News Conference: July 9, 4 p.m.
Margaret Hudson’s Barn and Garden
4247 N. Thorne Ave., Fresno
Fresno Group to bring Medical and other Humanitarian Aid to Cuba
Aid to be delivered in defiance of US Law as an act of Civil Disobedience
The 23nd annual Pastors for Peace aid caravan to Cuba will come to Fresno on Monday, July 9 as part of a caravan of aid vehicles stopping in 130 cities in the US and Canada. Locally, the Fresno Center for Nonviolence has collected donations of medical supplies, school supplies, and computers for distribution by an ecumenical group of church leaders in the island nation.
There will be a public send-off event for the caravan in Fresno at 6 p.m. on July 9 at Margaret Hudson’s Barn and Garden, 4247 N. Thorne Ave. The event, which is open to the public, includes a potluck meal at 6 p.m., music by Patricia Wells and Coro del Pueblo at 6:30, and a program at 7 p.m. Speakers at the program will include a caravan spokesperson from Pastors for Peace plus several former caravanistas who are quite familiar with current conditions in Cuba .
The news conference is scheduled for 4 p.m. at the same location. (The barn is to be found beyond the community garden behind Margaret Hudson’s house.) Primary speaker at the press conference will be Pastors for Peace caravan spokesperson Yesenia Molina of the Watsonville Autonomous Brown Berets, a community activist group made up primarily of young people. She has worked with Movimiento Estudiantil Chicana/o de Azlan (M.E.Ch.A.), which is a student organization that strives to get more minorities and people of color into higher education. She also has worked for the last eight years with El Teatro Campesino and with the folklorico dance group Esperanza del Valle. This will be Molina’s third time to travel with a Pastors for Peace caravan to Cuba . Local caravan participants Leni Reeves and Gerry Bill will also be present at the news conference. The press conference will include native speakers of Spanish.
Later this month the thirteen caravan routes across the US will converge on McAllen , Texas , carrying over 100 tons of aid. On July 19 the aid will cross into Reynosa , Mexico in a direct challenge to the US blockade of Cuba that has been in place for 50 years. The caravan travels to Cuba via Tampico , Mexico , without asking for or accepting a US government license, as a peaceful, disciplined act of civil disobedience against the blockade and travel ban, and as ambassadors for a ‘people-to-people’ foreign policy based on mutual respect. Caravanistas risk arrest and heavy fines levied by the US government for carrying the humanitarian aid to Cuba , but that has not stopped past caravans, and the aid always gets through to its intended recipients.
The Fresno Center for Nonviolence is the local sponsor of the caravan event
