Feelings of Liberation. Reflections of Life.

Almost done with the finishing touches of packing everything I need for the next 4 weeks. I’ve made sure my student status at San Francisco State University is settled for (Hopefully, the beginning of the last) Semester(s) I have. My sister will be registering my classes for the Fall Semester and I must say it’s been such a protracted struggle to just get myself in the position I am with my education. I haven’t had Financial Aid since the Fall Semester of 2010. So applying back in March last minute has paid off.

So first off… I wrote a journal entry a couple weeks ago and saved a draft. I decided that at moment how I felt about going will change in a couple more weeks and days. Here I am my flight is in about 8 hours or less. What’s rushing through me is that it’s been about 7 months since we all started meeting back in December to plan for a trip that is about 4 weeks. The process of going on exposure began in those early meetings. I’m currently writing down the numbers of my kasamas who are already in the Phils. What’s been amazing during this process of going on my first exposure trip is how I’ve been able to include my family in this process. When I was a member of Anakbayan East Bay as a 17-18 year old, I was lying to them about my politics and what I was doing. Right now, I can’t explain how it feels to include to have my parents in this process. They’ve helped me pack, allowed me to house meetings at our house. Gonna out myself on how much my mom means to me… I’ve seen her cry multiple times and I can’t stand it, but I know she lets those tears flow because she has to stay strong for our family.

As a student, I’ve done the various study of our movement, the history of our people, help teach it to others. One thing I have learned and will always admit. Our people’s movement and the National Democratic Movement will NEVER just be an Academic topic. This movement is living and breathing with people in it so amazing and I am looking forward to immersing myself with the masses. We can analyze the Three Basic Problems by taking a class, reading a book, participating in a workshop, BUT we will never have to live those conditions in the belly of the beast. I’ve tried in previous years to go on exposure, but life just didn’t let me and this summer, this year just feels just right. I’m so humbled that we are going to be be the 15th Exposure Trip Group to go if we’ve sent delegations since LFS has been founded here in the United States back in 1996. Thank you to all the Older/Experienced Kasamas who’ve imparted their advice, wisdom to me about going on this trip. I know one thing for certain.

This trip will change my life.

Early Awakening

We are welcomed by some newspapers and online articles about the planned drone strikes by the US especially in the Mindanao regions of the Phils. This reminds me of a small presentation in my comparative politics class, on how they have only increased under Obama. Levels of agitation awake me prior to a small mobi we will experience in about two hours. I feel the heat rising.

daeniel

Diwang Pinay 2011 “Motherhood, Sisterhood, Sustained” Press Release

For Immediate Release

April 23, 2011

Contact: Melissa Reyes, LFS-San Francisco State University lfs.sfsu@gmail.com

Ninth Annual Diwang Pinay to Highlight Importance of Sacred Bonds of Motherhood and Sisterhood

Themed “Motherhood, Sisterhood, Sustained,” the event will raise funds for exposure trips to the Philippines for the International Women’s Alliance First General Assembly and the International League of Peoples’ Struggle Conference. Funds will also be donated to various communities in the Philippines

San Francisco, CA— On Friday, April 29, 2011 Babae San Francisco-Gabriela USA, League of Filipino Students, and Kappa Psi Epsilon will host the 9th Annual Filipina Women’s Showcase, Diwang Pinay. With the recent attacks on women’s reproductive rights by House Republicans, the women of these organizations will come together in defense of our mothers and sisters. The House Republicans’ proposals in Congress would indefinitely slash funding for Planned Parenthood and services for women, such as abortions and family planning services. With Babae’s ongoing campaign to fight Violence Against Women, this campaign includes the State’s violent attacks on women’s most basic human rights. By highlighting motherhood, sisterhood and our collective reality, we hope to celebrate our triumphs in the face of oppressive power.

Diwang Pinay (Spirit of the Filipina) is an annual performance and silent auction showcasing Filipina/Filipina-American performers, writers and artists. This event serves as one of very few venues solely dedicated to providing pinays from the Bay Area and beyond a platform to proudly share and express their struggles and triumphs.

This year’s celebration is themed “Motherhood, Sisterhood, Sustained,” to highlight the importance of the sacred bonds of motherhood and sisterhood and how essential these bonds are in sustaining healthy communities. By strengthening our connections as mothers and sisters, our relationship with systems of oppression becomes less difficult to fight. When we reclaim our sacred bond and work toward interdependence in the defense of our communities, we are victorious in every battle against those that deem us unworthy of our basic rights, like the choice to control and determine the rights to our bodies, whether that be access to abortion or family planning and reproductive rights services.

This year’s Diwang Pinay hosts an array of performances from talented pinays from San Francisco and the greater Bay Area, with acts like spoken word artist and rapper Ruby Ibarra, singing and poetry by members of the Galing Bata Afterschool Program, and an in-progress teaser for Pinay Stories, a production by an entire Filipina cast. There will be an art gallery on display and a silent auction showcasing art work of different mediums by artists such as Dianne Que of Hurley Sashimi Handmade, Faye Lacanilao, Raisa Cuevas, Vee Caragay, and a live art session by Niki Escobar.

Join us on Friday, April 29, 2011, from 7 to 9 P.M. at the Cesar Chavez Student Center-Jack Adams Hall at San Francisco State University: 1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94132. The suggested donation will be a sliding scale of $7-12, $5 for students ages 10-17 with a valid student ID, and free for children under the age of 10. For more information, visit Diwang Pinay’s official website at https://sites.google.com/site/sfdiwangpinay.

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“The very time I thought I was lost, my dungeon shook and my chains fell off.”

Another Summer, Another Exposure Trip!

Ever since LFS-SFSU has existed, one of our main goals has been to not only talk about and study the movement in the Philippines, but to experience it for ourselves. As a chapter of LFS in the Philippines and a member organization of BAYAN-USA, we have a direct link to our kasamas in our homeland. With that link, comes the opportunity to visit, study, and integrate with the various mass organizations in the Philippines fighting for National Democracy.

Each summer we plan “Baliksambayanan”, our annual exposure trip to the Philippines. The number of exposurists can vary year-to-year. Sometimes we have over 10, others times there are less than 5. Also, you don’t have to be Filipino to attend the exposure trip. We welcome anyone who wants to learn about our movement and how our kasamas organize in the Philippines. However, there is a process. We always say: “The exposure trip begins as soon as you commit yourself to the trip.” That means much preparation months before you leave.

This year, we are proud to have sponsored Jack Stephens, LFS member and former Educational Development Officer (2007-2008). Though he is our lone exposurist this year, we are very excited for him and know that he will receive the same rich and life-changing experience others have had before him. Though Jack is not Filipino, he has done much work for LFS throughout his years as a member and an officer. It’s all about international solidarity yall!

Jack will be in the Philippines for 3 weeks, integrating with various sectors of society such as the workers through Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) and peasants through Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP). Jack will be writing about his experiences in the Philippines through his blog, The Mustard Seed. Check it out! Especially if you’re interested in participating in Baliksambayanan one day, or with any of our other BAYAN-USA organizations or with other programs that connect you back home, such as the Philippine Studies Program. He’s already put up a couple entries up.

We look forward to the stories and lessons learned. Good luck Jack! See you in 3 weeks!

SAVE THE DATE: JULY 19! Kilusan Underground Sound Session ’09!

Please support LFS’ BalikSamBayanan Summer Exposure Trip to the Philippines! Funds raised will go to funding the trip and the various communities and organizations we visit! If you cannot attend the show but would still like to donate funds, please email LFS-SFSU @ lfs.sfsu@gmail.com

Not convinced yet? Let this year’s hosts change your mind!

Thank You Message from Melissa Roxas…

Dear Friends of Melissa Roxas,

We are sending this to you on behalf of Melissa Roxas because you either expressed concern over Melissa’s abduction and torture in the Philippines last month or she provided email addresses of her friends she wanted updated now that she is back in Los Angeles.  If you are hearing about Melissa’s ordeal for the first time, we provided links after her thank you message below.

Please feel free to share this email to those that know Melissa.

Sincerely,
Friends of Melissa Roxas
friendsofmelroxas@gmail.com

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Dearest Friends,

The recent birth of my niece reminds me that life is something more than just presence, it is the earth rising inside of you, the earth that has been there since the beginning, but taking a different form.

I started to think about all the other babies I had seen as a community health worker in the Philippines before my niece was born. The marking of before and after, beginnings and endings. I remember their mothers taking them in for health screenings and basic check ups. Infants who went untreated for days with a fever, the softness in their eyes gives way to a hardness, their skin was tight from dehydration, they were so tiny, their hand in mine was as little as my thumbnail. I remember how much I wanted them to get better and be alive. With so many babies, children and families that I’ve met, I realized that the disease they had was more than an epidemic of typhoid fever, cholera, or malaria, it was the disease of poverty and oppression.

When I started to work more with particular issues of human rights violations I also met different babies, babies and children who had lost their mothers and fathers to a different death. A horrible and preventable death that takes the life not only of its victim, but robs the whole family and the world of their presence, all because they advocated and fought for a better world where their children have genuine freedom, a just peace, and true democracy.

Melissa Roxas Tells Her Story of Abduction and Torture

This past Saturday a press conference was held in Los Angeles, CA to address the recent abduction of Melissa Roxas, a member of Habi Arts- LA & BAYAN-USA, by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). For the first time, Melissa was able to speak out in public to what had happened to her and take questions from the media. While the Philippine Government and AFP are doing their best to deny these events took place, even going as far as to claim that the kidnapping was staged, they cannot deny the real human emotion that Melissa displayed during the press conference. The physical and psychological scars that she carries with her serves as testimony against the Philippine Government’s stance on basic human rights. Unfortunately, she is not alone. As long as the current administration’s policy is to demonize and attack organizers who are trying to serve the needs of the people, this will continue to happen. As long as the U.S. Government continues to give the AFP $30 million a year in aid, they will continue these atrocities. We must do what we can to 1) inform folks about what’s going 2) put pressure on our government to stop all military aid to the Philippines. Otherwise, Melissa won’t be the last victim of kidnapping and torture in the Philippines.