alongside Title Sponsor Feldman Chevrolet of Lansing is proud to recognize Maria Luisa Zavala for a Legacy Award at the Cafecito Caliente Awards Friday, September 27, 2024. She is the founder of the MSU’s Dia de la Mujer Annual Conference which is the largest Latina Conference in the Midwest. Between 400-500 people attend each year.
Maria Luisa Zavala-Paredes is a social justice activist, changemaker, and visionary. The title she holds most dear is being the proud mother to her three amazing daughters: Hermila (Mila), Estrella, and Mayeli. She is in a lifelong partnership of love, respect, mutual understanding, lifelong activism, and continuous spiritual and mental growth with prison and social activist Efrén Paredes Jr.
She is also a graduate of Michigan State University (MSU) where she earned a BA in Communication with a specialization in Xicano/Latino Studies. She has appeared in various media outlets, and featured on a number of blogs and websites, proudly discussing Xicano/Latino issues. She has also been a speaker and presenter at numerous conferences across the nation. Her activism is featured in the book “500 Years of Chicana Women’s History in Pictures” written by the iconic Dr. Elizabeth “Betita” Martinez.
In 1994 María founded the Día de la Mujer Conference (DDLM), which is hosted annually on the MSU campus. The idea of having a conference arose from María’s vision to create a space for Xicanas/Latinas to be recognized for their relentless efforts and selfless contributions at home, school, work, and in their community. The conference also spawned from the desire to celebrate the genius and indomitable spirit of Xicana/Latina women that had been ignored and underappreciated far too long.
María endeavored to shatter negative narratives and stereotypes about Xicana/Latina women and create a monument recognizing their boundless potential, dignity, and sacredness. Prior to the inception of the DDLM Conference María vociferously expressed her disdain of the invisibility, misogyny, and marginalization of Xicana/Latina women. As a young, former migrant farmworker Xicana who trekked the MSU campus daily amid throngs of her privileged counterparts, she quickly became acutely acquainted with the myriad inequalities and struggles endured by her brown sisters.
The DDLM conference serves as a platform to empower, validate, and connect Xicanas/Latinas by providing them with resources to improve the quality of their lives and communities, and inspire their upward mobility. It is also a space designed to help them foster purpose, cultivate self-awareness, and discover their intrinsic gifts and beauty. The conference has grown exponentially from an evening reception, which acknowledged the achievements of MSU Xicana/Latina faculty and staff, to a sprawling one-day Statewide Xicana/Latina conference.
With the help of hundreds of Xicana/Latina MSU student committee members and volunteers over the past two-and-a-half decades, the DDLM conference has blossomed into the largest Xicana/Latina women’s conference in the Midwest. Today the conference offers a multi-faceted series of workshops focusing on education, health, the legal system, finance, business, interpersonal relationships, self-empowerment, socially engaged work, culture and identity, the arts, and how to advance their personal and career goals.
María has made a remarkable impact on the lives of women and their families, and tirelessly invested her time, talents, and service to advance the Xicano/Latino community.
Michigan State University chose to recognize her and her enduring legacy with the continuation of an award that is representative of her vision, accomplishments, and selfless contributions. Each year, the María Zavala Award is bestowed to a Xicana/Latina who has also demonstrated the same commitment and fortitude to progressing Xicana/Latina women and their community.
María developed her passion for activism deep in the Texas Rio Grande Valley at an early age with the help of her loving parents, Hermila and Adalberto. Through their labor organizing work with the United Farm Workers (UFW) they modeled how to harness the power of the people to protect the rights and dignity of farmworkers and create durable social change.
While at MSU María served as Chair of Movimiento Estudiantil Xicano de Atzlan (MEXA), a student Xicano organization. She also served as Secretary of Chicano Hispanic Students of Progressive Action (CHISPA), now known as Culturas de las Razas Unidas (CRU), and in 1994 inception of the conference, she was also a Minority Aid, now known as Intercultural Aide.
In 1996 she organized a team of students who coordinated a four-year United Farm Worker (UFW) grape boycott and an indefinite water-only hunger strike at MSU. In six days, the event forced administrators to acknowledge and honor the UFW grape boycott. It also resulted in Xicano/Latino students successfully receiving a number of historic demands from the university. Among them included an increased hiring and retention of Xicano/Latino professors, increased enrollment and retention of Xicano/Latino students, as well as the creation of the Xicano/Latino Studies Department, the Cesar Chavez Memorial Library, and the TOCE S Cafecito Caliente alongside Title Sponsor Feldman Chevrolet of Lansing is proud to recognize Shekina Mitchell with the Community Service of the Year Award for her work in various roles throughout the State of Michigan.cholarship for underserved Xicano/Latino MSU students.
During the mid-1990’s she was part of a group of student and community activist that formed the Xicano Development Center, a nonprofit committed to provide education, advocacy, and policy development to enhance the lives of Xicano/Latino communities and to build power within those communities. She helped mobilize communities in Detroit and Lansing to amplify their voices and combat the injustices of police brutality, racial profiling, and unlawful arrests.
For the many in the community that have experienced DDLM, we thank you Maria for having that vision under very brutal conditions on Campus and in the many different communities you have worked with. For this, Cafecito will recognize you Maria Luisa Zavala with a Legacy award as DDLM was built to last for decades. That’s Legacy!
Also, much thanks to the partnership we have with the Latino Business Conexión of Michigan and their support of the Awards. The Awards Night will be held Friday, September 27, 2024, starting at 5:00pm at the Cadillac Room in Lansing’s REO Town.
Tickets: https://cafecitocaliente.com/…/cafecito-caliente…/
