This has been a busy year for the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program. In the fall seven students accompanied Professor Martha Huggins on the Brazil term abroad to São Paulo. In keeping with the theme of "women, technology and development," the students spent a period of time in São Paulo and then traveled throughout Brazil visiting communities and workplaces studying the work, lives and struggles of women in Brazil today.

In November Professors Pilar Moyano and Teresa Meade, along with LACS major, Patricia Acerbi '98, traveled to an international women's history conference in Havana, Cuba. Patricia, who had been granted an IEF to conduct senior thesis research, traveled on to Chiapas, Mexico where she met with women engaged in the Zapatista uprising. Patricia won the Women's Commission Thesis Prize, awarded to the student who writes the best senior thesis on a topic related to women, for "Women and Revolution in Cuba and Chiapas, Mexico, 1960 to the Present." She is now mulling over her acceptances to several graduate schools, including NYU, the University of Arizona, and San Diego State University, trying to make up her mind about next year.

Building on the interest generated by the Pope's visit to Cuba last January, Pilar, Teresa and Patricia, together and individually, were called on to present several talks on their experiences in Cuba to Union College and other capital district academic communities, including Russell Sage College, Junior College of Albany, the Capital District International Faculty Forum, and WRPI radio.