Lánzate 2024

Lánzate 2024

Come to the political and cultural festival for Latinx changemakers who are building a future rooted in justice, liberation, and el Buenvivir.

Resistance in Reaction to Trump: We Will Not Be Governed by Fear

In response to Donald Trump’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, Mijente issued the following statement:

If it was unclear before why it is a national responsibility for all of us to wall off Trump, his acceptance speech should have ended any doubts.

Unlike Donald Trump, we believe that times of uncertainty call on us to seek out shoulders to stand beside not necks to step upon.

As our country faces enormous change in its economy, its demographics, and in the world around us, Donald Trump is responding from a place of fear and with a promise of violence.

But we believe our safety is not in stereotypes or stoking division. We believe our security comes from our connection to each other, across communities and across movements, and our persistent push for a better world for all of us.

The people in the penthouses have never solved the problems of the people on the street

As people who know politicians’ broken promises better than the billionaire candidate who has spent his life funding them, we are not for either party. The people in the penthouses have never solved the problems of the people on the street but they have often sent us to fight their wars, turned us to fight each other, and used us to fight our own advancement.

His speech was another example of that. He did not give our country a way forward or a path to prosperity. It gave a panoramic view of the bigotry, cheap opportunism and fear mongering that characterizes his campaign for President.

We don’t need walls to protect Trump’s fragility. We don’t need walls to protect against imagined threats and perceived fears. We need walls that protect the gains we’ve won, to defend our hearts from hate, and to fortify our spirits to keep pushing forward.

Since the start of his campaign, Trump has committed himself to a lineage of white supremacists and a place in history alongside forces of hate. Now that he is the official nominee, there must be an equal commitment to stopping him.

Updates from #WallOffTrump Protest at the RNC

In response to Trump’s insults, threats and his promises of mass deportation and building a border wall to separate neighbors, communities are traveling to Cleveland to give him a wall of their own.

“If Trump is set on building a wall. We’re going to give it to him,” explains Marisa Franco, director of Mijente. “But we’re be walling off his hate. We won’t go quietly as he campaigns to put us back in the closet, back across the border, or to the back of the bus.”

Eva Cardenas of the Ruckus Society added, “Standing with front-line communities to create a line of defense against Trump’s hate and racism is all of our responsibility. We’re not just sending a message against Trump, we’re calling on everyone to stand up and take responsibility for the future of this country.”

While Trump’s wall is an emblem of his xenophobic drive to Make America Hate Again, the protest wall to be built by organizers, artists, parents, children, and veterans gathered together by Mijente, the Ruckus Society, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Working Families Party, the Other 98%, First Seven Design Labs, Grassroots Global Justice, and others will be a line of defense for the future of the country.

The indiegogo for the project surpassed its goal of $15,000 with more than 600 individual donations, including support from groups in Mexico who are insulted by Trump’s positions.

Speaking on behalf of La Burra Blanca, Libre y Sin Temor; Prevención, Capacitación, y Defensa del Migrante, A.C. (PRECADEM), and Radio Zapote in Mexico, Iyali Garcia Esquivel explains, “Mexico does not solely export its people and its resources. We also send our resistance and our dignity… This is our response to ignorance. In solidarity from Mexico to the United States, we’ll be part of raising up the wall to block Trump… We’re not just walling off Trump. We’re demonstrating to the world that our bonds are stronger than his rhetoric or any border. Because we don’t forget our people even if they are far away and we won’t stop fighting shoulder to shoulder alongside them.”

On the third day of the Convention, the wall builders are peacefully standing up to the hatred represented by the Republican candidate, defending their communities, and calling for others to wall off Trump and his hate across the country.

PHOTOS WILL BE AVAILABLE (Credit: Hope in Focus): http://bit.ly/rncfoto

Mijente is a national political home for Latinx and Chicanx organizing – @conmijente.

The Ruckus Society is a non-violent civil disobedience training organization – @ruckusociety.

Meanwhile in Los Angeles, someone else already started replicating #WallOffTrump:

Protesters to Wall Off Trump’s Hate at RNC in Cleveland

July 13, 2016 Cleveland, OH

In response to Trump’s insults, threats and his promises of mass deportation and building a border wall to separate neighbors, communities are traveling to Cleveland to give him a wall of their own.

While Trump’s wall is an emblem of his xenophobic drive to Make America Hate Again, the protest wall to be built by organizers, artists, parents, children, and veterans gathered together by Mijente, the Ruckus Society, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Working Families Party, the Other 98%, First Seven Design Labs, and others will be a line of defense for the future of the country.

To fund their project, the groups launched an Indiegogo offering donors the opportunity to have their name painted on the wall or receive anti-Trump artwork. It already has over $5,000 in donations.

“In polarized times we need to be building more bridges between us and less walls that divide us,” explains Marisa Franco, director of Mijente. “But if Trump is set on building a wall. We’re going to give it to him. But we’ll be walling off his hate. We won’t go quietly as he campaigns to put us back in the closet, back across the border, or to the back of the bus.”

Eva Cardenas of the Ruckus Society added, “Standing with front-line communities to create a line of defense against Trump’s hate and racism is a national imperative. In Cleveland we’re not just sending a message against Trump, we’re calling on everyone to stand up and take responsibility for the future of this country.”

On the third day of the Convention the wall builders will erect thousands of feet of protest wall in Cleveland to stand up to the hatred represented by the Republican candidate, defend their communities, and serve as a call for bridges not walls in divided times.

What: Protesters to ‘Give Trump his Wall’ with Thousands of Feet of Symbolic Protest
When: 11:00am, Wednesday, July 20th, 2016

Where: TBD, Cleveland, OH

Who: Mijente, the Ruckus Society, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Working Families Party, the Other 98%, First Seven Design Labs, and more.

###