Latin Luncheon

           Students interested in Latin American culture have the opportunity to feed their curiosity, as well as their bellies, this fall semester.

            The University of Oklahoma Department of International and Area Studies is hosting three free Latin Americanist lunches throughout the semester. Each lunch will feature a different guest speaker who has expertise in a special area of Latin American culture, as well as free lunch for all who RSVP to attend.

The first of these lunches took place on Wednesday, Sept. 12, at noon. Latin American filmmaker Carolina Rueda visited students and faculty to discuss her lecture series “Latin American Cinema in the New Millennium: Phantasmagoria, Crisis, and the Urban Space.”

Raeven Aguilar, a Latin American Studies major, looked forward to attending this event for some time.

“Latin America is so interesting to me to begin with, and I also love cinema, so the combination of the two was irresistible,” Aguilar said.

Aguilar was not the only person anxious to hear Rueda speak. The event room was packed with students and faculty interested in Latin American cinema and Rueda’s journey as a filmmaker.

Rueda received an Emmy in 2006 for the television program she co-founded, LatinEyes, and also recently co-produced a Columbian film. She spoke about the direction in which Latin American cinema has been heading in the recent years.

“It focuses more on urbanization and uses a lot of phantasmagoria from the recent struggles of the country,” Aguilar said.

With the success of this first Latin Americanist lunch, Aguilar is anxiously awaiting the next two in the series.

“I will definitely be going to the other events. You get free lunch and education on really interesting topics!” Aguilar said.

The next Latin Americanist lunch is scheduled for Oct. 10, 2012 at noon in Hester Hall, room 160.