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As the station continues its coverage of Hispanic Heritage Week, NY1’s Dean Meminger traveled to the Bronx to report on a Latino activist organization that has been assisting the community for years.
La Pena has spent the last several months working out of a community garden, but for them that doesn’t matter; their strong desire is to help immigrants.
“Of course it is a little difficult when you don’t have a physical space, but that also doesn’t stop you from continuing working and doing community work,” said La Pena founder Nieves Ayress.
La Pena was started over 20 years ago by Chilean immigrants Nieves Ayress and her husband Victor Toro. Political activists in their homeland, they fled the dictatorship to come to America in the 1970s.
NY1 has followed La Pena for more than a decade. Group members have engaged in a number of battles to keep their homes and community spaces. In 1998, the organization described itself as homesteaders helping to take care of a building on 136th Street, but the city forced the organization and others out, saying they were squatters.
Because of rising rents, the group says it was not able to hold on to a number of community centers.
Although it has been a difficult road to travel for La Pena over the last 21 years in the South Bronx, the group says it will keep moving forward – trying to improve conditions for immigrants who live in the area. On their radar: the presidential election and the Wall Street rescue plan.
“This is corporate welfare, is what it is,” said Rod Starz of La Pena. “These Wall Street crooks, are what we call them, have made millions, billions of dollars and are being bailed out. And, here, our community needs healthcare, needs education, and no one is talking about bailing out the people who really need it, the poor people of the United States.”
La Pena constantly pushes its community activism through music. The hip-hop group Rebel Diaz is responsible for La Pena’s youth movement.
“Hip hop is the message that is going to bring in the youth to do actually work,” said La Pena member Lah Tere. “From hip hop to activism, that is the theme.”
Along with the young, the group is also worried about its 67-year-old leader, who is an illegal immigrant. Victor Toro was arrested last year by border patrol officers upstate during a spot check on an Amtrak train.
Early next year, Toro will appear in federal court to find out if he will be granted political asylum or be deported
Tags: bronx, Bronx Neighborhood News, Bronx News, Bronx People, Community, Education, Hispanic Heritage Week, La Pena, Lah Tere, Latino, Nieves Ayress, NY1's Dean Meminger, Rebel Diaz, Rod Starz of La Pena, South Bronx, Victor ToroRelated posts
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