April 2, 2001 – Alma Guillermoprieto, award-winning journalist, author, and staff writer for The New Yorker, will deliver a lecture, “Intimate Relations: Domestic Servitude in Mexico and the United States,” on Wednesday, April 18, 2001, at 7:30 p.m. in the Gould Auditorium of the Marriott Library.

The lecture, sponsored by The Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah, will be followed by a reception and book signing for Guillermoprieto’s new book, Looking For History, an anthology of stories compiled from The New Yorker from 1994 to 2000.

Guillermoprieto applies her journalistic skill and considerable writing talent to the rich culture and complex politics of Latin America, including the dramatic and sometimes destabilizing affect of U.S. foreign policy in the region. Her lecture will conclude Tanner Humanities Center’s series of lectures, “Writing Across Borders: Mexico and the United States.”

Guillermoprieto’s recent stories in The New Yorker cover topics ranging from the relationship of coca cultivation in Colombia to the many left-wing guerrilla groups to the economic benefit of the drug trade to the Colombian government. She also illuminates Latin American domestic issues not often reported in the United States. Additionally, she offers insightful reports on the concerns of many ordinary Latin American citizens who are skeptical about the stated purpose of American military aid to fight the drug trade.

Guillermoprieto frequently endures tremendous physical hardship and personal danger in pursuit of a story. In her series on the guerilla groups in Colombia, for example, she was required to hike into isolated villages and paramilitary camps to interview the leaders of organizations who often make all or part of their income from kidnapping ordinary citizens.

On March 16, 2001, Guillermoprieto won the prestigious George Polk Award for Foreign Reporting. In 1994 she became the first recipient of the Samuel Chavkin Prize for Integrity in Latin American Journalism. In 1995 the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation honored her with a MacArthur Fellowship in recognition of her “accomplishments in journalism, which demonstrate originality, creativity, and ability to make a contribution to our life.”

Looking for History (Pantheon 2001) is Guillermoprieto’s third book. Her first book, Samba, was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award in 1990. Her next was The Heart That Bleeds, an anthology of stories collected from The New Yorker, covering the period 1989 to 1993. Looking for History will be available at The King’s English Book Shop, 1511 S. 1500 E. in Salt Lake City.

The Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center fosters innovative humanistic inquiry and scholarship. The Center’s public programs create opportunity for lively dialogue among scholars, students, and citizens on issues (from ancient to contemporary) pertaining to the human condition.
The lecture is free and open to the public. For more information or disability accommodation, please contact Rich Tuttle at 801-581-3732 or Holly Campbell at 801-581-7127. The Tanner Humanities Center will validate parking for the lot adjacent to Marriott Library and the University bookstore.