Pilar Pacheco
Editor’s note: Amigos805 is presenting a regular profile of the winners of El Concilio Family Services’ 2011 Latino Leadership Awards, to be presented March 26 in Oxnard. The awards this year focus on educators who make a difference in the community.
Pilar Pacheco, associate director for the Center for Community Engagement at California State University, Channel Islands, was instrumental in obtaining the Smithsonian Museum’s approval for the university as one of 15 locations nationwide to host the Bracero Oral History Project traveling exhibit, El Concilio Family Services reported in a media release.
Students and the community learned that more than 5,000 Braceros worked in Ventura County, with the largest camp in Oxnard. The Bracero Oral History Project informs students and the public about the program’s societal issues and challenges and its relevance to today’s debate about immigration reform.
She was born in San Francisco, raised in Santa Barbara and is a 9th generation Californian of Mexican/Spanish descent. Pacheco and her husband live in Ojai.
Besides Pacheco, the award winners being honored this year include Elmelda P. Almanza, retired from the Oxnard School District; Javier Gomez, founder of the Inlakech Cultural Arts Center in Oxnard; Carmen Guerrero, dean of Career & Technical Education at Oxnard College; Ventura County Community College Trustee Art Hernandez; Fundi Legohn, an educator, musician composer/arranger and the performing arts director at Oxnard High School; Joseph M. Medina of CSU Northridge; Lupe Murillo of Pacifica High School in Oxnard; and Alex Rivera of Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers.
El Concilio Family Services’ annual Latino Leadership Awards gala dinner will begin with a social hour at 6 p.m., followed by the dinner program at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 26 at the Oxnard Performing Arts Center, 800 Hobson Way, Oxnard.
For more information, call 805.486.9777 or send an e-mail to events@elconcilioventura.org or visit www.elconcilioventura.org