Volume 14 No. 5
April 2018 Become a Member to Support Local Art, History and Music!
For as little as $30 annually, start enjoying the benefits of museum membership and become part of a growing community of individuals who take interest in local history, art and music! Wistariahurst, as an established resource for local memory and creative expression, provides year-round opportunities for learning, conversation, and entertainment for people of all ages. Your Membership support helps us fulfill our mission of preserving the history of Holyoke and inspiring an appreciation of history and culture through educational programs, exhibits and special events. Member benefits include free house tours, discounted tickets to events, members-only events, subscription to The Vine Newsletter and a 10% discount in the Museum Gift Shop. Most importantly, your membership supports all of our culturally rich programs for youths and adults.
Un Peri贸dico Diferente / A Different Kind of Newspaper
Become a member today by visiting www.wistariahurst.org
Christopher Willingham Exhibit runs through the months of June - July Sponsored by MIFA
Un Peri贸dico Diferente / A Different Kind of Newspaper Holyoke League of Arts & Crafts Annual Show Exhibit runs for the month of Month of May Holyoke Rotary Club Centennial Celebration Exhibit Exhibit runs for the month of April Nuestras Abuelas de Holyoke Opening Receptions March 5. Exhibit runs March and April
WISTARIAHURST 238 Cabot Street Holyoke, MA 01040
In the Gallery
Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Permit #125 Holyoke, MA
Un Peri贸dico Diferente / A Different Kind of Newspaper
WISTARIAHURST ART
MUSIC
THE VINE: W I S T A R I A H U R S T
NEWS
HISTORY SPRING 2016
Un Peri贸dico Diferente / A Different Kind of Newspaper
John B. Cook, Ph.D. President of STCC
on Diversity and Inclusion Photo by Wistarian John Phelan
Original Art by Angel David Santos. Digital Art Design and Color Spectrums
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Editorial / Editorial
contents
We Are ONE City Editor’s note: In August 2007 we published an editorial that is still very relevant almost eleven years later. The editorial addresses the same issues that were ARISE RECETLY and discussed in an interview with Councilor Nelson Román of Holyoke. The interview appears in this issue. After many years of being witness to the growth and development of the two most important cultural events in the city of Holyoke, the St. Patrick’s Day Parade and the Hispanic Family Festival, some characteristics that I think define both events have caught my attention. There is little doubt that the St. Patrick’s Day Parade is the most important cultural event and tourist attraction in Holyoke. Considering the number of attendees, we could claim that the Hispanic Family Festival is now in second place. Both events are important not only due to their cultural contribution but also due to the economic impact they have on the region. In addition, they provide the necessary conditions that promote the participation, interaction, and visibility of all ethnic, racial, linguistic, and economic sectors in the region. In this context, at this time, I would say that there are three important characteristics that seem to define the Irish parade: 1) the strong participation of organizations and businesses in the region, both in the parade as well as sources of financial support, 2) the great participation and visibility of public elected officials, at the local, state and federal levels, who make sure they say, “I am here!” and 3) the “Latinization” that the Irish parade has experienced over the last years. As
the parade moves from the K-Mart Plaza to the downtown, the number of Latino spectators increases, wanting to partake of the celebration. In contrast, the reaction of the non-Latino community of the area towards Latino celebrations is quite different. The participation of a significant part of non-Latinos in the Hispanic Family Festival and its activities is a “shy” one. The business sector does not provide an economic support that can be considered significant, enthusiastic or consistent, even though they benefit from the growing buying power of the Latino population. In addition, in the Puerto Rican Parade, nonLatino organizations and businesses in the area are mostly represented by their Latino affiliates and employees, and many elected public officials, at every level, are nowhere to be seen. My point is that the Latino community in the area, year after year, has been increasing its participation, and embracing the festivities of the city of Holyoke. But unfortunately, there does not seem to be any reciprocity. Even to this day, many sectors of the community prefer to keep a distance and have a limited participation in the celebrations of Holyoke organized by the Latino community.
2 Editorial / Editorial We are ONE City 3 Portada / Front Page Museo Casa Cautiño-Insúa comes to Wistariahurst 5 Nelson Román Takes a Stand – Puerto Rico Deserves our Attention 6 The Law That Made Puerto Ricans U.S. Citizens, Yet Not Fully American 7 Tinta Caliente / Hot Ink 9 Opinión / Opinion Hunger in Western Massachusetts 10 Trump, the Nation’s Most Anti-Latino President 11 ¿Deberían los maestros utilizar armas? ¿Crees que los maestros deberían portar armas durante el día escolar? 12 Educación / Education Pioneering Puerto Rican Teachers Reflect on Early Days of Bilingual Education in NYC 13 Libros / Books Niebla en Tánger 14 An Alternative History: African American & Latinx Solidarity From A Puerto Rican Perspective 15 Ciencias / Science What is evolution?
Foto del Mes/Photo of the Month
Carmen Vivian Rivera y Andrés Torres en Holyoke Founded in 2004 n Volume 14, No. 5 n April 2018 Editor Manuel Frau Ramos manuelfrau@gmail.com 413-320-3826 Assistant Editor Ingrid Estrany-Frau Managing Editor Diosdado López Art Director Tennessee Media Design Business Address El Sol Latino P.O Box 572 Amherst, MA 01004-0572
Editorial Policy El Sol Latino acepta colaboraciones tanto en español como en inglés. Nos comprometemos a examinarlas, pero no necesariamente a publicarlas. Nos reservamos el derecho de editar los textos y hacer correcciones por razones de espacio y/o estilo. Las colaboraciones pueden ser enviadas a nuestra dirección postal o a través de correo electrónico a: info@elsollatino.net.
Andrés Torres y Carmen Vivian Rivera junto a los asistentes de su presentación The Puerto Rican Socialist Party: Political Activism in the Diaspora en la Biblioteca Pública de Holyoke en pasado 24 de marzo, 2108.
El Sol Latino welcomes submissions in either English or Spanish. We consider and review all submissions but reserve the right to not publish them. We reserve the right to edit texts and make corrections for reasons of space and/or style. Submissions may be sent to our postal address or via electronic mail to: info@elsollatino.net. El Sol Latino is published monthly by Coquí Media Group. El Sol Latino es publicado mensualmente por Coquí Media Group, P.O Box 572, Amherst, MA 01004-0572.
Portada / Front Page
El Sol Latino April 2018
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Museo Casa Cautiño-Insúa comes to Wistariahurst Source: ALVILDA SOPHIA ANAYA ALEGRÍA AND WISTARIAHURST Co-sponsored by the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña (ICP), Wistariahurst is excited to welcome you into the realm of Guayama, Puerto Rico, in a comparative museology installation which offers a combination of art, story, and history. Walk through the doors of Wistariahurst and be transported into the central plaza of Guayama, Puerto Rico as you journey through an immersive installation created by a collaborative team led by Curator Alvilda Sophia Anaya Alegría, artist, economist, and Professor at Cambridge College. “Hurricane María took many lives and homes when it passed over Puerto Rico this past September,” says Professor Anaya Alegría. “With a stronger force the eye hit Yabucoa and Guayama, blowing away many city centers. But Museo Casa Cautiño-Insúa is still standing strong and Wistariahurst is welcoming her here.”
Additional local support for the project comes from El Sol Latino, a monthly, bilingual (Spanish and English) newspaper. Museo Casa Cautiño-Insúa: Romance, Arquitectura y Economía will be on view April 5 – May 25 at Wistariahurst. An opening reception for the public will be held Thursday, April 5, from 6 – 8 p.m. at Wistariahurst. The exhibit will be available for drop-in visitors Sundays – Wednesdays, 12 – 4 p.m. and on Thursdays and Fridays by appointment. Tours with the Curator will be available Sundays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays and by appointment. Special programs for school and college class visits will be available by reservation. For more information and pricing, please visit www. Wistariahurst.org or call 413-322-5660. For more information you may call: Alvilda al (857) 261-3627.
Museo Casa Cautiño-Insúa (Credit, Sergio Gómez)Guided
Tours by Curator Alvilda Sophia Anaya-Alegría We will always begin our journey by entering “la plaza” of Guayama, Puerto Rico. Here visitors will be able to discover the differences between what is “a plaza” versus the concept of the U.S. term downtown, while you are mesmerized, by viewing, “Museo Casa Cautiño-Insúa”, standing at the epic center of Guayama, Puerto Rico.
The exhibit is co-curators Alvilda Sophia Anaya-Alegría and Aníbal Ernesto Rodríguez Ayala
The exhibit will focus on the architecture and history of the Museo Casa Cautiño, a striking Neo-Classical structure built in Guayama in 1887 – just around the time that Wistariahurst was moved to and expanded upon in Holyoke. This historic house museum, like Belle’s Wistariahurst home, is designed to romance guests the minute they walk in. Through history, photography, and art the exhibit will explore the parallels between Wistariahurst and Museo Casa Cautiño, including strong female inhabitants and close ties to the economic development of their respective hometowns, and the differences in the architecture and histories of the two homes. “When Alvilda first brought this idea up I was immediately intrigued,” says Kate Preissler, Wistariahurst Director. “The idea of teaching an aspect of Puerto Rican history by playing off the architectural contrasts of Wistariahurst and Casa Cautiño was such an inventive one. The involvement of ICP and their Museum Educator Aníbal turned it into something very special for both museums. I feel like we now have a sister museum in Guayama thanks to Alvilda’s vision.” The exhibit is co-curated by Aníbal Ernesto Rodríguez Ayala, ICP Museum Educator, Penni Martorell, Wistariahurst, with translation support from Professor Alba Martínez and research assistance from Mabel Martínez. The Institute of Puerto Rican Culture (ICP) is an institution of the Government of Puerto Rico responsible for the establishment of the cultural policies required in order to study, preserve, promote, enrich, and diffuse the cultural values of Puerto Rico. These include 14 Museums and a Ceremonial Taíno Indigenous Archeological Park.
K-12 students. The focus of the installation’s programming curriculum created by Alvilda Sophia Anaya-Alegría includes competency based fine art and architectural design words used in the Massachusetts Common Core Standards in the visual arts. Grade K-5. Included will be the viewing of a city plaza, understanding space, by looking at Museo Casa Cautiño-Insúa, and engaging in contour drawing by drawing the gait walking horse, Dulce Sueño, born in 1932 in this house, in Guayama, Puerto Rico. Dulce Sueño is the father of all the paso fino (gait walking) horses of Puerto Rico. 20 minute activity Grade 6-8. Included is a focus of the description of architectural elements of design; and Neo-Classical and Romance elements that define Museo Casa Cautiño-Insúa. Students will be asked to build a piece of an element they like the most out of the house. 40 minute activity. Grade 9-12. Included will be a description of how the city of Guayama was built on the foundation of slavery. Students will be asked to put together the transatlantic slave trade route connecting to Puerto Rico. A discussion will then follow with how a Neoclassical house like Museo Casa Cautiño-Insúa ends up being built in the third largest economic force of the Island of Puerto Rico in the 17th Century-Guayama. 40 minute activity Adult Groups or University Students. Curriculum Syllabus: Included are the Architectural Elements of Museo Casa Cautiño-Insúa with a more in-depth analysis of spatial relationships and the art pieces included in the house. You will leave with a general understanding of the history of Guayama, Puerto Rico, why city plazas were developed in Latin America, and the architecture of how this city was built. 60-90 minutes. Depending on your time, we can schedule them for an hour or no longer than 90 minutes.
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Portada / Front Page
El Sol Latino April 2018
The Only Bilingual Show of Its Kind in the PBS System*
*According to 2016 WGBY research conducted with UMass Amherst
Stories from Our Latino Community
Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. on Your PBS Station Many of us speak Spanish here in western New England. Casi el 50% de Holyoke se identifica como latino. That's what makes Presencia extra special. It’s a bilingual program about our local Latino community. Ayúdanos a fortalecer una comunidad más cercana: Watch Presencia on WGBY Thursday nights at 7:30. Presencia Season 3 Sponsored By:
Portada / Front Page
El Sol Latino April 2018
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Nelson Román Takes a Stand – Puerto Rico Deserves our Attention by MANUEL FRAU-RAMOS | manuelfrau@gmail.com
On March 20, 2018, Holyoke Councilor Nelson Román released a statement few days before the Holyoke St. Patrick’s Day Parade explaining why he was not marching this year’s parade. Below is his statement followed by a few question that he answered for El Sol Latino via email about the concerns that he raised. I, in good conscience, could not march in this year’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade due to the fact that my island is in pain and struggling, and there was not even a mention or acknowledgment from the Parade Committee on the struggle of Puerto Rico only a few days before the 6 month anniversary of the devastating Hurricane on the Island of Puerto Rico, and the close to 50% population of Holyokers who are Puerto Ricans who are suffering. Furthermore, it has occurred to me that over the past 6 years (minus two years ago when there was not one) that I have attended the Puerto Rican Day Parade there has been little to no representation from the non-Latino City Councilors to attend the local Holyoke Puerto Rican Day Parade. (Not saying all councilors, there has been years where I have seen one or two councilors i.e. Tallman, McGiverin, Leahy, etc. However, these are the exceptions and not the norm.) This year the Puerto Rican community of Holyoke and Springfield is being honored by the national Puerto Rican Day Parade. A lot of this credit belongs to our former colleague Diosdado López. I know every year he invites all elected officials and yet only a few people attend. I have yet to see our City Treasurer or others elected march/attend as they do for the Saint Patrick’s Day Parade. Both communities have contributed beautiful and vibrant people and customs to the City of Holyoke, and I acknowledge that these two cultures aren’t the only cultural diasporas who have contributed to this City. I stayed home in silent sovereign protest to say we cannot forget the Island and people of Puerto Rico. I am not trying to be divisive and yes, there are areas and ways for improvement. I wanted to respect parade day and the contributions of over $20 million it makes to the City. However, when there are those that are hurting in this City or those who cannot celebrate because they are still struggling for their life, how can I celebrate, how can I drink, how can I cheer, how can I march. It is my hope that if nothing else, this spurs all elected officials to be more present for all cultural organizations and groups throughout this City. Attend the Puerto Rican Day Parade, the Colombian, Dominican, Polish Flag Raisings at City Hall, and try to be present as best as possible. Below is our interview with Councilor Nelson Román (NR) El Sol Latino (ESL)- According to your statement there are two main reasons why you decided against marching in this year’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade. First, as you indicated, There was not even a mention or acknowledgment from the Parade Committee on the struggle of Puerto Rico only a few days before the six month anniversary of the devastating hurricane on the Island of Puerto Rico…and second, there was little to no representation from the non-Latino City Councilors to attend the local Holyoke Puerto Rican Day Parade over the past six years (minus two years ago when there was not one) compared with the Holyoke St. Patrick’s Day Parade. ESL- What would you have expected from the organizers of the parade regarding the ongoing crisis in Puerto Rico? NR - I would at a human decency minimum expect an acknowledgement to the fact that the island of Puerto Rico is in crisis and that there are Holyokers and guests to Holyoke from the Island who are, just as the Irish were migrants to a land that they did not know. Two, it would have been
great to see some kind of fundraising component and or donation to the Island of Puerto Rico and or the relief efforts. If there are over 200,000 individuals who come to the City for the weekend imagine if everyone donated just $1.00 that would be $200,00 toward relief efforts on the island. Or if folks could have donated to local organizations like Enlace de Families that is Nelson R. Román, Ward 2 representative on the Holyoke helping to house and support families from City Council (via Facebook) Puerto Rico transitioning that have no furniture or household items. All this to say that what I was expecting from the organizers was something, anything, and instead, nothing. We were and did act as if everything was normal/status quo. ESL-Are you satisfied with the information included in the press release of the organizing committee regarding your complaint? NR - It was a lukewarm and very politically correct statement that said nothing about the plight of the Puerto Rican Community or acknowledged the contributions of Puerto Ricans, like Pedro Albizu Campos, to Ireland’s fight for independence. Furthermore, the statement still didn’t address or acknowledged the real pain and hurt that is going on in Puerto Rico and or the fact that Holyokers who are Puerto Ricans are in pain. The statement was a broad brush at trying to seem “diverse” and “inclusive,” while at the same time not speaking the truth as to what is currently going on in the City and in the nation. ESL -The little or no representation from the non-Latino City Councilors at the local Holyoke Puerto Rican Day Parade and other Latinxs cultural events is nothing new. What led you to denounce this situation now? NR - I was asked by the media, and I responded truthfully. I have made it a point to lead and not hide from the truth. It’s why I put forward the resolution to release Oscar López Rivera, and to create the Puerto Rican Cultural District. I cannot and will not wait or sugar coat any longer the truth of the experience of the Diaspora here in Holyoke. ESL - Have you received feedback or support from fellow Puerto Rican / Latinx elected officials or community leaders? NR - “¡Amigo valiente! ¡Muy bien!”, - Natalia Muñoz “Kudos to you for not attending the St Patrick’s Day Parade! Read it in this morning’s paper. You are 100% correct on your stance. Keep up the good work!!!” - Black Community Leader I only heard from one of my Latinx Councilors Jossie Valentín after my statement was made public. I did hear from my other colleagues on the Council who wanted to reaffirm their commitment to the Puerto Rican community and the Parade, these included Councilors Bartley, Leahy, Tallman, McGee and Sullivan. I also spoke with former City Councilor Kevin Jourdain. I have not heard from or spoken to any of my other colleagues since. ESL - What are you planning to do if you do not see any changes? NR - I think the larger question for our community is what will we do? I hope that I am finally the stone in the pond that creates a ripple. I would challenge our community to stand up and speak out, come out let’s support our own parade in larger numbers and let’s invite our non-Latino friends, family and co-workers to our events to increase our place in the Holyoke community. What I can commit to is to continue to stay the course and not participate until I begin to see reciprocation and intellectual respect. I will continue to call out what I view is injustice and continue to organize and try to build community and hope that my white allies use their privilege and voices to stand in solidarity. Disclaimer - Interview has been edited and condensed for space, style, and clarity.
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Portada / Front Page
El Sol Latino April 2018
The Law That Made Puerto Ricans U.S. Citizens, Yet Not Fully American by CHARLES R. VENATOR-SANTIAGO This article was published by ZocaloPublicSquare.org on March 6, 2018 It has been 101 years since the citizens of Puerto Rico were collectively naturalized as U.S. citizens under the Jones Act of 1917. The act was meant to deal with the fact that Puerto Rico was neither a U.S. state nor an independent country. “It was foreign to the United States in a domestic sense,” said a 1901 Supreme Court decision. But citizenship created contradictions, including that Puerto Rico still feels something less than fully American. Puerto Ricans Charles R. Venator-Santiago cannot vote for the U.S. president when they live in the territory, but they can when they reside in one of the 50 U.S. states or the District of Columbia. And in crisis—notably during Puerto Rico’s 2017 bankruptcy, and the federal response to the devastation of the island by Hurricane Maria—the inequality of Puerto Rico is often exposed, and questions are asked again about the Jones Act. Chief among them, what did the Jones Act actually do? To understand the Jones Act, it is best to start with a clarification of what the law was not. It was not the first Congressional statute conferring U.S. citizenship on persons born in Puerto Rico. It was not the last such statute. And the law did not change Puerto Rico’s status as a U.S. territory. But the Jones Act, in its collective extensive of American citizenship to Puerto Rico residents, proved to be a crucial glue, cementing enduring relationships between residents of Puerto Rico and of the United States. In the aftermath of the Spanish-American War of 1898, the United States annexed Puerto Rico. The terms of the annexation were outlined in the Treaty of Paris peace accords ratified in 1899. Unlike prior treaties of territorial annexation, the Treaty of Paris did not contain a provision extending or promising to extend U.S. citizenship to the inhabitants of Puerto Rico. As documented in the so-called Red Book files (the official correspondence of the negotiations between the United States and Spain), President McKinley opposed granting citizenship to the “less civilized” non-AngloSaxon inhabitants of Puerto Rico and the other annexed Spanish territories. Instead, Section Nine of the Treaty invented a local “nationality” that barred island-born inhabitants from either retaining their Spanish citizenship or acquiring U.S. citizenship. This local nationality required Puerto Ricans to establish a new allegiance with the United States, while simultaneously barring their membership in the U.S. political community. It allowed the federal government to selectively rule Puerto Ricans as foreigners in a domestic or constitutional sense. However, the Treaty established that Congress could subsequently enact legislation to determine the civil and political status of Puerto Ricans. In 1900, Congress enacted the Foraker Act, which established the island’s territorial status and affirmed the citizenship provision of the Treaty of Paris. Even though the United States had annexed Puerto Rico, Section Three of the Foraker Act treated Puerto Rico as a foreign territorial possession for purposes of imposing tariffs, duties, or taxes on merchandise trafficked
between the island and the mainland. And Section Seven invented a Puerto Rican citizenship to describe the status of island-born Puerto Ricans. A year later, the Supreme Court affirmed Congress’ power to selectively rule Puerto Rico as a foreign territorial possession in a domestic or constitutional sense. But the Puerto Rican citizenship invented for Puerto Rico clashed with various federal citizenship and nationality laws. For example, the prevailing passport law of the period limited the issuance of passports to U.S. citizens, so Puerto Rican merchants who sought to travel found themselves unable to acquire a U.S. passport. In response to this and other administrative problems created by the Puerto Rican citizenship, Congress in 1906 began to enact legislation granting individual Puerto Ricans the ability to acquire U.S. citizenship by traveling to the mainland and undergoing the prevailing naturalization process. In effect, Puerto Ricans were able to acquire citizenship individually, just like any other racially eligible immigrant. This was the first law granting Puerto Ricans U.S. citizenship. But it wasn’t enough. Between the enactment of the Foraker Act of 1900 and the Jones Act of 1917, Congress debated upwards of 30 bills containing citizenship provisions for Puerto Rico. Federal lawmakers supported the collective naturalization of the inhabitants of Puerto Rico for a wide array of reasons. Some in Congress were concerned that depriving Puerto Ricans of U.S. citizenship would allow neighboring Latin American countries to describe the United States as a colonial empire. Other lawmakers believed that depriving Puerto Ricans of U.S. citizenship was bad for business, and still others thought that preventing Puerto Rico inhabitants from acquiring a U.S. citizenship would foster disloyalty and threaten the U.S. military or strategic interests in Puerto Rico. And as members of Congress considered the issue, they decided that the risks of rectifying these problems were low. Most importantly, policymakers agreed that that extending U.S. citizenship to Puerto Rico did not bind Congress to grant statehood to the island. While the Jones Act wouldn’t pass until 1917, the legislative record shows that Congress had effectively decided to collectively naturalize the residents of Puerto Rico three years earlier, before the U.S. entered World War I. But they still didn’t propose making Puerto Rico a state because a majority of lawmakers opposed the admission of a state primarily inhabited by nonwhite citizens. Meanwhile, in Puerto Rico, the debate centered on whether the residents of the island would acquire U.S. citizenship via individual or collective naturalization. This reflected a larger, longer-term discussion over whether Puerto Rico’s future should be one of independence from the U.S., or of an autonomous entity within the U.S., or of statehood. By 1914, both parties in Puerto Rico believed that the extension of citizenship to Puerto Rico was imminent. The leadership of the Partido Unión, who advocated either territorial autonomy and/or independence, sought to establish a pact supporting the extension of U.S. citizenship with the leadership of the Partido Republicano, which advocated for statehood as a way of demanding more democratic reforms to the prevailing territorial government. Unlike the supporters of the Partido Republicano, who believed that the collective naturalization of Puerto Ricans could serve as a bridge to statehood, the leadership of the Partido Unión argued that individual citizenship would provide more civil liberties for Puerto Ricans and would be compatible with either territorial autonomy or independence. Federal lawmakers took these debates into account when drafting the citizenship provision of the Jones Act. The Jones Act of 1917 amended the Foraker Act of 1900 to address a number of lingering problems in the local government. It also included a citizenship provision that incorporated the local partisan debates over the manner in which citizenship was extended to Puerto Rico under the terms of Section Five. Continued on next page
Portada / Front Page
El Sol Latino April 2018
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The Law That Made Puerto Ricans U.S. Citizens continued from page 6 The first clause of this citizenship provision granted individual Puerto Rican citizens a choice between retaining their status quo or acquiring U.S. citizenship. Only 288 Puerto Ricans chose to retain their Puerto Rican citizenship. The second clause collectively naturalized island-born Puerto Ricans residing in the island who chose not to retain their Puerto Rican citizenship. Two additional clauses granted different types of alien residents the ability to acquire U.S. citizenship by following simple legal procedures within various time frames. In the end, most Puerto Rican citizens residing in the island acquired U.S. citizenship by simply doing nothing. Yet, while the Jones Act collectively naturalized the inhabitants of Puerto Rico, it did not change the island’s territorial status. Puerto Rico remained an unincorporated territory or a foreign territorial possession for citizenship and constitutional purposes. Because persons born in Puerto Rico were born outside of the United States, they could only acquire a derivative form of parental or jus sanguinis citizenship. For constitutional purposes, persons born in Puerto Rico were not citizens at birth, but they were naturalized citizens like the child of any U.S. citizen born in a foreign country. This meant that only the children of citizens born in Puerto Rico could acquire U.S. citizenship. The children of aliens, and of some mixed marriages, born in Puerto Rico could not acquire U.S. citizenship at birth. Even though the Jones Act granted U.S. citizenship to the majority of the inhabitants of Puerto Rico, it also created thousands of stateless residents of the island. In order to address this problem, Congress subsequently amended the citizenship provision of the Jones Act on three occasions over the next two decades. The 1927 amendment made it possible for the remaining 288 Puerto Rican citizens and other aliens residing in the island to naturalize through an expedited process. In 1934, Congress introduced a territorial form of birthright citizenship permitting the children of Puerto Ricans born in the island to acquire U.S. citizenship at birth. In addition, this amendment extended the Cable Act of 1922 to Puerto Rico and began to eliminate the application of the doctrine of Coverture in Puerto Rico. The doctrine of Coverture stipulated that a U.S. woman acquired the citizenship of her husband as a direct result of marriage. The 1934 amendment allowed U.S. citizen women residing in Puerto Rico to retain their U.S. citizenship after marrying an alien. A subsequent 1938 amendment retroactively naturalized Puerto Rico-born residents. Taken together, these corrective amendments sought to collectively naturalize island-born Puerto Ricans who either did not acquire U.S. citizenship at birth or lost it along the way.
OT TINTNAT E H INK CALIE
In Amherst...
Holyoke City Councilman, S FRAU RAMO por MANUEL Nelson Román again denounced the lack of Latinx teachers, especially Puerto Ricans, in the Holyoke public schools. Román brought the theme during his presentation The Holyrican Experience as part of the conference Puerto Rico After Hurricane: Unnatural Disaster & Transnational Community Responses on March 30. The event organized by the Center for Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies - UMass Amherst.
Two years later, Congress replaced the Jones Act with the Nationality Act of 1940. It extended a statutory form of birthright or jus soli citizenship to Puerto Rico that was anchored in the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. According to the Nationality Act of 1940, birth in Puerto Rico was now tantamount to birth in the United States. Since 1940, Congress has enacted several laws that affirm the Nationality Act’s citizenship provisions for Puerto Rico and grant all persons born in the island U.S. native-born citizenship status. But even though the Nationality Act settled questions of citizenship, it did not deal with the larger question of the island’s political future. Even though the Jones Act citizenship was fairly short-lived (1917-1940), it was important historically. The Jones Act was not only the first law that collectively naturalized the majority of Puerto Ricans residing on the island, but also it was the first law that collectively naturalized the inhabitants of a territory that was not meant to become a state of the United States. Although Congress had previously collectively naturalized individual Native American nations, and later all Native Americans, it had not treated the land they inhabited as territories or potential states for constitutional purposes. To this extent, the Jones Act represented an advance for American citizenship: Never before had the country extended citizenship to an annexed, albeit unincorporated, territory that was not considered a statein-the-making. Finally, the Jones Act citizenship was an early affirmation of a permanent and irrevocable relationship between Puerto Ricans and the United States. Once Congress clothed Puerto Ricans with U.S. citizenship, it could not strip them of this right. Read as a whole, this patchwork of citizenship laws illustrate the contradictory U.S. territorial law used to rule Puerto Rico for more than a century. On the one hand, the United States continues to govern Puerto Rico as an unincorporated territory—and that is a foreign possession in a domestic or constitutional sense. Simultaneously, federal citizenship laws treat Puerto Ricans as members of the U.S. political community. In part, these territorial laws create a two-storied home. Citizens residing in the first floor—the mainland—enjoy the full legal and political rights of membership in the U.S. political community, whereas citizens residing in the basement—or Puerto Rico—live with a second-class status determined by the laws and policies Congress and the Supreme Court extend to the island. CHARLES R. VENATOR-SANTIAGO is a professor at the Department of Political Science & El Instituto at the University of Connecticut.
En Amherst… el concejal de la ciudad Holyoke, Nelson Román denunció nuevamente la falta de maestros/as Latinx , especialmente puertorriqueños, en la escuelas públicas de Holyoke. Román trajo el tema durante su presentación The Holyrican Experience como parte de la conferencia Puerto Rico After Hurricane Maria: Unnatural Disaster & Transnational Community Responses el pasado 30 de marzo. El evento fur organizado por el Center for Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies - UMass Amherst.
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Portada / Front Page
Growth in the field is linked to both a greater demand for healthcare services and increasing complexity of the equipment workers maintain and repair.*
Apply today! Admissions (413) 755-3333
El Sol Latino April 2018
Ms. Senior Latina 2018 New at STCC!
Associate in Science in Biomedical Engineering Technology
Learn to repair & maintain, or manufacture medical equipment. 2 program options: • Biomedical Equipment Technology • Biomedical Manufacturing Technology
Jueves, 19 de abril, 2018 4:00 pm Holyoke Senior Center 291 Pine street Holyoke, MA
Te Esperamos!!
Learn more at: www.stcc.edu/explore/programs
Auspiciado por….
VAYA VAYACON CON MUÑOZ *U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
3/15/18 El Sol Latino 1/4 page: 4.75” x 5.75” Manuel Frau Ramos: manuelfrau@gmail.com Runs: April 2018
Saturdays 10AM
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extraordinary people multicultural views Natalia Muñoz w/ N
MUÑOZ
Health New England United Health Care SCO Kyong M. Cruz
Opinión / Opinion Hunger in Western Massachusetts by MIGUEL ARCE and WALTER MULLIN Everyone knows the feeling of missing a meal for one reason or another. When people are hungry it can affect their mood and their concentration. What if one had no other choice but to be hungry? An unacceptable growing number of people are hungry and do not know where they will get their next meal. Not having access or available adequate and safe food is defined as “food insecurity”. According to a HealthWatch study released last month, 6.8 million residents of Massachusetts lack resources to afford enough food. Despite the alarming numbers, food insecurity continues to remain a problem in the Commonwealth. Even though the economy has generally improved in recent years, the cost of housing and transportation has risen, making less money available to buy food. Project Bread, an organization in Boston with a mission to promote sustainable and reliable access to healthy food for all, estimates that food insecurity in Massachusetts families is higher than it was ten years ago.
ger is a multifaceted issue. When adults are hungry they are easily challenged by other basic human needs including choosing between food and medical care, or housing or education. In a 2014 Hunger in American survey on households, people described the choices they face due to limited financial resources. Not only did they to face issues of deciding between utilities, transportation and the others mentioned, but families described purchasing inexpensive, unhealthy food as well as watering down food and drinks, ultimately leading to unbalanced diets and poor nutrition. When children are hungry, similar to adults, they easily lose their abilities to perform tasks essential to their development. Food insecurity and hunger contribute to other significant health problems. Good nutrition is fundamental to a child’s later economic and educational life. Children’s Health Watch estimated healthcare, special education and lost work time cost attributed to food insecurity to be $2.4 billion in 2016. They estimate the health related costs of food insecurity in the United States to be $160 billion. Massachusetts has four state agencies involved in food assistance. The Department of Transitional Assistance administers the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP). The Department of Public Health administers the Women, Infants and Children (WIC). The Department of Agricultural Resources runs the Massachusetts Emergency Food Assistance Program (MEFAP). Finally, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education School administers the school breakfast, lunch and after-school food programs. Despite the efforts of these agencies, one out of every 10 households in Massachusetts lacks the resources necessary to afford enough for food. Still the efforts continue. To address the problem, the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts provided 10.6 million pounds of food in 2017 that served 223,561 people, almost a quarter of a million people in the four counties of Western Massachusetts! This food was distributed through
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a vast network of local feeding programs, like food pantries and meal sites as well as The Food Bank’s Mobile Food Bank and Brown Bag; Food for Elders food distribution. To get at the underlying causes of hunger, The Food Bank and its partners recently launched the Coalition to End Hunger (www. coalitiontoendhunger.org). When addressing a problem such as hunger, government officials and public policy advocates have a choice to make. When public policy officials choose to incorporate actions that support a person’s right to selfdetermination and control over his or her lives, they enable the person to overcome the severity of the social problem. In light of current political realties, it is beneficial to understand the approach being taken at the U.S. federal level. Currently, the Trump administration is pushing that the Department of Agriculture adopt a program called “America’s Harvest Box”. It is proposing that SNAP recipients get a pre-assembled box of canned foods and other shelf-stable good. Harvest Boxes would be a cruel and fundamentally flawed strategy bereft of autonomy or dignity. There would be no consideration of dietary restrictions, no fresh foods, vegetables, meat or dairy. It would replace efficient SNAP benefits that recipients receive electronically on the equivalent of ATM cards to purchase healthy food at local supermarkets, farmers markets and farm stands. Currently, about 150,000 individuals receive SNAP benefits in Western Massachusetts alone, permitting them to choose food that meets their dietary and cultural needs and injecting millions of dollars monthly into the local economy that support local businesses that employ local residents. . The Trump administration proposal ignores the findings of the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) which advocates for increasing SNAP benefits to seniors, disaster victims as well as people with disabilities as well as supporting an increase in the school breakfast, lunch and after school feeding programs. In 2016, SNAP lifted 3.6 million people out of poverty. School lunches lifted 1.4 million out of poverty and WIC lifted 300,000 out of poverty. The “America Harvest Box” would have little antipoverty impact. In addition to FRAC’s recommendation, the recent Children’s HealthWatch study commissioned by the Greater Boston Food Bank recommended that food insecurity screening and nutrition assistance in clinical settings and reimbursing providers for those services. Another recommendation is maintaining current levels of SNAP funding and not cutting them by imposing additional requirements that would have the effect of taking food away from those who need food assistance. The study also calls on Massachusetts government to invest more funds in the Massachusetts Emergency Food Assistance Program and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children. As an American society, we should be hanging our heads down in shame. Food is a human right. “If we can conquer space, we can conquer childhood hunger,” said Buzz Aldrin. Buzz Aldrin was on the Apollo 11 mission. He and Neil Armstrong were the first two humans to land on the Moon on July 21, 1969. This guest opinion is one in a series on living in poverty. Dr. Walter Mullin (wmullin@springfieldcollege.edu), Professor of Social Work and Miguel Arce (marce@springfieldcollege.edu), Associate Professor of Social Work at Springfield College.
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Opinión / Opinion
El Sol Latino April 2018
Trump, the Nation’s Most Anti-Latino President by JANET MURGUÍA
NiLP Guest Commenary
is not limited to immigration. We have seen a year’s worth of such policies from trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) without providing a real alternative to giving massive tax cuts to corporations and the very wealthy to the neglectful and disgraceful treatment of Puerto Rico and its 3.5 million American citizens as they coped in the wake of Hurricane Maria. The National Institute for Latino Policy Report (NiLP) | March 15, 2018 As our country enters its second year with Donald Trump as president, there have been many surprises, most notably Trump’s complete disinterest in broadening his appeal beyond his base. But for the Latino community, the biggest surprise is that we have not been surprised at all. Trump campaigned as the most anti-Latino presidential candidate in U.S. history. Now he is governing as the most anti-Latino president in our history. This is not an opinion, it is fact. Trump began his campaign by calling Mexicans “criminals” and “rapists.” He said that a California judge of Mexican descent born in Indiana could not be objective because of his ethnicity. He repeatedly and erroneously painted Latinos as criminals and residents of poverty and crime-ridden hellholes. He pardoned Sheriff Joe Arpaio even though he was convicted of racially profiling Latinos in Arizona. And Trump has yet to say one truly positive or redeeming thing about nearly 60 million of his constituents who contribute every day to this country in profound and significant ways. Trump’s anti-Latino stance has been most obvious, of course, on the issue of immigration. From day one, he has never deviated from disparaging Hispanic immigrants every chance he gets or giving credence to baseless and inflammatory falsehoods about both Latinos and immigrants. Unfortunately, those falsehoods are now being used as the rationale for the draconian and senseless immigration policies being conjured up by the antiimmigrant, anti-Latino extremists he has empowered like Stephen Miller and Jeff Sessions. Miller has made the most of his opportunity to fulfill his toxic and White supremacist-friendly vision for America. He is the center of the administration’s calculated effort to take a legitimate policy aim-removing those who pose a threat to our national security and public safety-and use it to try and implement policy that smears and targets every single immigrant in this country. So instead of focusing on gang members and violent criminals, the majority of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportations in the last year have been of non-violent mothers and fathers who pose no threat to our society. ICE has picked up fathers dropping off their kids at school, parents taking care of their cancer-stricken children, and even a little girl in an ambulance on her way to a hospital for a life-saving operation. I am sure Americans are resting easier at night with these people off our streets. And despite years of saying that their issue was with “illegal,” not “legal” immigration, these extremists are now going after “chain migration.” For those who don’t know, “chain migration” is a disgusting term invented by anti-immigrant extremists to disparage our family-based immigration system as if there is something sinister about U.S. citizens wanting to reunite with their parents or adult children. And even though 90% of Americans support giving relief to DREAMers, and DACA has been a smashing success, this administration has made the DREAMers’ lives a living hell. First, by needlessly and abruptly ending DACA. Second, by the president giving false hope that he would help DREAMers get permanent relief. And most disgracefully, Trump surrogates demonized DREAMers as violent criminals and threats to our country in a series of television ads to thwart Senate bipartisan relief proposals. What is happening under the guise of addressing immigration and supposedly making Americans safer is cruel. It is inhumane. It is grotesque. But the cruel and grotesque policy-making from the Trump administration
Through these policies, President Trump has made his disinterest and contempt for Latinos crystal clear. But as grim as the last year has been for our community, we have to remember that we are far from powerless. It was 50 years ago this February when our organization, then known as the Southwest Council of La Raza (SWCLR), was founded in Phoenix, Arizona. Our three founders-Ernesto Galarza, Herman Gallegos, and Julian Samoraspent years studying the Hispanic community. What they concluded is that there was a need for an organization that could connect and unite the handful of Hispanic community-based organizations that existed at that time. It was based on a simple premise that holds true for us today-in unity there is strength, and in strength there is power. In the last fifty years, what became the National Council of La Raza and our original seven Affiliates in the Mexican American community blossomed into the pan-Latino UnidosUS and our nearly 300 Affiliates across the country serving millions of Hispanic families every single day. The progress UnidosUS has made-whether it was helping millions of undocumented immigrants get legal status under the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act or helping to lift millions of Latino families out of poverty through the Earned Income and Child Tax Credits-has come about because we worked together and because we were stronger when we united. It is that truth that we must return to as a community to battle this administration and this political climate. And even in this climate, we have seen the benefits of unity. In the last year, we saw our community deeply involved in the successful effort to prevent the repeal of the ACA. And while a solution still awaits us, it was the DREAMers in our community and their allies who put the issue of DACA at the top of Congress’ agenda. And in the last few weeks, we are seeing a new voice emerge with the remarkable campaign of the young peopleincluding Emma Gonzalez and Alejandro Calderon-who survived the horrific mass shooting in Parkland, Florida to pressure elected officials to finally do something about gun violence. These emerging leaders have not only captured the imagination of the nation, they may represent a real turning point in this long-time debate. It is now up to all of us as a community to make it crystal clear to President Trump and other elected officials that the Trump administration’s policies are not only unacceptable to our community but an affront to the values this country holds dear. And we do that using our voice and our vote. We will push back by pushing those eligible in our community to register to vote, including the 500,000 new voters UnidosUS has registered since 2008 as the largest Latino voter registration organization in the country. This election year, we are making a concerted effort to engage young people-those who are often the most affected by draconian policies-to get engaged in the political process. And we will educate all voters that all elections-including off-year and mid-term elections-matter. Then we will be in the position we need to be in to hold elected officials-on both sides of the aisle-accountable. Only then will we able to make the economic, social, and political progress we need to move our community and our country forward. Janet Murguia is President and CEO of UnidosUS (formerly the National Council of La Raza). She can be reached at info@unidosus.org. The NiLP Report on Latino Policy & Politics is an online information service provided by the National Institute for Latino Policy. For further information, visit www.latinopolicy. org. Send comments to editor@ latinopolicy.org.
Opinión / Opinion
El Sol Latino April 2018
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Columnista Invitada
¿Deberían los maestros utilizar armas? por FAVIOLA L. NADAL ROSA | Abril 1, 2018 La comunidad de Parkland, Florida llora la pérdida de esos 17 seres queridos. Es duro saber que el utilizar armas de fuego fue lo que despidió las vidas de esas personas, pero son las mismas armas que los protegerán de cualquier intento nefario. Donald Trump recién hizo una propuesta acerca de que los maestros utilicen armas de fuego. Claro esta que la propuesta dejó a todos asombrados, pero por lo contrario pienso que los maestros deberían portar armas de fuego para su propia defensa y la de otros. Muchos de los que hoy están muertos podrían estar con vida, si los maestros hubieran portado armas de fuego. ¿Por qué estar de acuerdo con la propuesta de Donald Trump? Ha habido varias masacres escolares. ¿Por qué no fueron evitadas desde el principio? Simplemente porque nadie se tomó el pensamiento de que podrían volver a suceder en algún momento y que con armar a los maestros se podría evitar. Trump ahora sí está pensando en la seguridad de los maestros. Trump propuso que el 20% de los maestros portarán armas de fuego, pero no es lo suficiente. Yo pienso que todos los maestros que quieran portar armas deberían ser apoyados. Esta propuesta también apoya a los estudiantes, porque así no sentirían la necesidad de no volver a la escuela por miedo que ocurra otro ataque. Muchos dirían que no es necesario que los maestros utilicen armas de fuego, porque no es bueno que los menores de edad vean tanta violencia en sus escuelas. Sin embargo, recuerda que en la masacre hubo menores de edad que sufrieron un terrible ataque con un arma de fuego. Otros argumentos serían que en una rabia contra el estudiante, el maestro tomaría su arma y ocurriría un accidente. No creo en ese argumento porque el maestro debería tener su arma guardada. En Sidney, Ohio, por ejemplo, hay una caja segura en el salón del maestro con equipo de arma de fuego, la cual solo se utiliza en caso de emergencia. Estoy de acuerdo, ya que si
los maestros utilizarán armas de fuego, no morirían tantas personas. Piensen qué hubiera pasado si los maestros el día de la masacre hubieran utilizado armas de fuego para su defensa. Claramente no habrían muerto 17 personas en la masacre. No creo justo que los maestros no quieran defender la seguridad de los estudiantes y de si mismos. El sindicato de maestros en Florida ha dicho que, “Los maestros no están entrenados en puntería Faviola L. Nadal Rosa ni en tomar decisiones de vida o muerte en segundos ni en evaluar si se puede disparar sin poner en peligro la vida de inocentes con fuego amigo.” Quizás con entrenamiento se sentirían más tranquilos. Deberían pensar en cuántas masacres han habido en las escuelas y por qué no se evitan. Ellos no piensan que eso podría ocurrir en sus escuelas, pero deberían estar preparados para cualquier ataque. Apoyemos a los maestros y por eso apoyemos también la propuesta de Trump. Faviola L. Nadal Rosa es estudiante del Care Center en Holyoke, MA. El Care Center, un programa educativo alternativo diseñado para preparar y capacitar a las madres jóvenes para que adopten su educación y creen un futuro exitoso para ellas y sus familias.
Columnista Invitada
¿Crees que los maestros deberían portar armas durante el día escolar? por AIDA LIZ RAMOS RESTO | Abril 1, 2018 La Casa Blanca promete ayuda federal para entrenar a maestros armados, después de que un ex-estudiante matara a 17 estudiantes en Parkland, Florida. A raíz de este triste acontecimiento los estudiantes de la escuela iniciaron una huelga para que se controle la venta de armas. La idea de Donald Trump es armar al 20% de los profesores; al igual que ha mencionado aumentar la edad mínima para comprar legalmente un arma. Estoy en contra de que los maestros usen armas, ya que habría menores en el área que podrían encontrar el arma y cometer un crimen con mover un simple dedo. Si los maestros portan armas no seria una buena opción en escuelas públicas porque se encuentran niños de educación especial; un niño de educación especial puede tener problemas en la escuela, problemas de conducta, o problemas emocionales, los cuales lo hacen vulnerable a cometer una estupidez en un momento de debilidad. No todos los maestros saben manejar armas, no están entrenados en puntería ni, según los mismos maestros de Broward county en Florida, “en tomar decisiones de vida o muerte” y tampoco se podría evaluar si se puede disparar sin poner en peligro la vida de niños inocentes. Además, en medio de un problema entre el estudiante y el maestro puede salir alguien herido por coraje.
Las personas a favor de esta propuesta piensan que es necesario para que los maestros se puedan defender y defender a los estudiantes. Por otra parte diría que los maestros no saben manejar armas. Al tratar de disparar, el maestro no sabe si la bala le daría a la persona equivocada. En caso de que aprobaran las armas, los maestros estarían preparados en caso de una emergencia y así serían menos las víctimas. Portar armas se basa en mucho entrenamiento y dedicación, ya que manejar un arma no es tan fácil como muchas personas dicen. No sería justo que los estudiantes corran peligro cuando no tienen la culpa de los problemas de otras personas. Como dice Donald Trump, si en algún momento se pudiera encontrar un 20% de agentes de la ley retirados o profesores que estén a favor y hagan un entrenamiento para portar un arma en la cintura sería todo diferente. Deberían en las escuelas públicas en general aumentar la seguridad, poner mas armas en el área escolar con los guardias, revisar mejor los antecedentes de las personas, aumentar más las cámaras de seguridad y los detectores de metales y además estudiar más las enfermedades mentales. Aida Liz Ramos Resto es estudiante del Care Center en Holyoke, MA. El Care Center, un programa educativo alternativo diseñado para preparar y capacitar a las madres jóvenes para que adopten su educación y creen un futuro exitoso para ellas y sus familias.
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Educación / Education
El Sol Latino April 2018
Pioneering Puerto Rican Teachers Reflect on Early Days of Bilingual Education in NYC by NÉSTOR DAVID PASTOR • Edited by ELIZABETH TAVERAS RIVERA Reprinted with permission from Center for Puerto Rican Studies - Centro Voices - 21 January 2018 On January 17th, Centro oral historian Andrew Viñales and Centro researcher Elizabeth Taveras Rivera conducted an oral history panel interview with Drs. Diana Caballero, Sonia Nieto, Luis Reyes, and Carmen Mercado. The interview was conducted at the Roosevelt House, the day after Dr. Nieto gave the keynote address title, “Advocacy in Action” at the invitation of the Hunter College School of Education. Over the course of their long careers, the four Puerto Rican educators have made significant, lasting, and in some cases, pioneering contributions to the fields of pedagogy, multicultural and bilingual education, and education reform. “There was a political and social context to the classroom,” Diana Caballero explains, in reference to the education system in New York City during the 1960s and 70s. As a teacher, she and her colleagues were on the frontlines of the struggle for bilingual and multicultural education. Dr. Nieto, for example, began her long career at P.S. 25, thus inaugurating the first bilingual program in New York City and second in the United States (the first was in Miami-Dade county). This year marks the 50th anniversary of the school. There, she quickly began to see social justice as an inevitable component of her work. She had wanted Dr. Nieto decided to become a teacher at the age of six. “Teachers were smart, in charge, powerful,” said Nieto. “I loved learning and I wanted to be in that world.” Her first language, however, had not been English, which she did not know upon entering school; nor was she given much support to improve her fluency. She also recalls being discouraged from speaking Spanish in the classroom as a young student.
family at a young age. Both educators also benefited from the passing of the Bilingual Education Act, also known as Title VII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Amendments of 1967, receiving funding to further their studies. Mercado went on to teach at C.S. 211, another one of the first bilingual schools in New York City. She then left to work as a curriculum specialist for the bilingual program at Hunter College. When asked about the future of bilingual education, the panelists saw parallels to their own struggle, as well as an ever-present ebb and flow to the movement. Like the 60s and 70s, we are currently in the midst of another era of social upheaval, which may bring about the kind of change for which educators like Reyes, Nieto, Caballero, and Mercado, were responsible. Reyes, for example, noted that transitional bilingual education and ESL, for instance, do not resemble the original vision of the movement. Yet, in recent years, there has been a renewed emphasis on bilingual and multicultural education. He cautioned that language not be categorized as a deficit (“limited English proficient”) but as an asset (“bilingual or multilingual learner”), as an opportunity to develop the language of the home---much like the children of Puerto Ricans who came to New York during the Great Migration of the mid-20th century. In the end, Dr. Nieto concluded that is there is now a vast body of work on bilingual and multicultural education---some of which she has authored, including the recently released 7th Edition of Affirming Diversity: The Sociopolitical Context of Multicultural Education, co-authored with Patty Bode. The lack of theory and writings was one of the many early challenges faced by bilingual and multicultural educators. Dr. Nieto also finds hope in the many young educators she meets, many of them from backgrounds she did not encounter in the past. They are the future, a future, in part, made possible by a generation of Puerto Rican educators still deeply involved in the struggle. © Center for Puerto Rican Studies. Published in Centro Voices 21 January 2018
Caballero, too, was prohibited from speaking Spanish. She said that as a child, she had been made to feel like less than her peers. In turn, she became ashamed of her family, identifying as Spanish, a broader term, rather than as Puerto Rican. Denigration as schoolchildren was a common theme among the four panelists. As a result, Caballero later decided to speak Spanish to the students in her classroom. Many of the kids were from countries like El Salvador and the Dominican Republic, in addition to Puerto Rico. “I wasn’t going to let their cultural identity be stripped from them,” she says. For Reyes, his Puerto Rican identity did not figure into his education. Even while at Middlebury College studying for a Masters degree in Spanish Literature, only Puerto Rican poet Luis Pales Matos was included as part of the curriculum---a token writer chosen for his Afro-Antillano poetry. Reyes was, however, influenced greatly by his experiences in Catholic schools run by the De La Salle Brothers, later becoming a member of their order and teaching Spanish at Paramus Catholic High School for four years. Still, Reyes views education “as a form of liberation,” drawing upon his experience with Liberation Theology. Carmen Mercado, on the other hand, said that her path to bilingual education could, in part, be traced back to yearly trips to Puerto Rico as a child. Like Reyes, she was born on the island and migrated with her
Libros / Books
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Niebla en Tánger de CRISTINA LÓPEZ-BARRIO • Editorial Planeta: 2017 | 318 páginas Flora Gascón está aburrida. Sumamente aburrida de su esposo. Vive de la imaginación. Cuando se despierta mira a su esposo y “Se levanta sigilosa… Camina de puntillas, imagina que su marido es un soldado nazi y ella una reportera que trabaja para la resistencia francesa; si se despierta puede dispararle, tiene que escapar.” Pobre Flora. Busca aventuras, amantes, algo que le llene la vida desesperadamente vacía. Y una noche conoce a alguien, alguien que tal vez pueda rescatarla, resucitarla. Niebla en Tánger, de la autora y abogada española Cristina López-Barrio, recién se anunció como Finalista 2017 en la competencia anual que patrocina la imprenta Planeta, cuantioso premio dotado con 150.250 euros. Es una novela dentro de otra novela. Las dos son ecos de sí y atrapan al lector en su círculo de amores e intrigas. Niebla en Tánger abre con la yo-protagonista Flora levantándose de la cama con cuidado para no estorbar al amante a las 3:30 de la mañana. ¿El amante? Paul Algo, un hombre a quien conoció sólo unas horas antes en una taberna. Se viste sigilosamente. Busca con qué dejarle a Paul una notita con su nombre y número del móvil para que—ojalá—se encuentren de nuevo en el futuro, un futuro bien pronto. Se fija en las pocas pertenencias de él. Primero ve varias páginas anotadas de un manuscrito que lleva el título Niebla en Tanger de Bella Nur. Y luego hay una cartera cuyo contenido se le cae sobre la alfombra. Capta su atención un collar con una cruz. Flora se lleva el manuscrito y el collar al salir de la habitación pensando devolvérselos a Paul cuando lo vea otra vez. Vuelve Flora a su casa, a su habitación, donde duerme su esposo en la cama grande: “Es una tumba en la que yace un hombre…se introduce en ella con cuidado de no rozar el otro cuerpo…se arropa en la lápida y sello el sepulcro.” Es el año 2015. Nunca oye más de Paul. Desesperada por hallarlo, sigue varias pistas que sugiere la novela llevó consigo aquella inolvidable noche de romance. Paradójicamente, la novela empieza “Hoy es el aniversario de la desaparición de mi amante.” Habla otra, una Marina Ivannova, a quien la dejó un tal Paul Dingle en 1951 en Tánger. El Paul de la novela parece ser su Paul, el Paul de Flora. Resuelta en encontrarle de nuevo, ella viaja a Tánger donde piensa hablar con la autora de la novela, Bella Nur. Allí se tropieza, literalmente, con Armand Cohen que está en la ciudad para vender propiedad de la familia. Los dos se hacen amigos, compartiendo historias semejantes. Dice él que “Este viaje a Tánger…ha sido una vía de escape. La oportunidad de estar solo, de parar la máquina engrasada del día a día que te engulle y te agota.” Cuando por fin encuentra a la autora Bella Nur, ésta se fija en el collar de Paul que lleva Flora. Le asombra cuando Bella le pregunta “¿Paul te la regaló?” y después añade “Así es que Paul ha desaparecido una vez más.” Empiezan a alternar capítulos de las dos novelas Niebla en Tánger, la historia de Flora en 2015, y la de Marina empezando en 1949. Mientras más se revelan cosas de Paul, más misterioso parece. A veces la trama parece poco creíble con sus muchas coincidencias.
Cuando Flora conoce a la tía abuela de Armand, ésta le muestra una foto de su juventud donde aparece una joven vestida “de arlequín” en una fiesta de 1928. Aquella joven se llamaba “Irina Ivannova.” ¿Irina? ¿Marina? Parece que la autora se da cuenta de las muchas coincidencias en su novela cuando hace que Flora se pregunte “¿cuántas casualidades hay en la vida que jamás se permitirían en la literatura?” Sin embargo, López-Barrio crea una historia embellecida con lujo de detalles sensuales que recrean el ambiente y las emociones que sienten los protagonistas y así atrapa la atención y la imaginación al lector. Por ejemplo, cuando Flora regresa a su casa tarde en la noche, “El descansillo del cuarto piso la recibe en penumbra. Abre la puerta con la letra C y la cierra tras ella sin hacer ruido La casa está tomada por una soledad de cementerio.” Antes de acostarse, Flora se sienta a fumar un cigarillo. “El cigarillo se acaba, cruje contra el cenicero de cristal. Flora se levanta, ante ella se abre el abismo del pasillo que conduce al dormitorio…se detiene, escucha, nada. Ni un soplido de ultratumba….No hay escapatoria. Una cama grande la espera. Es una tumba en la que yace un hombre, bocarriba, consciente de la mitad del espacio que le pertenece.” Ya se entiende por qué con desesperación busca al Paul del romance de una sola noche, y al Paul de Bella Nur, el de la novela, que posiblemente es el mismo. Por fantasiosa que parece la trama, López Barrio incluye al personaje de Deidé Spinelli, una psicoanalista de 50 años de Buenos Aires, con quien consulta Flora por Skype. Además de servir como medio de comentar la trama, estas conversaciones le dan a la novela un toque de verosimilitud. Comenta Deide, “¿A ver si sos vos la que está viviendo una realidad inventada para no afrontar su verdadero problema?” Así produce una mezcla de lo realista y nos convence de que lo fantástico de veras es real. En la novela de López-Barrio, el Tánger de la época de Marina y de la joven Flora es un escenario rico de actividad, lugares encantadores, ambientes sensuales y misteriosos de otro mundo, y contrasta con el Madrid de donde viene Flora. Además incluye alusiones a Axia Kandisha, que según las varias leyendas de Marruecos puede ser una anciana bruja fea o un tipo de diablo o coco. El Madrid de Flora parece estéril por contraste, reflejando el estado mental/emocional de ella. En Paul, López-Barrio ha creado un personaje sumamente atractivo con un misterio adentro que le atormenta y que atrae a las mujeres quienes quieren rescatarlo de su dolor interior. Pero no pueden. Nadie puede, y Paul de nuevo se les desaparece buscando otra que le suavice la culpa interior que lo hace sufrir tanto. Es un Paul que nunca está quieto, El tormento interior lo hace vagar por el mundo dejando atrás corazones rotos. Dicho así, es una figura bastante melodramática, pero con el talento de López-Barrios llega a convencernos de su realidad. Reseña de Cathleen C. Robinson, profesora jubilada del castellano y de la historia de la América Latina que ahora se dedica a escribir.
El Sol Latino April 2018 Libros / Books An Alternative History: African American & Latinx Solidarity From A Puerto Rican Perspective
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© Center for Puerto Rican Studies. Published in Centro Voices 15 February 2018.
also set the stage for the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case decided by the US Supreme Court in 1954. Coincidentally, Felicíta’s family had relocated to Southern California after the experience of her father, who had worked in the cotton fields in Arizona.
More than 200 years of US history condensed into less than 200 pages (minus the citations) is no easy feat. Howard Zinn’s epic tome, A People’s History of the United States, for example, which begins with the arrival of the Spanish, has been doing a number on the backs of freshman college students since its publication in 1980. Historian Paul Ortiz, on the other hand, offers a more concentrated dose of alternative history.
Moving on a couple of decades, the Young Lords, a Puerto Rican activist group of the 1960s and 70s, are credited for their participation in the multi-racial and multi-ethnic Rainbow Coalition led by Fred Hampton of the Black Panther Party. The Young Lords has been the subject of an enthusiastic revival in recent years. Several works of scholarship, among other things, have also reignited interest in their legacy of activism. Darrel Wanzer-Serrano’s book The New York Young Lords and the Struggle for Liberation is one such example.
His latest book, An African American and Latinx History of the United States, was published by Beacon Press in late January as part of its ‘Revisioning American History’ series. The book covers everything from the American Revolution to the present day, and develops the concept of emancipatory internationalism as particularly useful in understanding the struggles of black and brown peoples in the United States. The result is a dizzying historical account in which Puerto Ricans make a few important cameos. The first such example is an early reference to the work of Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, the celebrated Afro-Puerto Rican historian, writer, and archivist. Schomburg is of course the namesake of the renown research library located in Harlem. In recent years, there has been a revival of interest in Schomburg and the intersections of his identity (Vanessa K. Valdes’ recent book Diasporic Blackness: The Life and Times of Arturo Schomburg explores this topic at length). Furthermore, Schomburg’s mission to affirm the historical contributions of the African diaspora on a global scale informs Ortiz’s project as well. However, there is still a lot of ground to cover and the concise format lends itself more so to a brisk pace. As a result, the first mention of the Puerto Rican diaspora within the context of the book’s timeline comes in the 1920s, when migrant farm workers were brought from the island to Arizona to work in the cotton fields. Due to the abuses they suffered, however, many of the workers eventually settled elsewhere, after years of protest. Worker exploitation and the resulting labor movement are one of the major themes found in the book. For those interested, Ismael García-Colón adapted his recent article in the CENTRO Journal summarizing the history of Puerto Rican migrant labor in the mid-20th century. Next, the book makes reference to Mendez v. Westminster, a groundbreaking federal court case decided in 1947. Felicíta Mendez, a Puerto Rican woman, and her Mexican husband, Gonzalo, stood against segregation in California public schools on behalf of Mexican-American families in the state. Centro Voices published an interview with Sylvia Mendez, the daughter of Felicíta Mendez and one of the children denied enrollment by the Westminster Elementary School District. There is also a PBS documentary about the struggle led by her parents. The case would
Down These Mean Streets, the 1967 bestselling memoir of Nuyorican writer Piri Thomas, is the most explicit reference to afrolatinidad in Ortiz’s book. More than half of a century later, it remains one of the most influential works of the Nuyorican movement. In the book, Thomas relates his difficult upbringing in East Harlem as the son of a Cuban father and a Puerto Rican mother, while also exploring the intersections of his racial and ethnic identities. There are many more examples of Puerto Rican contributions to the United States to be discussed. If you’re curious to know more, the 7-part series on the “History of Puerto Ricans in the U.S.” by Virginia Sanchez-Korrol, professor emerita, Brooklyn College, is definitely a good place to start (The Centro Cultural Ambassadors Program is another option). However, the overall purpose, of An African American and Latinx History of the United States is to establish a historical narrative of solidarity among the various racialized subsets of the country. The book is then an opportunity for Puerto Ricans to recognize a much larger struggle to which we have both contributed to and benefited from; whether it is the enduring legacy of the Haitian revolution in the African American imaginary, the inspiration of the Latin American wars of independence, the diverse labor movements of the 20th century, the African American support for Cuban liberation and abolition, and so on. An African American and Latinx History of the United States By Paul Ortiz Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2018 296 pages; $27.95 [hardcover] © Center for Puerto Rican Studies. Published in Centro Voices 15 February 2018.
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Ciencias / Science
El Sol Latino April 2018
What is evolution? by BRYAN SALAS-SANTIAGO | bryansalas0815@gmail.com One of the biggest ideas that have ever been discovered is the Theory of Evolution. It is the backbone of science fields like biology, genetics, and medicine, it has been proven over and over again by fields like paleontology, genetics, biology, microbiology, and zoology, but even though we have such overwhelming evidence, it can be controversial to some. Evolution is a process by which different living organisms are thought to diversify from earlier forms here on earth. It is a gradual change of a living organism, especially from a simple to a more complex form. A process called natural selection pushes this change between living organisms forward. Natural selection states that an organism that is better adapted to a specific environment will have a better chance of surviving and produce offspring. An example of this can be seen in Grizzly and Polar bears. Science knows that these two species diverged when a single mutation in a gene created a white fur Grizzly bear. This white fur Grizzly happened to be better at hunting in ice when compared to normal Grizzly because it can camouflage. Over-time the White Grizzly was favored hunting in ice/snowy places, nature separated what once was a single species of bears into what we know today been two different bear species. In the ground you can find buried the past of our planet, the deeper you dig the older the history you will find. Knowing how species can change scientists started digging the soil trying to find fossils of species that lived in the past. The fossils found were similar to species we have now, but different enough to be something different to what we have today. When measuring how old these fossils are, scientist found that they were very old, meaning did not coexisted with today’s species. The deeper they dug, the older the fossils were, each one having similar characteristics to younger species but looking each time more and more different to today’s species. This type of observations and knowing how species change over-time, lead scientist to start linking today’s species with older ones based on their characteristics, concluding that they were all related.
Bonobos, making the last two our closest relatives. In terms of biology and geography, it is really easy to find similarities between all of the great apes since most are originally from Africa and have a number of traits in common. Knowing all of this it was natural for scientist to start looking for evidence of when humans and these apes diverged from one another. Humans and chimps share more than 98% of their genes, that means there is a little less of 2% difference between us and chimps. Knowing the rate of mutations, which is the main process genes change, scientist have done estimations of how long it took to accumulate this difference, and it is about 6 million years. This means 6 million years ago, chimps and humans shared a common ancestor, one that was not human or chimp, it was something in between. Since then scientist have found over 15 different fossil species that show how our ancestors looked and changed over-time from an ape like creature until they what we are now. All of this present in a specific area in Africa between the 6 million year estimation scientists originally predicted happened. The evolutionary theory predicted we descended from ape like creatures based on biological characteristics, Genetics estimated that the diverge between humans and chimps happened 6 million years ago, Paleontology found fossils that support what Genetics and Evolution stated within that period of time, and Geography confirmed all of this happened within the same area. Isn’t it surprising how based in the evidence scientist predicted what happened and when it happened? Stay tuned to next month’s column when I will be discussing how Genetics confirms everything that is known about evolution.
Based on human evolution, we are classified as one of the great apes (Hominidae), this includes, Orangutans, Gorillas, Chimpanzees, and
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Cita del Mes/ Quote of the Month No two hurricanes are alike, and Harvey and Maria were vastly different storms that struck areas with vastly different financial, geographic and political situations. But a comparison of government statistics relating to the two recovery efforts strongly supports the views of disaster-recovery experts that FEMA and the Trump administration exerted a faster, and initially greater, effort in Texas, even though the damage in Puerto Rico exceeded that in Houston. By DANNY VINIK How Trump favored Texas over Puerto Rico POLITICO | March 27, 2018
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El Sol Latino April 2018
Temporada 2017-2018 MACHINE DE CIRQUE
Miércoles, Abril 25, 7:30 p.m. FAC Concert Hall After five men survive the apocalypse, their only that will help them find other survivors. Armed a generous heap of ingenuity, they’ll do whatever brave new world without telephones, computers, find ourselves guests at a deliriously intoxicating hilarious and heart-tuggingly nostalgic. This show clap for humanity.
hope is to build a machine with acrobatic talents and it takes to navigate this electricity…or women. We party that is side-splittingly will make you stand up and
Después de que cinco hombres sobreviven el apocalipsis, su única esperanza es construir una máquina que los ayude a encontrar otros sobrevivientes. Armados con talentos acrobáticos y un generoso montón de ingenio, harán lo que sea necesario para navegar este valiente mundo nuevo sin teléfonos, computadoras, electricidad ... ni mujeres. Nos encontramos invitados a una fiesta delirantemente embriagadora que es divertidísima y conmovedoramente nostálgica. Este espectáculo te hará levantarte y aplaudir por la humanidad. Precios de Entrada: $40, $35, $20; estudiantes de los Five College y jóvenes 17 años o menores: $15, $12, $10 Sponsored by
¡HAY MUCHO MAS! Visite fineartsecenter.com para ver la lista completa de las actividades. Para boletos: 413-545-2511, 800-999-UMAS o visite fineartscenter.com