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For immediate release
November 7, 2010
Contact: Katie Joaquin, IAMR3 Media/Publicity Committee
kjoaquin@gmail.com
(044) 559-104-7318
Celebration of kultura and victorious cries of Madres de Honduras open the 3rd International Assembly of Migrant Rights
[MEXICO CITY] Migrants, refugees, families of the disappeared and massacred, workers, youth, and people of all ages from over 15 countries united last night in a celebration of culture and the advances of the movement for migrant and refugee rights.
Fernando “Ictus” Medina, one of the first performers, drew participants in with every strum of his guitar, inviting them to envision a world where borders no longer confine people to misery. The cultural night is key in grounding everyone before for the long week and the much longer fight ahead.
The madres of the desaparecidos de Honduras [Mothers of the Honduran disappeared] brought great news of a daughter who, after 20 years of searching for her mother, was finally reunited with her today. There were over 10,000 desaparecidos in Honduras in 2009 and even more this year. One madre said, “We are mothers who don’t give up. We keep fighting and searching.” Another chimed in, “It doesn’t stop because one family was reunited. It continues all the way to Puerto Vallarta to the GFMD. [Desaparecidos] are not just an issue for Honadurenos, they are an issue for all of us.”
Another performer, Sonido Meztizo, brought the crowd to their feet as she sang “yo soy paz” (I am peace). She emphasized the importance of unity from the global north to the global south present in this assembly. Cultural workers with the Philippine contingent held photos of 43 illegally imprisoned health workers in the Philippines, chanting kalayaan and demanding their freedom.. Another performer, Eric “ET” Tandoc, reminded participants of the roots of migration and the reasons they were torn from their homelands, rapping, “We would have never left if colonies were never there.”
Enrique Mejia, organizer of the cultural night said, “Kultura es importante para denunciar la situacion de los inmigrantes. Pero kultura no solo es para denunciar sino tambien para vivir.” [Celebrating culture is important to denounce the situation of immigrants. But culture allows us not only to denounce, but also to live.]
And live the participants did, as they shouted along with folklorico dancers, stood silent listening to the stories of the madres and moved their feet to the beats of the musicians, a welcome release amidst the struggles to come in the growing fight for migrant and refugee rights.
Eni Lestari, chair of the International Migrants Alliance, set the tone for the rest of the week’s activities, saying, “It costs over 3,000 pesos to travel here and the journey is tiring. But we are committed to fight our enemies, build solidarity, and start a movement of migrants across the world.”
The cultural night followed the close of the International Tribunal of Conscience, where migrants and refugees from throughout Latin America presented the situation of migrants and refugees in their home countries.
Cases were presented on the 72 massacred migrants from Honduras and other countries of Central and Latin America; human trafficking in the Philippines and Columbia; the struggle of Mapuchis in Mexico; and detention centers in ‘Fortress Europe.’ The tribunal ended with statements from organizations of mothers looking for their disappeared loved ones, demanding accountability from the Mexican government for the harrowing experiences of each victim. The verdict will be presented at the IAMR3, starting today.
Lestari concluded her speech at the cultural opening of the assembly by saying, “We are ready to fight until we win our battle against our enemy, the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD). We will never give up our fight as long as the GFMD exists.”
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