April 2023 Vol. 36 Issue 3 San Antonio, Tejas
La Voz de Esperanza April 2023 Vol. 36 Issue 3 Editor: Gloria A. Ramírez Design: Elizandro Carrington Cover Art: Linda Monsivias, Instagram: Elpunoylamano Contributors José Yole Centeno, Dr. Ellen Riojas Clark, Greg Harman (Deceleration News), Rachel Jennings, 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 Letters with intent to slander individuals or groups will not be published. National Historic Preservation Month is next month in May. The Esperanza Peace and Justice Center celebrates by having an annual festival: Paseo Por El Westside. Originally intended to promote advocacy of historic places and sites in order to promote tourism on a national and state level, National Historic Preservation Month has now become much more communitybased and includes the preservation of cultural practices as well—at least, in San Antonio. The opportunity to remind folks that the Paseo is coming up on May 6th presented itself when Lilliana Saldaña, professor at UTSA and Esperanza boardmember, wrote to connect me with her brother José Centeno who was doing archival research on the history of Centeno Supermarkets in the Westside of San Antonio. The story ofthe Centeno Supermarkets with is offered to our readers as springboard into the celebration of National Historic Preservation Month in May. In addition, a wonderful illustration that Linda Monsivais drew for the story turned out to be perfect for the La Voz front cover. A full schedule of events for the Paseo Por El Westside on May 6th will be included in the next issue of La Voz de Esperanza. Meanwhile, send in your stories and articles to [email protected]. – Gloria A. Ramírez, Editor of La Voz de Esperanza Jo Ann and Gilbert Murillo died within a month of each other to continue their lives together beyond this world. On this earth they celebrated 62 years of marriage. A power couple in their church community of St. Patrick, they were also both social justice advocates working individually and together on issues of civil rights, political campaigns and neighborhood development, more recently in their home environs of Government Hill. Avid travelers, they joined religious tours to Fatima and Lourdes and witnessed the canonization of Pope John Paul II in Rome. Jo Ann spent her professional capital as a nurse organizing events and serving community through her work at the church, public schools and at San Antonio College. Gil, a social worker, was involved in urban planning and community organizing. Both were esteemed supporters of the Esperanza and would often come by the office to chat or comment on the latest ventures of Esperanza’s work. Gilbert even wrote several articles for La Voz de Esperanza including Esperanza as a Mother Ship to El Barrio: a White Paper. It came as a shock to hear of Gilbert’s passing and a surprise to know Jo Ann, too, had passed. Both Jo Ann and Gilbert will be warmly remembered and held up as models of civic involvement— they cared enough to be involved even as they aged—until they could, no longer. Our deepest sympathies to their families, friends and colleagues. May they rest in peace and power! Gilbert Murillo August 30, 1930 – March 3, 2023 Jo Ann Murillo March 16, 1940 – February 7, 2023 LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • March 2023 Vol. 36 Issue 2 • 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 Photo Credit: Marisol Cortez Blanca Rodríguez, aka Blanca Rosa of Las Tesoros de San Antonio, sang at the 2022 Paseo Por El Westside.
By José Yole Centeno Do you remember when you’d walk into a Centeno supermarket and instantly be welcomed by the smell of fresh pan dulce? Do you remember when Centeno supermarket showed their solidarity with union farmers and only carried union-made grapes? Do you remember eating tortas and churros at the movies at Cine Mexico with your family and picking up groceries at Centeno’s right after? If you remember, please enjoy this article down memory lane and enjoy the pictures! If you were born after 1990 like me, then I invite and welcome you to read an important piece of Westside history. This is a story of San Antonio’s biggest independent grocery chain that had a vision that was far ahead of its time—a time when independents and small family businesses could thrive in our city. At one time the largest independent grocer in San Antonio, Centeno’s Supermarket began with José “Joe” Sr. and Jesusa “Jesusita” Centeno. José Sr. was born in Matamoros, Mexico, and was the son of a physician. He and his father found their new home in Laredo, Tx, where his Father continued to practice medicine. In 1914, José Sr. decided he did not want to follow his fathers footsteps to pursue a career in the medical profession and moved to San Antonio to look for his future and found it in his love for the retail business, working at a dry goods store. As a young man he worked with Joe Barash who owned two clothing stores and Isidor Brenner, the founder of Solo Serve, furthering his skill set in the retail business. Jesusa Centeno was born in Floresville, Texas. In 1922, she met José Sr. by chance while she was visiting her sister in San Antonio. Within a two week romance-filled courtship, they got married. In 1928, the Centeno’s soon began selling groceries out of their small home on 415 Rivas Street. Jesusa Centeno took care of the business at home while José Centeno Sr. ventured early mornings to do the buying at the city markets and went to his job where he worked selling clothes for Brenner’s. In 1930, they were able to focus on their business full time with Jesusa as Treasurer and José Sr. as President with their three children Joe Jr, Lilia (Lily), and Eloy. As the family grew, so did the business and by 1940, the family moved locations to 500 Arbor Place. With hard work and perseverance during the Great Depression, they built this small operation at a time when few Mexican Americans were succeeding in business. On November 9th, 1948, the first Centeno supermarket (Store NO. 1) which would serve as the family’s flagship was located at 2300 W. Commerce and later renumbered as 1802 W. Commerce St. Centeno’s opened their doors with open arms, proudly serving the Westside by the Westside, described as “the finest and most independent supermarkets in San Antonio with a free parking lot to fit 500 cars and with 8 checking counters.” Centeno’s supermarket attracted the Prospect Hill communities with genuine hard-to-find Mexican food ingredients, large Carnecería, Produce, Pandaria and a Pharmacy. While the Supermarket was represented and managed by the sons, Joe Jr. and Eloy Centeno, Jesusa Centeno retained her role as SecretaryTreasurer and continued to be a familiar sight at this location. Greeting customers, bagging groceries, anything to make her patrons feel they were getting the attention they deserved. She would train hundreds of employees who would later run successful retail operations of their own. She was the truest definition of a matriarch, a pioneer of the modern woman, a guiding force in the development of the city’s first successful Mexican Do you remember Centeno Supermarket? LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • April 2023 Vol. 36 Issue 3 • 3 Centeno Grocery and Meat Market on Colorado and Rivas Street
American owned business. Joe Jr. would speak for the store until his unexpected death in 1956 due to a sudden attack of appendicitis. This left the family devastated, and were caught in a vulnerable moment when Howard Butt of H-E-B. expressed his sympathy through a stationary cream colored letter. Within 24 hours, H-E-B executives visited the supermarket with a proposal to buy out the store. José Sr. thanked them for their offer and declined but would never forget how H-E-B tried to exploit the family during their time of grief. Neither would Eloy. That experience set the tone he needed to pursue his brother’s vision of expansion. Eloy took on the position as president of the company, and with his leadership, began to expand and with time Centeno Supermarket naturally became a cultural institution of the Westside, preserving and uplifting the communities that they served. In 1968 Store No.2 located at 319 Castroville Road and Barclay opened its doors. It was architecturally unlike any other grocery store in San Antonio — it was extraordinarily large, with 25,000 square feet and its exterior exuded a Spanish-Moorish style with large arches, lamps, and tejas (roof tiles).Within four years, the chain expanded to Store No.3 located on Interstate 35 and Southcross. In 1976 Store No.4 on 3481 Fredericksburg Road (Currently H-E-B university) and a few months later, Store No. 5 located on 511 Fair Ave. In the 1970s, Centeno partnered with other businesses, notably with Cine De Mexico and Big Star Family Center discount stores. Both of these partners would be at the Castroville location, and the combination of these stores would later be coined as Centeno Marketplace, that included toy, auto, clothing and furniture departments. “¡Si Centeno no lo tiene, es que usted no lo necesita!” Centeno’s was known for curating and providing a selection of national brands but also known for importing popular Mexican products you couldn’t get at an ordinary supermarket. These items included nopalitos, chili ancho, chili cascabel, piloncillo, chocolate Mexicano, chili poblano, mole pipian, mole verde, jícama, papaya, mango, tomatillos and hundreds of other foods. This is exactly what made Centeno’s stand out from other competing grocers at the time. Eloy Centeno believed in being socially involved. He was a volunteer official for the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army and other charities. In 1970, Centeno became the first Mexican American trustee of the City Public Service board. He also partnered with Raul Jiménez by volunteering the store’s ovens to bake turkeys for the Thanksgiving community dinners that are hosted to this day at the Henry B. González Convention Center. He ensured that the store offered toy sales every December so that they were affordable for families in the Westside. He also sponsored celebrations with free food and entertainment by famous Mexican recording artists and film actors like Mario Moreno “Cantinflas”. The store’s expansion came to a halt the next decade, followed by a two year price war known as the Great South Texas Grocery War that took place from 1983-1985. Eloy Centeno accused Kroger Stores Inc. of Ohio and H-E-B Stores Inc. of Corpus Christi, of raising prices 11.9% higher in cities such as Laredo, Brownsville and Corpus Christi, while their prices remained low in San Antonio. This impacted smaller businesses in San Antonio who could not compete and went bankrupt, thus making room for Kroger and H-E-B to monopolize the grocery market in the city. Eloy made the case that this practice, known as predatory LA VOZ 1948, Centeno Supermarket 1803 W. Commerce St. Photo courtesy of ITC. de ESPERANZA • April 2023 Vol. 36 Issue 3 • 4 José Centeno Sr., Cantinflas, Eloy Centeno. Photo courtesy of Raquel Centeno.
pricing, was illegal under federal antitrust laws. “The consumer is king and if you act individually and collectively, you will be able to bring sanity to a situation which, if left unchecked, will lead to economic disaster for hundreds of allied suppliers, related businesses and thousands of employees. This will also mean higher food prices for you.” (Said Eloy Centeno in an advertisement raising awareness in the community where he predicts what will happen.) This statement rings true now in 2023, as we are struggling today with higher food costs. In 1985, Centeno Supermarket won a lawsuit of an undisclosed amount against H-E-B for predatory pricing. Towards the end, Centeno’s reported losing about a million dollars a year, causing shareholders of the company to pull out before declaring bankruptcy. Employees decamped and branched out to the bigger chains in 1990. The last property standing on Southcross had closed its doors as a Centeno Marketplace but later in the year, converted as a flea market (Centeno’s Pan Am Flea Market) until it officially closed its doors in 1997. Eloy Centeno passed away November 13th, 2008 at the age of 78. At a time when the Westside was considered to be hardcore unemployable, Centeno supermarket created employment, with skilled laborers, many of whom started their own businesses. It created an economy, and became a cultural institution of the Westside. Like much of history made by working class Chicanos/Mexicanos, this history has been and is at risk of erasure. It is my desire and interest to preserve this history, one that rightfully belongs to the Westside. That is also an interest of the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center and the Museo del Westside. BIO: José Yole Centeno, born and raised in San Antonio, is a musician, organizer, and youth advocate and a proud resident of the Westside. I personally welcome and invite our community to be a part of an exhibit dedicated to Centeno Supermarket at the Museo del Westside in the near future—an exhibit that will consist of photos, mixed media, articles and memorabilia. It would bring me great honor and joy to read and receive testimonies of stories and photos of our communities and families at Centeno’s supermarket and with your consent, include them to be part of this archival journey. —Please write me at: [email protected] LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • April 2023 Vol. 36 Issue 3 • 5 Opening Centeno Marketplace #3 on Southcross, November 19, 1972. Opening new Centeno Market on Guadalupe St. April 1068. Eloy Centeno at the 500 Arbor place location,1940. Photo courtesy of ITC.
The Esperanza’s annual celebration of all things Westside in San Antonio takes place Saturday, May 6, 2023. Join us from 9am to 3pm at the Rinconcito de Esperanza, 816 S. Colorado to experience Aquellos Tiempos: those times in the Westside of San Antonio when tienditas thrived in every neighborhood; those times when plantas medicinales in our own yards were used as remedies for all sorts of ailments of both, body and soul; those times when self-care practices included limpias, sobadas and remojadas; those times that took the whole person into account when curanderas did their thing to cure gente. Walk the streets of the Westside and see the historic homes, photohistorias and cultural sites while listening to authentic stories. Come experience the ambiente where children still played games outdoors with songs and rhymes; where the music and songs of the barrio wafted from neighborhood radios; and where the smells of home-cooked meals evoke memories of your grandma. Enjoy performances, poetry and storytelling that bring the past alive and visit the MujerArtes clay cooperative while taking a sneak peak at the Museo del Westside. All the while, learn how to get involved in the preservation of your neighborhood homes and traditions. ¡Que Viva el Westside! Paseo por El Westside WORKSHOPS • Healing: Plantas Medicinales• Curanderismo • San Arte Healing • Reb ozo Healing • Lim pias• Artes: Ojos de Dios• Bailes de Tiem p os Pasad os• Making Piñatas• MujerArtes clay arts• History & Preservatio n: The history of y our ho me • Prese vr gni bi hxe’seli hC: s dooFl anoiti darT• edistse Weht ni noit acfirt neg• edneVeS oNoirr aBi M• sair o me mgni ppa M• st ne mucodyli maf ti , LaVida Vegana, Raspa dem onstrations• Ju e g os Infantiles Tradicio nales: La Rueda de San Miguel • La Vib ora de la Mar • La Raspa • y mas! • Plus! Musica en viv o • Poesia • Fo o d•Wal king Tours• Fotohistoria scanning of photos• y mas! • Música y Canto Plantas Medicinales Teatro/Poetry/Stories Eats & Drinks Children’s Games Demonstrations Dance & Song
By Greg Harman, Deceleration News, March 6, 2023 With a growing list of false and stretched statements justifying its war on migratory birds, it’s time for the City of San Antonio to stop with the poop scares and make room for a bit of wildness in our parks. Also: The wading zone at the celebrated San Pedro Culture Park is really, really foul. Why did the San Antonio River Authority just stop testing it? On Friday, members of the Texas Historical Commission voted to table a request by the City of San Antonio to destroy about 50 trees at the San Antonio River’s headwaters in Brackenridge Park for a bond-funded project. Meanwhile, later this month, kayaks, canoes, and paddleboards will be available for rent at Elmendorf and Woodlawn lakes on San Antonio’s Westside. The first event is yet another setback for a city that has proven ready to misrepresent itself repeatedly about the redevelopment effort contingent on eliminating birds and trees to better “tell the story of water in San Antonio.” The second bit of news may signal for some that San Antonio’s waters are getting safer for swimming. While creeks and rivers to the far east and west of San Antonio—mostly outside our highway loops—are known to sometimes meet contact recreation standards, the waters across the bulk of the city center remain anything but safely swimmable. Generally, Elmendorf looks good for paddling above the water. At Woodlawn, maybe less so. “We simply don’t have enough data points at Woodlawn Lake at this time to make statements on water quality with high levels of confidence,” Shaun Donovan, San Antonio River Authority’s environmental sciences manager, told Deceleration. The reality of our dense urban environment means that E. coli, a bacteria that thrives in the digestive tracts of animals, finds its way daily into our rivers and lakes. Urban wildlife, outdoor dogs and cats, failing sewer lines (we have a few), and migratory and nesting birds all play a part. The U.S. Department of Interior summarizes the risk by writing that “usually harmless, E. coli can cause illnesses such as meningitis, septicemia, urinary tract, and intestinal infections. A recently discovered strain of E. coli (E. coli 0157:H7) can cause severe disease and may be fatal in small children and the elderly.” SARA data on Woodlawn Lake is limited to three recent samples, all of them higher than advised for contact recreation. Two of the three are higher than advisable even for canoeing or kayaking with limited water contact. Source tracking for many years by the San Antonio River Authority confidently assigns blame for nearly half of E. coli in local waters to non-avian wildlife. Fifteen percent is traced to wild birds, by comparison. This fact hasn’t stopped the San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department, however, from promoting a message of avian fouling to justify its campaign to drive migratory birds out of city parks and along portions of the San Antonio River using pyrotechnics, lasers, mylar balloons, chemical sprays, and more. Such efforts began quietly around 2018 in Brackenridge Park with installation of chemical sprays on retired (though still publicly utilized at the time) playground equipment. Here efforts to dislodge a rookery of cattle egrets (a riotous space often shared by other species, including snowy egrets, cormorants, yellow-crowned night herons, and others) expanded alongside efforts to remove more than 100 trees at the park for a bond-funded redevelopment project. While the City adamantly disputed any linkage between bird displacement and the proposed tree removal, the City’s own project descriptions and testimony originally included both tree and bird removal as a goal of the project. A member of the US Army Corps of Engineers that came to San Antonio for a workshop on the project wrote in his personal meeting notes that the effort in Brackenridge was mainly about displacing the birds. Open records work by Deceleration also showed staffers at the Texas Historical Commission disputing internally statements by City of San Antonio officials suggesting the proposed tree removal was being required by state and federal regulators. (We made all these records publicly available.) After a year-long delay and slight reduction in proposed tree-removal numbers thanks to strong public opposition and a resultingly skeptical Councilmember Jalen McKee-Rodriguez, City workers descended on Brackenridge in force last month and, still without clearance to remove any trees, began chainsawing large limbs to make nesting more difficult. Phase one, which would have required destroying 50 trees, including some towering heritage trees, was tabled last week at the Texas Historical Commission meeting in Austin after dozens of San Antonio residents voiced their displeasure—a consistent message from a core group of residents committed to protecting the birds, trees, and waters of the park. Residents of River Road neighborhood showed up before the THC with technical argu- ments, Deceleration was told, as to how the river wall can be restored without removing towering heritage trees as proposed. Time would be needed to review, THC members said. Meanwhile, radical Is San Antonio Not Big Enough for a Rookery? A lone egret peers out at Bird Island at Elmendorf Lake Park on San Antonio’s Westside, recently dripped in bird exclusion flags and balloons. Photo: Christo Salazar LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • April 2023 Vol. 36 Issue 3 • 7 Egret nests removed from Bird Island to be relocated to Mitchell Lake Audubon Center on San Antonio’s Southside. Photo: Greg Harman
anti-nesting efforts continue at Brackenridge where the City has screened the public out of large areas of the park. Similar efforts have also returned to both Elmendorf Lake Park and Woodlawn Lake. The first major escalation in this war on migratory birds came in December 2019 when City workers laboring alongside state and federal wildlife officials razed Bird Island at Elmendorf Lake Park. That summer, a past local president of the local Audubon chapter warned that cattle egrets could not be assaulted without doing harm to other egrets, including the great white egret, symbol of the Audubon Society itself. Anne Parrish’s letter to Mayor Ron Nirenberg noted the Westside community’s “great spiritual love” of the decades-old rookery at Elmendorf and asked of then-gathering efforts to remove the birds: “The question remains: Where will the birds go?” Aubudon at the time recommended a series of actions that could have been pursued, included banding and tracking birds to ensure the right birds were even being targeted in the first place, modifying or moving the landfill supposedly attracting the birds and leading them across military flyways, and investing in bird radar to better protect pilots. “Since bird strikes are pervasive in military and commercial air operations and many strikes are not the result of nesting birds such as those at Elmendorf Lake, we feel that more research of long-term technical solutions is mission critical and can help the entire US with this ongoing problem,” Parrish wrote at the time. COSA preferred, to exclusion of most other listed options, the final recommendation. It urged a response to “induce the birds to relocate” by “radically altering the habitat.” Former City Councilmember Shirley Gonzales and others at the time justified the destruction as necessary because of a supposed threat posed by the birds to Air Force traffic at Kelly Field. Most of the residents engaged at the time were skeptical of such justifications and opposed the effort. The dislocation advanced due to four recorded strikes involving cattle egrets over nine years at Kelly Field—a drop in the bucket compared to roughly 500 total wildlife strikes documented at Kelly by the US Air Force during that same period. Even with marginal strike count and no definitive tracking of those birds back to the rookery at Elmendorf Lake Park rookery, lake-area neighbors had their homes flyered on the City’s dime with strained warnings about the risk of exploding planes over the Westside. So the violence went forward and Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation ending up taking in more than 50 young birds from the eviction process, most of whom did not survive. The Brackenridge rookery (which increased in size after the Elmendorf displacement) is an ideal location for the birds. No air traffic being impacted. No neighbors complaining. So the City’s message about Brackenridge Park’s rookery is not as shrill. The Express-News sounded the poop alarm on Brackenridge last month. In a lengthy article with no counter arguments provided, current Audubon chapter president Britt Coleman was quoted at length as to where he would like the harassed birds to relocate (spoiler: both were private parks on the Southside charging entry fees). Considering it is beyond our technical ability to lead the birds to any desired new rookery location, entertaining this line of discussion only provides more smoke for the City’s demonstrably dishonest campaign against the birds. (Audubon itself took many of the cattle egret nests seized during the decimation of Bird Island at Elmendorf in 2019 only to watch them rot in place, unoccupied, at their Mitchell Lake reserve.) As Grant Ellis of the City’s Parks Department told the Current last week, the City is powerless to direct the birds anywhere. “Birds may end up going wherever they go. It is impossible to know,” Ellis told the Current. Displacement efforts could very well drive these birds into private neighborhoods resulting in an escalating of bird-directed violence. The Express-News suggested driving out the rookery of migratory birds could “improve bird biodiversity,” and offered a possible return of cardinals and mockingbirds to the park, if this effort is successful. Cardinals and mockingbirds. If they chose to, the City and Brackenridge Park Conservancy could simply rope off the area of the rookery and invite the Witte Museum and San Antonio Zoo to collaborate on interpretive signage for the public. Where else can people observe a living wild rookery? With no Air Force complaining, the only real tension here is one of desired end use. It could be COSA is anxious to launch kayaks on the river’s headwaters after its redevelopment work is complete as is happening at Elmendorf and Woodlawn. LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • April 2023 Vol. 36 Issue 3 • 8 Elmendorf Lake Park, December 2019. Photo: Greg Harman
That should be on the table for debate, as well. Every park has unique character and denizens worthy of consideration. It’s interesting that, all poop warnings aside, limited water quality data at Elmendorf Lake suggests the quality there has not changed since the destruction of Bird Island and displacement of hundreds (thousands?) of regularly roosting birds in December 2019—and maybe even got a bit worse over 2020 and 2021. Woodlawn is more of a black box. When more regular testing was happening (way back in 2007) E. coli levels at Woodlawn were measuring the in the hundreds around the boat dock but in the tens of thousands pretty consistently nearby. (Check our reads with the SARA Bacteria Dashboard.) It’s curious that SARA has not been testing at Woodlawn Lake regularly given the steady rise of interest in restoring contact recreation and the ongoing re-naturing of so many miles of waterway. SARA only committed to regular weekly testing going forward now that water sports have been approved. In other words, the policy changes appear to be trumping science. So after folks have been paddling for a year or so we’ll know more about how well advised that was. What is troubling is that SARA does not appear prepared to post notices on high bacteria days. Steve Graham, assistant general manager of the San Antonio River Authority, told the San Antonio Report that, even in the absence of such data, recreation is a mater of personal responsibility. “Really, it’s up to the individuals who are recreating on that water to make that decision,” Graham said. “And the vast majority of the time, the water quality is very good.” And this is precisely what is wrong with the children’s wading area at the celebrated San Pedro Culture Park’s Plaza de Fundación. San Pedro Culture Park In the shadows of a stacked I-10 interchange on the western edge of downtown there is no teeming rookery. Avian contribution to water E. coli levels here is believed by SARA to be minimal. A towering metal sculpture releases a steady sheet of recirculated creek water into a natural aquatic playscape. Since the San Pedro Culture Park opened with a designated wading area for children, the levels of E. coli here have been monstrous. We don’t know how bad the levels are this month because after years of chronic documented exceedences of state standards for even modest levels of human contact, the San Antonio River Authority stopped testing the water. A decision was made to stop trying to respond to heavy bacterial load periods by drying out the area. Instead, the agency opted to let the water flow and direct attendees to discreet warning signs sharing visual space with an image of happy children splashing: “Wade at your own risk.” That message reads like a legal contract: “The Plaza de Fundación may be used for responsible water contact—shallow wading only. Caution, wading area may be slippery, there is no lifeguard on duty, and the creek water may occasionally contain high bacteria levels. By entering the Plaza de Fundación wading area, you take full responsibility for your protection and safety.” Some may recall that after opening in 2018, SARA shut the park down to fill in some deeper features to dissuade people from submerging themselves in the water. Wading had been expected; swimming had not. The public was told at the time that the changes were no big deal. It was a response to unexpected uses and (secondarily) a single “spike” of bad water, the former director of the San Antonio River Authority told the Express-News at the time. “The water quality testing went through every loop and had just one big spike,” said Suzanne Scott, now serving as director of the Nature Conservancy’s Texas chapter. “But now the water quality is good. We don’t have a concern about that.” Similar to the use shift at Woodlawn, SARA only had a handful of water quality tests for the location before the Culture Park opened. The park quickly reopened. Broad shallow lanes of free-flowing water were left open for wading children to splash and others to cool themselves in the lengthening summer heat of San Antonio. But the water quality didn’t get better. The “poop,” it turned out, is a consistent feature of the park’s waters. On a recent visit, City workers were spraying the area with a potent algaecide, which they confirmed they do “every couple of weeks.” If it’s helping, it wasn’t apparent several days later, when the water was thick with ropes of algae. SARA staffed blamed that on a light rain followed by deepening drought. The average level of contamination here (or geomean) is listed as 722 MPN/100ml. MPN stands for “most probable number,” a statistic method employed to understand the concentration of an organism like E. coli. The Texas standard for wading (defined by state water code as “primary contact recreation 1”) where likelihood of ingestion of water is considered high tops out at 126 MPN/100ml. Wading activities where water access is more limited or less frequent (defined as “primary contact recreation 2”) has an upper threshold of 206 MPN/100ml. Paddling above the water is limited to 630 MPN.[for detailed information and table, E. Coli Count at San Pedro Culture Park wading area (2021-2022), go to (insert bit.ly)] Of course, children are not supposed to drink the water or get it up their noses. E. coli is a convenient indicator for general water quality and also points to other likely concerning contaminants beyond the scope of this assessment. But it’s worth a note: The brain-eating ameba, Naegleria fowleri, has been found in poorly chlorinated “swimming pools, splash pads, surf parks, or other recreational venues that are San Pedro Culture Park Photo: Greg Harman LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • April 2023 Vol. 36 Issue 3 • 9
poorly maintained,” according to the CDC. Some may remember the death of a six-year-old child from a brain-eating amoeba ingested at a splash pad in Lake Jackson a couple years ago. Previously, SARA itself had been fairly aggressive about monitoring the water here—and trying to limit public access during periods of high bacteria load. SARA’s website still reads: When rainfall in the watershed that flows into the San Pedro Creek is equal to or greater that a quarter of an inch, the San Antonio River Authority will suspend water flow into the Plaza de Fundación and initiate a daily water quality testing protocol recording the E. Coli levels until the levels no longer exceed the State Standards. Once the levels are within the standard, the water flow to the plaza will resume. However: SARA stopped testing the water at the Culture Park wading zone this year and also stopped cycling the fountain on and off to limit water exposure, SARA’s Donovan told Deceleration. There is now consistent water access, no testing, and (still) no public notices of dangerous exceedences. Again, personal responsibility is extended into the a question of obviously heightened risk. Donovan said the risk at the Plaza playscape is “basically none.” He wrote: “Recreating in public spaces is always the choice of the individual. Whether someone is swimming at the Culture Park or a lake or a river, cycling on a greenway trail or walking/hiking in a public park, they have to make the choice that’s best for them. …[T]here is always an inherit risk to outdoor recreation. Bacteria contamination is a concern primarily as it relates to the possibility of someone ingesting water, by eliminating the realistic possibility of submersion at the Cascadia feature, the chances of ingesting water are basically none. In summary, if people choose to wade at the Cascadia, they have an extremely low risk of adverse health impacts due to water quality.” For our money (and much of this is created and maintained with our money, yours and ours) we’d prefer entering into risk relationships with local waters with up-to-the-date data available. Call it informed responsibility. And while, yes, we plan to paddle these waters, the lakes at Woodlawn and Elmendorf should have public signage where any would-be paddler could check recent water quality, minimum. Any area designated a wading area for children should have clean water, minimum. We can recommend the splash pad at Hemisfair that draws on a regular supply of SAWS potable water and integrates treatment technology in its recirculation system, as the park’s spokesperson told us. As for the birds, the City of San Antonio and its supporters seem to have made up their minds that our city will not host a rookery, a decision that puts us at odds with the birds at Brackenridge Park today but appears also to be settling in as a policy norm without any significant public discussion. Deceleration objects. This decision—not one pitting “passion” against science, but one of diverging values—deserves an honest public airing just as the proposal the fell the elder trees in the park received last year. That process improved the City’s proposal at Brackenridge, reduced the total tree “take,” and continues to be refined through public challenge in ways that could save even more of the towering heritage trees. It could be water quality issues in the headwaters are impacted by the rookery beyond what is observed elsewhere. Preliminary data collected over about six months and shared with Deceleration by SARA suggest bird poop may have a slightly outsized role in causing high bacteria levels in the headwaters, but it’s far from understood. The limited amount of data (about 30 data points at Joske’s Pavilion, closest to the rookery) is why SARA doesn’t make “definitive statements” about the contamination source, we were told. (The Zoo’s outfall remains roughly as significant here.) Given that recreational use at Brackenridge isn’t a thing, E. coli in the waters there is not a human health concern. And if there are residual ecological fallout, it’s limited. It’s also, you know, what rookeries do. They don’t exist to smell nice for us or even play well with others. But: “If that becomes about swimming [at Brackenridge],” Donovan said, “that’s another thing.” And that should be part of the community conversation. Just as we did for the tree “chop” proposal, we need a public conversation about the birds, whose natural habitat in and around the city we continue to improve as a community and make more attractive to them. While some are forecasting the end of the rookeries inside of San Antonio, the reality is that this is a choice we are making even as we await their return from the Gulf Coast and points further south. It’s worth reflecting that right now there are more than 100 trees still standing in Brackenridge Park because a handful of residents—mostly unaffiliated with traditional environmental organizations, mostly women, many Indigenous identifying—refused to accept the official plan for them. These birds deserve the same determined resistance until such a point as we have a truly community-led rookery management plan in place that recognizes the City itself as the original colonizer of the land with all the incumbent responsibilities to wild nature that entails. Any who would be willing to forgo a recreated “story of water” in exchange for a bit of a wilder San Antonio experience courtesy of our feathered relatives could check out our previously published “In Praise of Nuisance Heronries.” Honestly, we don’t know about you, but we’ve got plenty of “cardinals and mockingbirds” in our ‘hood already. But a full-on rookery? Now that is a marvel to behold. As the birds begin to return to their place of birth to raise new families in San Antonio this season, we say let them nest. BIO: Greg Harmon, freelance journalist and photographer, is founder and co-editor of Deceleration News—an online journal responding to our shared ecological, political, and cultural crises. See: deceleration.news The story of water. What eliminating a migratory bird rookery and 100 trees will get you. Concept drawing for Phase One of Brackenridge Park 2017 bond-funded redevelopment project. LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • April 2023 Vol. 36 Issue 3 • 10
by Dr. Ellen Riojas Clark, et al. Artists are important to society. Art works are more than paints, canvases, and brushes. They are more than just pieces in museums, catalogues, books or on walls. They are sparks. Sparks that ignite fires—sparks, that ignite revolutions! Every major revolution began with art and books. Major religious, political, cultural, and social revolutions have been documented by artists. Powerful, world-changing art pieces did not spontaneously appear. They were not conceived by committees, or others. They were created in one mind, by one artist. Greater than the desire to be an artist is the desire to paint something of consequence. To paint truth. Like the work of José Esquivel, who laid the foundation for Chicano art. It is an honor for mis C/S colegas—Santos Martínez, Cesar Martínez and I, Ellen Riojas Clark, to speak about José Esquivel in this tribute, an artist of such passion, vision, and a true revolutionary. The artistic revolution began with the artists and visionaries, José Esquivel, Jesse Almazán, Jesús María “Chista” Cantú, Felipe Reyes, José Garza, and Roberto Ríos. Cesar Martínez calls them the ”original Westside artists” because they all came from the “pozo” and were of the same generation. First, it was simply El Grupo, according to both Cesar and Santos, then Los Pintores de Aztlán, then Los Pintores de la Nueva Raza, then finally Con Safo. In 1969, I met José Garza and Felipe Reyes, members of Los Pintores, in a Mexican American history class at SAC, where they ignited group discussions. Later in the fall of 1970 at Trinity University, I met Santos Martínez, who was already a member of Los Pintores and I was asked by José to join this group of excellent artists and visionaries. Con Safo kept expanding its membership, and the following artists joined the group: Mel Casas, Jesse Treviño, Rudy Treviño, Cesar Martínez, Carmen Lomas Garza, and Amado Peña. Then Kathy Vargas, Roberto Gonzáles, Rosario Ezquerra, Luis Jiménez, Rolando Briseño, etc. All of us under the guidance of the initial and subsequent leadership of, especially, José Esquivel. It was a dynamic, intellectual time to be at the brink of a revolutionary time, to define Chicano Art. My role was to capture the thoughts, ideas, and vision of who and what was a Chicano artist and what was Chicano art: Was it a genre in itself? Imagine being involved in the discussions regarding the vision of the group, the development of the Brown Paper Report, and then the mission statement for Con Safo. José Esquivel was the framer of the C/S artistic quest in his quiet, dignified manner. Without raising his voice, he could quiet the forceful voices with his straight to the point questions or succinct points bringing us back to the question at hand. All of these artists, at those times including, José Esquivel, had never been invited to exhibit in any museum or major gallery. The proof is, all are now recognized and exhibited in major institutions, museums, galleries nationally and internationally. It has almost taken, for some, a lifetime. To quote Cesar Martínez, “José was an excellent, serious, low-key, very dignified man with an authentic vision of the culture of the barrio he grew up in and was a great influence for me as well as for many others who have pursued that type of art which came to be known as “Chicano Art’.” He had encyclopedic knowledge of how San Antonio developed politically and socially and it Cesar Martínez: José was an excellent, serious, low-key, very dignified man with an authentic vision of the culture of the barrio he grew up in and was a great influence for me as well as for many others who have pursued that type of art which came to be known as “Chicano Art”. José Esquivel Artist and Revolutionary LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • April 2023 Vol. 36 Issue 3 • 11 The book “Con Safo: The Chicano Art Group and the Politics of South Texas” features this 1972 photograph of the group, which included, from left, Santos Martínez, Jesse Almazan, Carlos Espinosa, Roberto Rios, Felipe Reyes, José Esquivel, Vincente Velásquez, Mel Casas and José Garza. —Courtesy of Mel Casas Collection, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Photo: Ricardo Romo Continued on Page 14
by Rachel Jennings On February 16, 2023, seven months before his scheduled execution on September 13, Henry “Hank” Skinner died of complications from surgery to remove a brain tumor. In this way, Skinner escaped being injected with the expired, medically unapproved drugs the state of Texas uses to kill inmates. Insisting on his innocence, Skinner had been sentenced to death in 1994 for killing his girlfriend, Twila Jean Busby, and her two adult sons, Elwin Caler and Randy Busby. Twice before his death, in 2010 and again in 2011, Skinner received a stay of execution. Too closely resembling intentional torture, the first stay was announced just twenty minutes before he was to be executed. A brain tumor is a painful way to cheat one’s executioners. Knowing how desperately Skinner had resisted the shame and humiliation of execution, I felt strangely happy for him. For Skinner, a natural death was a victory. But why? His recent death has inspired me to compare the cultural meanings we attach to capital punishment and chronic or terminal illness, whether a brain tumor, cancer, or some other disease. Admittedly, cancer is my personal fixation. A two-time earlystage cancer survivor, I have been treated successfully for both endometrial and Stage II breast cancer within the past five years. As a survivor, I am fascinated by the ways in which cancer became part of my public identity during treatment. People would remark that I was a “brave” survivor or someone with “faith” who did “not give up.” In reality, I responded to my cancer diagnoses with anxiety and fear. So great was my psychic torment that I found it impossible to write in my journal, read books, or even watch movies. Our culture, though, has a deep emotional need for cancer heroes, something I am not. In contrast, how differently we perceive death row inmates who must struggle daily to maintain hope and sanity. In the public’s imagination, those inmates are monsters, irredeemable demons who deserve an expeditious and painful death. Public and Private: Intimations of Mortality Cancer patients and death row inmates alike must unceasingly negotiate the public and the private. Both the cancer patient and the death row prisoner do hard time in the mind jail, experiencing deep social isolation as they face their mortality and pray on this occasion to be spared. Doctors and nurses, ethically bound to maintain confidentiality, help construct this hermetically sealed space of privacy for cancer patients. Employers, likewise, maintain strict standards of confidentiality regarding employees’ medical conditions, a circumstance that protects workers but also can prevent them from sharing their grief and fear with others. On death row, likewise, secrecy is paramount. With motives that differ from those of oncologists, infusion nurses, or patients’ employers, prison staff limit death row inmates’ access to the outside world. At the scheduled time of execution, prison staff kill inmates with as little publicity and transparency as legally possible—not to protect inmate privacy but to avoid public outrage and lawsuits. Resisting this intense isolation and secrecy, allies of cancer patients and death row inmates try to raise public awareness and publicize individuals’ stories. Celebrities from Lance Armstrong to Sharon Osbourne and Melissa Etheridge promote cancer prevention and funding for cancer research. Cancer non-profits organize fun runs and telethons and, depending on the type of cancer, promote the wearing of pink, blue, green, yellow, orange, or red ribbons. Sadly, these ribbon awareness campaigns have sometimes become too pervasive. For example, breast cancer “pink washing” has allowed companies to print pink ribbons on everything from maxi pad packaging to cereal boxes to yogurt containers and milk cartons. As a marketing tool, pink ribbons allow companies to profit from cancer patients’ suffering while failing to generate funds for research or cancer care In general, however, most public awareness campaigns are earnest efforts to support cancer patients, fund health care, and seek a cure. Death penalty abolitionists, too, have publicity campaigns. These efforts include protests, vigils, letters to the editor, podcasts, and legislative lobbying days. Like cancer awareness campaigns, death penalty abolitionism has widely recognized figures as spokespersons: Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy; the actors Martin Sheen and Susan Sarandon; Chris Stapleton, who recorded the song “Death Row;” and many others. Unlike cancer advocacy, which can burnish the public reputations of celebrity spokespersons, however, death penalty abolitionism is controversial and polarizing. Derided as out-of-touch, elitist liberals, public figures who denounce the death penalty often pay a price professionally. Sister Helen Prejean: Personal Friend, Public Advocate In popular culture, the person who most epitomizes the antideath penalty movement is Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking (1993), a nonfiction account of how she served as spiritual Capital Punishment: Private Anguish, Public Advocacy LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • April 2023 Vol. 36 Issue 3 • 12 Rachel Jennings, far left, and the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (TCADP) protest against the execution of Carl Buntion.
adviser to convicted murderer Patrick Sonnier. After accompanying Sonnier to the death chamber, she becomes spiritual adviser to other inmates and also speaks out publicly against the death penalty. In her vocation as spiritual adviser, Prejean listens to inmates’ most private expressions of boredom, rage, guilt, and fear. After Sonnier, she has accompanied several other men to the death chamber in their final moments. At the same time, in her role as the world’s most famous death penalty abolitionist, Prejean has a very public role. She delivers hundreds of public talks each year, writes articles and books, and meets with political and religious leaders, including even the Pope. In The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions (2005), Prejean recounts the histories of two death row inmates she believes were innocent, Dobie Williams and Joseph O’Dell. Reading her account, one senses the tension between her role as spiritual adviser and her demanding schedule of public advocacy. What makes her work even more demanding, though, is her private anguish as her best friend of more than thirty years, Ann Barker, once a nun in her own order, lays dying of breast cancer. Faced with an agonizing dilemma, Prejean must decide whether to stay at her dying friend’s bedside or to be a public advocate. At one juncture, advocates for O’Dell have asked Prejean to fly to Richmond, Virginia, to speak at a press conference in the desperate hope that public pressure can save him. Later, these advocates ask her to travel to Italy to speak to the Italian Parliament, meet with Pope John Paul II, and embark on a sort of tour of Italian cities in order to bolster opposition to the death penalty. O’Dell’s life might depend on her efforts. Meanwhile, cancer has taken a cruel toll on the body of her best friend. Thus, she must negotiate between her personal friendship with Ann and the duty to save O’Dell. Distraught by Ann’s suffering, she visits her beloved friend as many hours as she can. “After each round of chemotherapy and fierce doses of radiation, which burn her terribly,” Prejean writes, “the defiant tumors keep growing—in her back, in the fluid seeping into her lungs, even in the long scars across her chest where her breasts had been. It’s a vicious cancer” (57). Ultimately, while wanting to stay with her friend, Prejean flies to Richmond for a single day to voice support for O’Dell. Since Ann is close to death, Prejean turns down the invitation to travel to Italy but agrees to write a letter to Pope John Paul II. When she accompanies Ann “to the hospital for bone and liver scans and we wait together for the report,” Prejean writes, “I think of Joe O’Dell, who reads his life-or-death scans in Fourth Circuit and Supreme Court verdicts’ (113). Succumbing to breast cancer, Ann Barker dies. Contrasting her friend Ann’s death with the premeditated execution of Joe O’Dell, Prejean observes that Joe will “not simply die, he will be killed” (113). After her friend’s death, Prejean describes a “jagged empty space” inside her, which she understands to be “a lonely new freedom” (136) that allows her to focus entirely on opposing the death penalty. The memory of her friend, who died when “not yet sixty years old” (112), motivates Prejean to continue her struggle against premature deaths by execution. For Prejean, the ravages of cancer mirror the brutality of capital punishment. Her graphic descriptions of her friend Ann’s cancer echo her detailed accounts of executions she has witnessed. In this way, Ann’s cancer becomes a metaphor for the “vicious” (57) cancer of capital punishment. Although the sanitized, pseudo-medical theater of lethal injection disguises the torment of persons killed by the state, Prejean suggests, their deaths are as psychically painful and terrifying as deaths by cancer. Death by Natural Causes Last fall, my mother was placed on hospice care. While I do not know her exact views on the death penalty, my mother cared deeply about social justice and treating all human beings with dignity and respect. Unlike prisoners who are executed, my mother lived a full, long life in which she was treated with respect and compassion. For decades, medical doctors did all they could to prolong her life, treating her for a range of debilitating illnesses, including leukemia, congestive heart failure, and severe osteoporosis and arthritis. After she entered hospice care at the age of eighty-eight, there were do-not-resuscitate orders and an end to aggressive medical treatments, but hospice care providers did not hasten the end of her life or torture her with announcements of her impending death. Her natural death with family and loved ones at her bedside is the death that everyone deserves, including those who may have taken a life. My mother, a white middle-class schoolteacher, died peacefully surrounded by love. In death as in life, though not wealthy or wellconnected, she embodied a certain sort of racial and class privilege. Death row prisoners, usually people of color, poor people, or mentally disabled, do not die peacefully. Nothing represents the racism, classism, and able-ism of our society so much as the death penalty. BIO: Rachel Jennings teaches English at San Antonio College and is active with the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (TCADP). Her wish is to see the end of the death penalty in Texas and the U.S. She is also a boardmember of the Esperanza. Heartfelt condolences from the Esperanza staff, board and Buena gente to Rachel on the recent passing of her dear mother, Hilda. May she rest in peace and continue to comfort her family with the memory of a well-lived life full of love. Hilda Jennings: Clinton, Tennessee August 8, 1934 - January 19, 2023 LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • April 2023 Vol. 36 Issue 3 • 13
was this understanding that shaped his artistic storytelling. According to Santos Martínez: “He was honest and gracious, exhibiting a kind and generous heart in his willingness to always help and be of assistance in whatever ways he could. He was a storyteller. Many of his works have a story behind them. I recall on several occasions José commenting on the profound impact and influence his grandmother and mother— both loving and nurturing but strong women—had on him. Given their importance, it is no coincidence he often references women in his artwork. Shaped by the forces of his surroundings, José Esquivel recalled his grandmother’s spirituality, and especially, his mother’s constant refrain urging him to one day find a way out of ‘este pozo’.’’ Since the beginning, José understood the cultural richness of his barrio or “the community cultural wealth, cultural capital, or the counter stories”of his barrio long before academics coined these terms. He called it his “barrio, his “familia”, his reality. Esquivel became known for focusing on the neighbors he knew growing up in the barrio, the working-class residents and family caretakers who had not previously been considered worthy subjects of paintings. Santos Martínez writes the following: “In finding his creative voice, José would frequently convey his authentic self in his artistic expression. He intuitively had developed a distinctive—what I refer to as—a barrio sensibility; a tu sabes, straight from the heart, raza/mi gente subject-matter for ‘fine art.’ In the process, he seldom wavered from his cultural roots, heritage, and identity. The barrio with its inherent challenges, the human condition, and strong women became recurrent themes throughout his body of work.” José Esquivel was mi amigo y colega desde los 70s: un artista inolvidable, an archivist, and a dedicated family man. You were a natural teacher, a philosopher, a dedicated soul, un artista. I will miss our late-at-night long talks, as you waxed so eloquently about what is still needed for our communities, our future work—and kept urging me to write the “real” story of CS. I/we will write the “tu sabes” story, your story of CS. The monumental Chicano sculpture that you conceptualized so many years ago, telling the Chicano story reflecting our history, culture, and traditions will happen at the gateway to the Westside. We promise. It is so hard to believe that you are physically gone but I remember you daily when I go past your two works in our living room. We’re are so heartbroken. You left us as a strong artist, as a lover of you studios in the barrio and elsewhere, as a dedicated man to his wife, family, and his community and always with a new artistic vision. We will miss you greatly but your work will live forever. You are a great artist y amigo. Ay, José, tantas memorias desde los C/S days. ¡José Esquivel, C/S, Presente! ¡José Esquivel, C/S, Presente¡ ¡José Esquivel, C/S, Presente! Bio: Ellen Riojas Clark is Professor Emerita in the Department of Bicultural Bilingual Studies at UTSA. LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • April 2023 Vol. 36 Issue 3 • 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. Artwork: Esquivel, “Nuestra Señora.” 16’x20’: Photo by Ricardo Romo Esquivel Continued from Page 11
Green Spaces Alliance announces its Picture Your World Nature Photography Exhibition. Thirty winners from age groups: 8-12 & 13-18 will be selected. Cash prizes for 1st, 2nd & 3rd place winners. Photos must be submitted by 5pm on Friday, April 7, 2023. Winning photos will be framed & exhibited at the Witte Museum from May to August 2023. Check: https://bit.ly/notas-green-space Candlelight Concerts brings Solero Flamenco to the Josephine Theatre on Fridays: April 21 & May 12 with shows at 6:30pm & 8:30 pm. And, on Thursday, May 11, A Tribute to Juan Gabriel will feature the Adelaide Band at the 6:30 and 8:45 pm performances. See: https://bit.ly/ notas-candlelight for tickets. The city of San Antonio, Texas, is holding general elections for mayor and city council on May 6, 2023. To see a list of candidates go to: https://bit.ly/ notas-ballot ¡Su Voto es Su Voz! Your Vote is Your Voice! 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 April 2023 The 41st Annual Tejano Conjunto Festival en San Antonio 2023 takes place from May 17- 21 at the historic Guadalupe Theater and Rosedale Park. See bit.ly/tejano-festival for complete schedule. 11th Annual SA BOOK Festival April 15 @ 9:00 - 5:00 pm in downtown San Antonio at the Central Library & UTSA Southwest Campus. Go to sabookfestival.org for a full schedule of events ...with 100 notable local, regional and national authors! New!Chicano/Latino Art Collection The Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas, Austin, has acquired 5,650 works from the Gilberto Cárdenas & Dolores Garcia Collection, one of the world’s largest assemblies of Chicano and Latino art. The Blanton has established the position of associate curator of Latino art and will open two new gallery spaces for Latino art, with the first exhibit devoted to portraiture by Chicano artists. See blantonmuseum.org 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 • April 2023 Vol. 36 Issue 3 • Artwork: Ester Hernandez, Sun Mad, 1982 15
Join the Esperanza every 2nd Saturday of the Month as we come together and celebrate and reflect on the beauty of the Historic Westside. Come with memories, stories and photographs for our storytelling session. And bring an empty tummy (there will be a potluck!) Casa de Cuentos • 816 S. Colorado St •10am Call 210-228-0292 for info on photoscanning Second Saturday CONVIVIO Noche Azul de Esperanza Saturday, April 15 @ 8pm $7.00 más or menos • Doors open at 7:30pm Call 210-228-0201 for more information or go to www.esperanzacenter.org/ Facebook.com/EsperanzaCenter Save the Date! María E. Martin Renowned pioneering Public Radio journalist María E. Martin will be returning to the Esperanza for a special event in April! Call 210-228-0201 or visit www.esperanzacenter.org for more info Haven’t opened La Voz in a while? Prefer to read it online? Wrong address? TO CANCEL A SUBSCRIPTIONEMAIL [email protected] CALL: 210.228.0201 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 LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • April 2023 Vol. 36 Issue 3 •