Lecture on Latino Migration to the United States Based on the PBS Special
Leandro Benmergui, Professor of History and Latin American Studies and Director of Casa Purchase, An Outreach Center for Latin American Studies at Purchase College, SUNY, will discuss clips from Episode 1, Foreigners in Their Own Land, Episode 2 Empire of Dreams, and Episode 6, Peril and Promise. The focus of this lecture will be to establish the history of the different “waves” of Latin American migration to the United States.
The conversations will seek to illustrate the diversity within Latinos, their places of origin, the reasons that triggered different migrations, and the specific cities and rural areas in which they settled. Parts of Episode 6 will also be used to start a conversation about the ways in which Latinos are represented in film, challenging the audience to contrast those stereotypical representations to the realities of the Hispanic population in the area.