Celebrating Latinx Awareness Month

Cal State East Bay will welcome author and award-winning journalist Sonia Nazario Sept. 17 in celebration of Latinx Awareness Month. 

The event kicks off a yearlong program bringing authors, speakers and activists to share in community dialogue and classroom visits. 

Nazario's work tackles hunger, drug addiction and immigration, and has won multiple prestigious journalism and book awards, including two Pulitzer Prizes. 

Her book "Enrique's Journey" recounts a Honduran boy's life in search of his mother 11 years after she is forced to leave her family to find work in the United States. It was first published as a series in the Los Angeles Times and won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing in 2003. 

In recent years, Nazario has also worked to secure lawyers for unaccompanied migrant children, which in part, has earned her numerous accolades. In 2015, she received the Don and Arvonne Fraser Human Rights Award and the 2015 Champion of Children by First Focus. In 2016, she also received the Houston Peace & Justice Center National Peacemaker Award, and in 2018, she received the Spirit of HOPE (Hispanas Organized for Political Equality) Award. 

Excerpts of "Enrique's Journey" are available through the Cal State East Bay library, and the event will take place on Zoom Sept. 17 at 12:15 p.m. More information and registration can be found at the Diversity and Inclusion Student Center website.