Educators, nonprofit workers, artists and graduate students came together Friday to recognize the inspirational work of Latino leader Cesar Chavez.
The College of Human Services at the West campus hosted the third annual Behavioral Health Conference in Chavez's honor.
"We come to learn not only about his legacy, but what we can do to be civically engaged and politically active," said Ayensa Millan, a spokeswoman for Public Allies of Arizona for the Center of Nonprofit Leadership and Management.
Millan graduated from ASU last May with a master's in social work, after coming to Arizona as an immigrant her senior year of high school. She said school programs like the Hispanic Honors Society are important in helping students fit into a new culture and find livelihood and success in a career.
Patricia Arredondo, deputy vice president and University dean of student affairs at ASU, spoke at the event, offering her expertise on multicultural counseling competencies. She said that raising awareness about immigration barriers is an asset for improvement.
"If you have a guitar without any strings, you can't play," Arredondo said. "You can give someone a voice who is not able to speak for him or herself. Otherwise, you have empty words."
Sculptor, mask-maker and performer Zarco Guerrero uses artistic expression to embrace the cultures around him.
The Mesa native was commissioned to handcraft three masks made from 500-year-old cedar wood for the design installation when the West campus opened in 1991. They are displayed in the lobby of the University Center Building at the West campus.
"The differences between us are something to enjoy," Guerrero said. "Diversity is the spice of life. When you take the face, strip it of its skin tone, it is bare like the wood. It is the ultimate expression of who we are as human beings when you lose those racial attributes."
Guerrero has taught in the Chicano Studies and Theater departments at ASU and said students should embrace and assimilate to the cultures around them through these outlets.
Members of TERROS, a nonprofit center that provides behavioral health services, sponsored the event. It has been working in the Valley for the past four years to improve behavioral health, prevention, education and treatment services.
Reach the reporter at: meghan.bonneville@asu.edu.
