Promise Arizona Takes Most Effective Campaign
When Jeff Zetino and other activists held a vigil outside Gov. Jan Brewer’s mansion (R-Az) in their appeal for her to veto the most vicious anti-immigration legislation in history, little did they know the leadership roles that would be soon thrust upon them. The Arizona legislature had just passed SB 1070. The future of the state of Arizona and hundreds of thousands of Latinos hung in the balance. The seeds of Promise Arizona were born.
Zetino said he did not really expect Gov. Brewer to sign the bill. In fact, her approval of the measure caught immigrants' rights group by surprise. The law required police officers to detain all persons who they suspected of being in the country without documents until their immigration status could be verified. Since the law did not provide instructions on what an undocumented person looked like, the police looked mostly to the Latino community for compliance. Sheriff Joe Arpaio, long an enemy of undocumented workers, swore to use the law to aggressively move on the immigrant community.
Zetino and other activists moved their vigil to the Arizona state capitol. It was getting too big to be held in a residential area. Artists and songwriters were attracted to the event, including Deandra Gamez and Tomas Karmelo. A core group of leaders emerged, determined to meet the threat to the Latino community head on. Soon, Petra Falcon, a longtime voters' rights activist, agreed to take the reins of the organization. Funding was obtained and Promise Arizona was soon a contender in the campaign to register voters so the community could be better represented.
A field director was added with Chris Torres who had run several voter registration efforts for other organizations.
“Once people tell their story, they can’t turn away. Often people feel isolated from the civic-engagement process. When people share their stories, they find their commonality.” Torres was quoted as saying in New America Media.
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