Talk by director Ray Telles will accompany the film showing

During the 2015-16 school year, Cal State Monterey Bay has been showing films and offering public programs to celebrate Latino Americans: 500 Years of History, an exploration of the rich and varied experiences of the country’s largest minority group. The six-part documentary was created for the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in 2013. The local screenings are made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association. At 6 p.m., Feb. 17, another installment in the series will be shown at the CSUMB Music Hall on Sixth Avenue and Butler Street.

“Peril and Promise" takes viewers through the years from 1980 to 2000. It examines how the nature of the Latino Diaspora changed, with a second wave of Cuban refugees and hundreds of thousands of Central Americans fleeing death squads and mass murders. By the early 1990s, a political debate over illegal immigration had begun.

Globalization, empowered by NAFTA, means that as U.S. manufacturers move south, Mexican workers head north in record numbers. A backlash ensues, but a sea change is under way – the coalescence of a new phenomenon called Latino American culture – as Latinos spread geographically and make their mark in music, sports, politics, business and education.

A talk by director and producer Ray Telles will precede the screening.

The event is free and open to the public.

Published Feb. 10, 2016