As part of their annual hosting of events during Latino/a Heritage Month, La Alianza Latina, the Multicultural Resource Center and the Department of Hispanic Studies have invited three speakers to Oberlin. 

Dr. Carlos E. Cortes is a UC Riverside professor emeritus and a cultural advisor for major children’s television programs. Lalo Alcarez is a nationally syndicated cartoonist and Adelina Anthony is an actress who has performed in a variety of eccentric and progressive stage productions for over 15 years.

While the three vary in their professions, they share one key characteristic: they are all part of a growing influx of Latinos and Latinas into different mediums of America’s pop culture mainstream.

The series of presentations, entitled “Allow Us to Reintroduce Ourselves,” provides a glimpse into this phenomenon through the careers and ideas of the presenters. According to La Alianza Latina members, they are ideal representatives of a culture whose public face undergoes constant alterations.

“Latinos get discovered every few years,” says College senior Marisol Lebron, co-chair of La Alianza Latina. “The theme for this year’s Latino/a Heritage Month, then, is “the new ways Latinos make themselves visible in American culture.”

A presentation is scheduled each Friday for three weeks. The lecture series began on Sept. 22 and is scheduled to end on Oct. 6.

The first lecture, “Dora the Explorer: Symbol of the Latino/a Coming of Age,” was delivered by Cortes, the cultural and creative advisor for the hit Nickelodeon show “Dora the Explorer” and its spin-off “Go, Diego, Go!” 

“Dora the Explorer” broke ground as the first bilingual television show in America. The show follows Dora, the young Latina protagonist, as she uses her abilities as a bilingual speaker to solve various problems. The celebration of Dora’s bilingualism is described by La Alianza Latina secretary College junior Teresita Prieto as representing “a step towards language equity.”

In his lecture, delivered along with video clips of the show and frequent discussions with the audience, Cortes discussed the significance of the show as well as the battles he had with Nickelodeon to keep the show bilingual.

The second lecture, to be delivered on Friday, Sept. 29 at 4:30, will be delivered by Alcaraz, a cartoonist whose strip, “La Cucaracha,” is published in 62 major newspapers throughout the country, including the Los Angeles Times. “La Cucharacha” views the state of the Latino life in America through a progressive and highly politicized viewpoint, supporting immigration and lampooning racial naivete in turn.

In conjunction with Alcaraz’s lecture, La Alianza Latina hosted the “Cartoonista Challenge,” which invited aspiring Oberlin cartoonists to submit original strips for a chance to win a lunch or dinner discussion with Alcaraz. The period for submission of cartoons has passed.

The final presenter is Anthony, whose stage production, “Mastering Sex and Tortillas,” will be performed at the Cat and the Cream on Oct. 6 from eight to nine p.m.

Her show will, according to Lebron, explore “the intersection of race, gender, class, and sexuality. It’s something we represent every Latino Heritage Month.”

Anthony’s website describes the show as “part stand-up, part sketch comedy, part performance art, part monologue, part teatro[…]and lots of Chicano flavor.”

La Alianza Latina’s efforts to, in Prieto’s words, “begin a conversation on campus about how Latinos are represented in the media,” will continue in the spring with their film series “We Don’t Need no Stinkin’ Badges: Screening Latinadad!”