La Llorona - film screening and Q&A
Film screening of La Llorona (Jayro Bustamante, 2019) with Q&A serves to develop awareness of human rights violations in Guatemala, inviting comparisons with international experiences of dictatorships and their aftermaths.
This activity will open discussion on legends and heritage in Latin America as well as the horror genre as site of political critique and used as a cathartic memorial with regards to indigeneity and inclusion in national narratives.
This session will not only demonstrate the research areas within the network Latin American Studies at Westminster, but will be another opportunity for students, staff, and the general public to understand how Languages are inherently interdisciplinary and beneficial for other areas of study through the widely accessible medium of film.
Latin American Week
The Latin American Studies at Westminster (LASAW) research group is putting on a series of interactive events at the University of Westminster at its inaugural Latin American Week which will bring together scholars, students, the Latin American diaspora, and wider public and engage them with Latin American culture.
The three events happen in week 6 (Student Engagement Week) which falls on the date of Mexican festival Day of the Dead, around which one of the events is based. All the events will visibilise Latin American Studies and serve as a focal point for these in London, showing how learning a language is a gateway to new knowledge found in unexpected places. The activities include hands-on activities such as mini-museum curation, altar-building for the Day of the Dead, and film screening of La Llorona with a Q&A to open discussions on human rights, the visibility of minority groups, and the commercialisation of Latin American traditions.
Detailed description of events
The proposed event series seeks to bring contemporary Latin American issues to a wide audience through its interactive and interdisciplinary nature. Inclusive and accessible sessions will encourage extra-curricular engagement with undergraduate Hispanic Studies topics and engage with secondary education language learners: given our close involvement with the Routes into Languages programme we will invite our school partners to the events.
These activities will also be of particular interest to languages stakeholders and community groups in London, such as Mujer Diáspora and Casa Latinoamericana, as well as the general public. The events offered play to the strengths of the dynamic research interests of LASAW and the themes will be presented as united by the Spanish language but accessible to all.
