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In just a couple weeks is an amazing looking conference in Berkeley called Tearing Down Walls, Building Bridges: The Disabled Latinx Movement. It’s put on by the National Coalition for Latinxs with Disabilities (CNLD) and Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF). There will be a wide range of presentations from scholars, activists, and disability rights and culture leaders with a primary focus on Latinx presenters. The conference is designed to bring together individuals and organizations who all work to empower Latinxs with disabilities. They’ll also be recording stories for StoryCorps, thanks to the partnership with Disability Visibility Project.

New to the term “Latinx?” Visit LatinXDoc.com and this post on Univision’s site to learn about the term and the importance it has in social movements.

The figure of speech of tearing down walls isn’t new, and it’s always represented a way to build coalitions and relationships. But it’s a million times more relevant now, and for as long as we have a leader who wants to build a wall blocking former parts of Mexico from current parts of Mexico and blocking people from connecting with other people based on some wholly invented sense of superiority.

Here’s a picture from last year’s conference, their first ever. You can view more pictures like this where attendees and speakers filled in signs with the reasons why they’re advocates and signs about who they are as disabled Latinxs.

Exciting news! Sara María Acevedo, who you heard or read on the podcast this spring, will be co-presenting on a panel called “I am here!”: Intersectionality, Ableism, & Social (In)Visibility. Sara, along with Mónica Vidal Gutiérrez runs the Spanish blog called Autismo, Liberación y Orgullo. (That’s Autism, Liberation and Pride.)

If you’re interested in attending the conference, here’s a link to the Google doc registration form. I’m late in getting this notice out, so the individual disability access request process is closed. But you should contact them to find out what access they already have in place.

2nd Annual CNLD Conference
The Ed Roberts Center
June 15-17, 2017

StoryCorps interviews are most of the day on June 15th. Presentations are all day on the 16th and 17th.