Video: Otro Mundo Es Posible (PODER)
People Power Media produced this video for People Organizing to Demand Environmental & Economic Rights (PODER), a Latinx-led, grassroots, environmental justice organization based in the Mission and Excelsior District. This video is the second in a series of two videos that celebrates PODER’s current member-led community programs.
Transcript:
Antonio Diaz
PODER's organizing has transformed the community. It’s not just abstract, but there's actually ways in which you can see it, touch it, feel it. From this space we're sitting in right now, Casa Adelante, to the park next door, In Chan Kaajal, further up the street on Shotwell, Juan Pifarré Plaza. going to your left by 24th Street and Harrison where the Secret Garden is, going to the Excelsior looking at the Upper Yard, new affordable housing building, Hummingbird Farm off Geneva.
Amy Aguilera
PODER works towards otro mundo es posible by starting with our base. There’s like this quote that we use: “nothing about us without us”. They are experts in their neighborhoods, they are experts in the work that they do. They are the ones who really know the issues well because they live them, they see them.
Amy Aguilera
The promotoras of PODER, they are just such a driving force. They are an amazing group of mother leaders in our neighborhood. So, our promotoras do a lot of education and outreach bo th in the Mission and the Excelsior districts. The days that they're not there, people will be like, where's the promotoras, where's the green shirts? they are really the heart of the work that we do, they are really the heart of this neighborhood
Andrea Paz
When I got to PODER and I looked at the resources, what it does. It motivated me to walk to inform the community. And this is what motivates me every day, because I’ve already lived this. Don’t be afraid, we have these rights. PODER is here and can support you.
Amparo
The relationship with my partners is super nice, because what one doesn't know, the other one knows. If I don't have a piece of paper, she has it, if I don't know some information, she has it, if she doesn't have it and I have it, I give it to her, but above all respect. We respect each other so much that we love each other already, it's no longer like partners, it's already like sisters or like family.
Tere Almaguer
For us at PODER, we've really worked towards creating a family vibe. Everybody's always welcome. Base building is about really, really seeing people not as clients, but seeing people as part of an action team, and really developing our leaders hip so that we know we all have a say and everything we say is important, and it all comes from different perspectives, depending on our own life experiences.
Charlie Sciammas
We have really cultivated an organization that is non-hierarchical. That is based on community action teams that are really defining the direction of our community organizing campaigns. There's a youth-led community action team, there's one that's really organizing around issues related to housing justice, there's another one that's community cooperatives community action team. And there's another one that's really focused on issues of civic engagement and immigrant rights.
Guadalupe
The struggle to be able to have a better living condition, both for. Ah, I think that both for me, my family, the, the people around us and all the all the the people who are less privileged. I think that's the struggle.
Gilbert Williams
My name is Gilbert Williams. I lost my home to foreclosure in 2010. I didn't have really anyone to turn to. So I went through that by myself. And it changed me. That whole experience of losing your home, it was devastating.
Gilbert Williams
I was angry. And I needed to channel that somewhere – somewhere positive. And so, I kind of found that I was able to, by helping others and confronting the institutions that took my home, that felt good to me. It felt empowering.
And during such time as I told the office as a member of the San Francisco Planning Commission.
Congratulations.
Si Se Puede!
Guadalupe
A lot a lot this wear and tear on our land, so the struggle to keep the best this through. I think the participation right in in the gardens, in being creating our own this food and working the land.
Xochitl Flores
We are at Hummingbird Farm, which sits on unceded Ramaytush Ohlone Territory.
Xochitl Flores
So, Hummingbird Farm was founded through youth organizing. It was about a 10-year campaign with PUEBLOTE, putting Public Lands in People’s Hands.
Xochitl Flores
Part of the beauty of the farm is that there are no fences, there are no gates. We're building something for generations later to enjoy. The retreat is there, they can reboot they can, obtain those cultural, spiritual, physical nutrients that capitalism often denies us. It's not just Latinx folks using the space, but it's Asian folks, it's Palestinian folks, it's just the neighborhood (the Excelsior neighborhood) using the space.
Tere Almaguer
And so, I think, for us, otro mundo es posible is reclaiming those ancestral things that were taken away from us. All the medicine that comes from being able to eat our ancestral foods, our ancestral seeds. Being able to have workshops so that people are able to reconnect to those things and be healthy, working with those plant allies.
Jessie Fernandez
Bicis del Pueblo, or bikes to the people, is a bike program of PODER. It is aimed around building bike infrastructure for working-class communities of color. Sometimes that means a safe and inviting place to ride with others, sometimes that means like tools to work on your bike. Sometimes that means a little bit of guided support to build your bike literacy. And sometimes that means advocacy around the bicycle ecosystem and how it relates to environmental justice.
Josiah
When you’re more confident at biking, you’re more confident out in the streets. It gives you freedom when the wind is blowing in your face. Everything goes by quickly and you’re having lots of fun. You could just coast along when you’ re riding down a hill and it’s exhilarating. In a car you could be going fast, but your senses aren’t as open to your surroundings because you’re basically in a metal box. It just feels powerful and gives you a sense of belonging.
Jackie Gutierrez
Everything that I've learned as a Poderosa, I remember that it's so important to center relationships and center joy and healing and love in our organizing because that's what keeps us going.
Andrea Paz
I was already a promotora but I didn’t know it. I just didn’t have the title. I’ve been a promotora for many years, since I was a child. PODER gave me the title, as a promotora.
