Gregory Orfalea

THOUSAND OAKS, CA. - An award-winning author will discuss the Spanish missionary Junipero Serra’s complex relationships with women and American Indians in a two-part series Oct. 18 and Nov. 8 at California Lutheran University.

Gregory Orfalea, who teaches at Westmont College, will present “Serra’s Women: A Bilocating Nun, a Witch and a Sorceress” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 18. He asserts that women such as Serra’s sister, guiding saints and an Indian sorceress played powerful roles in the life and times of the missionary.

The author will discuss “Serra and the Indians of California: A Hymn or a Horror?” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 8. Orfalea will show that Serra, as a latecomer to the colonial scene, brought a more complex mindset to his relationship with the California Indians than is commonly understood.

Orfalea, who has taught writing at CLU, has written eight books of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and memoir, including a 2010 collection of short stories titled “The Man Who Guarded the Bomb.” Scribner plans to release “Journey to the Sun: Junipero Serra and the Spanish Encounter with the California Indian” next year.

He has won awards for his writing, including grants from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and the California Arts Council, and has served as a judge for the PEN USA Award and the Arab American Book Award. He was a finalist for the 2010 PEN USA Award in creative nonfiction for “Angeleno Days: An Arab American Writer on Family, Place and Politics.”

Both talks will be held in Lundring Events Center, which is located in the Gilbert Sports and Fitness Center north of Olsen Road near Mountclef Boulevard on the Thousand Oaks campus.

CLU’s Artists and Speakers Committee is sponsoring the free presentations. For more information, contact Amanda Whealon at awhealon@callutheran.edu or 805-493-3918.