12th Annual
Hispanic Heritage Celebration
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
6:00 PM Social Hour
EPCC Administrative Services Center
Building A — Auditorium
The Best Place to Start
Spirit of
iversity
“Water Angel” © 2012 Gabriel S. Gaytán
Dear Distinguished Guests and Colleagues
What an exciting time in our History! The El Paso Community
College Diversity Programs/Hispanic Heritage Committee brings
the 12th Annual Celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month.
This year of planning brought various scopes of memories, emotions, energies, vitalization and pride as we indulged first hand in
the research, dialogue, artifacts and collaborations that have
touched the people and our city in eras gone. Discussions arose as to the importance of basic
human rights and health services for farm workers and those not able to provide and the impact people like Dolores Huerta, Cesar Chavez, Carlos Marentes and Guadalupe Arizpe De La
Vega have had on the lives people in our city and across the country. Most importantly, the
“Empowerment through the Wings of Knowledge” that our civil leaders have left to help pave
the road for others to follow. Many of us enjoy the fruits of their labor few of us consider their
journey.
I sincerely hope this event will enhance people's knowledge and allow them an opportunity to
flourish and enrich their heritage. This program will be video-taped, capturing the highlights
and conversations saved for the future generations. May this generation continue to become
knowledgeable, educated, determined and directed toward a better tomorrow.
Respectfully,
Olga C. Chavez, M.A., LPC
Director, Diversity Programs
Chair, Hispanic Heritage Committee
2013 Hispanic Heritage Committee
Ms. Olga O. Chavez, Chair
Mr. Doroteo Franco Co-Chair
Mr. Jaime Aragon
Mr. Jim Heiney
Ms. Rebekah A. Bell
Mr. Alex Hernandez
Ms. Kathleen A. Bombach
Mr. Rudy Hernandez
Ms. Lorena Castañeda
Ms. Lillie Johnson
Ms. Liz Chavez
Ms. Iantha Martinez
Mr. René Chavez
Ms. Luz M. Roberts
Ms. Cemelli De Aztlan
Mr. Abel Rodriguez
Ms. Argelia Duarte
Ms. Alice Rosas
Ms. Mayela Farah
Mr. Tony Santos
Ms. Lourdes Garcia
Mr. Michael Thornton
Mr. Gabriel S. Gaytán
Ms. Alma Valadez
Ms. Sandra Gutierrez
Mr. Art Valdespino
6:00— 6:45
Social Hour: Entertainment by Barbara Licon-"Marimba El Paso"
6:45—8:00
Dinner:
Dinner this evening is provided by Super Chef
8:00—9:15
Master of Ceremonies; Mr. Ricardo Vela, Telemundo
National Anthem by Ms. Jackie J. Gaines
Color Guard provided by the Benavidez-Patterson “All Airborne” Chapter,
82nd Airborne Division Association, Inc.
Introductory Remarks by Olga C. Chavez, District Director
Diversity Programs
Keynote Speaker:
Dolores Huerta; President of Dolores Huerta Foundation and Co-Founder of
the United Farm Workers.
Presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award
2013 Mentors:
Carlos Marentes: Founder of Sin Fronteras Organizing Project and Executive Director of Centro De Los Trabajadores Agrícolas Fronterizos.
Guadalupe Arizpe De La Vega: Founder of FEMAP, Federación Mexicana
de Asociaciones y Empresas Privadas and the FEMAP Foundation
Special Recognition:
Jose Luis Garcia; Performer, Artist, Gentleman, Hispanic Heritage
Committee Member and Friend.
9:00—10:00
Entertainment: Maria Esther Martinez & The Two- Man Band. Jose Sandoval and
Keynote Speaker
Ms. Dolores Huerta
An Organizer is Born
Dolores found her calling as an organizer while serving in the
leadership of the Stockton Community Service Organization
(CSO). During this time she founded the Agricultural Workers
Association, set up voter registration drives and pressed local governments for barrio improvements. It was in 1955 through CSO
founder Fred Ross, Sr. that she would meet a likeminded colleague, CSO Executive Director César E. Chávez. The two soon
discovered that they shared a common vision of organizing farm
workers, an idea that was not in line with the CSO’s mission.
As a result, in the spring of 1962 César and Dolores resigned, and
launched the National Farm Workers Association. Dolores’ organizing skills were essential to the growth of this budding organization. The challenges she faced as a woman did not go unnoted and
in one of her letters to Cesar she joked…”Being a now (ahem)
experienced lobbyist, I am able to speak on a man-to-man basis with other lobbyists.”
The first testament to her lobbying and negotiating talents were demonstrated in securing Aid For Dependent
Families ("AFDC") and disability insurance for farm workers in the State of California in 1963, an unparalleled
feat of the times. She was also instrumental in the enactment of the Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975.
This was the first law of its kind in the United States, granting farm workers in California the right to collectively organize and bargain for better wages and working conditions
While the farm workers lacked financial capitol they had significant power at the ballot box. As the principal
legislative advocate, Dolores became one of the UFW’s most visible spokespersons. Robert F. Kennedy
acknowledged her help in winning the 1968 California Democratic Presidential Primary moments before he was
shot in Los Angeles. Throughout the years she has worked to elect numerous candidates including President
Clinton, Congressman Ron Dellums, Governor Jerry Brown, Congresswoman Hilda Solis and Hillary Clinton.
Non-Violence Is Our Strength
Early on, Dolores advocated for the entire families’ participation in the movement for after all it was men, women and children together out in the fields picking, thinning and hoeing. Thus the practice of non-violence was not
only a philosophy but a very necessary approach in providing for the safety of all. Her life and the safety of
those around her were in jeopardy on countless occasions. The greatest sacrifice to the movement was made by
five martyrs all of whom she knew personally.
At age 58 Dolores suffered her most life-threatening assault while protesting against the policies of then presidential candidate George Bush in San Francisco. A baton-wielding officer broke four ribs and shattered her
spleen. Public outrage resulted in the San Francisco Police Department changing its policies regarding crowd
control and police discipline and Dolores was awarded an out of court settlement.
Following a lengthy recovery she took a leave of absence from the union to focus on women’s rights. She traversed the country for two years on behalf of the Feminist Majority’s Feminization of Power: 50/50 by the year
2000 Campaign encouraging Latina’s to run for office. The campaign resulted in a significant increase in the
number of women representatives at the local, state and federal levels. She also served as National Chair of
the 21st Century Party founded in 1992 on the principles that women make up 52% of the party’s candidates and
that officers must reflect the ethnic diversity of the nation.
Majority’s Feminization of Power: 50/50 by the year 2000 Campaign encouraging Latina’s to run for office. The
campaign resulted in a significant increase in the number of women representatives at the local, state and federal
levels. She also served as National Chair of the 21st Century Party founded in 1992 on the principles that women make up 52% of the party’s candidates and that officers must reflect the ethnic diversity of the nation.
Her Second Wind
At 82, Dolores Huerta continues to work tirelessly developing leaders and advocating for the working poor,
women and children. As voluntary President of the Dolores Huerta Foundation, she travels across the country
speaking to students and organizations about issues of social justice and public policy.
There are thousands of working poor immigrants in the agriculture rich San Joaquin Valley of California. They
are unfamiliar with laws or agencies that can protect them or benefits that they are entitled to. They are often
preyed upon by unscrupulous individuals who take advantage of them. They feel hopeless and unable to remedy
their situations.
It is rarely practiced today because it is tedious and time consuming. However, the results are long lasting and
while people are in the process of building organization, they are learning lessons they will never forget and the
transformative roots are planted. The fruit is the leadership that is developed and the permanent changes in the
community. In other words, this is how grass roots democracy works.
Recognitions and Awards
There are four elementary schools in California, one in Fort Worth, Texas, and a high school in Pueblo, Colorado named after Dolores Huerta.
She has received numerous awards among them the Eleanor Roosevelt
Humans Rights Award from President Clinton in l998, Ms. Magazine’s
one of the three most important women of l997, Ladies Home Journal’s
100 most important woman of the 20th Century, Puffin Foundation award
for Creative Citizenship Labor Leader Award 1984, Kern County’s Woman of The Year by California State legislature, the Ohtli award from the
Mexican Government, Smithsonian Institution - James Smithson Award,
the Icons of the American Civil Rights Movement Award, bestowed to her
in 2011 by the National Civil Rights Museum, and Nine Honorary Doctorates from Universities throughout the United States. A recipient of the
2012 Presidential Medal of Freedom, she has also been inducted to the
U.S. Department of Labor Hall of Honor.
Mr. Carlos Marentes
Carlos Marentes has been a labor organizer
and farm worker advocate since 1977. In
1983, he founded Sin Fronteras Organizing
Project to support efforts to improve the
working and living conditions of the migrant and seasonal farm workers of Southern New Mexico and Far West Texas. He
was instrumental in negotiating a $984,000
award from the City Council of El Paso to
build a Farm Worker Center to support the
migrant farm workers and their families.
Today, the Farm Worker Center not only is
dedicated to provide services to the migrants
and the farm worker community, it also
serves as an education and training center
for the agricultural workers, their families
and the community on such issues as workers protection standards, labor rights, agroecology, community sustainability, and other
themes.
Marentes is also the founder and director of the Border Agricultural Workers Project, an effort to organize the farm workers of the US-Mexico border, especially the chile pickers, in the fields and in their
communities in both sides of the border. Under the BAWP, Marentes initiated a campaign in the border
region for food sovereignty to address the issues of oppression of farm workers and the climate crisis,
as a way of promoting a new model of food production and food consumption.
Another effort initiated by Marentes under the BAWP, is the Bracero Bracero, which is an attempt to
rebuild the history of the “braceros”, to bring justice to the Mexican peasants who worked in US during
the Bracero Program, from 1942 to 1964, and to use the experience of the Bracero Program to push for
new more humane and dignified immigration policies.
He participates in many local, state and national organizations that deal with issues of poverty and economic inequality, and coordinates the International Committee on Migration and Rural Workers of La
Vía Campesina and has attended many conferences and workshops in U.S. as well as in Mexico, Europe, India, South Africa and South East Asia, to advocate for migrant workers rights.
Marentes has received extensive recognition and many awards, including the prestigious LetelierMoffitt National Human Rights Award. More recently he received the Option for the Poor Bishop
Mark Seits Award by the El Paso Catholic Diocese.
Mrs. Guadalupe Arizpe de la Vega
Guadalupe Arizpe De la Vega is the founder of FEMAP, a private, nonprofit organization in El
Paso that helps people through a variety of programs including a hospital, 41 family-planning clinics and a nursing school. De La Vega opened a hospital in Juarez, Mexico, 30 years ago. With violence plaguing the streets of Juarez, the hospital is more important now than ever. De La Vega's
nonprofit organization ensures people are treated even if they can't pay. De La Vega, 74, lives in El
Paso, Texas, but still travels to Juarez several times a week
One of De La Vega's first clinics was built in the early '70s where the Hospital de la Familia sits
today. It was just a few rooms and was not equipped for delivering babies. But when De La Vega
opened the doors to a desperate woman in labor, it started a decades-long expansion process that
recently resulted in the birth of the facility's 100,000th baby.
Guadalupe Arizpe De la Vega, who started a Foundation in 1973 to provide education and health
care for mothers in Juárez, has received a prestigious award from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. She was presented with the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Public Service
Award June 10, 2013 in Chihuahua, Mexico. It honors those who have served with distinction in
public life and have shown a special commitment to seeking out informed opinions and thoughtful
views.
De la Vega founded FEMAP, Federación Mexicana de Asociaciones y Empresas Privadas, 30 years
ago to work with expectant mothers. Today FEMAP operates two full-service hospitals and a nursing school in Juárez. Its community-based programs focus on health, children’s development and
economic growth through a micro-finance program. FEMAP also has an army of more than 1,000
volunteer health promoters.
2013 Hispanic Heritage Celebration Sponsors
SPIRIT of
iversity
The El Paso County Community College District does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, gender, age, disability, veteran
status, sexual orientation, or gender identity.