Last month, we interviewed Professor Bill Ong Hing, founder of the Immigration and Deportation Defense Clinic. Professor Hing had a lot to say about our broken immigration system. He suggested things we can do to participate in the fight against mass deportations including showing up for protests, accompanying immigrants to their scheduled court hearings and perhaps most important, to keep humanizing the issue by sharing the stories of the people most directly affected by the MAGA immigration policies.

So in addition to our usual satire, music and final reflection from Rev. Vanessa, we decided to devote this episode to sharing a few of these stories. We collaborated with Guillermina Castellanos and Francisco Herrera, Co-founders of Nuevo Sol Day Labor and Domestic Worker Center, who introduced us to some friends that generously agreed to share some stories of overcoming, of what it means to hope and dream, and what it takes to build a good life. Our goal isn’t to explain, or argue -for or attempt to prove the worthiness or the humanity of the people whose stories you will hear. What is in question at this moment in our history, is our own humanity.

So breathe, settle and come on in!

Here are a few links in case you want to dive a little deeper:

Nuevo Sol

https://www.instagram.com/nuevo_sol_sf/

“I Cannot Sleep” Jon Fromer and Francisco Herrera

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNR2o2DPCrA

Francisco Herrera

https://franciscoherreramusic.com/

https://eltecolote.org/content/en/sf-immigrant-undocumented-workers-defend/

Jon Fromer

https://www.youtube.com/JonFromer

First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco

https://www.uusf.org/

Vanessa Rush Southern

https://vanessarushsouthern.com/

The Tiger Club

www.tigerclubband.org

The Mike and Mari Show

www.themikeandmarishow.com

Pod and Country YouTube Channel Playlist

https://t.ly/Pod&Country-YouTube

Other Pod and Country episodes

http://bit.ly/3TDFpmv