The exhibit "In the Shadow of Cortés: From Veracruz to Mexico City" will open at 5 p.m. Friday (Oct. 2) at the Mathers Museum of World Cultures, 416 N. Indiana Ave. at Indiana University Bloomington.

Cuban American journalist Achy Obejas will speak at IU Bloomington Sept. 30 during National Hispanic Heritage Month. Her lecture, titled "Navigating Multiple Identities," will take place from 7-8:30 p.m. at the Helene G. Simon Hillel Center (730 E. Third St.) and will address the issue of the interwoven facets of identity -- race, culture, sexual orientation, gender and religion -- that make us who we are.

Indiana University Speech and Hearing Sciences Professor Raquel Anderson hopes her newly funded STEPS program will one day help offer Spanish-speaking children with communication disorders and their families the same access to and quality of speech-language services currently available to their monolingual English-speaking peers.

A group of 13 Indiana University Bloomington undergraduate students will be leaving May 17 for Spain, where they will study Spanish history, culture and language, and compare the country's immigration issues to those in the United States. John Nieto-Phillips, associate professor of history, will co-direct the program at the Centro de Estudios Superiores (CES) Felipe II in Aranjuez, Spain.

The first cohort of undergraduate students enrolled in the Latino Studies minor at Indiana University Bloomington are set to graduate on May 3. The program's 15-credit hour minor was launched in fall 2006, and it now has 22 students with a declared minor.

In the midst of urban violence and political turnoil in Guatemala, the idea of "Christian citizenship" has taken on a new meaning. Once overwhelmingly Roman Catholic, the country is now more than half non-denominational Christian. Kevin O'Neill, assistant professor of religious studies and American studies at Indiana University Bloomington, studies "an issue critically important not just to Guatemala but also to countries throughout Latin America, Africa and Asia, not to mention the United States of America. These are all places where the continued entanglement of evangelical Christianity and democracy is unmistakable."

Hispanic Heritage Month begins Saturday (Sept. 15), which is the anniversary of independence for five Latin American countries, and continues until Oct. 15. Contact information for each professor is listed below. Indiana University Bloomington professors have prepared comments from immigration to shifting views of Latinos after 9-11.

The Indiana University Commission on Multicultural Understanding recently honored five individuals and one program with its 2006-07 COMU awards. The awards, created in 1994, are given in recognition of individuals or groups actively supporting, participating in or encouraging the exploration of cultural diversity in and around the Indiana University Bloomington campus.

Latino culture will be celebrated with food, dancing, interactive activities and more during the ninth annual Festival Latino at Indiana University Bloomington. IU's Latino Cultural Center, La Casa, is the main sponsor for the event. The outdoor festival will take place from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sept. 30 at Dunn Meadow, located at the corner of Seventh Street and Indiana Avenue in Bloomington. The festival, which is free and open to the public, is one of many events scheduled during National Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15 to Oct. 15).

Two festivals will celebrate the increasing cultural and ethnic diversity of Indiana University and Bloomington.

La Casa, el Centro Cultural Latino de Indiana University en Bloomington, presentará la quinta Conferencia Anual del Liderazgo Latino el sábado 6 de marzo.