Steven Mayers is a writer, oral historian, and professor at the City College of San Francisco. Steven’s work has appeared in journals, newspapers and magazines including the New York Times, the San Diego Union Tribune, Versal, Travesías, Gatopardo. He is co-editor of Solito, Solita: Crossing Borders with Youth Refugees from Central America, a collection of oral histories published by Haymarket Books in the spring of 2019 as part of the Voice of Witness book series on human rights. Solito, Solita was shortlisted for the Juan E. Méndez Book Award for Human Rights in America and was picked by Remezcla as #1 in their Best Latino and Latin American History Books of 2019.
Jonathan Freedman is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author, and social activist with more than thirty years’ experience reporting from Central America, Mexico, and the US border. His six-year series of investigative editorials for the San Diego Tribune was influential in the passage of the landmark 1986 US immigration reforms that authorized 2.7 million undocumented immigrants to become permanent legal residents. He is co-editor of Solito, Solita: Crossing Borders with Youth Refugees from Central America, a collection of oral histories published by Haymarket Books in the spring of 2019 as part of the Voice of Witness book series on human rights. He is also the author of various books, including From Cradle to Grave: The Human face of Poverty in America, and Wall of Fame: Save Schools and Transform Lives, and a novel, The Last Brazil of Benjamin East.
Solito2Solidarity
Solito: alone, solitary, single, one, solo, lonely, lost, displaced, disenfranchised, misrepresented, stereotyped, other
Solidarity: unity, together as one, agreement of feeling or action, common interest, mutual support, freedom, respect of rights, humility, humanity
In times of climate change, conflict, and increasing displacement, millions are forced from their homes to seek refuge. On this lonely journey, each human being feels solito, alone. The mission of solito2solidarity is to listen to the voices of displaced people, and to share stories in articles, books, forums, photographs, videos. What can people on the front lines of conflict and climate change teach us about survival, adaptation, and regeneration? Join us in solidarity with climate refugees here and around the world.
We’re asking displaced people the most fundamental human questions: How have they survived? What forces them to leave their homes? What are their journeys like? How are their experiences crossing borders? What is life like where they currently reside? What relief efforts are working? What can we learn from them?
We’re seeking wisdom from the displaced, those who come to their aid, as well as those who are fighting for their right to stay home and defend the land. We hope their stories will catalyze questions in readers. Since humans are causing these environmental crises, how can humans work to create change? What kinds of legal, economic, social, moral paradigm shifts would need to take place to ensure human rights are respected? How can we re-envision our relationship with nature?
Since we began collecting stories in 2014 for the book Solito, Solita, we’ve been on an ongoing campaign to bring the stories of youth refugees into communities across the country. Along with a number of young narrators, we’ve shared stories at colleges and universities, from UC Berkeley to the Autonomous University of Baja, California. We’ve presented at book festivals, from the PEN America World Voices Festival in New York to the Bay Area Book Festival and Litquake. We’ve presented at conferences, from the Binational Conference on Border Issues to the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) conference. We’ve presented at legal organizations, from The East Bay Sanctuary Covenant (EBSC) to the Berkeley National Immigration Justice Center (NIJC). We’ve presented at international organizations, bookstores, libraries. We’ve also presented at protests, such as the Artistic Uprising on the border event organized by Eve Ensler and One Million Rising. Jackie Speier read from Solito, Solita on the floor of Congress. We’ve published excepts from the testimonies in the book in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Nation, Il Sole 24, Alborada. Our deep commitment to raising awareness of the plight of refugees is what has drawn us to the stories of climate refugees, Environmentally Displaced People, and defenders of the earth.
Solito2Solidarity 