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UCSB Conference Explores Mexican Narrative Ballads
April 24, 2008
(Santa Barbara, Calif.) – A three-day conference honoring the late Guillermo Hernández, a professor of Spanish and Portuguese at UCLA and a leading scholar of Mexican narrative ballads, will take place at the University of California, Santa Barbara in May. "The Sixth International Corrido (Mexican Narrative Ballad) Conference" will also celebrate the work and memory of composer and vocalist Lalo Guerrero, whose archives are housed at UCSB. The conference begins at 9 a.m. on Thursday, May 8, in the McCune Conference Room, 6020 Humanities and Social Sciences Building, and continues at 9 a.m. on Friday, May 9, in UCSB's MultiCultural Center. Free and open to the public, the conference includes panel discussions and a special reception at UCSB, a corrido contest at Casa de la Raza in Santa Barbara, and a daylong festival at Chase Palm Park. Conference participants include scholars from the United States, Mexico, and Siberia who will explore corridos as a musical composition form that traces its origins to Spanish romance and became popular during the Mexican Revolution. Among the presentations –– some conducted in English and others in Spanish –– is a keynote address by John McDowell, chair of the Folklore Institute at Indiana University. In addition, Salvador Güereña, director of UCSB's California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives (CEMA) will give a presentation on the "Sounds Latino!" exhibit currently on view at UCSB's Davidson Library. The exhibit recognizes some of the legendary music makers whose collections were established in CEMA. The conference is co-sponsored by UCSB's Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor; Office of the Associate Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity, and Academic Policy; Office of Equal Opportunity; Chicano Studies Institute; Chicana and Chicano studies department; Latin American and Iberian studies program; UCSB libraries; Luis Leal Endowed Chair; and MultiCultural Center. Other sponsors include Casa de la Raza, The Arhoolie Foundation; Radio Bronco; La Preciosa; Telemundo; and the Fund for Labor, Culture and History. For more information about the conference, including a complete listing of all events, visit http://www.ucsb.edu/events/conferences/images/Corrido-Conf-Program.pdf or call the UCSB Chicano Studies Institute at (805) 893-3895.
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