Center for the Study of the Peoples of the Americas

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Center for the Study of the Peoples of the Americas

Just Published!


The Center for the Study of the Peoples of the Americas is pleased to announce the release of its latest publications with Casa de las Américas. Please click the images above to access.

Mission

The Center for the Study of the Peoples of the Americas (CESPA) is devoted to the principle that education is the basis for solutions to societal tensions. To this end a primary concern of the Center is the issues stemming from the lived experiences of our students. The purpose of (CESPA) is to promote interest in and knowledge of peoples descendent of Latin American communities, whether of Latino/a, Asian, European, African or indigenous origins, within the US and south of the border through service learning, student and faculty research. CESPA also promotes faculty and public intellectual workshops, symposia, conferences, and lectures. Multimedia forums are utilized to distribute Center programs and research.

The peoples of the Americas have their roots in African, European, Asian, and indigenous cultures. The Center for the Study of the Peoples of the Americas (CESPA), is committed to a deeper understanding of the creation and movements across borders, and the development of border cultures, identities and economies. A primary concern is the lived experiences of our students. The California State University system has among the largest concentration of students of Mexican and Central American extraction of any four-year university system in the country, as well as substantial populations of Asian American and African American students.

To this end CESPA will bring together a group of scholars, researchers, and creative artists from a wide range of disciplines to more effectively provide accessible information to all students and communities about the experiences and the cultures of the more than 50 million Americans of Latin-American extraction and the more than 600 million people living to the south of the United States.

 

Upcoming Events:

Affect and Space Making in Afro-Latina Poetics

Tuesday, November 4, 2025 - 11:30am to 12:45pm

Event Flyer

This webinar explores how Afro-Latina writers challenge colonial ideas of space through storytelling. Focusing on Daughters of the Stone (2009) by Afro-Puerto Rican author Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa, the talk examines how Black Puerto Rican women use literature to preserve emotional and spatial knowledge rooted in resistance, community, and spirituality. It highlights how Afro-Latina poetics reshape Latinx and Black geographies by centering Blackness and rejecting dominant narratives like mestizaje.  Read more

Presentacion de Libro: Ecos Migrantes

Thursday, May 1, 2025 - 11:30am to 12:45pm

Event Flyer

Ecos Migrantes es una colección de veintisiete testimonios de mujeres y hombres migrantes en Estados Unidos, cuyas voces emergen con un profundo valor histórico, sociológico, antropológico y cultural. Cada historia está narrada a través de géneros periodísticos distintos -noticia, reportaje y crónica-, lo que da vida a comunidades que resisten el racismo, mujeres que desafían el machismo y personas que enfrentan una travesía marcada por la xenofobia. Sin embargo, estos relatos no solo exponen desafíos: celebran también las contribuciones de los migrantes, quienes fortalecen su identidad, preservan su cultura, reavivan la memoria histórica y demuestran una resiliencia ejemplar. Read more

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