La Voz de Los de Abajo, Witness for Peace, and the Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America invite you to hear from Gaspar Sanchez, the sexual diversity coordinator of COPINH (Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras), as he presents “Uniting to Resist Attacks on our Land and Identities: Building on the Queer Indigneous Framework in the Americas.”

COPINH was co-founded and led by beloved Indigenous leader Berta Caceres, who was assassinated in March 2016. Gaspar will speak about how the struggle for LGBTQ awareness and rights among Indigenous communities plays a vital role in both land defense and in the dismantling of patriarchal and militaristic structures.

Place: Citlalin Art Gallery Theater, 2005 S. Blue Island Ave., Chicago, IL  60608

Date and Time: Friday, October 27, 7:00 pm

Gaspar has served since 2014 on COPINH’s leadership team as the Coordinator of Sexual  Diversity & Rights Equality, which, for the first time in any Latin American indigenous organization, established a space dealing specifically with LGBTQ-related issues. Sánchez also hosts a radio program,

Los Colores de Wiphala

, that discusses human rights with an emphasis on the LGBTQ community. He conducts community trainings around the rights of indigenous peoples, territorial defense, protecting Mother Nature’s common goods threatened by extractivist projects, and legal accompaniment. In addition to supporting COPINH’s Tomás García Formation School, which builds leadership among the youth, Sánchez also serves as a spiritual guide for the Lenca people in their efforts to recuperate indigenous historical memory through processes of life, land defense, and ancestral spirituality. Finally, Sánchez has represented COPINH on the international stage in El Salvador, Guatemala, Cuba, Venezuela, Perú, México, the United States, and in several European countries.

Location: Willye B. White Field House, 1610 W. Howard St.

Time: 2-4pm

“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.” -Martin Luther King Jr.

Join us as we celebrate Dr. King’s legacy and while faith communities come together to demand human rights.

Issues on the agenda include Criminal Justice Reform & Police Accountability, Living Wages, Immigration Rights, Religious Freedom, and Human Rights for ALL.

Co-hosted by A Just Harvest, Chicago Leadership Network on Latin America, Faith in Place Action Fund, Fight for 15, Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation (SOUL), Women Gathering for Justice, and the Workers Center for Racial Justice

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The creative fingerprints of executive producer Stephen Spielberg are evident throughout this documentary that functions as a mystery, a dramatic exposé of a little-known Guatemalan massacre, and a piece of humanitarian detective work that reunites the remainder of a family. On the night of December 6, 1982, the special forces of a Reagan-backed Guatemalan military regime descended on the tiny rural village of Dos Erres for a murderous spree that left every man, woman, and child dead. Years later, as the site is excavated and bodies exhumed, a perpetrator reluctantly confesses that two small boys were kidnapped and taken home by soldiers. One is located, and a 15-year search for the other, Oscar, ensues, unraveling a powerful story that encompasses history, politics and culture, and speaks to human endurance. In English and Spanish with English subtitles. DCP digital

Place: Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State St., Chicago

Other showings: Friday, May 5, 8:15pm; Saturday, May 6, 4:45pm and 8:15pm; Sunday, May 7, 3pm; Monday, May 15, 8:00pm; Tuesday, May 16, 7:45pm; Wednesday, May 17, 6:15pm; Thursday, May 18, 8:00pm.

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Gaspar Sanchez is a member of COPINH (Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras), the organization co-founded and led by beloved Indigenous leader Berta Caceres, who was assassinated in March 2016. Gaspar will speak about how the struggle for LGBTQ awareness and rights among Indigenous communities plays a vital role in both land defense and in the dismantling of patriarchal and militaristic structures.

Date & Time: October 27, 7:00 pm

LOCATION CHANGE:  PILSEN OUTPOST, 1958 W. 21ST ST. (NEAR DAMEN)

Gaspar has served since 2014 on COPINH’s leadership team as the Coordinator of Sexual  Diversity & Rights Equality, which, for the first time in any Latin American indigenous organization, established a space dealing specifically with LGBTQ-related issues. Sánchez also hosts a radio program,

Los Colores de Wiphala

, that discusses human rights with an emphasis on the LGBTQ community. He conducts community trainings around the rights of indigenous peoples, territorial defense, protecting Mother Nature’s common goods threatened by extractivist projects, and legal accompaniment. In addition to supporting COPINH’s Tomás García Formation School, which builds leadership among the youth, Sánchez also serves as a spiritual guide for the Lenca people in their efforts to recuperate indigenous historical memory through processes of life, land defense, and ancestral spirituality. Finally, Sánchez has represented COPINH on the international stage in El Salvador, Guatemala, Cuba, Venezuela, Perú, México, the United States, and in several European countries.

Location: Chicago Teachers Union headquarters, 1901 W. Carroll, Chicago (one block east of Damen and one block south of Grand)

Time: 10-11:15am

Sponsored by the Illinois Coalition of Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR).

Join ICIRR members and allies for a mobilization of immigrant, faith and labor communities to resist the anti-immigrant attacks and harmful policies of the incoming administration.

For information and to RSVP, contact Phoebe Flaherty at

pflaherty@icirr.org

.

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to

11:15

The creative fingerprints of executive producer Stephen Spielberg are evident throughout this documentary that functions as a mystery, a dramatic exposé of a little-known Guatemalan massacre, and a piece of humanitarian detective work that reunites the remainder of a family. On the night of December 6, 1982, the special forces of a Reagan-backed Guatemalan military regime descended on the tiny rural village of Dos Erres for a murderous spree that left every man, woman, and child dead. Years later, as the site is excavated and bodies exhumed, a perpetrator reluctantly confesses that two small boys were kidnapped and taken home by soldiers. One is located, and a 15-year search for the other, Oscar, ensues, unraveling a powerful story that encompasses history, politics and culture, and speaks to human endurance. In English and Spanish with English subtitles. DCP digital

Place: Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State St., Chicago

Also showing at 8:15pm

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Ana Maria Alvarenga, El Salvador’s Deputy of the Legislative Assembly, will speak about “Empowering Women in Politics.”

Date and Time: 3-5 pm, Sunday, November 5

Location: Centro Romero, 6216 N. Clark St., Chicago, IL  60660

Ms. Alvarenga is also a woman from Cinquera, El Salvador, which has a community organization, ARDM, that is the Salvadoran partner in the Chicago-Cinquera Sister Cities partnership. Chicago-Cinquera participates in CRLN’s event, Pedal for Peace Bike-a-thon, every year. Lately, they have raised funds for scholarships to Cinquera students attending university who have pledged to return to Cinquera to use their skills in service of the community.

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Join us for presentations by authors: Matt Eisenbrandt and Andy Carter, about their books (descriptions below) with a Q&A from the audience afterwards on

February 14-15th

at 57

^th

St.  Books, 1301 E. 57

^th

St. (Hyde Park).

Andy Carter, will present on February 14th,

is a member of University Church’s Guatemala Partnership, which has had an 18-year partnership with a Mayan village. Andy has written a children’s story,

“Margarito’s Forest,”

based on interviews with a woman from the village whose father planted a forest that survived the scorched earth destruction of the village during the Guatemalan civil war. Bill Ayers will be in conversation with Andy about his book.  Click

here

for more about the book.

Matt Eisenbrandt will present on February 15th,

an attorney who helped investigate the murder of

Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero

and helped prosecute one of his killers, who had relocated to California, has written a book,

“Assassination of a Saint.”

He will talk about the book and have copies for sale. Click

here

for more about the book.

to

Wednesday, February 15, 2017 – 19:30

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Join us on Saturday, April 14, 2018 for our 10th annual El Pueblo Canta!

More details to come soon.