The Latino Student Association invited Vanessa Núñez Handal, who directs the “Art and Culture for Peace” project, to read from her books and talk about the Latino experience on Nov. 2 in the McCastlain Hall Ballroom.
Handal presented a PowerPoint slideshow about the hardships that Latinos and Hispanics have survived from the 1800s to present day.
LSA provided an interpreter to help audience members who didn’t speak Spanish understand Handal.
Handal also spoke about her first time coming to the U.S from Guatemala, her country of residence.
After her presentation, students could purchase copies of “Mirrors,” “God Was Afraid” and “The Mad Men Die of Old” and have them signed by Handal.
Her book “God Was Afraid” is about the Salvadoran Civil War, which was fought from 1979 to 1992.
Handal was born in San Salvador, El Salvador, in 1973.
She worked as a lawyer in El Salvador until 2002. She is now a professor at the University of Guatemala at
its Valle de Guatemala and Rafael Landívar locations.
Handal has been a visiting lecturer at the University of Liverpool, Tulane University, Loyola University, the Ibero-American Institute in Frankfurt, the Cervantes Institute in Berlin and the Latin American Institute in Vienna.
