Join the UI Latin American Studies Program for the 9th annual Charles A. Hale Lecture entitled "Blending Puerto Rico into Latin American History" delivered by Francisco A. Scarano on Tuesday, Sept. 24, from 3:30 - 5 p.m., in 1117 University Capitol Centre.

The Hale Lecture honors the memory of Professor Charles A. Hale (1930-2008), a specialist in Latin American liberalism and intellectual history. He was a distinguished scholar and faculty member at the University of Iowa from 1966-1997.

Francisco A. Scarano is professor emeritus of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has published important studies on a variety of topics from all periods of Caribbean and particularly Puerto Rican history, including slavery and the plantation economy, reconstituted peasantries, and race and racialization processes.

For much of the twentieth century, Latin American historiography marginalized Puerto Rico as an American possession not adequately encompassed by Latin American studies. Specialists regarded Puerto Rico as somehow “not part of” Latin America, although it belonged to the Spanish empire longer than any other country in the region. This exclusion reflected core tensions in the field of Latin American history and of Latin Americanism in general, as they were elaborated and institutionalized in the United States in the first decades of the 20th century. Scarano's talk will discuss the origins of this tension and its eventual--if perhaps only partial--resolution. It will also discuss how, without much fanfare, Puerto Rico has provided important points of comparison for Latin American history, anthropology, and literature. 

This event is sponsored by Latin American Studies in International Programs, the Department of History, and the Department of Spanish & Portuguese.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact Amber Brian in advance at amber-brian@uiowa.edu, or 319-335-2231.