Community Advocates of the Month Silvia Ramirez (left) and David Vallerga (right) accept their awards from Gran Bufón Thomas Atwood (center). Eugene Thiers (the third recipient) was out of the country, and therefore out of the picture!
For fools and most friends of fools, the jester hats and clown noses require no explanation. They speak to the identity of the fool down through the ages: the trickster, the disrupter, the speaker of truth to power, the healing power of irony and laughter. Humor is as much a part of the story as is the pain of separation and loss experienced by the immigrant community here on the San Francisco Peninsula. We fools don’t suppress sad feelings, because we know we can’t do that without numbing the happy ones, too.
For just one example, Silvia, David, and Gene are regular participants with the San Mateo County Coalition for Immigrant Rights. Undaunted at the prospect of calling the office of the Sheriff or the Board of Supervisors, they meet regularly with County officials to advocate for just and humane treatment of undocumented immigrants: people who grow, transport, cook, and serve our food; build, maintain, and clean our houses; care for our children and elders; and perform countless other services that make our way of life possible.
After Gene returned Stateside, he received his Community Advocate of the Month award over breakfast at Stacks in Redwood City.
Silvia, David, and Gene are advocating for an end to “ICE holds,” where local law enforcement cooperates with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to treat one group of people differently from others. Local officials do this by detaining people longer than they normally would—oftentimes for minor, nonviolent offenses such as traffic violations—and holding them in wait for ICE to arrive on the scene and begin deportation proceedings. Sometimes they open our jails to ICE officers and allow them to roam the corridors in search of people to help them meet their quotas. (The Obama administration has set an annual quota of 400,000 deportations a year.) Families are torn apart. The consequences typically take the form of single Moms who raise their kids, work full time, and live in poverty.
Fools Mission doesn’t enjoy attending birthday parties where nine-year-old children blow out the candles on the cake with a wish that their Dad will come back. But we do love to advocate for humane treatment and hand out clown noses at the party. We never tire of the laughter of children, or writing our names in the Book of Life—just like Silvia, David, and Gene.
Congratulations and felicitaciónes, fools! Stay as you are!