by the El Reportero’s staff
Meli Rivera
Town hall meeting featuring U.S. youth and families that are being impacted by detentions, deportations, and separation. They will be joined by immigration reform champion Congressman Luis Gutiérrez (D-IL4) Garcia-Villa family, two Dream Act graduate students from Santa Clara State University who are facing deportation.
Among the youths will be Valeria Lorenzo, a Dream Act student who due to her legal status she was not able to benefit from financial aid having to drop out from a 4 year institution and Genesis Pérez, a Bay Area resident struggling with the broken immigration system. Among the officials in attendance will be Rep. Luis V. Gutiérrez of Illinois (D-IL4) Alicia C. Aguirre – Vice Mayor of Redwood City Gilbert Cedillo – Assembly Member Interim Chief of Police, Edward Hernandez Capt. Chris Cesena – Redwood City Police Department.
Every year, nearly 400,000 families are separated because a loved one is deported from the United States. On April 26, state and federal elected officials will participate in a town hall meeting at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church where Bay Area residents will tell their stories about the toll these deportations are taking on their lives. The town hall meeting is part of a national tour, Campaign for American Children and Families, led by Rep. Luis Gutierrez and local community leaders. As part of the event, petitions urging President Obama to exercise his ample executive discretion to provide relief will be signed.
At St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, 178 Clinton St., Redwood City, at 3 p.m.
Dani Towers & Daniel Álvarez Flowers in alive
Dani Towers is a dynamic guitarist, singer, and multi-instrumentalist with a variety of styles and kinds, bringing his talent, knowledge and enthusiasm to performances as soloist and in group, the County of Mendocino to the Mexican border since 1991. Rock music, Spanish guitar, salsa, mariachi, folk, top 40, country, jazz, classical, gypsy, Middle Eastern, and several other music of the world are part of the musical repertoire of Dani.
Daniel Álvarez Flores is a singer, composer and virtuous guitarist who studied in his native El Salvador with Cándido Morales, a student of Barrios of Agustín Mangore, as well as in the Conservatory of Music of SF. Daniel he has performed at Mission Cultural Center, the Museum of Oakland, in KQED-TV, and in various cultural events and public festivals through out the Bay Area.
On Thursday April 28, at the Night Art House Gallery, 2905 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. For more information call 510-472-3170.
Port Rican singer/composer Meli Rivera & the Celtic Trio of Harp Triskela
Celebrates Latin American and Celtic cultures. Followed by two sold-out concerts “Celtic & flamenco Nights” Port Rican singer/ composer Meli Rivera returns from Puerto Rico to the Bay Area to bring her extraordinary mixture of Celtic & Latin American music, baptized in Berkeley as “Celtorican.”
Together with the praised Celtic trio of harp Triskela, the multicultural percussion of Teed Rockwell and the Celtic violin of Teed White, the night will breathe an air of mysticism where the Latin American rhythms and Celtic melodies are mixed in an exceptional fusion of cultures that will make the audience travel in the wheel of time.
Friday May 6, 2011. $18 adv., $20 at the door. At 8:30 p.m., La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. For more information call 510-849-2568. http://www.lapena.org/event/1755.
