Author Archives: Jose Calderon

About Jose Calderon

Jose Zapata Calderon is Emeritus Professor in Sociology and Chicano/a Latino/a Studies at Pitzer College and President of the Latino and Latina Roundtable of the Pomona Valley and San Gabriel Valley.

Video on Support of Covid Vaccinations by Village Academy High School Justice Team

In this time when there is a need to expose the anti-vaccination covid myths being spread in our communities, we have to thank the Village Academy High School Justice team and their teacher, Mr. William Brogie for creating this educational video on the need for our communities to care for others and to get vaccinated.

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7th Annual Cesar Chavez breakfast

 

17TH ANNUAL CESAR CHAVEZ BREAKFAST

| March 26, 2021|

 

Please join us virtually for our 17th Annual Cesar Chavez Breakfast honoring community leaders and scholarship recipients. It’s time to celebrate in community the core values of our beloved organizer and civil rights leader, Cesar E. Chavez.

 

 

 

 Join us in celebration of our resiliency and victories amid such an unprecedented time in our nation. Our esteemed leaders, Jose Calderon and Angela Sanbrano, will welcome us in community! Grab your cafecito and pan dulce and participate in this beautiful virtual event on March 26, 2021 where you will experience the power of community organizing and the Si Se Puede spirit!

 

 

Buy Tickets!

“Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our own.”

– Cesar E. Chavez

 

2021 HONOREES

Melissa Ayala

Melissa Ayala was born and raised in Pomona, CA. She attended California Polytechnic University, Pomona where she received a B.A. in Gender Ethnicity and Multicultural studies with a minor in Spanish. She has served as a Historic and Parks and Recreation commissioner in Pomona and on the board of Latino and Latina Roundtable. Her experience in community organizing has led her to pursue her passion working in education by supporting the well being of others. Melissa currently works for Pomona Unified School District as a Community School Coordinator. Melissa hopes to continue serving Pomona and be part of the city’s positive change.

 

Miranda Sheffield

Miranda Sheffield (she/her) is dedicated to social justice advocacy, resistance, and collective movement. As an international scholar, Miranda earned her master’s degree in Human Rights Law from SOAS University of London. Miranda is a member- organizer of Pomona United for Stabilized Housing (PUSH) and a core member of Police Oversight Starts Today (POST), a group pushing for more pathways for local police accountability. Miranda’s passion is addressing economic justice in service of cultivating thriving black and brown communities. She believes in utilizing alternative anti-capitalist models deeply rooted in Economic Solidarity.

Victor Preciado

Victor Preciado was elected to the Pomona City Council in 2018. He represents District 2. Victor has worked with local organizations such as, The dA Center for the Arts, DayOne, Latino/a Roundtable, Pomona Valley Democratic Club, and Pomona’s Promise. Most recently, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Victor partnered with God’s Pantry to coordinate deliveries of groceries to families in need. Victor and his group of volunteers now deliver groceries to nearly 700 Pomona families each week. As a lifelong Pomona resident, Victor wants to continue giving back to the community.

 

Luis Juarez

 

Luis Juarez grew up in San Dimas, CA. He began organizing as a student at UC Santa Barbara and became involved with Cesar Chavez and the United Farmworkers’ Union. Luis helped build Agbayani Village (retirement facility) in Delano, CA as well as Project Manong in Oakland.  Luis has marched and stood on the picket line alongside striking workers. Luis has also led efforts to mobilize Latino/a voters. He has served as a member of the Tri Valleys Municipal Water District and past President of the Pomona Valley Democratic Club. He continues to be involved in progressive causes locally and nationwide.

Francisco Suarez

 

Francisco Suarez is a lawyer with a long history of grassroots organizing in Pomona. He has been an active leader in, Police Oversight Starts Today (POST), a group organizing to get the Pomona Charter Commission to get a police commission with oversight powers. He is a champion for immigrants rights as well as environmental justice. He has always acted in the best interest in challenging the government’s overreach towards the people who do not have a voice.

 

2021 SOCIAL JUSTICE SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION DEADLINE EXTENDED!

 

This scholarship has been established with the goal of assisting students who live in the San Gabriel and/or Pomona Valley the opportunity to pursue higher education while continuing their social consciousness and activism. Deadline has been extended to March 10th, 2021 at 5 pm! Scholarship recipients will be presented with the scholarship at the Cesar Chavez Virtual Breakfast celebration on 3.26.2021 for more information and specific requirements click below!

Apply Now!

PADRINOS AND MADRINAS

SUPERVISOR HILDA SOLIS, FIRST DISTRICT LOS ANGELES COUNTY

 POMONA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

PLATINUM SPONSORS

Pitzer College- Community Engagement Center, Office of the Dean of Faculty, & Institute for Global and Local Action & Study

 

UCLA Labor Center

 

Senator Maria Elena Durazo and the Latino Caucus

 

Senator Connie Leyva

AAPTI- American Alliance of Professional Translators and Interpreters

WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH

We want to celebrate Women’s History Month by allowing our members to submit names of women who are activists and/or unsung heroes of our movements.

Submit Name

We hope you are able to join us!

 

For more information and sponsorship opportunities please contact us at (909)-480-6267 or info@latinolatinaroundtable.org

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Sociologist Podcast With Emeritus Professor Jose Calderon and Professor James McKeever

Thank you to Professor James McKeever for this interview and his podcast that is advancing new and innovative scholarly roads. Please connect in to this podcast for an informative discussion on the significance of community-based scholarship and the possibilities for creating new models of racial equity and quality of life that are emerging in the contemporary period and for the future. 

From Professor James McKeever Tomorrow (February 15)  on https://www.sociologiststalkingrealshit.com/podcast. I sit down with activist intellectual Dr. Jose Zapata Calderon. We discuss the roots of migration and Biden’s proposed Immigration policies, community engaged scholarship, multiracial coalitions, and in the end some actual solutions for inequality.   Jose Zapata Calderon is Emeritus Professor in Sociology and Chicano/a Latino/a Studies at Pitzer College and President of the Latino and Latina Roundtable of the San Gabriel and Pomona Valley. He received an A. A. from Northeastern Jr. College, a B. A. from the University of Colorado and a PhD in Sociology from UCLA. As the son of immigrant farm workers from Mexico, he has had a long history of connecting his organizing and academic work with community-based teaching, participatory action research, critical pedagogy, and engagement. He was a national founder of the URBAN-Based Research Action Network and the American Sociology Association Latino and Latina Studies Section. From 2013 – 2015, he served a two-year term as a board member of the Los Angeles County Board of Education. He was recently honored with the prestigious National Association for Chicano and Chicana Studies Scholar Lifetime Achievement Award and has received numerous awards including: the Ambassador Nathaniel and Elizabeth Davis Civil Rights Legacy Award; the “Dreamkeeper Award” from the California Alliance of African American Educators; the California Campus Compact Richard E. Cone Award for Excellence and Leadership in Cultivating Community Partnerships in Higher Education; the Goddess of Pomona Award from the City of Pomona, the Michi and Walter Weglyn Chair in Multicultural Studies at Cal Poly University, Pomona; and the United Farm Worker’s Union “Si Se Puede” award for his life-long contributions to the farm worker movement. A recent TedX video, Finding Cesar Chavez: A Transformative Moment,” was chosen as an Editor’s Pick nationally. As a community-based public intellectual, he has published over sixty articles (with the most recent one “The Same Struggle: Immigrant Rights and Educational Justice” in the book Lift Us Up, Don’t Push Us Out: Voices from the Front Lines of the Educational Justice Movement) and including the books: Lessons from an Activist Intellectual: Teaching, Research, and Organizing for Social Change, and Race, Poverty, and Social Justice: Multidisciplinary Perspectives Through Service Learning.

Jose Zapata Calderon
Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Chicano/a and Latino/a Studies
1050 North Mills Avenue
Claremont, CA 91711-6101
(909) 952-1640
 Jose_Calderon@pitzer.edu
Website:  www.josezcalderon.com

Request to Support the LRT for Annual Cesar Chavez Breakfast Fundraiser

This is to let you know that our Latino and Latina Roundtable will be holding its annual Cesar Chavez breakfast fundraiser once again on Friday, March 26, 2021 (Cesar Chavez Day).  I know that some of you may get tired of our requests, but we are persistent in reaching out to you because we know that you know of our work and how, for years, it has been based on volunteers.  Now, for the first time, we have a director and an office and a vision of developing a staff.  Hence, to further advance our organizing efforts and our vision, we are asking for your support once again. As you know, our annual fundraiser is not just about sustaining our education, immigrant rights, college pipeline, environmental, and community economic development organizing – but is also aimed at bringing to center stage and honoring leaders and social justice scholarship students in our region who best exemplify the principles and values of Cesar Chavez.  On March 26th, the LRT will present scholarships to students who are exemplary in connecting their studies with community engagement.   Please help us in sharing the attached scholarship application with others (that has a due date of March 5th). 

It is with that spirit that I invite you to save the date of March 26th and to donate at the level that you or your organization can afford. Please see the attached sponsorship levels that include e-tickets for the virtual event and name listing in the program. You can also purchase individual ticket(s) at $50 per ticket, $25 for paid LRT members, and/or $10 for students and low-income individuals or retirees.   

 

You can go through Eventbrite to pay by credit card at- 

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/latino-and-latina-roundtables-17th-annual-cesar-chavez-breakfast-tickets-139338853261 

or Mail RSVP & payment to Latino and Latina Roundtable 1460 E Holt Ave, Mailbox 144, Pomona, CA 91767 (make checks payable to Latino/a Roundtable).  For information please call (909) 480-6267 or visit our website www.latinolatinaroundtable.org 

Here is also the video created by Olga Rojas on our Latino and Latina Roundtable:

https://www.youtube.com/watch

 

Jose Zapata Calderon

President of the Latino and Latina Roundtable of the San Gabriel and Pomona Valley

Copy of Cesar Chavez Breakfast RSVP 2021-4

Request for help by Doubletree Workers

There may be an outbreak at the hotel. Workers report at least 9 coworkers have had COVID over the last few months. There are only about 30 workers in the hotel.
Workers report management has not been following COVID safety measure. They have not supplied enough PPE to workers.  Workers say that when their coworkers have gotten COVID, management had not told them or asked them to quarantine.  Housekeepers report that Management does not give them the additional time and resources that they need to properly clean and disinfect guest rooms.  Management asks house keepers to clean 15-16 rooms a day-the same number of rooms they told them to clean BEFORE the pandemic. As a result housekeepers frequently skip breaks, including meals, and report being exhausted by all the work.
The outbreak and managements’ alleged failure to protect workers and guests threatens the health of the community.  Until recently, the County was contracting with the hotel to prepare food for home bound seniors.  Several airlines from ONT airport contract with the hotel to house their flight crews.  
Workers feel all these factors have contributed to the outbreak and put their health and the guests’ health at risk.
Workers went to management several time to ask for information about sick coworkers and more time and resources to clean and disinfect guest rooms, but they feel management has not listened.
Workers filed complaints with San Bernardino and CalOSHA.
Ask #1:
Call: (909) 418-4815 ask to speak to Bassam Shahin, General Manager
Demands:
1. The hotel lower the room quota by 3 rooms, equivalent to the 90 additional minutes needed to do additional cleaning required to keep guests and coworkers safe.
2. The hotel bring back additional housekeepers to work to allow for the reduction of the room quota.
Ask #2:
Call: Zulfiquar Merchant, District Manager for Cal/OSHA, 626-239-0369
Share background of the current situation.

Demands: Inspect the COVID safety violations at the Ontario Doubletree and help protect the health of the workers and the community

Latino and Latina Roundtable 17th Annual Cesar Chavez Breakfast 3.26.2021

Buenas Tardes Latino and Latina Roundtable Familia,

First and foremost, I hope you are doing well and feeling healthy. We have some exciting news for you! We are pleased to announce that we will be celebrating virtually the legacy of Cesar Chavez this year on Friday 3.26.2021 at 9 am. Please save the date and share widely. More information will be made available in the coming weeks.
This is our main fundraiser and beloved event that brings our community together. Although the COVID-19  pandemic has prevented us from gathering, we are hopeful that we have your support and this event will be successful.  Most importantly, we are excited to continue this tradition and celebrate our students and community leaders that embody the values of Cesar Chavez.
For sponsorship opportunities or to make a donation please contact me or visit our website www.latinolatinaroundtable.org or call (909) 480-6267.
Si Se Puede!!!!
Lina