From the Las Vegas Sun
UNLV professor researching book on 2006 immigrant rights movement
Student walkouts, march on the Strip seen as turning points in local activism
By Tovin Lapan
Students who were the driving force behind a 2006 march that drew thousands to the Las Vegas Strip in support of immigrant rights are the focus of a new book being written by the director of UNLV’s women’s studies program.
UNLV professor Anita Tijerina Revilla was a co-editor of the book “Marching Students: Chicana Activism in Education, 1968 to the Present†that chronicled the 1968 student walkouts in Los Angeles and how they affected participants and future activism. She authored the book’s chapter on the Las Vegas Activist Crew, a group of students behind the May Day 2006 march that flooded the Strip with tens of thousands of people.
Revilla is now writing a book on the Activist Crew, and she said just as the 1968 student walkouts in Los Angeles had profoundly affected participants and the community, so did Las Vegas’ 2006 march and a series of preceding student walkouts.
The book will be titled “What Happens in Vegas Does Not Stay in Vegas: Social Justice Activism in Las Vegas.†Revilla will be working on it, as well as another book on activism in Los Angeles, during an upcoming sabbatical.
