Mijente, New Online and Offline Organizing Hub for Latinxs and Chicanxs, to Launch this Month
More info at Mijente.net/lanzate
December 7, 2015, Chicago, IL
Emerging out of the #Not1More campaign against deportations, Latinx and Chicanx organizers, activists, artists, and academics are launching a new national political home called Mijente.
“We’re breaking out of the boxes created for us as captive voters and single issue communities,” explains co-founder Marisa Franco. “As Latinxs we have so much power in this country but we have a leadership vacuum to fill if we want to realize it. To make transformative change will take more from us not just more of us. We all may identify differently but we have a shared fate that’s up to us to shape.”
To build a pan-Latinx organization is a complicated endeavor as members have multi-national identities, some many not embrace the umbrella term or greet it with skepticism as a marketing tool, but all have a shared fate in the U.S. Between 2000 and 2010 Latinx population growth accounted for more than half of the total U.S. population growth and Latinxs will be the largest racial/ethnic group by the middle of the century.
The sold out event will bring together approximately 200 Latinxs from across the country to envision a grassroots agenda that is unapologetically pro-Black, centered on women, queer and trans leadership, and sets out a path for relating to the election cycle beyond getting out the vote.
“It’s time we have a vehicle for all our community,” adds Paulina Helm-Hernandez a co-founder and also co-director of Southerners on New Ground. “We’re building Mijente out of a longing to have a place that can hold our shared struggles and strengthens our political unity. We are looking for people that are looking for us. If you are queer or transgender, if you’ve been locked up, if you’ve found yourself silenced and pushed to the margins, we see you, and we invite you to join us.”
Mijente will be the institutional home for the #Not1More campaign and embark on Latinx leadership development, creating democratic digital platforms, and campaign advocacy over the course of 2016.
Follow @Conmijente and facebook.com/mijente2015
*The x in Latinx is gender fluid and trans-inclusive language that recognizes not everyone identifies with the masculine o or feminine a.