While LEAD Summit XI is the signature event of LEAD 2020, there are several events before and after the March 26 summit at Cal State San Bernardino that focus on the importance of educational opportunities for Latinos.
 
The theme for the Latino Education and Advocacy Days Summit XI, free and open to the public, is “Movimiento y Compromiso: 50 Years of Challenges, Possibilities, and the Quest for Educational Equity.” The summit panels and speakers will revisit and commemorate social movements from the last 50 years, including the birth of Chicano-ethnic studies, the school walkouts/blowouts, bilingual education and the Chicano Moratorium.

LEAD 2020 events will be held as scheduled as CSUSB will be open for normal business operations through the 2020 winter quarter. CSUSB and LEAD are committed to protect the health and safety of students, faculty, staff and visitors to the university.
 
The Puente Project, based at the University of California, Berkeley, canceled its planned Feria Educativa/Puente 9th Grade Student Leadership Conference XV!, which was set for Wednesday, March 18 at CSUSB.
 
The conference events, which begin on Thursday, March 19, and run through Saturday, March 28, are expected to welcome more than 3,500 attendees (in-person) to the CSUSB campus, with thousands more online via Town Hall viewing sites around the world, as well as stories printed and segments aired across several broadcast, print and internet media partners and outlets.
 
The state Legislature has also recognized the importance and impact of what has become known as LEAD Week, with Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 137 (Carter, 2010) and Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 42 (Reyes, 2019), which are measures that declare the last week of March every year as a statewide week of advocacy for Latino education.
 
And the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the California Latino Legislative Caucus, in letters to LEAD, have also lent their support by encouraging participation in the summit.
 
LEAD serves as a primary site for a set of innovative and productive programs, publications and events for Latinos and education. These projects involve significant participation of faculty, students and administrators, as well as partnerships in the region and nationally. The projects also create strong interactive connections with Latino networks in the U.S., as well as Latin Americans and Indigenous Peoples throughout the Americas and the world, many whom are already in contact with LEAD personnel and the university.
  
The nine events tied to LEAD 2020 will stretch over 10 days, beginning Thursday, March 19, from 5-7 p.m. (check-in begins at 4:30 p.m.) with Sin Fronteras: Ensuring Human Rights and Migration through Legal Representation and Social Entrepreneurship. The event, in the Santos Manuel Student Union Events Center and organized by the VIA Immigration Project and Te Conecta Guatemala, will focus on immigration issues and policies. Te Conecta and VIA Immigration Project will conjointly discuss approaches and strategies to empower vulnerable immigrant populations through entrepreneurship, training, legal representation and education.
 
Featured speakers will be María José Girón, co-founder and president, Te Conecta Guatemala; Hadley Bajramovic, founder of VIA Immigration Project and CEO at The Immigration Law Offices of Hadley Bajramovic; and Laura Galindo, volunteer case manager at VIA and Humanitarian/DACA & Naturalization Manager at The Immigration Law Offices of Hadley Bajramovic.
 
On Friday, March 20, from 4:30-8 p.m., the Association of Latino Faculty, Staff, and Students at Cal State San Bernardino will provide a time of networking when it hosts its ALFSS Winter Social Convivencia at the SMSU Events Center. The event will be a time of food, dancing, music and more, including dance lessons for Salsa, Bachata, Merengue and Cumbia. The event is open to the public, and parking and food will be complimentary. Please RSVP at www.bit.ly/ALFSSCONVIVENCIA.
 
The Binational Parent Leadership Institute III will take place on Saturday, March 21, from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. at the SMSU Events Center. The parent and community leadership conference allows the Binational Parent Leadership Institute (BPLI) the opportunity to share its mission and vision in creating awareness, education and advocacy to support and accomplish the following objectives:

  • Increase the intellectual, cultural, and personal growth of educators, administrators, leaders, parents and students in order to address the crisis in Latino education; and
  • Establish the binational parent mechanisms for engagement, advanced training, organized leadership and meaningful commitment to assure positive results in student success.

 
Guest speakers at the institute are Ted Alejandre, San Bernardino County superintendent of schools; Hugo René Oliva Romero, cónsul adscrito – Consulate of Mexico; Professor Armando Vazquez-Ramos, president of the California-Mexico Studies Center; and state Assemblymember Eloise Gómez Reyes, D-San Bernardino.

On Monday, March 23, from 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m., the SMSU Events Center will be the site of the Catholic Schools Expo and Career Day IV. The event for students will feature workshops on college readiness, academic support, career exploration, resume and activity documentation and support groups.
 
Parents will also have workshops that will focus on learning about college readiness, how a college education can be made affordable, how they can prepare their children for college, and an opportunity to hear from current students.
 
Tuesday, March 24, will feature Ethnic Studies IE III, a conference on the ongoing campaign for ethnic studies in California. The conference will take place in the SMSU Events Center from 8 a.m.-2:30 p.m.
 
Inland Empire community advocates, educators, students and their families will learn what is being done in the region to initiate, promote and keep ethnic studies programs in the schools, and what needs to be done to make ethnic studies a graduation requirement. The event is open to the public and free.
 
The Puente Project Student Leadership Forum V will take place on Wednesday, March 25, from 3 p.m.-9 p.m. at the Double Tree by Hilton, 285 E. Hospitality Lane, in San Bernardino.  The Puente Project is a national award-winning program that for 38 years has improved the college-going rate of tens of thousands of California’s educationally disadvantaged students. Its mission is to increase the number of educationally disadvantaged students who enroll in four-year colleges and universities, earn college degrees and return to the community as mentors and leaders to future generations. Puente currently has programs in community colleges, high schools, and middle schools in California and Texas.
 
The Puente Project’s program design encourages students to develop leadership skills and to share their valued experiences and opinions. The plan for the forum is to invite 20 current and former Puente students to discuss the various LEAD workshop/panel topics the day prior to the LEAD conference. This will give the students the opportunity to engage in gaining a better understanding of the topics, while formulating ideas and questions to pose to the speakers throughout the LEAD conference on March 26. In addition, the students will also prepare to be sharing the topics as social media ambassadors via social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. This student representation will enable the LEAD international audience to hear from the voices of young adults regarding issues affecting their lives.
 
LEAD Summit XI, the signature event, will take place on Thursday, March 26, from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. at the SMSU Events Center. In addition to panel presentations on the theme “Movimiento y Compromiso: 50 Years of Challenges, Accomplishments, and the Continuing Quest for Educational Equity,” the summit will feature Richard Anthony Marin, better known as Cheech Marin, the honorary chair/padrino de honor, as the morning featured speaker, and Rosalío Muñoz, chiefly remembered as the co-chair of the Chicano Moratorium Committee, an anti-war movement that played a pivotal role in shaping one of Chicana/o history’s defining moments, as the afternoon keynote speaker.
 
Also, the summit will honor trailblazers Cynthia Barajas and José Angel Gutiérrez, who will serve as grand marshals for the morning procession, “Honoring the Movement Elders,” which will begin at 9:15 a.m.
 
On Friday, March 27, the Jovenes Comprometidos Youth Leadership Program XVI will take place at the Training Occupational Development Educating Communities (TODEC) Legal Center, 234 S. D St., in Perris. The goal of the program is to promote a lifelong commitment to civic engagement and community empowerment, beginning with the youth. For more information, contact the TODEC Legal Center at (951) 943-1955.
 
LEAD 2020 culminates with the Ninth Annual César E. Chávez Memorial Breakfast on Saturday, March 28, from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. at the Santos Manuel Student Union Events Center, hosted by the Chicano Latino Caucus of San Bernardino County, in partnership with LEAD. The keynote speaker will be David Villarino-Gonzalez, president of the Board of Directors and CEO of the Farmworker Institute of Education and Leadership Development (FIELD) Institute, which was founded by Chavez in 1978.
 
Tickets for the breakfast are $50 per person and can be purchased online at the 9th Annual Cesar E. Chavez Memorial Breakfast page on Eventbrite.