Hi! My name is Arianna Genis. I am the Director of Local Partnerships at Mijente. In early December, our entire team headed to Philadelphia to host Lánzate, a national political gathering and cultural festival for Latinx change makers.
It’s la magia y sazón of Mijente was on fully display at #Lanzate2022. Hundreds of organizers, activists, community leaders, artists, content creators, and elected officials come together. We joined to deepen our understanding of what it takes to fight and win el Buenvivir for our communities and to celebrate each other through our cultura.
Sessions y Conexiones
Only at Mijente can you lead a panel where local elected officials get real about the struggles and wins of building new pathways of community and movement participation in governance….And then walk over to the next room and be offered a limpia, along with a session on healing justice as incense burns in the background.
At Lánzate I reconnected and met amazing people who are fighting for a better world, like Leslie. I met Leslie in 2020 in a workshop where I was recruiting canvassers for our statewide Latinx voter mobilization campaign in North Carolina. She was skeptical and asked hard questions. I loved it. Over time Leslie joined the team, along with little Athena.
She hasn’t looked back since. Now, she’s leading canvass efforts that identify leaders and develop our community’s political capacity as an organizer with Siembra NC.
Some of My Highlights
Erika Lupita Nuñez, the Executive Director of Juntos, is turning mutual aid efforts into full blown organizing opportunities. Mijente member Salem Acuña aka DJ Cybersyn’s music is everything as is the history behind his DJ name.
Then there’s Marco Fernandez who invented las farmacias populares in Chile and is an instrumental international leader in the growing movement of municipalismo.
I’ll stop there. All this to say, I’m renewed and ready to continue building a Latinx movement that is pro-black, pro-LGBTQ, pro-worker rights, pro-immigrants, y pro-gente. Stay tuned for everything we’ll be up to in 2023.
In the meantime, join me in building the political casita that is Mijente.
