Welcome to the Department of Chicano Studies

News & Announcements

• February's Break-Ups and Messages of Love

  Life has its ups and downs, its good days and bad days as well as its love affairs and its break ups. News and issues of importance to the Latino community certainly are no different.

  Breaking Up With Trader Joe's:
  After nearly two years of a nation-wide campaign, Trader Joe's still refuses to sign an agreement with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a group of farm workers in Florida who have successfully pressured corporate giants like Whole Foods and McDonald's to agree to ensure that farm workers in their supply chains get treated humanely and get paid at least one penny more per pound of tomatoes they pick. And now, Trader Joe's is opening it's first Florida store, only 30 miles away from Immokalee on Immokalee Road. The CIW is planning a huge action during the "Grand Opening" weekend of the new store and there will be a solidarity action here in the Twin Cities. The local CIW Support Committee including members of the Chicano Studies Migrant Farmworker class---one of many groups and collectives nationally that organizes in solidarity with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers- joins with Trader Joe's customers on Friday, February 10th at 5:00pm for the delegation to Trader Joe's in St. Paul. The meeting place will be P.J. Murphy's Bakery (1279 Randolph Ave.) at 5pm. Email Brian at brianpayneyvp@gmail.com if you can attend. The delegation will make some noise as takes break up letters to Trader Joe's.

  ***UPDATE: Friday February 10th, CIW Announcement: Trader Joes signs agreement for better wages and working conditions and now the focus is on Publix grocery store chain. (http://ciw-online.org/) More information to follow in support of farmworkers and their demand for better wages and working conditions.

  February Messages of Love:
  This February, Chicano Studies continues to commemorate the Department's 40th Anniversary with two events of the heart: one is an open mic/spoken word event on Thursday February 16th, at La Raza Student Cultural Center, 5-7 pm. So bring your love poems or excerpts from your favorite Latina/o writers and come to listen and/or come to share. Light refreshments will be served.

  

  The second Chicano Studies sponsored event, Mira Mi Corazon, will showcase Heart Art--40 wooden hearts that have been decorated by local artists, faculty, staff, students, youth, and community members. Grounded in Chicano Studies values of justice, cultural pride and political resistance, the hearts will be sold at a silent auction and the proceeds to go towards scholarships. Please join us Friday, February 24th from 5-7 pm at El Colgio Charter School, 4137 Bloomington Ave in s. MPLS.

  We hope you can attend!

  

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• Spring Semester 40th Commemoration to Begin Thurs. Jan 19th

  Welcome back to all students, staff, faculty, families and community! We hope you are ready for 2012. While there have been indeed many gains and important work done to achieve community voice and agency, there still remains significant work and fundamental changes necessary to achieve a more just society and lives of dignity and respect for individuals, families and community.

  As many of you know, Chicano Studies, along with La Raza Student Cultural Center here at the University of Minnesota, commemorate 40 years of struggle, community and academics during the 2011-2012 academic year. During the fall term, we heard from local and national experts on educational justice, xicanindio identity after beginning the year honoring those founders of Chicano Studies and La Raza Student Cultural Center (then called the Latin Liberation Front).

  We hope you will join us for events and movement building during the spring term and beyond. Our first event for spring semester will occur THURSDAY JANUARY 19TH at the Mexican Consulate in St. Paul. (797 7th Street East, St. Paul, MN 55106) We will host the screening of Los Invisibles/The Invisibles--a film by Gael Garcia Bernal and Amnesty International on the men, women and children who travel from Central America through Mexico on their way north. Mexican Consul Ana Luisa Fajer will lead the post film discussion. It promises to be a great event.

  Please see our full listing of events for the entire year at the Chicano Studies website:

  

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• National Scholar to Speak on Latinos and Educational Justice

  Talk and Discussion:"Establishing High Expectations and Inclusiveness in the Curriculum and Classroom Culture" As part of commemorating the 40th anniversary of Chicano Studies, for the months of November and December, we are focusing on Latinos and Education in our communications and events. Please see info below about an event next Thursday. There are supporting documents at the end of the write up.

  Please join us on THURSDAY December 15TH AT 4:30 PM, at El Colegio Charter School for a lecture given by national scholar Marcos Pizarro.

  Marco Pizarro wrote the book, Chicanas and Chicanos in School: Racial Profiling, Identity Battles and Empowerment.

  Culturally relevant curriculum and culturally competent instruction and instructors matter. While many can agree with this point in theory, ensuring it to be a reality proves to be a different and more complicated story. We hope you can join us in this discussion-it promises to be a great event.

  Please pass on the info to others you think might be interested-including and particularly for those who have, work with or can bring older youth to the event.
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  MN Statistics:
  From the MN Minority Education Project (MMEP):
  Most recent (2009) "State of Students of Color and American Indian Students"

  A bit dated (2006), but provides significant info about Latino success (and lack thereof) in both the metro area and rural MN.
  "Latino Students in Our Public Schools: A Closer Look"
  Center for Rural Policy and Development. Click on "Education" and this report is the 2nd link.

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  From the Pew Hispanic Research Center:

  "Latinos and Education: Explaining the Attainment Gap" by Mark Hugo Lopez

  Nearly nine-in-ten (89%) Latino young adults say that a college education is important for success in life, yet only about half that number-48%-say that they themselves plan to get a college degree, according to a new national survey of Latinos by the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center.

  The biggest reason for the gap between the high value Latinos place on education and their more modest aspirations to finish college...click to read full article

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