Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste
We had a magical evening on November 8th for PCUN’s Annual Cumbia Party. We raised over $30,000 to continue enhancing PCUN’s community organizing work! This year PCUN is doing a lot – and we’re excited, and over-whelmed with the amount of support that consistently comes from our community.
Thank you to our sponsors, our families, and our supporters across the state and the country. Special thank you to our members, and our staff. We love you! Check out these highlights:
(Our team of organizers, Gail, Nicole, Mario, Martha, Alex, and Enrique)
The 2018 Midterms were a success for PCUN and our partners in the social justice movement. We are proud to say that farm workers, immigrants, and Latinx working families made a huge impact in getting out the vote for progressive issues and candidates this election cycle. Today, I can confidently say we are building and flexing our power in a huge way. This year, PCUN knocked on a total of 27,000 Latinx bilingual, bicultural doors with our team of Latinx organizers. We provided ballot assistance to over 350 Latinx voters. It made a huge difference. But what really made the difference was the unity in the movement – which collectively knocked on over 400,000 doors!
Here are some highlights from the campaigns and on candidates we endorsed:
On Measure 105… WE DID IT. Defeating this measure truly took a village. With the help of over 500 organizations, PCUN and our sister organizations, labor partners, and more, beat measure 105. Oregonian’s have spoken. We want to be a place that welcomes people, and rejects racial profiling based on our perceived immigration status.
PCUN also said NO to Measure 103, 104, 106, and we said YES on 102. Oregonian’s agreed last night, and voted down 103,104,105, 106, and said Yes to 102.
La lucha Sigue – the fight continues! We’re proud of the campaigns our candidates put on. And we continue to fight for better representation of our communities. Here are some of the campaigns we endorsed, that did not win.
Check out the rest of our positions on the other measures you’ll see on the November ballot:
Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN) has been working with immigrant populations in Oregon for over 40 years. As the largest Latino union in the state, many of our members would be impacted if Measure 105 passes.
The group responsible for getting Measure 105 on the ballot, Oregonians for Immigration Reform, has been officially designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The SPLC says this about them, “For almost two decades OFIR has demonized immigrants while working closely with nationally recognized anti-immigrant groups and figures.”
One of the reasons we were founded was the stop raids and discrimination in Oregon. We want our families to feel safe, welcomed and not racially-profiled in the state we all call home. We don’t want to go back to the days when law-abiding Oregonians and their kids were dragged out of their homes.
We need to protect Oregon’s values. We need to vote NO on 105 this fall.
PCUN’s ANNUAL DIA DE LOS MUERTOS CUMBIA PARTY
Thursday November 8th, 2018
Big thank you to our growing list of event sponsors, contact us today to become a sponsor:
PCUN’s Annual Event is right around the corner! This event supports our mission, and our ability to organize, advocate, and reach more than 20,000 Latinx families around the state.
VIP Leaders of Color Pre-Party with Senator Rebeca Saldaña from 5:00-6:00PM – Get your VIP ticket for entrance to the VIP Reception. There is limited space, but the focus is on People of Color stepping into elected and other leadership positions, with special Host, Ana Del Rocio, and Color PAC Action. Speaker’s Include Martha Sonato PCUN’s Electoral Politics Director, and Ramon Ramirez, Co-Founder, and President of Pineros Y Campesinos Unidos Del Noroeste. Musical Guest: Tito Amaya.
6:00PM-10:00PM
We get the party started! Special guest DJ and Music
Silent Auction with Local Support, Tamales, Drinks, Dance, with a Basics of Cumbia Lesson with Maria Delgado and Jorge Zepeda at 8:15PM!
Altar remembering activists of the past… Be there or be square.
Our Keynote Speaker
Representative Teresa Alonso-Leon
National Speaker and 2018 Recipient of the Hank and Martina Curl Award
2018 Recipient of the Hank and Martina Curl Award
Linda Herrera, Retired Chief Equity Officer at Chemeketa Community College
PCUN’s Annual Party
Thursday, November 8th, from 6-10PM
SEIU 503 Ballroom,
6401 SE Foster Rd
Portland, OR 97206
Special Musical Guests
The Woodburn HS Mariachi
Tito Amaya, Musician, Artist, Activist
Chaach NYC, and Tyler Keys
Click here to purchase your General Ticket, or your VIP Ticket to join the Reception. Thank you for supporting our work. We look forward to seeing you!
¡Así se puede!
It’s finally here. Election Season. And PCUN has made its endorsements.
We’ll be knocking 15,000 Latinx voter doors this elections cycle for Kate Brown for Governor, Teresa Alonso-Leon for HD 22, and of course to defeat Measure 105. .
Every vote counts — and this election cycle, Latinx voters can and will make a difference. Click here to join our people-powered effort and sign up to knock doors with our bilingual, bicultural team today.
Below are the candidates we interviewed and endorsed. We make endorsement decisions based on candidates’ stance on issues that affect farmworkers, their pro-immigrant ideals, and their support for Latinx working families in Oregon. We endorsed these candidates based on their commitment to farmworkers, immigrant rights, and Latinx working families, in addition to how strongly their values align with ours — which are “si se puede”, dignity, and respect.
Teresa Alonso Leon for HD 22 (Woodburn/NE Salem)
Shelaswau Crier for Marion County Commissioner position 1
Mike Ellison for HD 19 (SE Salem)
Paul Evans for HD 20 (West Salem, and Independence)
Rachel Prusak for HD 37 (West Linn/Tualatin)
Anna Williams for SD 52 (Hood River)
Andrea Salinas for HD 38 (Lake Oswego)
Kate Brown for Oregon Governor (Statewide)
Charles Gallia for SD 20 (Oregon City)
Check out the rest of our positions on the other measures you’ll see on the November ballot:
Our immigrant community is under attack. We must stand up a fight for what is right. We must stand up for our community. This may day we will be marching for Driver’s Licenses, to defend worker’s rights to organize, and to make it public that we condemn any and all efforts to take Oregon’s sanctuary state status away on the ballot.
Please join us on May 1st from 11:30AM-3:30PM at the Oregon State Capitol on 900 Court Street, Salem, Oregon.
Please contact PCUN if you need transportation from Woodburn to Salem. Click image below to share the May Day bilingual flyers, or use these text links:
May Day 2018 Spanish Language Flyer
May Day 2018 English Language Flyer
Dear PCUNista,
We are proud to announce the arrival of our new Executive Director, Reyna Lopez! Reyna is no stranger to the movimiento, having worked in our sister and partner organizations in various leadership positions. She is transitioning to PCUN from Organizing Director at Family Forward Oregon, where she ran the organizing program for Paid Family Medical Leave, and National Campaigns focused on Safety Net Programs and the Federal Budget. Jaime Arredondo our Secretary/Treasure of PCUN, was acting Director of PCUN & APP. He is now the Executive Director at CAPACES Leadership Institute (CLI). Reyna is stepping in with a consolidated title, and to take over many of the roles that he played these last few years. It is an exciting time of reorganization at PCUN. We wish Jaime much success at our sister organization.
Reyna is a leader and proud daughter of immigrants from Mexico, who came to Oregon in the late 80’s to do farmwork in the Marion County area. Reyna grew up in Salem, Oregon and graduated from Willamette University with her BA in Political Science and Sociology. For over 12 years, she has been a fierce leader and advocate for the Latinx community in Oregon, receiving the Immigrant Award from the American Association of Immigration Lawyers of Oregon, and Willamette University’s Young Alumni of the Year Award for her work in social justice causes, campaigns, movement and coalition building.
Reyna’s passion for organizing and community is reflected throughout her career from her position as Civic Engagement Director at Causa, where she lead the Yes on 88 (Safe Roads), Oregon’s first bilingual bicultural ballot measure campaign! She founded the organization’s New American Voter’s Project and worked tirelessly to win Tuition Equity after 13 years of fighting for Oregon’s Dreamer population. In recent years, Reyna was the Outreach Director at Our Oregon, where she led the Fellowship Program and organization’s base building efforts for the A Better Oregon Campaign, a ballot measure demanding corporations pay their fair share in taxes.
Ramon Ramirez
President of PCUN
First off, thank you for your ongoing commitment to our work. 2017 took our movement back to our roots…to 1977—eight years before PCUN was born. The stratospheric fear of ICE arrest has put resistance at the center of our community organizing once again.
As we look at head to 2018, we are going in with momentum—a strong community response and growing electoral energy. But they have momentum, too. Trump’s ICE activity and barrage of policy attacks on our community have them believing 2018 is their moment to roll back progress. So we’re—again—planning to give our all to re-doubling the community’s resolve and organizing community power to fend off attacks and to make progress, especially on the state and local levels.
A few weeks ago, on November 2nd, PCUNistas gathered at the SEIU Local 503 hall in Portland to celebrate some of our movement’s work’s transformational impacts. PCUN President Ramón Ramírez related a story that powerfully encapsulated a striking contrast of Woodburn, then and now:
“In 1978, we caught Woodburn Police in the act of leading INS agents to houses on our block. We later confronted the Police chief; he walked out of meeting when we told him we’d sue if we caught them doing that again. Fast forward to a few weeks ago. Plain-clothes ICE agents came to a home in Woodburn with an arrest warrant. ‘He no longer lives here,’ the residents told them. ‘Do you have documents?’ the agents asked. One resident called 911. Woodburn officers arrived and asked ICE agents to wait outside while they searched for the individual ICE had come for. ‘He’s not here,’ a Woodburn offer told ICE. ‘We suggest you leave now.’ The ICE agents drove off. That day, we saw a fulfillment of Woodburn Chief Jim Ferraris’ commitment to ‘community policing’.
Clearly, 2017 was terrifying. But here are a few examples of how it was also terrific:
In 2018, we will build on these victories. We’ll campaign all-out, if needed, to defeat a looming anti-immigrant ballot initiative, to help win permanent status for Dreamers and “TPS” holders and to grow the ranks of progressives—especially Latin@s–in public office.
Our movement has always drawn strength from looking ahead. Our goals and plans in 2018 also include some important shifts to better position us for today and tomorrow. One of these major shifts is my transition to the CAPACES Leadership Institute as its new Executive Director. The political moment we are living—our electoral victories and resistance of the administration—has invigorated and broaden our base like no other time we’ve experienced. This calls for a greater focus on boosting our leadership development work to maximize our collective impact. Concurrently we are working on restructuring PCUN to more strategically activate our growing base of leaders to continue building real political power that brings justice and equity for our Latino, immigrant, and farmworker community. Stay tune more on this in the new year.
We deeply appreciate you commitment to our work and we’re hoping we can count on your continued support to sustain the fight, insist on progress, and to draw strength from our shifts.
Adelante!
Jaime Arredondo
PCUN Secretary-Treasurer
PS: Because we are a union, donations to PCUN are not tax-deductible. You can support PCUN’s education, research, and legal-defense work via a tax-deductible contribution to the Willamette Valley Law Project.
November Photos for Thought: A Night in Solidarity with PCUN featuring Tish Hinojosa..Buy tickets here
Where? SEIU Ballroom 6401 SE Foster Portland, OR 97206, Admission: $15 donation, Time: 6:30pm
PCUN team at 2017 Annual Celebration: Celebrating 40 years of movement building. Thank you all for coming.
Event at Anahuac Produce farm with representatives from the indigenous communities of Apache, Purepecha, Mixtico and Tarahumara people. Anahuac Produce uses PCUN’s Union Label.
Adelante!
PCUN
PCUN’s Annual Celebration is the place to catch up with friends and allies of the farmworker movement, enjoy authentic Mexican food and Latin music, & learn about what we’ve been up to.
This year’s celebration falls on the famous Mexican holiday “Dia de los Muertos” (Day of the Dead). It also happens to be Ramon Ramirez’s (PCUN President) birthday. And to cap it off, 2017 is our 40th year of movement building work. So come and enjoy the Woodburn High School Mariachi Band, some pan de muerto (bread of the dead) with champurrado (warm thick Mexican drink), tamales (no translation needed), great music and stories, and most importantly great company.
A summary of 40 years of movement building
40 years ago this summer we embarked on a journey towards justice and equality for Oregon farmworkers. We’ve made tremendous progress, but some things remain the same. It was 1977 when we founded our movement’s first organization, the Willamette Valley Immigration Project (now the Farmworker Service Center), in response to an increase of ICE activity. At the time the WVIP provided community organizing, legal advice and legal representation to undocumented workers. This work has become a priority once more. And this time around, thanks to you we have a strong movement resisting and rising above the hate.
