Mexican film maker Daniel Goldberg to visit URI

KINGSTON, R.I. -- January 7, 1999 -- The prize-winning Mexican documentary film maker Daniel Goldberg will visit the University of Rhode Island during the week of Jan. 24 to film Dr. David Gitlitz, a URI professor of languages, and his wife, Dr. Linda Davidson, for several sequences for his upcoming movie about the Hispanos and Latinos who descend from secret Spanish and Portuguese Jews who went underground in colonial times to escape the Inquisition.

During his visit, two screenings of Goldberg's 1995 film Un beso a esta tierra (A Kiss to This Land), which explores the process by which Central European Jewish immigrants to Mexico in the 1920s and 1930s, gradually transformed themselves into Mexicans will be shown.

The Jewish immigrants found the ebullient Latino culture of Mexico at first strange, and alienating, but with time came to adopt its language and culture, while struggling to retain their own ethnic identity.

Although the film deals with a specific immigrant group in a specific time and place, audiences around the world have recognized in it a universal expression of the immigrant experience. The film brilliantly explores the tension between immigrants‚ their desire to assimilate and hold on to the culture of their land of origin.

The film (in Spanish, with English subtitles) will be shown at the following places and times:

Mon., Jan. 25: URI Kingston, Memorial Union, Atrium 1, 8:15 p.m.

Tue., Jan. 26: URI Providence, Paff Auditorium, 7:30 p.m.

Goldberg will introduce the film in English, comment briefly on it, andanswer audience questions. There is no charge. Refreshments will be served.

Program access will be provided for persons with disabilities. If you require special accommodations or have questions regarding accessibility, please call 401-874-2285 (TDD/voice) 72 hours in advance.

Co-sponsors of this event are URI'S Honors Program and Visiting Scholars Committee, Latin American Students Association, Hillel, Multicultural Center, Feinstein College of Continuing Education, and Department of Languages.

Gitlitz and Linda Davidson, a writer on medieval life and an adjunct professor of Spanish at URI, have completed a cook book featuring recipes of the Crypto-Jews gleaned from the Spanish inquisition trials. They have gathered 85 recipes from testimony and after a lot of research into proportions, ingredients, and spices, they have tested them all in their Kingston kitchen. The book, "A Drizzle of Honey: The Lives and Recipes of Spain's Secret Jews" is scheduled to be published by St. Martins' in late February.

Questions or requests for interviews should be directed to David Gitlitz (401-874-4695. Dgitlitz@uri.edu.).