Newberry Library | Revolutions Across Borders

The history of borderlands—from Argentina to Brazil, and Mexico up to Canada—is riddled with questions about immigration, labor practices, Indigenous rights, the arms trade, resource extraction, and cartography. In this program, a panel of experts will explore this history, and how these issues continue to shape our world today.

This program is being held as part of ¡Viva la Libertad! Forming More Perfect Unions Across the Americas. ¡Viva la Libertad! is a series of public programs and an exhibition bringing together scholars, writers, artists, and community members to explore the independence struggles of the Americas and reflect on their legacies today. Looking back on the Age of Revolutions 200 years ago in Latin America and the United States, ¡Viva la Libertad! examines how new countries emerged from colonial rule, who gained freedom and who was left behind, and why so many are still fighting for liberty, racial justice, and democracy.

¡Viva la Libertad! is being coordinated by the Newberry Library in partnership with the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, the National Museum of Mexican Art, Illinois Humanities, and Instituto Justice and Leadership Academy. The project has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom. The exhibition at the Newberry is made possible through the generous support of the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation.

About the Speakers:

Brian DeLay is associate professor and Preston Hotchkis Chair in the History of the United States at Berkeley. He received his PhD from Harvard University and has published widely on topics including the similarities and differences between 19th and 21st century instability in the U.S.-Mexican borderlands; the connection between guns and governance in Mexico’s post-independence history; Lincoln’s policy toward the French Intervention in Mexico; and violence and belonging on the Navajo-New Mexican frontier. He is the author of War of a Thousand Deserts: Indian Raids and the U.S.-Mexican War.

Jordana Dym is professor of history and Director of Latin American and Latinx Studies at Skidmore College. Her research and teaching interests include Latin America, the history of cartography, book history, and public history.

Monica Ricketts is a historian of colonial Latin America and the Iberian Atlantic World at Temple University. She specializes in the intellectual, political, and cultural history of the Spanish world. She received her BA and Licenciate degrees from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú in Lima and her PhD from Harvard University.