NEWS RELEASE

Office of External Communications

Houston, TX 77204-5017 Fax: 713.743.8199

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 30, 2005

Contact: Marisa Ramirez
713.743.8152 (office)
713.204.9798 (cell)
mrcannon@uh.edu

SPRING SPEAKER SERIES AT UH CLEARS THE AIR AROUND ‘SMELTERTOWN, TEXAS’

The University of Houston Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS) presents a discussion about a working class, Mexican American community growing in the shadow of an El Paso smelting plant. “Smeltertown, Texas: Photography, Gender and the Making of a Mexican American Working Community” will be presented at 2:30 p.m., Thursday, March 31, at the UH Hilton Hotel. Monica Perales, history professor and CMAS Visiting Scholar, will lead the discussion.

The event is free and opened to the public. Refreshments will be served.

Perales uses historical records and archival photographs to sketch an image of a town that grew with the flourishing of a smelter plant and then disappeared with the demise of the business.

“Even though this was one of El Paso’s largest ethnic Mexican communities at the turn of the 20th century, Smeltertown is largely absent from historical records,” said Perales. “I’ve had to piece together the history of this important community.”

Her talk is part of a larger field of study that examines the creation, evolution and demise of the working community of Smeltertown.

“This struggling, working class Latino community forged its own institutions, culture, family ties,” Tatchto Mindiola, director of CMAS said. “It overcame tremendous odds, and anyone interested in working class communities will not want to miss this.”

The event is part of the CMAS Spring Speaker Series.

WHAT: Smeltertown, Texas: Photography, Gender and the Making of a Mexican American Working Community, featuring Monica Perales, Visiting Scholar UH Center for Mexican American Studies
WHEN: 2:30 p.m., Thursday, March 31
WHERE: UH Hilton Hotel, Waldorf Astoria Room. For directions and parking information, please visit http://www.uh.edu/campus_map/buildings/CHC.html

For more information about UH visit the university’s ‘Newsroom’ at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.