The Richard T. Castro Distinguished Visiting Professorship Committee has announced award-winning journalist and author Sonia Nazario as the 2011 Castro visiting professor. The theme for the professorship, to be held Oct. 18-20, is “Canto y grito: The Power of the Voice.”
Nazario has spent 20 years reporting and writing about social issues, most recently as a projects reporter for the Los Angeles Times. Her stories have tackled some of this country's most intractable problems: hunger, drug addiction and immigration.
In 2003, Nazario's story of a Honduran boy's struggle to find his mother in the U.S., titled "Enrique's Journey," won more than a dozen awards, among them the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing, the George Polk Award for International Reporting, the Grand Prize of the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Guillermo Martinez-Marquez Award for Overall Excellence.
Expanded into a book, "Enrique's Journey" became a national bestseller that garnered two book awards. It is now required reading for incoming freshmen at dozens of colleges and high schools across the United States. It is the featured book for the Center for Urban Connections' 1 Book/1 Project/2 Transform. The recurring book series, open to all Metro State faculty, staff and students, combines a book discussion with a related service project, with the idea that all can be transformed.
Tentative Schedule of Events
Tuesday, Oct. 18
6 p.m.
La Bienvenida Reception
Center for Visual Art
965 Santa Fe Drive
Wednesday, Oct. 19
11 a.m.-1 p.m.
Luncheon, Keynote Sonia Nazario
Emcee, CBS4 reporter Michelle Griego
St. Cajetan’s Center
2 p.m.
One Book, One Project Denver discussion of “Enrique’s Journey,” Roger Braun Lounge, Tivoli Student Union
Thursday, Oct. 20
2 p.m.
Panel discussion of journalists: Sonia Nazario, Denver Post columnist Tina Griego, El Semanario Publisher Chris Fresquez, Viva Colorado Publisher and Editor Rowena Alegría, El Semanario Guest Columnist Ramon Del Castillo (also chair and associate professor of Chicana/o Studies)
Tattered Cover LoDo, 1628 16th St.
6 p.m. Closing Reception
Su Teatro
721 Santa Fe Drive (Denver)
7:30 p.m. Su Teatro’s performance of “Enrique’s Journey”
Metro State alumnus Richard T. Castro (1946-1991), educational and civil rights activist, was one of Colorado’s true champions of disenfranchised communities. For more information on Castro’s legacy and Nazario, visit http://www.mscd.edu/news/castro.
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