Presented by the Bates College Multicultural Center, the consul general of Spain in Boston discusses relations between the United States and Spain in the context of immigration and terrorism at 7:15 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 30, in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, Campus Avenue. The lecture, co-sponsored by the Department of Spanish, is the first in a fall 2004 series of events organized by the Multicultural Center open to the public at no charge. For more information, call 207-786-8376.

The Hon. Enrique Iranzo’s talk, “Spain-U.S. Relations: Immigration, Terrorism and the War in Iraq,” will cover immigration and terrorism issues as they relate to the post-Sept. 11 international climate and the March 11, 2004, bomb attacks in Madrid that resulted in Spain’s withdrawal from the war in Iraq. Iranzo has served in diplomatic posts throughout the world, including as consul to Hong Kong, Munich and Berlin. He has worked in the ministry for foreign affairs in Madrid, focusing on political relations between Spain and Latin America.

Programs sponsored by the Multicultural Center continue throughout October and November. Here is a summary of the fall 2004 programming, all open to the public free of charge:

Haitian writer and activist Evelyne Trouillot will give a lecture titled “L’imaginaire sous embargo (The Influence of Political Repression on the Writer’s Imagination)” at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 7, in the Muskie Archives. Simultaneous translation will be provided.

Rabbi Mordechai Eskovitz of the Touro Synagogue in Rhode Island, the nation’s oldest synagogue building, will give a talk titled “The Survival of Jewish Communities in the United States: 350 Years” at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 13, in the Muskie Archives.

The Multicultural Center presents a two-week retrospective “Seven Years of Diversity Programming at Bates College” beginning Monday, Oct. 25, and ending Nov. 8 in Chase Hall Gallery, Campus Avenue. A reception for the exhibition will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 28, with special guest Derrick Bell, New York University professor of law and author of Silent Covenants: Brown v. Board of Education and the Unfulfilled Hopes for Racial Reform (Oxford University Press, 2004). At 7 p.m., Bell will give a lecture, “Learning the Untaught Lessons of Brown,” to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court case Brown vs. Board of Education.

Joyce Pereira, a linguist with Instituto Pedagogico Arubano (The Pedagogical Institute of Aruba), will give a lecture, “A Pedagogical Paradigm: Educating Papiamento-Speaking Students in Their Native Language,” at 4 p.m. Friday, Nov. 12, in the Benjamin Mays Center.

Verna Fowler, president of the College of the Menominee Nation, will give a talk titled “Educating Our Own,” at 7 p.m., Monday, Nov. 15, in the Muskie Archives.

The Multicultural Center acknowledges, celebrates and promotes the diverse cultural experiences that each member of Bates College brings to the community. The center acts as a catalyst for exploring critical issues on campus by initiating discussions about race, class, ethnicity, gender, nationality, sexual orientation and the historical and current realities that impact understanding of these topics. Seminars, off-campus study experiences, cultural celebrations, speakers, workshops, art, other media exhibits and the like are developed by both the Multicultural Center and its affiliated student organizations. These programs explore and support the intellectual, social, cultural, political and spiritual development of the entire campus.