"Mi Casa No Es Su Casa" (11.21.2016)

...a message from New Yorkers to gentrifiers and to real estate developers. People say they love New York, but do they not love New Yorkers?

Video Edit, Interview by Xochitl Ollin Yaotl

'Mi Casa No Es Su Casa', a project aimed at providing resistance materials for marginalized communities suffering under gentrification, is teaming up with Grassroots Organizers from all Five Boroughs to produce a series of illuminations across New York City. Learn more about how you can help here.

Q: "Mi Casa No Es Su Casa". What inspired this to be the name of this art project?

Pati: It's a message from New Yorkers to gentrifiers and to real estate developers. People say they love New York, but do they not love New Yorkers? We wanted to use that play on words because, you can't say that you love New York for the culture when that culture is made by the New Yorkers who've been here. Gentrification kills culture and displaces the people who make it.

Q: How did the project begin?

Pati: My mom started getting phone calls from real estate developers trying to buy our home all the time. It was borderline harassment. So I started collecting advertisements from developers trying to buy our home and offering us money, with the intention of making a collage with my daughter and placing it outside our home, saying that our home was not for sale. Then I met people from The Light Brigade, who suggested we could light up these kinds of messages against gentrification. We started collaborating with MayDay Space, and more activists and artists joined the project. All of us involved in this project were raised in NYC, and are of Indigenous descent. I think this is very significant.

Q: Is this why some of your illuminated messages are in Indigenous languages?

Pati: Yes. Gentrification is a new form of colonization. By taking land away from the Indigenous and Peoples of Color, our parents were displaced by the politics and the use of political puppets throughout Latin America and now they're being displaced here. When we talk about gentrification we have to consider that most natives have fought hard to make this city their home, expressing ourselves using our Indigenous languages was important to remind others that we are the natives.

Q:Why use this form of visual art? Why illuminated messages?

Pati: Bushwick specifically, and even places like LES, all use art that's supposed to be for the public: made by people. But in reality the artists who are putting art up on our streets are not from here. Their subjects have no real relevance to our community and we know that their art and murals are used as a tool to displace, It's part of the beautification that happens as a result of gentrification. Our illuminated messages and this project are by New Yorkers, for New Yorkers.

Q: Bushwick in particular has become an artist's hub, what do you think about all the artists who have moved to Bushwick in recent years?

Pati: As natives of the neighborhood, we're always weary of artists that did not grow up here. They're mostly privileged, and white. They often try to co-op our spaces. I also notice that these artists use Bushwick as a brand to sell their art and for their own marketing, for their white-washed art. What's great about our collective is that naturally most of us are people of color, who are fed up with the gentrification happening in our neighborhoods so it was important to use art to resist, because art is being used against us anyway, by these middle and upper class people that are coming in.

Q: What would be your message to those who are gentrifying your neighborhood?

Pati: It's important for us to acknowledge that gentrifiers know what they're doing, but this is also conscious building for them. Gentrifiers don't have to move here and pay that higher rent, they can join the fight. Join us in organizing. We're not trying to antagonize, them. We just need more of this conversation going, I would tell them to be an ally.

Q: Can you explain to me more on how a gentrifier can be an ally?

Pati: They can come to our tenant organizing meetings, and like I said, NOT pay the higher rent. Be conscious of the effects that paying their rent has on the natives in the community. They can get to know their neighbors who are already there. I would tell them: "Don't just come here, pay the higher rent, displacing others who were here before you and then go to those little bars and expensive restaurants that are made just for you, because they're truly not accessible for the rest of the community, nor do they pay patron to the old businesses in the community. It's about integrating into the community, allying yourself. You can't just be here and not do anything. Come to one of our workshops. Help create the signs. Donate to our current fundraiser.

Q: Can you tell me more about the fundraising campaign for this project, why is it important to donate?

Pati: Our goal is to have enough money to buy the materials we need to make 40 illuminated messages/signs. But it's beyond having the money to buy the resources we need. It's about Conscious-Building. To build consciousness that land is power and that you can't just give it up, you have to try to fight for it. There are alternatives. It's a message for individuals who are at risk of displacement a constant reminder: To know your worth, your culture's worth, and our community's worth. Land is power.