'LATINO SPIN': Illegal immigrant, tax burden, job stealer. Patriot, family-oriented, hard worker, model consumer. Since becoming the largest minority group in the United States, Latinos have been caught between these wildly contrasting images.

Next week, a visiting professor of cultural anthropology plans to deliver a free public lecture on what these caricatures suggest about Latinos' shifting place in the popular and political imagination,

The talk by New York University's Arlene Davila is scheduled for Nov. 6 as part of UC Davis' Public Intellectuals Forum, sponsored by the Davis Humanities Institute, and the Center for History, Society and Culture.

Davila's talk, "Latino Spin: Public Image and the Whitewashing of Race," is set for 5:30 p.m., with a reception to follow at 7. The event is free and open to the public.

More information: publicforum.ucdavis.edu.

THE DELTA'S FUTURE: Two fall speakers series are crossing paths on Nov. 5, sharing a guest for a single program: geology professor Jeffrey Mount, discussing recent events shaping the future of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, hub of California's water supply system.

His talk, scheduled to begin at 5:10 p.m. in 1150 Hart Hall, is free and open to the public.

Mount's talk is part of the Geography Graduate Group's Distinguished Speakers Series: The History of California's Landscapes, Part 1, and the John Muir Institute of the Environment's Distinguished Speaker Series on Environmental Solutions.

All seminars and colloquia: calendar.ucdavis.edu