<div>My name is Lalo, and <strong>this fundraiser is to support my family's safety.</strong>
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<div>This is my mom’s letter to you:
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<div>Friends,
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<div>More than once I’ve sat in front of a Google doc trying to do the hardest writing jobs I can think of: in urgency, I wrote to you many times before asking to support through a small donation toward mutual aid funds, community bails, and other critical support for individuals in communities across the globe. Sometimes it is for people I knew and loved personally, others, complete strangers and their families, having one of the worst days of their lives as undocumented people. To sum up a human being, a member of community down to their material needs broke me every time, yet we collectively got our people back every time, penny by penny. 
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<div>The trauma I experienced in my own personal life, compacted with, well… everything else, is something that I have been recovering from intentionally for some time now.
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<div>The past three years have been a gift, and DC has become my home.
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<div>As I healed, I also began telling stories and writing sermons again. I want to share with you an excerpt from a story written for and performed at Tango Mercurio’s Storytelling Hour that captures my feeling about being here:
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<div><em>“I have lived in the US for twenty-three years now. </em>
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<div><em>Some of those years were hard and traumatic, </em>
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<div><em>some were filled with art, music, victories… </em>
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<div><em>beauty mixed in with grief that creates resilience. </em>
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<div><em>I made friends, homes, gardens, children</em>
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<div><strong><em>Community and liberation…”</em></strong>
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<div>I am fortunate--I spent this past year making art, learning, traveling, and even had the privilege of teaching thousands of people all I know about keeping our communities safe from my own personal experiences, always hoping that the reality facing us in January would not come true.
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<div>My community, it is with the heaviest of hearts that I share this one last request for community support today. For myself and my children. <strong>We know what is up ahead, and assessing my capacity, mentally, physically, and even spiritually, I have come to the decision of re-matriating back to Uruguay, my first home.</strong> Today I ask for material support to make that happen. Moving my studio and work equipment, our household, and travel expenses are very costly. Getting my footing in a place I’ve not been in two decades requires a safety net too. Any additional support beyond our ask will be used to continue my work, which will always be For The People. I ask for support today so that I may continue to support our communities tomorrow. With the heartbreak of leaving all I know and love behind (again), there is the joy and curiosity of going to my Motherland. To go back to school, make new art, and travel more. I welcome the opportunity to connect with the world in a way I was not able to do in the USA.
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<div>This is not a goodbye letter, for my work is not done. This is a see you later, alligator. Until we find each other again, Take my Revolution.
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<div>Reverend Leonina Arismendi
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Support the Arismendi Family in Their Return to Uruguay

Support the Arismendi Family in Their Return to Uruguay

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