Christopher DeVargas

Lue Ortiz, canvas director of Las Vegas-based nonprofit Make the Road Nevada, poses for a portrait Thursday, July 9,2020.

By Ricardo Torres-Cortez (contact)

Monday, July 13, 2020 | 2 a.m.

Lue Ortiz learned at a young age that people looked differently at him because of the dark color of his skin. Just a boy, he was confused as to why some would move out the way when he would approach.

Then came the day his grandmother was detained by police in Orlando, Fla.

Ortiz and his grandmother were walking to a grocery store when a sheriffs deputy stopped them, he said. His grandmother ended up in handcuffs because she wasnt carrying her identification and, because of her complexion.

At school, Ortiz the son of a Puerto Rican mother and a Black father said Black and Hispanic students would have to make appointments to talk to a school adviser, while white students freely walked in for advice.

Ortiz, now a Las Vegas resident, is the canvas director for Make the Road Nevada, a community organizing group that advocates for elevating working-class immigrant communities. The group has been active over the past months in support of Black Lives Matter after the death of George Floyd by white Minnesota police.

When African Americans win when Black people win we all win, Ortiz, 28, said. When we talk about racism, colorism, we shouldnt have to wait (to jump into action). We shouldnt need to understand why.

Throughout the evolution of modern civil rights, Black Americans and Latinos have marched side-by-side. Whether they know it or not, their demands intersect with each other and those of other marginalized communities in Las Vegas and nationally.

Courtesy of OJa Vincent

Oja Vincent is co-founder of the Forced Trajectory Project.

For now, Black Lives Matter has taken the mantle after the recent deaths of Floyd and Breonna Taylor, who was killed by Louisville police, and Ahmaud Arbery, who was chased and killed by a white father and son in Georgia.

Born out of an internet hashtag in 2013 following the killing of Trayvon Martin in Florida, Black Lives Matter is defined as a political and social movement originating among African Americans, emphasizing basic human rights and racial equality for Black people. And although the groups dont exist in a monolith, the Black-and-Latino kinship has also been present in Las Vegas.

Right now, it might not be directly affecting us, Ortiz said of the police-brutality demonstrations. But if we let it affect someone, at some point, it will come to affect us. So this is why we have to pick a stance.

Latino groups advocating against detention and deportation practices by Immigration and Customs Enforcement are similar to Black American groups fighting against police brutality, Ortiz said. All are essentially protesting the systemic discrimination of marginalized communities.

Recently, when he still lived in Florida, Ortiz said police detained the husband of one of his colleagues for jaywalking and he was immediately handed over to immigration officials.

Attorneys jumped on the case, and deportation was ultimately averted. But if youre any form of immigrant, have darker skin color, you are going to face some sort of harassment. Its not a question of if, its a question of when, Ortiz said.

Courtesy of Make the Road Nevada

Ashley Garcia is the deputy political director of Make the Road Nevada.

That's one of the reasons why its common to see Blacks and Hispanics marching side-by-side in Las Vegas.

Were the same species, with the same race and with different ethnicities, said Oja Vincent, a Black Latino with Haitian parents who is a member of Forced Trajectory Project, an independent media outlet that reports on police violence and the impact it has on affected families and communities.

Theres always been a connection. Theres always been a realization of similarities in our communities in terms of Black and Latinx, and theres always been link-ups on different levels that have been super powerful, he continued.

A New York Times poll found that Latino and Black voters participated in recent protests at almost identical numbers, about one out of every five voters questioned.

Everybody from the people with the most privilege, who show up as white folks, to folks with the least privilege, who show up as native folks, or immigrant folks without citizenship status need to stand together, Vincent said. Because these are issues that are very intersectional, theres overlapping pieces in all these issues.

Ashley Garcia, the deputy director of Make the Road Nevada, felt more welcome by Black students at Las Vegas-area magnet schools because they didnt judge her on her subpar Spanish or question her authenticity. Shes the daughter of a Salvadoran man and a Mexican-American mother from Texas. I dont like tortillas, but Im Latina, she joked.

The fight against police brutality in the Black community correlates with ICE in the Latino community, she said.

The criminal justice system is one of the most concrete examples of why their fight is our fight, Garcia said. We will be brought to our full liberation when Black people are seen as full human beings.

Vincent dates the origins of what he describes as a system of oppression to the late 1400s. First, indigenous people were nearly decimated when the American continents and the Caribbean were colonized; then Africans were kept in captivity with slavery when white indentured servants also were exploited and now, in the current capitalist society, the scales have been tipped against people of color, he said.

And the abuses, such as the controversial deadly police shootings, have always occurred, but now people are finally seeing them because of technological advances, he said.

Marginalized groups have similar struggles, with the biggest barrier to collaborating being language and culture, Vincent said. Thats why Forced Trajectory Project doesnt single out the victims they advocate for by race, ethnicity or culture, he said.

The reality is that everybody who loses a family member (to police violence) is feeling the same universal human pain, and they wake up with it every day, and they go to sleep every night and have to deal with all the circumstances in between, including all the court cases (and) bureaucracy, Vincent said.

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'Their fight is our fight': Latinos in Las Vegas join Blacks in seeking end to injustices - Las Vegas Sun