On Friday, more than 100 LUPE members gathered at our headquarters for our bi-annual Cumbre de Colonias. They voted on and formally passed 8 resolutions to mark our priorities for the next 2 years. We’ll get to those in a second, but first, let me explain what makes the Cumbre so special.
The Cumbre is a Democratic process that starts off in our members’ neighborhoods. They host small house meetings— or juntas caseras— with their neighbors to brainstorm what issues they think are the most important for LUPE to prioritize. Then, our community organizing team gathers the responses from approximately 50 colonias across the Rio Grande Valley and tallies the results. Finally, the top issues are made into resolutions, which members formally vote on during the Cumbre.
This process is a critical part of LUPE to make sure our members are the ones truly directing our work. They are the ones who know the community best, and with their leadership, we organize together and win for our families. Our unity is the antidote to the greed of corporations and power-hungry politicians. While they try to profit from exploiting our differences, we stand in solidarity with each other as working people and call them out. That’s how we’ve won in the past, and that’s how we will keep winning.
Our members’ passed the following resolutions on Friday: immigration reform, public lighting, safety in colonias, adequate drainage, health access, clean neighborhoods, driving permits for all, and fixing the streets in their colonias.
These resolutions are not only symbolic. In the past, these priorities have led to some of our movement’s most iconic victories, such as winning public lighting for more than 13 colonias in Hidalgo County in 2015 or winning $186 million in federal disaster relief funding to benefit low income colonia residents whose homes were damaged by Hurricane Dolly.
