Here’s a thoughtful essay by Texas Chicana anthropologist and journalist Cecilia Ballí, reflecting on the trajectory of San Antonio mayor’s Julian Castro’s political career.  Julian and his brother Joaquin are the twin sons of single mother and longtime Chicana community organizer Maria del Rosario “Rosie” Castro.  The Chicana por mi Raza Project writes that Rosie “served as president of the Bexar County Young Democrats and as vice-president of the women’s division of the Young Democrats at the state level. She ran for city council in 1971 and finished second out of four candidates on the Committee for Barrio Betterment slate. She earned a MA in environmental management from the University of Texas-San Antonio. Castro was also instrumental in making San Antonio shift from electing City Council members at-large to creating districts.”

But about Rosie’s boys, Cecilia Ballí writes:

In 1995, as a freshman at Stanford, I watched two Texans two years above me land the highest number of votes in the race for student senate. They were identical twins, no less, a fact that made for a catchy story in the school paper (“Twin Senators Not Two Close for Comfort”) and a portrait of the smiling, newly minted politicians clad in khakis and polo-style shirts, sitting back-to-back on the floor of the Stanford Quad. It seemed Julián and Joaquin Castro had grasped a critical lesson my sister and I had learned running for our junior high student council: Being a twin pays in politics because it doubles your publicity and votes—and people love twins. [Read more…] about The Julian Castro I Knew – and How He’s Changed

In case you missed them…..

• Michelle Obama is pictured as an 19th century slave on the cover of a Spanish news magazine (Expansion), in the work of English artist Karine Percheron-Daniels.   En Espanol or here.
   
• “More Young Illegal Immigrants Face Deportation” in the New York Times.
  

  …Juan David Gonzalez was 6 years old. He was in the court, which would decide whether to expel him from the country, without a parent — and also without a lawyer.

  Immigration courts in this South Texas border town and across the country are confronting an unexpected surge of children, some of them barely school age, who traveled here without parents and were caught as they tried to cross illegally into the United States.

  The young people, mostly from Mexico and Central America, ride to the border on the roofs of freight trains or the backs of buses. They cross the Rio Grande on inner tubes, or hike for days through extremes of heat and chill in Arizona deserts. The smallest children, like Juan, are most often brought by smugglers.

  The youths pose troubling difficulties for American immigration courts. Unlike in criminal or family courts, in immigration court there is no right to a lawyer paid by the government for people who cannot afford one. And immigration law contains few protections specifically for minors. So even a child as young as Juan has to go before an immigration judge — confronting a prosecutor and trying to fight deportation — without the help of a lawyer, if one is not privately provided.

  So far this year, more than 11,000 unaccompanied minors have been placed in deportation proceedings, nearly double last year’s numbers.

  Link to full article

Please join us in sending love, prayer, good thoughts, and all the good juju you can muster to Chicana veterana Cecilia Preciado Burciaga.  Querida Cecilia has been fighting off pneumonia, which led to the discovery of a cancerous malignancy in her left lung.   She is currently getting good care at Stanford Hospital with various procedures to make her more comfortable while she undergoes chemotherapy.

Few women have been more influential and beloved in encouraging Chicana/os and Latina/os into higher education and beyond than la querida Cecilia.  Her daughter Rebeca  and son Toño write on their website  that they read all of the various emails, letters, and notes to Cecilia that friends are sending, and that Cecilia enjoys them very much.  Right now, they are asking that you hold off on visits until she is more stable.  Rebeca and Toño write:

BUT . . . she really does love your cards, letters, emails and posts on this site. It is especially wonderful to read her messages about how she has helped others – she tends to shy away from compliments but she’s trapped ;o). What a blessing these have been for her spirit.

Today is our father’s birthday – he would have been 72. 
Happy birthday Dad!
Thank you for watching over us.
Mom’s still fighting
. . . not that you’d surprised by this news . . 

Please send any emails to moc.liamgobfsctd-633c74@agaicrub.odaicerp.ailicec   For further info and regular updates, see the website at Caring Bridge.

Update:

Family friends Juana Guevara and Ay Nieva  also write, if you would like to offer further local support:

So many people have offered help that a few friends have brainstormed and talked to Cecilia’s two children about what might be best. So here are a couple of suggestions if you should decide to gift the family with a blessing:

1. A gift card to Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Safeway, or an American Express gift card (that they could use anywhere) would be amazing. Gift cards will allow the family flexibility for everyday needs and a way to send family and friends to the store without worry about having cash to give them to pick up meals or other items that they may need for Cecilia. Email Juana at moc.liamgobfsctd-93b30c@nnaujiajo to help with this.
2. If you prefer to help out with a meal for the family, Rebeca’s friend Amy will be coordinating meals for Thursdays and Sundays. A group of colleagues from Cecilia’s Stanford days are already doing Tuesday dinners for the family. Email Amy at ten.tsacmocobfsctd-5cef41@ylimafavein to help with this.
3. Please continue prayers, thoughts and posts on the Caring Bridge site. When Rebeca reads them to Cecilia, her spirit soars.  As Cecilia starts her second day of Chemo treatments, we would love to have everyone join in a “virtual” prayer circle at 9 PM each evening.

Thank you,
Juana Guevara and Amy Nieva

 

The Russian feminist punk band has been in the news lately; three twentysomething young women rockers were sentenced to two years in prison for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred”– that is,  their guerrilla rock performance on the altar of a Russian Orthodox Church. For less than a minute, the women danced, singing “Our Lady, Chase Putin Out!” and crossing themselves until they were apprehended by security guards.   What you probably haven’t read is their own insightful analysis of what their acts meant in Russian’s current political context.  From their closing statements in their Moscow court trial:

Yekaterina Samutsevich charged that Putin has been “exploit[ing] the Orthodox religion and its aesthetic…” by making use of

the aesthetic of the Orthodox religion, which is historically associated with the heyday of Imperial Russia, where power came not from earthly manifestations such as democratic elections and civil society, but from God Himself….

Our sudden musical appearance in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior with the song “Mother of God, Drive Putin Out” violated the integrity of the media image that the authorities had spent such a long time generating and maintaining, and revealed its falsity. In our performance we dared, without the Patriarch’s blessing, to unite the visual imagery of Orthodox culture with that of protest culture, thus suggesting that Orthodox culture belongs not only to the Russian Orthodox Church, the Patriarch, and Putin, but that it could also ally itself with civic rebellion and the spirit of protest in Russia.

[Read more…] about Pussy Riot statements and the failure of media

African American Studies Professor Aaronette M. White of UC Santa Cruz passed last Tuesday at the age of 51, possibly of an aneurysm.  In a facebook thread, Angie Chabram writes “let’s memorialize her by putting her picture and the write up in a public place other than the net. I am going to put this lovely person I didn’t know outside my door!” I did the same.

Here is an excerpt from Aishah Shahidah Simmons’ essay (at Feministwire 8/18/12) celebrating Aaronette’s life:

It is with deep sadness and profound devastation that I share that radical Black/Pan-African feminist activist and social psychologist Aaronette M. White, Ph.D., recently made her physical transition. While there is presently uncertainty about the exact date and time of her sudden death, no foul play or harm was done to her in the last hours of her life. Her body was found in her apartment on Tuesday, August 14, 2012. The belief is that she suffered an aneurysm. She was 51-years old.

….Aaronette’s activism, scholarship, and writings were frequently ahead of the curve. She constantly championed unsung warrior feminist women who were predominantly of African descent. However, she celebrated the resiliency and (sometimes armed) resistance of all women she defined as freedom fighters. [Read more…] about Remembering the Life of Aaronette M. White

We posted here earlier about the Chicana por mi Raza (CPMR) Archival Online Database project co-directed by Maria Cotera of University of Michigan, and Linda Garcia Merchant of Voces Primeras.  The project seeks to provide “broad-based public access to oral histories, material culture, correspondence, and rare out-of-print publications for use in both scholarly research and the classroom.”  MALCS leadership is currently considering organizational  sponsorship of the CPMR project.  Meanwhile….

The Voces Primeras production team is seeking support for their travel to El Paso, Texas for the 4oth anniversary celebration of the Raza Unida Party Convention.  The team will be recording interviews with the Women of the Partido as they share their memories of their involvement in the party and throughout this movement. These women participated as not only political candidates, but also as caucus chairs, precinct captains, and organizers. This is an unprecedented opportunity to record this reflection as it happens.  The Indiegogo campaign here seeks financial support to fund their travel, lodging and airefare.

The production team would appreciate your donation at the Indiegogo site, and are offering various small incentives.  Or, they write, “Share our link! We don’t have a lot of time to gather these funds, so let your friends and family know about our campaign! If you would like to donate but would like to mail us a check, here is our information:  Voces Primeras, 47 West Polk Street, Suite 100-275, Chicago, Illinois 60605.”

Please don’t miss Maria Cotera’s comment below – click on “Comment”

La voz áspera de la ternura, Chavela Vargas (via Lina Murillo)

From the Associated Press:

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Chavela Vargas, who defied gender stereotypes to become one of the most legendary singers in Mexico, died Sunday at age 93.  Her friend and biographer Maria Cortina said Vargas died at a hospital in the city of Cuernavaca, where she had been admitted for heart and respiratory problems.

Vargas rose to fame flouting the Roman Catholic country’s preconceptions of what it meant to be a female singer: singing lusty “ranchera” songs while wearing men’s clothes, carrying a pistol, drinking heavily and smoking cigars.

Though she refused to change the pronouns in love songs about women as some audiences expected, many of her versions of passionate Mexican folk songs are considered definitive.

Born in San Joaquin de Flores, Costa Rica, on April 17, 1919, Vargas immigrated to Mexico at age 14. She sang in the streets as a teenager, then ventured into a professional singing career well in her 30s.  “I was never afraid of anything because I never hurt anyone,” Vargas told the audience at a Mexico City tribute concert in June 2011. “I was always an old drunk.” [Read more…] about Rest in peace, Chavela Vargas (Apr 17, 1919 – Aug 5, 2012)