Eduardo Galeano on NPR

The Book Hugo Chavez Gave Obama

Eduardo Galeano's Latin American History book Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent has been billed as the leftist history book that Chavez presented Obama on the 'scandalous' occasion when Obama shook Chavez' hand.



Truth be told, I'm waiting on a copy via Interlibrary Loan because the UA's went mysteriously missing, but I did catch the NPR interview with Galeano this morning & I think it's worth a listen:

(photo by Marcelo Isarrualde)

Eduardo Galeano Contemplates History's Paradoxes

I especially like when he says: "Richness in the world is a result of other people's poverty. We should begin to shorten the abyss between haves and have-nots."

Songs of Resistance

Open Mic to Benefit Raza Studies
I believe that as a part of a Raza Studies student's senior project, she organized this open mic--I don't know any educators who wouldn't want a program like this in their school given the amount of student involvement in not just the school, but also the community.

On this past Cinco de Mayo, I was able to see a Tucson High Raza Studies performance at the UA. Supporting these efforts by students is really important because it validates them as agents of change.

And like Nas said, "All I need is one mic."

Tutoring Center Video

Dedication to the Cause
As a TA and writing tutor while earning my Master's at Chapman University, I took part in a training video that was scripted and put together by students at the Dodge film school.
It's been a while since we did this, so I was surprised to find it on youtube with all of the other writing center/tutor training videos that I was going through because of the potential writing center work with Gear Up (the peer model proved successful this past year).

I noticed that most tutoring videos teeter between dry and informative, or humorous and speaking to a younger audience--this is the latter. And keep in mind that I'm no actor.

Jimmy Baca, Pedagogy of a Poet

UNM College of Education Professor Diane Torres-Velasquez discusses teaching style of Jimmy Santiago Baca

So I was watching the 'Making of' East Los Angeles gang epic Blood In Blood Out and I realized that it was written by Jimmy Santiago Baca. Here I'd taught some of Baca's work in my First Year Composition course and I wasn't aware he'd written the only film that has a 'Cruz' as a main character.

This is neither here, nor there, but this realization led me to find this video from the University of New Mexico, in which Diane Torres-Velasquez asks Baca about his ability to connect with students young and old, free and imprisoned. Accountability and making the students 'more than when they came in' are key:

New Start Summer '09

My New Start class
It's been a few weeks since the end of the summer bridge class I taught, but I remembered I had a few (blurry) pics from the last Pan Dulce Thursday of the semester (which happened to fall on a Friday). Like a junior high dance, the boys gravitated toward one side of the room and the girls to other.

I apologize that these pictures came out looking like they were taken on a camera-phone. I don't think the institutional white of the classroom walls helped the light balance.

The boys...

...and the ladies: