¡Sabor de las Américas!

On Sunday, September 28th, over 500 people attended our second annual Sabor de las Américas (Flavor of the Americas) heritage festival, enjoying authentically prepared food, a live Latin band and folkloric dance troupes representing the diverse cultures of Latin America. El Pueblo held a press conference about the need for just immigration reform, while our women’s group, Mujeres Unidas (Women United), sold t-shirts they had designed themselves, and our health fair offered free screenings geared toward the underserved Spanish-speaking community.

It was a beautiful day of celebration, education, and bridge-building in the unique melting pot that is the Mississippi Gulf Coast. A big thank you to our sponsors and to all of our volunteers for making this wonderful event possible!

Enjoy the photos.

She loves the dancing, she does!

Panamanian dancers recreate the mating dance of a native bird.

Bridget, Rosa y Ana watching the dancers. Check out Ana's fake PUMA shirt: PERU (with a llama).

Is this an Old Navy ad? Or simply the 2007 mullet-toss queen and her groupies? Or maybe just Anne and her homies dancing to the Cupid Shuffle. You pick.

Julio y David, our favorite serenaders, singing Mexican love songs. Ay, ¡que romántico!

Ingrid works her mad face-painting skillz on one of the kids.

Elizabeth, la reina del festival--she made the whole thing possible.

One of the Panamanian dancers, reminding me excessively of one of Gaugin's statuesqueTahitian women.

Kimberly, Carmen y Tere--some of our lovely Mujeres Unidas.

The dancing Colombiana. Her dress looks like an exuberant orchid, no?

Nothing better than a guitar piñata and a stick to smack it with.

Tour of the Faithful--statements from various denominations about the need for just immigration reform are read aloud.

Tour of the Faithful groupies!! They were on TV, too!: http://www.wlox.com/global/story.asp?s=9088370

Mexican folkore dance troupe, courtesy of Mujeres Unidas--even more charming in person!

Available for special events and quinceñearas. No, seriously, we are.

Dance No. 2, à la cowgirl.


the evening ends with a serenade of the lovely Katherine.

* * *

¡Que gran éxito!

Who Would Jesus Deport? Response

I responded to Doug's comments/questions concerning my last post a while ago in person, but I figured I'd do it here as well in case anyone is still reading this and/or cares. Heh.

My response was two-fold: first and foremost, the goal of the post was to humanize the story of immigrants who are here with good intentions, who contribute to society, who do not merit (no one does) the term "illegal alien." I believe very strongly that one of the primary ways one gets beyond the "us vs. them" mentality that is such an obstacle to real dialogue and community-building is by getting to know the "them"--and then realizing that "they" are not very different from "us." It then becomes difficult to stereotype, ostracize, or hate on the "them"--because "they" have become real people. Case in point: I just went out for coffee with the farm manager I mentioned in the beginning of the post in question, and we spent half the time talking about our love for Manny Ramirez, and how both of us had coached U12 girls' soccer teams. We marveled at how similar our experiences had been--apparently soccer parents in Mississippi are just as high-strung as soccer parents in Massachusetts. And 11-yr-olds across the country hate running laps. Who knew?

Secondly, I think Doug's right--to a great extent, you can't legislate morality (outside of laws against things like murder, stealing, etc.). You can't make it a law to allow parents who just want their kids to have a better life to come to this country, and to keep out those who just want to milk the system. And even if you could, who would judge which immigrants have come here with "good intentions" and who are hard workers versus those who come here and abuse social services or commit violent crimes (I haven't met many such immigrants, but of course they exist)? So yes, the answer (at least in part) is to legislate economically--create more H2B temporary worker visas so that more immigrants who are already here doing dirty, dangerous, low-paying jobs that many Americans don't want to do can do so legally. Make it easier to extend or renew them. And (vitally important) create and enforce stronger oversight for employers, in order to prevent the immigrants holding the visas from being traded from company to company like so much cattle, housed 6 to an apartment, at the mercy of company dictates for everything from transportation to second jobs to cafeteria meals.

The short version, but there you have it. Legalize more temporary immigration, and oh, create more paths to residency and citizenship for those who have been paying into the system (taxes, social security) for years. Those SS $s especially are just sitting there in a separate SSA fund, never to be paid out to those who contributed them out of their hard-earned, low-wage paychecks.

Whatever happened to "Liberty and justice for all"?