http://www.international.ucla.edu/lai Facilitate cutting-edge research about Latin America at UCLA en-us "Those Who Remain" tells the story of Mexican families who have at least one member working in the United States. On Nov. 18, the UCLA Latin America Institute will be screening the film on campus with co-director Carlos Hagerman present, reports The Daily Bruin.http://www.international.ucla.edu/lai/article.asp?parentid=112957Bernardo Alvarez Herrera, the ambassador from Venezuela, says that the political crisis in Honduras and the U.S. military presence in Colombia will be pivotal issues in U.S. relations in Latin America.http://www.international.ucla.edu/lai/article.asp?parentid=112486'HAPI: the Database of Latin American Journal Articles' has increased its subscriber base in that region by giving its online library product away in some countries and charging less for it in others. HAPI had flexibility to make the change, which shortens paths to knowledge for scholars, because of its good financial health.http://www.international.ucla.edu/lai/article.asp?parentid=109361A conference last month on Folklore and the Politics of Belief in the Caribbean invited scholars to explore the transmission of African culture in the region and the way this hybrid culture was viewed by observers and researchers from abroad. The event was sponsored by the UCLA Latin American Institute and the Mellon Seminar on Caribbean Cultural History.http://www.international.ucla.edu/lai/article.asp?parentid=109254In a Spanish-language lecture on Latin America's women writers, the versatile and prolific Poniatowska explains that her vocation means something distinctive for Latin American women, and that passing centuries have brought little relief and appreciation for those who dare to make art.http://www.international.ucla.edu/lai/article.asp?parentid=108437The gathering of international experts extends efforts of collaboration and exchange by the UCLA Latin American Institute.http://www.international.ucla.edu/lai/article.asp?parentid=107602Jorge Preloran, a pioneer in the field of ethnographic documentary film and a professor emeritus at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, died March 28 in Los Angeles following a 10-year battle with prostate cancer.http://www.international.ucla.edu/lai/article.asp?parentid=106465Francisco Santos Calderon, a former journalist and a victim of kidnapping himself by the Medellin drug cartel, came to campus with a message: cocaine use is killing Colombia's tropical rainforests, poisoning its rivers and land with toxic chemicals used in production of the drug, and ravaging a fragile ecosystem that sustains species of birds, amphibians, reptiles and plants that can be found nowhere else on this planet.http://www.international.ucla.edu/lai/article.asp?parentid=105395From August 18 to 22, 2008, Professor Randal Johnson, Director of the UCLA Latin American Institute, taught a short course on literature, cinema, and television at the Globo Universidade and the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in collaboration with Globo Universidade.http://www.international.ucla.edu/lai/article.asp?parentid=100986In the second of a series of talks by journalists for the UCLA Latin American Institute, Dan Koeppel discusses the history and the fate of the banana.http://www.international.ucla.edu/lai/article.asp?parentid=99775