Art + Activism
Mano Amiga's embrace of cinema as a popular education tool continues to expand. THE DAY THEY TOOK MY FATHER, a 15-minute documentary about our work alongside Nataly Avendano to free her dad from ICE via grassroots organizing, is nearing completion, made by filmmakers whose last documentary won the SXSW Audience Award; LIMONES, a short narrative about the cruelty of immigration enforcement in Hays County, won a $15,000 Austin Film Society award & Director Vanessa Pla, who's worked closely with famed Director Richard Linklater for years, expects to shoot the first week of December, with actors Yareli Arizmendi (LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE) & Sonny Carl Davis (BERNIE, THE BURBS) slated to play major roles. In 2019, Mano Amiga co-sponsored the politically charged Lost River Film Fest, Oct 17-20, which also functioned as a statewide meet-up of immigrant-justice organizers from The Valley, Laredo, Corpus Christi, San Antonio, Waco, Wimberley, Austin & Ft. Worth, with heavy immigration-themed cinematic content the final two days.
pop-up ART
Mano Amiga brought in NY-based DACA recipient and artist Dayann Pazmino to create a new visual art piece centered on telling the story of local resident, Janelie Rodriquez, whose case was at the center of deportation defense campaign.
Photo by Christopher Cardoza
Writers by the river reading series
In 2020, Mano Amiga partnered with Austin-based literary journal, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review for a new quarterly event. The Writers by the River Reading Series (WBTRS) promotes diversity by engaging people from historically underrepresented backgrounds who are authors, poets, and journalists, in a public presentation and conversation to be held in the city of San Marcos. By amplifying the voices of people of color, people who identify as LGBTQIA+, and women, in a public forum, we encourage members of the local community to embrace an array of narratives and expand their understanding of the world through literary engagement.
Bards behind bars
Mano Amiga held the Bards Behind Bars event to help organizer Faylita Hicks raise money to attend the Lambda Literary Writer’s Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ+ Voices. They performed original poems alongside Councilman Mark Rockeymoore. They both shared their life-changing experiences in the Hays County Jail.
Portrait by Dayann Pazmino
Community mural
We created this mural with the intention of honoring local leaders, activists and artists. We believe that power is built from the ground up and through the creation of this mural we hope to inspire the next generation to become involved in our local community just as these leaders did in their lifetime. We give special thanks to the San Marcos Art Commision, the Poetry foundation, the Center for the Studies of the South West & Dayann Pazmino for creating the mural with local community members.
