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Latino Actors, Writers Pen 'Letter of Solidarity' Amid Fears

Associated Press

   Actresses America Ferrera and Eva Longoria are leading a group of more
   than 150 writers, artists and leaders who have written a public "letter
   of solidarity" to U.S. Latinos after the mass shooting in El Paso,
   Texas, and an immigration raid in Mississippi.
   The letter, published Friday in The New York Times and in a handful of
   Spanish-language newspapers, says the signers stand with U.S. Latinos
   who may feel "terrified, heartbroken and defeated by the barrage of
   attacks," citing the shooting in El Paso, which targeted Hispanics, and
   another shooting in Gilroy, California. The two attacks killed nearly
   two dozen Latinos.
   A huge immigration raid of Mississippi poultry plants this month that
   rounded up 680 mostly Latino workers, leaving behind crying children
   searching for their detained parents, also has unnerved some Hispanics.

   ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO - "We have been smeared by political rhetoric
   and murdered in violent hate crimes. We have been separated from our
   families and have watched our children caged," the letter said. "But,
   we will not be broken. We will not be silenced."

   'Indignities and cruelty'

   The letter says such "indignities and cruelty" won't diminish the
   contributions Latinos have made to the U.S., and it urged Hispanics to
   keep standing up to bigotry.

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