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By Armando Vazquez / Guest contributor
Here in South California and Ventura County the most recent pre-election rhetoric seemed to be the same as the national insane hysteria, more subdued, but still the same, fear is what many of the local politicians were peddling.
To its astute common sense, courageous and liberating credit Oxnard did not sub come to the politics of bigotry, hatred and division. We voted into office a fully slate of progressive folks that make the future of our beloved community seem exquisitely primed for universal participatory democratic aspiration, possibilities and grass roots activism that will for once truly represent the ethnically rich and diverse community that makes Oxnard unique in Ventura County and throughout the United States.
For the first time in our history we have in Oxnard a majority of Latina/o city council members. There are three Latinas for the first time in the 115 year history of Oxnard. This is great news, it was long overdue! The will, the power and hard work of the people has been heard through the power of the ballot box.
Latino represent 70 to 80 % of the population currently totalling approximately 250,000 residents in Oxnard (depending on who is conducting the census) and up until now we have had little to no power. Those days are over! We Latinos know better than most that power is never ceded voluntarily but must be taken. We voted and seized the local political power. So in the run-up to the transition to the new local government in Oxnard we the people must organize, mobilized and scrupulously plan so that we can present and be an influential part of a well research and consensus driven movement of aspirations, expectations and demand immediately present to the new city council. The Latino community can neither afford nor concede a token “honeymoon” period. We have waited 115 year for this period the “good old days” are dead we must bury with immediate progressive actions.
In frequent conversations, convivios comunitarios, and in our constant canvasing of our community here are some of the most important issues that resonate with our Latino community. Not surprisingly the Acuna Arts Collective, Oxnard Multicultural Health Coalition, the One Love & Salseras Poderosas Partners and other community organizations are currently working with the community with very limited funding and resources on these same issues.
Community Health/Salud Comunitaria: The vast majority of the Latino population of Oxnard is low income and agricultural/factory working and just one major health issue(s) from economic disaster and ruin. America’s medical model is currently a poorly designed obsolete reactive model that makes the medical-industrial complex filthy rich and treats many American patient, especially the poor with indifference, disdain and hostility.
Let us be more in Oxnard the community demands it! Let us be a proactive knowledgeable holistic preventative health leader. In Oxnard we actively and aggressively support, promote, and create (and fine tune as needed) a universal preventive proactive community directed health movement that rely heavily on no cost healthy living exercise, nutrition, mental health, art/culture, convivios familiars y comunitarios and other culturally and ethnically congruent that are highly effective, universally mobile, and most important economically feasible and accessible to all. One healthy living program, the One Love/Salerasas Poderoseas are currently provide yearly approximately 30,000 individual hours of healthy lives classes in dance movement, bienestar nutrition and community service convivios that also addresses mental health and other intimate cultural and ethnically issues unique to Latina women events to mostly farm and factory working women and their children in Oxnard. This simple healthy living program and mental health convivios for farm and factory working women and their children is available to everyone, transformative and liberating. We have many incredible testimonial from our participant that attest to magical transformation that has taken place in individual woman that participate in this health living program.
Our youth and family: Family strengthening and support services, quality education, social justice and mental ( art and cultural programs expanded) and physical ( youth jobs, community improvement projects, healthy living programs for all ages) prosperity on a level playing field is all the Latino community expects and demands; nothing more, nothing less.
To that end we will lobby our new majority Latino city council members to look beyond the unimaginative and heavy handed policing community safety strategies currently deployed in Oxnard that disproportionately profile, victimize and criminalize our Latino youth. Our Acuna Art Collective, CORE and other local community social justice group will demand the elimination of the two citywide Civil Gang In junctions, the zero tolerance Graffiti War that the current mayor and his proxies are waging against our youth at the cost of more than one million dollars per year. We will lobby and work for the immediately realignment of the approximately 70 million 2018-2019 OPD budget so that it redirects one (1) million dollar line item for social justice, restorative justices and other culturally and ethnically congruent community based programs that help remediate, enhance and restore all of our youth to maximize their innate core to be productive community members.
Community Safety: Our Latino community is incredibly law abiding, respectful of authority, adaptive and resilient; we have to be as we are predominately immigrants, blue collar, low income, politically (up to now) impotent and acutely underrepresented so historically we have learned to protect and “police” ourselves within our families and our communities. Many of us Latino fear law enforcement, the police, immigration authorities,(such as la migra, (ICE), and Homeland Security), the courts, the lawyers, the laws, all seemed so often to be working in perfect conspiracy to harasses and subjugates us to servitude and second class citizenry. With this newly elected Latino city council majority we will work with our official to change the prevailing perception and realties in our Latino Oxnard communities that “la jura y la migra” are out to get us. We will work to eliminate the unconstitutional Civil “Gang” Injunctions that has for 15 years disproportionately target our Latino youth. We will work with the OPD and our many community partners to develop and implement 21st century community preventative restorative community safety programs, intervention and protocols that address underlying aberrant and delinquent behavior, especially among our youth and the recovery community. We will lobby and work hard with our new elected Latino city council majority to assure that there are sufficient funds and support to augment and support local community based programs and organization that have a history of success in helping mitigate youth on youth delinquency and domestic violence, restorative justice, city wide enhancement projects through community service, educational remediation, civic involvement, as well as other culturally and ethnically congruent programs in a new bold holistic proactive community driven safety and prosperity movements that involves and empowers every resident of Oxnard.
We have a lot of work to do Oxnard, with a smile on our face and love in our heart let’s get started!
— Armando Vazquez, M.Ed., founding member of CORE and the Acuna Art Gallery and Community Collective.
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