Indigenous Communities’ Fight for Autonomy and Human Rights in Chiapas, Mexico, and Beyond

with Guadalupe Moshan Álvarez, attorney of the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center
and Bárbara Suárez Galeano of the Mexico Solidarity Network

Weds, September 30
7:30-8:30 pm | Room 249
Rubenstein Hall

Guadalupe Moshan Álvarez is a human rights defender that works as the principal attorney that gives legal advice at the front desk of the Fray Bartolomé Human Rights Center (FrayBa) in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. As an indigenous, Tzotzil woman from the highlands of Huixtan, Chiapas, Guadalupe knows well the context of socio-political struggle against the political class' development plans that threaten communities in her state. For this reason, since she has been accompanying indigenous communities in their pursuit of justice for over 10 years. In the past year alone, Guadalupe attended to more than 1,300 denouncements of human rights violations. The work she and her coworkers do is powerful, unique, and inspiring.

During the talk, Guadalupe will discuss the current human rights situation in Chiapas, its relation to the national context, and the role of international solidarity. She will connect her discussion to the human rights violations by the State that we face in the US, including assassinations of Black youth such as Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin and record-setting deportations of undocumented people. MSN collective member Bárbara Suárez Galeano will also be giving an introduction and providing consecutive interpretation.  This lecture is co-sponsored by Mi Gente, Romance Studies, International Comparative Studies, International Human Rights Clinic, and Academic Affairs