Cristina Coc is the director and co-founder of the Julian Cho Society. She has been an activist for Maya Land Rights and forest conservation since 2003. She has worked directly over the last four years with the Maya villages of Toledo in southern Belize to mobilize for the campaign to secure indigenous land rights.
As a Q'eqchi Maya woman she has an intimate knowledge of the issues related to land use and social struggles of the Maya. Over the years she has built tremendous credibility through her community organizing, advocacy and leadership of the Land Rights Lawsuit before the Supreme Court of Belize for Conejo and Santa Cruz villages. She was elected by the traditional leaders, the Alcaldes of Toledo, to be part of the implementation team in this effort, with a mandate to represent the Maya through on-going negotiations with the Governement of Belize. She is presently co-spokesperson for the Maya Leaders Alliance. She is also the founder and director of the Julian Cho Society, and spokesperson for the Maya Leaders Alliance.
This event is co-sponsored by the Department of Geography, the School of Environment and Natural Resources, and the Mershon Center for International Security Studies.
