Raquel Aldana came to the United States from El Salvador as a child and became a legal champion for the rights of immigrants and creating more just nations in Central America.
August 11, 2019
Video: Margaret Brent Award recipient Raquel Aldana
“Like Margaret Brent, I stand before you as an immigrant to this great nation,” she said. “I dedicate this award to the heroic women lawyers who fight mightily for the rights of immigrants in the United States.” Aldana is a law professor and associate vice chancellor for academic diversity at the University of California, Davis. Previously, she was a professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and a Fulbright Scholar in Guatemala. As a law professor, she started several programs centered around intercultural understanding and instituted service-learning initiatives to provide legal services to immigrants. At UC Davis, Aldana began a symposium between the nursing school, medical school and law school, seeking mental health solutions for California’s refugee population, and works with first-generation female Latinx law students.