Insider Magazine Spring 2010

theinsider Sergio de Karlo The Cuban Maestro’s Last Interview: An Insider Exclusive

Marijuana

Marijuana Is on the Ballot Again — and Coming to a Clinic Near You.

The ‘Arizona Law’ The ‘May March’ Protest Takes Strides Against Anti-Latino Legislation.

Chessboxing

A New Hybrid Sport Debuts in L.A.

and more inside...

Glendale Community College

theinsider

Glendale Community College Magazine Spring 2010

From the Editor

The Insider - two years later Welcome to The Insider!

The Insider is now starting its third year as the Glendale Community College campus magazine.

Since its debut in Spring 2008, the Insider has won 14 awards in state and regional competition including two coveted general excellence awards, and three first-place wins in opinion and feature writing.

For several years, Journalism 107, Magazine Writing, has been a class offering of the Language Arts Department. And while many students have gone on to have their work published, there was never a campus showcase for their talent until The Insider filled that void. Our fourth issue is the largest to date, and covers a broad spectrum of topics from bolero music to chessboxing. We have added poetry and art, and expanded the always-popular profile section.

The Insider’s online edition features all the stories of the print copy plus more — more stories, more photographs, and interactive media.

We are also experimenting with Magcloud, a print-on-demand service offered by Hewlett–Packard, to reach a larger audience than the campus community.

The world of journalism is constantly evolving, but we believe that a good story, well told, is still the essence of journalism, regardless of the medium that conveys the message.

— Jane Pojawa, editor-in-chief

Volume 3

Number I

People:

An internationally famous composer, a rapper who advocates for education, and an actress who explodes stereotypes from the inside out.

Arts & Letters:

New poetry and illustrations from Angela Lee and Jack Najarium.

Challenges:

Illegal immigration is causing a crisis throughout the Southwest. This year’s “May March” specifically protested Arizona’s SB1070 law.

The proliferation of marijuana clinics and dispensaries has many communities concerned. Here’s more on the new legislation.

Campus:

Heard of Jump Start? More teenagers than ever are taking advantage of classes and programs not available on their primary campuses.

Community:

The Americana, love it or hate it? Two reporters look at Brand Boulevard.

Sports: On Our Cover:

Sergio de Karlo, “King of the Cuban Bolero,” was many things – an innovative composer, an actor, a dancer, and even a GCC student. In his last interview, an Insider exclusive, he shares his passion for music and for life.

Pages 4-8.

More and more people are bicycling for transportation and recreation; here’s why you should consider trying two wheels.

Chessboxing is a new hybrid sport that’s causing a stir. Find out more about the unlikely history of a discipline that merges Kung-fu movies with rap music and comic books.

insider

the

Glendale Community College Magazine SPRING 2010

Volume 3

Number I

editor in chief

Here’s What’s

Inside

...

Jane Pojawa

Sergio De Karlo, The Maestro of Cuban Bolero

STAFF WRITERS

by Louis Roche . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Graig Agop Zee Alexan Gagik Ambartsumyan Agnes Constante Edwin Lopez Ariel Oakley Adriana Orellana Isiah Reyes Louis Roche Catherine Yesayan faculty adviser

Michael Moreau mmoreau@glendale.edu (818) 551-5214 advertising

Jeff Smith jsmith@glendale.edu (818) 240-1000, ext. 1427

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Just a Thought

by Angela Lee and Jack Najarian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

page 7

Manny Bracamonte Pops a Cap in Positive Rap

by Isiah Reyes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

page 8

Shoshannah Ain’t No Hootchie

by Graig Agop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 12

May March

by Adriana Orellana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 16

Permanency

by Angela Lee and Jack Najarian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 20

California: Planting the Seeds of Change

by Edwin Lopez . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 21

Print copies are arvailable for sale at http://gccinsider.magcloud.com

Jump Start: younger students getting ahead

by Agnes Constante . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 25

Bad Glendale

To submit an idea or an article: The insider accepts story ideas in news, features, profiles, sports and entertainment from the public. Send ideas or articles, to the editor at editor@gccinsider.com or (818) 551-5349.

Letters to the Editor: Letters may be reproduced in full or in part and represent only the point of view of the writer, not the opinion of The Insider or Glendale Community College and its district. Letters must be signed and typed and include the full name and address of the writer. The Insider is a First Amendment publication.

Send letters to: 1500 N. Verdugo Road, Glendale, CA 91208 (818) 240-1000 ext. 5349 Send E-mail to: jane_pojawa@gccinsider.com

by Jane Pojawa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 29

The Americana

by Catherine Yesayan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 35

What About Brand?

By Zee Alexan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Two wheels are better than none

by Gagik Ambartsumyan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Chessboxing Comes to Los Angeles

by Jane Pojawa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Applying for Assistance Member of the Journalism Association of Community Colleges

page 37

page 39

page 41

by Ariel Oakley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 45

Sergio De Karlo The Maestro of Cuban Bolero “Music is my life and my death, because I’m going to die singing,” says the suave and sophisticated, yet unassuming maestro of the Cuban Bolero as he settles back into his favorite easy chair next to the fireplace. “You know, today is my 97th birthday.”

“My goal is to reach 100,” he says. Sergio De Karlo’s claim is punctuated by his confident attitude, a sign that in his own mind, there is little doubt he is going to make it. His wife Juana beams proudly at him as they prepare to celebrate his birthday with champagne, hors d’oeuvres, family and good friends. As guests come into the living room, they greet the Cuban composer with the kind of dignity and respect shown only to a Sicilian godfather.

When everyone has arrived, the small intimate group gathers in the living room, sitting quietly on the couch in front of the fireplace, as if waiting for instructions or perhaps a few words of wisdom from the guest of honor. Juana breaks the silence: “I remember meeting Sergio for the first time.

He had the looks of 10 men. So handsome, so debonair, so talented, for me it was love at first sight.” She gently and reassuringly touches his shoulder and says, “Tell them about your music, mi vida.”

Sergio gathers his thoughts and eagerly takes the stage once more; this time though, it is only in his mind. As the imaginary curtain goes up, all eyes are on the maestro. Longtime friends and associates listen carefully as Sergio begins to tell his magical story, perhaps for the last time.

Havana “I was born to affluent parents in Havana, Cuba in 1911, and I was blessed with the gift of music,” he says. Sergio credits his earliest musical influences to the legendary composers Johann Strauss and Ernesto Lecuona. As a child, he would sit with his father in the drawing room of the family’s modest estate, listening intently to the classical and regional folk music of Spain on one of the first player pianos available in Cuba. His brother Robert recalls: “Sergio was a musical genius. From as far back as I can remember, he was always singing

the insider | Spring 2010

and dancing. My parents would have him entertain our guests whenever they would come over for parties.”

Early on, Sergio was fascinated with the music of the local African musicians who performed their pulsating rhythms along the seashore on hot and humid Havana nights.

Little did he know at the time, that his acute interest in the traditional ballads of Spain and the rhythmic chants of Africa would come to play such a pivotal role in the birth of the Cuban Bolero.

One balmy evening in July, Sergio’s nanny, Isabel, took him to a tribal celebration in a nearby African village. (The Africans, who lived in Havana at that time, were ex-slaves who had been freed years earlier. They worked in the major cities but preferred to live together in small communities along the seashore.) Young Sergio sat in the village square as twilight approached, watching and listening with keen anticipation as the eerie sounds of pulsating drumbeats and hypnotic chanting began to fill the night air with exhilaration.

A fever pitch ensued as traditional dancers swayed to the pounding beat of the drums. An enormous bonfire crackled in the background, with red-orange flames shooting skyward, enhanced by the soaring palm trees swaying in the tropical wind. The celebration continued throughout the night, with Sergio taking in every moment and every sound.

Something inside him stirred, as he took delight in all that he had seen and heard.

For, after all, it was his first taste of the AfroCuban rhythm.

Sergio recalls, “When I was 14, because of my love for music, my father bought me a violin and a pianola. I never played sports as a boy. My father enrolled me at the Music Conservatory of Cuba when I was very young.” His dream of becoming a musician had suddenly become a reality. Through his studies, Sergio attempted to meld the rhythms of the African tribal chants that had inspired him with the traditional Spanish ballads that he knew and played frequently on the family piano. Somehow though, he couldn’t quite make the connection.

One day, Yoyo, the son of a cook who

­— By Louis Roche

worked for Sergio’s family, came by to visit his father. Sergio persuaded him to play the African drum that he always carried. As the small boy started to play, Sergio began to play a Spanish ballad on the piano. Combining the two musical styles, Sergio and Yoyo inadvertently created some of the first Cuban ballads, or boleros. Because Cuba had very little music of its own at the time, the bolero, along with the Afro-Cuban rhythm, was to become synonymous with Cuban culture.

Sergio was so taken with this new approach to music that he began to convert all of the Spanish ballads that he knew into boleros.

In 1927, at the age of 16, Sergio became a professional entertainer when he was cast as a chorus boy in a musical created by the worldfamous Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona.

Shortly thereafter, he ventured out on his own, forming Arittola, one of the first jazz bands in Cuba. His younger brother Bobby says with pride, “Everyone wanted to be like him in those days. He was good looking and uninhibited. I carried his guitar just so I could be near him.”

At the age of 18, Sergio took a local girl as his lover. After a whirlwind romance, Zorieta Lima became pregnant.

Wanting to do the right thing, the couple soon married and then a baby girl was born, whom they also named Zorieta. Following the birth of their daughter, Sergio became irritable and impatient with home life and began to stay out late looking for excitement and adventure. Being the ever-vigilant ladies man, he fostered a series of love affairs with several of the women whom he had met at the local nightclub where he performed.

Sergio de Karlo, one of the 20th century’s leading Cuban musicians, turned to GCC when he wanted to learn how to digitize his studio. What resulted was a friendship that would last a lifetime.

Dec. 15, 1911 - Jan. 10, 2010 www.gccinsider.com

Photo by Louis Roche

The Tailor While everything seemed to be going well for Sergio, in reality, quite the opposite was true. Because he was attending the Music Conservatory, leading the jazz band and entertaining crowds of adoring girls, his busy schedule left little time for Zorieta and the baby. Still a newlywed, Zorieta quickly became disillusioned with married life and began to seek her passion elsewhere. In the meantime, her family blamed Sergio for her discontent and unhappiness. The girl’s father and his cousin, known as The Tailor (a man who had killed two men and gotten away with it), decided to kill Sergio.

For the next two months, The Tailor sat across the street from Sergio’s apartment building with a loaded pistol, waiting for the wayward husband to come outside into the street, so that he could eliminate the scoundrel. Sergio’s family, although influential, could not refute the accusations involving their son’s offensive behavior and of his neglect for Zorieta.

Consequently, the family had no choice but to deal with the dilemma and its dreadful impact on their lives. By unanimous consensus, the family’s only choice was to make immediate plans for Sergio to leave Cuba and to go to America, as quickly and quietly as possible. After much deliberation, the family conceived a plan that would entail waiting for The Tailor to leave his post, even for an instant, while a cab owned by Sergio’s uncle would be waiting nearby ready to pull up in front of the building and pick up the fleeing musician at a moment’s notice. As if by sheer luck, the opportunity they had been waiting for presented itself two days later.

As Sergio peered from his upstairs window that fateful afternoon watching the gunman’s every move, The Tailor left his post to buy a pack of cigarettes. This was it!

Sergio’s uncle, who had positioned himself strategically around the corner, quickly jumped into his car, gunned the engine, and pulled around to the front entrance of the building where the young Sergio was waiting.

Hastily, he jumped into the back seat of the cab, and proceeded to crouch down onto the floorboards of the car with all of the possessions that he could carry. His uncle sped away without The Tailor ever knowing what had happened.

That night, under the cover of darkness and with $200 in his pocket, Sergio said goodbye to his family and boarded a tramp steamer bound for New York City. Ultimately, his dreams of stardom would be complicated only by his struggle for survival. When he arrived at Ellis Island, Sergio remembered his first impression. “When I first saw New York, I fell in love. I knew that things had happened for a reason. I loved this city, and it

the insider | Spring 2010

loved me.”

As Sergio takes a break from telling his story, the room is filled with subdued chatter.

Voicing their anticipation and excitement, the small group seems truly grateful for his unexpected good fortune and for his harrowing escape from The Tailor. Sergio takes a sip of champagne and prepares to eat a piece of his birthday cake. Suddenly, it seems quite surprising that the year is 2008 and not 1930.

Big Maestro on Campus During the spring semester of 1994, on an unusually warm Thursday afternoon, the members of the computer club of Glendale Community College gathered to discuss the latest technological advancements and to daydream about futuristic innovations. As the students took their seats around the large oval-shaped conference table, the professor proceeded to ask the class if anyone had any computer-related questions or practical problems that the group could solve together.

It was at that moment that a curiously anonymous gentleman, who at first glance seemed to possess the qualities of worldly intelligence, raised his hand, seeking to be recognized. As the class turned around to see who was speaking, they saw an elderly man seated not at the main table with the rest of the class, but by himself in a small, confining desk in the back of the room.

With calculated intent, the old man asked, “Does anyone in the room know how to connect an electronic keyboard to a personal computer?” He continued, “I would like to record and sequence my own music.” After a lengthy discussion, one student said that he

understood what the man wanted to do and that he would be glad to show him how it was done.

The student explained that what was needed was a set of MIDI cables (Musical Instrument Digital Interface). He said that the cables would allow a variety of electronic devices such as computers, synthesizers, or drum machines, to “talk” to each other. The old man seemed satisfied with the answer and said that he would be interested in getting together with this younger student, thus prompting an invitation to his home.

The student accepted the request and went to the man’s house about a week later.

Flores Negras This is how I came to meet the man they call “the Cuban Maestro.” Little did I know at the time, that Sergio’s wisdom and friendship would change my life forever. As I pulled up in front of the house, the old man was already waiting. He proceeded down the front porch steps of his aging home, welcoming me like an old friend. He asked me to call him Sergio.

As we entered the house, he introduced me to his wife Juana, a lovely woman with a pleasant disposition, who appeared to be in her late 40s.

Juana said, “I’m very happy to meet you.

Sergio has been eagerly anticipating your visit all week.” I thanked her and followed Sergio into his “office,” a small converted bedroom off of the kitchen that was filled with more musical instruments and electronic equipment than most recording studios.

Upon closer inspection, the room seemed barely big enough for Sergio, his equipment

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and his desk, let alone two big men.

Approximately 15 by 20 feet, the office served as a library, a recording studio, a screening room, a religious shrine and what seemed to be a sanctuary from the outside world.

Sergio’s claustrophobic, cluttered room was, in fact, a calculated complex of organized chaos. A quick visual survey inventoried the musical instruments packed into every corner of the room: violins, accordions, guitars, electronic keyboards and an old player piano. With characteristic enthusiasm, Sergio rolled up his sleeves and said, “Let’s get to work.” Gathering all of the various electronic pieces, we proceeded to spend the entire afternoon working together in a valiant attempt to make everything work just as Sergio had requested. Unfortunately, the equipment that Sergio had so depended on to fulfill his vision, turned out to be too old and obsolete to be of much use to anyone.

Consequently, the dream of sequencing his music was not to be realized that day.

We were sitting side-by-side, contemplating our next move when Sergio said “I want to play something for you.”

It was a recording of “Flores Negras” by the Mexican singing star Pedro Vargas.

“Well, what do you think?” he said. “What a beautiful song!” I replied. “Who wrote it?” Sergio said, “I did!” He said that he had written “Flores Negras” in 1934, and that it has been recorded more than 100 times by such big name artists as Bing Crosby, Gene Autry, Eydie Gorme and Lawrence Welk, among others. It was his masterpiece.

One afternoon, Sergio produced a moldy trunk of old publicity photos and newspaper clippings from the attic. In thumbing through the vast assortment of old photos, press clippings, stage reviews and PR announcements, I began to fully appreciate the extent of Sergio’s talent and the genius of his professional accomplishments. It was at this moment that I came to understand why Sergio’s music was considered by many to be so intoxicating, so timeless and equal to that of the great masters of Latin music. Sergio became a fixture in my mind as not only a friend, but as an icon: the Maestro of the Cuban Bolero.

Sergio de Karlo wore many hats throughout his long life — musician, songwriter, dancer, actor — and through it all he never stopped creating music.

His contributions to Latin music made him a superstar in Mexico in the 1940s and ’50s.

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As time went on, we spent countless hours talking about the history of Latin music, and Sergio shared his seminal experiences in the creation of the Afro-Cuban rhythm.

Supportive of our friendship and Sergio’s creative endeavors, Juana would generously make us the most delicious Spanish dishes that I had ever eaten.

As Sergio finishes his birthday cake, the room quiets down and the guests take their seats. The imaginary stage curtain rises once again, as he continues with his story.

New York Forced to flee his beloved Cuba because of complications from a failed romance, depression-era New York did not welcome Sergio with open arms. He did, however, manage to find a job as a dancer, entertaining patrons at a Chinese restaurant, thus keeping his show business dreams alive. Sergio explains, “When I arrived in New York, I felt very important. I knew that I would be a star someday, and I was!” Through many hardships and disappointments, Sergio persevered and was eventually offered his first real break in show business. Befriended

by The Gills, a brother and sister vaudeville team, Sergio was asked to perform his own material during their costume changes at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway. The audience loved the enthusiastic young singer.

When Sergio wrote the show’s hit song, “Last of the Rumba’s,” bandleaders such as Andre Kostelanetz and Xavier Cugat quickly began to play it on their radio shows.

Irving Berlin, fascinated by the young man’s knowledge of Afro-Cuban rhythms, offered Sergio a publishing contract for one of his composition’s called “Bagoo,” a song about island life in Cuba.

In 1934, hoping to conquer new horizons, Sergio began to study music with Agustin Lara, the world-renowned Mexican composer of numerous hits, including the Latin standard “Granada.” At this time, Sergio made his singing debut at the Olympia Theatre in Mexico City. He also wrote several songs for a new movie called “Odio,” including the beautiful and romantic ballad “Flores Negras.” This song became an enormous hit, propelling Sergio to major stardom throughout Mexico.

In 1940, Sergio appeared in the Rodgers and Hart Broadway production of “Too Many Girls,” replacing the Hollywood-bound Desi Arnaz as a Cuban heartthrob. In 1942, Sergio wrote a song for President Franklin D. Roosevelt called “Mr. Franklin D.” The President was elated by the composition and gave Sergio the honorary title of “Ambassador of Melody.” Soon after, Sergio launched a tour of Hawaii with the King Sisters, Edgar Bergen and Martha Raye on behalf of the war effort.

Sergio de Karlo Timeline 1911— born in Havana, Cuba 1927— chorus boy in Ernesto Lecuona musical 1930 — moved to New York

performed in various vaudeville and Broadway productions

1934 — performed in Mexico City 1934 — wrote “Flores Negras” 1937— soundtrack Composer for “Los Chicos de la Prensa” (released in America as “The Newspaper Boys”)

1940 — acted in “El Fantasma de Medianoche” (released internationally as “The Midnight Ghost”)

1940 — appeared in Rodgers and Hart’s Broadway production of “Too Many Girls” 1942 — received honorary title, “Ambassador of Melody.” from President Franklin D. Roosevelt 1943— wrote “Paran Pan Pan” for the movie “She’s for Me”

1947— wrote “You’re the Moment of a Lifetime” for the Gene Autry movie “Robin Hood of Texas”

1950 — returned to Mexico starred in a number of theatrical productions before moving to Los Angeles

1994 — took computer classes at Glendale College 2002 — formed Bolero Productions with partners Louis Roche and Sherry Miller 2010 — died in San Gabriel, Calif.

Spring 2010 | the insider

During the early 1940’s, Sergio played many nightclubs in Manhattan. He appeared opposite Carmen Miranda at the Versailles Club and with Xavier Cugat at the Waldorf Astoria. He also co-starred in the Michael Todd/Cole Porter musical “Mexican Hayride,” which ran for four years on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre.

As his career flourished in New York City, Sergio was invited to Hollywood to audition for the leading role in the picture “The Life of Rudolph Valentino.” He also landed a supporting role in the Alan Ladd/Paramount Pictures film “Captain Carey U.S.A.” Playing an Italian minstrel in the film, Sergio introduced the lovely romantic ballad “Mona Lisa” to the world. Written by Ray Evans, this famous song won the Academy Award for best song of 1950 and was later recorded by Nat King Cole.

Returning to Mexico City in 1950, Sergio starred in several feature films.

Along with scoring many other theatrical productions, his songwriting ability and nightclub appearances rendered him the toast of Mexico. After achieving great success for many years in the United States and Mexico, Sergio eventually retired from show business and moved to Los Angeles where he continued to compose and arrange his music.

“Music is my life and my death, because I’m going to die singing” — Sergio De Karlo As Sergio completes his magical story one last time, it’s late and his birthday party comes to a reluctant end. All those in attendance celebrate his life and his music by singing his masterpiece “Flores Negras” in unison.

Bolero Productions I stayed behind to help Juana clean up after the party, and reflected on my own feelings about my friend Sergio De Karlo, the famous composer and his illustrious career.

Before ever becoming aware of Sergio’s famed legacy as a world-class composer, I came to enjoy Sergio’s company immensely and I admired his zest for life and his love of music. After several years of planning and research, Sergio and I, along with our partner Sherry Miller, decided to unlock his treasure trove of unforgettable melodies and storied life experiences, by formulating a plan to reintroduce his music and likeness to the world, thus passing on his genius to a new generation of listeners.

Together, we formed Bolero Productions LLC. On December 15, 2009, Sergio De Karlo turned 98 years old. He was living in a convalescent hospital in San Gabriel, California. His goal was still to make it to 100. Many of his family and friends came by to see him when they could, but for the most part, only a select few came by with any regularity.

Juana rarely left his side, his brother Bobby came by nearly every Sunday, and I, his friend and business partner, continued to work with Sergio on his music almost every day.

On January 10, 2010, Sergio De Karlo passed away in the loving arms of his wife Juana. He never made it to 100. Throughout his illustrious career, the Maestro of the Cuban Bolero

Louis Roche is a freelance photojournalist based in Los Angeles.

After working for many years in the film and television industries, he currently dedicates his time to documenting the world’s many indigenous peoples and cultures.

the insider | Spring 2010

had devoted his life to writing music about passion, love and romance. Sergio’s beautiful and soulful music is among the last of its kind in the world today.

A movie star, an impresario, a musician and a composer of more than 300 beautiful rumbas and boleros, Sergio De Karlo has influenced the music of Cuba, Mexico, the United States and the world. His ability to overcome incredible odds and his improbable rise from a young Cuban immigrant to a Hollywood star of stage and screen, should serve as an example to people of all cultures, that anyone can reach his or her dreams if they truly believe in themselves and follow their hearts.

The man who was named “Artist of the Year” in 1942 by Billboard Magazine lived an exciting life in a way that most people only dream about. When asked what his formula for success was, he said without hesitation, “I was rich, I was talented and I was good looking.” He states that his quest for stardom was fueled by an unquenching desire for fame and fortune. There have been many famous musicians and performers who have gone before him, and there will be many more now that he is gone, but when it comes to the legacy of the Maestro, Sergio De Karlo was truly one of a kind.

Me hacen daño tus ojos Me hacen daño tus manos Me hacen daño tus labios Que saben mentir.

A mi sombra pregunto Si esos labios que adoro En un beso sagrado Podrán fingir.

Aunque viva, prisionero En mi soledad mi alma te dirá: Te quiero.

Nuestros labios, guardan flama De un beso voraz, que no olvidarás Mañana.

Flores negras, que el destino Nos aparta sin piedad.

Pero el dia vendrá en que seas Para mi no más, no más. www.gccinsider.com

www.gccinsider.com

Spring 2010 | the insider

Manny Bracamonte Pops a Cap in Positive Rap

­— By Isiah Reyes Be the tool to infuse empowerment / Show ’em how we’ve been done wrong by the government / Represent the 12 Tribe Lost Knowledge / Teach the true essence of what’s really hood / Mentor the ones no one would…

You can call him a rapper. You can call him a painter. You can call him a Glendale College bookstore employee. You can call him Manny.

Hailing from the strip of urban landscape between Echo Park and MacArthur Park, the multitalented 30-year-old Salvadorian has had a lightning-rod life, attracting all sorts of people from all walks of life. From indie hip-hop artists to other painters like himself, they’ve all appreciated the friendship of Manuel Bracamonte, a man who has been through a lot.

“As a teenager, I was never home because I was on the streets, but now things have changed,” Bracamonte said. “Times have changed; I have changed for the better.”

Bracamonte is a calm, positive and reflective individual. It’s almost obvious that he’s a rapper. He’s dressed in baggy jeans and sports a shaved head. But he isn’t your typical lyric-spitting, bling-toting diamond stud. His

desire is to infuse empowerment through social commentary.

Aside from that, Bracamonte excels at expressing his emotions with the stroke of a brush. He draws and paints to uplift spirits and to roll a reality of hope for the new generation.

But no matter what he does, Bracamonte makes sure to keep himself within the realm of positive energy.

VDAH The Spanish word for life is “vida.” Rapper Bracamonte has chosen that as his artistic name, spelling it VDAH. “My name VDAH is made up of both sides of life,” Bracamonte said. “If there’s a god, there’s a devil... if there’s light, there’s darkness. It just depends on how you take it.”

VDAH is one of the many voices that represent the current LA underground hip-hop scene. He and his “homie” RHIPS are members of the hip-hop band Inner City Dwellers, which prides itself in gritty songwriting and its fight-the-power stance.

They have a revolving door of beat-makers and are always looking for similar-minded

rappers to help tell the stories of the hood.

Making waves in the lakes of injustice is their ultimate goal.

These forces want me killed / Dark entities trying to take my will / No one close to me knows the deal / It’s my debt I pay the bill / Don’t want any innocent blood spilled…

“I’ll die before I sell out the cause,” Bracamonte said.

He has performed in shows all over California, from his hometown in Los Angeles to Santa Barbara all the way up the coast to San Francisco and Humboldt County.

“I think the biggest shows that I have gotten a lot of [appreciation] for have been out here in LA in house parties,” Bracamonte said.

He said local shows have been the best because they’re community-based, but when he travels “they always show me an abundance of love.”

The two MC’s are all about giving back to the community. RHIPS goes to detention centers and juvenile halls with At Risk Youth to set up workshops as well as reading poetry

By day, Manny Bracamonte is a friendly, helpful presence at the bookstore, but beware, VDAH and the Inner City Dwellers are using the power of rap to fight budget cuts that impact education.

Photo by Isiah Reyes

the insider | Spring 2010

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Photo by Isiah Reyes

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Spring 2010 | the insider

for a nonprofit organization called Street Poets. They use poetry to inspire young people to speak out on their problems as an outlet.

At Risk Youth helps teens who are violent, endure peer pressure or who suffer from depression, among other problems.

Tammy Hall, assistant book buyer and supervisor of the Glendale College Bookstore, has listened to Bracamonte’s rapping a number of times.

“It’s so intense, it gives me goose bumps,” said Hall.

When recording their music, the Inner City Dwellers do everything backyard-style in a home-studio with Pro Logic on a Mac. Their goal is to get booked for shows to get paid gigs for more resources.

Getting booked and performing on stage is not a rare occurrence in the life of VDAH.

A Day in the Life May 19, 2010 It’s a big day for Bracamonte. He finishes his shift at the Glendale College Bookstore early at 10:30 a.m. and takes the Metro Bus from Glendale College down to the heart of Los Angeles. He has been invited to perform for the California Advocates United to Save Education rally at Spring and 4th streets downtown.

The idea behind the protest is to address California’s school funding process for education and to force legislators to take action against budget cuts that are affecting schools and colleges. It is a statewide campaign.

Steve Vargas, the MC of the rally, invited

Bracamonte after seeing him perform at Plaza Vaquero just a few weeks earlier.

The protest begins at 4:30 p.m., giving Bracamonte enough time to prepare before he takes stage. After eating a fulfilling taco in a downtown market at noon, Bracamonte takes another bus to his nearby home. There, he meets Eric Torrez, a friend and coworker at the bookstore.

Torrez has known Bracamonte for five years and finds his paintings and rapping motivational. He provides moral support as Bracamonte goes into his tightly packed room to warm up and practice his songs. The blaring beats that boom through his speakers mix with the wailing sounds of sirens that can be heard from outside the house.

Once the mood is set, Bracamonte transforms into VDAH and the calm, reflective individual turns into the assertive, punch-Sacramento-in-the-gut activist.

part of town.

One more hour of practicing, then at 3:50 p.m., Bracamonte and Torrez head out on a bus to the rally. The demonstration is held in the middle of the blocked street. Cops on bikes circle the stage as supporters in blue shirts gather around and hold up picket signs.

“Save our schools” reads one sign. “Last place is no place for our kids” reads another.

Several speakers take the stage before Bracamonte. When he’s finally called up, he picks up the mic, feels the beat, opens his mouth and delivers the message:

Students can’t transfer because of the budget / I couldn’t stay quiet, seen too many politicians deny it / I’m driving my voice all the way to Sacramento / Representing every school, campus and ghetto…

The crowd reacts enthusiastically. The rest is history.

That’s all in a day of life as Bracamonte.

Even though the rhythm in VDAH’s heart never stops, he considers it to be his second call in life, behind art.

“Music is beautiful and my drive, but if it happens, it happens,” Bracamonte said.

“Besides music, one of my goals in life would be to become an art teacher.”

It is 2:50 p.m., and Bracamonte takes a break and goes outside to do his blessings.

“The reason I put my hand to the sky is to show blessings to the sky and when I kneel to the floor, it’s to bless the floor that I walk on,” Bracamonte said. He makes sure to acknowledge all four cardinal points during the ritual.

Meanwhile, Bracamonte’s father and his full-blooded red-nosed pit bull, Bruno, hang out around the house. Life is peaceful despite the hardships that go on around them in this

Knocking down the governor’s door / They say we’re not supposed to have heroes / Guess what, I’ll step up to the role / But I need your help to let ’em know / What are we fighting for? Education, life and more / What are we fighting for? Your little brother and sister’s future…

Concepts without Words Painter Bracamonte feels obligated to leave something behind through his artwork.

He likes to include culture is his work, from the Mayan hieroglyphs to the struggles he sees people going through.

At the California Advocates United to Save Education Rally on May 19, VDAH takes the stage to promote educational spending.

Photo by Isiah Reyes

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Bracamonte was fascinated by drawing and began painting at an early age.

“I used to see people spray painting in an empty lot where we use to play baseball with a tennis ball,” Bracamonte said. “I liked how the color went over the wall. I started painting in many mediums at a later age but the first time I was introduced to color was true Prismacolor Pencils. Originally spraypaint had been what I’d always used.”

At first, Bracamonte’s parents did not approve of it. Once they saw him doing murals and trying to make a career out of it they were on board but would ask “how are you going to eat?” That’s when he decided to be an art teacher, hopefully working his way up to a master’s degree to teach in high school or college.

Edward Romo, 32, is a close friend of Bracamonte and was raised in the northeast sector of Los Angeles. The two met in the summer of 2000 at Glendale College. Both were writers and poets and they quickly bonded over music, showing a love for the rhyme in rap. But it was art that has kept them friends.

“After showing him my works done in oil on canvas, we both found a more common ground,” said Romo. “I soon gathered a group of creative-minded people and friends and we would meet weekly and exchange ideas.

Manny was a significant part of that group.”

Bracamonte has had his art displayed in the Glendale College art exhibit, which is located in the library foyer. His most recent display was a three-piece painting titled “A Day in the Life Of,” also displayed at the college art exhibit.

“I used acrylic first to fill in my vision, and then I came in with oils to spice up the colors and pigments,” Bracamonte said. He worked on it at the art studio at Glendale College.

“It’s about what you make of it,” he said.

“To me it represents a small fragment of what I see when I’m walking down the street in downtown LA. … [It’s a] distortion of a blur of a passing bus, morphing into my roots of it all.”

Bracamonte likes taking his admirer’s mind to total abstraction where only the colors are communicating to them.

“Paint can say anything you want to,” Bracamonte said. “But we have to know what to do with it. That’s why I used a wide range of colors.”

Romo said, “The beauty of Manny is if you don’t know him you have no clue of how highly creative he his. Most people don’t see him coming.”

To achieve his main goal of teaching art he’s taking art classes at Glendale College and working in media including everything from pencil drawings to graffiti.

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“What are we fighting for? Education, life and more.”

— Manuel Bracamonte

Bracamonte has also worked with youth in El Sereno in an after-school program called Artstorm. Their mission was to employ real graffiti artists and have them show elementary and junior high kids how to use graffiti in a positive way.

“Parents were real happy to that see someone actually cared about their kids,” Bracamonte said.

Without words, a painting can say a whole lot.

“What I usually paint depends on what I’m trying to say with colors,” said Bracamonte. “My themes change through the mediums I use. Some are political, some social... my paintings always have a message of catching a mere moment of time on a canvas.”

He wants to be able to give color to a gray world with his art. He wants to use words to paint a picture for a new way of consciousness. Overall, he wants to create a new way of thinking. ”I’ve come a long way but I’m not going to stop now,” Bracamonte said.

Glendale: A Second Home After graduating from Belmont high school in 1997, Bracamonte wanted to major in animation or in graphic design. But then he realized he wasn’t really a computer person so he jumped into fine arts. He wanted to be someone who could paint with his hands.

He is currently taking life drawing and Supplemental Instruction Leadership, which is an academic support program utilizing peer-assisted study sessions to assist students with traditionally difficult academic courses.

In addition to taking classes at Glendale College, Bracamonte has worked at the Glendale College bookstore since 1998 and enjoys helping out there. The other workers

encourage his artistic endeavors.

“I try to mostly promote [Bracamonte] on what he does,” said Eriel Albarran, a Glendale College Bookstore supervisor. “I tell him, ‘if that’s what you’re into, go for it.’ You got to have that extra friend who supports you and tells you you’re doing the right thing.”

Bracamonte has called Glendale College his “second home.”

At his real home, he lives with his parents and helps around the house.

“My parents are very hard workers,” Bracamonte said. “They’ve always supported me in many ways. My mother cleans houses like many of our parents who work hard and wish their kids good. She’s very giving and has a big heart.”

Bracamonte’s father used to make shoes but was laid off because of the economy.

Since he’s an older man, it’s harder for him to find work but he still manages to find odd jobs at the Los Angeles Coliseum for special events and during the USC season.

“I thank my father for still being there,” Bracamonte said. “I’ve carried our last name with honor.”

They have both been there through it all and they like his music. Bracamonte said that most of the money he makes goes directly to them.

For now, Bracamonte wants to continue his artwork by working on a few mural projects on Pico Union and performing for hip-hop shows as VDAH or as a part of Inner City Dwellers whenever the opportunity presents itself.

In the end, you can call Bracamonte a rapper, a painter or a Glendale College bookstore employee. Or, you can simply call him what he is: an inspirational artist.

“I’ve been blessed many times,” Bracamonte said. “I live everyday as if it were my last.”

Isiah Reyes is a journalism student at Glendale College. He enjoys playing basketball, writing articles and listening to music.

Spring 2010 | the insider

11

SHOSHANNAH AIN’T NO HOOTCHIE

­— By Graig Agop

T

he difference between a hootchie and a whore is that a whore only accepts cash. The difference between a hootchie and Shoshannah is that a hootchie can’t write and play seven personalities, confront stereotypes, slash limits, and pave room for change.

Early Life Shoshannah’s roots stem from a singleparent home in Chicago where she lived with her mother. “I’ve always been a writer at heart. I have been writing since I could put stories together,” she says.

Shoshannah was taunted by success since she was young. “I was 7 years old, watching TV, and I saw somebody win something and I said, ‘Mommy, I want to be that, I want to be number one!’” she recalls. “She said, ‘Oh really? OK, then you go out and you do it.

You do whatever you want and as long as you got the drive to pursue it.”

At a young age, Shoshannah found

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herself fascinated with the social outcasts of Chicago: the hootchies. Though some wrote off these women as sluts, she was curious as to why they became that way. Shoshannah’s primary social interest began to revolve around what she refers to as “the modernday Black Experience.”

For her undergraduate career, Shoshannah attended Chicago State University. Her involvement in speech and debate tournaments paved a pathway to acting, and after having preformed in over twenty-four productions, theater became her forté.

In 1999, she met director, stage manager, actor, and producer Antaeus Gayles, who took a particular interest in her work.

“When I saw her act, she just had it from the beginning. I was like, that’s the one,” he says.

They worked together in several productions and found themselves everywhere from Africa to Trinidad to offBroadway.

“A lot of people liked us and they said

they wanted us to do their pieces,” says Gayles, with a characteristically genuine smile.

After seeing a few friends perform oneperson shows, Shoshannah yearned to create one of her own. She sat through show after show, knowing this was not only something she was capable of, but something she was obsessed with.

Shoshannah took a chance, “One day you reach a point when you decide to do your own show,” she said. “Hey, I’ve already got this in mind, why don’t I just go ahead, and run with it? I’m going to go ahead, finish it, and do it.” Her stage play, “That Hootchie,” was written 2003.

That Hootchie “That Hootchie” follows Shovanda Thomas through her past to capture the experiences that have led up to where the play begins: Shovanda in anger management therapy with a black eye. Like many,

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Shovanda, blames her family for her situation and uses that leverage to justify her offences.

“My family is the reason why I is what I is,” she says.

She’s not alone, Shovanda’s cousin and enabler, Juanita, teaches her tricks of the trade like memorizing the social security numbers of boyfriends in case she gets pregnant.

By playing seven different characters, Shoshanna explodes stereotypes from the inside out; exposing the walls each of her characters is enclosed in because of external circumstances.

Shoshannah soon found out that the issues in the play were closer to home than she thought. Soon after “That Hootchie” began production, she had a cousin in the foster care system commit suicide. The young girl had been a victim of abuse, and that encouraged Shoshannah get the story out.

“To so many [teenagers], some girls are just ‘that hootchie’ — she was embarking on that path, if she hadn’t killed herself.” Shoshanna wanted victims to know that there were other options.

Shoshannah’s upbringing has led her to believe that an individual’s past is no excuse. “You don’t want to be held hostage by anyone else’s belief system. You’ve got to hold your own, and you don’t have to be a statistic. Instead of thinking what is morally right or what is religiously right, you need to do what makes the most sense to you.”

Her experiences have shown that individuals shouldn’t write themselves off as a statistic; they have the power to break the cycle.

Shoshannah and Gayles believe college can provide the perfect environment to start over. “If you’re in college now, this is your time. This is your sole decision to either let the baggage of your parent’s influence and

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your upbringing bring you down, or take this opportunity to absorb everything you can and develop your own thoughts and your own point of view and decide what makes sense,” says Gayles. “Everything in your life has been B.S. ’til this point,” he continues.

“You are completely on your own, there’s no such thing as excuses anymore — let’s get it done!”

Though people go in with an idea of what the play will be like, the impact it leaves is pleasantly surprising. “They have a preconceived notion that it’s going to be like a caricature, something to laugh at, a ghetto chick. They don’t realize that there is actually a story behind the character.”

“My hope is that they hear that there is more to a person than the exterior. I received letters and comments that were hitting home. A girl wrote, ‘I felt like I have to respect myself, think about this more and stop letting my boyfriend push me around.’

When you’re a teenager, you’re fearless, you think you’re invincible, you’re going to make it through everything, through whatever circumstances… and maybe after that she was like, ‘maybe I need rethink that.’”

A Social Consciousness With the success of “That Hootchie” in Chicago, Shoshannah and Gayles are trying to utilize the public school system to help attack issues within the play at their source.

“We’re trying to get it into schools as a public measure — to open up a forum for young girls to speak — but it’s hard to present a production like “That Hootchie” at a school if you’re not comfortable with having your work censored. We haven’t compromised the script, we haven’t compromised the characters, or the name of the piece,” says

Shoshannah.

“Teachers come up and tell us, ‘don’t change a thing’ — they [the students] need to see it — that’s them all day.”

The play ran in Chicago from 2005 to 2008, almost 2 1/2. Shoshannah enlightened theatregoers nightly while she and her team held down day jobs. Shoshannah’s wit, courage, talent and the unwavering support of producer/director Gayles led them to dream big, and guided them on a mission to share “That Hootchie” with as many audiences as possible.

“We wanted to show our wares in the right arenas,” Gayles says. This led them to Los Angeles, a place with endless potential for her endless talents. The two made the move from the Windy City to the City of Angels knowing Hollywood can get ugly; fortunately they learned to make their own way.

In March, “That Hootchie” ran a successful three-and-a-half-week run at the Write Act Repertory Theater in Hollywood.

“Everybody is ready for reality, they’re ready for life, they want to see it portrayed and let it go where life goes,” says Gayles.

“In Los Angeles, we were competing at a higher level,” says Shoshannah. “You can tell them you’ve done New York, you’ve done Chicago, you have done off-Broadway and they’ll say ‘so what? You’re in LA now.’

It’s film, it’s theater, it’s like the Super Bowl of entertainment, and that’s what you’ll be competing in with actors whose egos are very special to them. There is a time you want to be rich, there is a time when you want everybody to know your name and all that stuff, and then there is a time when you want to be appreciated for what you do. When you do it well, people really recognize it.”

“We hold ourselves to higher standards,”

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Where do Hootchies come from?

Growing up as a young black girl on the southside of Chicago, I was always fascinated by the not-so-desirable women in the neighborhood. Whenever I had the opportunity to speak with one of them or to witness them in action, I always wanted to know what provoked their brazen behavior. Their bold talking, their skimpy dressing, and their outspoken expression of their emotions often stunned me. It wasn’t until later that I realized these women were hurting inside and their outrageous behavior was their way to feel brave, to feel strong. Unfortunately, this did little for their state of affairs as well as the current state of affairs. A vicious cycle has been generated and women/ladies are being replaced with “That Hootchie.” After some research I discovered that these “replacement’s” are the result of several factors affecting our society today: • 95 percent of teen prostitutes are victims of sexual abuse/molestation.

• There are 60 million survivors of childhood sex abuse.

• One half of women raped are under 18 years of age.

• There are 800,000 teen pregnancies per year.

• 75 percent of teens have mothers who had them as a teen.

• 50 percent of teen parents are on government assistance.

• 70 percent of pregnant teens do not get prenatal care.

• Teen pregnancy costs our government $25-50 billion per year.

• One fifth of all rapes are committed by adolescents 13 to 17 years old.

• Adolescents commit half of reported child molestation charges.

• 30 percent of men tested for DNA paternity are not the fathers.

• A 2004 US Survey stated that 30 percent of unwed women signed affidavits of paternity naming the wrong man.

• C hild neglect and abuse continues to be a major problem.

—Shoshannah, 2005

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says Gayles, “and you have to deliver. We’ll carve our own way and bring the mainstream to us,” says Gayles. They quickly learned that you couldn’t play by the rules in Hollywood.

“Let’s stop waiting for people to make us famous and let’s make ourselves famous by doing the webisodes and doing the plays,” says Shoshannah.

Besides being a playwright, Shoshannah is a poet, spoken word artist, and author of “The Juicy Flow.” She’s written and stared in a webisode series called “Angie and Cookie.”

Her film history includes “All In Gravity,” and

“Internal Behaviors.”

She will be hosting and performing in “Urban Legends,” a spoken word event, on Sept. 19, at the Write Act Repertory Theater and “That Hootchie,” will be premiering in New York in the fall.

Regarding “That Hootchie’s” struggle to find an audience despite critical acclaim, Shoshannah believes “it’s going to be the matter of the right people seeing it. Have I made it to the big wigs yet?” She lets out a laugh, “I’m working on it!”

Graig Agop aspires to a career in “entertainment terrorism.” A former columnist for El Vaquero, he recently co-wrote a screenplay, “Black Magic,” a semi-autobiographical comedy. Agop is a connoisseur of contemporary Hollywood and a photographer. www.gccinsider.com

Photos of Shoshannah at the Brand Library by Graig Agop

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Spring 2010 | the insider

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Photo by Edgar Santacruz

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May March

Latinos Unite to Protest Arizona’s SB1070 — By Adriana Orellana As morning came, we put on our white shirts to represent our unity with undocumented workers. This annual event has become known as the May March. We marched for the immigrants and to unite with all those that were against the new law, Arizona Senate Bill 1070 [SB1070], proposed and signed by Republican Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, which makes those immigrants who do not have an alien registration document guilty of a state crime.

It will also require police officers to question people whose immigration status they deem suspicious, in other words they will profile as Latinos. They will arrest those who hire illegal immigrants or day laborers.

The effects of this law, which is expected to go into effect in the summer of 2010, were seen immediately throughout Arizona, with many day laborers not showing up at the Home Depots or other places where they would be able to find work, leaving them without a chance of a day’s work and money to buy necessities.

Many of the protesters had participated in the May march of previous years. Assembling at the North Hollywood Metro station, where the Metro Red Line starts and goes down to Union Station at around ten in the morning,

The “May March” began in 2006 as International Workers Day (May 1) became the became the focus of the biggest immigration protest in history.

Also known as “The Great American Boycott,” it was organized as a peaceful general strike to put a human face on a contentious political issue.

Now known as the “May March,” this annual event calls attention to the sheer numbers of undocumented workers who provide labor and services at the lowest end of the American economy.

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it was easy to spot the ones who, just like us, were headed to Downtown Los Angeles, to rally and join the protest. For all of us, it was important to show to California, Arizona, and the rest of the country that this law that allows the arrest of people based on physical is unfair to everyone.

The “Arizona Law”

Archbishop Oscar Romero, said “Pues mira, yo lo estoy haciendo por mis niños principalmente, porque imaginate que pasen esta ley en California, a mi me llevan, y quien por ellos?,” which translates into “Well look, I am doing this for my kids, because, imagine, they pass this law in California and they take me, who will look out for them and take care of them?”

Gov. Brewer has had a long history of supporting laws that criminalize illegal immigrants. She refused to offer public services and benefits to those who are in Arizona illegally and also ruled it a misdemeanor for those state and local government employees who failed to report immigration law violations while public benefits or services were being administered.

Many of us who had been paying attention to the recent news behind this bill knew that we had to take a stand against something that Jan Brewer had mentioned in a statement, that Arizona Senate Bill 1070 was a “way to solve a crisis of illegal immigration that Arizona had not caused or created and that the federal government had refused to fix.”

As a crowd of marchers walked from parked cars, many more joined in that had just gotten down from the Metro Orange Line bus that ends its route at the North Hollywood station. The long escalators that lead to the ticket platform were covered with people that were wearing white tops to protest SB1070. People began to grow impatient, but the majority waited in line to purchase the ticket that would take them to march for immigrants’ rights.

There was fear in the eyes of some of the Metro users when they passed the Sheriff ’s Department officers in the ticket and boarding areas, because many who joined with the crowd to protest the bill are undocumented immigrants who live in constant fear that they need to watch their every move. One minute they could be working to support their family, and the next they could be arrested and deported, leaving a family behind to survive on their own.

Elsa Martinez, who wore a white Tshirt with the face of deceased Salvadoran

The sense of community could be felt throughout the ride to downtown Los Angeles, and many were talking about the Arizona law. Conversations got louder and more people got on at every stop. The protestors were easily recognizable because most wore white shirts and carried a hat or baseball cap to cover themselves from the warm sun that was shining on Los Angeles that May 1st. Many of the people also had signs and flags, the flags of the countries that they had left behind in search of a better life and the “American Dream” and also the flag of the United States, a place of opportunity, although an opportunity that was fading away for many of immigrants, including people who were on the train with us.

Most of the commuters could be heard talking in Spanish to people who had just boarded, and no matter how packed the train was, everyone found a way to be able to fit in and make room for more. From the moment people got on, they added even more to the unity that already existed behind the same cause, whether they were there to support family members, friends, or themselves; they were on their way to protest a law that racially profiles Latinos. They protested the inherent unfairness of taking people into custody because of how they look to determine if their “crime” against their host country was the economic necessity of being here illegally to support a family back in their native country.

At various stops, people of all races, cultural backgrounds, and appearances boarded the train, and many of the supporters of the march seemed a bit worried that a SB1070 supporter would get on and start an argument or a fight. Eventually,

Community

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Becoming a Citizen:

Becoming a U.S. citizen is an impossible dream for many who have immigrated illegally. The process is time-consuming and expensive and beyond the reach of many who were driven from Latin America by economic misfortunes to work in the U.S. as migrant workers or unskilled day laborers. Becoming a citizen also means renouncing one’s former country, a step not all people who work in America want to take. Many just want to make some money to support their families and then move back home.

“If you are in the U.S. in illegal immigration status, you will find it very difficult to obtain U.S. citizenship,” explains David Carnes, an immigration attorney. “In fact, in some cases it will prove impossible. Even if you are eligible, you may have to wait 15 years or more, most of this time in your home country. In some cases, however, this process can be expedited and it will not be necessary to leave the U.S. The most likely pathway is through marriage to a U.S. citizen.” Another option is to be the parent of a U.S. citizen, meaning a child who was born here. Here are some tips from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

• If you entered the U.S. legally but overstayed your visa by more than 180 days, do not leave the U.S. until your permanent residence application is approved and you receive your permanent residence card. If you overstayed your U.S. visa by more than 180 days, you will be subject to a three-year bar to re-entry. If your overstay period was at least one year, you will be subject to a 10-year re-entry bar.

• That’s right. If you entered the U.S. illegally, or overstayed your visa, there is a 10-year wait to apply for legal status.

• One way to bypass the wait is to join the military, and that option is becoming increasingly popular. Special naturalization procedures apply to those who served on active duty on behalf of the U.S. armed forces during certain military hostilities defined by law. Surviving spouse of U.S. citizens who died during periods of honorable service on active duty are also eligible. Military applicants must also have continuously resided in the United States for at least five years and have been physically present in the United States for at least 30 months out of the five years immediately preceding the date of filing the application.

• Other tips for illegal residents who wish to become U.S. citizens: 1. Move back to Mexico. If you voluntarily self-deport, the three and 10 year time bars do not apply. 2. Apply for a for a legal immigration visa at the US Embassy. There are many categories under which you can apply. It helps if you are educated and/or have a valuable skill. Another method is to apply as a legal guest worker, then later adjust to legal resident status. 3. Wait your turn in line for the visa.

Some Filipinos wait 22 years for an F4 family immigration visa. 4. Once you have the visa, move to the U.S. • A s a Permanent Resident (green card holder), you must continuously stay in the United States for five years to qualify for American citizenship. It costs $985 to apply for a green card, apart from lawyer’s fees, and $370 for an annual renewal.

• After five years of living in the US, if you have not committed any crimes or used welfare, you can apply for U.S. Citizenship. It costs $675 to file your application and you must pass a test and go through an interview process. You must be able to read and write in English and answer questions about U.S. history and civics. You must demonstrate “good character.” You will lose your citizenship from your home country.

• You may not be able to become a citizen if any of the following circumstances apply: 1. You have been convicted of a crime.

2. You have ever lied to an immigration officer, consular official, or government official.

3. You married solely to obtain residency status.

4. Since becoming a lawful permanent resident, you have been absent from the United States for long periods of time, especially periods over one year.

5. You have ever been arrested.

6. You failed to file an income tax return for any year since becoming a lawful permanent resident.

7. You owe child support for more information: http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis

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the first one came along for the ride on the Hollywood/Highland stop. Wearing a blue jacket and having a seemingly calm look on his face, he chose to stand in the middle of the walkway and grab onto the metal bar on top. In a booming voice he said “Why does there have to be so many of them; we should just get rid of them.” Nobody said anything to this and just kept observing him. Although he seemed to have mental health issues, we recognized that this is the type of racial profiling, discrimination, and rejection that many immigrants receive while they are in the United States.

The 7th Street/Metro Center stop was were the people got off, many by themselves, others, carrying their kids or pushing strollers. It was for those little ones that many were fighting for, so that they could stay in this country with their parents, who may be in danger of deportation, and for those children to have an equal education opportunity so that they can grow and build a future.

As the crowd walked to 7th Street, many cars passed honking and waving, showing their support as well. The crowd grew enthusiastic, and as they received small banners on sticks with the words Si Se Puede and “Yes We Can” from a man that had made hundreds of them at home, they were eager to reach the intersection of 7th Street and Broadway. Once the crowd got closer to the meeting intersection, it was visible how many had come out to support a cause. It was a cause and march that was heard around the country and the world, with rallies in Arizona, New York, Texas, as well as some in Athens and a few in Spanish-speaking countries.

The March Once the crowd got together and started making its way to Los Angeles City Hall, members of a folkloric group performed Aztec dances, with their leader Do���������� ������� a Maria, chanting to the gods for protection of the people, for justice to be served, and most especially for the people who come to work.

Their colorful outfits included feathers and seashells representing their culture, and many said the “we didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us; this was our land.”

Jose Chavez, a newspaper vendor, brought his son, Miguelito, and said that he is the future of this country. Si me sacan a mi, mi esposa no va a poder mantenerlos ella sola. Se ��� van a talvez tener que venir conmigo which means “If they kick me out, my wife won’t be able to support them on her own. They would eventually have to come back with me.”

Miguelito sat atop the newspaper kiosk where his father works, waving a huge American flag from a stick, observing the crowd covered in

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white passing by, knowing that he was just like the rest of us, united. Although he is only 7-years-old, he already has an understanding of what the law means, and that his family might be separated because of it.

Gaby Orellana, a John Burroughs High School student, walked with me along the march on that warm, yet breezy Saturday.

“It is unfair and unjust how they are treating illegal immigrants in the country. I thought racial profiling ended a long time ago, and here it is back with us, separating families, and throwing hard working people into jail and back into countries where they have no ways of being able to support a family,” she said. As the crowd marched against SB1070, a crowd of about 12 men and women had formed in a corner. They had locked arm in arm, and attracted the crowd’s attention because they wore green T-shirts that said IMMIGRANTE, which means “immigrant” in Spanish, and their faces carried a sense of worry that if the law expands, they could no longer be in this country. Our hearts went out to them, and amongst a sea of white shirts, they stood up for what they were and gave us a bigger reason to keep on marching.

Catherine Carrasco, a Peruvian immigrant also attending John Burroughs High School, mentioned, “This is the country of opportunity, and I am here because I want an education. What can we do? Just raise our voice and try to be heard so that our dreams, like many others’, aren’t crushed, especially for those that have nothing.” She is obtaining her residency status but represented well those students that yearn for a higher education but unfortunately cannot receive it.

She kept on walking, and she wore a cap and gown and carried a diploma, representing all the AB 540 students.

As we got closer to reaching City Hall, I mentioned to Gaby Orellana that Gov. Brewer was also behind legislation to “make sure that no public services are being offered to anyone who is in this state [Arizona] illegally,” and she replied with “That is crazy! People should be able to have human rights and services that will help them if they are in danger healthwise or even dying, and this woman is rejecting them as if only citizens could have these rights. What if an illegal immigrant was badly injured and dying, but a doctor could not help him out? That person will either die because that service was rejected, and some don’t go to the doctor for simple emergencies because of the fear that they will be turned in to the government authorities and deported.

People would rather bear the pain than be deported. That is sad.”

For many, an immigration reform is the way to go. To have hard-working people deported seems unjust to them and would rather have a controlled way of keeping them in the country.

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“yo lo estoy haciendo por mis niños principalmente”

— Elsa Martinez

City Hall We had finally reached the ending point of the march. It was around 11:30 in the morning, and from the speakers, music could be heard, ranging from cumbia to merengue to rancheras. The first song that played was by a local group and the chorus could be heard chanting Obama escucha, el pueblo esta en la lucha, “Obama listen, our people are in the fight.”

Many speakers went up to the podium and gave advice to the people on what could be done, such as boycotting anything related to Arizona, including travel to Arizona, products from Arizona, Arizona sports teams, and pretty much anything with Arizona in it. To many that support the boycott, this means that Arizona’s economy will suffer and the downfall will be seen with the lack of immigrants, such as the loss of sales and less workers being available for jobs, causing companies to produce less and suffer.

In the midst of all this, a man carrying a sign sat on the top step facing the podium.

He had chosen the spot carefully, as to be close to the Los Angeles police officers who were observing and supervising the crowd, because he probably felt like he needed extra protection. His sign read, “IF YOU ARE HERE ILLEGALLY...GET OUT NOW!!!!”

Tension was felt when people saw this, but fortunately no fights or arguments broke out.

Not one of the 60,000 or more attendees did anything but ignore the man. Away from the crowd, some emotions ran high when opposing groups carried signs and exchanged a few words, mainly with students, but were soon separated by patrolling officers.

Finally, it was the turn for Cardinal Roger Mahony and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to take the platform. Ultimately, both publicly “found the law unfair and degrading, and that Arizona should be boycotted by all means.”

With the chant of Si Se Puede the crowd began to leave after a few hours of

rallying together. The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles [CHIRLA] members who we walked back with kept questioning why should every single immigrant go down if the Arizona law is being aimed to counteract the Mexican drug cartels? Many agreed that it was only set up that way but the major plan is to take out every single illegal immigrant.

Eduardo Menchaca, a college student at Los Angeles Mission College, added “Porque no comienzan con controlar el crimen que hacen los ciudadanos estadounidenses o los que han nacidod aqui? Nos culpan de todo, hasta de quitarles los trabajos. Ellos no harian los trabajos que nuestra gente hace. Y aunque fueran trabajos decentes, mejor los immigrantes los agarran, talvez porque los otros son huevones.” “Why don’t they start by controlling the crimes and misdemeanors committed by the American citizens and the ones that were born here instead? They blame immigrants for everything, but yet they wouldn’t be caught doing the jobs that our people do every day. And even if the jobs are ‘decent’ jobs, the immigrants get them, maybe because the other ones are too lazy to get them.”

Tired faces could be seen as the line was made to buy the tickets to go back. We got on the train, people got off on their stops, and eventually only a few were left that were heading back to the last stop. Once we got off, a few goodbyes were said from people that had just met that had the same purpose on that day, and everyone went their own way.

Even if it were only for a few hours that we came together physically, everyone that had attended the May march left with a sense that a duty had been fulfilled, and that while we may not see each other again, whether we are in Los Angeles, Phoenix, New York City, or any other part of the world, our hearts and voices will be behind an important cause until the goal is reached.� visit us online for more photographs www.gccinsider.com

Adriana Orellana loves basketball. JOURN 107 (magazine writing) was her first journalism class at Glendale Community College.

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Permanency you’re Everything... blood boils rushes to the edge of my skin and lips lean in — I kiss your forehead and you hold me for this is where I belong. your green eyes confuse me like an ocean they crush over me I am the surfer trying to find refuge from these consistent waves letting go — your face appears like an angel in a dream you’re Everywhere... and in this moment I realize all these looks of love, the exciting emotions were just... were all... purely platonic and yet you’re still Everything...

—Angela Lee Drawing by Jack Najarian 20

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California

Planting the Seeds of Change — By Edwin Lopez California has long been a progressive state, and now it looks like the state may be ready to spark another controversy. Pioneering in many different arenas, including business and technology, environmental control, renewable energy, and politics, California has often paved the way for other states to follow. One of the more recent manifestations of this pioneering spirit was the passage of a ground-breaking medical marijuana.

California was the first state to allow marijuana for medical use with Prop 215 in 1996, allowing use, possession, and cultivation of marijuana for medicinal purposes with the recommendation of a physician, setting a new precedent for the nation. Allen St. Pierre, Executive Director of the National Organization for the Reformation of Marijuana Laws, or NORML, says “California is a country unto itself — It’s the sixth or seventh economy in the world. One out of eight Americans lives in California, so if you change something in California, it changes in the U.S.” Maybe this is why many people say, “As California goes, so goes the country.”

By 2004, when Senate Bill 420 provided guidelines outlining what was allowed, nine other states had enacted similar laws legalizing medical marijuana. As of today there are 14 states, with New Jersey being the most recent due to Senate Bill 119 which passed this year. Recently, there has been debate within California over this issue, though, and even as Los Angeles’ City Council begins to enforce an ordinance regulating medical marijuana dispensaries, the state prepares to vote on the possible regulation and taxation of marijuana for adults. California is at the forefront of the current marijuana movement, and this is a pivotal point in time for medical marijuana and legalization of marijuana, but it is still a controversial subject within the state.

Many cities like San Francisco, Oakland, and West Hollywood, allow medical marijuana dispensaries to operate with restrictions. A number of other cities, including Pasadena and Fresno, have outright bans on medical marijuana dispensaries.

The dispensaries which provide the medical marijuana are separate from the clinics where one can get a doctor’s referral, though,

and even cities with bans on dispensaries sometimes allow clinics, like Glendale and Pasadena. Pico Rivera is reconsidering a year-old ban on medical marijuana dispensaries after the federal government announced it will no longer target them for raids. In contrast, Oakland is home to a marijuana cultivation school known as Oaksterdam University, and has just recently opened a 15,000-square-foot hydroponic supply store, with the inaugural celebration attended by many city officials.

Dispensaries If you were to visit a dispensary, it would be quite an interesting experience.

Upon arriving for the first time, a patient is required to sign up as a member of the pharmacy. The big, muscular security guard at the front desk is usually quite nice.

He or she smiles and says “Hi! Are you a new patient?” which makes you feel very welcome. Once checked in, you are buzzed into the back area, where patients are allowed to enter two or three at a time, depending on how many people are behind the counter.

Jared, a 56-year-old student with significant medical issues, supports the legalization of marijuana for medical treatment and the decriminalization of pot as a recreational drug.

California, along with a number of other states, is re-evaluating the criminal status of marijuana, and how the state copes with varying degrees of legality may set a precedent for the nation to follow.

Photo by Jane Pojawa

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The young girl behind the counter greets you with a warm smile and a “Hi! How are you doing today?” Eventually the staff gets to know all the patients by name, and greets them all that way.

Inside you would find just about any marijuana product imaginable. There are edible marijuana products stocked in a refrigerator to the right; pipes, lighters, rolling papers, and all other paraphernalia in a display case to the left; a small nursery of clones grows in pots behind the main counter, which can be taken home and grown to maturity; concentrates such as hash and hemp oils are in the display case right next to the mason jars filled with marijuana. On the wall there is a whiteboard showing all the prices for the dozens of different strains they carry at any given time. You can take a look at the different options of medicinal marijuana offered and make a final choice as to which is suitable to your needs. The staff is very friendly and knowledgeable, and can answer questions and recommend strains that work best for your particular ailment.

Once your choice is made, the marijuana is placed in a plastic bag, and then into a paper bag which is stapled shut, since the patient is not allowed to access their medicine until arriving at their home or whichever safe place where they will be medicating at. “See you next time!” the young girl says, as you walk out the door and head back into the city.

Glendale The City of Glendale currently has a moratorium on medical marijuana pharmacies, which means that until they can further study the issue and make a final decision, there can be no dispensaries allowed to operate within the city. Lt. Bruce Fox has been with the Glendale Police Department since 1984 and currently heads the Special Investigations Bureau. He explains that there are difficulties deciding how to allow pharmacies to operate under zoning laws in the city. “There are zoning restrictions which say that only certain areas, or zones, can be used for certain things. Right now Glendale has no zone for dispensaries.” He also stated, “The City Attorney is currently watching a case in an Anaheim appellate court, in which the judge must decide if the

city can ban dispensaries, or if the State ballot initiative supersedes the right to ban.” This could mean that Glendale would be required to allow dispensaries.

Fox says that Glendale Police officers have a policy of recognizing County issued identification cards for medical marijuana recommendations, but not doctor issued cards. If pulled over, a person cannot be arrested if he or she has the government issued card, but they are subject to arrest if they only have the privately issued cards. Fox says he has noticed an increase in the number of marijuana related violations. “There’s a

“[Marijuana] is not a drug. It’s a leaf.”

— Arnold Schwarzenegger

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lot more than there ever was in my career; they’re pretty frequent now,” he says. But he adds that “Most times we do not arrest the person if they have the doctor issued card; we just issue citations.”

There are also concerns from dispensaries in neighboring cities. He recalls a young man getting medical marijuana in an Eagle Rock dispensary, who was giving it to his little brother at a Glendale high school.

This young student was caught selling it on campus to other students. He believes there is abuse of the law, saying “The law says you have to be an actual caregiver for the patient.

Care-giving isn’t just providing pot for them, though. You have to be responsible for the person: changing bedpans, getting groceries, taking them to doctor’s appointments.” He feels that a law meant for people with serious illnesses has been abused for the proliferation of dispensaries in the state. “It’s not for sale; it’s supposed to be a barter system, more of an exchange for services. Bottom line, people who voted for this had a vision of how it would look. But it has been hijacked by

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It’s NORML: many states are trying to decide whether legalization or decriminalization of marijuana is appropriate for their constituents.

people in another direction.”

Los Angeles In Los Angeles, there has been internal conflict between the City Council and the District Attorney, Steve Cooley, about whether or not over-the-counter sales, as they largely occur now, are legal or not. The City Council has decided not to proclaim the sales illegal, but has passed an ordinance stating that dispensaries are not to be within 1,000 feet of schools, churches, drug rehab centers, and other sensitive areas.

The council is also proposing fees on dispensaries, and Los Angeles county prosecutors have mailed out letters to 439 dispensaries, saying they must close down

by June 7, when the ordinance took effect.

A group of dispensaries is now mounting a legal opposition to this, claiming it is too restrictive. Many have closed, but some have circumvented the law by offering delivery services to members while being closed to the public. Meanwhile, the district

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attorney is going after two of the most highprofile dispensaries, halting sales at one and charging the owner of another with 24 felonies. He is claiming that their sales are completely illegal, though, which is in contradiction to the city council’s decision to allow them with restrictions.

Legalize It While all this is happening in the City of Los Angeles, the State of California is gearing up to vote in the November ballot on The Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act, allowing sales and possession for those over 21, and which would tax the sale of marijuana. Also, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano has submitted a bill that would legalize, tax and regulate marijuana in California. It is called AB 2254, the Marijuana Control, Regulation, and Education Act of 2010. Quentin McKee, who is Assemblyman Ammiano’s Communications Director, says the reason for proposing this was based on badly

performing drug laws. “The war on drugs has been a failure, and has had massive negative consequences for the state.” He says the bill attempts to address environmental issues, issues of restricted access for people, and the possibility of changing the dynamic of the international drug wars. He also points out the recent shift in public polls, which show the highest levels of support for marijuana decriminalization both in California, as well as nationally. “There’s no better time than now,” he says. “The people are ready.”

St. Pierre and NORML have been integral parts of making this bill a possibility.

According to him, AB 2254 was written with help from California NORML, using research they have done into potential tax revenues for the state. They asked Assemblyman Tom Ammiano to introduce the bill, and he was willing to support the initiative. St. Pierre says, “If California wins this, it will be important for the rest of the country. Other in other states will see this, and it’ll cause a domino effect.” He also points out how important Hollywood has been in changing

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the country’s view of marijuana. “Hollywood has been very embracive of usage and of law reformation. Shows like ‘That 70’s Show’, ‘Weeds’, and ‘The Jon Stewart Show’ are seen every night, and they are exporting these views to other states.”

California has changed the view of cannabis over the years, starting in 1976 when it was decriminalized and possession of an ounce or less became punishable by a fine of no more than $100. Since then, the whole country has shown a change in opinion, and in fact 81 percent of Americans have said they now favor legalizing marijuana for medical use. With the new Cannabis Act, California stands to once again challenge Federal law and provide a basis for other states to build upon. In a recent poll, 56 percent of California residents said they were in favor of legalizing the drug, which is not surprising with such a different atmosphere surrounding it. It is no longer seen as a “gateway drug” to harder substances, but rather as a potential medicine, and by many as accepted as tobacco and alcohol. Perhaps that’s why it seems like the time right for residents to vote on the possibility of taxing and regulating marijuana in the same way as alcohol and tobacco.

Economics Perhaps one of the biggest selling points for California voters will be the economic benefits of legalizing and taxing marijuana.

According to California NORML, law enforcement agencies could save over $200 million in costs by no longer pursuing, prosecuting, and jailing offenders. By placing a basic $50 per ounce tax on it, the state could yield up to $900 million per year, not counting the sales tax generated by the sales.

This could add another $250-$340 million, bringing the total tax revenue to at least $1.2 billion. Add in other economic activity generated by the legalization, including shops and tourism which would bring added jobs and tax revenues, and there is the possibility of adding $12 to $18 billion to the state economy. Many believe California could become a center for the marijuana industry, similar to what Paris is to wines, and that the revenues would be comparable to those generated by the cotton industry in California.

So after years of back and forth between proponents and opponents of legalized marijuana, the time of reckoning has arrived.

Both sides have a stockpile of arguments to back up their side. These are debates many have heard throughout the last few years. Those opposed will claim that it is a dangerous drug which leads to abuse, and that it is still against federal law, while supporters will trumpet the significant

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“Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth & protection of the country.”

— Thomas Jefferson

economic benefits, as well as statistics showing the lack of increased crime and abuse in other countries where it has been legalized. Many would think it’s an issue of a younger versus an older generation. But as many Baby Boomers reach the age where they no longer have kids in the house, it appears more are smoking marijuana, while the number of teens who smoke has gone down. These Baby Boomers may be more willing to vote for decriminalization, so as to not worry about where to find it, or getting caught while doing so.

Medical Use Jared, a 56-year-old art director and medical marijuana patient, did a lot of research before deciding where to get his medical marijuana recommendation. He explains that “the downside is a lot of places are ‘fly by night’. I think that’s what gives the wrong image.” He finally decided on a doctor located at MMEC in downtown Glendale.

Jared says “He’s a funny old dude. He’s caring, not just a rubber stamp.”

Jared is not just a recreational user, though — he has Plantar Fasciitis, six stents in his heart, and suffers from anxiety. He had two heart attacks in the last 15 years, and says the therapeutic aspects of marijuana have been very important to him in relieving his pain, especially in place of other pharmaceuticals that can damage the liver.

He also says that it gives him time to pause when he is stressing. He says “It helps me get back and realize I’m married to an amazing lady, and things are gonna get better.”

He supports the legalization and regulation of marijuana, but says it should be treated more like a pharmaceutical than alcohol or tobacco. “I don’t think RJ Reynolds should be able to market it,” he says. “Getting good, pure stuff with no crap; I’m okay with that. But don’t poison or addict me.” He acknowledges the historical uses of cannabis

in religious ceremonies, and the use of hemp for textiles and ropes, among other uses, but he admits it is a complex subject. “It’s not simple. But it’s a step in the right direction that has to be taken. It’s too beneficial for too many people.”

Other Concerns Even if passed, there will still be legal issues to grapple with. Bruce Margolin, a well-known attorney who specializes in marijuana-related defense cases, explains that “the new law does not address the issue of distribution, just possession and cultivation.

Each county will have to decide how to allow distribution, and how to tax it.” But he does think it is necessary and should be passed.

“It’d be irrational not to. Has the black market gone away? No, it still exists. So we need a reasonable alternative. The weed dealers will still want to keep it illegal, of course.”

Although President Obama has said his administration would no longer raid and prosecute medical marijuana dispensaries, he has also said he does not approve of legalization. Yet, even after California has outlawed gay marriage, many still see the state as progressive and ready to move beyond commonly held viewpoints and look into the future. It is not a clear-cut victory yet for California, and as St. Pierre points out, “It will be a ‘wobbler’ and may win or lose by just a few percentage points.” But other states like Washington and Colorado are already looking to see how this will turn out, ready to follow behind. Once again, California stands poised to make history and buck the trends in our country. In a year that has already seen drastic, fundamental change in the way government works, it is not too far-fetched. to imagine this being passed. Some would say it’s simply a matter of time, and if any one state were to do it, it would be California. So we will soon see just how high California can get on grassroots efforts.

Edwin Lopez is a California native majoring in anthropology who hopes to transfer to UCLA next year. Edwin is into technology, yet loves to spend time in nature whenever possible. He is also a writer, DJ, musician, and father of a beautiful 9-year-old daughter. www.gccinsider.com

Jump Start:

younger students getting ahead — By Agnes Constante Educational Options When it comes to attaining educational pursuits, Glendale Community College offers an array of options for students of various circumstances: working adults can enroll in the Program for Adult Continuing Education, better known as PACE; those who prefer to take online classes can take advantage of the college’s distance education courses; nonnative English speakers can take ESL classes; and students seeking hands-on learning in biology, oceanography or geology can enroll in the Baja Program. Another program designed specifically for high school students is Jump Start.

For those who participate in these various programs, success is a common destination.

From 1998 to 2000, Cyndee Whitney, head of organization development and training for the city of Pasadena, participated in PACE. Since graduating, she has earned multiple degrees, including a bachelor’s degree, two master’s degrees and a doctorate in human and organizational systems.

While she was still in high school, Dieuwertje Kast enrolled in a marine biology lab in Glendale’s Baja Studies program, during which she “got the chance to snorkel with a whale shark … find a gigantic whale carcass, [and] boat with a pod of 200 dolphins.” Kast is currently pursuing a master’s degree in marine environmental biology at USC, and said that of her experience at Glendale, “I think that this [biology] course helped give me a lot of the basics that got me started in my marine biology career.”

Perhaps one of the lesser known programs that paves students’ way to success is Jump Start, which allows high school students to enroll in college courses during regular semesters and winter and summer sessions while they are still in high school.

According to Alen Andriassian, manager of outreach and assessment, the campus is home to approximately 400 to 500 Jump Starters each semester.

The goal of the program is to allow high school students to gain an understanding of what college is like. Simultaneously, it enables students to move ahead in their educational goals.

To participate in the program, students

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should be California residents who are in their junior or senior year of high school.

It is also recommended that they hold a minimum B grade average.

Although the program is geared toward high school juniors and seniors, Andriassian said that the program has had students as young as 12 years old.

A Head Start In the summer following eighth grade, Bianca Saleebyan, who is currently a senior at La Canada High School, enrolled in Jump Start.

After being told that she could not attend summer school until after her freshman year, Saleebyan explored other options.

“I was disappointed, not wanting to spend a summer not doing anything, so I asked about other options like camps or summer programs and my counselor looked at my transcript and said that with my grades, I could enroll in a five-week summer session at Glendale College, so I did exactly that,” she said. “I enrolled in oceanography and its lab and had a wonderful time.”

One might think that handling college courses and high school concurrently would detract from a student’s high school experience, but for Bianca, participating in Jump Start has worked in her favor.

“I can really look at my high school life, where I completed a majority of my academic classes at GCC and transferred over to LCHS by the end of sophomore year, and see it as my opportunity to have fun and be social and involved in activities, whereas at GCC, that’s serious business and is what’s going to matter when I move on,” she said.

Her final year of high school currently consists of four electives and two free periods, so she “can really enjoy high school.”

Jump Start also provides a preview of what a college environment is really like.

Suzanna Sargsyan, a senior at Hoover High School, began taking college courses at Glendale in the fall. She noted differences in the way students are treated in college as opposed to in high school.

“GCC is different from high school because you are considered an adult … while in high school we are still considered kids,”

she said. “Another huge difference in the atmosphere is that [students] are on their own at GCC; classes are at different times, people eat lunch at different times, everyone works on [his or her] own schedule.”

Additionally, Sargsyan noticed that in college, attendance is generally up to the student.

“In college you pay for your class,” she said. “So if you decide you don’t want to attend, it’s all on you; it’s your decision because the professors can’t make the time to catch you when you fall.”

Juggling high school classes, college classes, work, and extracurricular activities can certainly be quite a challenge, but both Saleebyan and Sargsyan recommend the program to students who want to get ahead.

“I would recommend this program strongly to others and have encouraged my friends to take on dual-enrollment because it is truly rewarding and just so different from high school,” said Saleebyan. “It gives a whole new perspective to life.”

Sargsyan also “would definitely recommend this program to other students because they should take advantage of this opportunity.”

Since taking classes at Glendale Sarsgyan has completed enough units to transfer out to UCLA as a junior in the fall. Similarly, Saleeblyan, who plans to attend GCC after graduating from high school this spring, expects to be able to complete her requirements and transfer out within 1 1/2 years.

Sargsyan plans to major in English and minor in either theater, Italian studies or history. She also hopes to obtain a master’s in English and a teaching credential.

Saleebyan will major in business administration with a minor in marketing.

Both students are now several steps ahead of their peers in their educational goals after having taken part in Jump Start.

More Opportunities In addition to getting ahead in school, the program has also offered some students opportunities that are not available to them in high school.

Malia Mailes, a junior at La Canada High

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Photo by Jane Pojawa

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www.gccinsider.com

“it is the role of community colleges to provide a place to start on higher education”

— Gordon Alexandre

School, began taking Italian classes at GCC at the beginning of her sophomore year. She is currently taking an intermediate-level Italian class at the college.

“I’m a dual citizen of Italy and the United States and really wanted to take Italian, but my school doesn’t offer it,” she said. “[By being in Jump Start] I’m able to get college credit while also satisfying my high school language requirements.”

Aside from getting ahead academically, participation in the program equips students with invaluable time management skills, Sargsyan, who is student body president and design editor and business manager of yearbook at Hoover High School, also works every day of the week. In order to handle her high school and college commitments, she has had to prioritize and make sacrifices. She previously attended a dance class outside of school on Mondays and Thursdays, but now only attends on Thursdays. It is certainly a challenge for her to cope with all her activities, but reaching her end goal keeps her motivated.

“It is hard to pull [off] getting straight As in high school and in college at the same time,” she said. “Since I take night classes I usually get home late which affects my studies for high school. My college studies are affected by my job; however, I pull through knowing that I am getting ahead.”

Malia Mailes, a junior at La Cañada High School, takes Italian language classes at GCC because her campus doesn’t offer them.

Mailes’ Girl Scout Gold Award presentation to the La Cañada City Council regarding truck safety on Angeles Crest Highway, a month in advance of the tragic incident that claimed two lives, led to legislative reform at the state level. www.gccinsider.com

How to ‘Jump Start’ your college experience

• SUBMIT AN APPLICATION FOR ADMISSION. Applications can be obtained: from your high school college counselor or college/career center, from the information desk at the main lobby of the administration building at the college, by request by calling (818) 240-1000, ext. 3031, or online at www.glendale.edu.

• SUBMIT A COMPLETED RECOMMENDATION FOR ADMISSIONS OF SELECTED STUDENTS FORM. This form requires the signatures of the student, parent, and high school counselor or principal. Students in 9th grade or below must also obtain the signatures of the designee of the governing school board and dean of admissions and records at Glendale College.

• SUBMIT THE APPLICATION, RECOMMENDATION AND SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS. Supporting documents include high school transcripts with the calculated GPA and photo identification (such as a high school ID card, California ID or driver’s license).

These should be submitted to the admissions and records office in the administration building.

• COMPLETE AN ASSESSMENT. English and math assessments can be immediately taken at the San Fernando Complex on campus, room 112. ESL assessments require appointments.

• MAKE AN APPOINTMENT TO MEET WITH YOUR JUMP START COUNSELOR. The counseling office is located on the second floor of the San Rafael Building. You can also call (818) 240-1000, ext. 5918. Have your GCC assessment results; AP, CLEP, SAT, ACT, or other test results; high school transcripts.

• REGISTER FOR CLASSES. Review the schedule of classes (which can be found at the GCC bookstore, information desk, outreach services, and in the administration building. The listing of classes is also available through the GCC representative at your high school and online at www.glendale.edu). Register for classes in person (see the Glendale College catalog for registration locations, times, and dates).

For more information, visit http://www.glendale.edu/index.aspx?page=901.

Agnes Constante is the El Vaquero features editor. She aims to write stories that are relevant to readers. She is a double major in political science and journalism at Cal State Northridge.

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(this could be you...)

­— Illustration by Gerard Santos

Join the El Vaquero staff - you’ll fit right in!

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BAD GLENDALE When Bad Things Happen to Good Cities How could there be anything bad about Glendale? Perhaps “bad” isn’t specific enough to describe our city’s at times salacious, racist, scandalous, murderous and criminal history. Since the days of the Rancho San Rafael land grant, Glendale has been a thriving community and now nearly 210,000 people call it city home. There were bound to be some bad apples in the barrel.

History is too often dismissed as being boring stuff that happened to people who are now dead. But using scandalous examples from the past sometimes brings the present into perspective. And it’s a real attentiongetter. Hence the Bad Glendale Tour, which combines history, sightseeing and current events into a fun and educational day trip, even for long-time residents.

“Gary Keyes [an adjunct history/sociology professor] started this tour a few years ago, with his classes,” says Kerry Riley, formerly an ethnic studies professor at Glendale College and Director of Diversity in 2007 and 2008.

“I have to give him credit for coming up with a great idea. When I started giving the Bad Glendale Tour, I didn’t want to use all the same locations, which were mainly in La Crescenta, and I wanted to highlight the

ethnic studies aspect of Glendale’s history, so the tour has really changed considerably over the years. It’s very popular with my students and has even brought in faculty and administrators.” Students sometimes bring friends and family members along as well. On this tour, approximately 30 people, mainly Riley’s students but also faculty members, carpooled to four locations — parking lot B, below the child development center, Forest Lawn Memorial Park, the Verdugo Hills Golf Course and Crescenta Valley Park in La Crescenta.

In 1798 Corporal Jose Maria Verdugo was granted Rancho San Rafael for his military service to the Spanish crown. But he wasn’t the first Glendale resident. There were two major Tongva villages, Hahamongna to the north and Mangna to the south, that may have preceded the first European contact for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, and possibly another, called Haleameupet, at “La Zanja” or “The Ditch.” “La Zanja” became the home of Verdugo’s daughter Catalina. It is located just a few blocks away from campus that is still maintained by Glendale Parks and Recreation. The town of Glendale was founded in 1887 and it was incorporated as a

— By Jane Pojawa city in 1906.

Riley starts the tour with a historical overview of Glendale’s early years, Spanish colonialism followed by American colonialism and then, outstretched arms sweeping the upper parking lot, describes a two-day Ku Klux Klan initiation ceremony that began on July 12, 1924 in which 300 “worthy aliens” were brought into the local klavern. The event began in the Verdugo Woodlands with a baseball game and barbecue and culminated with a cross burning in what is now Lot B, above the main campus.

There was no Glendale Community College in 1924; an earthquake destroyed the site of the old library that had housed the campus since 1927. The new college, which is now the administration building, was under construction in 1936, when the campus moved to an interim “tent city” at the Verdugo Road location. State law made student membership in “secret societies” cause for expulsion. Klan membership was still enough of a campus problem that the Sept. 30, 1936 Galleon, soon to be renamed El Vaquero, warned students that their participation in such an organization

Where it all began: The Catalina Adobe, built in 1823, is the oldest house in Glendale, and is located just a few blocks from the college campus.

Catalina Verdugo, daughter of Jose Maria Verdugo, contracted smallpox as a child and went blind.

She never married, and inherited “La Zanja,” at 2211 Bonita Ave. after her father’s death in 1831. The grounds are open to visitors.

Photo by Jane Pojawa

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The second stop on Kerry Riley’s Bad Glendale Tour is Forest Lawn. Here at the Court of Freedom, Riley explains the role of slavery in the founding of the United States.

Photo by Jane Pojawa

would not be tolerated. “It is rumored that a certain group of freshman have organized into a semi-secret group that is known as the ‘Clansmen,’ ” stated the editorial. “Societies of this kind work against the best interests of the school and no loyal student should become affiliated with any such group.”

Pervasive racism occurred at the high school level as well. In a 1936 football game in which Glendale High was competing against Pasadena High for league championship, Jackie Robinson, later to become one of the outstanding figures in baseball, was targeted and viciously attacked by the Glendale team. His injuries were sufficient to require hospitalization, and the demoralized Pasadena team lost.

James W. Loewen, author of “Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism,” recognized Glendale as being a “sundown town,” meaning that blacks were not allowed within city limits after dark. Loewen’s research indicates that this unofficial policy was brought about by zoning restrictions and bad behavior on the part of some individuals.

The census records bear this out. In 1920, when the population of Glendale totaled 13,536, there were only 22 black residents.

By 1960, when Glendale’s population was 119,442, the number of black residents rose to 62. Fortunately, Glendale is no longer a sundown town. In 2000, Glendale’s population increased to 194,973 residents, and 2,468 of them were black.

As late as 1962, the Ku Klux Klan marched on Brand Boulevard with a horse brigade, marching band and burning cross.

Forest Lawn Riley is a member of Hollywood

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Underground, an informal group that “collects” celebrity burial sites in the greater Los Angeles area, so the next stop was Forest Lawn, Glendale. He is so knowledgeable about cemeteries and celebrity interments, that several passing mourners joined the group for this leg of the tour. Riley uses the graves as talking points for the gradual integration of Hollywood, and reminded the tour that racial segregation of cemeteries continued into the 1960s.

“Forest Lawn was an innovator in the way mortuaries were run,” said Riley. “They were the first to offer one-stop shopping for cremations and burials, with all of the facilities in one place. They also accepted African-Americans.” To illustrate his point, he pointed out the final resting places of Sam Cooke, Nat “King” Cole, Sammy Davis Jr. and Dorothy Dandridge. Cole’s family buried him at Forest Lawn in 1965 when his body was refused by another cemetery.

The tile mural in the Court of Freedom served as a backdrop for discussion about the role of slavery in the founding of America, particularly the ambivalent stance of Thomas Jefferson. Quick sketches of various celebrities followed — Clayton Moore, best known as the Lone Ranger, represented the transition of Native Americans on the silver screen from bloodthirsty savages to loyal retainers, through his faithful sidekick Tonto, portrayed by Jay Silverheels. Errol Flynn, was suspected of being, at turns, bisexual, a pedophile and a Nazi spy. The bad and the good, celebrities and anonymous citizens all end up at Forest Lawn.

Also worthy of note: Walt Disney was unrepentantly anti-Semitic and had a propensity for treating his workers badly. A nearby grave, belonging to respected actor Spencer Tracy, an alcoholic adulterer in his

private life, was a talking point to address the issue of interracial marriage. Tracy, whose personal life may have been “bad,” or at least morally questionable, finds redemption in Riley’s tour. His last role as the father in Stanley Kramer’s landmark “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” puts him at the cutting edge of ’60s liberalism.

In the movie, costar Sidney Poitier marries Tracy’s daughter, striking a blow against marriage discrimination. California’s anti-miscegenation laws were struck down in 1947’s Perez vs. Sharp, but nationally, the Supreme Court decision Loving vs. Virginia demolished the last anti-miscegenation laws.

“Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” appeared in movie theaters across America shortly in advance of that landmark decision.

“Bad” people may be buried here in Glendale, but their examples may serve as cautionary tales as well. To put a simplistic point on it, “good” people may do “bad” things and vice versa. Using the graves of famous people as examples, Riley demonstrated that these social values change over time. The privacy of grieving families and respect for the deceased characterize Forest Lawn’s commitment to its clients. “Grave hunting” is not encouraged and “lookie-loos” will be asked to leave.

Departing from the tour, Glendale students may not be aware of some other incidents in our city’s somewhat checkered past.

Efren Saldivar Leaving the tour for a bit, Glendale has some other bad apples to account for. One person responsible for sending several people to early graves in 1996 and 1997 was Efren Saldivar, a respiratory therapist at Glendale Adventist Hospital. Prosecutors

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Another Glendale student, Teresa Soto del Rio, 20, was shot by a pedestrian as she drove with some friends in Hollywood. On the evening of June 6, 1999 the bullet tore through the passenger-side car door and hit her abdomen. A few hours later, despite valiant efforts to save her, she died. A suspect, “Loonie” Roberto Franklin Ramirez of the La Mirada Locos Gang, was arrested in Las Vegas when his car was discovered in the parking lot of the Thunderbird Hotel.

His girlfriend, an exotic dancer named Nikki Shamdasani, aka D.J. Lady Tribe, also surrendered. Ramirez was extradited to Los Angeles on suspicion of several murders, but never convicted. Teresa Soto del Rio’s murder remains unsolved.

Efren Saldivar

Cindy Lee Hudspeth

hold that Saldivar injected seven elderly patients with Pavulon, a drug used to paralyze a patient before the insertion of an endotracheal tube to facilitate artificial respiration. If mechanical respiration does not begin immediately, the patient, unable to breathe, dies. The tour did not include a stop at Glendale Adventist Hospital, but that location must be a place of horror for many in Glendale.

Saldivar’s six known victims include Jose Alfaro, 82; Salbi Asatryan, 75; Myrtle Brower, 84; Balbino Castro, 87; Luina Schidlowski, 87; and Eleanora Schlegel, 77. The real death toll may be much higher. Saldivar told police in 1998 that he contributed to the deaths of 100 to 200 critically ill patients and actively killed as many as 50 others directly or by withholding medical treatment, but he kept changing his story and despite the exhumation of 20 bodies, the evidence was inconclusive. Saldivar is serving a life sentence for his crimes.

I want people to be aware that the same thing could happen to them. This one should never have died.”

Buono, the other murderer, owned an auto upholstery shop at 703 E. Colorado St. Hudspeth was raped and strangled and found naked, locked in the trunk of her orange Datsun, which had been pushed into a ravine off Angeles Crest Highway. In 2002, Buono died of a heart attack in jail and Bianchi is serving his life sentence at Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla, Wash.

Glendale also had a brush with the “Night Stalker,” Richard Ramirez, who terrorized Los Angeles in 1984 and 1985. Glendale residents Lela and Max Kneiding, both 66, were shot with a .22 pistol and mutilated with a machete on July 20, 1985 during a home invasion robbery. On Sept. 20, 1989, Ramírez was found guilty of 13 counts of murder, five attempted murders, 11 sexual assaults, and 14 burglaries. He remains on death row at California’s San Quentin State Prison.

Serial Killers

Gang Violence

Other serial murders of note are the Hillside Stranglers, Angelo Buono and Kenneth Bianchi. Instead of preying on critically ill senior citizens with “do not resuscitate” orders, these Glendale-based cousins kidnapped, raped, tortured, and killed 10 women and girls over a four-month period from 1977 to 1978. The final victim in Los Angeles, Cindy Lee Hudspeth, was a Glendale Community College student. Hudspeth, 20, was kidnapped in the late afternoon on Feb. 16, 1978 somewhere between her apartment building at 800 East Garfield Ave. and Glendale High School, where she answered phones at night. Bianchi lived in the area, and she may have recognized him as a neighbor, letting her guard down. A friend, Raymond Watt, was quoted in an obituary in the El Vaquero. “Cindy was very concerned about the strangler and took a lot of precautions.…

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Teresa Soto del Rio

Brittani Idom Brittani Idom, the18-year-old captain of Glendale’s Cheer Squad, was shot in the head on July 6, 2007 as she drove away from a nightclub near Crenshaw and Washington in South Central Los Angeles. Her murder remains unsolved.

Juan M. Alvarez

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Juan M. Alvarez took a different approach to murder. He soaked a sports utility vehicle with gasoline and parked it on the Metrolink tracks on the morning of Jan. 26, 2005. A commuter train struck the SUV, caught fire and rammed another train, killing 11 people and injuring 180. Alvarez was sentenced to life in prison.

Mardiros Iskenderian Murderers don’t always come from “outside.” Mardiros, 56, son of Vartkes Iskenderian, founder of the Zankou Chicken restaurant chain, shot and killed his sister, Dzovig Marjik, 45, and his mother Marjarit Iskenderian, 75, on Jan. 14, 2003 during a heated argument at the family home in the 3400 block of Ayars Canyon Way, near the Oakmont Country Club, before turning the gun on himself.

Iskenderian, apparently suffering from a metastasized colon cancer which spread to his brain, got into a screaming fight with his sister, pulled a gun and shot her in the face, then shot his mother in the back as she ran for the door.

The Iskenderian/Marjik family is very well-known in the community, partially because of the success of the Zankou Chicken franchise, which includes six locations, and Vartan Marjik’s (Dzovig’s husband) auto body shop. They were affluent and popular, known for charitable contributions. Mardiros Iskenderian and his wife Rita owned a house in the 100 block of Aspen Oak Lane.

Glendale police Sergeant Kirk Palmer stated at the time that “this was a culmination of family tensions. We have been unable to find any other motive.” In the aftermath, Mardiros’ widow, Rita Iskenderian, took over the business, and raised their four sons. ThenState Sen. Jack Scott, D-Glendale, honored Rita by choosing Zankou Chicken for the 21st

Senate District’s 2006 Small Business Award.

Tuna Canyon Detention Center Back on the tour, Kerry is standing in front of the Verdugo Hills Golf Course, once the site of a Japanese Internment Camp. This facility was a processing center during World War II. In 1942, 110,000 people of Japanese descent living along the West Coast were stripped of their possessions and property, sent to holding areas at the Santa Anita racetrack and the Pomona Fairgrounds and were eventually shipped to Manzanar and Tule Lake War Relocation Camps.

The Tuna Canyon Detention Center was originally built as a Civilian Conservation Corps Camp in the 1930s. The Immigration and Natural Service opened the Detention Station as a clearing-house for “male enemy aliens” on the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 8, 1941 and processed the first Japanese detainees just one week later, on Dec. 16, 1941. By Christmas, there were 100 men incarcerated at the facility.

Not only Japanese men were affected by these arrests and incarcerations, although they were the vast majority. Documents pertaining to the Tuna Canyon Detention Center housed by the National Archives in Laguna Niguel indicate the national breakdown of the detainees as: Japanese, 2,316; German, 131; Italian, 99; Austrian, 2; French, 2; Polish, 1; Ukrainian, 1; Russian, 1; Dutch, 1; Unknown, 8. Commander M.H. Scott reported that by May 1942 his facility had detained and processed 1,490 Japanese males and transferred them in groups of up to 300 as far away as Fort Missoula, Mo., Fort Lincoln, N.D., and Santa Fe, N.M. At its peak, the fenced site, now the golf course’s driving range, featured seven barracks, which included four dormitories

Kerry Riley with bunk beds, a library, recreation room, workshop, barber shop, tool house, two auto repair shops, blacksmith shop, and a shower room, and also an infirmary, mess hall, administration building and office building.

It is estimated that The Tuna Camp could house 300 people at a time, and from 1941 to 1943 nearly 3,000 Japanese were held prisoner there. Two-thirds of them were U.S. citizens.

Kerry is quick to point out that the prejudice against Asian-Americans did not begin in 1942, and the roots of America’s concentration camps went way back to the turn of the 20th century. Perhaps most surprising is the role played by two of America’s liberal icons. In 1942, Earl Warren, then the Attorney General of California, began his efforts to persuade the federal government to remove all people of Japanese heritage from the West Coast. Elected governor of California on Nov. 3, 1942, his victory may have been sealed by popular support for the Japanese Internments.

Before the Tuna Canyon Detention Center opened on the site of the La Tuna Canyon Civilian Conservation Corps camp in 1941, the facility had a friendlier look. After that, visitors were definitely “not welcome.” The old buildings were razed in 1960 to build the 18-hole Verdugo Hills Golf Course.

Photo courtesy of the Little Landers Historical Society

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Gary Keyes Warren would later become the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and champion such civil rights decisions as “Miranda v. Arizona” (1966), which compels police officers to inform suspects of their constitutional rights and “Brown v. Board of Education,” (1954) which ended segregation in schools.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, is best remembered for his “New Deal” to end the Depression, and yet he authorized the internment with Executive Order 9066, which legalized the entire operation. Riley also pointed out that the internments did not end at America’s borders and another 7,000 Peruvians of Japanese descent were also deported to serve in internment camps in the United States.

Nazis in the Park “I spent a lot of time at the library,” laughs Riley, describing how he compiled the information for his class handout and the tour. “Gary [Keyes] taught at La Crescenta for years and has some great stuff on moonshiners in the Whiting Woods,

speakeasies, and prostitutes. I wanted to bring in more recent ‘Bad Glendale’ events, the cemetery and the ethnic studies aspect.

I usually end the tour at Crescenta Valley Park.”

According to Keyes, Whiting Woods housed a facility called variously the Pasadena Gun Club or the Pasadena Mountain Club which was really more of a “gentleman’s club” in the sense that the only women allowed in were prostitutes. When it was busted for the last time in 1915, Perry Whiting bought the property and reopened it as a roadhouse, when alcohol was legal, and speakeasy after 1920, when it was not. The “contribution” of Whiting during Prohibition was considerable, with stills dotting the Verdugo Woodlands, but Glendale must not discount the role of the local Nazis in the decade that followed.

At one time, Crescenta Valley Park was called Hindenburg Park, a private park owned by the German-American League, a group that promoted German culture.

That might not have been such a bad thing, were it not for Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. This came to an abrupt end with the advent of WWII, when the city struggled to distance itself from the bund picnics that had characterized the 1930s. No more oompah bands and swastika flags. No more “biermadchen” [beer maidens]. No more entertainment for visiting Nazi dignitaries. No more recruitment rallies, which in 1936 brought more than 2,000 people to the park, drawn from all over Southern California. There is an unconfirmed story that firearms were stored in the base of a bust of Paul von Hindenburg, president of the Weimar Republic. After being vandalized repeatedly during WWII, the statue was removed in 1956. Eventually, Los Angeles County purchased the 15-acre site from the German-American League for $91,000 and added the acreage to Crescenta Valley Park.

Hate Groups The Neo-Nazis of 1959 had more in common with the Ku Klux Klan than with the German nationalists of the late 1930s.

In 1964, Glendale was selected by George Lincoln Rockwell to be the West Coast headquarters of the American Nazi Party.

“It a white man’s town,” he said when asked about this choice. Its offices, in the 900 block of E. Colorado Blvd., remained open until the early 1980s. Rockwell, a former US Navy Commander, changed the name of his organization to the National Socialist White People’s Party shortly before he was murdered by an expelled member in 1967.

The Ku Klux Klan still retained a local presence through the 1960s, desipite being officially forbidden. Reverend William V. Fowler [b.1938], who at the time lived at 3430 Mayfield Ave. in La Crescenta, was the self-styled state chairman of the California Committee of the K.K.K. (his position in the Klan heirarchy was officially “Cyclops”) and author of the informative brochure “Ideals of the Ku Klux Klan.” He advocated for the homeowner’s “right” to not sell or rent to minorities.

The Ku Klux Klan was outlawed in California in 1946, largely due to the vigillence of State Attorney General Robert Walker Kenny, but in September 1966, following the “gigantic cross burning” Fowler planned in Soledad Canyon and a demonstration in Panorama City, Superior Court Judge Paul H. Nutter rejected the petition of Attorney General Thomas C. Lynch to enjoin reactivation of the klan.

Nutter opposed Lynch saying “People have a constitutional right to be stupid, and if they want to put sheets over their head and act like little children, they have that right. I am not condoning or approving that organization’s policies, but I feel that I can’t interfere.”

The Bund Choir of the Friends of the New Germany perform in Hindenburg Park in La Crescenta in 1936.

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Fowler continued to be a law enforcement headache throughout 1966 and ‘67, and appeared to have major plans to expand his sphere of influence. On June 13, 1967 three young men from Santa Ana were pulled over for speeding near Pecos, Texas. A search of the car turned up an arsenel of rifles, pistols, machine guns and 4,000 rounds of ammunition, as well as a letter from La Crescenta which read, in part, “It is the plan of the California Knights to hold a meeting soon with members of the Minutemen and the American Nazi Party so that we may prepare for the struggles ahead. In Christ’s name, William V. Fowler.”

How Bad is Bad? Is Glendale really bad? Of course not.

Using local examples to illuminate national trends is the function of historical research, and the sooner we, as a culture, come to terms with our mistakes and move past them the better. At the time the Ku Klux Klan was holding a cross burning in the San Rafael Hills, the national membership was at an all-time high, possibly as many as 4 million men, and one participant stated that “several hundred boiling motors and several thousand puffing humans arrived a top a knoll where white-hooded klavaliers herded them into place” on that fateful evening.

During the Golden Age of Hollywood in the 1930s through 1960s, the whole nation was coming to terms with the fact that what was presented as entertainment didn’t bear much resemblance to the messy and confusing reality of daily life. Then as now, the real lives of celebrities can be very disappointing to the fans who idolize them.

Ralph Forbes, one of George Lincoln Rockwell’s closest aides, left, and Robert Ernest Giles, right, of the Glendale NeoNazis, a white supremacist group, 1965.

We’ve come so far culturally that Spencer Tracy’s role in “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” can now be played by an African American, Bernie Mac, who disapproves of his daughter marrying a Caucasian played

by Ashton Kutcher. Perhaps in time, Lindsay Lohan’s grave will be a sad reminder of the prevalent attitudes toward drug addiction and insanity, of the pressures faced by child actors, eating disorders and sexual obsessions in the early 21st century.

The tragic murders of Cindy Hudspeth, Teresa Soto del Rio, and Brittani Idom remind us of the dangers still faced by young women striving for independence and also of the rise in gang-related violence. Efren Saldivar and Juan Alvarez were troubled individuals who victimized defenseless

strangers. Mardiros Iskenderian was sick, mentally and physically, and his example demonstrates that domestic violence strikes all ethnic groups and income levels. The Japanese Internment Camps and Nazi rallies of Glendale’s past remind us that we must never mistake racism for patriotism — as important in 2010 with Arizona Senate Bill 1070’s racial profiling of Latinos as it was in the 1940s with Executive Order 9066’s racial profiling of Asian Americans.

Unfortunately, Bad Glendale tours may now be a thing of the past. In the fall, Kerry Riley, nominee for 2010’s Teacher of the Year, will no longer be a member of the Glendale Community College faculty. He will be working on his doctoral thesis “Hollywood and Diversity” at UC Berkeley.

Jane Pojawa is the editor-in-chief of The Insider. She created the Michael White Adobe Web site and is writing a book about the adventurous life of Michael Claringbud White, known in California as Miguel Blanco.

The California Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, under the direction of La Crescenta resident William V. Fowler, organized a demonstration in Panorama City, Calif. on Sept. 15, 1966. Photographer Ralph Samuels noted that the klansmen were riding in a Dodge truck south on Van Nuys Boulevard just before Roscoe Boulevard and that the man on the sidewalk was spraying the KKK members with water.

Photo by Ralph Samuels

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The A Reason to Celebrate Glendale — By Catherine Yesayan On a recent Mother’s Day Sunday, my husband and I visited the Americana in Glendale to watch “Letters to Juliet,” but since the movie was already sold out, we decided to sit down and enjoy the perfect weather and have coffee at the food court among the kiosks.

We noticed a new addition to the food court, a coffee and pastry booth called Kurtosh, named after a Hungarian pastry. The owner, a young and energetic guy, was on hand to give us a little history of the making of the traditional, Hungarian cylindrical pastry that the recipe had been passed down from generation to generation. The girls inside the kiosk were busy making, rolling and wrapping the dough around a wooden rotary cylinder to be baked in a special oven.

The aroma of the flaky pastry was like that of cinnamon rolls permeated the air and aroused our interest to buy a few cones to take home.

Sitting there, admiring the surroundings having coffee and nibbling on the newfound pastry, we met Rosa Puente and her daughter, Veronica Smith. Like many, they too were celebrating Mother’s Day at Americana. Puente, a yoga teacher, lives in Mt. Washington — a 20-minute drive from Glendale. Every Saturday she commutes to

the Americana to buy fresh and organic fruits and vegetables from Gigi’s Farmers market.

“I love the atmosphere here and I enjoy spending Saturday mornings in Americana,” says Puente, 73. who attributes her good health and vivacious attitude to being a vegetarian for 26 years.

Not too far from Kurtosh, on the lawn across from Tiffany, Sean Edwards, a 35year-old actor, is moonlighting by selling sculptured balloons. There is a long queue of parents and kids watching Edwards as he skillfully twists, and bends long and narrow balloons into all sorts of shapes, from motorcycles to eight-legged octopuses. One couldn’t miss the big smiles on the kids’ faces when they were handed a sculptured balloon.

Parents were happy to pay $3 for smaller creations and $5 for larger ones.

At 5 p.m. the fountains started their usual choreographed dance to the music while young and old, mothers and daughters dressed in colorful outfits and looking very smart, grandparents alongside strollerpushing new parents, eased their way toward the edge of the water to watch the water show and take pictures.

Watching the crowd, my husband repeats the same refrain, “How else could we have this pleasant atmosphere if it was not for Rick

Caruso, who was able to go through all the hurdles and create this posh community in our backyard.”

Controversy Before coming into fruition, the Americana project generated a lot of disagreement between different segments of the community in Glendale. Some rallied behind the project, some worried that the Americana would worsen the traffic, some were concerned that it would hurt the existing businesses, and some were just against Rick Caruso as developer.

The main opposition came from General Growth Properties Inc., which owns the shopping mall across the street from the Americana, the Glendale Galleria. Fearing a negative impact on their business, General Growth filed two lawsuits against Caruso Affiliated, and was able to gather enough petitions to put the project on the ballot.

Glendalians went to the polls and voted. The Americana project prevailed by a mere half percent.

While General Growth Properties Inc. which owns numerous malls around the country, has filed the biggest real estate bankruptcy in U.S. history — $27 billion,

The Americana offers a complete retail experience combining shopping, movies, and dining in a park-like setting.

Photo by Catherine Yesayan

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there is no question that the booming Glendale Galleria is its most prized possession. It is clear that contrary to General Growth’s assumption that the Americana would have gobbled up the business, the Americana has resuscitated the area and the Glendale Galleria has become one of the most successful malls in the country. Today Glendale, with two thriving malls, is a Mecca for shoppers. Driving on Central Avenue, one cannot miss the stream of people crossing the street, going back and forth between the Americana and the Glendale Galleria.

During the opening gala Rick Caruso, the man behind Americana and the chief executive officer of Caruso Affiliated, took verbal jabs at General Growth saying, “The reason we’re not celebrating our second anniversary is because we had a neighbor…”

Caruso jokingly continued, “everybody’s got somebody in their life. Hillary’s got Bill. I’ve got General Growth.”

Location The Americana at Brand, located in the heart of downtown Glendale, is bordered by three major streets: Central Avenue to the west, Brand Boulevard to the east, and Colorado to the south. The north side of the Americana is adjacent to Glendale Galleria.

It covers about 15.5 acres with a mixed use of retail stores, apartments and condominiums.

The two acres of open space features an immaculate lawn and a huge pond in the middle with dancing fountains that are choreographed to music every half hour like the fountains in front of the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas. Additionally there are about 70 retail stores and several upscale restaurants and an 18-screen state-of-the-art movie theater.

“The Americana might be considered, one of the loveliest, the prettiest and the classiest of all outdoor malls in California,” says Elizabeth Manasserian, a real estate broker in Glendale and president of Healthy Kids, who often visits Americana for entertainment. She continues, “Americana is a beautiful spot where community can come together to enjoy a summer stroll in the park-like surroundings. It is a place where generations can strengthen their bonds, such as a grandfather watching his grandson playing on the playground while grandma is trying outfits at Chico’s. We have had other developments in Glendale but none have provided the high quality and the charm that Americana is offering.”

Amenities One may find the same stores at any upscale mall, but what makes it special is the

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“When I left Glendale, Americana

was under discussion. Now it’s a reason

to move back.” landscape and the architecture, which is a mix of Art Deco with Mediterranean styles.

All too often I park my car at a top level of the parking structure to be able to have a bird’s eye view of the posh surroundings — the pond, the buildings, the crowd — while descending by the glass elevator.

When the elevator arrives at the ground level, I am flattered to be welcomed by a bellhop wearing a uniform and white gloves. And if instead of the elevator, one takes the escalator to the ground level, the swanky lobby with a playing piano, plush sofas where patrons can lounge and the concierge desk whose service has been named as “best in the nation” by the Wall Street Journal, gives you a feel that you are in a most luxurious hotel. “How else downtown Glendale could get so much glamour and high life?” I wonder.

On Sunday mornings, whenever I get up early, I head to Americana for a free yoga class, on the lush green lawn, offered by Lululemon, an athletic store. After yoga class I go to Barnes and Noble, have a coffee at the Starbucks located inside the store, and then I sit in the balcony, overlooking the seductive landscape and read books and magazines. I am totally absorbed by the atmosphere; it is so refreshing and relaxing to watch from above as people interact, kids play on the playground, and the fountains dance, while the vintage trolley snakes through the huge lawn.

“Americana is a great place to entertain, especially out-of-town guests,” says Atieh Rod. “We have often impressed our guests, by taking them to the Cheesecake Factory with its divine and scrumptious menu or to Frida restaurant that offers Mariachis as entertainment.”

With all the upscale stores such as Juicy Couture, Tiffany & Co., A/X Armani Exchange, to name a few, it is like having Rodeo Drive in our backyard. I get so much satisfaction and inspiration by just walking around, window shopping and learning about the newest fashion and design trends. I love watching the groups of

— Margaret Shepherd

giggling girlfriends, chatting unceasingly and browsing around.

For me, a visit to Americana will not be complete if I don’t pass by Anthropologie, a women’s fashion store that always offers the most intriguing, the most creative and the most amusing of window displays — nothing short of a creative design in a modern gallery.

Since we are not allowed to take pictures of the whimsical and artfully presented goods, inside of the store, I satisfy my curiosity by just taking pictures of the window arrangement from outside.

What are you in the mood for? A hot relaxing sauna? Or having a martini while lounging at the poolside? Chances are the concierge service of Americana residences will be able to bring it to you. In the past, the concept of living above a retail storefront in Los Angeles may not have sounded so luxurious, but with all the amenities that the Americana provides, this new community model may be ideal for Angelenos to embrace. Margaret Shepherd, who moved to Falls Church, Va., a few years ago, says, “When I left Glendale, Americana was under discussion. Now it’s a reason to move back.”

Keeping with their promise, as an added attraction, a month ago, Caruso Affiliated launched the much-anticipated free public transportation of replica vintage trolleys, running along Brand Boulevard from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. My mother-in-law says that she and her friends are looking with anticipation to ride on the trolley which starts at Monterey Road, just a short block from their apartment.

With all these amenities, It’s no wonder that Americana, today, despite the down economy, is bustling with diverse crowd, coming from all over and from different levels and ethnicities. Like its predecessor, the Grove, another brainchild of Rick Caruso, the Americana has become a destination in Los Angeles, by bringing young and old together and by putting the city of Glendale on the map.

Catherine Yesayan, an Armenian originally from Iran, has been living in Glendale for 30 years. Her flair for writing has brought her to GCC’s journalism department as a student.

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What about Brand?

Is the Americana bad for independent businesses?

— By Zee Alexan Before the Americana at Brand opened up in Glendale, there was a lot of concern and resistance from the nearby business owners on Brand Boulevard. This doesn’t seem to be the case for a familyowned business named Porto’s Bakery in Glendale. The bakery currently serves at least 2,500 customers a day so it’s safe to say the Americana hasn’t hurt its business. Porto’s biggest attractions are its cakes, pastries, and house specialties.

Bakeries Not even the current tough economic times has stopped Porto’s plan for opening up another new location this summer in Downey, and due to high demand, in Orange County next year. But the Cuban-styled bakery might not have existed today if it wasn’t for the original owner, Rosa Porto, who took a challenging time in her life and turned it into an opportunity for a successful business. Porto’s story started in Manzanillo, Cuba, when Rosa Porto, lost her job as a home economics teacher and began selling cakes from home.

But with every growing business, comes some challenges the owners need to face and adjust accordingly. One of the family owners, Betty Porto says, “When we first

started the business, we had like 25 full-time workers, but now we have 200 employees.

It is getting harder to keep-up with all the paperwork for the workers. Human resources is time consuming but it’s important to get it right. Providing good customer service is our priority so we have to make sure our employees are prepared and make improvements if they need to. That’s why we have in-house customer service training, we ask employees to take management and business courses, and sometimes we bring in experts to talk to them about customer service and cooking-related topics like why some foods need to stay at certain temperature.”

A few months ago, right across from Porto’s, a shop called Panera Bread opened on Brand Boulevard. Like Porto’s Bakery, it offers a variety of delicious, fresh and affordable food. Betty is not worried though because she says, “Our food here is unique.

They don’t have what we have. No one can imitate our guava and cheese, cheese roll, or potato ball. There is no place like us around here. Even the Americana, which is only a few blocks from here, hasn’t hurt our business. In fact, it might help our business because when people hear about us, they would want to walk over and try our unique food.”

The success of Panera Bread doesn’t seem to bother Betty because she says, “The business at Panera is going good, but we are doing as good as before. That’s fine. There is enough for everyone. We are not worried because our clients have known us for more than 35 years. We are not in the business just for the money, but we want to keep the family tradition going and truly care about our customers. We have been here for them and served them during their most special times like birthdays, weddings, and showers.” Providing good customer service and keeping their prices low during difficult economic times has helped Porto’s Bakery not only stay in business but to thrive.

Bookstores On the other hand, three bookstores on Brand Boulevard aren’t doing as well as they used to. But the problem is not the Americana. The bookstores are victims of the recession and online shopping. A manager at Borders, Amber Lessa says, “Americana hasn’t affected the business here at all. If anything, it’s bringing more people to downtown and they usually just cross over and come to our store.” Lately, there have been rumors that Borders is in danger of closing down, but the manger dismissed

Porto’s Bakery , founded in 1974, is a Glendale institution. Betty Porto isn’t concerned by competition from the Americana or even from Panera Bread, which just opened across the street. “They don’t have what we have,” she says.

Photo by Jane Pojawa

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those rumors. Lessa says, “We renewed our lease very recently so we are definitely planning to stay here and, hopefully, for many more years.”

The Americana hasn’t hurt the business of a privately owned bookstore on Brand named Bookfellows, according to its owner, Malcolm Bell. The bookstore sells fiction books only and 95 percent of them are used.

Bell says, “The Americana hasn’t hurt or helped my business. The parking meters that were added in front of my store have hurt my business more than the Americana. My clients complain about them.” Bell runs the store with his wife Christine and he doesn’t have any employees. He has been at this location for 10 years and it is open seven days a week. He also sells paperbacks, hard covers, and vintage. Although the overall sales have been down due to the recession, Bell says, “Business is slightly improving again. More people are beginning to buy.”

Sales have slowed down at another privately owned bookstore on Brand called Brand Bookshop. According to its upbeat owner, Jerome Joseph, “Our sales have been down roughly 15 percent due to the recession.

All the people are ordering online now

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days, but that’s OK, we are still here. I am always going to be here. I tell my customers, I’m going to die here. I don’t believe in retirement. I love this job too much.” The delightful 82-year-old owner has been working at the shop for 25 years. He always greets his customers with a big smile on his face and he makes sure they are getting what they’re looking for. “If they’re looking for fiction books, I refer them to my friend’s store right across from me. I don’t sell a lot of fiction. I don’t like fiction,” Jerome says.

Brand Bookshop carries used, out of print, and rare books. The store is well known in the community for being organized.

Jerome has two full-time and six part-time employees and they are mainly college students. One of them, Robert Satto, says, “This is my favorite job ever. I love working for him. I used to work here three days a week, but now I work only once a week.”

Robert is also a talented artist. His paintings

are displayed throughout the bookstore.

Some of the works of art are in small frames hanging on top of the bookshelves and there is a big painting right by the exit door.

Jerome speaks highly of Robert and is proud to showcase his paintings.

Since the business slowed down a little, Jerome had to cut back some of the store hours, but it is still open seven days a week to accommodate his customers. Robert says, “Bookstores aren’t doing well. Everyone is buying online to save more money.” Four of the shops on Brand say the Americana is not the reason to blame for the slower business. Jerome points his hands towards the Americana and says, “The Americana is there. They are different than us. They have their fancy, nice, and new stores. You know, they have Barnes and Noble there, but they aren’t anything like us. They don’t sell used books, but we do here.”

Zee Alexan holds a master’s degree in guidance counseling and she has primarily worked with elementary and middle school children. This is her first journalism class at GCC.

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Two Wheels

are better than none: bicycling is a lifestyle trend you shouldn’t pass up — By Gagik “G” Ambartsumyan To most people, riding a bicycle is something you learned how to do, but never did. Those people are boring quitters!

However, just like those boring quitters, Harry Mechitaryan, until recently, couldn’t care less about sitting on one of those painfully narrow rock-hard seats.

Surprisingly, all it took to change his mind was a simple ride with a friend who had a spare bike. “Struggling up La Tuna Canyon’s fire road and falling face-first down the single trails in the back was an adventure that left me starving for oxygen and addicted to adrenaline,” says Mechitaryan. In a world where technology has made most of life’s activities almost effortless, biking offers a simple, healthy, and fun way to bring some activity back into your life.

For those who enjoy such thrills and a challenging workout, mountain biking is a perfect fit. Fortunately, for California residents, mountain biking originated here and our many mountains offer a wide variety of trails. For those who are not on the mountain biking scene, mtbr.com offers everything one would need to know. This website has information on every detail of mountain biking, from reviews on bikes and bike parts, to reviews on trails. One can also visit the forms section of the website to converse with fellow bikers on any topic.

As people “Supersize” their meals and minimize their physical activity, they maximize the chances of serious health ailments such as heart attacks and strokes.

When all that has to be done in order to have some serious fun and stay healthy is to sit, pedal, and try not to fall (although it’s fun to sometimes) how can one say no?

“Biking is a life saver. I love biking. I go every chance I get,” says Fernando Oleas, a 45-year-old professor at Pierce College. “I was on a beginners hiking trail with my wife and two daughters, and half way up I had to tell my wife to call an ambulance because I had pain in my chest.” Luckily, Oleas had survived what appeared to be a minor heartattack. “From that day on, I’ve been on two wheels and don’t plan on getting off anytime soon,” he proclaims. As an avid mountain biker, Oleas frequents La Tuna Canyon’s fire road and Mt. Wilson’s mountain bike trails.

Since picking up biking as a hobby, he has had no complaints of pains like the ones he felt during his heart attack.

Furthermore, as the very world we love finds itself under fire from global warming and ocean acidification – both of which are caused by increasing amounts of carbon dioxide, biking offers a priceless ally. Biking is quite frankly a very green activity. Think of it this way, while most vehicles produce

massive amounts of carbon dioxide, bicycles don’t produce any. According to a 2006 study conducted by the Energy Information agency, the United States was the second largest producer of carbon dioxide in the world, falling second to China, which has the largest population in the world. Also, the price of gas these days has skyrocketed so much that biking as a means of commuting is becoming more and more common as people try to save money wherever possible.

So, in biking we have found an activity that can save your life, save you money, save the planet, and is one hell of an adrenaline rush — not to mention that you can do it almost anywhere, anytime. Interestingly enough “Bicycling is the sixth most popular U.S. recreational sport, after walking, camping, swimming, bowling, and fishing,” according to “mrbike,” also known as Dave Glowacz. Glowacz’s website, mrbike.com, states that “the number of U.S. adults who bicycle regularly grows by over a million each year.” The question is, will you be a part of that number?

If your answer is still no, take a look at the parking situation at Glendale Community College. Even with a new parking structure, GCC has a parking problem that is so annoying that some students have written essays showing their growing disgust. So

Gagik Ambartsumyan has discovered that bicycling is a great way to stay fit while having fun and more of the campus community is joining in. Will you be next?

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May is Bike Month To help encourage more people to ride bicycles L.A. County declared May to be “bike to work” month. L.A. county employees were encouraged to ride their bicycles to work from May 17 to 21.

As an incentive Metro offered free rides to passengers who board with a bicycle or a helmet. Participants, who had to take a pledge, then “bike to work,” were eligible to win “fabulous metro prizes.” Hopefully, next year additional employers, schools and cities will adopt such ideas to help boost the number of cyclists. what does parking have to do with biking?

All you have to do is pay a visit to either UC Santa Barbara or UC Santa Cruz to find out.

The closer you get to these campuses the more you will notice that there are fewer vehicles and an unusually large volume of bicycles.

Reasons for this include high parking fees and a very limited availability.

To help get around the limited parking issues that GCC students also face, many students of UCSB and UCSC have adopted bicycles as their primary means of transportation to and from school. As a matter of fact, to help encourage this idea, UCSC offers free bicycle rentals for its students. As an added bonus, students who bike to school get to park for free, saving money for more urgent needs such as school supplies and books.

feel weird.” Apparently public perceptions towards cyclists are negative enough to dissuade students from biking. One possible solution to this would be for the GCC to start supporting this idea and make it easier for students choose a bike over a car by offering additional incentives.

Another common response was “I don’t feel that my bike is safe when it is locked up because bikes get stolen all the time.”

According to Glowacz, “the FBI says that more than 1,300 bikes are stolen every day in the U.S. — almost half a million bikes a year. And in some big cities, such as parts of Chicago, up to seven bikes are reported stolen on an average summer day.” Maybe if there were a secure area with a guard so students could check their bikes in and not have to worry about someone stealing them, more students might chose to ride rather than drive in. Another option would be to

buy a cheap bike nobody would want to steal and ride that to school.

Either way, biking is a fun activity which has more benefits than many people know.

Hopefully, now that you know, you may be able to make the right decision.

To help promote biking, the city of Glendale named May “Bike Month,” with a public ride-along bike tour called the “Historic Ride.” Bike Month continued through May with various bicycle-related activities, concluding on Wednesday May 26th with “Making Long Beach Bike-Friendly and What It Means for Glendale.” For those who were unable to participate in this year’s “Bike Month,” more information along with a full list of activities hosted by the event is available at http://la-bike.org/glendale/ bikemonth.

Gagik “G” Ambartsumyan, 23, works full time during the day at the District Attorney’s Office while attending GCC at night. When he does have free time, Gagik enjoys cycling, skiing and travel.

Glendale Bike Routes

Santa Cruz Bicycle Co-Op The bicycle co-op of UCSC is located on school grounds and is run entirely by students. The co-op is able to fix broken bicycles, assemble new ones if you are unable too, and give bikes out to students who don’t have one, free of charge. Haik Manukian, a current student at UCSC says “the co-op is a very useful thing to have on campus. It gives students a healthy, cost-effective alternative, to the already crowded public transportation most students currently rely on.”

To find out why more GCC students don’t bike to school some were asked what was keeping them from biking to school.

Although various responses were received, the most common answer was “it would

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Map by C. Bogart

The Glendale History Ride map, above, is among the offerings at bikely.com, an online resource for bicycle commuters. This route, which features a stop at Brand Park, is 14.6 miles long, perfect for an intermediate biker. www.gccinsider.com

Chessboxing Comes to Los Angeles — By Jane Pojawa An unassuming low gray building on Sunset Boulevard is marked only by an address, 7574. The windows are dark and it has an aura of urban decay about it. The entrance is in the back, but that information is only for those who have been to the Fortune Gym before. No sign advertises its presence to the uninitiated.

The gym itself is a bastion of austere masculinity. Clean, no frills. The brick walls support several photographs of boxers and a sign which reads “Rule number 9: No coaching or talking to another’s fighter or client.” Justin Fortune, a former heavy weight contender from Australia, takes a no-bullshit approach to running a gym, and there are no fancy exercise machines in here, no yoga classes, no wheatgrass juice bar.

Fortune Gym trains boxers. That’s it. Several men do variations on pushups with free weights, punch heavy bags or speed bags and spar. Talking is minimal; concentration is key to the program. Boxing is a mental sport where anticipation of an opponent’s likely moves, and calculated response, and the art of the psych-out are factors frequently as decisive to victory in the ring as physical conditioning.

Chess is a game that uses the same mental skills in a completely different way.

And it is here, at the Fortune Gym, that these two exercises converged at the Los Angeles Chessboxing Club’s first exhibition bout on Feb. 27.

The contenders are Andrew ‘The Fightin’ Philanthropist’ McGregor, better known for his work in citizen journalism in the world’s conflict zones and Germany’s David Pfeifer, a writer and representative of the World Chess Boxing Organization.

McGregor, the founder of the Los Angeles Chessboxing Club, has had problems finding opponents. At 6 foot 93/4 and weighing 280 pounds, he is simply much larger than most chessboxers, who tend to be middle-weights. Pfeifer, from Berlin, is shorter, stockier, but is a more experienced boxer. He is in Los Angeles to cover a story on celebrity rehab in Malibu, and was persuaded to fight McGregor to

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Photo by Jesse Reid

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promote the sport in America. This is the first chessboxing match in America, although it is catching on quickly in Europe.

In the left corner of the gym is a boxing ring. A worn blue tarp covers the floor. It gets a lot of use. Slightly in front of the ring and to the right is a makeshift table with a portable chess board on it.

The “board” is actually a printed piece of vinyl, and the plastic pieces are also cheap and nondescript. Chessboxing is not about pretty. It is about matching wits and strength with a worthy opponent, and its amateur qualities are what elevate it to an actual sport and not just a nerdy joke.

“The Don King model of boxing has forced all but professional fighters out of the sport,” says McGregor, “and you can play chess with a computer. The human element is lacking. But anyone can learn chessboxing.”

Anyone who can play chess and doesn’t mind being hit in the face, but it is a well-taken point.

Competitive boxing bypassed amateur competition years ago, and few athletes play chess. Chessboxing gives amateur athletes an opportunity to excel where professionals cannot, and it is a democratic leveling of the playing

field, where the non-specialist is at an advantage.

Kung-Fu Fighting The genesis of chessboxing can be traced to the Taiwanese martial arts classic “Shuang Ma Lian Huan” aka “Ninja

Checkmate” and, more commonly, “The Mystery of Chess Boxing” a film directed

by Joseph Kuo (1979).

A geriatric murderer (played by Mark Long) with the moniker “the Ghost-Faced Killer,” long steel-gray hair whipping the wind, does not resemble a ghost, nor does he kill people who do.

His hallmark feature is the unnaturally long eyebrows that seem poised to colonize his forehead, common enough in arch-villains. He is deceptively sprightly despite his supposedly advanced age. If his elderly victims, for whom he has held a long-standing grudge, don’t scream “Ghost-Faced Killer!” upon his arrival, he does it himself. His master fighting style is the Five Elements — and no one knows which of them the GhostFaced Killer will use to bring their life to a swift and comical end. Perhaps it doesn’t matter because each of the elements looks the same.

In a parallel story, each of the elements looks the same because the “elements” all wear matching white pajamas and Beatle hair cuts. They are generic Kung Fu students, but one young man, Lee Yi Min, stands apart. He too wears the pajamas and sports a Paul McCartney, but he is motivated by a desire to avenge his father’s five-element death, at the hands of, surprisingly enough: the Ghost-Faced Killer. As the new student at Kung-Fu school, he endures Cinderella-type degradation with Karate Kid-style “paint-the-fence/waxon wax-off ” aplomb and scores unlikely apprenticeships with a cook and a chess

Austrian David Pfeifer, lately of Berlin, is occasionally known in the ring as “Dr. King Kong.” His opponent, Andrew “The Fightin’ Philanthropist” McGregor, previous page, is bringing chessboxing to America by any means necessary.

Los Angeles is ground zero for the invasion of this hybrid sport that, to its proponents, exemplifies the Homeric ideal of brains and brawn combining to create the perfect human being.

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www.gccinsider.com

master (Simon Yuen and Jack Long, respectively).

Once the pawn has crossed the line, he has to stay – there is no way back.

The stilted dialogue punctuates comedic martial arts scenes. The discipline of mastering chess is merely an allegory for mastering non-martial arts impulses. About halfway through the movie, the young apprentice had had enough, “I want to learn Kung-Fu!” he complains.

The chess master responds, “Well, in fact you are already learning. The first virtue is to be calm. Calm must be the basis of Kung-Fu. It’s a mental discipline.

And playing chess will teach you to achieve calmness of mind. I have never discovered a better way.”

They are actually playing go, not chess in the Western sense, but the message is clear from this interchange: “To master this game you have to be, like I said, very calm, but also quick of wit, sharp of eye, fast of mind, slow of tongue, quick to see.”

“How’s this? You’re in check!”

“Hmmm. At dawn, you start training.”

And with that, the sport of chessboxing began to evolve, but before it became a sport, it became a song.

Enter the Wu Tang Clan In the early ’90s the Staten Islandbased rappers including members RZA, GZA, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, Masta Killa, and the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard formed what would become one of the most influential hip-hop groups of the

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“The Game of Chess is like a swordfight. You

think move.”

must before you

first,

— The Five Deadly Venoms

last 20 years. And their primary influence was martial arts movies. Dennis Coles, aka Ghostface Killah, took his stage name from the movie and “Da Mystery of Chessboxin’” was released as a single from their first album “Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers),” which was released in 1993.

The game of chess is like a swordfight You must think first, before you move Toad style is immensely strong, and immune to nearly any weapon When it’s properly used, it’s almost invincible Although this dialogue is presented in “Da Mystery of Chessboxin’” as seminal wisdom for chessboxers, it actually comes from another martial arts movie, “The Five Deadly Venoms,” a 1978 classic from Hong Kong. No matter; in Europe, chessboxing was capturing the public’s attention in an entirely different way.

European Chessboxing In 1991, the Finnish comedy “Uuno Turhapuro — herra Helsingin herra,” directed by Ere Kokkonen, features a protagonist who plays blindfold chess against one character using a hands-free telephone headset while boxing another.

This film was almost universally panned.

Finally, out of this cultural miasma, chessboxing’s breakthrough moment arrived. French-Yugoslavian graphic novelist Enki Bilal invented a hybrid chess-boxing sport in his 1992 work, Froid Équateur, and yet “real” chessboxing would take another decade to develop.

That moment came in 2003. Inspired

by Bilal’s conceptualization, Dutch performance artist Iepe Rubingh, whose primary cultural contribution up to that point was blocking off intersections in

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each player has a total of only 12 minutes for the whole game. Snap decisions and instinct dominate.

Competitors may win by a knockout, achieving a checkmate, by the judges’ decision, or if their opponent’s 12 minutes of chess time is exceeded. If a competitor fails to make a move during the chess round, he is issued a warning and he must move within the next 10 seconds. Repeated warnings may result in a disqualification.

Tokyo and Berlin to cause traffic jams, envisioned a practical way — alternating rounds — to combine the two sports.

Rubingh, who chessboxes under the name “Iepe the Joker,” launched the World Chessboxing Championship in Amsterdam in 2003, and founded the World Chess Boxing Organisation. It is his most successful foolie to date.

A Real Sport Wu-Tang Clan founding member RZA (Robert Diggs) is a fan and advocate of the novelty sport, and has launched a new campaign “WuChess” to teach chess to inner-city youth alongside martial arts like ju-jitsu for “flexin’ ya mentals,” and non-violent conflict resolution. In a way, chessboxing has returned to its roots.

There are chessboxing clubs in Germany, Russia, England, Bulgaria and now — the United States. Specifically, Los Angeles.

Fighting is done in the ring and wars are waged on the board… …is the tag line of the World Chess Boxing Organisation (WCBO), the body that governs the sport. It seems to be the case. The rules of chess and boxing apply and the structure it thus: The match begins with a four-minute chess round. This is followed by three minutes of boxing, with rounds of chess and boxing alternating until the end. A match consists of up to 11 alternating rounds of boxing and chess (six fourminute rounds of chess, five three-minute rounds of boxing). There is a one-minute break between rounds — just enough time to get from the ring to the board, although some rings are set up with the board in the middle — ready for action.

Speed chess is used, a form in which

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I have taught you enough now to break his Kung-Fu, but bear his technique in mind. The five elements: fire, gold, wood, water, earth. The earth absorbs water.

Wood can beat earth.

Gold cuts wood. Earth absorbs gold. Once again!

Alright. Just remember what I’ve taught you…

Pfeifer and McGregor square off.

Sweat falls in mouse-sized drops. Trainers yell last minute instructions from the corners — “keep your hands up!”

Nothing as esoteric as the commands of the Kung-Fu chess master.

McGregor, the Fightin’ Philanthropist, struggles to defeat Pfeifer’s elements, and launches a strong offense. It’s close.

McGregor’s chi is strong, but perhaps not

strong enough.

“I’m here to promote the sport,” says David Pfeifer, occasionally known also as “Dr. King Kong.” He believes that once people see a chessboxing match they’ll be hooked. Pfeifer’s easy smile never falters — it’s clear that he’s having a great time — even though he suffered an untimely defeat in the 5th round after inadvertently trapping his own king.

He lost the “war” while winning the “fight.”

McGregor, now America’s undisputed heavyweight chessboxing champion, is eager to defend his title. The Los Angeles Chessboxing Club is actively recruiting new members in all weight classes.

McGregor claims that he has never used toad style to defeat an opponent, but stated that he would not rule it out.

A “ChessBoxing 4 Charity Fundraiser” will be held at Les Deux Nightclub at 1638 N. Las Palmas, Hollywood on Thursday, Sept. 23 from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. $15 presale, $20 at the door. Three bouts are planned, including two female chessboxers squaring off on the board and in the ring. All ticket proceeds go to the Tiziano Project to fund citizen journalism programs in conflict zones.

The Wide World of Chessboxing • T o learn more about this fast-growing amature sport, online resources are available. Training is ongoing at the Fortune Gym, contact Andrew Mc Gregor, founder of the Los Angeles Chessboxing Club, the only American club endorsed by the WCBO, for more information:

The Los Angeles Chessboxing Club: http://lachessboxing.com/ • F or international inquiries, contact the World Chess Boxing Organisation: http://wcbo.org/content/index_en.html

• W uTang members GZA and RZA (cousins Gary Grice and Robert Diggs) continue to support chess and chessboxing for inner-city youth. For more information visit

WuChess: http://www.wuchess.com/

Jane Pojawa is the editor-in-chief of The Insider. She created the Michael White Adobe Web site and is writing a book about the adventurous life of Michael Claringbud White, known in California as Miguel Blanco. www.gccinsider.com

Applying for Assistance: the bureaucratic nightmare of foodstamps — By Ariel Oakley The social services building in Glendale is crowded today. People are sitting and standing, waiting for their number to be called. Despite the crowd it is eerily quiet.

No one speaks to each other, we individually look over our filled out forms lying in our laps. Toddlers wriggle in their mother’s laps, and some families talk in subdued and muffled tones. Besides one crying baby, the loudest noise is the whir of printers and office electronics. The air is one of universal resignation.

After two long hours, my number is called.

I bring my paperwork to a woman behind a plexiglass division, slipping it under the glass, like at the bank.

“Why did you take a number?” she says.

Not quite understanding, I reply. “The sign said to take a number… so I…” “No, no, no,” She says. “Go get that envelope over there, put your name on it and drop it in the box!”

“I’m sorry, but I just want to talk to someone about applying for foodstamps,” I reply again in bewilderment.

She looks at me with absolute frustration, like a mother telling her toddler to stop banging pots together. She repeats her instructions more slowly this time, emphasizing each word. She directs me outside, and waves me away to attend to the next person waiting.

I pull an envelope from the pile in the counter. I look around for the sign I must have missed. I can only find the very large take a number sign I saw when I first came through the metal detectors on my way in.

I walk around outside for 20 minutes before a security guard points me to a large beige mailbox down the street that is not visible from the front of the building. As I slide my application in, I wonder if I should even bother. I think about my empty bank account and let the envelope drop in.

According to Federal figures from 2007, only 48 percent of eligible Californians are enrolled in the Federal Food Stamp Program, recently renamed the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Los Angeles County alone is estimated to have 957,162 eligible people who are not participating in the program. The non-profit that addresses

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this major discrepancy, California Food Advocates, lists stigma, lack of knowledge about eligibility, and inadequate benefits as the major barriers to participation. In their estimation, it takes an average of five hours in the welfare office and almost three trips to apply for food stamps in California. From my experience, and those of people I talked to standing outside Glendale’s Department of Public Social Services building, it seems to most people the average benefit of $146 a month isn’t worth the application process, or keeping up with the continual paperwork.

But there is an additional exasperating barrier, the confusing, inefficient bureaucratic tangle of applying for, and staying on, food stamps.

As I was standing outside the office wondering where my Friday had gone, I met others who shared my feeling of defeat.

Stories of mixed messages, and wasted time.

Always repeating that it didn’t seem worth the meager allotment, but when things are tough you’ve got to do anything to try and make it work. No one was willing to go on record about their experiences, either because of embarrassment or a kind of irrational fear of rocking the boat and losing the benefits they do receive.

As he walked away one older man said, “don’t get me wrong, it drives me crazy to come and waste time here, but I need this. As soon as I can afford not to do this anymore I won’t.” I asked him to clarify, and when he says “when I can afford not to do this anymore,” he doesn’t mean when he isn’t eligible anymore. He means when he “can get a hundred bucks more a month anywhere, anyhow.”

Some “American ideal” cheerleaders insist on throwing up the “pull yourself up by the bootstraps” banner and letting it fly, saying this is how assistance should be. But I disagree. If people well below the poverty line who qualify for help are being discouraged from seeking it, who are these

programs for? For those too beaten and desperate to have a choice in the matter?

According to the DPSS these programs are “designed to both alleviate hardship and promote health, personal responsibility, and economic independence,” it seems their idea of promoting independence is to make it so frustrating and horrible an experience that you either don’t finish applying, or stop the efforts to stay enrolled in the program.

Taking the poorest, most vulnerable populations and subjecting them to hoopjumping and humiliation is not a strategy, it’s a shame.

Outside that building, I heard stories of being sent cancellation notices, and being told to ignore them. Of being sent to do workfare and being sent to a wrong location twenty miles away from the actual site. Of resubmitting forms that have already been submitted three times over. Of feeling overwhelmed and lost in amaze like system with no way to address any of it except to file more forms, to get in line. Of these many storytellers, of various ages and backgrounds, not one was willing to put their name in print. It is a deeply flawed system that does not get fixed because those at its mercy are not empowered to speak up against it. It is here stigma rears it’s most ugly head.

A week after my trip to the Glendale DPSS I received a letter in the mail telling me I missed the appointment I had with my caseworker. The alleged appointment time on the letter was scheduled for the day I turned in my form, before I had applied. I called the number on the form and spoke to my caseworker. She told me to ignore the letter.

We go through my papers over the phone. I now have an appointment for the following week, Tuesday at noon. On Monday I receive a letter informing me I failed to submit the proper papers, and my application has been rejected. I think about my empty bank account and my empty fridge and sigh.

Ariel Oakley holds a bachelor of fine arts degree in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute. She and her husband live in Montrose.

JOURN 107 was her first journalism class at GCC. Spring 2010 | the insider

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Photo by Louis Roche