An evening with Luis Alberto Urrea

Join the 2026 Morrill Lecture Series for a special memorial evening featuring Luis Alberto Urrea, the celebrated author who inspired this season’s theme, “A Revolution of Hope and Community.” Urrea is a bilingual poet, novelist, and essayist born in Tijuana to a Mexican father and an American mother. He beautifully channels his dual-culture life experiences to explore universal themes of love, loss, and triumph through stories of family and immigration.

Commonly recognized as a “border writer,” Urrea famously focuses on building bridges rather than borders. This philosophy perfectly matches the Morrill Lecture Series’ mission to grow critical thinking, foster deep community connectedness, and explore complex national issues from a local, rural perspective.