A Short Documentary by Oscar Aponte and Juan David Cortés.

In the heart of the Amazon rainforest, the Murui-Muina people of Puerto Leguízamo, Colombia, defend their culture and traditions after surviving the genocide perpetrated by rubber company Casa Arana. In a sound and visual journey through the rivers and jungles of Amazonia, the documentary The Way Back to the Maloca portrays the life of the Murui-Muina people in night ceremonies, agricultural plots, malocas, classrooms, traditional dances, and daily conversations. Will the Murui-Muina people succeed in rescuing their ancestral knowledge and passing it down to the new generations?

Comments by Professor Mary Roldan, followed by Q&A with Oscar Aponte and Juan Cortés

Reception to follow in Room 5419, at 8pm.

Oscar Aponte is a PhD candidate in Latin American and Caribbean History at the CUNY Graduate Center. His dissertation focuses on indigenous history in the Amazon rainforest.

Juan Cortés is a cinematographer and documentary director based in Bogotá.

Event organized by the CUNY Graduate Center Colombian Studies Group and co-sponsored by the Center for Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies and the History Department.

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