years of History

Join the Oviatt Library and community partners in films screenings and community events that help chronicle the lives of Latino Americans in the United States from the sixteenth century to present day.  It is a story of people, politics, and culture, large in scale and deep in reach. 

For more information, contact Jennie Quinonez-Skinner.

Spring 2016 Events

March 2016

[Film Discussion, Speaker, and Tribute] Peril and Promise

Carlos Vaquerano -- Executive Director, Salvadoran American Leadership and Educational Fund
Douglas Carranza, Ph.D. -- Department Chair, CSUN Central American Studies
March 9, 2016
11:00-12:15 PM
CSUN Oviatt Library Ferman Presentation Room

This event is funded by CSUN's College of the Humanities 

April 2016

[Community Event and Exhibit] Latino American Public Art: Form and Function

with special speaker Manny Velazquez, Muralist
April 2, 2016 6:00-9:00 PM
Museum of the San Fernando Valley

[Film Discussion and Speaker] Foreigners in Their Own Land

Susan Falck, Ph.D. --  Director, Rancho Camulos
Kristin Contreras, M.A. -- Docent, Rancho Camulos
April 5, 2015
6:30-8:00 PM
Whitsett Room SH 451

This event is funded by CSUN's College of the Humanities 

September 2015

[Film Screening] Prejudice and Pride

Jorge Leal, M.A. -- CSUN History
September 16, 2015
2:00-4:00 PM
CSUN Oviatt Library Ferman Presentation Room

October 2015

[Film Screening] Empire of Dreams

Alicia I. Rodriquez-Estrada, M.A. --  Los Angeles Trade and Technical College -- Liberal Arts
October 3, 2015
1:00-3:00 PM
Van Nuys Public Library

[Workshop] Creative Media on a Budget

Isis Leininger -- Coordinator, CSUN Creative Media Studio
October 8, 2015
3:30-5:00 PM
Van Nuys Public Library

[Workshop] How to Make Papel Picado/Como Hacer Papel Picado

Xochitl Flores-Marcial, Ph.D. -- CSUN Chicana/o Studies
October 17, 2015; 2:00-4:00 PM
San Fernando Public Library

[Workshop] How to make sugar skulls/Cómo hacer calaveras de azúcar 

Hilda Casas, MLIS -- Manager, San Fernando Library
October 24, 2015
2:00-4:00 PM
San Fernando Public Library

[Community Event] Words About Dia de Los Muertos: Indigenous Perspective

Xochitl Flores-Marcial, Ph.D. -- CSUN Chicano Studies
October 30, 2015
2:00-4:00 PM
CSUN Oviatt Library Ferman Presentation Room

November 2015

[Film Screening] Latino Americans: War and Peace

Juana Mora, Ph.D. -- CSUN Provost's Office
Program Partner: CSUN Veterans Resource Center
November 10, 2015
3:00-5:00 PM
Oviatt Presentation Room

December 2015

[Community Event] Tia Chucha's Winterlandia

December 13, 2015
11:00 AM -5:00 PM
Pacoima Community Center
Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural & Bookstore

Latino Americans: 500 Years of History has been made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association.

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Film Guide

Latino Americans is a six part documentary. The films will chronicle Latinos in the United States from the sixteenth century to present day. It is the story of people, politics, and culture large in scale and deep in its reach. The changing and yet repeating context of American history provides a backdrop for the drama of individual lives. It is a story of immigration and redemption, of anguish and celebration, of the gradual construction of a new American identity that connects and empoers millions of people today.

Films are available online and records are cataloged at the Oviatt Library.

Episode 1: Foreigners in Their Own Land

Foreigners in Their Own Land explores the period from 1565-1880, as the first Spanish explorers enter North America, the U.S. expands into territories in the Southwest that had been home to Native Americans and English and Spanish colonies, and as the Mexican-American War strips Mexico of half its territories by 1848.

• February 20, 2016; 1:00-3:00 PM
• Oviatt Library Presentation Room
• Susan Falck, Director of Rancho Camulos 

Episode 2: Empire of Dreams

Empire of Dreams documents how the American population begins to be reshaped by the influx of people that began in 1880 and continues into the 1940s, as Cubans, Mexicans and Puerto Ricans begin arriving in the U.S. and start to build strong Latino-American communities in South Florida, Los Angeles and New York

• October 3, 2015; 1:00-3:00 PM
• Van Nuys Public Library
• Alicia I. Rodriquez-Estrada, Professor at Los Angeles Trade and Technical College 

Episode 3: War and Peace

War and Peace moves into the World War II years and those that follow, as Latino Americans serve their new country by the hundreds of thousands — but still face discrimination and a fight for civil rights back in the United States.

• November 10, 2015; 3:00-5:00 PM
• Oviatt Library
• Dr. Juana Mora
• CSUN’s Veteran Resource Center

Episode 4: The New Latinos

The New Latinos highlights the swelling immigration from Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic that stretches from the post-World War II years into the early 1960s as the new arrivals seek economic opportunities.

• February 2016; TBD
• Glendale Public Library

Episode 5: Prejudice and Pride

Prejudice and Pride details the creation of the proud “Chicano” identity, as labor leaders organize farm workers in California, and as activists push for better education opportunities for Latinos, the inclusion of Latino studies, and empowerment in the political process.

• September 16, 2015; 2:00-4:00 PM
• Oviatt Library
• Jorge Leal, Lecturer at CSUN – History Department

Episode 6: Peril and Promise

Peril and Promise takes viewers through the past 30 years, with a second wave of Cubans arriving in Miami during the Mariel exodus and with hundreds of thousands Salvadorans, Nicaraguans and Guatemalans fleeing civil wars, death squads and unrest to go north into a new land — transforming the United States along the way.

• March 9, 2016; 4:00-6:00 PM
• Oviatt Library
• Douglas Caranza, Department Chair at CSUN – Central American Studies Department