The Diaspora of the Latin American Imagination
Conference Report
3-6 September 2002
Humanities Research Centre, ANU
Convened by Marivic Wyndham and Peter Read
This was one of the principal conferences to celebrate the HRC’s
Year of Latin America. Its themes were the diaspora of the spirit
(human rights), the diaspora of the image (film and art), the
diaspora of the senses (music and migration studies) and the diaspora
of the heart (living and dying in old and new countries). Our
idea was to explore the ways in which Latin American culture had
exported itself through migrants, exiles or ideas to other parts
of the world.
There were 26 enrolled for the full conference and another 10
attended for one day or more.
HRC Conference visitors were: Alejandro Garcia Alvarez, Llilian
Llanez and Miriam Estrada.
Papers were presented on Chile, Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican
Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Spain.
Visitors to the opening day – on human rights in Latin
America – included Brian Burdekin (Special Advisor to National
Institutions, to the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights) and
Professor Hilary Charlesworth (Centre for International and Public
Law, ANU).
Cultural events were organised for every evening of the conference.
These included: a welcome reception and a choral presentation
by Scuna (ANU’s Choral Society) and Machitun (Latin American
band) at the Great Hall of University House; a cocktail party
and an exhibition at the ANU Drill Hall Gallery (sponsored by
the Director, Nancy Sever) and a musical group Los Tres Calientes;
the conference dinner at the Gods and the music group Mi Tierra
(sponsored by ANCLAS). The finale of the conference was a theatrical
performance called ‘The Life of the Exile’, in which
the Cuban-American exile Firmat mused in his study on the difficulties
in thinking and writing in a foreign language. Dances, pictures
and percussion illustrated what went through his mind as he elected
to write henceforth only in his first language.
Some of the highlights were David Bradbury’s discussion
of his films on three Latin American revolutions, the first screening
in Australia of Argentinian documentary maker Jorge Preloran’s
‘Zulay, facing the twenty-first century’, Ralph Newmark’s
dazzling account of Latin American music in the United States;
and Adrian Hearn’s tour de force on his ‘tambores
de bata’(African Cuban percussion) and dancing by Jessica
Wyndham and Lidya Haile.
We owe a special thanks to the Ecuadorian Ambassador to Australia
for his support and enthusiasm in the months leading up to and
including the conference.
Warm thanks to Christine Clark, Leena Messina and Garrett Purtill.
Enquiries
Leena Messina, Programs Manager, Humanities Research
Centre, ANU
Email: Leena.Messina@anu.edu.au
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