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Events

Celebración

January 30 @ 3pm

GWB 2.206

MALS Presents: Glenn Martinez on "Language Concordance & Latino Health"

February 3 @ 12pm

GWB 2.206

Class Cancelled? Ethnic Studies Faculty on "Cancel Culture" in Higher Ed

February 5 @ 5pm

GWB 2.206

Real Talk, Grad School: Should You Go? 

February 11 @ 1pm

WCP 1.118

Piñata-heads, UNITE! 

A week gone to pieces. 

Is it just us or has it been especially hard to get back into rhythm this semester? Maybe it's because we have more events than usual happening in February, so all the planning has us feeling a little discombobulated. Right now, our collective Latino Studies brain feels like the piñata right at the end, when the tissue paper has frayed and the cardboard is starting to bald, and the shape is bulging a bit at the spot where, in just a few swings, candy will pour out. At any moment, your big brother is going to grab the bat and give it one good THWAT, and that's it for that poor piñata. That's our brain right now, on the brink of smithereens. And it's not even February! 

From what we've heard, departments all over campus are feeling this--you may have noticed the number of job talks that keep popping up in your email--so go easy on your professors this month! 

Maybe, as an academic department, we shouldn't talk about how frazzled we're feeling, but we're not really in the habit of hiding anything from you. And, anyway, it does a little to explain why we find events like Celebración absolutely necessary to our health and well-being. Sure, at the end of the day, it's just al pastor tacos, a few rounds of Uno, some snazzy new merch to show off your favorite department on campus (like that backdoor bragging?), and a trompo-shaped piñata raffle...but it's so much more. It's a chance for us, faculty, staff, and students, to come together and remind ourselves of why we do what we do, no matter how much harder it is for us to do it (after all, ~they~ don't make it easy). It's fun. It's family. It's what we all need at the end of a long week. So come out on Thursday and let us treat you. It would mean the world to us. 

Meet Mauricio

Making Our Piñata Dreams Come True

He made his first piñata, a snowman, at the age of 14 in his hometown of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Since then, he has created thousands of piñatas, constructed epic parade floats, and even opened and operated a successful piñata store. But due to rising violence in Honduras, just last year he had to close shop and migrate to the U.S. Today, he works at Piñata Party Palace on E. Cesar Chavez making custom-made piñatas! From our conversations with him, it became clear that Mauricio is a true artist who takes pride in his craft. After local piñateria, Jumpolin, recently closed its doors, citing the rapid gentrification of east Austin as cause, it becomes even more important for our community to remember the people and traditions uplifted by businesses like this one. 

We consider it a point of pride that, in his 40 years of piñata-making, the custom piñata he just made for us is, according to him, one of the weirdest. (We try.) Come to Celebración this Thursday and enter the raffle to take home the piñata, and, if he can make it, meet the man, the myth, the artist himself!

Don't Miss: "Cancel Culture" in Higher Ed

Straight from the Source

It's out there... on your Twitter feed, amongst friends. It can feel like a public menace, something lurking around every corner, every interaction full of sharp edges to avoid. The prospect of being "cancelled" is downright terrifying, especially on a college campus where wokeness abounds. (I can't tell you how many times I've rewritten this paragraph out of that same fear.) So how do professors navigate through it? We've invited Latino Studies and Black Studies faculty to share their experiences with "cancel culture" and reflect on how it has affected their teaching practices, when it's a good thing and when it goes wrong, and what role ethnic studies plays in the matter. If all goes well, you won't cancel us...

1. Witness Master Cuban Drummer, Melena Francis Valdez, in action at this exploration of African Religions in Cuba, Trinidad, and Texas, this Thursday at 6:30pm. 

2. Self-identifying women at UT: Submit your monologues, short stories, spoken word, song, dance, visual art, photography or anything you see fit to portray your experience as a woman in the world today, to Amplify, a production of the Women's Resource Agency. Applications due Feb. 2. 

3. Career fairs are scary as hell, but this intimate version put on by the Hispanic Business Student Association might be worth checking out, if for no other reason than the free headshots! But seriously, don't forget that companies like Facebook want well-rounded interns LIKE YOU. Get busy networking on Feb. 4. 







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Latino Studies at UT Austin · The University of Texas at Austin · 210 W. 24th Street, STOP F9200 · Austin, TX 78712 · USA