Del Mar College is hosting a history lecture, “Forging Race and Gender Power in Houston,” by Professor Samantha Rodriguez, as a part of the observance of Hispanic Heritage Month.
Del Mar’s monthlong observance offers a variety of activities and events that honor the contributions and achievements of Hispanic Americans.
Rodriguez is a history and humanities professor at Houston Community College and served as an oral historian, interview processor and research assistant for the award-winning book “Civil Rights in Black and Brown: Histories of Resistance and Struggle in Texas.”
Dawson Barrett, Del Mar College associate professor of history, said Rodriguez conducted several interviews locally for the book.
“She conducted oral history interviews for the ‘Civil Rights in Black and Brown Oral History Project,’ which includes several activists involved with protests and labor strikes in the Coastal Bend, and even a few interviews with Del Mar College alumni,” Barrett said.
Rodriguez’s lecture will entail presenting her research on the movement that drove the creation of Mexican-American Studies at the University of Houston in the 1960s and ’70s.
This movement involved high school and college students demanding gender and race classes be offered to students and led to Mexican-American Studies, African-American Studies, Women’s Studies, Ethnic Studies, and American Indian Studies being offered to students.
According to Barrett, Rodriguez will discuss parallels with many of the events that were happening in South Texas during that same period, including walkouts by high school students in Robstown, Kingsville and Alice.
“I think there is much to learn from this history, both about Texas and about how young people in the past tried to shape their schools and build a better world,” Barrett said.
Hosted by the Del Mar Colleges Social Sciences Department, the lecture will be at 7 p.m. Oct. 26 in Wolfe Recital Hall, located in the Fine Arts Center Music Building on the Heritage Campus. The lecture is free to the public.
