Veronica Leyva: Organizing Against The Femicides in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico
Veronica Leyva is a grassroots organizer who has spent ten years working in the maquiladora industry, and has been organizing in her community for fifteen years conducting workshops on worker's and women's rights. She has also been involved with the struggle for justice for the victims of the femicides in Ciudad Juarez.
In her talks in the Valley, Leyva and a representative of the Mexico Solidarity Network will speak about the struggle to end the femicides in the Maquila sector, while also providing an analysis of the social contexts that these injustices occur.
Leyva hopes to promote the creation of bi-national committees that will include activists and community leaders from the Mexico and the United States to address gender violence, and to increase awareness and support for the proposal sponsored by U.S. Representative Hilda Solis (House Resolution 466), which condemns the femicide in Ciudad Juarez, as well as SR 392, the identical Resolution in the Senate.
This event is sponsored by the UMass-Amherst Women’s Studies Dept, and is co-sponsored by Everywoman’s Center, Center for Latin American, Latino and Caribbean Studies, Labor Center, Office of ALANA Affairs, STPEC Dept, Student Center for Educational Research and Advocacy & the Student Government Association.