a publication of the Esperanza Peace & Justice Center
October 2016, Vol. 29 Issue 8
San Antonio, Tejas
Artist: Jessica Sabogal
October 2016 vol. 29 Issue 8 Editor Gloria A. Ramírez Design Elizandro Carrington Cover Art Jessica Sabogal, Akonadi Foundation, 2015 Racial Justice Poster | jessicasabogal.com Contributors
Sally Gaytán-Baker, Rachel Jennings, Tom Keene, Beatríz Macín, Laurin Mayeno, Elizabeth Rodríguez, Roberto Rodríguez, Lilliana P. Saldaña, Aimee Villarreal
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Alicia Arredondo, Dudley Brooks, Mario E. Carbajal, Irasema Cavazos, Ana Christilles, Claudia Enriquez, Pauline A. Enriquez, Charlie Esperiqueta, Mary Esperiqueta, Tomás Ybarra-Frausto, Monika Landry, Gloria Lozano, Ray McDonald, Angie Merla, Ray & Lucy Pérez, Mariam Reed, Mary A. Rodriguez, Guadalupe Segura, Roger Singler, Josie Solis, Tomasa Torres, Rebeca Velasco
Esperanza Director Graciela I. Sánchez
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Interns
Paz García, Natalie Rodríguez
Conjunto de Nepantleras -Esperanza Board of DirectorsRachel Jennings, Amy Kastely, Jan Olsen, Ana Lucía Ramírez, Gloria A. Ramírez, Rudy Rosales, Tiffany Ross, Lilliana Saldaña, Nadine Saliba, Graciela I. Sánchez, Lillian Stevens • We advocate for a wide variety of social, economic & environmental justice issues. • Opinions expressed in La Voz are not necessarily those of the Esperanza Center.
La Voz de Esperanza
is a publication of Esperanza Peace & Justice Center 922 San Pedro, San Antonio, TX 78212 210.228.0201 • fax 1.877.327.5902 www.esperanzacenter.org Inquiries/Articles can be sent to: lavoz@esperanzacenter.org Articles due by the 8th of each month
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Indigenous Dignity Day Human Rights March H IS L
COLON IA
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Esperanza Staff Imelda Arismendez, Elizandro Carrington, Eliza Pérez, Gianna Rendón, René Saenz, Susana Segura, Amelia Valdez
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La Voz de Esperanza
As the October issue of La Voz goes to print, the protests and encampment at Standing Rock, North Dakota continue blocking construction of a four-state 1,200 mile long pipeline worth $3.8 billion. Hundreds of indigenous tribes from the U.S. and beyond have stood in solidarity to protect the sacred lands and water of the Sioux. Hundreds of thousands of supporters worldwide are holding on to the hope that the protectors will be able to decisively halt the poisoning of water and the destruction of land at this sacred site. Rallying behind cries of “Water is Life/Agua es Vida”, the encampment has grown to about 4,000 people from around the world determined to stay into the winter months, if needed. At recent White House protests in support of Standing Rock, chants of “We are the people. You can’t ignore us. We will Art: Jesús Barraza, justseeds.org not let you build this pipeline” remind us that we, too, must resist all efforts to erase and devalue our existence and our vital connection to mother earth. The 2016 presidential election has revealed that the violence of colonization is alive and well in the U.S. not only perpetrated by white people but also by people of color that have internalized colonialism so severely that they are publicly revealing a deep sense of self-hate. This presidential election has demonstrated to us that we still have a long way to go in having our lives fully validated as people of color, women, queers, otherly abled individuals, or people with our own religious, spiritual and cultural mores and folkways. On Tuesday, September 13th, the Texas State Board of Education held a hearing in Austin listening to testimonies regarding the book,“Mexican American Heritage” being considered for use in Texas Public Schools. Problem is the text was not written by Mexican Americans and espouses stereotypical views of Mexican Americans and our history. Fortunately, scholars of Mexican American studies joined forces and refused to allow our gente to be smeared by such racists slurs. The adoption of this book into Texas schools still remains in the balance. This attempt at erasure is not new, as Roberto Rodríguez article on the 2010 census shows. Jessica Sabogal, the artist whose work graces this issue’s front page, states: Over the years in my art practice, I have been realizing the importance of documenting my experience as a first generation Colombian lesbian. If I’m not writing or painting about it, someone else will do it for me, and more often than not, I will get written out.—So, this poster is about that. It urges us, as artists and thinkers and students, to speak out, to make a place for ourselves in history, to demand it. To show up. To not get written out. — Gloria A. Ramírez
October 15, 2016
Assemble at 1:30pm Columbus Park, W. Martin & San Saba March begins at 3:30pm to Main Plaza Rally at Main Plaza 5:30-7:30pm
Respect Indigenous Human Rights•Stop Deportations & Removals• Humane Immigration Reform•No private prisons 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 Knowledge, Our Heritage is Under Siege by Lilliana P. Saldaña, Ph.D. Associate Professor Mexican American Studies UTSA & Aimee Villarreal, Ph.D Assistant Professor Mexican American Studies OLLU
Editor’s note: On Tuesday, September 13, 2016 the Texas State Board of Education held a day-long session listening to testimony related the textbook, Mexican American Heritage. Hundreds turned out to denounce the book for use in Texas Public Schools citing its racism and factual inaccuracies. The SBOE will vote on this book at their November 16-18 meeting.
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With the rise of Trumpism the ugly face of the nation is unmasked, revealing the racism, sexism and xenophobia woven into the fabric of US society. However, the attack on Mexican immigrant and Mexican American communities through state policies and practices that funnel young men of color to prison, separate families, imprison women and children, and prohibit the teaching of Chicana/o culture and history in public schools have long predated this troubling presidential election—1848 to be exact. We live in a culture in which it is common, perhaps even expected, that government officials and political candidates will play politics with our lives casting “Mexicans” as anti-citizens, perpetual foreigners and threats to national unity and security. It is within this context that, Mexican American Heritage, a textbook written by two white conservatives,and published by a spurious publishing company, is on the market and up for approval by the State Board of Education (SBOE) in November. This text, the only one submitted to the SBOE for approval, is saturated with an overwhelming number of passages loaded with factual errors and interpretive errors—141 according to a meticulous review conducted by nationally recognized Mexican American Studies scholars in the state. Aside from straight up factual errors, historical distortions and complete omissions of significant themes in studying the Mexican American experience, this textbook perpetuates the same negative stereotypes of Mexicans that have been used by the white power structure to discredit and vilify people of Mexican descent—that Mexican workers of the 20th century were lazy compared to their white counterparts, Chicano activists of the 1960s were radicals who were out to destroy U.S. society, and Mexican immigrants are criminals and an imminent threat to this nation.
In the U.S., the struggle for Mexican American Studies dates back to the Chicana and Chicano Liberation Movement of the 1960s. Fueled by a decolonial philosophy for social change and a liberatory vision for epistemic justice, Raza students set clear and concrete goals for implementing Chicana and Chicano Studies in institutions of higher education. Their manifesto, El Plan de Santa Barbara, now considered to be the birth of Chicana and Chicano Studies in colleges and universities across the U.S., called for the admission and recruitment of Chicano students, faculty, administrators and staff; an academic major with a program curriculum that is now accepted as a legitimate field of study; academic support programs; research centers; and publication outlets. While institutions of higher education across the U.S. have established prestigious and nationally recognized Chicana and Chicano Studies programs (especially in the West coast, parts of the Southwest and the Midwest), this field of study is virtually non-existent in prekindergarten through twelfth grade classrooms in public schools, even in states like Texas where an overwhelming majority of schoolaged children and youth are of Mexican heritage. Of the 4.9 million students in Texas public schools, 51% are considered “Hispanic”; the majority of these students are of Mexican-descent. To date, Tucson ISD has been the only school district in the history of this nation to have successfully created a groundbreaking and pedagogically innovative Raza Studies program for high school students. Beginning in the mid 1990s, the program synthesized Freirian pedagogy, maya-nahua maíz-based epistemologies, critical race theories, and decolonial thought to create a unique pedagogy that would prepare students to excel academically and become agents of social change in their communities. The program was tremendously successful in reducing the persistent pattern of school drop outs (almost 50% at the time, reflecting a national average for Latinos), increasing school attendance, significantly improving academic test scores across content areas, and increasing college enrollment for Latino students. Despite its success and national recognition, the program was politicized by the far right as anti-American and was dismantled through one of the most vicious anti-Mexican campaigns that led to the legislation of House Bill 2281 in 2010. This bill ef-
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fectively banned the program on grounds that it 1) promoted the overthrow of the U.S. government; 2) taught students to resent one group of people (i.e. Whites); 3) was designed with only one particular group of students in mind (i.e. Latinos); and 4) promoted ethnic solidarity rather than treating students as individual pupils. Following this extreme measure to eliminate ethnic studies in Arizona, students filed suit. After a five-year legal battle that challenged the constitutionality of HB 2281, the NinthCircuit Court of Appeals established that school officials did not have their right to ban books or remove material from the curriculum solely to advance their personal ideological agendas. As of now, the Arce case is in a U.S. district court to determine whether the state of Arizona violated students’ First Amendment rights. The Arizona ethnic studies ban spurred a nationwide movement for ethnic studies in public schools with majority students of color. In Texas, Mexican American Studies’ students from across the state (UTEP, University of Houston, Lone Star College, UTSA, Palo Alto College), MAS professors, and prominent organizations like the Librotraficantes, which emerged from the Arizona ethnic studies ban, mobilized the first statewide effort to implement MAS in public schools. Their goal: to legislate policy that would require high school students to take a Mexican American Studies course for graduation. This effort came in response to the pervasive whitewashing of Mexican American Studies content in social studies and language arts curricula in a state with a 50% Latino student population. Never in the history of this state, since the incorporation of Texas into the U.S., has Mexican American Studies been an official area of study in our public schools (and it still isn’t). In the spring of 2014, after more than a year of mobilizing around this issue, the overwhelming conservative SBOE shot down our demands. Some of the more conservative board members like Patricia Hardy vehemently opposed this idea, stating that students needed to learn “American” history and values. While the SBOE did not completely crush the possibility of MAS in our public high schools, they took a passive approach, leaving it up to local school districts to implement Mexican American Studies, African American Studies, Native American Studies, and Women’s Studies under a Special Topics course in Social Studies. This was seen as a victory for those of us who advocate for the inclusion of Mexican American Studies in public schools. However, those opposed to this effort took it upon themselves to highjack and essentially whitewash the curriculum. The situation in Arizona was instructive. Conservatives lost the legal battle to exclude Mexican American studies courses in the public schools, but they could still impose their ideological views on course content. The question of how and what should be taught in the
classroom continues to be at the forefront of these epistemic battles, particularly in a state where curricular decisions are made by a majority White (and conservative) school board for a school population that is largely Mexican. To be clear, the publication of Mexican American Heritage is not an isolated incident. It is part of a broader anti-immigrant and anti-Mexican agenda that has emerged and surged along with the post-911 national security state. Therefore, it is no accident that attacks on Mexican American Studies would accompany racist legislative assaults on immigrants in Arizona and other states, including Texas. The textbook, produced by a makeshift publisher under former State Board of Education member Cynthia Dunbar, a Trump supporter and graduate of televangelist, Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, was written by non-experts (bloggers to be precise), Jaime Riddle and Valarie Angle—without consultation from historians or scholars in the field of Mexican American Studies. This move was intentional and strategic. The textbook is replete with factual errors and blatant ideological bias by design. In response, Mexican American studies professors and community members interested in the issue have organized to block the SBOE’s adoption of the textbook. Led by MALDEF and the Texas Freedom Network (TFN), the Responsible Ethnic Studies for Texas Coalition, has been organizing a statewide action to reject this textbook and launching national visibility of this issue. Ruben Cortez, Jr., State Board of Education Representative, District 2 organized an Ad Hoc committee of scholars to examine and produce a comprehensive report on the textbook using clearly defined methodology focusing on specific categories of errors. The committee identified 141 passages of errors. Of these 68 are factual errors, 42 are interpretive errors, and 31 are omission errors, all of which are outlined in a 55-page appendix of errors. Some of the errors include: • The use of the terms “nomadic” and “civilized” in the first chapter on Indigenous civilizations. The authors define civilized in terms of being like Europeans and defined exclusively in terms of having writing. The authors reproduce the primitive/ civilized dichotomy that is rooted in racist assumptions about Indigenous peoples being savage, uncivilized, and backward or behind Europeans. The idea of the inherent savagery was used as justification for genocide and ethnocide against the indigenous peoples of the continent (Interpretive error). • “Just like Europeans or Asians, there were racial similarities between Indians, but there were also countless differences. Some Indians from tribes like the Waorani in Ecuador or the Yuki in California were typically very short, while the Arap¬aho and Iroquois Indians were known to be tall. The Inuit and Cheyenne had lighter skin, and many Amazon Indians had black skin. The Caddo pierced their noses, while the Tlingit inserted ear plugs that stretched their earlobes over time…” (Factual and Interpretive Error, p. 8). No actual cultural com-
is no “Regeneration Movement” in the literature of the Mexican Revolution, nor was there a group called La Regeneración, or “The Regeneration.” • Section titled “Mexican American Immigration” (p. 324-353): The authors repeat the views of restrictionists without questioning them: “The first deportations of Mexican laborers occurred to offload the overabundant labor supply, especially those who worked for the cheapest wages.” Restrictionists also said that Mexican culture threatened national identity and accused them of being disloyal and a political threat to national unity. The authors also fail to take into account the voice of the Mexican and Mexican American community on immigration, deportations, inequality, discrimination, and poverty, including the articles and editorials appearing in La Prensa (San Antonio: 1913-1955), the WWI diary by José de la Luz Sáenz, the two-volume work by Alonso Perales, and the article by Emma Tenayuca and Homer Brooks. The authors also fail to acknowledge Mexico as an important wartime ally, the 15,000 Mexican Nationals who served in the U.S. military, the diplomatic work of Ezequiel Padilla in support of the Good Neighbor Policy, the Bracero Program as a wartime measure that contributed over 500,000 workers to the U.S. labor market, and Mexico’s permission to set up radar installations along its coasts. Also, the authors overlook the work of Mexican consulate offices and Mexican American leaders in combatting discrimination in the United States, all with the blessings of the State Department (Omission Error). • On the Chicano Movement: “Chicanos, on the other hand, adopted a revolutionary narrative that opposed Western civilization and wanted to destroy this society. Two sets of Mexican American activists, with similar hopes for their community, were pursuing two different approaches” (p. 415, Factual and Interpretive Error). While differences existed between Chicana and Chicano and Mexican American organizations concerning political tactics and senses of identity, Chicano civil rights organizations did not oppose “Western civilization and wanted to destroy this society.” • “For the last two decades, 80–85% of Mexican immigration has been illegal, which, in addition to 2.5 million unauthorized Central Americans crossing the Mexico-U.S. border, has been increasingly tied up with an illegal drug trade. This is affecting security and well-being in in the United States” (Factual and Interpretive Error, p. 442-443). The authors commit a serious error when they posit that immigration from Mexico and Central American nations “has been increasingly tied up with an illegal drug trade” and “is affecting security and wellbeing in the United States.” This offers teachers and students a superficial and incomplete treatment of the subject. Moreover, they make these highly questionable observations without citing scholarly sources.
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parisons are being made. The authors use an antiquated and essentialist concept of race as division of human species based on differences in physical features defined by heredity. This view stems from 19th century ideas known as scientific racism. There is only one human race and diversity in physical features is the result of adaptation to local environments over time. In sum, the paragraph is promoting racism—the idea that human cultural differences are biological and physical characteristics can be grouped as indicators of discrete racial groups. • “Indians in North and South America also lacked the technological advancements of the wheel and domesticated animals, which had wide ranging implications…The lack of horses, oxen, and carts meant that Indians could not carry heavy loads of goods or people. This limited their ability to trade and migrate” (Factual Error, p. 12). Native American agricultural systems ranged from complex systems that helped sustain communities in Mesoamerica in the millions to smaller urban communities in North America. Native American trade networks extended from Mesoamerica to the Southwest, and within North America. • “In mit’a there was no private economy, trade, or occupation to produce goods that could be paid as taxes. There was instead a centralized economy where Indians paid their taxes through labor, Artwork: Doreen García Nevel or working for the collective. It mirrored, most closely, European socialism” (Factual and Interpretive Error, p. 39). No, the Peruvian mit’a system is nothing like European socialism. First, European socialism did not exist until the 20th century. The reason this comparison is being made is purely ideological. Again, casting socialism as a backward and cruel system like the one the Peruvians are claimed to have established. • Chapter Two on Spanish Colonialism - Only from six pages, 87-92, was there devoted coverage of Spanish Borderlands from 49 pages of text. The omission of the Spanish Borderland scholarship (a hundred years old with thousands of books, chapters and articles) represents one of the gravest errors within this textbook. The only coverage for the Spanish Borderlands was the California mission system. Indeed, a proposed Mexican American history textbook for Texas schools that excludes Tejano history is shocking. • On the Mexican Revolution: “Before his run for president, Franco Madero had associated with a revolutionary group called La Regeneración, or ‘The Regeneration.’ This group was inspired by a radical Russian philosophy called anarchism, and called for total overthrow of the Mexican government” (Factual Error, p. 272). “Franco Madero” is an obvious mistake. Also, Francisco Madero did not align his group with an anarcho-syndicalist group that the authors fail to name. Furthermore, there
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The Ad Hoc Committee also pointed out numerous fallacies and ideological bias in the sidebars, images, discussion questions, and glossary. At the September 13th rally and public testimony to the SBOE, Dr. Christopher Carmona from UT-RGV, offered clear examples of the troubling discussion questions at the end of each chapter in the textbook. “Discussion questions are supposed to promote critical thinking skills. These questions are based on rhetorical tactics that lead people to answers that are incorrect” or that lead towards one particular view (the view of the colonizer, rather than centering the views of the colonized). Some of the blatantly biased questions in the textbook include: • “Explain how Christopher Columbus was feeling when he wrote his 1493 letter to King Ferdinand.” • “Which explorer do you believe to be most successful in creating alliances and/or settlements in the New World?” • “Find an example to illustrate how universities and curriculum strategize and radicalize to promote counterculture movements.” • “Why do you think there continues to be an enduring frustration and focus on cultural and racial differences in modern Artwork: Julio Salgado society? What is your advice for restoring a positive emphasis on such differences in order to celebrate them instead of feeding into a fear submission or elitism based on race and culture? Is it possible to celebrate historical heritage, culture, and traditions while not judging one another on the basis of bloodline “purity” or variations? If so, how soon or distant do you believe that it can occur.” • “Are Chicano Studies beneficial to Mexican-American culture? Explain. How did César Chávez challenge this vision?” While students would no doubt be miseducated through the factual, interpretive, and omission errors in this textbook, the discussion questions at the end of each chapter are worded in such a way as to completely ignore the perspectives of the silenced and subjugated (which is what Ethnic Studies works to recitfy), while discrediting the value of Ethnic Studies in general, and Mexican American Studies/Chicano Studies, in particular. In their report, the Ad Hoc committee concluded that, “Jamie Riddle and Valarie Angle failed to meet the professional standards and guiding principles for the preparation of a textbook worthy of our teachers and youth in Texas classrooms. They failed to engage in critical dialogue with current scholarship and, as a result, presented a prolific misrepresentation of facts. This means that the proposed textbook is really a polemic attempting to masquerade as a textbook.” Taken together, over half of the information included in the textbook is simply wrong. While the very existence of such a textbook intended to teach Mexican American history is sickening and offensive in its own right, we need to understand the larger issue here. The textbook is a political project that promotes the perspectives of the ideologically conservative white dominant group in order to strip Mexican American Studies of its decolonial and transformative potential. It is almost completely devoid of the perspectives of Mexican Americans and it is certainly devoid of the voices of women (only 7 references to women can be found in the entire text). The perspectives of the
colonized, the enslaved, and the vanquished are missing. (The complete review by this Ad Hoc Committee is available through: https://mastxeducationdotcom.files.wordpress. com/2015/12/ruben-cortezs-ad-hoc-committe-final-report.pdf) What is really at stake in the Mexican American textbook controversy? Ultimately, it is our cultural memory and educational success. Mexican American Heritage is a textbook produced by individuals who have no connection to our communities and have willfully excluded the many excellent scholars in the field. The fact that this right-wing political project was intended for classroom use reveals that the struggle for educational equity, recognition, and rights has not ended. It also proves that Ethnic Studies scholarship continues to be cast as illegitimate knowledge. This book is not just a textbook. It is an affront to Mexican American Studies as a legitimate field of study. It is also an attempt to reverse all the work that cultural workers and Ethnic Studies scholars with PhDs in History, Anthropology, Sociology, Art, Cultural Studies and other disciplines have done to recover the missing, the erased, the marginalized, to history; to document and publish works that offer more nuanced, diverse and enlightened perspectives on the experiences and cultures of Mexican Americans and other minority groups in the United States. This textbook is propaganda produced by imposters who are peddling a shoddy, racist product that slights over 40 years of scholarly research and study. Our students deserve better. They deserve to know that the experiences, stories, struggles and triumphs of their communities are valuable and worthy of study in school. Mexican American Studies, Ethnic Studies, Women’s Studies were all born of struggle precisely because these perspectives were (and continue to be) marginalized and excluded. When the knowledge and perspectives of ethnic and racial minorities are ignored or erased we all lose. It limits our understanding of the broad scope of human diversity, hinders our ODE TO LA TORTILLA ability to think critically about La tortilla the history and mestizo bread future of our nation, and more comfort food of my ancestors, importantly, it puffs and rises on the cast iron comal erodes our ethniblisters with little brown clouds, cal responsibility snuggles in a dish towel, soft and hot. to each other as I reach for one steamy circle of solace, members of a juggle between my hands until it cools. shared multicultural society and Con frijoles, un poco de chile, global commuI open my mouth and devour my history— nity. As scholars mis raíces. in the field of Mexican Ameri—Sally Gaytán-Baker can Studies, we urge the SBOE to reject this book and we urge everyone to join this quest for epistemic truth and justice in our public schools.
The 2020 Census and the Re-Indigenization of America By Roberto Rodriguez, published previously in Truthout | June 26, 2016
Deeply embedded within this nation’s psyche is the idea that God gave white people this country and continent … and the prospects that it will soon be returning to the natives -- to brown “savages” -- upsets this vision. Many actually believe that God gave them the world, as part of a divine mission to create Heaven on Earth. This narrative is the fuel for many of the modern schemes to keep this nation white, which involve driving people of color out of the country, as well as imprisoning, assimilating or defining us out of existence. In eras past, genocide, land theft, slavery, lynch-
ings, forced removals and mass repatriations were also a very real part of this formula. Throughout the nation’s history, a primary objective of US society (and particularly of its schools) was “Americanization.” This was hardly an educational endeavor but rather a violent and forced assimilation process that demanded that people leave their culture back home, or at least behind closed doors. This was done in part to create a compliant and docile workforce.
The US Census Bureau From the inception of the Census Bureau, coloniality, a racial supremacist ideology and forced assimilation have been part of its core. Perhaps for different reasons, the US census is approximating Spain’s colonial racial caste system, an intricate system with countless categories that collapsed due to the hyper-emphasis on ascribing difference and ensuring dominance by the ruling criollo or white elite. In discussing imposed racial identities, we must also discuss the modern lethal consequences that result from racial supremacy, especially when dealing with issues of life and death. For example, as a result of the misidentification (as white) and the resultant invisibilization of Indigenous/Brown peoples, they/we are completely absent and silenced in national conversations regarding law enforcement violence and abuse. This is occurring in the context of a nation that discusses everything in black and white, despite the fact that this nation and continent have never been black and white. Before discussing the historic and contemporary role of the bureau in these de-Indigenization and Americanization schemes, several stipulations first need to be made: - Virtually all terms and concepts used in this essay relative to census issues are contentious. That said, there are terms that are organic, that have arisen from people’s lived experiences, as opposed to being imposed by governments, bureaucrats or corporations. - The bureau freely admits on its forms that the racial/ethnic categories it works with are unscientific, though most of the other government agencies, schools and the corporate sector operate as if otherwise. At the same time, one is supposed to be free to choose whichever category one self-identifies with, and yet, this has rarely been the case, particularly for those corralled into the “Hispanic” category, an artificial US ethnic category first created by Nixon bureaucrats for the 1970 Census. We cannot be foreigners on our own continent. - With many thousands of years of Indigenous roots on this
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As the 2020 US census looms, this arcane ritual will once again result in the painting of a false picture of the demographic makeup of the United States. While the nation has been getting “browner” for many decades, the US Census Bureau has actually been complicit in obfuscating this change, which I have long described as demographic genocide. Yet this time around, due to a long-overdue change in the census, rather than being corralled against their will into the “white” category, many Mexican, Central American, Andean and Caribbean peoples will no longer be checking the white racial box. Countering the delusions of previous generations, we know that simply checking the white box has never meant being treated as white anyway. This time around, per this change, many of us will instead (again) be checking the American Indian box, while rejecting the bureaucratically imposed Hispanic/Latino box. Others will check and affirm both. This change however, will not alter the historic de-Indigenization schemes of this society, including those of the Census Bureau, which has always been an ideological instrument of empire. The census does not just count people, but actually helps to shape the nation’s self-image, character and national narrative. It helps tell the world “who we are” -- who the United States is. And just precisely who or what is the United States supposed to be? God’s chosen people? The bureau estimates that by 2044, the United States will cease being a majority white nation. This “browning” is very disconcerting for those who support the fact that this country, since its beginnings, has been driven by the belief in Providence, Manifest Destiny and American exceptionalism.
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continent, Mexico has never identified itself as a white or Caucasian nation. Despite this, the US government, on census forms, and on birth and death certificates, inexplicably identifies Mexicans as white or Caucasian. - Despite the above, the United States has never treated Mexicans socially, culturally or politically as whites and even more importantly, as full human beings with full corresponding human rights. The history of land theft, mass lynchings, segregation and discrimination proves this assertion. - For more than 100 years, the Mexican government has pushed the notion that the vast majority of Mexicans are “mestizos” or peoples of mixed heritage, primarily Indigenous and Spanish/European. Yet key to note is that few Spaniards and relatively few women came to Mexico during the entire 300-year colonial period. Despite this, the US Census Bureau has never offered “mestizo” as an option, thus resulting in the quandary of being directed by government bureaucrats to choose “white,” not American Indian -- or the “some other race” option. Incidentally, through the work of Gonzalo Aguirre Beltran, author of La Poblacion Negra en Mexico, we also know that more Africans came to Mexico than Europeans during the colonial era. - Through Guillermo Bonfil Batalla’s Mexico Profundo, we find that at its root, Mexico and the majority of Mexicans remain Indigenous, albeit “de-Indigenized” (despite having Indigenous roots and physically looking Indigenous, culturally much has been stripped away and has been replaced by European/Spanish culture). However, despite colonization, their roots remain Indigenous. In Mexico, it is generally believed that at least 90 percent of the population is either Indigenous, de-Indigenized or Indigenousbased “mestizos.” - In the 1930s, the Census Bureau actually recognized and created a “Mexican” category, for people born (or their parents) in Mexico, coding their race as “Mex.” This designation lasted only for that particular census. - As of 2010, the census definition for American Indian/Alaska Native changed to this: “According to OMB (Office of Management and Budget) ‘American Indian or Alaska Native’ refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America) and who maintains tribal affiliation or community attachment.” That year resulted in 175,000 people of Mexican descent choosing this option. Previously, peoples from
Mexico and points south were excluded. - Throughout the 20th century, the vast majority of Indigenousbased peoples in this country, not counted as American Indians, were Mexicans. Today that continues to be the case; in the US, about 2/3 of the 55 million people under the “Hispanic/Latino” category are of Mexican origin. A 2014 Census report estimates that Mexicans and Central Americans together constitute approximately ¾ of that category. Add peoples from the Andean countries, many whose countries have even higher rates of Indigenous peoples than Mexico, and Caribbean peoples who have greater amounts of African ancestry, and it is clear that the “Hispanic/Latino” category, is inappropriate. - The Nixon-era “Hispanic” category has nowadays morphed from being an erroneous, umbrella term into its own artificial, government-constructed identity. For example, as part of this US-created “ethnicity,” many people nowadays born of Mexican parents identify as Hispanic but not Mexican. This category and phenomenon generally does not socially exist anywhere else in the Americas. - The bureau and other US government agencies cannot be the arbiters of who is Indigenous, as this is a category (Amerindian) that corresponds to the entire continent, not one country. Whether intentionally or not, the bureau continues to be part and parcel to de-Indigenization and Americanization schemes, the objective of which appears to be eventual “disappearance.” This truly is an additional reason why many oppose immigration from Mexico and Central America ...
People in the US oppose these migrants not only because they are not white but also because their color represents indigeneity. They bring with them a thousands-of-years connection to this continent, a connection that is much deeper and more profound than anything produced by immigrant pilgrim culture. The truth is, these lands have never ceased being Indigenous, and Indigenous-based peoples have actually never been “immigrants” anywhere on this continent. As has been proclaimed at a number of recent gatherings over the past several years by the original peoples of this continent (2007 Guatemala and 2009 Peru): “We cannot be foreigners on our own continent.” Per that change to the 2020 census, it appears that the census will now combine the racial and [Hispanic/Latino] ethnic (origin) questions. Through tests, they have eliminated the Hispanic/Latino box as a separate ethnic question and have included it as one of five choices for race/origin. Traditionally, the four racial categories have been: Black, white, Asian and American Indian. The fifth category will now be Hispanic/Latino (all who fill out the census in 2020 will be able to choose multiple categories). Doing this generally eliminates Hispanics/Latinos choosing the white category. Julie Dowling in Mexican Americans and the question of Race (2014) reports that in 2010 tests,
“ "We cannot be foreigners
less than 1 percent of Hispanics/Latinos chose the “some other race” category whereas 9-16 percent chose white. The 16 percent figure is perhaps a bit high, however, it is much closer to reality than the close to 50 percent that had previously chosen that category (often times directed by census takers to do so).
Being Named by Outsiders
s on our own continent"
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As far as the bureau is concerned, this should solve the problem of “Hispanics/Latinos” mis-identifying or being misidentified as white or having to choose “some other race.” Yet it keeps an equally or bigger problem intact: the existence of the bureaucratically imposed Hispanic/Latino category itself. If Nixon bureaucrats had chosen the equally erroneous name: Iberoamericans that would be the name in use today. In Metis (2014), Chris Anderson refers to this as “outsider naming.” In this case, it rewards the colonizing European [Spanish] minority, while generally invisibilizing the majority Indigenous roots, as well as the African roots of many who might fall under the “Hispanic/Latino” category. While the 2010 change in the census now permits/acknowledges the existence of Indigenous peoples south of the US-Mexico border, for 2020, there are no current plans to acknowledge the indigeneity of peoples who identify themselves as “mestizos,” generally in the same way that Canada and its census bureau recognizes and has accommodated the metis population. Canada generally recognizes the metis population as Indigenous people. The truth is, the historic misidentification of Brown peoples in this country is arguably part of something much more profound, a 500-year de-Indigenization scheme that resembles a project the early missionaries introduced: reducciones. That was a massive conversion campaign that sought to spiritually and culturally eradicate the original peoples of the continent and replacing them with Christians. In history, this has been referred to as La Otra Conquista (Carrasco and Domingo Films, 1999). In this historic 500-year process, “ownership” of an entire continent has, in effect, been transferred, from the continent’s original peoples, to literal invaders. What apparently remains is the seeming task of eliminating any reminders of their presence. Admittedly, not forcing peoples to choose a white identity is huge progress. There is, however, that unfinished business of assigning the imposed Hispanic/Latino category to them. To intentionally or even unintentionally misidentify peoples actually goes against several international human rights accords, including the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the 2007 UN Declaration on the rights of Indigenous peoples. But beyond issues of rights, names are sacred, and this is something that apparently has never been understood by bureaucrats. If all people of Mexican, Mexican American and Chicano/
Chicana heritage, plus people from Central and South America had been aware that they were eligible to check the American Indian category, per the bureau’s 2010 definition, more accurate would have been a number closer to between 30-40 million. This represents the number of Mexicans, Central Americans and peoples from the Andes that live in this country and could have claimed their indigeneity. But due to its ideological orientation, the census is not prepared for such a number. The census definition of who constitutes an Indigenous person is still governed by both US-centric and Eurocentric views. Those views, in effect, generally do not recognize de-Indigenized peoples as Indigenous peoples, unless they are directly connected to a tribe. Those views have also been internalized, thus the Native expression: “Pareces que tienes el nopal en la frente (y el elote entre los dientes),” which translates as “It looks like you have a cactus on your forehead (and corn stuck between your teeth).” The expression exists because historically, due to colonial forces, “Hispanic” values and worldview have been imposed to the extent that people deny their obvious indigeneity -- i.e. the cactus on the forehead and eating of corn, which are signifiers of indigeneity in Mexico. Beyond self-hate, it has also produced a vicious hate against Indigenous peoples. And yet, the distinctions between de-Indigenized, “mestizo” and Indigenous are not as sharp as one might assume, even within families. Admittedly, if perceptions of the indigeneity of “mestizos” or de-Indigenized Indigenous peoples were based on how they treat or relate to recognized Indigenous peoples (often badly), there would be no need for this essay. That is, many mestizos would be disqualified from classification as Indigenous precisely because of their attitudes and treatment of recognized Indigenous peoples. However, the census question is supposed to measure race/origin as opposed to behavior. At the same time, arguably, the recent turn to an even nastier form of US politics, with an emphasis on anti-immigration, may in fact be altering how de-Indigenized people and mestizos are coming to see themselves: as Indigenous. It affirms what anthropologist Renato Rosaldo once noted, that many Mexicans are not Indigenous until they cross the US-Mexico border. He said that their brown skin color is normal in Mexico, but that the intense racism in the United States, including the racial profiling by law enforcement and the “migra” makes them hyper-conscious of their skin color here. This experience reminds them of their own (hidden) indigeneity.
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What’s Next?
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If the bureau wanted to facilitate this process, they could do so by simply adding one word: American Indian/Alaska Native/ Several related questions remain. Will de-Indigenized peoples Indigenous. Doing so would probably see a much greater increase or “mestizos” be able to check the American Indian category for than the previous census. If they added the term “Amerindian” or 2020? Will the bureau encourage or discourage this option? And “mestizo/mestiza” as “Metis” is added in Canada, the numbers finally, can they or will they opt for this option, while foregoing would probably go through the roof. the Hispanic/Latino category? The question, however, is, can the bureau collect data in To the first question: will de-Indigenized or “mestizos” be regards to American Indian tribes and American Indian tribal memable to affirm their Indigenous roots -- roots that are responbers... and Indigenous racial data? As noted previously, this already sible for the creation of thousands-of-years-old civilizations, happens in Canada. A factor to be considered is ranging from Tenochtitlan, to Teotihuacan that changing such a focus has and will continue and from Tikal to Tihuanaco? More importo create opposition from many tribes and tribal tantly, will they be able to affirm that they are members, because of the perceived competition. generally part of the thousands-of-years-old Yet, this does not have to be a conflictive living maíz-based cultures? If they choose process, but for various reasons, many tribal this option, it is not clear how the bureau will representatives may see this as encroachment respond. What is known is that one does not and possibly as a competition for resources. have to prove pedigree, nor is there a litmus Yet, as conceived, the two do not have to contest to be part of the other recognized races/ flict. And they shouldn’t. origin categories. Of note, all people will Choosing the American Indian racial opbe given the option of choosing multiple tion would not make people eligible for entitlecategories. ments, resources or treaty rights due tribes and Yet, whether they choose the American tribal members, etc. (Arguably, people of MexiIndian option will not be subject to approval by can descent may be due treaty rights also, via the bureau. The question is what will the bureau the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, which do with the data if the number of American is a whole different argument). There may still Indians greatly increases due to de-Indigenized be objection; however, the important thing is to or mestizo people choosing this category? The make sure that indeed, this affirmation of one’s Poster available at http://bit.ly/maizMother related question is whether the bureau will roots is not a pathway to competition with inform them that they have this option. But the even trickier already recognized American Indians for resources of any kind. question will be whether these same peoples, after checking the One has to remember that, particularly prior to the Zapatista American Indian option, will also choose or forgo the Hispanic/ uprising in Chiapas, Mexico, in the early 1990s, enforced racism Latino category? has prevented people from throughout the continent from admitting That is a question of self-identity. At the same time, it is akin to the now standard practice of labeling Mexican/Indigenous foods their indigeneity, especially in public. However, we are starting to move beyond those days, and people are now stepping forward and in supermarkets as “Hispanic” foods. It is jarring and equally inare no longer denying the obvious. comprehensible. To reject the category of “Hispanic” is a decoloThis is a message that US politicians should also take heed nial act and also goes to what novelist Rudy Anaya refers to as “the because the notion that the nation is becoming browner actually ceremony of naming,” arguing that there is nothing more sacred means that it is becoming more Native. than the act of naming oneself. And lastly, the day may soon come when Mexican Americans petition the Census Bureau to be moved as a group, not simply as individuals, from the Hispanic category to an American Indian/ Checking the American Indian/Alaska Indigenous category. Native Option As the Mexican saying goes, “They tried to bury us, but they Yet the question remains: how will the aforementioned peoples did not know we were seeds.” know that they have a right to self-identify as American Indians? It will necessarily involve grassroots campaigns, including the media, Bio: Roberto Rodriguez, PhD (Dr. Cintli) is an associate profesand especially social media. sor at the Mexican American & Raza Studies Dept. at the UniverIt is important that Indigenous peoples from Mexico, sity of Arizona. His book, Our Sacred Maíz is Our Mother (UniCentral and South America come to know that they have that versity of Arizona Press, 2014), advances the thesis that Mexican/ right. If people choose it, they then simply have to specify the Central American peoples were not created in 1848 (war) or nation or tribe one identifies with. For example, if someone is invasion (1519) but rather with the creation of Maíz some 7,000 Zapotec, then the person can write that in. For someone who is years ago. He currently writes for Truthout (www.truth-out.org/) de-Indigenized or who identifies as mestizo/mestiza, but who and is working collaboratively on a book on the topic of color still wants to recognize and assert their indigeneity, they can. consciousness, Smiling Brown: Gente de Bronce – People the One can check the American Indian box and write in perhaps Color of the Earth. “mestizo” or “mestiza.” Others may choose names such as gente de maiz (people of maize) or macehual (regular people) Note: Send thoughts and reactions to xcolumn@gmail.com. — which is what many Indigenous peoples in Mexico choose as Copyright, Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission. their primary identity.
One of a Kind Like Me/ Único Como Yo by Laurin Mayeno
One of a Kind Like Me / Único como yo es un libro infantil bilingüe que se basa en la vida de Daniel, un niño quien deseaba ser una princesa en un desfile de su escuela. Apoyado por su mamá, empiezan la aventura de conseguir un vestido color púrpura. Laurin Mayeno, autora del libro, nos comenta: ‘Cuando mi hijo Danny me dijo que quería disfrazarse de princesa para las fiestas de Halloween (día de brujas), temí que pudiera ser blanco de burlas. Le sugerí otro disfraz pero él estaba seguro de lo que quería. Decidí apoyarlo e hicimos juntos un hermoso vestido púrpura para una princesa. No conocíamos otras familias como la nuestra ni nos veíamos reflejados en los libros de cuentos; entonces Danny me ayudó a crear una historia sobre un niño gendercreative cobijado por una amorosa familia y una comunidad multicultural. Mi intención con este libro es dar a los niños un sentido de pertenencia, animarlos para que sean quienes son, y hacerles saber que deben apreciar a la gente que es diferente. Siendo la mamá de Danny he visto cómo la vida de un niño se dificulta enormemente debido a la presión que recibe
para ajustarse a las expectativas de un determinado género. Podemos ayudar a que todos los niños se sientan seguros y aceptados permitiéndoles explorar un amplio rango de actividades sin restringir ni criticar lo que hacen o no hacen según su sexo. También debemos motivarlos a ser respetuosos y amables con sus compañeros y hacerles saber cuánto daño hacen la burla y el hostigamiento. Si ustedes tienen un niño que no se ajusta a las normas sociales impuestas sobre su sexo, pueden estar seguros de que no están solos. Es perfectamente sano explorar las diferentes maneras de expresar el género. Si ustedes sienten preocupación y miedo, como me pasó a mí, el conocer acerca de la diversidad de género y entrar en contacto con otras familias como la suya, les puede brindar confianza y tranquilidad. Visiten outproudfamilies.com en donde encontrarán videos, libros, guías, organizaciones y otros recursos de apoyo. El libro saldrá a la venta en este mes de septiembre bajo la firma de Blood Orange Press; y acompañan a la autora Robert Liu-Trujillo como Ilustrador y Teresa Mlawer en la traducción al español. —Traducido por Beatríz Macín
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One of a Kind Like Me/Único Como Kind Like Me gives children a sense of Yo is a bilingual children’s book (ages belonging, courage to be who they are, 4-7) based on a true story about a and an appreciation for people who are child named Danny who wants to be a different than them selves. princess in the school parade. He and Being Danny’s mom, I have learned his mom embark on a venture to find a to appreciate children who don’t follow purple princess dress. But will they find expectations based on gender. I also it on time? Following is a note about have seen how pressure to fit gender the book the author wrote for educators, expectations can make life hard for parents, and caregivers: any child. We can help all children feel When my son Danny told me he safe and accepted by allowing them to wanted to be a prinexplore a full range cess for Halloween, of activities without I was worried that restricting or criticizhe would be teased ing what they do based and I would be on gender. We can also judged. I suggested make a difference by another costume, encouraging children but Danny knew to be respectful and what he wanted. I kind to their peers, and decided to support by letting them know him and we created that teasing and bully—Illustrated by Robert Liu-Trujillo a beautiful purple ing hurt. If you have princess dress. He wore it happily in a child who doesn’t follow society’s the school parade and kept it for years. gender norms, rest assured that you Although I didn’t know it then, I later are not alone. It is perfectly healthy to came to realize that having a genderexplore different ways of expressing creative child was a beautiful gift. gender. If you have concerns and fears, When Danny was growing up, we as I did, learning about gender diversity didn’t know other families like ours, or and connecting with other families like see ourselves reflected in picture books. yours can give you confidence and peace To fill this gap, Danny helped me create of mind. Visit outproudfamilies.com for a story with a gender- creative child survideos, books, guides, organizations, rounded by a loving multicultural family and other resources. and community. I hope that One of a
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Put On The Blindfold And Jump: A Survival Guide To Staying Healthy During Change by Elizabeth Rodriguez Everything Will Be Okay Take a deep breath. Exhale. Tell yourself you’re awesome and truly believe it. This is going to be a new adventure and you have to be ready, mentally and physically. You never think that everything will be okay when you are going through your own personal living hell, especially when it looks like changes have come in and knocked you on your rear end. The crying doesn’t stop, you’re trying your best to be strong, the anger consumes and the blaming goes on and on. The feeling of failure, or “what could I have done differently?” repeats daily in your mind and makes you feel powerless. But you will be okay and become the most powerful person because of the changes that occurred in your life. This is a test of resilience.
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It Is A Time To Grow
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If things stayed the same then that also means there is no room for growth. We stay monotonous, complacent. Believe me, I know exactly what it means to want life to be comfortable and without drama. That could be good for a little while, but eventually, Spirit, which to me means a higher power or divine source, shows you things have to evolve in order for you to achieve true happiness and be whole. There are new lessons that need to be learned, new people to meet, new opportunities to experience and they are all for you, all for your growth and potential.
Happiness Is On Its Way The only thing we can do at this very moment is confidently affirm that transitions, even if they are extremely difficult, will lead to a better life. It may take awhile, even years, but you will get to a place of happiness. You have to repeat daily that you will receive the happiness and peace you desire. While you are working to achieve balance, you will take each day to see happiness in the little things.
You Have To Put On The Blindfold And Jump Put on the blindfold and jump is the expression I use to describe difficult transitions. When you are confronted with them you are embarking on a new journey where you can’t see the road ahead, but you have to blindly move forward anyway. It feels like you are blind, because you are unsure. You don’t know where you are going to land, or if you’ll be okay and consequently, you feel fear. The fear is so palpable because you are facing some new experiences that may push you out of your comfort zone. During my turmoil and move from Spain, I felt
deep sorrow, but besides that, I realized I was going to have to challenge myself to make decisions, hoping they were the correct ones, and then seeing how they played out. Needless to say, I was petrified! It was during my health issue and my work with my clients that I made notes on the essential elements needed to break the fall. You have a choice on your outlook and how you want to adapt to change. You have to trust, be brave and take risks. I was lacking these key components when I fell into these drastic transitions. Have a positive mindset. Feel the grip of fear and embrace it. Listen, trust yourself and your actions and move forward anyway. This is the direction you want to take, and it takes courage.
Make Yourself A Priority Even when the situation seems to be out of control, there are some things you can still do. This is not a time to forget about yourself and your needs. It’s time to treat your precious self gently. In my book, I have put together some essential tools to guide you on your journey through these shifts. These are tools I have found have worked not only in my life, but also in the lives of many women I have worked with as a Pilates trainer and health coach. By implementing these healthy tips, my clients not only went through these challenges easier, but also found themselves happier and healthier instead of tired, sick, sad and burnt out. I have to mention all of my clients have had different ways of dealing with change, but everything they did to survive points to one of these tools. They will help get your life going in a positive direction and they will eventually become part of your lifestyle. What happens is, when we are going through rocky times, we don’t take care of our bodies the way we should. Learning from experience, health is everything. When you don’t have good health, it is very limiting in so many ways. Bio: Elizabeth Rodríguez, author of Put On The Blindfold And Jump: A Survival Guide To Staying Healthy During Change, is a ninth generation Tejana—born and raised in San Antonio along with nine other creative siblings, which include her brother, film director Robert Rodríguez, and her sister, singer/songwriter Patricia Vonne. She is a Certified Health and Lifestyle Coach and Certified Pilates Trainer since 2005. Her book is available on Amazon.com and at www.elizabethrodriguezwellness.com.
The Salvadoran Martyrs Standing in my driveway a block from the church, I cannot see the martyrs. Publicity-shy, wary of strangers, the saints are cloistered in a corner. Though I see La Virgen and Juan Diego on the wall facing west, I cannot make out the martyrs. From where I stand, the mourning villagers are angelitos hidden in clouds south of La Señora.
the bodies of four churchwomen thrown, limbs akimbo, into a grave.
I cannot see them, but I know the martyrs are allí en el mural at 1531 Guadalupe Street. I know the alb, the chasuble, the skullcap. I know Romero’s Bible, open but wordless, a red cross gashed into each facing page. I picture his horn-rimmed glasses, his salt-and-pepper hair. I conjure the woman weeping over his body.
The mural is no phantom, no fantasy, no fairy tale. I know the mural is there just as I know 75,000 Salvadorans died in a war in which the US supplied $6 billion in aid to the regime. I know the mural, its scenes as surely as I know the Salvadoran National Guard murdered three nuns, a laywoman. The man who gave the command trained at the US-sponsored School of the Americas. I know. I know.
I know the martyrs, the saints, are there. I should walk down Guadalupe Street to check on them, imprint the scenes once more on my corneas, but I do not have time. The sun is too intense. The routine is a bore. The mural has lost its magic. I sigh, calming my nerves, then turn toward the house, as reconciled as a citizen can be who at last has dragged her bin to the curb after forgetting, putting it off, again and again.
Artwork: Fernando Llort
— Rachel Jennings
Braving barking dogs, ball-playing boys, the beat of banda, I have walked from my driveway
Editor’s note: As the school year begins from the earliest years to college campuses, we dedicate this poem to educators everywhere written by Tom Keene who writes—Consider the power of the teacher who is kind. Years ago, in a survey of 2nd graders, they were asked what they wanted in a teacher. Almost all said, kindness. In that light, I share this poem:
Give me a teacher Give me a teacher who gives a damn, needs to know more than my name, strains for the song I have not sung, follows me in my ennui to find my fishing hole. Give me a teacher who gives a damn, seduces, surprises, spades the soil of me, fertilizes feelings for what is fair, with anger at what is not, hope for solutions, appetite for application.
Give me a teacher who gives a damn, who tenders truth and trust more than rules and roles, favors sticky freedoms over cool controls, who risks career and cares to take a stand for students, is not unknown to laugh. I can build you a future in what I am. when you give me a teacher who gives a damn. Blessings, Tom Keene, July 1986
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The dead have dissolved into the ether, but I am sure the mural is there. I know the infant in its mother’s arms, the sign that reads “El Pueblo Unido.” I know the iron shovel,
In my daydream, or is it a flashback, every detail is clear as if I could step through the mirror into the mêlée, though helpless to save clashing knights, toppled bishops, pawns.
to the mural at noon, at midnight, across a continent of passing years.
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* community meetings *
Amnesty International #127 For info. call Arthur @ 210.213.5919.
People’s Power Coalition meets last Thursdays | 210.878.6751
Bexar Co. Green Party: Call 210. 471.1791 or bcgp@bexargreens.org
PFLAG, meets 1st Thurs. @ 7pm, University Presbyterian Church 300 Bushnell Ave. | 210.848.7407.
Celebration Circle meets Sun., 11am @ Say Sí, 1518 S. Alamo. Meditation: Weds @7:30pm, Friends Meeting House, 7052 Vandiver. 210.533.6767. DIGNITY SA Mass, 5:30pm, Sun. @ St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 1018 E. Grayson St | 210.340.2230 Adult Wellness Support Group of PRIDE Center meets 4th Mon., 7-9 pm @ Lions Field, 2809 Broadway. Call 210.213.5919. Energía Mía: (512) 838-3351 Fuerza Unida, 710 New Laredo Hwy. www.lafuerzaunida.org | 210.927.2294 Habitat for Humanity meets 1st Tues. for volunteers, 6pm, HFHSA Office @ 311 Probandt. LULAC Council #22198, Orgullo de SA, meets 3rd Tues. @ 6:45pm @ Papouli’s (Meeting room), 255 E. Basse Rd. To join e-mail: info@lulac22198.org NOW SA Chapter meets 3rd Wed’s. For time and location check FB/satx.now | 210. 802.9068 | nowsaareachapter@ gmail.com
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Pax Christi, SA meets monthly on Saturdays. Call 210.460.8448
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Parents of Murdered Children, meets 2nd Mondays @ Balcones Heights Community Ctr, 107 Glenarm | www. pomcsanantonio.org. Rape Crisis Center 7500 US Hwy 90W. Hotline: 210.349.7273 | 210.521.7273 Email: sgabriel@ rapecrisis.com The Religious Society of Friends meets Sunday @10am @ The Friends Meeting House, 7052 N. Vandiver. | 210.945.8456. S.A. Gender Association meets 1st & 3rd Thursday, 6-9pm @ 611 E. Myrtle, Metropolitan Community Church. SA AIDS Fdn 818 E. Grayson St. offers free Syphilis & HIV testing | 210.225.4715 | www.txsaaf.org.
Give to the Esperanza Peace & Justice Center at your workplace, today! Use the appropriate code: Combined Federal Campaign (Gov’t/military) code: 77773 City of San Antonio: 8022
SA Women Will March: www. sawomenwillmarch.org|(830) 488-7493
Bexar County: 8022
SGI-USA LGBT Buddhists meet 2nd Sat. at 10am @ 7142 San Pedro Ave., Ste 117 | 210.653.7755. Shambhala Buddhist Meditation Tues. 7pm & Sun. 9:30am 257 E. Hildebrand Ave. | 210.222.9303.
Proyecto Hospitalidad Liturgy meets Thurs. 7pm, 325 Courtland.
S.N.A.P. (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests). Contact Barbara at 210.725.8329.
Metropolitan Community Church services & Sunday school @10:30am, 611 East Myrtle. Call 210.472.3597
Voice for Animals: 210.737.3138 or www.voiceforanimals.org
Overeaters Anonymous meets MWF in Spanish & daily in English | www. oasanantonio.org | 210.492.5400.
The United Way Combined Federal Campaign is Here!
SA’s LGBTQA Youth meets Tues., 6:30pm at Univ. Presby. Church, 300 Bushnell Ave. | www.fiesta-youth.org
City/County I.S.D.s: 8022 State of Texas Employee Charitable Campaign: 413013 ¡Todos Somos Esperanza! For more info: call 210.228.0201 or email esperanza esperanzacenter.org
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Notas Y Más October 2016
Galería E.V.A., Ecos y voces del Arte, at 3412 S. Flores will hold a month-long festival honoring Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz that will include: an art exhibit on October 1st from 7-10pm (free); a performance with María Elena Gaitán,“Chola con Cello,” on October 8th from 7-10pm; a poetry reading and lecture by Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Norma Elia Cantú, Rita Urquijo Ruíz, and Bárbara Renaud González on October 15th from 7-9pm ($10 donation), and a concert on October 22nd from 7-10pm with Lourdes Pérez & Eva Ybarra ($65). See: cenrogaleriaeva.com The Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, San Antonio Chapter, will meet October 4th at 6:30pm at Travis Park United Methodist Church in the Labyrinth Room. TCADP’s annual conference takes place Saturday, February 18th at St. David’s Episcopal Church (301 E 8th St, Austin, TX 78701). See: http://tcadp.org/ Come to Nogales, AZ/Mexico from October 7-10 for the SOA Watch Border Convergence. This year’s event is at the U.S./Mexico Border to highlight U.S. intervention in
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.
Latin America as one of the root causes of migration and also to stage protests, cultural events and nonviolent direct action against racism, xenophobia and U.S. militarization at home and abroad. We hope you will join us! For more see: SOAW.org/border. The annual NAACP Freedom Fund Dinner is set for Friday, October 28 @ 7 pm at the University of The Incarnate Word, McCombs Center Rosenberg Sky Room, 847 E. Hildebrand in San Antonio. Guest speaker is Dr. Colette Pierce Burnette, 11th President of Huston-Tillotson University in Austin speaking on “NAACP Working for Justice”. Tickets: $75. Call 210.224.7636. Texas Folklife has its 2017 applications for the Apprenticeships in the Folk & Traditional Arts program available to the public. They offer up to $1,500 for a Master Artist to train an Apprentice in anyTexas-based folk and traditional art form or practice. Application deadline is Friday October 28th.See http://www.texasfolklife.org/ or contact program coordinator, Ian Hallagan at 512.441.9255 or email him at apprenticeships@texasfolklife.org
Register now for the 2016 Caregiver Summit: Facing the Challenge sponsored by WELLMED on November 10th, 8:30am to 3 pm at the Whitley Theological Center, Oblate School of Theology, 285 Oblate Dr. in San Antonio. There is no cost but registration is required. Register online: CaregiverSOS.org or call 866.390.6491 or 210.871.7720. Complimentary flu shots will be given! See: www.wellmedcharitablefoundation.org/caregiver-summit-2016/ Cinco Puntos Press announces that storyteller Joe Hayes’ stories are now available on You Tube. See www.cincopuntos.com for more bilingual books!
Texas Voter Registation ends Oct. 11th! Applications are at your county Voter Registrar office, at libraries, government offices and high schools.
To reserve an altar space call 210.228.0201 or email us at esperanza@esperanzacenter.org.
Felicidades to... Letitia Gomez and Ruth Eisenberg on their recent marriage in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Letitia is a native of San Antonio. Both have been longtime supporters of Esperanza. Gracias to donations made in honor of Leti and Ruth. May you share many more years of happiness and health. -Esperanza staff and Buena Gente
Congratulations to las profesoras... Josie Mendez-Negrete on her award for Best Health Book from the 18th Annual International Latino Book Awards for A Life On Hold: Living with Schizophrenia published by University of New Mexico Press. And Felicidades to profesoras Luz Calvo and Catriona Rueda Esquibel for their award for best cookbook, Decolonize Your Diet: PlantBased Mexican American Recipes for Health and Healing published by Arsenal Pulp Press. Great literary contributions!
LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • October 2016 Vol. 29 Issue 8
Workshops to prepare for the November 1st Diá de los muertos celebration at El Rinconcito de Esperanza, 816 S. Colorado, will be offered throughout October (check www.esperanzacenter.org).
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LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • October 2016 Vol. 29 Issue 8•
Diez Años de Fotohistorias
Noche Azul de Esperanza
continues at
Esperanza
Saturday, October 15, 2016 • 8pm
thru Nov. 11th
Mon.–Fri., 10am–7pm,
Free! Contact: esperanzacenter.org or call 210-228-0201
MujerArtes
$7 más o menos | @Esperanza
922 San Pedro Ave., San Antonio, TX 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
Exhibit and Sale
continues through October 14, 2016 Mon.-Fri., 9:30am to 5pm 1412 El Paso St. SATX 78207
210.223.2585 Call for entries!
18th annual November Calaveras issue of La Voz • Literary ofrendas up to 300 words in prose or poetry to honor a dearly departed soul • Calavera poems satirizing personalities, calavera haikus or short stories • Artwork of calacas, calaveras, Catrinas, Catrins, or targets of Calavera poems
Deadline: October 5, 2016
Send to lavoz@esperanzacenter.org
de m ue
Friday & Saturday from 10am-6pm Sunday from 12pm-6pm
Dia
November 25, 26 & 27, 2016
global to local handmade gifts • arte • comidita • hourly raffles • live 4-9 pm performances • 100 artesanos y más! Esperanza Peace & Justice Center 922 San Pedro Ave. San Antonio, TX
celebra s ti o rt
@ Rinconcito de Esperanza 816 S. Colorado St.
¡Música!
v. 1st – No
Now 3 Days!
¡Ofrendas!
on
27th Annual Mercado de Paz/Peace Market
Calavera Readings! Ponche y pan de muerto!
See pg. 15 for info on workshops & altars