Located at 1852 W. 19th Street, Chicago, IL 60608, (312) 738-1503, fax: (312) 738-9740, or visit www.mfacmchicago.org.

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The 10th annual Sor Juana Festival serves to honor one of Mexico’s greatest writers, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, as well as to celebrate and showcase the artistic accomplishments of Mexican women from Mexico and the United States. The Festival also commends Chicago Mexican women leaders with the Sor Juana Achievement Awards. And, as a testimony to the enduring vitality of women worldwide, the Festival honors a woman whose life reflects the spirit of Sor Juana. This year the 2003 Sor Juana Honoree is Rosario Vargas.

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1651-1695) was a playwright, philosopher, mathematician, and poet. She is known as La Décima Musa (the Tenth Muse) and is often referred to as the First Feminist of the Americas. During Mexico’s colonial period, women’s roles in society were restricted, and most educational opportunities, except through the church, were inaccessible to women. Sor Juana entered a convent and became a nun, which enabled her to pursue her passions for scholarship and writing. She assembled the finest library of her time and her intellectual pursuits ranged from poetry to astronomy. Today her legacy continues to be celebrated and her works are memorized and recited throughout the world.

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EVENTS

Author

FELICIA LUNA LEMUS

Trace Elements of Random Tea Parties

Friday, Oct. 3, 7 p.m.

@ Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum

Free Admission

The book’s plot: Leticia Torrez, a university honors graduate, moves north to Los Angeles in an attempt to break from the traditional grandmother who raised her and from La Llorona, or the Weeping Woman of Mexican folklore who is said to fly through the skies at night and steal troublesome children and who has courted Leticia since her adolescence. Vividly wrought, heartbreaking and compelling, Trace Elements of Random Tea Parties is a wonderful debut novel.

Co-Sponsored by the Women’s Center, Latin American/Latino Studies Program, and Women’s Studies PRogram at DePaul University.

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2003 SOR JUANA ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS RECEPTION

Wednesday, Oct. 15

7:00 PM @ Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum, free

ROSARIO VARGAS

TEATRO AGUIJON

2003 Sor Juana Honoree

Wednesday, Oct. 29

7:00 PM @ Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum

$10 General

39TH CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL FILM FEST MEXICAN CINEMA OCT. 2-16

For info on the Mexican films in the 39th Chicago International Film Fest go to: chicagofilmfestival.com

SUSANA ALEXANDER EN DES-CONCIERTO

Friday, Nov. 7

7:00 PM @ Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum

$10 Member, $12 Student/Senior, $15 General

FLAVORS, SHAPES AND TRADITIONS BEHIND DAY OF THE DEAD BREAD

Sunday, October 12

2:00 – 4:00 PM @ Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum

$12 per person

MARIACHI REYNA DE LOS ANGELES

Monday, Nov. 10

7:00 PM @ The Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance 205 East Randolph Drive

$15-$30, For tickets please call (312) 629-8696