July 21 | Inspiration / Action: Latinxs and Structural Vulnerabilities Before and After COVID-19 with Perla M. Guerrero

Tuesday, July 21 | 2:30 – 3pm

Please join us on Zoom and hear from Perla M. Guerrero, Associate Professor American Studies and U.S. Latina/a Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park.  Despite high numbers of employment, Latinxs tend to work in lower paying jobs which means they have little to no wealth and are thus unable to prepare economically for a financial emergency, like a pandemic. According to some estimates, 4 out of 5 essential workers are Latinxs who tend to be concentrated in construction, food processing, grocery stores, and farms. Guerrero will discuss race, class, and labor as three key spheres that intersect and define Latinxs’ experiences in the United States and how these are exacerbated during the pandemic.  Join Dr. Perla Guerrero, Associate Professor of American Studies and U.S. Latina/o Studies, University of Maryland, College Park as she discusses this systemic inequality.  The discussion will be moderated by David Coronado, Senior Communications Officer, Smithsonian Latino Center.

Dr. Perla's research and teaching interests include relational race and ethnicity with a focus on Latinxs and Asian Americans, space and place, immigration and legality, labor, and U.S. history. She has received multiple awards including a Ford Postdoctoral Fellowship and two from the Smithsonian Institution to be a Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Museum of American History (NMAH). Her first book, Nuevo South: Latina/os, Asians, and Remaking of Place,examines how racial cleansing and sundown towns made northwest Arkansas into a particular kind of place and analyzes the political and economic factors that are shifting social conditions and racial mores. She’s currently working on her second book, Deportation’s Aftermath: Little LA and Making a Life in Exile, which seeks to understand what happens to different kinds of people after repatriation and the ways in which U.S.-based inequality is reproduced in Mexico.

This program is presented in collaboration with the Smithsonian Latino Center.

Register in advance for this webinar by clicking on this link: (link activated soon)
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Inspiration | Action is a new weekly virtual series of programs by Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum to educate and inspire participants to calls of action and become civically engaged.  Experts will briefly present on four related topics based on one monthly theme.  July’s theme is “Inequality” with the weekly topics being Underserved Communities (July 7); Food Access and Resources (July 14); LatinX Post-COVID (July 21); and Small Businesses (July 28).  At the end of each program, participants will be provided digital resources to engage, participate in, or just learn more about the topic discussed.

Please join in on these weekly 30-minute programs designed to harness the collective power of community and its ability to care for and comfort each other in these uncertain times.

Note:  Sign Language interpretation or live captioning for our virtual programs available upon request.  Two weeks advance notice is appreciated.  Place your request by emailing Linda Maxwell at MaxwellL@si.edu