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Volume 1 Issue 1 (2003)
About this Issue
Background
The materials included in this issue represent a selection of the scholarly papers and performances delivered at the Latinos 2000 conference, held at Dartmouth College on February 3-6, 2000. Latinos 2000 was a conference for reflection but also for action. It sought to enlighten Dartmouth students, members of the Dartmouth community, and students and participants from other institutions through the analysis and discussion of Latino/a issues. The organizers also endeavored to create a common ground for the formulation of goals and strategies that would enhance and foster the representation and participation of Latinos and Latinas in the U.S. in all spheres of life: economic, cultural, social, and political.
In keeping with this agenda a major component of this conference
included a series of workshops, in which students participated actively and
voiced their opinions alongside their colleagues and mentors from institutions
across the country. The conference relied greatly on the participation of Dartmouth's
Latino and Latina students, and in order to insure that their ideas were expressed
and their needs considered, we coordinated Latinos 2000 with a student-centered
conference organized by La Alianza Latina, the East Coast Chicano Student Forum
(ECCSF), and the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA).
Description of Materials
There are two types of texts that make up this inaugural issue.
The "Panel Papers" were presented at the panels that met during the conference.
The panels were organized around three main themes: Latinos and Learning; Latinos
and Cultural Exchange; and Latinos and Political Interventions. Some of these
papers reflect concerns that were of topical importance at the time; Rafael
Montes's paper on the Elian case, for example. Others discuss issues of ongoing
importance, such as Julissa Reynoso's study of the growing Dominican community
in New York. The papers come from disciplines in both the humanities and social
sciences, and they address an audience across disciplines.
The "Working Texts" provide a panoramic view of one of the three main conference themes. These texts were distributed over the conference website to all participants and were discussed during a series of intensive workshops that followed the panel presentations. The "Working Texts" related to the previous panels and thus enriched the discussion already underway. The "Working Texts" also promoted a lively exchange during the plenary sessions that followed the workshops. These plenary sessions were videotaped and are now available online as part of this first issue of Encrucijada.
We are also delighted to present the videotaped reading and performance by Tato Laviera, one of the groundbreaking Nuyorican poets who now addresses a new generation of Latinos and Latinas in cyberspace. Click on the video link to see Tato read from his extensive body of work and interact with the audience in an energized follow-up discussion.
In forthcoming issues, our goal will be to publish forward-thinking articles, fiction, and poetry, as well as images, photographs, and video/audio performances. We will also publish the proceedings from future Latinos 2000 conferences. If you would like to submit your materials for publication, please refer to our Submission Info on this site.
The Editors
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