Dr. Benito M. Vergara, Jr. will speak on his book, Pinoy Capital: The Filipino Nation in Daly City.  Daly City, California, dubbed "the Pinoy Capital of the United States," is home to 33,000 Filipino Americans.  Dr. Vergara's talk will examine the complex and ambivalent feelings immigrants possess, and the conflict of belonging to a thriving American community, yet possessing nostalgia for the Philippine homeland and people they left behind.

Dr. Vergara is also the author of Displaying Filipinos: Photography and Colonialism in Early 20th- Century Philippines.  He received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from Cornell University.

Admission is free; no reservations are required.  Seating is on a first come basis.

The event is co-sponsored by the UCLA Pilipino Alumni Association, Asian American Studies Graduate Student Association (AASGSA), Pilipino American Graduate Student Association (PAGaSA), Asian and Pacific Islander Undergraduate Association (APIUA), Samahang Pilipino, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, and the Charles E. Young Library.

For more information, please contact:

UCLA Asian American Studies Department
3336 Rolfe Hall
Los Angeles, CA  90095-7225
Office:  (310) 267-5592
Fax:  (310) 267-5590

Karen Tei Yamashita, Professor of Literature, UC Santa Cruz, will read from and discuss her forthcoming novel, I Hotel, which revolves around the Asian American movement in California.  The book will be published in Spring 2010 by Coffee House Press.

Admission is free; no reservations are required.  Seating is on a first come basis.  The event is co-sponsored by the Asian American Studies Department, the Asian American Studies Graduate Student Association, and the Charles E. Young Research Library.

For more information, please contact:

UCLA Asian American Studies Department
3336 Rolfe Hall
Los Angeles, CA  90095-7225
Office:  (310) 267-5592
Fax:  (310) 267-5590