The Immigrant Youth Coalition will host a film night and Civil Disobedience Panel.
$3 suggested donation
no one will be turned away for lack of funds
Panel by Undocumented youth who have participated in civil disobedience
Open discussion after films.
We will Screen
“Black Power Mixtape” by Göran Olsson
Footage shot by a group of Swedish journalists documenting the Black Power Movement in the United States is edited together by a contemporary Swedish filmmaker.
“Bad Dreamers” by Alex Rivera
The first film documenting civil disobedience by undocumented youth in Los Angeles, the film show behind the scenes before 5 youth hold a sit-in inside the offices of ICE in Los Angeles. This film gives you an inside view of why undocumented youth risk deportation by participating in civil disobedience.
“IYC takes on City Hall and Department of Homeland Security” by POCHO1
A film documenting this years first Civil Disobedience action as youth risk their lives to empower undocumented youth in their communities. The short film features amazing photography.
About the author: Alejandro View all posts by Alejandro
Alex Aldana is queer undocumented immigrant rights activist that works as a national/community organizer with a vibrant and very raw/uncensored opinion in the myriad of intersectionalities that impact the Immigrant Youth Movement (DREAMers) and brings strategy and direct action to create a new dialogue & truly bring social justice and equality within the LGBTQ/Immigrant movement.
Alex migrated from Guadalajara,Mexico to the United States when he was 16 in 2003 to the beautiful dunes of the Coachella Valley. Greaduated from La Quinta high School in 2005 and not having the stability most middle families have, and experiencing dometic violence in the household,he went on with life and decided to support his mother and sister to work in the farm fields picking grapes and embracing the soil and the culture of the farm worker, construction work, and other opportunities that would help them survive.
Alex’s only higher education has been deep-rooted by and for the community: Impacted by the scarce resources in the Coachella valley, he decided to get involved as health advocate for Latino LGBTQ youth, doing HIV/AIDS prevention, education and treatment through social justice, advocacy and empowerment to immigrant communities impacted and oppressed in Southern California.
Alex worked as an HIV Counselor, Case Manager and Queer mentor with Bienestar Human Services providing services to Latino LGBTQ youth in Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Bernardino County since 2007. At a local, state and national level , he has contributed with conferences and rallies addressing LGBTQ issues in school districts (Queer Youth Advocacy Day 2008) , marriage equality (Prop 8 campaign), Immigrant rights (May Day March 2010 Queer youth contingent) and representing HIV services for undocumented immigrants at The United States Conference on AIDS in 2011.His devoted contribution at a local level in his community was to create the first lgbtq latino group in the Coachella Valley in 2011.
Aldana’s liberation by “Coming out of the shadows” was followed by an action in San Bernardino, CA in 2012 along with the Immigrant Youth Coalition, Where he was arrested protesting against “secure communities/287g” outside of city hall to empower immigrant communities that live in fear because such laws.
After coming out publicly with his immigration status he joined the Campaign for an American DREAM, a walking across the country from San Francisco to DC where 5 undocumented students empowered communitites & pushed to stop the massive deportations of DREAM act elegible youth and families President Obama executed and separated in his term. He also organized the hunger strike and occupation at the Obama for America office in Denver,CO on June of the same year, asking for an executive order which replicated across the country and put pressure to issue the Deffered Action for Childhood arrivals a week after the mobilization.
Recent work in Albuquerque, NM included organizing the first national encuentro for The Association of Joteria,Arts,Activism and Scholarship (AJAAS) mobilizing undocumented queer youth from the border states of California, Arizona, and Texas.
He will continue to address human rights violations and justice with the intersections of his work on HIV prevention, LGBTQ issues, Education, and Immigration along with radical activist groups that cannot and will no longer remain dormant in the shadows.
