The Institute for Religion, Culture and Public Life at Columbia University will present a talk by Alyshia Gálvez on “Guadalupan New York: Activism and Devotion among Mexicans in NYC” on Tuesday, February 12th, 2013, 6-7:30 pm at Room 707, International Affairs Building 420 West 118th St, NY.
Alyshia Gálvez is a cultural anthropologist (PhD, NYU 2004) whose work focuses on the efforts by Mexican immigrants in New York City to achieve the rights of citizenship. This talk asks: How do spaces of devotion become spaces of activism? What role does faith play in the construction of civic spaces and civil society among recent immigrant groups? What are the limitations of these forms of social mobilization? This talk will explore a decade of Guadalupan-based devotion and activism for immigration rights among recent Mexican immigrants in New York City. Based on Gálvez’s extended ethnographic research in New York City and many years of activism and advocacy, she will reflect on the changing immigrant rights movement and its intersection with faith based institutions and organizations.