“People need to hear that it’s not ‘ok’ down here,” Bervera pronounces. “A lot needs to happen: funders need to invest, academics and organizers are all needed. It is an ongoing disaster, a national disaster. For people who care about human being in this country, if we loose New Orleans it’s a huge blow... You can’t have the largest displacement of black people and not have it have an effect.”
On what has been hardest to deal with over the past year, Bervera is clear: “The most profound trauma was that the world could see and recognize that kind of racism and poverty and do nothing.”
Even with these challenges before her, Bervera is determined to look toward the future. “[Our] membership might look different,” she says. “It could be brothers and fathers whose sons have been gunned down. FLLIC has always been mothers and grandmothers, focused on boy kids. We need to get back to our core—perhaps look at the schools, where they are opening, which people are welcome home and [which are] not.” She plans to stay in New Orleans to see out this mission because, “New Orleans captured my heart… The joy is intense here [but] the oppression is intense here. I can’t say I am committed for 10 years, but I can’t walk away. I spent 6 years building FFLIC; I feel I need to finish.”
Bervera remains hopeful by reminding herself that “there were many ‘Birminghams’ before ‘Birmingham.’ Our members are coming back—they are still wonderful human beings, and they keep coming to meetings. That is how the city will be saved, if it will be saved: families and kids doing things, not waiting for government. Sometimes you are in the desert for 120 years and you can’t see the big picture. It is like Noah, building a boat.”
On Katrina’s disproportionate impact on women Bervera notes that Katrina has affected women and women of color more intensely than most. “Housing, education, criminal justice, jobs – these are all women’s issues,” she says. “The city feels very male right now; little industry and work exists for women.”
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