Borderline Personalities

Comments (0) By Tricia Parker Thursday, Jun 2 2011

There’s a great moment in Julie Taymor’s 2002 film, Frida, where the title character (played by Salma Hayek) appears for a formal family portrait dressed in men’s clothing, much to her mother’s horror. It may be a romantic oversimplification of Mexican culture, but it’s a better representation than the gangs, drugs, and violence that we often see portrayed on TV.

Phoenix-area residents are invited to participate in a broad, intellectual conversation on the realities of the Mexican experience as part of Los Angeles-based Zócalo Public Square’s “Telling Mexico’s Stories” event at the Heard Museum, 2301 North Central Avenue. Zócalo has hosted a wide range of speakers, from Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman to Jane McGonigal, who discussed how gaming will save the world.

At the Phoenix event, a moderated panel of journalists from both sides of the border -- including Belo TV border bureau chief Angela Kocherga and Guillermo Osorno, editor of Mexico’s slick and glossy Gatopardo (the Latin American equivalent of Vanity Fair) -- will attempt to disentangle Mexico’s conflicting narratives from the pull of the more publicly visible narco-violence stories.

Thu., June 2, 6:30-9:30 p.m., 2011