A local queer Latinx social-justice organization announced two individuals and one organization as the honorees for its annual leadership awards ceremony. GALAEI will honor Gabriela Sanchez, Valentina Rosario and the Black & Brown Workers Collective at the eighth-annual David Acosta Revolutionary Leadership Awards (DARLA) next week.
GALAEI Executive Director Nikki López noted this year’s theme, “Celebrating Queer Latinx Resistance.”
“Queer Latinx folks have sort of always known that our lives are an act of resistance every day,” López said.
López added that, “despite the violent political climate that we’re in, which is heavily oppressive and violent toward queer Latinx people,” the community is still “surviving.”
“The theme came about because we wanted to highlight and celebrate that act of resistance,” López said. “Celebration lends itself to a particular type of uplift and a particular type of positivity around it. When we think about resistance, sometimes we think about the fight and struggle. We really wanted a place where individuals in our communities, our collaborative partners, our allies and ourselves can be in a space to celebrate our various acts of resistance and within each other in this place of radical love.”
Gabriela Sanchez
Sanchez is the founder and managing director of Power Street Theatre Company. She is a queer Latina actress and has produced plays, script readings, open-mic events and art.
In selecting honorees, López said GALAEI considered the different ways resistance manifests itself, and one of those ways is through the arts. She added that Sanchez’s work centers on the lives of women of color.
“Her body of work that she’s done, with not only founding the Power Street Theater Company but also the plays that she has written and the plays that she’s been an actress in as well, are confronting issues of resistance like resisting against heteronormativity, resisting against patriarchy [and] resisting against the issues and the stereotypes that come with our identity,” López said.
“[When it comes to] acts of resistance, we automatically think about people on the street, community organizers or activism,” López added. “[Sanchez is] the example of how resistance can also look like theater and art.”
Black & Brown Workers Collective
López said she once heard the BBWC referred to as a “small core of activists,” who were criticized for their efforts.
“They epitomized what consistent resistance and power of the people looked like,” López said. “The BBWC has been at the forefront for addressing the racism within the Gayborhood. They have been at the forefront of protests.”
The BBWC’s website states the organization’s mission is to “actively challenge, resist and dismantle systems of oppression that adversely impact the black and brown worker.”
López said the group made the public aware of “horrendous practices that were happening at the Mazzoni Center,” including allegations of sexual impropriety by former medical director Dr. Robert Winn. Winn and Mazzoni CEO Nurit Shein have since resigned from their positions.
“If you can find the word ‘resistance’ in the dictionary, you would find the BBWC there,” López said. “They showcase how power of the people are able to address the institutional systemic oppression that happens within our community.”
Valentina Rosario
Lopez said Rosario is “not necessarily on the streets in activism” but noted the queer trans Latina “showcases resistance” by being herself.
“Recently, she did this amazing presentation at her school where she talked about her life as a trans woman of color and the barriers she faces,” López said. “She exemplifies utilizing her own life and her authentic self and how she is able to survive every day as a trans woman of color.”
The El Centro de Estudiante senior has been a part of GALAEI’s youth program since 2011 and has educated her school and community on trans issues and trans visibility. Additionally, she started Butterflies, an empowerment group for trans youth, through GALAEI. According to a statement from GALAEI, Rosario’s “biggest dream is to open a trans youth shelter.”
“She may not realize it but she’s changing the landscape of her school and she’s changing the landscape of her classmates in just being her authentic self,” Lopez said. “She exemplifies that type of resistance that happens every single day.”
Transforming the landscape
López noted that GALAEI has always been an organization that is “by the people, for the people.”
“DARLA is the one place that we’ll be able to centralize all of our community members and even our allies to see that we’re doing some amazing work, that the community is doing amazing work and that we’re literally changing and transforming the landscape within Philadelphia,” she said.
The eighth-annual DARLA ceremony will be held 7-10 p.m. May 12 at Taller Puertorriqueño, 2600 N. Fifth Street. Tickets can be purchased at www.eventbrite.com/e/8th-annual-darla-awards-ceremony-celebrating-queer-latinx-resistance-tickets-33316539667.