Allison Herrera

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Biography

Hungering for a driver's license: Effort by undocumented immigrants comes close, but not this year

By Allison Herrera, The Uptake

Almost lost amid last week’s celebrations of the same-sex marriage bill that became law, a handful of Latino activists camped out on the Minnesota State Capitol lawn, hoping to win passage of a Driver’s Licenses for All bill. Some of them were on a hunger strike to prove a point that even undocumented citizens need a drivers license.

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Law allowing day care wokers to unionize passes narrowly after ugly debate

By Allison Herrera, The Uptake

On the final day of the 2013 Legislature — and by the narrowest of margins after hours of fierce debate — the DFL-controlled House of Representatives passed a bill allowing state-subsidized home child-care workers and personal care attendants the right to join a union.

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Dia de los Ninos: Little children, big dreams

By Allison Herrera, The Uptake

More than one hundred children pointed and screamed with delight Tuesday as the Nickelodeon character Sponge Bob Square Pants squeezed his way through a wall of Latino families and children in the Mercado Central on Lake Street in South Minneapolis.

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Dakota spoken here: Mni Sota's Dakota Indian heritage topic of Minnesota Book Award winner

By Allison Herrera, The Uptake

Uptake Editor’s note: “Mni Sota Makoce: The Land of the Dakota,” was the winner in the Minnesota category of the 2013 Minnesota Book Awards, which were announced Saturday. Congratulations to authors Gwen Westerman and Bruce White. — updated Sunday, April 14 at 8:07 a.m.

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Busting myths on $7.25 an hour: A profile of Veronica Mendez of Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha

By Allison Herrera, The Uptake

Veronica Mendez is a myth buster. Sadly, she says one of the biggest myths that needs busting is one of the myths Americans most want to believe about their country: The myth that if you work hard enough and long enough, you can succeed.

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Just vote no, Keystone XL pipeline protesters tell Sen. Amy Klobuchar

By Allison Herrera, The Uptake

A snowy Minneapolis Monday was the backdrop as about 80 environmental activists protested outside Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s office on Washington Avenue to demand that Klobuchar reverse course and vote against approval of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline.

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Healing a broken world: A profile of Jewish Community Action's Vic Rosenthal

By Allison Herrera, The Uptake

Jewish doctors and lawyers in Minnesota in the 1950s were notoriously discriminated against. You weren’t allowed admitting privileges. You couldn’t become a partner in a law firm if you were Jewish. It’s a history that Vic Rosenthal knows well, and it’s one of the reasons he does what he does.

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Cleaning workers ask Target, other firms to "unlock" future, raise pay, benefits

By Allison Herrera, The Uptake

Last week, janitors represented by SEIU Local 26 got a new contract deal after 31 hours of negotiation. It included raises and secure health benefits. Retail cleaning workers, who clean for some of the same companies as the janitors do, can’t boast of such a deal. That’s why a small group of these workers walked off the job today in a “targeted” one-day strike during a week of action sponsored by Centro de Trabajadores en Unidos en la Lucha (CTUL), SEIU Local 26 and Take Action Minnesota.

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Half Native, half Asian, all service to the people: A profile of Daniel Yang

By Allison Herrera, The Uptake

Daniel Yang is part of a new cohort of young leaders in the Native American community in South Minneapolis, a half-Native, half-Asian grassroots activist with a passion for public service and a special compassion for refugees. The experience of being lost, exiled and afraid is one his family knows well: Yang’s father was a Hmong refugee who, along with his Ojibwe mother, instilled a commitment to social justice and community service in his son.

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"We Are Here": Native American artists explore pain of the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862

By Allison Herrera, The Uptake

At first glance, Gordon Coons’ painting 1862-Mankato 38 may look like any other American flag. But it isn’t. Look closer and you’ll see a rope, the kind used to tie a noose, framing the edges. You’ll also see the names of 38 Dakota warriors who were hanged in the largest mass execution in U.S. history on December 26th, 1862. Most had been convicted by a military court of participating in the US-Dakota War that had begun in August that year. Unrepresented by any legal defense, the 38 were hanged in Mankato in front of a crowd of thousands of white spectators.

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