Southwestern University will host a dinner to celebrate the life and legacy of César Chávez on Thursday, March 31, at 6:30 p.m. in the McCombs Ballrooms. The dinner is free and open to the community.

Featured speaker for the dinner will be Martha Cotera, a librarian, writer and influential activist of both the Chicano Civil Rights Movement and the Chicana Feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Her two most notable works are Diosa y Hembra: The History and Heritage of Chicanas in the U.S. and The Chicana Feminist. Cotera was one of six women featured in a documentary, “Las Mujeres de la Caucus Chicana,” which recounts the experiences of some of the Chicana participants of the 1977 National Women’s Conference in Houston.

Cotera will speak about the history of the Chicana and Mexican Women’s Rights movement within the Workers’ Rights movement, and what her experience was like as she paved the way for more independent Latina/Chicana activists.

The dinner is sponsored by Latinos Unidos, Kappa Delta Chi sorority and the Diversity Enrichment Committee. For more information, call Paige Schilt at 512-863-1342.