FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For more information contact: Tanya Mote – 303-296-0219 Debra Gallegos – debra.suteatro@gmail.com Daniel Salazar – razalasstudios@gmail.com

2015 American Book Award Winner Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz Kicks Off New Chapter for Su Teatro’s XicanIndie Thursday

DENVER CO- XicanIndie Thursday kicks off a new chapter Thursday, November 5, with the screening of Foreigners in Their Own Land, the first episode of the PBS series Latino Americans, 6:30 p.m. at Su Teatro Cultural and Performing Arts Center, 721 Santa Fe Dr. The event is free and open to the public. XicanIndie Thursday is Su Teatro’s monthly first Thursday event, celebrating Latino world film. Every April, Su Teatro produces the XicanIndie Film Festival a four day regional Latino independent film festival. Foreigners in Their Own Land will be accompanied by a dialogue with renowned scholar Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz. An Indigenous People’s History of the United States, Dunbar Ortiz’s radical reframing of US history from an indigenous perspective, is the winner of the 2015 American Book Award and the 2015 PEN Oakland-Josephine Miles Award for Excellence in Literature. “We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Dunbar Ortiz to kick off this exciting and rich opportunity to explore Latino history,” XicanIndie Film Fest Director Daniel Salazar, said, “PBS left Colorado and New Mexico out of Latino Americans: 500 years of History, Foreigners in their Own Land. Dr. Dunbar Ortiz will fix that for us with her research exploring our Mestizo roots and the culture of resistance. We will host public screenings of all six Latino Americans episodes with live presentations that will connect documentary themes with our own history and culture.”

SIX MONTH COMMITMENT TO PBS SERIES

Over the next six months, XicanIndie Thursday will screen episodes from Latino Americans, grounding each presentation in local histories, dialogue, stories, and artistic programming and involving local as well as visiting scholars. The complete schedule of programming can be found at Su Teatro’s website: http://suteatro.org/latino-americans/ Su Teatro received a competitive “Latino Americans: 500 Years of History” grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the American Library Association (ALA). As one of 203 grant recipients selected from across the country, Su Teatro Cultural & Performing Arts Center received a cash grant of $10,000 to hold public programming — such as public film screenings, discussion groups, oral history initiatives, local history exhibitions, multi-media projects or performances — about Latino history and culture. The organization also received the six-part, NEH-supported documentary film “Latino Americans,” created for PBS in 2013 by the WETA public television station. The award-winning series chronicles the history of Latinos in the United States from the 16th century to present day. Participating scholars include: Dr. Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz/ California State University Professor, Dr. Jose Rivera/University of New Mexico Professor, Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes, and Dr. Antonio Esquibel. Companion programming will include dialogues, gallery exhibits and music events. “Latino Americans are the country’s largest minority group, with more than 50 million people, and still many people are unaware of their rich and varied history and culture,” said Daniel Salazar, XicanIndie Film Festival Director. “I’m thrilled that Su Teatro has this opportunity to explore this topic in our community.” The Latino Americans: 500 Years of History grantees represent 42 states and the District of Columbia, and include 78 public libraries, 68 college/university libraries and organizations, 19 community college libraries, 10 state humanities councils, 12 museums and a range of other nonprofit organizations. View a full list of the recipients. Latino Americans: 500 Years of History is part of an NEH initiative, The Common Good: The Humanities in the Public Square. ###

    The Latino Americans: 500 Years of History grantees represent 42 states and the District of Columbia, and include 78 public libraries, 68 college/university libraries and organizations, 19 community college libraries, 10 state humanities councils, 12 museums and a range of other nonprofit organizations. View a full list of the recipients.   Latino Americans: 500 Years of History is part of an NEH initiative, The Common Good: Humanities in the Public Square.   About the National Endowment for the Humanities Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at www.neh.gov.   About the American Library Association The American Library Association is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with approximately 58,000 members in academic, public, school, government and special libraries. The mission of the American Library Association is to provide leadership for the development, promotion and improvement of library and information services and the profession of librarianship in order to enhance learning and ensure access to information for all.