Equal Voice for America's Families will go national after Valley launch
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| LUPE State Director Juanita Valzez-Cox speaks at a media briefing for the Equal Voices for America's Families campaign in Weslaco on Wednesday. |
WESLACO, January 10 - The buzzword in the presidential debates right now is change. Well, if the candidates really want to affect change, they should come to the Rio Grande Valley and listen to the challenges facing low-income families.
That was the message from grassroots groups who met with Valley reporters Wednesday to announce the launch of the Equal Voice for America's Families campaign.
"It's time for change. We agree with the politicians that change needs to happen. But change needs to start here because we are the ones suffering those injustices,"said Juanita Valdez-Cox, state director of La Union del Pueblo Entero.
"It's about our families that do not have their immigration papers and are living in fear. It's about the children who are such excellent students in school yet when they graduate they cannot work because they do not have the legal papers."
The Equal Voice for America's Families campaign is an effort by the Marguerite Casey Foundation and its grantees to build support for a national family-issues platform created and advanced by families.
Lots of Valley grassroots groups are participating, including LUPE, ARISE, AVANCE, the Azteca Community Loan Fund, the Brownsville Community Health Center, the Community Action Council of South Texas, Colonias Unidas, Proyecto Azteca, Proyecto Digna, Proyecto Libertad, SCAN (Serving Children and Adolescents in Need), the South West Workers Union, Su Casa de Esperanza, and Texas RioGrande Legal Aid.
Over the next few months as many as 40 townhall meetings will be held through the Casey Foundationís grant-making regions, which include Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Texas and Washington.
The first of these will be at the LUPE headquarters in San Juan on Saturday, Jan. 19, from 8.30 a.m. to 1 p.m., with participation by around 300 Valley families.
Equal Voices Regional Coordinator Armando Garza said the aim at the San Juan event would be to "engage families in discussions to develop a national platform of issues of concerns to families"
In the Valley there will also be Equal Voices town hall meetings in Brownsville and Rio Grande City, then three more focusing on youth issues at the South Texas College campuses in Weslaco, McAllen and Rio Grande City.
Everything will culminate with 1,200 Valley families participating in a national town hall meeting in Birmingham, Alabama on Sept. 6. At the same time, two other national town hall meetings will be held in Chicago and Los Angeles. The platform approved at the national town hall meetings will then be presented to the presidential candidates in October.
Valdez-Cox said LUPE had already begun developing its platform by getting community organizers to hold small house meetings.
"The time is here. The commitment is here to make change possible," Valdez-Cox said.
"With the presidential campaign now underway, this is a perfect opportunity to take advantage of this mood in the country for change. Hopefully, with a push from the grassroots we will hold those politicians accountable and make that change happen."
Teresa Tovar, a working mother from Las Milpas and ARISE member, said she would like the presidential candidates to focus on immigration and health care. Tovar told the Guardian how her oldest daughter was severely affected by an ear infection that left part of her face paralyzed. "I was too fearful to apply for Medicaid," Tovar said.
Sonia Limas, a LUPE member from Alamo, said the Equal Voices campaign was her chance to make the politicians listen to working families. "The campaign is very important. We want the presidential candidates to listen to us, the voice of the people, because these are our needs," she said.
Ann Cass, executive director of the Proyecto Azteca in San Juan, said her group has also started listening to its members.
"We have been very careful not to influence their choices. We have said, if they were to meet with the presidential candidates, what issues would they want to tell them about, here in the Mid Valley," Cass said.
"We have asked them to reflect on their own lives. Are their lives better than their parents? Is it worse? Do they think their childrenís future is going to be better than their reality right now?"
Cass said that while the Equal Voices campaign will start in San Juan it would end up resonating nationally and stay in the forefront of the national debate long after the November presidential election.
"The outcome we are hoping for after next week is that our families will be able to leave that town hall meeting and say, ëyou know what, my voice was heard and I know itís going to go further than San Juan," Cass said.
The Rev. Michael Seifert, priest of San Felipe de Jesus church in Cameron Park said that working people can affect change if families participate. There is strength in numbers he said.
"You can take away some of the insecurity that comes from speaking out about issues that are critical to families," Seifert said.
Investing in families rather than arms may not be popular with politicians, Seifert said, but that is what is needed to make the nation truly secure.
"One of the things that's disturbing about American politics is that people way up high talking about stuff that affects people way, way, down below. It's about getting people who are living this nightmare involved. It's not an American Dream right now. Itís an American Nightmare,"Seifert said.
"I think people are scared. I think we've had enough of money for guns and nothing for our kids. I think people are sick and tired of sitting around and waiting for someone else to do something. I think they are going to step up to bat."
The Equal Voices campaign will be helped, Seifert predicted, by all the anti-immigrant rhetoric promoted by racists in the last few years.
"We are very clear in our parish. If anyone in the United States knows who Our Lady of Guadalupe is, you are in the sights of people who love to hate people,"Seifert said.
"So, rather than run away from that we are saying no, stand up and be counted and let them know that we are Americans too."
Write Steve Taylor and Joey Gomez
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