Wednesday, December 22, 2010

El Gallo Arpaio

Sometime back, some students at a local high school I was working with wrote corridos for a contest. I decided to post one of my favorites that didn't win, but deserves a look. The name of the young woman who wrote it is Mercedes Galarza.

El gallo Arpaio

Les traigo un cuento sobre un gallo,

Grande, blanco, feo, y gordo.

Se brincaba nuestra cerca,

Nos manda a nuestra casa.

Su sobre nombre es Joe Arpaio


El gallo se cree rey del barrio.

Corretea a la gente

Que no se parezca a el.

Discrimina donde debemos

Respirar libremente.

Solo queremos ser indiferentes.


Ese gallo Joe Arpaio

Nos viste a nuestros hombres

Todos de color de rosa,

De los pies a la cabeza

Incluyendo los calzoncillos.

Le gusta el color de mariposa.


El quiere parecerse a un héroe

El mas fuerte y feroz de todos.

En realidad no es mas que un

Hombre con demasiado orgullo.

Sus modos americanos

lo tienen muy cegado.


El gallo que vive al lado

Se levanta muy temprano.

Se la lleva kacarajeando

Y levantando a la vecindad.

Quiere que hagamos su voluntad

Y es muy bueno para mandar.


Bueno amigos aquí se acaba el

Cuento del gallo y Joe Arpaio

Aun nos corretea y picotea

Pero nunca nos quitara

Las ganas de triunfar, tampoco

Los sueños que traemos al barrio.


(bottom Gallo Image by Cristina Sosa Noriega)


Friday, December 17, 2010

SB 1070 Created by Prison Economic

From a NPR story, the diagram shows how members of a prison lobbyist organization were the writers and fundraisers of SB 1070 for the purpose filling prisons with undocumented women and children.

Read the entire story: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130833741From the story:
"NPR spent the past several months analyzing hundreds of pages of campaign finance reports, lobbying documents and corporate records. What they show is a quiet, behind-the-scenes effort to help draft and pass Arizona Senate Bill 1070 by an industry that stands to benefit from it: the private prison industry.

The law could send hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to prison in a way never done before. And it could mean hundreds of millions of dollars in profits to private prison companies responsible for housing them."

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Decolonizing the University

An Interesting Documentary
I had the opportunity to attend some of the panels for the Conference I mentioned in previous posts. I still have notes I took that I should post because of the great point that were made, but for right now, I'm posting a video I saw from a group of Berkeley grads who participated in a Decolonizing Conference.

Decolonizing the University: Fulfilling the Dream of the Third World College from John Hamilton on Vimeo.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Dolores Huerta, Cherrie Moraga, Leslie Marmon Silko,

COMBATING HATE, CENSORSHIP & FORBIDDEN CURRICULA

Update
In the dialogue of the State of Arizona, Dolores Huerta recounted her role in both the Chicano Labor Movement and the attack on Tucson Unified School District's Ethnic Studies program. The highlights of her role working Cesar Chavez was her coining of the now iconic "Si se puede" mantra/motto/dicho. Apparently, while signing up voters, a woman told Huerta that she couldn't register to vote, to which Huerta spontaneously responded, "Si, se puede."

I originally joked I thought Edward Jame Olmos had coined the phrase because I attributed all Chicano accomplishments to him (my father was a fan beginning with Zoot Suit, then on to Blade Runner, and Miami Vice before Stand and Deliver, while the rest of the Mexi-nerd, cyber-Aztec family members are Battlestar Gallactica-tecas).















Huerta also explained how she told TUSD high school students that Republican representatives in Arizona something to the effect of not caring about Mexicans. Opponents of TUSD Ethnic Studies like Tom Horne and John Huppenthal took this quote and ran with it as though there had been no history of subjugation of Latin@s in the Southwest. (See Jane Hill's "Hasta La Vista Baby" for a discussion in greater depth).

Inspired by Huerta's discussion with TUSD Ethnic Studies students, they organized protests when an Arizona school official spoke to the school with the stipulation that there would be no questions asked of the official by students.


Conference at UA Dec 2-4

Highlights from Friday Dec. 3 alone include (from Dr. Cintli's blog):

10:45-11:45am DECOLONIZING THE UNIVERSITY AS SOCIAL MOVEMENT
Cesar Chavez # 205 and 209
Samuel Bañales (UC Berkeley). "Challenging the Coloniality of Organizing with Activism
from Below"

Mattie Harper (UC Berkeley). "We Are Still Here: Confronting Myths of the Vanishing Indian Within the
Western Academy"
Nelson Maldonado-Torres (Rutgers University). "Next Steps: A Latina/o Academy of Arts and Sciences."
Moderator: Damian Baca, University of Arizona

And later that evening at the Gallagher Theater:

6-:6:50 pm
DIALOGUE: ARIZONA HATE and HOMOPHOBIA
Cherrie Moraga, Celia Rodriguez Raúl Al-qaraz Ochoa
Moderator: Sandy Soto

8:00-9:30 pm DIALOGUE: THE STATE OF ARIZONA

Simon Ortiz, Isabel Garcia, Dolores Huerta
Moderator: Leilani Clark
Opening Poem: Mixelle Rascon

And Saturday's events include:
El Rio CC - 1390 West Speedway Boulevard Tucson, AZ 85745-2324

10 am-11:30am PLATICA CALPOLLI TEOXICALLI
Mazatzin: "The Ancient Mexika Chronological System"
AMPHITHEATER EL RIO CC
Menudo Breakfast
Noon -7pm FLORICANTO ARTS/MUSIC FESTIVAL
2 stages
Indoor and Outdoor stage

-->
LESLIE MARMON SILKO – CHERRIE MORAGA - LUCI TAPAHONSO – FRANCISCO ALARCON - ELENA DIAZ BJORKQUIST – MARIA RAMIREZ – LUKE SALCIDO - CIHUATL CE - NICO-POETS DEL NORTE - FELICIA FE MONTES – MIXPE- STELLA POPE DUARTE – ANDREA HOLM – RAUL ALCARAZ - HEDY TREVINO – ELIAS SERNA – ALEX SOTO – TOLTEKA - TEATRO IZKALLI – SARAH GONZALEZ – NUESTRA VOZ –YWCA - ZARCO – DULCE JUAREZ – SAFOS THEATER – MARGE PELLEGRINO – MIXELLE RASCON – MI’JAN MI’JAN CELIE – SONIA GUTIERREZ - PHOTOGRAPHERS: LAYLA MARIE HERNANDEZ, FRANCISCO DOMINGUEZ – ANITA FERNANDEZ – CELESTINO FERNANDEZ – KEVAN CHUC - JOEL 'RAGE.ONE' GARCIA - EL VUH
(PARTIAL LIST)