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Contacts: Trini Tlazohteotl Rodriguez (818) 489-5474, Mylene Carberry, CAPPC (310) 621-1087, Shannon Rivers, Indigenous Peoples coordinator CAPPC (480) 220-6766
THE TRUTH AND POVERTY BUS TOUR
Pacoima Takes Stand with the California Poor People’s Campaign Against Homelessness and Poverty
Tuesday, April 9th, 2019, Pacoima, California, Indigenous Peoples along with poverty-impacted residents will convene a Public Hearing to speak on and provide solutions to their circumstances in Pacoima, one of Los Angeles’ poorest communities. In fact, 1 out of 4 students at Pacoima’s Telfair Elementary School are homeless. Indigenous Tataviam, Tongva and Mexica Peoples will address the historical displacement of their populations and how that set the stage for what we are seeing today. All Californians are invited to join our demand for justice.
The Pacoima Public Hearing on Homelessness & Poverty will be on Tuesday, April 9, 2019 from 6:00PM-9:00PM at Telfair Elementary School, 10975 Telfair Ave., Pacoima, CA 91331.
One person who will speak out at the hearing is Jessa, who states, “I am a California Native American single mother renting a room for my son and I. If it weren’t for the family that I am renting from, we would be homeless today.” With 140 million poor, low income families in the U.S., her situation is common. Housing insecurity is systemic.
Pacoima is just one stop for The ‘California Poor People’s Campaign Truth and Poverty Bus Tour,’ which will engage and highlight communities who have been left behind in the richest and poorest state in the nation. Starting April 3rd until April 13th, the California Poor People’s Campaign Bus Tour will begin in Chico California, where the deadly Paradise Camp Fire left 50,000 homeless. As the Tour makes it’s way from Northern California to the border, it is grounded in the understanding of whose lands they are standing on. The organizers acknowledge Indigenous Peoples are among the frontline communities suffering poverty, systemic racism, ecological devastation and the war economy ever since the inception of this country. They will make their way down to the southern border in San Diego where children are being separated from their parents and asylum seekers are being turned away. Along the way, the Bus Tour will stop in the most impoverished communities in California hearing testimony and bearing witness to the need for housing, food, jobs and dignity.
Speaker lIst: Luis Rodriguez - Poet Laureate of Los Angeles (2014-2016). Author of 15 books, including, best-selling memoir, "Always Running, La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A." Founding editor, Tia Chucha Press, Co-founder/president, Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural & Bookstore
Trini Rodriguez - Co-founder, former Executive Director of Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural & Bookstore, a cultural center/bookstore in L.A's San Fernando Valley that transforms community through ancestral knowledge, the arts, literacy and creative engagement. She is a poet and writes, speaks and strives for personal and collective healing and systemic social change.
Rudy Ortega Jr. - Tribal President of the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians, commissioner and past Chairman of the Los Angeles City/County Native American Indian Commission, Executive Director of Pukúu Cultural Community Services
Jessa Calderon - Singer/Songwriter, Hip Hop Artist, Mother, Massage Therapist and Energy Healer
Angie Castro - Poet, Community Organizer, Owner of A Touch of Nayture, Massage Therapist, Artist, A Button As Cute As You.
Gina Diaz - (student debt)
Rosalilia Mendoza - (student debt)
Yesenia Campos - (economic struggle)
Keasu’c Hill - (mass incarceration & economic struggle)
Sylvia Venegas - ACCE
Felipe Escobar - Pacoima Beautiful
Lupe Lopez - Domestic Violence Advocate, Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women
Monique Orozco, Head dancer of Kalpulli Temachtia Quetzalcoatl,
Huitzil - head dancer of Kalpulli Tloque Nahuaque
Rev. Eddie Anderson - Co-Chair, California Poor People’s Campaign, Senior Pastor, McCarty Memorial Christian Church
Shannon Rivers - member and Cultural Ambassador of the Akimel O’otham (River People), Native American cultural advisor to incarcerated men and women in the state, federal and country facilities in AZ and CA.
Kenia Alcocer - Co-Chair, California Poor People’s Campaign
Jose Razo - Principal, Telfair Elementary
Melissa Ehekalli Sanvicente - Associate Director of Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural. Melissa practices Mexica indigenous drumming, dance, and song as a member of Kalpulli Xochiyaoyotl. She is a graduate of Ethnomusicology at UCLA
For more information:
Facebook Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/275964423343334/
Poor People’s Campaign, A National Call for Moral Revival: PoorPeoplesCampaign.org
Poor Peoples’ Campaign Demands: https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/demands/
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