Dear Sister Warriors,
May has arrived and brought us deeper into the blossoming of Spring.
This month is a time to honor our matriarchs; our mother figures, our aunties, abuelas, sisters, and every woman who has mothered, nurtured, protected, and poured into us. We celebrate their strength, their sacrifices, and the ways they have built and loved our communities throughout generations. We recognize their labor, their love, their struggle, their resilience, and we understand that without them, we would not be here. Let that sink in- without them, we would not be here.
Alongside that love and that strength, we also ground ourselves in grief for the mothers and the matriarchs that we’ve lost. We uplift their legacy, we embody their teachings, we tap into their power, and we never forget. For the mothers that were taken too soon, we hold you. For the women and mothers we lost inside of those prison cells, for the women that are being separated from their children, we hold you. For the women who face and endure sufferings, ongoing harms, and state sanctioned violence abuse, we hold you- now, today and always. .
Across 2026, we continue to witness the relentless abuse, disappearance, and killing of women, girls, and mothers. These are not random acts; they are predictable outcomes of systems that have long dehumanized us. As the global movement has taught us, “Gender-based violence is one of the most pervasive and yet least recognized human rights abuses in the world.” This violence is familiar; it is hidden and yet in plain sight, locked behind institutional walls and woven into our community. It is time we name it, confront it and rise together to dismantle the forces that perpetuate this harm. We stand with you.
Sister Warriors Freedom Coalition stands firm in both remembrance and resistance. We hold you! We stand with you- now, today and always! We continue to ride for our mothers, our sisters, and our communities with everything we have.
It is past time to free survivors, close prisons and detention camps, stand up against gender-based violence and ensure real consequences for abusive staff and the systems that enable them. We must reinvest those resources into transformational care, family reunification, and a future built on justice, dignity and liberation for all. .
Please tap in with US! Read our full newsletter below for ways to plug in to support the organizing and political work going down throughout the state of California. Join a local Sister Warriors chapter meeting, march for Mothers with us at the State Capitol, register to vote, and MORE. There is a space for everyone.
In Community,
Niki Martinez
Administrative & Organizing Director
Sister Warriors Freedom Coalition