HispanicVista Columnists
Foro Digest: Tired of the White Left
- By Roberto Lovato
- New America Media, Digest
- Jan 26, 2006
- Roberto Lovato (robvato63@yahoo.com) is a writer with New America Media
CARACAS, Venezuela -- Standing proudly beneath
statue of Latin American liberator Simon Bolivar located at the center
of a Caracas plaza, World Social Forum delegate Dorothea Manuela says
she feels more at home here than she does standing near the statues of
dead white revolutionary men dotting parks back home in Boston.
“It’s inspiring to come here and see people from all over the world
leading their own struggles,” she says. I ask her about the leadership
of struggles in the United States and the beaming smile of the
self-described “black woman who is ethnically Puerto Rican”
disappears.
“Being here reminds me how very important it is for all of us to
change the U.S. But we can’t change the U.S. unless we all deal with
the white left’s racism and privilege” says the statuesque “fifty
plus” Manuela. Along with members of her Boston-based Rosa Parks
Coalition, Manuela and many of the World Social Forum delegation from
the U.S. are delivering a strong message to the thousands attending
the global gathering: We (nonwhites/people of color) can lead
ourselves. Whites do not speak for all of us.
At a forum beneath a large tent on the Caracas air force base where
immigrant leaders and activists from across the continent debate
hemispheric migration, Christian Ramirez of the San Diego based
American Friends Service Committee reminded the black, Mestizo, Indian
and other participants about the kinds of barriers he faces in the
progressive movement.
“None of the whites who spoke on behalf of the U.S. delegation at the
opening ceremonies of the “Foro” remembered to mention the more than
35 million immigrants in the US,” he says. He later detailed how he
and other Latinos in the U.S. are meeting with Senators and House
members in order to have the voice of immigrants added to a debate led
largely by liberal and conservative whites in the Beltway.
Hearing all this, and observing the impressive coalition of mostly
non-white delegates, I’m reminded of how, despite all the sacrifices
of Salvadoran exiles and refugees who built the most powerful
solidarity movement of the 1980’s, most of the recognition for and
credit for leadership of the movement was given in the U.S. – and in
El Salvador -- to the Norteamericanos, many of whom married
Salvadorans. Developments in Caracas seem to hint that, ‘”Another U.S.
is Possible.”
The broadening of the US delegation which now includes more than 1000
participants -- many of whom are black, Latino and Asian -- has not
escaped the attention of the very sophisticated leaders of the Foro.
Brazilian businessman Oded Grajew, the bearded white haired older
statesman of the Foro, who is widely recognized as one of the forum’s
founders, sees Hurricane Katrina like an x-ray into the issues that
divide the U.S. and countries like his.
“The Katrina disaster is a measure of social injustice in the United
States. It gave a name, color, and an identity to social injustice
there,” he says.
But not every delegate understands things like Grajew. At a panel of
U.S. opposition to the Iraq war that included peace mom, Cindy
Sheehan, lesser known peace papa, Fernando Suarez del Solar and former
U.S. Navy soldier, Pablo Paredes from New York, pony-tailed Peruvian
delegate Carlos Flores told me that he “expected to hear more North
American North Americans instead of Latin Americans living in the U.S.
(Del Solar is a citizen and Paredes was born in the sovereign nation
of El Bronx).
Del Solar, who shook the audience when he cried as he described the
death of his son Jesus in Iraq, had previously told me that he is not
distracted by the focus on white leaders in the U.S. peace movement.
“Many of us are organizing a conference to bring together the many,
many Latino activists organizing against this evil war.”
I later found some solace in seeing Del Solar speaking in Spanish to a
throng of people at an event advertised as a “Cindy Sheehan” event.
And none of the delegates packed into the lobby of the hotel
recognized or spoke with Sheehan when I saw her there.
The racial dynamics at the Foro seem more like the dynamics on the
field of the World Cup, where the non-white majority exercise
leadership concomitant with their numbers, while whites have their
place too. The tenor here touches on a shift in the way movements have
historically been carried out in the U.S. “Why don’t they come here to
Latin America to lead struggles here?” asks Dorothea Manuela. “Because
they know they can’t. Why do they lead struggles in places where they
are now a minority? Because we let them – and that has to change. That
will change.”
Another World Is Possible.
Editor’s Note: NAM contributor Roberto Lovato is
attending the World Social Forum in Caracas, where more than 60,000
people, half of them from outside Venezuela, have gathered for the
annual event. His impressions will be posted throughout the week.
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=8186833685553bbfcc643a15a2e47f56