Friday 9/29 – Thursday 10/5
30 SATURDAY Poet, novelist, and diplomat Miguel Angel Asturias’s first novel, El senor presidente, was a scathing condemnation of the regime of Guatemalan dictator Manuel Estrada Cabrera. He went on to write several more novels marked by his signature fusion of Mayan mysticism and passionate social protest, including 1949’s Hombres de maiz, a depiction of the plight of Mayan peasants that’s widely considered to be his masterpiece. He later served as Guatemalan ambassador to France and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1967. He died in 1974, but his son, Rodrigo Asturias, has picked up where he left off, cofounding the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity–a leftist movement that aligned four separate guerrilla factions–and becoming a key figure in the Guatemalan peace process. Tonight at 6 he’ll discuss his father’s legacy and the ongoing democratization of his country since the signing of the 1996 peace accord that ended 36 years of civil war. It’s at 5 at Dulce Vida Cafe, 1338 W. Madison, and it’s free. Call 773-334-9101 for more.
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2 MONDAY Eve Ensler’s Obie-winning show The Vagina Monologues, which just opened at the Apollo Theater, is based on interviews she did with more than 200 women from all walks of life. The monologues address everything from rape to pelvic exams to childbirth to the reappropriation of the word “cunt.” Now the stories have been compiled in a book of the same name, which Ensler will be reading from and signing tonight from 7:30 to 8:30 at Women & Children First Bookstore, 5233 N. Clark. It’s free; call 773-769-9299 for more.
