Vámono pal monte

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George Schuyler, founder of the Young Negroes’ Cooperative League (the YNCL) called on the young generation to embrace cooperative economics, as he put out a call on his column in the Pittsburgh Courier in the early 1930’s:  “It is you who must now take up the burden of leadership. You must succeed where the oldsters have failed. Turn your backs on the old programs and prescriptions and formulate others more in accord with the social and economic trends. Forget your petty individual interests and join in a cooperative effort for the betterment of all. Through co-operative effort as consumers you can find your way out of your present dilemma. Collectively through democratic management of your own economic enterprise, you can supply yourselves with everything you consume, your own amusement and culture.” (6)

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Remember our relationship to sovereignty and agency, let us reclaim our right to be in cooperation and the power we have to create our own systems. Just like mamá Tingó y campesinos who stood up during the agrarian reform movement in the 60’s y 70's,  la tierra es pa’ quien la siembra. (7) Imagínate, what we could do together! May we never forget the love from which we were born, our purpose in this moment, to continue the work of defying and transforming and marooning. 

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Recuerda la promesa que me hiciste, nos veremos por el monte. 

-li 

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Footnotes: 

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1. Economy (defn): the management of the home and its resources. 

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2. Out of Necessity is the title of Chapter 6 of “Collective Courage: A History African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice” by Jessica Gordon Nembhard

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3. Legs of clay is a reference to the muñecas sin rostro (english translation available via translator) innovated in popular Dominican Republic culture. 

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4. Marronage (defn): the act of escaping slavery to form independent communities.

 

5.We encourage readers to practice self-translation as part of our commitment to language justice and recommend DeepL (which tends to be more accurate than google) for translations.

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6 What is our role and responsibility as consumers in a capitalist system that depends on our choices and energy to thrive? Check out reflection questions below! 

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7. Latifundismo, the tendency towards large estates, arose from ancient times as a consequence of military conquest or colonial expansion, since newly acquired lands were often distributed among military leaders as a reward for their performance in war. A perfect example of this was the distribution of American lands after the Spanish conquest and colonization, in the 16th to 18th centuries. These lands became part of the patrimony of the local aristocracy, worked by African slave labor and administered under a feudal regime. With the passage of time and American independence, the descendants of those first landowners became the large landholders of the Spanish-American republics, that is, their large landowners.

The latifundia have been fought against through different strategies by the States , especially during progressive governments , because they are considered a source of inequality and impoverishment : large tracts of useless land in the hands of rich and powerful families, for example, leave little room for work for the historically less favored classes. One of these strategies is the so-called agrarian reform.” Source: Concept of Latifundismo

 

Reflection questions (Please visit this form if you would like to share your responses with Lila and CNO):

• What would happen if each of us stepped into the right and responsibility to “fashion our own economic alternatives” in order to meet the needs of our families and fight for our right to live and thrive? 

• How do we lean into what we have experienced before to survive now? Can we remember how we got here?

• What have I learned about care for myself and others from the caregivers in my life? 

• How can we collaborate more meaningfully to meet our basic needs?