News
Cellist Shares his Passion for Argentina's Rich Musical Heritage
As a child, cellist Antonio Lysy, a music professor at UCLA, visited Argentina's Pampas grasslands with his father, a renowned violinist. Steeped in its music, Lysy this year performed a concert of music from Argentina, including a song that recently won a Latin Grammy Award.
Discovery of His Roots Leads Him to Track History of Chinese in Mexico
Growing up in a predominantly white L.A. suburb, Robert Chao Romero, an assistant professor of Chicana and Chicano studies, hid his Chinese background. But one day his interest in his heritage was awakened and led him to study the tragic history of Chinese immigrants in Mexico.
Steal This Plan for Civic Action
The UCLA Latin American Institute played host to five organizations that have been recognized by the Experiences in Social Innovation Contest, a United Nations initiative, for advancing UN-sponsored antipoverty goals through community participation. Last year's winner, the Social Observatory of Maringá (Brazil), seeks to prevent corruption in local government spending.
Mexico at Crossroads, Says Top US Diplomat
U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Carlos Pascual discussed strategies for ending the impunity of drug cartels and stemming the flow of guns and drugs across the border. His visit to campus was organized by the UCLA Center for Mexican Studies, the Latin American Institute, and the International Institute.
From Argentina, Chile and Iran, They Lived to Tell and Teach
Three survivors of state torture – an Argentine architect and activist, a Chilean artist, and an Iranian journalist and author – tell their stories on campus this month. In an installation on display Oct. 25-27 in Broad Art Center, Victor Videla Godoy will recreate his prison cell, this time lined with his remarkable, rediscovered correspondence with his mother.
Chilean President Piñera, Gov. Schwarzenegger Visit Campus
The leaders witnessed the signing of memorandums of understanding between universities in California, including UCLA, and Chile.
10 Questions for Jared Diamond on Global Collapse
Diamond's 2005 book and now a National Geographic documentary, "Collapse" juxtaposes America's future with the demise of the Roman Empire and other failed civilizations as a warning that we are hurtling down the same path.
Centralized Health Care More Cost-Effective, Offers Better Access to Preventive Services
A UCLA School of Public Health comparison of Mexico's federal and state health care–delivery systems provides important insights for other nations.
Brazilian Film Expert Randal Johnson Leads International Studies During Search
The interim vice provost of international studies, Johnson says that he and the International Institute won't "sit still" in 2010-11. His job for the year includes travel to build relationships with institutions abroad and collaboration with units across campus on internationalizing higher education.
Historian Terraciano Gears Up for Year as Latin American Institute Director
The "lean, efficient" LAI covers the waterfront of Latin American issues in its programming, and focuses on broad areas of interdisciplinary research. History Professor and interim LAI Director Kevin Terraciano says his own interest in Mesoamerican languages and cultures fits right in.
Monochrome Ceramics from Ancient Mexico in Fall Fowler Exhibit
Since many of the works were contemporaneous with brilliantly painted Mesoamerican ceramics, they are understood to reflect a conscious artistic choice to stand apart from those polychrome arts.
Area Studies, Language Programs Win Almost $11 Million from Education Department
Over the coming four years, the UCLA International Institute's renowned programs on East Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Near East, Southeast Asia and heritage language education anticipate federal support of $6.7 million for language instruction, public programming, outreach to local schools, and more. Five centers will distribute nearly $4.3 million in Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowships to UCLA undergraduate and graduate students.
UC Faculty, Students Head to Haiti to Extend Role in Recovery
Twenty-one representatives of the student-founded UC Haiti Initiative will travel to the island nation for a 10-day fact-finding visit. The group, which includes 13 students, will visit Port-au-Prince, Jacmel, Mirebalais and Leogane, the epicenter of the 7.0 temblor that struck on Jan. 12, in search of specific recovery projects that can be sustained by the people themselves.
UCLA Professor Chronicles Rise of US Border Patrol in New Book
Drawing on long-neglected archival sources in both the U.S. and Mexico, Kelly Lytle Hernandez uncovers the little-known history of how Mexican immigrants slowly became the primary focus of U.S. immigration law enforcement and shows how racial profiling of Mexicans by the Border Patrol developed.
Are Native Languages Worth Saving? A Globetrotting Scholar Says Yes
Geography Professor and Pulitzer Prize winner Jared Diamond, the author of books on how societies succeed and fail, argues in a lecture that being bilingual or multilingual is good for cognitive skills, for memory in later years and probably for your country. The Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes was on hand for the discussion.