By El Llanto
In June of 2025 I participated in the 40 mile march to the state capital for immigrant rights called La Caminata. As a member of HPEACE (Health Professionals for Equality And Community Empowerment), I had the opportunity to be a part of the medic team comprised of physicians, nurses, and health professionals. We were a team of 30 medics providing care on foot and in support vehicles all along the way. The Sanctuary Coalition, Almas Libres, Jobs With Justice, SEIU, the Nurses Union, and CHIRLA organized to make this event possible. We provided foot care, distributed electrolytes, and monitored their health every step of the way.
Up to this point in my life I had taken a 10 year hiatus from organizing. When I became a member of HPEACE, I found an organization of health professionals who believe in peace through health. We value showing up for the community that we serve. For me personally, my duty as a health professional doesn’t stop at the ‘EXIT.’ Being a street medic, being a healthcare worker, and the mutual aid that I have done my whole life is a byproduct of my worldview. I see it in the eyes of the people I organize with right now.
I never stopped caring. As a youth organizer I protested the Iraq War. As an abolitionist I founded a Copwatch chapter in my town. I served Food Not Bombs. I organized for a Sanctuary City Ordinance in Santa Rosa and Petaluma. Then came the Occupy Movements. I was disillusioned by the lack of vision in the occupy movements I was a part of locally. I went to school and became a healthcare worker. I decided to learn as much as I can.
My mother wanted to be a nurse. She taught me everything that I know. She couldn’t be nurse herself because she grew up in a tough environment, Guatemala, where a civil war shut down her high school repeatedly and disappeared her relatives — a civil war instigated by America that lasted 36 years. She saved her money from 14 to 16 years old when she finally made the decision to come to America. She became a healthcare worker. I am following in my mom’s footsteps, but it is my hope to go beyond. To achieve what my mom couldn’t afford to do: become a nurse. In my mind I am a nurse.
La Caminata moved me so much, I could not help but continue to organize for the Caminantes after the experience was over. A few months later, Almas Libres, the Sanctuary Coalition, and faith leaders — those same individuals who I showed up for at the Caminata — decided to go on a 7 day Huelga de Hambre, a hunger strike, demanding the County of Sonoma to stop collaborating with ICE.
La Caminata has not stopped for me. We continue to organize in Sonoma County in the face of state repression fighting for a Sanctuary Ordinance. A coalition of street medics, safety team leaders, and organizers has formed out of this struggle. We continue to collaborate, to organize, and train together. A tapestry of resistance has formed.
The federal government’s crackdown on immigration has mobilized hundreds of people. From court accompaniment, to driving kids to school, to driving folks to appointments. We’re organizing on behalf of day laborers and community members. Many are becoming members of the North Bay Rapid Response as legal observers or dispatchers. We continue to fight for just immigration reform. ICE Out Now!
ICE is driven by nothing but money, bravado, and hubris. We are driven by love.
Alex Pretti’s death hit me hard as a human, a healthcare worker, and a cyclist. I was already feeling the weight of the world as it is. I tried to organize a ride in his name and ended up being a co-organizer alongside Phil from the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition. I did a land acknowledgement at Howarth Park and then we blasted Bad Bunny all through Downtown Santa Rosa and I got the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition to say “chinga La Migra.” The next day Bad Bunny wins not just one Grammy, but three.
“The only thing more powerful than hate is love,” Bad Bunny said in front of the Academy, for the whole world to hear.
We gotta celebrate the wins, but remember all we have lost to state repression. That is what we are up against. The structures of power are preying on children and exploiting all who we love. We have to continue to protect each other. Remember we are caretakers, not takers. That is what sets us apart from the structures of power that must come down. The Republicans are the raw face of Imperialism. The Democrats are the bourgeoisie. There is no “deep state.” This is a class war. We must burn fascism to the ground.
Uzumati