Lecture: Breaking Latinx Stereotypes

Located in Building 12 – Smith Auditorium. Email michele.marcum@sinclair.edu to register.

Stereotype: a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. What are the stereotypes surrounding Latinx Americans? Is there any truth to them? How were these stereotypes created? What effect do stereotypes have on how Latinxs are perceived by others and how they perceive themselves? Using his poems as a guide for the conversation, guest speaker, David Romero, leads students to deconstruct some of these harmful stereotypes; understanding their roles in their personal lives and society at large.

David A. Romero, is a Mexican-American spoken word artist from Diamond Bar, CA. He is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of El Martillo Press. Romero is the author of My Name Is Romero (FlowerSong Press), a book reviewed by Gustavo Arellano (¡Ask a Mexican!), Curtis Marez (University Babylon), and founding member of Ozomatli, Ulises Bella. Romero has received honorariums from nearly a hundred colleges and universities in thirty-four different states in the USA and has performed live in Mexico, Italy, and France. Romero’s work has been published in literary magazines in the United States, Mexico, England, Scotland, and Canada. Romero has opened for Latin Grammy winning bands Ozomatli and La Santa Cecilia. Romero’s work has been published in anthologies alongside poets laureate Joy Harjo, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Luis J. Rodriguez, Jack Hirschman, and Tongo Eisen-Martin. Romero has won the Uptown Slam at the historic Green Mill in Chicago; the birthplace of slam poetry. Romero offers a scholarship for high school seniors interested in spoken word and social justice: “The Romero Scholarship for Excellence in Spoken Word.”