Friday, June 17, 2011

The Meaning of Community: Southwest Organizing Tour PMA



Recently the concept of community has gained a new definition, the idea of community has gotten a broader sense. If it used to be defined as a group of people that lived in the same territorial space under the same social conditions; during the past two weeks I have learned that it could have a broader definition.  A new broader sense of community can be reshaped to include people that share similar struggles even if they do not live in the same country or participate in the same culture. 

In our recent exchange with people of the Southwest part of the United States, on this Peoples Movements Assembly tour, we have found a new sense of community one that goes beyond any State, Country or Ocean. On this trip we have had the opportunity to learn and work with people that are developing solutions to the problems they face as a community and in so, we have learned that the struggles can be fought together as a World Wide Community. Every group of people we have met on this tour; from Albuquerque New Mexico to Flagstaff Arizona, from Havasupai Reservation to Carefree Arizona all the way down to San Diego California, have opened their houses and community projects to us in the effort of telling us their struggles and their day to day work. 

Their hospitality and brotherhood by itself has opened up the range of what we call community. Now community is more than just a group of people that live in the same territorial range or experiencing the same social problems, community to us is the unified body of all the people fighting similar struggles. 

Who are these people that now share our community? They are those we have met through the Southwest on this Peoples Movements Assembly Tour. 

To our new community, thank you for your hospitality and for making our community one that goes beyond our countries.


Nicole S. Soto Rodríguez

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