La Voz - December 2015 by Esperanza Peace and Justice Center

a publication of the Esperanza Peace & Justice Center

December 2015/January 2016 | Vol. 28 Issue 10

San Antonio, Tejas

Paz y amor en 2016

Cover & Editorial Art Liliana Wilson Contributors Francisco X. Alarcón, Rachel Jennings, Gilbert J. Murillo, Kamala Platt, Randi M. Romo

La Voz Mail Collective

Mario Carbajal, Veronica Cordova, Maria De la Cruz, Viktora De la Cruz, Charlie Esperiqueta, Mary Esperiqueta, Mildred Hilbrich, Josie Martin, Rachel Martinez, Ray McDonald, Carmen Montalvo, Jan Olsen, Maria Reed, Robert Rendón, Blanca Rivera, Armandina Rodriguez, Maria Rodriguez, Guadalupe Segura, Rodger Singler, Cynthia Spielman, D.L. Stokes, Kiko Villamizar, Helen Villarreal, Azul Z.

Esperanza Director Graciela I. Sánchez

Interns

Paz García, Alexuss Green,

Conjunto de Nepantleras

-Esperanza Board of DirectorsBrenda Davis, Rachel Jennings, Amy Kastely, Jan Olsen, Kamala Platt, Ana Lucía Ramírez, Gloria A. Ramírez, Rudy Rosales, Tiffany Ross, Lilliana Saldaña, Nadine Saliba, Graciela I. Sánchez, Lillian Stevens • We advocate for a wide variety of social, economic & environmental justice issues. • Opinions expressed in La Voz are not necessarily those of the Esperanza Center.

La Voz de Esperanza

¡ Feliz Año Nuevo !

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 Letters with intent to slander individuals or groups will not be published.

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.

up for their menudo to counter the cruda from their celebrations of the night before. The covered tables are filled with people eating, talking and laughing. Children dart between the tables and race around the little trailer that is the heart of this enterprise. An errant dog picks its way carefully between the feet and legs tucked up under the tables searching for bits of food that may have fallen to the ground. Serving as a backdrop to this Sunday ritual at the taco trailer is a mixture of Mexican music from nearby houses and cars driving by as well as the small African-American church on the opposite corner. The church has a speaker wired up outside and they broadcast their services. The musicians and singers are quite good and in some odd way all of the sounds mix together and sounds just right. And it is in the midst of this cacophony that I feel it most—that, this is home. But I must confess that there is one bit of noise that no matter where I have encountered it, I have never become accustomed to it; the crowing of a rooster. At home it is not uncommon for there to be various broods of chickens ranging about different parts of the community. Despite her claims that they are not her chickens, one such brood has taken up residence in my mother’s backyard, accompanied by their very own rooster. He’s a handsome devil; all brilliant greens, golds and reds with a swagger to match that of any player. This past trip home, this very same rude and overly ambitious rooster crowed me awake every morning around two am. Once he stopped—I would eventually fall back asleep, whereupon he would almost immediately begin his next round of crowing. It was as if he had a little chicken spy peering in the side of the blinds giving him the signal of when to commence again. Talk about your “peeps”! I truly desire to bring none harm, but I fear that had I not left and returned to my own home when I did—that there may well have been a rooster gone missing. And if anyone thought to notice the absence of Señor Gallo—that loud, raucous early morning songster—I would have smiled serenely as I ladled out servings of a delicious pollo en mole pobalno.

Ra n di M. Ro m o

LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • Dec 2015 | jan 2016 Vol. 28 Issue 10•

Esperanza Staff

Imelda Arismendez, Elizandro Carrington, Elisa Pérez, Gianna Rendón, René Saenz, Susana Segura, Amelia Valdez

My mother lives and works in a rural agricultural farmworker community that sits on the outskirts of Dade City, Florida. I love to go home to visit, this place where I too have lived and worked. But no matter how often I go home, it always takes me a bit of time to adjust to the sounds. Just outside the window there are lots of cars going by on the street at all hours with their stereos usually blasting really loud Mexican music. It’s always the whine followed by the quick riffs of the accordion that you hear first. Sometimes it’s other folk who come driving through and the bass rattles the windows, boom, boom and you can feel it all the way into the back of your teeth. Sirens at intervals punctuate the days and nights, their piercing cries a sharp reminder that it’s not only angels who walk among us. And every now and then a sheriff’s car rockets down the main street of this little community so fast it lifts shirt tails and blows back your hair. There are a lot of people who walk in this neighborhood; workers going to and from their jobs, mothers with strollers and little ones tagging behind like little ducklings all in a row. And there are always lots of teens trying to hold themselves at just the right angle to be considered cool enough, as they laughingly jostle one another while ambling down the street. Often the elders are out and about for their daily constitution, sometimes with grandchildren in tow. Calls of buenos dias along with the ensuing conversations fall like sporadic spring showers as people pass one another. Sure, this place where my mother lives is poor and it can even be called a “rough neighborhood”, but here in its humble poverty, manners still matter. The taco stand that sits across from my mom’s house stays busy. Cars and trucks pull in and out, doors slamming all hours of the day as people stop by for something to eat and perhaps a little visit with whomever else is waiting for their food. You can get the best aguas frescas there. I like the sandia the best. They also have my favorite tacos, barbacoa con cilantro, lime and onion with just the perfect salsa verde on freshly made hot corn tortillas. On Sundays the men line

Design Elizandro Carrington

Hom

vol. 28 Issue 10 Editor Gloria A. Ramírez

te row

December 2015 / January 2016

e t h e Ro o r e h s

La Voz de Esperanza

We end the year 2015 in anticipation of a better year. The new year promises to be interesting and scary. More mass shootings? Probably. War? They are itching for it. A presidential election? Definitely. More months of winnowing out the candidates running for president, especially on the Republican side. That, for sure, is scary. They all seem to stand for all that is NOT progressive—anti-woman, antiLGBT, anti-Mexican, anti-Islam or Muslim, anti-elders, anti-African American, anti-immigrant, anti-poor, anti-environment, anti-voting rights, anti-gun legislation and so on. Worst of all, Republican supporters are vocal and will come out to vote. One remnant of the November issue of Calaveras shows up in this issue of La Voz—a calavera to candidate Donald Trump, by San Francisco-based writer/poet, Francisco Alarcón. He remains the front runner for the Republican nomination for president with a 20 point bump in the polls at this writing despite his inane comments and antics—36% favorability over his closest opponent, Ted Cruz at 16%. Republicans will come out in force in 2016 to vote while Democrats will struggle with more and more obstacles being put up to make voting harder for people of color communities, the elderly and students. We must get out the vote in 2016! Finally, we end this year with an avalanche of hatred against immigrants especially those coming from Syria or the Middle East but not excluding Mexican, Latin American, African and other immigrants of color. Talk of more immigrant camps or isolating them in no-man’s lands and doubling down on the vetting of Syrians entering the U.S. is rampant. With the recent San Bernadino killings the emphasis is on identifying “radical Islamic terrorists” rather than the banning of weapons that are used for mass killings—regardless of who uses them. All very scary. On a lighter note, we began this Voz with a story of home where many of us will be fortunate enough to find ourselves during the holidays. Think of those who will not have homes as you count your blessings this season. We wish everyone the warmth of a happy home with love and kindness as we end 2015 and began 2016.

Watching Teresa de Jesús

On a side panel is a cork board with thumb tacks. Among flyers hawking Family Bingo Night, the Kickapoo Casino Trip, a sign announces today’s episode of Teresa de Jesús, an ‘80s miniseries. This hot day in August, though I am Methodist, not Mexican Catholic, I want at once to watch the movie and be

asistida por Jesuitas, served by Jesuits with ¡¡ FREE Popcorn and Tropical Punch !! In my imagination, mis vecinos católicos y yo watch Teresa de Jesús on VHS tape in a 2nd-story classroom made cold by an AC in the window but not quite made dark by Venetian blinds imperfectly closed. I picture Santa Teresa, the learned mystic, in a wimple and brown habit. Across the dusty landscape, she rides her horse while reading a missal or mystical text like Osuna’s Third Spiritual Alphabet. In just this way,

between two cordbound plastic slats. She comes to release us. Teresa, mis vecinos, los Jesuitas, y yo climb out windows, leap into space, cross one by one the border known as dream or the unconscious, that barbed fence, requiring a penance of piercing pain or bliss, some say, beyond this room, the plain, prosaic afternoon.

On her horse, she leaves the cloistered convent, then crosses Alazan Creek near Los Corts, the railroad tracks enclosing the Westside, the Loop encircling San Antonio’s core. She finds the Hill Country, crossing the northern Pyrenean border to flee Inquisitors. Holding her missal in one hand, the reins in another, she enters at last the thin place

—Rachel Jennings

further thought, dragging him to the underworld, turning him into a piñata not withstanding his many millions

they say that the very arrogant billionaire between hits the great wall which he proposed to exclude every immigrant

y cuando el Trompas comenzó su afrenta racista ritual anti-inmigrante ya habitual la Huesuda se lo llevó de las greñas rubias sin más; al inframundo lo arrastró donde piñata lo volvió con sus millones por demás dicen que el muy arrogante billonario entre palos todavía el gran muro que proponía para excluir a todo inmigrante a los diablos del infierno continúa manifestando para que no sigan llegando

tanto mexicano al averno gracias Calaca querida por librarnos del Gran Trompas que con falacias idiotas daña a tanta gente linda

a Calaca quietly snuck into the last press conference

with an eye to the presidency that Donald Trump offered and when the Big Mouth started his anti-immigrant racist affront ritual that is already his usual shtick the Bony Woman took him by pulling his blonde hair without

he is still trying to convince the devils of the world to build it so Mexicans won’t keep coming in great numbers to their hell thank you, Calaca darling for getting rid of the Big Mouth whose idiotic fallacies intend to hurt so many beautiful people

LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • Dec 2015 | jan 2016 Vol. 28 Issue 10•

Santuario de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, the church sign says. Below in small letters: Asistida por Jesuitas. Then the schedules: Las Horas de Oficina, El Horario de Misas.

Methodism’s founder would have studied Scripture. The traveling nun is Juana Wesley, a circuit rider.

70 years after Diego Rivera’s mural “Sueño de una tarde dominical By Kamala Platt en la Alameda” In the 15th year of the 21st Century

Water wars raged, as did fire & flood.

The Calaveras of San Anto-- del Counsel Ciudad, had jumped at the chance to milk water from blood. In the sixties and beyond Chicano

SAWS says,

Movimiento or La Causa activists

“Califas has done it for decades,”

sought after the right order of society

Esperanza’s multi-issue approach

poor living in segregated barrios or

promotes La Causa’s values and objectives

neighborhoods. The loyalists gathered

by operating a large array of “think glob-

for endless hours and days at organiza-

ally, act locally” programs. These include

tional meetings, workshops, regional

international and regional social justice

meetings, etc., searching for the most

issues, socio-cultural arts and educational

humane and effective way to help la

programs, e.g. those related to the structural

gente. These sessions were essentially

causes of gentrification. These learning

reform (symptoms) versus structural

(causal) debates. Though the landscape became dotted with La Causa-related organizations and projects, few were consistent in bringing about significant

cal-economic systems which perpetuate, by commission or omission, social injustices. Such are Sara De Turk’s findings in the recent study: Activism, Alliance-Building and the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center

tions in el barrio. Here in San Antonio, Citizens Organized

(2015). De Turk’s book casts Esperanza as “an instructive example

cured ample CDBG funds on their own for specific barrios

sophistication and fidelity to its values ….” “Its central vision and

during the 1970s and 1980s. Since then these funds have all

not mentioning Mono Lake, like Owens Valley before it, dried down to dust storms with the water diversions and only, after the 1994 Water Board decisions, did Mono come back, until, that is, the Drought of Record sauntered in to CA piping away fears with songs of “Climate Change Denial.”

experiences reveal the interlocking politi-

and long term improvements in the lives and social condifor Public Service was an exception to the rule. COPS se-

not mentioning it was “a strategy of lies.”1

of a social movement organization … (of) hard work, tactical

strategies is (sic) especially worthy of note.” Esperanza’s numer-

Not mentioning that the water spirits stayed behind to see Lago y tierra go dry, to see emaciated roots rot in gardens’ good earth earth, first worked by Pauite …

Catrina laughed…

ous programmed activities infer the nature, limits, criteria, and validity of social justice practice in el barrio. I will draw selectively

People say

motes La Causa a propos el barrio by serving as an intermedi-

from these holdings so as to fashion a working definition of social

“Our gente built aqueducts and pipelines in CA.”

ate organizational or “mother ship” in improving the social

justice practice vis-à-vis el barrio.

The Esperanza Peace and Justice Center presently pro-

conditions in el barrio. It is anticipated that it will continue

Natural Law depicts social justice as the sum-total of the

COSA says

“On water, in SA, we’re 200 years behind LA,…” SAWS says

to do more. This scenario is based on 1) Esperanza’s commit-

virtues: “that moral, supernatural virtue, which inclines the will to

ment to the primary purpose of La Causa, 2) an interpretation

render to others at all times what is strictly their due.” Esperanza’s

Owens Valley Water flowed to Los Angeles…

of Esperanza’s social justice practice with la gente del barrio,

priority among la gente’s many “dues” or human potentialities is

Built that City of Bedraggled Angels.

3) Esperanza’s and its allies’ experiences with the Mayor’s

clear: “[our] work helps individuals and grassroots organizations

Task Force and 4) the “Post-Task Force Coalition’s” prepara-

acquire knowledge and skills so that [they] can control decisions

tions for the COSA Housing Commission proceedings.

that affect … day-to-day lives in a way that respects and honors

shared goals for a just society” (De Turk, p. 3). Accordingly, Continued on p. 10

For decades, Catrina La Calavera Garbancera was drinking from LA fountains eating grapes de Haciendas de Güeros, picked by Worker Calaveras, the first of us poisoned by pesticides. Catrina could care less that long before CA’s drought of record ecosystems and gardens were sacked when they lost their water.

earth still peopled by ancestors’ parched bones.

“Who to choose?… Who to lose?… Agua es Vida…”

but dried up.

Catrina laughed…

Now we can bottle VR water

For California’s Niagara…San Anto says, “No” But Seguin signs on, (a few less miles to pipe

before hill country water hits the bottle for the CA Company.)

Catrina, then turned east saying “Texas, Tejas, here I come. Vámonos…” And for SAWS & Catrina—

It was love at first sight:

Burleson County officials would pump aquifers down for a chance to make money on site. Abengoa from Spain says “Aquí Vengo. The rocks and elder trees say, “Déjà vu! Take flight, this time.” Then hill country people put up the good fight…

LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • Dec 2015 | jan 2016 Vol. 28 Issue 10•

on the behalf of the Mexican American

and with Mi Agua Mi Vida the Alliance would see, Mighty SA begin to freeze in her tracks…

Councilman Nirenberg would ask for the study Saying we need research behind our decisions. “Heretic” was uttered beneath bated breath but only the crickets crawling the walls remember. During September ‘s red moon eclipse

while the water wizard took skinny dips… periodistas uncovered the missing Analyses showing the Emperors’ Plans with their clothes gone missing:

She steps back en la sombra del valle de los muertos where she mopes, sin sonrisas… “Can’t do it again,” she said with resolve and ran to tell El SAWS Vista Ridge Hombres, “Es punto final.”

Catrina remembered her former self. Mustering up Mictecacihuatl Mujer de Mictlan, she exclaims “Why here in our aquifers, I’ve been all along. It’s time to keep my house Clean for awhile,

Vista Ridge was “high risk” But SAWS pooh poohed the study,

called research “gooey” like cookie dough,4

are coming and going, dripping through karst slipping through the sands of … ‘Time for a walk in the park.” she declared,

and lechuzas hooted, sleepily, that day, “Joke? On Youuu, On Whoooo, On Youuu…” So it was that Mr SAWS Fuentes Was flailing his arms

As A & M Soto took red markers

to Dr. Finch’s et al (degreed all) Water Policy Analyses

fling[ing] the final parting laugh.5 She called the peoples of the aquifers in newly-formed alliance to meet en nuestro sueño de un tarde dominical… This time the revolution starts with Día Mundial del Agua… This time we shed our colonialist, conquistador garb,

And Catrina, La Calavera Garbancera Was stricken with recuerdos of her ancianos demise When Lago Owens water went off to LA And the earth was parched for eternity. Then, she had laughed, but now she is somber

and treat all as kin, Knowing water runs in us all . Footnotes available from: lavoz@esperanzacenter.org Note: In Nov. the SA City Council voted to increase water rates and approved the Vista Ridge Project over the objections of the community. The battle continues.

LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • Dec 2015 | jan 2016 Vol. 28 Issue 10•

called Science “a joke,”3

‘cause gente y vidas y agua

to two major events per month while maintaining three to four on-going programs and meetings

• Conduct a Systematic Assessment of Policies, Programs, and City Boards/Commissions to Determine their Impact on Dis-

with who knows how many walk-in individu-

placement, Loss of Affordable Housing, and Neighborhood

als and groups. Yet their unsettling experience

Change.

with the Mayor’s Task Force and the signs of the times beckon for more.

• Explore and Implement Workforce/Affordable Inclusionary Housing Policies for Residential Development

community and allies that included the Esper-

tive reasoning, that is, the universal “natural right” to perceive, control, and choose. Reflective reason generates individual and

communal (or cultural) meanings. Meanings are understandings,

Antonio Housing Trust and Nonprofit Housing Providers for the Rehabilitation, Preservation and Creation of Workforce & Affordable Housing. (From Task Force Recommendations)

LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • Dec 2015 | jan 2016 Vol. 28 Issue 10•

same COSA top-down planning. Hence, funding will continue to be based on a “get re-elected” political agenda at the District level.

majority elderly and children, and vaporized their Esperanza (see De Turk) is a trusted haven for marginal groups:

The Mayor’s Task Force was established to prevent such a tragic

the place and space for information sharing and individual/group

displacement of la gente in the future.

support. It is also an organization with ample political experience, resources, and contacts. It is committed to protecting el barrio’s

dearest meanings (conscious or unconscious) explain why we act the way we do. Esperanza helps resolve la gente’s identity, ethnic

of background information, e.g., national best affordable housing

and in providing la gente del barrio access to public resources. But

practices, and held many strategic sessions. In April 2015 the Task

given Esperanza’s many on-going multi-issue commitments, one

staged events, art exhibits, “pláticas” and such, develops la gente’s multi-dimensional, spiritual-cultural role as history-makers. In summary, Esperanza consistently nurtures la gente’s basic human nature to perceive, anticipate events, predict observations by others and manage future events. Hence, Esperanza’s fundamental practice of justice may be understood as a process that moves human potentialities along the continuum of becoming. How fully el barrio flowers its potential, the more la gente may realize theirs, and vice-versa. Or, more keenly: social justice practice is “bringing about maximum individuality within maximum community (Immanuel Kant).” Practically, the primary social justice action principle is: “Be all you can be as you help others be all they can be”. Only part of Esperanza’s modeling work fosters barrio gente’s well-being and barrio improvements. Esperanza shares resources with other groups because of public/private contractual agreements for operating established social and cultural events. This requires a

10 mountain of time and energy. For example, the Center features one

Force handed its uncompleted task over to a newly created COSA

must ask—who will actually do the necessary seeding and culti-

Housing Commission. Mayor Ivy Taylor describes the Housing

vating in el barrio? That is, who will devote the sizable time and

Commission purpose as creating “stable, accessible, mixed use,

energy it takes to improve social

mixed income neighborhoods throughout the city”. Esperanza and its allies reject this pronouncement as it sidesteps the structural causes of gentrification and displacement, and the importance in resolving them. This, of course was the original purpose of the Mayor’s Task Force. Esperanza and others will participate and monitor the activities of the Housing Commission. Preparations included: 1) encouraging gente to apply for positions on the Housing Commission, 2) identi-

fying structural causes of displacement and sounding out their findings at the Housing Commission, 3) developing a priority system for achieving the Housing Commission’s major recommendations (see below) and 4) forming a coalition for follow-up tasks such as providing information re: resources to barrio groups. The Post-Task Force Coalition understands the Housing Commission’s long-term mandates as:

digital library, etc. But these are organizational decisions.

Commission proceedings. Otherwise, we can expect more of the

interests in the face of public officials and profit-driven developers,

family “fotohistorias”, and historic preservation. Additionally,

ing resources, develop a leadership course, set up a traditional and

whatever good or indecisiveness comes from the COSA Housing

hours at the Task Force hearings, read through hundreds of pages

and classism issues by promoting programs such as oral history,

might happen: run a regular column in La Voz with a list of fund-

conditions in a

At the urban level it will remain focused on private/public economic development (read “cheap money” for private developers) based on the “trickle-down theory” that to date is a dismal failure in San

Antonio’s poverty segregated neighborhoods. (see the 2015 COSA FY 2016-2020 Consolidated Plan and FY 2016 Action Plan espe-

cially pages 31-32 re: los barrios). Stay tuned for developments as the 2016 year begins.

Editor’s note: Observations and analysis expressed in this article are solely those of the author.

LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • Dec 2015 | jan 2016 Vol. 28 Issue 10•

motivations, and actions that move us forward. Ultimately, our

Various methods come immediately to mind about how this

The reality is some group must direct a bottoms-up strategy for

swept away close to 300 long-time residents, the

Esperanza staff and organizational allies spent hundreds of

pie, e.g., new housing bond elections. Esperanza is already workadvancing similar defensive and offensive objectives.

plus high-end apartment complex. The ruling

right to live in a meaningful world secured by affordable housing.

give information about available resources and how to enlarge the

Affordable Housing.

the re-zoning of the area which allows for a 600

Esperanza staff/associates address la gente’s unique gift of reflec-

regarding re-zoning and other types of encroachments, and 2) to

ing with groups like West End Hope in Action and Fuerza Unida in

anza, the San Antonio City Council approved

Continued from p. 6

The emerging objectives from discussions and notes taken

for the Rehabilitation, Preservation, and Creation of Workforce/

• Identify Ongoing Sources of Funds to be utilized by the San

position by Mission Trails Mobile Home Park

weighted by Esperanza and members of the coalition. are 1) to provide early warnings and assistance to el barrio, e.g.,

• Develop a Plan and Timeline for the Issuance of a Housing Bond

On May 15, 2014, after months of fierce op-

specific barrio? Who will do what, when and how is being

The 2015 Peace Market proved to be one of the most challenging to date. The days leading up to the mercado made all of us nervous with rain and cold in the forecast. On Tuesday, Graciela decided to have a tent put up in the patio area and one leading into the Esperanza’s back entrance. Wednesday, before Thanksgiving, proved to be hectic with two tents being put up in the patio while indoor vendors

arrived to set up their spaces with

no place to park and drop

off boxes.

When Friday arrived,

vendors were pleasantly surprised

to see a tent in the patio.

However, it meant reconfiguring

spaces as vendors arrived—

perimeter of the patio that

vendors were counting

on to display their wares. on time. Street vendors worried

all day that there

would be no place for them to go

The rain finally

Peace Market Mil Gracias

neous assignments worked and

the market began if the rains hit—

A nnua l

because the tent took away

about two feet from the Somehow, the sponta-

2 6 th

but they could only wait and see. came down hard in the late afternoon

causing the street vendors to scurry about packing and breaking down their setups. Soaked, they began check-out early while indoor vendors and those in the patio continued to sell until 6 pm. took place. Those remaining on the street faced the cold, but no rain. A few vendors moved into the patio. Somehow, we managed it all and were blessed to have two full days of Peace Market that were well attended. We are truly thankful to all who made the 26th Peace Market possible—the vendors who were flexible and helpful throughout, the performers who performed despite the weather and the buena gente who donated food and time making the 2015 Peace Market

Mary Angel Pérez Jenny Poskey Maria Quezada Gloria A. Ramírez Ruby María Reed Sylvia Reyna Alison Reynolds Blanca Rivera Maya Rodríguez Grace Rosales Rodolfo Rosales Tiffany Ross Lilliana P. Saldaña Bernard Sánchez Isabel & Enrique Sánchez Gustavo Sánchez Leticia Sánchez Mike E Sánchez Adolfo M. Segura Fito Segura Guadalupe Segura Debra Sifuentes Rhett Smith Sarah Strybos Raul Solis Cynthia Spielman Lillian Stevens

Dave Stokes Elva Pérez Treviño Magdalena Trujillo Dorelia Vela Martin Vélez Salas Zurina WasonCarrington Dulce Zuniga 2015 Peace Market vendors who donated food & raffle items Restaurants: Camaron Pelado La Botánica Liberty Bar The Cove Lilly’s Cookies Madhatter’s Tea House & Cafe Panchito’s Shahi’s Market Simi’s Indian Restaurant Torres Taco Haven Vegeria ...y muchos mas!

LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • Dec 2015 | jan 2016 Vol. 28 Issue 10•

On Saturday we lost a few outdoor vendors and more shifting

Buena Gente: Carol Ann Aguero Mario E. Carbajal Cortez Casanova Elizandro Carrington Mary Ann Contreras Olga Crespin Elizabeth Joy Delgado Imelda O. DeLeón Sara DeTurk Juan Díaz Lupita Dominguez Margarita Elizarde Jennifer García Paz García Allie Gomez Marcie Gutierrez Araceli Herrera Amy Kastely Jimmy Kitchen Emi Magaloni Rebel Mariposa Rachel Martínez Sandra Martinez Luis Mercado Angie Merla Josie Merla Martin Jan Olsen Julie Perales

a sucess both days! Many thanks to all!

12 LA VOZ

ESPERANZA • Dec 2015 | jan 2016 Vol. 28 Issue 10•

* community meetings *

Amnesty International #127 Call Arthur @ 210.213.5919. Bexar Co. Green Party meets 1st Sun. Call Antonio @ 210.542.9271 or Rachell @ 210.542.9278 or bexarcountygreens@gmail.com Celebration Circle meets Sun., 11am @ Say Si, 1518 S. Alamo. Meditatn Wed. 7:30pm @ Friends Mtg House, 7052 Vandiver. 210.533.6767 |www. celebrationcircle.org DIGNITY SA mass, 5:30 pm, Sun. @ St. Paul’s Episcopal Church,1018 E. Grayson St. Call 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. Fuerza Unida, 710 New Laredo Hwy. www.lafuerzaunida.org | 210.927.2294 Habitat for Humanity meets 1st Tues. for volunteer training, 6pm, Habitat Office, 311 Probandt. LULAC Council #22198, Orgullo de SA, meets 3rd Tues. @ 6:45pm at Papouli’s, 255 E. Basse Rd. To join e-mail: info@lulac22198.org

Pax Christi, SA meets monthly on Saturdays. Call 210.460.8448 Proyecto Hospitalidad Liturgy meets Thurs. 7pm, 325 Courtland. SA Women Will March: www.sa womenwillmarch.org|210 262.0654 Metropolitan Community Church services & Sunday school @10:30am, 611 East Myrtle. Call 210.472.3597

Progressive Movement

People’s Power Coalition meets last Thursdays. Call 210.878.6751

in San Antonio

PFLAG, meets 1st Thurs. @ 7pm, University Presbyterian Church, 300 Bushnell Ave. Call 210.848.7407. Parents of Murdered Children, meets 2nd Mondays at Balcones Hts Community Ctr, 107 Glenarm See www.pomcsanantonio.org. Rape Crisis Ctr 7500 US Hwy 90W. Hotline: 210.349.7273 | 210.521.7273 Email: sgabriel@ rapecrisis.com The Religious Society of Friends meets Sun. 10am at The Friends Meeting House, 7052 N. Vandiver. 210.945.8456. S.A. Gender Association meets 1st & 3rd Thursday, 6-9pm @ 611 E. Myrtle, Metropolitan Cmty Church. The SA AIDS Fdn 818 E. Grayson St. offers free Syphilis & HIV testing, 210.225.4715 | www.txsaaf.org. SAWomenWillMarch www. sawomenwillmarch.org 830.488.7493 SGI-USA LGBT Buddhists meet 2nd Sat. at 10am @ 7142 San Pedro Ave., Ste 117. Call 210.653.7755. Shambhala Buddhist Meditation Tues. 7pm & Sun. 9:30am 257 E. Hildebrand Ave. Call 210.222.9303.

¡Todos Somos Esperanza! Start your monthly donations now! Esperanza works to bring awareness and action on issues relevant to our communities. With our vision for social, environmental, economic and gender justice, Esperanza centers the voices and experiences of the poor & working class, women, queer people and people of color. We hold pláticas and workshops; organize political actions; present exhibits and performances and document and preserve our cultural histories. We consistently challenge City Council and the corporate powers of the city on issues of development, low-wage jobs, gentrification, clean energy and more. It takes all of us to keep the Esperanza going. What would it take for YOU to become a monthly donor? Call or come by the Esperanza to learn how.

S.N.A.P. (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests). Contact Barbara at 210.725.8329. Voice for Animals: 210.737.3138 or www.voiceforanimals.org for info SA’s LGBTQA Youth meets Tues., 6:30pm at Univ. Presby. Church, 300 Bushnell Ave.www.fiesta-youth.org

¡Esperanza vive! ¡La lucha sigue, sigue! FOR INFO: Call 210.228.0201 or email: esperanza@esperanzacenter.org

Dec 2015 | Jan 2016

—2015—

The Flor de Nopal Literary Festival 2015 at Austin’s Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center, 600 River St., offers the final featured reading of 2015 on Friday, December 4th at 7 pm in the Black Box Theatre with Dan Vera, Sarah A. Chávez, José Antonio Rodríguez, Ben Olguin, ire’ne lara silva, Vincent Cooper, Wade Martin, Sarah Shaney and Nicole Moore. The final 2015 workshop is on Saturday, December 5th led by Sarah A. Chávez and José Antonio Rodríguez from 2-5 pm in the Raul Salinas Room. All events are free! Email: flordenopal@ gmail.com for reservations. Check flordenopalliteraryfestival.wordpress.com

Wings Press, celebrating 40 years of publishing announced the release of three new books just in time for holiday purchases: Rant. Chant. Chisme. by National Slam finalist, Amalia Ortiz; Apology to a Whale: Words to Mend a World by Cecile Pineda; and Transcendental Train Yard with poetry by Norma Elia Cantú and Art by Marta Sánchez. See www.wingspress.com For the rebels on your gift list get Haymarket Books! Titles such as

Start your 2016 tax-deductible donations to Esperanza today!

Winona LaDuke’s All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life, BRICS: An Anticapitalist Critique edited by Ana Garcia and Patrick Bond and Noam Chomsky’s Culture of Terrorism, plus more, can be found online at HaymarketBooks.org. Use code Holiday40 for 40% off all books with free shipping on orders over $25. See: ww.haymarketbooks.org Barrio Dreams, Selected Plays by Silviana Wood edited by Norma E. Cantú and Rita E. Urquijo-Ruiz is the first book to collect the work of one of Arizona’s foremost teatristas who forged a reputation as a playwright, actor, director and activist. Her works form a testimonio of Chicana life, steeped in art, politics, and the borderlands. Part of her genius is the way she portrays life in what Gloria Anzaldúa called “el mundo zurdo”. The book is available from www.uapress. arizona.edu. Use the promo code FLR to order for 20% off or call 800.621.2736.

—2016—

The San Antonio Feminist Film Festival, Scene and Heard, will take place January 19th and 21st at the Alamo Drafthouse, Park North from 6:30-9:30pm with a guest celebrity, speakers, food and drink. View four films over two nights with the common goal of reflecting the changing global

Anna Marie Marinez

La Voz Subscription $35 Individuals $100 Institutions

for more info call 210.228.0201

Notas Notas YY Más Más

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.

Please use my donation for the Rinconcito de Esperanza

Our deepest condolences to the family of Anna Marie Marinez who passed into spirit this year. A believer in the power of prayer to change the world, she prayed for those she loved as well as for strangers, notably wounded warriors. She had a special devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe and dearly loved her children, their children and their children’s children. She had a passion for music, dance and smiling. She made grand entrances wherever she went. She raised her family alone after

impacts of education, health, political and social wellbeing of women. For details: joyce.townsend@hotmail.com Life and Death on the Border 1910-1920 will be on exhibit at the Bullock State History Museum in Austin from January 23 to April 3, 2016. It re-examines the events and context that represent some of the worst racial violence in U.S. history. Through display of rare artifacts, photographic records, court documents, newspapers, family histories and eye witness accounts, the exhibit will provide a fresh perspective on a little-known story that shaped the Mexican American civil rights movement and still has an impact today. It is the centennial remembrance of the violence that occurred along the US-Mexico border between 1915-1920. Check: http://www.thestoryoftexas.com/ visit/exhibits/life-and-death-on-the-border or facebook page, Refusingtoforget.org The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans support up to 30 New Americans, immigrants or the children of immigrants, who are pursuing graduate school in the U.S. Each Fellowship supports up to two years of graduate study in the U.S. with up to $90,000 in support. Applications for the 2017-2018 academic year will open in mid-April of 2016. Check www.pdsoros.org/apply

December 3, 1924 - October 20, 2015

divorcing in 1970 and inculcated in her children a love of knowledge and the arts modeling a continuing thirst for knowledge throughout her life— reading daily and taking courses in business school and in college and universities well into her sixties. Her mind was so keen and sharp she worked her crosswords in ink. Her indefatigible spirit allowed her to live past 90 in spite of numerous predictions from doctors and nurses of her pending demise. Anna Marie Marinez will not be forgotten.

LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • Dec 2015 | jan 2016 Vol. 28 Issue 10•

NOW SA Chapter meets 3rd Weds. Check FB/satx.now | 210.802.9068 | nowsaareachapter@gmail.com

Be Part of a

Overeaters Anonymous meets MWF in Spanish & daily in English: www. oasanantonio.org | 210.492.5400.

LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • Dec 2015 | jan 2016 Vol. 28 Issue 10•

Noche Azul de Esperanza

Guadalupe Saturday, December 12, 2015

Check the February issue of La Voz for Noche Azul’s 2016 schedule of shows!

Doors open at 7:15pm • Program Starts at 8pm $5 Mas O Menos at the Door

Second Saturday every month for photo scanning and story sharing

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

Gather your Westside photos, 1880 -1960 & bring them to El Rinconcito de Esperanza, 816 S. Colorado Next Convivio:

Saturday, December 12, 2015

10am @ Casa de Cuentos, 816 S. Colorado (@Guadalupe St.) Call 210-228-0201

Dear Buena Gente, Esperanza was founded in 1987 with the dream of creating a place where people working for peace and justice could come together to share our vision, our resources, and our hope for the future. Today, decades later, Esperanza continues the work of bringing people together across our differences to work for justice and build a better world. As 2015 ends and the promise of a new year begins, we ask you to include Esperanza in your end of year tax deductible donations. Our community grows stonger when we all give what we can in the spirit of solidarity. Send your donations (see Voz p.14) to Esperanza at 922 San Pedro, San Antonio, Tx 78210 or call 210.228.0201 to sign up as a monthly donor. Visit www.esperanzacenter.org for online giving options.¡Muchisimas gracias, y Feliz 2016! Much love and peace for the coming year!

—-Esperanza staff, board and buena genteArtwork: Mary Agnes Rodríguez