Looking back with joy, looking forward with hope

A message from LUPE Executive Director Juanita Valdez-Cox:

Dear friends,

The year is winding down and holidays are right around the corner. As you prepare for time with family, office parties, gift giving, or just relaxing over the días festivos, we invite you to look back on all that we’ve accomplished together this year. Thanks to our staff, volunteers, allies, donors and supporters like you, La Union del Pueblo Entero has had a number of amazing victories. Here’s just a sample:

– After an 8 year campaign, won the installation of streetlights in 13 Hidalgo County colonias. Organizing with the Communities Creating Healthy Environments (CCHE) initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, LUPE members worked with Hidalgo County Commissioners and their precinct staff to fund and install the first of what we hope will be many more streetlights to come.

– With great joy and fighting spirit, around 800 members of LUPE and sister organizations marched through the streets of San Juan to celebrate the birthday of Cesar Chavez and, at the same time, the 50th anniversary of the founding of the United Farm Workers.

International Human Rights Day: Our Declaration of Human Rights

Declaration of Human Rights

Convention Equal Voice for Human Rights
November 30, 2012

Community Center, Precinct #2
1429 S Tower Rd
Alamo, TX 78516

The power of human rights lies in the simple but profound idea that we all have basic rights solely by virtue of our humanity. Each individual, family and community should live in equality, dignity and freedom, with the power to participate and shape government policies and institutions that affect our lives.

Love is an emotional need that we all have. Love for thy neighbor and mutual aid leads us to the point that we all take responsibility to defend and take care of each other.

The right to have good jobs with fair wages is important because it is necessary to provide healthy food, decent housing and opportunities for the family.

It is very important to have immigration reform. We deserve to have our families united and that is why we reject separation of families. As part of reform, we should have equal access to the services we need for a dignified life, regardless of immigration status. For example, a driver’s license, an education for our children and our parents, health care and public services.

Education is important to develop intellectually, for both youth and adults. A good education opens the doors to opportunities we need to live a dignified life.

To live a dignified life, we have to live in decent housing. We need proper housing with adequate infrastructure to protect us from floods and other natural disasters.

As each and every one of us lives on this planet, the right to live in dignity also means that the environment has to be cared for. It is not fair that some enjoy a healthy natural environment when others lack this.

Health is very important because with good health, we are ready to serve our families and communities. This is why we need comprehensive medical care, of the body and mind.

Our faith guides us in our daily lives. And because we are different people with different beliefs, the right to religion should be protected in our community.

We have the right that our representatives respond to our requests and take actions to ensure our needs are met. Representatives should represent everyone, regardless of socioeconomic level, sex, gender, religion, race, or immigration status.

As an organized community in dialogue with our neighbors and loved ones, we recognize that many of our basic needs are not taken into account.

Therefore, although each and every one of us has dignity, the fact that our needs are not taken into account affects our ability to live a dignified life. We believe that a just society should ensure a decent life for every individual, family and community.

Therefore we declare:

We all have human rights because we are all human beings.
We strive for:
• Fair jobs with just wages,
• An immigration reform that will treat us like human beings,
• An education that recognizes our diverse needs to develop intellectually with access to technology,
• Adequate housing that will protect our families
• Protection to our communities so they can live in peace with space to play and exercise
• Adequate and affordable health care, regardless of immigration status or socioeconomic levels

To achieve this new society, we need to start by making our commitment to work for it. We recognize our rights because we need them. However, we are denied them. That is where our participation comes in, to demand that our human rights are respected. We commit ourselves to work to create a society that respects our rights. We are guided by these principles as we aspire to a better world – universality, equality, protection of public goods, participation, transparency and accountability.

In the same manner, we welcome other members of the community, representatives of our city, county, state, and nation, businessmen and women, leaders of faith, and each person with sincerity, to also take the opportunity to make their commitment to work for human rights.

Approved and ratified on November 30, 2012, by participants of the Equal Voice for Human Rights convention.

Section 3 campaign victory!

They’re calling it the strongest Section 3 plan in the state. And a model for all of Texas. And we made it happen!

Section 3 is the federal law that requires that federal funds be used in benefit of the low income and working families of our area.

Early this year, we organized a petition campaign calling on the Council of Governments (CoG) to accept the Section 3 plan crafted by the Equal Voice Network with input from colonia residents for the use of federal disaster recovery funds meant to help get the families affected by Hurricane Dolly back on their feet.

While the CoG did not accept all of our plans, what they did accept is still the strongest Section 3 plan in the state.

The Monitor reports on the victory: