Bolder Advocacy

At the Mixteco/Indigena Community Organizing Project (MICOP), we support, organize and empower the indigenous Mexican community in Ventura County, California.

Many people in the indigenous community are immigrants from the Mexican states of Oaxaca, Guerrero and Puebla. Like most immigrants to this country, our community comes in search of a better life for themselves and their children. But the indigenous community faces exceptional challenges. They have been marginalized because many of them arrive here not even speaking Spanish, but speaking only their own indigenous language – which in Ventura County is either Mixteco or Zapoteco. Many social service providers assume immigrants from Mexico will speak Spanish, and the language barrier has cut the community off from a wide range of services including health and prenatal care, access to education, and the aid of police and law enforcement. Our community also faces economic barriers, mixed-immigration status families and workplace discrimination as indigenous people.

MICOP advocates for the indigenous community across 5 areas: Health and Community Access; Community Organizing; Education; Direct Assistance; and Cultural Promotion. In the last year we’ve stepped up our lobbying in the arenas of health policy, domestic violence, and farm worker rights. Whereas we might have previously only gone to rallies or demonstrations, we are now talking to and meeting with legislators. With this in mind, we wanted to make sure that as a nonprofit, that we were doing everything in compliance with the law.

The Bolder Advocacy training was really helpful because it was tailored to us. We could see concrete examples of things we had done in the past that we could do better in the future, and it was great to hear directly from a lawyer during the training. It was also really helpful that the training was in Spanish, which is a common language for those of us who also speak English or an indigenous language. This level of advocacy is new for us, and our staff learned a lot!

Now, we feel much more comfortable going into lobbying situations, which is important because our long-term goal is real, systemic change for our community. Sixteen years ago when we started, there was nothing for our indigenous community. Through the years we’ve built a trusted and reliable voice within our broader community. Now we are using that voice to talk to decision-makers and make space for ourselves at that decision-making table. To Bolder Advocacy we give a sincere: thank you, gracias and xa’a bindo!

Genevieve Flores-Haro, MPA
Associate Director
Mixteco/Indígena Community Organizing Project