UC ANR celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month Sept. 15-Oct. 15
Hispanic Heritage Month is Sept. 15 through Oct.15 and Ricardo Vela, manager of UC ANR News & Information Outreach in Spanish, has planned educational activities for colleagues and friends to attend throughout the month.
Each year, UC ANR celebrates the culture and contributions of people whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. Latinos comprise 40% of California's population and a growing portion of UC ANR's clientele. Our Latinx colleagues help to customize UC ANR's outreach for the Latino community, from immigrants to native-born citizens.
To start the celebration, the newly formed Latinx & Friends Affinity Group will meet for the first time on Sept. 21. To register, visit https://surveys.ucanr.edu/survey.cfm?surveynumber=38886.
“UC ANR is giving us this fantastic opportunity to share our stories of struggle, success and dreams within a safe space,” Vela said. “This space is open to all of us who are Latinx/Hispanic or of Latinx/Hispanic descent, allies and friends to discuss the many cultural identities.”
The September events will be held via Zoom for UC ANR colleagues:
Wednesday, Sept. 21, 12-1:30 p.m. First meeting of Latinx & Friends Affinity Group (45 minutes) and screening of the short film “First Time Home” about four cousins who travel from their Triqui immigrant community in California to their ancestral village in Mexico for the first time. (45 minutes)
Wednesday, Sept. 28, 12-1 p.m. Jose Pablo Ortiz-Partida will discuss the results of an environmental justice study he conducted in the San Joaquin Valley. Ortiz-Partida is a senior water and climate scientist for the Climate & Energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Register for the Hispanic Heritage Month employee events at https://surveys.ucanr.edu/survey.cfm?surveynumber=39023.
Events scheduled for October will be conducted in Spanish and open to the public on Facebook Live:
Wednesday, Oct. 5, 1-2 p.m. – Susana Matias, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology at Berkeley, will discuss healthy living, obesity and breastfeeding.
Wednesday, Oct. 12, 1-2 p.m. – Magda Argueta, UC ANR's Global Food Initiative Fellow and UC Riverside doctoral candidate, will discuss ancient Mayan pollinating practices with stingless bees.
Thursday, Oct. 13, 1-2 p.m. – Samuel Sandoval Solis, UC Davis assistant professor and Cooperative Extension specialist in water resources, will discuss climate change effects. What can we do? What is UC ANR already doing?