By C. Brandon Chapman, College of Education
PULLMAN, Wash. – Human rights and state-sponsored political violence will be addressed by Luz Rivera Martinez, an organizer with Consejo Nacional Urbano y Campesino, in a free, public discussion at 4 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6, in Cleveland 121 at Washington State University.
The talk, “Maiz y el Pais,” will consider how corn in Mexican culture is a symbol for autonomy and the dignified struggle for a better world.
Martinez has 20 years of experience constructing autonomy, organizing outside the electoral system, and resisting genetically modified corn while protecting millennia-old varieties.
“Today’s dehumanizing rhetoric perpetuates many violent stereotypes of Mexican people and our cultures,” said Maria Isabel Morales, a doctoral student in the College of Education who is helping organize the event. “It is important to have critical, open, honest and humble dialogue, not only about these negative stereotypes but about the complex and historical factors that pull Mexican communities into the USA and push them out of Mexico.”
The presentation is sponsored by WSU’s Center for Mestizo and Indigenous Research and Engagement with support of the College Assistance Migrant Program and the Chicana/o Latina/o Student Center.
