GRANVILLE -- The Denison Lecture Series will host Elizabeth "Betita" Martinez discussing "Latina Views for a Multi-Colored Century." This convocation, set for 7:30 p.m. on Thursday (Oct. 18) in Slayter Auditorium, is free and open to the public. Martinez will be a featured speaker for Hispanic Heritage Month and her focus will be on how universities like Denison can foster growing and positive relationships between the different communities on campus.

Elizabeth Martinez

Martinez is a Chicana activist, author, and educator. She has published six books including500 years of Chicano History in Pictures, a bilingual history which became the basis for a video she co-directed. Martinez has written many articles on social movements in the Americas, and she also writes regularly for the Crossroads, Z, and The Nation magazines.

During the 1960s Martinez worked full time in the black civil rights movement with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee in the south, and as coordinator of its New York office. Later, she joined the Chicano movement in New Mexico where she founded the bilingual newspaper El Grito del Norte, and co-founded the Chicano Communications Center, a barrio-based organizing and educational project.

Martinez moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1976 and she has organized Latino community issues, taught ethnic studies and women's studies in the California State University system, conducted anti-racist training workshops, and worked with youth groups. She ran for governor of California on the 1982 Peace and Freedom Party ticket. Martinez founded and is chair of the Institute for Multi-Racial Justice, a resource center to help build alliances among people of colors, and she lectures extensively at colleges and universities nationwide.

For press inquiries:

Name

Barbara Stambaugh

Position Title

Director, Media Relations

Primary Email

stambaughb@denison.edu

Business Phone

(740) 587-8575