La Raza Law Students Host César Chávez Week

The UC Davis School of Law La Raza Law Students Association will present "The Latino/a Struggle for Civil Rights: Demanding Access and Equality," a series of events hosted in honor of César Chávez Week, March 28-April 2, at King Hall. 

Highlights include the keynote speech on "Identity in the Legal Profession" by Margaret E. Montoya, the first Latina accepted at Harvard Law School and a member of the faculty at the University of New Mexico Law School, beginning at noon on March 31 in the Kalmanovitz Appellate Courtroom, and a lecture by Sylvia Mendez, a winner of the Presidential Medal of Freedom whose father was the original plaintiff in Mendez v. Westminster, the federal court case that set an important precedent for ending school segregation in the United States.  Mendez will speak about her experience of the trial and her work as a civil rights activist beginning at noon on March 28 in the Kalmanovitz Appellate Courtroom in an event co-sponsored by the Black Law Students Association.

Additional César Chavez Week events include:

• "The Redistricting Process and Its Effect on the Latino/a Community's Voting Power," which will feature Joaquin Avilla, Assistant Professor of Law at Seattle University School of Law, speaking on issues affecting La­tino voting power and the work he has undertaken to preserve and enhance the voting rights of Latinos through use of state and federal courts. His talk will begin at noon on March 29 in the Kalmanovitz Appellate Courtroom.
• Papers: Stories of Undocumented Youth, a screening of a documentary film on the challenges facing undocumented young people as they turn 18, scheduled to begin at 5 pm on March 29 in the Kalmanovitz Appellate Courtroom, co-sponsored by the UC Davis Immigration Law Clinic and SPEAK.
• "The Problem of Restricted Access to Jobs for Immigrant Workers," a lecture by Ana Avendaño, Associate General Counsel and Director of the Immigration Worker Program at the AFL-CIO, beginning at noon on March 30 in the Kalmanovitz Appellate Courtroom.
• Day of Service: a free naturalization workshop, will be held in Woodland on April 2. For further details, contact Fitz King, [email protected].

All events are co-sponsored by the La Raza Law Students Association and the American Constitution Society, Law Students Association, Middle Eastern South Asian Law Students Association, Muslim Law Students Association, and National Lawyers Guild, with the support of the UC Davis School of Law.