Author Archives: Jose Calderon

About Jose Calderon

Jose Zapata Calderon is Emeritus Professor in Sociology and Chicano/a Latino/a Studies at Pitzer College, Past President of the Latino and Latina Roundtable of the Pomona Valley and San Gabriel Valley, and a community-based sociologist, educator, author, and organizer.

Jessie De La Cruz And Her Historic Contributions

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So fully respect Jessie de la Cruz and her historic contributions. My students always learned about her in my classes through a book written about her and through the stories of her son – our brother en la lucha – Roberto Bobby de la Cruz who spoke in my classes about her. Jessie de la Cruz – Presente!

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Fruitful Meeting With Dr. Prakash Bhattari

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Fruitful meeting with Dr. Prakash Bhattari, Executive Director of the Centre for Social Change in Nepal (a social think-tank) and finding common thinking and practice in the fields of research, development practice, education, advocacy, and community mobilization. Amazed with their publishing to advance policy-making and community-based organizing in the areas of migration, governance, labor, civil society development, public policy, climate change, and social development.

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Remembering Our Brother Kent Wong

Remembering our brother Kent Wong (so much a part of our collective familia) who, as shown in these photographs- always advanced multi-racial unity – as part of making the connections between the particularity of historical systemic oppression and the collective organizing aspect of what to do about it. Here, at annual Cesar Chavez breakfast in Pomona, the recent non-violence direct action training conference (that he led and drew over 1400 participants), and a 50-year commemoration of Agbayani Village. The latter, held at Cal Poly Pomona, celebrated the unity between the Manong and Mexican workers in building Agbayani Village in Delano, the UFW, and an ongoing movement for dignity, justice, and equity for all workers (a movement that Kent exemplified in all aspects of his life). We have not only lost a close friend but a visionary leader who always put theory into practice and represented the very best of the kind of just and equitable world that we all are striving to build. Kent Wong – Presente!

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