Hispanic Heritage Month
Celebration kicks off Sept. 11
Holyoke Community College will kick off its annual celebration of national Hispanic Heritage Month on Wed., Sept. 11, with the first of five weeks' worth of free Spanish language films, continuing through Oct. 15 with lectures, arts activities, cultural displays and other Latinx oriented events.
Nationally, Hispanic Heritage Month is recognized from Sept. 15 through Oct. 15. HCC will get an early start with the opening of its 2019 Spanish Film Festival Sept. 11 at 7 p.m. in HCC's Leslie Phillips Theater with a free showing of El Despertar de Camila ("Camila's Awakening"), a film from Chile about a teenage swimmer who suffers a debilitating stroke.
The film festival, sponsored by HCC's Language and Latinx Studies Department and the Community College Public Humanities Center at HCC, will continue on each of the following four Wednesdays (Sept. 18-Oct. 9). All the films are in Spanish with English subtitles and presented at 7 p.m. in the Leslie Phillips Theater, unless otherwise noted below.
All festival films and Hispanic Heritage Month events and activities are free and open to the public. This is the first year HCC will be collaborating with the city of Holyoke on Hispanic Heritage Month events, including Holyoke's Hispanic Heritage Month kickoff celebration at City Hall, Monday, Sept. 16, starting at 4:30 p.m.
"We want the community to come to HCC and people from HCC to join those community events," said Myriam Quinones, coordinator of HCC's Multicultural Academic Services program.
Information about the city's Hispanic Heritage Month events is available on the city website: holyoke.org
Hispanic Heritage Month events and activities at HCC:
Sept. 15 - Oct. 15. Ongoing, drop-in workshops. Vejigante Mask Making. Learn how to create an authentic vejigante mask, part of traditional folkloric costumes worn at Puerto Rican festivals and celebrations. In El Centro, second floor, HCC Campus Center.
Sept. 15 - Sept. 30: Carlos Vega Collection of Latino History in Holyoke. Posters of Latino cultural events in Holyoke collected by the late Carlos Vega, co-founder and former executive director of Nueva Esperanza. On loan from Wistariahurst Museum and on display in the HCC Library.
Sept. 15 - Oct. 15: A celebration of Latina Activist Women. Exhibit on loan from the Holyoke Public Library. On display in El Centro, second floor, HCC Campus Center.
Wed., Sept. 18, 11 a.m.: Yo no me llamo Ruben Blades ("Ruben Blades is not my name"). The second festival film is a documentary of the musician and actor Ruben Blades. In Room 301, HCC Kittredge Center for Business and Workforce Development.
Fri., Sept. 20, 12:30 p.m.: "Puerto Rico Status"; Marcos Marrero-Rivera, director of Planning and Development for the city of Holyoke, will talk about the devastation on the island wrought by Hurricane Maria and what it means to the economic, educational, political and public health of the island. In Room 303, HCC Kittredge Center for Business and Workforce Development.
Wed., Sept. 25, 7 p.m.: Todos lo saben ("Everybody Knows"). The third moviein HCC's Spanish Film Festival stars Penélope Cruz as a woman who returns to her hometown in Spain for a wedding, where the festive mood is spoiled when her daughter disappears. Also starring Javier Bardem. In the Leslie Phillips Theater.
Wed., Oct. 2, 7 p.m.: Un Traductor ("A Translator"). The fourth movie in HCC's Spanish Film Festival is based on the true story the 20,000 victims of Russia's Chernobyl disaster that were treated in Cuba in 1989. The story follows a professor who acts as a translator between Cuban doctors and the families of young patients. In the Leslie Phillips Theater.
Wed., Oct. 9, 11 a.m.: Latinx Celebration. Come celebrate national Hispanic Heritage Month with music, culture and food. Visit tour pop-up museum of art and artifacts from various Latinx countries and learn about their contributions to art, music and culture. Outside in the HCC Courtyard.
Wed., Oct. 9, 7 p.m.: Me llamaban el Rey Tigre ("They Called Me King Tiger: A Biography of the Chicano Malcom X"). The final film in HCC's 2019 Spanish Film Festival is a documentary from Mexico about Reies López Tijerina, a Mexican-American radical and civil rights activist dubbed "King Tiger" and "the Malcolm X of the Chicano Movement." In the Leslie Phillips Theater.
Thurs., Oct. 10, 11 a.m.: "Holyoke's Latinx History." A panel discussion with Betty Medina-Lichtenstein, executive director, Enlace de Familias de Holyoke; Miguel Arce, professor of Social Work, Springfield College; Orlando Isaza, social activist and community organizer.
PHOTO by CHRIS YURKO: Myriam Quinones, coordinator of HCC's Multicultural Academic Services program, holds up a vejigante mask made by the late Holyoke community organizer and activist Carlos Vega.
