Submitted by Saint Martin’s University
LACEY, WASHINGTON — Christina López, author of the pamphlet Estamos en la Lucha: Immigrant Women Light the Fires of Resistance, will illuminate migrant women’s fighting spirit and their unique view of the crucial, but often ignored, leadership they provide in the U.S. workforce and society. López’s lecture, which promises to engage the Saint Martin’s community in a discussion exploring new strategies for creating solidarity among immigrants and U.S. residents of all races, is the next event in the 2012-13 Robert A. Harvie Social Justice Lecture Series. The lecture will take place at 4 p.m., Friday, Feb. 8, in Harned Hall, room 110, on the Saint Martin’s University campus, 5000 Abbey Way SE. The free event, followed by a social hour with the author, is open to the public.
López, an Arizona native, comes from a working-class family whose roots in the southwest predate U.S. borders. She was first introduced to political activism when she joined the Chicano student organization MEChA to fight against an Arizona English-only law. Since moving to Seattle 14 years ago, López has fought for racial liberation and women’s rights as essential components of building class solidarity. On the national steering committee of Radical Women and president of the Seattle chapter, López has mobilized across the country to protect immigrant rights, quality education and affirmative action. A co-founder of Sisters Organize for Survival, she is an outspoken advocate for those most affected by social service and education cutbacks. López was also the vice-presidential candidate on the Freedom Socialist Party’s 2012 presidential ticket.
The Robert A. Harvie Social Justice Lecture Series, now in its seventh year, was created by Saint Martin’s University Associate Professor of Criminal Justice Robert Hauhart, Ph.D., J.D., chair of the University’s Department of Society and Social Justice, to raise awareness of social justice issues within the community and to honor the work of Robert A. Harvie, J.D., former professor and chair of the Department of Criminal Justice at Saint Martin’s.
Saint Martin’s University is an independent four-year, coeducational university located on a wooded campus of more than 300 acres in Lacey, Washington. Established in 1895 by the Catholic Order of Saint Benedict, the University is one of 14 Benedictine colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, and the only one west of the Rocky Mountains. Saint Martin’s University prepares students for successful lives through its 23 majors and seven graduate programs spanning the liberal arts, business, education, nursing and engineering. Saint Martin’s welcomes more than 1,100 undergraduate students and 400 graduate students from many ethnic and religious backgrounds to its Lacey campus, and 300 more undergraduate students to its extension campuses located at Joint Base Lewis-McChord and Centralia College. Visit the Saint Martin’s University website at www.stmartin.edu.
