La Voz - October 2014 by Esperanza Peace and Justice Center

a publication of the Esperanza Peace & Justice Center

october 2014 | Vol. 27 Issue 8

San Antonio, Tejas

Anita Janet Cortez

“Perla Tapatía” Aug. 17, 1931 - Aug. 24, 2014

La Voz de Esperanza October 2014 vol. 27 issue 8

Editor Gloria A. Ramírez Design Monica V. Velásquez Editorial Assistance Alice Canestaro-García Cover Photo Esperanza Staff Contributors Tarcísio Beal, Cathy Marston, Ruth Lofgren, Rachel Jennings

La Voz Mail Collective David Cisneros, Paty de la Garza, Juan Díaz, Espiritu, Phyllis Gustafson, Mary Hibberd, Mildred Hilbrich, Gina López, Mina López, Olga Martínez, Rachel Martínez, Ray McDonald, Angie Merla, Josie M. Merla, Lucy & Ray Pérez, Mary Agnes Rodriguez Aimée Rivera, Blanca Rivera, Roger Singler

Esperanza Director Graciela I. Sánchez

Esperanza Staff

LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • October 2014 Vol. 27 Issue 8•

Imelda Arismendez, Itza Carbajal, Marisol Cortez, René Saenz, Saakred, Susana Méndez Segura, Monica V. Velásquez

Conjunto de Nepantleras -Esperanza Board of Directors-

Brenda Davis, Rachel Jennings, Amy Kastely, Jan Olsen, Kamala Platt, Ana Lucía Ramírez, Gloria A. Ramírez, Rudy Rosales, Tiffany Ross, Lilliana Saldaña, Nadine Saliba, 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 Letters with intent to slander individuals or groups will not be published. Esperanza Peace & Justice Center is funded in part by the NEA, TCA, theFund, CoYoTe PhoeNix Fund, AKR Fdn, Peggy Meyerhoff Pearlstone Fdn, Horizons Fdn, New World Foundation, y nuestra buena gente.

s we entered Domestic Violence Awareness Month (DVAM) in October, the microcosmic society of the NFL reflected the larger society’s problem of domestic violence. One incident, played out in the media, showed the aggressor dragging the limp body of a woman out of an elevator. This video was disregarded by the NFL brass until another tape released by the video rag, TMZ Sports, exposed the abuse perpetrated by Ray Rice of the Baltimore Ravens who had punched his girlfriend (now wife) full on the face inside the elevator. Each October domestic violence is highlighted in hopes of curbing family and home violence in the U.S. The first year of observance was in 1987, just months after the Esperanza Center opened its doors in San Antonio. That same year, the first national toll-free hotline was opened for women to call. After the Rice incident hit the news this September, the National Domestic Violence Hotline saw an 84% increase in calls. In 1989, the first Domestic Violence Awareness Month Commemorative Legislation was passed by Congress. Since then, a variety of activities take place annually to bring awareness of domestic violence: lists commemorating victims or survivors, plays, made-for-TV movies, marches, conferences, runs, concerts and more. Groups dealing with domestic violence have also multiplied — but it seems the abuse is often disregarded by local politicians, the courts and enforcement agencies. In San Antonio, The P.E.A.C.E. Initiative, Putting an End to Abuse through Community Efforts, now in its 25th year, has taken the lead in observing Domestic Violence Awareness Month. La Voz first made reference to the observance in 1990 and in 1992, an article in the October issue, If Domestic Violence is Relative, We’re All Battered by Luisa Inez Newton, noted: “Kids know that other kids are battered... Across the street from my family was the brutal, dark, hidden reality of child abuse and domestic violence, though no one called it that in the 50s. Two little girls, one older, one younger than me, were whipped by their father with belts, brushes and other objects.” Luisa goes on to detail stories of rape, incest, and date rape. This year The P.E.A.C.E. Initiative’s theme is “Raising our Future, Not our Hand: A Call to Stop the Spanking and Hitting of our Children.” This resonates with the present drama in the NFL — as another story revealed that Minnesota Vikings player, Adrian Peterson, was indicted in May on charges of reckless or negligent injury to a child for “whooping” his 4-year old son with a switch. And, it had happened before.These incidents renewed talk about parents’ rights in disciplining children that bordered on the defense of family abuse. Commissioner Goodell of the NFL has not taken decisive steps in disciplining these players. He has issued longer suspensions for pot smoking, DUI, illegal tattoos and dogfighting than what has happened in these cases. Kathy Marston, convicted in a domestic abuse case, writes about the normalization of violence in this issue of La Voz saying that it is not unusual for the victim to be criminalized, instead. In an effort to save face, the NFL has hired 4 women to serve as official advisers in shaping the league’s stance on domestic violence. The women, all highly credentialed in domestic violence work, may make a difference but it has been the censoring of the incidents from NFL sponsors that has led to the players’ being banned. However, it is not the NFL, nor any one perpetrator, that is the real problem of “domestic violence.” We need only expand our thinking to what the word “domestic” means and look to our homegrown culture in the U.S. to figure out why our society continues to support a system of violence. Tarcísio Beal in this issue of La Voz looks at the Old Testament to examine violence against women in society. It is, as he says, “as old as humankind.” In the 1992 Voz article by Newton, she noted: “Legally, a man can no longer beat his wife in the USA, but neither can his wife see the words ‘woman’ or ‘female’ in the Constitution.” Indeed, in spite of the fact that this month we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act, we still have a way to go. Send articles to lavoz@esperanzacenter.org. —Gloria A. Ramírez, editor of La Voz 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.

Right to Self-Defense Normalization of Violence

Defending Our to Counter the

by Cathy Marston, PhD

Texas recognizes that right for everyone via its self-defense waiver (a.k.a.“Stand Your Ground” law) codified in the Texas Penal Code, Subchapter C, Sect. 9.31 (entitled: “Self-Defense”). A person may defend herself when she: “reasonably believes the force is immediately necessary to protect” her against “imminent harm” from someone else’s violence. Texas also codified a Defense of a Third Party Waiver, which many women in our state’s prisons utilized to protect their kids and grandkids. Unfortunately, the justice and media systems here in Texas do not recognize these rights for WOMEN. In her speech accepting the Presidential Medal of Freedom this year, Gloria Steinem reminds us that the “causes of violence” are here at home:

[E]ven by conservative FBI statistics, if you add up all the women in the U.S. who have been murdered by their husbands or boyfriends since 9/11 – and then add up all the Americans killed in 9/11 plus the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – many more women have been killed by their husbands and boyfriends yet we put much more thought and money into ending foreign terrorism than into ending domestic terrorism. Clearly terrorism is something American males inflict on women. Considering the femicide statistics; and the fact that men batter a woman every 12 seconds in this country, men – by definition – are violent and harmful terrorists of women.

The TCFV (Texas Council on Family Violence), in its report entitled Honoring Texas Victims: Family Violence Fatalities 2012 found that 74% of intimate-partner femicides took place in the home. TCFV believes, “[E]ach intimate partner homicide is knowable, predictable, and preventable.” Also, TCFV found that perpetrators killed, in addition to their primary target, another 15 friends and/or family members in 2012. Historically, the justice system normalized male violence against women. Feminist, media scholar, Marian Meyers, prefers to use the term “battering” because: “terms such as … domestic violence obscure the relationship between gender and power by failing to define the perpetrators and victims.” Feminist philosopher, Mechthild Nagel, adds to Meyers’ observations: “Labeling something as ‘domestic’ has the ring of harmlessness.’” In the anthology she co-edited with Anthony Nocella, The End of Prisons: Reflections from the Decarceration Movement, Nagel discusses the attribution of deviance and gender dating back to the 1804 Napoleonic Code, in terms of influences on our legal systems. The Code relegated women to the same status as “children, felons, and the insane.” Nagel then shows the similarity between Judge William Blackstone’s “Unities Doctrine” in family law – informed by the white, capitalist, Christian patriarchy — and Muslim “Shar’ia law” and veiling of women. Both involve the wife being “covered” under the husband/ male and being seen as chattel and “civilly dead.” If women are, at best, chattel, then Nagel asks: “[H]ow can somebody be castigated as violent if he couldn’t do what he pleases with his property?” She reminds us that the “rule of thumb” permitting men to beat their wives (with a stick no bigger than their thumb) was “a compromise solution of the ‘justice system’ that was clearly intent on keeping the woman in a

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shared in the February 2010 La Voz that twice in 2004, the Austin police found my abusive ex-boyfriend and/or his best friend on top of me beating me, trying to hurt me. Both times, they called off my assailants to unlawfully arrest me, the victim. The Texas Council on Family Violence states that on a “domestic violence” call here in Texas, the police deliberately arrest the battered woman instead of her male batterer at least 20 percent of the time. In the first incident, my ex had shoved my face into the sofa to smother me. I don’t know how I’m still alive, as he completely overpowered me. When I sat up after he let me up, he then wrapped his arm around my neck in a chokehold. That is when I bit him in self-defense. If I had not bit him, I’d be dead. Yet the State characterizes that one bite as “violent” while lying that my ex’s 90-minute beating and murder attempt are his right: victim blaming by the State. I created Free Battered Texas Women to advocate for the release and exoneration of other battered women who had exercised their rights to defend themselves and their children – as well as to stop the wrongful arrest of battered women. When I was in fourth grade, my dad signed me and my sister up for judo. “You need to learn how to defend yourself,” he said. I hated judo. I quit to play soccer instead. When I was 12, my dad signed me up for a gun-safety class offered by the National Rifle Association (NRA) at Randolph A.F.B. “You need to learn how to handle a gun,” he said. I hated gun class, too. What I really hated were the boys harassing me with sexual comments as we waited outside the building for our instructor to show up. I won a first-place trophy. I never picked up a gun after that. Dad and I have argued about gun control for decades. My dad recognized that I, as a female, had a right to self-defense.

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subjugated role.” Thus, the operatives of the justice system have reflected that misogynist intent in police practice and jurisprudence. The magazine, Ms., has repeatedly reported that male police officers are four times more likely to have active/recent charges for battering women themselves. This creates some insight into why police aren’t prioritizing and showing due diligence to male violence against women. Furthermore, Dr. Phil McGraw (Dr. Phil Show) on 11/9/11 showed a video of Aransas County, TX, Judge William Adams beating his 16-year-old daughter, Hillary, with a belt as he yelled, “I’m going to beat you into submission!” Her offense? File sharing on the Internet. Hillary’s mom, Hallie, divorced Adams for battering her, also. Judge Adams response to the video: “I was just disciplining her.” Adams is a Family Law/Domestic Violence Court judge who adjudicates and sentences batterers like himself. Of course, that’s if the batterer makes it to court. Lloyd Oliver, a candidate in the Democratic primary for Harris County District Attorney, was given a Bum Steer Award this year by Texas Monthly for bragging that, if elected, he would deemphasize prosecutions involving spousal abuse, because: “Family violence is so overrated.” Prosecutors in Topeka, Kansas, claimed their budget was so tight that they could no longer prosecute misdemeanors. So, the District Attorney set free 18 male batterers, according to a 10/11/11 story on NPR’s All Things Considered. Police were not interested in the drowning death of Kathleen Savio until her husband’s next (and fourth) wife disappeared. The man finally tried for Savio’s death was, of course, ex-cop Drew Peterson. Michigan police officer Clarence Ratliff shot to death his wife, Judge Carol Irons. He was sentenced to 15 years for murdering Irons; and sentenced to two life terms for shooting at the cops according to Ann Jones. Jones bluntly remarks: “[I]n the scales of American justice, men weigh more than women. Assaulting a man is a serious crime, but assaulting a woman or even killing her – well, that’s not so bad.” She adds: “One 1991 study found that among assaultive men arrested, prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced, less than 1 percent (.9%) served any jail time.” That begs the question, of course, of what happens, when women have to fight back to defend ourselves against these bat-

terers. Self-defense waivers have been the subject of scrutiny in the U.S. recently, following the killings of multiple, unarmed, teenaged, African-American males by non black males. Floridian and M.B.A.holder Marissa Alexander, an African-American, was not allowed to use a selfdefense argument when she shot into the wall to scare off her estranged husband, Rico Gray, who had already attacked her, strangled her, and threatened to kill her. The court sentenced her to 20 years for aggravated assault, when the bullet didn’t hit him and she was clearly defending herself. As supporter Sumayya Coleman observes: “If you get 20 years for defending yourself, what does that say to victims? Let them beat you, your life means nothing.” Alexander’s conviction was overturned in Sept. 2013. She is awaiting retrial, where her prosecutor has sworn to give her three, 20-year consecutive sentences if she is reconvicted. Alexander’s husband was already a “convicted woman-beater.” Why is Florida failing to arrest and prosecute HIM? Would there be more public outrage if she was male? Canadian feminist criminologists, Jennifer Kilty and Sylvie Frigon, studied battering survivor Karla Homolka, who pleaded guilty to aiding her batterer in his violent crimes, out of fear. Kilty and Frigon remind us that contextualizing the battered woman’s experiences helps to “generate a more holistic understanding of her case and personhood.” Free Battered Women, based in San Francisco, CA, reports that two studies suggest that battered women who kill are either being convicted or taking a plea at a rate between 72% and 78% nationally – which is grossly above the 50% plea rate of innocents reported by Prison Legal News this year. They also report that women charged with homicide have the least-extensive, prior criminal-records of any people convicted of crimes. Several hundred women in California are serving time for killing their batterers. Hundreds, if not thousands more are serving time for

domestic-violence-related crimes. There are no similar statistics for Texas, despite the egregious, wrongful-arrest rate for battered women and our media’s obsession with crime coverage.

What can we do here in Texas?

Well, there’s been wrongful conviction summits in the Texas Senate and there’s been great hullabaloo in the legislature and media about cutting taxpayers’ costs and state programs. But no, none is considering freeing and exonerating battered women who clearly exercised our rights under the Texas Penal Code to live. It’s past time to create (or recreate, in the case of related 1990s laws) legislation to stop the arrest of battered women; and to free and exonerate those who are already incarcerated a la California, which has a unique penal code statute allowing women to cite their status as battering survivors related to their crime in a writ of habeas corpus. California’s “Sin by Silence” bills were featured in a documentary by filmmaker Olivia Klaus; and they give survivors more time for finding representation and presenting their evidence related to their batterer in the writ and parole processes. New York State’s legislature is also considering the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act with similar goals: to address the number of survivors re-vic...con’td on p. 6

ow that I’m retired from my intense environmental projects, I have the time to think about what is going on in the world, especially in the U.S. I do this in the context of memories of a lifetime of experiences. I was born almost 98 years ago in Utah to a devout Mormon couple who loved life and their fellowmen. My father was a civil engineer, my mother was a writer and musician, and they both loved teaching. I was taught at home until the 4th grade. I was the first of 5 children who all were free to explore nature and learn about life first hand. Since I’ve retired, I find that I can no longer ignore the gulf between my idealistic view of what America stands for (liberty, equality and justice for all, etc.) and what is actually going on in our cities and neighborhoods. Over the years, when un-American incidents happened, I tucked the memories away and continued with my optimistic view of life in a world without serious personal challenges. My way of taking care of social problems was by making donations to worthy causes. It is obvious that that is not enough!

Another experience that shocked me at the time happened in Atlanta, GA. A friend and I had been looking forward since graduate school to visiting famous water gardens there. Now, almost 20 years later, we were here. As we moved forward to get into one of the little boats that would take us through the gardens, I felt very apprehensive. A very black boatman was sitting in each boat. They were all unsmiling, with Ruth Lofgren is a retired biology professor, a blank, opaque eyes. Quaker, a long-time supporter of Esperanza, and I had never seen currently on a personal journey to “know thyself”. people like that before. Fortunately, my friend had. Looking back, I realize that my apprehension was a fear of the unfamiliar, one aspect of racism.

I finished graduate school at the University of Michigan in 1944. Soon after, I attended a party in San Francisco where I received my first shock. As I came in, a lovely Indian girl wearing a beautiful sari made a beeline for me and asked me to step out in the hall with her. She said, “Please don’t give me away.” She was the daughter of the black Pullman porter at the Union Pacific train station in Salt Lake City. My mother was her father’s friend, and I guess she had seen me with my mother. What a curse our culture imposes, that a beautiful, intelligent young woman has to deny her heritage! I tucked the memory away and went on my comfortable way. After I resigned from the faculty at the University of Michigan and joined the Biology Dept. at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York in 1956, I was working with Dr. William Goins, the head of Science Education. An

The memory of an experience that happened 40 years ago in Brooklyn still haunts me. Two of my former student teachers were assigned to teach bottom 7th grade classes in the same Junior High. (It’s not uncommon for the least experienced teachers to be assigned the most difficult classes.) They appealed to me for help. The principal approved a project in which these two classes could plan together with the teachers how they would deal with the science information they needed to learn. The students were smart enough, they just couldn’t read well. When they discussed the exercises, they knew what they were doing! The project was going well, so I invited a graduate student I was supervising at the College to visit the project.

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The Trayvon Martin death was a tragedy, but my attention soon moved on to other issues. That has not happened with the Michael Brown death. People need to protest injustice as they see it. As we know, “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” As I wondered what I could do, I began to realize what a comfortable life I have led. I have lived in a world of family, nature, community, education, science, church and travel over my long life, and only occasionally have I been aware of American racism. What a segregated, privileged life I have led! No wonder I don’t understand the power behind the peaceful protests so many are making!

outstanding chemist who was black, his wife, Annis, told me of an experience she had had at a faculty tea at the College. She was talking with a group of faculty wives when her husband came over. Until then, the wives had assumed that she was white. When they saw her husband, they realized she was black. Suddenly, the atmosphere changed. The other wives became very polite and moved away. I could feel the depth of her hurt and rejection!

This student from Grenada, spoke with a British accent and was black. I couldn’t believe the change in the 7th graders’ behavior when the Grenadan taught them simple scientific techniques. Where they had been tentative and trembly before, they seemed to have self-confidence and energy when they followed his demonstration. I found that he had recognized how hungry the young black studentswere for mentoring. He identified a large cleaning closet as his “office” and wrote notes to teachers asking that particular students be excused for conferences with him. (He saw a need and was meeting it!) I was shocked. This was not part of our science project. My focus at that time was not on how racism affected a student’s ability to learn. Now, forty years later, the segregation and racism in America seem to have increased. When I first came to San Antonio in 1976, I provided science enrichment in a Quaker school for emotionally disturbed children. One of the former teachers, Cecelia Wiley, was a beautiful Guatemalan Quaker. We became good friends and traveled to Quaker conferences in Mexico. Cecelia said that she hadn’t known that she was black until she came to the US. Color had been no issue before.

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Before buying a car here, I was waiting at a bus stop downtown with other people. A young black man wearing a white lab coat and his girl friend joined the group. A fair-haired boy 8 or 10 years old was trying to sell us stuff he had in his pockets: string, baseball cards, bottle caps, etc. The young black man spoke to the child, “If you were my child, you’d be home in bed.” I was amazed! Such a conservative, middle class opinion from this black man! I wouldn’t have heard that in New York! Later, I described what I’d witnessed to a native Texan, and she explained that there was an elite community of black people in San Antonio. Then I remembered that when I first lived in New York City in 1954, Percy Sutton was the President of Manhattan,

Defending our Right to Self-Defense ... con’td from p. 6

timized and imprisoned by the legal system that is supposed to protect us and imprison our batterers. A committee needs to review arrests of battered women at the time of arrest; and review all the cases of battered women still in prison. The one thing we cannot do is watch another legislature go by without these changes. The Texas Legislature’s misogynist priorities last session included passing “Romeo & Juliet” legislation to legalize sex between adult males and teenaged girls: heinous, normalization of male violence! Fortunately, the governor vetoed that. Self-defense is a right. Male violence against women and girls is criminal. But it takes each of you speaking out to make the legislature see that. As feminist and anarchist Emma Goldman said, “Grieve the dead. And fight like hell for the living!” v Bio: Cathy Marston, PhD, Founder & Director of Free Battered Texas Women, was on the Steering Committee for the 2014 Int’l Conference on Penal Abolition. She is also active in revitalizing the Alamo Chapter of the Citizens United to Reform Errants (C.U.R.E.). Her case is currently under appeal. Contact: cmarston.fbtw@gmail.com.

and that he was a handsome, urbane black man from San Antonio. The Sutton family was important here. In the 38 years I have lived here, I have watched the rapid growth of the city, where new development has disrupted or destroyed many old neighborhoods.

Over the years I have been aware of

discrimination, profiling and prejudice.

But, my life has been comfortable until

now. The “white privilege” I have enjoyed is no longer invisible to me!

When I was a child growing up in Salt Lake City, Utah, I was an active member of the Mormon Church. Black boys and men could not hold the Priesthood. The reason was based on the Bible story (Genesis 9.18 – 10.29) that explains that because Ham saw his drunken father, Noah, naked, God cursed his descendants with black skin. A few decades ago, I learned that the President of the Church had had a revelation that black men could hold the Priesthood. What a blessing! This fundamental change in culture is a miracle! I wish our political system weren’t so dysfunctional! We need lots of miracles. When we white folks do not accept the kinship of people of color, that we are all the children of God, white flight resegregates our schools and neighborhoods and on and on. I wish that each human being could have the revelation that the President of the Mormon Church had and recognize that there is only one human family. Racism is un-American. Let’s affirm our “ideals” with actions. We all need to help each other to be kind and honest with one another. That would be a start! v

As the P.E.A.C.E. Initiative celebrates their 25th anniversary they continue to take the lead in San Antonio in observing domestic violence awareness month. For a full calendar of October events check out www. thepeaceinitiative.net P.E.A.C.E. Initiative is dedicated to educating the public about the extent and often deadly consequences of domestic violence and to respond effectively through community collaboration.

24 HOUR CRISIS HOTLINES: Family Violence Prevention Services’ - 210.733.8810 National Domestic Violence Hotline- 1.800.799.SAFE

Decades of Discrimination:

SERIES

The Gentrification of Travis Park Part Two of a series by Rachel Jennings

From San Fernando St., from Flores St. to the RiverCenter Mall, police are pushing the homeless out of central San Antonio...

eople of color in downtown San Antonio were frequently subject to discriminatory treatment in the late 19th century. According to Arnoldo De León — “In August 1883, the lessee of San Pedro Park announced that thereafter Mexicanos would not be allowed access to the dance platform in the public grounds.” Outraged, San Antonio Tejanos concluded that “the lessee’s motive in keeping Mexicanos off the grounds was to appease whites who had threatened to stop patronizing him should he persist in admitting Mexicanos to the dance floor” (32). Organizing fiery and intense protest rallies, Tejanos “regained access to the platform” (32) through legal action.

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Cathedral to Martin

...The consensus among city leaders and business, or what has come to be known as the public-private partnership, is that office workers, loft residents, and thick-walleted tourists should be free to live in a cocoon. This partnership does not wish these highly valued populations to be confronted with the reality that some people are destitute, jobless, drug-addicted, or mentally ill. The city has established a form of apartheid that segregates the homeless from people who live and work downtown. Travis Park, a long-time refuge for the homeless in the heart of downtown, illustrates in microcosm the ways in which they have been displaced for the sake of tourism, high-end commerce and developers. If the homeless are currently targeted for removal from downtown, they are only the last in an interlinked, intergenerational sequence of populations that have been defined as undesirable. Historically, San Antonio officialdom has discouraged people of color and LGBT people from relaxing and recreating in Travis Park. In a familiar pattern, authorities in the past year have designated the park as Housed Only, as opposed to “homeless”. The Travis Park Confederate memorial there symbolizes the exclusionary, hostile environment faced by people of color, the poor and LGBT people in the park and the broader city. Ironically, the huge size of the memorial conveys a sense of victorious triumphalism, since the Confederates whose peers had died for the Lost Cause managed to maintain their power and status in Texas during Reconstruction.

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While late 19th century Mexicanos won their suit against Rather, undercover operations and entrapment of gay men and the lessee of San Pedro Park, racial discrimination in San transgender persons continued into the 21st century. In “Homo Patrol: Are San Antonio Rangers the Real ‘Perverts Antonio parks continued into the 20th century. In 1954, San Antonio Mayor Pro Tem R. L. Lester arranged for City Council in the Park’?” (San Antonio Current Jan. 27-Feb. 2, 2000), the to be “called into an extraordinary special session,” where he investigative story that cracked open the questionable practices “proposed an ordinance mandating the segregation of all city- of the San Antonio Park Police, Debbie Nathan suggests that owned and operated swimming pools” (González and Romero). the “rangers’ trickery” may have had “its origins in the early City Council passed the ordinance banning “people of color from 1990s” when “the police, park officials, and some city council city swimming pools” and “making law of a de facto segregation members started getting increasing reports of gay presence in the that had existed for 90-plus years”. Nine swimming pools were parks” (11). Hundreds of arrests over ensuing years followed. designated for use by whites, while two were available to African For a long time, the names of arrestees would appear in the San Americans (González and Romero). The immediate impetus for Antonio Express-News, which resulted in the suicide of Benny the ordinance was the courageous effort by “several African- Hogan, a USAA employee and perhaps others as well. Although American youths . . . to swim in a North Side city pool that, again “no complaints” of the time “describe indecent exposure or solely by custom, had been reserved for whites only.” other explicitly sexual activity . . . , the reports are about men According to reporting in The Dallas Morning gathered in parking lots and outside bathroooms” (11). In News, “A burned cross had been found at the other words, complainants were worried about the pool entrance the next morning” (cited by presence of LGBT people in the park just as González and Romero). Ostensibly, to white people in earlier decades had felt provide an “educational period” compelled to complain about the before the gradual integration presence of people of color in of swimming pools in order parks. At the same time that African to prevent cross burning and Just as Mexicanos in 1883 Americans and Mexican Americans what we now term hate crimes, fought against discrimination, the San Antonio City Council LGBT activists in San Antonio experienced segregation and punished African Americans for likewise protested and filed whites’ racism. One can assume suits. After “the city of San ostracism in public parks and that the Brown vs. Board of Antonio” arrested “more Education ruling of Topeka, than 50 men for indecent swimming pools, LGBT people in San Kansas in May 17, 1954, by exposure and related offenses the US Supreme Court that in city parks,” The Gay and Antonio suffered harassment, mandated school desegregation Lesbian Community Center at the federal level, further of San Antonio issued a police entrapment, and inflamed the backlash by travel advisory, discouraging racist whites. Rubbing salt LGBT people from spending arrest in public parks. into African Americans’ wounds, their money in a city that might be the San Antonio ordinance took “effect dangerous for them. By 2005, as Lisa on ‘Juneteenth,’ the 89th anniversary of the Sorg reported in the San Antonio Current, “the abolition of slavery in Texas” (“June 19”). Two years relationship between the LGBT San Antonians and would pass before the law was repealed on March 16, the City Police had improved, largely due to the hire of an 1956, thanks to City Council member Henry B. González who LGBT liaison at SAPD” (Jhery Hallman quoted in Sorg). Since had also voted against the original ordinance along with fellow the city did not want bad publicity or lost dollars, it was essential Council member Emil O. Scherlen. Later in 1956, Gonzalez was for the SAPD to build bridges with the LGBT community. elected to the Texas state senate. In May 1957, Sen. González In contrast to improvements within the City Police force, joined Sen. Abraham Kazen in a legendary 36-hour filibuster that however, the relationship with San Antonio Park Police had prevented passage of a sweeping series of bills designed to extend changed very little by 2005. The Park Police increased its and intensify segregation in Texas. undercover contingent. In addition, Park Police began “video- and audio-taping public-indecency busts” (Sorg). Such videotaping t the same time that African Americans and Mexican was largely a form of self-defense rather than an effort to protect Americans experienced segregation and ostracism in gay men from police groping, harassment or entrapment. Park public parks and swimming pools, LGBT people in Police, that is, were trying to deflect charges of enticing gay men San Antonio suffered harassment, police entrapment, to engage in sex (Sorg). and arrest in public parks. “In San Antonio,” according In terms of their percentage in the population, however, gay to Melissa Gohlke in The Entrapment Operations in San Antonio men were arrested much more frequently than straight couples. Parks Collection, an archive donated to the UTSA Libraries by As Nathan pointed out in “Homo Patrol,” “a hetero pair, hard at it LGBT activist Michael McGowan, “police had been ferreting out in the bushes or in a car on lover’s lane, generally elicited a wink, gay cruisers in Travis Park—located in the heart of the city—since or at worst, a warning from cops and the citizenry. Meanwhile, the 1940s.” As she points out, however, “undercover operations super-market magazines frequently run articles advising wives to and demonization of those caught in the web of such actions” spice up marriages with risqué sex romps in a forest or on the were not “indicative only of the era that predated Stonewall.” beach” (10).

ikewise, Park Police have cracked down on the homeless who seek refuge in city parks. Signs forbid “sleeping and loitering” in the park between “11pm and 5am.” Skateboarding and rollerboarding are also banned, even though Segway riders cruise the park or tour the city on Segways. In contrast, homeless people are closely watched, dispersed or cited by the police for “loitering”. Even jaywalking, of which Michael Brown was accused, has been used to deter the homeless from the area around Travis Park. When double standards of enforcement are used for different demographic groups, police policies would seem to have no legitimacy. When examining how the homeless have been pushed out of Travis Park, one must look not only at city ordinances about panhandling, public camping, loitering, and sleeping in public but also look at park design and aesthetics. One evening, as I strolled across Travis Park, I happened to look up at the towering structure of the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, a complex

that incorporates the shell of the former Municipal Auditorium as well as a newly constructed building. To the northeast, I was conscious of the expensive new lofts that line Broadway as well as, further down, the Pearl Brewery shopping complex. To the south along Travis St. were proposed new buildings of Weston. Beginning in late 2013 and continuing into 2014, Travis Park underwent major renovations. The park now provides recycling bins, filtered water, and free Mutt Mitts. Workers have planted new shrubs, potted plants, small trees, and colorful flowers. Two Civil War cannons are freshly painted. The Popcorn Wagon, a concession stand that sells drinks and snacks, is parked along a sidewalk that leads to the Confederate monument. At mid-day during the work week, a variety of food trucks line Jefferson St. on the eastern side of the park. Wooden picnic tables offer a place to have lunch under the trees. In addition, yellow and blue metal tables with umbrellas encircle the Confederate monument during the workday. For office workers who want a pleasant site to eat their lunch rather than wait in a crowded restaurant, these portable tables are ideal. A small yellow and blue kiosk loans books and games to park visitors. At first glance, little may seem problematic about the new amenities. However, the new features of the park seem designed to exclude certain populations. The games kiosk and the portable metal tables that encircle the monument are available only from 11am to 2pm. After the mid-day lunch crowd disperses, they are taken down and stored in an on-site shed. Such storage protects the tables from birds and squirrels but also prevents people who live outside from resting at the tables. Those features of the park that are most inviting disappear in the early afternoon. Thus, the overall design of the park seems planned to discipline and

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Responding to sensationalized reports about “homosexual acts” in parks, authorities planned “a massive police operation that would completely ignore public sex between heterosexuals, downplay commonplace ‘flashing’ and exhibitionism, and instead focus obsessively on gays” (11). What one sees, then, is a double standard that ignores ordinary lewdness or public sex between straight people — singling out gay men for arrest even if entrapment is necessary. Just as African Americans and Mexican Americans were subject to discrimination in 19th and 20th century public parks, so LGBT people have been denied their civil rights and treated as second-class citizens unworthy of fair treatment.

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disperse those who cannot afford hotel fees or rent for housing. For that same interim, food trucks park on the north side so that tourists and downtown workers will have easy access. For longer hours on weekdays and weekends, the Popcorn Wagon sits in the middle of the park, offering snacks and drinks and playing buoyant pop music. Prices at the food trucks limit the consumers who can purchase treats. At the popcorn wagon, I saw bottled water sold for $2.00, corn dogs for $3.00, nachos for $4.00, cotton candy for $4.00, frito pie for $4.50, a large tea or lemonade for $3.50 and so on. While some can afford such prices, I cannot as an adjunct English instructor at San Antonio College. I saw an entire wedding party in tasteful burgundy gowns and black tuxedoes pose in front of park trees and flowers for wedding photos. The bride in her wedding dress also posed in front of the Popcorn Wagon. In my blue jeans and worn shoes, I wondered if the bridal party would be made anxious or upset by my presence.

Parallel to Pecan St. on the north side of the park is a tiny dog park in a cramped space in which a bench, a dog fountain, and a small shade tree are enclosed within a black steel fence. Over several months, I noticed only a couple of individuals sitting inside with their pets. In short, the dog park is not a very inviting space, although, it allows owners to rest for a moment if they are tired of keeping an eye on their pets. Its two functional purposes seem to be to provide an imposing security fence for the storage shed and to take up unused space near Pecan St. to discourage the unwanted visitors such as the homeless who arrive in San Antonio at the Greyhound station just two blocks away. For a brief period after the city reopened Travis Park, another feature appeared: an abstract sculpture. A steel chain held up with short steel posts encircled the sculpture. White, triangular shapes were attached to crossed wooden beams, seemingly made of raw lumber. A generous observer might associate the shape with a boat sail. One might ask, though, what relevance a boat with a sail had to San Antonio, its culture, or its history. Alternatively, the white shapes could also have represented reptilian scales or sharp blades. An acquaintance described them as “porcupine-like.” The sculpture seemed hostile, even violent, and exclusionary. Signs attached to the an iron-linked chain announced, “Do not climb on the artwork.” I typically am open to all forms of aesthetic expression but I bristled with anger when I saw it. Unlike most public sculptures, this one failed to engage viewers. In contrast, one might consider such colorful works as Dale Chihully’s Fiesta Tower at the main library or Sebastián’s La Antorcha de la

Amistad in the center of town. Both have attracted many visitors. The sculpture in the park, however, although designed by local architecture students representing “community,” seemed cold, unfriendly and uninviting. A couple of months after I first noticed the sculpture, it had partially collapsed, a testament to its flimsy, unstable design. Within days, the city had removed the sculpture. As with the dog park, it had served little purpose except, for a time, to take up space and to discourage the homeless from lingering on the grounds. What is most noticeable now in Travis Park is the decreased presence of homeless people, a development that will please many well-to-do visitors. Within the public-private partnership that is in the process of re-“developing” all of downtown, pushing the homeless out of the park is a major victory. Even the B-cycle Station, where bicycles can be rented for a $10-a-day pass, a $24 seven-day pass, or an annual pass for $80 seems designed to appeal to the affluent. The B Station contains the names and logos of corporate sponsors. A sign tells bike riders to order from “local restaurants and discover healthier meals with tons of flavor, not fat or sodium.” The restaurants include Luby’s, Delicious Tamales, McDonald’s, Pico de Gallo, Jim’s, Estela’s Mexican Restaurant, Papouli’s Greek Grill and others. While low-fat meals are indeed available at all of these, I do not normally associate healthy food with many of these restuarants. The public-private partnership is not only about marketing and public relations, however. Private businesses also have a vested interest in segregating the poor and homeless and discouraging their presence in the park. In all of these goals, the public-private partnership has succeeded. On September 3, 2014, Police Chief William McManus proposed to the City Council’s Public Safety Committee that an ordinance be passed giving police authority to ticket those who give money to panhandlers. It would be a crime to panhandle or to give money, food, or other items to panhandlers. According to him, the measure would help reduce aggressive panhandling, especially in the Prospect Hill neighborhood where Haven for Hope is located. What he does not mention is that the concentration of homeless people at Haven for Hope has been made possible by aggressive efforts to push them out of downtown. As a resident of Prospect Hill since 2003 and someone who drives by Haven for Hope almost daily, I am appalled that Chief McManus would try to pit the interests of Westside residents against the homeless population when, in fact, it is affluent people in other parts of the city who initially drove homeless people to the Westside. Taking inspiration from Mexican American, African American, and LGBT historical struggles against an elite class of city movers and shakers, San Antonians who live on the streets and their housed allies must step up to protest both the social segregation of homeless people and the criminalization of homelessness. v Bio: Rachel Jennings, a local poet and teacher is a member of Travis Park United Methodist Church and buena gente of the Esperanza. Works cited can be requested from lavoz@esperanzacenter.org

by Tarcísio Beal iven the fact that discrimination against and mistreatment of women is carried out mostly by persons who call themselves Christian or religious and who adduce the Bible or their Holy Writ to justify their actions, I believe it is important to take a look at the validity of their claims. Today millions of Catholics live the expectation that Pope Francis will finally carry on a major structural reform of the Catholic Church. However, if women in the Church are not accorded equal treatment and allowed to participate equally in running the institution and participating in ministry, reform will go nowhere. So far Pope Francis has said no to women in the priesthood. The Church’s view on human sexuality needs a major overhaul as well. Misogynism, or the hatred of and discrimination against women, is as old as humankind. Women have been the victims of the worst forms of discrimination because the male of the species has controlled familial, social, political, and religious systems ever since tribe and society were organized. Here I wish to address the justification of anti-female prejudice in the name of God and the Bible by arguing that it stands in frontal contradiction to the God of Jesus and to the example of Jesus and of the early Church. In this article, I will address the issue of how women are presented in the Old Testament; then I shall deal with it from the perspective of the New Testament. As Jesuit biblical expert, John L. McKenzie, notes — it is absurd to read Genesis as telling us anything about the structure of the visible universe or displays the faintest notion of the process of its development: “The Bible cannot be defended by denying demonstrable scientific truth” or by reading it in contradiction to the God of Jesus of Nazareth. It was quite embarrassing for the Catholic Church when in 1909 the Vatican’s Pontifical Biblical Commission (today’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith), which Pius X in 1907 had invested with “infallibility,” insisted that all Catholics must accept the first 3 chapters of Genesis literally. It fumbled badly again in its condemnation of Galileo in 1633. Genesis also states what the Hebrew tradition failed to honor, namely, that God created both male and female in his own image, therefore radically equal and “divine” (Gen 1: 37). Genesis 2 does not, as has been interpreted, tell us that all humans originated from a single couple or that God gave Adam, the male dominion over Eve, the female. Genesis 3, the story of the Garden of Eve, has received all kinds of odd

woman who marries, then is found not to be a virgin (Deut 22: 13-21); and it refuses to pardon certain offenses, no matter how small (Deut 23: 4-7); 1 Sam 3: 12-15). It praises the murder of a woman, then rewards the killer and his descendants (Num 15: 6-15); condemns witchcraft, then resorts to it by ordering Moses to make a bronze serpent so that the

Israelites who look at it can be spared from the plague (Num 21: 4-9). It acknowledges the existence of other

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interpretations but it is actually a myth which deals with the realities of the human condition. To see the story of the apple and the serpent as related to uncontrolled sexual appetite is totally contrary to its meaning. For the Hebrews, the serpent was the symbol of the goddess of fertility, a cult typical of the ancient religions and from which the Israelites were to refrain. To see the apple and the serpent as symbols of sexuality is to miss the whole point of the story. Reading the Old Testament literally creates all kinds of pitfalls which contradict the God of Jesus and the true God of Israel. It leads to a god who tolerates slavery (Gen 20: 17; Ex 21; Deut 16: 2-18; Lev 25: 44-46), polygamy (Gen 29: 15: 30), bigamy (Gen 1: 43; 29: 15-30; Deut 21: 15-17), incest (Gen 31: 7-13; 38: 6-30), rape (Gen 38: 6-10), concubinage (Gen 22: 24; 29: 15-30; 35: 21-26) and the abuse of people without legitimate reason (Gen 16: 16). It discriminates against women (Num 12: 1-15; ch. 36; Lev 12: 1-5; 18: 20; Deut 20: 15-17; Lev 12: 1-5); practices war, vengeance, and genocide (Jos 6: 10, 11; Num 21; Sam 15) making no distinction between the guilty and the innocent (Ex., chs. 7-12; 15: 1-21; ch. 16; 23: 27-33; Psalms 2, 18, 20, 58, 68, 109, 135, 137, 149; Ez 21: 13-17; Gen 18: 16-32; Num 31: 1-8; Deut 7: 1-10). and favors one person while cursing another (Abel over Cain; Jacob over Esau). It orders the death penalty against adultery (Deut 22: 23-37; Judges 30), blasphemy (Lev 24: 13-14; 1 Sam 3: 2-15), rebellious children (Deut. 21: 18-21; Lev 20: 9), a

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gods, but wants to be the greatest, so orders massacres and more massacres against Amorites,

Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites, “who I shall exterminate” (Jos 7-12). Obviously, these are not actions carried out or ordained by the true God of Israel but of a god manufactured to do the bidding of the writers of the Old Testament. Furthermore, fundamentalists read the Bible to suit up what they want to believe and disregard what they find inconvenient. For instance, Deuteronomy 23: 20 prohibits charging interest on money or food or on anything lent to a neighbor, but allows charging interest to a foreigner. Leviticus 19: 27-28 commands that “you must not round off your hair at the edges nor trim your beard; and you are not to tattoo yourselves.” As Phyllis Bird notes — ancient Israel inherited the taboos of clan and tribe and some filtered into the Bible. Sexuality was looked at from the male viewpoint, that is, as a form of domination. The woman was seen as an abnormality, her vagina as wound and her menstrual bleeding as a form of castration. The world of the Old Testament is a male’s world, it is about the wars of the males, the affairs of the males, their cult worship, government and laws. The latter were largely copied from ancient Mesopotamia and spelled out a system of patriarchate, with patrilineal descent and patrilocal residency, the extended family under one male, and the acceptance of polygamy, polygyny, and concubinage, the practice of slavery and a thorough enshrining of the double standard. The community of ancient Israel — adds Bernard Prusak — was addressed through its male members in all laws containing specific religious obligations (Ex 20: 19, 22, 22-24, 31; Lev 13” 9, 40; Num 6: 2) and society was defined as a community of adult males (Ex 19: 14-15; Judges 7: 2; 4: 13) The wife’s contribution was through her sexuality, which was seen as the exclusive property of the husband. A woman’s adultery was a crime punishable by death (Lev 20: 10, 14), regardless of the rights of her proprietor, i. e., her husband. In the religious sphere, women were loaded with a number of disabilities. Israel’s oldest law was circumcision, the male initiation rite, a tradition inherited from tribal life, where it had prophylactic purposes. Only males were obliged to attend the main annual feasts, which were the most important acts of Israel as a community under God, and only males were allowed to offer sacrifices. The woman was forbidden to offer sacrifice because her active sexuality made her impure. It would be no exaggeration to state that in ancient Hebrew society the female was a nonperson, a thing, an object, a piece of property. Most laws do not even acknowledge her existence, much less her rights and dignity. If she could not bear children, she as was seen as disgraced and abandoned by God, her status as a wife in jeopardy and she was denied the honor and authority attached to motherhood (Gen 16: 2ff, 15-20; 30: 1-8, 22-23, 26; I Sam1: 3-7, 11; 2 Sam 6: 20-23; 1 Kings 3: 16-27). The males

who abused women did it with impunity. David and Solomon have been glorified as great men while the record of the Books of Samuel and Kings say otherwise. Even the story of David slaying Goliath is contradicted in 2 Samuel 21: 19, 23, 24, where Elhanan, son of Jair of Bethlehem is listed as the slayer of Goliath. David had 16 sons altogether from 7 wives in Hebron, then Solomon and Ammon in Jerusalem from Bathsheba, whom he made one more of his wives by ordering the killing of her husband Uriah; then Yahweh kills the innocent son born out of the adultery, while David is left conveniently off the hook. The royal palace was full of intrigues, with David having ten more concubines. When his son Ammon rapes his sister Tamar, David does nothing but proclaim his love for Ammon. Enraged, his son

Absalom vows to kill his brother and later turns against his own father ( 1 Sam 16: 18; 2 Sam 3: 2-5; 5: 13-16; 21: 1-14; 20: 3; 1 Chron 3: 1-9; 1 Kings 1). If David’s behavior was bad enough, that of his son Solomon, whom McKenzie calls “a thug like his father,” went beyond bad. It ended in idolatry and treason to Yahweh and slavery for his own people. He also betrayed the Covenant with Yahweh by worshipping Astrate, the goddess of the Sidonians, Milcom, the god of the Amorites, and Chemosh, the god of the Moabites, building shrines in high places for them so that his foreign wives could offer incense and sacrifice to their gods (1 Kings 11: 5-8). He was anything but a wise king. His lust for women surpassed that of any other historical figure: He is said to have had 700 wives of royal rank and 300 concubines (1 Kings 10: 14-29; 11: 3-4; 2 Chron 9: 1-18). Now, while Genesis and Exodus have little which can be called historical, historical fact is transmitted in abundance in Chronicles, Kings, Samuel, and Judges. Still, the status of women in Israelite society improved only minimally. Only latest law codes grant women indirect and qualified equality (Num 6: 2ff; 30: 3-15). That’s why the behavior of Jesus toward women was so counter-culture and scandalized his contemporaries. I repeat once more: if we do not read the Bible from the perspective of the true God of Israel and of Jesus of Nazareth, it can be used to justify all kinds of behavior and horrors. To use the Bible to condemn, to exclude, to pass judgment right and left, to find what is not there, especially in terms of human sexuality, is to falsify it, and to insult the Holy Spirit. I shall return to this issue at a later date, as we look at women in the New Testament and the early Church. v Bio: Tarcísio Beal, S. T. L., Ph. D. is Professor Emeritus of the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas

Aug. 17, 1931 Aug. 24, 2014 eloved Ranchera singer, Anita Janet Cortez, known by her stage name, “Perla Tapatia” died on August 24, 2014 after spending a short time in the hospital surrounded by friends and family. She died hearing stories of her life and times and listening to songs that her compañeras from Las Tesoros de San Antonio sang to her as they reminisced about their lives. An occasional joke from Rita or a familiar canto would result in a momentary flutter of Perla’s eyes or a small gesture of recognition. Her compañera of 34 years, Marie A. Torres, faithfully accompanied Perla in her last days at the hospital and then at home with her family. The final rosary and funeral offered friends and family an opportunity to get to know Perla a little better before being laid to rest. Part of the Golden Age of Ranchera singers, Perla was born in San Antonio to a single unwed mother in 1931 who gave her up for adoption. Her mother was Anglo, but Perla grew up a Mexicana adopted by the Cortez family. She was lovingly teased with nicknames like “la güerita” and “la gringita.” Her brother recalled her being brought home by his mother toppling him from his roost as “the baby.” Thereafter, he became the “big brother” and the two remained inseparable throughout their lives often fishing together and sharing a lifetime of experiences.

In 1973 Perla was diagnosed with throat cancer which led to a lifetime of struggle and 40 operations of the trachea. She even stopped singing for a while. After losing part of her voice box to cancer, she lived with the aid of a tracheostomy, an open airway in her throat. Her doctor told her she would never sing again. Despite this prediction, Perla began singing again and returned to the doctor to show him that he had been wrong. She was the only known singer to sing with a tracheostomy. In 2013, she was diagnosed with lung cancer and recently developed complications including pneumonia. At the funeral, both of her families — the family Perla grew up with and her family of origin whom she reclaimed in the last decades of her life, were present. The surviving members of Las Tesoros, Rita Vidaurri, Beatriz Llamas, and Blanquita Rodríguez sang farewell to Perla at her grave site at Mission Burial Park South. The Esperanza Center extends our heartfelt condolences to Perla’s partner of 34 years, Marie A. Torres, Perla’s families, Las Tesoros de San Antonio and her many, adoring fans. Perla Tapatía’s last public appearance was at Rita Vidaurri’s 90th birthday tribute sponsored by the Esperanza Center at the Guadalupe Theater in May of 2014 where she sang a rousing “Fallaste Corazón” to Rita. She received a standing ovation. QEPD v

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Perla grew up on Matamoros St. in the Westside of San Antonio. She began singing as a young girl at a family event at the Cabana Night Club when Meme Reyes asked her to perform on the spot. Perla got her first big break when she sang with Mexican comic, Tin Tán, at the Municipal Auditorium in the mid-fifties. In order to perform on stage, she had to borrow a ranchera costume from famed singer, Lydia Mendoza. Having established herself as a ranchera singer, Perla performed throughout the U.S. and Mexico. In later years she adopted her own style using a black bolero hat and colorful dramatic capes called ruanas that were designed by her niece, Connie Cortez. At her rosary, each of the Tesoros de San Antonio, whom Perla sang with in recent years, received one of Perla’s ruanas. Rita was gifted the blue one — this in spite of the fact that Blanca laid claim to it as a Lanier graduate. Blanca received Perla’s purple ruana and Beatriz, the youngest of the Tesoros, got the red cape. Marie, Perla’s life companion, kept the black cape, Perla’s first ruana.

* community meetings *

Amnesty International #127 Call Arthur @ 210.213.5919.

People’s Power Coalition meets last Thursdays. Call 210.878.6751

Bexar Co. Green Party: Call 210. 471.1791|info@bexargreens.org

PFLAG, meets 1st Thurs. @ 7pm, University Presbyterian Church 300 Bushnell Ave. Call 210.848.7407.

Celebration Circle meets Sunday, 11am@SA Garden Ctr., 3310 N. New Braunfels. Meditation: Wednesdays @7:30pm, Quaker Mtg House, 7052 Vandiver. Call 210.533.6767. DIGNITY S.A. Sun. mass @ 5:30 pm Beacon Hill Presb. Church, 1101 W. Woodlawn. Call 210.340.2230 Adult Wellness Support Group of PRIDE Center meets 4th Mondays, 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 Call 210.927.2294 Habitat for Humanity volunteers meet 1st Tues. 6pm, @ 311 Probandt. LULAC Council #22198, Orgullo de SA, meets 3rd Wed. @ 6:30pm @ Luby’s, 911 Main Ave., Alamo Room. E-mail: salgbtlulac@gmail.com NOW SA meets 3rd Weds, Check FB/satx.now for times and location. 210.802.9068|nowsaareachapter@ gmail.com Proyecto Hospitalidad Liturgy meets Thursday @ 7pm, 325 Courtland.

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SA IWD Planning Committee organizes year-round. 210.262. 0654|www.sawomenwillmarch.org

Metropolitan Cmty . Church services & Sunday school @10:30am, 611 East Myrtle. Call 210.472.3597 Overeaters Anonymous meets MWF in Spanish/daily in English: www. oasanantonio.org | 210.492.5400.

The United Way Combined Federal Campaign is Here!

Parents of Murdered Children, meets 2nd Mondays @ Balcones Heights Community Ctr, 107 Glenarm See www.pomcsanantonio.org. Rape Crisis Center 7500 US Hwy 90W. Hotline: 210.349.7273 |210.521.7273 Email: sgabriel@ rapecrisis.com The Religious Society of Friends meets Sundays @10am @ The Friends Meeting House, 7052 N. Vandiver. 210.945.8456.

Give to the Esperanza Peace & Justice Center at your workplace, today! Use the appropriate code:

The SA Communist Party, USA meets 2nd Sundays, 3-5 pm @ Bazan Library, 2200 W. Commerce St. Call Hernándo 210.396.6394. S.A. Gender Association meets 1st & 3rd Thursdays., 6-9pm @ 611 E. Myrtle, Metropolitan Cmty Church.

Combined Federal Campaign (Gov’t/military) code: 77773

The SA AIDS Fdn 818 E. Grayson St. offers free Syphilis & HIV testing, 210.225.4715|www.txsaaf.org.

City of San Antonio: 8022

SGI-USA LGBT Buddhists meet 2nd Sat. at 10am @ 7142 San Pedro Ave., Ste 117. Call 210.653.7755.

Bexar County: 8022 City/County I.S.D.s: 8022

Shambhala Buddhist Meditation classes: Tuesdays 7-8pm & Sundays 9:30am-12:30pm, 257 E. Hildebrand Ave. Call 210.222.9303.

State of Texas Employee Charitable Campaign: 413013

S.N.A.P. (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests). Contact Barbara at 210.725.8329.

¡Todos Somos Esperanza!

Voice for Animals: 210.737.3138 or www.voiceforanimals.org for info SA’s LGBTQA Youth meet Tuesdays 6:30 pm at Univ. Presb. Church, 300 Bushnell Ave. See www.fiesta-youth.org

For more info: call 210.228.0201 or email esperanza@esperanzacenter.org

Start your 2014 tax-deductible donations to Esperanza today! La Voz Subscription $35 Individuals $100 Institutions

for more info call 210.228.0201

Please use my donation for the Rinconcito de Esperanza

Notas Notas YY Más Más

October 2014

Dr. Arjun Makhijani will speak on High-level Radioactive Waste: What San Antonio Needs to Know NOW, Thursday, October 2nd at 7pm in the Fiesta Room (CUC 111), Coates Center, Trinity University. Contact: Dr. McGuire at 210.999.8560. Nominations are open for 2015 & 2016 State Musician, Poet Laureate & Artists (2D & 3D). Deadline: October 15th. See: www.arts.texas.gov/initiatives/ texas-state-artist/ The Ctr for Mexican American Studies (CMAS) at UT Austin and the Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa will host “El Mundo Zurdo 2015: Memoria y Conocimiento, Interdisciplinary Anzalduan Studies -- Archive, Legacy, and Thought” May 2730, 2015 @ UT-Austin. Proposal deadline: October 15th. Search El Mundo Zurdo 2015 for info.

Join Texas Families for Justice Friday, Nov. 7th, 12-3 pm rallying at the State Capitol. Co-sponsored by Texas C.U.R.E., the Texas Inmate Family Association (TIFA), and Texas Voices. See: www.texasfamiliesforjustice.org. Writing for Social Justice with Barbara Renaud González is being offered by Gemini Ink on Tuesdays, Oct. 28 - Nov. 18, 6:30-8pm. | www.geminiink.org An Hispanic Student Summit will be held at the Trinity River Campus of Tarrant County College, November 1 & 2. Contact TACHE Northeast rep: joseangelgutierrez@yahoo.com

Agradecimientos

Didi Adiakpan • Silvia Álvarez & George Muñoz • Janie Barrera • Marisela Barrera • Juan y María Cárdenas • Theresa Solis Camero & Paul Camero • Mario Carbajal • Margarita Casas • Antonia Castañeda & Arturo Madrid • Kat Cook • Esmeralda & Mario De Los Santos • Lila Downs & Paul Cohen • Patti Elizondo • Diana Fernández • Jessica Fuentes • Eduardo García • Graciela García • Anayanse Garza & Alexis Cruz • Patricia De La Garza • Sara Garza • Gisele Gonzáles • Donna Guerra • Sarah E. Harte • Amanda Haas • Richard Hernández • Araceli Herrera • Frances Herrera • Rachel Hinojosa • Patricia West Houck & Lyssa A. Jenkins • Robert Huesca • Julian Ledezma • Ruth Lofgren • Max Martínez • Debbie McBride • Cristina Martínez • Olga Martínez • Elvia Valdes Medina • Angie Merla & Jimmy Kitchen • Harvey Mireles • Angel O’Campo • Ben Olguin • Jan Olsen • Mariana Ornelas • Antonia Padilla • Cynthia Pérez • Patrick Pineda • CoYoTe PhoeNix • Martha Prentiss • Mimi Quintanilla & David Schmidt • Ana Lucia Ramírez • Gloria A. Ramírez • Richard Reams • Blanca, Jaime y Anheli Rivera • Bryan Rodríguez • Grace Rosales • Ricky Rosas • Tiffany Ross • Maria Salazar & JoAnn Castillo • Lilliana Saldaña • Bernard Sánchez • Graciela Sánchez & Amy Kastely • Gustavo Sánchez • Isabel & Enrique Sánchez • Adolfo Segura • David Spener & Marsha Krassner • Cynthia Spielman • Lillian Stevens • TK Tunchez • Maria Elena Useda • Ana & Joe Uviedo • Micaela Valadez • Nickie Valdez & Deborah Myers • Brad Veloz & Mike Rodríguez • Eddie Velásquez • Arturo Vilchis • Tom Walker • Rosario Yañez • Terry Ybañez • Tomas Ybarra Frausto & Dudley Brooks • Esperanza Staff • Graciela Carrillo, Graciela’s Creations • Guillermo Garza, Guillermo’s Restaurant • Monica de la O, Tailgate Bistro • J.T Silva & the Majestic Staff & Volunteers • Pauline Saldaña & Sheraton Staff • Rosario’s Mexican Cafe y Cantina • Tino Durán Jr. & La Prensa Team • Trinity University

Saturday, October 11, 2014

@ Columbus Park, W. Martin & San Saba Rally 1PM to 3:30 | Assembly 3:30-4PM March Ends at Main Plaza 5PM Evening Rally Northside Court House Steps Park Texas Indigenous Council Antonio Diaz 210.542.9271 or IndigenousWay@gmail. com or Javier Sanchez 210.724.3400 • Fuerza Unida • SWU • SUSJ • and more

MARCH FOR JUSTICE • MARCH FOR EQUALITY • MARCH FOR INDIGENOUS HUMAN RIGHTS

LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • October 2014 Vol. 27 Issue 8•

Thursday, October 16th, 6-9pm, PFLAG GOES PURPLE with a Karaoke Fundraiser at Deco’s Pizzeria, 1815 Fredericksburg Rd. | www.glaad.org/spiritday

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.

LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • October 2014 Vol. 27 Issue 8• Friday & Saturday, November 28 & 29, 2014

25th Annual International Mercado de Paz / Peace Market fri. oct 3 at 7pm

Plática @ Esperanza

sat. oct 4 at 11am

Open Dialogue

VENDOR APPLICATIONSrd

@ Casa de Cuentos, 816 S. Colorado w/ Nina Wilson, co-founder of Idle No More

Amy Goodman Democracy Now

Tues, Oct. 7 7:30PM @ Stieren Theater Free

Due Friday, October 3

available at www.esperanzacenter.org or stop by 922 San Pedro, M-F 10am-7pm

Join us for our monthly concert series

Trinity University’s Maverick Lecture Series

La Voz de Esperanza

Noche Azul de Esperanza

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

Azul with her mother

Cuca Morales de Barrientos Saturday Oct. 18th 8pm

@ Esperanza, $5 más o menos

join us for our annual

Artists, Writers, Buena Gente ! Submit your

LITERARY OFRENDAS! 300-500 word limit + 2 photos

Calavera HAIKUS! 3-line poems with a 5/7/5 syllable count

Pay tribute to your dearly departed, whether people, places, pets, or bygone days!

A new genre! Mock or pay tribute to death in haiku!

CALAVERAS! 300 word limit

CALAVERA ARTWORK

Target your favorite politicos and personalities with killer poetic satire!

featuring Calacas (skeletons) or Katrinas Email submissions to lavoz@esperanzacenter.org

Community Altares at the Casa de Cuentos.

Call 210.228.0201 to reserve a space or for more info.

santos y muertos Exhibit & Sale

featuring ceramic day of the dead artwork

DEAD line: MONDAY Oct. 6TH for Nov. Voz & Dia de los Muertos Celebration

Sat. Oct 18 - NOV 1 MON-SAT 10am-5pm @ MujerArtes 1412 El Paso | 210.223.2585