BLOOMINGTON, Ill. –The Office of Multicultural Students Affairs will host Bobby Gonzalez in celebration of Native American Heritage Month at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 6 in the Beckman Auditorium of The Ames Library (1211 Park St., Bloomington). The event is free and open to the public.
Gonzalez will present the program, “Somos Indios,” which examines history, art, leaders and important events of the indigenous people of Latin America. He will discuss how the Aztec, the Maya, the Inca, the Taino and other Native nations made important contribution to the fields of science, math, agriculture, linguistics and cuisine. He also considers contemporary issues like illegal aliens and the war on drugs.
Gonzalez, a multicultural motivational speaker, grew up in a bicultural environment in the South Bronx of New York City. He is part Native American (Taino) and part Latino (Puerto Rican) and uses his diverse background in his poetry and his storytelling. Gonzalez has given lectures at Yale University, the University of Alaska, Fairbanks and the University of Alabama, Huntsville. He has told his stories at Carnegie Hall, the Museum of Television and Radio and the Detroit Institute of Arts, Gonzalez has also performed his poetry at the National Museum of the American Indian, the University of North Dakota and the Nuyorican Poets Café in New York City.