Alan Llavore | Office of Marketing and Communications | (909) 537-5007 | allavore@csusb.edu
Preparations for the 2024 Latino Education and Advocacy Days Summit, better known as LEAD Summit XIII, are close to being finalized. Set for Friday, Sept. 27, at Cal State San Bernardino’s Santos Manuel Student Union South, the daylong conference will focus on the binational relationship of the United States and Mexico from the prism of education.
“El Plan de San Bernardino: Transnationalism, Academic Mobility, and the Reframing of Education” will take place from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. and is free and open to the public. Visit the 2024 LEAD Summit XIII Registration webpage to reserve your spot.
Prior to the official opening procession of the summit at 9 a.m., the two-time Grammy Award-winning group, Mariachi Divas de Cindy Shea, will provide a musical welcome to conference participants. Now in their 25th year, the group was founded in 1999 by musical director and trumpet player Cindy Shea. The group, with an extensive discography of full-length albums, is celebrated for its innovative and eclectic array of music ranging from mariachi classics to jazz and pop.
Panel presentations throughout the day will examine different aspects of the summit theme. Topics include the transnational challenges and opportunities of the Mexican and Latino diaspora; the challenges faced by undocumented students and immigrants as they work to access and obtain an education; the role of Hispanic-Serving Institutions and higher education networks in internationalization and bilateral collaboration; and how Latinos are a bridge in a post-pandemic economy and future.
The capstone presentation, “El Plan de San Bernardino,” will focus on expanding and promoting cross-cultural learning opportunities and developing “a comprehensive agenda for internationalization in its education systems across the U.S./Mexico border.” The idea is that if there are governmental agreements for trade, why not have similar agreements for education?
Also, each summit names honorary chairs, or padrinos, and this year actor, artist, activist and motivational speaker Pepe Serna is the Padrino de Honor for LEAD Summit XIII. Serna, born on July 23, 1944, in Corpus Christi, Texas, is one of the longest working actors in Hollywood. With a career spanning more than five decades, he has appeared in more than 100 films and 300 television shows. He is perhaps best known for his role as Angel Fernandez in the iconic film “Scarface” (1983), where his character met a gruesome end in a memorable scene.
More than an actor, Serna is also known for his work as an artist and a motivational speaker. He has conducted workshops and given keynote speeches, emphasizing the power of self-expression and cultural heritage. His documentary, "Pepe Serna: Life is Art," highlights his contributions to Hollywood and the representation of Latino actors in the industry. This documentary is available on streaming platforms like Amazon and Apple TV.
Serna will be the summit’s morning keynote speaker.
The afternoon keynote will be given by Marcos Aguilar, co-founder and executive director of Semillas Sociedad Civil-Anahuacalmecac International University Preparatory of North America and director of the American Indian Resurgence Initiative. Aguilar served as a bilingual single-subject secondary teacher for the Los Angeles Unified School District from 1994-2001. Aguilar received a bachelor’s degree in Chicana & Chicano Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1994, where he helped lead the design and founding of that department. He also holds a single-subject teaching credential in social science and a master’s in education administration from California State University, Los Angeles.
Aguilar has worked for the UCLA Center X Principal Leadership Institute and consulted for the San Francisco Unified School District on Indigenous education and policy. He helped lead the establishment of Indigenous Peoples Day in the city of Los Angeles in 2017, serving in key roles as a community interlocutor. In 2019, Aguilar was community-nominated as a commissioner to the National Forum of Mexico on Constitutional Reform for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Afromexicans.
In addition, the summit will showcase as its featured exhibit the “Anthology of Dreams from an Impossible Journey,” a compilation by the California-Mexico Studies Center (CMSC) – the summit’s major sponsor – for its 12th anniversary in 2023. The book features 38 stories shared by Dreamers, selected from 215 participants in the CMSC’s Summer 2021 Dreamers Study Abroad Program.
"The CMSC has been an ongoing advocate for binational higher education exchange opportunities, and we recognize the value of international partnerships,” said Armando Vazquez-Ramos, CMSC president and CEO. “By intersecting histories, shared geography, and cultural/familial ties, the United States and México are each other's closest and most valued neighbors and partners. Empowering institutions of higher learning, students, and faculty to pursue educational opportunities abroad for academic, cultural and scholarly exchange paves the way for global engagement and expands potential educational partnerships between the two countries.”
Each year the summit brings together teaching professionals and educators, researchers, academics, scholars, administrators, independent writers and artists, policy and program specialists, students, parents, civic leaders, activists and advocates – all sharing a common interest and commitment to education issues that impact Latinos to help them define the future.
LEAD Summit XIII will address education as the principal issue by which to frame the U.S.-Mexico bilateral relationship; and for the purposes of this thematic explanation, LEAD Summit organizers aim to share two ways to view and consider education, and the process and content of education:
- First, education should be viewed as a right, not a privilege.
- Second, education should be viewed as an investment.
“Binational education partnerships are crucial for fostering social mobility and mutual growth between the United States and México, emphasizing the importance of shared educational goals and cultural exchange,” said Enrique Murillo Jr., LEAD executive director and CSUSB professor of education. “The U.S. and Mexico should collaborate, officially, to better plan its shared mutual future by undertaking far-reaching binational and transnational interventions that expand and promote academic mobility, the education marketplace, and equitable advancement and opportunity for all. For today’s global economy, both the U.S. and Mexico need additional college graduates and a more ambitious plan to help us meet the imperatives of the current era.”
In February, LEAD helped organize the Building Academic Exchange Bridges Across Borders (California-Mexico and Beyond) 2024 meeting, the objectives of which were to:
- Promote an educational and cultural exchange program between California and Mexico (and beyond), based on the need to build a long-term binational academic exchange plan (2024-2030), through a network of higher education institutions, researchers, teachers, legislators and students of the region on both sides of the international border.
- Promote research, teaching and dissemination of problems related to the migration of Mexicans to the United States, their insertion into American society and their economic and cultural contributions to both countries.
- Define educational projects of academic extension and collaboration based on the proposals and discussions held at both binational higher education meetings.
The sessions can be viewed on the LEAD CSUSB YouTube channel at “El Plan de San Bernardino.” Part two of the meeting will take place at LEAD Summit XIII.
Visit the LEAD Summit XIII website for more information on the summit and LEAD’s other programs.
