Talk on Violence and Economic Crisis in Mexico at New College of Florida

New College of Florida will host a talk entitled “Ciudad Juárez: The Other Side of Globalization” on March 30 at 4:30 p.m. in College Hall with Verónica Leyva, community organizer and native of the Mexican city of Juárez, and Corry Banton, representative of the Mexico-US Solidarity Network. The event, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the New College of Florida departments of sociology and gender studies.

Leyva will discuss the increasing violence, economic crisis as well as the struggle to survive in Juárez and other cities along the U.S. border. The presentation will be in Spanish with English translation provided by Banton.

Leyva will focus on the grassroots struggle at the border to confront militarization, violence against women, increased internal migration and the ties between the drug trafficking conflict and free trade. She will analyze President Felipe Calderon’s army-led war on drugs and the millions of dollars promised in U.S. aid for this war through the Merida Initiative. Leyva will also report on her own experience of the violent repercussions of these security initiatives for social struggles, women and civil society along the border.

Leyva spent 10 years working in the maquiladora, or assembly plant, industry and has been organizing in her community for 15 years conducting workshops on workers’ and women’s rights as well as participating in the struggle for justice for femicide victims in Juarez.

The Mexico Solidarity Network (MSN) is a nonprofit organization that exposes students to community-building movements in Mexico through study abroad programs focused on social justice. The programs are accredited by the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM Xochimilco) and the SUNY system, and the school of record is Hampshire College. MSN programs are also affiliated with approximately 70 other U.S. colleges.