Lalo Alcaraz hits out of the park with this cartoon. Special help from @randojoeblow. You can follow him on Twitter @laloalcaraz
Happy Hysterectomy Month
It’s Hispanic Heritage Month! It’s also been revealed that Migrant Women in Georgia ICE Detention Centers have had hysterectomies – the surgical removal of their uteruses – without their consent, and with no valid health reason to do so. That’s genocide. If you sterilize someone, you take away their ability to reproduce, to make more people like them, to have children.
A government whistleblower, Dawn Wooten, stepped forward and revealed what was happening at ICE Detention Centers in Georgia. If not for her bravery, none of us would know about the genocide happening at these Concentration Camps for Brown People from Latin America.
Why This Cartoon Resonates
It’s fucking Hispanic Heritage Month! A 30-Day period for Latinx people all across the country to celebrate our Latinidad. This is a moment to find solidarity with each other, lift each other up, and keep pushing ourselves forward. And then it’s revealed that this crime against our people is happening. A literal genocide of our people.
This cartoon by the amazing Chicano activist-artist-cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz (Go Bears!) juxtaposes the colors, imagery, and decorations of a Mexican fiesta with the brutal imagery of a Border Patrol Guard with a bloody scalpel with a row of indigenous women behind him next to a bloodied operating table. The women cover up their genitals in fear of the inevitable.
The juxtaposition of the colors and iconography of our carne asadas and pachangas with the medical instruments of female sterilization show that for the Border Patrol Guard – and those who support him – the hysterectomies are a reason to celebrate. This is their party. And they’re going to have a good time. Like Cinco de Mayo but with Ethnic Cleansing.
What are they celebrating? One less brown woman capable of bringing new life into the world, especially indigenous/Mestizo, Spanish speaking, dialect speaking, non-White American life. If you’re a true racist, that is a cause to celebrate. This cartoon is a poem and it hits you right in the heart.
What Can You Do?
Thankfully, my good friend from the LA Comedy Community, Annie Freiermuth, made me aware of this article, “ICE Is Removing Women’s Reproductive Organs w/o Their Consent – Here’s What You Can Do About It,” by O. Delgado which lays out the situation and how you can help.
The Process of Helping
Okay, so helping is super easy. Read the article up above for a more thorough breakdown. Here’s my experience.
1). Text “SIGN AHZJLZ” to 50409 or send “SIGN AHZJLZ” as a direct message to @resistbot on Twitter.
2). You’ll immediately be texted back by ResistBot, and then walk you through the process of getting your voice heard and contacting your House Representative. They’ll need your name and email, but that’s it!
3). The process is super fast and easy! I think it took me under a minute to do it! You should do it too! It’s one way to help right now from where you are. Try it out, and then your friends, and the people in your network who are passionate about this.
Calling My Local Congressman: Lou Correa
So once I texted Resistbot, I figured I’m going to my local Congressman: Lou Correa, House Representative of California’s 46th District.
Following the instructions in the article, I went to CommonCause.Org and got the information for both my Federal and State Elected Officials.
My call was answered promptly by Tony of Anaheim, a congressional staffer. He took down my information and then took down my statement (which I read verbatim from the article):
“Women are being forcibly sterilized at for-profit detention centers. This needs to stop immediately.
This is a human rights violation and an act of genocide.
The Irwin County and Stewart Detention Centers need to be shut down immediately and the doctors need to be prosecuted.
ICE needs to be investigated and abolished.”
The Script provided by the article.
I then told him my own message afterwards which was a little different and completely from me.
“The Congressman has to do something about this. It’s Hispanic Heritage Month and this shit is happening. Him and the other Hispanic/Latino/Latinx representatives have to get together and do something and show our people that they are taking action against this genocide. Because this is a genocide. It’s ethnic cleansing. It’s Nazi shit. Just replace Nazis with ICE Agents and Jews with Migrant Women. It’s terrible. They [Latino Represantatives] have to do something.”
Me talking to Tony, Lou Correa’s Staffer
This just came out of me, and it felt right and natural to share this. Tony was very nice in how he took my call and told me right after that he would address my concerns with the Congressman directly. To add a little bit of urgency, I told him that I know the Congressman’s cousins, which I do. I just didn’t say their names.
Please Take Action On This
All these actions did not take very long. And it felt good doing it. Believe me, I want to do more, but this is the best I can do right now, and it’s something other people can do as well. Because we live in a democracy, we have to sit and wait as things get sorted through our elected officials, the bureaucracy that executes the laws, and the legal processes that change, reform, and nullify laws.
But maybe if enough people take these actions, the cumulative effect will be enough to initiate change. Abolish ICE.
