Latest / National Immigration Law Center Freedom to Thrive Podcast / EP. #115. Kica Matos Wins The Puffin Prize

Transcript

EP. #115. Kica Matos Wins The Puffin Prize · National Immigration Law Center Freedom to Thrive Podcast

• 0:00
  Familia, welcome to the National Immigration Law Center's webby-winning podcast, Freedom to Thrive.
• 0:08
  It is my honor to be a guest host today. My name is Héctor Flores.
• 0:13
  I'm with a band called Las Cafeteras, we're the cutest band out of East LA.
• 0:18
  Don't tell Los Lobos, they get all jealous.
• 0:22
  You know, I was fortunate enough to be the first guest on this podcast,
• 0:25
  And I'm so excited to have a conversation today with a compañera,
• 0:30
  a freedom fighter, advocate, bailadora, bachanguera.
• 0:35
  And before I bring him on, I want to share a little story of how we met.
• 0:39
  My band was actually on tour. We're going through Connecticut.
• 0:43
  And we received a tweet that there was an action at a parking lot.
• 0:47
  And it was actually to fight for a sanctuary space in a familia who was seeking sanctuary at a church.
• 0:54
  And we got the tweet. We were two hours from New Haven and we said, we checked in the car.
• 0:59
  Hey, everybody down to go to this action at a parking lot before our show tonight?
• 1:03
  And everybody said, let's roll.
• 1:05
  So we drove, we like, we're going 80. We went up to 90.
• 1:09
  Long story short, we showed up to the action. It was a parking lot.
• 1:13
  Hundreds of people gathered and who were fighting for a sanctuary for a woman named Nudi.
• 1:18
  And she was in a church. We performed. We met the organizers. We met the familia.
• 1:25
  We learned about the work. And I met a woman by the name of Kika Matos, who is doing work there.
• 1:32
  And we've been homies ever since. And we've known about each other's work.
• 1:38
  And so I'm so excited to be able to have a conversation today about the work,
• 1:42
  about the movement, about what keeps us sane, and también to honor this person
• 1:47
  because she just received a Puffin Prize.
• 1:50
  So with no further ado, my compañera, homegirl in the movement,
• 1:55
  you know, luchadora, everybody welcome, Kika Matos.
• 1:59
  Buenas tardes, buenas noches, Héctor.
• 2:02
  It's always such an honor and a privilege to be in community with you.
• 2:07
  And I do want to add a little bit to that story about Nuri, which is that what
• 2:14
  many people don't know is that you and Las Cafeteras not only performed. Charmed?
• 2:19
  You lifted up her spirit. I remember distinctly she was at the church.
• 2:25
  There was a chain link fence.
• 2:27
  And then we were in the parking lot. And she couldn't leave the church because
• 2:33
  if she stepped out of that church, ICE could have come and grabbed her and taken
• 2:37
  her and her nine-year-old child away.
• 2:39
  And I remember her over the fence watching you perform and she was crying.
• 2:45
  She was so moved by your presence, by the presence of your bandmates.
• 2:51
  But I remember you quietly without much fanfare.
• 2:55
  No one knew about this. You came back the next day to spend time with her.
• 3:00
  And I remember chatting with you at the very beginning of your visit with her
• 3:04
  and then you disappeared And he said, okay, I'm going to talk to Nuri.
• 3:07
  And I will never forget that because to me, that is a manifestation of someone
• 3:14
  with so much love and integrity that you took time out from your busy tour schedule to just quietly,
• 3:22
  one-to-one, have that conversation with her.
• 3:25
  So from the bottom of my heart, thank you.
• 3:28
  And, you know, it's natural. It's natural for us.
• 3:33
  And so I you know before we go on I want I want
• 3:36
  to share three things and I'm going to ask you the same three things and I
• 3:39
  do this you know with folks across the country because some
• 3:42
  people are going to know you some people will not know you and the three things
• 3:46
  is your full name where were you born but don't say it about it I want what
• 3:51
  hospital do you know the house do you know the time okay and then where your
• 3:55
  family where your parents are born if you know so I'm going to go first really
• 3:58
  quick and then you tell me.
• 4:00
  All right. Well, for me, Hector Paul Flores, even though they always call me Pablo.
• 4:05
  I was born in Santa Marta Hospital, 139 North Humphreys Boulevard, 5.45 PM.
• 4:12
  My mom was from Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico, and my dad's from Sonora,
• 4:16
  San Luis, Rio, Colorado.
• 4:17
  And when my parents, they met in the US, but when they first came,
• 4:21
  they were undocumented.
• 4:23
  And so for me, the fight for human rights, immigrant rights,
• 4:29
  and civil rights is very near and dear to me. And so it's very natural.
• 4:33
  What about those three things for you? Name, born, and sus padres? What would you say?
• 4:38
  I'm about to reveal a secret that not very many people know,
• 4:42
  which is that my name is Angelica Matos.
• 4:46
  Everybody knows me as Kika.
• 4:48
  I was born, I believe in the hospital in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. So I am an Afro-Buricua.
• 4:55
  My father is New Yorican. So he was born of Puerto Rican parents.
• 5:02
  He is all Puerto Rican parents, but born in New York. I believe in Spanish Harlem.
• 5:08
  And my mother comes from a small town in Vega Alta, Puerto Rico.
• 5:12
  So when people ask me where in Puerto Rico I'm from, I don't say I'm from Guaynabo, which is a suburb.
• 5:17
  I say I'm from La Playa Cerro Goldo.
• 5:20
  A beach town in Beralta, Puerto Rico. Many people, most people don't know my
• 5:25
  name because I've always said it doesn't suit me, but now there you go.
• 5:28
  You brought it out of me. You know, it's those little things.
• 5:31
  And it's those little things, right? Like my middle name is Paul,
• 5:34
  but my parents always call me Pablo, right?
• 5:37
  Like it's just, it's a biblical name they gave me, like a lot of, you know, La Raza.
• 5:41
  Thank you. But thank you for sharing, compañera. I did not know that.
• 5:44
  And I love, I love that you shared it because that just shows like,
• 5:47
  you know, the trust. Yeah.
• 5:50
  Which leads to the next thing for me is, you know, when I think about,
• 5:55
  so I was an organizer for 10 years before I transitioned to work as a musician and culture worker.
• 6:02
  My question to you is, you know, do you remember one event or one moment that
• 6:09
  was clear for you that you like, that happened?
• 6:12
  That's like, oh yeah, I'm going to dedicate my work and life to the struggle.
• 6:17
  Like, can you share a story or an event that happened?
• 6:20
  You know, there's Kika growing up and like, and then this happened,
• 6:24
  like, oh, I think I'm going to do this now.
• 6:27
  Yeah. So I came to the U.S. when I was 21. I didn't grow up here.
• 6:33
  And I lived in a bunch of different countries. And in every country I lived in,
• 6:38
  the propaganda that America broadcasts is that the American system of democracy
• 6:48
  is perfect. It's flawless.
• 6:51
  Every country in the world should emulate the American democracy.
• 6:55
  So when I grew up, I truly believed that.
• 6:59
  So I lived in Puerto Rico. I lived in Trinidad and Tobago.
• 7:02
  I lived in the Fiji Islands. I lived in New Zealand and air in every one of
• 7:06
  those countries, right?
• 7:08
  The ideals were always American democracy.
• 7:11
  The United States has perfected its democracy. Yes, there have been struggles.
• 7:16
  Civil rights struggles, the Vietnam war, you name it.
• 7:19
  But all of these struggles had been addressed.
• 7:22
  So I came here when I was 21 to go to grad school.
• 7:26
  And that is what I truly believed. I moved to New York City,
• 7:30
  and it did not take long for me to realize that there was a big difference between
• 7:36
  the ideals of the American democracy and the reality.
• 7:41
  And I was struck by, in New York City, the disparities in wealth, right?
• 7:46
  Big, giant, because I remember that time those big, giant limos were the thing,
• 7:50
  and rich people would drive around New York City with their big-ass limos,
• 7:53
  right? They're no longer in fashion, but they were then.
• 7:56
  Stepping over people who were stooped homeless, right, on those stoops.
• 8:01
  Racism. I have never felt racism in my life like I have in the United States.
• 8:08
  And so it really was sobering for me.
• 8:12
  I thought, wow, this is not the democracy that I was sold on,
• 8:19
  right? this country really has a lot of issues to deal with.
• 8:23
  And then I really, at that point in time, said, I want to do human rights work.
• 8:27
  And I started working part-time at Amnesty International, which at the time
• 8:30
  was the hottest human rights organization. It was doing the global concert tours
• 8:35
  and everybody wanted to be aligned with Amnesty International.
• 8:38
  And I remember I went to the first staff meeting and the executive director
• 8:42
  would call on people who headed up different programs.
• 8:45
  And then I remembered he said, Ali, death penalty.
• 8:48
  And the program director who actually lives in the city I live in now,
• 8:52
  her name is Alice Miller.
• 8:54
  She started talking about this man on death row in Louisiana,
• 8:57
  whose name was Dalton Prajan.
• 9:00
  Young man who was 17 years old at the time of the crime for which he was death sentenced.
• 9:07
  Tried by an all-white jury in Alabama, had severe mental health challenges.
• 9:15
  And she was talking about the efforts of Amnesty International to try to save his life.
• 9:20
  And actually, I have only had one epiphany in my life and it was then.
• 9:25
  And it was like the final straw for me. It was like, oh, wow,
• 9:28
  talk about ripping off the mask and really exposing this country.
• 9:33
  I was so horrified that there was a death penalty in this country.
• 9:37
  I thought, my God, a death penalty still in the US? And that's the point when
• 9:42
  I said, I'm going to dedicate the rest of my life to abolishing the death penalty.
• 9:47
  And I did that for, I think the first 11 years after I graduated,
• 9:53
  I did nothing but death penalty work first as an organizer and then as a lawyer.
• 9:58
  I came out of law school and started representing people on death row.
• 10:01
  What is the thing, the one thing that you take away from your work in organizing
• 10:07
  with folks who are on death row?
• 10:09
  What's something that still stays with you today?
• 10:12
  It is the power of community. It is the power of the voices of the people who
• 10:19
  chose to speak out against an injustice. Right.
• 10:23
  I, I, my job at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund was to travel to the Deep South
• 10:29
  to organize when the clients on death row at the Legal Defense Fund had brought out of appeals.
• 10:38
  So my job then was to travel and organize mostly in the black community because
• 10:42
  most of the clients that LDF had were people who had claims of severe race discrimination.
• 10:50
  So it was my job to go to the state where they were death sentenced and to find
• 10:55
  people and organizations that got behind the cause.
• 10:59
  And something that moved me then and still moves me to this day is the courage
• 11:06
  of people who have everything to lose and nothing to gain,
• 11:10
  who step out courageously to speak out against an injustice and what that can
• 11:15
  do to galvanize others or to even have an impact on a case in a way that everything changes.
• 11:23
  And to this day, right, I don't do death penalty work anymore.
• 11:28
  I estoy entregada en la lucha for the rights of immigrants. That's my fight now.
• 11:33
  But watching people who have everything to lose and nothing to gain courageously
• 11:38
  step up, put their bodies on the line for the cause of justice,
• 11:43
  it still moves me today very much like it did back then.
• 11:48
  You know, one of the first books I read in college was,
• 11:54
  was Life on Death Row, the Mumia Abu-Jamal book.
• 11:57
  And I remember reading, and it wasn't just about him and his experience with Death Row.
• 12:03
  It was also his perspective on life, his perspective on the movement.
• 12:07
  And I remember he said, there's a line in there.
• 12:12
  He said, there's some people outside of prison who are not free.
• 12:18
  Just because I'm in prison doesn't mean that my mind is in prison. He said, my mind is free.
• 12:25
  And I know a lot of people who are outside of jail who are not free.
• 12:29
  And they're incarcerated, you know, by the propaganda.
• 12:32
  They're incarcerated by the cell of their mind. And I remember that,
• 12:37
  just how that stuck with me, you know, for a long time. And it really does take
• 12:44
  that perspective, right?
• 12:45
  Like someone who's still to this day, Mumia Bujamal to this day is still on death row.
• 12:49
  And still writes, records, has a podcast, you know?
• 12:55
  So, I mean, that mujer, ese trabajo está pesado.
• 13:00
  And I just want to say I thank you for that work. So let me first go back to Mumia.
• 13:04
  I used, when I graduated from law school, I moved to Philadelphia,
• 13:11
  Pennsylvania, and that's where I started representing people on death row.
• 13:16
  And I was, I met at the, there were two death rows.
• 13:22
  One was out in, it's called SCI Green, which is out close to Pittsburgh.
• 13:27
  It's about a 45 minute drive from Pittsburgh.
• 13:30
  And I had, I would spend, when I was visiting clients, I would plan to see clients back to back, right?
• 13:38
  Because I thought it was important to check in on them.
• 13:41
  How are you doing to brief them on their cases?
• 13:44
  And I remember meeting this guy called Sugar Bear.
• 13:49
  Sugar Bear Lark was his name. And I believe I met him because one time when
• 13:55
  I went to death row, it was with a colleague who was representing Sugar Bear.
• 14:00
  And she said, you should meet Sugar Bear. So I popped my head over and it,
• 14:04
  you know, it's a very dehumanizing experience because it's no contact visits.
• 14:08
  So when you see your client, it's through this thick plexiglass, right?
• 14:14
  But I remember popping over to say hi to Sugar Bear, and Sugar Bear is just
• 14:18
  larger than life, just this dynamic, a natural organizer, just this dynamic person.
• 14:26
  And Sugar Bear and I struck up a friendship, and he used to write to me.
• 14:31
  And he said, you have to meet Moo, you have to meet Moo.
• 14:34
  And I'm like, who the hell is Moo? and he said, Mu, my friend,
• 14:37
  Mu, Mumia, Mujamal, he was best friends with Mumia. Wow.
• 14:41
  And I, at some point in time, and I was, and I thought, you know what?
• 14:46
  Mumia has the attention that my clients don't have.
• 14:49
  And so I resisted it at first.
• 14:52
  I don't need to meet Mu.
• 14:54
  Mu has the love from people that Sugar Bear and others don't have.
• 14:58
  But eventually I said, you know what? I'll meet him. And so I,
• 15:01
  I scheduled a visit with him. And then I think it was the last visit for the day.
• 15:08
  I had them back to back and I sat across from Lumia and we began a conversation
• 15:15
  that was one of the deepest moments.
• 15:20
  Political conversations I have ever had in my life. And I found him to be brilliant.
• 15:29
  Just the way that you talked about his book and his story, very incisive,
• 15:35
  a public intellectual and a very thoughtful person.
• 15:39
  And so that was the beginning of a friendship with Mumia. And I'll tell you
• 15:44
  this funny story that I think you'll appreciate.
• 15:47
  When I left Philadelphia, I moved to Connecticut.
• 15:51
  I stayed in touch with Mumia and Sugar Bear and my clients.
• 15:58
  I wrote to Mumia and Mumia would call me on Sundays. Usually,
• 16:02
  he'd call and we'd check in.
• 16:04
  At some point in time, when I got engaged, I said, hey, Mumia, I'm getting married.
• 16:09
  He called one Sunday and he said tell me about your fiance and what does he
• 16:14
  do and what's his name and then he called one sunday and he said i'm not here
• 16:18
  i don't i'm not calling to talk to you i want to talk to your husband right
• 16:24
  the guys on the roll want to make sure that he's okay.
• 16:31
  So you can imagine my husband is like, oh, message from the guys from that road.
• 16:37
  They want to check you out.
• 16:40
  That's so dope. Wow. Mumia, he is somebody that we all have a lot to learn from.
• 16:48
  Yeah. I have a line I wrote in one of the songs I did, Movement Time.
• 16:53
  It goes, I stand with Emmett, Trayvon, Oscar, and Bell with my homeboy Mumia
• 16:59
  held in the cell. telling you, I'd rather be blind than to stay quiet on the
• 17:03
  day while my people are hunting like prey.
• 17:06
  Oh, wow. And so his story is the story of many folks.
• 17:11
  And when we're talking about today, people being picked up, incarcerated, no due process.
• 17:19
  See, back then, even like they would actually have to false documentation.
• 17:23
  They have to create stories for people like Mumia Abu Jamal to be put away.
• 17:27
  But today, there's no due process for those.
• 17:32
  And we are living, and I think about this, mujer.
• 17:36
  You know, I was having a conversation with someone just around, these are wild times.
• 17:41
  But I said that 10 years ago. And I said 10 years before that, these are wild times.
• 17:47
  And it reminded me that we've always been living in wild times, mujer.
• 17:53
  We've kind of, it's always been. And depending who you are, it's been wild times
• 17:57
  for black folks for a long time.
• 17:59
  It's been wild times for immigrants a long time.
• 18:03
  It's been wild times for working class folks a long time. It just looks differently
• 18:08
  for different folks at different times.
• 18:11
  Yeah. You know what? And here's the thing, right?
• 18:15
  I have it so much easier than my ancestors did, than my parents,
• 18:22
  than my grandparents, than my great-grandparents going back.
• 18:25
  Right, to the days when my,
• 18:28
  You know, going back to decades when my loved ones, family members were enslaved, right? Much easier.
• 18:38
  But the truth is, for us, you're right, 10, 20 years ago, we thought,
• 18:44
  wow, this shit is wild, right?
• 18:46
  But the truth is that today we are on the cusp of possibly losing our democracy,
• 18:54
  we are sliding into authoritarianism 10 years ago if i'd said to you actor 10
• 19:00
  years from now you're going to be wondering if the u.s is going to be able to
• 19:04
  hold on to its democracy you would have said you're crazy this democracy will
• 19:10
  withstand anything but here we are today.
• 19:14
  Concerned that the next four years are going to result in the end of our democracy. Yeah.
• 19:20
  Yeah. That's wild. You know, I almost want to start another podcast called Cuando Te Conviene.
• 19:26
  You know what I mean? When it fits you. Because I see the right hold.
• 19:30
  Like, they use the Constitution, right?
• 19:33
  Everything. When you talk about bearing arms or guns, they say,
• 19:37
  oh, Second Amendment. It's in the Constitution.
• 19:39
  It's in the Constitution. They use the Constitution when it shields them.
• 19:43
  And when they don't need it no more, they wipe their ass with it.
• 19:47
  That's right. You know what I mean?
• 19:48
  And it's happening. And I think, you know, I think about, like,
• 19:55
  there's a quote that says, you know, stars only shine in the dark.
• 20:00
  And in these dark times, right, that's when we can see the stars.
• 20:04
  That's when we can see each other. Right? And the darkest of the night is when
• 20:08
  you actually can see the stars.
• 20:10
  And the stars is the music. It's the solidarity.
• 20:14
  It's the individuals. It's the community. I could see you, Kika.
• 20:18
  I could see you doing that work even more now. And it shines even brighter because
• 20:24
  these are dark times. And for me, it's like...
• 20:27
  We need to see each other now. And, you know, gosh, Kika, like,
• 20:32
  my question to you, you know, is what inspires you right now?
• 20:37
  When things are heavy, what's the song that you play?
• 20:41
  When things are heavy, what's the thing that you do to be like,
• 20:44
  okay, I need to take a little break because the movement needs me and I need to be all in.
• 20:50
  I need to be present, but I need this right now.
• 20:53
  What keeps you sane in these moments right now?
• 20:57
  Music. I'm going to play a song that I listen to when I need to be courageous.
• 21:07
  Music.
• 21:24
  She's bringing tears to my eyes.
• 21:29
  I love it. I know I will stand. I love it.
• 21:33
  Every time I feel like I have to do something courageous, I have a playlist
• 21:40
  called Freedom Songs. Yes.
• 21:42
  And these are the songs that I listen to when I need...
• 21:46
  To be courageous. Song number three is La Morena by Las Cafeteras. I got Calle Trece.
• 21:55
  I got Marvin Gaye, Sweet Honey, The Rock.
• 21:59
  But that is the collection that I listen to when I need to be strong,
• 22:06
  when I need to clear my head.
• 22:08
  I never do anything that requires me to be brave without using culture.
• 22:17
  And so I rely on people like you, Héctor Las Cafeteras, to keep me inspired and focused.
• 22:24
  I have always, so my father was a musician. I grew up in a, you know,
• 22:28
  I learned when I was little how to play the piano and then the classical guitar.
• 22:33
  And so I grew up in a very musical family. And I remember for particularly on
• 22:38
  the holidays that my dad would bring musicians to the house so they could jam.
• 22:42
  And so music has always played a big role in my life.
• 22:47
  And music is what it's like the fuel it's like you know you take your car your
• 22:52
  car and i know that there's cars now but i still sadly i gotta confess my stuff
• 22:57
  my car still goes in gasoline,
• 22:59
  music is my gasoline like you know you gotta go to the gas station i'm going
• 23:03
  on the road let me fill up my my tank fills up my courage is grounded in culture
• 23:12
  and music yeah yeah you know i i you know,
• 23:16
  I always tell people like I sing because when I, when I, when I yell and sing
• 23:22
  and, and, and dance, I feel free.
• 23:25
  I don't sing because I'm the greatest singer. I sing because I feel free when I sing.
• 23:30
  And if I feel like that, I think you will too.
• 23:33
  And that's why for me at our show, I'm always getting people to sing and yell with us and dance.
• 23:39
  You know, my mama's a bailadora. My mama's a cumbier, salsera.
• 23:42
  You know, she was a single mama. She would put us, she would put us out of sleep.
• 23:46
  And then she'd be like, and I was the oldest. I was the oldest of six.
• 23:49
  And she would come in, whisper in my ear, Mijo, I'm going out tonight.
• 23:55
  Oh. Okay, I'll be back in a couple hours. And she would go down.
• 24:00
  My mom worked three jobs. She maxed out credit cards. She raised kids.
• 24:07
  But like twice a week, she would go out dancing. And she needed that so she
• 24:13
  could come and be the best mother she could be.
• 24:15
  And she would go out. My mom didn't drink. My mom would go there,
• 24:18
  drink water. She don't drink. She'd just dance with everybody in the club and
• 24:22
  then come back. Stephen's Steakhouse.
• 24:24
  Stephen's Steakhouse right over here in Commerce. Amazing. Yeah.
• 24:29
  Que no, do des, mujer. Do des, mujer.
• 24:33
  So I belong to an amateur.
• 24:37
  I don't know if amateur is the right word, but I belong to a bomba group in New Haven.
• 24:42
  Two of the percussionists are serious percussionists. One even played at Carnegie Hall.
• 24:49
  But Puerto Rican Bomba is something that I have a strong connection to.
• 24:54
  And so I'm part of this group. It's eight of us.
• 24:57
  And I drum and I sing coro. I can't sing for shit, but I love to sing coro.
• 25:03
  Right? Then when the spirit moves me, I get up and I dance.
• 25:07
  Like you can't not hear those drums and not be moved.
• 25:12
  You know what I mean and and then everywhere we would go when we in the early days of touring,
• 25:17
  if you if there was a bomba group like we
• 25:19
  go up to the bay and we'd send a message to the bay and
• 25:22
  be like hey can you can you come to our show can you open up the show so bomberas
• 25:27
  de la bahia we would invite them to open up the show when they were rocking
• 25:30
  we go chicago we invite the bomberas in chicago because it was it was unapologetically
• 25:36
  black it was resistance music It was like folks who, you know,
• 25:41
  were anti-slavery and this, and it survived.
• 25:45
  And so if this music survived, so can we.
• 25:48
  Yes. And that's kind of like, I feel it. Right. And like Bomba taught me that.
• 25:52
  Son Jarocho taught me that. This music survived because, because you would pass down the dances.
• 25:58
  You would pass down the songs, pass down the verses, the stories, right.
• 26:03
  El orgullo de ser moreno, africano, africana, raza, chicano,
• 26:10
  like you would pass down that orgullo, you know. Right, and entire slave rebellions were planned.
• 26:16
  Through the verse, right? And the songs and the communication that people didn't pick up, right?
• 26:22
  So to me, it soothes my soul.
• 26:25
  The drums speak to me, but it's also about the history, right?
• 26:29
  I love it. I didn't even know.
• 26:30
  Our ancestors survive, right?
• 26:35
  Manifest joy and sadness and rage, but also plan rebellions.
• 26:39
  People don't know that, right? Tell the stories of what's happening in the hood.
• 26:43
  You do it through Bomba music. And actually, Denise Solis, who is an incredible
• 26:48
  drummer, bomba drummer, ella es mexicana.
• 26:52
  Solidarity, baby. Solidarity, baby. She is an amazing drummer. One of the best.
• 26:59
  I love it. I got to say, she passes from Puerto Rican, but she's from Mexico.
• 27:06
  We're claiming her. We're claiming
• 27:08
  this. Mujer, I had no idea that you do bomba. Oh, I love to hear that.
• 27:15
  And it makes so much sense. Of course you do. Of course you do.
• 27:18
  Compañera, I do not want to keep on going without asking you about the Puffin Prize. You were...
• 27:24
  Felicidades. Gracias. Felicidades.
• 27:26
  You were recently awarded the Puffin Prize for Creative Citizenship.
• 27:30
  One, how does that feel? You know, how do you feel about the work?
• 27:34
  How do you feel about receiving it? And, you know, how does it...
• 27:37
  What are you feeling about the work you want to continue doing?
• 27:40
  Yeah. You know? So these are really dark times.
• 27:45
  And since the elections, NILC has been going all out,
• 27:52
  trying to do everything that we can to wrap our arms around immigrants and to
• 27:58
  use the law and to use organizing and to use advocacy to protect vulnerable people who are.
• 28:08
  Living lives filled with terror and uncertainty.
• 28:12
  And so it's been all hands on deck, really long hours.
• 28:17
  And when you are, and you know this because you're an organizer,
• 28:21
  when you're in the fight, you are in this mode where you think about nothing but the fight.
• 28:29
  You get up and you brush your teeth, shower, put your clothes on,
• 28:33
  and then you go, go, go, go, go, go. and then you collapse in bed and then you start all over again.
• 28:39
  And when I got an email saying, Hey, somebody called about this puffing award.
• 28:48
  I read the email and I thought, Oh, this isn't true.
• 28:52
  And I actually reached out to my colleague, well, who is our VP of communications.
• 28:56
  And I said, well, I think we're being punked, but can you check it out?
• 29:01
  And then I just kept doing my thing.
• 29:03
  And then Will said, no, I hear you. We'll do our due diligence.
• 29:07
  And then he came back and said, actually, this is true.
• 29:12
  And it was overwhelming, right?
• 29:17
  It was almost like somebody pulling me out and saying, you know what? You're doing good work.
• 29:21
  You and your organization are doing good work.
• 29:24
  And despite the terrible attacks on immigrant communities right now,
• 29:30
  there are people on your side so much so that Tide Media Center and Puffin said
• 29:38
  we are going to elevate the issue of immigration this year,
• 29:42
  And we're going to fearlessly call it out and elevate it and say,
• 29:46
  this is deserving of attention.
• 29:48
  And we're going to use the opportunity right now to maybe create a platform
• 29:53
  to pull a call to action to others to say, you have to show up in the fight for immigrants. Yeah.
• 30:01
  I mean, NILC has been kicking ass for years.
• 30:05
  47, 46 years, I think. 46 years. Yeah.
• 30:09
  I mean, the reputation y'all have across the country with immigrant rights groups is, is, is respect.
• 30:17
  I've talked to the homies at Chirla and said, oh, you know, I've been doing some work with NILC.
• 30:21
  And they're like, we love NILC. Everybody's like, we love NILC. Almost like your tia.
• 30:24
  We love, we love her. We love NILC. We love their work.
• 30:27
  You know what I mean? And y'all have been out there using the law and taking
• 30:32
  on the battles in courts, you know? And those are things like,
• 30:36
  as an organizer, right, as a culture worker now, like, that's not what I do, right?
• 30:40
  And I understand everybody has their role, right? And NELC has been on the front
• 30:44
  lines of really immigrant advocacy in the courts and taking on these racist,
• 30:50
  taking on these racist immigrant policies across the country.
• 30:53
  And that, I just want to say thank you for being part of that work,
• 30:58
  to the organization for being part of that work, and much deserved,
• 31:02
  Compañera, much deserved.
• 31:03
  Thank you. And we are movement lawyers, right?
• 31:07
  We're not lawyers sitting in ivory towers, admiring the problem and treating
• 31:14
  impacted people like plaintiffs, right?
• 31:19
  We embed ourselves in movements.
• 31:22
  We consider us being part of this movement and helping to grow.
• 31:27
  This movement is part of our responsibility.
• 31:30
  So the way that we do advocacy is really very
• 31:33
  different and we organize right we all of the work that we do all of the legal
• 31:39
  work that we do it's always in partnership with grassroots organizations right
• 31:45
  and we know what our role is we're not leading the way we are part of a movement.
• 31:54
  People who are committed to the cause right and cultural workers and I want to ask you Hector right,
• 32:01
  The thing that I have been almost obsessed about since I've been at MILK is
• 32:07
  to grow out a piece of our work around narrative change because we have to use
• 32:12
  different tools to change hearts and minds.
• 32:14
  And to me, culture is the way.
• 32:18
  So I want to hear from you about what it is that we need to do in this moment
• 32:25
  to call out to culture workers to say, don't bend the knee, fight with us.
• 32:31
  So what do we do? Because people are running scared.
• 32:34
  And I would say not everybody is running scared.
• 32:37
  And there's a lot of us who are, I mean, you see it. The fight is happening and the time is now.
• 32:43
  And I really would love to continue the conversation around having sort of regional culture workers.
• 32:51
  Right so if there's something happening in the south that
• 32:55
  we have we have a rolodex of cultural
• 32:57
  workers musicians djs muralists right
• 33:02
  activists who are really who are ready to respond in the
• 33:05
  south right to an action to an event or to create right we have folks in the
• 33:10
  southwest in the pacific northwest as i've had the privilege of touring across
• 33:15
  the country and we we there is a map of artists who are doing incredible work in all over the country.
• 33:23
  And here's the thing, just because you're an artist doesn't mean you know what to do in this time.
• 33:30
  And so there's organizers and organizations who are not artists and don't create
• 33:36
  necessarily art, right?
• 33:38
  And there's artists who are not organizers, but they are down with the movement.
• 33:44
  They're connected to the movement.
• 33:46
  They're in solidarity, but they don't know how to be involved.
• 33:49
  And so that bridge needs to be sort of created, right?
• 33:53
  And I feel like that's that. So there's people like that.
• 33:57
  So these bridge builders, these cultural bridge builders in different parts
• 34:00
  of the country that I think we need to create a convening.
• 34:04
  They're doing work locally. Now let's do work regionally and let's identify
• 34:09
  the work that needs to happen nationally around this narrative.
• 34:11
  There's the narrative of the urgency of now.
• 34:14
  How do we respond to mass deportations now?
• 34:18
  Now, at the same time, how do we also create the narrative, the freedom to thrive, right?
• 34:25
  That's around building a democracy, building a world where many worlds exist, right?
• 34:30
  That includes all our brothers and sisters, trans folks, immigrants,
• 34:34
  you know, citizens and non-citizens. We have the opportunity to create the greatest country in the world.
• 34:41
  We have that opportunity, but it's not going to be given to us.
• 34:44
  It's got to be fought for.
• 34:46
  And culture workers need to be part of that. Artists need to be part of that.
• 34:50
  They just don't always know how. So we need to be inviting them.
• 34:54
  And I think that's, I'll tell you a quick story.
• 34:58
  There's a wonderful filmmaker. They go by the name of Encrypt.
• 35:03
  They're from right here, the barrio, Highland Park.
• 35:06
  Amazing filmmaker. I see their work and they do work with Cholas.
• 35:12
  And queer women in the barrio. I see their videos.
• 35:16
  And then she started getting work for Nike and Pumas. And I'm like, wonderful.
• 35:21
  And then the pandemic hit, right? And people were doing video.
• 35:25
  I saw a lot of community organizations doing real shitty videos,
• 35:29
  you know, for like, you know, for vaccinations or for, you know, right.
• 35:34
  They were doing the videos, but they were not good. They were not good.
• 35:38
  I remember I called Encrypt. They said, Encrypt, I need you to do what you do,
• 35:43
  but I need you to connect with these organizations, do videos for them.
• 35:47
  Oh, nice. And they were like, hell yeah. So like, Encrypt was the artist.
• 35:53
  Badass but now is doing work for community
• 35:57
  organizations and now doing badass videos artistry with
• 36:00
  these organizations right all encrypt had to
• 36:02
  do was be asked that's beautiful because encrypt comes from an immigrant family
• 36:06
  comes from the barrio is femme is queer wants to dope art and if it's asked
• 36:12
  to do art for the movement would most definitely do it all right and so how
• 36:16
  do we identify these artists who are doing incredible work and we just connect
• 36:20
  them to Planned Parenthood, to NILC,
• 36:23
  to like folks doing environmental justice, right?
• 36:25
  Whether it be graphic arts, musical arts, creative arts.
• 36:28
  And I feel like there's artists across the country and like,
• 36:32
  that's the work I want to be doing, right? Is really connecting artists to movements.
• 36:36
  And we need that now. That solidarity work needs to happen now.
• 36:39
  So we're going to continue this conversation once this time?
• 36:42
  Oh, definitely. Definitely.
• 36:44
  What would you say, compañera, what would you say right now to people who are
• 36:50
  living in fear right now.
• 36:52
  To communities and folks, you know, what is the message from NILC,
• 36:57
  from you as an organizer,
• 36:58
  someone who we've been here before, what is the message to folks who are feeling
• 37:03
  anxiety and unease and fear at this moment? What would you say, Kompanya?
• 37:08
  I would say that you are not alone, that there are many people who are fighting
• 37:14
  alongside you, with you, and for you, and to never give up.
• 37:20
  Stay in the fight. Hey, I'm with it. What about you?
• 37:26
  Right. I mean, what I say to folks is, you know what I mean?
• 37:31
  There's a woman, Valerie Carr, and she said, she gave a speech and oh my goodness, it rocked me.
• 37:38
  And I have to share and give her her flowers. She said, what if the darkness
• 37:42
  that we're feeling right now is not the darkness of the tomb,
• 37:46
  but the darkness of the womb?
• 37:48
  And what if right now we've we're
• 37:52
  in this darkness because we're about to birth
• 37:55
  something new and this push that
• 37:59
  we have to do this fight is to birth this new
• 38:02
  world right but just like a
• 38:05
  what you would say to a woman who's giving birth what do you say you say you
• 38:09
  have to push now because this is the fight of your life in order to create this
• 38:15
  for this baby to be born you need to push now with everything you got and I
• 38:21
  feel that and when she said that,
• 38:24
  god damn it resonated with me that's beautiful thank you for sharing that Valerie Carr,
• 38:30
  compañera I'll share that I'll let people know that I'm sharing your
• 38:33
  words and you know this is something is being born and we get to decide what
• 38:39
  that is but we gotta fight like hell to push for justice right now yeah I love
• 38:45
  that Thank you so much for this conversation. Okay.
• 38:53
  We're going to continue this. You know, mad love to you. Mad love to you and
• 38:57
  your work. All right. Take care.
• 39:00
  Bye-bye. To everybody that's been listening, thank you so much.
• 39:04
  That was a conversation with a radical activist, organizer, and president of
• 39:11
  the National Immigration Law Center, Kika Matos.
• 39:14
  This has been the freedom to thrive podcast if
• 39:18
  you want to learn more go to national immigration
• 39:21
  law center's website for the freedom to thrive podcast to learn about new episodes
• 39:28
  we're going to be inviting more guests more conversations keep telling your
• 39:32
  stories keep advocating keep creating familia i will see you in the journey
• 39:37
  this is hector flores with las cafeteras.