A photography exhibit titled “A Visual History of Latino Students at the University of Kentucky, 1865-2019” will be on display at WT Young Library at the University of Kentucky this fall. Curated by University of Kentucky undergraduate student Daniela Gamez Salgado, this collection of archival and contemporary photography presents visual evidence of important firsts in the history of Latino students at the university.  The photos chosen for this exhibit focus on individual student experiences and collective student action, while also celebrating the diversity of experiences and identities encompassed by students of Latin American descent at the university. Commenting on the exhibit, curator Daniela Gamez Salgado states: “As the first official collection of the history of Latino students at the University of Kentucky, this exhibit helps us better understand and analyze the changing needs of this historically underserved community and encourages us all to rethink what it means to be a Wildcat.”

The exhibit will be located in the Rose Street entrance to the WT Young Library and can be viewed during regular library hours between September 16^th and November 1^st, 2019. An online image gallery from the exhibit can be viewed at https://uknowledge.uky.edu/latino_student_history/

In honor of the exhibit, University of Kentucky alum and former Director of the UK Martin Luther King Center Ricardo Nazario y Colón will give a lecture titled “Beyond the Cosmic Race: Latinequis in the United States”. The lecture, with reception to follow, will be held on October 10^th from 4:00pm to 5:30pm at the Gatton Student Center, room 331.

The exhibit, lecture, and reception are sponsored by University of Kentucky Libraries, Department of Hispanic Studies, College of Arts & Sciences Year of Equity Program, UK Martin Luther King Center, and Latino Student Union.

Kirk examines the contrasting circumstances surrounding the inception and fate of two great colonial Mexican libraries to illuminate the gender politics of knowledge at play in the intellectual culture of seventeenth-century New Spain. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, cloistered nun and famous writer, used her vast collection of books to challenge women's exclusion from scholarly culture while Bishop Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, powerful colonial political and religious figure, placed his library at the center of a powerful educational institution which promoted the production and dissemination of knowledge as masculine.