Cuéntame

About the Project

Cuéntame is an interactive online community where Latinos and the general public can connect and engage with fellow Facebook fans, activists, artists, bloggers, public figures, musicians, journalists and other community members. Cuéntame (Spanish for “Count me in” or “Tell me a story”) launched in January 2010 and has since grown to become the largest original content, new media project that follows topics directly affecting the Latino community and the #1 Latino page on Facebook. Through video exposés, documentary series, and provocative interviews shot in our state-of-the-art studio, in the streets, or submitted by fans, Cuéntame informs members and builds a vibrant community ready and able to organize on the ground on key social issues that affect us all.

Cuéntame’s “Immigrants For Sale” campaign uses short film production, news aggregation, and ground actions to reveal connections between America’s privatized prison systems and anti-immigrant policies and movements working to profit on the detention and incarceration of immigrants. The campaign is exposing the main actors behind the drafting of Arizona’s SB1070 (which permits police to detain suspected illegal immigrants and bring them to a federal facility) and other copycat laws designed to demonize and persecute immigrants. It questions conflicts-of-interest that arise when supporters of such legislation profit from its implementation. Immigrants For Sale identifies who these laws are harming: the detainees, their families and communities that are being consciously targeted by a war being waged against them. Most importantly, the campaign unites communities and social networks that can effectively fight back for social justice.

The Fledgling Fund Impact

The Fledgling Fund is pleased to be able to support this valuable campaign. These types of injustices in our country feed off of poverty and lack of organization by the opposition. Cuéntame brings voices and stories together to fight for a just immigration system.