Center for the Study of the Peoples of the Americas

  • Banner

Center for the Study of the Peoples of the Americas

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:

A Talk by Heidy Bacá (Maya-Ixil) on Memory in Guatemala and Creating Community Cinema

Monday, October 28, 2019 - 12:30pm to 1:45pm

Event Flyer

Heidy Bacá (Maya-Ixil) is from Nebaj, Guatemala. As a member of the independent film collective Cine en la Calle/Street Cinema (CCC), Bacá has also organized several film festivals of the same name since 2013. She has produced short documentaries focused on recovering the testimonies of survivors of the genocide. Heidy Bacá’s most recent production, alongside director Jayro Bustamante, is the feature film La Llorona (2019).

At CSUN, Bacá’s talk will address the role film and documentary productions play for Maya communities in the construction of a historical memory on the genocide.

Read more

Pages