Rivero will deliver the keynote address for the Ohio Latin Americanist Conference, which will run from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday. "Cosa Nostra, Mare Nostrum: Mafia Motifs in Transnational Caribbean Culture," will take place at 1 p.m. in the Ohio University Inn Ballroom. Other highlights of the conference will include 75 paper presentations by faculty and students in Gordy Hall and a Latin dance with music by Latin Jazz.

Hosted by Ohio University's Latin American Studies Program -- the only program in the state offering a master's degree focused on the region -- the conference will coincide with the 12th Annual Spanish Colloquium, an annual event sponsored by the Department of Modern Languages.

A native of Cuba, Rivero is professor of Spanish and adjunct professor of Women's Studies and Latin American Studies at the University of Arizona. She has published extensively on the experience of Chicanos and U.S. Latinos, and her research has been supported with grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Rivero also is the featured speaker at the International Studies Forum at 3 p.m. Friday in Walter Hall 145, where she will present "Divas and Chicas: The New Latina Boom."

The dance featuring Latin Jazz -- whose music combines rhythms of Latin America with contemporary jazz -- will conclude the conference at 8 p.m. in the Walter Hall Rotunda. The dance is being organized by the university's Organización Latino Americana with support from the Student Activities Commission and the International Student Union.

The full conference schedule and registration information can be found on the Latin American Studies Web site at www.ohiou.edu/latinamerican/.