The Fiction Side of Cruz Medina

Check Out My Story in Acentos Review
In the middle of the chaos that is the comps and dis proposal process, I've somehow managed to channel some of my energy into creative work as well. Acentos Review is a great publication dedicated to representing the diversity of voices within the Latin@ community and I'm proud to be featured with other great writers.

My story "Judas on the Cross" is featured in this month's issue. Give it a read:
http://www.acentosreview.com/February_2011/Medina.html

Dis proposal ideas

Blog as Idea Board

In the class I teach this semester, I made blogs a requirement as a part of the research component. Having to do a bit with how this blog originated, I ask that the blog document the research and sources of a controversy. With that in mind, I can't help but make some mention of the ideas I've been working with as I've been outlining my dissertation proposal.

The subject of academic identity for Latin@ students interests me. My experience working on the GEAR UP grant here in Tucson and summers teaching a bridge course for underrepresented student populations has exposed me to a diverse representation of student stances towards school.

If you look at the picture next to my profile, it is pictograph of the calmecac or school for Aztec children (often nobility, but I (re)imagine it in an inclusive concept). Courses I've had on the rhetoric of the Americas before the Conquest has given me a generative epistemology for connecting with the field of composition and rhetoric. For that reason, I have been working with the Aztec/Nahua figure of the pochteca.

Pacific Lutheran University has a nice website discussing the pochteca that has been a good point of departure: http://www.plu.edu/~parsonsm/general-information/home.html

All the Buzz at the UA

Bush, Clinton to Chair New National Institute for Civil Discourse at the University of Arizona 

 Or read the Washington Post article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/20/AR2011022003994.html

Coming Soon to the ATL

Visit the office CCCC website: http://www.ncte.org/cccc/conv/

Researching the Controversy Analysis

More Pedagogical Praxis with Technology
So I'm interested in the intersections of race and technology, especially with regard to Latinas/os and technology. Here is yet another example of something I will use in class. My avatar looks strangely like my father, but the accents are a dig at the assumption that British accents are somehow reifications of education and an ideal for Others to fall short of.



Or watch on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-20fG0-vzXU

Ohio Gov. John Kasich: "I don't need your people"

Diversity Framed as 'Not Good Enough' to Earn on Merit by Ohio Gov

From Jennifer Epstein's Politico story:
"
An Ohio lawmaker is accusing the state’s new governor of saying he doesn’t “need” African-Americans.
“I don’t need your people,” state Sen. Nina Turner said Republican Gov. John Kasich told her when she offered her help in building a racially diverse cabinet. All 22 of Kasich’s appointees since he took office Jan. 10 have been white, and only five are female.

Turner, who is black and a Democrat, said on Thursday that she was “kind of perplexed” by Kasich’s comment. “ I wasn’t quite sure whether or not he was referring to my ethnic group people or ‘my people’ as in the 350,000 constituents I serve in this state that represent all ethnic groups, all religious groups,” she said. “I didn’t understand what ‘I’m not going to hire your people’ means.”

Read the rest: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/48362.html

"Refried Mexican Sportcar"

Top Gear UK Demonstrate Negative Assumptions About Mexico/Mexicans


It's interesting to note that they compare Italian and German nationalities to what they joke are the characteristics of Mexicans. They avoid insulting Italians and Germans, instead focusing their British "wit" on constructing a negative representation of Mexicans and Mexico with their discourse.



Read more here: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/feb/01/top-gear-mexican-ambassador

From the Guardian article:

"Ambassador Eduardo Medina-Mora Icaza has demanded an apology after Richard Hammond jokingly described Mexicans as "lazy, feckless, flatulent [and] overweight" during an episode of the BBC2 show screened on Sunday.
His co-presenters Jeremy Clarkson and James May went on to describe Mexican food as "refried sick".
Clarkson, who has repeatedly been criticised for making offensive comments on the programme, said on Sunday's show there would be no complaints this time because the Mexican ambassador would: "be sitting there with a remote control like this,". The presenter pretended to slump in a chair, snoring.
The Mexican ambassador has written to the BBC, however, demanding that it order the presenters to make a public apology.
"The presenters of the programme resorted to outrageous, vulgar and inexcusable insults to stir bigoted feelings against the Mexican people, their culture as well as their official representative in the United Kingdom," he wrote.
"These offensive, xenophobic and humiliating remarks serve only to reinforce negative stereotypes and perpetuate prejudice against Mexico and its people."
The Top Gear hosts made the comments when they discussed a Mexican sports car, the Mastretta. Hammond said: "Why would you want a Mexican car? Because cars reflect national characteristics don't they?
"Mexican cars are just going to be lazy, feckless, flatulent, overweight, leaning against a fence asleep looking at a cactus with a blanket with a hole in the middle on as a coat.""

Banana Corporations Funding Paramilitary Groups

Law Student Researches Controversy in Colombia
Teaching research, I appreciate the stories that NPR Latino USA presents because they address the different sides and arguments of a controversy. Unlike cable news, the ideological appeal is the judgment of the audience and not the impulsive reactions of pathos.

In Colombia, law student Paul Bieber interviews people injured and maimed in attacks by who the victims describe as guerrilla paramilitary groups used to enforce Dole and Chiquita corporate interests. The corporations and paramilitary groups claim the people have no right to the land. Recently deposed leaders of the paramilitary groups have testified to having been paid by the banana growers to act on their behalf. The corporations respond that in instances in which they have paid these groups, it was only done so for protection from the groups.


From the NPR website:

"Paul Bieber is a private investigator and law student in California. He has an abiding interest in the investigation of instances of human rights abuses. This summer, he went to Colombia on a 10-day fact-finding mission organized by Witness for Peace, the social justice organization based in Washington, D.C."
http://www.latinousa.org/929-2/ 
Listen to the full story at the NPR site, or listen to it at the Public Radio Workshop site:

http://transom.org/?p=13256

Together We Thrive in Tucson

A Bittersweet Moment of Unity

I had the chance to attend Pres. Obama's appearance here in Tucson yesterday. On my way out, a reporter with a recording device asked me for my response and I told her that it was a beautiful event, but it was unfortunate that it came about because of tragedy. I explained that Tucson and Arizona are in need of healing because we are in a conflicted and contested place. Too quickly, sides go on the attack when wounds are still fresh.

(photos by Amanda Wray)

What I found frustrating being attendance was the flippant attitude of college age people who treated the event more like a concert than a moment for healing. Raised consciousness is a process. We have hope that those who lacked the understanding of gravitas might reflect on the event as one step towards critical consciousness. As the saying goes, every saint has a past and every sinner a future.

Arizona the Center of Intolerace?

As I have mentioned before, I live in Tucson. When this past weekend's tragic events occurred here, it was surreal to see the city where I live on the news. I had been to that Safeway and I had eaten dinner last Christmas at the Chinese restaurant in the shopping center that was roped off with police tape.
I hope to make President Obama's speech tomorrow at the McKale Center. I leave you with Jon Stewart's reflections.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Arizona Shootings Reaction
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

Technology, Teaching and Rhetorical Analysis

Technology, Teaching and Rhetorical Analysis
I was asked to speak to a group of first year graduate students about teaching rhetorical analysis and using technology. This is a short video I put together using the Xtranormal software.

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)