December 2017/January 2018 | Vol. 30 Issue 10
San Antonio, Tejas
A Time for Healing and Action Artwork by Mary Agnes RodrĂguez
La Voz de Esperanza
December 2017/January 2018 Vol. 30 Issue 10 Editor Gloria A. Ramírez Design Elizandro Carrington Cover image: Mary Agnes Rodríguez
Contributors
Elliot Benjamin, Ph.D., Ana María González, Tom Keene, Rachel Jennings, Dianne Monroe, ire’ne lara silva
La Voz Mail Collective
Alicia Arredondo, Carolyn Atkins, Angel Castillo, Jack Elder, Charlie Esperiqueta, Mary Esperiqueta, Araceli Herrera, Gloria Lozano, Ray McDonald, Sylvia Mireles, Aleida Ortega, Martha Rincón, Mary A. Rodríguez, Yolanda M. Salazar, Roger Singler, Cynthia Szunyog, Elva Treviño, Tomasa Torres, Inés Valdez,
Last year we began celebrating the Esperanza’s 30th anniversary in issues of La Voz de Esperanza reclaiming our history and re-membering the many historical events and buena gente that brought us to this point. In August, 2017 we celebrated with Esperanza: 30 years of Peace & Justice—A tribute to Esperanza’s presence and impact on the San Antonio comGraciela Sánchez, director of the Esperanza with Viola munity. The evening included a dinner and Casares and Petra Mata of Fuerza Unida at the 30th event. program complete with performances and tributes that highlighted Esperanza’s 30 years. A special publication, Esperanza, 30 years of Peace and Justice includes many of the tributes and photos presented that evening and is available to all upon request. On January 31, 2018 we began our 31st year energized and ready to continue the work for peace, social justice and our mother earth. 2017 was a year that called for a global limpia—a thorough cleansing from the trastorno, the trauma, that has taken place since the appearance of a certain personality that has turned our world upside down. In 2018, the Esperanza, buena gente and allies will raise our voices and act with renewed energy and love to combat this oppressive force. We shall resist and persist! Send articles for the February 2018 Voz to: lavoz@esepranzacenter.org ¡Feliz Año!
Esperanza Director Graciela I. Sánchez
Esperanza Staff
LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • Dec 2017| jan 2018 Vol. 30 Issue 10•
Elizandro Carrington, Paty de la Garza, Eliza Pérez, Natalie Rodríguez, René Saenz, Susana Segura, Amelia Valdez
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Conjunto de Nepantleras —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 • We advocate for a wide variety of social, economic & environmental justice issues. • Opinions expressed in La Voz are not necessarily those of the Esperanza Center.
La Voz de Esperanza is a publication of
Esperanza Peace & Justice Center 922 San Pedro, San Antonio, TX 78212 210.228.0201 • fax 1.877.327.5902
www.esperanzacenter.org Inquiries/Articles can be sent to:
lavoz@esperanzacenter.org
Articles due by the 8th of each month
Policy Statements
* We ask that articles be visionary, progressive, instructive & thoughtful. Submissions must be literate & critical; not sexist, racist, homophobic, violent, or oppressive & may be edited for length. * All letters in response to Esperanza activities or articles in La Voz will be considered for publication. Letters with intent to slander individuals or groups will not be published.
The Esperanza’s 30th anniversary committee included buena gente, staff and boardmembers. From bottom L to R: Jan Olsen, Enrique & Isabel Sánchez, Elva Treviño. Behind Isabel: Blanca Rivera & Bernard Sánchez. 2nd row: Graciela Sánchez, Alicia Arredondo, Natalie Rodríguez, Ana Lucia Ramírez, Gloria Ramírez. 3rd row: Rachel Jennings, Eliza Pérez, Lilliana Saldaña. 4th row: Gianna Rendón, Silvia Mireles. Top row: Nadine Saliba, Amy Kastely.
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.
Nomiccama Nomiccanacayo
and the Necessity of Art in Difficult Times —ire’ne lara silva logical, spiritual, and very, very physical with real threats to our well-being and to that of our families, loved ones, neighbors, communities, to our world itself. It is a wonder that we can breathe at all. The end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017 were difficult, but on that most difficult day in January something in me rallied. Those of you who know me, know that I live on Facebook, and that was where I posted my first thoughts that were not full of despair: Don’t drink the poison, my people. Don’t breathe it. Don’t let in to your bodies, your minds, or your spirits. This is a long work we have coming. And we must be strong and outlast them all. Breathe the clean air and look up to the sky and hold each other up. Don’t let them drown out the songs. Let the singing unfurl, let it wave in the wind, let it cast lightning, let it loose in your blood, let the singing loose from your eyes and your hands. Because, I thought, none I woke up weeping on of this is going to rob me of November 9, 2016. And myself or make me less of though I went to work and who I am. None of this is answered the phone and going to stop me from doing wrote emails and did all my work or manifesting my the other tasks that encomvision. None of this is going pass my workday, I never to make me give up, give stopped weeping. Not that in, surrender. None of this is day or the next or the next. going to render me meat for With growing horror, I despair or apathy or neglect heard about the rising tide or rage or exhaustion. of hate crimes sweeping In times like these, across our country. Over there are certain questions the next few months, I that we must ask ourselves felt paralysis and despair and then definitively warring with protest and a answer or re-affirm so that deep, deep seated rage. we can continue our work. It both comforted me How do we go on? What and inspired awe to see do activism and art mean Temāzcalli from the codex Magliabecchi showing a purification ritual. people pouring into the in our lives? Who are we streets and marching by the without them? What do we dozens, hundreds, thousands, millions. I had a small hope that owe to ourselves, our communities, our ancestors? flickered, that said, this could not be. Inauguration Day will not The first temptation is to believe that art is meaningless, that come. And then it did. I felt it like a blow to my stomach and not our poems and paintings and music mean nothing in the face of just mine but to our collective stomach. None of us could breathe. hate, violence, and unjust laws. To believe that time spent in creIn the last nine months, there has been no end to the batation, in contemplation, is time that could be better spent doing tering: the repeated assaults on the Affordable Care Act and something—anything— else. women’s rights, police violence, Charlottesville, the increased But to believe these things is to surrender the greatest part of presence of Neo-Nazis and white supremacists, the building of what we are, to hand over our hearts—still red and beating—on a the wall, anti-immigrant hostility, ICE raids, mass deportations, platter to those who already threaten to take so much from us—it is the attacks on DACA, the dismantling of environmental protecto hand over our hearts before they even think to come for them. tions, the undermining of our educational system, the crisis in I will not surrender my heart. I will not surrender my art. Puerto Rico, the ongoing violations of Indigenous rights, and My poems and my stories are what I have to give in this world. the imminent threat of war. The battering is emotional, psychoWhat I give I give in the hope that it will sustain and inspire Dear Voz readers: I was invited on October 13, 2017 to deliver the keynote for the Midwest Chicana Arts & Activism Symposium in Topeka, Kansas—organized and hosted by Christina Valdivia-Alcalá, the Tonantzin Society and Mulvane Museum at Washburn University. Their theme was “Art and Resistance in the Age of Extremism.” I wanted to write something that would speak to the despair—the faltering faith—of many artists and activists around me, something that would remind us all why our art is necessary and how it helps to sustain our communities. I offer it here in the hopes that it serves as a reminder of why we must continue our work and how we can help strengthen our hearts, as individuals and as a community. Para servirles, ire’ne lara silva
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the work of artists, activists, and cultural workers—as their work sustains and inspires me. As great or as humble as my offerings may be, what I know is that what is offered in love feeds us all. It is no accident that culture, art, and activism keep intersecting, time and time again, because each one feeds the other, because it keeps us connected so that even the rage and grief we feel are rage and grief rooted in love. Love for ourselves. Love for our families. Love for our communities. Love for our people. Love for our shared humanity. Our task is to remain human. To become neither monsters nor victims. What we owe the ancestors: to live to love to create to dream to fight to act to speak to learn to teach to grieve. As they survived to love to create to dream to fight to act to speak to learn to teach to grieve. To one day become ancestors ourselves and inspire those who will follow. What is owed to the ancestors: We remain strong. We refuse to surrender. We give them no victims. We remain human. We dedicate ourselves this day and every day to the work we have chosen, to the work which has chosen us. And to do this—we must not drink the poison. While Tlazoltéotl, Aztec goddess of purification. our culture possesses the concepts of limpias and barridas—of cleansing and detoxifying, of healing—it exacts a heavy toll on us, this cycle of wounding and healing, of poisoning and detoxifying. We have to find another way. We must become the curators of our emotions, our minds, our spirits. And if ‘to curate’ seems a strange concept, remember that the word ‘curate’ read in Spanish is curate—‘heal yourself’…in this case, ‘heal yourself before the wound.’ It has been my thinking that as artists, we choose what influences us, what affects us. That this is how we develop our voices, our visions, our practices. An artist’s development, an artist’s inspiration is often spoken of as if the artist is a passive recipient, tossed and turned this way and that way. But I don’t think this is true. An artist is the curator of their own creativity, selecting and featuring the elements that shape them and their work. The practice of curating is no different for activists, as they choose where to channel their energy and their passion, as they choose to become educators or organizers or protestors or social workers or legislators or even, writers. As they choose, day in and day out, to believe that change is possible, that affecting even a single human life is worth their labor. As they choose to act, remembering relentlessly, that their actions are not fueled by rage but by love. In my life, I have been cast, again and again, into the role of caregiver—in medical crises that have gone on, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. And while you pray for the best and prepare for the worst, what you come
to learn is a different kind of strength. At first, you hold all the fear and worry inside and wait to weep until no one is leaning on you and no one can see you. And then perhaps you learn to bottle it all inside until you live with a hard knot in your stomach and a hard fist around your heart. But eventually, neither the wild weeping nor the hard knot nor the hard fist are sustainable. Instead, you train yourself. Every day, you train yourself not to admit in fear and worry. You train yourself to keep your eyes open and your heart soft and your hands ready and strong. As artists and activists, we can train ourselves to keep our eyes open and our hearts soft. To curate what we allow in, what work we choose, in what spirit we do that work. We can choose not to drink the poison. I contacted my friend, the poet/writer/translator David Bowles, to help me with this concept I had no name for. English seemed insufficient to the task. I couldn’t think of anything in Spanish that wasn’t about a limpia or barrida—a way of cleansing or purifying after the fact, after the harm. Nothing for how to keep the harm from being inflicted in the first place. What I wanted was something that would name the act of protecting ourselves against poison, of becoming so strong that we would not let ourselves be injured. And it came to me that I needed a name in Nahuatl. David suggested something but said that it was perhaps a little too dark, that it was a phrase than translated literally as “dead hands, dead flesh” but meant “protected by supernatural forces.” It seemed intriguing but a bit strange. Until he told me the next part—that “dead hands, dead flesh” might more accurately mean to be protected by the “hands and bodies of my departed loved ones.” I read those words as if lightning had flashed into my eyes, and every hair on my body stood up. Nomiccāmā Nomiccānacayo is to say, I am protected by my ancestors, by the bodies of my departed loved ones, by all of the power and life they represent. This is how I want to walk this earth. Surrounded by that love, protected by that strength, made wise by their endurance, made brave by their example. I want to cultivate in myself the wisdom to know what I should allow in--what will strengthen me, sustain me, inspire me, teach me—and what I should perceive as poison and turn away—everything that would cast me into the role of monster or victim, what would make me calloused or apathetic, despairing or weak. I want to be a part of a strong community—artists, activists, and cultural workers—and to live in a space marked by their brilliance and their passion. Nomiccāmā Nomiccānacayo. I am protected. Tomiccāmā Tomiccānacayo. We are protected.
Life In The Anthropocene: Field Notes From The Santa Rosa Fires
The Historic Round Barn burned on Monday Oct. 9, 2017 in Santa Rosa, CA. More than a dozen wildfires whipped by powerful winds burned though the California wine country. The flames destroyed at least 1,500 homes and
By Dianne Monroe
Anthropocene: relating to or denoting the current geological age, viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment. The call came a little before 5 am, the morning of Monday, October 9. I stumbled toward the phone and retrieved the message. A neighbor’s voice, “Get ready to evacuate!” Huh? A quick look at the computer reveals the firestorm that began the night before in a neighboring county, moving through the night, across mountains, east to west, propelled by 60 mile per hour winds, already burning through entire neighborhoods, headed in the general direction of our home. My husband bangs on doors in our neighborhood, awakening those who are not already awake. He pulls out the hand-crank radio I had just bought, turns it to a local station, puts on water for tea. I start piling things into cars, working in concentric circles of necessity – important papers, medical needs, cat food and litter (the cat in her carrier will go in the car when we do), hastily packed toiletries and clothes, photos, hastily selected memorabilia – all urgently tossed into bags and bundles. Shortly after I begin packing—the lights go out. Fortunately, I know exactly where my camping headlamp and a lantern are. I stumble in the dark until I reach them, then continue
cramming things into our cars. Outside is a dense smoky fog. Floating down from the night sky is something like a cinder rain. Cinders, some larger than my hand, are falling gently to the ground. I catch a couple in outstretched palms, like a child catching snowflakes, then return to my packing. Later, I will think, “If any of those cinders had still been on fire…” The sun rises slowly—a deep red sphere in a salmon grey sky.
Evacuation
Our neighborhood is close to, but not within, an official evacuation zone. We decide to evacuate anyway, and “avoid the rush”. We head to a friend’s home in the neighboring town of Sebastopol, about 5 miles west of Santa Rosa. As we are leaving, I pause to kiss the side of our home, feeling for a moment the enormity of the possibility that I may never again see anything that is left inside. The fires will burn to within a couple of miles of our home. We are much more fortunate than so many others. We return to our home the next day. The fires are still burning, yet they are no longer traveling toward our house. The sky is a smoky grey. Air filter masks are ubiquitous everywhere in Santa Rosa—like some kind of new, dark-themed fashion craze. We keep our cars packed—as do many of our neighbors. At night we sleep with our smart phone by our heads. We’ve signed into a service that lets us know whenever a new alert is issued. For several nights our sleep is regularly broken by the pinging sound of a new alert. For about two weeks after the fire, I will be unable to sleep through the night. I jolt awake in the early morning hours feeling that I smell smoke, long after the smoke has dissipated from the air. I toss and turn, trying one deep breathing practice after another, until sunrise lightens the sky outside my window.
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Editor’s Note: Dianne and her husband Jeff moved from San Antonio to California a few years ago. Jeff was part of the healing arts community in San Antonio while Dianne, a writer and performer, was a member of Jump-Start Performance Co. Dianne was also a contributor to La Voz de Esperanza (1998-2007).
businesses and sent thousands of people fleeing. (Kent Porter/The Press Democrat via AP) Source: www.mercurynews.com
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Entire neighborhoods were decimated during the California Santa Rosa fire October 2017 and as La Voz goes to print horrific fires have returned-threatening Los Angeles.
A large part of our county, along with parts of several neighboring counties, has experienced a collective trauma. There are so many whose stories are worse than mine, so many who have suffered much greater loss.
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Over One Terrible Night
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Over one terrible night the physical and social landscape of our county was ripped apart—and will likely never be the same. What will happen to those homeowners unable to afford the rebuilding costs that inevitably insurance won’t cover? What about the renters whose homes burned—in an area where housing is among the most expensive and least available in the country? Will they be pushed into homelessness, forced to try to move elsewhere? What will happen to all the people working paycheck to paycheck whose workplaces were destroyed in the fire? Will they meet the same fate? What will happen to the vineyard workers (many of whom are undocumented), whose work undergirds the tourism industry, from which many in our county directly or indirectly earn their living? What will be the immediate and long-term impact of the giant hole ripped in the fabric of our ecology, economy and social functioning? How many personal tragedies will take place unseen and uncounted, long after the cameras and news teams have left? Our community is generous and smart. Everywhere there are fundraisers – with an emphasis on those whose needs are greatest, especially the undocumented. Ecologists and permaculturists (abundant in our county) are urgently working on issues of soil and groundwater contamination (so many toxins are released when urban areas burn), and urging city and county authorities to consider more ecological approaches to rebuilding. How the rebuilding will happen is a story still being written. Yet the questions hang in the air, like the smoke from the fires that until recently blanketed our area.
Things Fall Apart
Everything seems to be moving faster. In the weeks before these fires, we watched three supersize hurricanes decimate first Houston and surrounding areas (Harvey, Aug 17 – Sept 3); then large parts of
the Caribbean, including Puerto Rico, and southern Florida (Irma, August 30 – Sept 16), then a second devastation of Puerto Rico and large parts of the Caribbean (Maria, Sept 16 – Oct 3).
Hurricanes and wildfires are not new – yet the ferocity and destructiveness of these hurricanes and our fire were fueled by conditions rooted in climate change. All this, overlaid by the tsunami of the Trump regime (recognizing that Trump is the figurehead of the problem, and not the root of an extreme-right authoritarianism spreading across our globe). How many people worry about the loss of their health insurance, while at the same time losing their home and/or work in one of these climate change fueled disasters? How many “mixed-status” families (with one or more undocumented members) live in fear of their families being torn apart by deportation, while also suffering the loss of home and/or work in one of these climate disasters? What happens when (or as) things start unraveling so fast that more and more people, families, communities begin to crumble under the combined weight of multiple tragedies? In this article, I am speaking about the pace of disasters within the U.S. This is amplified and magnified by multiple other fires, floods and other climate change related disasters around our globe. It feels a bit like the words of William Butler Yeats poem The Second Coming: “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;… the blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned;”
Welcome to the Anthropocene
I’ve known about the dangers of human created climate change for more than a couple of decades. (Others were aware of this far sooner than I). For several years I’ve felt that the direct impacts of human created climate change were being felt NOW – that this was no longer an issue for sometime in the future. (Again, others were aware of this sooner than I.)
I’ve known this in my head and my heart, grieved deeply about this, and tried my best to do what I could to share my understanding with others, seek ways to slow its progress and mitigate its impacts. Yet, somehow I never really felt this looming danger would leap up to bite ME. It’s a human response, I suppose, to feel that a disaster can happen to others, but not oneself. Realizing otherwise—I mean deeply realizing this in your gut (as has just happened to me)—tends to shift the ground underneath one’s feet. It’s a knowing, not just in your head but in your gut, that everything can change in one night, riding on a gust of wind. It’s coming to really know that I (and we) live in the age of the Anthropocene – human created climate change – and our lives are not going to be the story we are told to expect. A couple of weeks after the fires, I took a long walk along a creek in the rural area directly west of our home (which is located on the far western edge of Santa Rosa). Everything was beautiful and green in the early fall; tree leaves just beginning to be touched by gold and crimson. Ducks and egrets moved lazily in the creek, hawks sailed overhead. Along the path, I could see the fallen black cinders, some small and some large. What if one had still been hot enough to ignite the underbrush? Could our community have been trapped between two fires, as happened to other neighborhoods in our area? Yet, as I wandered along the creek, I felt a deep sense of calm grow within me. Now I knew, not just in my head, but viscerally, in every cell of my body, that life as one knew it could be snatched away in a moment. I lived in a time when everything seemed to be speeding up, and the only thing I could do was live in it as best I could. I welcomed myself to life in the Anthropocene. We, in this country, are taught to believe that things can more or less go on as they have been. Sure, there is tragedy and misfortune – a job loss, divorce, illness, a death in the family—yet, one can grieve and recover and life will resume. Sure there are “natural disasters”, yet—help will come, people can rebuild and life will continue. What happens if, or when, disasters come so fast, from so many directions, that things cannot recover, that “return to normal” becomes a thing of the past. What happens if, or when, disasters falling one on top of another becomes the way of things, the “new normal”. We tend to expect things to go slowly, in micro-steps, rather than dramatic drops or leaps. Yet when might dramatic drops and leaps become the “new normal”? Are we already there? How can we live in these kinds of times? Standing on the creek’s edge, surrounded by ducks and egrets and gently falling leaves, I felt into my bones the necessity of living each day fully and joyfully, walking with beauty, making meaning of every moment, acting and reacting with kindness and compassion. All this has been said before by many others. Yet in that moment, I let it seep into my bones and spread through my capillaries until my fingertips tingled. The challenge I embraced was knowing, in my core, that I would have to live these values in what might become a constant state of unsettledness and upheaval. Yet this was not all—there was something more. How could I (and we) not only maintain our balance and
Berkeley Firefighters and the Line of Sorrow
A couple of weeks after the fire, my husband showed me a YouTube video made by firemen from Berkeley as they drove into the fire, not knowing what they would find. (http://www. berkeleyside.com/2017/10/14/watch-berkeley-firefighters-arrivesanta-rosa-encounter-devastation-tackle-blazes/). You hear a fireman softly whisper “Oh, my God!” as they enter Santa Rosa and realize the fire is so much bigger than they expected. When they arrive at the Kmart parking lot that was to be their staging ground, the 100,000 square foot building was already fully in flame. Heading west, they drive through the already burned Coffey Park neighborhood. “It looks like a bomb went off,” a firefighter says. They continue driving, searching for something they can save. “There must be houses at some point that are still salvageable,” says one. Finally they find a street dividing burned houses from homes that were not yet burned—and get to work. On that morning, they saved 30 houses. They “drew a line” and stopped a fire that just happened to be heading in the general direction of my home. Who can say, and count, the ripple effect of the homes and lives that they saved. The firefighters called the place between what was saved and lost, “The Line of Sorrow”.
Perhaps we will all be called to work in the space between what is already lost and what can still be saved in these increasingly tumultuous times. Perhaps each of us, and all of us together, must learn to walk our personal and communal “Line of Sorrow”. These firemen drove straight into a firestorm that was much larger than they expected. Once there, they looked around for something they could save – and set to work saving it. We live in the age of the Anthropocene, a firestorm that is likely to be so much larger than we expected. How can we, in an analogous way, find our own “Line of Sorrow” and work to save what can be saved? Bio: Dianne Monroe is a Life Mentor, Experiential Educator, writer and photographer, living in Santa Rosa, CA. She uses a blend of arts, creativity and nature connection practices to support people in finding soul path and purpose. Visit www. diannemonroe.com, email her at Dianne@ diannemonroe.com or read her articles at diannemonroe.com/articlesinterviews.
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A Time of Disorder?
equilibrium, live fully and meaningfully, in times of escalating upheaval —beyond this, how much can we save and protect in these times; and how can we gently guide the next generations as they move into a more turbulent future? I was reminded of these words, from Bertold Brecht’s poem, To the Next Generation: I came to the towns in a time of disorder, when hunger was the order of the day… I ate my bread between the battles. I lay me down to sleep with murder all about… That is how I would spend the time which was given to me on earth.
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Austin Allen Alicia Arredondo Bethany Anguiano Leo Anguiano Forough Askanrad Alma Berlanga Linda Brandmiller Antonia Castañeda Corina Cantú Zurina WasonCarrington Matt Cartter CoCo Castello Bethany Castillo Leo Castillo Lori Castillo Melissa Chagoya Olga Crispin Brenda Davis Imelda De Leon Elizabeth Delgado
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Sara Deturk Argelia Díaz Mabel Diaz Daniella Dominguez Adriana Duran Margarita Elizarde Catherine Englehart Pauline Enriquez Clari Feuerbaher Yaneth Flores Tanya Gallegos Judas García Vanessa García Donna Guerra Brenda Gutiérrez Cleo Hernández Isabel Hernández Jude Hernández Josie Hernández Marina Hernández Mike Hernández
Pat Hernández Abril Herrera Laura Herrera Lisa Huff Grace Ibarra Rachel Jennings Jimmy Kitchen Monika Landry Betsaida López Gloria Lozano Ray McDonald Gene Marck Josie Merla Martin Rosemary Martinez April Marquez Rachel Martinez Richard Montez Maria Velásquez Miller Sylvia Mireles Beatrice Moreno Eddie Muñoz
Esperanza’s annual Peace Market seemed bigger than ever with more vendors, performers and shoppers. Truth is the Mercado had less vendors with better layouts but more shoppers and performers. The success was due to months of hard work by staff, interns and buena gente. With friends, family and new acquaintances surrounding shoppers plus new and interesting products—what’s not to like? New offerings in 2017 included feather paintings and earrings, baskets and paper maché dolls and mermaids usually not found in San Antonio. Rebozos, Zapotec rugs, huipiles, popotillo art made with broom straws, Mexican clay products, vintage items and more continue to make a comeback
Peace Mark
Thanks to you a
ket Perfect!
and you and you!
each year along with local and out-of-state vendors’ wares adding to the unique products found at the Mercado. Kids, elders, otherly-abled gente and folks of all ages and ilks add to the community
spirit. The Peace Market is simply is the perfect place to be every year following Thanksgiving Day. And, if you missed the 2017 Mercado—drop by the Esperanza’s Tiendita at 922 San Pedro for those
last minute gifts. Thanks to everyone who contributed hours of work, donations of food and gifts and
Tim Palomera Mary Pérez Coyote Phoenix Gianna Rendon Sylvia Reyna Angel Rincón Blanca Rivera Jaime Rivera Beverly Rodriguez Blanca Rodriquez Chris Rodríguez Mary Agnes Rodríguez Grace Rosales Tiffany Ross Deyanira Rudd Lilliana Saldaña Nadine & Iman Saliba Bernard Sánchez Enrique Sanchez Gustavo Sánchez Isabel Sanchez Lety Sánchez Mike Sánchez Pearl Sánchez Martha Saucedo
Bedoy’s Bakery Chris Madrids Delicious Tamales Jason’s Deli La Botanica Liberty Bar Panera Simis Indian Soluna Sprouts Trader Joes Natural Grocers Mad Hatter’s Guillermo’s HEB The Cove Vanessa’s Mexican Restaurant Also, our great vendors & Rainbow Lizard staff who donated time GatHERings & EZ Does and goods! ¡Gracias! It Farm in Gila, NM Costco Our Business Donors Rosarios 5 Points Tallercito de Son Amy’s Sweet Yams Deb Sifuentes Roger Singler Jessika Sotelo Cynthia Spielman Mark Steinhelper Lillian Stevens Lika Torline Tomasa Torres Elva Trevino Nena Trujillo Enedina Casarez Vásquez Dorelia Vela Raven Villarreal & Yvonne, Laura, Josie, Cynthia, Maya, Maria, Cypress, Christina, Jasper
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more. ¡Mil besos y abrazos! See you next year at the 29th Mercado de Paz, our Peace Market in 2018!
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Resisting Trump: Building Progressive Bridges
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by Elliot Benjamin, Ph.D., November, 2017
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NOTE: This article is adapted from the author’s previous article in all fairness to myself, I certainly attempted to honestly share entitled Resisting Trump:10 Months Later From A More Narrow what I was trying to do with my group, along the lines of how I But More Honest Integrative Perspective, which is available at described my take on Gene Sharp’s book From Dictatorship to http://www. Democracy. 2 integralworld. When I net/benjamin90. re-read Sharp’s html and inbook and cludes the text thought about of the author’s the current situfirst strike ation in the U.S. nuclear issue with the election presentation to of Trump, somethe staff assisthing pulsated tants of Maine through me. It senators Collins dawned on me and King. that there was Well, the likely a large world is still number of peohere and we Protesters at the Women’s March in Washington, D.C., show their support for the “Indivisible” Trump resistance movement. ple who voted have not yet had for Trump who World War III and President Trump has been the president of do not condone hate crimes and discrimination, and that if these the United States for nearly 10 months. So I suppose things people could be stimulated to express their disapproval of the could be worse. Within the first 2 months of Trump’s presidency related sordid events that were continuously displayed over the I published two articles in La Voz,1 describing the development internet, perhaps it could have the effect of weakening Trump’s of my initial Citizens Against Hate Crimes and Discriminaimpact that has promoted hate crimes and discrimination.1 tion group, that I initially portrayed in my above La Voz de I was occasionally attending Indivisble 3 meetings during Esperanza essays.1 The name of my group soon changed to the time period in which my group was trying to find politiBuilding Bridges Through Political Diversity and we occasioncal diversity, and I knew that my heart was completely in the ally had a bit of diversity in the form of Republicans or mild progressive Resisting Trump movement, which I identified Trump supporters visiting our group, but the political diversity with. But I was stubborn, and I told myself that the best way I envisioned was quite minimal. The diverse contrary views for I could contribute to the cause was to constructively dialogue the purpose of finding common ground on one particular issue with mild Trump supporters. However, gradually my group that I envisioned was limited in scope initially to making some lost interest in hearing me talk about my intense concern about progress with finding common ground with one vocal but comthe devastation that Trump was causing, and I was especially municative mild Trump supporter who attended our first four concerned about the devastation that I believed (and still meetings.1 More recently this extended to some constructive conversation with the Republican Party chairman of my county, believe) that Trump has the potential to cause in regard to getting us into a nuclear war with North Korea, as currently who ended up visiting my group. But in hindsight I also must portrayed in Trump’s horribly detrimental anti-Muslim video admit that my integrative perspective lacked another important graphic tweets as a response to North Korea’s latest threateningredient: honesty within myself. ing missile test.4 Consequently, I started talking about the This lacking of honesty within myself became especially danger of Trump starting a nuclear war with North Korea, as apparent to me when I gave a talk about my political Resistwell as escalating the destruction of the planet through his ening Trump work at the national 2017 American Psychological vironmental pollution promotion. However, my group became Association conference in Washington D.C. It was very clear to more interested in cultural diversity and discussing books, and the people listening to me that my real interest was not in finding I became more interested in becoming a progressive activist a way to bridge political diversity, but rather in “influencing” along the lines of the Indivisible movement. mild Trump supporters to weaken their support of Trump. Now
A More Honest Perspective
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meetings of my local Bangor, Maine Indivisible group and I have had a phone conversation with the national Indivisible Around this time I decided to try out a more “honest to mynortheast coordinator. In regard to my intensive concerns about self” kind of integrative method of forming a political group, and the Trump first strike nuclear issue, my attending weekly local I left my Building Bridges Through Political Diversity group and Indivisible group meetings spurred me to give a presentation held a meeting with the title Resisting Trump Through Political as part of a group visit to the staff assistants of my two Maine Diversity. At least now I was being completely transparent about senators,5 one of whom is Republican, and submit letters to the my main purpose of Resisting Trump—I was still trying to work editor to a number of Maine newspapers as well as progressive with people who may think very differently about many political magazines, and submit a posting to Huffington News. However, issues, but who have common ground in Resisting Trump. And after watching the full 2 hours of the 11/14/17 Senate Foreign I soon found out I was now even more entrenched in a common Relations Committee meeting on the topic of concerns about the core of progressive-oriented group members than I had previpresident’s nuclear first strike option (see https://theintercept. ously been. But to my surprise, during the second meeting of my com/2017/11/14/nuclear-war-donald-trump-nuclear-athority), new group, the above Republican Party chairman of my county I came to the conclusion that it was not realistic to successmade his second visit to a group I was facilitating, as I had invitfully make the kind of legislative changes in congress proed him but never thought that he would attend. I had entertained posed by progressive senators the thought of working with Republicans interested in challenging Ed Markey and Chris Murphy Trump in the 2020 primaries, and I (Senate bills S.200, S.2047, and thought that perhaps this RepubS.2016) and Representatives Ted lican chairman might be open to Lieu and Adam Smith (House this, as he had conveyed quite bills H.R.669 and H.R.4415), moderate Republican views in his which involved restricting any previous visit to my group, and he president’s power to launch a first had made it clear that he was not strike nuclear attack or initiate by any means a Trump enthusiast. war with North Korea, without But to my utter disappointment, I the approval of congress. Conselearned the Republican chairman quently, I conveyed in my presendid not have any serious concerns tation to my two Maine senators, about Trump, but rather wanted as well as in my submitted letters to “influence” him to make more The Walla Walla Indivisible group from Washington states: Our resistance and posting, that I believed the moderate political decisions, and will reflect and center the voices of those most threatened by the incoming immigrants, Muslims, people of color, LGBTQI people, the poor most effective course of action is had no interest in challenging him administration: and working class, women, and our environment. to establish concrete formulations in the 2020 primaries. of what constitutes “imminent danger” to justify a first strike And this was the turning point for me. I knew that I was used nuclear attack. I further conveyed that hopefully this would up with trying to make my political diversity perspective into a reduce the likelihood that a U.S. president would ever give an reality. I no longer had the desire to converse with Republicans. illegal first strike nuclear order and increase the likelihood that Rather, I felt that I needed to be working with progressives in a a high-ranking military or government officer in a position to common cause: Resisting Trump. do so, might disobey such an order if there was some kind of concrete legal formulation to conclude that there was “not” imA More Narrow But More Honest Perspective minent danger for justification. I also ended up conveying my One more time I decided to form a political group, this one ideas about this in a productive phone conversation with a staff called Resisting Trump: Building Progressive Bridges. Yes, member to Senator Markey, who had initiated the above nuclear “building progressive bridges” is what I was now interested in: first strike bill (S.200) in January, 2017. Resisting Trump through a variety of progressive tactics, ranging from electing progressives in the 2018 elections to constructive Avoiding Nuclear War Presentation dialogue with “non-progressives” to impeachment. But only The day after my disappointing “no one showing” and ending progressives interested in Resisting Trump were invited, as I my Resisting Trump: Building Progressive Bridges group, it was made it very clear that for the purpose of my new group, having time for me to give my Avoiding Nuclear War presentation to the constructive dialogue with non-progressives was solely to try to staff assistants of my two Maine senators, as part of Indivisible (subtly) influence these non-progressives to weaken their support Bangor. And this was a powerful and very significant experience of Trump, along the lines of my original vision based upon the for me in many ways. There were 15 people from a few different work of Gene Sharp. 2 (see above). progressive organizations, including Indivisible Bangor, at the Well my new group did not generate enough interest to meeting with the Bangor staff assistant to my Republican Maine sustain itself, which became very clear to me at the second senator, Susan Collins. My presentation/letter was received very meeting when no one showed up, even though two people I had well by everyone at the meeting, which included the editor of the spoken to on the phone had conveyed to me that they would Peace & Justice Center of Eastern Maine Newsletter, who was be attending. However, I have now become quite involved in the Indivisible movement. I have been going to the weekly Continued on Page 12
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Pablo Martinez
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passed into spirit in October, 2017 at the age of 89 years. He was a gifted printer, photographer, and lithographer. As a student at Lanier High School’s print shop, Don Pablo designed and printed invitations, announcements, and broadsides—all of which he saved. His son recently began to go through this amazing archive of West Side history. Don Pablo also endowed his children with a love of reading, the arts, and history. As a result, one of his greatest gifts to San Antonio has been his son, Pablo Martinez, Jr. an educator and poet who continues to carry on the legacy his father gave him. The Esperanza staff and buena gente extend our sincere condolences to Don Pablo’s family and friends and our dear friend, Pablo, his son. QEPD, Don Pablo
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Continued from Page 11 greatly interested in my presentation and requested that I send her a shortened version to publish in the Center’s newsletter. Subsequently, a few people accompanied me to the office of the Bangor staff assistant to Senator Angus King, my other Maine senator, who is an Independent and usually votes as a Democrat. Both staff assistants said they would show my letter to their respective senators, and one person at the Senator Collins meeting talked to me afterwards about arranging a Collins staff assistant meeting specifically to discuss the issue of President Trump’s apparent mental illness.
Conclusion I now feel like I am a bona fide part of the Indivisible movement in Resisting Trump, and it is a good feeling. In spite of my disappointment that my own Resisting Trump: Building Progressive Bridges group did not work out, I feel like I am now most definitely “resisting Trump by building progressive bridges.” I have evolved in my thinking and in my political actions the past year since Donald Trump won the United States presidential election. I intend to practice what I described in my most recent group flier in regard to resisting Trump through a variety of progressive tactics, which is consistent with my current more narrow but more honest perspective. But the one thing that has remained constant for me is that resisting Trump is absolutely urgent for the preservation of anything resembling human decency, much less human survival, as eloquently, articulately, and
Judith Sanders-Castro
departed from this world on October of 2017. Born in 1949, Judith was 68 years of age. A passionate advocate for social justice who worked to advance issues of the environment, employment & labor, civil rights and family and domestic issues—Judith worked for both the Texas Riogrande Legal Aid and MALDEF during her tenure as a lawyer. A St. Mary’s University graduate, she was the Green Party’s 2016 candidate for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 5. Judith was also a gifted artist and had a quick and acerbic wit. A friend of the Esperanza, she will long be remembered and missed. Condolences to Arturo Castro, her husband, and her family and many friends. Rest in peace and power, Judy. Judith Castro, presente!
passionately described by many authors in Bandy Lee’s (2017) book, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump. I will no longer be facilitating my own political groups, but I will be working actively and constructively in progressive politics as part of the Indivisible movement, with a focus on what I perceive as the most crucial, urgent, and immediate issue at hand in regard to preventing Trump from destroying the world, and this is the nuclear issue. I am not naive, and I have no expectations that my Avoiding Nuclear War presentation to the staff assistants of my two Maine senators will have any effect on congress making concrete formulations of what constitutes “imminent danger” to justify a first strike nuclear attack. But I feel good that I am at least expressing myself in the “right ballpark,” and I intend to continue to do whatever I am able to with the goal.
As we end and begin again. . .
The Cross
I should not be here, but I need time with Jesus, so I park the car on El Paso St. and enter on foot the pathway between the red-brick rectory and Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. No one in my church lives in this neighborhood— just me.
At the shrine to Jesus, I light a stick, but all the candles have been lit by those who came earlier. I blow the flame out, then smear the foil beneath the candles so the black tip no longer glows. Numb, tired, empty, I sink at the feet of Jesus.
I spent today, Jesus, talking to Methodists about loving LGBT people, treating them as we would want to be treated. We planned, we organized, we worked, Jesus, to change the church so we might marry people, honor vocations, remove words of rejection from the Book of Discipline.
How long? How long?
I stand to leave, wetting my fingers with holy water from the spigot.
3’x4’ pieces of stapled ribbon.
A man’s voice: “Excuse me. Will you be leaving by the front gate? I was about to close it.” I turn to look. He wears a gentle face, a white collar. I have pinned to my shirt a rainbow cross made of two
He now sees the cross. He must have seen me at Jesus’ feet. Oh—yes. I was about to leave, I say. The silence is a mystery. The rainbow cross is the sign he is given. —Rachel Jennings
s r P e rophec d l E i p y Ho You have been telling people that this is the Eleventh Hour, now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour. And there are things to be considered… Where are you living? What are you doing? What are your relationships? Are you in right relation? Where is your water? Know your garden. It is time to speak your truth. Create your community. Be good to each other. And do not look outside yourself for your leader. Then he clasped his hands together, smiled, and said, “This could be a good time!
eyes open, and our heads above the water. And I say, see who is in there with you and celebrate. At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally, least of all ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey come to a halt.
There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel they are being torn apart and will suffer greatly. Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our
The time of the one wolf is over. Gather yourselves! Banish the word ‘struggle’ from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. The Elders, Hopi Nation Oraibi, Arizona —Submitted by Tom Keene
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Kneeling before Jesus, head bowed, I stretch my arms to clasp his bare, bleeding feet.
Touching his nylon robe, his plaster wounds, I feel compassion flow from his body to mine.
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org | 210.492.5400.
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.
* community meetings *
Amnesty International #127 Call Arthur @ 210.213.5919.for info.
Bexar Co. Green Party: Call 210. 471.1791 | bcgp@bexargreens.org
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: Call 512.838-3351 for information.
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. LGBTQ LULAC Council #22198 meets 3rd Thursdays @ 6:45pm @ Luby’s on Main. E-mail: info@ lulac22198.org
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NOW SA meets 3rd Wed See FB | satx.now for info | 210. 802. 9068 | nowsaareachapter@gmail.com
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Pax Christi, SA meets monthly on Saturdays. Call 210.460.8448
Proyecto Hospitalidad Liturgy meets Thurs. 7pm, 325 Courtland.
Metropolitan Community Church services & Sunday school 10:30am, 611 East Myrtle. Call 210.472.3597 Overeaters Anonymous meets MWF in Sp & daily in Eng. www.oasanantonio.
PFLAG, meets 1st Thurs. @ 7pm, University Presbyterian Church 300 Bushnell Ave. | 210.848.7407.
G i ve a n e n d - of-ye a r t a x deductible gift
Rape Crisis Center, 4606 Centerview Suite 200, Hotline: 210.349.7273 | 210.521.7273 Email:sschwab@ rapecrisis.com The Religious Society of Friends meets Sunday @10am @ The Friends Meeting House, 7052 N. Vandiver. | 210.945.8456.
S.A. Gender Association meets 1st & 3rd Thursday, 6-9pm @ 611 E. Myrtle, Metropolitan Community Church. SA AIDS Fdn 818 E. Grayson St. offers free Syphilis & HIV testing | 210.225.4715 | www.txsaaf.org.
SA Women Will March: www. sawomenwillmarch.org | (830) 4887493
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.
S.N.A.P. (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests). Contact Barbara at 210.725.8329. Voice for Animals: 210.737.3138 or www.voiceforanimals.org
Give to the Esperanza in spirit of solidarity so we can continue to speak out, organize and fight for our communities for another 30 Years. Your support is needed NOW more than ever! Thank you for your gifts! Send donations to Esperanza @ 922 San Pedro, SATX, 78212 or call 210.228.0201 to sign up as a monthly donor. Visit www.esperanzacenter.org for online giving options. ¡Mil Gracias! Esperanza Peace and Justice Center 922 San Pedro Avenue San Antonio, TX 78212
SA’s LGBTQA Youth meets Tues., 6:30pm at Univ. Presby. Church, 300 Bushnell Ave. | www.fiesta-youth.org
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Notas Y Más September Dec. 2017 / 2017 Jan. 2017
San Anto Cultural Arts’ Barrio Block Party and Holiday Art Market take place December 23 from 1-4pm at 2120 El Paso St. A Winter Break Camp for students ages 7-14 at San Anto Cultural Arts with arts and crafts, drawing lessons, photography, writing and a field trip takes place from January 2-5, 2018. Call 210.2267466 to reserve a spot or email: info@sananto.org. The Catholic Worker House, 626 Nolan St., invites you to Mass and Brunch with volunteers and guests on Sunday, December 24th with Mass beginning at 9am. Bring a favorite dish or drink if you’d like to. Contact: 210.224-7736 | info@sa-catholicworker.org
in-between sessions. From 7-9pm, three panelists will focus on Religious Differences. Check solcenter@upcsa.org Free Battered Texas Women sponsors a free screening of Sin by Silence on Tuesday, Januray 9, 2018 at Alamo Drafthouse, Park North from 6:30-8:30 p.m. The film documents battered women in California prisons and the legislation that freed more than 30 women over the past decade. A discussion follows with formerly incarcerated women, advocates for battered women and experts in criminal justice with implications for policy on incarcerated battered women in San Antonio and Texas. Panelists include Cathy Marston, PhD, FBTW; Patricia Castillo, LMSW, PEACE Initiative; Doshie Piper, PhD, University of the Incarnate Word; and Bill Bush, PhD, Texas A&MSan Antonio. See: dreamweek.org/eventorganizer/free-battered-texas-women/
San Antonio’s annual Martin Luther King, Jr. March, is scheduled for Monday, Janu-
ary 15, 2018. The 50th National Anniversary March, the largest in the nation, begins at 10am at the MLK Academy, 3501 MLK Dr and ends at Pittman-Sullivan Park, 1101 Iowa. Call 210.207. 7084 or see www.sanantonio.gov/MLK. The MLK, Jr. Commission also administers a Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship Program each year. Application deadline is Friday, February 23, 2018 at 4 pm. See: www.sanantonio.gov/ MLK/MLKScholarship. The SoL Center has also posted some of its adult class offerings for the 2018 Winter/Spring beginning in January through May. Check solcenter@upcsa.org The National Association for Chicana & Chicano Studies Tejas Foco statewide conference takes place at Texas Lutheran University in Seguin on February 23-25, 2017. See: naccstejas2017.wixsite.com/naccs LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • Dec 2017| jan 2018 Vol. 30 Issue 10
Join the SoL Center of San Antonio on January 8th in two panel discussions at the University Presbyterian Church, 300 Bushnell Ave. The Economic and Socio-Cultural Divides Panel takes place from 4-6pm and includes Graciela Sánchez of the Esperanza Center among the five panelists. A reception takes place
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.
Lenguas Estoy viva, estoy viva, estoy viva. Respiro, respiro, respiro. El agua penetra mis poros, la raíz de mis cabellos, para llegarme al fondo, al alma, al cerebro; agua fría que me devuelve la vida, después de la angustia nocturna de no saber si sobrevivo. Estoy viva, estoy viva, estoy viva. Respiro, respiro, respiro.
Y las palabras me llenan, me sirven de aliento, en lenguas distintas, en sílabas diferentes, escritas de igual manera pronunciadas cada una a su modo, según la historia de la lengua, más alejadas o más cercanas a su madre latina. Estoy viva, estoy viva, estoy viva. Respiro, respiro, respiro. Pienso. ¡Escribo! —Ana María González
15 Art by Terry Ybañez
LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • Dec 2017| jan 2018 Vol. 30 Issue 10
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Open for Holiday shopping Handmade items from local and international artisans plus books, CDs, T-shirts, posters & more. 10 am - 7pm. Call 210-228-0201 for more information
L a s Pos a da s Noche Azul Concert:
Saturday, December 16 at 8 PM Azul will be joined by her mother, Cuca, to celebrate the holidays at Esperanza!
Doors open at 7:30 PM. Tickets are $7 at the door, additional donations accepted and appreciated! Seating is first-come, first-served. Concessions available for purchase.
Parking @ San Antonio College in lots 21, 28, 29.
Join us in 2018 for Esperanza’s new Noche Azul concerts!