Who We Are
Compañeros Inmigrantes de las Montañas en Acción (CIMA) connects, strengthens and organizes communities to take action for immigrants rights in Western North Carolina.
Our organization is passionately dedicated to addressing the political-social context of the Latinx immigrant community through community defense, outreach, and education. We seek to create an integrated, informed, and prepared community in which people take care of each other and build collective power.
Woven throughout all of our work is advocacy. CIMA organizes advocacy around policies that could undermine or support immigrant rights. We participate in statewide and regional immigrant rights coalitions in order to better inform and activate our community. CIMA also advocates directly with institutions to reduce or eliminate barriers that limit immigrants’ access to services and resources.
CIMA is committed to weaving a web of protection, active resistance, education, resilience, resources, healing, critical thinking, and transformation in the immigrant community.
Our History
Based in Asheville, the Coalición de Organizaciones Latino-Americanas (COLA) formed out of a need for Latinx-led organizations in Western North Carolina mountain counties to connect, learn from each other, and work together. The Center for Participatory Change, an organization that supports grassroots organizations in the region, realized that although they were working with several Latinx organizations, it seemed these groups were not working with one another. In some cases, these groups did not even know that other regional Latinx organizations existed.
In October 2002, these groups came together for the first Encuentro, or gathering. COLA was established as a regional network connecting and strengthening 25 organizations that empower Latinx communities in Western North Carolina.
Over time, the organization’s focus moved from working closely with organizations toward connecting and working with individuals living in WNC. Thus, in November 2015, we changed our name to Compañeros Inmigrantes de las Montañas en Acción (CIMA) to better reflect this focus.
