We are happy to announce our Keynote speakers:
Wednesday, June 16, 2021, 2:30-3:30 p.m. – In partnership with the Latinx Communities in Missouri of the Missouri 2021 Bicentennial, we will present a free and open to the public event “Musical Experiences of Missouri’s Latinx Communities” with Pablo Sanhueza of the Kansas City Latin Jazz Orchestra. After a recorded performance he will speak with Cynthia Ammerman and Marc Rice.
This event is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC: https://umsystem.zoom.us/j/92495635026
Pablo Sanhueza has been deemed as “Kansas City’s Heart & Soul of Latin Music” by JAM Magazine, and recognized as the region’s premier Salsa & Latin Jazz percussionist and bandleader. Since his arrival to Kansas City from Santiago, Chile in 1996 Pablo has dedicated the past 20 years of his distinguished career to the music of the Latin American experience, as a percussionist, bandleader, and educator who has worked with three generations of musicians. In 2018, Sanhueza co-founded the Kansas City Latin Jazz Orchestra. KCLJO is the first performance & education non-profit in the Midwestern United States dedicated to Salsa & Latin Jazz. Representing latino leadership in the arts, Pablo is a Missouri Arts Council Touring Artist and Missouri Humanities Council Speakers Bureau Member. In 2019, Sanhueza welcomed Pedrito Martinez to Kansas City for the historic Folly Jazz Series & Artist Talk. Sanhueza & KCLJO are endorsed by the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz for cultural & education outreach in Chile and the Midwestern United States. Sanhueza is a master artist for the Missouri Traditional Arts Apprentice program.
Cynthia Ammerman is Executive Director of the Kansas City Latin Jazz Orchestra & Nevada Preservation Foundation (Las Vegas) as well as Principal of Polis: Cultural Planning. Throughout her career, she has developed a unique skill set related to the built environment, the arts, and humanities including placemaking, cultural policy, advocacy, and historic preservation. Ms. Ammerman has written and extensively documented the history of Kansas City’s synagogues and the cultural & political landscape of jazz heritage and immigration in the Midwest & Southwest. In addition to regional studies, she has authored National Register of Historic Places nominations, presented in Berlin, Germany; Warsaw, Poland and Santiago, Chile and collaborated with several Department of State cultural diplomacy initiatives.
Ms. Ammerman has degrees in Philosophy & History, a Master of Arts in Urban Planning & Historic Preservation; and Post-Graduate Diploma from the University of Chile in Chilean Studies.
Dr. Marc Rice is currently Professor of Musicology at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri. He teaches courses on classical music history, jazz history, and World Music. His research focus is on the history of jazz in the Black community of Kansas City, Missouri from 1920 to 1935. He has published extensively and has presented at the national conferences of the American Musicological Society, the Society of American Music, and the Society of Ethnomusicology. His book, Black Music in the Black Press: An Anthology of Essays from the Heartland, examines the history of African American music as described in the Black newspapers from 1877-1940.
Thursday, June 17, 2021, 10:00-11:00 a.m. – Dr. Maribel Álvarez will present “Sabores Sin Fronteras: Latino Culinary Arts as Restorative Justices”. Food is one of the most essential, authentic, and enduring aspects of the Latino immigrant experience —from the hands and bodies that harvest our foods, to those who cook it in thousands of restaurants across the nation, to the home kitchens where bodily nourishment often intermingles with memories, humor, faith, defiance, and “ganas” (determination). Latinos have been part of the culinary history of the United States longer than it is commonly acknowledged. In this talk, anthropologist and folklorist Dr. Maribel Alvarez centers food as a creative resource for healing and restoring Latino communities back to health, solidarity, and economic prosperity. Treating food as an act of generosity and beauty that trespasses national boundaries can open up possibilities for justice projects among inter-generational Latino communities.
Maribel Alvarez is an anthropologist, folklorist, writer, and cultural producer and organizer. She holds the Jim Griffith Chair in Public Folklore at the Southwest Center, University of Arizona, where she also is Associate Dean for Community Engagement in the College of Social & Behavioral Sciences. She is the founder and until recently served as executive director of the Southwest Folklife Alliance, an independent nonprofit affiliated with the University of Arizona, which produces the annual Tucson Meet Yourself Folklife Festival in addition to multiple programs connecting artisanal economies, foodways, and traditional arts to community planning and neighborhood-based economic development throughout the US-Mexico border corridor. In 1989, she co-founded MACLA in San Jose, California –one of the most vibrant contemporary Latino art spaces in the United States. Maribel recently completed a 6-year term appointment as a Trustee of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. She has been a Fulbright Fellow in Sonora, Mexico where she currently still carries on research with indigenous Yaqui communities around food and sovereignty. She has served as core advisor for several national philanthropic efforts, documenting the practices of art making in America in the context of changing demographics and racial justice. She has served in the faculty of the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures’ National Leadership Institute for 17 years. In 2018 the American Folklore Society awarded her the prestigious Americo Paredes Prize for “excellence in integrating scholarship and engagement with the people and communities one studies.”
Thursday, June 17, 2021, 12:45-1:45 p.m. – Join a Conversation with Emmanuel Caudillo. Have your lunch while you listen and have a conversation with the senior advisor to the White House Hispanic Prosperity Initiative.
Emmanuel Caudillo is the senior advisor to the White House Hispanic Prosperity Initiative. Previously on detail to the initiative in 2012, he transitioned full-time in 2013.
From 2009 to 2013, he was a budget analyst at the U.S. Department of Education, overseeing the student aid administration account. He has also held research positions in various organizations, including Abt Associates and the National Council on Teacher Quality.
For his commitment to his community, Emmanuel was named 40 Under 40 from the Leadership Center for Excellence in 2015. He also was a 2017 Ricardo Salinas Scholar at the Aspen Institute and 2019-2020 Excellence in Government Fellow at the Partnership for Public Service.
Originally from Los Angeles, he holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California and a Master of Public Policy from The George Washington University. His passion for education is due to the strong sense of duty and commitment his parents instilled in him.
Friday, June 18, 2021, 10:00-11:00 a.m. – Dr. Héctor Y. Adames and Dr. Nayeli Y. Chávez-Dueñas will present “Disrupting a Raceless Latinidad: Theory, Research, and Practice”. Their research focuses on how socio-race, skin-color, colorism, and ethnic and racial group membership influence wellness.
Dr. Hector Y. Adames received his doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the APA accredited program at Wright State University in Ohio and completed his APA pre-doctoral internship at the Boston University School of Medicine’s Center for Multicultural Training in Psychology (CMTP). Currently, he is a Full Professor at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Chicago Campus. He co-founded and co-directs the IC-RACE Lab (Immigration Critical Race And Cultural Equity Lab). Dr. Adames has published several books including (1) Cultural Foundations and Interventions in Latinx Mental Health: History, Theory and within Group Differences published by Routledge Press, (2) Caring for Latinxs with Dementia in a Globalized world published by Springer, and (3) Ethics in Psychotherapy and Counseling: A Practical Guide scheduled to be published by Wiley this summer in June. His research focuses on how socio-race, skin-color, colorism, and ethnic and racial group membership influence wellness. He has earned several awards including the 2018 Distinguished Emerging Professional Research Award from The Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity, and Race, a Division of the American Psychological Association (APA).
Dr. Nayeli Y. Chavez-Dueñas received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the APA accredited program at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. She is a Full Professor at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology (TCSPP) where she serves as the faculty coordinator for the concentration in Latinx Mental Health in the Counseling Psychology Department. She is the co-founder and co-director of the IC-RACE Lab (Immigration Critical Race And Cultural Equity Lab). She has authored two books including (1) Cultural Foundations and Interventions in Latinx Mental Health: History, Theory and within Group Differences published by Routledge Press, and (2) Ethics in Psychotherapy and Counseling: A Practical Guide. Her research focuses on colorism, skin-color differences, parenting styles, immigration, unaccompanied minors, and race relations. She has earned a number of awards including the 2018 American Psychological Association (APA) Distinguished Citizen Psychologist Award.
Saturday, June 19, 2021, 10:00-11:00 a.m. – Dr. Lizette Ojeda will present “In Search of a Better Life: The Challenges Latinos Face in an Uncertain Space”. A former Cambio Center Student Fellow, Ojeda has published on the intersection of work and mental health among Latino immigrants.
Dr. Lizette Ojeda is an Associate Professor at Texas A&M University. She has published on the intersection of work and mental health among Latino immigrants, including a widely cited best practices article on conducting culturally competent research with Latino immigrants. She has been recognized as a top contributing author in the Journal of Latinx Psychology, where she also serves on the editorial board. As a bilingual licensed psychologist, she has worked with Latino immigrants and has given her expert witness testimony for an asylum seeker case. She is also the proud daughter of Mexican immigrant parents.
We Thank the 2021 Cambio de Colores Sponsors for Their Support:
