The second annual Rita J. Martinez Youth Leadership Conference took place Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023, at CSU-Pueblo.
Over 300 middle and high school students from Pueblo and San Luis Valley attended the May 2022 conference. They came together for a day of learning Chicano cultural history and pride.
Dozens of workshops and panels covered topics from Lowriders, to knowing your rights, to relationships, and Mayan math.
In preparation for this years’ conference, the planning committee held a focus group of seven young people to gain a better understanding of what kind of workshops they wanted to see this year.
The young people expressed an interest in learning about Indigenous culture, languages and medicine, the arts, viclas (lowrider motorcycles), mental health, and the protest songs of the Chicano Movement.
The conference planning committee was made up of members of El Movimiento Sigué, many of whom are parents and educators, students and employees of the University, and other community members.
Youth conferences hold a special place in the Chicano Movement. In a society that treats us as second class citizens, underserves our students, and over-polices and overincarcerates our youth.
Young people are facing a cultural and psychological genocide that has persisted since colonization. Chicano Youth Conferences are the antidote to all that. They are spaces where young people learn that we didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us. Native Americans and Mexicans are Indigenous relatives with rich cultural legacies and profound spiritual and medicinal foundations.
The Rita J. Martinez Youth Leadership Conference is a way for the Chicano Movement elders to pass the baton to the next generation, and share with them our cultural traditions of protesting, organizing, resisting, dancing, and singing in the face of oppression. In turn, we also learn from our young people about the challenges they are facing, as well as the talents and skills that are flourishing within them.
https://RJM-Conference.eventbrite.co
