The Jungle and the Beast: Photo Journal and Discussion (April 29, 2016)

Migration is both a process and state. Some migrants move: they fly, cling to moving trains, scale walls, and cross rivers and oceans. Others get stuck--for example, in refugee camps, border cities, or the state's red tape. In The Beast (Los migrantes que no importan, in the original Spanish), intrepid Salvadoran journalist Óscar Martínez accompanies migrants on "the Beast," the train that travels from Central America through Mexico to the United States. Meanwhile, UCSC Professor Emeritus Lewis Watts has captured some of the stasis of migration in his photos of “the Jungle,” the refugee camp near Calais, France.  Mr. Martínez discusses the migrant trail and Professor Watts shares some of the photos he took in and around Calais in the fall of 2015 at this free, public event.  Professor Jennifer González (History of Art and Visual Culture) moderates their conversation.

This event is free and public, but attendees are asked to register here.

Óscar Martínez is the author of Los migrantes que no importan:  En el camino con los centroamericanos indocumentados en México (Icaria/El Faro, 2010), which was translated by Daniela Maria Ugaz and John Washington as The Beast:  Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail (Verso, 2013).  The New York Times has described Mr. Martínez's writing as "graceful" and "incisive."  His second book, A History of Violence, is forthcoming from Verso in 2016.  Based in El Salvador, he writes for Elfaro.net, Latin America's first online newspaper.

Lewis Watts joined the Art Department at UC Santa Cruz in 2001 after having taught at UC Berkeley for 23 years.  He is a photographer of cultural and urban landscapes, with a focus on the African diaspora.  He has photographed African and Afro-descent communities in the United States, Latin America, and Europe and is the co-author (with Elizabeth Pepin) of Harlem of the West:  The San Francisco Jazz Fillmore Era (Chronicle Books, 2005) and (with Eric Porter) New Orleans Suite:  Music and Culture in Transition (University of California, 2013).

This free, public event is part of Alumni Weekend and Borders and Belonging: A Series of Events on Human Migration.  The CLRC is proud to cosponsor it with University Relations, the Latin American and Latino Studies Department, and the Division of Social Sciences, with generous support from the UC Santa Cruz Foundation.

A Conversation with Lewis Watts and Óscar Martínez

April 29, 2016, 10:00am-12:00 PM

Merrill Cultural Center,
UC Santa Cruz (Directions)