Let’s build power Desde el Estado hasta el Buenvivir.
This past weekend, we headed to Boston with city councilors from across the country who are part of our Elected Official Fellowship (EOF). At Mijente, we recognize that to achieve El Buenvivir for all of our communities – progress that centers justice and the collective well-being of people and pachamama – we have to build independent political power on all fronts: Sin, Contra y Desde el Estado (without, against, and within, the state).
The Elected Official Fellowship is part of our efforts to build power Desde El Estado. For the last couple of years, we have successfully organized to put community leaders and organizers who share our values into government. Today we are taking our collaboration with these leaders, many rooted in social movements, to the next level.
We gathered in Boston with the city council members from Arizona, New York, California, North Carolina, Illinois, and Massachusetts to discuss what it means to co-govern to achieve el Buenvivir – to fundamentally shift government systems to provide real options for community participation and leadership. Every elected official who participated understood that big change can’t happen from Desde el Estado without the continued vision and partnership of the movement. From our vantage point, the fellowship is an opportunity to learn more about governance to build power with it for our communities.
During our time in Boston, the fellows discussed how they are learning to co-govern, whether it be via participatory budgets or constituent services that support organizing efforts happening in the community and the need for it to include so much more. Council members from Boston and Chicago shared examples of the ways they are building independent political power for Latinxs by electing slates of progressive Latinxs into office who are committed to advancing an agenda that builds leadership and meets the needs of our communities.
Newly elected Los Angeles Council Member, Eunisses Hernandez joined us to learn more about how to set-up her governing office and team from the fellows. Our Boston Membership Circle part shared the history of their organizing work in the city and how it had helped elect a progressive Boston City Council with many Latinx council members who are also Mijente endorsed.
Our time together was transformative and will help inform our ongoing approach to co-governing. We left reinvigorated with strengthened relationships and deepened our understanding of co-governance. There’s more to come – Stay tuned!
