BajaNomad

Javier Sicilia to lead summer Caravan for Peace

Gypsy Jan - 6-1-2012 at 10:46 AM

From The San Diego Union Tribune

Written by Elizabeth Aguilera May 31, 2012

"Calderon says he doesn't regret his strategy to fight organized crime, despite calls to end a confrontation that has killed at least 35,000 during his administration.

What: U.S. Caravan for Peace led by Mexican poet Javier Sicilia

When: August 12 - Sept. 13, 2012

Where: Starts in San Diego, ends in Washington D.C.

Who: Mexican poet Javier Sicilia, joined by groups across the U.S. including San Diego-based Border Angels and Gente Unida

For more information: Caravan for Peace

Border Angels and Gente Unida has joined with Mexican poet and journalist Javier Sicilia who is leading a summer "U.S. Peace Caravan," calling for an end to the drug war and to bring attention to violence occurring on both sides of the U.S. - Mexico border.

Sicilia's son Juan Francisco, 24, was murdered by drug traffickers last year. In response to his son's death the poet wrote his last stanza and says he will never write poetry again.

"El mundo ya no es digno de la palabra" ("The world is no longer worthy of the word").

From that moment of stunning loss, Sicilia has focused on fighting against violence in Mexico. He started the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity and led the Marcha por La Paz in Mexico last year that won national attention and a response from Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

"Drugs are not a national security issue, they're a national health issue," Sicilia told Democracy Now! during an interview last month. "Turning a public health issues into a security issue has created an absurd war that has killed 60,000 and we don't even know how many disappeared."

Other victims of the drug war from both sides of the border will join Sicilia and various organizations from across the country on the Caravan that begins in San Diego and ends in Washington D.C.

The poet has been vocal about his believe that the problem does not just fall on the shoulders of Mexico but that it is also the responsibility of the United States. That is why he is joining with U.S. groups for the American Peace Caravan, to shed light on the "shared responsibility" for the dead and displaced from the drug war, which he said being fortified by U.S. guns.

The mission statement of the upcoming Caravan is: "Led by victims of the drug war on both sides of the border, the US caravan aims to put forward a critique of the drug war and suggest actions people and governments, north of the border, can take to reduce the flow of weapons into Mexico, take the profits out of the drug trade, and retool drug strategies to produce real results to end the violence. We also support Humane Immigration Reform, Ni Una Muerte Mas."

The San Diego groups, Border Angels and Gente Unida, are chairing the San Diego Host Committee and Border Angels has moved it's annual Marcha Migrante to coincide with the Caravan.

Planning is ongoing but events could take place at Friendship Park, Chicano Park and the Holtville Cemetery before the Caravan heads to Los Angeles and more than 25 cities across the United States."

DENNIS - 6-1-2012 at 11:18 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Gypsy Jan
Sicilia's son Juan Francisco, 24, was murdered by drug traffickers last year. In response to his son's death the poet wrote his last stanza and says he will never write poetry again.

"El mundo ya no es digno de la palabra" ("The world is no longer worthy of the word").



Very noble gesture. Foolish....but noble. What good to the world is a mute poet?

desert_doll - 6-8-2012 at 12:08 PM

He doesn't have the poetic words anymore. I can understand that. There is an innocence and idealism lost in a moment like losing a child. He hasn't stopped speaking or fighting against the injustices he sees though. He is just not delivering it through poetry. Check out his Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity. This is a good article: http://www.thenation.com/article/168235/movement-peace-and-j...

I am proud of anyone who uses their voice to speak out against injustice. I meet way too many who just bite their tongues when they really need to speak. There is only one way to evoke change - take action.