María E. Martin 1952 – 2023 Dec 2023 | Jan 2024 Vol. 36 Issue 10 San Antonio, Tejas
La Voz de Esperanza Dec 2023 | Jan 2024 Vol. 36 Issue 10 Editor: Gloria A. Ramírez Design: Elizandro Carrington Contributors Tarcisio Beal, Rachel Delgado, Julio César Guerrero, Josie Méndez Negrete, Lydia Otero, Imane Saliba, Nadine Saliba Esperanza Director Graciela I. Sánchez Esperanza Staff Sherry Campos, Elizandro Carrington, Kayla Miranda, René Saenz, Imane Saliba, Susana Segura, Rosa Vega Conjunto de Nepantleras —Esperanza Board of Directors— Richard Aguilar, Norma Cantú, Brent Floyd, Rachel Jennings, Amy Kastely, Ana Lucía Ramírez, Gloria A. Ramírez, Rudy Rosales, Lilliana Saldaña, Nadine Saliba, Graciela I. Sánchez • We advocate for a wide variety of social, economic & environmental justice issues. • Opinions expressed in La Voz are not necessarily those of the Esperanza Center. La Voz de Esperanza is a publication of Esperanza Peace & Justice Center 922 San Pedro, San Antonio, TX 78212 210.228.0201 • www.esperanzacenter.org Inquiries/Articles can be sent to: [email protected] Articles due by the 8th of each month Policy Statements * We ask that articles be visionary, progressive, instructive & thoughtful. Submissions must be literate & critical; not sexist, racist, homophobic, violent, or oppressive & may be edited for length. * All letters in response to Esperanza activities or articles in La Voz will be considered for publication. Letters with intent to slander individuals or groups will not be published. I met María Martin in the late 1970’s when we were part of a handful of Chicano radio activists. Like many pioneers, she was a visionary who created a space for Raza and women through programming and mentorship in a professional field that rarely accepted minorities. While in the Bay Area in the 1980’s we regularly collaborated on projects and news stories with mutual respect and camaraderie. With her characteristic smile, good nature and professionalism, María graciously penetrated both English and Spanish markets covering a wide array of issues and personalities that chronicled who we are as people in the United States. María will live in our hearts and will be represented in our work for a long time Here's a humble tribute in the form of a calavera. gracias julio cesar guerrero EDITOR'S NOTE: Radio Esperanza, 96.5 KEPJ-LPFM-San Antonio and the Esperanza Peace & Justice Center mourn the loss of a courageous cultural warrior whose lifework leaves a legacy of media empowerment in indigenous and Latinx communities in the U.S. & Latin America. María Martin presente! Que descanse en paz y poder! La Calavera De María Martin Mira que bonitas flores mira como brilla el sol tan coquetas de colores what a beautiful glow En un dia como hoy we lost a la Mariquita remember her tan bonita era puro corazón Simón, mis vatos locos por la ostia del Tejón La Calaca le hecho el ojo and took away her microphone. Sana, sana colita de rana los angeles le cantaban but la Muerte tan ingrata las cobijas le jalaba No se aguiten, no es el fin now there’s a new generation of young people asking questions gracias a María Martin Blanca palomita stop flying parate en aquel nopal dinos donde María is watching con sus Bette Davis eyes LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • Dec 2023 | Jan 2024 Vol. 36 Issue 10 • 2 VOZ VISION STATEMENT: La Voz de Esperanza speaks for many individual, progressive voices who are gente-based, multi-visioned and milagro-bound. We are diverse survivors of materialism, racism, misogyny, homophobia, classism, violence, earth-damage, speciesism and cultural and political oppression. We are recapturing the powers of alliance, activism and healthy conflict in order to achieve interdependent economic/ spiritual healing and fuerza. La Voz is a resource for peace, justice, and human rights, providing a forum for criticism, information, education, humor and other creative works. La Voz provokes bold actions in response to local and global problems, with the knowledge that the many risks we take for the earth, our body, and the dignity of all people will result in profound change for the seven generations to come. ATTENTION VOZ READERS: If you have a mailing address correction please send it to lavoz@ esperanzacenter.org. If you want to be removed from the La Voz mailing list, for whatever reason, please let us know. La Voz is provided as a courtesy to people on the mailing list of the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center. The subscription rate is $35 per year ($100 for institutions). The cost of producing and mailing La Voz has substantially increased and we need your help to keep it afloat. To help, send in your subscriptions, sign up as a monthly donor, or send in a donation to the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center. Thank you. -GAR María Martin founded the nonprofit GraciasVida Center for Media in Guatemala, where she trained & empowered indigenous women as radio journalists and continued to train journalists in Mexico, Bolivia, Uruguay and Nicaragua.
Being an NPR listener and a fan of Latino USA since the early 2000’s I always knew that it was radio journalist María Martin who founded the show. So imagine my delight when I learned that we, at Esperanza, were hosting her for a plática and book signing for her book Crossing Borders, Building Bridges. A Journalist’s heart in Latin America. The event was in September of last year , it was beautiful and successful, and I got to meet the great María Martin. After the event it was decided that María would offer radio training classes to our community to help us steer Radio Esperanza in the direction we all wanted for our community radio station. Needless to say I was thrilled! To have the renowned journalist María Martin coach us, teach us and endow us some of her knowledge, skills and tips was a privilege and an opportunity not many people get. And so I started meeting with María on a weekly basis over Zoom at the beginning of this year to plan out the classes, recruitment and other matters. And through those meetings and the first training class I was part of, I got to know María a little bit on a personal level. She was the kind of person who truly cared, who always had that beautiful smile on her shining face. She would ask about my ailing mother and my sister who underwent an operation. She gave me tips on relaxation and breathing methods to help with my stress and anxiety and give me a boost of energy. It amazed me how excited she was about helping Esperanza accomplish our vision for Radio Esperanza which became her vision. She recently went to a community radio conference and came back full of plans and hope for the future of our station. She told me how much she enjoyed being at the conference and how all this reminded her of her beginnings in radio. I am full of regret and extreme sadness that she left us so soon and so suddenly! I won’t be seeing her and working with her, I won’t be learning about her wonderful stories, her reports on Guatemalan elections and the politics and happenings in Latin American countries. This person who knew so many people all over the US and probably the world, gave to me from her beautiful spirit. She had friends in every city she visited. Of course she did! Who wouldn’t want to be friends with María, this intelligent, capable, knowledgeable, kind, caring, modest, spiritual, and willful woman? Losing María, is so heartbreaking to her family, her many many friends, her mentees and to the world of journalism. I will always remember her. As I’m writing this, tears are streaming down my face and her image is in my head sitting at her desk in her home in Guatemala with that Christmas tree in the background way after Christmas was over. I hope she knew how much she meant to me and how much her loss is felt in my heart. I didn’t have enough time with her, neither on a personal level nor on a professional level. I am so blessed to have known her even for such a short period of time. One thing that gives me some solace is that her dear friend Elaine was reading messages to María from all those who love her. In the midst of my grief it consoles me that she knew how loved she is by so many … old friends and new. María Emilia Martin Presente! May her memory be eternal! By Imane Saliba, Radio Esperanza María Emilia Martin, May her memory be eternal LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • Dec 2023 | Jan 2024 Vol. 36 Issue 10 • 3 A limited number of María’s book are still available at the Esperanza’s Tiendita.
By Josie Méndez Negrete My family and me, and the entire world have lost María Emilia Martin—a good-hearted, compassionate, and loving person. Now, a dancing star of the universe, she guards those of us who were left behind. A friend, like no one else, María always found the best in each one of us. Her love had no boundaries. A master teacher and a bilingual journalist, María’s stories and narratives drew attention to our humanity, making our histories visible, especially when it concerned the disregarded and forgotten. More than a cultural envoy and storyteller, María dispensed love and shared the beauty she carried. With María, I learned to better hear and see that which is readily forgotten or ignored. With her, I embraced alternative ways of seeing and being in the world. Through her loving voice, María fed my imagination with her reports. She taught me to better see, hear, and sense all that could make the lives of the marginalized better. Her words linked me to the difficulties of everyday life, particularly to those who left their communities of origin for forge a better life. I often saw and recognized myself as one among humans and non-humans who have had no choice but to migrate for our survival. The greatest bequest María gave Jorge Negrete, me, and our beloved son, was her unconditional love and treasured friendship. Along with the gift of Guatemala—the Mayan nation she dearly treasured and loved, guided by Don Isra—short for Israel—in his taxi, we drove in and around Antigua. Informed by his deep knowledge of his country, Don Isra took us to various parts of the city, and with pride often pointed to the churches built atop Mayan temples, as a symbol of pride for his ancestors. It was he who found me the gift from birds—chile piquins to spice up my meals—recognizing that I missed that condiment because Guatemalans did not share the taste for spicy foods there I craved. The most memorable time of our visit to Guatemala began when Don Isra took us to board a boat to Lake Atitlán. The village of San Pedro was our first stop, where we shopped and rode in a Spurs-decorated-Tuk-Tuk to happily stroll their open-air markets. Later, we sailed to Santiago, spending a couple of nights where we feasted on their delightful food. The second day of our stay, we visited Maximón—a hybrid spiritual figure signifying Maya and Spanish spirituality. María was a strong follower and believer. Nuestra casa, es tu casa. “Whenever you want, our house is your house,” I would readily say, in response to her request for housing. When María came to San Antonio, our casa became her home. Some stays were short. Others much longer. It was in 2019, during the Covid-19 pandemic, when María was expelled from Kyrgyzstan and Guatemala refused to let her return to Antigua, that she made our San Antonio home again, she stayed in the main room of our San Antonio residence; she was there for nearly eight months. It was during that time that María asked me to work with her on the publication of that book she had been carrying for too long—Crossing Borders, Building Bridges: A Journalist’s Heart in Latin America. In 2020, I published the book through Conocimientos Press. What a delight it was to be in partnership with her—her collaborative spirit, creative mind, love, and her Tribute to María Martin LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • Dec 2023 | Jan 2024 Vol. 36 Issue 10 • 4 María’s home base in San Antonio was the home of Josie Méndez Negrete, her husband, Dr. Jorge Negrete and their son, Robert.
knowledge is embedded in that book. A benevolent and generous person, María was known for making herself readily available to help and support her friends. The maximum example of her love was displayed in March of 2023, when María came to stay in our home. This time it wasn’t her professional work, she came to support us in realizing our dream of walking the Portuguese Camino to Santiago de Compostela—she had walked the entire route and found it to be the most spiritual and growth inspiring activity she had ever done. For this reason, she booked herself to be available for us. Because of her, and her love and care for our son, knowing our adult special needs son would be under her care, Jorge and I left without worry. Kindly, compassionately, and caringly, María stayed with our Rob while we cared for my mother-in-law her last days of life, before departing to Europe. Truly, this walk was a most amazing way to reclaim my youthful memories of the village of my birth, Tabasco, when I had no other option but to leave my home to reunite with the family who had left my younger sister and me to migrate to the United States. Songs, scents, and recollection from childhood surface in the sounds of the church bells that dredged lyrics long buried inside me—Bendito, bendito, bendito sea Dios / Los Ángeles cantan y alaban a Dios, the aroma and scent of the flower, and the faces of my great aunts who loved and cared for us in our parents’ absence appeared to me as if to illustrate the music. Our house was María’s house. She felt at home with us. She loved my cooking. Without over-indulging she ate to her hearts content. María te llevó adentro de mi corazón and I will never forget that you were a star within my universe. Recently, María called to meet her housing needs in San Antonio, she needed a place to continue working with staff and volunteers at the Esperanza Peace Justice Center’s Community Radio Project. We were unable to accommodate her request— the back house was under construction and another person now occupied the vacant bedroom we had. Not to be discouraged, María went about seeking shelter among her friends. Because I had been caregiving Amá in San José, California, I would not see María until Jorge and I drove close to seven hours from Alpine, Texas—where we had planned to climb and walk the Big Bend National Park, but without doubt María took priority over Big Bend and to the hospital we went. We left our hotel at sunrise when the sun was peeking over the mountains. It was a beautiful drive, reminiscent of the one we took some years ago, when we drove to Blanco, Texas to pick up María after her release from the rehabilitation center where she had been recovering from cancer. After a medical procedure that failed. María made the decision to relinquish medical intervention and opted for hospice. It was drizzling when we arrived. Still, the drive to Austin was filled with memories of María. We recalled her happy and beautiful face and the loving ways with which she treated our son. When we finally arrived at Room 486, on the fourth floor of Ascension Seton Medical Center, where Elaine had let me know that the staff and her family were expecting us. As we entered the room to our left, we found a beautiful, glowing face without make up, not a María we have ever witnessed. She was elated to see us. Her eyes focused on us, as María asked her sister, Christina, to give her the notebook with which she could communicate with us. She couldn’t speak. María had lost her voice because of a tracheotomy, but to get her message across she pantomimed her love for us, with kisses and air embraces with her arms. The oxygen tube with which she breathed was not in her way or if it interfered, she pushed them aside as she wrote, “Jorge and Josie. My angels are here.” María crossed over December 2, 2023, at 6:43 am. At my age I have had to confront mortality through the loss of people who passed away. Every death has been difficult to bear, but losing María leaves a gap in my heart that will most likely not be filled. I imagine that her family, friends, and community will also live with a void in their hearts. BIO: Josie Méndez Negrete, PhD, professor emerita of The University of Texas at San Antonio, is founder and publisher of Conocimientos Press that published María’s book, Crossing Borders, Building Bridges. LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • Dec 2023 | Jan 2024 Vol. 36 Issue 10 • 5 María with Josie’s husband, Dr. Jorge Negrete.
Rest in Power, Jesse Vidales By Rachel Delgado Rest in power, Jesse Vidales. I first met Jesse in 2015 shortly after our mom, Juanita Delgado, celebrated her 100th birthday. He had seen her photo in the newspaper and reached out to us. He had worked with our father, Pedro Delgado, when they were both house painters and shared many stories about them. Jesse and I shared a common interest in San Antonio and Westside history and the importance of documenting our stories. We attended the community input sessions for the restoration of the Alameda Theater. He had actually performed there on stage while a student at Lanier with his trio, Los Romanticos. Both of us shared memories with Save Old Hwy 90. The street name was restored last year. He was also a poet, and read at the Las Palmas Library one year. He wrote and read many tributes at our family functions. Some of you may remember him from his performance in Still Here, the Alameda Symposium, TPR and all those political rallies. Jessie R. Vidales PRESENTE!!! Thank you to ALL the Buena Gente who helped make our Dia de Muertos 2023 celebration a success! LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • Dec 2023 | Jan 2024 Vol. 36 Issue 10 • 6 Jesse Vidales poses at the Alameda Box Office with Rachel Delgado acting as a ticket agent and inside the theater he shared his stories of the Alameda as a young man.
L.A. INTERCHANGES A Brown & Queer Archival Memoir By Lydia R. Otero EDITOR’S NOTE: In 2020, Dr. Otero shared childhood stories from their memoir, In The Shadows of the Freeway, Growing Up Brown & Queer with an Esperanza audience. In January 2024, Dr. Otero returns to read from their new archival memoir L.A. Interchanges. A reprint of the book’s introduction follows. It is impossible to pinpoint when I fell in love with Los Angeles. An image of me at the beach while still in diapers hints that it happened early. The photograph captures a determined spirit who, despite shaky balance, continues to move forward seeking a modicum of independence. Growing up, I spent all my summers in Los Angeles with my maternal family. I understood that the city’s vastness made it easy to get lost, but during my stays, I also picked up on its openness. The neighborhood kids I met and played with on the streets of Boyle Heights did not care where I came from, because many of them were from other places too. I discerned the advantages a big city offered as my queerness began to bloom and my preference for boy’s clothing and activities began to be scrutinized in my hometown of Tucson, Arizona. On a map, L.A.’s amalgamation of freeways resembled noodles; but on the ground, the distinctive neighborhoods, the faces of people of different ethnicities and races, and the gender outlaws that I spotted on the streets and buses all seemed to have a unique story to tell. Their stories, like my own, often centered on seeking second and third chances. On a Saturday at the end of March, in 1978, after a devastating break-up and a failed attempt at college, I packed everything I owned into my blue Datsun and headed to Los Angeles. For four years after I graduated from high school, I had been mired in depression. My high school girlfriend had left to explore men, and I was not remotely close to completing my bachelor’s degree, which added to my despair. I was stuck. I had always thought expressing my queerness would be easier in the City of Angels, but I had never mustered up the courage to move there. I had a major breakthrough the day before I left Arizona, though, thanks to a movie soundtrack. The highpoint of my life then was spending Saturdays at the movies. The advent of multiplex theaters made it possible to pay for one ticket, watch a film, then wander into another one. That Saturday, I sat through Oh, God! with George Burns, then slipped into Looking for Mr. Goodbar. Although I missed the first fifteen minutes, the trailers had led me to believe it celebrated a liberated woman who embraced her sexuality. But the film was disturbing, and the characters were troubled. Even so, the nightclub scenes and the soundtrack were alluring. About three-quarters of the way into the film, chills went through my body as Thelma Houston’s soulful voice broke into “Don’t Leave Me This Way”: Baby! My heart is full of love and desire for you! Now come on down and do what you got to do. You started this fire down in my soul. Now can’t you see it’s burning out of control. Houston’s voice and tone, the song’s beat, the lyrics and rhythm all mesmerized me. The way the song intensified and softened many times over filled me with unexpected emotion. When the song was over, I was a different person. I stayed in my seat for a moment, stunned at what I had experienced and what I felt— an inner craving to be part of a crowd, on a dance floor large enough to hold many bodies, gyrating to music like the song I had just heard—a need to express locked-up desires by moving my body in a lit-up place where I could simultaneously disappear, see others, and be seen by others. More than anything, I wanted to celebrate my life. Until then, I had resisted going to bars because I had not worked through the dreadful times when my father brought me to bars as a child. Going to a bar felt like moving backwards to me, but that afternoon, I longed for that indulgence. I knew it existed in Los Angeles, and I knew I had to find it. I did not watch the rest of the film. I realized at that moment that I had waited too long to make my next move. I drove back to my small apartment, started packing, and called my mother to tell her I was leaving for Los Angeles. To quash her concerns, I lied and told her there was a job lined up for me there. She encouraged me, probably because she had not witnessed excitement from me in a long time. Maybe she also knew Los Angeles offered her queer child more possibilities. LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • Dec 2023 | Jan 2024 Vol. 36 Issue 10 • FIGURE I.1 Author at Santa Monica Beach, 1956. Private collection of author. 7 Cover photo @ Laura Aguilar
tallest building in Los Angeles—the dynamic Universal Studios’ CityWalk, the 105 Freeway and the initial phases of the Metro Rail that now spans outward to the beaches and surrounding mountains. I also worked at some local film studios and took part in the Central Library renovation after fires in 1986 caused extensive damage. As the opening paragraphs of this introduction make clear, my journey involved listening to popular cultural influences and the larger social and political forces of the time. Born in Tucson, Arizona in 1955, I was influenced by the optimism of the 1960s. In junior high school, learning about the civil rights and women’s liberation movements allowed me to understand that a more just society and more expansive opportunities, not available to my parents’ generation, awaited Brown youth like me. The earlier chapters in L.A. Interchanges address these idealizations and how my relationship with my family nurtured my deep connection with Los Angeles. I used my previous experiences of living in the city with my Los Angeles family to anchor my new life here. The early chapters also provide insight into the evolution of my political consciousness. Most personal histories of political transformation do not follow a linear path. Mine certainly did not. When I moved to Los Angeles, I engaged in relationships or employment that did not benefit me much but provided me with opportunities to learn and to consider different options. I cannot stress enough how important it was for my personal development to explore possibilities and to make what seemed like mistakes at the time. Although I arrived yearning to meet and organize with Brown queers, I needed to find them. This meant I needed to organize my life in a way that made doing so a priority. I currently identify as nonbinary. During most of my adulthood, society insisted on enforcing idealizations based on the existence of two genders: women and men. Throughout L.A. Interchanges, I refer to myself as that assigned at birth, a female. In the 1980s, I fit however uncomfortably into the woman category, identified and organized as a lesbian. I also base my decision to refer to myself, experiences and relationships by the gender identities available during those decades to accentuate the gender realities of the times. Like everything else, clothing was gendered, and descriptors such as “men’s clothing” are intended as a representation of the time. I understand and respect why many nonbinary and trans people have different relationships to their childhood and past identities than I have, and why, for example, some transmasculine people will refer to experiences of their childhood self as a boy. As a Brown queer, my evolving gender identity, experiences and its complexities are a vital part of my story. My memoir also offers a perspective of a Brown queer in the 1980s who intentionally did not seek community in a bar. As I briefly mentioned earlier, unresolved childhood issues linked to bars influenced my perspective of that world. My father, Daniel, was active in the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) post in Tucson and often volunteered to bartend at the club. Between the ages of eight and ten, despite my protests, I unwillingly accompanied him on his shifts as an unmonitored “volunteer” bartender. He should never have been allowed to tend to the bar. And, he should never have been allowed to take a child with him. Unfortunately, further lessons regarding alcohol dependency awaited me in Los Angeles. Despite these experiences with alcohol, I became a social drinker and participated in bar culture by patronizing larger dance or disco clubs. I considered them sites of entertainment. Perhaps that is why I felt comfortable on dancefloors filled mostly with men. My quest to join and build alternative sites that made connecting with Brown queers outside of bars possible was motivated by my feminist leanings and knowing that I found women whose politics aligned with mine the ultimate aphrodisiac. In 1998, I left L.A. and moved back to Tucson. On my visits to Los Angeles, I make it a point to drive by the buildings I helped conI fit all my belongings into my compact car and drove off at 2:00 a.m. with renewed resolve to love myself and enjoy my life. I had just turned 23 years old. By this time, I knew from experience that I could not separate my Brown self from my queer self. These interlocking pieces formed the core of my being. Although I did not immediately find Brown and queer groups, the time and place offered me the opportunity to meet others like myself. After my queer cousin who I grew up idolizing unexpectedly passed on her apartment to me, I became an active member in Lesbians of Color (LOC) and the short-lived Lesbianas Latina Americanas. In the 1980s, I joined and eventually became a leader in Gay and Lesbian Latinos Unidos (GLLU). I was also a founding member of Lesbianas Unidas (LU). Together we worked to create new spaces and expand the range of existing ones. GLLU jumped at the chance to support the endeavors of multiethnic or rainbow coalitions, but we never lost sight of the need to prioritize ourselves. As we met in our homes, typically small apartment rentals, we transformed them into sites that launched Brown and queer mobilizing, organizing, and socializing. In the latter part of the 1980s, I also stood with those who found themselves infected with HIV/AIDS and fought to ensure more services to battle the virus. Through GLLU, I played an active role in launching Bienestar, a community-based healthcare and social services organization. Ten years after I watched Oh God!, I was waiting for an elevator at Cedars-Sinai Hospital; when the door opened, the sole passenger, standing toward the back, was George Burns. Caught off guard, I said, “Hello, God.” He responded by saying, “Hello, dear.” I turned and held in my laughter as we both rode the elevator to our floor. When I encountered Burns, I was as an electrician in L.A.’s Local 11 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), there to update the emergency call system at the hospital. I was dressed in men’s Levi’s 501 jeans, a dark blue T-shirt, and work boots. I also wore a hard hat, safety goggles, and a tool belt. I was covered in a slight layer of dust and carried a roll of metal-clad armored electrical cable on my shoulder. Despite these trappings, when I walked into the elevator, Burns quickly read the contours of my female body and referred to me as “dear.” Although much of this book will focus on my efforts as a Brown and queer community-builder in Los Angeles, I also used my body and physical labor to build the city. As an electrician during the 1980s, I was part of construction teams that built some of the most iconic buildings in Los Angeles, such as the Library Tower— now known as the U.S. Bank Tower and, at the time, the LA VOZ FIGURE I.2 Author at Pride, 1987. Private collection of author. de ESPERANZA • Dec 2023 | Jan 2024 Vol. 36 Issue 10 • 8
struct. I sometimes ride the section of the Red Line Metro between Union Station and MacArthur Park to recall the months I spent beneath the streets installing the lights in the transit tunnel. Riding the train with friends allowed me to boast, “I built this!” And, on the way into and out of LAX Airport, when traveling underneath the Sepulveda Tunnel, I remind those friends kind enough to take me there that I installed the electric system that still lights it up. About a few years ago, I went to Universal Studios by myself to see the fruits of my labor. I told the young person from whom I purchased my entrance ticket, “Twenty-five years ago, I was an electrician who worked on some of the rides and laid the underground electrical supply lines for CityWalk.” She smiled and said, “That’s so cool! I have never met anyone who helped build this place.” I walked away feeling impressed with myself. Despite changes and upgrades, I was able to locate subpanels and electrical stations I had installed in the large amusement park. Plaques or dedications on buildings typically mention investment firms or philanthropists who funded their construction and the architects who designed them. The labor that went into their construction is systematically excluded. Although I do not have many photos of me working at the various construction sites, I carry many memories of my experiences as a tradesperson. Paystubs and other relevant documents that I have kept over the years also confirm the labor I invested in various construction projects that led to the existence of buildings or transportation systems that one can marvel at or travel today. When in Los Angeles, I also visit meeting spaces or fundraising halls where Brown queers congregated and/or organized. For example, two organizations I was actively involved in, GLLU and LU, hosted a few fundraisers at the Friendship Auditorium on Riverside Drive near Griffith Park. When the thousands of people who attended events there drive past the large hall, I am sure that sometimes, memories of the music, dancing and maybe even the fundraising efforts they helped support flash through their minds. Like the buildings I wired as a tradesperson, no plaques or signage at the Friendship Auditorium provide direct evidence that Brown queers held events there or of the thousands who rallied to support their causes. Only story and voice can link memory to places. During my time in Los Angeles, I squirreled away documents, as well as photographs of the Brown queer activists I worked alongside. Trained as a historian, I recognize that the date books, newsletters, meeting minutes, documents and photographs in my box are valuable primary documents. Each item provides direct evidence or personal testimony of an event or activity that took place during the 1980s. Thus, I refer to this book as an archival memoir because it is a documentation project. By integrating and building stories around the primary items in my collection, I am also activating them. L.A. Interchanges is a work of memory, but it is also a history. The inclusion of photographs also reminds me to focus on the everyday— that which I witnessed and participated in and which shaped my life a queer of color. Not only do I have a box full of photos and documents I have carried for more than twenty years, but I am able to associate a memory with each item in that box. When I embarked on this book, more than two decades had passed since I lived in L.A. The response to my 2019 book that centered on my childhood in Tucson, In the Shadows of the Freeway: Growing Up Brown & Queer has been encouraging and rewarding. I am proudest that my hometown library gave it a 2021 Southwest Book Award. L.A. Interchanges picks up where that book ended. As I dove into writing about my days in Los Angeles, it helped to remind myself that I was not writing a comprehensive history of queer organizations and recognized leaders. If names of people recognized in LGTBQIA+ circles as memorable leaders are not mentioned in this book, it is because they were outside the circles in which I traveled, organized, and socialized. I have had to make some difficult decisions regarding what to include in this memoir. Much of what I write fits into the category of microactivism or small actions that evidence the effectiveness of groups like GLLU to continually push boundaries. They also highlight a previously unacknowledged agenda to increase visibility and/or create new Brown queer spaces that prioritized Latine issues and concerns. In L.A. Interchanges, I center myself as I moved to different sites and engaged with different people in the city during the 1980s. Few of the people of color I organized or collaborated with have made it into history books, and the names of some of my young gay friends who died of AIDS oftentimes never made it into an obituary or AIDS quilt banner. But as my story unfolds, my aim is to portray queers of color as makers of history. LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • Dec 2023 | Jan 2024 Vol. 36 Issue 10 • 9 FIGURE I.3 Advertisement of an event held at the Friendship Auditorium in L.A. Weekly, June 12, 1986, page 49. FIGURE A.31 GLLU and LU around 1989. Private collection of author. FIGURE I.4 GLLU event held at Friendship Auditorium in 1982. Photograph by Louis Jacinto.
GAZA “The One Most Worthy of Love”* By Nadine Saliba Let me tell you a little bit about Gaza... The Gaza Strip is a narrow piece of land that lies on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, surrounded by Israel from the north, east and southeast and Egypt from the southwest. It is a 140 square-mile-area, about twice the size of Washington DC, with 2.3 million residents, making it one of the most densely populated places on earth. Of these residents, 50% are children and 80% are refugees expelled from their historic homeland by Israel in 1948 when it was created on the ruins of Palestinian cities and villages. In 1967, Israel illegally occupied Gaza, along with the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Under international law, these areas - which amount to 22% of historic Palestine - are supposed to constitute a Palestinian state if a two-state solution were to be implemented. However, Israel has refused to comply with international law and end its occupation. As such, the Palestinian struggle for self-determination continues, employing both nonviolent resistance and armed struggle, a right given to all occupied people under international law. However, the laws of war, which should apply to both Israel as the occupying power, and the Palestinian resistance, prohibit attacks on civilians. In 2005, Israel withdrew its soldiers and colonial settlers from Gaza in an attempt to solidify its occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem and because the cost of keeping a military presence to protect Israeli settlers in Gaza was too high. However, Israel maintained control over the enclave from the outside. After Hamas won legislative elections, Israel imposed a suffocating siege in 2007, sealing Gaza off from the rest of the world and trapping its inhabitants. Israel continues to exercise exclusive control over Gaza’s airspace and territorial waters, just as it had since it occupied the Strip in 1967. It also continues to control most of the land border except for one crossing with Egypt called the Rafah Crossing. The Egyptian government, alas, has been complicit in Israel’s deadly siege policy, repeatedly closing the Rafah Crossing for long periods of time. Israel has exercised complete control over the movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza, including food, water, medicine, electricity and fuel, allowing only a trickle of essential needs to go in and shutting off that trickle whenever it wants. This has led to a growing humanitarian crisis ranging from “severe food insecurity,” as humanitarian organizations warned, to the absence of life-saving medications for cancer patients and others. During that time, Israel also waged several wars on Gaza, or “mowing the lawn” as Israeli officials like to call these periodic wars, in 2008, 2012, 2014, 2021 and 2022, massacring thousands of people and devastating Gaza’s already meager economy and infrastructure. It is this 16-year-old medieval siege, illegal under international law as it amounts to collective punishment, that has earned Gaza the title of the world’s “largest open-air prison.” On October 7, Palestinian fighters were able to breach those prison gates. The “smart” border wall surrounding Gaza with state of the art military and surveillance technology was built by the Israeli company, Elbit Systems, which is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas and has presence in many US cities, including San Antonio. I’d be remiss if I don’t mention that Elbit Systems has served as the prime contractor for the militarization of the US-Mexico border. Hamas fighters attacked military bases and towns inside Israel, killing about 1,200 people, including about 800 civilians. They also took about 240 hostages with the aim of reaching a prisoner exchange deal. Thousands of Palestinians languish in Israeli prisons under horrible conditions, including children, whose imprisonment is a breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention. About 40% of Palestinians in Israeli prisons are held under so-called “administrative detention,” which allows Israel to extend their imprisonment indefinitely without charge or trial. But Israel was not interested in a prisoner exchange deal. Disregarding the lives of Israeli hostages, it instead waged its deadliest war on Gaza so far. Its stated goal is to destroy Hamas but its scorched earth policy and carpet bombing have targeted a besieged, stateless and defenseless population, hunkering down with nowhere to run and no place to hide. Israel continues to bomb even the areas where it directs civilians to flee to. The result has been killing on an industrial scale. The number of children arriving at hospitals without any surviving family members prompted medical professionals in Gaza to coin a new acronym “WCNSF,” which stands for “Wounded Child No Surviving Family.” In some cases, entire families are being wiped out, completely removed from the civil registry. I checked the news this morning, the death toll in Gaza has reached 18,400 in a period of 2 months and 5 days. The overwhelming majority of those killed are civilians. Not to ¡RaZa Con GaZa! support Palestine LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • Dec 2023 | Jan 2024 Vol. 36 Issue 10 • 10
mention the thousands missing, believed to be buried under the rubble. By the time this article gets published, a lot more Gazans would have been killed, as every new day without a ceasefire will push this figure higher and higher. A month into the fighting, rights groups had pointed out that Israel dropped the equivalent of two nuclear bombs on Gaza. UN annual reports issued in the past three years demonstrate that the number of children killed in Gaza since October 7 is higher than the total number of children killed in all major conflict zones in the world. UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, warned that “Gaza is becoming a graveyard for children.” Military experts have noted that “Israel dropped more bombs in a week than the US dropped in Afghanistan in a year.” Experts also told the New York Times that civilians are getting killed in Gaza more quickly “than in even the deadliest moments of US-led attacks in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.” Israel has targeted hospitals, claiming they are Hamas headquarters but failing to provide serious evidence after taking control of them. Hospitals across Gaza have run out of space to treat the unrelenting flood of injured people. They have also run out of medications. Doctors have had to operate without anesthesia. They have run out of fuel to operate life-saving machines. Decomposing bodies of babies were found in al-Nasr Hospital still attached to wires and tubes after the Israeli military forced the staff and patients to leave on foot while preventing ambulances from reaching the hospital. Israeli bombing has not spared UN-run schools, where refugees take shelter, or universities. They have killed aid workers, medical staff, poets, journalists and many more. A public health disaster is afoot in Gaza. The U.N.’s World Food Programme warned that half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million is starving and that 9 out of 10 people are unable to eat every day. The scarcity of clean water has exacerbated diseases like diarrhea, skin infections, acute viral hepatitis, scabies and measles. The World Health Organization has warned that untreated diseases could kill more than bombings in Gaza. In response, an advisor to the Israeli defense minister named Giora Eiland wrote in an op-ed: “We must not shy away from this... After all, severe epidemics in the south of the Gaza Strip will bring victory closer and reduce casualties among IDF soldiers.” This is one of many genocidal statements made by Israeli officials. Unfortunately, I don’t have room to include a tally of them here but they can be googled. Aid agencies warn that the humanitarian crisis is worsening in Gaza, not by the day, but by the hour, as the majority of the population has become homeless and are pinned down in a tiny bit of land with no secure shelters, deprived of food, water, fuel and medical care. At least 81% of Gaza’s population has been displaced from their homes. As my Gazan friend Rami, who escaped his destroyed family home in northern Gaza and went to the south, told me in his last WhatsApp message, “there is no fire wood, no wood, no papers, no manure left in Gaza. People have used everything to light up fires... Cabinets in the classrooms (where people seek shelter), chairs, desks, bathroom doors, door frames, they have all been pulled out and used to light fires to stay warm... Nothing is left. It’s hard to describe.” He tells me they barely have anything to eat or drink. They don’t even have enough blankets to stay warm. All this is made possible courtesy of our very own US government that supports Israel unconditionally, funds it, provides it with weapons, protects it diplomatically from any semblance of accountability and vetoes resolutions that attempt to stop this madness. It is our tax dollars at work that enable this unprecedented level of suffering and torture to befall the people of Gaza. It’s easy to feel helpless but there are things we can do to affect the situation. Our strength lies in numbers. We can demand that our representatives, at all levels of government, support a ceasefire to save lives and end this slaughter. A ceasefire is a necessary first step but it is not enough. The ongoing Israeli occupation, dispossession, siege and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians is at the root of this violence. Providing the historical context, which our corporate-funded media and politicians fail to do, is necessary to pave the way for a just resolution. Continuing to wage wars against an occupied, dispossessed and besieged population will not end the conflict, it hasn’t in the past and it will not in the future. Only ending the occupation and guaranteeing the Palestinian people the right to self-determination will. Preserving the status-quo, whereby Palestinians continue to experience the daily violence and oppression of the military occupation and the brutal siege, will not bring about peace and security. There can be no peace without liberation and justice for Palestine. Free Free Palestine! Bio: Nadine Saliba, born in Lebanon, immigrated with her family to San Antonio. She has an MA in Political Theory and International Relations *A line from Mahmoud Darwish’s poem “Silence for Gaza” LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • Dec 2023 | Jan 2024 Vol. 36 Issue 10 • 11 Photos from a Pro-Palestine protest in Austin, Texas calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to U.S. and Texas aid to Israel. Photos by Alondra López
America in Crisis: The Worship of Violence xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx By Tarcisio Beal The present conditions of American society and politics are ultimately being shaped by many forms of violence, some quite obvious, many as part of the socio-economic setup which privileges the wealthy elites, and others disguised as normal and even applauded as religious behavior. Gun violence, included frequent mass killings, often caused by the abundance of deadly weapons, which magnify the profits of gun manufacturers and dealers, are easily detectable. As David Morton reported in Foreign Policy (“Gunning for the World,” February 26, 2006, p. 1), the National Rifle Association has become a savvy global lobby that “equates loving freedom with loving guns.” The US is the only nation which has facilitated and legalized the widespread purchase of deadly weapons that have led to tens of thousands of mass killings. Several States controlled by the republicans have even legalized the carrying of unlicensed weapons in public. The gun lovers and proponents of the “Stand your Ground” policy place property ahead of human life. The Freedom Caucus interprets the Constitution’s 2nd Amendment as an absolute, contrary to the intentions of the Founding Fathers and outside of the present socio-political reality. Already in 1983, a pastoral letter of the US Bishops Conference warned the nation about the increasing spread and use of guns: “The possibility of taking even one human life is a prospect we should consider in fear and troubling.” For Pope Francis, “the possibility of taking one human life is a perspective we should consider in fear and troubling.” Yet, the one major threat, which has been hanging over the human race since World War II, is nuclear annihilation. Given the constant confrontations between the major powers that possess an arsenal of nuclear weapons, there must be a worldwide effort to do away with the threat of using them, a possibility which has surfaced recently in Russia’s war against Ukraine. Given the limitless killing power of modern weapons, we can no longer agree with St. Augustine’s doctrine of the “just war,” which he, as Bishop of Hippo (early 4th century) developed to justify eliminating the North African heresy of Donatism. At the time, there were no mass-killing guns, and lethal force was authorized for magistrates and soldiers only as self-defense (cf. Tobias Winright, “What does Catholic teaching say using guns for self-defense,” National Catholic Reporter, August 18-31, 2023, p. 20). Pope Francis and some American bishops have been constantly speaking against the barbaric threat of nuclear war and have visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki to highlight the cities’ atrocious and irresponsible mass destruction at the end of World War II. On September 12, during a prayer service at New York’s church of the Holy Trinity, New Mexico’s Santa Fé Archbishop John Wester, a neighbor of the Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory, spoke to UN diplomats about the danger of developing and stocking nuclear weapons. The possession of such weapons by China, North Korea, and Russia highlights the pressing need to eliminate nuclear arsenals. In 2022, Wester wrote the pastoral letter “Loving the Light of Christ’s Peace: A Conversation Toward Nuclear Disarmament,” and on August 2-9, 2023, he joined Seattle’s Archbishop Paul Etienne in the “Pilgrimage of Peace” to Japan’s cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which were wiped out by the Americans at the end of World War II. The other growing form of violence against all living creatures across the universe is the assault on the environment, on the gifts and wonders of nature, through unceasingly pollution and the destruction of the earth’s resources by major corporations, with carbon and oil as two of their main profit targets. The everincreasing destruction of the natural environment has resulted in deadly volcano eruptions, hurricanes, and deadly floods of rivers and oceans, already killing more than one million people across the world and resulting in an increasing warming of the planet. The heat wave engulfing some sections of the US is now threatening New Orleans’ supply of drinking water. Most of the victims of the worsening of the earth’s living conditions are the poor in overcrowded countries while the oil-producing nations hastened the pollution of the planet. After Pope Francis, in 2015, published LA VOZ tttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt de ESPERANZA • Dec 2023 | Jan 2024 Vol. 36 Issue 10 • 12
Laudato Sí, his encyclical on the environment, the delegates of 200 nations gathered at the CPO21 Paris Conference agreed to work towards reducing carbon emissions. As journalist Spencer Ackerman notes, the problems of the climate worldwide should become the central concern of the Big Powers, not their usual disagreements of the Cold War, because the very existence of humankind is at stake (“The Extinction Agenda,” The Nation, 9-18-25, 2023, p. 7). In April of 2022, the International Panel on Climate Change (CPO21) issued the warning that, unless greenhouse emissions stop rising soon, the world will become increasingly inhabitable. Yet the big corporations keep on enriching themselves by preying on the earth’s resources. In early September, the State of California sued the major oil firms (Exon-Mobil, Chevron, BP, Conoco Philips, and the American Petroleum Institute) for decades of lies and deception as if they were unaware of the environmental damage caused by their hunting for fossil fuels. In fact, since the 1950s, these corporations were quite aware that the burning of fossil oil would warm the planet, yet they covered it all up. Now Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Governor and republican presidential candidate, even promises to continue his support of the fossil fuel industry and, if elected, he will bring the price of gasoline down to $2 dollars. Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy says that the environmental crisis is nothing but “a hoax.” Then we have 19 American bishops who still refuse to order their dioceses to discontinue the use of fossil fuels. The usual tactic that the MAGA leaders who oppose Pope Francis and the new Church of Vatican II is the same one employed by the worshippers of unrestrained capitalism: they pile up the lies and distortions, negate that their exploitation of the earth’s resources is wrecking the environment, and accuse their critics of being leftist or socialist. Paul Gosar, republican congressman from Arizona, thus justified his absence from Pope Francis’ address to the US Congress: “Media reports indicate His Holiness intends to focus the brunt of his speech on climate change… The possibility of the Pope discussing climate change talk as adopted by socialist thinking points, wrapped false science and ideology into ‘climate justice’ and is being presented to guilt people into leftist policies. If the Pope chooses to act and talk like a leftist politician, then he can expect to be treated like one.” The environmental crisis and the multiplication of all sorts of diseases since the 2018 spread of Covid-19 have been worsened by the violence of partisan politics poisoned by all sorts of lies, distortions, the refusal of dialogue, and constant infringement of constitutional rights. The constant denial of the wrongs and sins of the American past is now typified by the banning of books in republicancontrolled States, notably in Florida, Texas, and Missouri, plus the attempt to write the kind of history that glorifies white supremacy and institutionalizes violence. The violence of the KKK, a permanent feature of the Confederacy, is now magnified by hundreds of white supremacist groups that wish to “cleanse” America from non-whites. In the old Confederacy, the killing of black people was such a weekly routine that the authorities did not even bother to count the number of victims. In 1898, for example, the massacre of blacks in Wilmington, North Carolina, was reported as being between 60 and 300, period. Today mass killings, which have risen alarmingly since 2015, are carried out by people indoctrinated by the racist poison of white supremacy that glorifies Hitler and spread their hatred through the Internet. Ex-President Trump himself found a way to praise Hitler. In 2022, 21 of the 25 mass killings were carried out by white supremacists, including the murder of 10 black shoppers in a grocery store of Buffalo, New York. Now, the most obvious, most despicable, and widespread form of violence against basic human rights and even the very humanity of millions of Americans is being justified by many leaders and members of Christian organizations, including Catholic bishops, is the current treatment of the LGBTQ people. These hatemongers of the transgenders betray the very essence of Christianity. As usual, they try to justify their hatred by refusing to accept the findings of science and medicine and by manipulating the Bible. They argue, for example, that “God created man and woman” (Gen 1: 27), but not transgenders. In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis and his republican majority have even legalized the denial of the basic right of transgenders. A totally outdated Catholic Catechism still reads that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered acts of great depravity.” The policies of some Catholic dioceses prohibit LGBTQs to be identified by their own gender, and also deny them the Eucharist. No wonder, then, that 50% of transgender youngsters between the ages of 13 to 24 commit suicide. As Pope Francis notes, the attack on the transgenders is “focusing on sins below the waist” and denying the goodness of God’s creation. In fact, he has met with them several times and welcomes them into the Church, as have the German bishops. One area which thrives on violence, is glorified by the crowds all over the country, and is carried into all homes by television iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii tttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • Dec 2023 | Jan 2024 Vol. 36 Issue 10 • 13
is that of sports, specifically of boxing, wrestling, and even of football. Especially brutal, yet quite popular, are the current TV programs Monday Night Raw and Tuesday’s nights NEW NXT. The body-to-body fights have practically no rules that could prevent serious injuries, and the goal is to render the opponent motionless by whatever means, including by hitting him/her with chairs and wooden bars while the large crowd of spectators that includes many youngsters roars approval of it all. The fighters dress practically naked, with the women highlighting their sexuality and the referee’s role is just to declare who’s the winner. In fact, even the rules of traditional boxing matches are dropped so that the referees can allow any form of violence. Then we have American football, probably the most popular of the nation’s sports from elementary school to the NFL, a violent sport which is costing serious body injuries. In professional football, the serious injuries have been so widespread that now the NFL is planning to modify the rules. Brain injuries to quarterbacks are especially dangerous. Medical records of deceased professional quarterbacks reveal that 96% of them were victimized by brain injuries. Children and young men should not be playing such a dangerous sport, yet it thrives all over the nation’s schools. Violence, disguised in multiple forms, has, since 2015, become a major feature of American socio-politics. The treatment of immigrants by States such as Texas and Florida is anything but humane or Christian. Utah’s Senator Mitt Romey recently published a book detailing how political violence has become a defining threat of the “Trump Era” and how it has negatively impacted upon the minds of children and youngsters. Threats of violence have also multiplied against the judges and jurors who are investigating the many illegal actions of Trump and his allies. Between 2017 and 2022 there was a 400% increase in threats against federal judges and jurors, and now against them in the State of Georgia Rico Trial of Trump and his associates for their attempt to overthrow the 2020 election. The US also leads the world in incarceration, with blacks jailed five times more than whites, compounded by the fact those imprisoned seldom can afford lawyers to defend them. Yet, despite all the violence that is hurting American society and the whole world, our hope never dies, for many good and Christian people, especially the women of many religious Orders and a legion of other truly Christian women are engaged in helping the poor and the victims of politicians who dare to call themselves Christian, even Catholic. On October 4, when Catholics celebrate the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, Pope Francis will issue a follow-up to his Laudato SÍ encyclical with an apostolic exhortation for us to follow the example of the Poverello of Assisi (1182-1260), a city which honors its sun by preserving its many beautiful trees and flower gardens to this day. No other saint dedicated his whole to caring for the poor, especially the many victims of leprosy, and for the preservation of God’s creation. He traveled across Europe and dialoguing with people on how to follow Jesus by caring for one another and preserving the beauty of nature. After a visit to the Holy Land, he stopped in Egypt and engaged in a dialogue with the Muslim Sultan about what the example of Jesus meant for all humankind. Today we have the leadership of Pope Francis, a Jesuit who follows the example of the Poverello of Assisi of caring for the poor and for God’s nature because we all are “fratelli tutti.” BIO: Tarcisio Beal is professor Emeritus of History at the University of the Incarnate Word who has written extensively in La Voz de Esperanza. iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • Dec 2023 | Jan 2024 Vol. 36 Issue 10 • 14 I would like to donate $________ each month by automatic bank withdrawal. Please contact me. For more information, call 210-228-0201. Make checks payable to: Esperanza Peace & Justice Center Mail to: 922 San Pedro, SA TX 78212. Donations to the Esperanza are tax deductible. Name ______________________________________________________________________________ Address __________________________________________________Phone ____________________ City, State, Zip ____________________ Email_____________________________________________ I am donating ___ $1000 ___ $500 ___ $100 ___ $50 ___ $25 $_______ La Voz Subscription ___ $35 Individuals ___ $100 Institutions ___ Other $ ________ Send your tax-deductible donations to Esperanza today! I would like to send $________ each __ month __ quarter __ 6-mos., through the mail. Romney was the first senator in history to vote to remove from office a president of his own party. When that president’s supporters went on to storm the US Capitol, Romney delivered a thundering speech from the Senate floor accusing his fellow Republicans of stoking insurrection.
Check individual websites, FB and other social media for information on community meetings previously listed in La Voz. For meetings and events scheduled at the Esperanza Peace & Justice Center check: www.esperanzacenter.org or call 210.228.0201. Anuncios December, 2023 Housing As A Human Right: The Collective Sing As A Human Right: The Collective Power Of Community Organizing 01/20/2024 | NOON-3PM Esperanza Peace & Justice Center 922 San Pedro Ave In this 3 hour in person event, learn about Esperanza's work in Housing. Community led, grassroots organizing is the key to reclaiming our land and safeguarding our culture in areas of historically low income people of color. Discover our Community Land Trust, the first of it's kind that serve extremely low income at or below 30% AMI, providing opportunities to families that have no other options for homeownership or even truly affordable rentals. Find out the differences in housing options that are vastly misunderstood and learn your rights as renters. #DWSA | #EPJC 37th Annual San Antonio MLK March The largest in the nation! Monday, January 15, 2024 @ 10 am Begins at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Academy, 3501 Martin Luther King Dr. Ends in celebratory presentations at Pittman-Sullivan Park more info @ bit.ly/martin-2024 Remember your tax deductible gifts Give to the Esperanza in spirit of solidarity so we can continue to speak out, organize and fight for our communities for another 35 Years. Your support is needed NOW more than ever! Thank you for your gifts! Send donations to Esperanza Esperanza Peace & Justice Center 922 San Pedro Avenue San Antonio, TX 78212 To sign up as a monthly donor, Call 210.228.0201 or email: [email protected] Visit www.esperanzacenter.org/donate for online giving options. ¡Mil Gracias! Mil gracias to the vendors, Buena gente, performers and staff who made the 2023 Peace Market a great success! Visit the Esperanza’s Tiendita at 922 San Pedro to purchase some of the International products sold at the 2023 Peace Market. And, come browse and buy from collections of folk art, textiles, música and books donated by Buena Gente. These beloved items are now for sale to benefit Esperanza’s programming. Feliz Año Nuevo y Felices Fiestas as 2023 ends and 2024 begins. ¡Juntos, Adelante! LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • Dec 2023 | Jan 2024 Vol. 36 Issue 10 • 15
In 2020, Dr. Otero shared childhood vignettes from her first personal memoir, In The Shadows of the Freeway, Growing Up Brown & Queer with Esperanza—leaving us wanting more! She returns in 2024 to continue her archival storytelling from her working class roots as an electrician in Hollywood to her LGBTQ activism that spanned local and global connections. L.A. Interchanges, A Brown & Queer Archival Memoir Reading & book signing with Dr. Lydia R. Otero Sat, Jan 27, 2024 @ 6pm Esperanza Peace & Justice Center Free and open to the public Sponsored by Esperanza in collaboration with the Westside Preservation Alliance and the Mexican American Civil Rights Institute (MACRI). Esperanza’s International Tiendita Now Open Mon-Fri 10-7 210-228-0201 • 922 San Pedro THE EMMA TENAYUCA SPEAKER SERIES Noche Azul de Esperanza Join Azul as she starts off the New Year in February 2024. Until then, ¡Feliz Año Nuevo! Check our website and social media for information, dates and times. www.esperanzacenter.org • facebook.com/EsperanzaCenter Haven’t opened La Voz in a while? Prefer to read it online? Wrong address? TO CANCEL A SUBSCRIPTIONEMAIL [email protected] CALL: 210.228.0201 Non-Profit Org. US Postage PAID San Antonio, TX Permit #332 LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • December 2023 Vol. 36 Issue 10 • ESPERANZA PEACE & JUSTICE CENTER 922 San Pedro San Antonio TX 78212 210.228.0201 • www.esperanzacenter.org See Pg. 7 for excerpt