Friends,
 We learned earlier today that Juan Fraire Escobedo, who had been invited to speak in California and Oregon, has been refused permission to travel by air from Texas by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Juan, who has applied for political asylum in the United States with his next hearing in 2014, has a GPS bracelet placed on his leg that ICE declined to remove.
In place of Juan, veteran activist Saúl Reyes Salazar will be joining us at these three events, which will take place at the same time and locations. Saúl has lost six members of his family in the last two and a half years to gun violence in Mexico. In January, he was granted political asylum by the United States.
Please join us at these events!
Wednesday, Feb. 1, 7:00 PM
Wurster Hall Room #102
UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
View map and directions or view on Facebook
Thursday, Feb. 2, 7:00 PM
The Eric Quezada Center for Culture and Politics
518 Valencia Street (at 16th), San Francisco, CA
View map and directions or view on Facebook
Friday, Feb. 3, 7:00 PM
Catholic Worker House
4848 International Blvd., Oakland, CA
View map and directions or view on Facebook
Saúl comes from Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, where he helped to found the municipality of Guadalupe in the 1980s. He served as a local councilman for Guadalupe from 1998 to 2001. His sister, Josefina Reyes, was a prominent activist for human rights and demilitarization in Juárez until she was murdered January 3, 2010, after one of her sons had been jailed and another murdered. In February 2011, Saúl’s sister, brother, and sister-in-law were abducted, and subsequently found killed. Saúl’s mother Sara issued a remarkable appeal to the kidnappers of her children in February, just before the family house was burned down.
This year, Saúl helped to found the organization Mexicans in Exile, in El Paso, Texas. You can read an account of the Reyes Salazar family’s experience (in English) and hear an interview with Saúl (in Spanish) conducted this week. |
