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Latinx Leaders: Julie Chavez Rodriguez

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We were lucky enough to have the opportunity to chat with Julie Chavez Rodriguez (Cesar Chavez’s granddaughter) over coffee and holiday cookies. She shared her story of growing up in an activist family and attending protests as a young girl and how those experiences shaped her career and life trajectory. Ms. Rodriguez never lost her connection with her home state and now serves as Sen. Kamala Harris’ California State Director. As the state director, Ms. Rodriguez advocates for the rights of immigrants and workers in her home community. Our faculty advisor even brought her son, who shared with Ms. Rodriguez his school “hero project” that featured her grandfather. This conversation was a much-needed break from finals studying to help remind us why we are working hard to get our J.D.s!

Native Land Acknowledgement


We take a moment to recognize that Berkeley sits on the territory of xučyun (Huichin) (Hoo-Choon), the ancestral and unceded land of the Chochenyo (Cho-Chen-yo) speaking Ohlone people, the successors of the historic and sovereign Verona Band of Alameda County. This land was and continues to be of great importance to the Muwekma (Muh-wek-muh) Ohlone Tribe and other familial descendants of the Verona Band.

We recognize that every member of the Berkeley community has benefited, and continues to benefit, from the use and occupation of this land since the institution's founding in 1868. Consistent with our values of community and diversity, we have a responsibility to acknowledge and make visible the university's relationship to Native peoples. By offering this Land Acknowledgement, we affirm Indigenous sovereignty and will work to hold the University of California, Berkeley more accountable to the needs of American Indian and Indigenous peoples.