UNIVERSITY NEWS - OCTOBER 2003

MEDIA CONTACT: Stacia Smith
561-297-2971, ssmith@fau.edu

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Celebrated Mexican Author Elena Poniatowska Coming to FAU

BOCA RATON, FL (Sept. 25, 2003)- Renowned writer and journalist Elena Poniatowska will present a lecture entitled "The Literature that Springs from the Streets" in the University Theatre of Florida Atlantic University's Boca Raton campus, 777 Glades Road, on Friday, October 24 at 7 p.m. This lecture is free and open to the public.

Poniatowska's lecture will serve as the keynote address for the XIV International Conference of the Asociación Internacional de Literatura Femenina Hispánica. This year's theme is "Myths, Realities and Cultural Paradigms: Iconography in Women's Literature." Association President and FAU Professor of Languages and Linguistics Nora Erro-Peralta will open the conference.

The author of several novels, plays and short stories, Poniatowska is one of Latin America's most translated writers. She has also written for several newspapers and periodicals and lectured extensively in Europe, North and South America and Australia.

Poniatowska is distinguished by her innovative exploration of themes of women and the poor in their struggle for social and economic empowerment. In "Here's to You Jesusa," Poniatowska addresses the issues of lower class women in Mexico struggling in a world where their lives are dire and devalued. In "Tinísima" she looks at the life of actress, communist and photographer Tina Modotti. She offers a collage of testimonies by witness in "Massacre in Mexico," which chronicles the student movement of 1968, and in "Nothing, Nobody," which discusses the Mexico City Earthquake of 1985.

Poniatowska holds four honorary doctorates and a slate of honors. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and an Emeritus Fellowship from Mexico's National Council of Culture
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Elena Poniatowska
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and Arts, and in 1979, she became the first woman to win the Mexican National Journalism Prize. She was also the first woman to win the Mexican National Prize for Literature in 2002.

Concurrent with the lecture, the Schmidt Center Gallery opens "Corporal: Contemporary Women Artists from Latin America," an exhibition of works by Latin American women artists who explore the body, either human or animal, as a departing point in their work to explore life, death, myth and social/political issues.

This lecture is presented by the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters' Department of Languages and Linguistics and Latin American Studies Program in collaboration with the University Galleries and Department of Art. For more information on the lecture or conference, call 561-297-2724 or e-mail Dr. Erro-Peralta at peralta@fau.edu.

"Corporal" is made possible in part by the Division of Cultural Affairs, Florida Arts Council; Palm Beach County Cultural Council; FAU Student Government and contributions from Friends of the Universities Galleries.

The Schmidt Center Gallery is open to the public: Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from noon to 4 p.m.; Wednesday from noon to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m. For further information on gallery exhibitions and programs, please call FAU's Universities Galleries at 561-297-2966 or visit www.fau.edu/galleries.
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