Aqui Estamos!- a tribute to a Poverty Hero

Bill Sorro is a Filipino American activist, labor organizer, friend and embodiment of what POOR Magazine calls a poverty hero. Bill passed away on August 27th but his work and legacy live on. Bill Sorro’s involvement in the fight to save and eventually rebuild the International Hotel in San Francisco is a lasting inspiration to a new generation of activists. Bill’s work as a union organizer and in economic justice issues are lasting contributions to the struggles of poor and working class people. Bill Sorro epitomizes the Filipino word for struggle: Makibaka...

(Listen to POOR's radio broadcast on KPFA's Morning Show at 94.1fm Monday, September 24th @7:30 am for an audio tribute by poets and community scholars to Bill Sorro)

Join the community and Bill's family as they celebrate Bill's life on Saturday, September 29th from 2pm to 5pm at Horace Mann Middle School, 3351 23rd Street (at Valencia, near 24th Street BART; parking on Bartlett Street)

tiny gray-garcia & tony robles
Tuesday, September 11, 2007;

A Beautiful Friend, organizer, artist and uncle to all- this is a poem in his honor...

"Aqui estamos ..y no nos vamos"...BOOM-BOp- a BOOM, step-ball-change...

"I bet some more white folks just moved in here... " … BOOM -Bop- A-BOOM- step ball change…

His eyes, pools of spirit and truth.. dancing with irony… through marchas, protests, evictions, and community resistance, spoke to me, danced through me.. – with words so clear they jumped on and through t he chants around us… as they gazed at another gentrification palace on calle de 24 y Florida y Cesar Chavez y Mission

Chants of resistance, moving to drum beats, of culture and color who would not be moved by colonizers dressed like machines- with names filled with Dots, and so much Come-on

"The mission will not be colonized, but the resistance will be televised, if I can help it" ....

step two – ball change – boom – bop a boom…

He shook his head and smiled back at me – the eyes – like clear round lakes from other lands- filled with so much love- danced back, "you go tiny!"

Elder, Manong, father, abuelo, leader, resistor , dancer, artist,

Bill is still alive...through us all... dancing through us...the seeds. of Manilatown and the seeds of The Mission and Fillmore.

Boom-bop-a-boom.. step- ball -change…