Para Español

To all artists,

The time is now for all of us. All of us writing you this letter are in deportation proceedings. We have faced our worst fears and refused to let them conquer us. We are still here, still fighting, and still determined to win, not just for ourselves, but for all of us. We say “Ni Uno Más / Not One More.” As we fight our own deportation cases and build for a stop to deportations as the first step on the path to our political equality, we are asking you to accompany us. Produce art that illustrates both the hidden horrors of deportation and the untapped force of our community.

Not one more family divided. Not one more deportation. Not one more day in the shadows…

When we stepped into the street outside of Sheriff Arpaio’s trial to start the No Papers No Fear Ride for Justice, it was the faith in our community that gave us risk-taking strength. When the Sheriffs pull us over, there is a song we hum in our heads. When our employer refuses to pay us and calls the police, it is the love of our family and pride of our culture that make us fight back. When ICE comes to our door to arrest us in front of our children, it is our loved ones’ determination that turn the world into a witness of family separation through a child’s eyes.

In many ways, the next months will determine our futures as individuals with court dates and as a community whose fate is being debated.

Our ability to illustrate that debate will greatly determine its direction. The world must know the terror of deportation the same ways that our families have come to know it. Our community must know its own strength the same way we have come to realize it. There is no greater teacher of those two lessons, no better way to translate their meaning, than the expressions of a people in motion and the artists who accompany us. The roadmap to citizenship may be perilous but the road to justice is clear. Now is a time for us to do our all. It is time for everyone in our community to fight as if it is our own parents or our own children or we ourselves who are in deportation and detention. For us writing this letter, it is not an act of imagination. It is our reality. And each day we lose 1,100 more to the migra’s dragnet.

But we will turn it around. And you can help. Our culture is too beautiful, our families too proud, our community too strong to continue to suffer in silence and to accept anything less than the political equality we deserve. Like was done against SB1070 and like was done with the Undocubus, now is another moment when we need to combine our creativity with our cause.

Ni uno más y ni un paso atrás,
Fernando Lopez, Hector Nolasco , Alejandro Guizar