Residents are invited to a forum and documentary about immigration at the Mancos United Methodist Church on Friday night.
The “We All Belong” event is sponsored by the Mancos Creative District and aims to help residents understand issues facing immigrants in Colorado. The forum will be led by scholars and Rosa Sabido, who resides in sanctuary at the church after her application for a one-year stay of removal was denied by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The night is part of the Creative District’s project on the concept “Belonging.”
“Mancos Creative District’s #weallbelong project uses the arts to provide multiple venues for deepening conversations in our community and region about belonging, immigration and community, and to provide an example of how a rural community can come together across the differences that so often divide us,” district director Anne Beach wrote in a statement.
If the weather holds up, the event will also feature the premier showing outside of “Rosa’s Sanctuary,” a documentary by Durango filmmaker John Sheedy.
The Creative District also will present “Sanctuary Stories,” a multimedia project with Sabido and three other women who have lived in sanctuary in Colorado churches: Ingrid Latorre, Araceli Velasquez and Sandra Lopez. The four women hope the platform will give them a way to share their stories in their own way.
The project includes video, photography, music and other storytelling forms. The project was edited by producer Ariel Goodman and includes original music compositions by Mexican folk musician Juan Carlos Marin.
It premiered in Philadelphia earlier in July, according to Al Día, a news organization focused on sharing the Latino American experience.
Sabido has been in other national news recently, speaking on Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman in response to ICE raids.
“We know we are protected by the communities and the churches, but we never know what is going to happen,” Sabido told Goodman in an interview.
The event will be from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday.
ealvero@ the-journal.com
