Wednesday, September 27, 2023
4-6pm
Free and open to the public
Join us at the Tarble to honor Latin American Heritage Month with guest speakers sponsored by EIU’s Department of Political Science. Robin Hoover and Laura Garciandia will speak on the migrant experience, immigration policy reform, and their collaborative projects: a website offering resources that prepare migrants for the journey across Mexico and into the U.S., and an emerging TikTok campaign designed to promote immigration reform in the U.S. and Mexico.
Rev. Dr. Robin Hoover is a social ethicist who has worked with migrating people along the southwest border of the United States for over three decades. He has founded and led several nonprofit organizations that delivered millions of dollars of aid to migrants. Rev. Dr. Hoover has testified before congressional committees and presented at dozens of major universities. His life’s work has been preserved in the Special Collections Library at the University of Arizona. In 2006, he was awarded the Premio Nacional de los Derechos Humanos, or National Human Rights Award, in Mexico.
Laura Garciandia is a Cuban-born journalist living in Mexico City who has worked with Central American migrants in Mexico for over seven years. She provides services and delivers donated clothing, medicine, and food to migrant shelters. After listening to hundreds of migrant testimonies about their dangerous journey, she initiated a program of distributing survival guides with maps, emergency contact information, and tips to meet basic needs and alleviate the dangers faced by migrants.
