Ambulante Power!
Taller de Permiso is a project focused on sustainable economic development, centering the voices and needs of low income, immigrant women in Brownsville, Texas. The project helps mobile vendors and microentrepreneurs navigate complex regulatory systems, and provides capacity building for business incubation and program launch. Taller de Permiso is centered in a process of both dreaming and visioning a decolonized future of economic justice in the Rio Grande Valley.
“American Dream” by Michel Flores Tavizón, Brownville 2020
Many vendors who participate in the project found the City's permitting process to be difficult to navigate, and reported being both confused and overwhelmed by City regulations. Beginning in 2018, and through the summer of 2019, Las Imaginistas led youth community members in a series of workshops to uncover the local history of mobile vending, and to create tools for vendors to navigate city permitting and ordinances. The result of these collaborations was a poster highlighting the cultural history of mobile vending in Brownsville, and outlining important information for navigating City regulation.
"Ambulante Power!" is a FREE comprehensive vendor guide explaining why mobile vending is important for economic justice, and how local vendors can enter this economy. The guide includes information on Texas vending laws, contact information for entering local community markets, and an overview of vendors organizing in other communities at the national level. Ambulante Power was developed as a Spanish resource to meet the needs of the often excluded immigrant/Spanish-speaking population in Brownsville.
“La Huelga de Cananea” by Pablo O'Higgins, Mexico, 1947
The poster style is inspired by Mexican and Latin American woodblock printmaking, which has been used for community organizing and political critique since the early 1900’s. The images for the guide were developed by youth from Brownsville in a workshop led by printmaker and Imaginistas co-founder, Celeste De Luna. The layout and design were completed by co-founder Nansi Guevara and Imaginistas Arts Fellow, Emily Hinojosa.
The guide has already been distributed to local vendors through a series of community house meetings. Additional guides are being distributed in print by project partner, Border Workers United (BWU).
Ambulante Power will be an important resource for vendors of the Imaginsitas co-op project, launched in collaboration with BWU. Speaking on the future of the program and the impact of the guide BWU Director Blanca E Delgado said, “This guide represents a true collaboration between the community members and regional artists. It shows us how art can help solve the problems of our people and how we are stronger when we collaborate.”
The guide was inspired by the work of Candy Chang and Vendor Power, produced by the Center for Urban Pedagogy. Imaginistas co-founder Christina Maria Patiño Xochitlzihuatl Houle said “We loved the way that Vendor Power helped make content that was confusing really easy to understand. We wanted to build on that idea and also help community members understand the legacy of vendor organizing at the national level and how we might replicate some of those law changes locally.”
Ambulante Power is available for free download below. An English version of the guide will be published later this year.