This weekend I was very fortunate to be a part of Voces Inmigrantes Latinas, a conference about grassroots Latino immigrant media produced throughout the States. Of course, I am neither Latina nor an immigrant, but the issues which impact these communities resonate strongly with me. The sheer luck of being born in this country, provides me with opportunities simply not available to many people at this moment in history. Borders have always been crossed, and people have always migrated, probably most notably, 'my people,' the wandering Jews.
"You are my other me"
A few of the groups that presented spoke of the role of indigenous culture in their organizational philosophy. A group that impressed me very much was from Minnesota, called Main Street Project. They spoke about situating their work in the context of Communication as a Human Right, according to the Geneva Convention.
Lacking a better way to organize this as a succinct yet comprehensive post, I'm going to copy down some notes and thoughts and leave it at that...
- 'we are not just volunteers, we are engaging in guerilla media warfare'
- no cult of personality- no individual hierarchies-
How do we organize around collective values when we live in an individualistic society?
Family prisons in Berks County, too- it's not just Texas!
- concrete work toward education- talk with people, whatever opportunity, take it
- 'the life of one is the life of the other'
'Let's not ask, what are our issues, rather, What values do we share, and What do we believe in?'
- use humor to engage difficult conversations
-we need a historical context to the immigration narrative
-'identity is power- culture is a weapon' ' we are cultural organizers'
- media work has roots in traditional knowledge- we must understand media in relation to knowledge creation and structures of power.
'information is not neutral'
-one community- multiple spaces- multiple selves
-'professionalization reproduces a system of dependency'
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