Latin American & Iberian Studies Program

LAIS Community Breakfast in February
2026-02-04 09:00 - 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Girvetz 2320
Our monthly community breakfast will take place on Wednesday, February 4, at 9:00 a.m. Come out to Girvetz 2320 to enjoy free bagels and coffee!

The Power of Partnership: Revitalizing Limonese Creole (Costa Rica) Through Joint Action
2026-02-12 15:30 - 17:00 | South Hall 3605
Despite being Costa Rica’s most widely spoken minority language, Limonese Creole lacks constitutional recognition and continues to bear a legacy of social stigma. In response, a collaboration between the Programa de Lingüística Centroamericana (PROLINCA) at Universidad Nacional and the speaker community has pursued a strategy of direct empowerment and revitalisation. This partnership has produced an official alphabet, new legislation advancing language recognition, and community-led immersion projects. This presentation reflects on lessons from this collaboration, illustrating how such partnerships can restore visibility and dignity to a language and its speakers.
Prof. Dr. René Zúñiga Argüello is Professor, researcher and Coordinator of the Centroamerican Linguistics Program (Programa de Lingüística Centroamericana) at the School of Literature and Language Sciences at the National University, Costa Rica.
Moderated by Prof. Jaime Pérez González (Dept. of Linguistics, UCSB).
This lecture is part of the Series of Indigenous Languages of Latin America (SILLA) organized by the Awakening Languages; Actions for Revitalization and Maintenance (ALARM) Lab, with co-sponsorship from CLAIR.

Connecting Archaeological Legacies, Memory, and Communities in the Northern Peruvian Andes
2026-02-19 16:00 - 18:00 | Arts 1332
Archaeology in the Northern Peruvian Andes is not only about the past—it is about how memory continues to live in bodies, territories, and everyday practices. In this talk, I draw on more than a decade of research and community-based work in Cajamarca. I examine urban and community-centered archaeological projects developed in collaboration with local governments and residents, highlighting how archaeological practice participates in the construction of local and regional identities. I also explore my collaborative work with master artisan weavers and other knowledge keepers, foregrounding textiles and embodied practices as critical modes of transmitting memory, knowledge, and identity beyond written archives. I argue for an archaeology grounded in practice—one that seeks to challenge hierarchies of knowledge by recognizing community expertise as central to research, interpretation, identity-making, and shared authority.

LAIS Community Breakfast in March
2026-03-04 09:00 - 11:00 | Girvetz 2320
Our monthly community breakfast will take place on Wednesday, March 4, at 9:00 a.m. Come out to Girvetz 2320 to enjoy free bagels and coffee!

LAIS Community Breakfast in April
2026-04-01 09:00 - 11:00 | Girvetz 2320
Our monthly community breakfast will take place on Wednesday, April 1, at 9:00 a.m. Come out to Girvetz 2320 to enjoy free bagels and coffee!

Latin American and Iberian Film Festival
2026-04-09 18:00 - 20:00 | Chem 1171
Embrace of the Serpent (El abrazo de la serpiente), dir. Ciro Guerra, 2015, 125 min. — Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela. A breathtaking ethnographic odyssey through the heart of the Colombia Amazon, Embrace of the Serpent is the epic story of the first contact, approach, betrayal and, eventually, friendship.

Latin American and Iberian Film Festival
2026-04-23 18:00 - 20:00 | Buchanan 1940
Mixteco Knot (Nudo Mixteco), dir. Ángeles Cruz, 2021, 91 min. — Mexico. Taking place in a rural Mixtec village in Oaxaca, southern Mexico, Nudo Mixteco follows the return of María, Esteban, and Toña, each from a different direction. Each of them has a different reason for coming back, just like each had a different reason to leave in the first place. However, all three face a confrontation that will force a turning point in their lives.

LAIS Community Breakfast in May
2026-05-06 09:00 - 11:00 | Girvetz 2320
Our monthly community breakfast will take place on Wednesday, May 6, at 9:00 a.m. Come out to Girvetz 2320 to enjoy free bagels and coffee!

Latin American and Iberian Film Festival
2026-05-07 18:00 - 20:00 | Buchanan 1940
Ixcanul, Volcano (Ixcanul, Volcán), dir. Jayro Bustamante, 2015, 91 min. — France, Guatemala. Maria, a 17 year old Maya girl, lives and works with her parents on a coffee plantation in the foothills of an active volcano in Guatemala. An arranged marriage awaits her: her parents have promised her to Ignacio, the plantation overseer. But Maria doesn’t sit back and accept her destiny.

Latin American and Iberian Film Festival
2026-05-21 18:00 - 20:00 | Buchanan 1940
Bad Influence (Mala junta), dir. Claudia Huaiquimilla, 2016, 89 min. — Chile. Rebellious Tano is sent from Santiago to Southern Chile under the custody of his father whom he has not seen in years. In his new school, he meets Cheo, a shy boy who gets bullied for his indigenous origins.

Latin American and Iberian Film Festival
2026-06-04 18:00 - 20:00 | Buchanan 1940
Who Is Dayani Cristal? (¿Quién es Dayani Cristal?), dir. Marc Silver, 2014, 85 min. — Mexico, United States. Deep in the sub-blistered Sonora desert beneath a cicada tree, Arizona border police discover a decomposing male body. Lifting a tattered T-shirt, they expose a tattoo that reads “Dayani Cristal.” Who is this person? What brought him here? How did he die? And who–or what–is Dayani Cristal?
