La Santa Cecilia played the courtyard of the Museum of Latin American Art last night in Long Beach for the 45th anniversary of the Association of Mexican-American Educators. As always, they turned in another stellar set chalk full of new material as well as old favorites for early long time fans. La Santa Cecilia once again displayed their uncanny ability to conquer crowds with their superb musicianship and charismatic front woman Marisoul. Many new fans were made last night as LSC played in the LBC!

{You’re Not Cool If You Don’t Have This Shirt Already}

According to the Library of Congress, Democratic Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez has finally signed on to become the newest  co-sponsor the Dream Act! By making the 47th Congressional District in Orange County a “Dream District” yesterday, Sanchez has given a boon to the movement seeking passage of the legislation that would give a pathway to citizenship for undocumented college students and military personnel. This day would never have come, however, without the hard work of grassroots activists, namely the Orange County Dream Team. They have been faithfully applying the squeeze on the Congresswoman to abandon her reluctance on co-sponsoring the legislation.

In a twist of logic, Sanchez has always said she supported the Dream Act and would vote for it, but wouldn’t co-sponsor it as a piecemeal solution. What? Exactly. Unfortunately, for too long, Democratic apologists for the Congresswoman parroted her rationale as ever-wise realpolitik, but some good old fashioned grassroots activism has given Sanchez and her die-hard supporters a lesson in democracy. So what, then, was the final straw? This weekend, the OCDT had some of its members advocate at Liberal conferences held by LULAC and the Orange County Federation of Labor. The Congresswoman was present, and apparently got the message. Somebody pinch me! I must be ‘dreaming in color!’

Congratulations to the Orange County Dream Team!

{Savanna High School: Somos Nuestro Propio Futuro}

It’s been ten years since I graduated from the halls of Savanna High School in Anaheim, California back in 2000. While there’s no reunion planned, there is time for proper reflection on how things have changed since the millennial graduating class. Helping in that regard, the California Department of Education released its annual Academic Performance Index rankings this week. In addition to API scores, the ethnic breakdown of each school, including Savanna, is given. The demographic flip in Anaheim has been apparent for awhile now, but taking a glimpse at how much things have changed through the Base API school report really drives the point home! Back in the day when I was a senior, the school’s student body ethnic makeup was 558 Hispanic/Latino and 413 White. Latinos were in the majority, but not by much. Fast forward ten years and the numbers now are 1,078 Hispanic/Latino and 219 White! Savanna High School, in the course of a decade, has become twice as brown and half as white!

{Son de Savanna? The school is now so Mexi that Son del Centro even plays there!}

Given the drastic changes, perhaps it is time now, more than ever, to reconsider the school’s name and mascot. Ever since I was there, I loathed the school colors of the Confederacy, the Johnny Rebel statue in the quad and the Confederate flags painted in the gym. (that were first covered up and phased out when Compton played us in a CIF game in 1999) I understand that there isn’t a lot of money to be spent on such renovations, but when resources are low, the resourceful get resourceful! Taking a page from the NBA’s ‘Noche Latina’ jerseys, the high school should be renamed the home of “Los Rebels!” And for the mascot? It’s definitely time to transform the current avatar of Johnny Rebel on steroids. First, let’s keep the mustache, but just paint it black! Next, all that needs to be done is a switch of the hats. Get rid of that Civil War era bullshit and replace it with a sombrero and PRESTO: Yonny Rebel!

To end on a serious note (sorry) if the API school reports tell us much about the demographic shifts in Orange County, they also, by default, tell us about the socio-economic pecking order. Savanna High School, with a high level of working class, working poor, and English learner students, was two points shy, with a base score of 679, of placing in the top five of the bottom ten high schools in the county. (We did finish #6 compared to Anaheim High School’s #8 – take THAT Gustavo!) Save for Orange High, all the schools on the list that fell way short of the Statewide Performance Target score of 800 were in Anaheim and Santa Ana (or as in an earlier post on this website reminds us: the geographic dimensions of SantAnaheim!)

The top ten were in places like Irvine, Los Alamitos, Cypress and Westminster. The backstory of the API scores is the ethno-classist breakdown of Orange County. Racists will evaluate the data and wrongly conclude that Savanna has become “dumber” as it has browned. (In fact, the base API for ‘99-’00 was 573!) The predominate pedagogy at the district, state and national level, however, has never been interested in learning how to instruct or teach the oppressed. And why would it? It’s counter to the interests of perpetuating the ethno-classist system. Time after time, it is those administrators and bureaucrats who are the ones that receive the failing grade in my book.

Jaime Escalante, the East Los Angeles math teacher epitomized in the film ‘Stand and Deliver,’ passed away today at the age of 79. The Bolivian born immigrant had been struggling with bladder cancer for quite some time as actor Edward James Olmos, who portrayed Escalante and is olmost in every American film about Latinos, and others fund raised continuously for his cash strapped family. It’s truly tragic that life and death matters must also be money matters in our highly privatized health care system.  Escalante’s health insurance didn’t provide him with adequate coverage on costs during his most dire time in need. This context will get passing mention, if at all, in the coming obits to be published.

However, it is interesting to note that as a result of the 1988 film that focused on Escalante’s push to have Garfield High School students excel in math, a few lessons have been left out of the biographical equation. Just ten years after “Stand and Deliver,” the much celebrated teacher became the ‘brown face’ that supported Republican Run Unz and his drive to eliminate bilingual education through Proposition 227. This highly critical pedagogical component that helps immigrant raza perform better in California’s public schools was largely eviscerated with the help of Escalante.

The ballot measure came on the legislative heels of the polarizing fight and successful passage of Proposition 187 in the state a few years before. As any proponent of bilingual education knows, taking such a stance to this day stokes the xenophobic monolingual tendencies of so-called ‘nativist’ groups. The controversy of Escalante lending support to Unz ultimately led to his retirement from teaching.

Towards the end of his life, East LA raza helped Escalante in his impossible situation. Olmos, El Tepeyac Cafe, former Garfield High School students, and others raised money to help him live to fight another day. The multimillionaire Unz? No such effort as far as I can see…

The Association of Raza Educators are planning to hold their 4th annual conference on May 15th in San Diego.  The organization’s chapters from various parts of the state of California will convene in between workshops to hear notable speakers such as ‘Occupied America’ author Rudy Acuna opine on education. For those unfamiliar with A.R.E., the teacher organization’s mission statement sees education as “the foundation for all political and economic progress,” and as such, “must be a basic right of all people. Making this right a reality is the fundamental objective of A.R.E.” The group espouses the need for a pedagogy centered on the philosophy of famed Brazilian educator Paulo Friere as the principal means to obtain the stated objective.

A.R.E.’s annual conferences display tight organization and efficiency. I attended last year and was generally impressed with the flow of the day’s events. It was there that I had the opportunity to meet radical educator Antonia Darder as well as speak with a few folks from A.R.E. There were talks of future conferences being held in the Bay Area in conjunction with the Oakland chapter, but recent news turns focus to a place where no chapter of the organization exists; Orange County. Earlier this month, six schools in the Santa Ana Unified School District were designated among 188 statewide as “persistently low-achieving” in the first issued list of its kind from California’s Department of Education. As the OC Register noted, the distinction could require them to make “drastic reforms that could include becoming a charter campus, changing principals and staff or closing altogether.”

Education is in a state of crisis. The news of the SAUSD schools has provoked much discussion on the OC blogosphere, but none of it has been too illuminating. Raza educators are definitely in Santa Ana (and around the county) but have no cohesive organization to band them together. A.R.E. would be well served to outreach to them, build the ranks, and articulate core solutions in helping open an important front.

{Breaking Ground for the Groundbreaking College}

Navajo Community College Opens its Doors

Back in the day on January 21st, 1969, the Navajo Community College opened its doors to students for classes. Founded the year before, the postsecondary educational institution was the first in the United States to be established and controlled by natives themselves. The idea for the two-year college was conceived as a direct result of the profound lack of culturally responsive education in public and Bureau of Indian Affairs-run boarding schools. With a mission statement affirming the promotion of its people’s language and culture, Navajo Community College began modestly with an enrollment of just 301 students. By the fall of 1973, after having received millions of dollars in funding from Congress, it had moved to a 1,200-acre campus east of its original location in Many Farms, Arizona.

Now known as Diné College, the school continues on more than forty years later as the oldest and largest native controlled educational institution of its kind.

The UC Board of Regents voted today to increase student fees by an ever burdensome thirty-two percent. Their meeting on the campus of UCLA became a fierce focal point of student activism not seen in a long time. Yesterday fourteen protesters were arrested and today as the final vote was handed down anger from the students boiled over. With a UC governing system more interested in placing budgetary burdens on students and teachers instead of on construction projects and bloated bureaucracy, the emotional outbursts against injustice were fueled by a most righteous indignation. Sure, the Regents and the UC President’s office can try to shift the blame onto the dysfunctional California State Legislature and Governor, but in the end, they are all guilty. All sectors are genuflecting before neo-liberalism in this ’state of shock’ doctrine.

The response to it will not be tranquil as illustrated by the fury of California’s students today. They heaped chants of “Shame on You,” as the disgraced Board of Regents attempted to leave the campus. Campbell Hall, in the spirit of ‘69, was renamed by the students as “Carter-Huggins Hall” forty years after two young LA Panthers by those last names were slain there. There is a struggle going and those engaged in it are asking “Whose University?” only to answer with affirmation, “Our University!”

The Cal State University system has become one of the many sacrificial lambs of the state’s enormous budget crisis. This educational channel for working class students to obtain a four year bachelors degree has been dealt unthinkable blows. One of the most striking is the fact that no one was admitted as an incoming student for the upcoming Spring semester. With the disasterous cuts to California’s future, students have finally had enough. They are paying more for less education! Locally in Orange County students demonstrated yesterday on the campus of Cal State Fullerton. Donpalabraz.com’s ‘Sign of the day’ honors goes to the woman who utilized the power of the pun when she wrote ‘Cal State Furloughton!’ We can’t let such genius wit be undervalued. Fight back!

This Sunday, KPFK, Southern California’s original listener-sponsored radio station will officially turn 50 years old! On July 26th, 1959, the music of Beethoven first played on 90.7FM at noon  announcing the arrival of regular programming to the listeners. Topical shows on religion and politics followed as the rest is history.

Since that time, as part of the Pacifica network, KPFK has continued to be an independent forum true to its mission statement in bringing the political ideals, news and music of the world to an unabashedly commercial free platform.

Even to this day, few people believe that a radio station can be had in a major metropolitan city without advertisement support. Even fewer believe that such a media outlet can survive for 50 years. By being ‘powered by the people,’ LA’s community radio station has been able to defy the odds and provide a bastion on the dial where artists and intellectuals can speak freely; a direly needed resource in a homogenized media landscape dominated and defined by corporate power.

With that in mind, I leave you with this following statement of introduction found on KPFK’s inaugural folio. Much of the words still ring true today; a testament to the continued relevancy of the station’s existence:

“We welcome you, our first listener-subscribers in this joint venture to communicate freely with each other. And we thank you for enabling KPFK to go on the air. Together we hope to initiate a new spirit of excitement in Southern California, a spirit conducive to the creation of works and words of significance. It is our conviction that the other mass media have erred in underestimating the hunger and capacity of men for a diet based upon our great literary and musical traditions, and their readiness to hear new and creative ideas.

Forgive us our ineptitudes. And if we occasionally appear ludicrous it is because we are trying very hard not to let ourselves slip into a rut. We will be involved in all serious matters and promote none.

Our aims are humanistic. We want to be a concert hall, a lecture room and a part of your living room. We want to accept our first responsibility— to discuss with you the problems of our own community. We want to bring programs of the highest quality from all parts of the country and the world into your home. We would wish to be an important public means of tying together all serious-minded people in the area.

With your support we can enrich our program offerings, lengthen our broad-cast day, and create works that we can offer to other stations throughout the country and the world.”

Thanks to an odd glitch on my Myspace page, I was able to view some old jokes I had written in on my “schools” field once upon a time – including a listing of all my campus affiliations! I am proud to admit that I am an alumni of UC Rivercide, and as you can tell, class, reading, and drinking at the Getaway Cafe was just not enough to complete my collegiate experience. As per my old Myspace page, I was a very active student involved in a number or campus clubs and even a fraternity, including:

~ Phi Beta Go Fuck Yourself! (Our “Anti-Socials” were the best!)

~ Future Huevones of America (too lazy to go to any meetings)

~ Taco Cart Guys for 9/11 Truth (Taco Meat cooks at 155F, Jet Fuel Burns between 800F – 1500F, and all the taco meat in the South Tower was crudo, demolition?)

~ Illegal Immigrants Against Illegal Immigration (self-hating co-founder)

~ Americans with Spanish Surnames (A.S.S.)