Associate professor of American Studies and Associate Director of the Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, Nicole M. Guidotti-Hernandez, spoke for Woman’s History Month on Feb. 28th.

People of all ages gathered in the Fireside room to listen to Professor Hernandez.

Seats were filled with both students and faculty eager to hear her speech on immigration and the Freedom University.

Nicole Guidotti-Hernandez is a graduate from the University of Texas in Austin.

She takes pride in her research of Transnational Feminism, Critical Race Studies, Chicano and Latino Studies, Violence and Citizenship, and Indigenous Cultures and Nationalism.

She spoke to her audience about how Dora the Explorer is portrayed as an illegal immigrant, and also about the Dream activists at Freedom University.

With the misuse of Dora’s pictures on the internet being projected on a board for all to see, Professor Hernandez started her speech on how Dora is often perceived as a potential illegal immigrant.

The first image shown on the projector is of Dora being halted by the authorities and someone yelling, “Freeze! Phoenix Police! Lets see your papers…” which then led Hernandez to argue that the images found on the Internet are a nexus between violence, subliminal messages, and political satire.

She believes that these images represent the questioning of Dora’s mobility, illegality, and potential threat to society.

To her, Dora is a figure  which Latino children and adults can identify with in a political platform.

She believes that Dora does not represent just one nationality, which “this figure has become so generative” but that she represents the “compositor middle class society” who “moves across social strata.”

Along with her presentation on Dora, Professor Hernandez also spoke of the Dream activists at Freedom University in Georgia.

Freedom University is home to many different types of immigrant college students who don’t have citizenship.

These college students, unlike others, don’t get credit for the courses they take.

Most students who attend Freedom University are involved in Chicano activism. They feel it is a safe place for them to speak their truth.

Hernandez explained that most “hotbeds for Chicano activists are New York, Florida, and Los Angeles.”

From which she is amazed that now, Chicano activists are appearing in places in the south like Georgia.

Professor Hernandez hopes to inform people of the actions of society and those of the Dream activist at Freedom University.

She also hopes to reach out to others through speeches, presentations, and through her book, “Unspeakable Violence,” to help make them aware of what is actually happening in the world, in terms of immigration rights.