Ithaca College

You are invited to a public presentation by Angel Alvarez, an agricultural engineer and community development practitioner from San Pedro Tapanatepec, Oaxaca, Mexico. Alvarez will speak about development work in rural and indigenous communities in the region.  

Alvarez presents at Ithaca College on Monday, October 17, 5:30 pm in Clark Lounge, Campus Center.

He is also giving a presentation at Cornell University on Thursday, October 20, 4:30 pm, Founders Room, Anabel Taylor Hall

Language: Spanish. CUSLAR will provide Spanish-to-English interpretation. Alvarez's full biography is below.

Co-sponsors: Committee on U.S.-Latin American Relations (CUSLAR), Cornell Department of Development Sociology, Immigrant Farmworker Initiative, IC Latin American Studies, IC Department of Sociology. Funded in part by the SAFC.

Ángel Álvarez Martínez is an Agricultural Engineer with a concentration in plant science. He graduated in 1997 from la Universidad Autónoma Chapingo in Texcoco, Mexico. Álvarez was born and raised San Pedro Tapanatepec, in the region of the Tehuantepec isthmus in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. His hometown is a place where many ethnic groups converge: zoque, zapoteca, huave, afro-Mexican, tzotzil and mestizos or people of mixed ethnicity. “Each group shares their knowledge and experience in mutual support, a constant in the social life of my region,” he says.

“I am passionate about nature and culture,” says Álvarez. He was connected to agriculture from a young age, and his first teacher was his father. In 1995 he moved to Mexico’s southernmost state, Chiapas, to do practicum work for his engineering degree.  In the aftermath of the Zapatista indigenous uprising, the state was facing intense social and political conflict. “At this moment of great social instability, my professional knowledge was useful in strengthening organizational capacity and self-sufficiency among small farmers.”

Álvarez participated in the creation of collaborative networks that connected small coffee producers with educational, civil and government institutions. He has led workshops and facilitated certificate programs on organic agricultural techniques for local organizations in southern Mexico.

Since 2012, he has contributed to civil society networks in Chiapas and Oaxaca that develop strategies for mutual support for people who live in marginal and vulnerable conditions. In Oaxaca, the network is called Casa de Apoyo y Orientación a la Mujer Juana Cata Romero. In Chiapas, it is Fundación Nuestro Hogar en Chiapas.

“One project I am especially proud of,” says Álvarez, “was called ‘Strengthening the local economy and food production for consumption through family gardens in the eastern region of the Isthmus.’ This allowed me to learn new perspectives about local development through working with women from the Tehuantepec isthmus.”

Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations should contact Alicia Swords at aswords@ithaca.edu or (607) 274-1209. We ask that requests for accommodations be made as soon as possible.