Oct. 7, 2010 - As part of CSUB's programming for the One Book, One Bakersfield, One Kern community read of "Burro Genius," the history department is hosting a free lecture on the book's themes next week.

The History Forum event features Dr. Gabriel Gutiérrez, Director of the Center for the Study of the People of the Americas at CSU Northridge, who will present "Amanzar: Historical and Cultural Readings of Victor Villaseñor's Educational Journey in 'Burro Genius.'" The lecture is at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 14 in CSUB's Doré Theatre, 9001 Stockdale Highway. Admission is free; parking is $2 in lots B and C.

Villaseñor's book is a memoir about growing up as a Spanish-speaking child of Mexican immigrant parents and the mistreatment he received in school in the late 1940s and early 1950s. In his lecture, Gutiérrez will give particular attention to desegregation cases in the U.S. Southwest that preceded the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education (1954) and the consequences of educational segregation of Mexican-American youth.

Gutiérrez was born and raised in the Boyle Heights section of Los Angeles. He is the associate chair of the Department of Chicano/a Studies at CSU Northridge, where he also teaches. He holds a Ph.D. in history from UC Santa Barbara.

For more information about the History Forum, call CSUB history professor Alicia Rodriquez at 661-654-2166 or visit www.csub.edu/history/news.htx. For a full list of events related to the One Book, One Bakersfield, One Kern read of "Burro Genius," visit the Kern County Library's website at http://kerncountylibrary.org/HTML/news/obobok.html.