Students perform songs recalling activism and culture of 1968

The year 1968 was a turning point not only for America, but the world. It was the year that promising leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated, backlash against the Vietnam War was strong and social activism raged.

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of that turbulent and psychedelic year, the Latin American Music Center, Latino Studies Program, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and the African American Arts Institute are sponsoring a musical show, “Singing for Social Justice: 1968’s Legacy in the Americas.”

The groups hope the event will unite the Americas through song Sunday at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater.

“The concert is truly international in scope and context,” research director Luis Gonzalez said. Performers will cover songs from the United States, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Jamaica and more.

Gonzalez became intensely involved in the events of 1968 when he was asked to help research the collection of posters exhibited on each floor of the Wells Library’s East Tower. In collaboration with Alfredo Minetti, the event’s creator and artistic director, the idea of the concert developed.

Performers include Luke Gillespie, Krista Detor, Anya Peterson Royce, Curtis Cantwell Jackson, Yuriria Rodriguez, Paulo Dias, the Latin American Popular Music Ensemble and others.

The topics covered in the music and performance range from civil rights and gender equality to anti-government and student movements.

“The concert is not a political statement,” Minetti said.

The performance is more about bringing back the memories of those years through musical expression, Gonzalez said.

Some of the 15 songs performed include “Alabama” by John Coltrane, “Buffalo Soldier” by Bob Marley and “Me Gustan los Estudiantes” by Violeta Parra (Chile), which is a song focusing on student activism that is often considered the anthem of Latin American students, Gonzalez said.

A slideshow of historical images will be projected onto the screen behind the performers to help give context to each song. Each song has its own slide. Professor Anya Peterson Royce will also read original poetry before each of the musical numbers. A professor of anthropology and comparative literature, Royce has been writing poetry for as long as she can remember.

“It is a challenge to write poems that are compatible with the messages but which do not simply duplicate them,” Royce said in an e-mail.

A student at Berkeley in 1968, Royce also experienced the student movement in Mexico, so it is something to which she can relate.

“If the audience is moved by the performance to reflect on all the movements of the 1960s, the hopes and dreams of the people who pursued what often seemed impossible, if not life-threatening causes because they believed in a better, more just world for everyone, and perhaps to realize that we still have a way to go, then it will have been a great thing to have done,” Royce said in an e-mail.

Even though we are living 40 years later, Gonzalez said he believes it is important to remember the past and the ideal of utopia reminiscent of 1968 and that era.

“I believe today’s context is different ... but it’s important to bring back those beliefs,” Gonzalez said.


‘Singing for Social Justice: 1968’s Legacy in the Americas’
When: 6 p.m. Sunday
Where: Buskirk-Chumley Theater
More Info: The show is free and open to the public.