January 13, 2010
6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Hojel Hall of the Americas Auditorium
Institute of the Americas, UCSD campus

The Institute of the Americas and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) will host a forum to examine immigration and related human rights issues. The event will include a showing of a PBS documentary, Farmingville, directed by Catherine Tambini and Carlos Sandoval in which «the shocking hate-based attempted murders of two Mexican day laborers catapult a small Long Island town into national headlines, unmasking a new front line in the border wars: suburbia.»

The film provides an opportunity to learn from Farmingville�s experience, to dissect how conflicts occur, and to explore how to diffuse conflicts without turning neighbors into enemies or escalating rhetoric into violence. For nearly a year, Tambini and Sandoval lived and worked in Farmingville, New York, so they could capture first-hand the stories of residents, day laborers and activists on all sides of the debate.

There will be a discussion after the documentary with S. Lynne Walker, Vice President of the Institute of the Americas and Rich Barton, Chairman for Education, Anti-Defamation League.

In 2004, Ms. Walker, then Bureau Chief of Copley News Service in Mexico City, wrote a similar story to Farmingville’s entitled «Beardstown: Reflections of a Changing America,» for which she was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. She will share her experiences while researching the series and what she learned from her reporting. At ADL, Mr. Rick Barton has served in many local and national capacities, most recently as National Vice Chair of International Affairs (2005), and National Chair of Leadership (2007-2009). Mr. Barton is a partner at Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch LLP, a leading San Diego law firm and Institute of the Americas Community Program Partner. Mr. Barton lectures and writes on conflict and human rights issues.

FARMINGVILLE