Daniel Espinoza,15 year old from June Jordan School for Equity, San Francisco. Wrote this About the

My name Daniel Espinoza and i’m 15 years old. I’m a junior here at June Jordan School for Equity. This school focuses on social justice by teaching injustices in our communities, at the same time developing critical thinking and leadership skills. In addition, entering this school made me analyze my life as a young person of color in this oppressive society. Using these skills we attain here at June Jordan, we’re able to make the connections of oppression.

It’s very critical to understand these systems are everywhere, from repression in Latin America to oppression in the United States. That’s why we must fight systems by training ourselves and each other to become organizers who work to build organizations and movements to strike the root causes of problems in our communities just like the compañeras in the caravan are doing in their own communities.

The mentality that causes people in Xochicuautla to face forest destruction and live in constant danger is the same mentality that causes gentrification here,

Gentrification is one of the major issues that we face here:

Gentrification is a profit-driven racial and class reconfiguration of urban, working-class and communities of color that have suffered from a history of disinvestment and abandonment. Gentrification is driven by private developers, landlords, businesses, and corporations, and supported by the government through policies that facilitate the process of displacement, often in the form of public subsidies. Gentrification perpetuates the cycle of oppression through many different ways which is super critical to understand. For example, Gentrification creates structural racism by purposely targeting neighborhoods of people of color. This is crucial to know because structural racism is the silent opportunity killer. It is the blind interaction between institutions, policies, and practices that inevitably perpetuates barriers to opportunities and racial disparities which sustains structural inequality. This sustains and links to structural inequality because it’s a condition where one category of people are attributed an unequal status in relation to other categories of people. This relationship is perpetuated and reinforced by a confluence of unequal relations in roles, functions, decisions, rights, and opportunities. This connects to structural violence through the different systematic ways in which social structures harm or otherwise disadvantaged individuals.

I want to deeply thank everybody in the Caravan who came today to share their experiences. As a school, we truly appreciate your time, your words, your passion & your presence.

I want to deeply thank everybody in the audience who came out to hear. I understand how time is precious and truly appreciate how you spent it with us, thanks!