The University of the Ozarks’ Hispanic Student Association (HSA) will present a pair of on-campus events on April 9 and April 11 that examine Latino immigration to the United States.
On Tuesday, April 9, HSA will host a showing of the acclaimed 1984 film, “El Norte” at 7 p.m. in Baldor Auditorium in the Boreham Business Building. On Thursday, April 11, there will be a panel discussion titled, “The Human Dimension of Immigration,” featuring author Dr. Yajaira Padilla (pictured, left) and immigration attorney Mauricio Herrera. The panel discussion begins at 7 p.m. in the Rogers Conference Center. Both events are free and open to the public.
It is the 40th anniversary of the release of “El Norte,” an Academy Awards-nominated film that is considered the first feature film dealing with Central American immigration to the United States. The film looks at the enormous human challenges that immigrants face in not only getting to the U.S., but the cultural barriers and discrimination they face as they chase the elusive American dream. HSA Faculty Advisor and Professor of Spanish Dr. Bill Clary will introduce the film and provide historical context.
One of the guest speakers for the panel discussion on April 11 will be Padilla, chair of the English Department at University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and author of the 2022 book, “From Threatening Guerrillas to Forever Illegals: US Central Americans and the Cultural Politics of Non-Belonging (Latinx: The Future Is Now).”
Padilla will discuss the significance of the film, “El Norte,” as well as her book, which states that the experience of Central Americans in the United States is marked by a vicious contradiction. In entertainment and information media, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Nicaraguans, and Hondurans are hypervisible as threatening guerrillas, MS-13 gangsters, maids, and “forever illegals,” Padilla said. Central Americans are unseen within the broader conception of Latinx community, foreclosing avenues to recognition. Padilla explores how this regime of visibility and invisibility emerged over the past 40 years and how Central American immigrants and subsequent generations have contested their rhetorical disfiguration. Drawing from popular films and TV, news reporting, and social media, Padilla shows how Central Americans in the United States have been constituted as belonging nowhere, imagined as permanent refugees outside the boundaries of even minority representation. Yet in documentaries about cross-border transit through Mexico, street murals, and other media, U.S. Central Americans have counteracted their exclusion in ways that defy dominant paradigms of citizenship and integration.
The panel discussion will also feature Herrera, a Northwest Arkansas attorney and former illegal immigrant from El Salvador. Now a naturalized citizen, Herrera owns his own law firm and is an expert on helping other Hispanic immigrants.
There will be an opportunity for audience questions during the panel discussion.
“The panel discussion on immigration to the United States organized by the Hispanic Students Association is a crucial event for our campus community,” said HSA President María Fernanda Maya Arista. “With a large and growing Hispanic and Latino student population at University of the Ozarks, it is essential to address the challenges faced by immigrants seeking a better life in the United States. Our guest speakers, Dr. Yajaira Padilla and Mauricio Herrera, bring their knowledge and expertise to shed light on this topic. We will engage in a meaningful dialogue that has the purpose of educating, inspiring, and understanding among our diverse student body. This panel discussion promises to enlighten and foster a culture of inclusivity and mutual respect on our campus.”
Topics: Spanish, Student Events