Dr. Cynthia Orozco, an award-winning and best-selling author, historian, consultant and public speaker, is coming to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga for the University’s Hispanic Heritage Month celebration.
Orozco, professor emeritus in History and Humanities at Eastern New Mexico University-Ruidoso, will give a public lecture from 5-7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 10, in the UTC University Center Auditorium. The free guest lecture is open to the public.
Dr. Cynthia Orozco
Known for her work establishing the field of Chicana studies, Orozco has written over 100 articles and three award-winning books. She is a two-time Ford Fellow and a Texas State Historical Association Fellow.
Earlier this year, she was named a National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies Scholar and received the LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens) National Education Award.
In her talk, Orozco will examine the life and work of Alonso S. Perales—the subject of her book, “Pioneer of Mexican-American Civil Rights.”
“Alonso S. Perales was an attorney, civil rights activist, U.S. diplomat and principal founder of LULAC—the oldest and largest Latino civil rights organization in the U.S.,” said Dr. Edwin Murillo, associate professor of Spanish in the UTC Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures. “As a historian, Cynthia Orozco has worked to rediscover Perales’s significance for a new generation of civil rights scholars and younger generations of Hispanics.”
Largely forgotten, Perales worked to pass legislation banning racial discrimination and school desegregation in Texas and the nation.
“Dr. Orozco is one of the prominent Mexican-American civil rights historians in the country,” Murillo said. “She’s very much an educator, but she’s very relatable, and her talk is really tailored to a general audience.”
A book signing will follow the lecture. Attendees are asked to register for the event for a chance to win a free copy of one of her books.
Orozco’s visit to UTC is sponsored by Latin American Studies, the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures, the Department of History, the Department of Social, Cultural and Justice Studies, the CAS Diversity Committee, the Division of Diversity and Engagement and the Office of Multicultural Affairs.
