Living & Arts

Satirical show wraps up Latino Heritage Month

In print | October 1, 2009

Latino Heritage Month at Swarthmore concluded this week with a presentation by New York City-based performance group, FULANA on Monday, Sept. 28.

A self-defined “Latina video and performance collective,” FULANA brings together four Latina artists to create satirical art. During the session on Monday, Swarthmore students and faculty received a glimpse of FULANA’s work through videos and posters. These simultaneously comical and controversial pieces reflected critically on issues of Latino identity and discrimination in the United States.

The artists exploited stereotypes such as that of the “Latino plastic cover” and explored controversial issues like the New York Times’ study of the “Hispanic Paradox,” which explored why Latino women in the United States reportedly have a longer life expectancy than American women.

During the ensuing question and answer period, FULANA artist Andrea Thome cautioned students who worried about offending people through satire not to “lose the right to humor by trying to be too politically correct.”

FULANA encouraged Swarthmore students to stand up for causes they cared about and to respond proactively to the world around them, whether through activism, art, journalism or other means. Performer Cristina Ibarra said, “When we work with young people, we tell them to start with what pisses them off.”

FULANA also talked about the particular effectiveness of their chosen medium. Ibarra said, “You can address social change by getting angry and people might not listen, or you can disarm them with laughter.”

During the presentation, artist Marlène Ramírez Cancio mentioned relatives killed in revolutionary undertakings, pointing to satire as a safer and more effective channel for protest.

The FULANA presentation was one of a series of events associated with Latino Heritage Month at Swarthmore. Another featured event was last week’s panel discussion on “Language Panics and Latino Identities.” Facilitating panelists were Aurora Camacho de Schmidt, Associate Professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies, Ana Celia Zentella, Eugene M. Lang Visiting Professor for Issues of Social Change, and Jonathan Rosa ’03, PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology, from the University of Chicago.

This discussion addressed the relationship between language and identity in the Latino American community, evoking issues such as the propagation of “Spanglish,” the misuse of the Spanish language and the growth of the “English only” movement across the country. During the panel, important issues such as immigration, migration, assimilation and bilingual education were also debated. The FULANA event was intended as a continuation of that discussion. Its focus was on the issue of language and identity — a central question of Latino Heritage Month.

For ENLACE, the Latino/a group at Swarthmore that organizes Latino Heritage Month, these events are an opportunity to reach out to the student community. Isabel Rivera ’10, who organized the FULANA event, said that they were particularly important because “they allow us to engage the campus into dialogue without getting bogged down in academic discourse.”

This is the fifth year that Latino Heritage Month has been formally observed at Swarthmore. According to Dean Rafael Zapata of the Intercultural Center, Latino/a Heritage Month has “not so much changed over the years as evolved to reflect the growing Latino/a community at Swarthmore.”
Mariela Puentes ’12, co-president of ENLACE with Stephanie Rodriguez ’12, stressed the recent focus on Tri-Co events this year. Puentes said, “This extends the Latino community. You feel like there are more people who can relate to you.”

In addition to the panel on language and identity and the FULANA presentation, events this year have included a Tri-Co student panel, a meeting with University of Chicago Ph.D. candidate Jonathan Rosa, a student-faculty lunch and a discussion of volunteer opportunities. The culminating event of Latino American Month will be a “Carnaval”-themed party scheduled this weekend at Olde Club.