 Department Activities:
-
Spanish movies this semester - Modern Language Film Series (Wednesdays & Thursdays, 7 pm, Liberal Arts Building, Room 135)
-
January 26 La cueca sola Director: Marilú Mallet. National Film Board of Canada/Atalante Films, 2003 (52 minutes)
“On September 11, 1973, a military coup killed Chilean president, Salvador Allende, and brought Augusto Pinochet to power. Over the next 17 years, thousands of men were taken from their homes never to return. Chilean women began to dance the country’s traditional courtship dance alone, making the cueca sola a symbol of women’s struggles against the dictator.” Director Marilu Mallet returned to Chile after 30 years in exile and interviewed five Chilean women who suffered under the dictatorship. The film reveals their grief and their passion to rebuild Chile. Their stories resonate with the experiences of recently elected president, Michelle Bachelet, whose father was killed by the military regime. (In Spanish with English subtitles)
-
February 2 Amargos recuerdos/Bitter Memorie Directors: Nefertiti K. Farías and Carlos Miguel Bazúa Morales, Producciones Xibalba, 2000 (30 minutes) Haunted Land Director: Mary Ellen Davis - Productions B’alba, 2001 (90 minutes)
In the 1980s, civil war in Guatemala took the lives of thousands of people as military regimes and paramilitary forces clashed with indigenous peoples, peasants, and other groups who engaged in projects to promote social and economic justice through both democratic grassroots organizing and guerrilla warfare. These documentaries examine massacres of Mayan people carried out by the military in 1982 through interviews with family members and other villagers. These case studies of human rights abuses are one of the pieces in a long history of state violence against indigenous peoples in Guatemala. Mayan responses call attention to their cultural resilience. (In Spanish with English subtitles)
-
Feb 8 El BULTO (The Lump or Excess Baggage ) Mexico, 1991. Lauro, an idealistic leftist, lies for twenty years in a coma as the result of police-inflicted injuries sustained in a protest in 1971. Then, he wakes up! His new world is a disappointment, the revolution a failure & he is an old man whose children have no respect for him or his ideals. The sequel to this modern-day Rip van Winkle film, El Bulto Para Presidente, should be available soon so we must re-visit the first installment. A bittersweet metaphor for the disillusionment endemic in the neo-liberal, globalized world. SP/ES. Color. 90 min. DIR: Gabriel Retes
-
February 9 Argentina: Growth or Disappearance/Argentina: Crecer o desaparecer Director: Luciano Zito Kermés/Docuframes Films, 2003 (55 minutes)
After leftist and progressive groups experienced brutal repression from the military government in the late 1970s and early 80s, Argentina returned to democratic rule, only to experience severe economic crises that resulted in skyrocketing unemployment and poverty. This documentary explains the crisis of the late 90s from its roots in the drastic neoliberal policies implemented earlier in the decade and follows a number of social movements that surfaced in response: the piquetero protests, factory takeovers, community soup kitchens, and radical neighborhood associations. These movements are similar to others in Latin America in providing popular support for resisting the wholesale implementation of neoliberal policies that contribute to poverty and inequity. (In Spanish with English subtitles)
-
April 19 Los Inundados(The Flooded) Argentina, 1971. DIR: Fernando Birri. 87 min. “Los Inundados was Birri’s first feature film, made with an unheard of mix of professional and natural actors and also with a very noticeable taste for social documentary — it was shot during the flooding devastation of an underdeveloped area in Argentina. It shows great narrative skills and a very human, warm sense of picaresque humor centered on its humble characters. A whole family (including the dog) loses their home and takes provisional refuge in an empty stockcar. A new odyssey starts for the occupants when (by chance?) the locomotive is coupled to the stockcar, dragging it towards an uncertain destiny. A satirical tone is used to depict the hypocrisy of politicians, and a different one to show the main characters' resilience and ingenuity for surviving. Four decades after it was filmed, The Flooded keeps intact its freshness, enthusiasm, and fighting spirit for social justice that were the film’s inspirational strength. —Jorge Ruffinelli. Opera Prima Award, Golden Medal Leone di SanMarco, XXIII Mostra Internazionale, Venice, 1962. Special Jury Award, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival of the New Cinemas of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, Czechoslovakia, 1962. Cabeza de Palenque Award, V International Film “Festival de Festivales”, Acapulco, México, 1962.
-
Tertulia - Zane Gray Ballroom - Charley's/ Weatherford Hotel on Leroux. Todos los Jueves de 5:30 a 7:00 pm
-
|
Spanish 101 
On-line activities 
Links for students 