A Little Village resident’s point of view December 27, 2009
Check out this article and audio slideshow!
Alderman Takes Aim at Power-Plant Emissions
by: Chip Mitchell
http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/content.aspx?audioid=38889
STOP RIGO’S DEPORTATION! November 30, 2009
Please distribute.
Stop Rigo’s deportation
Stop the deportation of undocumented students
Fight for fair immigration reform!
The work to stop Rigo’s deportation continues.
This student from the University of Illinois at Chicago is a good person, student, an asset to the community, a friend.
His set date for deportation is December 16th, 2009, and most legal options have been exhausted.
His deportation, and the deportation of other undocumented immigrant students illustrate what is wrong with current immigration laws. We need to demand that ICE immediately halt Rigo’s deportation through an administrative closure or to defer his deportation proceedings, stop deporting immigrant students, and that our legislators work to quickly pass just and humane immigration reform.
Rigo and millions of others like him can not wait.
We have just 16 days to show ICE that we have had enough of seeing our youth deported. We have just 16 days to send thousands of faxes to DHS Secretary Napolitano and ICE Director John Morton. We have just 16 days to stop Rigo’s deportation!
What you can do:
- Show your solidarity on Friday December 4th to the Rally to Stop Deportations, 10:00 am at the First United Methodist Church, (77 W. Washington St) – Flier attached
- Invite your friends, family, students, co-workers, loved ones, club members, to come be in solidarity to stop the Deportation of Rigo Padilla and Pass Immigration Reform, because we cannot let one more youth get deported. Use the facebook invite: http://www.facebook.com/#/event.php?eid=179828538299&ref=ts
- Make sure you have sent a fax! We want to send 10,000 by the end of this week. It’s free to you, and no need for a fax machine. It goes to ICE director John Morton, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, and Senators Richard Durbin and Roland Burris. Together these faxes show that Rigo has support from his community, and CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
Send your fax here: http://icirr.e-actionmax.com/takeaction.asp?aaid=184
- Get your friends, family, students, co-workers, loved ones, club members to send a fax too! Bring a lap top to a class, a gathering, a school hallway, an after-school activity, and have people send faxes on the spot (you would need internet connection). Alternatively you can gather people’s Name, E-mail, Address, Zip Code, and tell them you will submit the fax online for them (show them the text of the fax).
- Volunteer to get arrested in December 12th. If Rigo’s deportation has not been addressed, we are planning on organizing a civil disobedience action downtown Chicago. There would be trainings for the participants, and conversations with the police. Anyone who is interested must be a U.S. citizen, over the age of 18, and have no outstanding warrants.
Thank you for your continuing work and support
If you have any questions please contact Tania at ilehlainat@gmail.com
Service Learning hours opportunity November 23, 2009
Need Service Learning hours? Don’t wait until last minute, contribute to our El Cilantro newsletter and get hours.
Want to volunteer in the community? Join our youth group YAOTL on Tuesdays at 5:30 pm or take part in our El Cilantro meetings on Thursdays at 5:30 pm.
Adress: 2856 S. Millard
Phone: (773)762 – 6991
Little Village Artisans Market/ El Mercado November 18, 2009
When: Sunday, December 6th 2009
Time- 10:00am
Where: at Las Isabelles Store Hall 2702 S. Central Park Chicago, IL 60623
Live Music! Hand Crafted Gifts! Mexican Delicacies! Raffles!
Support Local Artists this Holiday Season & Give from the Community!!!
Benefiting the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization.
For tabling information contact Raquel Nunez at: info@lvejo.org
Come out and join us! see you there 
350- “El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido†by Mayra November 10, 2009
I was glad to be at the 350 event on October 24, 2009. It was truly an amazing movement to me. LVEJO was a host for this mass protest. Many of us were gathered up in Pilsen in the shadow of Fisk Coal Power Plant. We shouted, danced and played music for hours. This was an event to rally the burning of coal in our communities. We were making the statement, “There is no such thing as clean coalâ€. We all know this is a very important issue and as frontline communities we must confront it. We demand our right to clean air and we were united to show it. At the event we had a couple of key speakers. Afterwards we marched and protested. There were some arrests at the event but it was definitely non-violent direct action. As a participant of the event I can say that it is a very proud moment for us.
350 Chicago Climate Action Saturday Oct. 24th October 23, 2009
Support Clean Air in Chicago and a strong International Cimate Treaty!
Mass Rally on 350.org’s International Day of Climate Action
October 24th, 2009 at 1 p.m. in Pilsen
For more information go to: www.howgreenischicago.org
Organized by: Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization, LVEJO, Greenpeace and Rainforest Action Network of Chicago
Through My Eyes – By Breli October 14, 2009
Making my way out my front door I see my elementary school where I experienced many good and bad things. A school that didn’t give me the equal education other kids got. I see cars passing by and tired people heading for another day of hard work. I see a CTA bus passing down 31st, a bus that we have been fighting to get back in service. As I pass Avers I can see the Crawford coal power plant and the big smoke stacks coming out. On my ride to school I see the Coal power plant from a closer view. My school hours are spent in another neighborhood very different from mine; there I don’t have to come across the Coal power plant that marked me with asthma.
At the end of the school day however I must return to intoxicating air again. On my way back my from school my eyes come across the coal power plant once again, it’s as if it follows me everywhere. I can’t get rid of it. To me it is like a nightmare you can not wake up from, no matter how much you try.
It only reminds me of the hardships it’s brought to me, the nights when my parents would stay up checking if I was breathing, the day I was put on an inhaler. I owe it all to Midwest Generation who causes 41 premature deaths, 2,800 asthma attacks and 500 emergency room visits annually.
More than frequently I hear ambulances and cop cars passing by, and to no surprise it will 99.9% of the time be a teen losing their life to gun violence. It’s the real life I see on a daily basis and you’d have to be blind not to see it. I dare you to put yourself in my shoes…
