"Two things scare me. The first is getting hurt. But that's not nearly as scary as the second, which is losing." Lance Armstrong

With the whole Rosas experience, and my failure to correctly record his responses for my research, I focused on the charges we were facing for our Shutdown Operation Streamline success.

Two weeks prior my comrades and I had been summoned for a court appearance; we faced the following charges;
13-2402A1: obstructing governmental operations (class 1)
13-2511A: hindering a prosecution in the 2nd degree (class 1)
13-2904A1: disorderly conduct (class 1)
13-2906A: obstructing a highway or other public thoroughfare (class 3)
13-2917A2: public nuisance (class 2)
13-1502A1: criminal trespass in the 3rd degree (class 3)

 It was a tumultuous time for our communities, the ever growing presence of "poli-migra" stops kept growing. This continued attack against the undocumented community kept us busy. 

We formed a strong force, and it was a successful form of protest against the workings of the border patrol (or how my darling little girl likes to call them "border control".....much more fitting isn't it?!) and the Tucson Police Department. 

It became the norm (unfortunately) to be alerted when one of these stops occurred. It was maddening, and tiresome. It disrupted lives, and families, and communities. Ingeniously we were always around.....we showed up in pairs, once one of us arrived others did too. It puzzled the police, and it intimidated border patrol. 

We recorded all interactions, we became fierce and we made demands. We no longer were afraid.....we chanted "They're afraid of us, because We are Not afraid. Not one drop of afraid do we have." 

Perhaps to many this is insane, well, maybe it was. But it was necessary, it came from the need to create agency and urgency to this situation. 

I found myself arriving to scenes often, always lots of cops and one or two border patrol agents.

While this was a daily struggle, I had to refocus and get a good interview.....my friend told me Tito Torbellino was performing at a local venue. I didn't know much about the performers I wanted to interview so typically I would listen to their music 1-2 days in advance and google and write some notes about them. 

This time I wasn't able to set anything up, so I decided I would just show up and ask there and then for the interview. 

February 13th, 2014 I waited outside the venue for Torbellino to arrive or someone from his management. They arrived around 12:30 am ish. I was quite intimidated and honestly I didn't know if he was going to agree to it. 

First I spoke to some guy, he took my release form and showed it to him (although I really didn't know who he was at that point) I started the interaction bad, when I told them I could translate the form from English to Spanish....to which Mr. Torbellino told me "Why you don't think I can fucking read?" Clearly I didn't make a good impression. 

Truth be told I didn't like his attitude. 

He didn't even want to come off his vehicle, and he disliked all the questions. At one point he even told me, "I thought you were going to ask me cool questions, like if I was married, had kids or what I liked to do." I felt so angry he was belittling me.

He responded to two questions......with the most dreadful attitude and most annoyed face I have ever seen.

We went in after he did to watch his performance. It was less girl crazy than the Rosas. I stayed for the whole thing. I was waiting to hand them a copy of the release form when shots rang out in the parking lot. I was aware of the environment that this genre comes with, so my friend and I rushed to my car and I drove away.

Once I got home I wasn't sure of what I wanted to do anymore, I wanted to do the research yet I didn't want to expose myself or anyone to harm......