AuthorJudith Avila and WWII Navajo Code Talker Chester Nez. Courtesy photoCOMMUNITY News:
The National History Day Club at Los Alamos High School is hosting a presentation by Judith Avila on Chester Nez, a World War II Navajo Code Talker.
Avila co-authored Chester Nez’s autobiography and will be giving a presentation about him at 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 24 at Fuller Lodge. Tickets for the event maybe be purchased by any LAHS National History Day Club member or at the door for a suggested donation of $10. The money raised from the event will help club members with the transportation and lodging costs at the Regional competition in Farmington.
About Judith Avila:
Best-selling author Judith Avila has lived in New Mexico most of her life. She finds the diverse mix of cultures here inspiring. Judith met Chester Nez in 2007. She and Chester conducted three years of interviews which she recorded and committed to paper. The resulting memoir Code Taker: The first and Only Memoir by One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers of WWII was named by New Mexico Press Women as 2012’s best memoir, and it won the New Mexico-Arizona Book Award. It was also read, in full, on National Public Radio.
Avila, a former air traffic controller and computer consultant, is a graduate of Duke University. “Code Talker,” from Penguin (Berkley), is her first published book. She and Chester Nez’s grandson Latham Nez will talk about Chester and his memoir at the Feb. 24 event, and sign and sell copies of Code Talker.
