Celebrating Anel I. Flores, Artist, Activist, Author June 2024 Vol. 37 Issue 5 San Antonio, Tejas
La Voz de Esperanza June 2024 Vol. 37 Issue 5 Editor: Gloria A. Ramírez Design: Elizandro Carrington Cover Art: Anel Flores Contributors Tarcisio Beal, Dario Beniquez, Andrew Gilbert (San Francisco Chronicle), Teresa Gutiérrez, Rachel Jennings, Dianne Monroe, Norman Solomon (Counterpunch) Esperanza Director Graciela I. Sánchez Esperanza Staff Sherry Campos, Elizandro Carrington, Kayla Miranda, Nonye Okoye, 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 Letters with intent to slander individuals or groups will not be published. June is Pride Month—celebrating the LGBTQ+ community. The Esperanza Peace & Justice Center will host the Queer Voices Pachanga on June 1st with writer/artist/activist, Anel Flores, as one of the main organizers. Anel is also being feted this month with a retrospective exhibit of their art at the Mexican Cultural Institute at Hemisfair Plaza. Growing up in San Antonio, Anel faced many challenges but they turned to their cultura and the arts to deal with life. They did not stop there. Instead, Anel accumulated wisdom and skills that she shared with students Anel taught several years before finishing out at Fox Tech High School. There Anel involved students in marches, major arts projects and in connecting with their families and communities. This May, Fox Tech students walked out of their classrooms in a pro-Palestinian protest etching the names of Palestinians killed in the Israel-Hamas war on campus sidewalks That reminded me of Anel and the impact they had made as a teacher. Anel continues to be a Joni Appleseed planting seeds of activism and conciencia as she goes on in life. We laud Anel for still being here in San Antonio and for making a difference. To learn more about Anel see: https://anelflores.com/ — Gloria A. Ramírez, editor of La Voz What I Want To Say In Therapy But Instead I Make Art If you could be described as something in nature what would you be? The therapist in purple asks me I judge her by the way she crosses her feet I think behind the glacier of diaphanous jellyfish around me like pillows marshmallows clouds little wads of paper with words wept down the page phantoms of stories pristine as the moon shedding blood like lipstick of kisses down my legs creatrix geyser of joy embers of fire that never touch my skin a pleasure boat of last night I don’t tell you how her back bent like an arc above a city above the same river she swam across how stampedes of phantoms followed us into the room stamps of cryptic maritime messages flying in mid air all the way from fourteen ninety two like daggers like commands like encampments like wetsuits over mouths in the desert I feel like the ocean seduced by the moon turn my back on the sun I invited the seven sisters over the other night pleiades at the edge of a cocktail I was on my knees murmuring please little heart float keep your head above water love the ticklish bioluminescence of you saltwater jellyfish caesura of breath memory divination Huh? She leans in and opens her feet. If you could be described as something in nature what would you be? Underwater. — Anel I. Flores 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 LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • June 2024 Vol. 37 Issue 5• Anel Flores at the 2009 Fox Tech High School mural dedication.
By Tarcisio Beal It is well known that San Antonio, before becoming the first major center of an expanding western America in the 1830s, was a mission of the Mexican Franciscan friars who followed St. Francis of Assisi’s example of caring for the poor and needy. They named their mission after St. Anthony, whose 13th century popularity surpassed even that of St. Francis of Assisi. Antonio (1195-1231), a native of the Portuguese capital of Lisbon and a member of the Augustinian friars, moved to the Italian city of Padua and soon joined the friars of the saint of Assisi. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) was the first Catholic saint who devoted his entire life to the poor and those abandoned by society, especially the lepers (victims of leprosy) who survived in the streets of the Italian towns that were falling economically and politically apart. He also drew into his mission the women (the St. Claire Nuns) and the lay men and women (Third Order of St. Francis). It was probably his caring of the victims of leprosy that resulted in what tradition has seen as a carrier of the wounds of Christ in later life. Francis was also a believer in dialoguing with all peoples, including the Muslims. On his return to a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he stopped in North Africa to have a friendly dialogue with the Sultan of Egypt. Furthermore, Francis also propagated respect and preservation of the earth’s resources. The town of Assisi’s beautiful trees and gardens to this day exemplify the saint’s love of nature. The widespread impact of the example and the popularity of Francis led the Pope to declare him a saint of the Church less than two years after his death. Now, in the history of Catholicism, there was never a more popular saint and preacher than Antonio, first in Italy and Portugal, then in Latin America. The widespread veneration and his popularity was so overwhelming that he was canonized just one year after his death and he and the Poverello of Assisi, began to be venerated as saints and protectors of the people. Antonio’s preaching in Padua and across Italy filled the churches with thousands of the faithful who often slept inside the temples so as not to miss his sermons. We should remember that in the days of St. Francis and St. Anthony, the public had no access to books and the Bible stories, and lessons were propagated by the educated, especially by monks and priests. Friar Antonio’s approach was to narrate the stories and draw the lessons for the people’s daily life. He also composed the book “Moral Application of the Bible” to emphasize the meaning of the biblical stories and to highlight the example of Jesus, especially of Jesus’ caring for the poor and the rejected of society. Furthermore, since the Renaissance, the availability of printing facilitated the spread of all kinds of information: stories, the paintings, the drawings of Jesus, the apostles, and of a variety of saints and martyrs that were propagated throughout the Catholic world and resulted in ever-increasing popular devotions that have since been highlighted by their inclusion in the Church’s calendar of the feasts. In 1967, while in Rome doing research for my doctoral dissertation in the Secret Archives of the Vatican, I had the opportunity to visit the Sistine Chapel which was decorated by Michelangelo. As I looked up at the gorgeously-painted ceiling and contemplated the scene of the Last Judgment, I paid special attention to a specific face in the panel because I had read how one papal courtier had ended up in Michelangelo’s hell. The genial artist was not an easy person to deal with, for he was always asking for more of everything needed to finalize his artwork. The papal aide was often annoyed by his attitude and had complained about him to Pope Julius II. When the panel of the “Last Judgement” was completed, he discovered that his face was painted right in the middle of hell, so he went to intercede with the Pontiff to do something about it. This was Julius II’s answer: “I’m sorry, my friend. If Michelangelo had placed you in the Purgatory, I could still get you out. But, as you know, no one can ever get out of hell!” Now, the kind of Catholicism brought to San Antonio with the Franciscan missionaries from Mexico was of “baroque style,” with characteristics shaped mostly after the Council of Trent (1542- 1563) and, in Latin America, during the 18th century. A central trait of baroque Catholicism is mediation, which turns it into a rather familial religion that sees Baby Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and the saints as members of the household, ever ready to attend to the spiritual and material needs of the faithful because they have direct contact with God. St. Anthony has been and still is venerated as the finder of lost things, the matchmaker of young men and women, the one saint who can get you every conceivable grace or favor from God. He is expected to never disappoint his devotees. When one of my sisters lost the silver-plated earrings with which she had been crowned “queen” of our town’s carnival, she prayed to St. Anthony to help her find them: She lit a candle inside her bedroom and prayed before the saint’s picture during a whole novena; by the 10th day, the saint had not yet delivered. She put out the candle, turned the saint’s face against the wall, and declared she would not look at his face until he had heard her prayers. That afternoon she found her earrings in the lawn behind our home and made peace with her favorite saint. Although the takeover of Texas and San Antonio had a bloody beginning at the Alamo with the execution of Santa Ana’s Mexican soldiers who had survived the battle, and the maintenance The City of San Antonio and Its Holy Protector LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • June 2024 Vol. 37 Issue 5• 3 The statue of San Antonio de Padua at San Fernando Cathedral for whom the City of n Antonio was named.
O Passeio de Santo Antonio Saíra Santo Antonio do convento A dar o seu passeio costumado E a recitar, num tom rezado e lento Um cândido sermão sôbre o pecado. Andando, andando sempre, repetia O divino sermão pesado e brando, E nem notou que a tarde esmorecia, Que vinha a noite plácida baixando. E andando, andando sempre, viu-se num outeiro Com árvores e casas espalhadas, Que ficava distante do mosteiro Uma légua das fartas, das pesadas. Surprendido por se ver tão longe, E fraco por haver andado tanto, Sentou-se a descansar o bom do monge Com a resignação de quem é santo. O luar, um luar claríssimo nasceu. Num raio dessa linda claridade O Menino Jesus baixou do céu, Pôs-se a brincar com o capuz do frade. Perto, uma bica d’água murmurante Juntava o seu murmúrio ao dos pinhais, Os rouxinóis ouviam-se distantes, O luar, mais alto, iluminava mais. De braço dado para a fonte vinha Um par de noivos todo satisfeito: Ela trazia no ombro a cantarinha, Êle trazia... o coração no peito. Sem suspeitarem que alguém os visse, Trocaram beijos ao luar tranquilo... O Menino, porém, ouviu e disse: “Ó, Frei Antonio, o que foi aquilo?” O Santo, erguendo a manga do burel Para tapar o noivo e a namorada, Mentiu numa voz doce como o mel: “Não sei o que fosse. Eu cá não ouvi nada!...” Uma risada límpida, sonora Vibrou em notas de ouro no caminho: “Ouviste, frei Antonio, ouviste agora?” “Ouvi, Senhor, ouvi! É um passarinho!” “Tu não estás com a cabeça boa!.. Um passarinho a cantar assim?!?” E o Santo Antonio de Lisboa Calou-se embaraçado, mas por fim, Corado como as vestes dos cardeais, Achou esta saída redentora: “Se o Menino Jesus pergunta mais, Queixo-me à sua mãe, Nossa Senhora!” E voltando-lhe a carinha contra a luz E contra aquele amor sem casamento, Pegou-lhe ao colo e acrescentou: “Jesus, são horas!”... e abalaram pro convento –Augusto Gil St. Anthony’s Walk St. Anthony had left the convent To undertake his customary walk And to recite in a prayerful and slow tone A naíve sermon about sin. Walking, always walking, he kept repeating The divine sermon, pious and soft, And failed to notice it was getting late, That a calm night was coming down. And walking, always walking, he found himself on a hilltop, With trees and houses spread around, Located far from the monastery One full and stretched league. Surprised to find himself so far out, And weak after such a long walk, The good monk sat down to rest With the resignation of a saint. The moonlight, a beautiful one, emerged. Inside a ray of such beautiful brightness Baby Jesus came down from heaven And began playing with the friar’s hood. Nearby a whispering water current Was adding its whispering to that of the pine trees, The robins could be heard from afar, A higher moon spread even more light. Holding hands here came to the fountain A pair of fiancées, happy all around: She carried on her shoulder the water jug, He carried... the heart pumping in his chest. Unaware that someone might see them, They exchanged kisses under the moonlight… Baby Jesus, however, heard it and said: “Oh, Friar Anthony, what was that?” The saint, lifting the sleeve of his cassock’s hood So as to block the view of the young lovers, Lied in a voice as sweet as honey: “I don’t know what it is. I heard nothing!...” A crystal-clear, sonorous laughter Vibrated in golden sounds along the road: “Did you hear it now, friar Anthony?” “I heard it, Lord: It’s a little bird!” “Your head is not doing well!... A little bird singing like that?!?” And the St. Anthony of Lisbon Stood there silently, all embarassed, but at last, Blushing like the cardinals’ vestsments, He found this redeeming way out: “If Baby Jesus asks more questions, I shall complain to his mother, Our Lady!” Turning the child’s little face towards the light And towards that young, unmarried love, He picked him up on his lap and added: “Jesus, time’s up!”... and they rushed back to the convent. –Augusto Gil LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • June 2024 Vol. 37 Issue 5• 4 This bronze statue of St. Anthony on the Riverwalk was donated to the city of San Antonio by the Saint’s birth country, Portugal, in celebration of HemisFair ‘68.
Spinning San Antonio Fiesta, 2011 From 2009-12, San Antonio artist, Rolando Briseño, presented an annual performance in front of the Alamo on June 13, which is San Antonio’s Feast Day commemorating the arrival of Domingo Terán de los Rios at the Yanaguana River, later renamed the San Antonio River in honor of the saint. Entitled Spinning San Antonio Fiesta, the performance involved a group procession by Briseño and participants, leading to a ceremony in which performers would spin a sculpture of Saint Anthony upside-down with the Alamo attached to the figure’s feet. The revolving movement referred to the “spinning” of the official Alamo narrative, which for years had excluded the role of Tejanos from its history. In 2013, when the Daughters of the Republic of Texas lost jurisdiction over the narrative and a new land commissioner exhibited letters from Tejano heroes who helped win Texas’ independence, Briseño felt that things were improving, so he ceased presenting the performance. His advocacy for historical corrections continues along with many others who continue to recover the “lost or hidden” history of San Antonio and Texas—continuing the resistance to cultural erasure in the heart of San Antonio. of slavery, the Franciscan friars’ mission stayed alive and active, following the example of its patron saint, a champion of the poor. In fact, in terms of the preferential option for the poor and the caring for people lacking food and housing or living in the streets, including illegal immigrants, San Antonio has been following the directives of Vatican II. The 1962-1963 Council pointed to the need to cut down on the traditional clericalism that dominated the Church since the Council of Trent and began to fully insert the Church into the realities of God’s people. In fact, San Antonio’s Archbishop Patrick Flores was even more committed to follow the guidelines of Vatican II than Pope John Paul II. As a member of the Justice and Peace Committee, I was instructed to write a letter to Pope John Paul II so that, in his forthcoming 1997 visit and address to San Antonians, he would mention the need to care for the thousands of illegal immigrants who were pouring into the city. The letter was sent to the Bishop of El Paso who passed it on to the Vatican. However, to the dismay of Archbishop Flores, when the Pope came, yes, he spoke to an audience of tens of thousands of the faithful about the need to care for the poor, but made no mention of the plight of the illegal immigrants. Now San Antonians’ honoring of their patron saint and of their hometown stands in sharp contrast with other Texas cities and with the State’s top political powers. Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller follows in the steps of Don Patricio, encouraging the works of justice and charity. He even went to Uvalde to comfort the families, victims of that city’s horrible school tragedy. He also exemplifies the kind of leadership that Pope Francis is stimulating across the Catholic Church. Finally, St. Anthony’s preaching to the masses who crowded the churches to listen to his sermons often dealt with the example of Jesus and of the biblical account of his birth, that is, Christmas. No surprise, then, that in the Portuguese, Italian, and Latin American tradition, thanks to the baroque concept of spiritual mediation, Baby Jesus became an integral part of the household intimacy. Typically baroque is the accompanying poem written by the Portuguese poet Augusto Gil (1873-1929), a poem highly popular in Brazil and printed here as a special salute to the Patron of our beloved city San Antonio—named in 1691 and founded officially on May 1, 1718 -- the date the City celebrates its birthday. BIO:Tarcisio Beal, professor History at the University of the Incarnate Word, has written extensively for La Voz de Esperanza. LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • June 2024 Vol. 37 Issue 5• 5 Spinning San Antonio Fiesta 2011, a performance at the Alamo, included a procession with the statue of St. Anthony carried upside down in order to bring atention to the lost history of the Alamo and San Antonio. Pope John Paul II visited San Antonio in 1997 and was greeted by thousands, including Mariachis.
Melissa Lucio May Soon Be Free By Rachel Jennings Melissa Lucio, a Rio Grande Valley mother convicted of capital murder after the 2007 death of her twoyear-old daughter, Mariah, may be released from death row. On Friday, April 12, 2024, Judge Arturo Nelson of the 138th state District Court recommended that Lucio’s 2008 conviction be overturned and has sent the case to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Judge Nelson’s decision was in response to cosigned court filings from the Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz and Lucio’s lawyers, who concluded that key evidence had been suppressed by prosecutors during the original trial. This evidence included interviews with 5 of Lucio’s children, who told investigators their mother had not been abusive toward them. One of the children also testified to having seen Mariah fall down a flight of stairs and denied that Melissa Lucio had pushed the child down the stairs or otherwise abused her. Melissa Lucio’s case highlights serious problems with the death penalty, underscoring the likelihood that innocent people are sent to death row and executed. In Lucio’s case, prosecutorial misconduct played a role in her conviction. In addition, one sees the role of coercive interrogations in obtaining false confessions. Lucio was interviewed by police for many hours without food or drink. Apparently, too, faulty forensic analysis played a role in Lucio’s conviction, since experts at first claimed that bruising on Mariah’s body proved physical abuse, while more recent analysis has suggested that a fall down the stairs could have caused the bruising. Melissa Lucio came within 2 days of execution that had been scheduled for April 27, 2022. Following intensive media coverage, a groundswell of support increased in intensity before her scheduled death. The State of Texas v. Melissa (2020), a documentary that questioned the reliability of her trial and conviction, galvanized public opinion in her favor. Subsequently, a bipartisan group in the Texas House of Representatives asked the Cameron County district attorney to intervene in Lucio’s case. Likewise, religious groups and anti-death penalty organizations asked for a reprieve. On March 26, 2022, I marched with members of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and scores of Melissa Lucio’s other supporters at the Cesar Chavez March in San Antonio. Our large numbers that day suggest how the wrongful conviction of this family-oriented Mexican American woman had aroused people’s anger and sense of injustice. Texas, after all, has a history of lynchings and wrongful convictions. Melissa Lucio, a mother of fourteen children, has been on death row since 2008. Although she received a stay of execution in 2022, she remains on death row as her case winds its way through the courts. While most people now view her as innocent, and her conviction will likely be vacated, she will remain the first Mexican American woman to be given a death sentence by the state of Texas. In 1863, Josefa “Chipita” Rodriguez was tried and hanged by San Patricio County rather than by the state of Texas, which did not claim authority to carry out executions until 1923. Prosecutors, defense lawyers, and judges alike have recommended that Melissa Lucio’s case be overturned. Her supporters are optimistic that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will free her at last. One may ask why it has taken so long. BIO: Rachel Jennings an English professor at SAC and a member of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty has published poems and articles about the execution of Chipita Rodríguez and about the death penalty, in general. She is also a member of the Conjunto de Nepantleras of the Esperanza Peace & Justice Center. LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • June 2024 Vol. 37 Issue 5• 6 The State of Texas v. Melissa (2020), a documentary questions the reliability of Melissa Lucio’s trial. Screenshot from “The Sate of Texas Vs Melissa”: Melissa enjoying time with her Family. Rachel Jennings joins a rally in support of freeing Melissa Lucio. Public support has helped bring the case for review and probable dismissal. The 2022 Cesar Chávez March included a contingency of marchers in support of freeing Melissa Lucio. Such community support galvanized efforts for her release.
War Culture Hates the Ethical Passion of the Young, In the Thrall of a Dominant Death Culture By Norman Solomon Reprinted from www.counterpunch.com Persisting in his support for an unpopular war, the Democrat in the White House has helped spark a rebellion close to home. Young people — least inclined to deference, most inclined to moral outrage — are leading public opposition to the ongoing slaughter in Gaza. The campus upheaval is a clash between accepting and resisting, while elites insist on doing maintenance work for the war machine. I wrote the above words recently, but I could have written very similar ones in the spring of 1968. (In fact, I did.) Joe Biden hasn’t sent U.S. troops to kill in Gaza, as President Lyndon Johnson did in Vietnam, but the current president has done all he can to provide massive quantities of weapons and ammunition to Israel — literally making the carnage in Gaza possible. A familiar saying — “the more things change, the more they stay the same” — is both false and true. During the last several decades, the consolidation of corporate power and the rise of digital tech have brought about huge changes in politics and communications. Yet humans are still humans and certain crucial dynamics remain. Militarism demands conformity — and sometimes fails to get it. When Columbia University and many other colleges erupted in antiwar protests during the late 1960s, the moral awakening was a human connection with people suffering horrifically in Vietnam. During recent weeks, the same has been true with people in Gaza. Both eras saw crackdowns by college administrators and the police — as well as much negativity toward protesters in the mainstream media — all reflecting key biases in this country’s power structure. “What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and that love without power is sentimental and anemic,” Martin Luther King, Jr., said in 1967. “Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.” Disrupting a Culture of Death This spring, as students have risked arrest and jeopardized their college careers under banners like “Ceasefire Now,” “Free Palestine,” and “Divest from Israel,” they’ve rejected some key unwritten rules of a death culture. From Congress to the White House, war (and the military-industrial complex that goes with it) is crucial for the political business model. Meanwhile, college trustees and alumni megadonors often have investment ties to Wall Street and Silicon Valley, where war is a multibillion-dollar enterprise. Along the way, weapons sales to Israel and many other countries bring in gigantic profits. The new campus uprisings are a shock to the war system. Managers of that system, constantly oiling its machinery, have no column for moral revulsion on their balance sheets. And the refusal of appreciable numbers of students to go along to get along doesn’t compute. For the economic and political establishment, it’s a control issue, potentially writ large. As the killing, maiming, devastation, and increasing starvation in Gaza have continued, month after month, the U.S. role has become incomprehensible — without, at least, attributing to the president and the vast majority of Congressional representatives a level of immorality that had previously seemed unimaginable to most college students. Like many others in the United States, protesting students are now struggling with the realization that the people in control of the executive and legislative branches are directly supporting mass murder and genocide. In late April, when overwhelming bipartisan votes in Congress approved — and President Biden eagerly signed — a bill sending $17 billion in military aid to Israel, the only way to miss the utter depravity of those atop the government was to not really look, or to remain in the thrall of a dominant death culture. During his final years in office, with the Vietnam War going full tilt, President Lyndon Johnson was greeted with the chant: “Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?” Such a chant could be directed at President Biden now. The number of Palestinian children killed so far by the U.S.-armed Israeli military is estimated to be almost 15,000, not counting the unknown number still buried in the rubble of Gaza. No wonder high-ranking Biden administration officials now risk being loudly denounced whenever they speak in venues open to the public. Mirroring the Vietnam War era in another way, members of Congress continue to rubberstamp huge amounts of funding for mass killing. On April 20th, only 17% of House Democrats and only 9% of House Republicans voted against the new military aid package for Israel. LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • June 2024 Vol. 37 Issue 5• 7 Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair
Higher learning is supposed to connect the theoretical with the actual, striving to understand our world as it truly is. However, a death culture — promoting college tranquility as well as mass murder in Gaza — thrives on disconnects. All the platitudes and pretenses of academia can divert attention from where U.S. weapons actually go and what they do. Sadly, precepts readily cited as vital ideals prove all too easy to kick to the curb lest they squeeze big toes uncomfortably. So, when students take the humanities seriously enough to set up a protest encampment on campus and then billionaire donors demand that a college president put a stop to such disruption, a police raid is likely to follow. A World of Doublethink and Tone Deafness George Orwell’s explanation of “doublethink” in his famed novel 1984 is a good fit when it comes to the purported logic of so many commentators deploring the student protesters as they demand an end to complicity in the slaughter still underway in Gaza: “To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it.” Laying claim to morality, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has, for instance, been busy firing media salvos at the student protesters. That organization’s CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, is on record flatly declaring that “anti-Zionism is antisemitism” — no matter how many Jews declare themselves to be “anti-Zionist.” Four months ago, ADL issued a report categorizing pro-Palestinian rallies with “anti-Zionist chants and slogans” as antisemitic events. In late April, ADL used the “antisemitic” label to condemn protests by students at Columbia and elsewhere. “We have a major, major, major generational problem,” Greenblatt warned in a leaked ADL strategy phone call last November. He added: “The issue in the United States’ support for Israel is not left and right; it is young and old… We really have a TikTok problem, a Gen-Z problem… The real game is the next generation.” Along with thinly veiled condescension toward students, a frequent approach is to treat the mass killing of Palestinians as of minimal importance. And so, when New York Times columnist Ross Douthat wrote in late April about students protesting at Columbia, he merely described the Israeli government’s actions as “failings.” Perhaps if a government was bombing and killing Douthat’s loved ones, he would have used a different word. A similar mentality, as I well remember, infused media coverage of the Vietnam War. For mainline news outlets, what was happening to Vietnamese people ranked far below so many other concerns, often to the point of invisibility. As media accounts gradually began bemoaning the “quagmire” of that war, the focus was on how the U.S. government’s leadership had gotten itself so stuck. Acknowledging that the American war effort amounted to a massive crime against humanity was rare. Then, as now, the moral bankruptcies of the political and media establishments fueled each other. As a barometer of the prevailing political climate among elites, the editorial stances of daily newspapers indicate priorities in times of war. In early 1968, the Boston Globeconducted a survey of 39 major U.S. newspapers and found that not a single one had editorialized in favor of an American withdrawal from Vietnam. By then, tens of millions of Americans were in favor of such a pullout. This spring, when the New York Times editorial board finally called for making U.S. arms shipments to Israel conditional — six months after the carnage began in Gaza — the editorial was tepid and displayed a deep ethnocentric bias. It declared that “the Hamas attack of October 7 was an atrocity,” but no word coming anywhere near “atrocity” was applied to the Israeli attacks occurring ever since. The Times editorial lamented that “Mr. Netanyahu and the hardliners in his government” had broken a “bond of trust” between the United States and Israel, adding that the Israeli prime minister “has been deaf to repeated demands from Mr. Biden and his national security team to do more to protect civilians in Gaza from being harmed by [American] armaments.” The Times editorial board was remarkably prone to understatement, as if someone overseeing the mass killing of civilians every day for six months was merely not doing enough “to protect civilians.” Learning by Doing The thousands of student protesters encountering the edicts of college administrations and the violence of the police have gotten a real education in the true priorities of American power structures. Of course, the authorities (on and off campuses) have wanted a return to the usual peaceful campus atmosphere. As military strategist Carl von Clausewitz long ago commented with irony, “A conqueror is always a lover of peace.” Supporters of Israel are fed up with the campus protests. The Washington Postrecently featured an essay by Paul Berman that deplored what has become of his alma mater, Columbia. After a brief mention of Israel’s killing of Gazan civilians and the imposition of famine, Berman declared that “ultimately the central issue in the war is Hamas and its goal… the eradication of the Israeli state.” The central issue. Consider it a way of saying that, while unfortunate, the ongoing slaughter of tens of thousands of children and other Palestinian civilians doesn’t matter nearly as much as the fear that nuclear-armed Israel, with one of the most powerful air forces in the world, is in danger of “eradication.” Pieces similar to Douthat’s and Berman’s have proliferated in the media. But they don’t come to grips with what Senator Bernie LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • June 2024 Vol. 37 Issue 5• 8 A pro-Palestine camp was set up on UT-Austin’s South Mall where over 40 protesters were arrested. —Naina Srivastava, The Daily Texan [Photos on this page were not part of the original article.] Texas State Troopers form a line on 22nd street In Austin, Tx on April 29, 2024. They broke up an encampment on UT’s South Mall lawn shortly after.
EDITOR’S NOTE: In the April 2024 issue of La Voz de Esperanza, Dianne Monroe wrote about her friend Rolla in the article, To Save a Life: Help Rolla Rescue Her Family from Gaza. An update follows… Dear Friends and Colleagues, The BIG NEWS is that on Saturday Rolla left for Egypt to meet her family when they leave Gaza! Huge thanks to all of you who helped to make this possible – by contributing money (some of you more than once) and by sharing my messages by email, social media and in other ways. You are part of something precious and meaningful. You have touched and changed the course of 21 lives. And if you are someone who was not able to donate or share (for whatever reason) you are also part of this success, and have also contributed, by being here to witness this incredible story. Now comes the difficult part – Rolla’s family actually getting out of Gaza. We hope everything will go smoothly. But given the difficult situation, we know there may be some twists, turns and complexities. If you are a person who prays, please pray for Rolla and her family. And if you reach out in a different way, please hold this family in your heart and send caring support their way. Over 1.6k people donated the money needed to help this family leave Gaza! This is truly a group effort and an accomplishment to celebrate! Yet, the family will still need some initial funds to settle once they are out of Gaza, plus some urgent medical expenses (one brother with diabetes, one brother with cancer and one child with epilepsy, all untreated since Israel invaded Gaza). Plus unexpected things that may (and likely will) come up in the course of them getting out of Gaza. So additional donations are still very much needed. So, please, continue to donate as you are able, and share this story and link widely. I invite you to watch the small video at; bit.ly/rollas-bag, of Rolla’s bags packed with things she is bringing her family (Hint: vitamins, immune system support, fish oil and more). In the meantime, we continue to collect contributions at With gratitude and hope, Dianne Update on Rolla Alaydi - Dianne Monroe - 4/30/24 Sanders recently made clear in a public message to the Israeli prime minister: “Mr. Netanyahu, antisemitism is a vile and disgusting form of bigotry that has done unspeakable harm to millions. Do not insult the intelligence of the American people by attempting to distract us from the immoral and illegal war policies of your extremist and racist government.” College protesters have shown that they will not be distracted. They continue to insist — not flawlessly, but wonderfully — that all people’s lives matter. For decades, and since October in a particularly deadly fashion, the U.S.-Israel alliance has proceeded to treat Palestinian lives as expendable. And that is exactly what the protests are opposing. Of course, protests can flicker and die out. Hundreds of U.S. campuses shut down in the spring of 1970 amid protests against the Vietnam War and the American invasion of Cambodia, only to become largely quiescent by the fall term. But for countless individuals, the sparks lit a fire for social justice that would never be quenched. One of them, Michael Albert, a cofounder of the groundbreaking Z Magazine, has continued with activist work since the mid1960s. “A lot of people are comparing now to 1968,” he wrote in April. “That year was tumultuous. We were inspired. We were hot. But here comes this year and it is moving faster, no less. That year the left that I and so many others lived and breathed was mighty. We were courageous, but we also had too little understanding of how to win. Don’t emulate us. Transcend us.” He then added: “The emerging mass uprisings must persist and diversify and broaden in focus and reach. And hey, on your campuses, again do better than us. Fight to divest but also fight to structurally change them so their decision makers — which should be you — never again invest in genocide, war, and indeed suppression and oppression of any kind. Tomorrow is the first day of a long, long potentially incredibly liberating future. But one day is but one day. Persist.” Persistence will be truly essential. The gears of pro-Israel forces are fully meshed with the U.S. war machinery. The movement to stop Israel’s murderous oppression of Palestinians is up against the entire military-industrial-congressional complex. The United States spends more on its military than the next 10 countries combined(and most of them are allies), while maintaining 750 military bases overseas, vastly more than all of its official adversaries put together. The U.S. continues to lead the nuclear arms race toward oblivion. And the economic costs are stunning. The Institute for Policy Studies reported last year that 62% of the federal discretionary budget went to “militarized programs” of one sort or another. In 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr., described this country’s spending for war as a “demonic, destructive suction tube,” siphoning tremendous resources away from human needs. The more things change, the more they stay the same. With transcendent wisdom, this spring’s student uprising has rejected conformity as a lethal anesthetic while the horrors continue in Gaza. Leaders of the most powerful American institutions want to continue as usual, as if official participation in genocide were no particular cause for alarm. Instead, young people have dared to lead the way, insisting that such a culture of death is repugnant and completely unacceptable. This column is distributed by TomDispatch. BIO: Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction.org and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. His latest book, War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine, is published by The New Press. My Family is Trapped in Gaza. Help Me Get Them Out https://amzn.to/3ID1Zpy LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • June 2024 Vol. 37 Issue 5• 9
Lourdes Portillo, game-changing International filmmaker, dies at 80 Story By Andrew Gilbert, San Francisco Chronicle LA VOZ EDITOR’S NOTE: The Esperanza Peace & Justice Center extends condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Lourdes Portillo, beloved filmmaker activist/cultural warrior, whom we were lucky to have here at the Esperanza and in San Antonio joining in on panels about several of her celebrated films during her lifetime. Lourdes Portillo, an award-winning Mexican American documentary filmmaker who mastered the medium’s formal constraints before radically expanding them, was an essential figure in the Mission District’s creative ferment in the 1970s and ’80s. A masterly storyteller unafraid to tackle harrowing topics, she explored state-sanctioned terror, rituals of mourning, and her own travails as a filmmaker. Often employing elliptical narratives and voluptuous visual metaphors, her films, like 1988’s “La Ofrenda: The Days of the Dead,” co-directed with Susan Muñoz, were widely broadcast on PBS. Portillo died at home in San Francisco on Saturday, April 20, at the age of 80. Diagnosed with aggressive bile duct cancer six months ago, “she had a chance to say her goodbyes and was surrounded by family and friends,” said her son, cinematographer Antonio Scarlata. Portillo first made her mark with 1985’s “Las Madres: The Mothers of Plaza De Mayo.” Co-directed with Muñoz, the Academy Award-nominated documentary brought international attention to the movement of mothers and grandmothers seeking information about loved ones “disappeared” by Argentina’s military during its “dirty war” against leftists in the 1970s. The corrosive nature of violence, particularly when targeting women, was a recurring theme in her work. In her 2001 film “Señorita Extraviada” (“Missing Young Woman”), she investigated a vast wave of femicide around Mexico’s Ciudad Juárez. “I think that’s her most devastating film,” said writer Sandra Cisneros, a longtime friend of Portillo’s. “Working on ‘Señorita Extraviada’ made her physically ill from the things she learned. She was very brave.” Cisneros became a character in one of Portillo’s films as one of the intellectuals analyzing the posthumous fame of slain Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla in 1999’s “Corpus: A Home Movie for Selena.” If Portillo was drawn again and again to humanity’s dark side, her films also revealed a deep, affectionate and sometimes self-mocking sense of humor. She collaborated with the Chicano comedy troupe Culture Clash on the 1992 short film “Columbus on Trial,” which, like many of her pieces, screened at the Sundance Film Festival. Her masterwork, 1994’s “The Devil Never Sleeps,” was inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 2020. In hailing Portillo’s first-person investigation into the mysterious death of her Tío Oscar, New Yorker film critic Richard Brody wrote that she “discovers her family’s story to be a lurid melodrama of conflicting interests and political corruption, and she films it — and her childhood memories — with a labyrinthine style to match.” “The Devil Never Sleeps,” a close collaboration with awardwinning cinematographer Kyle Kibbe, marked a breakthrough for Portillo, who found inspiration from walking around New York City, taking in “the art work in the streets and museums,” she said in a 2021 interview with KQED Arts. “I liked this idea of a baroque and postmodern approach to a telenovela kind of story that Latin Americans tell about our families.” Portillo’s legacy includes several generations of filmmakers she mentored. Spanish documentarian Gemma Cubero del Barrio had never made a film when Portillo hired her to do investigative work on “Señorita Extraviada,” an experience she said “served as film school,” steeping her in “the power of visual metaphor.” Fascinated by the possibilities presented by new technologies, Portillo was an early adopter of small digital cameras, which she used for intimate interviews in “Señorita Extraviada.” Her longtime editor, Vivien Hillgrove, a Hollywood veteran whose credits include “Amadeus,” “Blue Velvet” and “The Unbearable Lightness of Being,” described Portillo as very different from other directors. Rather than providing detailed instructions “she’d communicate with me through a huge swath of art, music and poetry, where the feeling goes deeper than words—that was her genius.” Born on Nov. 11, 1943, in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua, Portillo was 13 when she immigrated with her parents and four siblings to Los Angeles. She started working in film there at 21 when a friend recruited her to work on a documentary. Relocating to San Francisco in the early 1970s, she came out as lesbian and gravitated to Cine Manifest, a collective of radical filmmakers. Looking to hone her craft, she studied filmmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute, graduating in 1978. With an eye for sensuous imagery and a storyteller’s intuition for subterranean emotion and silenced voices, she deployed the power of journalistic inquiry while pushing against its formal limitations. “From the get-go, I was trying to break away from the real conventional documentary approach, though I still believe in the very conventional style as well,” she said in a 1999 interview. “I’ve tried to work both ways.” Portillo is survived by her three sons, Antonio, Carlos and Karim Scarlata; four siblings, Eduardo, Antonio and Sabela Portillo and Christina Young; five doted-upon grandchildren; many nieces and nephews; and a large extended family in both the U.S. and Mexico. BIO: Andrew Gilbert is a Bay Area freelance writer. Originally titled Lourdes Portillo, game-changing San Francisco filmmaker, dies at 80, the article can be found at: bit.ly/lourdes-film. LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • June 2024 Vol. 37 Issue 5• 10 Lourdes Portillo graced the halls of the Esperanza Peace & Justice Center in 2002 screening the award-winning film Señorita Extraviada about the El Paso/Juárez femicides of maquiladora workers.
Thank You! The Paseo Por El Westside held on May 4, 2024 was a wonderful success due to the Buena gente, staff and participants that contributed time, energy, creativity and talent to the event’s quinceañera. Mil gracias to all for making this a memorable year! The Oscar-nominated documentarian’s body of work is currently being spotlighted at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles—on view through Jan. 5, 2025. See: https://www.academymuseum.org/en/exhibitions/lourdes-portillo LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • June 2024 Vol. 37 Issue 5• 11
The War I am not to blame for the production of bullets or the destruction of high-rise buildings. I own no missile factories or armored tank farms. I train no fighter pilots or drone operators, nor do I control the mission. I have no hidden airfields, top-secret documents, double agents, or rent a soldier. I am not human, nor am I an A.I. or a robot. I am not the terminator. I barely exist. It’s your show, your rank, and file artillery, your geopolitical ships, growling mechanical dogs, cluster devil bombs, big-nose howitzers, or underground ruses. It’s your collateral babies, your grand design. I prefer peace over the scattered remnants of your personnel. I am neither cruel nor cool but simply an instrument of your dark, stone heart. —Dario Beniquez BIO: Dario Beniquez, who lives in San Antonio, is a poet and engineer who grew up in Far Rockaway, NY. I stand with the youth and the students whose schools they occupy. I stand with the voters who cry uncommitted! GHD, please say you get it! Its genocide on the ballot, not Biden or Trump It’s war in the Middle East we must dump Uncommitted is a righteous call, opened by Arab people in Michigan y’all. GHD’s if you want to win in the fall, this you must do. Call for a ceasefire, nothing else will do. If you don’t, no matter how good your heart may be: You stood with Israel as they bombed, amputated, destroyed You stood with genocide, no matter what you say. it was politics not dead babies that swayed. Biden could do it, if he had the political will But in your democracy, it’s the oil companies etc. who pay the bill. All those liberals who have money and a good heart Come to our side and we will build a big ark In lead, will be people of color and the poor And it is us who will kick the fascist door Because it is our unity that can win, it is us with the power I’m counting each day and each hour. —Teresa Gutiérrez This Is for the GHDs It’s that time again, the time when the powers that be want the people to choose between Twiddly-Dum and Twiddly Dee. This year, one can vote for an old white guy and oh yeah--- another old white guy. Your social media has started buzzing. Lines have been drawn and there’s even cussing! The GHDs (the Good-Hearted Democrats) say, “Biden is a better human being, let’s make sure he wins that day.” But yo GHDs, listen to me, better human beings don’t lick ice cream on TV, while talking about genocide, can’t you see? Where was your handler that day Joe? Did they quit because of GAZA? A handler maybe that felt for some raza? Don’t cringe y’all, that’s really happening in DC right now! Sadly, it took Aaron Bushnell to make them feel shame somehow. I’m not gonna talk about supporters for Trump, not today Pendejos? White supremacists? Los dos I say! And the GHDs—will respond in fear: “We can’t let Trump win; he will destroy democracy, you hear?” But listen to me, because this is the truth: you say democracy, but that’s a farce, it’s not for all. Ask the ones in solitary prison, can’t you hear their call? An oil company has more rights than you and me, that’s your kind of democracy? Musk can launch Space X and continue to pollute Ruin the RGV, he doesn’t give a hoot And what about Harris when in Mexico she said “just don’t come” to migrants and refugees? This injustice bought me to my fucking knees. And why after such a long fight, do we still have to struggle for every damn right? Nooses and hangings in the south are in the past? Huh. Yet the image in our heads of George Floyd will always last. But I digress. Yes, it is a worry if Trump gets in. It’s fascism, I don’t want it to win. But democrats, listen above the din. You haven’t stopped Trumpism, in or out. You haven’t stopped Abbott, you don’t have the clout. Something simple and basic like DACA, you couldn’t get done. Oh, but a young one can still buy a gun! So what should be done in 2024? This is what I am for. LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • June 2024 Vol. 37 Issue 5• 12
Tocayos -for Jovita Idar (1885-1946) You could not have saved those tocayos, Jovita, who were lynched in two Texas towns a few months apart in 1910-11. You could not have nursed those jóvenes back to health: Antonio Rodríguez, 20 Antonio Gómez, 14 A few months and wide counties apart, the Antonios were lynched like blood brothers: one hanged from a ladder laden with angels, the other burned like a brand in the darkness. You could not have saved them, friend. A lynching posse does not wait. Instead the Idars called El Primer Congreso Mexicanista. I know how some narrate this story. Their facts are not wrong. You cared about jobs, schools, elections. But lynchings were paramount. Here in the twenty-first century, Jovita, under your otherworldly Masonic eye, I know I must act. As if checking my star chart or the forecast for rain, I study daily an online table of scheduled Texas executions. For weeks, only two names have appeared: Ramiro Gonzáles, received age 23 Rubén Gutierrez, received age 21 R. G. R. G. These men, too, are tocayos. No. 1 and No. 2 are scheduled to die in consecutive J months, June and July. The state has miscalculated, has misread the stars--thus awakening tocayos with names like Antonio who want only to find those lost. Beware, Texas, what you dare under Jovita’s watchful, mystical eye. —Rachel Jennings One Day/Three Young Men I am regularly filled with rage. I burst out crying inexplicably. My joints ache, my heart (surprisingly strong), pounds. I think all the time of my mom, who suffered the Long Goodbye, and I miss her, but I’m comforted by her life, her strength, wit and unconditional love for us. When on social media, I see a woman on the Darién Gap, frightened, no terrified, holding ever so tightly to the child in her arms, I tell myself, don’t scroll, you’re supposed to look, you have to look, you’re supposed to share. Did they fall, I wonder, did they make it over the concertina? One compañero who did, tells us: he saw someone fall, down the cliff, joining others. He relives it every night. Our collective pain flourishes. But one recent day, on the way to the doctor, I stop for coffee (NOT Starbucks). The insurance company calls and I stress. The barista asks, How’s your day going? I’m having a hard time, I say, almost crying. Again. I’m sorry, he says. Your coffee’s on me. An hour later, my audiologist, not even 30, says “I’m right there with you” when I tell him, No, Medicare doesn’t pay for my hearing aids. That money is being sent to Israel to kill babies in Gaza. “I’m right there with you,” he says ever so gently. Later that same afternoon, I head to physical therapy, limping. Toda chueca, crooked AF and I feel so, so old. How’s your day, the young man asks, before starting with the pulling and stretching. I’m having a hard time, I blurt out inappropriately. I am so taken aback when he asks me then:“Do you want to talk about it?” OMG, do I want to talk about it?? About Gaza, the border, Trump, high rent, climate change, do I want to talk about it?? I want to scream about it! What a question, what concern, what a heart, I think. I want to say to him “Your momma must be wonderful.” But all I say is, that’s very kind, it’s just a perfect storm of Mal Ojo for me right now. I don’t say capitalism has laid one fucking Mal Ojo on us all. He knows. On that one day, these three young men gave me hope. Gave me joy. A smile at the end of the day. Because one young man was right there with me, another gave me free coffee, and another wanted to talk, to be a person, a real person even though I’d known him four whole minutes. They gave me hope. They gave me joy. Gaza, we’re right there with you. – Teresa Gutiérrez LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • June 2024 Vol. 37 Issue 5• Migrants wade with their possessions and help small children across 13 one of the rivers in the Darién Gap. Image: Nadja Drost
Anel Flores Art Retrospective, I Am Home On Exhibit at the Mexican Cultural Institute San Antonio* The Mexican Cultural Institute in San Antonio located at 600 Hemisfair Plaza way hosts the current exhibit of I Am Home, a retrospective exhibition featuring the captivating works of esteemed artist Anel I. Flores through July 1, 2024. The exhibition showcases Flores’ remarkable journey through art, exploring themes of identity, belonging, and homecoming. Anel Flores, a prominent figure in the San Antonio art scene, brings her unique perspective to the forefront in I Am Home. Through a diverse array of mediums, including painting, sculpture, and mixed media, Flores invites viewers to delve into her world, where each piece serves as a reflection of personal experiences, cultural heritage and the vibrant spirit of the San Antonio and South Texas queer community. “I’m thrilled to present this retrospective exhibit, which celebrates not only my own artistic journey but also the rich tapestry of voices within the San Antonio queer community,” says Flores. “Through art, we have the power to bridge divides, foster understanding, and create spaces where everyone feels seen and valued.” Flores has chosen to feature eight additional artists in various mediums from the San Antonio queer community as part of the I Am Home exhibit: Erika Casasola, Daniela Paz Talamantes Martínez, Hailey Gearo, Anthony Francis, Red Rojas, Ocelotl Mora, Julián Pablo Ledezma, and Rose Two Feathers Hernández. In addition to the Mexican Cultural Institute in San Antonio, the exhibition is generously sponsored by the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center and the San Antonio Pride Center, organizations dedicated to promoting social justice, inclusivity, and empowerment within the community. Robert Salcido, Jr., the Executive Director of Pride Center San Antonio sums up these themes stating, “Supporting queer artists is crucial for fostering representation in the arts. By uplifting queer voices, we create space for authentic storytelling and challenge societal norms. It also sends a powerful message of acceptance and inclusion, helping to create a more equitable and supportive environment for all artists and those who see themselves in art to thrive.” Join us as we celebrate the transformative power of art and the vibrant diversity of the San Antonio community at the I Am Home exhibit. For more about I Am Home and other exhibits at the Mexican Cultural Institute San Antonio, please visit bit.ly/mexculture or contact Anel Flores at 210.316.7029 or [email protected] About Anel I. Flores: Based in San Antonio, TX, Anel is known for her evocative explorations of identity, culture, and social justice. Visual artist and author of Empanada: A Lesbiana Story en Probaditas and Curtains of Rain, she has exhibited and published internationally in journals and museums. They are a Mellon Foundation DRJ Fellow, a Catalyst for Change Fellow, former visiting author at OLLU, a Macondo Writer, founder of La Otra Taller Nepantla and Queer Voices. Currently, she is at work on her graphic memoir, Painted Red, and the bilingual edition of Empanada. For contact information and examples of her art visit www.Anelflores.com or [email protected]. * The Mexican Cultural Institute San Antonio is dedicated to promoting the richness and diversity of Mexican culture through a variety of artistic and educational programs. By showcasing the work of established and emerging artists, the institute strives to foster cross-cultural dialogue and understanding within the San Antonio community. LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • June 2024 Vol. 37 Issue 5• 14
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 June, 2024 Grupo Ánimo And Teatro Alas To Offer 4-Week Summer Theatrical Youth Workshop The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center’s youth theater company, Grupo Ánimo, will collaborate with Teatro ALAS of SAY Sí to present a 4-week theatrical workshop that will lead to an original play written by the students. Students between the ages of 13 and 18 may apply at no cost! June 3 to 28, 2024 • Noon to 5 pm SAY Sí, 1310 S. Brazos, Sa TX / SAY Sí – (210) 201-4950, GCAC – (210) 271-3151 To register, please RSVP @ bit.ly/animo-2024 • Deadline: June 1, 2024 IXPAHTLI: New Chicane Prose Edited by ire’ne lara silva Anthology under contract with University of New Mexio Press Submissions Deadline: Dec. 1, 2024 Email: [email protected] FB ire’ne lara silva to access Call For Submissions information. Looking for stories of vulnerability, stories from the gut, corazón de mi corazón stories. THE WORKSHOP Featuring: Announcing faculty for our in person workshop at Trinity University July 23-28, 2024 COMING SOON: Macondo writers will be offering several community-based writing workshops this summer that are open to the public. Check back soon for more info. https://macondowriters.com Multi-Genre: Naomi Shihab Nye Poetry: Richard Blanco Fiction: Cristina García Creative Nonfiction: Cherríe Moraga Announcing the 2024 Recipient of the Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa Award The Board of the Macondo Writers Workshop has selected long-time Macondista Rachel Jennings for the Macondo Writers Workshop 2024 Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa Award. Remember your tax deductible gifts Your donation supports the Esperanza! go to: www.esperanzacenter.org/Donate or send check to: Esperanza Peace & Justice Center 922 San Pedro Ave • SA, TX 78212 Become a Monthly Donor! LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • June 2024 Vol. 37 Issue 5• 15 or call 210-228-0201 to donate Your donation helps us advocate for you. Support the Esperanza www.esperanzacenter.org/donate Sign the Count the Bodies petition! Go to bit.ly/heat-petition
Second Saturday Convivio Gather your photos from the Westside (1880-1960) and bring them to La Casa de Cuentos every 2nd Sat. at 10 am for scanning and story telling. Casa de Cuentos • 816 S. Colorado St. Call 210.228.0201 for more info Open M-F during Office hours, 10am to 7pm Call 210-228-0201 for info 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 Esperanza Tiendita year-around gifts from local & international vendors Non-Profit Org. US Postage PAID San Antonio, TX Permit #332 LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • June 2024 Vol. 37 Issue 5 • ESPERANZA PEACE & JUSTICE CENTER 922 San Pedro San Antonio TX 78212 210.228.0201 • www.esperanzacenter.org