Santa Cruz Sentinel; Santa Cruz Barrios Unidos to host ‘Free Leonard Peltier’ event

The exhibit is set to run Nov. 29 to Dec. 29

By Wendy Medina | wmedina@santacruzsentinel.com

PUBLISHED: November 22, 2024 at 3:13 PM PST

SANTA CRUZ — A local nonprofit committed to healing communities through restorative justice and supporting incarcerated individuals, as well as those in reentry, will host its “Free Leonard Peltier” event on Nov. 29, Native American Heritage Day. Santa Cruz Barrios Unidos will honor Peltier, a Native American activist who has been imprisoned since 1977.

The centerpiece of the event will be the unveiling of a 12-foot statue of Peltier, adapted from his original self-portrait and built by Bay Area artist Rigo 23, symbolizing his resilience and ongoing fight for justice. The commemoration will not only shed light on the case of Peltier — who has long maintained his innocence in the 1975 murders of two FBI agents — but also celebrates his enduring legacy as a beacon of resistance and human rights. Calls for his freedom have echoed from 250 Native American tribes, Amnesty International, the Assembly of First Nations in Canada and countless other political and religious leaders spanning generations. Since 2022, Peltier has been incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Complex, Coleman in Sumter County, Florida.

The exhibit will also feature never-before-seen historical photos, art and campaign posters from the American Indian Movement, an organization that has been advocating for the rights and sovereignty of Indigenous peoples since 1968, as well as a replica installation of a Pelican Bay State Prison Security Housing Unit, also known as solitary confinement. It is worth noting that the high-profile activism associated with Pelican Bay’s Security Housing Unit has contributed to its infamy.

The Pelican Bay State Prison SHU replica installation will be on display for the “Free Leonard Peltier” event at Santa Cruz Barrios Unidos on Nov. 29. (Wendy Medina – Santa Cruz Sentinel)

Director and founder of Barrios Unidos, Daniel “Nane” Alejandrez, told the Sentinel that the organization serves the Santa Cruz and Central Coast communities as “an island of hope” for those grappling with the challenges of poverty, incarceration, housing and survival. Not only does Barrios Unidos provide a weekly food pantry on Fridays and Saturdays, but is host to a tiny home village that houses formerly incarcerated people, offers immigration services, holds a poet’s corner and more. Despite Peltier being denied parole in July of this year and now at 80 years old, Alejandrez hopes the event will educate more people about his case and urge the Biden administration to act on a potential pardon.

“Judges and lawyers and international community activists, organizations, the U.N. have recognized that Leonard is innocent and yet he’s still in prison,” Alejandrez said. “We work very hard for years to change the system — the criminal justice system, the prison system — to be able to provide access to our relatives in prison to come out back to communities, back to their families.”

The grassroots founder additionally noted that although Proposition 6, the state ballot measure aimed at banning involuntary servitude in prisons, didn’t pass the Nov. 5 election, there is still hope — and similarly, hope for Peltier. “It doesn’t mean that we give up. We got to continue fighting for it. We got to keep (demonstrating) why it’s not right,” Alejandrez said. “Now we have to fight again. Harder. Continue.”

According to the FBI, Peltier was responsible for the murder of FBI agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota in June 1975. Two years later, Peltier was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences. The Indigenous activist has always maintained his innocence and has since been rejected for parole during a 2009 hearing, a 2017 clemency request to then-President Barack Obama and the July hearing this year. The U.S. Parole Commission stated that Peltier will not be eligible for another parole hearing until June 2026.

In her statement for this year’s parole request, President of the FBI Agents Association Natalie Bara referred to Peltier as an “unremorseful murderer” and said that his “continued incarceration is necessary to ensure public safety and respect for the law.” Advocates, however, remain steadfast in their belief that Peltier’s innocence, nonviolent record, advanced age and deteriorating health warrant his release, and they continue to fight for his freedom.

Political artist Rigo 23, born Ricardo Gouveia, first used his platform to raise awareness about Peltier after reading his memoir “Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sundance” upon its release in 1999, and organized a showing of some of Peltier’s original paintings at the De Young Museum in San Francisco that same year. After seeing Peltier’s iconic self-portrait, “with its echoes of Rodin’s ‘The Thinker,’” he described, in which the man sits in his cell while an eagle soars freely beyond the barred windows, the Portuguese-born artist was inspired to create the larger-than-life sculpture. “It occurred to me to make a 3D version of his painting, taking advantage of my access to materials and means beyond his reach,” Gouveia told the Sentinel in an email. “In that sense, my statue is a ripple from his pebble.”

The statue, titled “Leonard Peltier – Waiting,” made of epoxy, steel and redwood, was originally created for a temporary installation at Syracuse University in 2011. Since then, the 12-by-9-foot sculpture has evolved from its original form and traveled to venues across the country, including Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Richmond and San Francisco, and will now find its permanent home at Barrios Unidos. “Art is a form of creativity, a concept rooted in creation, whose opposite is destruction, and that is the thrust of the message from all Indigenous peoples this Earth over: we have to side with life and against destruction,” Gouveia said.

Barrios Unidos founder “Nane” Alejandrez points out the part of the Leonard Peltier statue that was damaged during the FBI’s dismantling at American University in Washington, D.C., in 2016. (Wendy Medina – Santa Cruz Sentinel)

In a Nov. 13 interview on KPFA-FM, the artist recounted the tumultuous journey the statue has endured since its creation, marked by battles that mirror Peltier’s own. It has withstood a bomb threat, an FBI-directed dismantling and an 11-month hostage situation all at the American University in Washington, D.C., a theft in East Oakland and dismemberment, its endurance reflecting the spirit of the man it immortalizes.

“Time has become a weapon they use to try and annihilate the essence of who I am,” writes Peltier in his most recent statement from Feb. 6. “They have done their best to break me. … But no one can break the spirit of a Sundancer.”

He continued to urge his supporters, “Keep fighting. Fight the parasitical influence of colonialism. Fight the lies, the greed, the corruption of the oppressor. Fight for the survival of our people.”

Santa Cruz Barrios Unidos’ “Free Leonard Peltier” opening event will be held at 1817 Soquel Ave., from 4 to 9 p.m. on Nov. 29. There will be danzates, food, singers and guest speaker Ohlone elder Patrick Orozco will lead in prayer. Attendees are encouraged to place photographs of loved ones or other items at the base of the Peltier statue, as a makeshift altar, to serve as a reminder that they are not forgotten and that their spirit is still alive, Alejandrez said. The exhibit is set to run until Dec. 29, which will mark the 134th anniversary of the Wounded Knee Massacre.

Asked about what Gouveia hopes people will take away from experiencing his art piece, he said, “That ultimately it invites further curiosity towards and involvement with the ongoing struggle of Native peoples and Nations.”

To learn more about Santa Cruz Barrios Unidos, visit barriosunidos.net.