The University of New Mexico
NEWS RELEASE
Contact: Carolyn Gonzales 277-5920
cgonzal@unm.edu
March 19, 2010
UNM LAII Series Addresses Mexico in Crisis
The University of New Mexico Latin American and Iberian Institute presents “Mexico in Crisis: Global and Local Realities,” a series of presentations on economic and political issues in contemporary Mexico featuring leading Mexican political figures.
The first event is Tuesday, March 23 from noon to 2 p.m. in SUB Ballroom A. Mario de Costanzo Armenta will present “An Assessment of the Mexican Economy from 2000-06.”
Mario Di Costanzo Armenta is a federal deputy for the Workers Party (PT). He holds degrees in economics from the Autonomous Technological Institute (Mexico City) and public finance from the International Monetary Fund. From 1984-96 he worked in economics and public finance in the Secretariat of the Treasury and the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs. He was later advisor to the PRD on the Treasury and Vigilance Committee.
He is the author of El Saqueo a los Mexicanos (2005, The Plunder of the Mexican People) on the 1995 Mexican banking crisis and rescue. Since 2000 he has contributed regularly to newspapers and political journals. His work addresses government accountability, banking supervision, fiscal reform, and money laundering. He served as Secretary of the Public Treasury to Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador and was elected to the Congress in 2009.
On Thursday April 22, from 7-9 p.m. in Dane Smith Hall 125, Francisco López Bárcenas presents, “The Situation of Indigenous Peoples in Mexico;” and Azael Santiago Chepi presents, “Education in Mexico and the Challenge of an Alternative Education in Oaxaca.”
Francisco López Bárcenas is a researcher at the Center for Research on Sustainable Rural Development & Food Control in the Mexican Chamber of Deputies. A Mixteco native of Juxtlahuaca, Oaxaca, he holds an master’s in social law from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and a master’s in rural development from the Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM) in Xochimilco. He has been professor, researcher and public official, is a member of the Mexican Association for the United Nations and the Mexican Academy of Human Rights, where he advocates for indigenous people.
Azael Santiago Chepi is the Secretary General of Section 22 of the National Union of Educational Workers and the 71,000-member reformist National Coordinator of Educational Workers. He is a Zapotec from the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca and a bilingual education teacher with a master’s in elementary education. He is currently considered the major voice to defend public education and an array of social causes in Oaxaca.
The series continues on Tuesday, May 4 from noon – 2 p.m. in SUB Ballroom A, when Rolando Cordera Campos presents, “From Crisis to Crisis: The End of a Regime or the Quest for a New One?”
Rolando Cordera Campos is professor emeritus of the Department of Economics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). He is coordinator of the Seminar on the Social Question at UNAM. Cordera holds degrees in economics from the UNAM and the London School of Economics. His two most recent books are El Papel de las Ideas y de las Políticas en el Cambio Estructural (2008, The Role of Ideas and Policies in Structural Change) and Volver con la Memoria (2009, conversations with intellectuals, artists, and politicians). He writes a weekly op ed column for La Jornada, one of Mexico’s leadingnewspapers, and contributes regularly to Nexos, a monthly political journal.
In addition to LAII, the series is sponsored by Students of Latin American Studies (SOLAS) and the Office of the Provost
Hourly visitor parking is available in the Cornell Parking Structure on Redondo just east of Stanford.
For more information, call (505) 277-2961.
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