Zócalo free talk at The Hotel Congress entitled, “Does Arizona History Matter?” on Tuesday, February 7th, 2012 at 6:30 pm.
Tom Zoeller, author of “A Safeway in Arizona: What the Gabrielle Giffords Shooting Tells Us About the Grand Canyon State and Life in America,” joins historians Thomas E. Sheridan and Eric V. Meeks, Lattie Coor, founder of the Center for the Future of Arizona to discuss how much Arizona’s history matters. Moderated by Jack B. Jewett, President and CEO of the Flinn Foundation.
The talk will be followed by a reception where you will have the opportunity to talk face to face with our guests.
Here’s the event link, where you can reserve a free seat:
http://zocalopublicsquare.org/rsvp/index.php?event_id=508
Free metered parking is available after 5 p.m. Additional garage parking is available west of The Hotel Congress across 5th Ave., underneath Martin Luther King, Jr. apartment building. $8 maximum.
Arizona’s economy and culture have long depended on reinvention: the Spanish came looking for silver but found copper instead; Phoenix was named for its rebirth as an American mining outpost atop a Hohokam village; four different flags, including Mexico’s, flew over Tucson in the 19th century alone. But how much does its history influence Arizona and Arizonans today? A majority of its residents, after all, have migrated there: it’s been among the fastest-growing states for six decades, and over 4 million Arizonans were born elsewhere. How are these people who pulled up stakes and changed the course of their personal histories to become Arizonans influenced—if at all—by the events that preceded their arrival? One hundred years ago, Arizona emerged as a state after a two-decade-long struggle to convince Congress that its citizens were “American” enough. Did the way it joined the union shape its present-day culture?
