Migration and Borders

January 13, 2021

From Palestine to Mexico, border walls have got to go!

“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” is more than a slogan, it’s the call of a liberation movement. The Palestinian struggle for liberation is international and the fight for socialism begins when we unite to fight imperialism, colonialism and capitalism. The anthology Palestine: A Socialist Introduction published by Haymarket Books, gives us an overview of the possibilities of a better world, starting with Palestinian liberation. Editors Sumaya Awad and brian bean (brian bean is written in lowercase) offer us a succinct historical background of Palestinian liberation and an internationalist framework of socialism from below through which we can view this struggle.

October 3, 2020

by Ivan Waldo

They came for us

Recent revelations by whistleblower Dawn Wooten, exposed that at ICE detention centers, doctors have been performing hysterectomies on unsuspecting patients. Her revelations, while appalling and detestable, are not surprising to me. I’ve seen this before. I know this movie well. It’s like The Ten Commandments playing on television during Good Friday, I know what happens next. I can quote this story line for line.
As a Latin American History scholar, I’ve spent many years familiarizing myself with people like Cornelius Rhoads, a former US Army doctor and hospital administrator who was oversaw racist and barbaric human experimentation projects. I have learned about forced sterilizations on colonial islands through documentaries like La Operación. I’ve combed through the published studies of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment on African American males who were injected with syphilis. I am well aware of the medical community’s penchant for using people in Africa to conduct clinical trials for prescription drugs.

October 2, 2020

by Alexis Meza

History, memory, and politics: “unforgetting” in the diaspora

Born in San Francisco, California, Roberto Lovato was raised in the shadow of silence surrounding family history and trauma, a commonly shared experience among those in the Salvadoran diaspora. In Unforgetting: A Memoir of Family, Migration, Gangs, and the Revolution in the Americas (2020) Lovato shares his experience growing up surrounded by this omnipresent silence and the personal and political stakes of intergenerational forgetting. Lovato states “the machete dismembers our humanity from our stories” (xxiii). He uses the machete as a metaphor to describe the ways the social fabric of this community has been cut, wounded, and

August 24, 2020

by Trans Asylum Seekers Support Network

“Mírame a los ojos y dime que no soy humana”

Este es el artículo de seguimiento de La Hermandad es Primero. El objetivo del primer artículo fue abrir la conversación sobre la persecución de las personas trans en El Salvador y también dar inicio a la campaña La Hermandad es Primero. Esta campaña es una práctica de solidaridad transnacional para recaudar fondos para ayudar a las personas trans en El Salvador.
Yo soy Naty, y junto con mi compañera Aislinn Odalys empezamos esta campaña. Las dos somos mujeres trans de El Salvador, y hemos sobrevivido y resistido violencia sistémica contra nuestra comunidad. Queremos apoyar a las personas trans porque sabemos lo que es no tener nada. Juntxs y unidxs la comunidad puede fortalecer y seguir adelante.
En este artículo discutimos en profundidad la opresión que enfrentan las personas trans basado en hechos y experiencias reales, y lo que hemos aprendido sobre la forma en que nuestra comunidad resiste estos sistemas opresivos todos los días, y cómo luchamos por nuestra liberación.

August 13, 2020

by Lupita Romero

a MeXicana

August 13, 2020

by Trans Asylum Seekers Support Network

“Look me in the eyes and tell me that I am not human”

In El Salvador, trans people realize from a young age that their lives are to be full of persecution and survival. When a trans girl is young, she realizes who is like her. We know if someone is part of our trans community through their way of speaking, walking, etc. Not every trans person has the courage to say they are trans because they know that the whole world, including their own family, will turn their backs. Among ourselves, we support one another because we understand that in order to survive, we need our communities. When our families kick us out, our trans sisters are there, supporting and helping us. They give us food, a place of refuge, and community. That’s how we support each other, giving each other everything we can.

June 9, 2020

by Puntorojo Editorial Collective

Free Susana Prieto Terrazas NOW!

On Monday, June 8th, the lawyer and labor leader Susana Prieto Terrazas was detained and arrested in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico by the Tamaulipas State Police. The city of Matamoros is located along the Texas-Mexico border directly across from Brownsville, Texas. She is being falsely accused of “attacks against public servants, riots and threat and coercion of individuals” by the Attorney General of the State of Tamaulipas. She is really being targeted for organizing maquiladora workers and challenging the corrupt and venal “charro” unions that work with state and federal officials to repress the new worker’s movement in Mexico.

May 12, 2020

by Trans Asylum Seekers Support Network

La Hermandad es Primero

La pandemia de COVID-19 ha creado mucho sufrimiento alrededor del mundo, pero también ha creado oportunidades para solidarizarnos. Hoy nosotras – mujeres trans de El Salvador – venimos a informarles de la situación dolorosa que vive nuestra comunidad en estos momentos y para pedir su apoyo.

Yo, Naty, soy una mujer trans buscando asilo en los Estados Unidos. En este momento vivo en el oeste de Massachusetts, pero nací y me crié en El Salvador. Yo, Aislinn Odaly’s, soy una activista trans basada en San Salvador. Desde hace 21 años me he dedicado a luchar por el bienestar de mi comunidad en una sociedad violenta y discriminatoria. Juntas, tenemos profundas raíces en las comunidades LGBTQI+. Conocemos muy de cerca las necesidades de la comunidad trans, que ha sido una de las comunidades más vulnerables del país durante muchos años, aún antes de esta pandemia.

May 11, 2020

by Trans Asylum Seekers Support Network

La Hermandad es Primero

The COVID-19 pandemic has created much suffering around the world, but has also created opportunities for solidarity. Today we – trans women from El Salvador – come to share about the painful situation our community is experiencing right now and to ask for your support.

I, Naty, am a trans woman seeking asylum in the United States. Right now I live in western Massachusetts, but I was born and raised in El Salvador. I, Aislinn Odaly’s, am a trans activist based in San Salvador. I have dedicated myself to fighting for the well-being of my community in a violent and discriminatory society for 21 years. Together, we have deep roots in LGBTQI+ communities. We are very aware of the needs of the trans community, which has been one of the most vulnerable communities in the country for many years, even before this pandemic.

May 4, 2020

by Lupita Romero

El plan de inmigración de Bernie Sanders: una respuesta desde la primera línea de lucha

Vivo en Queens, Nueva York, uno de los lugares más diversos en el país. Era tan solo una niña recién llegada de México cuando los eventos del 11 de septiembre sucedieron e introdujeron un periodo de militarización social disfrazado en discurso de “seguridad nacional.” Entre los asquerososataques racistas por parte del partido republicano y el pretendido apoyo de los funcionarios demócratas, la voz de inmigrantes indocumentados generalmente ha sido ignorada, particularmente cuando nuestra voz no se alinea con la de los demócratas o si vamos más allá de simplemente registrar a nuestra comunidad documentada para que voten “azul.” Esta era ha sido efectivamente marcada por la represión y el chivo expiatorio de las comunidades inmigrantes.