Today officially marks NYC’s reopening, but the extraordinary events of the past few weeks, driven by mourning and anger and hope in the wake of George Floyd’s killing, have already brought the city back to life. At ELA, we are continuing to do what we can to record and reverberate the voices of speakers and communities struggling for justice. We are still working from home, with all events suspended, but hope to begin a gradual, safe reopening soon.
As many from the heart of the Black Lives Matter movement have been emphasizing, standing up and being counted in the 2020 Census, as soon as possible, is critical. In new ELA videos, Milton (from NYC’s Garifuna community) and Segundo (from NYC’s Kichwa community) explain why filling out the census is the one of the simplest but also most important things people can do for their communities.
We are still working from home, with all events suspended, but hope to begin a gradual, safe reopening soon. Please keep an eye on our website, on our Facebook page, and future newsletters for any updates. Stay safe!
ELA has been working towards the goal of a complete count in the 2020 Census. Time after time, immigrant, minority, and Indigenous communities in America’s cities have been undercounted in all official statistics, with disastrous results that the current crisis is again making clear.
Since February, we’ve made a total of 17 video and 3 audio messages with NYC speakers of over a dozen language varieties and we’re continuing to spread the word and assist with NYC’s large-scale push to make sure all New Yorkers are counted. ELA videos include 6 major Indigenous languages of Latin America:
- Garifuna (Honduras, Belize, Guatemala)
- K’iche (Guatemala)
- Kichwa (Ecuador – multiple dialects)
- Mixtec (Mexico – multiple dialects)
- Quechua (Peru)
- Tlapanec (Mexico)
…as well as the following 4 major under-represented Asian languages:
- Indonesian
- Nepali
- Tajik
- Tibetan
The timeline for the census is being extended. If you haven’t already, go to my2020census.gov (if possible using the Census ID on the card you were mailed) and fill it out now! Over a trillion dollars in resources depends on it.