Topic: “Roots of Resistance: A Story of Gender, Race, and Labor on the North Coast of Honduras” Book Talk Date: Thursday, November 10 Time: 1:00pm – 2:30pm PT Location: UCLA Young Research Library, Presentation Room, Room 11348 Join us for a Book Talk with Suyapa G. Portillo Villeda, author of Roots of Resistance: A Story of Gender, Race, and Labor on the North Coast of Honduras. On May 1, 1954, striking banana workers on the North Coast of Honduras brought the regional economy to a standstill, invigorating the Honduran labor movement and placing a series of demands on the US-controlled banana industry. Their actions ultimately galvanized a broader working-class struggle and reawakened long-suppressed leftist ideals. The first account of its kind in English, Roots of Resistance explores contemporary Honduran labor history through the story of the great banana strike of 1954 and centers the role of women in the narrative of the labor movement. Drawing on extensive firsthand oral history and archival research, Suyapa G. Portillo Villeda highlights the complexities of transnational company hierarchies, gender and race relations, and labor organizing that led to the banana workers strike and how these dynamics continue to reverberate in Honduras today. Guest Speaker: Suyapa G. Portillo Villeda, Associate Professor of Chicana/o Latina/o Transnational Studies, Pitzer College