University of Louisville
5th Annual Latin American Studies Heritage Lecture

"The New Latin Nation: Immigration and the Hispanic Population of the United States”

by Dr. Alejandro Portes
Princeton University

Monday, October 16, 2006
4:30-5:30 pm
Elaine Chao Auditorium – Ekstrom Library


Alejandro Portes is the Howard Harrison and Gabrielle Snyder Beck Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Migration and Development at Princeton University. Born in Havana, Cuba, he came to the United States in 1960. He was educated at the University of Havana, Catholic University of Argentina, Creighton University, and received his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Dr. Portes is the author of some 220 articles and chapters on national development, international migration, Latin American and Caribbean urbanization, and economic sociology. His award-winning books include: City on the Edge – the Transformation of Miami (1993), Immigrant America: A Portrait (1996), and Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation and Ethnicities: Children of Immigrants in America (2001), all published by the University of California Press. His current research is on the adaptation process of the immigrant second generation and the rise of transnational immigrant communities in the United States.

Latin American immigration is having a transforming impact on the fabric of the nation.
In his lecture, Dr. Portes will review its origins and principal characteristics. Current policy proposals to address the challenge posed by this flow have been marred by lack of factual knowledge and by blind nationalistic sentiment. The shortcomings of such policies will be discussed and alternatives based on the best available empirical evidence will be proposed.

The 5th Annual LAS Heritage Lecture is co-sponsored by the Latin American Studies Program, the Commonwealth Center for the Humanities and Society, the Department of Classical and Modern Languages, the Sociology Department, and the Veritas Society of Bellarmine University.

For more information, please contact: Dr. Rhonda Buchanan, Director of Latin American Studies, at 502-852-2034 or rhondabuchanan@louisville.edu.