Amalia Ortiz performs work from her forthcoming book of poem-songs and prose poems, The Canción Cannibal Cabaret. Part radio play, part concept album, this punk rock musical experiments with poetry at the intersection of performance. Inspired by current issues of social injustice, the manuscript is a refugee, POC, feminist, LGBTQ call to action. Set in a not-so-distant dystopian future, a refugee raised under an oppressive State, "La Madre Valiente" studies secretly to become the leader of a feminist revolution. Her emissaries, Las Hijas de la Madre, roam the land spreading her story, educating others, and enlisting allies in revolution.

Amalia Ortiz is a Tejana poet and playwright who has appeared on three seasons of Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry on HBO. NBC Latino named her book of poetry, Rant. Chant. Chisme., one of “10 Great Latino Books of 2015.” It was awarded the 2015 Writers' League of Texas Poetry Discovery Prize. Amalia was chosen to speak at TEDx McAllen 2015. She was awarded the Alfredo Cisneros Del Moral Foundation Grant and a writing residency at the National Hispanic Cultural Center. She is a CantoMundo Fellow and a Hedgebrook writer in residence alumna. Amalia received her MFA in Creative Writing from The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

Each spring semester, Trinity's MAS (Mexico, the Americas, and Spain) program organizes the Alvarez Seminar, a series of lectures, readings, performances, films or workshops that provide a profound examination of a critical theme in the MAS world. It is interdisciplinary by nature and the coordination of the seminar rotates among MAS faculty from various departments. Alvarez Seminar events are incorporated into the courses of MAS faculty to maximize the engagement that students will have with the chosen theme.