OccupyGreeley Welcomes Back Legendary Activist Dr. Jose Zapata Calderón

Online, August 18, 2012 (Newswire.com) - Dr. Jose Zapata Calderón will address the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom at the Isla Bonita restaurant on August 20 at 4 PM. OccupyGreeley and the Unitarian/Universalist church are cosponsoring the talk in honor of Dr. Calderón's long history connecting academic work with community organizing, including Greeley area activism. Reservations may be placed by calling (970) 970-324-5128 and the restaurant is located at 908 8th Avenue in Greeley, Colorado.

Born in Madera, Chihuahua, Calderón was brought to the U.S. at a very young age by grandparents who raised him. In school, he was able to hide that he didn't understand English until one teacher, Mrs. Elder, responded with empathy. Before bilingual education, she worked with him after school asking him to teach her Spanish as she taught him English. "And I know that if Mrs. Elder had not created this equitable environment, then what you would see before you in terms of my development, of being able then to eventually get a Ph.D., would not be a reality today," he explains.

Along with friends, he opened the Apostles of Justice center in his grandmother's Ault garage. When Ault High School students were suspended for requesting bi-lingual teachers, the Apostles of Justice helped organize the march that brought 250 protesters to the state capitol.

One of his first jobs after graduating from the University of Colorado in the early '70s was with the Colorado Migrant Head Start program. Calderón also visited the National Headquarters of the United Farmer Workers of America (UFW) in Delano, California. He still recalls Cesar Chavez' words: "You have only so much time in your life...And you can easily throw your life away...Or, you can use your life in service to others; empower others in building a more just and equal society."

In Greeley in the 1970s, Calderon started the Al Frente de Lucha (meaning in the forefront of the struggle), which worked on the UFW boycott of lettuce and grapes. He took California students to work with the UFW, and has also worked with the Movimiento Estudiantil Chican@ de Aztlan or M.E.Ch.A that promotes Chicano unity and empowerment as well as the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).

Calderon helped open Greeley's Sunrise Community Health Center, build the Rodarte Cultural Center, and keep Jefferson High School open. He helped organize Monfort meat cutter workers, start the Welfare Rights organization with Maria Garcia, and began celebrating Cinco de Mayo and September 16th, the day of Mexican Independence.

"Today I'm in my 60s," Calderón adds, "I can honestly say from my own experience that what Cesar was saying at that time is true...by some chance I were to be at the end of my life tomorrow, for whatever reason, I can truthfully tell you that my life, I could say, has been very meaningful."

He is a delegate to the Democratic National Convention and recently retired as a professor in Sociology and Chicano Studies from California's Pitzer College. He has a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California in Los Angeles and his professional publications may be found at http://pzacad.pitzer.edu/~jcaldero/ under professional publications.

Calderón urges, "More than ever in this time period, we all need to look through...our windows at those families without jobs; those families without homes; the status of immigrant children, who comprise one fourth of all U.S. children, and their parents, who contribute over 70 billion dollars to the economy...And we need not turn our backs, but be courageous and commit ourselves to long-term transformational change." He will continue speaking about change at Isla Bonita in Greeley, Colorado, August 20th at 4 PM. Call (970) 970-324-5128 for reservations.