One Doesn’t Know the Power of People Coming Together
A Conversation with Javier Hernández of the Sky Without Limits Cooperative
Javier stands in front of corn growing in a garden at the Cooperative. César Atienzo took this photo.
“We bind where law fails and rules miss.” - Breathe: A Letter to My Sons by Dr. Imani Perry
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My favorite food is mole because it was part of my childhood where I’m from, red mole. It’s a custom that we had when I was little, with various parts of my family.*
I arrived in Minneapolis in 2016, but my wife Laura arrived first. 3112** was the first building we lived in. And there I met a neighbor who mentioned that there were lots of things wrong with the apartments. When I started to look at things, the first problem was that the company didn’t want to fix things when it was cold out. The window was broken, the toilet would get clogged, and the company didn’t put out traps for the mice. And the other huge problem was that the building doors weren’t secure, and sometimes people who didn’t live in the building came inside.
Eight months or a year after arriving, I was invited by a neighbor to come to meetings held by United Renters for Justice (IX). And IX was out doorknocking and said to me, “We’d like you to join a list of people who want to fight.”*** They reached out their hand to us and said, “We’re going to do this.”
At the beginning, I didn’t want to join, nor did my wife. I said, “Who are these people who want to help us? Why?” It seemed weird.
But thanks to my beautiful wife, we said, “We’re going to see what this is about,” and the neighbor who was there also came. We were looking for something stable, a place where our kids would be well, safe. We were also looking for a fair rent. And that’s how we had that first meeting here.
Still, I would continue to ask, “Is someone paying them? Is there someone in the middle of all this?” I was worried, but I learned that in reality this wasn’t only one person’s problem but instead this had been a general problem. We started to receive money because we won a lawsuit against the person who was the landlord of the apartments. It was a lawsuit against him because he wasn’t making repairs.
I continued going to the meetings and attending protests, and after some years, the apartments were won. One afternoon I came home from work, and Vanessa called me saying, “Javi, the landlord is going to sell the apartments. We won!”
The week of the victory, I think there was a feast, carne asada, and Roberto said, “I’m going to learn how to use the grill so that everyone comes and we celebrate here.” Everyone was content, happy.
One doesn’t know the power of people coming together. Sometimes a person says the impossible, but you have to believe that it can happen if the people join together and support one another. Sometimes one isn’t in the habit of saying, “Great I’m going to help even if it’s not my family,” but I think that everything has changed in my mind. We have to help each other because we’re a community.
*This article is part of a series of interviews with members of the Sky Without Limits Cooperative. Maria Bertrand interviewed Javier Hernández and transcribed and translated their conversation. This article is in Javier’s words, and Maria and Javier edited it. Read more interviews with members here.
**3112 is one of the Cooperative buildings, which was previously called the “Corcoran Five.”
***Javier used the verb “luchar,” which doesn’t have a direct translation but means roughly “to join together to fight for our dignity.”