a publication of the Esperanza Peace & Justice Center
San Antonio, Tejas
February 2016, Vol. 29 Issue 1
UT 2016
50 years after the Tower Shooting Sniper
e!
Insid
Immigration Crisis: From Texas to Syria Islamophobia & Our Shameful U.S. History, y mas. . .
La Voz de Esperanza February 2016 vol. 29 Issue 1 Editor Gloria A. Ramírez Design Elizandro Carrington Editorial Assistance Rachel Jennings Contributors Jo Reyes-Boitel, Antonio Cabral, Mia Carter, Dr. Ritu Mathur, Lisa L. Moore, Virginia Raymond, Nadine Saliba
La Voz Mail Collective
Mario Carbajal, Cynthia Czunyog, Juan Díaz, Margarita Elizarde, Teresa Hernández, Araceli Herrera, Rachel Martinez, Angie Merla, Maria M. Reed, Blanca Rivera, Mary A. Rodriguez, Roger Singler, Raul L. Solis, Tomasa Torres, Elva Pérez Treviño
Esperanza Director Graciela I. Sánchez
In August of 1966, a sniper shot and killed 14 people and wounded 32 as he surveyed the University of Texas campus in Austin from high above in the UT tower. Ultimately, 16 people were killed. I was 16 years old, about to enter my junior year at Travis High School and I remember being glued to the TV watching the coverage. It was shocking. This year will be the 50th anniversay of the UT sniper shooting—the first mass campus shooting in the U.S. For nearly 50 years I believed that I personally knew some of the victims at the time of the shooting. I remembered a Chicana activist on campus and a Chicano newspaper boy that was shot as he rode his bike. I began my freshman year at UT in 1968—so I could not have had a personal relationship with any of the victims. I must have heard the stories later through my work with the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO). Irma García, one of the victims, though, was one of my friends at UT. The tower shooting became part of my psyche as did the Kent State massacre that happened two years later on my birthday, May 4, 1968—as I was about to graduate from high school. The Ohio National Guard was sent to quell anti-war demonstrations on campus and opened fire on unarmed students killing four and wounding nine others. Again, incomprehensible. This was very personal for me—as my brother was a marine in Vietnam. Ultimately, I joined the anti-war movement on the UT campus in 1968. This Voz issue touches on the question of the campus carry law in Texas that brings up many questions yet unanswered. The issue of Central American immigration is encapsulated in the story by Virginia Raymond of one refugee, Maribel, and Nadine Saliba reminds us of the Syrian refugee crisis. The underlying issues of xenophobia against the Muslim community and the Black Lives Matter movement are also part of this Voz. Special thanks to all who have made this first issue of the New Year—one that sets the standard for future issues. Send your articles, poems and art to La Voz de Esperanza at: lavoz@esperanzacenter.org —Gloria A. Ramírez, editor
Esperanza Staff
Imelda Arismendez, Elizandro Carrington, Elisa Pérez, Gianna Rendón, René Saenz, Susana Segura, Amelia Valdez
Interns
LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • February 2016 Vol. 29 Issue 1•
Paz García, Rachel Hanes, Nick Kim, Cameron King, Natalie Rodríguez
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Conjunto de Nepantleras
-Esperanza Board of DirectorsBrenda Davis, Rachel Jennings, Amy Kastely, Jan Olsen, Kamala Platt, Ana Lucía Ramírez, Gloria A. Ramírez, Rudy Rosales, Tiffany Ross, Lilliana Saldaña, Nadine Saliba, Graciela I. Sánchez, Lillian Stevens • We advocate for a wide variety of social, economic & environmental justice issues. • Opinions expressed in La Voz are not necessarily those of the Esperanza Center.
La Voz de Esperanza
is a publication of Esperanza Peace & Justice Center 922 San Pedro, San Antonio, TX 78212
210.228.0201 • fax 1.877.327.5902 www.esperanzacenter.org Inquiries/Articles can be sent to:
lavoz@esperanzacenter.org Articles due by the 8th of each month Policy Statements
* We ask that articles be visionary, progressive, instructive & thoughtful. Submissions must be literate & critical; not sexist, racist, homophobic, violent, or oppressive & may be edited for length. * All letters in response to Esperanza activities or articles in La Voz will be considered for publication. Letters with intent to slander individuals or groups will not be published.
Mary Lou Miller, ¡Siempre presente! October 10, 1913 - January 7, 2016 When Mary Lou Miller turned 102 in 2015, she received the Texas ACLU Molly Ivins Lifetime Achievement award at the ACLU’s 70th anniversary in 2008—awarded only once before to Frances “Sissy” Farenthold. The award was given to Mary Lou: “For your lifetime of freedom fighting, for being the fiery defender of Civil Liberties, that you have always been...” Indeed, Mary Lou marched with the United Farm Workers, at MLK Marches, at IWD Marches and spoke before City Council in San Antonio time and time, again. She even built homes with Habitat for Humanity with Jimmy Carter. She picketed for Civil Liberties, including for LGBT rights, and advocated for workers beginning with the defense of Emma Tenayuca and the pecan shellers. In fact, she began working with Bell Telephone taking care of employees by roller skating from one operator to another to resolve problems—eventually becoming a union representative. At the old Esperanza, 1305 N. Flores, where ACLU was located back then she volunteered as buena gente making calls and later was involved with the Las Calles No Se Callan campaign challenging City Council on the March ordinance and issues of free speech. At 101, she made waves when she tried to get a photo ID to vote, but could not. When she got her ACLU award she simply said, “Thank you, keep on raising hell!” ATTENTION VOZ READERS: If you have a mailing address correction please send it to lavoz@ esperanzacenter.org. If you want to be removed from the La Voz mailing list, for whatever reason, please let us know. La Voz is provided as a courtesy to people on the mailing list of the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center. The subscription rate is $35 per year ($100 for institutions). The cost of producing and mailing La Voz has substantially increased and we need your help to keep it afloat. To help, send in your subscriptions, sign up as a monthly donor, or send in a donation to the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center. Thank you. -GAR VOZ VISION STATEMENT: La Voz de Esperanza speaks for many individual, progressive voices who are gente-based, multi-visioned and milagro-bound. We are diverse survivors of materialism, racism, misogyny, homophobia, classism, violence, earth-damage, speciesism and cultural and political oppression. We are recapturing the powers of alliance, activism and healthy conflict in order to achieve interdependent economic/ spiritual healing and fuerza. La Voz is a resource for peace, justice, and human rights, providing a forum for criticism, information, education, humor and other creative works. La Voz provokes bold actions in response to local and global problems, with the knowledge that the many risks we take for the earth, our body, and the dignity of all people will result in profound change for the seven generations to come.
On the Question of Open Carry What has happened to our minds to make us think 2015 was the worst of our violence?
What happens to her when she’s left alone, or not left alone, and her neck is cradled by a plastic trash bag?
What of the 406,496 killed by firearms in the ten years prior? How they lay in our arms: a pieta built by guns.
You think black lives matter has nothing do with open carry? It is all about fear.
The American way – to desire more desire strength refute the softness within us
Those who are black or brown or poor or anyone else conveniently made monster. Don’t
disregard others punish them for their heart insist we know more than all others
tell me this isn’t about the 20,528 slave ships making their way to different ports in the span of 315 years. Don’t
One handgun in each fist still leaves our hands empty. What is missing that we must find meaning within a spinning cylinder or trigger? Missing – the soil within our fingers, the co-creation of homes.
tell me this isn’t about protecting territories held by others long before colonizers set their teeth in. Don’t La Pieta
Don’t give me rationale. How many mothers must suffer, fall into themselves, crack their lives apart when their child is hurt or killed? What baby picture has a chance of surviving in our minds when we have seen, in a tireless loop, four cop cars, no sound, and a boy lifted, almost in a dance, by 16 bullets? What remains of a woman who knew her voice, recognized her own mind’s limitations, but still, without fear, gave her words to the world, and pointed at what wasn’t right?
tell me this isn’t about protecting land owners from slaves with the second amendment. Don’t
tell me this isn’t about misread masculinity in defense of women. How much terror lies within those who cannot imagine black men walking free? How much of the ghost of racism are we accepting in our minds? When do bullets end their echoed light? What one straw will break this camel’s back? When do we learn our lesson? —Jo Reyes-Boitel San Antonio poet, educator, mother
NOTES FROM A RALLY Note: The following remarks were made at a rally at the JW Marriott Hotel in Austin, Tx on January 9, 2016 at the Modern Language Association conference. After the rally, about 500 MLA members marched up Congress Ave, to the Capitol behind a banner reading “Armed With Reason.” We stacked books around the speakers to create a gun-free classroom space where UT Professor Ann Cvetkovich, UT alum & University of Indiana Professor Purnima Bose, MLA Incoming President Diana Taylor, Mayor Pro Tem Kathy Tovo & Rep. Elliott Naishtat spoke.
Welcome, welcome from Gun Free UT. When UT law professor Ranjana Natarajan came over to my house one hot August day before school started this year, and we scribbled the names of victims of campus shootings in kindergarten markPhotos: Laura Lyons ers onto sheets of construction paper, we thought there would be one rally. It turned out that there was a giant roar of NO waiting to be amplified into a movement. Thank you, thank you, for your support and presence. It means so much to us here to know you are with us.
Gun Free UT was recently cited on a national top 10 list for having changed the gun debate in 2015. The media cited our emphasis on campus carry’s chilling effect on freedom of speech in the classroom as a new and powerful argument in favor of gun control. But for me, the visceral outrage—that giant roar of NO—that I felt and saw reflected among friends and colleagues last summer was less about whether First Amendment rights trump Second Amendment rights—I’m more of a “repeal the Second Amendment” kind of girl myself—and more about my heartfelt commitment to the university as a space of teaching and learning. Many MLA members, I imagine, share my sense that research and teaching in the humanities is more than a just another profession. It’s a vocation with a long history stretching back through every wisdom tradition in the world, every religion, philosophy, scientific inquiry, and artistic discipline. Humanities classrooms are a place where we ask how best to live in this world, what it means that we are born both with a love of life and the knowledge that we and all we love will die. Teaching and learning how to ask these questions, how to address them, how to live with ourselves and others in the face of them, is a sacred trust that the threat of gun violence brutally extinguishes—as it does so much else.
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Lisa L. Moore, UT-Austin, Dept. of English
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Senate Bill 11 also known as the Campus Carry bill was signed by Texas Governor Abbot on June 13, 2015 at the Red’s Indoor Range, ‘a popular gun store and shooting range’ in Pflugerville. This bill will come into effect on August 1, 2016— a memorable day in the history of Texas when mass murder took place on the campus of University of Texas, Austin by a student armed with weapons. The passage of Senate Bill 11 and the public universities now taking steps to implement this bill has given rise to a wave of protests across university campuses in Texas. Several local, national and international news networks have covered these protests, interviewed both students and professors to gain their perspective on this subject. I will at present reserve my comments on the media’s coverage of this serious issue for another time and focus only on why SB-11 is a dangerous and irresponsible piece of unjust legislation. During the past few years as this bill was being proposed and debated in the legislature representatives from universities across Texas including Chancellor McRaven, university presidents, faculty, students and campus police chiefs had repeatedly urged the legislature that this was an unnecessary piece of legislation. It is an open secret that this piece of legislation was passed at the insistence of the pro-gun lobbies and their nexus with politicians marginalizing the concerns of those representing universities where this bill is to be implemented. The language in which SB11 is crafted states that ‘a license holder may carry a concealed handgun on or about the license holder’s person while the license holder is on campus.’ It further insists the ‘universities may not adopt any rule, regulation, or other provision prohibiting license holders from carrying handguns on university campuses.’ Furthermore the language of the bill explicitly states that no provisions shall be established to ‘generally prohibit or have the effect of generally prohibiting license holders from carrying concealed handguns on campus.’ This stringent language of SB11 deliberately handicaps public universities in taking effective action against this unjust bill and makes apparently an open and shut case of allowing concealed handguns carried by license holders on university campuses. This bill permits private universities to prohibit license holders from carrying handguns on their campuses. It does not grant the same freedom of decision-making to public universities. Thus while many private universities across Texas have opted out of campus carry, public universities are being made the scapegoat of this dangerous political experiment. SB11 deliberately creates another unnecessary and discriminatory divide in the atmosphere of learning between public and private universities.
Furthermore, the only two conditions under which a license holder is deemed to have committed an offense under this legislation are the following: (a) a license holder carries a partially or wholly visible handgun, regardless of whether the handgun is holstered on or about the license holder’s person, (b) a license holder intentionally or knowingly displays the handgun in plain view of another person. These two conditions under which a license holder might be considered to have committed an offense make a gameplay of conditions of visibility and invisibility.
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Campus Carry and Speakin
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Dr. Ritu Mathur, Assistant Professor, Dep
It is only a police officer that can ask a person on university campus whether the person carrying a weapon is a license holder or not and that too under conditions of established threat. No one else can oblige or compel a person to divulge whether this person is carrying a licensed weapon or not. University campuses are often very large, well populated, open spaces and it is difficult to determine who is entering or exiting the campus with a licensed weapon or not. In the absence of gun registries and with the universities especially having no resources to build and maintain these registries the act of determining who is or is not a license holder is a complicated and risky task leave alone ascertaining the number of weapons in possession. To argue that the establishment of specific exclusion zones on university campuses can help address this problem is another attempt to defuse the tension from this problem without addressing it seriously. It is the design, range and especially the impact of the weapon that renders all designation of exclusion zones and
signage a superfluous exercise on campuses. It is in war zones that exclusion zones are created for safe passage of civilians under attack. Universities have no reason to take recourse to establishment of exclusion zones as they have always been considered open spaces of learning and growth. The very pace at which this language of exclusion zones on university campuses is gaining currency to implement this bill indicates the threat of a growing militarization of society. Soldiers and police officers undergo several years of disciplined
faculty and students. Students question professors whether they will now arm themselves and professors express concerns about engaging with students disinterested in a topic of learning or dissatisfied with their grades and suffering from other health and financial issues. SB11 has placed another mental burden of unnecessary stress and divisiveness in a workplace and vitiated an atmosphere of learning with suspicion. This will gradually eat into the foundations of trust that a professor needs to build with her students to help nurture growth and learning skills. For centuries universities have undertaken the task of training and guiding the youth to cultivate the art of listening, reasoning, debating, developing social and productive skills. It is precisely this transition towards maturity and adulthood that has been facilitated without any recourse to possession of weapons on campuses. Universities seek to empower students with words not weapons. If weapons could resolve our problems what would be the need to send young minds to universities to learn and empower themselves with good quality education? SB11 will also have an impact on quality of university education in Texas. This serious concern does not seem to register with politicians supposedly acting in public interest. Some of them have publicly issued statements that professors living in ivory towers like to have their own way and even if a few hundred professors resign in protest against SB11 this will only be a welcome development. These statements then lead press reporters to ask professors in interviews if they are considering leaving. In response, some of us have stated that it is our responsibility to speak truth to power, no matter how Photo: UTgunfree.org unpleasant and unpalatable and that we will not leave. But whether Texas public universities will in future be able to attract and retain top intellectual talent in research and teaching remains in serious doubt. The spate of gun shootings on university campuses has become a quizzing exercise in terms of how many killed, how many weapons used, shots fired, whether the campus was conceal carry or not, whether the path ahead is more campus carry or not. It is almost as if the number of shootings, the growing number of weapons has become an everyday reality of our existence. We must reinvigorate the spirit of questioning and protest to counter this dangerous and complex everyday reality. A complex reality of burgeoning legislation, expanding and profiting markets for weapons and numerical game of dead and dying cannot be accepted with complacency. It has benumbed our mind and our feelings. It has made us forget that laws are written by men to serve political purposes. Laws such as SB11 can and must be questioned, amended and repealed. It is a long and uphill struggle but one that must be waged.
ng Truth to Power in Texas
pt of Political Science & Geography, UTSA
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training in the use of weapons and the principles of laws of war in the use of weapons are instilled into them. But in Texas it is commonly acknowledged by politicians too that handguns are easily available in Texas and it is on precisely these grounds that they fear settlement of refugees in this state as they might get easy access to weapons. The licensing system in Texas itself is a subject of ridicule as it is easy to get a license with less than ten hours of training shooting fixed targets. The cost of procuring these weapons at gun shows is often considered to be cheaper than university textbooks. Now with this added existential reality of SB11 are students and professors to choose between books and handguns? The passage of SB11 undermines faith in our campus police force and encourages those attending university to arm themselves. This discourages an understanding in the youth of social, community based existence served by public institutions and promotes hyper-individualism that gradually erodes a social, public order. It also deliberately fosters an atmosphere of distrust and fear amongst
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Gun Free, UT By Mia Carter
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The passing of Senate Bill 11 was a victory for the NRA and gun lobby, primarily; it only further disseminates the belief that we should live in fear, should live in fear of each other, that danger is omnipresent and that our fears legitimize the presence of guns absolutely everywhere in U.S. society. It’s a perfect self-fulfilling prophecy and a calculating marketing policy: fear begets fear; fear sells guns. A violent mass-shooting incident generates more fear, and the advertisers of the “more guns will protect you and the ones you love” myth—for it is a myth—and its sincerely frightened true-believers, advocate for the further expansion of gun culture. None of the available research supports the argument that
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more guns equals more safety and protection; more guns have been proven to lead to an increase in accidents, deaths, suicides, acts of rape and domestic violence, and injury of individuals and loved ones. Why do our national political leaders keep outlawing funding for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) collection of statistical information about gun incidents in this country? Because facts and statistical information could be used to make policy changes, because the damage caused by the abundance of guns in our country would be made vivid, made visible in ways that resonate far, far beyond the spectacular horrors of these truly terrible and horrific mass shootings. All of the weekly, hourly, daily little gun-related tragedies would also be visible. Professors and graduate instructors, counselors and student advisors deal with conflict regularly. Conflict over grades and comments on papers, over content in classes, over curriculum requirements and graduation eligibility; it is habitual. Teachers also sometimes have to mediate conflicts between students—and we see a lot of student depression, anxiety, personal crisis, and suicidal thinking. With Senate Bill 11, the abundant possibilities for violently ramping-up these kinds of encounters become truly terrifying.
The most tragic thing about the bill is that public colleges and universities are one of the most important institutions in our shared cultural life and one of the very few places left in the United States where people are encouraged to think critically together, to take risks, to engage productively in dialogue and debate. Challenging each other and our own cherished beliefs and values is a fundamental part of education; being exposed to a diversity of opinions and beliefs encourages growth and refined thinking. There is a kind healthy dynamism in intellectual reflection, and rational and thoughtful conflict is part of that. A gun in the room would destroy altogether that scholarly safe space of exploration, selfdiscovery, interchange, debate, and healthy exposure to dissenting points of view. Our rich and ever-evolving university community, and the very notion of community in this country is under attack. Our administrators and the citizens of Texas should make our elected officials address the abundant re-
search that is readily available to them and urge them to state their rationale to the citizens of Texas and the world: why MUST we have guns in our classroom? We are a fact-based community. Address the research and explain, please. According to Houston Chronicle reporter Lauren McGaughy (“UT Faculty Lawyers up ahead of campus carry deadline” 11/09/15), Open Carry Texas head and state senate candidate CJ Grisham had a message for UT faculty opposed to campus carry: “Quit your jobs and walk away,” he reportedly wrote on the group’s Facebook page. We are here today to say we will not quit; we will not let our serious professional and public health concerns silence us or enfold us in the delusional worldview of the more guns means more safety crowd. We are afraid, and highly distressed, but we are going to fight like hell. We will lawyer-up; we will act-out and cock-up; we will fight-on and speak-up; we will, like the mighty football players did at the University of Missouri, stand together strongly, knowing that our fight is for the common good, and for a healthy, safe, and vibrant University of Texas. Bio: Mia Carter is an Associate Professor & University Distinguished Teaching Associate Professor in the English Department at UT-Austin.
Alan Kurdi, the Syrian Hector:
Connecting the landscapes of a refugee crisis By Nadine Saliba you broke the ocean in half to be here. only to meet nothing that wants you. — Immigrant by Nayyirah Waheed
Artwork by Liliana Wilson, “Greed 2”
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In July 2015, the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center hosted Liliana Wilson’s exhibit Ofrenda. Several of Wilson’s paintings dealt with the question of immigration and displacement at a time when images of migrants and refugees flash across our TV and computer screens in news reports covering what has been called “the worst refugee crisis since World War II.” Yet, every morning, the sun rises stretching its arms from behind solemn clouds, indifferent to the bloated bodies washing ashore. In arresting this historical moment as though a still frame from a story unfolding, Liliana’s art kneads an emotional response in the bowl of the stomach, providing refuge from indifference. One piece at the exhibit stood out for me more than any other. It caught my eye as soon as I walked into the Esperanza on that hot July evening. It was a large painting featuring a woman and a boy in the clutches of two men - dressed in suits and ties and sporting fish heads - pushing them into blood-red waters. Eerily reminiscent of the images and stories crowding my Facebook timeline of refugees drowning in the Mediterranean Sea, it reached out to me like a hungry lover. I squeezed past a small group that had already gathered in front of the painting, chatting lazily with the polite smiles of old acquaintances. Printed in bold black on the little white card hang-
ing by its side was the title of the piece, “Greed 2,” and the year it was painted, 2003. That infamous year of the US invasion of Iraq seemed now like a lifetime of political defeats, dreams and disappointments away. Yet the painting reeked of the sweat of a breathing tragedy. “Greed 2” might have been over a decade old, but in my world, its paintbrush was dipped in a gushing wound. I saw that night my beloved Mediterranean a funeral canvas hanging on the wall at the Esperanza. People have been struggling to render this event in words worthy of the tragedy. Yet there it was, this violent political moment half way across the world with the sea as co-conspirator staring back at me, packing a visceral punch. In a report published in June 2015, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) warned that “Wars, conflict and persecution have forced more people than at any other time since records began to flee their homes and seek refuge and safety elsewhere.” The report outlines the increase in the number of refugees and internally displaced people region by region. From the Americas to the middle east and North Africa, the number of refugees, internally displaced and those seeking asylum is on the rise (1 in every 122 humans globally). There are 60 million forcibly displaced people. “If this were the population of a country, it would be the world’s 24th biggest,” declared the report. Perhaps the most alarming finding is that more than half of the world’s refugees are children. The main reason behind this unprecedented rise in the number of refugees is the war in Syria, now the world’s “single largest driver of displacement,” as the UNHCR report states. Over 300,000 have been killed in the Syrian war and countless others
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detained and disappeared. Eight million have become internally financial and military support from Gulf regimes like Saudi Aradisplaced and 4 million have fled the country, together they make bia and Qatar, Western countries like the US, France and England up about half of the Syrian population. Today, the middle east is and from Turkey. The Syrian regime too has been supported and both the largest producer and host of refugees worldwide. The propped up by international and regional allies, namely Russia, overwhelming majority of Syrian refugees have been hosted in Iran and the armed wing of the Lebanese party Hezbollah. countries around Syria such as Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan where There is so much that can be written about the conflict in many of them live in terrible conditions housed in plastic tents Syria that it would warrant a separate article. Suffice it to say, the that fail to protect them against the elements. They endure poverSyrian uprising for freedom and dignity, as its early activists and ty, hunger and inadequate services from clean water and sanitation organizers liked to call it, devolved into a proxy war for regional to health care and education for their children. Quarter of a million Syrian refugees has gone to Europe. They have done so by embarking on a danger-filled odyssey through seven countries by boat, train and foot and in the locked backs of trucks. Smugglers and human traffickers in Turkey’s coastal cities charge Syrians thousands of dollars for a dangerous journey to Greece aboard packed rubber dinghies that often sail in poor weather conditions. If they are fortunate enough to make it to Greece, they move north to Macedonia and from Macedonia to Serbia then to Hungary and Austria before they get to Germany, a preferred destination for many. It is not uncommon for refugees along the way to be attacked by the police who try to prevent them from continuing their journey. In the meantime, the US has hosted a little more than 2,000 Syrian refugees since 2012 and the plan to host 10,000 more has come under fire from certain politicians and media outlets. Photo Credit: Nilufer Demir, DHA/AP Photo According to the United Nations, the Syrian refugee crisis is “the greatest humanitarian crisis of our era.” However, as so many Syrians are keen to point out, it is not dominance between Saudi Arabia and Iran with support from enough to address the refugee crisis strictly as a humanitarian one, international powers on both sides. Most devastatingly perhaps, rather it is necessary to redress the political roots of the problem the conflict has taken on a sectarian character, while the voices of and to stop the war fueling this exodus. As one 13-year-old Syrian civil society, non-violent activists who chanted “one, one, one, the refugee stranded in a train station in Hungary said in response Syrian people are one” in their protests have been crushed from to the hostile treatment Syrians have received at the hands of the both sides. It is important to point out however for the sake of police in several European nations: “You just stop the war and we historical accuracy that this apocalyptic process was set in motion don’t want to go to Europe. Just stop the war in Syria, just that.” by the regime’s early decision to mete out a military response Of course his pleas fall on deaf ears given the increasing impunity to its citizens’ legitimate protests and demands for much needed of the parties engaged in the conflict and the culpability of their political reforms. regional and international backers. Today however, the humanitarThis sectarian rift in Syria and in the region at large was preian effort to help Syrians is failing as aid money keeps dwindling cipitated in no small measure by the US invasion of Iraq. The Bush and humanitarian assistance is severely cut. On the political front, administration’s policies and conduct in the years that followed there are no indications of a political solution that would put an the invasion, from establishing a sectarian political system in the end to the Syrian tragedy. country to supporting sectarian forces and parties that eventuThe conflict in Syria began in 2011 when a protest movement ally came to power, further exacerbated these divisions. Even the against the Syrian regime emerged coinciding with the antiIslamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) which appeared on the Syrian regime uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen and Libya. scene in 2013 is the offspring of al-Qaida in Iraq, an organization The protests, which were mostly peaceful at the beginning, were that emerged under the leadership of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in the met with a brutal crackdown as regime forces arrested, tortured aftermath of the US invasion and occupation of that country. and killed protesters and activists. Eventually Syrians took up ISIS has taken the lion’s share of media coverage in terms of arms to protect themselves against the state violence unleashed the atrocities and war crimes it has committed in Syria and elseupon them and they were joined by defecting members of the where, but according to human rights organizations, the majority military. Gradually, the conflict developed into a full scale war as of Syrians are fleeing due to regime bombing. The regime’s air more armed groups emerged. Many of these groups were Islamist power is able to unleash more mayhem and devastation than any in character with varying degrees of radicalization. Al-Qaeda of the opposition armed groups no matter how violent and despiestablished its branch in Syria called al-Nusra Front and foreign cable some of them are. Lebanese novelist Elias Khoury described fighters poured in. in a recent article life in Syrian cities under regime fire as a prison The Syrian opposition received varying degrees of political, where, “a person has to walk in-between the drops of pouring
death to survive.” According to UN envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura,: “All evidence shows that the overwhelming majority of the civilian victims in the Syrian conflict have been caused by the use of such indiscriminate aerial weapons.” Keep in mind however that today, the regime is not the only party bombing Syrians from the sky. There is also the US-led coalition against ISIS and the Russian air campaign against ISIS and other opposition groups. Given all that, desperate Syrians are “choosing death by drowning over remaining in the firing line of this war,” as Syrian writer Samar Yazbek put it. Although particularly hard-hit, the middle east is not the only region that has been in the throes of an immigration and refugee crisis. In the summer of 2014, South Texas saw a surge in the number of Central American migrants - including mothers, children and unaccompanied minors - trying to cross the US-Mexico border. Some migrants are driven by economic hardship and are seeking a better life in the US. Others however are fleeing violence, death threats, extortion and forced recruitment by criminals and gangs. This situation has prompted some human rights organizations to call this phenomenon forced migration and the people
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food or water. This is not a travel itinerary; this is an escape route by people for whom this merciless journey with all its risks is still safer than staying put. In “Hector’s Dreams,” a painting from a series entitled “Lost Children” about kids coming from Central America, Liliana Wilson depicts a full moon shining on a boy dressed in white pants and shirt lying peacefully on the desert floor with his eyes closed and a bee on a petal of a giant tulip growing by his little bare feet. In an interview with the San Antonio Express News, Wilson said the painting could be interpreted in two ways. It’s either that Hector is sleeping and “he’s going to get up and... be OK,” or he “died in the desert and that’s it.” Battling despair, Wilson insists at the end that Hector could be just dreaming, after all, she points out, “there’s no tulips in the desert.” Art affords us this merciful ambiguity that could guard against surrendering to utter despair. An ocean and a continent away from the US-Mexico border, where the Mediterranean Sea delineates Europe’s frontier to the south with Africa and Asia, the world saw on September 2, 2015 a photo of a lifeless little body on a Turkish beach spit out from the bowels of the water. The boy dressed in navy blue shorts, a red shirt and perfect little baby shoes was Alan Kurdi. The three year old Kurdish Syrian child drowned that day along with his brother and mother while trying to cross the sea from Turkey to Greece on an overcrowded dinghy hoping to reach safety in Europe. Alan was one of 3,770 immigrants and refugees estimated to have died that year trying to cross the Mediterranean on their way to Europe. Alan and Hector echo each other’s stories along the brutal borderlands between privilege and desolation. Their short lives connect the geographies of forced migration along the lines of shared human suffering amid the precedence of political interests and economic exploitation and the determination to reach for the promise of safety and the life they deserved. Political borders often coincide with the dividing line delineating global inequality where the conflicts, contradictions and tensions of a hierarchically-structured world come into sharp focus. It is a fault line between the wealth of the world’s dominant economies in North America and Western Europe and the poverty of the Third World. A fortified border, whether between the US Artwork by Liliana Wilson, “Hector’s Dream” and Mexico or Europe and the middle east and North Africa, represents the effort by countries of the North escaping these conditions refugees as opposed to immigrants. The to detect, detain, deport and deter the undesirables, the hordes, UNHCR report stated that “With more people fleeing gang vioto keep the barbarians out when their economies no longer need lence or other forms of persecution in Central America, the United ‘guest workers’. It’s a border open for business and the free States saw 36,800 more asylum claims [in 2014] than in 2013, flow of goods, money and weapons but not for desperate human representing a growth of 44 per cent.” beings. As Egyptian novelist Ahdaf Soueif said: “The refugee Some Central American migrants pay smugglers to bring story encompasses all the issues that inform our world today: the them to the US. Many however are too poor to pay so they cross geopolitics, the history, the trade in violence and instruments of Mexico by jumping aboard moving freight trains dubbed La violence...” The immigration crisis is a window into a crisis in Bestia or the train of death. Some fall off these trains or are North-South relations precipitated not only by gross inequalities pushed over and end up with serious injuries and amputations if and the economic policies at their root but also by geopolitical they survive. This treacherous ride takes them to the unforgivmeddling and outright military interventions of world powers in ing desert along the US-Mexico border where they try to cross the affairs of vulnerable states. The North-South borderland here, into Texas by foot. Thousands of migrants disappear along the as there, is the geography of the ‘wretched of the earth’. way, they are murdered, abducted or subjected to rape and sexual Bio: Nadine Saliba is an Arab American activist born in Lebanon slavery by human traffickers. Others simply die in the harsh who immigrated with her family to San Antonio. terrain of South Texas as they walk for days, sometimes without
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The Anti-Muslim Hysteria: Shameful U.S. History Repeating Itself there until the camp closed November 1, 1947. Today, the same type of racist and unfounded hysteria is spreading across the U.S. This time the targets are thousands One of the darkest and most shameful periods in the history of U.S. Muslim families in danger of suffering the same perof the US may be repeating itself. This time it will be innocent secution that the Japanese suffered in the 1940s. The horrible Muslim families in particular and all persons of Arab appearSan Bernardino massacre is being used by grandstanding ance who will be the victims of hysterical and unjustified politicians of both parties, by lobbyists for war-profiteering persecution within the US. corporations and by racist groups that want to use the San History shows how easy it is for the U.S. civil society to be Bernardino killings to intensify their persecution of immiincited into acting irrationally against innocent men, women grant families of color. The ideologues fanning the blames and children maligned unjustly. Let’s look at one specific of that hysteria against “terrorists who want to harm our peoexample in U.S. ple” conveniently history: ignore several facts 09.10.13 - Aaron Alexis murdered 12 & injured 3 in Washington, DC. From 1942 of recent history: 07.20.12 - James Holmes murdered 12 & injured 58 in Aurora, CO. to 1947 the U.S. The U.S. inva12.14.12 - Adam Lanza murdered 27 & injured 1 in Newton, Connecticut. government ran sions, bombings and internment camps total destructions of 04.04.99 - Eric Harris & Dylan Klebold murdered 13 & injured 24 in Columbine, CO. throughout the the social fibers in 04.19.95 - Timothy McVeigh murdered 168 & injured 600 in Oklahoma City, OK. country to imprisIraq, Syria, Afghani10.16.92 - George Hennard murdered 22 & injured 20 in Killeen, TX. on innocent civilstan and other counians of German, tries in the Middle Italian and Japanese descent. The majority of those prisoners East created the inhuman conditions that not only have pushed were Japanese U.S. citizens by birth or legal immigrants but millions of families to flee their country but have also served to their legal status didn’t save them from being victimized by radicalize peaceful people who witnessed the death of relatives the anti-Japanese hysteria after Japan’s air force bombed and friends and the destruction of their neighborhood by U.S. Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. bombs and missiles. All that military adventurism by the U.S. Soon after Pearl Harbor, Japanese families were targets in the Middle East not only implanted deep anger among orof insults and physical attacks throughout the country and dinary people but also opened the doors so that ISIS and other the FBI began making a list of U.S. citizens and immigrants criminal gangs could take control of those countries. of foreign nationalities called the Custodial Detention Index As for the argument to justify persecution of U.S. Muslims (CDI) using data from the US Census. Then, on February and other Middle Eastern families in general in order to “pro19, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive tect ourselves from terrorists,” allow to me to remind the reader Order 9066 authorizing the FBI and police departments to of just a few names and events: arrest all Japanese living anywhere in the U.S. and transport There are many other examples of U.S. mass killings by them by train to internment camps. The FBI used that CDI what the corporate media called homegrown “shooters.” Ironito begin rounding up Japanese residents while the U.S. State cally, none of those mass murderers were called terrorists. Only Department pressured Latin American countries to arrest the couple of Middle Eastern origins (one born in Chicago) who their Japanese population and deport them to the U.S. to be perpetrated the San Bernardino killings are called “terrorists.” imprisoned. According to the National Archives Library, Predictably, the myopic hysteria against Muslims is also twelve governments obeyed and shipped hundreds of their being used to justify more wars. The Pentagon is preparing to citizens of Japanese ancestry to the U.S. send more U.S. soldiers to expand the wars in the Middle East. To implement EO 9066, internment camps were built That will please the corporations that profit from wars and, as throughout the country. Three of them were in Texas cities: many clear-headed U.S. analysts correctly argue, it will also Seagoville, Kenedy and Crystal City. The largest camp was in please ISIS because U.S. ‘boots on the ground’ will help it Crystal City, located 116 miles southwest of San Antonio and it recruit more fighters from around the world to fight ‘the invadwas the only camp that held entire Japanese families. ers.’ Ironically, the camp had been a labor camp used by Mexican History teaches us important lessons that we must remember migratory farm workers. In the fall of 1942 the U.S. Departto avoid repeating serious mistakes particularly now with Musment Immigration Service and the Department of Justice took lim-phobia dragging us to the dark side and with the endless over the camp and expelled the Mexican farm workers and by and counterproductive wars against people in the Middle East. March 1943 the first Japanese prisoners began arriving in trains Bob Marley’s advice is relevant again, “Don’t forget under heavy military guard your history…..” According to records of the Texas State Historical CommisBio: Antonio C. Cabral is a San Antonio, Texas, writer. His sion, by December 23, 1944, there were already 3,374 Japanese essays are published in the U.S. and in Mexico. families held at the Crystal City internment camp and were
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By: Antonio C. Cabral
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Resistance and Retaliation: Maribel’s Story Part-I By Virginia Raymond number of participants waxed and waned. ICE and both private prisons companies with which I’ve dealt—GEO, the world’s leading provider of correctional, detention and community reentry services, and CCA (Corrections Corporation of America)—attempt to keep news from getting into or out of the prisons with a variety of techniques that include banning reporters and people who write about their visits to the detention centers. Nevertheless, two things became clear: 1) The huelgas (strikes) and fasts (ayunos) elicited attention from the press, religious organizations, and government officials. and, 2) Retaliation from ICE, CCA, and GEO was as swift and ferocious as the refugees are brave. CCA first responded to Maribel’s participation in the hunger strike by putting her in isolation. That’s how I met her; Alejandro Caceres of Grassroots Leaderhip had called me. Of course, ICE and its for-profit contractors CCA and GEO claim not to have any “administrative segregation” or “solitary confinement” or “isolation” rooms in the “residential centers” where they incarcerate women (as in Hutto) and children (as in Karnes, Dilley, and Berks). What they use, instead, is “medical” assignments. When staff from these private prison corporations want to punish someone at Karnes, Dilley, or Hutto, they can just send them to “medical.” That’s what happened to Maribel. When I met Maribel on a Sunday, no one at Hutto could or would tell me why she was in isolation, and pretended to know nothing about a hunger strike. I began calling CCA and ICE a little before 8 a.m. on Monday, faxing a “G-28,” (the Department of Homeland Security form that proves that an immigrant or refugee has a lawyer, and that immigration officials have that person’s permission to talk to the lawyer) to the number identified on the facility’s website. It took hours for me to get through to anyone. When I finally spoke to the first deportation officer —Officer Gonzalez—he told me that Maribel had had “a number of disciplinary issues for quite a while.” Like what, I wanted to know. “She has an aggressive and belligerent nature,” Gonzalez continued, and for that reason, he explained, ICE was considering transferring her to a different facility. An aggressive and belligerent nature? What does that mean? Well, “there’s an October 5 notation.” When I pressed for specifics, Gonzalez demurred, saying that he
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When I met Maribel* in the T. Don Hutto so-called “Residential Center” in Taylor, TX it was a Sunday—the day after Halloween—and Maribel had been in solitary confinement at the detention center since the night before. Maribel was among the 27 or so women who had begun a hunger strike on Wednesday of that week to protest both the conditions at Hutto and the fact that they’d been incarcerated there for so long—11 months, by that point, in her case—simply for seeking asylum in the U.S. Maribel is a refugee like many of the other women confined by the private, for-profit Corrections Company of America (CCA) through a contract with ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement). Eighteen of the strikers had explained their reasons for striking in their own words and shared their statements with organizers from Grassroots Leadership. Maribel’s personal declaration began with as follows: I am very happy to participate in this hunger strike. I cannot bear any longer this punishment. I’m dying of desperation, of this injustice, of this cruelty. We are immigrants, not criminals. To treat us like this—they must not have any heart, they are of iron—as if we are not human. They treat us like dogs. The women at Hutto were not alone. History will remember 2015 as a year in which refugees and immigrants showed stunning courage. They endured shocking violence in their homes, and difficult, clandestine journeys. Arriving in the U.S., they found not refuge but arrest, holding cells so cold that people call them “hieleras” (iceboxes), incarceration in prisons, some of which the government euphemistically termed “residential centers,” emotional abuse, rancid food, and administrative and legal regimes that would have made Franz Kafka cry. (See Kafka’s short story, “Before the Law,” http://bit.ly/kafkacry, to get a feel for immigration processes.) When the law failed them, the refugees and immigrants used their minds and their bodies. The number of strikers at Hutto grew and news spread. I was having trouble keeping track of all the rebellions organized inside immigration prisons in the past several months, so I made myself a little chart (available on request from lavoz@esperanzacenter. org), based partially on what my clients told me during the spring at Karnes , and what Maribel told me about Hutto, as well as on news reports, blogs, and the like. Making a chart about an organic movement of human beings inside inhumane prison structures, is necessarily inadequate. The
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was not actually Maribel’s deportation officer, and I needed to speak with that person. Deportation Officer Sturmond reacted with surprise. He had no idea that Maribel was in segregation and he “had not seen any disciplinary reports on her lately.” What about this supposedly “aggressive and belligerent nature” that Gonzalez mentioned? “Well, she does not want to be at Hutto, and so she doesn’t get out of bed, and doesn’t do things. But we had a talk with her and there have been no further problems.— It’s been at least a month,” he told me, since there’d been any “disciplinary problems.” Sturmond—who was the officer supposedly in charge of Maribel—told me that he had not asked for Maribel to be kept separate, and that no one had talked to him about it. He agreed to investigate. By the time he called me back, Sturmond was chipper. “She was there for medical observation, but she’s out now.” And by the way, “we don’t have administrative segregation here. I’ve been to places where there is solitary, but not here.” Medical observation, then. Okay, I wanted to know: Who was doing the observing? Was it a nurse? A health care provider? What did they observe? And what were they looking for? “I don’t know anything about that.” “But it wasn’t retaliation. It wasn’t punishment. And she’s out now. Let me know if there’s anything else I can help you with!” Flurries of e-mails and conversations with ICE officials followed over the next several days with me trying to get Maribel’s medical and “disciplinary” records. ICE officials told me that they did not have the medical records and would forward my request to whoever did have them. (I’m still waiting.) As for disciplinary records, ICE flat out refused to give me anything. No disciplinary records means nothing specific at all. There is nothing to contradict my initial suspicion: The claim that Maribel has “an aggressive and belligerent nature” is based on nothing but racism: racist stereotyping, racist perceptions. Maribel is a Black woman. In a world where police perceive as dangerous, and so can with impunity shoot and kill Black children and sleeping Black men, of course authorities can deem a Black woman who doesn’t jump out of bed on command as “belligerent.” By the time I made it to Hutto again, on Friday morning, November 6th, I’d missed Maribel by a couple of hours. ICE had sent her, and with other hunger strikers, to Laredo. A few strikers had been sent to Pearsall. While ICE calls Hutto a “residential center” and incarcerates only women, both Pearsall (run by GEO) and Laredo (a CCA facility) hold both men and women. These are more “secure”—more prison-like. A Salvadoran refugee, Joselin, told me that when she arrived at Laredo from Hutto, an official told her, “Your vacation is over.” Why the move? The punitive and retaliatory motives were clear, but ICE denied that the transfers to other detention centers had anything to do with the strike. At Hutto on Friday morning, I had the names of other women—women who had written powerful statements, just over a week ago, of their individual reasons for participating in the collective action. While I was there, both
officers Sturmond and Gonzalez approached the windowed semiprivate room in which I was meeting with one of the women. They wanted to talk. Maybe they realized they had made a mistake: ICE is supposed to notify an immigrant’s lawyer before they move the person, and no one had told me of Maribel’s move. Tripping over themselves in convoluted explanations as to why Maribel was in a van bound for Laredo, they settled on this: “Because of the situation at the border, we’re sending our long-term people there and Laredo’s sending the ones who need to be interviewed here. We’re only holding short-term people here.” Long-term? “Well, Maribel’s case is at the BIA (Board of Immigration Appeals).” Short-term? “The ones who need to be interviewed, or people who are going to be deported.” I’ve tried to make sense of this reasoning; I’ve also sought written confirmation of ICE policies about assignments and transfers, who goes to Hutto, who to Laredo, through a FOIA (Freedom Of Information Act) request. I’ve failed. Absent other information, I’m left only with my personal experience: when I agree to represent a woman in Hutto (33 miles from my office), BAM!, she gets moved to Laredo (236 miles from my office). Returning to the interview room, I found that the woman—the former hunger striker—was emphatic: No, no, no. It wasn’t a hunger strike. It was a fast. I was praying to God to help me with my case. Trading notes in the parking lot, colleagues told me that they’d heard the same thing. No, I wasn’t striking. I just wasn’t hungry. The food is bad. It was a cleansing. It was a fast. It was between God and me. No, I do not wish to talk to any reporters. Please do not use my name. There were reports from Pearsall: more denials. No. It was all a big misunderstanding. We were praying. We were not asking ICE to be released. We were asking God. Now that’s some effective intimidation. It was Sunday, November 8, before I could devote a day to the round-trip to Laredo. When Maribel saw me, she sobbed in my arms for a long time before she could speak. The woman I’d met only a week earlier seemed angry. Maribel’s face was puffy. She walked with difficulty. Her skin was itchy. She pointed out her swollen knees. There was blood in her urine, which, especially for a person with sickle cell anemia, can be a dangerous sign. And she was inconsolable. Since I’d seen her, Maribel had learned that her partner had been disappeared, presumed murdered, in San Pedro Sula, sometime in October. Devastated and ill as she was, Maribel was clear. She’d been doubly punished, first in isolation, and then by being sent to Laredo, for striking. Bio: Virginia Raymond (in her own head) is an unemployed professor of literature, anthropology, history, and Mexican American Studies and can belt out powerful songs in the key of joyous melancholy sounding a lot like Mercedes Sosa. Part II of this article continues in March. explaining why Maribel and her (disappeared) partner left Honduras.
Esperanza Peace and Justice Center Presents…
Las Estrellas de Ayer ~ Las Tesoros de Hoy The Stars of Yesteryear ~ The Treasures of Today
CD Release and Concert
Blanca
Perla
Rita
Beatrice
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The Esperanza Peace and Justice Center presents Las Es- of Rita Vidaurri and Beatriz Llamas in recent years. Las Tesoros are part of Esperanza’s Arte Es Vida project, trellas de Ayer ~ Las Tesoros de Hoy (The Stars of Yesterthat seeks to present and affirm the year, the Treasures of Today) CD rich cultura and history of San Anrelease and concert on Sunday, tonio’s Westside often overlooked February 7, 2016 at 3 PM and, in official accounts of the city. again 6 PM at the center at 922 They came together after an event San Pedro Ave, San Antonio, TX. honoring the late, great Lydia MenLas Tesoros de San Antonio doza where Rita Vidaurri appeared are four mujeres who were each unexpectedly to dedicate a song to individually renowned performLydia. Rita’s powerful stage presers in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. ence and voice eventually led to the All grew up in the Westside of realization that other elder mujeres San Antonio and enjoyed incredin the community existed who still ible singing careers regionally, were capable of performing at their nationally and internationally. advanced ages. The Esperanza brought these four During this concert, Las Tesomusical tesoros (treasures) out of ros de San Antonio will each sing retirement to sing and perform their songs featured on the new CD again in 2006. and will also sing together as an Las Tesoros include Rita “La Sunday, February 7, 2016 ensemble. They will be accompaCalandria” Vidaurri, Beatriz 3 PM & 6 PM nied by Mariachi Aguilas, headed “La Paloma del Norte” Llamas, at 922 San Pedro Ave, San Antonio Texas by Henry Gomez. Blanca “Blanquita Rosa” RoPeople attending the CD release will have the opportudriguez, and Janet Cortez “Perla Tapatía” (now deceased) nity to view a special exhibit of original photos, posters and —four strong mujeres who helped build the foundations memorabilia of Las Tesoros and aquellos tiempos, the times for San Antonio’s rich musical cultura in spite of the male of their youth. dominated music industry and patriarchal families that they There will be an opportunity to buy the CD and have the came from. mujeres sign CDs and other mementos at the performance. The new CD, “Las Tesoros de San Antonio: Las EstrelThe Estrellas de Ayer CD will be sold for $15. las de Ayer,” that features original rancheras and boleros Tickets will be sold at the door for $5. Seating is first compiled from early recordings of each of the four mujeres come first served. is dedicated to Perla Tapatía, an original member of Las For more information or to book Tesoros who died on August 24, 2014 interviews please contact and was known for singGianna Rendon at ing in her later years in (210) 228-0201 or spite of a email esperanza@ tracheostomy. esperanzacenter.org The Esperanza, producer of this CD, has also produced CDs
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* community meetings *
Amnesty International #127 For info. call Arthur @ 210.213.5919.
People’s Power Coalition meets last Thursdays | 210.878.6751
Bexar Co. Green Party: Call 210. 471.1791 or bcgp@bexargreens.org
PFLAG, meets 1st Thurs. @ 7pm, University Presbyterian Church 300 Bushnell Ave. | 210.848.7407.
Celebration Circle meets Sun., 11am @ Say Sí, 1518 S. Alamo. Meditation: Weds @7:30pm, Friends Meeting House, 7052 Vandiver. 210.533.6767. DIGNITY SA Mass, 5:30pm, Sun. @ St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 1018 E. Grayson St | 210.340.2230 Adult Wellness Support Group of PRIDE Center meets 4th Mon., 7-9 pm @ Lions Field, 2809 Broadway. Call 210.213.5919. Energía Mía: (512) 838-3351 Fuerza Unida, 710 New Laredo Hwy. www.lafuerzaunida.org | 210.927.2294 Habitat for Humanity meets 1st Tues. for volunteers, 6pm, HFHSA Office @ 311 Probandt. LULAC Council #22198, Orgullo de SA, meets 3rd Tues. @ 6:45pm @ Papouli’s (Meeting room), 255 E. Basse Rd. To join e-mail: info@lulac22198.org NOW SA Chapter meets 3rd Wed’s. For time and location check FB/satx.now | 210. 802.9068 | nowsaareachapter@ gmail.com
LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • February 2016 Vol. 29 Issue 1•
Pax Christi, SA meets monthly on Saturdays. Call 210.460.8448
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Progressive Movement in San Antonio
Parents of Murdered Children, meets 2nd Mondays @ Balcones Heights Community Ctr, 107 Glenarm | www. pomcsanantonio.org. Rape Crisis Center 7500 US Hwy 90W. Hotline: 210.349.7273 | 210.521.7273 Email: sgabriel@ rapecrisis.com The Religious Society of Friends meets Sunday @10am @ The Friends Meeting House, 7052 N. Vandiver. | 210.945.8456. S.A. Gender Association meets 1st & 3rd Thursday, 6-9pm @ 611 E. Myrtle, Metropolitan Community Church. SA AIDS Fdn 818 E. Grayson St. offers free Syphilis & HIV testing | 210.225.4715 | www.txsaaf.org. SA Women Will March: www. sawomenwillmarch.org|(830) 488-7493 SGI-USA LGBT Buddhists meet 2nd Sat. at 10am @ 7142 San Pedro Ave., Ste 117 | 210.653.7755.
¡Todos Somos Esperanza! Start your monthly donations now! Esperanza works to bring awareness and action on issues relevant to our communities. With our vision for social, environmental, economic and gender justice, Esperanza centers the voices and experiences of the poor & working class, women, queer people and people of color. We hold pláticas and workshops; organize political actions; present exhibits and performances and document and preserve our cultural histories. We consistently challenge City Council and the corporate powers of the city on issues of development, low-wage jobs, gentrification, clean energy and more.
Shambhala Buddhist Meditation Tues. 7pm & Sun. 9:30am 257 E. Hildebrand Ave. | 210.222.9303.
Proyecto Hospitalidad Liturgy meets Thurs. 7pm, 325 Courtland.
S.N.A.P. (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests). Contact Barbara at 210.725.8329.
Metropolitan Community Church services & Sunday school @10:30am, 611 East Myrtle. Call 210.472.3597
Voice for Animals: 210.737.3138 or www.voiceforanimals.org
Overeaters Anonymous meets MWF in Spanish & daily in English | www. oasanantonio.org | 210.492.5400.
Be Part of a
SA’s LGBTQA Youth meets Tues., 6:30pm at Univ. Presby. Church, 300 Bushnell Ave. | www.fiesta-youth.org
It takes all of us to keep the Esperanza going. What would it take for YOU to become a monthly donor? Call or come by the Esperanza to learn how.
¡Esperanza vive! ¡La lucha sigue, sigue! FOR INFO: Call 210.228.0201 or email: esperanza@esperanzacenter.org
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Notas Y Más
February 2016
Trinity University’s 2016 Álvarez Seminar, Siqueiros Internacional, is a series on the great Mexican muralist’s artwork that continues with guest pláticas on February 9th, 17th and 25th. Find a complete schedule of the Álavarez Seminar at www.trinity.edu/MAS Gemini Ink’s Chicana Great Books Series moderated by Patricia Portales takes place at their location on 1111 Navarro St. (*unless otherwise noted). Free. The schedule includes: House on Mango St. by Sandra Cisneros on February 9th, Under the Feet of Jesus by Maria Viramontes on March 8th, Chicana Falsa & Other Stories by Michele Serros (*at Barrio Barrista Coffeehouse, 3735 Culebra Rd.) on April 5th and Sonnets to Human Beings by Carmen Tafolla on May 10th. Contact: geminiink.org or call 210.734.WORD. The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center presents the 38th Annual CineFestival from February 19-February 27, 2016. For a complete schedule or tickets visit guadalupeculturalarts.org
Brief news items on upcoming community events. Send items for Notas y Más to: lavoz@esperanzacenter.org or mail to: 922 San Pedro, San Antonio, TX 78212. The deadline is the 8th of each month.
Life and Death on the Border 19101920 is on exhibit at the Bullock State History Museum in Austin through April 3rd. It re-examines the events and context that represent some of the worst racial violence in U.S. history. Through a display of rare artifacts, photographic records, court documents, newspapers, family histories and eye witness accounts, the exhibit provides a fresh perspective on a little-known story that shaped the Mexican American civil rights movement. Check: http://www.thestoryoftexas.com/ visit/exhibits/life-and-death-on-the-border or Refusingtoforget.org Pablo Miguel Martinez, executive director of San Anto Cultural Arts of San Antonio, invites community folks to check the website for job postings at: www.sananto. org/job-opportunites-2016.html Those interested in Chicano grassroots cultural arts organizing be sure to check this out! Many thanks to Dale and Janine Lasater who made a donation to Esperanza Peace & Justice Center in memory of Michael Ingraham.
Laura Sanchez
Many of you will recall Laura Sánchez and her husband, Marcos, who led Proyecto Hospitalidad during the civil wars in Central America. Laura and Marcos hosted families in their home and tended to the social, medical and other needs of the refugee community. Laura had been living with her daughters in another state and has recently returned to San Antonio. She is very ill. Her family and she would welcome cards and good wishes during this difficult period. Please send your cards or letters to Laura Sanchez c/o Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, 922 San Pedro, San Antonio, TX 78212. Our community needs to thank someone who did so much for so many for a very long time. The family has started a GoFundMe page for expenses related to Laura’s care. To donate see: www.gofundme. com/gn9a6kvw —Gracias, María A. Berriozábal
September 28, 1946 - January 7, 2016 Gilbert Garcia passed away quietly from complications of living with diabetes. He leaves behind his loving wife and sweetheart of 47 years, Mary Garcia, his daughter, Patsy, and many grandchildren and great grandchildren. Gilbert, an army veteran, was also a musician who chose to operate the historic conjunto venue, Lerma’s Nite Club, with his wife. When Lerma’s shut down in July of 2010, Gilbert and Mary went before the City of San Antonio with many community members to ask that the city stop demolition proceedings. That led Mayor Julian Castro to lobby council members to have Lerma’s recognized as a city landmark. The State of Texas followed asking the Federal Government to add Lerma’s Nite Club to the National Register of Historic Places. Eventually, Lerma’s was one of the few Latino Heritage sites deemed worthy of preservation. With Mary and Gilbert’s blessing the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center now oversees the work of fundraising and future restoration and preservation of Lerma’s. Preservation Texas listed Lerma’s as one of the Most Endangered Places of 2014. Recently, Lerma’s received $500,000 from the city to go towards preservation of the structure. Gilbert’s dream was to see Lerma’s reopened and he hoped to once again manage the club with Mary. The dream to restore Lerma’s continues. We invite everyone to join us as we gather funds to make Lerma’s Nite Club live again to preserve the legacy of conjunto music. To share your stories, photos or resources in the effort to restore Lerma’s call Esperanza at 210.228.0201 or check the Lerma’s facebook or www.savelermas.org for more information. Gilbert’s dream is very much alive! —J. Branch, SA Express-News
LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • February 2016 Vol. 29 Issue 1
Gilbert Garcia
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LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • February 2016 Vol. 29 Issue 1•
Save the date! March 26
ROMANCE GITANO
7pm
Plática with Cherrié Moraga and special guests TBA celebrating the 4th edition of This Bridge Called My Back— Writings by Radical Women of Color originally edited by Gloria Anzaldúa & Cherrié Moraga
Noche Azul de Esperanza Feb. 20th
with Musicians: Aaron Prado, George Prado, Nina Rodriguez & Dancer: Monica Moncivais “La Muñeca” March 19th CANTORAS DEL SUR
Saturdays 8pm • $5
Tribute to Mercedes Sosa, Violeta Parra & Soledad Bravo
Esperanza Peace & Justice Center
922 San Pedro San Antonio TX 78212 210.228.0201 • www.esperanzacenter.org
April 16th Homenaje a PEDRO INFANTE Non-Profit Org. US Postage PAID San Antonio, TX Permit #332
Haven’t opened La Voz in a while? Prefer to read it online? Wrong address? TO CANCEL A SUBSCRIPTION EMAIL lavoz@esperanzacenter.org CALL: 210.228.0201
Come to Second Saturdays
for photo scanning and stories Bring Westside photos, 1880 -1960
Sat., Feb. 13, 2016 @ 10am El Rinconcito de Esperanza, Casa de Cuentos 816 S. Colorado, corner of Guadalupe St.
CD available NOW! See p.13 for details
CD Release, Concert and Exhibit
Sunday, February 7, 2016 • 3 PM & 6PM • $5 at 922 San Pedro Ave, San Antonio Texas
Las Estrellas de Ayer ~ Las Tesoros de Hoy The Stars of Yesteryear ~ The Treasures of Today