Honduras: Human Rights Crisis and Forced Migration
Blanca Esmeralda Valladares & Mary Anne Perrone
Tuesday, November 14th | 7pm
Church of the Good Shepherd
2145 Independence Blvd, Ann Arbor
Blanca Esmeralda Valladares is a native of Santa Cruz de Jojoa in the department of Cortés, Honduras, and former Judge of the Supreme Court of Justice of Honduras. Blanca co-founded the organization “El Socorro Jurídico Vicarial,” an institution committed to defending, promoting, and protecting human rights, and safeguarding the rights to land and water for agricultural purposes, as well as the preservation of Honduras’ natural resources. She has been an active volunteer at the community radio station RADIO PAIS, focusing on family and educational content.
Blanca ardently advocates for the human rights of farmworkers, indigenous communities, and women. She actively promotes their work and campaigns, which they have been diligently pursuing for over thirty years, in support of food production through sustainable agriculture and ecological practices, emphasizing respect for the land and human well-being.
Mary Anne Perrone recently travelled to Honduras as part of a human rights delegation, which she has co-coordinated over the last several years. Mary Anne is an educator, an activist, and a spiritual guide. For over 30 years her area of focus has been on human rights in Latin America. She has worked in the U.S. to raise consciousness about the U.S.’s role in human rights violations in Latin America and the need for substantive change in our foreign policy. This work has taken her to several Latin American countries, connecting with and accompanying courageous people working in their own countries to defend those whose human rights are highly threatened. She has been part of the Latin America Caucus of Interfaith Council for Peace & Justice (ICPJ) for decades.
Thanks to our co-sponsors Church of the Good Shepherd, U of M Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and the Huron Valley Democratic Socialists of America