Voces de la Frontera 2023 Gala
Voces de la Frontera is hosting their annual Gala this Friday, Sept. 15, at the Italian Community Center in the Historic Third Ward. The event kicks off at 5 p.m. and will honor the Wisconsin immigrant rights organization’s work with a celebration of community and culture. It is their largest grassroots fundraiser of the year and falls on the first day of Hispanic Heritage Month.
The past year has been monumental for Voces de la Frontera. In addition to helping support progressive causes in Madison, the organization has continued providing vital services for immigrants and asylum seekers arriving in Wisconsin, plus they have developed their Essential Workers Rights Network in order to strengthen workplace leadership and fight for systemic change that protects workers from discrimination, exploitation and abuse.
Executive Director Christine Neumann-Ortiz shares the Gala’s significance. “We are always organizing, constantly, and it all really forces us to hit the brakes. This is a time for us to celebrate and break bread with our statewide leaders and allies in the struggle.”
Get Out the Vote
One prominent, ongoing campaign of Voces de la Frontera’s has been Voceros Por El Voto, in which they have built the largest Latinx voter-relational network in Wisconsin with over 35,000 voters—also one of the largest in the country. “The majority of those in our network are new voters or infrequent voters,” Neumann-Ortiz explains. “It’s been undoubtedly critical to these elections that we’ve had for the recent Supreme Court race, which was fundamental for maintaining fair elections and to unlock how gerrymandered our state is.”
The Gala’s keynote speaker will be Saket Soni, director of climate-labor organization Resilience Force and author of the recent book The Great Escape: A True Story of Forced Labor and Immigrant Dreams in America.
An awards ceremony will recognize regional activists for their tireless efforts. One such recipient is a worker who helped implement Deferred Action for Labor Enforcement (DALE) at their company in Green Bay. “DALE helps empower immigrant workers to file complaints and be part of investigations while also providing protections for them,” Neumann-Ortiz elaborates.
There will be dinner, music and a silent auction as well. Tickets for the Gala are $100 for members and $120 for non-members. They can be purchased at vdlf.org/gala2023/?mibextid=Zxz2cZ.
