Latinos for Peace
Template:TOCnestleft Latinos for Peace is affiliated with the United for Peace and Justice.[1]
Leadership
Latinos for Peace is led by Communist Party USA member Rosalio Arias Munoz
Origins
Latinos for Peace was founded in 2005.
According to Rosalio Munoz, "some of us peace activists of the Chicano Moratorium era are coming together with other Latino activists we have come to know around the country and with the newer generations and immigrants. We call ourselves Latinos For Peace. We have launched an open letter/petition drive. We started with e-mails among friends. Now, names are coming in from all across the country".
Hilda Reyes Jensen, a 16-year-old Brown Beret who helped organize the first Chicano Moratorium against the Vietnam War in 1969, has sent in the names of six Latinos in Alabama. Sijisfredo Aviles, a Puerto Rican draft resister in the ’60s, is sending in names from Chicago. Ernesto Vigil of Denver, one of the first Chicano draft resisters in 1967, is getting together names in Colorado. Elizabeth Betita Martinez, who wrote antiwar stories in the New Mexico Chicano newspaper El Grito del Norte in the ’60s, is getting together people in the San Francisco Bay Area. Jorge Mariscal, a Vietnam veteran turned University of California at San Diego Latino studies professor and counter-recruitment activist, is getting faculty and students on board.
Margarita Alvarez, a Guatemalan immigrant rights and peace activist from Garland, Texas, has signed on. She plans to go to the Sept. 24 antiwar demonstration in Washington, D.C. We want to have some 10,000 Latino names on our open letter for her and others to present to the Hispanic Congressional Caucus and other representatives.
It’s an ambitious plan, but we are inspired by Cindy Sheehan, Maxine Waters, our own Fernando Suarez de Solar and so many others. We know that together we all can help Bring Our Troops Home![2]
Influence
From a statement by Latinos for Peace: [3]
- Washington DC Sept 24 Rally and Sept 26 Lobby Day
- On September 24 over 500,000 people demonstrated against the war in Iraq throuhout our nation, 300,000 and more in Washington DC and tens of thousands in San Francisco and Los Angeles. In Washington DC Latinos For Peace signers Dolores Huerta of the United Farmworkers Union, Fernando Suarez Del Solar of Gold Star Families For Peace, and Nativo Lopez of the Mexican American Political Association spoke. Our campaign was represented on the stage of the San Francisco and Los Angeles rallies as well.
- We were also officially part of the overall events distributing information and gathering signatures. We made contact with groups and activists from over 25 states, citizens, immigrants, young and old, from all over the country and our different Latino groups
- On Monday September 26 we participated in the peace movement lobby day at the capitol. We met with Rep Raul Grijalva who said he would work to help build our campaign. We spoke to the staff of Rep Luis Gutierrez and Rep. Xavier Becerra who were supportive of our efforts. We also spoke to the staff of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the district staff of Rep Grace Napolitano the current caucus chair. The caucus staffer told us we needed more signers, more leaders and organizations on our lists in many states to have real impact. The staffer for Napolitano indicated our call for bringing the troops home now was not responsible as they (the caucus) were advised a 'bloodbath' would ensue. We assured them we would continue building our campaign and remain in contact with them. We also went to all the offices of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and presented them with our petition, contact information, and asked that the representatives to sign our petition.
- We also participated in other delegations to Congressional and Senate representatives, the peace movement coordinators included us in the official group presentations as an important part of the overall effort.