Congreso 2022
As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Department of the Interior’s and National Park Service’s American Latino Heritage Initiative, we’ll kick-off Congreso with a special reflection and remarks by former Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar who will join us remotely, live from Mexico City and end with Q&A. This lively gathering will include music by Eddie Torrez. Your ticket gets you two drinks, hors d’oeuvres, and a fabulous evening of mingling with colleagues.
Facilitator: Dr. Ray Rast (Facilitator), Gonzaga University and Latinos in Heritage Conservation
Speakers:
Sara Bronin, AIA, Cornell University School of Law
Ken Salazar, United States Ambassador to Mexico
Dr. Ray Rast is an Associate Professor of History at Gonzaga University, where he teaches courses in U.S. history, public history, and American Latina/o history. He served as the lead historian for the National Park Service’s Cesar Chavez Special Resource Study (2013), he served on the Scholars Panel for the Park Service’s American Latino Heritage Initiative, and he has written several National Register and National Historic Landmark nominations. He currently serves as a board member for Latinos in Heritage Conservation and for the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation, and he is a member of the Spokane Historic Landmarks Commission.
Sara Bronin is a Mexican-American architect, attorney, professor, and policymaker whose interdisciplinary work focuses on how law and policy can foster more equitable, sustainable, well-designed, and connected places. She is a Professor of the Cornell College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, an Associated Faculty Member of the Cornell Law School, and a Faculty Fellow of the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability. Among other visiting positions, Bronin has taught at the Yale School of Architecture and the University of St. Gallen (Switzerland), and has been a visiting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania Kleinman Center on Energy Policy and the Sorbonne. Among other scholarly service, Bronin is an elected member of the American Law Institute and a past chair of the State & Local Government Section of the American Association of Law Schools.
Ken Salazar was sworn in as United States Ambassador to Mexico on September 2, 2021. In 2009, President Obama nominated Mr. Salazar to serve as Secretary of Interior where he had a lead role on the Obama-Biden agenda on energy and climate, the nation’s conservation agenda including America’s Great Outdoors, and Indian Country. Ambassador Salazar has been a lifelong fighter for civil rights and the inclusion of Latinos in the American dream. In 1998, Mr. Salazar was elected as Colorado Attorney General and became the first Latino ever elected statewide office in Colorado. He was reelected as Attorney General in 2002. In 2004, Attorney General Salazar was elected to the United States Senate for Colorado becoming the first Latino democrat to be elected to the United States Senate since 1972. Ambassador Salazar has been admitted to practice law in state and federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court. Ambassador Salazar and his family have farmed along the banks of the Rio Grande River in New Mexico and Colorado for more than four centuries.