In honor of Latina/Latino Heritage Month and the new academic year, Latin@ Studies presents a lecture by NCID fellow William Calvo-Quirós. A reception catered by Chela's will follow. Stop by to meet faculty and students interested in Latin@ Studies!

Through an examination of an array of cultural artifacts such as corridos, TV shows, newspapers, comics, and fiction, as well as academic novels and archival documents, this presentation will traces the apparition of El Chupacabras (1994), or goatsucker, within the context of the dismantling of the welfare state and the anti-immigrants anxieties of the post-cold war years in the United States. In addition, it analyzes the Chupacabras as a subversive image, used to unify and address the struggles of small farmers, as a sophisticated polysemic entity, that illustrates the insatiable “blood sucking” appetite and predatory practices of neo-liberalism as implemented by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) during the 1990s.