African American History Month at CSUDH: Belize City Mayor to Speak About Realities and Challenges in a Racially Mixed Society

On Wednesday, Feb. 27, California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) will host a lecture on race relations with the mayor of Belize City, Zenaida Victoria Moya. Co-sponsored by the Department of Africana Studies, the Department of Chicana/o Studies, Associated Students, Inc., the Multicultural Center and Toro Productions, the lecture and discussion will take place beginning at 1 p.m. in the university’s Loker Student Union Ballroom.

Belize is a country the size of Massachusetts that borders Guatemala, Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. The population is ethnically diverse and racially mixed, with Belizeans either descendants of indigenous peoples, enslaved Africans, or Europeans. Immigrants from Europe and Asia also call Belize home.

Mayor Moya’s talk will focus on this unique blending of races and cultures and how this heterogeneous society finds common ground among its races.

“Belizeans by comparison seem to be more adept at building cross-cultural consensus and avoiding the tensions between black and brown peoples that has become an increasing problem in the United States,” says Professor Ron Wilkins, Africana studies, who specializes in the cross-cultural tie between Africans and Latin Americans and helped arrange the visit from Mayor Moya.

A Belize City native, Zenaida Victoria Moya was university educated in the United States. She earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in business administration and economics from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., and University of Detroit-Mercy, respectively. She returned to Belize after college and took a job with the government. Following her involvement in national strikes protesting unfair tax increases and government corruption in 2005, Moya became mayor in 2006.

For more information, contact (310) 243-3819.

The Cal State Dominguez Hills African American History Month Celebration continues with the following events:

Feb. 22- March 2: “The Colored Museum” by George C. Wolfe
Directed by Jeffery Wright (Class of ’04)
Edison Theatre, CSUDH
For tickets and information, call (310) 243-3589 or order online at www.zaptix.com (browse “California”).

Feb. 27: Afrikan Market Place
Vendor Walkway, 10 a.m.- 7 p.m.
Sponsored by the African American History Month Planning Committee

- Amy Bentley-Smith