Escuelita de Paz y Justicia: Transformative Education in the Barrio March 2023 Vol. 36 Issue 2 San Antonio, Tejas
Magda Chellet, Que en paz descanse As we were finishing the March issue of La Voz de Esperanza, I learned that Magda Chellet had passed. To wait yet another month to acknowledge her passing did not seem right to me. Magda was important in the Esperanza’s history because she was the first instructor of the Esperanza’s MujerArtes Clay Cooperative when it opened its doors in the mid-90s. Magda was not only skilled in the production of clay art pieces but she also had a wonderfully creative aesthetic. Her influence on that first group of mujeres in MuerArtes stayed with them and they thrived under her tutelage, even though she was there for a short time. Magda remained close to some of those women who, in some cases, went on to follow their own paths as artists. Ultimately, Magda ran her own ceramic business producing eye-catching and exquisite hand-painted platters, cups and other clay pieces. Her Mexican heritage always shone through and even though a güera she proudly revealed her Mexicanidad in all she did. Magda continued being part of the arts community teaching as an art teacher and advocating and consulting with arts organizations such as Centro Cultural Aztlán. She was part of the Chicano Arts community and lived as a feminist with distinctly spiritual leanings exploring all kinds of experiences and beliefs. She lived her life surrounded by art and “convivio” gathering her friends together in her beautiful home. Her many, many friends and family have lost a soul mate, mother, grandmother and lover of life. The Esperanza board, staff and Buena Gente extend our deepest sympathies to all. EDITOR’S NOTE: This March issue of La Voz de Esperanza begins a focus on education— alternative (authentic) forms of education that speak to the experiences of children who have not been “seen” in traditional schools or charter schools. An example of an alternative school is the Esperanza’s new project, Escuelita de paz y justicia that strives to bring students together to examine who they are and where they come from and how they fit together in this world. Currently censorship of books and curriculums and attacks on efforts to be inclusive demonstrate that the battleground for democracy is, indeed, in how schools are making an effort to validate the lives of all students. Send your articles in to [email protected] Together we can speak out and be seen! — Gloria A. Ramírez Jose Luis “Bat” Ramirez February 14, 1968 — February 9, 2023 Landscape artist, gardener, outdoor cook, animal lover, environmental and cultural arts advocate. Remembered as Buena Gente of the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center advocating for multiple causes and preservation of culture, art and barrio aesthetics. Donations “in memory of Joe “Bat” Ramirez can be made to the homeless street outreach Bread and Blankets Mutual Aid: www.BreadandBlankets.org They will be used for Transitional Housing. Esperanza staff board and Buena gente extend our condolences to his family and friends. QEPD-Rest in Power La Voz de Esperanza March 2023 Vol. 36 Issue 2 Editor: Gloria A. Ramírez Design: Elizandro Carrington Contributors Dylan Baddour (The Nature Conservancy), Tarciscio Beal, Elizandro Carrington, Julia Conley (Common Dreams), Patricia Keoughan, Don Mathis, Kayla Miranda, Luissana Santibanez La Voz Mail Collective ...is sheltering at home due to COVID-19 but will return when it is safe. Extra funds are being raised to pay for the folding of La Voz. Esperanza Director Graciela I. Sánchez Esperanza Staff Angel Cantú, 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, Jan Olsen, Ana Lucía Ramírez, Gloria A. Ramírez, Rudy Rosales, Lilliana Saldaña, Nadine Saliba, Graciela I. Sánchez, Lillian Stevens • 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. 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 • March 2023 Vol. 36 Issue 2 • 2
Is this our new normal? by Kayla Miranda For as long as I can remember, I’ve dreamed of walking up the capitol steps and wandering around its halls, making a difference in the world. As a child I always wanted to be a lawyer. My parents were very political. I remember seeing the chambers on T.V. and imagining myself arguing passionately about something that would bring world peace or end world hunger, and maybe get my parents to lighten up a bit to allow me a later bedtime. When Legally Blonde came out, it was one of my favorite movies. Yes, I know it’s not a popular opinion, but I’m almost 40 years old and still prefer quote on quote “wholesome” movies and shows, like Family Matters and Full House, Disney, Hallmark etc. I watched some of the shows I had watched back in the day recently, and I’m shocked at so many things I missed, that I find completely offensive now. It just means my eyes are open to what they were not before. I was given the opportunity to visit the Texas Capitol in Austin when our legislative session started. I was nervous and excited. We have so many housing bills introduced this session. Even if they don’t make it, it’s still a win. It’s the changing of tides. It shows me that all my work is towards something, and that the far-off future I dream of isn’t so far off after all. My daydreaming and muses were lost the moment I walked past the first officer holding an automatic rifle. Just like how I missed so many things in my favorite shows and movies that are a complete slap in the face now, I watched as hundreds of elementary school children walked past these extremely armed officers every few feet like it was completely normal to see so many big guns in a hallway. I couldn’t help but wonder how my own teenage children would have reacted, or how I as a small child would have felt. I would have been scared. I asked around, was there a threat recently? Why does it look like a military installment around here? San Antonio is Military USA and I have never seen so many guns around here. It put me off. I felt on edge. It didn’t make me feel safe and secure. It made me feel threatened. Human beings are prone to error. All it would take is someone with a mental illness or someone that lost their temper that waves their hands when they talk (I do this), one officer to get spooked and the gunfire would mow us all down. I had flashbacks from martial law in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. I could tell you some horror stories from there, the abuse that officers and military personnel took because they could, because they were heavily armed and on edge, because it was a crisis. Is this really our new normal? I know that guns don’t hurt people, people hurt people. It’s a tool, just like any other. It depends on the person wielding that weapon on what they do with it. But I also know that even the most trained individual is human. There has to be a better solution and a better way of protecting than this. I don’t want my children to ever get used to seeing that in their everyday life. It’s way too easy to pull a trigger and the result could be extinguishing a life. Shouldn’t life be held in a higher regard? BIO: Kayla Miranda, a housing justice advocate organizing in the Westside of San Antonio, resides at the Alazan/Apache Courts and is a lead teacher for Esperanza’s Escuelita de paz y justicia. LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • March 2023 Vol. 36 Issue 2 • 3
by Luissana Santibanez, Esperanza Peace & Justice Center It is not always acknowledged by mainstream media, and sometimes not even validated within our own Latinx community, but leadership can take many forms. Often it is born out of the need to challenge oppression, marginalization, or even the status quo. Whether it’s a mom defending her family’s rightful belonging to their home in the face of eviction, or a young person fighting to steer clear from drug use by finding alternative ways to cope with life’s painful hardships, I believe that the very act of resisting systemic and internalized violence demands leadership. Leadership, however, cannot stand alone without the support of a community or other entities who share the same values and are equally invested in challenging the multitude of ways in which oppression exists. Longstanding injustice rooted in colonialism, racism, and violence continues to plague our barrios, and in the struggle to assert one’s dignity and place in this society, people have had to fight to enjoy basic liberties such as housing and healthy environments. In the case of the Alazan-Apache Courts and the surrounding barrio in the Westside of San Antonio, the struggle has been to defend the permanence of public housing for the families who live there, but also to defend its historic buildings from being demolished given its deep meaning and significance to the largely Mexican American community who have raised their families here for multiple generations now. For elder leaders of the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, building community power by identifying and supporting new leaders is a matter of political urgency and long-term community sustainability. Otherwise, gentrifying urban developers from outside of the barrio, in collusion with vendidos from inside the barrio, will continue to sell the land in the Westside to the highest bidder resulting in the displacement and erasure of people who give character and bring life to this community despite their economic plight. Thus, when the opportunity arrived for Esperanza to partner up with an institution like the University of Texas in San Antonio through their Democratizing Racial Justice Project, seed funding for a transformative education program arose and we collaborated to form a community school called Escuelita de Paz y Justicia. Inspired by the long history of community schools in the South & Southwest that were born in the face of segregation and racial violence, we decided that the best way to honor this legacy of resistance and knowledge formation was by creating our own escuelita. This program came at a time when Ethnic Studies programs and analysis about racism or critical race theory have been outlawed by our public education system or limited to selective historical moments and leaders of the past. In Escuelita de Paz de Justicia, we wanted to make sure that we were centering the curriculum through the lens of racialized communities, because we wanted to undo the stigma and the harm created by systemic racism. It was also an opportunity for some of our local elders, community organizers, healing practitioners, cultural bearers, and activist scholars to share some of their wisdom, art, remedios, social justice movement building skills, and important research with our class. From its inception, the vision of Escuelita de Paz y Justicia was for it to be a brave, intergenerational, multi-racial, multi-gendered, and ANTI-racist/sexist/homophobic/ xenophobic/classist shared learning space that could serve as a catalyst for intersectional solidarity, healing, cultural preservation, and personal/ political empowerment. We believe that the impact of this program will be that it grows new leaders who are historically rooted, community connected, and unafraid to speak up in the face of injustice whenever necessary. More importantly, we wanted to affirm the cultural power that our community has to live joyous and fulfilled lives without the deficit feeling of shame that poverty and spatial inequality oftentime bears. Also, given that the yearly income of Westside residents is on average between $10,000 - $25,000 a year, it was a critical element of this project to attempt to remove any barriers to student participation. We sought to integrate equity by offering childcare and transportation stipends, including a participatory scholarship that awarded bi-weekly stipends to students who attended and engaged in class. Classes were offered twice a week in the evening and once a month on a Saturday. Students were also required to volunteer a minimum of 4 hours a month at one of our Esperanza sponsored events. As part of our first class, we selected young learners in both Middle School and High School, included adults who had not yet obtained their GED, others who graduated but never enrolled in college, some politically disenfranchised community members, single mother head of households, and two UTSA first-generation college students. Altogether, we had 18 community residents who finished the semester strong with an end of semester project that they presented for a community exhibit and that was streamed live via the Esperanza Facebook page. Our classes conjured up interest, personal connection & meaning in some way to the education and experiences being shared. There were powerful moments of vulnerability followed by solidarity where students opened up about their lived experiences and the source of their intergenerational trauma. It was important for us to welcome people exactly where they were at in their life journey and for us to allow solidarity to grow in ways that offered real support in that moment and beyond class. For example, one of our guest speakEscuelita de Paz y Justicia: Transformative Education in the Barrio LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • March 2023 Vol. 36 Issue 2 • 4 Luissana Santibanez who heads up Escuelita de paz y justicia addresses Escuelita students
ers Celynda Fuente shared her poetry and offered a tapping meditation of selfaffirmations with us after our lead organizer Kayla Miranda led a fire ceremony that burned away memories of negative self-talk and chisme. This ritual was then followed by a Chakra cleansing and bead making exercise led by our own escuelita student Bel Galvan. Together we practiced radical self-love in community, extended ourselves compassion for our trespasses, and spoke of the need to forgive others, sometimes even our own parents, but especially ourselves for all the harm that had been caused. We closed the afternoon acknowledging that healing is a constant practice of staying present in the body while finding ways to release from the chokehold of its memory. Another important element in Escuelita that was vital to our understanding of peace and justice was our acknowledgment that the lands we live on, presently known as San Antonio Texas, are ancient and sacred homelands of the First Nation communities who survived racial genocide and land displacement as a result of colonial violence and settlement. It was also important to learn from the perspective of a woman who not only represents tribal membership within a First Nation community, but who also leads frontline efforts to preserve and defend Indigenous sovereignty. One person we felt represented that kind of matriarchal leadership was Lucille Contreras, member of the Lipan Apache Band of Texas and founder of the Texas Tribal Buffalo Project. Born and raised in San Antonio’s West Side, her family lineage runs deep in this historic neighborhood with her own parents graduating from Lanier. Thus, her time in Escuelita was a powerful moment of coming back home! We learned so much from Lucille while breaking bread over dinner that evening in class. Her teachings affirmed the power that comes from reclaiming and reconnecting to our Indigenous lifeways, most especially to the relationship we have with the Buffalo. Her efforts to take back the land to steward the reviving of this sacred animal who once roamed free, uniting north and southern tribes, is a testament of the powerful role that Indigenous women have in nourishing the health and spirit of Mother Earth, her resources, and all of her relatives. Other parts of Escuelita were informed by the 2021 Ethnic Studies Educators’ Academy Teaching Guide, and through our relationship with UTSA’s Democratizing Racial Justice Academic Fellows—we were privileged to have professors of this program teach classes on race, ethnicity, colonial legacies, urban development, oral history methodologies, and chicana feminist theory! All of us, students and organizers alike, felt like we were robbed of the opportunity to learn in this way from our formal schooling systems, so attending this community school was a powerful experience to be a part of. Our escuelita was led by two matriarchs who made sure to budget funds for hearty meals at every class and who encouraged students to take ownership of the program itself by taking care of our learning space and helping to cook when needed. For some men, it was the first time that they had ever been asked to cook or aid in cooking, so we’re proud to see that our escuelita was doing its part to help break gender norms and expectations. We definitely hope to continue talking about and practicing ways to begin undoing harmful norms, but it will not happen if we do not continue to create brave and inclusive spaces in our barrio. Escuelita de Paz y Justicia resumes classes for spring semester in 2023. Every stage of the curriculum formation is a collaborative process, and we look forward to incorporating more student led classes and workshops to share ownership of this community learning experience. After all, isn’t this what democracy looks like? BIO: Luissana Santibañez is a proud Xicana mother of 3, born and raised in Yanaguana’s inner city. A UTSA Democratizing Racial Justice Community Fellow at the Esperanza Peace & Justice Center, she is also a leading member of Kalpulli Ayolopaktzin, an intertribal spiritual community of families committed to preserving Indigenous thought, language, art, and culture. LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • March 2023 Vol. 36 Issue 2 • 5 Lucille Contreras of the Texas Tribal Buffalo Project addresses students of the Escuelita. Read more about the Texas Tribal Buffalo Project on p.7-9. Above: Escuelita students attend classes at Esperanza’s Casa de Cuentos listening to their instructors and guest speakers. At left: Lead organizer, Kayla Miranda led a fire ceremony outdoors that burned away memories of negative self-talk and chisme. Escuelita students and teachers gather at Esperanza’s Casa de Cuentos for Thanksgiving dinner.
by Elizandro Carrington Another group competing for San Pedro Park resources are “the homeless”. I hate using that term but I’ll talk more about that later. I see them there congregating on the gazebo, sleeping at the benches and when they can, washing themselves. Their presences has ebbs and flows. Sometimes I see a lot of them and sometimes hardly any. I hadn’t any real opinion of their use of the Park. I did what all of society does. I glanced away and pretended they weren’t there. But one day I had an experience that changed my perspective. I was walking through the Park and I saw a couple sleeping in the middle of the sidewalk. There were empty liquor bottles scattered around them. Their clothing was ill fitting and exposing parts of themselves. They had no shoes on. What made me stop and think about them was their posture. They were facing each other with their arms covering each other. When I looked at them I realized that while I and everyone else ignored them, they themselves were looking out for each other and as I continued walking my dog through the Park I no longer saw homeless people, what I was seeing was just people. People who were sleeping because they were tired. People who were talking to each other because no one else would talk to them. People who were cleaning themselves at the Park because they had no home. These people were doing what all of us do. They were taking care of themselves. If they are doing the same things we do as a society, doesn’t it mean that they are part of our society too? I am sure that we can find many ways how they are different from us. And finding and defining those differences is how we justify treating them as something other than ourselves. We have institutionalized their care. We use the police to herd them out of our public spaces, we create depots like Haven for Hope to temporarily house them and we let private churches and organizations clothe them and feed them. What other groups do we do that to? If you substituted the word “homeless” with “black” or with “women” or “gay” or any other historical term of bigotry would we be treating that group the way we treat the homeless today? Please, I am not saying sexism, racism or other “isms”don’t exist any more. There is plenty of institutionalized and subverted racism to go around, but what we don’t do anymore is erase their presence. We need to do the same to the homeless. You see, there have always been poor people and people with mental illness. People who for what ever reason don’t earn enough to pay for housing or can’t learn basic skills or have had accidents that leave them incapable of sustaining themselves. Historically many of these people were just left to die. Societies with cast systems have left them in squalor. Developing nations created work houses or insane asylums to house them. Early in our history we use psychiatric wards to keep them off the street. Then we just released them onto the street, where they live on today. In the news we talk about the “homeless problem”. Cities get ranked by the Department of Housing on how they are handling the situation. We let part of our taxes subsidize their care. But what we don’t do is accept them as one of us. We don’t see them as ourselves. We see them as someone else’s problem. We justify their treatment by saying things like “There are plenty of jobs available if they want to work” or “They are drunks and addicts, they need to get treatment” or “They are just nuts, there is nothing you can do for them”. All of this is another form of blaming the victim. There are always going to be people who just can’t work. Others will always abuse alcohol or drugs, or physiologically are prone to addiction or use substances to self medicate themselves from trauma. And always, always some people’s brains just work differently. This part of the human condition will always exist. There is no homeless problem. There is just us. Have we grown enough to make sure that our laws and our resources help everyone? Can we get rid of that “Not in my backyard” or “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps” mentality that was only meant to exclude others or to justify keeping property and income for ourselves? The discussion about allocation of resources and how we spend our taxes is too much to tackle here. All I am pointing out is that our attitude and our belief system needs adjustment. When I walk my dog at San Pedro park I try hard to see people. Please, try and see them, too. BIO: Elizandro Carrington is part of the Esperanza staff and does the layout and design for La Voz. There are no homeless, only us. Preface I walk my dog, Brownie, a lot at San Pedro park. We have been walking at San Pedro Park for years. Over the course of those years I have seen the Park grow and change. It started with a concrete path encircling the Park, the installation of concrete benches and grill pits and the removal of the softball diamonds. The park is larger now and more people are using it. The Pandemic forced many people to go outdoors when indoor spaces where closed and binge watching Netflix became tedious. Also, San Antonio’s lack of green space made San Pedro Park a natural location to go to for those who live near downtown. So now I see joggers, bikers and skateboarders all competing for the same space. LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • March 2023 Vol. 36 Issue 2 • 6
by Dylan Baddour, Freelance Writer The Nature Conservancy Magazine, November 10, 2022 Lucille Contreras stepped onto the porch of her white wooden ranch house and blew a tone through a conch shell horn. The two dozen kids camped in her yard finished their breakfast tacos and gathered to listen. Under shade from the summer Texas sun, Contreras called the children up front and told them about a promise she’d recently made. She’d signed a treaty with other “buffalo nation” tribes at an intertribal gathering in Wyoming just a few days before. “I’m going to take care of the buffalo for the rest of my life,” she said with measured enunciation. “Just like I’m taking care of you children by inviting you to my land.” Then she called on two kids to lead a morning song. In the pasture nearby, a small herd of buffalo wandered. It was day three of the first official Lipan Apache summer camp at the Texas Tribal Buffalo Project, a new nonprofit based on a ranch in the rolling prairie of rural south-central Texas. Contreras, an energetic mother and information technology manager from San Antonio, founded the project in 2020 with visions of creating a place where Native peoples could practice culture and heal. All along, her dream was to bring her community out for days at a time to let the children bond with one another, the land and the buffalo. “These young people are our focus and priority,” Contreras said, looking out at the kids who had gathered despite the 100-degree heat. “They are seeds, and we are putting in the water and nutrients so they will grow.” Generations of trauma—genocide, forced relocations, destruction of culture, mockery in old movies, poverty and more—left the Lipan Apache and other Native peoples dissociated and disconnected from the land, Contreras said. Their culture once revolved around the buffalo, but they’d slowly lost that connection along with the buffalo. Now she’s trying to turn things around. No matter how hard a system tries to erase who we are and tear away our identity, the buffalo are a beautiful reflection of our own resiliency. —Laura Yohualtlahuiz Rios-Ramirez This summer camp in June was the first time any of the children had ever seen a buffalo (American bison). It was an unassuming encounter. Fifteen buffalo and about as many kids eyed each other at a distance across the wide sundrenched pasture, unaware they were making history. But the parents knew. Laura Yohualtlahuiz Ríos-Ramírez watched her two sons, Huitzi and Ketzal, and she began to cry. A team member at the Buffalo Project, she knew the moment was hard won. She thought of all the violence—the slaughter of the buffalo Coming Home Lucille Contreras set out to reconnect her Lipan Apache community with its heritage. She brought buffalo back to Texas Native American land. LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • March 2023 Vol. 36 Issue 2 • 7 ONCE-MIGHTY HERD The American bison—commonly known as buffalo—once ranged in vast herds from above the Arctic Circle down into northern Mexico. © Tailyr Irvine Lucille Contreras founded the Texas Tribal Buffalo Project in 2020. © Tailyr Irvine
and the Native people so much done to prevent either of them from being here. Yet the Lipans engineered this encounter. Their children were meeting the old companions. They were camped on Native-owned land, hosted by a women-led organization, talking about culture. “It’s a generational dream come true,” Ríos-Ramírez said, wiping away tears under the shade of a live oak tree. “No matter how hard a system tries to erase who we are and tear away our identity, the buffalo are a beautiful reflection of our own resiliency.” Ríos-Ramírez came from San Antonio, a city founded centuries ago by the mixture of Spanish and Native American peoples. But she had no camps like this growing up. For her, expressions of Native culture were more seasonal, and they revolved around dance. Now the movement has land. And it has buffalo. The vision for this project started with Contreras in the years she worked with Native American activist communities in states other than Texas. Despite a long connection to the geography, Native Americans were left with only a few tiny reservations in Texas. After six years of helping to raise buffalo on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, she knew what she wanted: a Lipan buffalo ranch in Texas. Caring for the animals would be the easy part. First, she needed money to make it happen. She leaned into her network of Native activists and mentors, gathering support from organizations like Tanka Fund and Honor the Earth, and learning from a Business of Indian Agriculture curriculum offered by the First Nations Development Institute. She won a USDA loan to buy 77 acres of gently rolling grassland in the tiny town of Waelder, Texas. AmeriCorps Vista funded her eight staff positions. Contreras purchased three buffalo from a privately owned Texas herd, an anonymous donor delivered a fourth, and The Nature Conservancy transferred five from its Zapata Ranch buffalo herd in Colorado. For TNC, the transfer was part of a budding effort to move surplus buffalo from managed herds to the custody of Indigenous communities across the country. Since 2020, the organization has transferred about 270 animals to 12 communities, where Native leaders have led the restoration of the once-great North American buffalo herds. Although these creatures are mostly known today in the Midwest and the Rockies, they used to roam from above the Arctic Circle in Canada to northern Mexico and almost coast to coast, says Corissa Busse, TNC’s Western South Dakota Program director and a co-leader in TNC’s buffalo restoration program. Their absence today in their southern range, including Texas, has to do with the earlier arrival of the railroad and, with it, the campaign of wholesale slaughter in the South, she said. Historically they were a keystone species whose day-to-day grazing was a fundamental force in prairie ecology. Certain plants only sprouted in their hoofprints. Others were seeded through their dung. Birds nested in their discarded wool and large carnivores subsisted on the herds. Just as the return of buffalo to grasslands can restore a web of living relationships, their return to Native communities can nurture a sharing of culture. “Buffalo play an irreversible role in the land,” Busse says. “They are a part of place.” At the Buffalo Project, bison define the place as one of Native healing for both the land and the Native culture tied to it. For the Lipan Apache, who haven’t controlled much land or wealth for centuries, having this space in Waelder has enabled the community to develop. At the summer camp, many of those gathered had known one another for years. Some parents were old friends from Indigenous Aztec dance troupes or from an earlier era of Lipan organizing. They’d spent time together when they were younger and saw one another a few weekends per year. But until now they had never set up their tents, let their children make friends and, in the serenity of a private place, talked about culture and the Earth. At camp they shot arrows with bows, built fires, caught and filleted fish, learned about ethnobotany, made art, sang songs, shared meals, danced and practiced rituals. But mostly, they were just together. “These ceremonies open space for intimate conversations,” said Josekuauhtli Maestas, a curriculum and data researcher at the Buffalo Project, who is also Contreras’ son. “I want that in my life.” This land has also drawn new members to the community. One man, 70-year-old Juan Alejandro, drove two hours from Houston with his 11-year-old grandson, Maximus Amaya, trying to make sense of his own roots. Alejandro was born near the Mexican border, a frontier where many Indigenous peoples once sought their final refuge from military campaigns against them. His grandmother—though she rarely spoke about her ancestry—told stories about the last hideouts of the Apaches. But her tales of the family’s Indigenous ancestry would sometimes cause upset and tension. It confused Alejandro. Later in life he understood. “It was taboo to be Indigenous—they would catch you and kill you,” he said. Alejandro moved 300 miles to Houston when he was 12, and memories of his grandmother faded with childhood. Still, he always wondered. It wasn’t until his mid 60s that he found Texas Apache communities on Facebook, where people told stories like his grandmother’s and described families like his own. When he saw plans online for the summer camp, he took his grandson, Maximus, and drove 115 miles to Waelder. “I want him to know his ancestry,” Alejandro said. While Maximus played, Alejandro learned Lipan history and the origins of several Apache words from the elders who lounged together in camp chairs under shade. One of them was Richard Gonzalez, a retired police officer who travels the state presenting Lipan history at schools and events. He can’t count how many times people like Alejandro have approached him, he said, with LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • March 2023 Vol. 36 Issue 2 • 8 Photo Source: Texas Tribal Buffalo Project
the same family stories, looking for clarity. When they do, Gonzalez tells the long story of the Lipan Apache who followed buffalo across Texas and Mexico in numerous independent bands. They fought Spanish settlement but sometimes settled in missions or married into towns. During the Texas Revolution, Lipan Apaches fought alongside Texas rebels in their fight for independence. Over time the populations mixed. U.S. statehood in Texas brought a renewed effort to remove Native inhabitants amid a flood of new migration. Motley bands of settler lawmen harassed and killed Indigenous peoples wherever they could while the U.S. Army chased others relentlessly. By the start of the 20th century, some tribes in Texas were deported to reservations out of state. In some cases, the Lipan Apache were written off as extinct. But they weren’t, Gonzalez said. There were Lipans who survived the raids. Gonzalez’ greatgrandmother Juanita was one of them. Survivors like Juanita settled throughout South Texas and beyond. If the law came looking, they blended in, speaking only English and Spanish. For their children they wished only for a life free from violent persecution. Apache stories were dangerous secrets. For Alejandro, the story brings peace. During his life in South Texas he had been called a Mexican, an outsider, an immigrant. Now he knows that, like the buffalo, he belongs here. And his grandson knows it, too. “I’m so glad we’ve found home, so to speak,” he said. The Texas Tribal Buffalo Project, with all its open land, isn’t only for the Lipan Apache. Contreras dreams of making her space for all kinds of marginalized and underserved people who want a deeper connection to open, outdoor spaces. For the camp, she brought four youths as volunteer counselors through a partner organization, Circles in Da Hood, which counsels at-risk youth in San Antonio. “I’ve always been in a crowded household in the city. I’ve never been out to explore anywhere else,” said one counselor, 19-yearold Karizma Cedillo Williams. “To see the stars and the buffalo and a sunrise over the open land, it’s like a dream.” For Contreras, this camp marked a major milestone in the growth of her nonprofit and the realization of her dreams. But she insists there is still much more to come. The Texas Tribal Iyanee’ Buffalo Project is a non-profit committed to healing the generational trauma of Lipan Apache descendants and other native naations bordering traditional Lipan Apache ranges. To read more and donate to the project check: www. texastribalbuffaloproject.org To learn about The Nature Conservancy and their work go to www.nature.org. To become a member and receive The Nature Conservancy Magazine go to: bit.ly/naturedonate She is working to get donated buffalo for other Lipan communities in Texas. And she’s hoping to source funding to buy additional acreage that would allow her to sustain a larger buffalo herd. With a larger herd on more land, the Buffalo Project could help provide Indigenous communities access to a traditional food staple and culinary heritage of buffalo-based recipes. Already the Buffalo Project has sold meat to the Cherokee nation. One thing is certain: There will be many more camps. Contreras already plans for another summer camp in 2023. “I believe that this is what our ancestors prayed for,” she said, nodding at the adults relaxing while children played and the buffalo grazed. “We’re just all so happy to be here.” BIO: Dylan Baddour is a freelance writer who is Texas correspondent for Inside Climate News and whose work has appeared in the Texas Observer, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Houston Chronicle and other major newspapers throughout Texas and the U.S.. LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • March 2023 Vol. 36 Issue 2 • 9 FAMILY FUN Luissana Santibanez holds her son Alarii as they begin their day at camp with morning stretches. © Tailyr Irvine
by Tarcisio Beal The Republican Party, dominated by a sorely-divided House majority, is now accusing the democratic government of President Biden of using its constitutional powers as weapons of partisan domination. Ironically, but not surprisingly, the weaponization or the abuse of political and social power was the method and the style of the presidency of Donald Trump during his four years in the White House (2016-2020), culminating with the assault of the Capitol. The republican political weaponization is apparent in a series of actions and proposals which are often contradictory, but that always spell out an agenda that associates political power with the reactionary and conservative ideology spelled out at Trump’s political rallies by the slogan MAGA (Make American Great Again). Now MAGA has become a synonymous with the constant republican lie that the United States has been greatly weakened by the democrats when the opposite is true. In fact, a number of current republican legislative proposals are antidemocratic and contradict the U. S. Constitution. For example, the attempt to empower the state legislatures to gain control of elections by all sorts of maneuvers, including redistricting the electorate so as to guarantee the party’s victory. Also, to place in the courts judges who are totally partisan or even incompetent, or justices of the Supreme Court who share the party’s ideology, as on the issues of the rights of gays, lesbians, and transgenders and of abortion. Trump’s success in creating a conservative majority in the Court led to the abrogation of Roe vs. Wade. Now we have a Supreme Court that even declared that the federal government has no right to get involved in controlling the corporations that are disastrously harming the land and the environment. As we know, the Trump era of misinformation and distortion started with the attempt to convince Americans that his 2020 attempt to be re-elected was illegally thwarted by the democrats. Actually, his egomaniac actions and statements started right after his election and were strengthened by supporters who viewed his 2016 presidential victory as “willed by God.” This, for example, was what Alaska’s Representative Sarah Palin said publicly. Now she is even considering a run for the White House. The Trump-led attempt to nullify President Biden’s election continues through the weapons of indoctrination by lies, distortions, and misinformation of every sort which are easily multiplied and transmitted through the new and the ever-improving mass information technology of the Internet. Mitch McConnell, who as leader of the Republican majority in the Senate was mostly responsible for allowing Trump to escape impeachment, falsely blamed runaway inflation, surging crime, open borders, and failing schools on the democrats. Republican propaganda has even convinced Florida’s and Arizona’s retirees to support the party’s incoming attempt to eliminate Medicare and Social Security programs. The true meaning of freedom is being distorted by the manipulation of the Second Amendment, thus allowing the multiplication of guns, while never taking responsibility for the rise of mass and terrorist killings. More than 600 cases of mass killings have taken place in the United States during 2021 and 2002, and 2023 is looking even worse. A major goal of the present GOP is to shape a government which will leave alone or even enhance the economic and political supremacy of the wealthiest Americans. But if you think that the current behavior and the political strategies of the GOP are only an innovation brought about by Trumpism, take a look at the republican past since the early 20th century. After forcing Theodore Roosevelt out of its ranks in 1908 and attacking his “New Nationalism” program, which called for welfare policies that would always take precedence over individual and corporate profit, the GOP, in control of the Presidency, ruined the lives of millions of Americans during what is known as the “Great Depression” (1920s & 1930s). Conditions began to improve for the majority only after the democrats, under Franklin Delano Roosevelt, introduced the policies of the New Deal. During the Great Depression, the poor and the homeless were told that their condition was caused by their own laziness and that they should stay away from church on Sundays because of their sins. Furthermore, some of the present policies of the GOP remind us of the Ronald Reagan presidency (1980-1988) which as been glorified by some history books that overlook the facts and turned RR into some sort of “perfect republican.” In fact, however, his role in the Iran-Contra AfWeaponization: Its Social and Political Consequences LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • March 2023 Vol. 36 Issue 2 • 10 Seated Committee: Witnesses testify before the House Judiciary Weaponization of the Federal Government Subcommittee during a hearing about the politicization of the FBI and Department of Justice and attacks on American civil liberties, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Feb. 9, 2023. Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, talks with a person before the start of a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on what Republicans say is the politicization of the FBI and Justice Department and attacks on American civil liberties, on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Jesse Treviño December 24, 1946-February 13, 2023 fair,” which was much worse than George Bush’s involvement in the Watergate Scandal, should have led to his impeachment. He was a “hands-off” president: lazy, disconnected, disinterested, spending most of his time watching movies on TV; he approved the disastrous policies of his notorious Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who directed the CIA to side with and finance the Central American bloody dictators and their para-military gangs that led to the flood of refugees who are still today seeking asylum in the United States. His “Reaganomics” (10% tax cuts across the border), which I call “Lazarus Economics,” gave millions to the wealthiest while leaving only crumbs and scraps for the majority of Americans. No caring American could have imagined the kind of illegal, law-breaking actions and behavior, including their spread of the “Big Lie” and cooperation in what turned into the assault on the Capitol. Incredibly enough, many of those who set the stage for the Capitol invasion, including republican congressmen, have been getting away with their crimes. During the National Gun Violence Survivors Week (February 1-7), some GOP members of Congress displayed their AR-15 lapel pins that hail their opposition to arms control. The pins remind me of the MAGA slogans and even of the Nazi swastikas. After the terrorist attack on the Capitol, GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene accused President Biden of building walls on the grounds of the Capitol in order to prevent Americans from visiting. Rep Lauren Boebert even came up with the following tirade against the defenders of women’s rights to abortion: “The Satanic Temple is now opening abortion clinics that will perform abortion as a satanic ritual.” The hypocrisy of the GOP was also displayed on January 5, when House republicans issued a condemnation of Socialism (which they wrongfully equate with Marxist totalitarianism) while fully benefitting from all kinds of federal stimuli and other subsidies. Finally, the behavior of the republican congressmen and congresswomen during President Biden’s February 7 “State of the Union Address” once more revealed the destructive mindset of many republican leaders who still cannot accept his election. Perhaps the most revealing presidential address of all time about the improvements of American life and economy and about how the central government must care for the rights of the majority of citizens and for the democratic ideals, it was received with little applause by the republicans and even by uncivilized yelling by some of them, especially by Marjorie Taylor Greene. Incredibly enough, the GOP chose none else than Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Governor of Arkansas, to give the response to Biden’s address. Here you have a GOP governor who has been friendly with none else than the leader of the Proud Boys that played a central role in the terrorist attack on the Capitol. Her address was a disaster. She denied practically all that President Biden presented as achievements of his Administration, even though some of his remarks received the applause of the House Majority leader Kevin McCarthy, especially when Biden spoke of the need for political dialogue for the best of America’s present and future. Hopefully, the MAGA gang which, at the moment keeps the republican-controlled Chamber utterly divided, will be defeated in the next elections and American democracy will again continue to be the best example of the world. It is more than time, however, that Trump and all his supporters, who broke the law over and over and have manipulated the legal system to the hilt, be brought to justice and that the courts, especially the Supreme Court, regain their role as upholders of the Constitution. BIO: Tarcisio Beal is professor Emeritus of History at the University of the Incarnate Word. Iconic American artist, muralist, cultural worker & preservationist, Vietnam veteran, patriot, visionary, survivor, mentor, San Antonio born and bred, Westsider, documentarian, Chicano artist. Jesse Treviño ¡Siempre presente! La Veladora of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a 40-foot mixed media mural from 2003 adorning the plaza of the Guadalupe Center of Cultural Arts. Weaponization: Its Social and Political Consequences LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • March 2023 Vol. 36 Issue 2 • 11 Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, will lead the Select Committee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. Credit... Kenny Holston/The New York Times
by Julia Conley, Common Dreams, www.commondreams.org With Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva warning his administration “will not allow illegal mining on Indigenous lands,” the government announced Wednesday that environmental special forces destroyed at least one helicopter, an airplane, and a bulldozer used by “mining mafias” in the territory of the Yanomami people in the Amazon rainforest this week. The raids aimed at removing illegal mining operations involving tens of thousands of ore and gold miners from the region began on Monday, just over a month after the leftist president, known as Lula, took office. The Guardian reported that the special forces set up a base near the Uraricoera River, which illegal miners used during right-wing former President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration. “The Yanomami want peace—that is all they want. And this is what we are going to give them.” Bolsonaro condemned the Yanomami people’s control of the land, the largest Indigenous territory in Brazil, and encouraged deforestation and mining in the Amazon. Roughly 25,000 illegal miners poured into the region during his four-year term. The forces have seized aircraft, boats, and weapons from miners this week. “We are in the process of removing illegal miners from Roraima,” Lula said on social media Tuesday, referring to Brazil’s northernmost state. “The situation that the Yanomami find themselves [in] near the [mining camp] is degrading.” The Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), and the newly-created Indigenous affairs ministry took part in coordinating the raids, with Defense Minister José Múcio monitoring the operation. Sonia Guajajara, who was appointed by Lula to be Brazil’s first-ever minister of Indigenous affairs, surveyed the region, where nearly 30,000 Yanomami live, ahead of the operation. “The Yanomami want peace—that is all they want,” Guajajara told GloboNews. “And this is what we are going to give them.” In addition to degrading the landscape and polluting the waterways of the Brazilian Amazon, illegal mining in the Yanomami land has had a “devastating impact” on the health of the community, Greenpeace said last week: The use of mercury in the activity poisons the land the Indigenous people use to plant food and the rivers they use to fish. By poisoning the water, mercury also gets into the people’s bodies, causing serious health problems, and even death. Besides that, the presence of the miners in the Indigenous territory exposes those living there to other diseases. An explosion in cases of malaria and malnutrition, due to the lack of access to food and traditional ways of production in the Yanomami land, has been a serious threat to the lives of the Indigenous people, especially children. 11,530 confirmed cases of malaria were recorded in 2022 alone. At least 570 Yanomami children reportedly died of curable diseases during Bolsonaro’s administration, and dozens of children have been airlifted to hospitals in recent weeks, suffering from malnutrition and malaria. “More than a humanitarian crisis, what I saw... was a genocide,” Lula said last month after a visit to the region. “A premeditated crime To End ‘Genocide’ of Indigenous People, Lula Launches Raids Against Illegal Miners in Amazon Illegal mining in the Yanomami land has polluted water, degraded the landscape of the rainforest, and spread disease. LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • March 2023 Vol. 36 Issue 2 • 12 Stripped land-Illegal mining on Yanomami land in the Brazilian Amazon. Christian Braga / Greenpeace NOTE: This article is an update to Tarcisio Beal’s article ‘How “Trumpism” and Big Money Poisoned Brazil’ in La Voz’s February 2023 issue.
against the Yanomami, committed by a government impervious to the suffering of the Brazilian people.” On Tuesday, the president said his administration will “restructure everything that exists from the point of view of controlling our Indigenous lands, the environment.” “We are going to try to create a new dynamic,” he added, “to have the results that Brazilian society wants.” BIO:Julia Conley is a staff writer for Common Dreams, a genuinely people-powered and reader-funded news outlet that exists to inform and inspire. those fighting worldwide for a better future. An agent watches as a structure and plane belonging to miners is engulfed in flames Offense Does white and black offend rainbows? You know. My ancestors know. Who has courage to speak? Will you remain silent as in a court of law fearful to betray complicity? Our legacies are entwined. Little heed paid to mine. Yours carried on your tongue, in plats of your hair, in mortgaged souls filled with bullet holes, in fear for your child who sings blues every day on the way to school. What do I know? Some claim truth is too doleful to tell. History too sad to bear. Our pale children too fragile to hear. Unseal the books. Teach history that’s real. Light lanterns of hope. Do not hide atrocities. Let all bells toll. Speak complete truth. Open closed eyes. Dispel every myth. Break this mournful spell. Let healing begin. —Patricia Keoughan What is the Aroma of the Mountain Laurel Blossom? It smells so good, I could drink it. Sweeten the tea with the honey of the bee that fed on its nectar. I know, I know, the flowers are poisonous and contain narcotics. Maybe that’s why the bouquet is so addictive. I could relish its fragrance all year long if I could. Can I get some cologne with the essence of this evergreen? Sophora secundiflora! The name is a poem! The redolence is a muse! I could shampoo my hair, and use crème rinse scented with the aura of the Mountain Laurel. I would roll on deodorant with eau de Colorin. I would sip mescal while I admire the Mescal Bean. Also known as the Frigolito, the Frijollito, and the Frijolillo. Some call it the Big-drunk Bean if you know what I mean. The balm of its incense wafts from fence to fence, so why can’t I bring it inside? When I die, I want to be a butterfly, so I can be a pollinator, and swim in the perfume of this Legume. I’ll put my proboscis into the blossom of my desire. And then, I’ll expire. —Don Mathis LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • March 2023 Vol. 36 Issue 2 • 13 Shack & plane burningIn this image provided by IBAMA, Brazil’s Environmental Agency, an agent watches as a structure and plane belonging to miners is engulfed in flames in the Yanomami Indigenous territory, Roraima state, Brazil, Feb. 6, 2023. Brazilian authorities launched an operation to reclaim Yanomami Indigenous territory from thousands of illegal gold miners who have contaminated rivers and brought famine and disease to one of the most isolated populations of the world. (IBAMA via AP)
The Academy Museum to Feature Gallery Exhibit on Mexican-American Director Lourdes Portillo The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures has announced the opening of a gallery devoted to influential MexicanAmerican filmmaker Lourdes Portillo, highlighting the life and career of the remarkable documentarian, visual artist, journalist, and activist. Born in Chihuahua, Mexico and raised in Los Angeles, Portillo’s documentaries blend experimental and traditional modes of storytelling to focus on themes of identity and social justice in the US and Latin America. Since her first film, After the Earthquake / Después del terremoto (1979), she has produced and directed over a dozen works that reveal her signature hybrid style. Portillo’s 17 films include the Academy Award and Emmy Award nominated Las Madres: The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (1986), La Ofrenda: The Days of the Dead (1988), Columbus on Trial (1992), The Devil Never Sleeps (1994), Corpus: A Home Movie for Selena (1999), Señorita Extraviada (2001), My McQueen (2004), Al Más Allá (2008), and her new short animated film State of Grace (2020). In 2017 she received the IDA Career Achievement Award. Portillo’s exhibit, curated by Sophia Serrano, will be housed in the Significant Movies and Moviemakers gallery, and will be on view between February 19, 2023 and March 17, 2024, focusing on her key projects. The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is located at 6067 Wilshire Blvd in Los Angeles, CA 90036. For more go to: bit.ly/ academy-stories NOTE: The Esperanza Peace & Justice Center hosted Lourdes Portillo in June 2002 screening Señorita Extraviada, Missing Young Woman that documented a 2-year search for the truth behind 350 kidnapped, raped and murdered young women in Juárez, Mexico who mostly worked in the maquiladoras of the region. A plática with the director followed. The film ultimately won multiple honors. LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • March 2023 Vol. 36 Issue 2 • 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.
The 33rd Annual Earthwise Living Day event takes place on Saturday, March 4, 2023 in Leon Valley. For details on the event see www. leonvalleytexas.gov/publicworks/ page/earthwise-living. Candlelight Concerts brings Solero Flamenco to the Josephine Theatre on Fridays: March 10, April 21 & May 12 with shows at 6:30pm & 8:30 pm. And, on Thursdays, March 23 & May 11, A Tribute to Juan Gariel will feature the Adelaide Band with shows at 6:30 and 8:45 pm. For tickets: go to: https://feverup.com/ en/san-antonio/candlelight Save the Date! The 41st Tejano Conjunto Festival en San Antonio will take place May 17-21, 2023 showcasing the best in Conjunto music at Rosedale Park and the historic Guadalupe Theater. Check for a schedule of events at: guadalupeculturalarts. org/tejano-conjunto-festival/ When looking for progressive book titles, check Haymarket Books who publish books that contribute to struggles for social and economic justice. Great source for gifts! Check: www.haymarketbooks.org/ Community meetings and cultural art events are taking place virtually due to continuing concerns about COVID. Check websites, FB or call 210-228-0201 for meetings and events currently scheduled. www.esperanzacenter.org Notas Y Más March 2023 The Latinx Visions: Speculative Worlds in Latinx Art, Literature, and Performance conference will be held March 9-11 at The University of New Mexico. Assistant professor Matthew David Goodwin of the Department of Chicana/o Studies, Santiago Vaquera Vásquez of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, and Cathryn Merla-Watson University from Texas-Rio Grande Valley are coordinating the event. The Latinx Visions conference is focused on developing the growing field of Chicanx and Latinx speculative fiction, art, and performance. This will be the first time that the scholars www.latinxarchive.com working on this topic will convene. Start your 2023 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 And 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! LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • March 2023 Vol. 36 Issue 2 • 15
Noche Azul de Esperanza Come to our Monthly concerts! www.esperanzacenter.org/ Facebook.com/EsperanzaCenter Silviana Wood reads from her debut novel, La Quinta Soledad Friday, March 10, 6-8 @ GCAC’s Latino Bookstore 1300 Guadalupe St., SATX Free & Open to the Public! Co-sponsored with OLLU/Gemini Ink/Aztlán Libre Press Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center Spring Reading Series Kickoff To order La Quinta Soledad visit aztlanlibepress.com 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 LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • March 2023 Vol. 36 Issue 2 • Non-Profit Org. US Postage PAID San Antonio, TX Permit #332 ESPERANZA PEACE & JUSTICE CENTER 922 San Pedro San Antonio TX 78212 210.228.0201 • www.esperanzacenter.org