Support La Pocha Nostra during the month of August

Everyone knows the pandemic has been devastating for artists and arts organizations alike. Venues were forced to cancel shows and performances overnight, leaving many artists without sources of income they had been counting on to get them through the fiscal year. Back in March, When La Pocha Nostra founder Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Balitronica Gómez crossed the Mexico/US into San Diego on the eve of the quarantine, they flew the Keep on Crossin' poster on their Facebook page as a sign they had safely crossed the border and as a symbol of their determination to KEEP ON CROSSIN’!  To help Guillermo and La Pocha survive in these times, we are collaborating on a fundraiser by selling backstock of the Classic Keep on Crossin' posters. Get one of these classic posters for your collection and support La Pocha Nostra!

Keep on Crossin' Poster by Victor Payan and Perry Vasquez

KEEP ON CROSSIN' MANIFESTO

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary to cross borders of political, social, linguistic, cultural, economic and technological construction…we will cross. For long before there were borders, there were crossers. We are the proud sons and daughters of these crossers, and we hold that crossing is a basic human right. Furthermore, we hold this right to be in-illegal alienable.

Artificial borders of body and mind and spirit must be crossed off the list. For every star-crossed, cross-bearing, cross-platform, cross-dressing, cross-country, cross-walker at the crossroads of culture, the time has come to cross.

We are living in a time when a truckload of toxic waste has more rights to cross than a human being. Wherever and whenever this is the case, we will cross.

Our crossing will be a sign to other crossers that the time has come to cross. We will cross at intersections. Anywhere we cross will become an intersection by the act of our crossing. We will look both ways before crossing, and then, with the positive momentum of humanity, we will cross.

We will cross into other manifestos. These include but are not limited to the Prague Manifesto for Esperanto, the Russell-Einstein Manifesto against nuclear war, the Roxy Music song “Manifesto,” the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Plan of Delano, the Plan Espiritual de Aztlan and any other plans, declarations or manifestos that encourage, promote and reward crossing.

When the border expands, we contract. And when the border contracts, we expand. And when it is time to cross, we will cross all by ourselves.

Wherever there are tired, huddled masses yearning to breathe free, we will cross.

Wherever there’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, we will cross.

As Martin Luther King wrote from the injustice stained confines of a Birmingham jail: “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”

By wearing this patch, we declare that our garment be counted as a piece from Dr. King’s “single garment of destiny.”

And to ensure that the sun and moon continue to shine on the smiling faces of the free, we will keep on crossing.

Victor Payan

© 2003