East Los Angeles Record Producer, Rudy Benavides who was instrumental during the 60s in establishing the West Coast Eastside Sound along with Rampart Records founder, Eddie Davis, passed away on Sunday March, 2nd at White Memorial Hospital from congestive heart failure. He was 67 years old.

Rudy started his career in the record industry working along side legendary Radio Disc Jockey, Dick “Huggie Boy” Hugg at Flash Record Store in South Central Los Angeles, California.

In a 2006 interview, Rudy recalled;

“I started at Flash Records in 1959 fresh out of Garfield High School. It was late one night and I was listening to the radio when I heard some DJ say, ‘C’mon down to our big front window on the corner of Jefferson & Western…..Flash Record Store’.
So, I called up a friend and we drove down there.

The first (1st) time that I went to Flash Records, I spent a little over $300.00 on 45 single R&B records…..that’s what I was into at that time. About two (2) months later when I went back, Mr. Charles Reynolds the owner said to me, ‘Boy, I could use someone like you to work here, can you start tomorrow’???? So, he hired me as Huggie Boy’s assistant. Huggie would broadcast Live from the record store on AM radio station KALI.

I would come in every night at 10:00pm and Huggie would broadcast from midnight to 5:00am. Since I was the only Chicano working in the store, Huggie Boy nicknamed me, ‘The Latin Lover of Flash Records’. DJ Godfrey Kerr and I later became the fill in DJ’s when Huggie became ill for a few days. It was so exciting, but I was very nervous especially since I knew that Huggie Boy was listening to my show. He said I did pretty good.”

In 1964, when Record Producer, Eddie Davis released “Land of 1000 Dances” by Cannibal & the Headhunters on his Rampart Record label, he couldn’t get the record played on Los Angeles AM Radio Station KRLA who was favoring Thee Midniter’s version on Chattahoochee Records.

Eddie went to visit Rudy at Flash Record Store to get his advice!
Rudy played the record and after listening carefully, he explained to Davis that in his opinion, the introduction was way too long and that the song needed to come right in on the groove with the, “Naa, Na, Na, Na, Naa”.

Eddie Davis went to Recording Engineer, Bruce Morgan at Stereo Masters Studio who edited out the intro and faded in on the Naa, Na, Na, Na, Naa’s and the rest is musical history. The version by Cannibal & the Headhunters when to the Top 30 on the National Billboard Charts in 1965 and the group went on to open for the Motown Revue, The Rolling Stones and The Beatles.

Thus began a long association with Rudy Benavidas, Eddie Davis and Rampart Records until Davis’s passing in 1994. Rudy is credited as an Associate Producer for Rampart Records on several recordings including, The Village Callers, El Chicano, Eastside Connection, Topazz and Graciela Palafox.

Rudy was forever concerned with bringing joy and help to others.

He will be deeply missed by the East Los Angeles Musical Community.

Hector A. Gonzalez / Owner
Rampart Records
hector4rampart@yahoo.com

Armando Torres Morales, DSW
September 18, 1932 - March 12, 2008

After a long bout with cancer, Dr. Armando Morales passed away on March 12 at his home in Stevenson Ranch with his wife and family by his bedside.

Armando, the son of Lupe and Robert Morales, was born and raised in East Los Angeles. His mother served on the US Commission on Aging under President Jimmy Carter, and his father was a founding member of the East Los Angeles Community Service Organization. The Morales family was instrumental in the campaign to elect Edward Roybal to the LA City Council in 1949, which marked the birth of Latino politics in California. Following graduation from Roosevelt High School, Armando served in the military during the Korean War. His upbringing and experiences as a young man inspired his future as a scholar and social activist whose focus was helping the disenfranchised from all walks of life.

Dr. Morales achieved the rank of Professor IX, the highest level attainable, Professor of Great Distinction in Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the Neuropsychiatric Institute & Hospital, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He was appointed to the faculty in 1971 following his graduation from the USC School of Social Work where he earned his Master’s degree and became the first Latino in the nation to earn a Doctorate degree in social work. In 1966, he co-founded the first community mental health clinic for Latinos in the nation in East Los Angeles.

In 1972 he established the first “store front” satellite outpatient mental health program in California for Latino veterans as a consultant to the Veterans Administration. From 1977 to 1990, he founded and directed the first psychiatric clinic created to serve Spanish-speaking patients at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute. It was the first of its kind ever established in the entire U.C. medical system.

His textbook, Social Work: A Profession of Many Faces, 2006 (with co-author Bradford W. Sheafor), now in its eleventh edition, enjoys the distinction of being the longest surviving major textbook in the history of social work since it’s original publication in 1977 and has been used by more than 150,000 students. He is also the author of Ando Sangrando (I am Bleeding): A Study of Mexican American Police Conflict, a book considered one of the seminal works of the Chicano political movement. He was co-editor of The Psychosocial Development of Minority Group Children (Brunner/Mazel). He published nearly 90 articles, chapters, and papers on the subjects of mental health, police-community relations, social work, urban riots, homicide, suicide, filicide, gang violence, homicide intervention and prevention, and the assessment and treatment of female and male juvenile and adult offenders.

From 1975 through 1977, Armando was the President of the Board of Directors of the Western Center of Law and Poverty in Los Angeles, and while there, was a primary architect behind the landmark legal case “Serrano vs. Priest.” As a mental health consultant to parole officers and psychotherapist to parolees beginning in 1977, Dr. Morales provided over 12,000 treatment sessions to Latino, non-Hispanic white, African American and Asian American gang members and their families through his affiliation with the California Youth Authority. As an expert Superior Court witness, he testified in 40 criminal cases in California, Florida, Oregon, and Washington, including the controversial 1993 Reginald Denny beating trial in Los Angeles. Dr. Morales was also called upon as a consultant to US Senators, Congressmen, State Legislators, and Los Angeles City Councilmen.

From 1979 to 2000, Dr. Morales served as Director of the Clinical Social Work Department and Director of the Clinical Internship Training Program at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute. Outside of UCLA, beginning in 1971, he presented 429 lectures, workshops, and 85 keynote addresses at professional conferences throughout the United States, Mexico, and Spain.

A devoted family man, Armando leaves behind his wife, Dr. Cynthia Torres Morales, daughter Christina Mia, 13, two adult sons from his first marriage, Rolando and Gary, daughter-in-law Soo, 3-year old twin grandsons Vincent and Rocco, a large extended family, and many friends. He loved being a father and took special joy in his daily interaction with Christina. Active in her school and extracurricular endeavors, he was also the quintessential homework coach who took pride in her every accomplishment.

Throughout his life, Armando was an avid athlete. During his service in the Air Force in Korea, he trained as a boxer and was the undefeated Far East Air Force Bantam Weight Champion in 1952 and 1953. He was an excellent hurdler, runner, cyclist, and skater. Music was also a lifelong passion for Armando. He mastered the classical guitar, composed music, and in later life learned to play the keyboard. He performed at the Troubadour in West Hollywood as well as the Ice House in Pasadena. He especially loved to perform for friends and family.

Just before he died, Armando came close to finishing his last book, a humorous memoir of his life, closely edited by his son Rolando. Armando Morales embodied the true essence of a Renaissance Man, defined as one who sought to develop skills in all areas of knowledge, in physical development, in social accomplishments, and in the arts. He will be deeply missed by all whose lives he touched.

FUNERAL SERVICES will be held at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, 555 West Temple Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012 on Wednesday, March 26, 2008 at 9:30 AM.

Armando requested that any DONATIONS given in his honor be made to Homeboy Industries, 130 West Bruno Street, Los Angeles CA 90012. Located in Boyle Heights, the neighborhood in which Armando was raised, Homeboy Industries was founded by Father Gregory Boyle in response to the civil unrest in Los Angeles to create businesses that provide training, work experience, and above all, the opportunity for rival gang members to work side by side. “Nothing stops a bullet like a job.” Make your check out to Homeboy Industries and include a note saying the donation is made in honor of Dr. Armando Morales. You will receive a Tax ID number to use for tax deduction purposes.

c/s

Raul Salinas, known as raulsalinas, that great human being, transformed by life and fire, has died. Raul was a featured poet at the Border Book Festival in 2000. It was a memorable performance as Raul danced, sang and gyrated through the power of his words his English, Spanish and Xicanindio.

His life was hard, yes, as he was incarcerated for many years in U.S. prisons, but those who knew and loved him saw his transformation into a light indescribable–beatific, really. We celebrate his great beauty and his gifts of spirit and words. We will display his portrait taken by Daniel Zolinsky starting this Saturday, February 16 at 7:00 p.m. at a reception at the Cultural Center de Mesilla for The Love of Arts Month (Las Cruces, New Mexico). The evening will feature the portraits of 14 Border Book Festival artists taken by Zolinsky.

In addition, we will offer a program of poetry by Multilingual poets of the Ages with readings in English, French, Spanish, Urdu and Bengali by featured readers: Dr. Richard Rundell, Dr. Jan Hampton, Jorge Robles, Denise Chavez, Sudeshna Sengupta and Ayesha Farfaraz. Musicians Bugs Salcido on guitar and Debarshi Roy on sitar will also join us.

Please join us as Raul has made his way to the Ancestors.

This message comes to us from our friends in San Antonio: “Words, sounds, speech, men, memory, thought, fears and emotions, - time - all related…all made from one..all made in one” - John Coltrane Elder statesmen, Xicanindio leader, poet of the people, giver of hope to the oppressed and incarcerated, Raul Salinas passed away last night in Austin, Tejaztlan.

“Raul will be greatly missed. His work, poetry, and philosophy will live on in the good works of poets, artists, musicians and cultural centros throughout America. His spirit we lead us all and help us to survive and thrive in difficult times. His words/poems should serve as maps for us all in our quest to keep culture, heritage and tradition alive in our barrios, cul de sacs, suburbs, ranchos…wherever you/we live. Thank you, Raul. You have blessed us all.”
– Manuel Diosdado Castillo, Jr. San Anto Cultural Arts

A BIO OF RAUL SALINAS

Raúl Roy “Tapon” Salinas was born in San Antonio, Texas on March 17, 1934. He was raised in Austin, Texas from 1936 to 1956, when he moved to Los Angeles. In 1957 he was sentenced to prison in Soleded State Prison in California. Over the span of the next 15 years, Salinas spent 11 years behind the walls of state and federal penitentiaries. It was during his incarceration in some of the nation’s most brutal prison systems that Salinas’ social and political consciousness were intensified, and so it is with keen insight into the subhuman conditions of prisons and an inhuman world that the pinto aesthetics that inform his poetry were formulated.

His prison years were prolific ones, including creative, political, and legal writings, as well as an abundance of correspondence. In 1963, while in Huntsville, he began writing a jazz column entitled “The Quarter Note” which ran consistently for 1-1/2 years. In Leavenworth he played a key role in founding and producing two important prison journals, Aztlán de Leavenworth and New Era Prison Magazine, through which his poetry first circulated and gained recognition within and outside of the walls. As a spokesperson, ideologue, educator, and jailhouse lawyer of the Prisoner Rights Movement, Salinas also became an internationalist who saw the necessity of making alliances with others. This vision continues to inform his political and poetic practice. Initially published in the inaugural issue of Aztlán de Leavernworth, “Trip through a Mind Jail”
(1970) became the title piece for a book of poetry published by Editorial Pocho-Che in 1980.

With the assistance of several professors and students at the University of Washington, Seattle, Salinas gained early release from Marion Federal Penitentiary in 1972. As a student at the University of Washington, Salinas was involved with community empowerment projects and began making alliances with Native American groups in the Northwest, a relationship that was to intensify over the next 15 years. Although Salinas writes of his experiences as a participant in the Native American Movement, it is a dimension of his life that has received scant attention.

In the 22 years since his release from Marion, Salinas’ involvement with various political movements has earned him an international reputation as an eloquent spokesperson for justice. Along the way he has continued to refine and produce his unique blend of poetry and politics.

Salinas’ literary reputation in Austin earned him recognition as the poet laureate of Austin’s East Side and the title of “maestro” from emerging poets who seek his advice and a mentor. While his literary work is probably most widely known for his street aesthetics and sensibility, which document the interactions, hardships, and intra-and intercultural strife of barrio life and prison in vernacular, bilingual language, few people have examined the influence of Jazz in his obra that make him part of the Beat Generation of poets, musicians, and songwriters. His poetry collections included dedications, references, and responses to Alan Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Charles Bukowski, Charlie Parker, Herschel Evans, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis, for example. Academics have primarily classified Salinas as an important formative poet of the Chicano Movement; yet, while he may have received initial wide-scale recognition during the era, it would be unfair to limit a reading of his style, content, and literary influence to the Movement.

There were many dimensions to Salinas’ literary and political life. Though, at times, some are perplexed at the multiple foci of Salinas’ life, the different strands of his life perhaps best exemplify what it means to be mestizo, in a society whose official national culture suppresses difference: his life’s work is testimony to the uneasy, sometimes violent, sometimes blessed synthesis of Indigenous, Mexican, African, and Euro-American cultures.

Salinas currently resides in Austin, Texas, were he is the proprietor of Resistencia Bookstore and Red Salmon Press, located in South Austin. Arte Público Press reissued Salinas’ classic poetry collection, “Un Trip through the Mind Jail y otras Excursiones” (1999) as part of its Pioneers of Modern U.S. Hispanic Literature Series. He is also the author of another collection of poetry, “East of the Freeway: Reflections de Mi Pueblo” (1994).

En paz descanse. May he rest in peace.

It will be thirty seven years today after the Chicano Moratorium against the Viet Nam War was first held in East Los Angeles — at the time the largest anti-war demonstration in a community of color in the country. Some 30,000 people came from all over Los Angeles, the Southwest, and other parts of the country to proclaim, “Ya Basta”–that’s enough. It also became the scene of one of the worse police abuse cases in the country when LA County sheriff’s deputies attacked the mostly peaceful crowd at Laguna Park, enacting hundreds of arrests, causing hundreds of injuries, and resulting in at least three dead. One of those killed was Chicano reporter Ruben Salazar — the only national media voice Chicanos had at the time.

This was as significant as the murders of anti-war protestors by National Guardsmen at Kent State University in Ohio and Jackson State University in South Carolina earlier that year of 1970.

I was sixteen years old at the time. I was a gang member, a heroin (and other drugs) user, and quite lost. Still I took part in the march and protest. This demonstration awakened me to the vital struggle for justice, peace, and the possibilities of a new society, something I had only glimpsed at but never really understood. I didn’t expect to be taken in by this–I had only come to party. Soon I got swept up in the chants, the songs, the ardor for revolutionary change.

I was also one of the cholos arrested early on in the so-called riot that ensued. Hundreds were arrested, but the cholos (at the time, cholo meant Chicano gang member) were separated from the others, held in different facilities, and held for much longer than other protestors. Eventually I was placed into two adult jails (even though I was a juvenile), including the murderer’s row of the old Hall of Justice jail in downtown LA. I had a cell next to Charles Manson. The reason: we were threatened with possible charges in the murders of those who died in the rioting. Of course, they really couldn’t charge us for this. But the punishment was what they were after. I was placed in a cell with two murderers — one of whom put a razor blade to my neck. But I stood up to them, as I had learned to do from my many years in the streets (since the age of seven I had been stealing, and since 11, I had been in a gang), and I survived. I was even involved in a lightweight cellblock disturbance when we heard that Ruben Salazar had been killed.

I was eventually released — but I was never the same after this. It took me another two to three years, but I eventually left the gang, the drugs, and the jails to dedicate myself to revolutionary study, organizing, and action. In a few more years, I committed myself to becoming a writer. I’ve learned a lot since then, but the initial spark of my own purposeful life had been during the Chicano Moratorium.

This year, more than 35 years later, we are still at war. This year we must protest the US role in Iraq and Afghanistan — we are not winning anything over there, but we are losing many of our men and women (and many more civilians).

Tomorrow we must protest these wars. We have not stopped terrorism — in fact, terrorism around the world has increased since we first invaded Iraq. We cannot win a war against terror with more terror. That’s a lesson we seem to have not learned in more than thirty years. There are many ways to protest — the Internet is one of those places. If the streets still call you then join with others as much as you can against these wars that only really benefit the rich and powerful among us (it’s the working class poor, of all colors, who are dying in Iraq).

Use poetry, song, dance, film, and story. But do something. In concert with others. With millions. With dignity. With creativity. And with all the moral authority we can muster. No more dead for Bush/Cheney or the ruling class of thieves they represent. Ya Basta!

February 14, 2007
To: The Honorable Immigration Judge,

I’m a 2nd grade Two-Way Spanish Immersion (TWI) teacher at Rosa Parks school in Berkeley. Today is Valentine’s Day. It was my last day with one of my top students, Gerardo Espinoza. His father received an order of deportation and is moving the family to Mexico to comply with the law. Gerardo is a stunning seven-year old, with unusually wide, round brown eyes, a cute little nose, full lips and round pale baby cheeks—the kind of child that Japanese anime depict. He’s wedded to a knit cap. The behavior of Gerardo and his brother Felipe, whom I taught nearly a decade ago, has been an example to everyone, including myself. They are both reasons why I love my job. Whenever I had difficult students, I’d seat them in a group with Gerardo or Felipe for a month and their behavior would improve tremendously. I attribute the brothers’ outstanding comportment in large part to their close-knit family, especially the loving care of their mother, Norma, who spends every lunch time with Gerardo.

Honorable Sir, I do not understand why Gerardo and José are being denied their rights as U.S. citizens to an education and parents, both; why, under the law, they are forced to choose. My colleagues and I envisioned their winning scholarships at U.C. Berkeley, eventually lifting them up to the middle class. Like their children, their parents are also model—I’d like to say citizens—but they’ve been denied this. Your honor is probably aware that their former attorney, Walter Pineda, was exposed on the news for defrauding immigrants and aiding in their deportation. He was disbarred on November 1, 2006, State Bar No. 97293.

Felipe Espinoza Senior has lived in the United States for 20 years. His wife Norma, has lived here for 14. Felipe Sr. has worked five to six days a week in jobs from Skates by the Bay to a steel mill in Oakland. Today, when he dropped by for Gerardo’s farewell Valentine party, in which the other students read him their going away valentines, I commented that I hadn’t seen him since Felipe Jr.’s conference a decade ago. Felipe Senior still looked about the same: like a well-groomed, dignified banker or professional. “I’ve been working,” he said, which I knew was an understatement. He is the sole provider for a family of five, six if we include his former exorbitant lawyer, Pineda.

Felipe Senior has always done everything by the book. He has always paid his taxes, car registration and insurance. He followed the letter of the law to apply for citizenship. And this, your honor is what I don’t understand. According to the SF Weekly (The Asylum Trap by Eliza Strickland, May 10, 2006,) immigrants are more likely to slip through the eye of a needle than they are to receive asylum or residency. Only 34 asylum applications were granted to Mexican immigrants nationwide. San Francisco Attorney Enrique Ramirez observes that immigrants can also apply for residency through work visas or petitions by family members who are residents. Mr. Espinoza was misled by Pineda, apparently like countless others, into falling for the “the ten-year pardon,” or cancellation of removal, though as you know less than 4,000 of these cases have been granted each year. Now I ask you, what is the goal of a system which punishes the vast majority of those who follow the letter of the law and which rewards those who manage to keep their identities off the books?

The Espinozas met two of the three requirements needed for Mr. Espinoza’s cancellation of removal to Mexico: 1.) 10 years of continuous presence in the U.S. and 2.) proof of “good moral character” including a clean police record. But Pineda didn’t bother to convince the judge that Felipe Espinoza ‘s deportation would cause 3.) “exceptional and extremely unusual hardship” to a spouse, parent, or child who is either a U.S. citizen or a permanent resident—namely Gerardo and his other son José.
Immigrations lawyers have since informed me that Mr Espinoza likely lost his appeal because Immigration judges believe Gerardo’s rights as a citizen are not being violated since he is free to stay in the country himself–in foster care. (His mother has never worked and his father would be unable to support them from Mexico.) The lawyers tell me that no immigration judge would recognize tearing a child away from his parents and placing him or her in foster care as an “exceptional and extremely unusual hardship.” Dear Honorable Sir, have you and your colleagues really become so hardened? Is the reason that you believe such a trauma is not “unusual” because you have caused such horrendous circumstances to become the norm among this population, rather than the exception?

If so, dear Honorable Immigration Judge, my question to you is, how can I go on teaching about equal rights and freedom of speech and all the things our constitution is supposed to defend, and that the very name of our school is supposed to represent, when the father of my students is deported simply because his skin is darker? Both my Latino and white students are U.S. citizens. So how do I explain to the class that one has the right to a family in the United States and the other citizens do not? Do you think they’ll understand why Felipe and Gerardo’s parents cannot gain citizenship in a country in which they’ve lived for 20 years and in which their children were born, yet it is all right for U.S. citizens to buy up all the beach front property in the Espinoza’s motherland? Do you think such an incident is going to convince my students and their families that the United States is the compassionate model of democracy for the rest of the world?

Dear Honorable Judge, I ask you, what are you and your colleagues doing to shatter or foment these dreams and ideals?

The last time I saw Gerardo, I asked him to let me make a video so I could remember him. He stands below the letters that read Rosa Parks School and recites by heart our Rosa Parks school pledge, which he and I still believe:

“To this day, I believe, we are here on this planet earth to live, grow up and do what we can to make this world a better place for ALL people to enjoy freedom.”

I’d like to conclude with a poem Gerardo wrote for his parents for their Christmas present. Happy Valentine’s Day.
Margot Pepper

WITHOUT YOU
Oh Mamá and Papá,
Without you,
I’d never be able to
cook or eat your enchiladas again;
we wouldn’t play “trains” together anymore,
or go to the park
without you.

Without you,
I wouldn’t be able to have any fun;
I wouldn’t be able to feel even the breeze anymore,
or love;
I wouldn’t have anyone to play with
Without you.

Without you, I’d be as lonely as a baby abandoned
and left to cry alone in a house,
As sad as a little bird
that can no longer sing.

by Gerardo Espinoza,Age 7,
©December 2006
Written in a Christmas/holiday card to his parents

###

Margot Pepper is a journalist and author whose work has been published internationally by the Utne Reader, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, City Lights, Monthly Review, Hampton Brown and others. Her memoir, Through the Wall: A Year in Havana, was a top nomination for the 2006 American Book Award.

But the Pope’s alternative to the materialist realities of capitalism and globalization is to simply reinstate the power of the Church. Turning his back on Latin America’s Liberation Theology - those clergy and laity who champion social justice through a leftwing reading of Christianity - Benedict said, “The Marxist system, where it found its way into government, not only left a sad heritage of economic and ecological destruction, but also a painful destruction of the human spirit.”

Pope Benedict’s visit to Brazil no doubt inspired conservatives and traditionalists, but his words seemed to upset just about everyone else. Those most offended, and rightly so, where Brazil’s indigenous people. At a talk before Latin American and Caribbean Bishops made at the end of his visit, the Pontiff said that American Indians had “welcomed” the arrival of the Europeans 500 years ago, as they had been “silently longing” for Christianity. The Pontiff alleged that the Church had “purified” native peoples, and that a revival of indigenous spiritual beliefs would be “a backward step.” Moreover, the Pontiff said the Christian Church had not imposed its teachings upon the indigenous people of the Americas. Shockingly, the Pope made no mention of the documented violence and genocide in Latin America directed against native peoples by the Conquistadors and the Christian Church. As the Washington Post reported:

Indian leaders in Brazil said on Monday they were offended by Pope Benedict’s ‘arrogant and disrespectful’ comments that the Roman Catholic Church had purified them. Several Indian groups sent a letter to the Pope last week asking for his support in defending their ancestral lands and culture. They said the Indians had suffered a ‘process of genocide’ since the first European colonizers had arrived. (….) “The state used the Church to do the dirty work in colonizing the Indians but they already asked forgiveness for that … so is the Pope taking back the Church’s word?” said Dionito Jose de Souza a leader of the Makuxi tribe in northern Roraima state.

Pope John Paul spoke in 1992 of mistakes in the evangelization of native peoples of the Americas. Pope Benedict not only upset many Indians but also Catholic priests who have joined their struggle, said Sandro Tuxa, who heads the movement of northeastern tribes.”We repudiate the Pope’s comments,” Tuxa said. “To say the cultural decimation of our people represents a purification is offensive, and frankly, frightening. “I think the Pope has been poorly advised.”

All good things must come to an end. Today, I ended my week of guest hosting on the Front Page talk show with Dominique Di Prima on KJLH-102.3 FM. It was a wonderful experience. According to Dominique, I was the first Latino guest host on the show. I commend her and KJLH for having me and allowing me this opportunity to speak on some crucial issues confronting both the African American and Mexican/Latino community.

Yesterday, I was able to address key concerns about Black & Brown unity—including the value of working together when the interests of our communities converge. It’s not about unity for unity’s sake. We have common issues of poverty, bad schools, bad police relations, gangs, domestic abuse, disproportionate health problems, and disproportionate rates in prisons. We cannot move fully forward in these areas unless we forge important strategic aims and actions mutually beneficial to both communities.

It must be a principled and purposeful unity, not a makeshift or superficial one.

I’ve had a lifetime of working in this area. Including from living in South Central LA as a child, then working on police abuse actions with people like Michael Zinzun, may he rest in peace, to the coalition for Harold Washington for Mayor in Chicago (I lived there from 1985 until 2000), and the work I’ve currently done for many years with gang intervention/prevention and street peace, particularly in Chicago and LA.

Even now, as we move to bring developmental and policy changes in the poor working class community of Pacoima in the Northeast San Fernando Valley, which has a large Mexican/Latino population and a significant African American population, I’m involved in a Community Benefits Agreement process with the old Price Pfister Brass Foundry site that is slated to become a new mall/park/community gathering place. I’m also working through Tia Chucha’s Bookstore and Cultural Center to bring in more diverse aesthetics to our current workshop, events, and cultural expressions with African Americans as well as other communities.

Today, we had Marqueese Dawson Hawkins of the Community Coalition in studio to speak on the Coalition’s work in South Los Angeles concerning the lack of clean and adequate grocery stores (many that came in after the 1992 Civil Unrest have now left), school exit exams, and more. The Coalition has had an organic Black and Brown organizing process since its inception.

Historically Mexicans and Central Americans (who are mostly of indigenous descent) and African Americans have a long history of slavery, peonage, colonialism, and capitalist exploitation. We have more in common as far as working for the advancement of economic, social, and cultural well being than differences. I understand that there is a lot of ignorance, prejudice, and fear in both communities about each other. I have condemned the racially-based attacks against Blacks by Latinos in Los Angeles and elsewhere, and whenever this happens to Latinos from Blacks. There is already enough hate in this world—I personally don’t want to contribute any more or do anything to perpetuate it.

In addition, Mexicans have African ties from when the Spanish first brought African slaves to Mexico in the 1500s. The Native population of Mexico was greatly and quickly decimated by wars, hunger, tortures, and disease. The Valley of Mexico—the most populous area in the hemisphere before the Spanish arrived—had an estimated 25 million inhabitants when Cortez and his conquistadors first set foot there in 1519. In 50 years, only 2.5 million survived. In fact, most of the continent lost from 80 to 95 percent of their populations shortly after the Europeans came. The Spanish numbers reached a height of 150,000 during the colonial period; African slaves were believed to number around 300,000. In addition, some 100,000 Malaysians (from the Spanish colonies of the Philippines and other Asian areas) were also brought in.

In fact, Mexico had the first recorded African slave uprising in the Americas in 1546. Later rebellious slaves established the first free African pueblo in the Western Hemisphere in 1609. It was called Yanga, located in the present-day state of Vera Cruz, Mexico.

A leader of the Mexican war of independence from Spain in 1820 was Vicente Ramon Guerrero—an African-Mexican. He also became Mexico’s second president (Benito Juarez, of Zapoteca Indian, became the first full-blooded native president in the 1860s). And then Mexico eventually lost Texas and later half of its national territory in the US invasion of 1848 after Mexico refused to return runaway slaves to US slave masters after Mexico had abolished slavery in the 1820s.

Still, with all this history, the remaining native population of Mexico is the main root and source of the Mexican character and makeup. Today there are 240 native languages in Mexico. Many of the newer so-called immigrants are coming from highly Native areas of central and southern Mexico, including tribal members of Mayans, Huicholes, Raramuri, Yaquis, Mixtecos, Zapotecas, and more. There are an estimated 2 million full-blooded Mayans in the US, almost as many as the whole Native American population (believed to number 3 million, with a majority of mixed blood). Many of these tribal peoples don’t even speak Spanish, let alone English.

Now things have turned on their heads. Now the brown-red indigenous peoples of these lands, with connections here that go back tens of thousands of years, have become the “foreigners,” “immigrants” and “illegals”—mostly by people of European descent who have only been in the US areas a little more than 300 years. This is how man-made and superficial borders, created by conquerors, colonialists and capitalists, have now determined who we are, our relationships, and who we unite with and who we fight with.

To find out more about this history, the racial/cultural make up of Mexico, and the African American/Mexican/Native connections, please look up the following publications:

Occupied America by Rudy Acuna
Anything but Mexican by Rudy Acuna
The Fifth Sun by James Russell
The American Holocaust by David Stannard
1491 by Charles Mann
Cycles of Conquest by Edward Spicer
Indian Givers by Jack Weatherford

This is a beginning list. There are so many great books and articles that spell out our common historical, cultural and strategic ties. On the World Wide Web, there are now many sites and informational links. It’s important for all of us to be armed with knowledge, books, history, and stories as we move forward to better all of our communities.

I also recommend, to those who are interested, to visit the website of Xispas Magazine; I am a co-founder and now editor of this online Chicano magazine. You can check it out at www.xispas.com.

A’ho.

On Thursday, March 29, 2007 over 1,000 parents, students, educators, community members and supporters walked from Plaza Olvera to LAUSD headquarters to attend the history-making board meeting for Academia Semillas del Pueblo. If you didn’t have an opportunity to watch the LAUSD Board meeting, you can watch it this Sunday on KLCS, Channel 58. Academia’s charter renewal will be shown between the hours of 2-4:30pm.

Thank you to everyone who called the board members, sent support letters, signed our pledge for educational equity, informed others about our school, joined us in our various marches and board meetings, and showed your support in many other ways. You helped save our school, now help us grow! Save the date, June 7th for our fundraiser/celebration. Featuring art works by: B+, Coronado Press, Emilia Garcia, Eric Coleman, Gabriel Benavides, Jose Ramirez, Mare, Mario Ybarra Jr., Martha Cooper, Omar Ramirez, Oscar Magallanes, Ritzy Periwinkle, Self Help Graphics & Art, Shawn Mortensen, Slick, Steve Marcus, Wane, West…and more TBA. Plus Special Guest and Live Performances.

Xie Xie, Tlazomakamatli, Thank you, Gracias,

Academia Semillas Del Pueblo

Tomorrow, March 29, the LAUSD will decide whether or not to renew the school’s charter. Please attend a march and rally in support of Academia Semillas del Pueblo at Olvera Street from 12:30 PM. The march will continue on to LAUSD’s headquarters at 3rd and Beaudry. The rally will start at 1:30 PM.

For more information, please go to the website of Academia Semillas del Pueblo at www.dignidad.org.

I’m glad to invite everyone to the grand opening of Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural this Saturday, March 31, from 4 to 8 PM. It will be at the new space that we’ve finally painted and organized after we were forced to vacate our old store/center in Sylmar (the new location is only 10 minutes away from there).

This will be an easy-going evening of food, poetry, raffles, and presentations by our instructors and some of their students from our various workshops, including Son Jarocho Mexican traditional music, Guitar, African Drumming, DJing, Reiki Healing, Danza Azteca, Mexikayotl Indigenous Cosmology, and more. Books will also be on sale as well as sign-ups for our events and workshops.

Your humble servant will be your host.

We will also be starting our regular schedule for “Noche Bohemias” (guitar, song, and poetry, mostly for our Spanish-speaking community), Open Mic (poetry, Hip Hop, Song for anyone), Film, and more (this schedule will be available on Saturday).

The new space is nice and clean, located at 10258 Foothill Blvd., Lake View Terrace, CA 91340 (on the corner of Foothill and Wheatland, in front of the Number 91 Bustop). Our new phone number is 818-896-1479.

Please join us as we try to re-weave the amazing tapestry of song, dance, words, theater, art, and ideas that temporarily unraveled with our move. However, we have the regenerative power as community to start anew, to continue our important work, and to prepare for better days ahead. You’ll love our new space.