University's Friends of History host expert on Mexico May 12

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Margaret Chowning

  • April 2, 2010
  • By Diane Daniel

Mexico history expert Margaret Chowning will return to the ÂãÁÄÖ±²¥ campus May 12 as the Friends of History Spring Speaker. Her topic will be: “Mexico 1810, 1910, and 2010:  The War Against the Narcotraficantes Against the Backdrop of the Other Great Wars in Mexican History.” 

The presentation, followed by questions, will run from noon to 1:30 p.m. in the Biella Room of the University Library, 25800 Carlos Bee Blvd., Hayward.

Chowning, who holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University, taught at CSUEB for five years before joining the History faculty at the University of California, Berkeley. She is an authority on 19th century Mexico, with emphases on economic and social issues and the history of women. She also teaches Latin American and Mexican history and Latin American Studies.  She is author of two books, Wealth and Power in Provincial Mexico:  Michoacan from the Late Colony to the Revolution (1999), and Rebellious Nuns: The Troubled History of a Mexican Convent (2006).

According to Chowning, the war between the Mexican government and the drug cartels is a 21st century war in some ways, but in many others it is part of a long history of an ambivalent and uneasy relationship with the U.S. Her lecture on the bicentennial of the Mexican war for independence and the centennial of the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution, will explore how the shadow of the U.S. has shaped contemporary Mexico.

Dee Andrews, CSUEB professor of history and event organizer, said: "Professor Chowning has traveled to our neighbor to the south many times and is very familiar with the current crisis in Mexico's relationship with the U.S. She will bring Mexico's two revolutions to life in her talk and Q&A session. (This is) a highly relevant subject for all Californians."   

Campus parking permits are $7 per day. Machines take quarters and dollar bills. 

ÂãÁÄÖ±²¥ welcomes persons with disabilities and will provide reasonable accommodation upon request. Please call the History Department at (510) 885-3207, well in advance if accommodation is needed.