Past Events
Learn More About the Past Events at the Lewis Center of the Americas
The film Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth (2013) follows six young Maya in Guatemala and Chiapas through their daily and ceremonial life. Their cosmology, in which all life is sacred and interconnected, presents a deeply compelling alternative to the prevailing worldview. As giant corporations go to the ends of the earth to extract all resources, these Maya reveal their determination to resist the destruction of their culture and environment. they believe they are the guardians of the earth. Each of their stories touches upon a facet of the current global crisis.
Ambassador Dr. James Creagan of the Lewis Center of the Americas joined Dr. Jorge Schiavon of Mexico’s Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE) , Mr. Raúl Rodriguez of the Tecnológico de Monterrey, and Mr. Gerald Schwebel of IBC Bank for "The Challenges and Opportunities of the US-Mexico Bilateral Relationship in the Current Juncture", a panel discussion moderated by Consul General Rubén Minutti Zanatta. The Consulate General of Mexico in San Antonio coordinated and hosted the panel, as part of their series celebrating 200 years of diplomatic relations between the United States of America and Mexico. Among the distinguished guests in the capacity crowd was the City of San Antonio’s (COSA) Chief Diplomacy a Protocol Officer, Ms. Sherry Dowlatshahi, who presented an official city proclamation to the Consul General, celebrating the bicentennial of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Mexico.
UNAM San Antonio and the Institute of Aesthetic Research held the Public Art and Muralism in Mexico Conference Program with the most renowned specialists from the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
This program of conferences provided an overview of Mexican public art during the twentieth century, paying special attention to the history of mural painting. Over the past four decades, the history of muralism has undergone extensive revision, particularly as it relates to the relationship between nationalism, the Mexican state, and innovations in the arts. The conferences included the latest advances in specialized research, both in Mexico and in Latin America, Europe, and the United States.
Eduardo Chávez, director, speaker, podcast host and grandson of legendary civil rights activist César Chávez, will be on the UIW campus on Wednesday, September 26, 2022, to discuss his journey to connect with his grandfather’s legacy, and his efforts to capture and document the journey.
For many years, UIW has commemorated Día de los Muertos with a beautiful ofrenda near Our Lady's Chapel, decorated with symbols and signs of the season, skulls and skeletons (reminding us that death is part of life), and most importantly, with pictures of those whom we wish to honor. These altarcitos, or “little altars,” are not only created to help us remember but also to help us learn about and celebrate the lives of our family, friends and mentors. The 2022 community ofrenda will be set up in the hallway leading to Our Lady's Chapel on Tuesday, Oct. 25. It will remain set up until Nov. 18. Share photographs of your deceased loved ones and friends on the community ofrenda outside Our Lady’s Chapel. Please include your name, cell phone and email on the back of each photo if you wish them to be returned.
Attend All Saints’ Day Mass on Nov. 1 and All Souls’ Day Mass on Nov. 2 at 12 noon in Our Lady’s Chapel. There is no better way to honor the memory of a loved one than with your prayers, joined with the prayers of your UIW family. Please note that the 6 p.m. Mass on Nov. 1 at the Chapel of the Incarnate Word has been canceled.
Sign the Book of Remembrance in the hallway near the Our Lady’s Chapel.
If your department or school will be setting up an ofrenda, take some pictures and please inform Mission and Ministry at uiwmediaministry@uiwtx.edu . UMM is compiling an ofrenda pictorial directory of these places of remembrance from our UIW campuses and Brainpower schools. Send pictures to with “Ofrenda pictures from (your name)”
Visit the UMM webpage for additional ways to honor your loved ones during this season of “remembering.” The UMM web page also includes some helpful information if you would like to create your own ofrenda. Send UMM a picture to share in the ofrenda pictorial directory so that others can see. The webpage also includes important details and deadlines.
A collection of the photographs of Anayantzin Contreras and José Luis Rodríguez Ritte, curated by Gabriella Scott of the UIW Department of Art, will be on exhibit at the Kelso Art Center’s Semmes Gallery, on September 9 – 20, Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. The works of these Mexican artists explore the tensions embodied by their country’s syncretic heritage: tensions between nature and culture, instinct and intellect, design and improvisation, local and global, history and contemporaneity. These works, created in Mexico and abroad, are informed by cross-cultural exchange. In some cases, these images function as reverse “dispatches from the colonies” that once intrigued and delighted the European public with representations of difference coming from the New World. They are also grounded in the history of Mexican visual culture, in which figuration and abstraction have alternated through centuries to deploy, respectively, spirituality and intellectualism. Some of the images are presented as traditional 2-D works, some others are seeking status as objects: through the use of tactile, non-traditional materials and arrangements they evoke presence and encounter, juxtaposing tradition and modernity. In Contreras’ work, landscape and natural forms become introspective, disembodied and ethereal; Rodriguez Ritte explores idiosyncratic beauty without indulging in the narrow optics of the ethnographic gaze: the portrait is a convergence of personal and social truths, while architecture lays bare contradiction and paradox, but also imagination. Both artists focus on revealing the complexity and sophistication that, combined with a contemporary sensibility, reveal the adaptive, receptive nature of a culture in a constant state of renewal. “Ojos que no ven, corazón que no siente.” The event is presented by the UIW Department of Art.
The screening, in recognition of Hispanic Heritage Month, is hosted by the Beckendorf Family Center for Innovation and Global Entrepreneurship, UIW Center for Teaching and Learning, Department of Communication Arts and the San Antonio Chapter of the Fulbright Association. The film screening will take place on Sept. 20, from 6 - 8 p.m., in the UIW Student Engagement Center Ballroom and will be followed by a Q&A with award-winning journalist, producer and director Patricia Nazario. This award-winning bilingual documentary takes a modern-day look at the classic American Dream through the quintessential 21st Century entrepreneurial endeavor, food trucks!
The inaugural UIW Student Leadership Symposium is a three-day event consisting of in-person presentations and virtual presentations including break-out sessions. It will take place on October 4 - 6, 2022. Students from all three UIW campuses are encouraged to attend.
The purpose of the event is to strengthen cohesion across our all campuses (San Antonio, Irapuato and Mexico City) and raise student awareness about immigration and inspire action. Registration for the event will open no later than September 1, 2022. Be on the lookout for details in The Word Today, UIW's daily employee newsletter, and on social media channels. For more information, please contact Dr. Rafael Hoyle by email at hoyle@uiwtx.edu.
The Kickoff to Welcoming Week 2022 will be held at the UIW Student Engagement Center Ballroom from 6 to 8 p.m. and is free and open to the public. The program includes opening remarks by Mayor Nirenberg, a showing of the documentary The Price of a Dream, and a poetry declaration by Dr. Octavio Quintanilla. For a more detailed program description, please click on the full program flyer below.
The Lewis Center's Leaders of the Americas Speaker Series was officially inaugurated on Wednesday, March 29, with Mr. Vicente Fox as our featured presenter at the UIW Concert Hall. His much-anticipated speech, titled "Immigration: Challenges and Opportunities for Our Next Generation of Leaders," was heard live and in person by over 350 members of our community in attendance. The speech was also live-streamed to our Mexico campuses. Prior to the speech, a select group of 30 students from the UIW Honors Program attended a meet-and-greet with Mr. Fox. Drs. Scott Dittloff and Verónica Acosta, who led the selection and invitation of students, were also present, along with Dr. Evans, Mr. Marcos Fragoso, Dr. Rafael Hoyle and Dr. Juan Hernández, Guanajuato's Minister of Migrant and International Affairs. The enthusiasm of students was beyond expectations. Following the speech, Dr. Evans and Mr. Fox signed a memorandum of collaboration to facilitate the development of UIW academic programs with Centro Fox.
The U.S.A. screening of Tombuktu Films’ Un Mundo para Julius, based on Alfredo Bryce Echenique’s novel by the same name, will be held at the UIW Concert Hall on February 19 at 6 p.m. A question and answer with Peruvian director and founder of Tombuktu Films, Rossana Díaz Costa, will immediately follow. For further information, please contact Dr. Gabriel T. Saxton Ruiz, saxtonru@uiwtx.edu, Professor of Latin American Literature and Culture at the University of the Incarnate Word.
The Center for Medical Tourism Research delivered a 3-hour seminar on October 19 and 22 to a mostly Mexican audience of 75 individuals. The seminar featured UIW’s Dr. David Vequist and Mr. Ilan Geva of the University of Chicago as the main presenters. Dr. Vequist is the Director of the UIW Center for Medical Tourism Research, which now operates under the auspices of the Lewis Center. In response to the interest of Guanajuato government officials who attended the seminar, the CMTR is now designing a workshop to facilitate the development of a medical tourism industry cluster in Mexico’s Bajío region. For more information, please contact Dr. David Vequist, CMTR Director at vequist@uiwtx.edu.
The Lewis Center of the Americas proudly collaborated with the Universidad Autónoma de Mexico, San Antonio on this 5-part series that featured lectures by renowned scholars Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, Rodrigo Martínez Baracs, Erika Pani, and Javier Garcia Diego. The series covered a range of topics and periods of Mexican history from the pre-colombiana era to the Revolución Mexicana. For additional details please contact Dr. Rafael Hoyle, Director of the Liza and Jack Lewis Center of the Americas, at hoyle@uiwtx.edu.