July August 2024 Vol. 37 Issue 6 San Antonio, Tejas Summer 2024 issue of La Voz July August 2024 Vol. 37 Issue 6 San Antonio, Tejas
La Voz de Esperanza July August 2024 Vol. 37 Issue 6 Editor: Gloria A. Ramírez Design: Elizandro Carrington Cover Art: Liliana Wilson Contributors Nikketa Burges (deceleration news), Selene M. Gomez & Rogelio Sáenz (The Conversation), Kayla Miranda, Ailia Zehra (truthout) 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 Letters with intent to slander individuals or groups will not be published. Death stalks each of us and our end time can be prolonged or come in a flash. So, it happened, with Esperanza Buena Gente, Luci Orta. De repente, she was gone from one day to the next collapsing at home in her hallway and found there by her sister who went by to check on her when she was not answering her phone. A tribute for Luci follows on the next page of La Voz. Luci, being from Montopolis, was eulogized and given a send off in Austin, Texas—a city nearby. A booklet of Valentines with memories of Luci from family and friends was compiled and filled 21 pages including artwork. The tributes folks wrote for Lucy reminded me that we need to start writing Literary Ofrendas for Dia de Muertos to honor the memory of loved ones who have passed. Our dearly departed difuntos can also be remembered with artwork, poems or stories for the November issue of La Voz de Esperanza. We need readers to also try their hand at writing Calaveras, satirical poems that make fun of the LIVING! Calaveras give people the opportunity to kill off folks—family and friends (or enemies) in a comical or funny way. Calaveras, as well as literary ofrendas can be submitted in Spanish (the original language they were written in) or English. Luci would not mind my using this occasion to urge folks to submit Literary Ofrendas (250 word limit) or Calaveras to La Voz de Esperanza for this 25th anniversary issue celebrating Dia de Muertos. As you can see she celebrated with us in 2023 and will be with us in 2024, in spirit! Submit your recuerdos and your calaveras by to [email protected] –Gloria A. Ramírez , Editor of La Voz de Esperanza Luci bought this piece (on Voz cover) from me last year. She was very happy when she took it home. She said, “I like it because I want to have those wings when it’s my time.” Nos reimos y le dije, “Luci, te falta mucho.” With a smile she answered, “You never know.” —Liliana Wilson, fighting injustice with her canvas 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 • July August 2024 Vol. 37 Issue 6• Luci Orta at Día de muertos events sponsored by the Esperanza.
Our Beloved, Luci Orta, has taken flight Lucia “Luci” Orta, age 64, a native of the community of Montopolis, part of East Austin, was unexpectedly bestowed her angel wings on Saturday, June 1st, 2024. Luci was settling into retirement in San Antonio, in her new home, where she passed. She had become one of the Buena Gente of the Esperanza Peace & Justice Center and quickly became a favorite at many events. She was preceded in death by her beloved parents; Lucas and Angelita (López) Orta whom she had cared for selflessly in their last years of life. For Luci, familia was the most important thing in her life and becoming involved in their lives was her way of showing the immense love she had for them. No matter the crises or the celebration involving a family member, Luci was there to see them through it from her youngest nieces and nephews to her cousins and siblings to her parents and grandparents whom she also helped cared for in their last years of life. As new generations were born, Luci was there—nurturing great nieces and nephews and new cousins, as well as their parents. As busy as Luci was, availing herself to her family, she still found time to have a chosen family of friends that included artists, activists, academics and amigxs from everywhere who represented the many communities that she was part of: She was part of the queer community in Austin from the time of ALLGO’s inception (originally, Austin Latino Lesbian Gay Organization) in 1985; part of La Peña Cultural Center (now La Peña Gallery) that in conjunction with Las Manitas Restaurant promoted social justice through the cultural arts; part of Alma de Mujer, a project of the Indigenous Women’s Network that offers gathering space at a retreat center on a 22 acre site in the hills of Northwest Austin; a part of Escuelita del Alma, a child care center for babies to kindergarten children that Luci loved to interact with. Before coming to San Antonio, Luci also worked at Hotel San José in Austin off of South Congress where I saw her often stopping to get a cup of coffee at Jo’s next door. Luci, Li’l Bear, Mi Negra played at life hard—loving everyone and everything immensely. Her smile, her dimples, her trenza, her cap, her being will be etched in the hearts of the many who met her. Her big caring heart allowed her to give of herself selflessly: setting up tents and chairs for cultural events, serving food and drink, painting murals and hanging art exhibits, helping organize rallies and protests, marching, partying, dancing, and loving, most of all. As María Limón wrote: Love is more than a feeling; it’s an action, a way of moving in the world. Lucy made room for people—in her heart, in her home and in her world. She had a way of accepting people, of delighting in them, of celebrating life The Esperanza Peace & Justice Center board, staff, & Buena Gente extend our hearfelt pésame to Luci’s family and community. May the memory of a life well lived sustain the many that loved and were loved by Luci Orta..¡Que en paz descanse! ¡Luci Orta, sumamente, presente! c/s LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • July August 2024 Vol. 37 Issue 6• 3
Journalists Covering 2024 Election Face Hostilities and Fear Police Action Meanwhile, mainstream media organizations have offered little in terms of guidance to ensure the safety of journalists. By Ailia Zehra, Published June 10, 2024 In 2016, as The New Republic reporter Walter Shapiro wandered around a hockey arena in eastern Pennsylvania where former President Donald Trump was holding a rally, he could find no one willing to speak with him. He remembers a middle-aged woman attendee telling him, “Why should I talk to you? You are from the liberal press.” Just days earlier, Trump had falsely accused CNN of turning off its camera to censor his rally. Shapiro, who is currently covering his 12th presidential campaign, tells Truthout Trump’s attacks on the media have grown since then. “When a presidential candidate singles out a news outlet for rebuke, it may lead to reporters from that organization facing a hostile treatment during their reporting,” Shapiro said. “It poses a great danger.” On April 10, 2024, Trump slammed NPR as “a total scam” in an all-caps post on his social media platform Truth Social, demanding the federal funding it receives be cut, after a former NPR senior editor publicly criticized the newsroom as overly liberal. Trump’s remarks led his supporters and major right-wing groups to launch a “Defund NPR” campaign on social media. Fears of Election Violence According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, a nongovernmental organization tracking political violence, right-wing groups including the Three Percenters, Proud Boys, Patriot Prayer and Boogaloo Bois have a well-documented history of using violence during elections. The organization’s research shows that since the 2020 election, 91 percent of violent demonstrations were organized by far right-wing militias. Moreover, a NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll revealed in April that more than 20 percent of the most right-leaning Americans think violence may be needed as a means to secure political objectives in 2024. While election officers are said to be most vulnerable to such attacks, given that they are already being bombarded by threats, reporters covering the elections on the ground also face safety concerns. At least 40 cases of assaults against journalists were recorded in 2023, according to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s annual report. In September 2023, Phil Williams, a chief investigative reporter for a local TV station WTVF-TV, was assaulted during his coverage of a mayoral forum in Franklin, Tennessee. In October 2023, Isaías Amaro, a journalist and publisher of a Spanish-language newspaper, was shot in the arm by a leader of a community organization in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. The leader had previously criticized his depiction in the publication. In September of 2022, Jeff German, an investigative reporter for a Nevada-based local newspaper, was stabbed to death outside his home in Las Vegas. Robert Telles, a local elected official whose potential wrongdoings German had reported on, was arrested and charged with his murder. Hostile Crowds Journalists covering the elections who face allegations of bias often have to deal with hostility in the field. Laura, a reporter coverbit.ly/journalists-truthout LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • July August 2024 Vol. 37 Issue 6• 4 Photojournalist Stephanie Keith is detained outside the Broadway-Lafayette subway station during a “Justice for Jordan Neely” vigil and protest on May 8, 2023, in New York City. Alexi Rosenfeld / Getty Images Copyright © Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.
ing the Trump campaign for a legacy media outlet who asked to be identified by a pseudonym, tells Truthout Trump directs the crowd to boo journalists at every single rally. “Turn around and look at fake news,” the former president said at a recent rally in Georgia as he pointed at Laura and her colleagues standing in the back. “The crowd then started booing us and giving us thumbs down. It felt jarring the first time it happened to me in 2022 when I began covering Trump, but I am used to it now,” she says. On April 18, Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake, while denouncing what she called “fake news media” at her campaign event outside a restaurant in Golden Valley, Arizona, singled out a Reuters reporter who was the only journalist in the crowd. Following her outburst, a man in the crowd shouted that such reporters should be arrested and charged with treason. Reuters has issued no public statement about this incident, but when contacted, a spokesperson for the organization condemned Lake’s remarks. “Such actions are irresponsible and can compromise the safety of journalists covering political events,” the spokesperson, who requested her name be withheld, said. “Reuters is committed to delivering factual, unbiased news on the election in keeping with the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles, as we do around the world.” The spokesperson added that Reuters runs a security check-in fortnightly for its U.S. election coverage team, open to all of its reporters and editors to discuss and review any safety concerns. A spokesperson for The New York Times, Charlie Stadtlander, when asked about the organization’s policy on security training for its reporters covering the election, told Truthout that the Times offers several resources to those reporting from dangerous or divisive situations where their safety might be under threat. “We support our people and ensure they are able to report fully, fearlessly and without intimidation.” However, he did not answer if the Times has had an election-specific security training. Ben Fishel, NPR’s media relations manager, said that the organization provides hostile environment training for its journalists “on a rolling basis several times a year,” but declined to say if NPR has had a security training for election reporters, citing the media outlet’s confidentiality policy. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) recently released a “journalist safety kit” with a set of guidelines for journalists ahead of the election. “Media workers covering the election should be aware of the increased risk of online abuse, including doxxing, and targeted disinformation campaigns designed to undermine the press,” a statement accompanying the safety kit said. Crackdowns on Pro-Palestine Protests Meanwhile, the crackdown on student protesters on college campuses where pro-Palestine encampments were set up has added another layer to the issue of journalists’ safety. Apart from protestors, a number of student journalists who were covering the encampments were arrested or faced violence from police called by university administrations. When the cops in riot gear entered an academic building at Columbia University on the night of April 30, they arrested more than 100 people and barred journalists from covering the crackdown. Samaa Khullar, a Palestinian student at Columbia, wrote in an article that she and her fellow Palestinian student journalist were both pushed outside the campus and onto the street, where they “remained trapped in the cold for almost an hour and a half.” In northern California, local journalists who were reporting on the campus protests were arrested and detained. Reporters from the student-run newspaper at UCLA reportedly faced violent attacks “including being slapped and sprayed with irritants.” Chenjerai Kumanyika, a journalism professor at New York University, who was arrested when the administration called the NYPD at the protest encampment at Gould Plaza on April 22, says he saw student journalists being brutally treated at the protest. Kumanyika was teaching his undergraduate “Introduction to Journalism” class when he heard about the NYU encampment. He decided to give his students an alternative assignment to go out and cover the protest if they wanted. “The encampment was set up right on our campus, so I thought it would be weird not to talk about it in a journalism class,” he told Truthout. A few hours after he and some of his students arrived at the encampment, the NYPD launched a crackdown and arrested more than 100 students and faculty members, including Kumanyika and two students in his class. After his release a few hours later, Kumanyika learned that a student journalist who was covering the protest for the university’s student-run newspaper, Washington Square News, had been pepper-sprayed by the police. The injured student, who requested anonymity, said that no one from the university apart from Kumanyika reached out to him after he was pepper-sprayed. 2024 DNC and RNC The police’s mistreatment of student protesters and even journalists covering these protests portends similar crackdowns on the planned pro-Palestine protests during the upcoming Democratic National Convention (DNC) and Republican National Convention (RNC). Thomas Kennedy, a former member of the Democratic National Committee, said that he was arrested outside the 2016 Democratic Convention in Philadelphia while covering the protests as a journalist. “They let me go after I flashed my press badge,” he told Truthout. Kennedy, who resigned from the DNC earlier this year over concerns about the Biden administration’s policy on Gaza, anticipates the potential crackdown on protests outside this year’s Democratic Convention to be worse. “Police have been particularly hard on proPalestine protesters,” he said. “Ensuring safety will likely be a bigger challenge this year.” As Israel’s latest military offensive in Rafah sparks widespread condemnation, March on DNC, a coalition of several antiwar organizations, is preparing to disrupt the Democratic Convention, which is scheduled to take place on August 19-22 in Chicago. According to the organizers, 30,000 protesters are likely to be present outside the venue. Some observers are drawing parallels between this year’s Democratic Convention and the 1968 convention of the party, also held in Chicago, where police clashed with protesters who were denouncing the U.S.’s role in the Vietnam War. In demonstrators’ clashes with Chicago police, Army troops, Illinois National Guardsmen and Secret Service agents over five days, hundreds were arrested or injured. March on DNC says its demonstration outside the convention, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to U.S. support for Israel, will be “historic.” The coalition has vowed to go ahead with the protest with or without a permit. Nadia LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • July August 2024 Vol. 37 Issue 6• 5
Ahmed, a current member of the Democratic National Committee, echoed Kennedy’s sentiments and told Truthout that these protests outside the convention might result in chaos because police are usually “rougher” with pro-Palestine protesters. Despite these concerns, Ahmed stated that there has been no formal discussion within the DNC about additional steps to ensure the security of participants and journalists who will be covering the planned protests in the event of clashes with police. Demonstrations are also planned outside the Republican Convention, which will be held in Milwaukee on July 15-18, but the GOP is trying to keep protesters as far away from the venue as possible. On May 23, RNC counsel Todd Steggerda wrote a letter to the Secret Service director, warning of potential risks of violence and alleging that it is not doing enough to stop demonstrators from threatening and hurting attendees. However, Omar Flores, a leader of the coalition to March on RNC, told Wisconsin Public Radio that the Republican National Committee is trying to “bully” the Secret Service and the Milwaukee city authorities into violating protesters’ First Amendment rights. He added that he fears his organization will be made to share a stage with other protesting organizations that may hold opposing political views, which would increase the possibility of a conflict. Laura, who will be reporting from the Republican Convention, told Truthout that these security concerns are real but their newsroom has not had any discussions on the issue of safety. “With the Trump trials and everything else going on in the news cycle ahead of the election, journalists are overworked and haven’t had time to think about their own security.” BIO: Ailia Zehra is a journalist based in New York City. She covers politics, social justice and extremism. She is the founding editor of Dissent Today, a digital media platform covering alternative voices in South Asia. Follow her on X: @AiliaZehra Truthout is a nonprofit news organization dedicated to providing independent reporting and commentary on a diverse range of social justice issues. Since our founding in 2001, we have anchored our work in principles of accuracy, transparency, and independence from the influence of corporate and political forces. Your support helps us continue to do the vital work of publishing award-winning independent journalism. Donate at bit.ly/truthout-give. Mexican American Civil Rights Institute 2123 Buena Vista St, San Antonio, TX 78207 Gallery open M-F, 10 am to 4 pm, or by appt For info see: www.somosmacri.org/ or FB LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • July August 2024 Vol. 37 Issue 6• 6
D By Nikketa Burges, Orignally published on May 17, 2024 decleration news: bit.ly/displaced-to-death During the seemingly endless slog that is summer in South Texas, the smell of cayenne pepper from the La Fiesta spice factory caustically mingles with engine exhaust, suspended and heavy in the suffocating humidity. In traffic, I creep slowly toward downtown through the vast skeleton of I-10, experiencing this stretch of my city as it was famously brought to the world in R.E.M.’s music video for “Everybody Hurts.” Hidden behind the on and off ramps, pylons, and retaining walls exists an often invisible slice of our community. This is where he died—alone. Again, my eyes well with tears. Danny, a slight soft-spoken man in his early twenties, had approached me the weekend prior at the syringe exchange where I spent most Saturdays volunteering. (Deceleration agreed to the use of a pseudonym to maintain the subject’s privacy.) “You’re the outreach worker. Can you help me get my ID?” he asked, softly, cautiously. As the line began to swell, I’d hurried him through my station, agreeing to meet with him the coming week near his encampment to start the overly complicated ID recovery process. I never saw him again. Danny overdosed, tucked away from our line of sight, in the shadow of I-10. Our team regularly distributed Naloxone—or Narcan, a drug proven effective in reversing opioid-related overdoses—to encampments in the area. The City of San Antonio’s near-constant abatement of these encampments, however, led to the regular loss of life-saving and sustaining tools like Narcan among this group. For this reason, there was no Narcan in camp when Danny OD’d, and attempts to resuscitate were unsuccessful. Moreover, Texas’s Good Samaritan Law, intended to allow bystanders to call 911 for an overdose without fear of arrest or prosecution, fails to protect people with a history of certain drug-related convictions or who have called 911 for an overdose within the past 18 months. As such, Danny’s group, fearful of arrest, left him where he lay. I wish I could say that Danny’s story is unique; sadly, it is not. Far removed from the sterility of the U.S. Army clinic where I cut my teeth, my days working for the City of San Antonio’s homeless outreach division of its Department of Human Services were spent navigating the epicenter of converging crises—historical and structural racism, the War on Drugs, and late stage capitalism—that led to Danny’s death. More medic than outreach worker, I removed daysold bandages and scrubbed wounds and abscesses to re-bandage them, often with maxi pads when I ran out of non-adherent wound dressings. Negotiating stigma, shame, criminalization, vicarious trauma, failing systems, and structural violence with these walking wounded, I would leave my clients with sterile syringes, cotton, tourniquets, cookers, water, alcohol prep pads, Band-aids, condoms—and Naloxone. I’d arrived at this work from shared experience. THflffiffl fi !" $%&EN)*+,-EN01 SW4567 Unsheltered homelessness is a growing crisis here in the U.S., with an estimated 653,104 individuals experiencing homelessness on a single night in January 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Point-inTime count. However, skepticism exists among researchers and those who work in homelessness services regarding the accuracy of this data, given that the count is done on a single night in January and is based on an in-person survey where volunteers are Encampment Sweeps Increase Death Rates Among The Unhoused Abatements, or “sweeps,” of unhoused communities result in thousands of unnecessary deaths every year in the United States, a former City of San Antonio outreach worker writes. The harms of these crimes are compounded by the acceleration of industrially driven climate change. LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • July August 2024 Vol. 37 Issue 6• 7 The lives of unhoused residents are complicated by sweeps that dispose of what few possessions they own. Image: Wilfredor via Wikimedia Commons
deployed to encampments that are subject to constant sweeps. What the medical and social science research on unsheltered homelessness suggests is that, beyond just San Antonio, the visibility of homelessness has become fodder for politicians whose empty solutions are based more in criminalization than on research-based public health considerations. Cities across the United States have adopted policies that target the unsheltered through what they euphemistically refer to as “encampment sweeps,” “abatements,” or “clean-ups,” practices legitimized through “quality of life crimes.” thu30mayFilm Screening: State of Unhoused Community, San Antonio, TexasCome learn about how to resolve our “homeless problem” and hear real solutions. These are ordinances which prohibit sitting, lying down, camping, living in one’s vehicle, panhandling, and other actions up for interpretation, all of which strike a distinctly anti-homeless tone as laws against loafing and loitering have long done. Though they claim to be about health and safety, these policies have dire consequences for the health and well-being of those they displace—especially in a time of rapidly accelerating climate change driving extreme temperatures known to be especially deadly for those living unsheltered. For instance, a 2023 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association by a team of public health researchers and houseless advocacy organizations highlights the dire health consequences of displacing people experiencing unsheltered homelessness, especially those who inject drugs. In a simulation modeling study of 23 US cities, researchers found significant increases in overdose-related deaths, hospitalizations, and a decline in access to vital medications under policies of forced displacement. More specifically, the study finds that involuntary displacement due to abatement policies would lead to as many as 2,175 additional overdose deaths. Under the same simulation, researchers likewise expect hospitalizations for injection-related infections to surge, with between 611 and 1,360 additional cases due to sweeps. Furthermore, displacement impedes access to essential resources like naltrexone and methadone—what researchers collectively refer to as Medication Assisted Treatment, or MAT—potentially resulting in thousands fewer initiations of these lifesaving treatments. Content blocked. Click Unblock to set your consent level for this website and view the content. Albert Garcia lost his feet during Winter Storm Uri in 2021 and died under a highway off-ramp during the city’s hottest summer on record. His death was ruled an overdose, though some public health experts say heat should have been included as a factor. Similarly, a 2022 study based on in-depth interviews with unhoused people in Santa Clara County, California highlights the adverse health effects of encampment sweeps resulting in property confiscation, forced relocation to dangerous areas, and increased distrust in authorities. Here too, researchers argue that “abatement practices may be a key structural factor explaining the soaring numbers of people who are dying while unhoused,” noting that deaths of unhoused people in Santa Clara increased from 60 per year in 2011 to 203 in 2020. Another study of street sweeps from the perspective of health care providers emphasizes the way displacement policies impact material possessions and increase instability, which in turn affects access to crucial medications and exacerbates chronic health conditions. What these studies underscore is the structural violence embedded in encampment sweeps. Rather than promoting the health and wellbeing of unhoused residents and wider public health, as city officials often claim, such policies in fact exacerbate health disparities among already-vulnerable populations, increasing morbidity and mortality, and increasing risks of diseases like HIV and hepatitis. These findings urge a reevaluation of local approaches to the increasing crisis of homelessness, emphasizing the need for holistic solutions that prioritize support services and address the lack of affordable and permanent supportive housing. But as I witnessed firsthand during my tenure as an outreach worker for the City of San Antonio’s Department of Human Services (DHS), encampment abatement often occurs without providing immediate housing or resources for those affected. Marisa Westbrook and Tony Robinson, researchers at the University of Colorado at Denver, have underscored this reality, revealing that 80 percent of individuals forced to relocate by Denver anti-homeless policies were not offered supportive LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • July August 2024 Vol. 37 Issue 6• 8 Raquel Dias-Sakai, wife of Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai, addressing attendees at the 2023 Annual Advocates March for Houseless Communities. A sign on the podium reads: “Stop Sweeps.” Image: Greg Harman The 2023 Annual Advocates March for Houseless Communities in downtown San Antonio. Image: Greg Harman
services. And as in the research cited above, Westbrook and Robinson likewise find that forced displacement only exacerbates morbidity and mortality, noting that the dismantling of individuals’ shelters leads to a 45 percent increase in weather or exposure-related injuries. As we have already seen locally in extreme weather events like Winter Storm Uri and last summers record-shattering heat, climate change only increases this vulnerability for those who are repeatedly displaced. The head of SAMMinistries, a local nonprofit dedicated to reducing houselessness in San Antonio, told Deceleration recently that as many as half of the 322 unhoused residents who died in 2023 may have lost their lives—at least in part—due to that year’s unprecedented heat. The case of Albert Garcia and SAMMinistries’ recent assessment of heat’s role in increasing numbers of street deaths in San Antonio thus points to a deadly reality: not only does climate change impact unhoused communities first and most violently, but these impacts are then magnified by the demonstrated public health impacts of encampment sweeps. TH:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJMLMNOPQRSTUV MXYZ[A]^_`abcdefAhijklmnCES As the country grapples with a surge in unsheltered homelessness, we see an equally concerning national trend toward what we might call the militarization of social services. According to sociologist Chris Herring in a study of “complaint-oriented policing,” the deindustrialization experienced by Western countries in the late 1970s and 1980s set the stage for the rise of a neoliberal economic system whose hallmark has been a gradual erosion of the welfare state. This shift toward militarizing social services, coupled with austerity measures targeting social programs, resulted in a vast increase in unsheltered homelessness that continues to disproportionately impact BIPOC communities. The City of San Antonio’s homeless outreach program is no exception to these nationwide trends. Initially staffed predominantly by male veterans, this program utilizes outreach workers in an attempt to legitimize abatements or sweeps, displacing the unhoused under the guise of providing social services, as scholars like Herring have documented. This program often operates in concert with an approach Herring terms “complaint-based policing,” wherein community members utilize 311 or apps to report those living unsheltered to authorities and ultimately remove them from public space. Such practices have emerged in response to public resentment towards visible homelessness, leading municipalities across the US to implement “quality of life crimes” or “anti-homeless laws.” Responding to complaints about trash accumulating around camps, typically due to a lack of sanitation access, Nikketa Burges hosted this Earth Day event in 2022. “I organized it to show the community I care about their concerns even if the city doesn’t want to do the right thing. Plus I love that watershed, amazing bird watching.” Artwork: Nikketa Burges Thus, contrary to public discourse we hear on encampment abatement from city leaders, what recent research highlights is the violent consequences of encampment sweeps, which are at best an ineffective tool to manage homelessness and, at worst, an act of deadly violence. The absence of supportive services leads to increased morbidity and mortality among those living unsheltered, a finding that urges policymakers to prioritize compassionate and comprehensive approaches to address encampments, such as providing sanitation services—or, at the very least, stopping their unfounded claim that abatement policies are conducted to promote the health and wellbeing of those they target. Someone I greatly admire once told me that this country doesn’t have human rights; we have civil rights. As I sit with this eviscerating truth, the web of cruelties that are anti-homeless Nikketa Burges, of San Antonio, Texas, is a harm reductionist and person who uses drugs (PWUD). In 2024, she is enrolled as a medical anthropology graduate student in the Anthropology Department, University of Colorado Denver. Nikketa’s background consists of lived and work experience in the child welfare system, homelessness, and sex work. She worked as an army medic, outreach specialist for people experiencing homelessness for the city of San Antonio, and harm reductionist. She is both personally and professionally committed to culturally appropriate and compassionate care for PWUDs and their communities and ending the War on Drugs. LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • July August 2024 Vol. 37 Issue 6• 9 Nikketa Burges author Memorial with photographs of some of the more than 300 local residents who died on the streets in 2023. Image: Greg Harman Continued on Page 11
Opportunity Homes Resident Sets the Record Straight By Kayla Miranda On May 1, 2024, I stood, yet again, in the boardroom of the Opportunity Homes Commission. The last time I was there, I spoke in favor of appointing Ed Hinojosa as CEO of Opportunity Homes Housing Authority (OHSA). Before then, it had been a place of animosity for me and others who were fighting for their homes. Thinking back, I’m truly astonished at the difference since. Community, who spoke had a very clear message. We support the positive changes implemented by OHSA’s CEO and leadership staff that resulted in tangible effects. We support public housing residents— the city’s most vulnerable families. Public Housing is the last line of defense against Homelessness and the only housing option obtainable by many. We are disappointed that the Commissioners, appointed by Mayor Nirenberg, issued an order of Notices to Vacate to public housing residents. It was very clear that the board didn’t understand the order nor the repercussions to residents. We weren’t there to attack, but to educate. Unlike staff members, the commissioners do not interact with residents on a daily basis. Residents are real people, not numbers. Families, not addresses. There are legitimate reasons for the deficits. While there are two resident commissioners, they are not versed in extracting information. None of the commissioners asked the right questions. Instead of the Commission realizing their mistake and taking responsibility for issuing the order, OHSA staff was attacked and belittled. I was appalled with the tone and intention of the chair, Gabriel López. The fact that Ed Hinojosa has such a strong standing in the community is something to be applauded. He didn’t get our support easily. The first time I met him, I told him straight out,” I’ll give you a chance, but it’s up to you to follow through. Actions.” He earned that support. During Public Meetings, the commission can’t communicate with the public. Had I been able to speak up during the questions to staff, I could have corrected a lot of the mis-information. These meetings are designed to be short. It is up to the board to ask the right questions in a few hours each month. The order specified that anyone owing 13 months or more of rent were to receive a Notice to Vacate, the first step in an Eviction Process. It did not consider errors, circumstances, etc., nor did it address the amount owed, meaning you could owe as little as $1. When people say they have done everything possible to pay, they mean for their limitations. When we get involved, it seems the limits of possibilities rise to new heights. Another problem is the chaos created by the benefit backlog. Hundreds of residents in the past few years have asked for help with their SSI, food stamps, Medicaid/Medicare and other benefits that have been interrupted, often for months, by processing delays. When you have to use rent money for food or medical, you don›t get that back. You’ll get the missing months of food stamps but you can’t pay rent with it. Medicaid will pay unpaid doctors’ bills but will not reimburse medications bought out of pocket. Finally, there are issues obtaining documents. New family members cannot be added without it. I’ve worked with Rep. Diego Bernal›s office on all of these problems. I’ve also brought this to the attention of Representatives, Liz Campos and Josey García. I have never spoken to a resident that “didn’t want to follow the rules or pay rent” as was suggested by the board. I wish to address the issue of being “fair” to the residents and those on the waitlist. What’s fair is to provide housing LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • July August 2024 Vol. 37 Issue 6• 10 Esperanza, Historic Westside Residents Association, Councilwoman Castillo, D5 staff, Coalition for Tenant Justice, Texas Housers, Coalition for Dignified Housing met at Casa prior to Alazan Outreach to divide addresses and collect flyers. Kayla and Nadia Miranda, Councilwoman Castillo and Ed Hinojosa at resource fair at Cassiano Homes
as a human right which includes compassion and understanding and to create truly affordable housing, with all the protections and same rent calculations as Public Housing. The Chair prefers mixed income as he stated in his interview with TPR, but that is not the need of the people on the waitlist. It’s not about clearing the waitlist by evicting current tenants. That only puts them back on the list at the end of the line, and creates an endless cycle. {quote{The purpose of housing authorities is to create housing no one else does. It is to protect and uplift the most vulnerable. The commission should be in line with that.}This isn’t a personal real estate portfolio for someone to play with in order to further their own careers. It is a place of people first—of Housing as a Human Right, which was part of FDR’s work that created public housing in the first place. Chair Gabriel López has been on this board long enough to know better. He met with Councilwoman Teri Castillo prior to the notices going out and knew full well what he was doing. He is an “affordable” housing developer and only believes in profitable housing. You can’t just sweep the poor under the rug and hope they go away. You can’t advocate for unaffordable mixed income properties and hope to address the waitlist. What you must do is advocate for more funding for Public Housing. Until people in general stop balking at funding housing, which is an essential need, but don’t blink at the billions going to sports arenas, we will never truly address the issue. Our community is working tirelessly with residents to address these Notices to Vacate. The more we band together, the more we can achieve collectively. As FDR said, “ The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” Unfortunately, the commission voted to fire Ed Hinojosa for their blunder. Look to our next issue for more information on this ongoing battle. BIO: Kayla Miranda, a housing justice advocate organizing in the Westside of San Antonio, resides at the Alazan/Apache Courts with her family. measures—abatement, move-along orders, hostile architecture, drug war policies—begins to unravel. All these components of structural violence work to exclude people not only from achieving basic health and dignity but ultimately from their place in civic life. I write this miles away, both temporally and spatially, from my days spent working in outreach on San Antonio’s streets. I ultimately left my work in outreach without having secured employment and found my way to study at the University of Colorado Denver. My departure driven by a toxic work environment that was allowed, if not encouraged, because of organizational hostility to my vocal opposition against encampment sweeps. Still, my guts churn at the thought of what my former clients might think of this writing, at the thought that I have abandoned my community for the comfort and distance of academia. At the risk of projecting my constant feeling of hopelessness, my fear is that all this writing, the countless emails to local officials, is ultimately a useless endeavor. It will not bring Danny back, nor the innumerable others who have languished and died before our eyes as a direct result of the cruelty of policy failures. These deaths are a reminder, one that often violently bumps up against my self-righteousness, that no matter how well researched our writing, how well written or explained our emails to city decisionmakers, the real question remains: How do we reach into the chests of people and get them to give a fuck? LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • July August 2024 Vol. 37 Issue 6• 11 The author’s sister distributing blankets ahead of Winter Storm Uri in 2021. Image: Greg Harmon Displaced To Death Continued from Page 9 Kayla and D5 staff outreach at Cassiano
Published: May 17, 2024 8:17am EDT The Conversation, bit.ly/the-conversation-states We believe in the free flow of information Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license Five of the seven states widely expected to be political battlegrounds in the 2024 presidential election have populations very much like that of the U.S. overall, in a range of demographic and socioeconomic measures. For decades, the presidential selection season has begun with the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. But in recent years, that practice has been criticized for giving lead-off status in a nationwide election to two of the smallest and least racially and ethnically diverse states. Those two states kicked off the election process again in 2024, though the Democratic Party did not officially participate in the New Hampshire primary, which President Joe Biden won as a write-in candidate. Instead, the first official primary set by Democrats was in South Carolina, a state more like the U.S. than New Hampshire, according to our analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data. Our research has found that there are states even more like the U.S. as a whole – and in fact New Hampshire is one of those least like the country overall. Our work provides a look at which states have a significant political voice in an election season, which ones don’t, and which ones might be worth paying more attention to. Examining population data Using data from the 2022 American Community Survey, a nationwide questionnaire survey conducted by the Census Bureau, we compared each state to the nation as a whole based on five characteristics: • Racial and ethnic breakdown: the share of people who reported their race and ethnicity as Latino, non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian, Black, Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander, white, some other race, or two or more races; • Age-gender distribution: the share of people identified as males or females in various age groups from 0 to over 85, noting that the Census Bureau only offers two options for gender identity; • Educational attainment: the share of people with grade school or high school education, some college, or a range of academic degrees; • Household income: the share of households reporting their income in various ranges from less than US$10,000 to $200,0000 or more; • Occupational distribution: the share of employed workers in various broad job sectors like farming, fishing and forestry; construction and extraction; or sales and related occupations. For each characteristic, we used a statistical method called the dissimilarity index to determine how similar or dissimilar each state was from the country’s demographic and socioeconomic profile. A dissimilarity index score of zero would indicate that the state is exactly like the whole Some states’ populations are very much like the US overall – including 5 key states in the 2024 presidential election Authors Rogelio Sáenz Professor of Demography, The University of Texas at San Antonio Selene M. Gomez Ph.D. Student in Applied Demography, The University of Texas at San Antonio Disclosure statements Selene M. Gomez is affiliated with VoteRiders and Nitlapiani Consulting. Rogelio Sáenz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliatio q qns beyond their academic appointment. Partners bit.ly/the-conversation-partners LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • July August 2024 Vol. 37 Issue 6• 12 Which state best reflects the nation? Lisa-Blue/iStock / Getty Images Plus
country. A score of 100 would indicate that it could not get any more different. We ranked each state’s scores for each characteristic and then averaged those rankings to list the states in an overall order from most similar to most dissimilar. Finding the similarities It turns out that in 2022, Illinois was the state most like the entire country. Illinois resembled the nation more than any other state in its race-ethnicity breakdown, age-gender distribution and household income distribution. It was secondmost like the country in terms of educational distribution, and fourth-closest in occupational distribution. This was personally interesting to us because in the summer of 2009, one of us, Rogelio Sáenz, drove through Illinois, and was reminded by a road sign of the old rhetorical question, “Will it play in Peoria?” As far back as the 1880s, theater producers and others considered the Illinois city of Peoria a microcosm of the nation. In politics, the phrase was adopted to evoke “an ideal place to take the ‘pulse of the nation’ on political campaigns and proposed legislation,” as Peoria Magazine wrote in 2009. Sáenz wondered back then whether the saying was based on any connection to reality. And it turns out that it is, at least if you look at the state Peoria is in: The population of Illinois is very like the population of the U.S. as a whole. Five swing states among those most similar to the US In general, swing or battleground states are those that have similar proportions of Democratic and Republican voters and enough people to have significant clout in the Electoral College. In 2024, there are seven of them. Of particular notice is that five of the 10 states most similar to the U.S. are swing states for 2024. Illinois is not a swing state, but the next three are: North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona. And their fellow swing states Michigan and Pennsylvania are seventh and eighth, respectively. The remaining two at the top of the list are Oregon and Kansas. The two swing states not in the top 10 are Nevada and Wisconsin. Taken together, the seven swing states have slightly more than one-third of the electoral votes needed to win the presidency. Because these states play a pivotal role in the election of the president, they are key focuses of campaign advertising and outreach, as well as candidate appearances. Our analysis sheds light on the role demographic and socioeconomic characteristics have in determining which states are swing states. For instance, the five swing states that are among those most like the U.S. tend to have more racial and ethnic diversity than other states. They also include states that are very like the U.S. in terms of occupational, educational, age-gender and income data. States less like the US Our analysis also reveals how unlike the U.S. New Hampshire is. It’s 45th in the list. South Carolina and Iowa, two other states with early roles in the presidential process, are 20th and 28th, respectively. But the two other swing states are nearby: Wisconsin and Nevada are ranked 23rd and 29th, respectively. Very populous states such as California, Texas, Florida and New York are also different from the country as a whole, though the ways they vary differ. For example, California is similar to the U.S. on occupational distribution but much different on race and ethnicity. Texas is quite similar to the U.S. along socioeconomic lines but very different demographically. Florida resembles the U.S. with respect to race and ethnicity, education, and income but differs appreciably in age-gender composition and occupation. New York resembles the nation with respect to race and ethnicity but differs substantially on occupations. A new perspective The findings can help people think about the different types of diversity in the U.S. population of 336 million people. And perhaps it can be used to influence future choices of which states become the homes of early presidential primaries and caucuses. For instance, Illinois could make a compelling case for being the opening act in future presidential primary elections because it is a miniature of the nation as a whole. Over the course of 51 presidential elections, Illinois voters have cast ballots in favor of Democrats 25 times and Republicans 24 times, with splits in two more elections – and have picked the winning candidate 42 of those 51 times. LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • July August 2024 Vol. 37 Issue 6• 13 The city of Peoria, Ill., is in a state more like the whole U.S. than any other. ghornephoto/Stock / Getty Images Plus
Readers “will find the Latinx historian and academic author’s socialist-feminist-lesbian attitudes thought provoking [and] the book will surely challenge and stimulate readers.”—Booklist Writer and historian Emma Pérez explores race, class, gender and sexuality in her new collection, Queering the Border: Essays. A Chicanx queer lesbian “who honors [her] mother and her plight within patriarchal institutions” that limit women’s choices and opportunities, Pérez writes about issues—including sexual politics and power relations between Anglo and Hispanic men—that have impacted her Tejano family for generations. A historian by training, her work aims to decolonize the Southwest by uncovering voices from the past that validate multiple experiences. Essays reveal the influence of Gloria Anzaldúa’s scholarship; recount the controversy surrounding artist Alma López’s digital print, “Our Lady,” in which the Virgin of Guadalupe appears in a provocative bikini; and evaluate interviews with 25 LGBTQ people in the El Paso/Ciudad Juárez area to expose life on the border as a queer of color. This collection also includes short fiction and an epistolary love poem to the first feminist of the Americas, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, or in this case, Sor Juanx. Bringing together the work of a noted Chicanx writer and academic, this volume reinforces the body of work by LGBTQ people of color dealing with racism and sexism, conquest and colonization, power and privilege, all with a particular emphasis on the Southwest borderlands. “For fans of Ursula K. Le Guin and Margaret Atwood, Testimony of a Shifter is the queer, feminist dystopian novel readers have been searching for.”—Booklist In her new book, Testimony of a Shifter, acclaimed writer and scholar Emma Pérez delves into the prejudice and injustice faced by those who are transgender or are considered different by those in power. Imprisoned by the totalitarian government, Dr. Benito Espinoza practices for his weekly interrogations by recounting his story to his thirteen-year-old daughter. He tells her about turning his back on his ability to shift his gender from male to female—to Alejandra—to become a scholar in the Grand Library. Most academics are Residents who inherited their seats and believe Descendants like Ben don’t have the intellectual ability to be a person of letters. Ben conforms to the laws against transmuting, so he manages to secure a place in the library. His life’s purpose is to prove Descendants are as capable as Residents. But an encounter with a clever, beautiful Descendant leads to his unwitting participation in the rebellion against the Impresario and his White Guards. Soon the shifter is involved with the Rebels, trying to save a younger generation of Descendants and shifters from the horrific experiments and violence perpetrated against them. In a non-linear narrative in which “time is false,” author and scholar Emma Pérez offers a fascinating speculative novel about alternate histories, while pondering race, discrimination and transgender people. Emma Pérez is the author of Queering the Border (Arte Público Press, 2022), The Decolonial Imaginary: Writing Chicanas into History (Indiana University Press, 1999), three novels and numerous personal essays. Her novel, Forgetting the Alamo, Or, Blood Memory (University of Texas Press, 2009) received the Christopher Isherwood Writing Grant, the National Association for Chicana/ Chicano Studies Regional Book Award for fiction in 2011 and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards in 2010. Her book, Electra’s Complex (Bella Books, 2015), is a mystery that mocks the perils of academe. Pérez was born in El Campo, Texas, and lives in Tucson, Arizona. Arte Público Press is the nation’s largest and most established publisher of contemporary and recovered literature by US Hispanic authors. Based at the University of Houston, Arte Público Press, Piñata Books and the Recovering the US Hispanic Literary Heritage project provide the most widely recognized and extensive showcase for Latino literary arts and creativity. For more information, please visit www. artepublicopress.com. To order Books go to: bit.ly/emma-books LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • July August 2024 Vol. 37 Issue 6• 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 July August, 2024 IXPAHTLI: New Chicane Prose Edited byire’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. On and off campus, students, activists, and other radicals are working to build durable infrastructures of community, care, and liberatory organizing—learning lessons from the past and investing in the future of our shared struggles for freedom. In service of this work, we’re offering 5 essential books—exploring abolitionist, feminist, anti-capitalist, and life-sustaining social movement practices and lineages—for just $50. www. haymarketbooks.org 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 • July August 2024 Vol. 37 Issue 6• 15 or call 210-228-0201 to donate Your donation helps us advocate for you. Support the Esperanza www.esperanzacenter.org/donate
Voz de La Paloma: Un Homenaje a Beatriz Llamas Sat, Aug. 17, 2024 Esperanza Peace & Justice Center 922 San Pedro Ave, SATX More info will be forthcoming on Esperanza’s FB and website, www.esperanzacenter.org Beatríz Llamas, La Paloma del Norte, was the first Tejana to sing at Madison Square Garden and was inducted into the Tejano Music Hall of Fame in 1995. As an elder, she was part of the Esperanza Peace & Justice Center’s, Las Tesoros de San Antonio passing at age 84 on May 15, 2023. This Homenaje will feature an afternoon singing contest for young women ages 10 and up honoring Beatriz’s own rise to fame beginning with Ranchera singing competitions. A musical finale will announce the winners and feature special performances with guest singers and Mariachis. 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 Join us every Second Saturday of the month at the Casa de Cuentos to share your memories of the historic Westside. Casa de Cuentos • 816 S. Colorado St. Call 210.228.0201 for more info Non-Profit Org. US Postage PAID San Antonio, TX Permit #332 LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • July August 2024 Vol. 37 Issue 6 • ESPERANZA PEACE & JUSTICE CENTER 922 San Pedro San Antonio TX 78212 210.228.0201 • www.esperanzacenter.org Pictured: 2023 Contestant by Antonia Padilla www.guadalupeculturalarts.org/cine-festival