El Rescate's 30 years odyssey

Los Angeles capital de la Diáspora Centroamericana, March 24th, 20011

Dear compañeras y compañeros:

The past thirty years of El Rescate have been quite and odyssey from non-recognized refugees by the Reagan Administration, escaping violence and prosecution to full American citizens, contributing to the very fabric of our adopted nation and never forgetting the land of origin.

The promise land did not open its arms graciously for the “tired, your poor, your huddle masses yearning to breathe free”*, of this modern Mesoamerican Diaspora. To get the little what we have as immigrants and New Americans, we had to struggle hard, with the help of great unconditional friends, some of them are here tonight and we want this humble celebration to serve as appreciation to you (paragraph taken from my salute of the 25th Anniversary).

The next thirty years for this great organization will be full of challenging projects, among them, to obtain local, state and federal political representation, to achieve historical designations of our vibrant cultural contribution to America since the discovery of California by Juan Cabrillo and native Pipiles and Lencas in 1542. We need to confront strongly against those who want to ethnically profile us as a detriment to the American Dream.

The way to counteract xenophobic forces is to increase the number of Central American origin new citizens and informed register voters and motivate our community to engage actively the American civic and political experiment to be the only guarantors of our interests and future

We need to renew and energize creatively the struggle for a comprehensive immigration reform, economic development for our community members in the form of affordable higher education, medical care and housing, easy access to financial services and investment capital for our family businesses, because only contributing to make this nation better will secure our foothold in the democratic field.

Our commitment should continue to influence international public policy to guaranty that our tax dollars that go into foreign aid are invested to guaranty human rights and to create better lives for those families in our lands of origin, creating sustainable human development conditions to combat the conditions that reproduce forced migration and the loss of life and suffering, produced by human trafficking.

The oath of the Diaspora generation in the next thirty years is reaffirmed to prepare the pass of the baton to the new generation as a positive legacy project, to contribute to the formation of the leadership of the future, a young generation of activists, proud of their cultural heritage and committed to empower the people with the tools of modernity.

Let us celebrate tonight the past, the present and the future of our contribution to the United States of America. Let us celebrate commitment to democracy, human rights and freedom of speech.

José Salvador Sanabria Gutiérrez Executive Director

*Emma Lazarus, New York City, 1883.

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