a publication of the Esperanza Peace & Justice Center
May 2013 | Vol. 26 Issue 4
San Antonio, Tejas
It is important for the San Antonio community to come to the Paseo por el Westside in order to keep the Mexican American cultural traditions of the barrio alive and pass on this information to the younger generations. Traditions such as dichos, cuentos, juegos infantiles y mucho mรกs have an important place in our community - Tomรกs Ybarra-Frausto
Canic as
Saturday, May 4th 2013 see back page for more
La Voz de Esperanza May 2013
vol. 26 issue 4
Editor Gloria A. Ramírez Copy Editor Alice Canestaro-Garcia Design Monica V. Velásquez Contributors
Olivia Mena (TUFF), Guadalupe Casares Navarro & Teresita Jacinto Oliva, Randi Romo, Bill Stitchnot
La Voz Mail Collective Rachel Bravo, Ruth Canizales, Stef Cmielewski, Monica De La O, Diana Diaz, Juan Diaz, Lupe García, Gloria Hernández, Susie Loredo, Rachel Martinez, Ray McDonald, Angelita Merla, Faith Nava, Brianna Rodríguez, Olga Rodríguez, Jaclyn Strauser, Rose Turbeville, Mariana Vásquez, C. Valdez, Ines Valdez, y Rita Vidaurri
Esperanza Director Graciela I. Sánchez
Esperanza Staff
Imelda Arismendez, Itza Carbajal, Marisol Cortez, J.J. Niño, Jezzika Pérez, Melissa Rodríguez, Beto Salas, Susana Segura, Monica V. Velásquez
Conjunto de Nepantleras
LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • May 2013 Vol. 26 Issue 4•
-Esperanza Board of Directors-
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Brenda Davis, Araceli Herrera, Rachel Jennings, Amy Kastely, Kamala Platt, Ana Ramírez, Gloria A. Ramírez, Rudy Rosales, Nadine Saliba, Graciela Sánchez • 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 Letters with intent to slander individuals or groups will not be published. Esperanza Peace & Justice Center is funded in part by the NEA, TCA, theFund, Astraea Lesbian Fdn for Justice, Coyote Phoenix Fund, AKR Fdn, Peggy Meyerhoff Pearlstone Fdn, The Kerry Lobel & Marta Drury Fund of Horizon’s Fdn, y nuestra buena gente.
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ay is National Historic Preservation Month. Our focus on preserving Westside cultura and neighborhoods began in earnest in 2002 when the famous, La Gloria, with its rooftop dance floor and beautiful arches was demolished –in spite of heroic community efforts to save it. Since then, the Esperanza Center and others have redoubled efforts to preserve Westside landmarks including small shotgun homes, tienditas, historic buildings and other sites with meaning for our community. In 2010, we began the event Paseo por el Westside –along with the Office of Historic Preservation and other groups –as we led efforts to save the Pink Building across the Guadalupe Theater. This time our efforts did pay off. The building is now renovated and stands as a testament as to how preservation can work in “old” neighborhoods. In the meantime, we’ve renovated a group of buildings, the Rinconcito de Esperanza, that includes Ruben’s Ice House, Casa de cuentos & la Casita that will be used for preservation efforts in the Westside. Our preservation efforts also include work with an Eastside group that is trying to keep the Hays St. Bridge and the land underneath for gente’s use. Marisol Cortez in the La Voz de Esperanza series, Cities as if Women Mattered, will continue to discuss this issue in June. Meanwhile, the Rinconcito de Esperanza is presently reactivated with a group of elders (sabios) and buena gente who are doing the real work of preservation in the Westside... The Corazones de Casa de cuentos are a group of buena gente of the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center who are committed to honoring the Westside of San Antonio by preserving and celebrating recuerdos, historia, y cultura of the Westside. The Corazones promote respect, kindness, integrity, and community and by doing so, affirm our present and future as gente living in or having roots in the Westside of San Antonio. We know our past should inform our future. We are not preserving history as a static thing, but as a vehicle to affect the future of the Westside. City planners and developers often create visions for the future of a neighborhood as if it is a blank slate, as if a way of being in a specific community does not exist. Talking about our history and documenting it gives us a way to understand our future and to shape it. The work of the sabios is important to the Westside as the city of San Antonio seems poised to “develop” our community. The Corazones meet every Monday from 11am - 2pm. We gather for pláticas and share fruit, pan dulce and coffee. Our goals include community outreach– historias and interviews, and planning the future of the Westside. We work on documentation and archiving of stories and photos –and propose projects such as a Westside cookbook with traditional recipes and stories. If you or someone you know has memories of the people or Westside neighborhoods– or photos to share (scan) from the ‘30s through the ‘60s– join us at the Casa de Cuentos, 816 Colorado (near the corner of Guadalupe and Colorado St.) across from J. T. Brackenridge Elementary every 2nd Saturday from 10am - 1pm. Our next convivio is May 11th. Or, come say hello to us at our table at the Paseo de Westside on May 4th –and bring your photos!
Thank you to these businesses for their continued support of Esperanza. . .
Evergreen Garden
SUGAR RUSH
Edward Vela
for Mario Rodríguez’s wonderful catering contact him at 210-863-0132
(210) 735-0669
922 W. Hildebrand San Antonio, T X 78201
ATTENTION VOZ READERS: If you have a correction you want to make on your mailing label please send it in to lavoz@esperanzacenter.org. If you do not wish to continue on the mailing list for whatever reason please notify us as well. 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. 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.
End Immigrant Detention and Close Polk Detention Center by Olivia Mena, Texans United For Families (TUFF)
Dignity Not Detention A TUFF Stand Against Immigrant Detention at Polk County
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q Our short-term goal in the meantime is to obtain the proper medical care, nutrition, and social services for the men in facility. q We do not see any alternatives to, or justifications for, the use of detention, mandatory or otherwise. Our first priority is to keep families and loved ones together. Many of the people who are in detention have lived in the U.S. for a long time and have made positive contributions to the communities in the U.S. We need to look toward community institutions and local support programs that will allow men and women to find sustainable and meaningful jobs so that they can return to their families and communities while navigating the immigration system.
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ast month more than 30 Texas-based organizations signed a letter calling on Department of Homeland Security Director, Janet Napolitano, to close the IAH Polk County Secure Adult Detention Facility in Livingston, Texas—an immigrant detention facility with a record of civil and human rights violations— and to end the practice of immigrant detention. This action is part of a grassroots campaign by Texans United for Families (TUFF) and Grassroots Leadership to “Close Polk!” These organizing efforts continue at a time when discussions around immigration reform have moved into the national political spotlight, however, what a reform might entail for the future of border enforcement and immigrant detention is still unclear. Texas has more immigrant detention beds than any other state. Although President Obama made promises to reform the immigration detention system in 2009, record numbers of immigrants have been deported under his administration. Figures for 2011 show Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spent nearly $2 billion to maintain 34,000 beds occupied at $166 a day, according to the National Immigration Forum 2012 report. Last year, Detention Watch Network (DWN) identified 10 of the worst immigrant detention facilities around the country in an effort to “Expose and Close” these facilities, based on findings and conditions witnessed at the facilities. This list included the Polk County Detention Center, a facility in Texas that is run by a for-profit private prison company called Community Education Centers. ICE pays about $56 per day for the detention of 700 men, according to the DWN Report on Polk. The facility, established in 2006, has a capacity for 1,054 adult males, according to its website. In conversations with detained men in Polk during an observation of the facility last year, we found that they are forced to live with eight other men in one cell. They spent up to 21-23 hours a day in cramped cells without privacy or natural light. They received inadequate food and medical care. The detention center is more than an hour from Houston, the nearest major metropolitan area. Because of its remote location, the facility is cut off from lawyers, social workers, and human rights observers. Family and friends of detained men are often unable to make the long journey to the facility. When they are able to visit, they are kept behind glass partitions and can only communicate through unclean metal mouthpieces. Phone calls are also expensive. The rare tour of the facility revealed conditions that are inappropriate for people in civil detention. For instance, men at the facility spoke of receiving inadequate medical care: responses to medical requests take days or even weeks; most medical personnel do not speak Spanish and are unable to communicate with them; and ailments are often incorrectly or insufficiently treated. In December 2012, over 100 community members from Houston and Austin held a vigil outside the facility protesting the inhumane treatment of immigrants at IAH Polk County Secure Adult Detention Facility. Another vigil and caravan is planned to take place in June. Immigrants, documented and undocumented, have contributed to the prosperity of this nation. Inhumane treatment of immigrants in detention centers, like Polk, needs to stop.
q Our long-term objective is to end the use of immigration detention centers as a solution to local and national immigration issues. We call for an end to the public and private uses of facilities to warehouse immigrants. Close Polk today! If our nation champions human rights, then we must protect the basic human rights of immigrants and shut down these detention centers.
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Dear Janet Napolitano or Political Representative, I am calling on you and your office to close the IAH Polk County Secure Adult Detention Facility. In November 2012, the facility was highlighted among the ten worst detention centers in the country by the Detention Watch Network, a national organization committed to comprehensive reform of the immigration system. This 1,054-bed detention center is run by the for-profit private prison corporation Community Education Centers, a company with a long track record of lawsuits, scandals, and corruption. We believe that the Department of Homeland Security should terminate its contract with CEC for the IAH Polk County Secure Adult Detention Facility immediately and pursue humane alternatives to detention. In July 2012, four representatives of local advocacy groups were granted a rare tour of the facility. The tour revealed conditions that are inappropriate for people in civil detention. For instance, men at the facility spoke of receiving inadequate medical care: responses to medical requests take days or even weeks; most medical personnel do not speak Spanish and are unable to communicate with the men; and ailments are often incorrectly or insufficiently treated. One man, who had undergone surgery for osteoporosis before entering the facility, said that his condition had worsened because he had been denied milk or calcium supplements. In fact, almost all of the men interviewed said that the food was inadequate and not nutritious. During the visit, men imprisoned in the facility lived in cramped eight person cells measuring approximately 504 square feet. The cells offer no natural light, room for movement, or privacy while showering or using the bathroom. Men are kept in their cells for 21 to 23 hours a day without meaningful programming; at the time of the report, CEC had failed to construct the outdoor space mandated by its contract and the only recreation areas were small indoor spaces. The small on-site library had little Spanish-language material and was severely lacking in legal resources. The detention center is more than an hour from Houston, the nearest major metropolitan area. Because of its remote location, the facility is cut off from lawyers, social workers, and human rights observers. Family and friends of detained men are often unable to make the long journey to the facility; when they are able to visit, they are kept behind glass partitions and can only communicate through unclean metal mouthpieces. One interviewee, a Colombian man who was raised in the US, had never seen his newborn son because his wife was unable to travel long distances with an infant. For many families, even the cost of phone calls is prohibitively expensive. This extreme isolation—the inability to touch or even talk with loved ones or legal representatives—further contributes to the prison-like atmosphere and causes psychological and emotional duress for those detained. ICE should prioritize release of immigrants into alternatives to detention and community support programs that are far more humane, less costly, and are effective at ensuring immigrants are able to appear at their hearings. As a first step toward ending inhumane detention, we call for the closure of the IAH Polk County Secure Adult Detention Center. Sincerely,
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ESPERANZA • May 2013 Vol. 26 Issue 4•
Help End Immigrant Detention! Write, e-mail or call your political representatives.
Tell them to end immigrant detention and to Close Polk! At left is a sample letter you can send to local representatives or to Janet Napolitano, director of Homeland Security overseeing ICE and immigrant detention. Email: napolitano@dhs.gov Mail: Secretary Janet Napolitano U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security Washington, D.C. 20528
Artwork by M. Ellis
LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • May 2013 Vol. 26 Issue 4•
he Eagle Ford Shale formation runs in an arc south of San Antonio from Laredo to just east of Austin. It lies beneath 30 counties, including Atascosa, Frio, Goliad, and Gonzales. In the extraction industry, shale is known as an “unconventional” fuel source because it requires an exceptional process to extract, more resource- and energy-intensive than drilling alone. Pockets of natural gas and crude oil are trapped in the shale rock, and can only be dislodged by injecting large quantities of fresh water under high pressure, shattering the rock. This technique is hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.”1 It isn’t enough to simply inject water, however. In order to get the oil and gas moving and keep the fractures open, the water is mixed with proppants (PVC pellets or sand), lubricants, and a list of chemicals 500 long and counting. Some of the chemicals are classified as “trade secrets,” so no one but the corporation knows what they are. Disclosure of “trade secret” chemicals is entirely at the discretion of the corporation. When the water returns to the surface as “flowback”2 it is either injected into the ground, which has been linked to earthquakes from Ohio to Dallas,3 or the company may pay to dump it on a landowner’s property. There is no way to remediate the water, and municipal water treatment facilities cannot process the chemicals out. Once the water has been used to frack, it must be permanently sequestered from the hydrologic system. Reports of water contamination have dogged every shale play (the industry term for shale development). Residents living in these makeshift industrial zones have come forward with everything from nosebleeds, dizziness, and vomiting to livestock poisoning, leukemia, and rare cancers. In some cases, residents are suddenly able to turn their water hose into a flame thrower or their faucet into an explosive with nothing more than a lit match. The industry works hard to silence and discredit these “inconveniences” of the fracking process. The Eagle Ford Shale is a relatively new play, but we should be prepared to hear more of these reports as the industry ramps up its largely unregulated operations with the collusion of local and state governments. Development of the Eagle Ford Shale is gaining momentum, with only scattered oppo-
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sition as yet. In this era of declining fossil fuels, we can count on the extraction industries to be a more or less immovable force. Fossil fuels are the lifeblood of this society. Our food could not be grown without fossil fuel-based fertilizers (since natural soil fertility is all but depleted), couldn’t be shipped to the stores, nor could we drive to the store to buy it. It wouldn’t keep without refrigerators. We couldn’t turn on the stove to cook it. The quality of drinking water has been degraded for energy development, so without industrial water purification and distribution, most of us would die. To speak out against fracking or any fossil fuel extraction is to resist the heart of this way of living, in which most of us are profoundly entangled. The extraction industries have shown over and over that they stop at nothing to keep the empire supplied with energy. Do we as residents of this region, a place the industries consider a “sacrifice zone,” have a strength equal to or greater than theirs when our wills conflict? Can we say, like Manchester, the neighborhood in the shadow of Houston’s refinery complex, “We will not be your sacrifice?”4 We can have no illusions about what we’re doing: by resisting fossil fuel extraction, or by asserting that the earth has rights, we are working for the dissolution of this society and its ruling paradigm of patriarchy, racism, and the liquidation of the earth to “capital.” The industries know this and so should we. How much can we do, given how much we’ve already lost? Will we be satisfied with signing petitions when our neighbors can light their water on fire? Will we still be satisfied with that when our children are diagnosed with leukemia? Where does our power lie? I sat at the mouth of an opening into the Edwards aquifer. It was night, but the moon was close to full and as the hours passed and the moon rose, the depth of the well was illuminated, stone by stone. Hundreds of feet below, the bodies of eight divers were entombed by ill-fated explorations decades before. A century ago, the site was a massive spring, reportedly gushing as much as ten feet into the air, an abundant gift. Now the aquifer has dropped so that the surface is perfectly smooth. The power of this place is nonetheless tremendous. Later that night, when the woods and water were absolutely still, someone threw a rock. It crashed through the surface and sank out of sight. I was disturbed by the carelessness, so I asked the person to not do that, but they threw another rock anyway. I was suddenly afraid and horrified, but I arrived at an idea. Abuses against water mirror those against women. Where women are denigrated, water is, too. And any culture that fails to honor water will not honor women and women’s wisdom and power. Women and water are therefore responsible for each other. Unlike this empire, our power is in protecting and honoring each other, and building regenerative relationships with the land, each other, and ourselves. Nonetheless, no matter how much community we build, the authorities won’t allow protection of the water, air, and earth at the expense of energy development. According to the former San Antonio city councilwoman Maria Antonietta Berriozabál, our region’s relationship to water and the biotic community were set long ago in such a way that economic and energy development
were prioritized, and that course has not changed. “We are still limited by those tracks that were laid generations ago. Who will change them?” she asks. Passive support for change is not enough to shift the tracks. Like a rattlesnake coiled in the brush, defense sometimes means attack. Unless we commit to actively protect the waters and each other, and refuse to be shaken from it or bought off, we lose our past and our future. Water is not property. Water is of absolute value. Insofar as we allow our first mother to be treated as property, we violate our relationship with her and forfeit the possibility of a life that is anything more than toxic and half-hearted. In 2008, there were 26 frack sites permitted in the Eagle Ford Shale. In 2011, there were 2826 permitted, and last year, 4143 were permitted. The total as of February of this year is 8870.55 Multiply that by the (company-reported) average of 5 million gallons per frack, and we have lost more than 44 billion gallons of living water forever. These are acts of violence which demand an answer from us. q The author grew up south of San Antonio on the Medina River, and though she has since been everything from a mediator to a hot air balloonist, she has never forgotten her first home. She supports those building creative, resilient resistance to the extraction industries across Texas, and works for the fierce protection and healing of our local biotic community.
Immigrant stories a series by Lupe Casares & Teresita Jacinto
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“As I said, my husband, like you does not realize the injustice of such rules. And, as I often tell him, I don’t know about this country but in Mexico, a man, especially a hardworking
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man, has already won the right to stop during the day to have a bite to eat.”
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Mental Health Care in America -
You are on Your Own!
A
by Bill Stitchnot
May
Month
dvocates say the USA’s mental health care system is broken.” So
So how did things get to this point? You have to go back to President Kennedy, who, in 1963, gave a message to Congress saying: “. . . mental illness and mental retardation are among our most critical health problems. They occur more frequently, affect more people, require more prolonged treatment, cause more suffering by the families of the affected, waste more of our human resources and constitute more financial drain upon both the public treasury and the individual families than any other condition.” He then detailed a rather lengthy list of proposals for Congress to consider. Here is one person’s opinion of the results. Dr Goodman wrote in Psychology Today that “approximately 30 years ago, the federal government, not state governments mandated release of involuntarily committed psychiatric patients across the country”. State hospitals were shut down. Patients were removed to the ‘the least restrictive environment’ and a system of Community Health Centers was developed. . . .” “It was postulated that these individuals would be happy to have more freedom and eagerly co-operate with programs to provide them with counseling, medication, job training and integration into mainstream society.” Dr Goodman sums up these actions with, “Wow, did this fail”. The recession has made a bad situation worse, Texas – Grade D California – Grade C says Ron Manderscheid, executive director of Innovations: A “jail diversion” Innovations: The report calls the National Association of County Behavioral program in San Antonio helps keep California’s permanent supportive Health and Developmental Disability Directors. mentally ill people out of the criminal States have cut at least $4.35 billion in public housing program for the mentally justice system, where many end up ill “The Gold Standard,” because it mental health spending from 2009 to 2012, or after disruptive episodes that cause provides patients with a safe, strucabout 12% of their total budgets, according to someone to call the police. tured, place to live. the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors. Inpatient hospital care is Challenges: Lack of community serChallenges: California cut 12% even more elusive. In just the past four years, the vices in Texas “results in the signififrom its grand total general fund public health system has lost more than 3,200 cantly overcrowded emergency rooms budget from 2009 to 2012. Space in psychiatric hospital beds, almost 6% of the total, and inappropriate use of prisons as State hospitals for general psychithe group continues. Another 1,249 beds are in warehouse for people with mental atric is limited, because 90% of danger of being lost, as states grapple with tight illness.” A person interviewed for the beds are for mentally ill patients budgets. “It is virtually impossible to get menreport suggests “There needs to be a awaiting trial, or for sexual predatal health care for many people who desperately continuum of care–much like the militors who have completed their jail need it,” Manderscheid says. He notes that tary where records are carried with the sentences, but are still incarcerated one in three people with “severe” mental illconsumer or centralized.” ness never receive any treatment at all. Two in three of those with “moderate” illness remain Mississippi - Grade F untreated, as well, according to the National Innovations: Mississippi has taken preliminary steps toward Institutes of Health. providing more care to people in the community. The next section of this article (continued in the June issue Challenges: Mississippi cut 10% from from its total grand of La Voz) deals with the popular view vs. reality. He must be fund budget from 2009 to 2012. The report finds that Missiscrazy!!! That is the first reaction by most of the general populasippi’s psychiatric hospitals are filled to capacity noting that tion to any serious violent actions perpetrated by an individual. “services are not available until people reach the point of People want to know why. The guy is insane!!! We try to make severe crises. Then, they either become the responsibility of the sense out of an action that seems to make no sense. q state hospital system or state correction system.” Bio: Bill Stichnot has been a supporter of Esperanza since the early says Liz Szabo of USA Today. She continues, “They’re calling for more funding and new legislation to protect both patients and the public.” Dr Albow, from Fox News.com writes “it is time to rebuild the mental health care system and to build it stronger then ever... The current system is shattered, on its knees –and a profound national embarrassment”. He believes– “the tragedies in Aurora, Colorado, and in Newtown, Connecticut and the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford and President Reagan and thousands of murders around the country might well have been prevented if the mental health care system was appropriately robust and paid special attention to those at risk for violence.” The National Alliance on Mental Illness gave the USA an overall grade of D for its delivery of mental health care in a 2009 report. The organization found problems in every state, but some fared better than others. Updated reports in 2011 have documented additional cutbacks, challenges and some positive innovations. Here are some representative examples:
90s. He was in a Masters Program in Psychological Counseling at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio. He is now retired in Hawaii.
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Of note: No state got an A. Twenty states got a D and six states got a F.
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Home is Where the Rooster Crows
for my mom, Margarita Romo by Randi M. Romo
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y mother lives and works in a rural agricultural farmworker community that sits on the outskirts of Dade City, Florida. I love to go home to visit, this place where I too have lived and worked. But no matter how often I go home, it always takes me a bit to adjust to the sounds. There are cars going by on the street, just outside the window with their stereos blasting Mexican music. It’s always the whine followed by the quick riffs of the accordion that you hear first. Sometimes it’s other folk who come driving through and the bass rattles the windows, boom, boom and you can feel it all the way into the back of your teeth. Sirens at intervals punctuate the days and nights, their piercing cries a sharp reminder that it’s not only angels who walk among us. And every now and then a sheriff’s car rockets down the main street of this little community so fast it lifts shirt tails and blows back your hair.
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There’s lots of people who walk in this neighborhood: workers going to and from work, mothers with strollers and little ones tagging behind, teens trying to hold themselves at just the right angle to be considered cool enough and elders out for morning constitutionals. Calls of buenos dias along with the ensuing
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conversations fall like sporadic spring showers as people pass one another. Yes, it’s a tough neighborhood, but manners still matter. The taco stand across from my mom’s house stays busy. Cars and trucks pull in and out, doors slamming throughout the day as people stop by for food. You can get the best agua frescas there. I like the sandia the best. They also have my favorite tacos, barbacoa con cilantro, lime and onion with just the perfect salsa verde on freshly made hot corn tortillas. On Sundays the men line up
Felicidades, Margarita!
argarita Romo was named to the Florida Civil Rights Hall of Fame for making significant contributions to the improvement of life for minorities and all the state’s residents. Romo, 76, is the executive director of Farmworkers Self-Help Inc., which she established in 1982 to provide assistance to seasonal and migrant farm workers. She is best known for advocating and lobbying for improvements to Tommytown, a poor farm worker community on the north end of Dade City. She also established Agricultural Women Involved in New Goals (AWING), a self-help program designed to help women create better lives for themselves through education. In 2010, Romo was named Hispanic Woman of the year by the Tampa Hispanic Heritage. Margarita, mother of activist Randi Romo of Arkansas’ Center for Artistic Revolution, was also a novitiate at the Convent of the Holy Spirit and Mary Immaculate in San Antonio. Happy Mother’s Day, mom! –from your daughter, Randi.
most, this is home. But I must confess that there is one bit of noise that no matter where I have encountered it, I have never become accustomed to it; the crowing of a rooster. At home it is not uncommon for there to be various broods of chickens ranging about different parts of the community. Despite her claims that they are not her chickens, one such brood has taken up residence in my mother’s backyard, accompanied by their very own rooster.
for their menudo to counter the cruda from their celebrations of the night before. The covered tables are filled with people eating, talking and laughing. Children dart between the tables and race around the little trailer. An errant dog picks its way carefully between the feet and legs tucked under the tables searching for bits of food that may have fallen to the ground. Serving as a backdrop to the Sunday ritual at the taco trailer is a mixture of Mexican music from nearby houses and cars driving by as well as the small African-American centric church on the opposite corner. The church has a speaker wired up outside and they broadcast their services. The musicians and singers are quite good. And it is in the midst of this cacophony that I feel it
This past trip home, a very rude and overly ambitious rooster crowed me awake every morning around 2 am. Once he stopped I would eventually fall back asleep, whereupon he would almost immediately begin his next round of crowing. It was as if he had a little chicken spy peering in the side of the blinds giving him the signal of when to commence again. Talk about your “peeps”! I truly desire to bring none harm, but I fear that had I not left and returned to my own home when I did that there may have well been a rooster gone missing. And if any thought to notice the absence of Señor Gallo, that loud, raucous early morning songster, I would have smiled serenely as I ladled out servings of a delicious pollo en mole poblano. q Bio: Randi M. Romo, a Radical Xicana Dyke is cofounder and director of the Center for Artistic Revolution, CAR, a grassroots LGBTQ centric progressive organization based in Little Rock, Arkansas.
featuring new handcrafted ceramics inspired by the strength and power of women’s lives, stories, and work for peace and justice.
Special Preview
Friday, May 3 , 6pm $20 Admission rd
Exhibit & Sale May 4 -11, 10am-3pm
Free & Open to Public
@ Casita de MujerArtes, 1412 El Paso St | (210) 223-2585
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Mother’s Day Exhibit & Sale
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* community meetings *
Amnesty International #127 info. Call Arthur Dawes, 210.213.5919. Anti-War Peace Vigil every Thursday (since 9/11/2001) from 4-5pm @ Flores & Commerce Contact Tim 210.822.4525 | timduda@aol.com Bexar Co. Green Party info@bexargreens.org or call 210.471.1791. Celebration Circle meets on Sundays, 11am @ JumpStart @ Blue Star Arts Complex. Meditation, Weds @ 7:30 pm @ Quaker Meeting House, 7052 Vandiver. 210.533-6767 DIGNITY S.A. mass at 5:30 pm, Sunday @ Beacon Hill Presbyterian Church, 1101 W. Woodlawn. Call 210.735.7191. GLBT Wellness Support Group sponsored by PRIDE Center of SA meets 4th Mondays, 7-8:45pm @ Lions Field Club House, 2809 Broadway. Call 210.213.5919. Energia Mia meets 3rd Saturday, 1pm @ Oblate School of Theology, 285 Oblate Dr. Call 210.849.8121 Fuerza Unida, 710 New Laredo, Hwy. 210.927.2297 www.lafuerzaunida.org Habitat for Humanity meets 1st Tues. for volunteer orientation, 6pm, HFHSA Office @ 311 Probandt. S.A. International Woman’s Day March & Rally planning committee meets year-round. www.sawomenwillmarch.org or 210.262.0654
LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • May 2013 Vol. 26 Issue 4•
LGBT Youth Group meets at MCC Church, 611 E. Myrtle on Sundays at 10:30am. 210.472.3597
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Metropolitan Community Church in S.A. (MCCSA) 611 East Myrtle, has services & Sunday school @ 10:30am. Call 210.599.9289.
Be Part of a
PFLAG, meets 1st Thursdays @ 7pm, 1st Unitarian Universalist Church, Gill Rd/Beryl Dr. 210.655.2383.
Progressive Movement
PFLAG Español meets 1st Tuesdays (Primer martes) @ 2802 W. Salinas, 7pm. 210.849.6315 Parents of Murdered Children, meets 2nd Mondays @ Balcones Heights Community Ctr, 107 Glenarm | www.pomcsanantonio.org
in San Antonio
¡Todos Somos Esperanza!
Start your 2013 monthly donations now!
Proyecto Hospitalidad Liturgy meets each Thursday at 7pm at 325 Courtland. Call 210.736.3579. The Rape Crisis Center, Hotline @ 210.349-7273. 210.521.7273 or email Drominishi@rapecrisis.com 7500 US Hwy 90 W. The Religious Society of Friends meets Sundays @ 10am @ The Friends Meeting House, 7052 N. Vandiver. 210.945.8456. San Antonio’s Communist Party USA meets 3-5 pm 2nd Sundays at Bazan Library, 2200 W. Commerce. juanchostanford@yahoo.com S.A. Gender Association meets 1st & 3rd Thursdays, 6-9pm @ 611 E. Myrtle, Metropolitan Community Church, www.sagender.org The SA AIDS Foundation offers free HIV testing at 818 E. Grayson St. 210.225.4715|www.txsaaf.org. Shambhala Buddhist Meditation Center classes are on Tuesdays at 7pm, & Sun. at 11:30 am. at 1114 So. St. Mary’s. Call 210.222.9303. S.N.A.P. (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests). Contact Barbara at 210.725.8329. Voice for Animals: 210.737.3138 or www.voiceforanimals.org for info
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. It takes all of us to keep the Esperanza going. When you contribute monthly to the Esperanza you are making a long-term commitment to the movement for progressive change in San Antonio, allowing Esperanza to sustain and expand our programs. Monthly donors can give as little as $5 and as much as $500 a month or more. 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! Call 210.228.0201 or email esperanza@esperanzacenter.org for more info
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Notas Y Más May 2013
Brief news items on upcoming community events. Send info 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.
Early voting for San Antonio begins on nas en el Time Dollar. También ofrecerán CantoMundo for Latina/o poets convenes April 29th. Election day is May 11th. See talleres bilingües. Llame al 210.433.9852 June 27-30 at UT–Austin. Apply at: www. o mande correo a silbiaehns@yahoo.com cantomundo.org/guidelinesapplication/ www.sanantonio.gov. May is Historic Preservation Month. This year’s theme is “See, Save, Celebrate!” See a full calendar of events at: www.sanantonio.gov/historic/
Mujeres Unidas, Inc. will sponsor the 15th Annual Baile de Vida on Friday, May 10th at 300 Callaghan Rd. Tickets are $30. Call 210.738.3393.
The San Antonio Communist Party USA Club will meet Sunday, May 12th at the Bazan Branch Library, 2200 W. Commerce St. (@ Nueces). Eric Lane will discuss Is the U.S. a Christian nation? Contact juanchostandford@yahoo.com.
The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center sponsors the annual Tejano Conjunto Festival on May 15–16 at the Guadalupe Theater, 1301 Guadalupe St. & May 17–19 at Rosedale Park, 303 Dartmouth in San Antonio. Contact (210) 271-3151 or www. The 38th National Conference on Men & Masculinities ~ Forging Justice: Creguadalupeculturalarts.org. ating Safe, Equal & Accountable ComThe Return of the Chili Queens in Mar- munities meets August 8-10 in Detroit. ket Square is celebrated on Memorial Day See: www.nomas.org. weekend May 25th thru May 27th with music, food and booths. Call 210-207-8605 or Aztlán Libre Press, an independent Xican@ press based out of San Antonio, Texsee www.sahearts.com. as, announces the publication of its sixth Urban 15’s 2013 Josiah Media Festival’s book: Reyes Cárdenas: Chicano Poet call for entries deadline is Saturday, June 1970-2010. Visit www.aztlanlibrepress. 1st. The Festival takes place July 11th-13- com to purchase and review books. th. Call 210-736-1500 or email: josiahfesThe 2013 American Grants & Loans tival@urban15.org. Catalog contains more than 2800 financial The 9th Annual Queer Women of Color programs, subsidies, scholarships, grants Film Festival is scheduled on June 14-16 & loans offered by the federal government. in San Francisco. See www.qwocmap.org/ To order call: 1 (800) 610-4543.
Celebrate Mother’s Day on May 10th – 12th from 11am-8pm in San Antonio’s historic Market Square with music, food and booths! Call 210-207-8605 or email antonio.rivera@sanantonio.gov Time Dollar Community Connections will have a Plant and Bake Sale for Mother’s Day on Saturday, May 11th, 10am–1 pm at 2806 W. Salinas. Bilingual workshops will also be offered. Call (210) 433-9851 or check silbiaehns@yahoo.com Habrá Una venta de matas y reposteria para el Día de madres el sábado, 11 de mayo de las 10am –1 pm en 2806 W. Sali-
Condolences to Janie Barrera and her family on the recent passing of her mother Leonarda, who died peacefully at age 92 in her home. She was laid to rest in Corpus Christi where she lived most of her life.
LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • May 2013 Vol. 26 Issue 4•
Leonarda Barrera
Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social (MALCS) invites submissions for its annual Summer Institute: ¡Aquí Estamos! / We Are Here!: Movements, Migrations, Pilgrimage and Belonging to be held July 17-20 at Ohio State University. In addition, the Academic Article Writing Workshop will be held July 17 & 19. Submission are due June 15, 2013. See: www.malcs.org f
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LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • May 2013 Vol. 26 Issue 4•
*An ongoing public education program presented by the Esperanza Peace & Justice Center
Sat may 25 10am FRIENDSHIP BAPTIST CHURCH @ 935 IOWA St. FREE La Voz de Esperanza
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Join us for our monthly concert series with singer/songwriter Azul
Celebrating
Mothers
Saturday May 18th 8pm @ Esperanza $5 más o menos
Saturday, May 4, 2013 9am-3pm ¡Vengan! Enjoy the música, films, photos, juegos infantiles, comida, pláticas on historic preservation, plantitas plus westside tours y más! @ Rinconcito de Esperanza, 816 S. Colorado
Come celebrate and help to preserve and honor the places, history, and cultura of San Anto’s Westside. You and your family are an important part of this FREE event. Bring your family photos from 1880-1960 to share and scan into the FotoHistorias archival collection! | 210.228.0201
Presented by Esperanza in collaboration with Westside Preservation Alliance, City of S.A’s Office of Historic Preservation, SA Public Library Texana/Genealogy Dept y más