Center for the Study of the Peoples of the Americas

Mission

The Center for the Study of the Peoples of the Americas (CESPA) is devoted to the principle that education is the basis for solutions to societal tensions. To this end a primary concern of the Center is the issues stemming from the lived experiences of our students. The purpose of (CESPA) is to promote interest in and knowledge of peoples descendent of Latin American communities, whether of Latino/a, Asian, European, African or indigenous origins, within the US and south of the border through service learning, student and faculty research. CESPA also promotes faculty and public intellectual workshops, symposia, conferences, and lectures. Multimedia forums are utilized to distribute Center programs and research.

The peoples of the Americas have their roots in African, European, Asian, and indigenous cultures. The Center for the Study of the Peoples of the Americas (CESPA), is committed to a deeper understanding of the creation and movements across borders, and the development of border cultures, identities and economies. A primary concern is the lived experiences of our students. The California State University system has among the largest concentration of students of Mexican and Central American extraction of any four-year university system in the country, as well as substantial populations of Asian American and African American students.

To this end CESPA will bring together a group of scholars, researchers, and creative artists from a wide range of disciplines to more effectively provide accessible information to all students and communities about the experiences and the cultures of the more than 50 million Americans of Latin-American extraction and the more than 600 million people living to the south of the United States.

Upcoming Events:

From Warehouse Raves to Mexican Sound System Culture: Documenting Music Scenes in L.A. and Mexico

Tuesday, April 2, 2024 - 9:30am to 10:45am

Alvaro Parra will discuss his journey growing up in the San Gabriel Valley where he was introduced to techno subcultures via the backyard party scene, warehouse raves in downtown Los Angeles and underground radio. He will screen his award winning documentary.

Monday, March 25, 2024 - 4:00pm to 5:15pm

Focusing on contemporary literatures written by authors who self-identify as Maya, in this presentation Dr. Worley will consider the relations that Maya writers in Yucatán create between their texts and their communities, their texts and readers, each other, and scholarship produced about their communities. To what extent do they invert the gaze of dominant cultures, and to what extent do they reproduce it? What techniques do they use to get their work into while also subverting the very notions of “writing” and “literature” upon which their status as authors rests? Perhaps most importantly, by encouraging relations that break with current power structures, how do they cultivate a readership that is not so much of the present but of the future, pointing towards the world in which we live while simultaneously shaping a world which is yet to be?

College of Humanities