Film Screening & Discussion: “State of Silence”
Date & Time: Wednesday, November 5, 2025, 4:30 PM – 6:30 PM
The title of a film is “Estado de Silencio” (The State of Silence).
“State of Silence/Estado de Silencio” delves into the challenges facing press freedom in Mexico, chronicling the dangerous work of four journalists as they uncover the ties between organized crime and government corruption. Through their eyes, the documentary reveals the obstacles and risks they face in breaking the silence around systemic abuse and violence. A panel discussion and audience Q&A with will follow the screening:
Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is an essential Mexican holiday, primarily celebrated on November 1st and 2nd. It is a time for families and friends to gather, pray for, and remember loved ones who have died. The celebration is vibrant, focusing on life and remembrance, rather than mourning. Key traditions include creating ofrendas (altars) decorated with marigolds (cempasúchil), favorite foods and drinks of the departed, candles, and colorful sugar skulls (calaveras).
The Bancroft Library: Located within the Doe Annex, Bancroft is the university’s premier special collections library. Its Latin Americana Collection is a critical resource for primary materials related to Día de los Muertos and broader Mexican culture. This collection has been known to feature items such as:
Rare publications and historical documents on Mexican traditions.
Original materials related to the arts and political satire, including the iconic works of artist José Guadalupe Posada (known for his skeletal figures, or calaveras), whose prints have heavily influenced the holiday’s visual iconography.
Illustrating Mexico one page at a time-Print Art of José Guadalupe Posada
Several venues across the East Bay feature Día de los Muertos altars. The Oakland Public Library is among the organizations hosting a related activity. Below are photos of the altar created by the library’s César Chávez branch (formerly the Latin American Library) to commemorate this important cultural tradition.
Photos below: Credit: Liladhar P.
Our Social Sciences Library at UC Berkeley Library, my departmental colleagues have created also an altar whose pictures I am sharing. Two colleagues who took initiative in supporting this activity are Angelica V.M. and Cody H.
Photos below: Credit Angelica VM.
A dia de los muertos altar at Social Sciences Research Library
The following subject terms can be helpful to our students when trying to locate materials on Dia de los muertos in our library’s collections.
Please submit your feedback to your librarian for Latin American and Caribbean Studies: Liladhar
Latin America Commons Landing Page
Latin America Commons by Coherent Digital is a full-text, richly-indexed database that provides unified, cross-searchable access to millions of pages of Latin American and Latinx primary-source materials, including books, magazines, photographs, maps, letters, diaries, ephemera, videos, and audio files that were previously scattered across the internet and in archives. The project aims to preserve at-risk content, rare documents, and often overlooked resources spanning from the 16th to the 21st centuries, making it easier for scholars and students to discover vetted, high-quality material for research and study.
All are invited to attend our 2025 Hispanic American Heritage Month webinar that this time focuses on Afro-Latinx heritage.
The webinar will take place on September 16th from 12:45 pm to 2:15 pm PST (3:45 pm to 5:15 pm EST). The webinar is free and open to all with prior registration.
This webinar features three scholars whose work advances understanding of Latin American and Afro-Latinx communities through social policy, culture, and education. In recognition of National Hispanic Heritage Month, the event explores racial and gender justice, ethnoracial legislation, climate ethnography, and Afro-Indigenous knowledge systems. Presenters offer critical insights into how law, environment, heritage, and pedagogy shape the lived experiences of Hispanic and Afro-Latinx communities.
Please save the date on your calendars for an exciting upcoming conversation-book talk (On Savage Shores : How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe) for our community of UC Berkeley Library and affiliated staff and librarians. Date: February 6, 2024 Day: Thursday, Time: 12-1 pm (Pacific Time) 8 pm-9 pm UK Time
Free and Open to All with prior registration. If you need special assistance or accommodation, please contact Dr. Liladhar R Pendse, the event organizer.
About the Webinar: In this webinar, Professor Caroline Dodds Pennock(She/her) will discuss her book, On Savage Shores: How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe. This book challenges the traditional Eurocentric view of the Age of Discovery by focusing on the Indigenous Americans who crossed the Atlantic to Europe after 1492. For centuries, history has taught that global history began when the “Old World” met the “New World” with Columbus’ arrival in the Americas. However, Caroline Dodds Pennock’s research reveals that, for many Indigenous people—Aztecs, Maya, Totonacs, Inuit, and others—Europe was the “New World.”
Collaged pages of Codex Mendoza. The Codex Mendoza is an Aztec codex, believed to have been created around the year 1541.These individuals, including enslaved people, diplomats, explorers, servants, and traders, saw Europe as a land of both wonder and cruelty, filled with vast wealth inequality, and strange customs. Their experiences, marked by abduction, cultural clashes, and loss, have been largely excluded from mainstream historical narratives. This book tells the untold stories of the Indigenous Americans who traveled to Europe, such as the Brazilian king who met Henry VIII, the Aztecs at the court of Charles V, or the Inuit displayed in London pubs. Pennock uses their stories and European accounts to reveal how these Indigenous people, though marginalized, left a lasting impact on European culture and society.
About the author
Professor Caroline Dodds Pennock (She/her) has been at the University of Sheffield since 2010, where they are known as one of the few British historians specializing in Aztec studies. Their current research, however, has expanded to include Indigenous histories in a global context, with a particular focus on the Atlantic world. Dr. Caroline Dodds Pennock recently published On Savage Shores: How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe, which tells the stories of Indigenous Americans who traveled to Europe in the sixteenth century. These accounts, often involving abduction, loss, and cultural appropriation, have largely been overlooked in mainstream history.
Professor Caroline Dodds Pennock, University of Sheffield. Image Credit: University of Sheffield
Dodds Pennock, Caroline. On Savage Shores : How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe / Caroline Dodds Pennock. First American edition. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2023.
Navigating Identity, Belonging, and Citizenship: A Conversation with Professor Canizales
In this webinar, Stephanie L. Canizales, Ph.D., will discuss her new book, Sin Padres, Ni Papeles, which explores the complex experiences of unaccompanied young migrants from Central America and Mexico in the United States. Canizales illuminates the long history of this migration and how young migrants find meaning and demonstrate resilience in the face of significant adversity.
Assistant Professor
Sociology Department
UC Berkeley
Faculty Director
Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative
Accessibility accommodations
If you require an accommodation to fully participate in this event, please contact Liladhar Pendse at lpendse at berkeley.edu or 510-768-7610 at least 7-10 days in advance of the event. Organizer: Dr. Liladhar R. Pendse
Available in an alternate format
To request an accessible version of this document, please contact the Library Communications Office at librarycommunications@berkeley.edu.
Navigating Identity, Belonging, and Citizenship: A Conversation with Professor Canizales
The Library is currently trialing Brill’s Cuban Culture and Cultural Relations, Part IV: Music until October 14, 2024. The database can be accessed here.
This primary source collection documents the history of music in Latin America and the Caribbean, with a special focus on Revolutionary Cuba. It explores the role of music in society and covers festivals, performances, trends, and persons (musicians, composers, producers, etc.). The collection is scanned from the so-called “vertical archive” at Casa de las Américas in Havana, Cuba (source: Brill)
Title: Abelardo Barroso. 1968 Localidad: Cuba Resumen: Entrevista al sonero cubano. Publicada en Bohemia. Coleccion: Colección Archivo Vertical
Así canta y dice Puerto Rico. 1982
Please use ez proxy or VPN if you are accessing the resource from an off-campus location. Please provide your feedback to your Librarian of the Caribbean and Latin American Studies at Lpendse (at) berkeley (dot) edu
UC Berkeley Library has purchased ongoing access to Prensa Libre Digital Archive (1951-2024). Prensa Libre is a well-respected Spanish-language Guatemalan Newspaper. It began publishing in 1951, and since then has provided extensive coverage of politics, news, social conditions, history, governance issues, Garífuna, Mayan, and other indigenous communities (Pueblos Originarios en Guatemala), and civil war(s) in Guatemala and Central America.
We hope that this newspaper resource will be of great use to our faculty and students who study Anthropology, Politics Social Sciences, History of Central America, and Latin America.
SIGLA (States and Institutions of Governance in Latin America, www.sigladata.org) is a multilingual digital database that freely provides information on legal and political institutions in Latin America. The beta version of SIGLA offers data on national-level institutions in Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico, as well as on international institutions. Ultimately, SIGLA will provide cross-nationally comparable, current and historical, qualitative and quantitative data on over 50 legal and political institutions in 20 Latin American countries in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.
At UC Berkeley Library, we have several individual issues of Revolución y Cultura, however, Brill has produced a complete digitized archive of it that is searchable. We have set up a trial of this resource through February 21, 2023. We look forward to hearing your comments regarding the utility of this resource in your teaching and research. Please feel free to contact your librarian for the Caribbean and Latin American Studies here.
About:
Revolución y Cultura is a fundamental and often unique resource for the study of more than half a century of Cuban culture. Founded as a biweekly in 1961 under the title Pueblo y Cultura and continued in 1965 as the bilingual magazine Revolution et/and Culture and as RC in 1967, Revolución y Cultura has published uninterruptedly since March 1972. From its foundation until 1977, when the Cuban Ministry of Culture was created, it appeared as the official organ of Cuba’s National Council of Culture.
From 2004 to 2019 it was published both in print and electronically. Since mid-2019,Revolución y Cultura is published online only. Revolución y Cultura is listed in the UNESCO Portal of Culture of Latin America and the Caribbean (Source: Brill)
![A Collage of pages of Codex Mendoza. The Codex Mendoza is an Aztec codex, believed to have been created around the year 1541.[1] It contains a history of both the Aztec rulers and their conquests as well as a description of the daily life of pre-conquest Aztec society. The codex is written using traditional Aztec pictograms with a translation and explanation of the text provided in Spanish. It is named after Don Antonio de Mendoza (1495-1552), the viceroy of New Spain, who supervised its creation and who was a leading patron of native artists.](https://update.lib.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/imgonline-com-ua-twotoone-Ddaw07KdHVpPXVF-scaled.jpg)
