Tequila Talk with Amalia García, Governor of the State of Zacatecas, Mexico

The Institute of the Americas Cepas program has offered a full agenda during the fall/winter season of visual and speaker presentations on the impact of immigration in both the United States and Mexico.

Zacatecas Governor Amalia Garcia spoke during a Nov. 9 Tequila Talk about the impact of immigration on her northern Mexican state, which receives almost $1 million a day in remittances from Zacatecanos working in the United States.

The Cepas program hosted an Oct. 29 photo exhibit entitled, “Living Under the Trees” which offered powerful images by award-winning journalist and documentary photographer David Bacon and moving narratives that explore the unique challenges facing California’s indigenous Mexican communities.

The exhibit documented the consequences of economic dislocation from Mexico and the challenges these dislocated communities face in California. But it also celebrated the culture and community spirit that sustains these migrants, who are questioning unfair work conditions, working for better housing and making critical decisions about their community.

As a follow-up to the photo exhibit, the Institute and the Anti-Defamation League on Jan. 13 screened the PBS documentary, “Farmingville,” directed by Catherine Tambini and Carlos Sandoval in which "the shocking hate-based attempted murders of two Mexican day laborers catapult a small Long Island town into national headlines, unmasking a new front line in the border wars: suburbia."

The film provided an opportunity to learn from Farmingville’s experience, to dissect how conflicts occur and to explore how to diffuse conflicts without turning neighbors into enemies or escalating rhetoric into violence. After the documentary there was a discussion of immigration issues with Institute President Jeffrey Davidow and Rick Barton, Chairman for Education, Anti-Defamation League.