Teresa Longo

What do Loteria cards have to do with immigration? What can an ice cream shop tell us about the culture, economy and history of the city? Is there a connection between class structure and the buying and selling of medicine? Students participating in the 2008 Morelia program investigated these and other questions. Wayne Pearson, Erin Truitt and Amanda Scott started working on these topics in Teresa Longo’s Issues in Mexican Culture class. They conducted their on-site research in Morelia under the direction of Sheila Avellanet. Abstracts of the Morelia projects are posted here as comments:

Scott, Amanda. ”La Llorona, la loteria y la Virgen de Guadalupe: Transferencias y diferencias en la cultura mexicana y la cultura chicana” (forthcoming). 

Pearson, Wayne.  “La paleteria michoacana” (forthcoming). 

What does it mean to keep faith with poetry, to link art with activism? What is social justice? What is poetic justice? How are these issues addressed locally in Virginia, Washington, Willimantic, Medellin, Isla Negra, Chicago and along the US Mexico border? What role does globalization play? These are the questions Hispanic Studies faculty and students are answering in their research and their poetry.  Some of our work is posted here. Click on comments to read it.

The comments: 

Longo, Teresa .  ”A Poet’s Place … from Macchu Picchu to a Starbuck’s Parking Lot.”

Goergen, Juana and Silvia Tandeciarz.  “Reconquista / Reconquest.”  

Ressler, Robert. “Untitled.”

Corcoran, Kristen. “Machu Picchu is Closed Today.”

Russell, Mary. “why I should have listened to mom and majored in computer science.”

What is the connection between urban space and political mobilization? What role do the youth of a city play in the negotiation of urban identity? What role is played by public intellectuals, journalists, photographers and novelists? These are questions the faculty and students in Hispanic Studies are answering through research and photo essays. See the comments.

 The comments:

Longo, Teresa.  “Blame it on the Mini Skirt: Fashion, Language and Revolution in Mexico.”