Dr. Max Harris has a a Ph. D. in Religious Studies, University of Virginia, 1989.  He has been an independent scholar and author since 2004 publishing several books including Carnival and Other Christian Festivals: Folk Theology and Folk Performance (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2003).  He is the author of multiple articles, chapters and presentations including “Neither Yorùbá nor Moors and Christians: A Reassessment of the Fiestas de Santiago Apóstol,” Re/Visiones de Santiago Apóstol: Arte, Historia y Crítica Cultural, University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras, March 2006).

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"The Ambiguity of Masks in Latin America and the Caribbean." Masks that hide faces often display the significance of traditional performance more clearly than the spoken word. They may reveal dreams of indigenous Catholic victory over outside forces, or they may challenge notions of racial purity used to justify social hierarchies. Masks with African features may not be African in origin but Afro-Caribbean caricatures of white caricatures of Africans. Masks frequently retain an ambiguity that, if necessary, allows these challenges to power to be denied."

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Dr. Samuel Cruz, received his Doctor in Philosophy in Religion and Society, Drew University, Madison, NJ, 2002.  Dr. Cruz is Assistant Professor of Religion and Society at Union Theological Seminary.    He has been a lecturer in Rutgers, The State University, New Brunswick, NJ in the Graduate School of Social Work from 1999-2003 as well as in the Latino and Hispanic Caribbean Studies Department from 2003-2007.  Dr. Cruz is an ordained minister and an ordained pastor, and he is the author of Christianity and Culture in the City: A Post-Colonial Approach, 2013, Lexington Books; and of Masked Africanisms: Puerto Rican Pentecostalism, 2005, Kendall Hunt Publishing.

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Afro-Latino Masks: Roots, Ritual &amp; Rhythm in Latin America and the Caribbean- In the US, African belief systems were generally rejected as primitive and barbaric, but in Latin America and the Caribbean they gradually amalgamated with the sacred and secular expressions of the culture. Dr. Samuel Cruz, Associate Professor of Religion and Society at the Union Theological Seminary, will discuss how traditional African belief systems and practices have influenced religion and culture in Latin America and Caribbean.

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Mildred Siuko García Ramírez is a Puerto Rican artist, consultant, lecturer, and Ph. D candidate in Puerto Rican, and Caribbean History in the Center for Advanced Studies of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean in Puerto Rico. She has an Associate Degree in Graphic Design, Atlantic University College, a Masters in Puerto Rican History, Center for Advanced Studies of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, and a Bachelor’s degree in Visual Arts, Queens College, New York City.   As an artist she has exhibited extensively in Puerto Rico, and in Mexico, the United States, and Germany.

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Resiliency and longevity of the afro-boricua vejigante mask: where does it come from?  Siuko Garcia, draws from her wide experience as an artist, her long-term practice with folk-art, and her research to inform the history, and practices of the vejigantes of Puerto Rico.

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L. Yesenia Martínez, is the Director of Human Resources in the Ministry of Education in Honduras.  She recently received her Master’s degree in Central American history, University of Costa Rica.  Throughout her career Ms. Martinez has published manyacademic articles including, “Una Mirada a la Ahorcancina, Cinchonero y los Movimientos de Protesta Latinoamericana en el Siglo XIX,” Revista Paraninfo, Tegucigalpa, Año 13, número 25 (Julio 2004), pp. 111-122,  “During her tenure at the Ministry of Education she worked closely on initiatives promoting racial and ethnic diversity in Honduran primary and secondary education.

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Dr. Darío A. Euraque received his Ph.D. in Latin American History, with a focus on Central American History, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1990.

Dr Euraque has held several positions at Trinity College in Connecticut including Professor of History,  and  he has been the Chair of the Department of History since June, 2013.  He received a Fulbright Hays Doctoral Research Abroad Fellowship, and a Magna Cum Laude from University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1982.  He is the author of “La Diáspora Africana en los Programas Educativos de Centroamérica”, (The African Diaspora in the Education Programs in Central America), co-authored with Yesenia Martínez. Tegucigalpa: Editorial Guaymuras, 2013.

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“Garífuna Culture Seen through Masked Choreographed Rituals in Contemporary Central American Education” Garifuna music, dance, and historical narratives, often in choreographed masked rituals, are perhaps the most circulated and presented cultural expressions of this the largest and most politically active of Central America’s segments of the African Diaspora.  Paradoxically, the formal educational sensibilities of millions of Central Americans to the legacies of the African Diaspora, including among the Garífuna, remains superficial, often mired in stereotypes, and distressingly disengaged from advances in the historiography of the region.

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Panel Presentation “Mask Practices in Art.  Incorporations, interpretations and adaptations.”

Moderator:  Evelyne Laurent-Perrault is an Afro-Latina activist and scholar.  Born and raised in Venezuela from Haitian and Venezuelan parents, Ms. Laurent-Perrault has studied, lived, and traveled through Europe, Africa, Latin America, North America, and the Caribbean.  Ms. Laurent-Perrault is working on her disortation towards a Ph.D. in the History Department, New York University’s (NYU), African Diaspora program in Latin America and the Caribbean.

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Panelists:

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Claudio Mir received a Master’s degree in Fine Arts in Creative Writing,Rutgers University Graduate School, Newark, NJ, 2012.  He has been an artistic associate for the Institute of Arts Humanities Educations, 1999-2007, and Artistic Director for the Artist Mentoring Against Racism, Drugs and Violence Summer Camp, from 1997 to the present.

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Orlando Enrique Fiol is a piano and keyboard player, and Latin and Indian percussion instructor in various musicological fields.  He is finishing his Ph.D. in music theory at the University of Pennsylvania with a concentration on contemporary Cuban piano in popular dance music.  While immersing himself in Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, Debussy and Scriabin, Fiol gradually explored jazz piano, as well as other music traditions such as tabla, and others.  Fiol has played with renowned musicians such as Stevie Wonder and others.