Virtual Lecture: Sarmiento's Trepidations in Washington

Historic Alexandria invites you to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month by attending our virtual lecture by Professor Enrique Pumar of Santa Clara University on Dr. Domingo Sarmiento’s visit to Washington in 1847, and its effect on his time as president of Argentina. For more on Historic Alexandria’s celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, please visit here.

Dr. Enrique Pumar, Fay Boyle Professor and Chair of the Santa Clara University Department of Sociology, will show how Faustino Domingo Sarmiento (pictured above), the Latin American statesman and public intellectual, conceived the functioning of our democracy and the splendor of our nation’s capital at a time of great uncertainty and political rancor. The presentation introduces Sarmiento and the purposes that brought him to the United States. After discussing his travels around the country, and in particular his stay in our nation’s capital, the presentation discerns his observations about American democracy.

Dr. Enrique Pumar joined the Santa Clara Department of Sociology in 2017. He received his PhD. in Sociology from American University in 1999. Dr. Pumar is currently affiliated with the Social Mobility Project of the Institute of Public Economics at the University of the Basque Country in Spain and with the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University. In 2017, he was a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the University of Valladolid in Spain.  In Fall 2017, Pumar was named Visiting Lecturer at the Cultural Institute Felix Varela in La Habana, Cuba, a degree-granting institution sponsored by the Vatican. The author of over 50 publications, he serves in the editorial board of multiple academic journals including Sociological Forum and is the Contributing Editor for Sociology for the Handbook of Latin American Studies published by the Library of Congress. Pumar frequently provides expert analysis of social issues for various media outlets including CNN and Univision. From 2017-2019, Pumar was a Senior Fellow at SCU Center for Arts and Humanities.

The lecture is $6 and tickets are available at AlexandriaVA.gov/Shop. Guests will receive an email shortly after purchase with the Zoom meeting link, Meeting ID, and password.