WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue University’s Latino Cultural Center will celebrate the Mexican holiday, “Día de los Muertos,” or Day of the Dead, with music, crafts and food from 4-7 p.m. Oct. 30 at the YWCA of Greater Lafayette at 605 N. Sixth Street in Downtown Lafayette. The event is free and open to the public.

On Día de los Muertos, people remember and honor their deceased loved ones by preparing altars for them and decorating the altars with food and valued possessions of the departed.

The holiday, which has its roots in the Aztec and indigenous cultures of Mexico, is celebrated in Mexico and in Latino communities across North America on Nov. 1 and Nov. 2, coinciding with the Roman Catholic holidays of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day.

“On Día de los Muertos, people remember and honor their deceased loved ones by preparing altars for them and decorating the altars with food and valued possessions of the departed,” said Maricela Alvarado, director of the Latino Cultural Center. “It’s not, however, a Mexican Halloween, as some people might think it is. The focus here is more on the celebration of the lives of one’s departed loved ones than on their death.”

At the event, approximately 15 altars will be on display, created by numerous groups including the Indiana Latino Institute, Latino Center of Tippecanoe County, Ivy Tech Spanish department, and other Purdue departments and student organizations, Alvarado said.

“This event is a modernized version of the more traditional celebration,” Alvarado said. “Consequently, some of the altar decorations will creatively address contemporary issues like tobacco cessation and cancer awareness.”

There also will be a precolonial dance demonstration by a Mexican dance troupe. Free food and refreshments will be served.

For more information, contact the Latino Cultural Center at 765-494-2530 or go to http://www.purdue.edu/lcc

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue University’s Latino Cultural Center is celebrating the annual Latino Heritage Month from Sept. 11 through Oct. 9 with numerous events focusing on the history and contributions of the Latino culture in the United States.

Jhose Melin Maxson designed this artwork in 2005 to represent Latino Heritage Month. (Purdue Marketing Communications photo/Mark Simons)

Purdue had 1,117 Latino students enrolled in the fall 2008 semester. In addition, the West Lafayette campus had 337 full- and part-time Latino employees and four adjunct faculty members.

“The Latino Cultural Center has celebrated the Latino Heritage Month since its inception in fall 2003,” said Maricela Alvarado, director of the Latino Cultural Center. “Every year during this month we explore different aspects of the Latino culture, such as the Asian-Latino, Jewish-Latino and Afro-Latino identities and history. Exploring these identities provides a greater understanding of how being Latino is not about race but about experiences, languages and culture.

“This year, we’ll explore the domestic Latino culture in the U.S. and see how immigration and acculturation play into the national identity.”

Several events will take place.

• 4-6 p.m. Sept. 11. The Latino Cultural Center Open House will mark the beginning of Latino Heritage Month. The center will welcome new and returning students and faculty and staff to campus. Refreshments will be served.
• 10 a.m. to noon Sept. 26. The Latino Cultural Center’s bilingual book club will meet at the center to discuss “Their Dogs Came with Them,” a novel by Helena Maria Viramontes, an American fiction writer and professor of creative writing at Cornell University.
• Viramontes will deliver a lecture at 4 p.m. Oct. 8 in Stewart Center, Room 218. She also will read from her books at noon Oct. 9 in the Anniversary Drawing Room of Purdue Memorial Union.
• 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. Oct. 3. The Latino Cultural Center will tour Detroit’s Corktown and Mexican Town neighborhoods. The trip includes a visit to the Detroit Institute of Art to see a mural by Mexican painter Diego Rivera.

  Those interested in the trip must pay a non-refundable reservation fee of $20 while registering. Additional charges apply to faculty, staff and non-Purdue students.

For more information about the events celebrating the Latino Heritage Month, contact the Latino Cultural Center, 600 N. Russell St., West Lafayette, IN 47906

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue University’s College of Liberal Arts will begin offering a new program and an undergraduate minor in Latin American and Latino studies.

“Globalization and changing demographics have motivated faculty, students and the public in general to learn about the Latino communities in the United States, as well as the region of the world from which they come,” says Adriela Fernandez, the associate dean for academic programs who coordinated the program’s proposal in conjunction with the faculty participating in the Purdue Council on Latin American and Latino Studies.

“Purdue’s program will be housed in liberal arts, but it will serve the entire university and community. The program is interdisciplinary and it will draw on the expertise of Purdue’s diverse faculty. In addition to courses, the program will offer Purdue students opportunities for study abroad, community service and outreach, as well as collaborative activities with Ivy Tech, other colleges and universities, public schools, and community and state organizations.”

The 15-credit hour minor will require the “Introduction to Latin American and Latino Studies” course. Then students can select other courses that include “Spanish and Latin American Cinema,” “Hispanic Women Writers,” “The Archaeology of the Ancient Andes” and “History of Mexico.” Students also are required to demonstrate advanced oral and written proficiency in Spanish or Portuguese through testing or courses in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures.

Undergraduates interested in enrolling in these classes during the 2008-09 academic year should contact their academic advisers. New study abroad and scholarly exchange opportunities in Latin America and the Caribbean will be offered through the program.

In 2007-08, Purdue’s Council on Latin American and Latino Studies, which is composed of faculty from across the university, and the College of Liberal Arts organized a series of public events on topics such as immigration, education trends and Latino life in Indiana.

The new program and undergraduate minor in Latin American and Latino studies, which was approved by the College of Liberal Arts Faculty Senate in April, will be housed in the Office of Interdisciplinary Studies. The other interdisciplinary programs in the College of Liberal Arts are African American studies, American studies, Asian studies, Asian American studies, classical studies, comparative literature, film/video studies, Italian studies, Jewish studies, linguistics, medieval and renaissance studies, peace studies, philosophy and literature, religious studies, and women’s studies.

The College of Liberal Arts is home to the departments of communication, English, foreign languages and literatures, health and kinesiology, history, philosophy, psychological sciences, sociology and anthropology, speech, language and hearing sciences, and visual and performing arts. On Aug. 1, sociology and anthropology will become two departments.