7pm, University Center Sunnen Lounge
Barbara Martinez Jitner is one of the first Latina executive producers of a primetime network television series. The Emmy nominated American Family made history when it debuted in 2002 as the first Latino drama on broadcast television. On Wednesday, March 19, Martinez Jitner will visit Webster University to share her latest project.
The real life hero of Jennifer Lopezfs film, Bordertown, Martinez Jitner posed as a factory worker on the U.S./Mexico border in order to uncover a dark world of grueling poverty and sexual abuse that leads to murder. The film was inspired by Martinez Jitnerfs critically acclaimed documentary, La Frontera.
Barbara Martinez Jitnerfs lecture, gFemicide at Our U.S. Border: To Be a Woman in Juarez is a Death Sentence,h gives a moving and personal look at the crippling poverty and gender discrimination only 50 yards away from the United States. The border town of Juarez, Mexico has been nicknamed gThe Capital of Murdered Womenh because more than 400 women have been found raped, mutilated and murdered. Almost of all of these women worked in American owned factories, all created by NAFTA. Martinez Jitnerfs lecture will touch on how NAFTAfs gexpendable workforceh has turned into a workforce of expendable human beings.
Lecture will be held in the University Center Sunnen Lounge at 7pm and will include a screening of La Frontera, discussion and Q&A.