¡SPECIAL OAKLAND GATHERING with MEMBERS of the CIG!

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2018 – 7-10 PM

OMNI COMMONS

4799 SHATTUCK AVE., OAKLAND

Mario Luna Romero and Myrna Dolores, members of the Indigenous Government Council, will be at the Omni Commons.

Mario Luna Romero

Mario Luna Romero is a Yaqui activist from the state of Sonora, Mexico. He organized Yaqui communities to protect the Yaqui River from a development project. The Yaqui River is the Yaqui’s place of Creation and an important place for protecting the survival of the Deer Dance. The Yaqui River is the backbone of their culture. He was imprisoned for his activism and, when released, went to the UN and made visible the need for Indigenous Rights in Mexico. He has been the delegate for Vícam to the National Indigenous Congress (Congreso Nacional Indígena, CNI) since 2007, a council member on the Indigenous Government Council (Consejo Indígena de Gobierno, CIG) and the Coordinator of the CNI-CIG’s International Affairs Commission. He will speak about the struggles they are facing in Mexico.

AND

Bio for Myrna Dolores: Yoreme of Sonora

I was born in Benito Juárez on April 7, 1976. I have lived most my life in Buaysiacobe, Etchojoa. Both places are in the State of Sonora, in the Mayo indigenous region.

For twenty years, I have been a distance-learning teacher of basic education for high school students, and four years ago I came to work in my village Buaysiacobe, where I am a teacher. I was also chosen as a candidate for commissioner, which was ultimately taken from me, but that allowed me to meet people and provide them with social support through a group called “Women in Movement.”

In 2015, I was notified I would need to undergo an evaluation under the new educational reforms, which I have resisted ever since. This led me to reaffirm my conviction of struggle. I had previously collaborated with the National Indigenous Congress (CNI), indirectly through its delegates, mainly in defense of territory. This was in addition to my being politically left, without belonging to political parties.

On April 30, 2016, the town of Cohuirimpo, one of the eight Mayo towns of Sonora, named me a CNI councilor, and that helped me embrace the struggle for territory that the people have been sustaining for some decades. My people, as well as others from the region, have fought alongside the CNI since its formation in a discontinuous and isolated manner with a few delegates, without realizing major achievements other than to transmit their ideals among a few.

I am part of the CNI because I am a of the left, because I am a woman, because I am a minority in struggle, because I am Yoreme (indigenous Mayo), and because the fight

of the CNI is for the only thing that is worth fighting for: life and continued existence of the indigenous peoples of Mexico.

Regarding the goal for the US tour, I would love to be able to tell the world that women are the immediate victims of a system in crisis—one that oppresses those who represent families and these in turn also tend to oppress their constituencies. That women should strive to get to know each other and confront potentialities using that which traditionally does not correspond to us: the struggle for territory. As it is the earth that is the closest to us, and what distinguishes us is the ability to be Mothers: bearers of life.