Lincoln Land Community College women’s studies and political science classes will sponsor a lecture by Gloria Lopez, a Nicaraguan organizer and women’s rights activist, on Monday, April 16.  The 1:00 p.m. lecture will be held in the Robert H. Stephens Room of Menard Hall and is open to the public. 

Ms. Lopez will address the day-to-day impacts of neo-liberal economics on women in Latin America as well as her work in organizing women around issues of food-security, female identity and women’s rights.  She will also use her own story and that of her community to humanize the impacts of U.S. military and trade policy in the hemisphere. 

Ms. Lopez, who is speaking on a “Witness for Peace” tour, describes herself as a campesina (female peasant) who lives in El Regadio, Nicaragua near the Honduran border. She was active in defending her village from the Contras during the 1980s. Since 1990, she has worked in nongovernmental organizations in her community to ease impoverishment.  She is currently president of La Union, a community organization that provides loans to small farmers and small business people, since credit is not widely available to these producers.

More information on the talk is available from Dr. Deborah Brothers at 786-4966 or Dr. Chris McDonald  at 786-4937.