THOUSAND OAKS — California Lutheran University will present “Grito de Dolores: Celebrating Mexico’s Independence and Indigenous Roots,” at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 16 at the Lundring Events Center, 60 W. Olsen Road, Thousand Oaks.
To celebrate Grito de Dolores, or Mexico’s Independence Day, and in conjunction with a Mexican-American themed mural currently on exhibition at the William Rolland Gallery of Fine Art, expert Xóchitl Flores-Marcial will lecture about the indigenous roots of Mexico’s history as they pertain to several key political individuals represented in the mural.
Emiliano Zapata spoke Nahuatl and President Benito Juaréz was an indigenous Zapotec, the university reported in a media release.
Flores-Marcial is currently a guest scholar at the Getty Research Institute. This fall she will submit her doctoral dissertation at UCLA. Her research focuses on Colonial Mexico. Along with Spanish archival documents, she conducts philological studies of Zapotec and Nahuatl language sources produced by church and local indigenous government officials of the 16th century.
She has taught at UCLA, Santa Monica College, California State University, Northridge and California State University, Los Angeles and is currently teaching at Loyola Marymount University.
The free lecture will take place in the Lundring Events Center followed by a reception at the William Rolland Gallery. RSVP by Sept. 8.