Author: Liladhar
September 22: National Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration at UC Berkeley Library
Celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month at the University of California-Berkeley’s Library!
The event will take place on Thursday, September 22 from 12 noon to 1:15 PDT/ 3 pm to 4:14 pm EDT.
The event is open and free to all with prior registration. Please first sign into your personal or institutional zoom accounts and then register.
http://ucberk.li/3sb
Speakers (in alphabetical order)
José Adrián Barragán-Álvarez
Curator, Latin Americana
The Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley
Lillian Castillo-Speed
Head Librarian at Ethnic Studies Library, UC Berkeley
José Montelongo
Maury A. Bromsen Curator of Latin American Books
John Carter Brown Library, Rhode Island
Moderator: Liladhar R. Pendse, Librarian for the Caribbean and Latin American Studies
Grito de Dolores, Aniversario de la Independencia and Fiestas Patrias
Each year, Mexico marks an anniversary of its independence. One of the revered heroes of Mexico has been Fr. Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, whose Grito de Dolores has been frequently used as a rallying tool against the perceptions of injustice. UC Berkeley’s Library is rich in print and analog materials on Mexico’s history. Fiestas Patrias is one essential component of the holiday celebration, both here in the United States and Mexico.
Recently, I was surprised to see a box waiting to for me in the office that was mailed to me by the FCE in Mexico as a gift to the library. Below are some scanned images of the books that were in that box. Not all the books below deal with the Independence of Mexico, however these represent cultural and informational objects that inform their readers of Mexico’s rich yet complicated history and literature.
I leave you with a recent video of one of Mexico’s prolific writers and historian, Paco Ignacio Taibo II. We do have many books that deal with the subject of El Cura Hidalgo.
Besides this video, the resilience of el pueblo to survive through odds is something that inspires me to serve our students and faculty from diverse backgrounds as a librarian at a public academic library of University of California.
In Memoriam: Mikhail Gorbachev- the former president of the USSR
Please excuse this long post! No one likes to read these long posts anymore! I remember the Moscow Putsch in August 1991, when Mikhail S. Gorbachev, then the president of the USSR, was placed under house arrest and deposed for a time. I remember how Ronald Reagan pronounced in Berlin words inviting him to tear down that wall and how the times have changed since then. Today, some leaders in our homeland have asked for a wall and some tariffs on goods from other countries. So much for the politics.
After all, some aspects of politics are what muddies the water! I remember Gorbachev’s controversial fight against Alcoholism in the Soviet Union and how the zealots from Stud-Soviets used to show up without an announcement to inspect our dormitory rooms for evidence such as empty bottles of Vodka or beers. Students were let go from academic institutions to find an empty bottles. I remember his rebuilding (perestroika) of the Soviet Union. Now we have our Build Back Better! Not that these are similar situations.
However, we have tons of books about the Soviet Union and works authored by president Gorbachev. In memoriam! Прощайте, Уважаемый Михайл Сергеевич Горбачёв!
I leave you with the clip about the Soviet legacies, in which former UC Berkeley professor and historian Yuri Slezkine speaks!
Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean 2022: Trends and challenges of investing for a sustainable and inclusive recovery
The United Nation’s ECLAC has published a 2022 report on trends and challenges of investing for a sustainable recovery in Latin America and the Caribbean. Below is the self-description, “The 2022 edition of the Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean consists of three parts. Part I outlines the region’s economic performance in 2021, analyses trends in the early months of 2022, and the outlook for growth for the year. It examines the external and domestic factors that have influenced the region’s economic performance in 2021, trends for 2022, and how these factors will affect economic growth in the coming years.
Part II of this edition presents some region’s main challenges in investing for sustainable and inclusive economic growth. It analyses the trends in total investment over the last 70 years and highlights the profound change brought about by the 1980s debt crisis, with a slowdown in investment from the 1990s onwards.
Part III of this publication may be accessed on the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (www.eclac.org). It contains the notes relating to the economic performance of Latin America and the Caribbean countries in 2021 and the first half of 2022, together with their respective statistical annexes. The date for updating this publication’s statistical information was 15 July 2022.”
Please click on the image to access this Open Access publication.
[Webinar-UC Berkeley Library] Afghanistan: One Year Later!
We invite you to attend a ninety-minute Afghanistan-related webinar sponsored by multiple Area and International Studies-related centers and Institutes (CMES, ISAS, ISEEES, IEAS) and the library at UC Berkeley.
Title of the webinar: Afghanistan: One Year Later!
Date: August 16, 2022
Day: Tuesday
Time:
11:30 am to 1 pm PDT
1:30 pm to 3 pm CDT
2:30 pm to 4 pm EDT
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7:30 pm to 9 pm UK time
11:00 to midnight Kabul time
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Registration
The webinar is free and open to all with prior registration: http://ucberk.li/3r3
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Speakers
- PROFESSOR CARTER MALKASIAN, PH.D., Chair, Defense Analysis Department, Naval Postgraduate School
- PROFESSOR SHER JAN AHMADZAI, Director of the Center for Afghanistan Studies, University of Nebraska at Omaha
- PROFESSOR DIPALI MUKHOPADHYAY, PH.D., Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota
- PROFESSOR SHAH MAHMOUD HANIFI, PH.D., Department of History, James Madison University
- Moderator: Dr. Liladhar R. Pendse, Librarian, UC Berkeley
A special note of gratitude to the Library’s Communications Team, Professors Asad Q. Ahmed of Middle Eastern Languages & Cultures, Wali Ahmadi of Middle Eastern Languages & Cultures, and Munis Faruqui of Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies, Central Asia Working Group at the IEAS.
New book by faculty: Afro-Atlantic Catholics : America’s First Black Christians–by Professor Jeroen DeWulf
It is my great honor and privilege to introduce readers of this blog to a new book by Professor Jeroen DeWulf titled “Afro-Atlantic Catholics America’s First Black Christians.” The book will be out in early August. The book is long needed to provide a holistic view of the influence of African Catholics on the historical development of Black Christianity in America during the seventeenth century.
The publisher is the University of Notre Dame Press. The description reads, “Black Christianity in America has long been studied as a blend of indigenous African and Protestant elements. Jeroen Dewulf redirects the conversation by focusing on the enduring legacy of seventeenth-century Afro-Atlantic Catholics in the broader history of African American Christianity. With homelands in parts of Africa with historically strong Portuguese influence, such as the Cape Verde Islands, São Tomé, and Kongo, these Africans embraced variants of early modern Portuguese Catholicism that they would take with them to the Americas as part of the forced migration that was the transatlantic slave trade. Their impact on the development of Black religious, social, and political activity in North America would be felt from the southern states as far north as what would become New York.
Dewulf’s analysis focuses on the historical documentation of Afro-Atlantic Catholic rituals, devotions, and social structures. Of particular importance are brotherhood practices, which were critical in disseminating Afro-Atlantic Catholic culture among Black communities, a pre-Tridentine culture and wary of external influences. These fraternal Black mutual-aid and burial society structures were critically important to the development and resilience of Black Christianity in America through periods of changing social conditions. Afro-Atlantic Catholics show how a sizable minority of enslaved Africans actively transformed the American Christian landscape and would lay a distinctly Afro-Catholic foundation for African American religious traditions today. This book will appeal to scholars in the history of Christianity, African American and African diaspora studies, and Iberian studies.”
Professor Dewulf’s groundbreaking research on how one can reflect on early issues surrounding the conceptualization of diversity, faith, race, and belonging in the context of our continent today while not straying away from in-depth historiographical narrative serves as an archive of memory narrative.
Cinco de Mayo (El Día de la Batalla de Puebla) through books
Each year, Cinco de Mayo (El Día de la Batalla de Puebla) is celebrated in the United States and Mexico to commemorate the victory of Mexico over the invading imperial French forces at the Battle of Puebla. While today, many “Western” powers adhere to the democratic principles of governance, in the 19th century, most of them practiced imperialism without much guilt. We all know that the self-ascribed civilizing missions of these Western European and Russian Imperial forces, including our democratic American expeditionary force in the Phillippines and other places, remain well-documented in the books and news media of the time. After all, David did overpower Goliath; such was the case for ill-equipped Mexican forces who triumphed over better-equipped French forces. The battle took place 160 years ago, on May 5, 1862, outside of Puebla. Here are some books that would refresh our memories about the significance of Cinco de Mayo.
Some subject designations like the one below will help us quickly locate the books from our collections.
European Intervention in Mexico (1861-1867)
Mexico — History — European intervention, 1861-1867
France — Foreign relations — Mexico
Mexico — Foreign relations — France
Mexico — Foreign relations — 1861-1867
France — History — Second Empire, 1852-1870
And below are a few books that might be of interest to our readers.
Cluseret, G. Mexico, and the Solidarity of Nations. New York: Blackwell, 1866. Print.
Chevalier, Michel. L’expédition du Mexique. Paris: E. Dentu, 1862. Print.
And here is a clip that one might watch to understand further the complex nature of European involvement in Mexican affairs.
New UN Archives Geneva Platform
The United Nations Library & Archives Geneva is pleased to announce the new UN Archives Geneva Platform launch. This new online platform makes it easier to navigate and search approximately ten linear kilometers of archives managed by the UN Library & Archives Geneva, including different fonds such as 19th-century peace movements, the League of Nations, UN Geneva, and additional UN entities based in Geneva.
Thanks to the LONTAD project, the platform provides access to over 10 million digitized pages of the League of Nations archives. By 2022, the entirety of the archives of the League of Nations will be available online (including photographs and maps).
The launch of the platform enables researchers to search exceptional primary sources. It also opens new ways of conducting research in the archives. More information is available here.
With the new platform, we are now offering free tailored online presentations and trainings for researchers and students to explain the structure of the UN archives in Geneva, how the platform works, the material available online and the documents which are still not digitized but available for consultation in site. These presentations can be provided for faculty meetings, seminars and courses, or whatever setting is desirable. Catering to your needs, our specialists can present the wealth of archival documents – digitized and physical – available at the UN Library & Archives Geneva, explain how to use the platform, and show the work of the Institutional Memory Section. For further information, do not hesitate to contact us: https://ask.unog.ch/archives
Contact Info:
Pierre-Etienne Bourneuf, UN Library & Archives Geneva
Palais des Nations, 8-14 Avenue de la Paix, 1211 Genève
Source: Email-Guy Burak-Mela-NYU 04/22/2022
Voices from Ukraine: Ukrainian librarians in the struggle against Russian invasion!
We invite you to join us for a Zoom-based event where librarians across Ukraine will speak to us about their daily lives, work, and heroic efforts to preserve their collections and provide services during the war. Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine is a tragedy of cultural and humanitarian dimensions. The organizing committee members think it is vital to hear from our brave colleagues in Ukraine.
Date: April 6, 2022
Time: 9 am PST/ 10 am MST/ 11 am CST/ 12 noon EST/ 7 pm Kyiv
Duration: 90 minutes
Registration Link: http://ucberk.li/3o9
Organizers: The Coalition of Slavic Librarians for Peace (CSLP): Olha Alkesic (Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University), Ksenya Kiebuzinski (University of Toronto), Liladhar R. Pendse (University of California-Berkeley) and George Andrew Spencer (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Ukraine: Language, Literature & Religion Virtual Event @UC Berkeley Library
Ukraine: Language, Literature & Religion
When: Thursday, April 14, 2022
Time is shown below:
12:30 pm to 2 pm PST
2:30 pm to 4 pm CST
3:30 pm to 5 pm EST
Registration: http://ucberk.li/3nX
First, log in to your institutional or personal zoom accounts and then register for the event.
This event is a non-political event, and all are welcome to attend with prior registration.
