Arizona Schools' Ethnic Studies Program Ruled Illegal

From Huff Post Latino

"PHOENIX -- An administrative law judge ruled Tuesday that a Tucson school district's ethnic studies program violates state law, agreeing with the findings of Arizona's public schools chief.
Judge Lewis Kowal's ruling marked a defeat for the Tucson Unified School District, which appealed the findings issued in June by Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal."

Read the entire story here

It's really not surprising that a court in Phoenix sides with the Superintendent, just another example of Arizona politics. But what's really infuriating is that Judge Kowal agrees with Huppenthal who lied about the results of a third party audit of Ethnic Studies, which found the program not to be in violation of HB 2281.

Art by Xico Gonzalez: http://xicogonzalez.com/casa/

I Made a Library Search!

"Peer Reviewed" Feels Nice
Just this afternoon, I was reading the most recent issue of Composition Studies ;there's an interesting article by a creative writing professor Rachel Peckham, "The Elephants Evaluate: Some Notes on the Problem of Grades in Graduate Creative Writing Programs," discussing the grading practices, philosophies and responses of grades in creative writing seminars. Peckham makes some interesting points about the disconnection between grades and publish-ability because acceptance rates at literary magazines and presses is much, much lower than the high rate of A's awarded in creative writing seminars.

Speaking of the most recent issue of Composition Studies, I posted on the book review I wrote, but as I was trolling the UA library website, I ran across my review. Despite the fact it has me as "C Medina" with a link to all kinds of other texts that aren't mine, it's still feels cool.

Or check it out here. 
I even was able to use the cite/export function:
Medina, C. "The Writing Program Interrupted: Making Space for Critical Discourse, Edited by Donna Strickland and Jeanne Gunner." Composition Studies : Freshman English News. 39.2 (2011): 167-170. Print.

The book I co-edited is also in the UA library site, but it's nice to get listed.
This We Believe = Nuestros Refranes: Words to Live by from the Class of 2012 Cholla, Desert View, Pueblo and Sunnyside High Schools. Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona and Sunnyside High School and Tuncson Unified School District, 2010. Print. 

Another Attempt at "Digital Storytelling"

One of the Reasons I Blog Less
On top of writing my dissertation and teaching, I've also had my hands full this past semester with the arrival of my son Will. A bit like the saying "write what you know," I've been toying with digital storytelling and the use of editing, effects and the like to tell stories like a good digital mestiz@, so of course my son has become a part of my work (filming who I know.)

I used quotes around "digital storytelling" because I realize this little video is a take off on an established meme, but still tries work within the genre while appealing to the pathos of audiences.

Cruzito in monkey pain from Cruz Medina on Vimeo.

Louis C.K. Mexicano? No Puedo Creerlo

Huff Post Latin@ Keeping Me Informed
Huff Post did a story on "People you didn't know were Latin@." I like how Louis C.K uses his identity as a site of resisting ignorance through humor. Still, you have to wonder if many of these Latin@s on the down-low live life experiencing it as someone who is racialized by others as Latin@, or if they regard it less seriously than Louis C.K and do the "oh, I'm Latin@, but with roots to Spain" nonsense.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/07/latinos-celebrities-you-didnt-know-were-latino_n_1134136.html?ref=latino-voices A good excuse to also post a link to this Louis C.K clip "Being White": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG4f9zR5yzY Found a new youtube version of this:

A Book Review for Composition Studies

Entering the Conversation
I regret not blogging more as I attempt to juggle teaching, dissertating and fatherhood, but a book review I wrote for the Writing Program Interrupted appears in the Fall issue of Composition Studies. It appears online at: http://www.compositionstudies.uwinnipeg.ca/currentissue.html

 

Review Link: http://www.compositionstudies.uwinnipeg.ca/bookreviews/online/39-2/Medina_Strickland%20and%20Gunner.pdf

Immigration Not Linked to Crime

So all of the arguments about the deaths of innocent Americans near borders supporting Sb 1070 and other such legislation are wrong.  From HuffPostLatino:

"Does Immigration Fuel Crime? Without Statistical Consensus, Rhetoric And Fear Reign In Debate

To researchers such as Jack Levin, a criminologist at Northeastern University, El Paso is safe precisely because of its high number of immigrants.
"If you want to find a safe city, first determine the size of the immigrant population," Levin said in an interview with Reason Magazine.
"If the immigrant community represents a large proportion of the population, you're likely in one of the country's safer cities," he added. "San Diego, Laredo, El Paso -- these cities are teeming with immigrants, and they're some of the safest places in the country."
Read the rest: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/15/immigration-crime-statistics_n_1089164.html?ref=latino-voices

(Artwork Banksy)

Daniel Hernandez on Sunnyside School Board

Former Gifford Intern Wins School Board Seat in South Tucson
An interesting development, Daniel Hernandez wins school board seat in South Tucson, where he had attended Sunnyside schools before the University of Arizona. I had the chance to speak at the same event as Hernandez in Spring at Tucson Writes Night, and I'll be curious to see what kind of impact Hernandez' presence will have in the struggling Sunnyside School District. Having worked on the GEAR UP grant at Sunnyside High School a couple years back, I can attest to a great deal of systemic inequality impacting the Sunnyside District.

Does this make me old?

Excited About Stamps

Just picked up a sheet of these forever stamps of Latin Music Legends. Now if I only mailed anything besides Netflix.

 

Link: https://shop.usps.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10001&storeId=10052&productId=10007289&langId=-1

From the Colorlines Website

"Cherrie Moraga Needs Your Help"

From Colorlines:


"It’s been 30 years since queer Chicana poet Cherríe Moraga co-authored “This Bridge Called My Back” with Gloria Anzaldúa. The book is still praised as an influential anthology of radical writings by women of color, and has become standard in many gender and ethnic studies classrooms across the country. Moraga has remained a prolific writer over the past three decades, and now she’s reaching out to her community for help with her latest work.
Her new play is called “New Fire: To Put Things Right Again” and, if it gets the financial support that it needs, will premiere in time for Brava Theater’s 25th anniversary next year in San Francisco. The play is currently in pre-production. Moraga and her partner, producer Celia Herrera Rodríguez, have begun a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds and start rehearsals next month. In short, it’s the story of a 52-year-old woman who battles against apocalyptic notions of 2012 to return to her indigenous heritage.
The project has already got an impressive cast that includes comedian Adelina Anthony. With less than five days left to in the fundraiser, the campaign is still $6,000 short of its $26,500 goal. Go here to make a donation and help the play become a reality."

Listening to Our Elders

Book Needing to Check Out

About the book:
In 2011, the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) turned one hundred years old. But our profession is endlessly beginning, constantly transforming itself and its purpose as new voices and identities claim their rights in our classrooms and in our country. The recognition of such claims, however, does not occur without a struggle, without collective work.ý

Listening to our Elders attempts to capture the history of those collective moments where teachers across grade levels and institutions of higher education organized to insure that the voices, heritages, and traditions of their students and colleagues were recognized within our professional organizations as a vital part of our classrooms and our discipline. In doing so, Listening to Our Elders demonstrates this recognition was not always easily given. Instead, whether the issue was race, sexuality, class, or disability, committed activist organizations have often had to push against the existing limits of our field and its organizations to insure a broader sense of common responsibility and humanity was recognized.

Listening to Our Elders features interviews with Malea Powell (Native American Caucus), Joyce Rain Anderson (Native American Caucus), Jeffery Paul Chan (Asian/Asian American), James Hill (Black Caucus), James Dolmage (Committee for Disability Issue in College Composition), Geneva Smitherman (Language Policy Commitee), Carlota Cýrdenas de Dwyer (Latino/a Caucus), Victor Villanueva (Latino/a Caucus), Louise Dunlap (Progressive Caucus), Karen Hollis (Progressive Caucus), Louie Crew (Queer Caucus), William Thelin (Working Class Culture and Pedagogy SIG), Bill Macauley (Working Class Culture and Pedagogy SIG).

I Need HBO

"It's Not TV"

So I feel a bit behind on this, but I was listening to the NPR Latino USA interview with the director of this, with some excerpts and it sounds really good.
I plan to do some begging or borrowing to see this--maybe it's available online somewhere?

Trailer

Los Angeles Occupado

From a Distance
A photographer friend of mine sent me this photo and said some of the photos he's taken are on the Occupy LA Facebook page, since it seems mainstream media has it's own agenda in terms of what and how it chooses to cover this.

(Photos Chance Road Photography)

CNN coverage: http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/05/opinion/rushkoff-occupy-wall-street/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

Another image that's made it's rounds on FB showing how newspaper headlines are changed is this one which demonstrates hegemonic discourse in the media.

What's going on right now seems to be a synthesis of the severity of what's happening, and it's difficult to draw clear conclusions because there's also been controversy about the multiple messages within the diverse group of protesters.