The UCLA Latin American Institute (LAI) has helped to organize the 2018 American Society for Ethnohistory meeting in Oaxaca, Mexico (October 10-13). The LAI director, Professor Kevin Terraciano, is chair of the Program Committee, and ex-president of the society which was founded in 1954. The LAI and American Indian Studies Center (AISC) are co-sponsoring the conference with the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) and the Alfredo Harp-Helú Foundation of Oaxaca.

The tri-lingual conference (English, Spanish, Nahuatl) features 72 sessions focusing on Indigenous Peoples of the Americas and across the globe. Our UCLA community is actively participating in the conference as several UCLA History graduate students are presenting, including Beatriz Cruz López, Tania Bride, Juan Pablo Morales Garza, and Toulouse-Antonin Roy. Along with our UCLA students, UCLA professors and instructors will partake as Professor Robin Derby will present on a panel on ecology and ethnothistory, UCLA Nahua instructor Eduardo de la Cruz will recount ceremonial practices in Veracruz, and LAI Director Kevin Terraciano will participate in five panels. In addition, about 20 UCLA alumni are participating.

Throughout the three-day conference, conference participants can enjoy led excursions to the archaeological site of Monte Albán and Oaxaca’s Historical Archive Building.

The conference coincides with “Día de la Reconstitución de los Pueblos Indígenas” in Oaxaca. On this day, locals celebrate and honor their community’s endeavors.

We greatly appreciate the LAI staff Jennifer Laínez and Veronica Zavala, several LAS and History students, Professor Fernando Pérez Montesinos, and AISC staff for contributing to the creation of this year’s program.