Fr. Luis Barrios, Ph.D., exponent of liberation theology, activist scholar, and new co-director of Pastors for Peace, will speak on “Challenging U.S. Policies Towards the Peoples of Latin America” on Wed., Feb. 22, at 7:30 pm, at UWM’s union in the Fireside Lounge (2200 E. Kenwood Blvd., Milwaukee).
Dr. Barrios will address immigration and deportation policies, the School of the Americas, and colonialism, occupation, and attempted domination and demonization as it affects countries such as Haiti, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and Cuba. Pastors for Peace administers free admission to Cuba’s acclaimed medical schools for U.S. students who promise to return and work as doctors in under-served communities in the U.S.
A native of Puerto Rico, Dr. Luis Barrios is a professor in NYC and Santo Domingo, and the author or editor of numerous books in Spanish and English on liberation theology, gangs in the US, the impact of US deportations, and exploitation at the Haitian/Dominican border. These include The Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation: Street Politics and the Transformation of a New York City Gang, and Banished to the Homeland: Dominican Deportees and Their Stories of Exile. He is an Episcopal priest in West Harlem and former prisoner of conscience for challenging the U.S. Army’s “School of the Americas.”
This talk is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by the Wisconsin Coalition to Normalize Relations With Cuba (414-273-1040, www.wicuba.org), Peace Action- WI (414-964-5158, www.peaceactionwi.org), and the Latin America Solidarity Committee.
