TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Latino celebrities in US issue plea to 'speak out loudly against hate'
Change Size
US actress Eva Longoria at the screening of the film 'Rocketman' at the 72nd edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 16, 2019. (AFP/Loic Venance)
A
ctresses Eva Longoria, America Ferrara and more than 200 other Latino artists and civil rights leaders on Friday penned a letter of support to the Latino community in the United States after a mass shooting in Texas and immigration raids in Mississippi.
Musicians Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin and Lin-Manuel Miranda gave their backing to the letter, which called on those outside the Latino community to "speak out loudly against hate".
"If you are feeling terrified, heartbroken and defeated by the barrage of attacks on our community, you are not alone," said the letter, addressed to the Querida Familia Latina (Dear Latino Family) and published in the New York Times, La Opinion and other newspapers.
The letter followed a shooting in the predominantly Latino border city of El Paso, Texas on Aug. 3 that killed 22 people and is believed to have been racially motivated, as well as the arrest of 680 people in immigration raids last week on seven agricultural processing plants in Mississippi.
Both followed accusations that US President Donald Trump has stoked racial divisions with his rhetoric and his crackdown on immigration at the US border with Mexico.
Read also: Eva Longoria warns abortion bans are danger to women
"We will not be broken. We will not be silenced. We will continue to denounce any hateful and inhumane treatment of our community. We will demand dignity and justice," the letter said.
It called on allies of the Latino community to "speak out loudly against hate, to contribute your resources to organizations that support our community, and to hold our leaders accountable."
Former Desperate Housewives star Longoria said in a statement that the US is facing "a moral crisis ... and we chose to use this moment to raise our voices and speak up."
The letter was signed by many of the leading Latino voices and activists in United States, including veteran labor leader Dolores Huerta, novelist Sandra Cisneros and Voto Latino political group president Maria Teresa Kumar.
