Latino affairs expert to speak Sept. 21 at Miami Hamilton

September 15, 2006

Hector Tobar, a Guatemalan-American author and journalist, will speak at 4 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 21, in Parrish Auditorium on the Miami Hamilton campus. Tobar is the Mexico City Bureau Chief for the Los Angeles Times. He has written extensively on national Latino affairs and shares the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for the Times’ coverage of the L.A. riots. Tobar grew up in southern California, the son of Guatemalan immigrants. He has a Master of Fine Arts degree from University of California at Irvine. Tobar’s lecture topic is “Latino Americans: Reinventing the Immigrant Experience, Redefining the American Community.” His most recent book is entitled Translation Nation: Defining a New American Identify in the Spanish-Speaking United States.

The event was arranged by Miami Hamilton’s Association of Latino and American Students (ALAS). It is sponsored by Miami Hamilton’s Center for Multicultural Services and Miami University’s Center for American & World Cultures in Oxford.

Tobar also will address Dr. Shelly Jarrett Bromberg’s Latin American Studies (LAS208) class at 2:30 p.m. Sept. 21, in the Wilks Conference Center, Room 202.

ALAS was ecstatic when Tobar agreed to come, according to Jennifer Ciancio, president of the student organization who contacted Tobar via email and arranged the visit.

“Hector Tobar’s lecture on this campus could not be more timely. As we were reading Translation Nation for Dr. Bromberg’s LAS class, immigration issues right here in Butler County were receiving national media attention,” Ciancio noted.

“Much of what he has written about parallels what’s happening right here, right now in Butler County. It is very relevant to this day and age in our community. We are so excited. We just can’t wait,” she said.