The theme of College of Santa Fe's 2008-2009 lecture series is "Rebels, Reformers and Revolutionaries." Among the sponsors is the Santa Fe Reporter, which is responsible for making this year's lectures available as podcasts---here.Tonight was the third of nine installments and it featured the Guatemalan-born writer Francisco Goldman, whose most recent book, The Art of Political Murder: Who Killed the Bishop?, had been on my radar, but little else. After tonight's presentation, that will change. His appearance, as reported by the series producer Carol Carpenter, was due to the efforts of one person--Flor de María Oliva, who met Goldman at a conference for Latino journalists a few years ago in Dallas and decided that she wanted to bring him to Santa Fe. Oliva is a community activist and Spanish-language editor in Santa Fe and did the honors of introducing him.
After the Q & A, Carpenter stated: "In four years as the producer of this series, I've never heard such a great storyteller." It's true: if there was ever an author who, by his sheer talent as an engaging and poignant speaker, was his book's best marketing tool, Goldman may be him. The only baffling drawback to tonight's event is that his book wasn't available for purchase.
One of the most compelling and moving aspects of his comments was how he portrayed the heroic efforts of the unsung professionals who carried out this murder investigation under extreme and life-threatening circumstances. The New York Times review of the book offers a good snapshot. To learn more about Goldman's distinguished trajectory, have a peek---here.
An inspiring evening.
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