The Lagvanec Lecture - the Marquis Lafayette

Cyril Lagvanec, PhD, the curator of the American-Italian Research Library located on the second floor of the East Bank Regional Library, will give a lecture on the legendary Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de la Fayette, at 7 p.m., Tuesday, April 8, at the East Bank Regional Library, 4747 W. Napoleon, Metairie.

This event is free of charge and open to the public. Registration is not required.

The Marquis de La Fayette (Sept 6, 1757 – May 29, 1834) was a French aristocrat, military officer, politician and liberal thinker. He volunteered to join the Continental Army, led by General George Washington, in the American Revolutionary War.

Lafayette was permitted to command Continental Army troops in the decisive Siege of Yorktown in 1781, the Revolutionary War's final major battle that secured American independence. After returning to France, Lafayette became a key figure in the French Revolution of 1789 and the July Revolution of 1830. 

He believed in the Age of Enlightenment and in 1789, he presented a draft of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. He worked on the document with Thomas Jefferson, who was the American ambassador in Paris.

Lafayette continues to be celebrated as a hero in both France and the United States.

Cyril Lagvanec earned his undergraduate degree in history from Baylor University, his master’s degree in British and European History from Tulane University, and his doctoral degree in American History from Texas A&M University. Through his long career, Dr. Lagvanec has taught at Jesuit High School, Tulane, Loyola, Delgado, Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, East Carolina University, and Texas A&M.