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Alexandra Halkin, founder of the Chiapas Media Project, will talk about the project and the situation in Chiapas, and show three films created by indigenous people from the southeastern Mexico state 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 13, at Gagnon Lecture Hall, Hugel Science Center room 100.
The presentation is the fall 2003 keynote speech for Students for Social Justice and is open to the public. Cosponsoring organizations include Lafayette Activities Forum, Hispanic Society of Lafayette, Association for Lafayette Women, and Questioning Established Sexual Taboos.
The Chiapas Media Project is described as “a bi-national partnership that provides tools and training so that marginalized indigenous communities can establish their own information outlets. The project provides video cameras, editing equipment, computers, and appropriate training so that communities in Chiapas can tell their own stories in their own words.”
“Zapatistas and Chiapas have gained international recognition,” says civil engineering major Fidel Maltez ’05 (Hialeah, Fla.), founder of Students for Social Justice. “Most of what we know is from delegations, writers or journalists who have visited to tell their story. We need to hear from the indigenous people themselves who constitute the movement.”
In early 1994, several towns in Chiapas were briefly occupied during an uprising by peasants, who remain on the socioeconomic and political margins in the state. Armed conflict was brief, but the rebels — the Zapatista National Liberation Army — have continued to press for greater autonomy for all of Mexico’s indigenous communities, and there have been sporadic outbreaks of violence.
The event epitomizes the mission of Students for Social Justice, adds Maltez, who invites interested people to attend the group’s weekly meetings at 9 p.m. Thursday in the International Students Association room of Farinon College Center.
Students for Social Justice also is planning a training workshop on the Patriot Act 12:15 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 11, in Interfaith Chapel, Hogg Hall. The interactive event will cover the ways that rights and freedoms have changed since the Patriot Act was passed and how they will change if current legislation is passed.
In addition, the group will hold a second “Music for Movements” mini-concert 8-11 p.m. Friday, Dec. 5, in the Farinon Center along with the Living Group of Justice, Equality and Ecology and other student organizations. The concert will feature artists whose music inspires the social justice movement.