today I want to talk to you a little bit
about the meaning of progressivism to me
and perhaps to many of you before we get
into the weeds about what the meaning of
progressivism is to me or to some of you
I want to ask all of you to raise your
hands if you consider yourself
progressives good there are a couple of
for me everything is saturated in my
childhood you know that little boy
that’s me back in the day when I was
about three years of age in Mexico and
everything is saturd there you know I
grew up out of poverty and made some
progress so I want to talk to your
liberal journey as a brown person in the
United States coming from Mexico to
Wisconsin the entire zona and then to
this wonderful state of Oregon when I
moved first to the United States I
experienced a culture shock like
probably every other immigrant you know
new food a new language I’m certainly a
new way to look at people when I moved
to Wisconsin in 1998 I learned for
example that Mexicans are supposed to be
the bussers the cooks the room service
workers the factory workers and so on
and so forth I move into a very white
community in central Wisconsin imagine
that but I did feel very welcome you
know people were where they were really
warm to me and I didn’t have any issues
at all you know when I think about it
you know I didn’t think about race or
ethnicity that much back then I was a
little clueless to be frank and and I
was very happy in so many ways my Latin
American friends and myself in some ways
enjoyed being different why not
you know girls Tura accents were kind of
cute
boys were trying to help us to fit in
and everybody enjoy your dancing parties
so why not enjoy it
I felt careful
this might sound shocking and strange to
many new immigrants coming from Mexico
but some I assume are good people no
political reference there so you know
moving to United States has been a
tremendous journey and living in Arizona
was a really humbling experience when I
moved from Arizona to from Wisconsin
tours and I was a really humbling a
learning experience it was wonderful
but also very exhausting learning every
day that somebody was being deported
arrested separate from their families
was exhausting and in some cases
demoralizing I remember the many times
that a good friend of mine Nick a
korean-american discussed the
possibility of moving to a place where
everybody was progressive and of course
you know Portland came to mind how
wonderful would it be to be the
so whenever moved to Portland I ended up
moving to pull myself just a few years
ago and my experience in Portland has
been also wonderful I learned that we’re
leaders in the mermen tell justice and I
am very proud of that I learned that we
are we really care about all the living
our pets or birds or box in the forest
and everything around us I also learned
that we are leaders in general equity
rights and we should continue to move in
that direction however nothing is
perfect in life and I think we’re
lacking all the weave in being
progressive by taking care of each other
that gap of progressivism in our
leadership and our systems make this
progressive ideas around equity and
inclusion a very fragile concept of
I must say that every time I go into the
streets and see people is living
everywhere and see people that can’t
afford a house and see people that
cannot pour their school or their
medical bills for that matter puts us
into a really hard situation so who are
we and where are we in a Wisconsin was
progressive before scott walker arizona
is working on it and i think we’re a
little confused here in in in oregon
just a little bit but it’s working
progress anyway right it doesn’t really
matter where you play yourself in the
bigger spectrum of progressivism what it
really matters is that we understand the
progressivism but it’s by itself it’s a
moving target
it is never Anastasia nary concept
progressivism by natural means that
continues to move and we need to embrace
that concept I for example think that
progressivism is not necessarily a
destination it’s a way of living and we
need to embrace that I think everybody
has experienced a progressive city that
comes in ironic fashion yielding bikes
and Pelley options in your local food
cart unsure you know happy chickens and
soon we’ll be there so you can eat them
don’t get me wrong I see one my happy
chickens that soon will be there so I
can eat them but truly that is the
low-hanging fruit of progressivism we
need to make sure that we address the
hard truths of being progressive
meaningful taxes firkin fine reforms
immigration reform clean energy projects
and so on and so forth also we need to
take a look at the past to understand
how much progress we have made to date
and understand also you know what is it
that we can change and reflect on those
issues back in the nineteen hundreds
this city was still you know brewing
that progressive movement in nineteen
twenties 1921 for example the Portland
City Club the first chair the first
secretary said no most backs in the city
which is another concept for concept
conservatives and he was mister Ella
wheeler was willing to welcome
immigrants into his community which was
very nice that was the progressive thing
to do however in order to do that he
established the Americanization
committee which outlined the high
importance the nation importance of
teaching the American values and
American language to the people that
were coming to this country this very
principle of progressivism outlines the
progressive priority of erasing
diversity in this community those ideas
whether they happen a hundred years from
now or today or tomorrow should not be
considered progressive and we should and
I invite you to think about what
progressivism means tomorrow 100 years
from today I invite you to think about
what these people will say from us and
our social justice work a hundred years
from today I ask you to think about what
will the future of our kids will be when
they are talking about ourselves moving
to this community
I became Mexican again not that it
wasn’t but you know our systems our
society our own beloved diversity and
inclusion policies keep reminding me of
this every day and it’s not necessarily
a fun place to be in the earth by all
means the rise start these ideas of
caring for each other are the right
start but we need to move fast and
forward and evolve them into practices
that really allocated
resources for communists of color and
other communities to really get ahead
and insured them a successful future we
cannot stand on the sidelines anymore we
cannot pretend that we care or that we
want to be cool or they want to bribe
drive an old Volvo just because it’s
cool or say that we eat organic
expensive food just because all of those
are good things no doubt but we need to
get out of our comfort zone and question
what we’re doing let’s not be the
progressives that think they are
progressives while they are sitting on
the sidelines doing absolutely nothing
to bring change I believe that this
community has all the foundations and
the leadership’s the leadership should
be coming from you to advance those
progressive ideas to take care of each
other to be truly a social progressive
individual in this community we need to
advance and put the resources behind
them I don’t think it is fair with many
people you know and systems when we’re
growing up when we’re being taught that
sharing is caring when we’re taught as
kids that sharing is the right thing to
do I don’t think we evolved on the side
in that same direction
you know we forget as adults that about
that concept and those ideas of not
sharing accumulating power get
translated into our systems into our
government agencies into our overall
community and we tend to displace
resources to competitive processes that
really are putting people to compete
when they are not in the same level or
had the same resources to compete for
those additional resources to continue
to grow and be developed these only
places and give the benefit to the few
while the many continue to be left
overall I think we have overexcited
rated our social evolution you know we
think we’re progressive because we that
expensive food some people think they
are compassion because they let anyone
sleep in front of their office space in
downtown some others think they are
progressive simply because they are
riding a bicycle again there is
absolutely nothing wrong with that but
want to finish with this thought and I
don’t want to speak for every person of
color in this country or this community
for that matter but we don’t need
apologies for what happened in the past
yes they it is nice to hear those
apologies yes it is nice and welcome you
know when we hear them what we need is
your support what we need is your
investment what we need is your love I
know you have ours I am here because
white and people of color alike believed
in me invested in me I am here because
those people push me to be where I am
today so I am asking you
and we must ask ourselves who are we
going to be investing in and supporting
in moving forward I hope that you guys invest on us thank you
about the meaning of progressivism to me
and perhaps to many of you before we get
into the weeds about what the meaning of
progressivism is to me or to some of you
I want to ask all of you to raise your
hands if you consider yourself
progressives good there are a couple of
for me everything is saturated in my
childhood you know that little boy
that’s me back in the day when I was
about three years of age in Mexico and
everything is saturd there you know I
grew up out of poverty and made some
progress so I want to talk to your
liberal journey as a brown person in the
United States coming from Mexico to
Wisconsin the entire zona and then to
this wonderful state of Oregon when I
moved first to the United States I
experienced a culture shock like
probably every other immigrant you know
new food a new language I’m certainly a
new way to look at people when I moved
to Wisconsin in 1998 I learned for
example that Mexicans are supposed to be
the bussers the cooks the room service
workers the factory workers and so on
and so forth I move into a very white
community in central Wisconsin imagine
that but I did feel very welcome you
know people were where they were really
warm to me and I didn’t have any issues
at all you know when I think about it
you know I didn’t think about race or
ethnicity that much back then I was a
little clueless to be frank and and I
was very happy in so many ways my Latin
American friends and myself in some ways
enjoyed being different why not
you know girls Tura accents were kind of
cute
boys were trying to help us to fit in
and everybody enjoy your dancing parties
so why not enjoy it
I felt careful
this might sound shocking and strange to
many new immigrants coming from Mexico
but some I assume are good people no
political reference there so you know
moving to United States has been a
tremendous journey and living in Arizona
was a really humbling experience when I
moved from Arizona to from Wisconsin
tours and I was a really humbling a
learning experience it was wonderful
but also very exhausting learning every
day that somebody was being deported
arrested separate from their families
was exhausting and in some cases
demoralizing I remember the many times
that a good friend of mine Nick a
korean-american discussed the
possibility of moving to a place where
everybody was progressive and of course
you know Portland came to mind how
wonderful would it be to be the
so whenever moved to Portland I ended up
moving to pull myself just a few years
ago and my experience in Portland has
been also wonderful I learned that we’re
leaders in the mermen tell justice and I
am very proud of that I learned that we
are we really care about all the living
our pets or birds or box in the forest
and everything around us I also learned
that we are leaders in general equity
rights and we should continue to move in
that direction however nothing is
perfect in life and I think we’re
lacking all the weave in being
progressive by taking care of each other
that gap of progressivism in our
leadership and our systems make this
progressive ideas around equity and
inclusion a very fragile concept of
I must say that every time I go into the
streets and see people is living
everywhere and see people that can’t
afford a house and see people that
cannot pour their school or their
medical bills for that matter puts us
into a really hard situation so who are
we and where are we in a Wisconsin was
progressive before scott walker arizona
is working on it and i think we’re a
little confused here in in in oregon
just a little bit but it’s working
progress anyway right it doesn’t really
matter where you play yourself in the
bigger spectrum of progressivism what it
really matters is that we understand the
progressivism but it’s by itself it’s a
moving target
it is never Anastasia nary concept
progressivism by natural means that
continues to move and we need to embrace
that concept I for example think that
progressivism is not necessarily a
destination it’s a way of living and we
need to embrace that I think everybody
has experienced a progressive city that
comes in ironic fashion yielding bikes
and Pelley options in your local food
cart unsure you know happy chickens and
soon we’ll be there so you can eat them
don’t get me wrong I see one my happy
chickens that soon will be there so I
can eat them but truly that is the
low-hanging fruit of progressivism we
need to make sure that we address the
hard truths of being progressive
meaningful taxes firkin fine reforms
immigration reform clean energy projects
and so on and so forth also we need to
take a look at the past to understand
how much progress we have made to date
and understand also you know what is it
that we can change and reflect on those
issues back in the nineteen hundreds
this city was still you know brewing
that progressive movement in nineteen
twenties 1921 for example the Portland
City Club the first chair the first
secretary said no most backs in the city
which is another concept for concept
conservatives and he was mister Ella
wheeler was willing to welcome
immigrants into his community which was
very nice that was the progressive thing
to do however in order to do that he
established the Americanization
committee which outlined the high
importance the nation importance of
teaching the American values and
American language to the people that
were coming to this country this very
principle of progressivism outlines the
progressive priority of erasing
diversity in this community those ideas
whether they happen a hundred years from
now or today or tomorrow should not be
considered progressive and we should and
I invite you to think about what
progressivism means tomorrow 100 years
from today I invite you to think about
what these people will say from us and
our social justice work a hundred years
from today I ask you to think about what
will the future of our kids will be when
they are talking about ourselves moving
to this community
I became Mexican again not that it
wasn’t but you know our systems our
society our own beloved diversity and
inclusion policies keep reminding me of
this every day and it’s not necessarily
a fun place to be in the earth by all
means the rise start these ideas of
caring for each other are the right
start but we need to move fast and
forward and evolve them into practices
that really allocated
resources for communists of color and
other communities to really get ahead
and insured them a successful future we
cannot stand on the sidelines anymore we
cannot pretend that we care or that we
want to be cool or they want to bribe
drive an old Volvo just because it’s
cool or say that we eat organic
expensive food just because all of those
are good things no doubt but we need to
get out of our comfort zone and question
what we’re doing let’s not be the
progressives that think they are
progressives while they are sitting on
the sidelines doing absolutely nothing
to bring change I believe that this
community has all the foundations and
the leadership’s the leadership should
be coming from you to advance those
progressive ideas to take care of each
other to be truly a social progressive
individual in this community we need to
advance and put the resources behind
them I don’t think it is fair with many
people you know and systems when we’re
growing up when we’re being taught that
sharing is caring when we’re taught as
kids that sharing is the right thing to
do I don’t think we evolved on the side
in that same direction
you know we forget as adults that about
that concept and those ideas of not
sharing accumulating power get
translated into our systems into our
government agencies into our overall
community and we tend to displace
resources to competitive processes that
really are putting people to compete
when they are not in the same level or
had the same resources to compete for
those additional resources to continue
to grow and be developed these only
places and give the benefit to the few
while the many continue to be left
overall I think we have overexcited
rated our social evolution you know we
think we’re progressive because we that
expensive food some people think they
are compassion because they let anyone
sleep in front of their office space in
downtown some others think they are
progressive simply because they are
riding a bicycle again there is
absolutely nothing wrong with that but
want to finish with this thought and I
don’t want to speak for every person of
color in this country or this community
for that matter but we don’t need
apologies for what happened in the past
yes they it is nice to hear those
apologies yes it is nice and welcome you
know when we hear them what we need is
your support what we need is your
investment what we need is your love I
know you have ours I am here because
white and people of color alike believed
in me invested in me I am here because
those people push me to be where I am
today so I am asking you
and we must ask ourselves who are we
going to be investing in and supporting
in moving forward I hope that you guys invest on us thank you
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