Cumbre de Miembros 2024
By Mario Quintanilla, October 10, 2024
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The ever changing political landscape of today’s day and age has led La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE) to adopt a more comprehensive approach to advocate for the rights of the immigrant population. Although LUPE is a pro-immigrant organization, we recognize that immigrant justice can’t be achieved without including a variety of issues in our discussion that affect the immigrant population and many others in our country. In an effort to stay true to our roots, all the members of LUPE were called upon to vote on the priority level of the ten most important issues presented at our biannual “Cumbre de Miembros”! The vote of our members will provide LUPE with a clear set of priorities as we move forward for the next two years.

La Union del Pueblo Entero was created by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta in 1989 to advocate for the rights of immigrants. Since the early days of the organization, the subpar standards of living that many immigrants were forced to endure became an important topic of discussion in our communities and in society at large. The overwhelming likelihood that the permanent residence of immigrant families were located within a local colonia led the early leadership of LUPE to rely on delegates from these colonias to determine the priorities of the organization, back when The Cumbre de Miembros was still called Cumbre de Colonias. With the intention of expanding our horizons to better serve our membership this year, the delegates also included other members with a more diverse background.

On Saturday, September 14th 2024 LUPE held the “Cumbre de Miembros” for the first time! The event took place at the headquarters of LUPE, the historic San Juan location. The staff of LUPE started their day as early as 7:30 am to finish the preparations for the Cumbre de Miembros. As time went by, the members of LUPE started arriving in waves. The red shirts used by the members started outnumbering the blue shirts used by staff soon enough. By 9:00 am the majority of the members that participated were seated and ready to start the event. Once most seats were filled and breakfast was served, the executive director Tania Chavez began the long awaited meeting. Delegation leaders were called upon to talk about the ten most discussed issues that would soon go up for a vote. Every time an issue was presented, another member would give an often emotional personal experience related to the issue being discussed. 

One by one the members went down the list without a particular order, because the members would soon determine the priority level of each resolution with their vote. Once all the resolutions were presented, every member that was present proceeded to cast their votes. Each member was given three votes to distribute among the top three issues they’d want LUPE to prioritize. After casting their vote, the members proceeded to grab their meal as the staff counted each and every single vote. 

The priority levels of the 2024 resolutions were as follows:

  1. Immigration reform
  2. Access to health
  3. Jobs and Economy
  4. Adult education and community programs
  5. Outreach for youth
  6. Government, police and corporate responsibility
  7. Access to public transportation
  8. Quality of life in Colonias
  9. Voter and election protection
  10. Environmental crisis

The vote of our members will serve as the mandate for the direction of LUPE’s community campaigns and programs as we continue looking out for the best interest of all our members and fighting for their rights. Having a clear set of priorities will allow us to take advantage of time sensitive opportunities more effectively because this year’s “Cumbre de Miembros” gave us a deeper understanding of the issues that our members want to address. Now that the members of the organization have made their voice heard, we can heed their call as we move forward for the next two years. Thank you to all of our members who attended, and we welcome new faces in the near future. Si se pudo!




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