Author and artist Lamberto Roque visits WCU

 Humanities at WCU      November 21, 2019

Oaxacan artist and author Lamberto Roque Hernández visited WCU last October to participate in a series of events aiming to engage the campus and local communities. During his 5-day residency, the Oakland (CA)-based educator engaged different constituencies in the WNC region. The main event on campus, the keynote speech entitled Education Without Borders, drew a sizable crowd to the UC Theater, where students and other community members actively engaged with the speaker.

Other events included in the agenda of Roque's visit were class activities and discussions of Roque's literary and artistic work. He visited a class in Spanish, where our own Dr. Lori Oxford's students had the opportunity to discuss one of Roque's literary works, entitled Cartas a Crispina. He also visited Dr. Melissa Birkhofer's English class, where he engaged students in the discussion of Here I Am. Lastly, Dr. Erin Tapley of the School of Art and Design of the David O. Belcher College of Fine and Performing Arts, hosted Roque in one of her classes.

With the community at large, Lamberto Roque attended an outreach event with Vecinos, Inc., as well as visited the WCU Cherokee Center in Cherokee.

WCUSpanish is honored to have had this fantastic scholar and activist share his experiences with our students. We would also like to thank the WCU community (Degree Plus, Campus Activities, Latinx program, Department of World Languages, and other stakeholders) for their support in this endeavor. A special shout out to Dr. Melissa Birkhofer for the effort in making this visit a reality.