One of the reasons we are excited to have this blog is to be able to share with our community some of our lesser known activities that keep us busy over here at Casa Latina. One of those things that may not be as visible is our work on building partnerships with other organizations, both in Seattle and around the country. We’re going to try to highlight some of those organizations here on our blog, and how we’re involved with them.
To start off, we'd like to introduce you to the Sound Alliance. Sound Alliance is part of the Industrial Areas Foundation, one of the oldest organizing groups in the country.
Sound Alliance works to train leaders in the Puget Sound community in story-telling methods and leadership development. The leaders then go out into their communities and hold listening campaigns. With the information gained from these campaigns, they hold a community assembly and vote on issues of importance to the community, which become the basis for a community agenda.
Sound Alliance has been working now for three years now in the Seattle area, and we cemented our involvement with them in February of this year. For us to participate, we felt strongly that one of the issues on the agenda needed to be immigration, and we attended monthly (and sometimes more often!) organizing meetings. The final issues are: health care, jobs, immigration/civil rights, and education.
On June 1st Sound Alliance held its Founding Assembly, where over 80 churches, unions, and community groups were represented. Casa Latina had committed to bringing 60 people to this Assembly, and in the end we brought over 90! One of the reasons we are excited to work with Sound Alliance is that they have built a broad, diverse coalition, allowing us to get to know new groups, activities, and leaders; people who are outside of our immediate community. Scroll down for more pictures and details of the Founding Assembly—we’re excited about participating in such a momentous event!
Casa Latina rented two school buses to take everyone down to Tacoma.
Before going to the Assembly, we had a group picnic at Point Defiance Park. We had lots of good food...
...and good times playing soccer, talking and exploring!
Casa Latina presente!
Some of the group getting ready to participate in the assembly.
Our proud group!
Casa Latina's presence was quite visible with our red t-shirts and yellow hats! The governor was in attendance as well as the Speaker of the House, Frank Chopp and Senate Leader, Lisa Brown, who committed to supporting the Agenda for the Common Good, which was presented at the assembly.
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Jorge was asked by Sound Alliance to tell the story of his experience with ICE and being detained. Here's what he shared:
Good Afternoon;
My name is Jorge Vilchiz. I am a legal permanent resident of this country since 1988 and member of CASA Latina and the Laborers Union.
On Saturday September 8th last year, the Bothell police stopped me when I was driving to work because I was going 36 miles an hour in 30 miles per hour speed zone.
The policemen asked for my driver's license and gave me a ticket, which I accepted. However the policemen continued to question me about my legal status. I answered his questions honestly. Questions like:
What country do you come from?
Where did you enter this country?
And finally he ordered me to show him my green card. I responded by showing it to him but after looking at it, he declared that it was fake.
I was put in jail for 3 days in Lynwood. I was treated as a criminal without having committed any crime. I felt that my basic rights were being violated. I felt powerless and afraid of being deported even though I had been a resident for such long time.
After 3 days in jail in Lynwood they took me to Homeland Security offices in Tukwila. There, an officer told me that I was lucky because they had made a mistake. I was now free to go.
My friends didn't know where I was and were really worried about my disappearance. I didn't want to call them for fear of involving them in case they might be detained also. However, the worst consequence of my detainment was that since I couldn't pay the bill to get my car from the towing lot, I lost my car. I couldn't call into work from the detention center either, so I lost my job.
Even now I still remember when the officer told me that THIS had been my lucky day!
look at that swing! does he play baseball??!!
This gathering was the result of many hours of planning and collaboration between Casa Latina and 
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