Cristina Lopez to discuss Oregon & Oaxaca Connection at Willamette University tonight

Tonight Cristina Lopez will present on The Connection Between Oregon and Oaxaca and the Impact of Immigration on Families at 7:00 p.m. in Eaton Hall at Willamette University in Salem.

Currently Oaxacans make up the largest group of immigrants in Oregon, bringing a variety of indigenous languages and cultures with them. Her presentation is sponsored by the Willamette University's departments of Sociology, Politics, History, Women and Gender Studies, Latin American Studies, and Spanish as well as the International Studies Program and the Chaplain's Office.

Cristina Lopez was born in Santo Domingo Tonala in the Mixteca region in Oaxaca. She was raised in the Napa Valley in California after immigrating to the US with her family in 1984. Cristina attended UCLA and received a BA in Women's Studies, and Chicana/o Studies in 2005. Cristina joined the Frente Indígena de Organizaciones Binacionales (FIOB) after learning about the organization and its support of the APPO (Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca) in the 2006 conflict in Oaxaca. Cristina serves as the Coordinator of the Los Angeles FIOB Committee, and is on the Board of Directors of the Binational Center for the Development of Indigenous Oaxacans (CBDIO) a non-profit organization created by the FIOB in 1993.

The FIOB is a community-based organization and a coalition of indigenous organizations, communities, and individuals settled in Oaxaca and Baja California in Mexico and in the State of California in the United States. FIOB works to promote leadership development and self-determination in indigenous migrant and non-migrant communities, and to defend the human rights of these communities with justice and gender equity.

For more information contact Ted Richardson at trichard@willamette.edu

Posted in: Christina Lopez,Immigration,Oaxaca,Oregon,Willamette University