Binational Front of Indigenous Organizations

http://newamericamedia.org/2010/05/down-and-out-in-californias-fields.php

First Nations United Statement Against SB 1070

First Nations United

All Saints Church
3044 Longfellow Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55407
www.firstnationsunited.com

PRESS RELEASE

April 26, 2010

“While the power of the Europeans has continued, I see the other part of
the Ghost Dance prophecy coming true today. So-called ‘Hispanics,’ with
faces that sure look like Indians to me, are returning to repopulate North
America. We cannot always speak to each other because we have learned the
languages of different colonial powers. But these Indians have as much
right to come and go on our land as the geese when they migrate north and
south. No one would dare to ask them for their passports and visas as they
cross man made borders.

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In view of the law SB 1070 approved by the State Congress and the Governor of Arizona, Janice Brewer, which criminalizes all migrants and our families, the Binational Front of Indigenous Organizations (FIOB) calls upon the migrant community and the organizations defending the civil rights to use all legal resources and social mobilization to revert this unconstitutional and unjust law.

The legislation approved by the state congress on April 19 and then signed by the governor on April 23 2010, contains provisions that allows police and Sheriff officers to stop individuals who are suspicious “of being undocumented” to turn them over to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement; making it a crime for immigrants without documents seeking employment, authorizes confiscating vehicles that transport people without documents, and enables arresting individuals helping or providing assistance to undocumented individuals.

However, experts maintain that this legislation is unconstitutional because applying migration laws corresponds to the federal government.

FIOB urges the immigrant community and the organizations which defend civil and human rights to continue the resistance against this racist law and to file civil lawsuits in the federal courts, to join protest demonstrations on May 1st , and after, to support economics boycotts calls which will have an impact in Arizona’s economy.

We firmly denounce the Anti-immigrant law “SB 1070” in Arizona, and we believe that no state or city law can be above the United States Constitution, as well as the International Convention of the Human Right Organization of the United Nation (ONU).

We will make a call to the others states in the county to not take these practices and discriminatory attitudes. We also call to the United States society to be more tolerant and understand that migration is a product of agreements like NAFTA and neoliberal policies impose by the United States government to Mexico and Latin America’s governments.

We disapprove the anti-immigrant discourse of California’s candidates to governor and Utah’s Congressmen because they want to utilize migrant to win votes ignoring that this matter is under federal jurisdiction.

This law has not paralyzed the migrant community; on the contrary, it’s uniting us more than ever to demand the legislative and executive branch of the United State for a just and comprehensive Immigration Reform.

Los Angeles, California. United States. January 21, 2009.

Barack H. Obama
President of the United States of America
White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D. C. 20500

Issue: A comprehensive, just and humane legalization for all immigrant workers

Mr. President:

The members of the Binational Front of Indigenous Organizations (FIOB) respectfully address you as immigrant workers who live and work in the United States of America and also as indigenous peoples who decided to stay in our hometowns in Mexico, but who have strong links with our relatives that have migrated.

The FIOB is an indigenous organization with membership on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. Our mission is to contribute to the development and self determination of the indigenous communities, both the ones that have migrated and the ones in the hometown communities. We also work in both countries in defense of the human rights, with justice and gender equality.

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By Bertha R. Santos
Translated by Erika Morales

Los Angeles, CA.- The shades of sunsets, contrasts, aromas, flavors and colors, that exist at the same time in Oaxaca –swinging within the essence of the indigenous communities and the modern world-, these have nurtured artist Walfred Rodriguez, whose works are filled with intense colors and surreal images that appear to exist in different dimensions.

Oaxaca, as reported by New York Times, was placed next to New York and Paris, as one of the thriving art cities in the world. To mention, Oaxaca is home to grand artists such as Rufino Tamayo, Francisco Toledo and Rodolfo Nieto, among many others that have not reached that level but are providing different art proposals.
“It’s said that Oaxacans carry the hue in their blood”, mentions artist Walfred Rodriguez, acknowledging that starting a career as a painter in Oaxaca, implies commitment and hard work. “It’s like being in the kitchen everyday and cooking up something new, experimenting with diverse materials while being aware of new ideals and finding our voice and language”.

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El Tequio, is a quarterly magazine published by the Binational Front of Indigenous Organizations (FIOB). Support this independent media for the indigenous peoples and be part of this event!

]Fresno, California.- As part of The International Women’s Day celebrations, members of the Binational Center for the Development of Oaxacan Indigenous Communities (CBDIO) and the Binational Front of Indigenous Organizations (FIOB), will hold a cultural event on Sunday March 8th with a presentation of a children’s book entitled “When Mama was little”, written by the Mixtec teacher Amparo Cisneros.

During decades, the Oaxacan migrant community has shared with the local community it’s traditions and values.

Indigenous women have excelled being the guardians and educators who transmit their cultural practices, believes, costumes and traditional knowledge inherited by their ancestors.

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By Manuel Valdez
The Associated Press
Monday, January 26, 2009; 3:37 AM

SUMAS, Wash. — Catarina Lopez was born and raised in Guatemala and lived there for most of her 46 years, but she is not Latina, although many people think she is.

Lopez is Maya, a descendent of the inhabitants that populated Central America and parts of Mexico before the Spanish colonized the region in the 1500′s.

Her ancestry _ like that of thousands of other indigenous Latin Americans who have migrated to United States _ challenges and clouds the perception Americans have of the immigrants coming over the border.

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Fourteen-year-old girl offered to man, 18, in exchange for dowry

January 20, 2009

Experts who have lived among and studied the Triqui people of Oaxaca, Mexico believe that what happened to a Greenfield family, who authorities say allowed their 14-year-old daughter to live with a man as husband and wife, is a tragic misunderstanding of an honored tradition.

The Monterey County District Attorney has charged the father with child abuse, including procurement for lewd purposes, and the girl’s would-be mate faces statutory rape charges.

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A Monterey County father who allegedly tried to collect a dowry of beer, cash and meat for his 14-year-old daughter’s wedding was following the custom of the Triqui people, police say.
By Steve Chawkins

January 15, 2009

The police in Greenfield, a Monterey County farm town, had heard the rumors before: Migrant workers from rural Mexico were marrying off daughters as young as 12 and receiving sizable dowries.

But no such cases were ever prosecuted — until this week.

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