Category Archives: Benicia CA

Benicia, Benicia CA, Benicia Unified School District, La Migra, Sheri Leigh

Fiestas Primavera / Spring Festival at Benicia City Park, Sat., March 23

Let’s Educate and Celebrate, Not Denigrate

Click the image to enlarge.

Benicia, California – On March 23, 2024, Solano Aids Coalition, in partnership with the Benicia Unified School District, the Benicia Public Library, and Benicia Black Lives Matters, with help and support from a wide host of agencies and local businesses and non-profit groups, are bringing a spectacular cultural event to Benicia. Fiestas Primavera Benicia is a Mexican/Latino and Indigenous celebration of spring. This inclusive and free event will take place at Benicia City Park by the gazebo from 10:30am until 6pm and will be an extravaganza of ceremony, music, dance, art, education, vendors, food, and children’s and teen activities. There will even be a small classic car show and virtual reality trips to the past.

The Solano Aids Coalition has been producing cultural events throughout the county for many years, including the beautiful Dia De Los Muertos Festival, Fiestas Patrias, and Cinco de Mayo. This will be the first of its kind in Benicia, and will host vibrant entertainment, including elaborately costumed Aztec Dancers and Diablos de Oaxacanos, culminating with a Latin pop and jazz band which will get you out of your chair and onto the dance floor.

The children’s activities include catrina face painting, pinata making, clowns or payasos, and an exploration of the Mexican/Latino and Indigenous cultures and their own heritage through educational art projects and displays. Students will have the opportunity to display their artwork and read essays that demonstrate their passion for equity and inclusion. There is even a scholarship for two Benicia juniors and two sophomores for those who submit meaningful essays on history, immigration, and the impacts of racism on our community.

The purpose of this event is to bring education, awareness and celebration of the Mexican/Latino and Indigenous cultures to this community. The population of Benicia includes at least 14% Latino/Hispanic, making it the second largest ethnic group in the City, with another 13.5% of the population reporting to be of mixed race. More than 30% of our population is non-white. Benicia is ready to honor its cultural make-up and heritage through this interactive and inclusive event.

Fiestas Primavera Benicia is born out of the need for more community understanding and acceptance of our cultural make-up and the social and economic benefits of immigrants. Students in Benicia have been sponsoring a game they call, La Migra, which is an unsanctioned chase game modeled after the brutal and tragic capture and return of undocumented immigrants by INS agents. Teens have been playing this racist-based and bullying inducing game for decades, generally during the early spring. It has been the cause of much individual trauma and is a huge public safety concern.

“We need to focus on the benefits that immigrants bring to our country and communities, and not allow our children to grow up believing that immigrants should be sent back to where they belong.” says Mario Saucedo, Director of the Solano Aids Coalition and producer of community wide cultural events. “This country is built by immigrants – in fact, almost everyone in this country has an ancestral history of immigration, whether it was a decade or centuries ago. We really are all one people – the human race. So let’s celebrate – not denigrate – our cultural make-up and our history.”

Solano Aids Coalition and the supporting community of Benicia invite you to attend this amazing event on March 23 in Benicia City Park by the Gazebo. It will be a beautiful and inclusive celebration and eye opening event for all people of all ages.

Benicia CA, Benicia City Council, BISHO, EngageBenicia.com

City of Benicia to hold public meetings about industrial safety and oversight on March 26 (in person) and April 3 (virtual)

[Note from BenIndy: Please save the dates so you can share your ideas and opinions on the extremely important topic of industrial safety and oversight; you can visit the Benicia Industrial Health and Safety (BISHO) Working Group’s webpage at BISHO.org to learn more about the push for Benicia to adopt an industrial safety ordinance (ISO) from the perspective of supporters. We can’t find much from the perspective of opponents yet, although that’s sure to be coming soon. This message came from City of Benicia This Week (COBTW), a weekly newsletter from the City Manager of of Benicia that is sent out on Monday mornings so Benicians can see what’s coming up for the week and sometimes beyond. We encourage every Benician to sign up to have it delivered directly to your inbox every Monday morning – visit this page for instructions on how to subscribe. Please also note the introduction of Benicia’s new public portal for public participation, EngageBenicia.com.]

Industrial Safety Ordinance Development Community Meeting
Two Options: In Person or Virtual

The Benicia City Council has appointed a Council Subcommittee consisting of Vice Mayor Terry Scott and Councilmember Kari Birdseye, with Fire Chief Josh Chadwick as the appointed staff member, to create an Industrial Safety and Health Ordinance (ISO) for the City of Benicia. As part of the ISO development process, the subcommittee is conducting public outreach, gathering input from key stakeholders, and consulting with subject matter experts in the field of industrial safety.

As part of the public outreach process, the subcommittee is hosting a series of community outreach meetings. The first option is an in-person meeting at the Benicia Public Library on Tuesday, March 26. Due to the size of the Dona Benicia room, there will be two sessions of the same content: one at 5 p.m. and one at 6 p.m. Please attend only one session to allow for more participation.

There will also be a virtual community outreach meeting with the same content on Wednesday, April 3 from 6 -7 p.m. To join the meeting, visit https://tinyurl.com/yxb39xv6 and use passcode 162947.

To learn more about the project and the public engagement process, please visit the City’s public engagement website, www.EngageBenicia.com.

Benicia CA, Benicia City Council, BISHO, EngageBenicia.com

Save March 26 for a public meeting about industrial oversight

[Note from BenIndy: This meeting is guaranteed to be a lot more interesting than it might sound. Save the date! We’ll update with more information about how to participate if it becomes available, but it seems like you just show up. While you’re looking at this event page, consider signing up to become a member of EngageBenicia.com so you can participate in important conversations about City initiatives, like the development and adoption of an ISO for Benicia.]

Click the image or the links below to be redirected to the event page. Benicia Public Library. | EngageBenicia.com.

From the City of Benicia’s new public participation platform, EngageBenicia.com:

Join us for a community meeting at the Benicia Public Library on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 at 5 p.m. to discuss ideas and thoughts about an Industrial Safety Ordinance plan for Benicia. This will be an in-person, interactive event.

Sign up here.

Benicia, Benicia CA, Benicia High School, Benicia Police, Benicia Police Department, Benicia School Board, Benicia Unified School District, La Migra, Sheri Leigh

An Alternative to Hate is to Celebrate – Celebrate Fiestas Primavera Spring Fest at Benicia City Park on Saturday, March 23

Sheri Leigh
Sheri Leigh, Benicia resident and educator.

By Sheri Leigh, March 8, 2024

Along with the longer lasting daylight and the blossoming of our beautiful downtown trees comes the anticipation of Spring Break. And during the last few decades, at this time of year some of our students look forward to the tradition of the La Migra chase game – the game that gives the teens something exciting and edgy to do in our small, quiet town.

Each year the game is staged, those who choose to play look forward to the challenge of either getting strategically and successfully across town on foot while being pursued by their older peers who are behind the wheel of the motor vehicle, or, on the other side, finding and apprehending the cunning escapees. If caught, the “runners” are captured and “deported” to some remote area on the outskirts of town.

Sounds like fun, right?

Definitely not for everyone. There are a lot of serious problems associated with this so-called game.

Some Benicia High School students have taken action against the game, posting warnings to discourage peers from participating. | This image is a still from a 2023 NBC Bay Area report.

The premise of the game is racist – flat out. It’s simulating the brutal and terrifying experiences of many immigrants and other marginalized people who have been targeted, beaten, and/or run out of town (or the country) because of the color of their skin, their status as a citizen, their religion, their sexual orientation, or their vulnerability. Historically, Mexican and Central Americans, Blacks, Jews, the Queer community, Native Americans and many other groups of people, have been the victims of hate crime in the United States. And in that same spirit of xenophobia and hate, a few bullies who, under the pretext of playing the game, have chased down and terrorized anyone they felt like harassing, whether or not their target was participating or even knew the game was underway.  Some victims of these students have been severely traumatized and carry that with them for years afterwards.  

And then there’s the public safety aspect. With young people running away from their pursuers into private yards and through traffic, with teens being abducted and abandoned alone in remote areas, and with inexperienced drivers focused on the pursuit, rather than the road, it’s only a matter of time before someone gets seriously hurt or even killed. 

The La Migra Game is a blight on Benicia. Several of the students who are playing are well aware of the racist implications and take the opportunity to behave badly. And the really sad part is there are many adult Benicians who simply look the other way or consider the game a tradition and a teen rite of passage. Our collective ambivalence towards the game adds to Benicia’s reputation of being a Sundown Town, unwelcoming or even hostile towards anyone who is not white and/or socioeconomically well situated.

Fiestas Primavera Benicia

 

 

 

 

 

Solano Aids Coalition, under the organization of an experienced cultural event coordinator and the director, Mario Saucedo, is offering a spring time alternative to this game.   For just one example of Mario and SAC’s skill and passion for bringing cultural events to life, see this article about the Dia de los Muertos event in Vallejo last year.

This year, for Benicia, SAC is bringing a vibrant and energetic opportunity to learn about and celebrate the Mexican/Latino and Indigenous cultures through an inclusive and interactive event called Fiestas Primavera Benicia or Spring Celebration.

The event will take place on Saturday, March 23, 2024 in the Benicia City Park by the Gazebo at the top of First Street from 10:30am to 6pm. This event is supported by local and State officials, the Benicia School District, the Benicia Police Department, the Public Library, Benicia Black Lives Matters, the Kyle Hyland Teen Center, local artists and businesses, and a host of others who want to establish an equitable and welcoming community.

As a prelude to the event, you will see some of the supporting First Street businesses have their storefront windows decorated with colorful floral paintings done by local artists and high school students (if you are a First Street business who is interested in signing up to have your window painted, contact Sheri using the details provided on the flyer image below).

On the day of the event there will be an extravaganza of dance, music, and art by professional performing and fine artists and local students. Arts and crafts vendors, food trucks and a lowrider parade around the park will draw in people of all ages. Students will have the opportunity to display their artwork in the art pavilion and speak about their experiences and the need for diversity and inclusion during an open mike session. Doña Benicia will mingle with the crowds to share her wisdom, and clowns or payasos will entertain with their antics and charm.

In the children’s area, Catrina face painting, pinata making, street chalk art, and bounce houses will help the children enjoy and appreciate Mexican/Latino culture. And everyone will have the opportunity to look up and remember their own ancestral journey of immigration to this country, no matter from where or how long ago.

We all need to remember that less than two hundred years ago Benicia was part of Mexico, and before that, it was the land of the Suisunes and Miwoks and other Patwin tribes. We should be honoring the history of our land and its many diverse inhabitants and celebrating our cultural diversity, including the tremendous contributions of the Indigenous peoples and immigrants to the United States and Benicia over the ages.

Please join us in solidarity and celebration at this landmark event, Fiestas Primavera Benicia on March 23 anytime from 10:30 until 6pm.  Stand up against racial bias and hate – celebrate.  

For more information and details, including how to support this event through monetary donations and volunteering, please visit the Solano Aids Coalition Website at solanoaidscoalition.org.