Latino organizing training

[colist-admin at comm-org.utoledo.edu]

From: Kevin Whalen <ebecc at labornet.org>

June 9, 2000

To groups doing organizing in Latino communities,
We are writing to see if your group would like to send a Latino activist
or organizer to a community organizing training to be offered in Spanish
on Thursday, June 15 from 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. at the Central
Congregational Church in Jamaica Plain, 85 Seaverns Street (2 blocks
from the Green Street Train Station on the Orange Line).

The training will be given by a group of women from Matagalpa, Nicaragua
- the Matagalpa Women's Collective - who are touring New England in
June. The group will train Latino activists on ways to better recruit
and involve Latin Americans in local campaigns. The Collective will
train participants in popular education strategies, particularly the use
of street theater, to attract and involve community people to a range of
issues - including housing, workers issues, immigrants rights, AIDS
prevention, health and women's issues.

This intensive training in Spanish will be geared toward both organizers
and leaders/activists who are involved in community and labor groups. We
are asking groups to pay $50 per participant for the training, which
will include lunch and snacks. By sending a participant to the training,
your group will be a tour sponsor, and we will let you know the tour's
full two-week schedule. The funds will help us pay for the tour of these
women throughout New England, as they share their strategies and
successes with communities here. If you can't send someone to the
training but would like to support the tour, you can make a $50
contribution to be a tour sponsor.

We are very excited about hosting this event. The Women's Collective has
been actively organizing community members, women, peasants, workers,
youth and others around health care, women's, economic and community
organizing projects in Nicaragua. For over a decade, these women have
taught community organizing techniques, particularly street theater, to
thousands of Nicaraguans. They have developed techniques that have
helped attract thousands of unaffiliated people to campaigns and
activities.

We're sorry this notice is so late, but the U.S. Embassy in Managua did
all they could to try to deny visas; only after lots of pressure,
including congressional intervention, did the Collective get their visas
approved, but after months of delay! Anyway, let us know as soon as
possible if you would like to send someone to the training, so we can
plan accordingly.

Please call Kevin Whalen at (617) 524-9863 to let us know if your group
would like to send participants to the training, or would like to be a
tour sponsor. Checks can be made payable to WILD and sent to WILD, c/o
Jeanette Huezo, 33 Harrison Avenue, 4th Floor, Boston, MA 02111. Or, let
us know if you'll send someone to the training and you can pay at the
door.

In solidarity,

Kevin Whalen, Center to Support Immigrant Organizing
Jeanette Huezo, Women's Institute for Leadership Development
Juan Leyton, City Life