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CLoRE: Latinx Equity Before/After Covid

Changing the Legacy of Race & Ethnicity: Latinx Before/After Covid
Posted on 03/25/2021
Join Colorado Humanities, in partnership with Aurora Public Library, for the online panel discussion “Latinx Equity Before/After Covid” Wednesday, March 31 at 7 p.m. The presentation will be broadcast on the Aurora Public Library Facebook page as well as Colorado Humanities’ Facebook & YouTube pages.

This live Q&A panel discussion will address the equity gaps in education, health and economics for Latinx and Hispanic Coloradans. The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing racial and ethnic inequalities. According to recent data from the Kaiser Family Foundation, white Coloradans are twice as likely to have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as Hispanic Coloradans are. Experts from a health equity agency, city government, school board and chamber of commerce will outline issues and prospects for COVID-19 recovery for Latinx and Hispanic communities, both locally and nationally. 

Colorado Poet Laureate Bobby LeFebre will also perform. Featured panelists include Theresa Trujillo, Deborah Ortega, Angela Cobián, and Mike Ferrufino. Find out more about the featured panelists below. 

To learn more or to register for this event, click here. This event is free to watch on social media.

This is the fourth event in Colorado Humanities’ “Changing the Legacy of Race & Ethnicity: Conversations for One America” series. The goal of CLoRE is to drive a broad discussion across Colorado as well as inspire action around the issues of race and social justice in the state. Previous presentations in the series can be found on the Colorado Humanities YouTube and Facebook pages as well as viewed below.



Community partners for this series include NAACP Aurora Colorado, History Colorado, Colorado Anti-Defamation League, Aurora Public Library, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Colorado Black Chamber of Commerce, Colorado Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Pine River Library, Colorado Council of Churches and Mexican Cultural Center Denver.
Sponsors include The Durango Herald, Arapahoe Libraries, and GroundFloor Media and CenterTable. Media sponsors include Rocky Mountain Public Media and The Durango Herald.

Colorado Humanities is the only Colorado organization exclusively dedicated to supporting humanities education for adults and children statewide. Celebrating its 46th year and its 16th year as host for the Colorado Center for the Book, Colorado Humanities is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit working in partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities, The Library of Congress Center for the Book, the Smithsonian Institution, and the national award-winning educational nonprofit Motheread, Inc.



Featured Panelists

Bobby LeFebreBobby LeFebre
is an award-winning writer, performer and cultural worker fusing  a non-traditional multi-hyphenated professional identity to imagine new realities,    empower communities, advance arts and culture, and serve as an agent of provocation, transformation, equity and social change. LeFebre is a two-time Grand Slam Champion, a National Poetry Slam Finalist, an Individual World Poetry Slam Finalist, and a two-time TEDx speaker. He has performed at hundreds of cultural events, social actions, detention centers, conferences, and colleges and universities across the United States and abroad. LeFebre’s work has appeared in The New York Times, Huffington Post, The Guardian, American Theater Magazine, NPR, and Poets.Org. In 2019, LeFebre was named Colorado’s 8th Poet Laureate, making him the youngest and first person of color to be appointed to the position in its 100-year history. LeFebre holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the Metropolitan University of Denver and a master’s degree in Art, Literature and Culture from the University of Denver.


Theresa TrujilloTheresa Trujillo currently serves as the Director of Community Organizing at the Center for Health Progress. She is a community organizer with decades of experience in facilitation, deepening community engagement, and campaign management. She understands that community organizing is something we build and create; it does not just magically happen. She relies on the power of storytelling and relationship building as a means of transformation. Theresa’s passion for power building within marginalized communities has guided her to engage in disciplined, strategic practices to build democratic and collective power, and to create the conditions for a community to thrive. Her activism is rooted in her local community and she deeply appreciates the unique opportunity to organize in the community where she was born and raised.


Debbie OrtegaCouncilwoman Deborah “Debbie” Ortega has dedicated her life to serving the citizens of Denver. She was elected Denver Councilwoman At-large in 2011 and reelected in 2015 and 2019. Prior to being elected at-large, Ortega served as the first executive director of Denver’s Homeless Commission. Under her leadership the foundation was laid for the success of Denver’s Road Home, the city’s 10-year plan to end homelessness. She represented City Council District 9 from 1987 to 2003. Councilwoman Ortega led the efforts to have three neighborhoods declared an EPA Superfund site and to clean-up environmental contamination from decades of smelter and other industrial operations in the area. Councilwoman Ortega’s commitment to Denver’s citizens extends beyond her office, as she is currently Chair of Del Norte Neighborhood Development Corporation, providing housing and services to low-income residents.


Angela CobianAngela Cobián (she/ella) is a is a teacher-turned-community organizer and currently in her first term on the Denver Board of Education. As the daughter of Mexican immigrants, she has dedicated her career to building power among students and families. Cobián was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to consult with the NGO Enseña por Mexico on program development for student-led social change initiatives, as well as co-teach English at the Universidad Pedagogica Nacional in Mexico City. Upon returning from Mexico, Cobián began organizing the parents of her former students as a Bilingual Community Organizer with Together Colorado, an affiliate of the Faith in Action National Network. She led school and congregation-based organizing on immigration and education issues. Angela continued her work in collective action as the Director of National Organizing and Development with Leadership for Educational Equity, where she redesigned national programs to shift to anti-racist organizing and coaching organizers to launch new regions across the country. She continues advocacy for civic and social change as the Director of Coalition Advocacy at Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Action Fund. In recognition of her “dedication and commitment to the Latino community,” Angela Cobián received the Lena L. Archuleta Community Service Award from the Denver Public Library in
2020.


Mike FerrufinoMike Ferrufino
serves as the President/CEO of the Colorado Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, representing a diverse network of more than 100,000 Hispanic owned Colorado businesses. He advocates locally and nationally on behalf of the COHCC members as well as for low-income, minority, and immigrant communities. His expertise in the Hispanic market has helped to increase the effectiveness of regulatory and legislative strategy. He is a national leader in economic development and business strategies and has more than 30 years of experience in Spanish language media as Vice President and General manager of Latino Communications. He is most passionate about empowering traditionally underserved populations to create economic opportunity, close educational opportunity gaps and improve health outcomes.

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