Romero Film Screening — March 25, 2023

Romero Film Screening & Discussion

¡Alto a la Represión! La Lucha por la Paz Continúa!

Sponsored by Seattle CISPES, Capybara Colectiva, ICHRP-Seattle and International Migrants Alliance (IMA) USA.

This month we are screening the 1989 film, Romero, which depicts the subsequent events that lead to St. Oscar Romero’s assassination and to the beginning of the Salvadoran Civil War. Although these events were 43 years ago, the current political climate in El Salvador reflects its past. With a nearly year-long state of repression militarizing communities and an increase of political persecution, all with the help of US military aid!

Join us in our discussion and learn how you can accompany the people of El Salvador as they continue the fight for peace!

** content warning: the film contains depictions and mentions of mass gun violence, torture, & sexual assault

When: Saturday, March 25th,

from 3:30 – 6pm

Location: Young Women Empowered, 5623 Rainier Ave S, Seattle WA 98118

Light snacks included!

For more information or questions, please contact: seacispes@gmail.com

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Nov. 9 Event — A Más Represión, Más Lucha! Resisting Militarization and State Repression in El Salvador.”

On November 9, you are invited for our in-person speaking event: “A Más Represión, Más Lucha! Resisting Militarization and State Repression in El Salvador.”

When:  Wednesday, November 9, from 6:00-7:30pm

Where:  Othello-UW Commons, 4200 S. Othello St., Suite 117, Seattle WA 98118

We are excited to announce that our featured speaker will be Miriam López, a feminist organizer and human rights defender who has spent the past decade organizing rural women in El Salvador to join struggles against gendered violence and for environmental justice.

This will be an opportunity to connect in person, share organizing strategies, and learn about the work being done to challenge the human rights and democratic crisis in El Salvador.

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40th Anniversary party featuring Lolo Cutumay — November 14

Seattle CISPES invites you to a special 40th anniversary celebration of the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador.

Even as the world celebrates regime change in the U.S., 2020 remains a time of challenge, upheaval and transformation in our country and across the globe. CISPES continues to build international solidarity, and on November 14 we’ll reflect on the 40 year history of our movement. We’ll share stories of past victories, hear updates about the current struggle in El Salvador, and as a special treat, be joined by legendary Salvadoran musician Lolo Cutumay for some classic, revolutionary songs.

What: Seattle CISPES 40th Anniversary party featuring Lolo Cutumay

When: Saturday, November 14

Time: 5 – 6:30 pm Pacific

Where: Online via Zoom

Register here to attend

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CISPES Statement in Solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives

Photo credit: Mattie Conway, CISPES

The Committee In Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) affirms our solidarity with the uprisings throughout the country demanding an end to white supremacy and police violence. Policing institutions in this country are born from slavery and continue to serve the purpose of protecting the interests of the elite at the expense of the lives of the dispossessed. We join Black-led organizations in their calls for justice, including the calls from the Movement for Black Lives to defund the police, invest in Black communities and end systemic racism.

May the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery, and all those whose lives have been taken by white supremacy and state violence compel us all to join forcefully in these demands.

As an organization committed to accompanying the Salvadoran popular movement in its revolutionary work to realize an inspiring vision of participatory democracy and economic justice, we recognize that Black leaders have for centuries led an intersectional fight for liberation and advanced internationalist struggles.

Be it Franz Fanon, whose contributions to the development of international solidarity have influenced generations, activists such as Marsha P. Johnson, a Black trans woman credited for her leadership in the Stonewall Uprising of 1969, Dorothy Lee Bolden, who helped establish the Domestic Workers’ Union of America in 1934, or the countless Black organizers whose leadership across all movement sectors have largely gone unsung, Black people have been and continue to be at the forefront of movements for justice and liberation in the United States and abroad.

We honor the legacies of Black liberation struggles and commit to following the leadership of the Black organizers building the movement for Black lives.

The legacy of anti-Blackness also continues in Central America and within the Central American diaspora, which is another reason why for CISPES, solidarity with El Salvador must actively undermine white supremacy. We see that Black struggles are often erased from Central American history despite Black organizers’ contributions to revolutionary struggles across the region. In 1930, when Prudencia Ayala, an Afro-Indigenous, anti-imperialist Salvadoran, ran for president in El Salvador on a platform that advocated for the equal rights of women, including the right to vote, she became the first woman presidential candidate in all of Latin America.

In El Salvador, Black and Afro-descendant Salvadorans continue to fight for visibility and an acknowledgement of the historic violence that the Salvadoran state has perpetrated against them. Black and Afro-descendant Salvadorans living in the diaspora also share this history of struggle and continue to fight against anti-Black racism not only within the Central American community but in the United States. In Honduras, Garifuna communities are targets of state repression as organizations such as OFRANEH (Black Honduran Fraternal Organization) lead campaigns to defend economic and social rights in Honduras.

Thus, solidarity with the people of Central America is incomplete without the fight for Black lives.

CISPES has accompanied the popular struggles in El Salvador for 40 years and we understand well how the racist police institutions in the United States that endanger and cruelly end Black lives are exported to the rest of the world. From the years of the Salvadoran Civil War to the present under the Bukele administration, the United States has funded and trained Salvadoran armed forces and police on the violent tactics used in the U.S.

We recognize that U.S. imperial violence abroad and police violence at home serve the same brutal project of racial capitalism, that our struggles are connected and that we must continue to rise up together against state violence.

We challenge ourselves to continually learn and do more to end violence against Black people.

Black lives matter.

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Seattle CISPES documentary screening – María en tierra de nadie

Saturday, November 16, 2019 at 6 PM – 8:30 PM

Pipsqueak Community Space: 173 16th AVE

Please join Seattle CISPES for a screening of “María en tierra de nadie” [“María in Nobody’s Land”]. This award-winning documentary follows the difficult journey of three Salvadoran women to the United States. The event will be a chance to discuss this powerful film, enjoy a Salvadoran dinner, and meet friends from the solidarity community. We’ll also be making a pitch to support our partners in El Salvador, including an association of women unionists.

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Elections, Immigration & TPS: El Salvador report


Join Seattle CISPES for a special event:

Date: Thursday, April 4 Time: 6 PM – 8 PM
Location: Welcome Table Church
1322 S. Bayview St, Seattle, Washington 98144

Join a discussion about the political situation in El Salvador, including a report back from CISPES’s international election delegation, as well as updates on the current challenges faced by Salvadoran immigrants, especially related to the legal limbo of those with Temporary Protected Status (TPS).

Plus, enjoy pupusas from a Lily’s Salvadorean Catering!

Featuring:
Laura Hart, recently returned Seattle CISPES delegate
Maria Isabel Quijano, TPS beneficiary
Emily Gaggia, Casa Latina


Please sign up and invite friends on Facebook.

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