La Casa explores culture through film

The Latino Cultural Center will explore culture at 7 p.m. tonight in a film screening of the Mexican film "El Coronel No Tiene Quien Le Escriba," or "No One Writes to the Colonel," at La Casa, 715 E. Seventh St.\n"It's often hard to get a lot of foreign films here in Bloomington," said Lillian Casillas, director of La Casa.\nThe screening is part of a monthly film series at La Casa, aimed at showing movies from different places to help people learn more about the Latino community. "El Coronel" is based on a novel by Columbian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez and features a performance by Salma Hayek. \nThe 1999 film tells the story of an aging colonel who is waiting for a pension that was promised to him by the government, but has yet to arrive. While everyone in his village knows that he waits in vain, the colonel continues to sit by the docks in anticipation of the letter, according to the film description released by La Casa.\nCasillas said the group did some research to choose the film.\n"We looked at a Web site that offered a lot of different Latino films that you normally wouldn't find in the mainstream. This one caught our eye," she said.\nCasillas said the film is fairly unknown in the United States, but attracted the attention of La Casa because of Marquez and Hayek.\nThe film series is being shown in conjunction with IU's Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, which, like La Casa, serves as an educational resource for the Latino student community.\n"(La Casa) has a mission that's similar to ours, which is to promote issues and increase awareness to the Latinos on campus," said Jordan Lauhon, a graduate assistant at CLAC.\nAccording to La Casa's mission statement, the group was started in 1973 as an educational center for all students to help bring political and cultural awareness to the Latino community. The facility features access to computers, a small library and a large screen television for student use and monthly film screenings.\nSophomore Adrienne Garcia is a regular at La Casa events, including many previous film screenings, and likes the center's welcoming atmosphere.\n"The environment is nice, kind of like a family setting," Garcia said. "You get to meet people and learn new things."\nThe movie is free and open to the public and may be followed by a discussion about the film. \nFor more information about La Casa or tonight's event, visit the center's Web site at www.indiana.edu/~lacasa or e-mail the center at lacasa@indiana.edu.\n-- Contact staff writer C. Warner Sills at csills@indiana.edu.