Simón Sedillo is a community rights defense organizer and film maker. He has spent the last 8 years documenting, producing and teaching community based video documentation in Mexico and the US. Through lectures, workshops, and short films, Sedillo breaks down the effects of neoliberalism, the North American Free Trade Agreement, and militarism on indigenous communities, immigrant communities, and communities of color in the US and Mexico. Through collaborative media projects, Sedillo’s work has contributed to a growing network of communities whose primary objective is to share, teach, and learn from one another, about community based media production and the collective construction of horizontal networks of community rights defense. Sedillo is also an active member of the campaign to close the U.S. Army School of the Americas, at Fort Benning, in Columbus, GA. You can find him at the gates of the U.S. Army base every November along with the folks from The School of the Americas Watch.
Spring 2012 Film Tour
My name is Mare Advertencia Lirika. I’m a rapper born in Oaxaca. I make music for my people and inspired by them; for those who don’t dare speak up, because they fear not being heard, or because of ideas imposed on them that what they say, think, and believe is wrong…
Over 500 years ago the Spaniards arrived on our lands with ideas of conquest. And, believing themselves to be superior, they imposed their religion and language on us. After hundreds of years, today we are “free,” but they continue to subjugate and humiliate us, though now it’s done with the help of mainstream media. They continue promoting the idea that indigenous people, the hood and, above all, women, should, as their legacy, always be the most oppressed. Of course, in the formal sense of the word, this often just means not fitting into the stereotypes of the privileged classes.
This concept of inequality also creates the perception of a need to be “rescued.” And from that perception we see the emergence of false heroes, like government institutions, independent organizations or individuals, who claim to improve people’s lives through their help, making us dependent instead of understanding and taking up our own liberation. At the end of the day, though, despite the history of conquest, poverty, and marginalization, we are still resisting, defending our culture, our roots, and our history. But not the history that the wealthy and the intellectuals have sold us; we defend the history that our people have lived. The history that they’ve tried, unsuccessfully, to take away from us. But the struggle isn’t over yet, we’re still fighting for our liberation; and not just our own, but everybody’s liberation, including the women and men who don’t dare speak up. Hip Hop keeps fighting to make sure their voices are heard.
Teaser: “Cuando Una Mujer Avanza”
Previously Toured Films (Still Available to screen)
(26 Minutes) 2011 Playa Vicente, Veracruz, Mexico
The 10 year old son of community organizers and musicians in Playa Vicente, Veracruz, Elias Barradas , walks us through the 8th annual “Festival del Tesechoacan” as the fictional character “Sub – Lieutenant Coco”. While Barradas remains in character as Sub-Lieutenant Coco throughout the film, he takes us through different spaces and activities for organizing this tremendous traditional music festival. Elias reminds us in the film that culture, music, and media in the hands of communities are important elements of the resistance against the loss of identity and community roots. The DVD packet includes the film “Contra el Silencio”, several music videos from the festival, and an mp3 CD with all of the music from the festival professionally recorded, mixed and mastered.
Trailer: “Contra el Silencio”
(30 minutes) 2011 Los Angeles Pueblo Nuevo, Oaxaca, Mexico
Since the 2006 Oaxacan Peoples’ Popular Assembly (APPO) uprising, the face and body of Oaxaca’s popular social movement has changed into many different projects, collectives, community organizations, strategies and struggles. Manovuelta’s films look at the movement from a different perspective and have been instrumental in identifying different personalities within the social movement who do not necessarily fit into the boxes assigned by foreign activists, journalists, academics, and intellectuals; from an entire family who participated as musicians at the barricades in the film “La Familia Raíces”, to a hip hop heroine and several young men who gain life-changing political formation defending their city in “Xip Xop Oaxaca”, and to the different projects from the traditional Son Jarocho music movement in Veracruz, Mexico. “Oaxaca en Resistencia” brings several Oaxacan and Veracruzan artists together with Xip Xop artists, barricaders from the neighborhood the film is set in, and chicanos and chicanas from all over the US to take one more collective look at the face of Oaxaca’s resistance.
(20 minutes) 2011 Set in Otatitlan, Veracruz, Mexico “El Jardin Kojima” (Kojima Garden) gives us a look at how traditional Son Jarocho music is used as a tool for community organizing and conscience building. Son Jarocho music is primarily found and rooted in afro-indigenous communities in the state of Veracruz. Today, this community-based art form is played and enjoyed all over the world. At its core, Son Jarocho music strengthens pride in community identity and also inspires different kinds of organizing. “El Jardin Kojima” is just one example of how Son Jarocho music and traditions are keeping communities strong in a time of limited opportunities.
“El Jardin Kojima” FILM TRAILER
(55 minutes) 2010 This film is part of an ongoing investigation which has exposed US military mapping of communally owned indigenous land in the Southern Sierra in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. The mapping took place under the auspices of the department of geography from Kansas University in Lawrence, Kansas in collaboration with the Foreign Military Studies Office (FMSO) at Fort Leavenworth, in Leavenworth, Kansas. The FMSO senior analyst Lieutenant Colonel Geoffrey B. Demarest declares in several essays and texts that communal ownership of property, leads to crime and insurgency. The film irrefutably exposes an ongoing military strategy to criminalize indigenous land tenure and identity in order to secure political and economic interests in the region.
“The Demarest Factor” FILM TRAILER
(50 minutes) 2009 This film documents stories of resistance from several youths in Oaxaca, Mexico. The film explores different elements of conscious and revolutionary hip hop culture, which has been greatly influenced by the 2006 Oaxacan People’s Popular Assembly – APPO uprising. Xip Xop oaXaca includes several music videos and a taste of urban resistance as seen by youth from hoods around the city of Oaxaca.
“Xip Xop Oaxaca” FILM TRAILER
(35 minutes) 2009 This film takes us deep into the lives of the traditional Son Jarocho family band “Los Raíces”. Son Jarcho is a traditional Afro Indigenous music with is primarily found in the state of Veracruz. However in the film a Mother, Father, son, two daughters, and two family friends all from the neighboring state of Oaxaca take on the musical genre as their own and transform it into their loudspeaker for social protest. The entire Raíces family actively participated in the 2006 Oaxacan People’s Popular Assembly – APPO social uprising in Oaxaca, they are known for the song ” El Son de la Baricada” (The Son of the Barricade). Today they continue to play their protest music against state sponsored repression. A truly inspirational film, which demonstrates an entire family’s sacrifice for their people.
“La Familia “Raíces” FILM TRAILER
If you are interested in hosting an event at your University or community center, please contact: elpinchesimon@yahoo.com
» Articles by Simón Sedillo
Excerpts of Simon Sedillo discussing the Demarest Factor
on WBAI’s “Indigenous Voices” with Tiokasin Ghosthorse
http://elenemigocomun.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/demarest_uno.mp3
http://elenemigocomun.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/demarest_dos.mp3
http://elenemigocomun.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/demarest-3.mp3
Letters of Recommendation
To whom it may concern,
The Rebel Diaz Arts Collective wants to express our support and appreciation for the community defense work being done by Simon ‘el pinche simon’ Sedillo.
The Rebel Diaz Arts Collective is an autonomous, multimedia community arts space in the South Bronx, NY that aims to utilize culture, in particular Hip Hop, as a means for self-education, and self-empowerment. We aim to provide an alternative to the profit-driven mass media that imposes values destructive to our community.
Simon has been an active contributor to both the founding of our space and the ongoing political education workshops with young people- in particular young women of color- in our community. His workshops on Hood Liberation have provided our youth with a global perspective on the issues of poverty and institutional racism that plague our local neighborhoods. In turn, he has facilitated our youths’ understanding of methods of resistance and self-determination via culture, community organizing, and self-defense.
Sedillo’s workshops are invaluable not only for our young constituency, but also our collective leadership as we continue in the process of building an autonomous, liberated community space in the South Bronx.
We wholeheartedly support his workshop and research work, and consider it an invaluable asset to our struggle for the liberation of marginalized communities worldwide.
Respectfully submitted,
The Rebel Diaz Arts Collective
South Bronx, NY
Simon Sedillo is a superb classroom presenter. As a High School teacher who hosts several speakers a year I can honestly say that Simon is one of our favorites. He explains complex concepts such as neoliberalism, imperialism and capitalism in a way that makes sense to my students. He brings the world he lives in and in which he works right into the classroom and shares his experiences honestly and intelligently. His video work is impeccable and gives us insight into the reality which millions of people face all over the world. His lens is primarily Oaxaca, Mexico.
Simon speaks at a high level of intelligence but is able to include and engage my most struggling students. Through his video, classroom lecture and life stories, he makes the world a bigger place and opens it up to us in about an hour. He is a talented speaker and one I recommend highly. If you have classroom funds to bring ONE speaker to your class this year, host Simon Sedillo. You and your students will gain tremendous knowledge and insight. I have had Simon in the classroom for three years straight and always book him early when I know he is coming to town.
Jenn Laskin, M.S.
Humanities Teacher/ Reading Specialist
Renaissance High School
La Selva Beach, CA
Pajaro Valley Unified School District
It is with great pleasure that I write in support of Simón Sedillo. I have known Simón for about four years. He has spoken and shown films numerous times in my social problems and social movements classes. Simón is a creative and imaginative young film-maker and human rights activist whose films inform audiences about the self-determination struggles of indigenous youth in Oaxaca, Mexico, immigrants in the U.S. and young people of color in North American inner cities. In his movement work Sedillo conducts film-making workshops so that people in communities of struggle can document their own histories and lives and present their struggles from their own perspectives. As products of grassroots collaboration with a skilled film maker the videos convey a sense of authenticity as well as technical quality. The collectively made videos sparkle with drama and insight. They communicate the connections between “Third World” liberation struggles and our own. They speak to our common humanity. Before an audience Sedillo is charismatic and engaging. He is a global citizen and people connect with that. Student feedback from his class presentations is overwhelming positive; remarks such as, the best guest speaker in my four years of college are common. I am happy to recommend Simón.
Blaine Stevenson
Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work
University Of Central Michigan
Simón Sedillo has been active in the campaign to close the School of the Americas (SOA/ WHINSEC) for many years. The School of the Americas (SOA) is a U.S.-Army military training school for Latin American militaries, located in Fort Benning, Georgia. Renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) in 2001, the school has been producing death squad leaders and human rights abusers since 1946. Dubbed the “School of Assassins,” the SOA/WHINSEC is a school that is synonymous with torture and military repression around the world. Graduates of the school have a long history of participating in and orchestrating killings, rapes and the suppression of popular movements for social change.
Simón Sedillo’s contributions to the movement have been invaluable. Through his work in indigenous communities in Oaxaca, in immigrant communities in the US, and with youth of color across the US, he was able to bring a much-needed perspective to the work of SOA Watch. Simón has been part of the annual November Vigils at the gates of Fort Benning, where he spoke from the stage about the human rights situation in Mexico, screened films about resistance struggles, and gave numerous presentations about Militarization, Paramilitarism and Neoliberalism.
Simón Sedillo has been instrumental in starting much needed discussions and thought-processes among the members of SOA Watch. He has challenged the traditional understanding of Latin America Solidarity work and introduced new ways of thinking about existing power relationships within the solidarity movements. His approach has empowered voices that had been marginalized within SOA Watch and successfully initiated changes in the ways that SOA Watch events are being organized.
Sedillo shared some important experiences and perspective about popular community based resistance and the collective construction of horizontal networks of popular power within the movement through his participation in Presente, the newspaper of the movement to close the SOA (print-run of 80,000 copies per issue). His article “Standing With Those Who Fight for Themselves,” which he wrote for the Summer 2008 issue of Presente has become the second most popular article on the Presente webpage www.SOAW.org/presente
School of the Americas Watch (SOA Watch) greatly appreciates the continued cooperation with Simón Sedillo on projects in the future. His well thought ideas, his approach and his steadfast commitment to movement building, mutual aid and collaboration has been an asset for our organizing. Simón’s work is actively fostering equal exchanges and relationship building between communities that are involved in the same struggle for justice and democracy throughout the Western Hemisphere.
Sincerely,
Rev. Roy Bourgeois, MM
Founder, School of the Americas Watch
In Oaxaca, Sedillo has been actively engaged with a variety of popular organizations. His primary activities, to my knowledge, involve teaching media skills in an effort to promote self-determination of communities. I have followed his work over the past years with great interest, and have been very much impressed with his dedication to human rights and justice, his imaginative use of the opportunities provided by a wide range of media, his technical competence, and his ability to engage local communities and organizations and to help them organize and develop and to work independently. In the United States his work has been of very high quality, and quite successful.
Sincerely,
Noam Chomsky
Institute Professor, Department of Linguistics and Philosophy
MIT
Cambridge MA USA
For years, Simon Sedillo has been an ally and supporter of our organization, The Watsonville Brown Berets. He has presented and informed us on critical issues and perspectives regarding indigenous identity and solidarity, globalization, and neoliberalism. Sedillo utilizes an approach that youth can identify with and understand. His methods are non-authoritarian and non-hierarchical. It is clear that Sedillo’s information sharing is based on the methods used by the community he works in. Young people of all ages of our community have participated in these presentations and continue to ask, “When is Simon coming back?”
Sedillo has motivated several members of our organization to get involved and experience the struggles and cultures of indigenous Mexico. He has become more than a teacher to our organization but a friend and mentor.
Tomas Alejo
Watsonville Brown Berets
