Tarahumara Cultural Tour Opens April 8 at CQL

BISBEE, AZ – Tarahumara village leader, violinist, and master carving artist Patracinio Lopez will join noted Sierra Madre explorer and “Copper Canyon” author Richard D. Fisher in the Copper Queen Library’s Meeting Room on April 8 at 5:30pm to kick off the Spring 2008 Tarahumara Cultural and Educational Tour, "Tarahumara Survival: Preserving Traditional Culture in the 21st Century."

The Tarahumaras are among the most isolated and traditional people in the Americas, without much telecommunication or dependence on modern technology. They grow corn and beans in arid mountain country, and speak a Uto-Aztecan language related to the Ute, Hopi and Puebloan languages. The Tarahumara call themselves Raramuri or "those who run."

According to Lopez, there are still many village members who do not speak or understand Spanish and do not "know or understand anything of the modern world."

Lopez belongs to the Tarahumara people of the Sierra Madre/Copper Canyon area in northern Mexico. He will discuss modern challenges to Tarahumara life, and play traditional music on a hand-carved violin. His violins are noted both for their workmanship and their heads carved in the shapes of birds and animals. He has won the national violin making championship in Creel six years in a row.

Each spring, he and Fisher sponsor a traditional dance group in the U.S., where his violins are featured and much sought after. Lopez has also previously visited the U.S. as leader of a foot racing team, and he has delivered cultural presentations at the Museum of Northern Arizona and at the Heard Museum in Phoenix.

Accompanying Lopez, Richard Fisher will show slide with commentary about Tarahumara culture, including its similarities and possible connections to Ancestral Pueblo culture, especially the Anasazi.

About his experiences outside the village, Lopez says that he is very happy that he opened the door into the modern world, because his travels help him raise awareness of Tarahumara culture. He is committed to bring tons of grain to his people, with his friend Fisher and others, to provide the possibility for the survival of those who choose a traditional life in the age of globalization.

From 1991 to 2003, together Fisher and Lopez have been responsible for delivering over 150 tons of grain to the Tarahumara people during the ten-year drought.

This presentation is sponsored by the Friends of the Copper Queen Library and is free and open to all members of the public.

For additional information, contact the library at 432-4232.

Library Schedules Women's History Events

BISBEE, AZ – Each year, March is designated as National Women’s History Month to ensure that the history of American women will be recognized and celebrated in schools, workplaces, and communities throughout the country. This year, in honor of the originality, beauty, imagination, and multiple dimensions of women’s lives, Women’s Art: Women’s Vision is the 2008 theme for National Women’s History Month.

To help commemorate women’s contributions to our history, culture, and artistic
heritage, the Copper Queen Library will present a series of documentary films, book discussions, and lectures on Monday and Wednesday evenings throughout March.

The Monday Night "Did You Know?..." Documentary Film Series, sponsored by the Friends of the Copper Queen Library, will open March’s programming on March 3 with a screening of Ken Burns’ Not for Ourselves Alone:The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony at 5:30pm in the Library Meeting Room.

Subsequent Monday documentaries include a special screening of David Earnhardt’s Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections on March 10 at 6pm; Eve Ensler’s What I Want My Words to Do to You: An Unprecedented Look Into the Hearts and Minds of Women in a Maximum Security Prison on March 17 at 5:30pm; Paola di Florio’s Speaking in Strings on March 24 at 5:30pm, and Barbara Sonneborn’s Regret to Inform on March 31 at 5:30pm.

To kick off live programming, beginning March 5 at 6:30pm, Arizona Humanities Council Scholar Dr. Mary Gilliland, Dean of Sciences at Pima West in Tucson, will facilitate a book discussion of Eva Hoffman’s Lost in Translation, also chosen as a commemoration of Jewish Book Week.

In 500 Great Books by Women, Prudence Hockley describes the book as an autobiography that traces the struggle of a musically gifted, passionate, and thoughtful adolescent who is painfully uprooted when her Polish family emigrates to Canada. First as a member of a Jewish family in Catholic Poland, then as an immigrant in Canada, "stuffed into a false persona," and pitched headlong into a strange language, Eva Hoffman describes her early years as defined by marginality and dislocation.

Following up on March 12 at 6:30pm, Dr. Reba Wells will present a talk on “The Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame.” Seventy fascinating Arizona women have now been honored since the first induction ceremony in 1981. Each woman in the Arizona Women's Hall of Fame is different – homemakers, educators, entrepreneurs, ranch women, legislators, judges, authors, potters, transplants from other states, a mayor, an architect – but a common thread of courage weaves this group together. Dr. Wells’ presentation will highlight some of their fascinating stories.

Finally, as part of the Copper Queen Library’s “Feel Great in 08!” Health Information Series, two events will feature discussions of women’s health and local women healers.

On March 19 at 6:30pm, Dr. Ann Hibner Koblitz, Professor of Women’s Studies at Arizona State University, will present a talk on “Sex, Herbs, and Birth Control,” followed on March 26 at 6:30pm by a panel discussion of local women healers, including Dr. Peggy Avina, Dr. Theresa McEntee, Ms. Patty Miller, and Ms. Sarah Stark.

This “Wednesday-Plus Health Information and Multicultural Diversity Series” is funded by the Friends of the Copper Queen Library and made possible in part by a grant from the Arizona Humanities Council.

For further information on these or any library programs or events, contact the Library Circulation Desk at 432-4232.