Cuba: Colloquium on Latinos in USA

Havana, Jul 13. -The 1st International Colloquium on Cultural Identities and the Latino Presence in the United States begins Wednesday, addressing the complex reality of immigrants.

The meeting, convened by the Havana-based Casa de las Americas, brings together experts in the arts and social sciences who will meet today and tomorrow to discuss issues related to Latin American and Caribbean migration processes from a historic and contemporary prospect.

Three committees will analyze language, literature, the Latino identity and prospects for the theater and visual arts.

Antonio Aja, director of the Latinos in the United States studies program, told reporters that the event aimed to show the diverse, different and common aspects of these human beings, and how their cultural identity is preserved and transformed.

The Colloquium also will open a space to make it possible, in the countries of origin of those migration flows, to have analysis, debate, systematized knowledge and the socialization of experiences and results of studies.

Other objectives are to analyze the consequences and social and cultural impact in issuing and receiving countries, and their interrelations and interdependence, as well as the phenomenon of trans-nationalism.

The program also includes two panel discussions on the Latin American experience of writing in New York and the role of the Latino Artist Round Table and the Campana publishing house in disseminating Latino culture.

The event also features the opening of the bibliographic exhibition "Mexico and Aztlan: Border cultures and Identities."  (Prensa Latina)