Alternative Spring Break 2013: LGBT Rights in El Salvador

Blog Post By: +Brandon Roman
Student Team: +Arli Christian, Anne Schaufele, +Ernesto Rodriguez, +Brandon Roman
Faculty Advisor: +Ali Beydoun

As both a gay and a Latino male, I knew I had to participate in the Alternative Spring Break trip to support LGBT rights in El Salvador.  Having been here for nearly a week now, this trip has been a meaningful and impactful experience for me and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to participate.

Our team with Ana Montano, Director of ALDES,
in front of the United Nations in San Salvador.

Our group of four students and a faculty advisor arrived on Saturday morning and have been actively involved in our efforts to support ALDES – Assistencia Legal para la Diversidad Sexual en El Salvador (Legal Support for Sexual Diversity in El Salvador).  ALDES’s main project during our trip is a two-day conference hosted at la Universidad Centroamericana (Central American University): Felicidad y la Diversidad Sexual como Derechos Humanos.  The conference is intended to educate people on the current situation for the LGBT community in El Salvador.  In our efforts to help ALDES with this conference, we were tasked with helping them determine how to continue their advocacy going forward.

In our efforts to learn more about the situation for the LGBT community in El Salvador we arranged various meetings with government officials and community leaders to gather information.  I was somewhat surprised (and very pleased) at how willing people were to meet with us and have a frank discussion about LGBT rights in El Salvador. 


At the Institute of Human Rights at Central American University

During the week we met with two members of the United Nations Development Program in El Salvador, as well as members of USAID El Salvador and the State Department in San Salvador.  To compliment our discussions at the U.N. and the U.S. Embassy, we also met with the Director of the Office of Sexual Diversity within the Department of Social Inclusion for El Salvador to gain a perspective on what those officials within El Salvador’s government had to say about LGBT rights.  Although the meetings with those outside organizations struck somewhat of a different tone than the meeting with members of El Salvador’s government, all of these meetings seemed to have a common theme: although there is much work to do, there is hope for a positive and lasting change with regard to LGBT rights in El Salvador.  How to achieve that change is still widely debated.

We also had the unique opportunity to meet with Dr. Fortin Magaña, the Director of el Instituto de Medicina Legal (the Institute of Legal Medicine).  Dr. Magaña was only recently reinstated after having been ousted by the government for releasing statistics that contradicted with government statistics related to the number of killings taking place, the cause of death of those who were killed, etc.  During this meeting, not only did Dr. Magaña provide us with access to the Institute’s head statistician, but he also took us on a tour of their facilities, including the forensic lab, the morgue, and the office of missing persons.  

After completing this preliminary research, we have the foundation necessary to begin compiling our ideas as to how to help ALDES best move forward with its advocacy efforts.  What started off as simply researching how El Salvador’s transparency law could be used to positively impact its LGBT community has snowballed into something greater.  In fact, the takeaway from this trip for me is that, while El Salvador has made some progress in supporting the LGBT community, there is much more work that needs to be done.  Nevertheless, El Salvador seems poised and in a position to become a leader on LGBT rights in Central America.  The central question, however, and the topic of our research going forward is how international parties can help organizations like ALDES facilitate this process.

My History With New Orleans

 Phil Sitter

          New Orleans and I have history.  Until this trip, I did not really reflect on the fact that I have now been to New Orleans five times in the past six years:  including three times to do volunteer work (on one occasion living in the area for two months), and once to visit Tulane, to consider whether I wanted to do law school there.  I never thought much about the frequency of my visits, because each time I left to go back to whatever place I called home at the time, I felt my next visit could not come soon enough. 

            I have grown in and alongside the city itself.  More than watching New Orleans’ post-Katrina recovery process, I have actively played a role in it, and I have let this involvement steer and power the course of my life.  All of my beliefs about nature, materialism, good and evil, manhood, social justice, the role of government, and individual responsibility in society, among other topics, have to a large extent been defined by my experiences in New Orleans.  I have let those beliefs influence every major decision I have made since my first time volunteering in New Orleans in 2007, from deciding where to go to college to where to go to law school.  I leapt at the chance to go on the Action for Human Rights trip down to New Orleans, as soon as I heard about it at WCL.  I was chasing the satisfaction and direction rebuilding work gives me, especially at a crossroads in my life (where I think a lot of people are after their first semester in law school), and also wanting to continue following the recovery of the city, helping where I could. 

            It was my first and only visit to the National World War II Museum in New Orleans while I was visiting Tulane University Law School last March that convinced me to do law school at WCL, pursuing human rights, probably with an international direction.  After this alternative winter break trip, however, I am, if not re-considering, then re-evaluating everything.  As I have grown over the past semester, so has my understanding of what New Orleans needs to survive and thrive.  I came down expecting to do more rebuilding work (which I did do for a day at the St. Bernard Project), expecting to feel good about getting another family or two back into the homes they have been denied for over seven years, but knowing that somehow, so many more dilapidated houses and empty lots wait for their residents to return, even after all this time and so much spent energy.  I leave New Orleans with a much deeper understanding of why this latter fact is so, and what I can do as a future member of the legal profession to help change it.  I realize now the extent to which human rights concerns are a major issue in the United States, as well as internationally.   

            I believe without question that the human rights of thousands of citizens of the United States of America, the country with the best legal system on the planet, if not in all of history, have been continuously violated before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans.  The storm only revealed and exasperated the neglect and exploitation already at play in the city: crumbling infrastructure; broken educational institutions; predatory land dealings; corruption and abuses at all levels of government, especially in the law enforcement, judicial, and political institutions; all of it often involving racial and economic discrimination.  All of this can be summated into two concise legal issues, which I have witnessed before the alternative winter break trip, but that I now understand more deeply: a lack of transparency in the legal system, and a need for a re-thinking of legal ethics.

            Billions of dollars have poured into New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005.  Yet, after seven years, there are few, if any consistent results in the recovery process.  Yes, the French Quarter was up and running again almost immediately after the storm hit, but some of the city’s other neighborhoods are still in shambles, and nearly physically uninhabitable in many instances.  In the Lower Ninth Ward, where I was placed at Lower Ninth Ward Village, streets have gone to gravel, manhole covers are missing, utility service is spotty, with many leaks in the system, and there is little to no police presence.  The one nearby school is a charter school, so most of the neighborhood’s children must be bused out every day to go to different schools.  Looming over all of this is an uncertainty in the strength of the rebuilt levee system, which in the Lower Ninth Ward, would not even protect the neighborhood from a storm surge of Katrina’s height. 

            There seems to be a general popular consensus that a corrupt city government wants conditions in the Lower Ninth Ward to become so unbearable that its residents give up fighting and leave, allowing for re-development of the area into gentrified prime real estate.  Whether this is true is one matter, but another more pressing one is simply that no one can have an answer either way.  No one knows where all the money is going, and why it has not reached the people who need it.  No one knows the reasons behind why the city is passing ordinances allowing it to aggressively seize private lots, after charging the owners of these lots thousands of dollars in fines first for minor “offenses” like not mowing the yard while residing out of state, unable to return home.  There is simply a wall of silence and bureaucracy no one can get through to seek answers, money, or if nothing else, closure.  Where is the legal oversight?  Where are the auditors for the city, state, and all of the non-profits?  Who is fact-checking the auditors? 

            Another issue is that even if it is perfectly legal for the city to re-develop a neighborhood as it pleases, is that ethical?  How is the conflict between the legal rights of local government and corporate entities and the legal and human rights of a community ultimately resolved?  At what point does it become the responsibility of government, using the law, to help people come home after being displaced, even if this interferes with the economic desires of developers?  I do not have the answers to these questions after this trip.  All I know is that these questions have to start seriously being asked, and I want to be in a position to ask them and command answers out of people, rather than simply demanding them.  I want to keep writing this history between New Orleans and I, now with a legal mind.                            

Sandy's Home During Rebuilding

“We arrived in New Orleans on December 30^th and began working on New Year’s Eve.  We teamed up with St. Bernard’s Project and went to the house of a woman named Sandy who had been living in a trailer in her front yard for seven years since Katrina. Her husband decided to rebuild their home, but died of a heart attack during the process.  That was about 5 years ago.  Sandy couldn’t afford to finish rebuilding her home and approached St. Bernard’s Project and asked for help.  They agreed to help her, but what they didn’t realize is that the house had been built with tainted drywall.  This meant that all the walls had to be redone.  Next, they found that the beams had been eaten by termites and essentially their whole house had to be redone.  We spent the days painting the entire outside of the house.  We also spackled most of the walls and whatever else needed plastering.  Sandy was so grateful for all of our help; at the end she gave us all necklaces to thank us.  It was really nice to see the person behind the house and to see that the house was going to be completed and that she was going to move into a home after 7 years. Her home should be ready around Mardi Gras.”

Rachel Kaplan

Rebuilt home in the Lower 9th Ward

Dinner at Desire

The French Market

Our Work at AIDSLaw Louisiana

American University Washington College of Law students with their supervisor at AIDSLaw

By: Julie Dabrowski


Today was our second day working at AIDSLaw Louisiana, a nonprofit that works in partnership with the NO/AIDS Task Force to provide free assistance to people with HIV-related legal problems.  Many of AIDSLaw’s clients are low income, and all deal with many challenges in their daily lives.  The lawyers who work here also face challenges in their work, as they are required to be familiar with many areas of law – everything from discrimination to custody issues to end-of-life planning.  As is the case with many nonprofits, AIDSLaw’ employees have a great deal of work to do with very limited resources.  


The Gulf Coast region suffers from an AIDS epidemic.  Louisiana ranked 4th nationally in AIDS case rates and 11th in number of AIDS cases diagnosed in 2008, and the years following have seen thousands of new cases.  The health care needs of people with HIV/AIDS have been compounded by the effects of Hurricane Katrina and the recent growth of HIV rates in the state.   Many of New Orleans’ poor were dependent on the State’s Charity Hospital System, which closed its doors after the hurricane.  This has left the uninsured without necessary medical treatment and preventative services, which in turn has contributed to the city’s culture of reactive medicine and to the growth in AIDS rates.

The most interesting part of our time at AIDSLaw has been spent doing intake (a fancy way of saying that we took down client information).  The clients we have spoken with are truly courageous people. One of the women I met today has been HIV-positive for several years, is currently unemployed, and has four children to provide for.  Yet when I asked her how her day was going, she told me it was wonderful, that it was a beautiful day and that she was very blessed.  Meeting her made me realize that many of the things we stress out about as a law students – grades, internships, whether we’re doing all the things we should be doing to prepare for our careers – are really trivial in comparison to some of the hardships that others deal with on a daily basis. 

This positive attitude is inherent in the people of New Orleans.  Hurricane Katrina devastated the city, but it did not destroy its spirit.  I have seen this spirit in many of the amazing people I’ve met here, including Ms. Sandy, the woman whose house we helped to rebuild on Monday with the St. Bernard Project.  She lost her home during Hurricane Katrina and lost her husband several years later, but is still fighting to rebuild her life.  Despite being knocked down again and again, the people of New Orleans continue to press forward.  Whether they’re fighting illness or working to rebuild their homes, their love for their city and for their families keeps them going, and they serve as an inspiration for us all.

Educational Information About New Orleans

 

By: Phil Sitter

Five Year Anniversary Special of Meet the Press, hosted by Brian Williams and featuring various important community figures in New Orleans today, from Mayor Landrieu to Brad Pitt and Garland Robinette.

 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38893472/ns/meet_the_press-transcripts/ 

I also HIGHLY recommend viewing Spike Lee's dual documentaries, When the Levees Broke, and If God is Willing and Da Creek Don't Rise. When the Levees Broke documents the immediate aftermath of Katrina, up until about mid-2006, and If God is Willing and Da Creek Don't Rise covers the five years after Katrina, highlighting the progress of the city and its residents in rebuilding, and the major issues that remain, including education, crime, housing, mental health, hospitals, wetland restoration, and the BP Gulf oil spill. The Saints' Superbowl win is also featured.

There are plenty of other documentaries, articles, and books on Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans. I recommend a few in particular, from firsthand experience and/or word of mouth: Zeitoun, by Dave Eggers (a true story of a Muslim resident of New Orleans – an American citizen – who helped his neighbors during the flood despite having his own home and business flooded, but then was arrested and held without due process on trumped-up terrorism charges); The Great Deluge, by Douglas Brinkley (an epic, comprehensive look at Katrina, the aftermath, and the response, written by a historian); Coming Back Stronger, by New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees; 1 Dead in Attic, by Chris Rose (a collection of articles, testimonies, and creative works, some of them published in the Times-Picayune New Orleans newspaper); Why New Orleans Matters, by Tom Piazza. Trouble the Water is a good firsthand Katrina documentary by Lower Ninth Ward residents.

FRONTLINE has some great hour-long (typically) documentaries that are free to watch online, and the ones listed here specifically deal with Hurricane Katrina, its aftermath, or issues that are relevant to New Orleans (bolded titles specifically deal with New Orleans):

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/view/

Poor Kids, Dropout Nation (not about kids in New Orleans explicitly, but this one was so good it had me tearing up), ENDGAME: AIDS in Black America, The Interrupters, The Spill, Law and Disorder (this is one I recommend the most, being the most legal-oriented, focusing on corruption and human rights abuses by the New Orleans Police Department in the immediate aftermath of Katrina), The Released, The Old Man and the Storm (another good following the years-long story of a man trying to reclaim and rebuild his home, in the Lower Ninth Ward if I remember right), The Storm, When Kids Get Life

Here are the links to the respective parts on YouTube of another special hosted by Brian Williams, in which he describes his own personal experiences and observations in the immediate aftermath of Katrina while reporting in New Orleans:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz1Aw971Ke0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asYWzCHNQKs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2JUAbJocQI

There is a growing literature and multimedia collection on the BP Gulf oil spill too, and related Gulf coast environmental and energy issues. Here is the government's official final report on the BP Deepwater Horizon spill:

http://www.oilspillcommission.gov/final-report

And here are some videos on YouTube and other places about it, the first one being comedic genius:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AAa0gd7ClM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzRqLV_YbEc
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13124332
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13059325

Lower 9th Ward Village Community Center

The Lower 9th Ward Village

Skate Park sponsored by Mountain Dew

"Mack"

Close-up of the mural

Wednesday January 2, 2013

By: Elizabeth Dukette

I’m going to preclude this entry by saying a few things. First, there is no way for me to emphasize how much I learned from today in a few paragraphs. It was generally a day of orientation with some manual labor but I left the center with a mixture of feelings that go beyond my limited vocabulary. I am going to try my best to sum them up for you with a break down of my day and by explaining a complexity of feelings in a few words. Second, admittedly I’m not a writer so please forgive any grammatical issues.

We began our day by meeting with Ward “Mack” McClendon, the founder and organizer of the community center. He ushered us into his office which was sparsely furnished with two tables, one operating as his desk and the other positioned perpendicularly surrounded by chairs that allow the room to also act as his meeting space.  The center houses four showers in each men's and women's bathroom, a music room, a computer lab, and a newly renovated skate park for the youth. Mack began by giving us his background on and how the organization came to life. He originally purchased the space to act as a showroom for his collectible vintage car collection but was inspired to make it into a community center. The center has developed into something more dear to him than a car showcase.  Rather, it’s clear that this is now his livelihood. His mission is to redevelop his community not for the community but with them and empower the people that live there to take back the power. In interest of time be sure to check out the website for more information about the center.   http://www.lower9thwardvillage.org/new/

The main focus of our day was to help Mack prepare for a town meeting being held tomorrow at 6pm. We regenerated the computer room to house about 50 chairs.  The process wasn’t difficult but it reminded me that we are here for a reason, although I couldn’t pinpoint the reason just yet. We removed the computers and all the furniture then tackled the cleaning. In the end Mack was very happy with our work. This meeting will be the first he’s held in a few months and it’s apparent that he’s ready to get the community involved. He emphasized more than once, that during all theses efforts that no one bothered to ask the community what they wanted or needed. He additionally noted that they never made their voices heard. The man places no blame on the situation, but is trying to find the answer and encourages everyone to ask questions.

 In the afternoon we had another organizational meeting with Mack then went on a tour to see where the damage was done, and to hand out fliers for the meeting. We saw the aftermath of Katrina.  With the exception of the barracks, the area was a ghost town. Those still inhabiting the area hanging onto the only place they know. During the tour Mack shared a very fascinating story with us.  A few years ago on the anniversary of the storm, the community came together and had Jazz funeral for Katrina. Mack took a coffin and they paraded it through the Lower 9^th Ward to bury Katrina and to shift their focus on the inadequacy on the broken levy. They buried the casket in a 6-foot hole, people laid the storm to rest and placed pieces of their broken houses on the grave. The burial site is now a place of a home and under a swing set. 

Where they buried Katrina

A few lessons learned:

The media, not so surprisingly, is failing us. In the light of Hurricane Sandy it’s no surprise that efforts in NOLA have lessened, but to say there is still a need for help here is an understatement. Rebuilding efforts aside, the people of the communities here want answers to so many unanswered questions. How can the city take away homes simply because they haven’t mowed the lawn, which they lack the ability to do? Can the government really expect them to produce titles to homes that have been lost over the generations of the families that have lived there? Have people really forgotten about them? How is it that the government can poor millions of dollars into a barracks for the national guard, when there are people with no place to live? Do I have the answers to any of these questions? Nope. Do I wish I did? Absolutely.  I think I’ve known this lesson all along, but it’s necessary to be reminded every now and then.

            This city needs much more than money. They need to be heard. They need to vent. All of them lost more than just their homes and belongings. They lost their families, they clawed out of their homes for their lives, they lived for days without food or water, and they watched people die.  The psychological aftermath these people have to deal with must be unbearable. Money can’t erase a memory. Sometimes, we need to just be there, be quiet, and let others speak.

            There’s never an end. Seven years later and the people are just beginning to be able to begin rebuilding. NOLA will never be the same as it was before the disaster. This is a constant fight, with no end. Rather the community has found a new beginning. I realized by the end of today that sometime there are no answers and there is only so much that can be done. The real purpose of coming back is to remind those here, there is hope. People do care. With so much hate and destruction that comes in life, there is an equal amount of love and compassion. Whether it be Katrina, or Sandy there is always a need even when it hasn’t been publicized.

We need to be thankful for what we have. Everyone’s fighting for something, but we don’t have to fight alone and we need to love those that we have.