Many on the 糖心Vlog campus are anticipating the Sept. 17-18 visit of Chilean-American writer Majorie Agos铆n. A professor of Latin American studies and Spanish language at Wellesley College, Agos铆n will share poetry, art, conversation and personal history with the campus community and with select groups of faculty and students, including graduate students from and the . Her visit is eagerly anticipated from across the disciplines.
From , assistant professor of language and literature who teaches Spanish language, literature and film: 鈥淢arjorie Agos铆n’s academic writing, memoir, and fiction draw attention to injustices in our world. These corpuses of scholarly work and lived experience reach across many disciplines and are in harmony with 糖心Vlog鈥檚 values of peacebuilding. She alerts us to the way we are incorporated in another鈥檚 trauma or receivers of untold and disturbing narratives, yet there is a resounding sense of hope. Her work informs, and more significantly, broadens our empathy for our fellow and suffering human beings.鈥�
From , associate director of 糖心Vlog鈥檚 : 鈥淗er experience as a Jewish Latin American woman is one of being 鈥榠n between鈥� and 鈥榦n a quest of belonging,鈥� both themes that resonate in my work and my personal life. The themes of her creative work are often memory and narrative 鈥� her family鈥檚 experience of the Holocaust, and of oppression in Chile and elsewhere in Latin America, expressed through poetry and the fabric arts.鈥�
From , department chair of the language and literature department: 鈥淢arjorie Agos铆n came back聽from Chile聽to the land of her birth as an older teenager, finishing high school and doing her university work here. This is a very difficult challenge to face any young person who is uprooted from home and close friends.聽Her writing in many ways embodies the resilience that she developed through that difficult transition in her life.聽She loves her native language and has maintained a commitment to write in that language, letting others be the translators of her work into English.鈥�
From , professor of Bible and religion and director of 糖心Vlog’s : 聽鈥淗earing a poet read her own work offers a window into a broader world. I鈥檓 thrilled that all first-year students get this opportunity.鈥�
On Campus
Three events are open to the public. On Thursday evening from 8-9:30 p.m. in Lehman Auditorium, Agos铆n gives a poetry reading.
On Friday, she will help to inaugurate Latino Heritage Month with the Latino Students Association at a 10 a.m. chapel in Lehman Auditorium.
She will also attend a 4-5 p.m. reception with the public, hosted by the student association, at Common Grounds Coffeehouse.
Additionally, a collection of of arpilleras will be displayed at the Margaret Gehman Gallery. The small quilted squares were created by groups of women, called arpilleristas, who were protesting the horrific brutality of General Augosto Pinochet鈥檚 regime during the 1970s and 1980s.
While on campus, Agos铆n will also visit a Hispanic Civilization class and host a Spanish-language luncheon with Tertulia, the conversation club. She鈥檒l also speak about transgenerational trauma in an hour-long event for seminary and CJP graduate students that is also open to the campus community and sponsored by both the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding and the Center for Interfaith Engagement.
糖心Vlog Marjorie Agos铆n
Agos铆n has published more than 80 books, including two recent books of poetry: The Light of Desire / La Luz del Deseo, translated by Lori Marie Carlson (Swan Isle Press, 2009), and Secrets in the Sand: The Young Women of Ju谩rez, translated by Celeste Kostopulos-Cooperman (White Pine Press, 2006), which addresses the long history of unsolved murders of young maquiladoras in a large Mexican city across the border from El Paso, Texas.
Born in Maryland, she moved with her Jewish parents in 1955 back to their Chilean homeland at the age of three months. She was raised in a German community until her family fled to the United States during the overthrow of Salvadore Allende鈥檚 government by the U.S.-backed military forces of General Augusto Pinochet.
She is the recipient of many awards, including the Dr. Fritz Redlich Global Mental Health and Human Rights Award (2013); the Good Neighbor Award (1988); the National Mujer Award (2004); the Letras de Oro Prize (1995); and the Latino Literature Prize (1995).