The Borders of Understanding - New time and location!
Click here to see photos of the event!
Three local scholars and community leaders will partake in a guided conversation about the current state of immigration and how the arts are uniquely positioned to promote cultural understanding. This event will take place at the Arizona Opera Center and will be moderated by documentary filmmaker and Governor Arts Award-winner Daniel Buckley.
Arizona Opera will open its 2014-2015 season by presenting the world’s first mariachi opera, Cruzar la Cara de la Luna. This emotional work revolves around a modern immigrant family struggling with issues of home, family and identity. This opera is sung in both English and Spanish, and audiences will be enthralled as the passionate worlds of mariachi and opera join together to become one electric, theatrical experience.
In conjunction with this groundbreaking work, Arizona Opera will be presenting a Hispanic Heritage Festival in both Phoenix and Tucson leading up to the performances. During these events, Arizona Opera will be facilitating conversations, providing demonstrations, and hosting celebrations of Hispanic culture. Members of our community will be brought together to celebrate our cultural differences in order to find the common ground that unites us all.
Hispanic Heritage Festival is generously supported by JP Morgan and Chase, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and APS!
WHERE?
Arizona Opera Center
1636 N. Central Ave
Phoenix, AZ 85004
WHO?
Moderator, Dan Buckley
Buckley has worked as a newspaper and magazine writer, communications expert, consultant, composer, videographer, documentary maker, audio engineer, music critic, and radio personality. Buckley is widely recognized as one of the foremost chroniclers of the mariachi movement in Tucson and throughout the United States, as well as music from numerous Native American, Latin American and world music traditions. His current documentary, on the rise of the mariachi movement in Tucson, is in production now.
In 2009 Buckley was nominated for a Tucson Pima Arts Council (TPAC) Lumie Lifetime Achievement Award for his support of the arts in Tucson. In 2010 he was one of 25 arts professionals recognized for their lifetime of work by TPAC on the occasion of its 25th anniversary. In 2013 Buckley won the Arizona Governor’s Arts Award.
Panelist, James E. Garcia
Garcia is a playwright, journalist, university lecturer, and owner of Creative Vistas Media, a Valley-based media consulting firm. He also serves as the director of communications and policy strategist at the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and as a writer, researcher and policy strategist at Urias Communications.
Garcia is the founder and producing artistic director of New Carpa Theater Co. in Phoenix. He has written and produced more than a dozen plays. Garcia’s short play, The Crossing, won the national 10-minute play competition at the 2003 Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival.
Panelist, Eduardo Pagán
Eduardo is Arizona State University's Bob Stump Endowed Professor of History. He was born and raised in the Phoenix area and began his college career at Mesa Community College. He then received a B.A. from ASU, an M.A. from the University of Arizona, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Princeton University in U.S. history.
Before returning to ASU, Dr. Pagán served as an assistant dean of students at Princeton, a faculty member at Williams College, and a senior program officer at the National Endowment for the Humanities in Washington, D.C.
Dr. Pagán is currently a co-host of History Detectives on PBS, and has worked previously with the award-winning PBS series American Experience as the lead historical consultant for the television episode and Web site entitled "Zoot Suit Riot," based in part on his book Murder at the Sleepy Lagoon: Zoot Suits, Race, and Riot in Wartime L.A.
Panelist, Shoshana Tancer
Tancer is an immigration lawyer whose work has taken her around the world. Tancer and her firm are skilled in advising individuals and businesses as to U.S immigration laws. Careful planning and documentation are the hallmark of her immigration practice. Her firm routinely counsels American and foreign business regarding obtaining the most appropriate temporary and permanent work visas for executives, professionals, and other skilled foreign workers. Shoshanna Tancer is regarded as a preeminent practitioner of immigration law in the state.