The Ben & Jeanne Overman Distinguished Speaker Series

Maya Activism and Social Justice Movement in Belize

Presentation by University of Minnesota Outstanding Achievement Award recipient, Cristina Coc

Cristina Coc

The 2023 Overman Distinguished Speaker Series is presented by the Chancellor’s Office of the University of Minnesota Duluth in collaboration with the Research, Scholarship & Creative Activities subcommittee. Generous support for this presentation is provided by the Ben & Jeanne Overman Distinguished Speaker Series Endowment, established to provide free opportunities for students and the community to learn from experts in their field.

Registration: z.umn.edu/Overman2023

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Maya Activism and Social Justice Movement in Belize

Presentation followed by a Q&A session

Event is FREE and open to the public

Cristina Coc grew up in Belize and earned a bachelor’s degree in biology at UMD in 2008. She returned to Belize and founded the Julian Cho Society (JCS), a non-governmental organization that advocates for Maya People, promoting education, justice and sustainable development. Cristina is a co-spokesperson for the Maya Leaders Alliance (MLA) and Toledo Alcaldes Association, and was instrumental in uniting 41 Maya communities to support a successful land rights lawsuit. Cristina and the MLA received the prestigious Equator Prize in 2015 at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris for their work on the Maya land rights case. The honor, bestowed by the United Nations Development Programme, recognizes outstanding community efforts to reduce poverty through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. Cristina is also being honored with a University of Minnesota Outstanding Achievement Award.

Cristina’s presentation will focus on her personal experience as a social justice and indigenous rights advocate in Southern Belize. She’ll give context and background on the Maya land rights struggle, the challenges and successes, along with the implications for a global change. She will describe the work on securing land tenure rights and the negotiations related to implementation of land rights, judgements including auto-delimitation of indigenous territory, legislative drafting, and Free Prior Informed Consent. She will also share some experiences related to violence and criminalization against indigenous Maya people in the defense of their lands and resources