For more on the Head of Joaquin Murrieta, click.

Somos Primos 

 JANUARY 2016

Editor: Mimi Lozano ©2000-2016

To receive the free monthly notification and Table of the Contents for the issue, write to:  mimilozano@aol.com 

Letters to the Editor

Dear Mimi, A few lines to say hi and to thank you for the wonderful work you do on Somos Primos. 
Thanks again for you sending it every month.
Best regards Angel Cortinas 
angel-cortinas@sbcglobal.net 

Thanks for your great work on Somos Primos for 16 years--a wealth of information on our community's history.   Thanks Alex Reza 
aareza@mac.com 

Quotes or Thoughts to Consider 

"The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, 
but by those who watch and do nothing"   
~ Albert Einstein

United States Poet Laureate, 
Juan Felipe Herrera Memorializes San Bernardino Tragedy

by Mark Muckenfuss, Orange County Register, December 26, 2015

Former UCR professor and current U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera's poem about the San Bernardino terror attack and Detective Jorge Lozano comment:  'I'll Take a Bullet for You'

I'll take a bullet for you

Detective Jorge Lozano said

from the chasm of sprinklers spilling and leaving

he walked the living wounded

he did not utter words it was his heart that moved

the innocent followed

in the shattered corners we heard you even though

we were lost in the complex tears of the digital screen

Hope – we had not heard the word how could there be such

an odd weaving breathing thing bitten we thought — after Paris

razors and hard waters were rising I'll take a bullet you said

we said that too listening to you

esperanza hope we whispered picking up our children

after school shuffling dim at a tree farm

we bow as we plant this greenness in the center

of our brown house

it seems to

touch the sky

 Being Prepared for a Terrorist Attack
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VcSwejU2D0 

The French government has issued a poster designed to prepare its citizens against terrorist attacks. It urges: “escape, hide, alert.”

The City of Houston has issued a video dealing with the same subject. It too advises citizens to escape or hide. But it includes a third imperative: “Run. Hide. Fight.” In one scene, a worker picks up a fire extinguisher, another grabs a chair, and two others hold a belt and a coffee mug. As the shooter begins to enter, the workers attack. The video freezes and the narrator intones: “As a last resort, if your life is at risk, whether you’re alone or working together as a group, fight! Act with aggression. Improvise weapons. Commit to taking the shooter down, no matter what.”

Credible Terror Threat’ Closes Entire Los Angeles School District
December 15, 2015
The Los Angeles Public Schools is 65.0% Latino: Source: Kidsdata.org 

Texas School District Arms Teachers and Staff
Source: Patriot News Daily
Posted 21 Dec 2015

OVER-STAYED VISAS, UNTOLD NUMBERS and UNTRACKABLE  

For more information on Over-stayed VISAS in Somos Primos. 

What America Means To Most Of Us, and What We Fought For

 A little something from the Vietnam Veterans Association. What America Means To Most Of Us, and What We Fought For.  So much to be said for this nation. 

Bob Smith, Vietnam 1969-1970 and Cold War  
pleiku196970@yahoo.com
https://www.youtube.com/embed/B2AEkfjc6-o?feature=player_detailpage

MAN WALKS INTO CHICK-FIL-A: Is Completely Blown Away When He saw Veterans
Day Display  

By Bill Callen
Top Right News

Sent by Yomar Cleary ycleary@charter.net 

 On December 17, 2015 the House signed an extension of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act which went into law in  2010.  H.R.1786 - 114th Congress (2015-2016): ... 

Summary for H.R.1786. ... Allows individuals to file claims for compensation under the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 anytime after regulations are updated based on the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010. Removes the cap on payments. 
https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/1786  

Judge Throws Out Lawsuit Filed by Those 

         Who Found a WWI Memorial Cross Offensive              

Hans von Spakovsky
December 01, 2015

Bladensburg Peace Cross, located at west entrance to city on MD 450. (Photo: Ken Firestone / Flickr)

In a decision on Monday that preserves the thanks of a nation for the sacrifice of Americans who died in World War I, Maryland federal judge Deborah Chasanow (a Clinton appointee) threw out a lawsuit filed by the American Humanist Association over a forty-foot-tall war memorial that is almost 100 years old.

The monument, built in the shape of a Latin cross by the American Legion and located at the intersection of Maryland Route 450 and U.S. Route 1 in Bladensburg, was first dedicated in 1925, although the effort to raise funds to build the memorial started in late 1918. Since 1960, the monument has been owned and maintained by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. Prior to that time it was owned and maintained by the American Legion.

The monument is part of a local Veterans Memorial Park that also contains memorials to veterans and those who died in World War II, Pearl Harbor, Korea and Vietnam, 9/11, the War of 1812, and the Battle of Bladensburg. The Bladensburg Cross has a plaque that says the “Memorial Cross is dedicated to the heroes of Prince George’s County Maryland who lost their lives in the Great War for the liberty of the world” and has a quotation from President Woodrow Wilson. Four words are inscribed on each face of the cross: “valor, endurance, courage, devotion.”  

The lawsuit was filed by the American Humanist Association, as well as several individuals who were apparently “offended” that they had to drive by the monument and see it every day on a very busy highway. They claimed that because the World War I memorial is in the shape of a cross, “ownership, maintenance and prominent display of the Monument on public property violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.” The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) was denied permission to file an amicus brief on the side of the plaintiffs. The Liberty Institute and Jones Day represented the defendants.

In her Nov. 30 order, Chasanow granted summary judgment to the defendants, concluding that the monument does not violate the Constitution. The court found that the “vast majority” of events and gatherings at the monument and the Veterans Memorial Park have been in “commemoration of Memorial Day or Veterans Day.”  

The fact that the plaintiffs in this case were really grasping to turn this war memorial into a religious issue was demonstrated by the fact that the only evidence they could dig up on that issue was a “Washington Post column indicating that there were at least three Sunday religious services held at the Monument in 1931.” The trivialness of their claims is shown by their having to go back in time more than 80 years to find even a small handful of religious services.  

Additionally, the plaintiffs tried to dirty the water by falsely alleging that the Ku Klux Klan was somehow involved with the monument. The federal judge inserted a special footnote to point out that the claim was not supported by any evidence; the “[p]laintiffs’ suggestion of some connection [to the KKK] is simply wrong.”  

The court ruled that the plaintiffs failed to show a violation of the Establishment Clause under either of the two tests derived from two different U.S. Supreme Court cases, Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971) and Van Orden v. Perry (2005). Judge Chasanow said that both tests “require the [c]ourt to inquire into the nature, context, and history” of the monument. Applying both tests in this case “lead[s] to the same result”—that the memorial is not an unconstitutional display.  

According to the judge, although the “Latin cross is undeniably a religious symbol,” the courts have recognized that “displaying a cross to honor fallen soldiers is a legitimately secular purpose, and does not always promote a religious message.” In fact, “in the period immediately following World War I, [building a cross] could also be motivated by the ‘the sea of crosses’ marking graves of American servicemen who died overseas.” The Bladensburg Cross “evokes thousands of small crosses in foreign fields marking the graves of Americans who fell in battles, battles whose tragedies are compounded if the fallen are forgotten.”  

The Commission is driven by a secular purpose: “maintaining and displaying a ‘historically significant war memorial’ that has honored fallen soldiers for almost a century.” Nothing in the record showed that the Commission’s work “is driven by a religious purpose whatsoever.” The record showed that even “the purpose of the private citizens who were behind the Monument’s construction 90 years ago was a predominantly secular one.”  

In a sharp rejoinder to the unreasonable attitude of the plaintiffs, Chasanow said that no “reasonable observer” would view “the Monument as having the effect of impermissibly endorsing religion.”  

Additionally, “the Monument has gone unchallenged for decades,” a fact that clearly shows how few individuals were “likely to have understood the monument as amounting, in any significantly detrimental way, to a government effort to promote or endorse religion.”  

The plaintiffs in this case, in essence, wanted to destroy a 90-year-old memorial to fallen soldiers based on thoughtless, vain, and shallow motives that are an insult to the sacrifices of brave Americans. 

Sent by Odell Harwell  
odell.harwell74@att.net

Taking Stock
By Daisy Wanda Garcia

Poster from 1964 Hollywood film, 
"Joaquin Murrieta," featured in Valadez' 
The Head of Joaquin Murrieta 

TO HOST A SCREENING 
Contact Filmmaker 
JOHN J. VALADEZ at johnjvaladez@aol.com 

Copyright © 2015 ValadezMedia, All rights reserved. 
You are receiving this email because you participated in the landmark PBS series LATINO AMERICANS 

Our mailing address is: 
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Semi-Finalists Announced - Latino Len Short Narrative Incubator

POLITICAL SALSA Y MAS 
with 
SAL BALDENEGRO 
11.29.15 “BARRIO DREAMS”

By the 1920s Mexicans in Tucson had become the minority.

In “Hispanic Arizona, 1536-1856” (University of Arizona Press, 1987), anthropologist James E. Officer reports that what is now Barrio Anita once belonged to a band of “Apaches mansos” (peaceful Apaches), i.e., Apaches who were not at war with the Anglos and Mexicans in the Tucson area. Ownership changed hands several times, and eventually (in 1903) Tucson businessman Thomas Hughes bought the tract between the railroad tracks and the river. Hughes developed the parcel and named the subdivision’s principal street for his sister Annie. The Mexican American families who settled in the area promptly Mexicanized “Annie” to “Anita,” from whence the barrio gets its name. By 1920 there were approximately 150 households in Barrio Anita. Several black families settled in Barrio Anita, where they were welcomed (blacks could not live in “white” Tucson in those days). Yaquis fleeing persecution in Mexico in the early 1900s also found refuge in Barrio Anita (they later settled in what is today Pascua Village). As was common in every Tucson barrio, there were several Chinese grocers in Barrio Anita.

Silviana (Silvia) Wood Silvia is no slouch with her pen… Silviana was inspired to become a playwright by El Teatro Campesino.

In Tucson and Southern Arizona Silvia is known and beloved through her television portrayal of her character “Doña Chona,” a feisty, outspoken 70-year-old activist who, dressed in her trademark old-school housedress and apron, from her kitchen dispensed uncensored personal and political advice, scoldings and admonitions, chismes and mitote (gossip), and sage observations on barrio life. For many years Southern Arizonans religiously tuned in to Doña Chona’s weekly monologues on PBS. Even today, some people address Silvia as Doña Chona. But Doña Chona is but one manifestation of Silviana Wood’s extraordinary creativity. The University of Arizona Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree (the terminal degree in the arts) Silvia earned complements her profound mastery of the layers and nuances of barrio life. Her best childhood memories are of “…running around the Barrio Anita streets, La Victoria ballroom, all the chino stores, and Oury Park.” Her characters illustrate her barrio roots and the Chicano penchant for nicknames: El Penguin. La Peanut Butter. El Maromas. El Chino Loco. La Molacha. El Yemo. El Chueco. La Cuata. Doña Remedios. Reflecting the Barrio Anita culture that shaped her, Silvia writes in Spanish, English, and Caló, the Chicano barrio dialect. One of her plays, “Yo, Casimiro Flores,” has dialogue in Spanish, English, and Yaqui. Silvia has written over twenty plays which have been produced in Arizona, California, Texas, and New York. Her titles and storylines reflect Silvia’s genius in capturing the common and often complex dynamics of barrio life.

Her stories include “La vida dulce de los Compadres Mascazacate y Pansavacía” (The sweet life of the Compadres Mascazacate and Pansavacía), a comedy about feuding compadres. “El militante y la Señora Martinez” (The militant and Señora Martinez) focuses on a sensitive poet and a reclusive old lady who meet and share dreams. “Y que tiene que ver un turkey con Veracruz, anyway?” (So what does a turkey have to do with Veracruz, anyway?) is about a school janitor who dreams of visiting Veracruz while his wife would rather buy their daughter a washing machine. The story of a neglected boy who dreams of leaving his barrio until the barrio grouch teaches him love is told in “El Dragonslayer.” “And Where Was Pancho Villa When You Really Needed Him?” details the first day of 6th Grade in a Chicano-dominant school taught by a white teacher. Silvia is multi-talented and directed and acted in several of her plays.

Silviana’s writings have been published in many publications.

Silvia’s plays and stories have a wide audience. Her work appears in anthologies and journals such as Revista Chicano-Riqueña; Puro Teatro, A Latina Anthology; and Grito del Sol, A Chicano Quarterly. In recognition of her work, Silvia has received, among other honors, two playwriting fellowships from the Arizona Commission on the Arts; playwriting residencies from the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations Gateway Project, the 1993 Arizona Arts Award from the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona, and First prize in Theater/First prize in Fiction (separate awards), Chicano National Literary Contest (University of California, Irvine) Silviana’s life work goes beyond writing plays, stories, and poems. Silvia is a veteran of the youth- and barrio-based Chicano Movement of the 1960s and 1970s that fundamentally changed the educational, political, cultural and social landscape of Tucson and Arizona. Silvia and her entire family, including her children and her siblings, were intimately involved in the “El Rio for the People” movement in Tucson, which came about when in 1970 Democratic politicians promised the people of working-class Chicano Barrios Hollywood and El Rio a neighborhood center and a park in a portion of the El Rio Municipal Golf Course and then reneged on their promise.

Silvia is multi-dimensional… Silvia participated in the El Rio for the People movement that created a park for the barrio.

Over many months entire families marched and picketed in the summer heat. We were beaten and arrested. But we won—the City built El Rio Neighborhood Center and Joaquín Murrieta Park. This was a defining moment in the political evolution of Tucson’s Mexican American/Chicano community. Silvia and her family were also involved in the many other issues we worked on at the Centro Chicano, such as the founding of La Raza Unida Party in 1972. Silvia started honing her teatro skills during the Chicano Movement period. In the tradition of Luis Valdez’s El Teatro Campesino, Tucson’s Teatro Chicano, Teatro del Pueblo, and Teatro Libertad used theater skits—performed in barrio venues—to educate and organize the community around issues. Silvia was a key member of these teatro troupes. Silviana co-founded the local Latina writers’ group Mujeres Que Escriben (Women Who Write) and is a member of the Board of the Directors of the barrio-based El Pueblo Health Center.

Inspired by the Chicano civil rights movement, Silvania has spent thirty years as a family and youth counselor.

Professionally, Silviana has thirty years’ experience as a family and youth counselor in Tucson mental health and social service agencies, schools, and prevention programs. She is an experienced group facilitator for parents and youth workshops and classes in parenting skills, value clarification, problem solving, positive communication, self-esteem enhancement, and related topics. In addition, Silviana has taught Chicano/Latino Theater, Literature, and Writing at Pima Community College, and has also conducted many writing workshops in collective script writing, poetry, journal-writing, playwriting, and creative writing at schools, libraries, and theater companies.

Yes, indeed, those of us who know Silvia are proud and excited about the upcoming publication of her book, “Barrio Dreams,” by the University of Arizona Press (Spring, 2016). Believing that we need to honor our own and not wait for others to do it, “La plebe de John Spring” is planning a barrio-based Book Signing Reception for Silvia when the book comes out. c/s

______________________________________________

Copyright 2015 by Salomon Baldenegro. To contact Salomon write: salomonrb@msn.com. Photo of Silvia Wood courtesy of Monique Soria. John Spring album and Tucson protest used  by permission. Teatro Campesino and El Rio Park photos copyrighted by Barrio Dog Productions, Inc. All other photos  use under “fair use.”  

La Leyenda Negra, Series 4-3 

"RACE ON CAMPUS AND HISTORICALLY WHITE COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES (HWCUs)"
By 
Felipe de Ortego y Gasca  
Philip.Ortego@wnmu.edu 

 
Scholar in Residence (Cultural Studies, Critical Theory, Public Policy)
Western New Mexico University; Distinguished Emeritus professor of English, 
Texas State University System-Sul Ross

Critical Sociology September 2013 39: 717-738, first published on September 11, 2012
The institutionalization of racism at white colleges and universities is so ingrained that it escapes detection. The day after the incident at the University of Missouri (Mizzou) on November 9, 2015, there was Joe Scarborough as the Grand Poobah and Oracle about everything on the Morning Joe show at MSNBC scolding Americans of color for championing liberalism.

Despite affirmative action systemic racism permeates Historically White Colleges and Universities even where minority studies programs are in place-one swallow does not a summer make. It is an absolute truism as Eduardo Bonilla-Silva points out that "most colleges and universities in the USA are white-oriented and white-led." It's also true that in terms of faculty parity most colleges and universities in the USA are predominantly white. While nearly 30 percent of undergraduate students around the nation are considered minorities, just over 12 percent of full-time faculty are minorities. That number drops to around 9 percent for full-time professors of color. This means that at HWCU's students of color are swimming upstream in multicultural America. 

In the fall of 2013, of all full-time faculty in degree-granting postsecondary institutions, 79 per-cent were White (43 percent were White males and 35 percent were White females), 6 percent were Black, 5 percent were Hispanic, and 10 percent were Asian/Pacific Islander. Making up less than 1 percent each were full-time faculty who were American Indian/Alaska Native and of Two or more races. Among full-time professors, 84 percent were White (58 percent were White males and 26 percent were White females), 4 percent were Black, 3 percent were Hispanic, and 9 per-cent were Asian/Pacific Islander. Making up less than 1 percent each were professors who were American Indian/Alaska Native and of Two or more races.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Latinos have accounted for most of the nation's population growth over the last decade (56 percent) and currently represent almost 20 percent of the United States population (60 million-one out of five Americans is Latino). Unfortunately, this growth hasn't been mirrored in higher education. Latino students had the lowest percentages (27.5 percent) of college enrollment compared to White (45 percent) and Black students (37.7 percent), respectively.

The presence of students-of-color at HWCU's is not a herald of equality unless the curriculum reflects their presence and the institution acknowledges their presence. By this, I mean that an Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI), for example, ought to readily and publicly acknowledge its status as an Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) in its mission statement and promotional documents and materials, otherwise "whiteness" trumps all. Many HWCU's resist that identification even when their student population is more than 50 percent Hispanic. 
One such institution in New Mexico-a Charter Member of HACU (Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities)-has resisted that identification despite the fact that its student population is 58 percent Hispanic. Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI's) were created federally for American Hispanics as counter-institutions like Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU's) for African Americans. The difference is that HBCU's were chartered under the Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862 as a means of raising the education level of African Americans thwarting thereby the institution of slavery. 

Whiteness permeates the entire scaffold of American education from the primary grades to the university. The foregoing attests not only to the insidiousness and stealth of La Leyenda Negra/The Black Legend in secreting itself institutionally but how racism itself is ever present incognito and in any number of guises and disguises. 
In these forms Racism, La Leyenda Negra/The Black Legend wreaks havoc as they did in "The Textbook Massacre" where the Texas State Board of Education publicly excised Mexican American data and historical material from social studies textbooks used in Texas schools. In my testimony protesting this excision I pointed out that it was tanta-mount to censorship and violation of the First Amendment's freedom of speech. This was the same argument I made in 2011 when Arizona eliminated Mexican American Studies with House Bill 2281 that the act was not only ethnic cleansing but also censor-ship and muffling of the First Amendment. 

These anti-Hispanic measures reveal a nativist streak in the American psyche that emerges periodically to unravel the constitutional gains of American society, moving the nation more to the right-in a sort of dance macabre of the American national zeitgeist. What has kept this National zeitgeist at bay has been the vigilance of Americans working to create "a more perfect union," committed to the preservation and process of democracy as articulated in the American Constitution. 

In today's xenophobic climate après 9/11, it comes as no surprise that the intensity of that xenophobia focuses on people of color, including Mexican Americans who have become easy targets for xenophobes who see the Mexican kin of Mexican Americans as menacing terrorists stopped only by building a wall between Mexico and the United States with the Rio Grande in some places as a moat. 

Unable to turn Mexican Americans into brown Anglos, xenophobes like Russell Pearce and John Kavanagh (Arizona Representatives) hit on a plan that targeted "seditious" teaching that questioned Western values in Arizona schools, promoted by programs like Chicano Studies. Shades of the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798!

In their zeal to stamp out Mexican American Studies in Arizona, Kavanagh and Pearce hoped the sedition amendment to Arizona House Bill 2281 would restore the American model of the "melting pot." What neither Kavanagh nor Pearce seemed to understand was that the "the melting pot" didn't melt the "unmeltables at the bottom of the pot. Matthew Benson of the Arizona Republic (4/17/-08) reported Kavanagh as insisting that "You're here. Adopt American values." Adding that "if you want a different culture, then fine, go back to that culture"-a clearly anti-Hispanic caveat in keeping with La Leyenda Negra/The Black Legend. 

In a July 7, 2015 ruling, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals found Arizona House Bill 2281 un-constitutional, ending the judicial squabble over Mexican American Studies in Arizona but not the seeds of discord sown by the controversy.   In 1965 James Baldwin wrote:

The premise of Brunsma, Brown and Placier is that most white students enter Histori-cally White colleges and Universities (HWCU?s) surrounded by invisible walls that protect them from attacks to white supremacy. In this regard, white students are oblivious to the fact that the entire curriculum is white. That, in the main, they do not see themselves in the textbooks they 're studying. any more than they see themselves in the faculty teaching them. Here, where much is made about the faculty as the aureole of know-ledge, in reality the faculty are more often than not the conduit for indoctrination.. Thus, according to Brunsma, et al, "most white students emerge from college with their walls of whiteness essentially unchallenged and unscathed."

According to Brunsma, et al, the deconstruction of this wall of whiteness requires acknowledgement that the United States . . . was founded on the principle of white su-premacy and, as such, the U.S. has and will develop institutions that exist to support and rearticulate this principle in order to support and foster the civil, political, and social rights of its white constituency " (Asante 1988, Lopez 2006).

The language of White Supremacy reveals its presence, ergo, to understand the motives of White Supremacy one needs to understand its language as Norbert Wiener, the originator of Information Theory and Cybernetics, advised about society. The adjudication between the motives of White Supremacy and the aspirations of people of color in the United States is expressed purposely in vague terms inviting suspension of disbelief about its motives.

Brunsma, et al, caution that "University instructors may be uninformed about the epistemological center of interpretation students bring to their classes. They may be taken aback to find that the "walls" around white students are thick and heavily buttressed by the 
dominant social structure."

In terms of "The New Racism and Writing Centers," vis-à-vis Hispanic students, disregarding the demographic characteristics of the institution's students and their heritage language backgrounds convey the notion that the institution regards all students monochromatically and monolinguistically-in other words, one size fits all. Failure to consider race and language in their dealings with students seeking help in their writing from the Writing Center adds to the frustration experienced by students of color and language differences in their efforts to comply with the writing requirements of Freshman English. 

In the main, English Departments and their Writing Centers become defensive and hostile when confronted with efforts to improve their efforts with students of color and different heritage languages as if the germ of racism was located in loco blasto in the Writing Center. English Departments and Writing Centers are not guardians of the English language nor of the protocols of writing. Yet, many act as if they are the aristocracy of writing. Truth be known, they are often the worst of writers, doling out prescriptive aphorisms to needy students. 

From 1965 to 1970, I was Associate Director of the Freshman writing program with Dr. Tom Erhard at New Mexico State University where I started my 50+ years of teaching in higher education. That's where I honed my concept of the 4 paragraph freshmen essay. I like to think my freshman writing classes added value to the university experience of my students. For me those classes were filled with the excitement I hoped my students experienced also.

I'm not inveighing against that excitement but, reflecting on the poor statistics of academic success by Chicanos/Latinos in completing four-year undergraduate programs, I wonder where the problem lies? For too long social and cognitive scientists have regarded the "victim" as the locus of the problem with conclusions that Chicanos/Latinos don't succeed proportionally compared to other American minorities because their culture is faulty. This pronouncement of "cultural determinism" is still bruited widely in academic circles rife with Chicano/Latino students, especially in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. The outcome of that pronouncement has been a "cultural dissonance" among Chicano/Latino students vying for academic success in most colleges and universities including, of all places, His-panic Serving Institutions (HSIs) that should be nurturing their success. In the main, His-panic Students as the first in their families to go to college experience cultural dissonance.

Cultural dissonance is an uncomfortable sense of discord, disharmony, confusion, or conflict experi-enced by people in the midst of change in their cultural environment. The changes are often unexpected, unexplained or not understandable due to various types of intercultural dynamics.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_dissonance

One of those dynamics is the lack of "cultural competence" on the part of instructors about their culturally variant students. Studies in cultural dissonance provide a wide socio-cultural scope of analysis that include economics, politics, values, learning styles, cultural factor-such as language, tradition, ethnicity, cultural heritage, cultural history, learning styles, and socio-cultural issues of ethnocentrism, lexocentrism, and racism.

For example, writing Center Tutors need to be aware of how Hispanic students-especially Hispanic DELL students (Domestic English Language Learners)-negotiate their identities to learn academic writing. They get no help from Writing Center Tutors who are not culturally sensitive to that negotiation. Writing, as a literacy process, helps the constituencies of bilingual and monolingual Hispanic students to navigate the rocks and shoals of constructing a requisite knowledge base for succeeding in higher education. There needs to be a significant change in Writing Center attitudes toward Hispanic students and their needs. 

The reason for such disjunction lies in the "white privilege" that permeates so much of higher education, a privilege so noxious its benefactors oftentimes have no clue about its presence and how it narrows one's perspective of the world and the way things work (Arnett). But the sticking point which the benefactors of "white privilege" dismiss or re-fuse to acknowledge is their unwillingness to consider themselves as the problem, always blaming the students-especially the cultures of the students of color.
 
At a National Conference on Diversity, Race and Learning on the campus of The Ohio State University, Debbie Irving, a racial justice educator and author of Waking Up White said 

At the same conference, "The world is normalized to be White," said Christopher Torres, a faculty member at The Ohio State University at Mansfield and the Latino and Latin American Space for Engagement and Research (LASER), explaining "that as a Latino faculty member, it was little things such as not seeing any faculty of color on the staff portraits in the faculty lounge." The lack of representation brought for him questions, including: "Do I belong here? What am I doing here?" (Arnett).

Torres Concluded that because "most of the policymakers, most of the faculty . . . the great majority of them are White, they don't think about some of those issues and challenges that people of color go through" (Arnett). One of the more compelling arguments for having Latino faculty members is "the direct impact their teaching practices has on student learning outcomes. Faculty members of color are more likely to engage students in classroom dialogue and provide additional readings on issues of race and ethnicity that challenge students' preconceived ideas of racial/ethnic groups" (Hurtado). Urrieta and Chavez argue that "most Latino faculty members view their teaching in the classroom as opportunities to "raise students' consciousness and critical thinking skills even when faced with resistance."


REFERENCES
Arnett, Autumn A., "White Privilege an Invisible Campus Barrier," Diverse Issues in Higher Education, May 6, 2015.

Asante, Molefi Kete, Afrocentricity. Africa World Press. 1988.

Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo, "The White Innocence Game," Facebook, November 11, 2015.

Brunsma, David L., Eric S. Brown, and Peggy Placier, "Teaching Race at Historically White Colleges and Universities: Identifying the Walls of Whiteness," Critical Sociology. September 2013 39: 717-738, first published on September 11, 2012.

Fagin, Joe R. and Vera, Hernan, White Racism: The Basics, Routledge, 1995.

Greenfield, Laura and Rowan, Karen (Editors), Writing Centers and the New Racism, Utah State University Press, 2011.

Hurtado, S. "Linking Diversity and Educational Purpose: How Diversity Affects the Class-room Environment and Student Development." Diversity Challenged: Evidence on the Im-pact of Affirmative Action. Harvard Educational Publishing Group, 2001.

Lopez, Ian-Haney. White By Law: The Legal Construction of Race. 10th Anniverary Edition. NYU Press. 2006.

Lynch, Matthew, "Diversity in College Faculty just as Important as Student Body," Diversity in Higher Education, April 24, 2015.

Ortego y Gasca, Felipe de, "Something About Harvard," HispanicVista.com March 14, 2004.
_____________________________. "On History and its Lacunae," Presentation to the Texas State Board Adoption Hearings in Austin, Texas, September 11, 2002 protesting the excision of Mexican American data and material from Social Studies textbooks in Texas. Published by the Educational Equity, Politics & Policy in Texas, Monday, June 27, 2005.
_____________________________. "The Harvard Affair on Race I.Q.," Historia Chicana, May 31, 2013.
______________________________. "The Texas Textbook Massacre: 19th Century Mind-Set for 21st Century Challenges, From La Leyenda Negra/The Black Legend: Historical Distortion, Slander, Libel, and Stereotyping of Hispanics-1588 to the Present, Somos Primos, August 2013.

_____________________________. 'Blowout at UT El Paso," Newspaper Tree," December 9, 2013
Ortego y Gasca, Felipe de and Alexandra Neves, "Swimming Upstream in Multicultural America: Significance of Global Change Dynamics in Education for American Latinas/os In Twenty-First Century Dynamics of Multiculturalism: Beyond Post-Racial America, Edited by Martin Guevara Urbina, Charles C Thomas Publisher Ltd, 2014. 

Ortego y Gasca, Felipe de, "Revisiting Western New Mexico University's Commitment as an Hispanic-Serving Institution," Prepared for the Chicano Conference, Western New Mexico University, Silver City, New Mexico, October 9, 2015 

Urrieta, L., and R.C. Chavez. "Latin@ Faculty in Academelandia." In E. Murillo, S. Villenas, R. 
Galvan Trinidad, J. Sanchez Munoz, C. Martinez, & M. Machado-Casas (Eds.), Handbook of La-tinos and Education. Theory, Research, and Practice. Routledge, 2010

Reviewing the Immigration and Nationality Act passed June 27, 1952 

If Congress so desired  to comply with the law concerning immigration of refugees, it has the Immigration and Nationality Act to cite. The Administration is breaking that law.  

To read the law, go to this link and scroll down to Chapter 2, Section 212: 
http://www.gpo.gov/…/pkg/STATUTE-66/pdf/STATUTE-66-Pg163.pdf 
U.S. Government Publishing Office Home Page

Sent by Odell Harwell 

Theodore Roosevelt's ideas on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN in 1907. 

Bravo, Costco

Nielsen: Latinos 50+ are Healthy, Wealthy and Wise

Latinos' Healthier Choices Leading to Longevity 
Hispanics have lower mortality rates in seven out of the 10 leading causes of death in the U.S.
In the first few years after immigrating to the U.S., Hispanics also tend to have lower smoking rates, better diet and better general health. This is translating to Hispanics living longer and having healthier, more active lives.  Today Hispanic-Americans life expectancy is 83.5 years compared to 78.7 for non-Hispanic Whites. This means more buying and viewing power, for longer.

Longer Lives and Earning Years Yield Financial Growth 
Forty percent of Hispanics ages 55+ lived in multigenerational households in 2013, compared to just over a fifth of the total population in that age group.

Communal living arrangements provide some significant mutual benefits when it comes to caring for children, cooking, transportation, and shopping. This means greater disposable income, more shared meals and family experiences as well as unique watching and buying behavior.

Percentage of households headed by Hispanics ages 50-69 who earn 75,000+ saw a sharp increase from 2000 to 2013. All income brackets above $50,000 showed an increase, while the percentage of those earning incomes under $50,000 decreased.

Buying and shopping decisions are communal decisions, led by older Hispanics and often relatives of other races and ethnicities extending and amplifying their shopping habits and choices across a wide spectrum of products and services.

Patriotic Swing Voters:
Hispanics 50+ will continue to see their political clout increasing in future elections as the size and growth of the Hispanic population fuels an overall rise in Hispanic voters; those 50+ could be the decisive swing vote in many local and state elections.

Top issues in order of importance for registered Hispanic voters are education, employment, the economy, and healthcare.  Nearly three-quarters (73%) consider immigration very important, or extremely important.
The older Hispanic population is concentrated in four states: California, Texas, Florida and New York, which have 55, 38, 29 and 29 electoral votes respectively.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nielsen-latinos-50-are-healthy-wealthy-and-wise-300158376.html 

Sent by Kirk Whisler  
kirk@whisler.com

HERITAGE PROJECTS  

Ignacio Gomez 
http://www.ignaciogomez.com/bio.htm

l

CALIFORNIA

“He (Cesar Chavez) was really uncomfortable with personal recognition. He believed there were many Cesar Chavez’s, people that made tremendous sacrifice, but whose names are lost to history,” said Paul Chavez, son of the civil rights leader, during remarks thanking the City of San Fernando for recognizing the contributions of his famous father through the memorial built in the city.

On Saturday, Oct. 18, Paul Chavez and his two sons, Andres and Fernando, gathered at the memorial along with the San Fernando City Council and residents to commemorate the occasion of its 10th anniversary.
The monument along Wolfskill and Truman streets features a 100-foot mural showing the life of the United Farm Workers (UFW) founder, stretching from his early years in Arizona through his passage in the Navy during World War II, his fasts and marches, as well as a bronze sculpture of Chavez and 10 figures depicting farm workers. There is also a rotunda with bricks and plaques from donors that helped finance the memorial.

For Mayor Pro Tem Robert Gonzales, the monument is an “experience.”
 “Not only am I moved by this incredible monument and I’m able to learn about Cesar Chavez, but I’m able to remember my grandfather," he said, noting that one of the bricks bears his grandfather's name.Mayor Sylvia Ballin recalled her childhood traveling with her parents to pick up harvests, and living in farm worker camps with no flush restrooms and dirt floor shacks. She said the monument is a testament to “the difference one person can have” in the world.

“Your father… showed us that it doesn't matter where you are,” she told Paul Chavez. “If you're the poorest of the poor, you do have a voice.”

Paul Chavez agreed with that.  “One of the hallmarks of his legacy was his determination — he never gave up,” he said. “He gave people hope and faith, even against tremendous odds, even if they were poor, uneducated or immigrant.”

Paul Chavez also spoke about the work the UFW continues to do these days, fighting for farm worker rights and getting them fair labor contracts like the 20-year legal battle UFW has been part of on behalf of 5,000 farm workers against Gerawan Farming. Inc. in Fresno. It also manages 5,000 housing units in four states, has Radio Campesina that reaches half a million people in three states, and provides educational and scholarship programs.

“My father, he knew that our work couldn’t stop at the workplace. It had to extend to the community,” Paul Chavez said.

Fernando Chavez, Cesar Chavez’ grandson, said the monument “shows you a lot of the history my parents talk about and brings it back to life.” He added it speaks to the lasting effect of a movement that gave people hope.

He said his fondest memories of his grandfather are the baseball games they used to play on Easter, when the entire family gathered at his grandfather’s home. Or the time when he took him for a drive and let him steer the car.

Fernando Chavez added the message of solidarity and help Cesar Chavez instilled in the movement he founded is as relevant today as it was when he led the UFW.“He taught us we just have to serve others and stand up for things that you believe in because when people get together it’s a lot more powerful,” he said.

The Memorial: Built at a cost of $300,000 in 2004, with funds provided by the City of San Fernando, Metro, the Cesar Chavez Commemorative Committee and private donors, the monument was designed and created by artist Ignacio Gomez (who bears an uncanny resemblance to Cesar Chavez). He was selected from more than 60 artists who submitted entries.“I hope it has the same impact on the new generations that Cesar had on us and that they learn about the struggles he fought for,” Gomez said.

The monument took eight months to complete. “We worked from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. with volunteers,” remembered Gomez. “I was getting three hours of sleep. After getting home, I would continue designing.”
He recalled the last weeks of the project being “a whirlwind of activity” as he tried to finish on time and up to his satisfaction.

“It's held up pretty good. They’ve done a pretty good job with the maintenance," said Gomez, who called this project, “a dream come true.”

For Alex Reza — one of those who spearheaded the project as part of the Friends of the Cesar Chavez Memorial and the Cesar Chavez Commemorative Committee — the monument is a reminder that, after 10 years, the plight of workers has not improved and in some cases has deteriorated.

“His legacy of justice for workers is very relevant today because their income has not gained, their purchasing power has worsened, and the top 10 percent are better off than ever,” Reza said.

Fundraising Effort: But the commemoration was “bittersweet,” said Julie Gonzales of the commemorative committee, because “after 10 years there’s been some wear and tear. We need to restore and repair this memorial.”

More notably, they need to replace at least 14 of the 23 brass plaques that acknowledge the donors who helped pay for the memorial. The plaques have gone missing in recent months, due to vandalism.
The plaques are part of a small rotunda at the far edge of the memorial. They name donors who contributed more than $1,000 to help pay for the construction and development of the site.Authorities believe the plaques were stolen by thieves looking to cash in at metal recycling businesses.The Oct. 18 event also kicked off a fundraising campaign to return the memorial to its top shape, and even expand its mission to relate to the new generations the legacy of civil rights leaders.

The committee is selling commemorative bricks that will be part of the rotunda. There are two sizes: a 4x8 brick with three lines of type for $125, and an 8x8 brick with six lines of type for $250. Each brick can contain up to 20 characters per line.  To order a brick or get more information, call (818) 837-2272 or visit 
www.brickmarkers.com/donors/ccm.html .

WASHINGTON, DC., March 31, 2015

USDA Names Courtyard in Washington, DC in Honor of Cesar Chavez

Agriculture Department Celebrates Life and Legacy of American Hero
WASHINGTON, March 31, 2015 – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced the naming of the Cesar Chavez Courtyard at USDA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

"Today is the birthday of one of America's great heroes," Vilsack said. "2015 is also the 50th anniversary of the hunger strike he led to bring justice and equality to the people who feed America. USDA is humbled and honored to dedicate a piece of our headquarters to Cesar Chavez, the man who led and organized peaceful, positive change for American farm workers."

Vilsack spoke alongside Christine Chavez-Gonzalez, Chavez's granddaughter and Farmworker Coordinator for USDA. They were joined by Deputy Agriculture Secretary Krysta Harden and USDA Rural Housing Service Administrator Tony Hernandez. The newly named Cesar Chavez Courtyard is an inviting outside patio on the second floor of the South Building, part of the USDA's National Headquarters on the National Mall.

Fifty years ago, Chavez led a United Farm Workers hunger strike that secured raises and improved conditions for farmworkers all over the United States. USDA continues to help farmworkers through programs that ensure they work and live in safe environments.

Since 2009, USDA Rural Development has invested more than $208 million to develop affordable housing for farmworkers through the agency's Farm Labor Housing Program. Last week, USDA started accepting applications for loans and grants for farmworker housing for 2015.

Rural Development's investments in farmworker housing are financing projects like a 41-home community for farmworkers in Salinas Valley, Calif. The new apartment complex, Terracina Oaks, is comprised of five, two-story buildings and a community building. The community building features a computer learning center, laundry facilities, community kitchen and a multi-use room. In addition to support for housing, USDA Rural Development offers a variety of loan and grant programs to help farmworkers and rural residents in general start businesses.

USDA, through its Rural Development mission area, administers and manages housing, business and community infrastructure programs through a national network of state and local offices. Rural Development has a portfolio of more than $209 billion in loans and loan guarantees. These programs are designed to improve the economic stability of rural communities, businesses, residents, farmers and ranchers and improve the quality of life in rural areas. For more information on Rural Development, visit the Rural Development website www.rd.usda.gov.

http://capitolwords.org/date/2009/11/05/H12400_cesar-e-chavez-post-office/ 

NEW PROJECT

The Spanish Horse in the History and Development of the United States
by Mimi Lozano

On the other hand our ancestors, Spanish soldiers brought with them horses, 300 years before Lewis and Clark, and not restricted by the availability of waterways for their travels, explored throughout the continent.  

My ancestral grand-father, Juan Bautista Chapa was recording, flora, fauna, and natives in northern Texas in the 1600s, and is known as the first historian for the State of Texas.  

Another fact which further triggered my reaction to the Lewis and Clark story, was the true history of the Spanish horse.  I remembered seeing a Florida map with many cattle ranches in the early 1500.   So while the English in the early 1600s were starving on the East Coast, and disappearing from history, our ancestors had already developed ranches and were settled in Florida, raising families and cattle . . . .  with the horse, 300 years before Lewis and Clark and party took their canoe trips.

Reasoning further along this line.  It seemed that promoting the importance of the horse and cattle in the development and growth of the United States, we could respond to the persistence of the Black Legend that the Spanish were simply the historic bad guys in the history of the United States.

Thus: Somos Primos will be leading an effort to present the facts of the colonization of the United States giving well-deserved credit to the Spanish horse and his companion, the Spanish soldiers and mestizo vaqueros. 

The goal is to produce educational, entertaining, and engaging products which will stir and raise positive  awareness of the historic and current presence of the Spanish/Hispanic/Latino in the United States, and nurture pride among those with Mexican heritage and other groups with early American history in their lineage.

Gary L. Foreman, is the film-maker of Native Sun Productions will be the documentarian with whom the project will be collaborating. Below some information on Gary.

Program areas are:
Documentary, 6-part series 
Accompanying Book
Traveling Exhibit 
Materials for national classroom use
A Virtual Online Horse Museum 
AND the big vision is a Hands-on Museum on the West Coast about the history of the Spanish Horse. 

Working Committee: 
Judge Edward Butler, Past National president of the Sons of the American Revolution and author: 
                                     Galvez: Spain - Our Forgotten Ally in the American Revolutionary War.  
Robin Collins, well known horse trainer and horse historian, and me.     
Jack Cowan,  retired military and founder, Texas Connection to the American Revolution
Michael S. Perez, author, retired administrator with Los Angeles County 
Delia Gonzalez Huffman, marketing and PR specialist 
Maria Angeles O'Donnell Olson, Honorary Consul of Spain, San Diego

HBO is exploring the possibility of a series about Hernando Cortes.

Latinos in Heritage Conservation at the 2015 National Preservation Conference

HISTORICAL TIDBITS

Flowered Dresses & Flour Mills: A Story of History & Kindness
http://www.dailygood.org/story/1178/flowered-dresses-from-the-flour-mills-a-story-of-kindness-kindness-blog/ 

"In times gone by, amidst widespread poverty, the flour mills realized that some women were using sacks to make clothes for their children. In response, the flour mills started using flowered fabric." This beautiful story shares details of a little-known act of kindness past. { read more }

Be The Change

History is strewn with hidden acts of kindness that never hit the headlines. Ask a grandparent or other elder in your life to share the story of an act of kindness from their own past.

Editor Mimi: I remember this time period  well, but what I also remember was how soft and comfortable the items were, whether a dress or pajamas, they were cozy and enjoyable to wear.  Plus, I remember a certain amount of pride in the sewing skills of my mom.  

Go to the site to view examples of the fabrics and to read the
 recommended steps for washing the flour sacks in preparation for use as a dress fabric.

DEATH SENTENCE (1881)

http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/10573685/

Sent by Lucas Jasso  
pezador@yahoo.com 

Josefa (Chipita) Rodríguez:  
Was she the first and only woman to be legally hanged in Texas?

Jane Elkins, a slave convicted of murder, was hanged on May 27, 1853, in Dallas. She was the first woman legally hanged in the state.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: 
Francis Edward Abernethy, ed., Legendary Ladies of Texas, Publications of the Texas Folklore Society 43 (Dallas: E-Heart, 1981). Dallas Morning News, November 13, 1994. Rachel Bluntzer Hebert, Shadows on the Nueces (Atlanta: Banner, 1942). Ruel McDaniel, "The Day They Hanged Chipita," Texas Parade, September 1962. San Patricio County in 1976: A Bicentennial Perspective(Sinton, Texas: Sinton Bicentennial Celebrations, 1976). Vernon Smylie, A Noose for Chipita(Corpus Christi: Texas News Syndicate Press, 1970). Ruthe Winegarten, Finder's Guide to the 'Texas Women: A Celebration of History' Exhibit Archives (Denton: Texas Woman's University Library, 1984).

CITATION
The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article.  Marylyn Underwood, "RODRIGUEZ, JOSEFA [CHIPITA]," Handbook of Texas Online http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fro50  accessed December 09, 2015. 
2015. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.

GET TEXAS HISTORY EVERYDAY, WITH DAY BY DAY
Rodriguez was reportedly born December 30, 1799 in Mexico. She was a Mexican-American woman from the South Texas town of San Patricio who furnished travelers with meals and a cot on the porch of her lean-to on the Nueces River. She was accused of robbing and murdering a trader named John Savage with an axe. However, the $600 of gold stolen from him was found down river, where Savage's body was discovered in a burlap bag. She and Juan Silvera (who was possibly her illegitimateson) were indicted on circumstantial evidence and tried before 14th District Court judge Benjamin F. Neal at San Patricio. Although Rodriguez maintained her innocence, she refused to testify in her defense and remained silent throughout the trial, perhaps, some have speculated, to protect her guilty son. Although the juryrecommended mercy, Neal ordered her executed. She was hanged from a mesquite tree on Friday, November 13, 1863. She was 63 at the time of her death.[1][2] Her last words were quoted with being, "No soy culpable" (I am not guilty). At least one witness to the hanging claimed to have heard a moan from the coffin, which was placed in an unmarked grave. Her ghost is said to haunt San Patricio, especially when a woman is to be executed. Rodriguez is depicted as a spectre with a noosearound her neck, riding through the mesquite trees or wailing from the riverbottoms.[1]

That August, a horse trader spent the night at Chipita Rodriguez's cabin on the Aransas River. Travelers stopped here to sleep and get a meal. His body was later found; his head had been split open with an axe. Chipita and her hired man were charged.
The trial was irregular. The sheriff who investigated the case sat on the grand jury. There was no jury panel for the trial; people were rounded up. It looks like it was a stacked jury. Four of the jury had been indicted for felonies, one for murder. Even though the evidence was circumstantial, the jury found her guilty but, because of her age and the weakness of evidence, recommended leniency.
On Nov. 13, 1863, which was a Saturday, Neal ordered Chipita to be hanged, ignoring the jury's plea for clemency. A month later, when she was hanged, Neal was holding court at another part of the district.

Plain as a post
Looking back at the Chipita trial and hanging, things look plain as a post. But a little wariness is called for in trying to judge events that have been so filtered by time that we get only the barest outline of facts. Still, it seems fairly clear, based on what we know, that there was something wrong in the trial and the sentencing. But we will never know how Neal saw the case or why he imposed the sentence he did. He made no sentencing statement and left no explanation that has survived.

At the end of the war, in 1865, Neal was deposed as district judge by the military authorities. He was reinstated a few months later. In 1867, he was again removed by military order. Neal then revived his old newspaper, the Nueces Valley. It was published from his house on Artesian Park. He later sold the paper to "radical Republicans" who moved it to Chaparral Street.
Neal married twice. After his first wife died, he wed Asubah (Zula) Haynes, a Quaker from Philadelphia. Neal died a relatively poor man on July 18, 1873. He was buried in Bayview Cemetery. A large granite monument was dedicated to his memory on April 7, 1935.

Tidbits from the Archives of the Texas State Historical Association

HONORING HISPANIC LEADERSHIP

Gloria Contreras, Mexican Choreographer, dies at 81

Her passing was recognized by the Congress of México with a minute of silence. The President of México Enrique Peña Nieto recognized her on his twitter account with the statement: "Teacher, dancer, artist and scholar, Gloria Contreras gave her talent to México. May she rest in peace." Gloria Contreras was born in México City November 15, 1934 to Gregorio Contreras and Carmen Röeniger. She studied with Nelsy Dambré in México City from 1946-1954 before leaving México to join the Royal Winnipeg Ballet in 1955. She then traveled to New York where she established her company México Lindo with whom she would create her first ballets.

During the treatment for a broken foot, she discovered her doctor happened to treat Balanchine’s wife as well. Contreras asked for the choreographer’s telephone. Describing herself as an instinctive choreographer that wanted to know if she had made the right career choice, she asked Balanchine to look at her work. Her courage earned her an appointment with George Balanchine, considered the most important choreographer of the 20th century.

Arriving with a tape recorder and her dancers, she presented two of her works: Huapango and El Mercado. “Balanchine got all excited” Contreras recalled in her diary. “He stood up to play the piano, interpreted a musical phrase and said ‘how would you resolve this problem?’ After she had worked through a few of his challenges, Balanchine told her “If I have to sign a paper saying you are a choreographer, I will” he said. “But you don’t want to be a choreographer; you want to be a poet.”

       Gloria en la escuela de Balanchine
Following this meeting, Balanchine opened to the young choreographer the doors of the School of American Ballet. In addition Balanchine mentored her in the choreographic process and encouraged her to study music, art and sculpture. Perhaps the most important lesson he taught Contreras was to study the musical score of a work in depth before beginning to create a ballet. Balanchine included her works Ocho por Radio and Serenata Concertante in the New York City Ballet's 1960 Pan American Night. She continued working with Balanchine until 1964. 

After seeing Eioua, the last ballet she showed him, he told her: “Do not touch it, it is sublime. I have been the choreographer of my generation, you will be the choreographers of yours.” 

The birth of her two children Gregorio and Lorena distanced her from the master, who demanded from his disciples total commitment to dance. Gloria Contreras developed a new philosophy, for her, motherhood became an experience she believed made you a better artist. Her signature ballet Dances for Women is created using movements reminiscent of giving birth. For the rest of her life she insisted in stimulating her dancers to have a complete life. Contrary to many ballet masters, who select their dancers by physical type, Contreras welcomed diversity and encouraged the individuality of her dancers. More importantly, she developed a concept of beauty, based on expressivity and intelligence, not only on physical attributes.

She remained in New York to establish the Gloria Contreras Dance Company (1962-1970). During this time she worked with several companies among them Robert Joffrey’s, who included her Vitalitas, Huapango and Alusiones in his company's early repertory. During this period Contreras was very active in Latin America, she staged her ballets in Chile and Argentina as well as Brazil, in collaboration with Arthur Mitchell, who would later found the Dance Theatre of Harlem.

In 1970 she returned to México to form the Taller Coreográfico (Choreographic Gloria Contreras en Danza para MujeresWorkshop) of the National Autonomous University  of México UNAM with the help of composer and conductor Eduardo Mata. Gloria Contreras was given the theatre in the University’s Architecture School as the place for her company to perform. The theatre was in complete disrepair. Holes big enough to drop a piano through, scarred the stage floor, the curtains had been cut to make velvet jackets and there were no stage lights. But Contreras was not discouraged and led an effort to fully renovate the theater. It still serves as the company’s spiritual home. When the University decided to cancel its support of the fledgling company in 1973, Contreras organized a successful movement of students, teachers and workers that publicly demonstrated in support of the company, and threatened with a general strike if the company was not restored. The Taller Coreográfico is probably the only ballet company in history which owes its continuing existence to social protest.

Gloria Contreras directed the Taller for 45 years until her death. Among her main achievements was making ballet accessible to everyone by offering long seasons (from 4 to 6 months) changing the program every week. The price of tickets was always affordable, enabling the public to return every week with their families and develop a dance culture. To sustain a repertory large enough to change program every week, the company had to work tirelessly. Gloria created more than 260 original works offering 94 seasons that were seen by more than 3 million spectators. In 1980, the Taller took a giant leap forward when UNAM built the Sala Miguel Covarrubias. The new theatre not only ensured seating for a much larger audience, it also provided the company with its own rehearsal space.

In 1997, Contreras traveled to St. Petersburg, Russia, where she mounted her choreographies for the Ballet Company of the Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory. Following these presentations, the Russian ballet community sent members of their faculty to study her work in México. Boris Illarionov wrote “Russian Roots of Mexican Ballet” and several other Russian scholars published “Gloria Contreras: Phenomenon of Mexican Ballet.” More than 20 books including the seminal, “Dancing the Marvelously Real” by Mitchel Snow and “New Tradition of Mexican Dance” by Manuel Blanco were published on her work. Contreras, herself, authored books on ballet technique and dance conditioning. In 2008 her book “What I learned from Balanchine Diary of a Choreographer” was published.

The Taller Coreográfico de la UNAM was also active in the U.S performing in New York, Washington D.C., Miami and Los Angeles, at the Luckman Theatre twice and in 2001 in California Plaza, where if offered a memorable performance a week after the fall of the Twin Towers.

In 1999 Gloria Contreras was declared “Artist Emeritus” of México. In 2000, she received UNESCO’s “Life in Theatre Award” and in 2005, she was awarded México’s highest cultural recognition, the “National Prize for Arts and Sciences”. She also received The Universidad Nacional Award 1995 and was a member of México’s Art Academy since 2003. Her works have been interpreted by professional companies in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Russia and the United States.

She is survived by her two children, Gregorio Luke and Lorena Luke, two grand-children, Andres Luke and Amara Luke and her husband Jaime Farell.

Obituary:
LINK 1: http://www.laopinion.com/2015/12/21/un-adios-a-la-coreografa-mexicana-gloria-contreras/ 

LINK 2:
 http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/12/11/arts/dance/gloria-contreras-a-leading-mexican-choreographer-dies-at-81.html?
_r=0&referer=http://www.bing.com/search?q=new%20york%20times%20gloria%20contreras&PC=RIMBINGD&A=results 

For information contact Gregorio Luke 
gregorio.luke@gmail.com  (562) 305 0133
3000 E. 2nd Street
Long Beach, California 90803

Paul Victor Guzman Jr. died November 20, 2015 

Paul was buried at Mission Gabriel Arcangel next to his mother and grandmother. 

The mission is the State of California historical landmark, No. 158.

Both the Tongva and the Yuhaviatam are Takic-speaking groups who merged at the San Gabriel mission.

Station of Cross II by Mission Indians, photographed by David J. McLaughlin

Sent by Robert E Smith, Past President of the Los Pobladores 200 (1998-2000), 
who has served in many other positions within the organization, prior and since.

Latino soldiers
 Cebu, Phillipines, WW II

  AMERICAN PATRIOTS

Photographic Military Collections, each line below is a clickable web link.

         Sent by Bill Carmena  jcarm1724@gmail.com This is fascinating and a fun read with tons of info on the planes and the aces who flew them.  Bill

EARLY LATINO AMERICAN PATRIOTS

José Francisco Ortega (1734 – February 1798)
From Across the Spanish Empire by Leroy Martinez

José Francisco Ortega (1734 – February 1798)

Here is a brief history on him and his military history.
Lieutenant Jose Francisco de Ortega was my 5th great grandfather. 
Sent by descendent Robert E. Smith 
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Francisco_Ortega 

In 1773 Ortega became Lieutenant and Commandant of the Presidio of San Diego, a post he held until 1781. Previously he was Acting Commandant from July 1771 in the absence of Pedro Fages. As Commandant he went with Fray Fermín Lasuén and twelve soldiers to explore the site chosen for Mission San Juan Capistrano. Ortega was a favorite of the missionaries, including Junípero Serra. In the spring of 1782, Ortega was on the expedition that founded Mission San Buenaventura and the Presidio of Santa Barbara. Ortega became the first Commandant of the Presidio of Santa Barbara that year, and remained until 1784. During 1787–1791 he was Commandant of the Presidio of Monterey,and in 1792 the Commandant of the Presidio in Loreto.[2]

Retirement 
In 1795 he retired as brevet captain with 40 years of service. Ortega was given a Spanish "land concession" in 1794, which he named Rancho Nuestra Señora del Refugio (Rancho Refugio) near Santa Barbara. He built his ranch here, but didn't enjoy it long. On February 3, 1798, Ortega fell from his horse and died at age 65 near the Indian village of Casil at Refugio Beach. He was buried at Mission Santa Barbara the following day.[3][4]

Family
Ortega's descendants became one of the prominent Californio families. His son Ygnacio was the 1809 grantee of Rancho San Ysidro. Granddaughter Maria de Guadalupe married the naturalized American Joseph John Chapman. Granddaughter Maria del Pilar Ortega married Jose Dario Argüello, who served as governor of California. A granddaughter married the Scot John Gilroy, namesake of Gilroy, California.

Spanish SURNAMES

SURNAMES
Apellidos Normandos en Camarias, Origenes y Notas Descriptivas por Eugenio Egea Molina

APELLIDOS NORMANDOS EN CANARIAS. ORIGENES Y NOTAS DESCRIPTIVAS.
EUGENIO EGEA MOLINA

APELLIDOS: 
Betancor/Bethencourt, Berriel, Diepa, Gopar, Marichal, Melián, Perdomo, 
Pícar, Umpiérrez/Dumpiérrez.

Editor Mimi:  Extensive collection of genealogical information on about 100 Canary Island surnames.

DNA

FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH

Chapter 2 – Christianity Arrives in Spain – 37 AD

Chapter 4 – Evangelization by the Disciples of St. James

Chapter 5 – Evangelization by Lay People, Priests and Bishops

Volume 2 – Spain, Christianity under the Visigoths, ~300 to ~700 AD

Chapter 1 - Introduction

Chapter 2 – Conflict between Roman Catholic Christians and Arian Catholics

Chapter 3 – Catholic Christians Persecuted by the Jews

Chapter 3 – Evangelization by Lay People, Priests and Bishops

Volume 3 – Spain, Christianity under the Muslims, ~700 to 1492 AD
Chapter 1 - The Emergence of Islam
Chapter 2 - The Invasion of the Iberian Peninsula by the Muslim Hordes, 714 AD
Chapter 3 - Christian Life under Muslim Rule

Chapter 4 - Divine Intervention against the Muslims

Volume 4 – My Ancestors in Spain, ~1000 to ~1500 AD

Chapter 1 – De Haro Ancestors, Lords of Viscaya, Land of the Basques

Chapter 2 – De Baeza Ancestors

Volume 6 – My Ancestors in South Texas, United States of America

Chapter 1 – Saldivars to South Texas in the Ninetheen Century

Chapter 5 – My Mother, Guadalupe Salinas Fernandez,  1918 to 2007

Chapter 6 – Refugio Salinas Fernandez, 1942 to Present

Chapter 7 – Refugio Salinas Fernandez, 1942 to 1947

EDUCATION

Dr. Stephanie Alvarez awarded prestigious U.S. Professor of the Year award by Carnegie-CASE

America’s public schools can be traced back to the year 1640. The Massachusetts Puritans established schools to: 1) Teach basic reading, some writing and arithmetic skills, and 2) Cultivate values that serve a democratic society (some history and civics implied).

The founders of these schools assumed that families and churches bore the major responsibility for raising a child. Gradually, science and geography were added, but the curriculum was limited and remained focused for 260 years.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, however, politicians, academics, members of the clergy, and business leaders saw public schools as a logical site for the assimilation of immigrants and the social engineering of the citizens—and workers—of the new industrial age. They began to expand the curriculum and assign additional duties. That trend has accelerated ever since.

From 1900 to 1910, we shifted to our public schools responsibilities related to
• Nutrition
• Immunization
• Health (Activities in the health arena multiply every year.)

From 1910 to 1930, we added
• Physical education (including organized athletics)
• The Practical Arts/Domestic Science/Home economics (including sewing and cooking)
• Vocational education (including industrial and agricultural education)
• Mandated school transportation

In the 1940s, we added
• Business education (including typing, shorthand, and bookkeeping)
• Art and music
• Speech and drama
• Half-day kindergarten
• School lunch programs (We take this for granted today, but it was a huge step to shift to the schools the job of feeding America’s children one third of their daily meals.)

In the 1950s, we added
• Expanded science and math education
• Safety education
• Driver’s education
• Expanded music and art education
• Stronger foreign language requirements
• Sex education (Topics continue to escalate.)

In the 1960s, we added
• Advanced Placement programs
• Head Start
• Title I
• Adult education
• Consumer education (purchasing resources, rights and responsibilities)
• Career education (occupational options, entry level skill requirements)
• Peace, leisure, and recreation education [Loved those sixties.]

In the 1970s, the breakup of the American family accelerated, and we added
• Drug and alcohol abuse education
• Parenting education (techniques and tools for healthy parenting)
• Behavior adjustment classes (including classroom and communication skills)
• Character education
• Special education (mandated by federal government)
• Title IX programs (greatly expanded athletic programs for girls)
• Environmental education
• Women’s studies
• African-American heritage education
• School breakfast programs (Now some schools feed America’s children two-thirds of their daily meals throughout the school year and all summer. Sadly, these are the only decent meals some children receive.)

In the 1980s, the floodgates opened, and we added
• Keyboarding and computer education
• Global education
• Multicultural/Ethnic education
• Nonsexist education
• English-as-a-second-language and bilingual education
• Teen pregnancy awareness
• Hispanic heritage education
• Early childhood education
• Jump Start, Early Start, Even Start, and Prime Start
• Full-day kindergarten
• Preschool programs for children at risk
• After-school programs for children of working parents
• Alternative education in all its forms
• Stranger/danger education
• Antismoking education
• Sexual abuse prevention education
• Expanded health and psychological services
• Child abuse monitoring (a legal requirement for all teachers)

In the 1990s, we added
• Conflict resolution and peer mediation
• HIV/AIDS education
• CPR training
• Death education
• America 2000 initiatives (Republican)
• Inclusion
• Expanded computer and internet education
• Distance learning
• Tech Prep and School to Work programs
• Technical Adequacy
• Assessment
• Post-secondary enrollment options
• Concurrent enrollment options
• Goals 2000 initiatives (Democrat)
• Expanded Talented and Gifted opportunities
• At risk and dropout prevention
• Homeless education (including causes and effects on children)
• Gang education (urban centers)
• Service learning
• Bus safety, bicycle safety, gun safety, and water safety education

In the first decade of the twenty-first century, we have added
• No Child Left Behind (Republican)
• Bully prevention
• Anti-harassment policies (gender, race, religion, or national origin)
• Expanded early childcare and wrap around programs
• Elevator and escalator safety instruction
• Body Mass Index evaluation (obesity monitoring)
• Organ donor education and awareness programs
• Personal financial literacy
• Entrepreneurial and innovation skills development
• Media literacy development
• Contextual learning skill development
• Health and wellness programs
• Race to the Top (Democrat)

This list does not include the addition of multiple, specialized topics within each of the traditional subjects. It also does not include the explosion of standardized testing and test prep activities, or any of the onerous reporting requirements imposed by the federal government, such as four-year adjusted cohort graduation rates, parental notification of optional supplemental services, comprehensive restructuring plans, and reports of Adequate Yearly Progress.

It’s a ponderous list.

Each item has merit, and all have their ardent supporters, but the truth is that we have added these responsibilities without adding a single minute to the school calendar in six decades. No generation of teachers and administrators in the history of the world has been told to fulfill this mandate: not just teach children, but raise them!

© 2011 Jamie Vollmer | To purchase this list in poster form or to invite Jamie to speak visit www.jamievollmer.com

Sent by Lucas Jasso  
pezador@yahoo.com 

1. Hold a discussion on what citizenship means -- including rights and responsibilities of citizens.
2. Define a good citizen and have the students share personal stories about when they exhibited citizenship. For example:
   • I was friendly to a new child from a different country.
   • I helped clean up the park.
   • My mom and I passed out voter pamphlets.
   • I collected used toys and clothes for needy children.
   • I walked away from a fight.
   • I said "no" when a friend asked me to steal money from another child.
   • I wear my bike helmet and follow other bike safety rules.
   • I wait for the signal to cross the street and I stay in the cross walk.
3. Ask students to describe what would happen if there were no rules or laws at home, in school, in traffic or against stealing, attacking, etc.
4. Involve them in making classroom rules. Discuss why rules are important and have them define the consequences if they are broken.
5. Ask the students to interview a veteran, immigrant, or person who lived through the Great Depression. Together make a list of questions they could ask such as:
   • How do you feel about the United States of America?
   • Tell me about your life?
   • What was a difficult time for you?
   • What does being a U.S. citizen mean to you?
     Have the children write about or draw what they discovered, report their findings and post the results on a bulletin board.
6. Have the children write a poem, story, play or song about citizenship. Have them perform their creation for others.
7. Ask the students to search for local citizens who generously contribute to the good of the community. Thank or honor them in some way.
8. Have them read, analyze and debate newspaper articles on various topics concerning civic life.
9. Have the children create a video on "American Life" or another related topic.
10. Invite speakers to share their knowledge of United States history or portray historical characters.
11. Read or have the students read stories about extraordinary Americans and then act out the stories.
12. Teach an understanding of the country's founding documents: Declaration of Independence, U. S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.
13. With an adult's assistance have the students take photographs in their community for a book entitled "Our Freedoms," "Our Citizens" or another related topic.
14. Attend city council meetings, school board meetings or court sessions. Visit historical museums, monuments, and/or national parks.
15. Teach the children patriotic songs to sing at a parent program, school or community event.
16. After researching the significance of American symbols and/or the Pledge of Allegiance, have the children make a bulletin board explaining what they learned.
17. Have the students create a presentation to teach younger students about the American Flag, its history, symbolism, care and proper display.
18. Discuss taxes and why our local, state and national governments need income for police, firemen, prisons, roads, etc.
19. Support a school-wide student council composed of representatives from each classroom.
20. Encourage students to participate in community service projects such as recycling, picking up litter, and volunteering for other worthwhile projects.
    

Sent by Lucas Jasso 
pezador@yahoo.com 

Franklin Schargel, Owner: School Success Network and Primary/Secondary Education Consultant 
Three successful programs:  CHAT 20 ||   Teaching UP: Unlimited Potential   ||  Speaking Up

Micro Thoughts on Chicana/o Studies

 By Rodolfo F. Acuña
rudy.acuna@csun.edu
Photo by Harry Gamboa @  
http://maldef.org/gala/Acuna%20by%20Gamboa.jpg  

Chicano & Chicana Studies Programs (CCSP), Part II, 
Blog maintained by Margarito J. Garcia III, Ph.D.

CULTURE

Echo of the Mountain, life and work of Santos de la Torre, Huichol artist
Cantemos Catalog of Georgette Baker
Paraguayan musical youth group that plays with instruments made out of garbage.
Origen y sentido de las piñatas por Antonio Guerrero Aguilar
Words and Phases Remind Us of the Way We Word by Richard Lederer

Echo of the Mountain, 
life and work of
 Santos de la Torre, Huichol artist

CANTEMOS
Georgette Baker is a professional performer of 20 years, a certified teacher and fluent in five languages, Spanish included. She lived in the South America 20 years and grew up singing the songs she has compiled in this book / tape.  She plays the guitar, piano, accordion and a Venezuelan instrument called the ''cuatro'' !

CANTEMOS CATALOG 2014
http://www.cantemosco.com/

Spanish songs and children's music was created to document traditional songs and finger plays from Mexico and other Spanish speaking countries. My name is Georgette and after living in South America for 23 years, most of the kid's songs I could remember were in Spanish but I was sketchy on the lyrics and the music. Here I have compiled stories, preschool songs, traditional songs and games on CD's, all are English Spanish and many come with accompanying books! Share with your children your fun, favorite songs of yesteryear. Let's sing!  Cantemos!

In addition to the songs, the catalog includes  a very clear description of the story lines of each book, such as: 
PERIQUITO / THE TALE OF LITTLE PARAKEET

A bilingual tale of Periquito (Little Parakeet) who goes out into the jungle looking for his father. All the animals recognize him because he looks "just like his Pop". They watch over him as he journeys deeper and deeper into unknown lands. The original bilingual story and traditional song written and performed by author Georgette Baker has been pleasing audiences for years. Now families can enjoy, the watercolor, renditions of the animals that young artist Evee Quijas has brought to life.

There is a  great variety of subject matter appealing to various age levels.  As an music and language educator, Georgette has written:  FUNEMIC AWARENESS Songs that emphasize Spanish language phonemic awareness. SONIDOS SERENOS meditaciones simples para enfocar y relajar. Each CD contains 10 three minute relaxation techniques accompanied by classical music, crystal bowl chimes or Core Curriculum information. She also has produced a travel series, such as:  

We're Off to the Great Barrier Reef Australia
Nos Vamos A La Gran Barrera-Australia
A bilingual, photographic journey of the underwater world of the Great Barrier Reef and some of the animals of the Australian mainland. 

Paraguayan musical youth group that plays with instruments made out of garbage.

Landfill harmonic follows the Recycled Orchestra of Cateura, a paraguayan musical youth group of kids that live next to one of South America’s largest landfills. This unlikely orchestra plays music from instruments made entirely out of garbage. When their story goes viral, the orchestra is catapulted into the global spotlight. With the guidance of their music director, they must navigate this new world of arenas and sold out concerts. However, when a natural disaster devastates their community, the orchestra provides a source of hope for the town. The film is a testament to the transformative power of music and the resilience of the human spirit.
Soon there were more children wanting lessons than there were instruments, so Chávez and Nicolas “Cola” one of the garbage pickers experimented with making ...

BOOKS & PRINT MEDIA

Public Speaking - The Perfect Side Career For Many Authors, ISLA held webinar
Nuestra America Magazine, 2016 
Sofia’s Life by Lucas C. Jasso
I Will Fight Nevermore by Lucas C. Jasso
Crooked Deals & Broken Treaties by  John Tully

The International Society of Latino Authors (ISLA). 
An association of authors & publishers offering writings & insights.

Public Speaking - The Perfect Side Career For Many Authors. 

Click to the following for the seven key items, plus ISLA membership information: https://app.box.com/s/sok1iiepwuvkndr4vx3kp95r8okf69dx   

 
Nuestra America Magazine, 2016 

Nuestra America was first published in California on May 5, 1993 honoring the great late labor leader Cesar Chavez. Since then Nuestra America has aimed to provide our readers with objective journalistic analysis of the news events, happening from Aztlan to the Patagonia. Opinions expressed by journalists and writers that go beyond the views published in the conventional media that is subjected to censorship serving the dominant ideology or commercial or private interests. 

Nuestra America welcomes collaborations from writers, poets, journalists, playwrights, and from those wishing to have a space to express their social, economic, religion and culture of Nuestra America. 
Those wishing to collaborate with Nuestra America, send us your material to: nuestra.america@hotmail.com 

In 2016 Nuestra America Magazine will be published PDF Format and will be distributed by e-mail to  readers. If you would like to be part of our growing readership, please send us your e-mail to: nuestraamericanews2002@yahoo.com .  If you are already one of our readers, please send us your comments about our magazine to nuestraamericanews@gmail.com. 

Sincerely, Armando Garcia 
Founder & Editor. 
http://nuestraamericanews.blogspot.com 

ABOUT Armando Garcia

For many years, Armando Garcia has offered media relations services to Hispanic news media organizations, public relations departments, nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, advertising agencies and social networking in the United States, Mexico and Latin America. 

In 2014 he worked as managing editor for “La Luz” a semimonthly publication in the City of Queretaro, Mexico. In 2013 he served as the media relations director of Finding Productions in Los Angeles, CA. In 2010 he was the acting managing editor and a columnist for Conexión Hispana, a weekly bilingual newspaper in Laredo-Del Rio-Eagle Pass-San Angelo, Texas region. He also worked for the Cesar E. Chavez Legacy & Educational Foundation as the Communications Director in San Antonio, Texas, responsible to handle all media and public relations for the foundation. He assisted the editorial department of Latin Opinion a Baltimore, Maryland Spanish language newspaper. Responsible for writing, local and State stories, proofreading advertisement and copy editing. In 2008 he worked as an advisor for ‘El Patriota’ a weekly publica-tion in Honduras Central America in news gathering, investigating reporting, news photography and American journalism standards. 

In 2007 he was named the Editor-Reporter for Qué Pasa? Media in Charlotte, North Carolina. His job duties included news report-ing for weekly newspapers and broadcasted daily news over the radio waves. He also was the Media Relations director for IMF Global Enterprises in San Antonio, Texas. He was responsible to manage the planning and execution of public relations/media relations activities designed to help generate awareness of company’s services and products among consumers. From 2004 and early 2007 he worked as full time bilingual re-porter for Rumbo, an award winning Spanish language newspaper in San Antonio Texas. His news beats were crime, labor, local government, state politics, immigration, and transportation. Responsible of the news assignment desk. 

He was also the Ford Fellow Writer for the Hispanic Press News Service in Washington DC, writing automotive industry stories in English and Spanish. He also wrote press releases and immigration related syndicated stories for the agency and the National Association of Hispanic Publications. He was the correspondent for Spain’s EFE News Agency in San Antonio, Texas.

He worked as contributor writer for El Mundo and La Crónica both publications from Spain and for Latino Leaders Magazine in the United States. From 2001 until mid-2004 he worked for La Prensa de San Antonio responsible to write weekly news and feature stories in English and Spanish about the life, economic and political events of the Alamo City. In 2004 he received the 2nd place award for best political story by the National Association of Hispanic Publications for his article related to the “Rule of Law in Mexico”. 

From 1993 until 2008 he was the publisher and founder of Nuestra America Magazine. In 2016 he begins publishing it on the internet. 

He was also the editor of Imágenes a Spanish Language Newspaper published in California. Cofounder and editor of "La Farándula" a Spanish language monthly newspaper featuring Latino entertainers. 

He was the editor of "El Nuevo Tiempo”, the Spanish language weekly newspaper in Southern California. He was the contributor writer for Vida Newspaper in Oxnard, California. 

In the 1980’s he was the managing editor and public relations director for the United Farm Workers of America, (UFW) responsible for publishing Food & Justice, El Malcriado and The Migrants. He also organized media tours and press conferences to promote the UFW’s cause. For his work for the UFW he received three major journalism awards given by the Western Labor Press Association: Best Overall Publication, Best Photo-graphs and Best Feature Story. In 1984 he was the producer for Vision Advertising in Los Angeles in the developing and directing TV and Radio Commercials. In 1983 he was a cofounder of ‘Radio Campesina’, the UFW’s Radio Station in California’s San Joaquin Valley . From 1975 until 1980 he worked as a reporter for La Raza Magazine and the Bilingual Communication Project in East Los Angeles, California.

What is it like to have post-traumatic stress disorder and not know it? You know that feeling of anger, animosity and guilt? Can we guess how many children or teens in school have a mental condition marked primarily by sufficient disorganization of personality, mind and emotions? 

ORANGE COUNTY, CA

January 9, 2016: Story of Guy Gabaldon by Doris Hand

"Pied Piper of Saipan"

Guy Gabaldon, an 18 year old Mexican-American Marine from East Los Angeles, was given the name, "Pied Piper of Saipan".   Artist Henry Godines, who will be attending the meeting and will be available for questions.

Dick McFarland, Director of the Orange County FamilySearch Library will speak next.  Mr. McFarland will present a virtual tour of the many facilities available at that library for genealogy researchers.

The free program, sponsored by the Society of Hispanic Historical and Ancestral Research (SHHAR), will be held at the Orange Family History Center, 674 S. Yorba Street, Orange, CA.

Genealogical research assistance will be available from 9 -10 a.m., and Doris Hand will speak from 10 -11:30 a.m.

For additional information, contact  
Letty Rodela at lettyr@sbcglobal.net .

Guy was a dear friend, I have both the movie and the DVD.  He was an extraordinary man, brave beyond reason.  He authored and self published  Saipan: Suicide Island, updated, augmented and re-printed as America Betrayed. Come to the meeting and learn more about this amazing Chicano hero.  ~ Mimi

by Jessica Gelt
Los Angeles Times, December 4, 2015
Bowers Museum, Santa Ana

"Popol Vuh: Watercolors of Diego Rivera" features 17 works on loan from the Museo Casa Diego Rivera in the artist's hometown of Guanajuato. The lush paintings were inspired by the Popol Vuh, a sacred text in the form of an epic story that limns the legends and history of the Quiché Maya people, from their beginnings until their first encounter with the Spanish. These interlopers subsequently destroyed most of the culture's important documents, but the Popol Vuh somehow survived.

Hunahpu Recovers his Arm is among the inspired by Quiche Maya's sacred text at the Bowers Museum.

Upcoming in 2016
Winter & Spring Playwriting Workshop Series
in partnership with the City of Santa Ana, CSUF Grand Central Arts Center and The Frida Cinema

We will welcome the new year by continuing our efforts to create, develop, and sustain a writers’ community in Orange County through our playwriting workshops and building new relationships with organizations that promote the arts in Orange County.  The six-week series take place in downtown Santa Ana at Cal State Fullerton’s Grand Central Arts Center. Workshops will once again be open to all levels of writers and will be led by professional instructors’ and playwrights.  Classes will cover everything from gathering ideas, developing plot and characters, through meaningful critical feedback and revision opportunities.  The playwriting workshops will culminate with shared public readings that will celebrate and welcome new voices to OC theater. Partial funding for the workshop writing series is made possible through the City of Santa Ana’s Investing in the Artist Grant  awarded to our artistic director, Sara Guerrero.  

For more information, email  Sara at breathoffirelatinatheater@gmail.com  

Youth Movement nets $2 Million for Bike Lanes
by Jessica Kwong
Orange County Register, November 8, 2015

Lynnete Guzman, community coordinator for KidWorks, Alitzel Velasco, 14, from left, Carlos Del Pilar, 19, Maribel Mateo, 18, and Tony Gatica, 15, know firsthand the challenges along Edinger Avenue since they all live along the corridor. The group from KidWorks developed and submitted a proposal for $2,366,000 that was just approved by the State of California for the creation of a protected bike lane and sidewalk that utilizes raised medians, buffers, and delineators to provide separation from vehicle traffic.
ANA VENEGAS, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

LOS ANGELES, CA

The House of Aragon, Chapter 14 by Michael Perez
Sister Ernestine Munana turned 100 Years Old

CALIFORNIA 

January Workshop 2016: Gathering Oral History
Thursday, January 28, 2016, all day workshop: 8:30 am – 4:00 pm
LOCATION
Shell Alumni Clubhouse
1700 Pacheco Blvd
Martinez, CA 94553

PRESENTERS

The statue of Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, by local artist Mario Chiodo, 
was installed on the facade of the Velo Pizzeria building on December 02, 2015. 

After being brought back to Chiodo’s Napa studio, the bronzes were displayed at the Ole Health clinic during the summer, then taken to Benicia for that city’s Labor Day event in September.

Although the statues were designed to be transported for possible educational roadshows visiting schools, Holcomb said the Velo building are likely to be their home “for a long, long time.”

The developer added he and Chiodo may work together on smaller bronzes of Huerta and Chavez, which could be exhibited at schools to help educate students about California’s farmworker rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

The Chavez and Huerta bronzes may not be the last to focus on local ethnic communities, according to Holcomb, who said he may sponsor local artworks in the coming years to pay tribute to the Chinese and Italian immigrants who settled in Napa.

http://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/article_781c4a63-a91a-5de2-84a4-6456009a24ad.html 
Sent by Mercy Bautista Olvera   
scarlett_mbo@yahoo.com 

  

China surpasses Mexico In Sending Immigrants To California 

Governor signed Education Bill AB 146 about Mexican repatriation 
during the depression.
Oct 1, 2015

Major Renovations Underway for Beloved La Peña Cultural Center, Berkeley, CA 

New Home Reunites Long-Separated Brothers
CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman reports on a reunion a decade in the making. 

Was Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo from Spain? 

First European in California Was Spanish, Not Portuguese
Source: Latin American Herald Tribune

España gana un conquistador

NORTHWESTERN UNITED STATES 

A Glimpse of How Supreme Court Could Reshape 

US Elections

By Warren Richey, Staff writer

December 7, 2015

Historia Chicana
Mexican American Studies
University of North Texas
Denton, Texas

Sent by Roberto Calderon, Ph.D.  
Roberto.Calderon@unt.edu 

SOUTHWESTERN UNITED STATES   

MEXICANS AND MEXICAN AMERICANS:

PROLEGOMENON TO A LITERARY PERSPECTIVE

From The Journal of South Texas, Spring 2005.

 By Felipe de Ortego y Gasca