La Voz - April 2018

Inside: April is National Poetry Month & Free Speech Coalition Victory!

March 2018 | Vol. 31 Issue 2

San Antonio, Tejas

La Voz de Esperanza April 2018 Vol. 31 Issue 3

Editor: Gloria A. Ramírez Design: Elizandro Carrington

Contributors

Ghayath al-Madhoun (Nadine Saliba translation), Yon Hui Bell, Marisol Cortez, Antoinette Franklin, Joleen García, Eduardo Cavazos Garza, Tom Keene, Rachel Jennings, Bryce Milligan, Dolores Moreno-Valles, Cristina Muñoz, Gianna Elvia Rendón, Aliyya Swaby (Texas Tribune), Victoria García Zapata

La Voz Mail Collective

Frank Archuleta, Alicia Arredondo, Mario E. Carbajal, Irasema Cavazos, Elisa Díaz, Bianca Díaz, Juan Díaz, Mary Esperiqueta, Ray Garza, Lydia Hernández, Araceli Herrera, Gloria Lozano, Ray McDonald, Edie Ortega, Lucy, Ray & Tony Pérez, Andrew Perretta, Mary A. Rodríguez, Yolanda Salazar, Guadalupe Segura, Roger Singler, D. L. Stokes, Helen Suárez, Sandra Torres, Tomasa Torres, Elva Treviño

The San Antonio City Council on March 1, 2018 passed the First Amendment Processions and Assemblies Ordinance that strengthened the free speech rights of all San Antonio residents after years of organizing and coalition building by local activists. Joleen García, who has been one of the stalwarts from the beginning writes about the decade long struggle in this issue of La Voz. The Free Speech Coalition that came together in 2007 in reponse to the City’s repressive Ordinance that charged thousands of dollars for a permit to march on city streets went through a 10 year process challenging the city on several levels. More than 30 organizations including the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center Hilda Arevalos (RIP) drumming in and hundreds of civic-minded San Antonio residents were involved front of the City Council building. from all sectors of the city. Those involved included activist organizations, cultural arts groups, religious groups, labor advocates, and many other community-based groups that feared their right to free speech and assembly was being suppressed. The International Woman’s Day March Committee and San Antonio Free Speech Coalition went to court against the City of San Antonio in an effort to counteract measures to limit free speech and persisted long after the court case reached district court hearings. Finally, the 2018 city council heard the pleas of its residents. Along the way, groups and individuals continued to join the effort. Some stayed, and persisted—slogging through the 10 year struggle. Along the way some of our stauch supporters died. We dedicate this Voz issue to those that were part of this effort and lost their lives along the way: pictured are Jane Tuck, Adam Castillo, Mariana Scuros, Nick Calzoncit, Michelle Myers, Imelda Arismendez, Hilda Arevalos, and John Stanford among others in various coalition actions—they were there at the beginning of the fight and stayed as long as they could. —Gloria A. Ramírez, editor

Esperanza Director Graciela I. Sánchez

Esperanza Staff

Elizandro Carrington, Paty de la Garza, Eliza Pérez, Paul Plouf, Kristel Orta-Puente, Natalie Rodríguez, René Saenz, Susana Segura, Amelia Valdez

LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • April 2018 Vol. 31 Issue 3•

Conjunto de Nepantleras

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—Esperanza Board of Directors— Rachel Jennings, Amy Kastely, Jan Olsen, Ana Lucía Ramírez, Gloria A. Ramírez, Rudy Rosales, Tiffany Ross, Lilliana Saldaña, Nadine Saliba, Graciela I. Sánchez, Lillian Stevens

Mariana Ornelas (RIP) next to Viola Casarez of Fuerza Unida.

Imelda Arisméndez (RIP) of MujerArtes.

Adam Castillo (RIP), photographer.

Nick Calzoncit (RIP) of Public Access TV.

• 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

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.

At a press conference in April of 2008 announcing the injunction against the City of San Antonio were Jane Tuck (3rd), Michelle Myers (5th), and John Stanford (last) now deceased, along with other SA Free Speech Coalition members.

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.

Our Streets Will Not Be Silenced!

San Antonio’s First Amendment Processions and Assemblies Ordinance sets a precedent!

“Across the country the government is pulling back on free speech, and they are making more restrictions. But San Antonio today is going to be a leader. We are going to lead this country in raising the public discourse and making sure the people have their First Amendment rights.” —Joleen García

1. Elimination of the $75 permit fee and removal of traffic control fees for First Amendment Processions. Yes, free speech is now FREE! 2. Protection of Spontaneous Assembly and Marches;

3. Removal of SA Police from the role as primary application liaison; interaction with SAPD is no longer required; and a liaison position was created in the City Center Development Office to coordinate applications.

4. Removal of language placing SA Police in control of all processions and allowing for organizers to stop and start the march as necessary; ordinance clarified to allow for literature distribution during the march 5. Public-Private partnership sites (public sites now managed by a private entity) are treated as public parks (i.e. assembly is free as long as it is not an exclusive event).

6. The establishment of a clear, accessible and more consistently-applied process for permits, including applications available by website, in spanish/english and at all public libraries 7. Increasing access to the Airport, Convention Center, and Alamodome as non-traditional public assembly sites.

There are lots of reasons to be proud of San Antonio organizers, residents and city leaders for taking these steps. First, the sheer persistence of groups like the International Woman’s Day March and the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center is commendable as they continued to resist the 2007 ordinance and reminded us for a decade of the need to change the unjust 2007 ordinance.

Second, the 2017-2018 SA Free Speech Coalition group created a solid alliance of 45+ organizations and many more individuals who agreed to push together toward this goal, building a network of progressive and cultural groups that demonstrated significant people power. Cultural groups were vital to the coalition as religious and cultural processions are also protected under the First Amendment. The coalition focused on establishing community organizers in each city council district in an attempt to build a progressive, city-wide infrastructure.

LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • April 2018 Vol. 31 Issue 3

With these words I wrapped up our testimony before City Council on March 1st—the day San Antonio City Council passed the First Amendment Processions and Assemblies ordinance that strengthened the free speech rights of all its residents.

This day will go down in history as the day San Antonio residents finally reaped the benefits of over a decade of resistance to an unfair ordinance first passed in 2007. The 2007 ordinance placed the cost of public street marches (i.e. the barricades and police personnel) on the organizers themselves.

Social justice marches were being quoted Jane Tuck, recently $10,000 in costs, and so, many canceled their deceased, at a Free Speech action in 2007. marches or changed their plans to find, less costly, albeit less visible options. Our voices were being silenced and our communities suffered from a diminished presence in the streets and a lack of a political platform.

What’s worse is the 2007 ordinance gave police complete authority over the entire permit process—from the application, to the determination of the procession route and the number of police officers needed. What resulted was the police serving as an intimidation factor, discouraging organizers—especially immigrant, black and lgbtq organizers—from seeking permits and thus limiting our effectiveness to achieve visibility for our issues.

The 2017-2018 SA Free Speech Coalition, building on the organizing and litigation work that began 10 years earlier, was successful in overcoming the obstacles enacted in 2007 and improving upon the ordinance further. Overall, here is what was won in the passage of the new ordinance.

Spontaneous means an assembly or march that is in response to an incident occurring less than 48 hours prior to the First Amendment activity.

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LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • April 2018 Vol. 31 Issue 3•

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And lastly, the San Antonio the attention we sought.

City Council and staff grew a better Our plan worked. City Council understanding of how to work with members asked hard questions and an active and empowered comdemonstrated obvious concern about munity. It wasn’t perfect by any the police intimidation issue. To our means. Council member Roberto surprise, the mayor directed City Trevino got the ball rolling by issustaff to create a liaison outside of the ing a CCR (council consideration SA Police Department. Another win! request) to review the ordinance in Ultimately, it took three more response to his constituents being months to pass the final version threatened with arrest at the San of the Processions and Assembly Antonio International Airport. ordinance. In the days leading up to At the City Council Governance the vote, the Free Speech Coalition committee in August 2017, the still worked to get additional areas Mayor directed City staff and the of the Airport, Convention Center Buena gente of the SA Free Speech Coalition at the U.S. Court of Appeals City Attorney to work with the Free for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans that heard the case of SA Free Speech and Alamodome open for public asSpeech Coalition. Our lawyer and Coalition v. San Antonio on April 2010. semblies. In the end, we were pleased retired law professor, Amy Kastely with the result—an ordinance that along with other buena gente, repealed the most egregious aspects worked tirelessly to review and of the 2007 version and went even craft ordinance language and pour further to secure new safeguards for over documents submitted by the our rights to free speech. We didn’t City from our open records request. get everything we requested, howAt first, the City Attorney’s ever, we did get the overwhelming representative stated they hadn’t majority of our demands met. recorded any problems with the This people’s victory comes at ordinance (no speech silenced) a time when state and local governand therefore didn’t see a need for ments—in the wake of Standing significant changes. This was when Rock and Charlottesville—are passCoalition members began meeting ing laws to restrict peaceful protest Free Speech Coalition members at the Federal Court House in San with their City Council representa- SA across the U.S. To the people of Antonio in 2007. tives and the chief policy advisor each of these localities, we say it can of the Mayor. Finally, we began to see city staff take action on be done! Our hope is two-fold—that city of San Antonio resiour requests for significant changes to the document. In fact, dents use their newfound tools to march in the streets, assemble we received word that the City agreed to our biggest demand to in public spaces and raise their voices to affect positive change; eliminate any permit fees or traffic control costs associated with and that other communities across the US and beyond see that it First Amendment marches. This was a major achievement! Many is possible to take back our streets and public spaces. It is poscoalition members were pleased, and felt a large obstacle had sible to stand up against the systems of oppression and protect all been overcome. However, many of us also knew that the police our rights to have our voices and our issues heard. intimidation issue—possibly the most difficult issue to win —still remained on the table.

Free Speech Coalition At this point, city staff was preparing to present their recomsafreespeechcoalition@gmail.com mendations to City Council. We decided to press friendly council 210-387-7858 cell members to champion our concerns with the police and our conFB @safreespeechcoalition cerns with access to public-private spaces. We even showed up outside city committee meetings just days before staff was set to present their recommendations in order to get face time with our council members on short notice.

Five months into active organizing on the issue and on the same day staff was to present their recommendations to City Council, we held a rally outside of City Hall at a moment when we knew we would be visible to City staff and Council Members. The rally was successful in attracting a large and loud group that achieved

National Poetry Month

Poem Me

Stretching my limbs, waking slowly, I mumble, “Sure could use a good poeming.”

I have waited all winter— months of flannel shirts, grey skies, gas heat.

A good spring poeming would thrum, rattle.

Perhaps I will draw into myself (subtly, intuitively) a wild poem.

National Poetry Month

The Flowers Laughed;

has taken place each April since 1996 when it was organized by the Academy of American Poets as a way to increase awareness Delightful, too, and appreciation of to be the muse, poetry in the U.S. who rouses others In recent years, La Voz has to perform, observed this month with or the reader, a selection o poetry each year. Often, it is the poets guest voyeur, who have led the way of an honored guest. resistance. ¡Adelante!

or, Easter 2018

Maybe I’ll try all roles, invite friends.

A group poeming.

—Rachel Jennings

Sunrise Service; or, Easter 2017

As police keep watch, we huddle at the foot of the statue.

In a grill, the pastor lights a fire, careful not to violate code.

A man strums a guitar.

Someone hands out lyrics.

With voices that are thin, shrill after weeks of Lenten silence, we sing hallelujahs, but why?

The grey soldier hangs still.

Someone might at least have asked the city for guidance on bringing the man down.

Mounted, encased in granite, the body has become its own sepulchre.

Each December the city strings lights in parallel lines from the tip of his pointed finger to the pedestal, creating a conical tree without boughs or needles. u Now it is Easter, but the Christmas tree has not been put away.

The soldier blocks our view from every angle.

In the East, still, the sun rises.

—Rachel Jennings

Photo Credit: San Antonio Express News. http://bit.ly/confed_statue

The removal of a Confederate Memorial in San Antonio’s Travis Park took place in the wee hours of the morning Friday, September 1, 2017.

I see it. I believe my eyes.

Still, what dunces, we good white Christians, little imagining that Black lives could whisk the scarecrow away while for generations our kind did nothing but meet each Easter early to fumble with matches, mourn the crucifixion, tsk, tsk.

This morning no statue blocks my view of the gilt hotel, the serious bank.

I see passing joggers, patient bus riders.

Outside the stone church, as always, people who sleep on the street line up for breakfast.

Roll away the stone.

See them.

—Rachel Jennings

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A woman has placed candles north-eastward along the sidewalk from the church steps to the monument in the center of Travis Park.

Our Via Dolorosa.

Even now, months later, can I believe my eyes?

Where the Confederate soldier stood, boots pinioned to granite, petunias bloom in rich soil.

Easter is April Fools’ Day. Southern grey has given birth to a comedic motley of yellow, pink, purple.

April: poetry month.

How good.

Or, sweaty pen in hand, I will claw and labor to help the poem come.

I was there! I saw it!

I shared the good news.

That night in September, a crane lifted the grey harlequin skyward.

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The Names Are Many —dedicated to my ancestors I wish to thank them, the kings and queens, hunters, warriors, leather tanners, basket weavers, farmers, poets, craftsmen and griots…

Those who lived through indignity of capture, enslavement, violation, and brutality, those taken from their homeland, to Goree island, the land of no return, transported from a home they would never see again.

LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • April 2018 Vol. 31 Issue 3•

I want them to be proud, and know their struggle not in vain.

I thank the survivors of the Middle Passage.

If they had not survived, Where would my history be?

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I honor their presence, when wind rustles morning leaves, brightened by the sun, I hear them in my dreams and listen to sages bearing news inspiration only a poet can use.

Think of my existence, What I was born to be a fighter for equality.

Think of all those people who died so I could taste freedom.

Think of the blood-stained banner of heritage left to me.

I am more than one people.

Their names are African, Scottish, Spanish, Mexican, Choctaw, Seminole, and New Iberian Creole.

Think of my people on the banks of the Nile, and my great-great grandmother’s rape, bearing the slave master’s child.

My granny said, “There were no happy slaves on those dusty plantations, and my family wanted the best for me.”

She spoke of, “Loving God, the of family, a need for education, and living righteously.”

Think about my purpose in the scheme of things… about the blood-stained banner of courage given to me.

manifest destiny remix you would have us quiet under your little hands handcuffed and hooded in your armored vans cornered and compliant before your eminent demands corralled and deported back to whatever gutter or ghetto you think we crawled out of. you would wash your little hands of us after you have hog tied and tarred us you would stuff your mouth with cake savor our wine and swallow our moans you would whistle while you waltzed. you would open the steeple doors with your little hands gaze at the glass ceiling rapturously babble incoherently and think you speak in tongues and though you prepare the altar fastidiously you do not see our hands holding god so steadily.

—Yon Hui Bell

The Aztec glyph for noble speech ‘flower and song’ (flor y canto), detail from Codex Borbonicus

—Antoinette Franklin

Where are you from? i.

National

Poet ry Month

We Farmworkers

The question so frequent it feels part name, part of this white-washed identity i never questioned

We are the ones who connect the seeds to you, attending them through to harvest:

Cane cutters, fruit pickers, planters, weed pullers, packers.

until the day my mirror, mirror on the wall did not answer. ii.

The stranger peers inquisitively at our cheekbones, our brown skin the long black hair center parted Geronimo overlooking a cliff roots my husband cultivates like maiz the indigenous an inner dignity no mojado no brown invasion vato it’s the white invasion we’re still fighting.

Picture us:

Over and over bending our backs, our gallons of sweat, our callusing of hands, our faces ridden with exhaustion, our eyes hungry for rest.

How without us cannot be:

Your cities, hospitals, schools, sewers, highways.

iii.

The mother asks hands languid while my mother’s clench her round blue flickering with the anger she didn’t always contain when asked: which ones are yours? iv.

—Yon Hui Bell

Imagine how, with every breakfast bite, you might grasp the worth of the work we do and resolve to pay us what our work is worth.

—Tom Keene December 12, 2017 / Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Chi Chis Out! With my chi chis out You criticize me for not attending college Belittle me for not fitting into a size 0 With my chi chis out She whispers “Why hasn’t she gotten married yet?”

“She’s got 3 kids born out of wedlock, you know?”

And now With my chi chis out you point and holler “Cover up!”

This time, While I am nursing my baby from my breast With my chi chis out Liquid gold drips out of my daisy shaped nipples

And covers the corner of my son’s mouth Only to heal his body inside and out With my chi chis out It smells of vanilla ice cream, it reduces the risk of cancer And it soothes my little brown warrior to melt in my arms With my chi chis out My fist in the air and my crown on my head I will no longer hide to comfort you I become a dancer, a singer, a hummer, and I stand for this revolution with my chi chis out!

—Dolores Moreno-Valles

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No Where. Every Where.

Of One, We Became Many Movement, A Billionth of A Breath, A Blink of an Eye.

Art: Campesino by Simon Silva

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N at io n al What the Meek Inherit (another rap apocalypse) Democracy was just a dream.

Who knew it was for sale?

The milk of human kindness has gone sour in the pail.

Our dreamers live out nightmares; the rich dream safe inside the pale, and the meek will just inherit some fossils in the shale.

River of Blood It was the 1980s.

With neither approval nor permission from We the People, our nation’s CIA hired mercenaries.

Calling themselves Contras, they raided Nicaragua’s isolated villages, killed the workers for health, literacy and terrorized the rest.

One of them tells his story:

All the meek will inherit will be the ashes of their names blown across the desert left by passing human flames.

We found the teacher, laid him in a newly dug ditch.

Following orders, I plunged my trench knife into him, till his screams and breathing stopped.

LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • April 2018 Vol. 31 Issue 3•

They’re building spaceships for the ultra-rich with illusions of escape from what they’ve done to Gaia, which by any name is rape.

But she’s fighting back with disease and storm; she’ll break what she can’t re-shape; and the meek will just inherit dreams wrapped in long black crepe.

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Now when the ones who left us here find the time to return there’ll be no song, there’ll be no leaf, no stone that’s left unburned, for Gaia will be a cinder, dark and silent as she turns and not even hope will glimmer as her silent oceans churn.

All the meek will inherit will be the ashes of their names blown across the desert left by passing human flames.

Tomorrow we will all wake up and the sun will rise again, but which side are you on today?

Tomorrow’s too late to plan.

Which side are you on today?

Which side will get your hand?

If the meek are to inherit anything, the meek must take a stand.’

—Bryce Milligan

Po

Later, I went to the river to wash my hands and face.

In a flash, the river turned to blood.

That night, I slipped away, never to return.

Imagine us taxpayers walking away from our Afghanistans, Iraqs, Vietnams and their rivers of blood.

Footprints

—Tom Keene /August 26, 2017

You are a sprawled body on a beach.

A photograph.

A washed up tennis shoe the size of all children. u They say the dried remains of the young Art: Aylan Kurdi by Robert Sharp are littered throughout the desert their spirits, perhaps, having high tea with the stolen girls & the disappeared boys & the massacred students.

Can you see Yeats meandering among them? u Sacrilege is a countryless emotion.

—Yon Hui Bell

et ry

Mon t h

The Moment before the Bomb Falls Last year, Ezra Pound’s poems committed suicide in my library; they could no longer stand to be on the side of the executioner.

In the moment before the second hand ticks, when the shell is suspended in the air, the murdered cease to dance, the house ceases to lean against the cement of the neighbor’s house, the coffee cups cease to assemble next to each other in the kitchen cabinet.

In the moment before the TNT turns from a solid state to an aerial state, I hear your silence clearly, it is a mixture of rain and memories, I touch the sound of bombs via Skype, I drink your fingers, I love you then I leave, I love you then I stay, I love you then the song on the radio breaks, the newscast breaks, monotheistic religions break, the poetry standing between us in the family picture breaks.

In the moment before the ambulance arrives, feathers sprout on the bodies of children so they can fly far away, it’s the acquired trait that Lamarck spoke of and scientists disproved, it is a miracle from God that will not happen.

In the moment before the newscast, I get several things for free, for example, a sixth finger in my hand so I am left with no middle finger to raise in your faces. Young Arab features that cover the streets of old Europe - the number of those standing in the metro to seat the elderly in their places will increase. A new falafel restaurant in Stockholm - we will think it’s good after a night of drinking. A new seat for racists in parliament - giving us an additional reason to fight neo-Nazism.

On the way to the massacre, the policeman gives me a ticket for the high level of alcohol in my blood, -What did you drink?

-My beloved’s fingers.

Why do we wait for the salary at the end of the month?

Why do we wait for the Barbarians?

Why do we wait for Santa Claus, the Savior and the bus?

This world is walking in a straight line towards comedy, and you sleep til noon, as though the bomb did not precede the breaking news, this world is walking in a straight line towards organizing prostitution, Ghayath al-Madhoun, a Palestianian-Syrian poet currently living in Sweden -Dear madam, have you tried to work in prostitution?

-No -Perhaps you haven’t tried to die of hunger yet, the two are interconnected, they come together in one package, a special offer, take one, get the other free.

To put it briefly, I love you, but my poems decided to travel north, -Do you want a warm bed in a cold city?

-No, I prefer a cold bed in a warm city, hell is paradise but without friends.

—Ghayath al-Madhoun (Translation to English from Arabic by Nadine Saliba)

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In that moment before silence, I shake the bread trees so my friends will not go hungry, I shake them and your face falls, my face falls, the UN falls, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights falls, the UNESCO falls, the Red Cross falls, Amnesty International falls, Human Rights Watch falls, the Security Council, Reporters Without Borders and Doctors Without Borders fall, the Non-Aligned Movement and the International Criminal Court fall, free speech falls, the first world and democracy fall, women’s rights fall, everything falls, and the wolf wins.

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Po e t r y I s O r d i n a r y

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Charles Bukowski brings comfort on the couch recovering from second miscarriage in a row, but let’s talk instead about his poems:

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the book is entirely about cats, every single poem about cats, soothing in its repetition, sometimes two or three poems about the same cat, same stories: why not? I write that way too, writing is just that way, recursively circling the scene of the same problematics tho always slightly different with each turn of the dial and I like it, I can identify with poems entirely about cats: cuz earlier I got up trying to be normal again, to go back to work again as if nothing had happened but I couldn’t and so I brushed my hair slowly (I had taken a shower) and blew it out with the dryer for once instead of letting it dry tangled and then when I had finally decided not to go again for the second day in a row and let fall still

all of my tilting at plans and deadlines and assumptions about how life should go and closed inverted malignant third eye of self-judgment for once when I listened to silent roar of the body: just stop, just slow down that is when I went and stood over my cat lying there on the bed and bent over her letting my hair fan like curtain or waterfall around where she slept on switched-off heating pad holding the memory of heat in the tiny mystery of her mind. And she tipped back her chin to lick at my forehead with the little poem of her tongue of pumice or sandstone and then I went back to the couch to finish up Bukowski who I like because his poetry is about such ordinary things as these, just a cataloging of cats and other everyday objects and events, i.e.: I get up and go outside and clap my hands and yell, “Beeker! Beeker! come on, Beeker!”

4 or 5 people in this working-class neighborhood curse me from under their sheets.

National

Poet ry Month

The first book of Bukowski I ever read, I was fifteen and it was one of his last before death: Last Night of the Earth Poems it was called, and in it he wrote about being old and sick and not knowing what to write about anymore and it seemed that the older he got the more unvarnished and conversational his poetry became, the more he revealed the luster and sanctity of the everyday: what else is there in the end?

That this way can become a poem too, I love it: my life, our lives are like that, are they not? Our lives are miscarriages and cats. And so too then our poems: I picture him sitting at machine typing at night, drinking and swatting away cats from keys and writing poem after poem— and some are brilliant and some are basic but all of it helps because there really is no magic other than the ritual recounting of the multiplicity of things, tragic and beautiful both, bedazzling this —Marisol Cortez ordinary world.

Something Familiar Dear Michael my sweet love I wanna write you a letter Something familiar Something sassy as our black cats frolicking in red fall leaves Something tasty as a new bottle of birthday Blanton’s Something wet as tender sensitive tears streaming down my tired, worn weathered face Something familiar as blue fire and rising red flames reflected in the black of my pupils piercing you

Something fun as Mission’s Baseball games Something familiar but Instead I wrote you this short poem I hope you like it

—Victoria Garcia-Zapata

Dolores De La Rose Garden Dolores De La Rose Garden moves through the throng of another downtown San Antonio day. Her bones are creaking.

She has a smile on her face.

And all those ruquitas, tryin’ to act like she’s nobody.

She don’t care. Her mind is on the adobe past. When people cared about each other. When people said things in a good way.

She moves through the throng, calling all the old men Carnal and all the old women Comadre.

And each time she sees a familiar face, it’a a celebration.

And all those baby gangsters, and scholars alike, stop… dead in their tracks. Something from Mother Earth. Genetic memory bright and clear. They stop…and then act like they didn’t see anything.

And all the ruquitas, tryin’ to act like she’s nobody.

Ahe don’t care. She has her mission.

You can see it on her face as she gazes out the bus window.

Watching the world change, she rearranges the universe.

Dolores De La Rose Garden moves through the throng of another downtown self serving Solo Serve San Antonio day.

Her bones are creaking, she has a smile on her face.

—Eduardo Cavazos Garza, San Antonio, Tx. 1998

Consciously Unconscious Guilt

Guilt weighed down, she had no awareness of her malicious torture; it was who she was after all, but to save face numb and dumb she played the part well, waiting to see if I would ask, what deep down she knew what I already knew was our real truth in her abandonment and her lie.

I allowed my evil vulture continue to feed from my flesh, to ease her carnivorous hunger to see me in pain. She feeds, I allow her for I am immune to her bite, my raw wounds numb painless. The emotion is her feed the flesh my curse.

Pain resides within; wrapped around revenge as I enjoy the venom of her fake apology only to lay morbidly still till I’m ready to strike my precious Beast, until then I’ll bask and linger in the potent thought of tearing apart with my love..

Note: A delicious partial thought in: Memoirs of a Naïve Soul Disconnected, a work in progress.

—Christina Muñoz

LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • April 2018 Vol. 31 Issue 3

Something smells as though I’ve known you for years

National

Poet ry Month

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9th Paseo Por El Westside SATURDAY, APRIL 7TH 9AM-3PM RINCONCITO de ESPERANZA 816 S. Colorado Celebrate the history and culture of San Antonio’s Westside.Take a walking tour to see the fotobanners that tell stories of life on the Westside. Live music, workshops, demonstrations y mas!

LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • April 2018 Vol. 31 Issue 3•

“Preserving Westside culture while remembering our past.”

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National

Poet ry Month

Yo Veo Fantasmas

I drive over Commerce St. Bridge going home to the Westside of San Anto My windows are rolled down And the smell of freshly made frijoles and barbecue greet me The sunset paints the sky with over 30 shades of yellow orange pink purple and blue I turn my radio to a station playing Tejano And all of a sudden of I see ghosts I see ghosts of trabajadores sitting on the curb trying to wave down cars asking for manual labor for the day, my abuelo Chewy is among them his friend Don Luis plays the guitar and they pass the time cantando I see the ghosts of my abuelo Raul and abuela Elvia heading inside the Guadalupe Theater ready for a night away from their kids My abuela is wearing pearls and her favorite blue huipil She looks like a movie star from the Mexican Golden Age of Cinema I see ghosts of familias sitting on their front porches some drinking sweet tea watching the sunset while others talk chisme with their next door neighbors

Making Tortillitas

I see ghosts of abuelas showing their nietas how to prepare la cena while passing down to them la historia de su familia.

I see ghosts of mothers curando el ojo y susto de sus nina/os I see ghosts of children playing in the street.

I see ghosts of mujeres making tortillas inside taquerias I see ghost couples dancing and laughing in cantinas Música Tradicional

Plants for Healing

Música, food, teatro, games, films, plantitas, and more!

I see ghosts when I wear a rebozo when it’s chilly out I see ghosts when I make a pot of arroz Mexicano I see ghosts when I light my daily offering of copal I see ghosts as I work and when I relax I see ghosts I see ghosts I see ghosts.

—Gianna Elvia Rendon

Chiles Workshop

Texas board considers Mexican-American studies course, after two failed attempts at a textbook The State Board of Education is considering creating standards for an official Mexican-American studies course after two failed attempts to approve a textbook for the subject.

by Aliyya Swaby, The Texas Tribune. Reprinted with permission.

LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • April 2018 Vol. 31 Issue 3

created and said they could serve Advocates, including many as the foundation for a “bona professors and teachers, urged fide” Mexican-American studies the board Tuesday to set cohercourse approved by the state. ent curriculum and graduation Some board members requirements for a course they pushed back on whether creatsaid is already being taught to ing a Mexican-American studies hundreds of students across the course was the right move as state and that is important for the opposed to a broader Latino or state’s majority-Hispanic student Hispanic studies course. Board body. The hearing comes almost member Marty Rowley, Rtwo months after the board voted Amarillo, said he wondered if not to approve a Mexican-Amercreating a Mexican-American ican studies textbook submission studies course would be “ideofrom a local publisher, leaving Dr. Emilio Zamora, a history professor at UT Austin, with Juan Tejeda and Marta logical” and exclusionary in not teachers with no state-approved Cotera in the background at a press conference on July 18, 2016. focusing on the contributions of resources to offer the course.

Photo by Marjorie Kamys Cotera for The Texas Tribune. “other Latinos to Texas history Currently, schools can offer or American history.”

Mexican-American studies as a social studies elective, but teachBoard member Marisa Perez-Diaz, D-San Antonio, retorted ers and districts must put in additional effort to build a specific course structure and choose materials and they are offering drasti- that the decision is not a “zero-sum game” and asked why the board could not work to develop both courses. cally varied versions of the class. With no state-approved stanTorres-Edwards said his innovative course’s standards could dards or textbooks for an official course, smaller districts with also be used to build a more inclusive Latino studies course, as fewer resources are facing an uphill battle to get a class started. long as it was structured as a chronological history class.

The board is not scheduled to vote on the matter this week.

“What I like about Mexican-American studies it that it offers The board’s staff would not be able to start working to create the course until the end of 2018 at the earliest, said Monica Martinez, a depth, rigor and complexity that is not truly possible in traditional survey courses,” he said. the Texas Education Agency’s associate commissioner of stanIn 2014, the board rejected a proposal to create an official dards and support services.

Mexican-American studies course, with some arguing that creat“The only thing we’re asking for is to have [state curriculum ing a separate class would be divisive. Instead, it compromised standards] aligned so everyone can have [information] from the and decided to put ethnic studies, including Mexican-American, State Board of Education that this is a state-approved course and African-American, Asian-American and Native American studwe have standards to teach them,” said Christopher Carmona, a ies, on a list of social studies textbooks it would ask publishers to Mexican-American studies professor at the University of Texas develop for Texas schools, giving schools a list of state-approved Rio Grande Valley. resources if they chose to offer ethnic studies courses.

He leads a coalition of Mexican-American studies experts But that route failed. Democrats on the board have argued and teachers who are offering to serve as a working group for the they received so few submissions because publishers were board, at no cost, to help decide what knowledge and skills sturequired to align their books to a set of broad standards for a gendents should be required to learn in the class. The official course eral social studies elective, giving them little guidance. Approvcould be modeled on a local full-year, full-credit innovative class ing curriculum standards for a Mexican-American studies course Houston ISD already offers, he said. first would allow for stronger textbook submissions, they said.

Doug Torres-Edwards, the educator who developed that course for Houston ISD, vouched for the rigor of the standards he bit.ly/texas_board

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Amnesty International #127 Call Arthur @ 210.213.5919 for info.

Bexar Co. Green Party: Call 210.

471.1791 | 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.

Parents of Murdered Children, meets 2nd Mondays @ Balcones Heights Com. Ctr, 107 Glenarm | www.pomcsanantonio.org.

DIGNITY SA Mass, 5:30pm, Sun. @ St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 1018 E. Grayson St. | 210.340.2230

Rape Crisis Center, 4606 Centerview Suite 200, Hotline: 210.349.7273 | 210.521.7273 Email:sschwab@ rapecrisis.com

* community meetings * LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • April 2018 Vol. 31 Issue 3•

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oasanantonio.worg | 210.492.5400.

Adult Wellness Support Group of PRIDE Center meets 4th Mon., The Religious Society of Friends 7-9pm @ Lions Field, 2809 Broadway. meets Sunday @10am @ The Friends Call 210.213.5919.

Meeting House, 7052 N. Vandiver. | 210.945.8456.

Energía Mía: Call 512.838-3351 for information.

S.A. Gender Association meets 1st & 3rd Thursday, 6-9pm @ 611 E. Myrtle, Fuerza Unida, 710 New Laredo Hwy. Metropolitan Community Church. www.lafuerzaunida.org | 210.927.2294 SA AIDS Fdn 818 E. Grayson St. Habitat for Humanity meets 1st offers free Syphilis & HIV testing | Tues. for volunteers, 6pm, HFHSA 210.225.4715 | www.txsaaf.org.

Office @ 311 Probandt.

SA Women Will March: www.

LGBTQ LULAC Council #22198 sawomenwillmarch.org | (830) 488meets 3rd Thursdays @ 6:45pm 7493 @ Luby’s on Main. E-mail: info@ SGI-USA LGBT Buddhists meet 2nd lulac22198.org Sat. at 10am @ 7142 San Pedro Ave., rd NOW SA meets 3 Wed See FB | Ste 117 | 210.653.7755. satx.now for info | 210. 802. 9068 | Shambhala Buddhist Meditation nowsaareachapter@gmail.com Tues. 7pm & Sun. 9:30am 257 E. Pax Christi, SA meets monthly on Hildebrand Ave. | 210.222.9303.

Saturdays. Call 210.460.8448 S.N.A.P. (Survivors Network of Proyecto Hospitalidad Liturgy meets those Abused by Priests). Contact Thurs. 7pm, 325 Courtland.

Barbara at 210.725.8329.

Metropolitan Community Church Voice for Animals: 210.737.3138 or services & Sunday school 10:30am, www.voiceforanimals.org 611 East Myrtle. Call 210.472.3597 SA’s LGBTQA Youth meets Tues., Overeaters Anonymous meets 6:30pm at Univ. Presby. Church, 300 MWF in Sp & daily in Eng. www.

Bushnell Ave. | www.fiesta-youth.org

Donate to San Antonio’s

LGBTQ community !

April 19, 2018

—the ONLY national day of giving for LGBTQ nonprofits – the 24-hour online fundraising event unites the LGBTQ community throughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico to raise critically needed funds. Give generously to your favorite LGBTQ organization on April 19th at:

giveoutday.org

The Esperanza Peace & Justice Center is NOT registered for GIVE OUT 2018 this year but will accept donations at the Esperanza website for our LGBTQ organizing and programming at:

esperanzacenter.org/donate

The Esperanza Peace and Justice Center has supported the LGBTQ community since its inception in 1987 beginning with ELLAS, the Texas Lesbian Conferences and the first Queer Art Exhibits in the City of San Antonio. Since then we have presented a variety of programming with plays like Jotos del Barrio, Gaytino! and LGBTQ speakers, writers, comediennes and activists. More recently we continue to work toward gender justice and against trans/ homophobia, sexism and violence with events like “Son Tus Niños Tambien: Transkids Back to School” co-sponsored with the Queer Corazones who meet at the Esperanza. To support our continued LGBTQ programming and organizing. Give to the Esperanza Peace And Justice Center.

Start your 2018 tax-deductible donations to Esperanza today!

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Notas Y Más April 2018

Green Spaces Alliance hosts its 1st Saturday tour of Bulverde Oaks Nature Preserve on April 7th, 9am-12pm at the NW corner of Judson Rd and Loop 1604.

Register free at: greensatx.org/bulverdeoaks/ to reserve your spot.

Registration for Green Spaces Alliance’s Picture Your World Youth Photography Contest is open. Deadline: Monday, April 9th by 5 p.m. Register online at bit.ly/picture_your_world.

Trinity University’s Alvarez Seminar 2018 organized by the MAS (Mexico, the Americas, and Spain) program features Latina Poetry Across the Americas. On April 19th, Analicia Sotelo, award-winning author and poet and author of «Virgin Territory: Latinidad, Femininity & Artistic Practice» will speak at the Holt Center at 6pm on how you can craft your own space as artists and intellectuals and how your writing can act as a vehicle for sharpening an awareness of self and community. Refreshments served @ 5:30pm. Check the MAS Alvarez Seminar on Facebook or go to: bit.ly/mas_alvarez

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.

The SoL (Source of Light) Center at University Presbyterian Church, 300 Bushnell, offers courses throughout the year. In April courses include: Causes and Implications of Rohingya Genocide with Sarwat Husain on Tuesday, April 24th from 7-9 p.m. with first hand stories from the Rohingya. Tuition is $20 thru April 17th; and on Wednesdays, April 11th & 18th—Ancient Wisdom: Shahrazad as Healer with Marga Speicher from 7-9pm exploring the storyteller’s teachings.Tuition is $35 through April 4th. Check: upcsa.org/sol-calendar.

The Mexican American Studies Program at UTSA sponsors a MAS Social Studies Teachers’ Academy June 25-29 for secondary teachers in the South Texas region that aligns with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills in social studies, and meets the specific content area for Mexican American Studies. It is offered for a $50 fee at the Institute of Texan Cultures, 801 E. César E. Chávez Blvd., M-Th from 8:30am-4:30pm and Friday, 8:30am-1:30pm. Contact UTSA’s MAS office at 210.458.2675 or mas. ssacademy@gmail.com.

April 20th is A National Day of Action to Prevent Gun Violence in Schools. Inspired by the courageous young people in Parkland, Florida, the Network for Public Education is joining with national organizations, schools and communities on the anniversary of the Columbine Massacre to say “No more!” Wear orange that day and organize an event to stand in solidarity across the country and demand action NOW. See: networkforpubliceducation. org/national-day-action

Galería Guadalupe at 723 Brazos has The Other Side of the Alamo on exhibit through July 20th featuring 26 artists and more than 40 works curated by Ruben C. Cordova, Ph.D. Selected Chicano/a artists counter the mainstream myths of the Alamo’s iconic status through traditional and nontraditional paintings, sculptures, and installation work. Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm or Saturday & Sunday, 11am-5pm. Free!

See: www.guadalupeculturalarts.org

Hays St. Bridge Update: The Historic & Design Review

Commission of San Antonio rejected a developer’s proposal to erect a 5-story apartment building next to the Hays Street Bridge on March 9, 2018. It was the second try for approval by the developer and the second win for the Hays St. Bridge Restoration Group. The first hearing in December 2017 was for approval of a 4-story building. The Bridge, listed on the National Register of Historic Places and a Texas Historic Civil Engineering Landmark is of great appeal to developers who hope to use the bridge for their purposes. The 5-story building would have blocked the view of the iconic landmark used by the public. The vote against the developer was bittersweet as the Restoration Group’s founder, Douglas Steadman, was buried 2 days before. His son, Darryl, testified against the development saying that his father commented on his deathbed, “I should have never allowed the city of San Antonio to hold the land for me while I went to build the park and raise funds for it, because those crooks have stolen the land that belongs to the public.” Mr. Steadman spent 50 years of his life to preserve the Bridge and co-founded the Hays Street Bridge Restoration Group. The developer may appeal the decision to the Zoning Board of Adjustment and the City Council, but residents, preservationists and activists will continue the fight for Mr. Steadman. Meanwhile, litigation is pending on the land donated to the Restoration Group that the City gave away.

LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • April 2018 Vol. 31 Issue 3

Photo: Kristel Orta-Puente

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LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • April 2018 Vol. 31 Issue 3

Spring Series

Apr 7 - Sat.

Noche Azul de Esperanza Apr 15 - Sun.

Saturday, April 7th, 9am-3pm

Traditional music, games, food & fun for the whole family. Preserving Westside culture while remembering our past. See Page 12 for more details.

MARIA FELIX

Sun. Apr 15, 4 pm ‘‘. . . a singular beauty (with) a lofty bearing that stood in complete contrast to the traditionally submissive Mexican actress.’’ —Paco Ignacio Taibó May 19 - Sat.

LEYENDAS ANTIGUAS

9th Paseo Por El Westside

RINCONCITO de ESPERANZA • 816 S. Colorado Esperanza Peace & Justice Center

922 San Pedro San Antonio TX 78212 210.228.0201 • www.esperanzacenter.org

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

Sat. May 19, 8 pm Music from Yucatán, MX with pre-hispanic legends.

Admission: $7 más o menos

Tickets sold at the door 1 hr. before 210.228.0201 | esperanzacenter.org Apr 14 - Sat.

Apr 21 - Sat.

Fuentes / Sánchez

High School Scholarship Dance r e i n a L ls Sa

a

Polkas

C Raffle, Comida u y mas! m b i a

H Music by DJ “El General H

Saturday

April 14 @ 8pm

Donations Accepted

Apr 21 - Sat.

Tickets $7 or more contact Isabel 210.227.6868 @ Esperanza 922 San Pedro