Academia de Cruz Medina

Tucson Weekly and Video of Noam Chomsky Education Lecture

2012-02-15T08:15:00.000-08:00

"Hey Were You in the Tucson Weekly?"

(Photo by Zachary Vito)

I got that question a couple times yesterday before I finally went online and found the Tucson Weekly's photo story on Noam Chomsky. My recent post on Chomsky lacks the high quality photos of Zachary Vito, so I'm going to post a couple below with the image of yours truly.

Check out my notes from Noam Chomsky's lecture.

And Tucson Weekly's Photo Coverage.

Or the Video of Chomsky's lecture from Arizona Public Media.(I ask my question at 1:26)

(photo by Zachary Vito)

Internet Memes Representing the Public Discourse

2012-02-14T08:55:00.000-08:00

The Six Part Syllogisms of Spatial-Visual Rhetoric
In addition to the Academic Coach Taylor Tumblir I've tweeted for its hilarious mash-up of Football coach and Feminist theory, these six paneled What People Think I Do memes have been circulating with images of everything from Director to Stay at Home mother.

The ones below came to me through go old Facebook, and the most salient feature about the comments posted by the people posting these plays on stereotypes, assumptions and exotification/over-romanticization of different professions is that people tend to comment "So true," or "If you are such and such, then you'll totally get this."

I suggested there's a syllogistic aspect of the arguments built through the series of point-of-views, and there's a definite recognition of public discourse in terms of what others are supposedly "thinking" or what we imagine they are "thinking." There's certainly some truth to all of these and the numerous and seemingly un-ending variations hint at the acceptance of this kind of literacy practice, possibly for the immediacy and expectation of narrative resulting in a punchline.

Noam Chomsky at University of Arizona

2012-02-08T23:09:00.000-08:00

“Education for Whom and for What?”

Noam Chomsky spoke at the U of A this evening and I had the chance to not only attend his lecture, but also ask a question during the Q&A session and got him to sign a copy of Hopes and Prospects. Below are the notes of Chomsky's lecture, introduced as the "most cited living author" and third most cited behind only Plato and Freud.

He began by asking the question "for whom is education," explaining there were two fundamental ways of viewing the question.

The Elitist Intelligent Minority Viewpoint
1. Higher education was for elites, keeping the rest dumbed-down with technical training. In the 1920s, there were essays expressing this view about education for the elites. It said there was a necessity to distinguish between the responsible minority and the meddlesome outsiders, and the intelligent minority had to be protected from the herd.
He referred to Emerson who said something to the effect of needing to educate the majority to keep them from the minority's throats, frightening them into obedience through education.

Chomsky explained the framing of the Constitution was actually inspired by the elite, intelligent minority rationale. At the conference on the Constitution, the idea was put forward marginalize the public or they'd be trouble. And if they were allowed to vote, they would take land away from the rich. So, the Constitution set about to reduce democracy, keeping power in the hands of the Senate which wasn't voted on at the time.

Relating the forms of governmental control, Chomsky referenced Aristotle, who discussed and analyzed the different forms of government, finding democracy the least bad. Still, the idea of the poor taking the rich's money existed, although Aristotle didn't see it as a bad thing eliminating inequality, creating a middle-class, sometimes referred to as welfare state kinds of measures.

Chomsky also mentioned Hume, who Chomsky said describes government as founded on opinion.

Education is for Everyone Viewpoint
Advocating Jonathan Rose's The Intellectual Life of British Working Class, Chomsky said everyone should read Rose's piece which contrasts the pursuit of knowledge by working class Britain versus the philistines of the aristocracy.

Comparing the pursuit of knowledge by working class to the 19th century U.S., Chomsky pointed out that blacksmiths would hire young men to read to them the classics while they worked. His point was that there was a genuine pursuit of knowledge by working class people that taken away from people as the U.S. began to shift economies, where in which factories didn't allow the same kind of high culture enrichment. Chomsky specifically speaks of the factory girls who made these criticisms, feeling their dignity taken from them along with their intellectual pursuits.
In 1930s, there had been lively programs for worker education. Chomsky remarked that his own unemployed working class relatives at the time took part in high culture education programs, watching performances of Shakespeare and other activities.
He spoke of images from the Enlightenment regarding education. He spoke of pouring water into an empty vessel, which Chomsky admitted tended to have cracks allowing for contents to leak out.
He then spoke of the image of the string laid out which symbolized the path a student could take, following the string in the direction of the student's curiosity. This cocept came from Humboldt who started university system in Germany.

No Child Left Behind
Chomsky then discussed the state of science and how many over-strict procedures emphasizing rote memorization of scientific facts took the value and enjoyment of discovery out of how science is taught. Science became a game of recalling boring facts. He then explained how he'd gotten around Chemistry in college by not attending large lectures, skipping labs and filling in the lab books results that were logical based on the desired outcomes of the labs. He passed with an "A." This example he used to compare to the No Child Left Behind policy that's been around 10 years without progress, adding that serious education is radically different.

At MIT, where Chomsky teaches, he has a colleague who teaches science. Whenever a student asks the colleague what will be covered during the semester, the colleague answers: "It doesn't matter what we cover. It only matters what you discover."

Post World War II, Chomsky argued, changed the U.S. system of higher ed. The U.S. emerged as a global force. The U.S. pioneered mass education motivated by transition from agricultural economy to industrial economy. In the industrial system, people once again shed culture, and some went on strike for more dignity, feeling like slaves.

New Spirit of the Age
Gain wealth and forget all self.

No longer preservation of commons, protecting common forests from predatory acts of kings and nobles. The failure to attend to commons will be our undoing. [Applause from audience]

New drive to make everything a commodity. Chomsky cites Marketing and PR firms desire to "create wants", stimulating consumerism, paying attention to fashionable consumption.
Chomsky questions whether the New Spirit will be overcome, or whether we'll just be lemmings marching over the cliff?

After WWII, there was a shed of old world baggage. There was less desire to study in Europe for students in U.S. Those fleeing Europe were feared and disdained. Starting fresh was important.
There was a change in the nature of the economy with an impact on the university.

Disregarding economist Adam Smith's advice to the colonies of pursuing the competitive advantage and getting advanced goods from advanced countries, the U.S. did not become a third world country.

A memorandum by Lewis Powell rejected the civilizing effect universities had on the large population. He advocated for a certain kind of free enterprise, lobbying on behalf of tobacco and federal subsidies while also arguing that too much democracy was trouble. The public was supposed to be passive and apathetic [a return to both the intelligent privileged minority and similar to apathy toward politics of majority].

He ended his discussion speaking about a fee-free college in Mexico he admired, comparing to the current state of California's universities that are becoming more expensive and corporatized, educating only the privileged. Referring to his home campus of MIT, Chomsky said he recognized the influx of corporate funding and the threat of not renewing contracts. However, Chomsky said there wasn't an secrecy around the corporate funding at MIT, unlike some other schools which have had scandals. His point being that corporations push for short-sighted findings that produce financially beneficial results while overlooking long term potential results.

Q&A
I was fortunate enough to be the second person posing a question during the question and answer portion. I started by saying the majority of people there believed education is for all, and in light of issues like No Child Left Behind and HB 2281, how were we to find hope and inspiration as educators?

He responded talking again about the free university in Mexico and the student movements currently going on.

There were many more questions about the Occupy Movements which Chomsky supported, hoping that the strategies by the movement wouldn't have diminishing returns and that the people who the activists are trying to connect with (the rest of the 99%) aren't turned off by the occupy tactic.

I apologize for spelling and other errors, but I'm writing this the night of, directly from notes.

[Much love to Jerry Lee for snapping this snazzy pic]

The link to the video of his Feb 7 talk: What is Special about Language?

Also here: http://education.azpm.org/azconnection/video-segment/2012/2/9/119-what-is-special-about-language/

Tis the Season for Conferences

2012-02-06T14:16:00.000-08:00

March Madness

It might only be the beginning of February, but I'm gearing up for March.

I mentioned the international conference on Technology, Knowledge and Society I attended at UCLA in January and that was only the beginning of the presentation pandemonium to come. Somehow, I managed to submit to conference convening primarily in March.

First off, I'm off to San Marcos, Texas where I was a predoctoral fellow. There, I'll be presenting as a part of the Tejas Foco of the National Association of Chicano and Chicana Studies Tejas Regional Conference.

As in the image above, I will then be in St. Louis, Missouri from March 21-24 for the 2012 CCCC. As a past CCCC Scholar for the Dream, I always look forward to attending the ceremonies along with this years scholars--one of the PhD students I peer-mentor is one of this year's award recipients. Not to mention all of the great NCTE Latina/o Caucus workshop/meetings.

Rounding out March, I'm heading to UCSD for the 2012 Cultural Studies Association Conference, themed CULTURE MATTERS from March 28 through April 1.

I'm getting tired just thinking about all of the travel, but I think these conferences reflect the intersections of my research interests and will charge my scholarly battery with great presentations and discussion.

Crossing boundaries and speaking in foreign tongues like a pochteca...

More Bad News for Latinos in Arizona

2012-02-04T16:26:00.000-08:00

Candidate For City Council In Arizona Removed for 'Lack of English Proficiency'

(image taken from: heatherleila3.blogspot.com)

Another case of calling the validity of Latinos into question in the contested state of Arizona. Lawmakers put through bills like SB 1070 calling into question the legality of all Latinos' citizenship and HB 2281's challenging of the validity of Latino/a history. Now, in protection of governmental power, a candidate whose primary language is Spanish is removed from City Council ballot due to her perceived proficiency or lack of in English.

From Huff Post Latino Voices:
"A Yuma County Superior Court judge touched off a furor last week when he disqualified Alejandrina Cabrera, a candidate for city council in San Luis, Arizona, from running for office over what he called a "large gap" between her English proficiency and that required to serve as a public official."

Written by Mary Slosson for Reuters

Online Universities, High-Pressure Enrollment and High Debt

2012-02-04T16:14:00.000-08:00

Considering Going to an Online College, Watch this First

So this isn't my typical kind of post, but a recent recommendation to follow the sponsored University of Phoenix Twitter feed reminded me of this Frontline video should be a must-see for anyone thinking of attending an online university:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/collegeinc/view/?autoplay

I've spoken with students who've been contacted by these universities who pressure college-age people who hadn't been thinking of going to college, and hadn't tried affordable alternatives like community colleges, and the university salespeople "help" students enroll, take out thousands and thousands of dollars from the government and other loans. As the video explains, many students never graduate and are left thousands of dollars in debt that's leading to the next housing-loan type of economic downturn.

Once again, I'm not trying to talk anyone out of going to college, but I recommend community colleges as a much more affordable alternative to online classes ($100s/community college vs. $10,000s online).
A popular, updated slideshow in the Huffington Post's College Section is their "Majoring in Debt: College Students Struggle Under Weight of Loans" showing students from schools with higher graduation rates than online colleges who are unable to find jobs.

Gov Brewer and Pres Obama "Face Off"...

2012-01-26T08:25:00.000-08:00

Huff Post Reports Brewer and Obama Face Off over her book and immigration reform

Shout out to Bernardo Jimenez whose post on this got my attention.
Gov Brewer has been mentioned in this blog before. When I saw this story, before watching the video below, I was pleased to see the president confront the representative for AZ uber-conservative government. However, the angles in the videos leave out the still with the pointing taking place.

(photo: Haraz N. Ghanbari)

Watching the video opens up the ambiguity of what happens during the exchange which is described on the AZStarNet: "According to pool reporters who were present Wednesday afternoon, Obama and Brewer seemed to be talking at the same time, seemingly over each another, until he walked away in mid-sentence."

The Huff Post isn't allowing the video to embed, but you can see the raw AP footage with interesting timed cut-aways here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/25/jan-brewer-obama_n_1232367.html

Update
Better yet, check out Pocho.com's take on their "Exclusive Audio" of the interaction:
http://pocho.com/exclusive-audio-when-obama-met-brewer-at-the-airport/

NPR's story: http://www.npr.org/2012/01/26/145910143/the-public-respects-civility-but-rewards-rudeness?sc=fb&cc=fp

Lastly, internet memes can be poignant:

Parody of AZ book banning

2012-01-23T08:51:00.000-08:00

Wet Books: Smuggling Banned Literature Back Into Arizona

With any good satire, there is an active play upon an assumption or shared belief, be it true or false. In this video, a parody of smuggling banned books into Arizona is made, playing upon the assumptions about human and drug smuggling. As it has been said, humor heals, and in the situation with the Ethnic Studies programs it is better to resist and use humor to protest. However, I could imagine the purposeful misinterpretation of this video by conservatives who already base arguments on the conflation of narcos and migrant workers.

Last Chance to Submit

2012-01-19T08:45:00.000-08:00

National Association of Chicano and Chicana Studies Tejas Regional Conference Texas State University, San Marcos

March 1, 2, and 3, 2012

(Logo: Pearl Hooks)

From the Call for proposals:

Chicanas and Chicanos are a highly diverse people. Today many of our scholars are engaged in wide-ranging research across disciplinary fields continuously adding to our collective knowledge of who we are. Our artists, workers, professionals, policymakers, grassroots and religious leaders, and others within our communities are doing important work in constructing our diverse cultural realities. Our scholarship and rich community experiences continue to reflect us as a people with many intercultural and transnational complexities. Across Tejas alone, many differences exist, yet more numerous are the commonalities binding us together. As peoples native to this land with a long history of struggle for justice and equality in society, our understanding of how we see ourselves and how others see us has grown and matured.
The 2012 NACCS Tejas Regional Conference Committee therefore invites proposals for papers, panels, exhibits, performances, and other creative means for addressing the many ways we see ourselves as well as how others see us—in the past, present, and our rapidly changing future. We invite Chican@ perspectives on the varied situations where we find ourselves located socially, culturally, educationally, historically, politically—rhetorically. We invite perspectives which best seek to illustrate the conference theme “This Is Us.”

Going, Going, Back, Back

2012-01-14T19:02:00.000-08:00

To Cali, Cali

Presenting at the Technology, Knowledge and Society International Conference this Tuesday.
For more about the conference, go here.

More on my presentation "Tweeting Latinidad: Constructing Knowledge with Latin@ Students on Twitter"
My bio on the conference site: http://t12.cgpublisher.com/proposals/203/index_html#author-0

Ozomatli Concert for Save Ethnic Studies Benefit

2012-01-11T17:25:00.000-08:00

Support the Lawsuit by Ethnic Studies Instructors

I wish I had something profound or even insightful to post about this.

TUSD Bans Mexican American Studies: http://drcintli.blogspot.com/

Mexican American Studies Will Rise Again in 2012:

http://textmex.blogspot.com/2012/01/arizona-tragedy-mexican-american.html

Support the Lawsuit of TUSD MAS teachers and Buy tickets to Ozomatli on February 18th at the Rialto, a benefit for Save Ethnic Studies.

A past post with Ozomatli video.

What Mayans Say About 2012 Calendar

2012-01-08T20:01:00.000-08:00

Mayan Descendants on NPR Latino Say 2012 Not End of World...Duh

According to NPR interviews with Mayan descendants, the Mayan calendar does not predict the end of the world; however, what they do say the 2012 should signify is an emphasis on helping to replenish Mother Earth in efforts that go beyond sorting the recycling.

http://www.latinousa.org/978-2/

Feliz Ano Nuevo de Pocho.com

2012-01-04T12:25:00.000-08:00

Starting off 2012 with Chican@ Satire

Manu Chao Performs Clandestino in Maricopa

2012-01-01T10:45:00.000-08:00

Songs of Protest

I heard this version of Manu Chao performing his song "Clandestino" in front of tent city and this most recent time I heard it on Alt Latino reminded me I wanted to post it.

Listen to the entire story at:
http://www.npr.org/2011/12/21/143669266/es-un-monstruo-grande-y-pisa-fuerte-12-latin-american-protest-songs

Arizona Schools' Ethnic Studies Program Ruled Illegal

2011-12-28T11:08:00.000-08:00

From Huff Post Latino

"PHOENIX -- An administrative law judge ruled Tuesday that a Tucson school district's ethnic studies program violates state law, agreeing with the findings of Arizona's public schools chief.
Judge Lewis Kowal's ruling marked a defeat for the Tucson Unified School District, which appealed the findings issued in June by Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal."

Read the entire story here

It's really not surprising that a court in Phoenix sides with the Superintendent, just another example of Arizona politics. But what's really infuriating is that Judge Kowal agrees with Huppenthal who lied about the results of a third party audit of Ethnic Studies, which found the program not to be in violation of HB 2281.

Art by Xico Gonzalez: http://xicogonzalez.com/casa/

I Made a Library Search!

2011-12-27T18:24:00.000-08:00

"Peer Reviewed" Feels Nice
Just this afternoon, I was reading the most recent issue of Composition Studies ;there's an interesting article by a creative writing professor Rachel Peckham, "The Elephants Evaluate: Some Notes on the Problem of Grades in Graduate Creative Writing Programs," discussing the grading practices, philosophies and responses of grades in creative writing seminars. Peckham makes some interesting points about the disconnection between grades and publish-ability because acceptance rates at literary magazines and presses is much, much lower than the high rate of A's awarded in creative writing seminars.

Speaking of the most recent issue of Composition Studies, I posted on the book review I wrote, but as I was trolling the UA library website, I ran across my review. Despite the fact it has me as "C Medina" with a link to all kinds of other texts that aren't mine, it's still feels cool.

Or check it out here.
I even was able to use the cite/export function:
Medina, C. "The Writing Program Interrupted: Making Space for Critical Discourse, Edited by Donna Strickland and Jeanne Gunner." Composition Studies : Freshman English News. 39.2 (2011): 167-170. Print.

The book I co-edited is also in the UA library site, but it's nice to get listed.
This We Believe = Nuestros Refranes: Words to Live by from the Class of 2012 Cholla, Desert View, Pueblo and Sunnyside High Schools. Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona and Sunnyside High School and Tuncson Unified School District, 2010. Print.

Another Attempt at "Digital Storytelling"

2011-12-15T14:21:00.000-08:00

One of the Reasons I Blog Less
On top of writing my dissertation and teaching, I've also had my hands full this past semester with the arrival of my son Will. A bit like the saying "write what you know," I've been toying with digital storytelling and the use of editing, effects and the like to tell stories like a good digital mestiz@, so of course my son has become a part of my work (filming who I know.)

I used quotes around "digital storytelling" because I realize this little video is a take off on an established meme, but still tries work within the genre while appealing to the pathos of audiences.

Cruzito in monkey pain from Cruz Medina on Vimeo.

Louis C.K. Mexicano? No Puedo Creerlo

2011-12-10T09:46:00.000-08:00

Huff Post Latin@ Keeping Me Informed
Huff Post did a story on "People you didn't know were Latin@." I like how Louis C.K uses his identity as a site of resisting ignorance through humor. Still, you have to wonder if many of these Latin@s on the down-low live life experiencing it as someone who is racialized by others as Latin@, or if they regard it less seriously than Louis C.K and do the "oh, I'm Latin@, but with roots to Spain" nonsense.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/07/latinos-celebrities-you-didnt-know-were-latino_n_1134136.html?ref=latino-voices

A good excuse to also post a link to this Louis C.K clip "Being White":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG4f9zR5yzY

A Book Review for Composition Studies

2011-11-29T18:03:00.000-08:00

Entering the Conversation
I regret not blogging more as I attempt to juggle teaching, dissertating and fatherhood, but a book review I wrote for the Writing Program Interrupted appears in the Fall issue of Composition Studies. It appears online at: http://www.compositionstudies.uwinnipeg.ca/currentissue.html

Review Link: http://www.compositionstudies.uwinnipeg.ca/bookreviews/online/39-2/Medina_Strickland%20and%20Gunner.pdf

Immigration Not Linked to Crime

2011-11-17T12:57:00.000-08:00

So all of the arguments about the deaths of innocent Americans near borders supporting Sb 1070 and other such legislation are wrong. From HuffPostLatino:

"Does Immigration Fuel Crime? Without Statistical Consensus, Rhetoric And Fear Reign In Debate

To researchers such as Jack Levin, a criminologist at Northeastern University, El Paso is safe precisely because of its high number of immigrants.
"If you want to find a safe city, first determine the size of the immigrant population," Levin said in an interview with Reason Magazine.
"If the immigrant community represents a large proportion of the population, you're likely in one of the country's safer cities," he added. "San Diego, Laredo, El Paso -- these cities are teeming with immigrants, and they're some of the safest places in the country."
Read the rest: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/15/immigration-crime-statistics_n_1089164.html?ref=latino-voices

(Artwork Banksy)

Daniel Hernandez on Sunnyside School Board

2011-11-10T09:24:00.000-08:00

Former Gifford Intern Wins School Board Seat in South Tucson
An interesting development, Daniel Hernandez wins school board seat in South Tucson, where he had attended Sunnyside schools before the University of Arizona. I had the chance to speak at the same event as Hernandez in Spring at Tucson Writes Night, and I'll be curious to see what kind of impact Hernandez' presence will have in the struggling Sunnyside School District. Having worked on the GEAR UP grant at Sunnyside High School a couple years back, I can attest to a great deal of systemic inequality impacting the Sunnyside District.

Does this make me old?

2011-10-31T14:42:00.000-07:00

Excited About Stamps

Just picked up a sheet of these forever stamps of Latin Music Legends. Now if I only mailed anything besides Netflix.

Link: https://shop.usps.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10001&storeId=10052&productId=10007289&langId=-1

From the Colorlines Website

2011-10-29T14:57:00.000-07:00

"Cherrie Moraga Needs Your Help"

From Colorlines:

"It’s been 30 years since queer Chicana poet Cherríe Moraga co-authored “This Bridge Called My Back” with Gloria Anzaldúa. The book is still praised as an influential anthology of radical writings by women of color, and has become standard in many gender and ethnic studies classrooms across the country. Moraga has remained a prolific writer over the past three decades, and now she’s reaching out to her community for help with her latest work.
Her new play is called “New Fire: To Put Things Right Again” and, if it gets the financial support that it needs, will premiere in time for Brava Theater’s 25th anniversary next year in San Francisco. The play is currently in pre-production. Moraga and her partner, producer Celia Herrera Rodríguez, have begun a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds and start rehearsals next month. In short, it’s the story of a 52-year-old woman who battles against apocalyptic notions of 2012 to return to her indigenous heritage.
The project has already got an impressive cast that includes comedian Adelina Anthony. With less than five days left to in the fundraiser, the campaign is still $6,000 short of its $26,500 goal. Go here to make a donation and help the play become a reality."

Listening to Our Elders

2011-10-23T21:05:00.000-07:00

Book Needing to Check Out

About the book:
In 2011, the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) turned one hundred years old. But our profession is endlessly beginning, constantly transforming itself and its purpose as new voices and identities claim their rights in our classrooms and in our country. The recognition of such claims, however, does not occur without a struggle, without collective work.ý

Listening to our Elders attempts to capture the history of those collective moments where teachers across grade levels and institutions of higher education organized to insure that the voices, heritages, and traditions of their students and colleagues were recognized within our professional organizations as a vital part of our classrooms and our discipline. In doing so, Listening to Our Elders demonstrates this recognition was not always easily given. Instead, whether the issue was race, sexuality, class, or disability, committed activist organizations have often had to push against the existing limits of our field and its organizations to insure a broader sense of common responsibility and humanity was recognized.

Listening to Our Elders features interviews with Malea Powell (Native American Caucus), Joyce Rain Anderson (Native American Caucus), Jeffery Paul Chan (Asian/Asian American), James Hill (Black Caucus), James Dolmage (Committee for Disability Issue in College Composition), Geneva Smitherman (Language Policy Commitee), Carlota Cýrdenas de Dwyer (Latino/a Caucus), Victor Villanueva (Latino/a Caucus), Louise Dunlap (Progressive Caucus), Karen Hollis (Progressive Caucus), Louie Crew (Queer Caucus), William Thelin (Working Class Culture and Pedagogy SIG), Bill Macauley (Working Class Culture and Pedagogy SIG).

I Need HBO

2011-10-12T17:49:00.000-07:00

"It's Not TV"

So I feel a bit behind on this, but I was listening to the NPR Latino USA interview with the director of this, with some excerpts and it sounds really good.
I plan to do some begging or borrowing to see this--maybe it's available online somewhere?

Trailer

Los Angeles Occupado

2011-10-05T13:04:00.000-07:00

From a Distance
A photographer friend of mine sent me this photo and said some of the photos he's taken are on the Occupy LA Facebook page, since it seems mainstream media has it's own agenda in terms of what and how it chooses to cover this.

(Photos Chance Road Photography)

CNN coverage: http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/05/opinion/rushkoff-occupy-wall-street/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

Another image that's made it's rounds on FB showing how newspaper headlines are changed is this one which demonstrates hegemonic discourse in the media.

What's going on right now seems to be a synthesis of the severity of what's happening, and it's difficult to draw clear conclusions because there's also been controversy about the multiple messages within the diverse group of protesters.

A Nice Shout Out on Tex[t]-Mex

2011-09-28T21:08:00.000-07:00

Hispanic History Month Illuminates (Mis)Understandings/Hallucination of Mexican in America

Social Media as Tool for Change in Cartel Violence?

2011-09-26T11:57:00.000-07:00

"MEXICO: Decapitated woman mourned by social media website"

From the Los Angeles Times:
"
REPORTING FROM MEXICO CITY -- A woman found decapitated in the border city of Nuevo Laredo is being mourned as an apparent member of a social networking site used by local residents to share information on drug cartel activity.
The victim was found early Saturday with a note nearby saying she was killed for posting messages online about violent or criminal incidents in Nuevo Laredo."
Read the rest here.

I heard this news story discussed on NPR Latino as a part of their news roundup and it struck a chord because I think of myself as someone involved in social media, and as someone speaking publicly about issues affecting Latin@s. While there is great sadness in the death of someone who used technology as an extension of social action, the journalist's message on NPR Latino was that social media has become a tool for citizens to support the government in Mexico.

(Couldn't help copying this image from Latino USA blog post on Gabriel Garcia Marquez)

What I Should Be Reading

2011-09-05T21:12:00.000-07:00

A Couple Cool Huff Post Stories

And a Vimeo vid about Latino positive collaboration:

LR1 Recap 2 Minutes from iNSPIRE! on Vimeo.

Some Digital Storytelling

2011-08-18T21:15:00.000-07:00

Texas State University-San Marcos' Summer Predoctoral Fellowship Video Short

Back in Spring I announced I'd been awarded with a Summer Predoctoral Fellowship at TSU-San Marcos. Since I often encourage digital storytelling in my second semester composition course, I attempted to document my time on campus as a pedagogical practice of modeling. Put to a soundtrack of 70s funk and Pop en Espanol with a more overtly direct message at the end, I hope the medium fits the purpose and agenda.

Important Note: All footage "filmed" on my iPod's video camera, que rascuache no?

TSU-San Marcos Predoctoral Fellowship from Cruz Medina on Vimeo.

Sly and the Family Stone

Los Modulos

http://vimeo.com/27886607

Back to School Jams

2011-08-18T09:36:00.000-07:00

With classes about to begin, we all can't help but see ourselves in the back-to-school episode of cualquier 90210, old school 90210 or Fast Times at Ridgemont High as we navigate the halls full of new faces. You got to embrace the novel buzz of students doing everything new all over again, so here are some tunes to provide the soundtrack for the new semester. Thanks to Alt.Latino NPR.

Ceci Bastida

Some Mala Rodriguez:

Ozomatli:

Thinking about music, I'm reminded of a short story I wrote for Solstice Literary Journal called "Earth Angel" you can check out here: http://solsticelitmag.org/earth-angel/

Huff Post: Immigrants for Sale

2011-08-15T07:06:00.000-07:00

Video on ALEC Supports NPR Story

Back in December, I posted on an NPR story linking the lobbyist group ALEC to legislation like SB 1070. This video does a nice job of summarizing the NPR story.

Huff Post Latino Voices

2011-08-11T16:24:00.000-07:00

Arianna Huffington Introduces HuffPost LatinoVoices

First Al Madrigal on the Daily Show and now this.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/latino-voices/
From Arianna's introduction:

"This is truly a Latino moment.

Latino Americans -- 50 million strong and counting -- are both the largest and the fastest-growing minority in the country.
They played a decisive role in the 2008 election, making the difference for Obama in Florida, Colorado, and New Mexico. They represent around a trillion dollars of buying power (roughly 10 percent of U.S. consumer spending). And with 32 million Hispanics online, they are among the most wired and connected groups in the country."

I'm interested in the 32 million Latin@s online figure because of the possibilities and potential I've always seen social media and blogging posing. A good story they posted from the Los Angeles Times: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0811-computers-20110811,0,4966839.story

Good thing I never quit my day job...

Book News

2011-07-31T12:19:00.000-07:00

Check Out Check Code-Meshing as World English from NCTE

I had a chance to check out a copy, and even though editor Aja Martinez had told me, I was elated to see a shout out. It's got some serious heavyweight contributors like MLA pres Gerald Graff, whose essay "Disliking Books at an Early Age" has been anthologized many times.

I plan on picking up a copy ahorita. A nice thing about it is that it's paperback so it doesn't hurt the pocketbook as much as hardback releases.
Let's hope it's not the last time my appears in a NCTE publication.

Another recent title from a Arizona professor is Chicana/o Sensibility and the Politics of Identity by Carlos Gallego.

¡Chicana Power! Contested Histories of Feminism in the Chicano Movement By Maylei Blackwell

2011-07-12T09:50:00.000-07:00

From the UT Press website:

"The first book-length study of women's involvement in the Chicano Movement of the late 1960s and 1970s, ¡Chicana Power! tells the powerful story of the emergence of Chicana feminism within student and community-based organizations throughout southern California and the Southwest. As Chicanos engaged in widespread protest in their struggle for social justice, civil rights, and self-determination, women in el movimiento became increasingly militant about the gap between the rhetoric of equality and the organizational culture that suppressed women's leadership and subjected women to chauvinism, discrimination, and sexual harassment. Based on rich oral histories and extensive archival research, Maylei Blackwell analyzes the struggles over gender and sexuality within the Chicano Movement and illustrates how those struggles produced new forms of racial consciousness, gender awareness, and political identities.
¡Chicana Power!provides a critical genealogy of pioneering Chicana activist and theorist Anna NietoGomez and the Hijas de Cuauhtémoc, one of the first Latina feminist organizations, who together with other Chicana activists forged an autonomous space for women's political participation and challenged the gendered confines of Chicano nationalism in the movement and in the formation of the field of Chicana studies. She uncovers the multifaceted vision of liberation that continues to reverberate today as contemporary activists, artists, and intellectuals, both grassroots and academic, struggle for, revise, and rework the political legacy of Chicana feminism"

Arizona Senate President Pearce Has Been Recalled

2011-07-10T12:58:00.000-07:00

From Jeff Biggers at Huffington Post:

"In a swift affirmation of Arizona's fast-growing and powerful new political movement, Secretary of State Ken Bennett notified Gov. Jan Brewer that the once seemingly invincible architect of the state's controversial SB 1070 "papers please" immigration law has officially been recalled. Bennett confirmed that the recall petitions delivered by the Citizens for a Better Arizona "exceeds the minimum signatures required by the Arizona Constitution."

Read the Entire Article at Huffington Post.com

(Art by Xico Gonzalez)

Anti-SB 1070 Baseball Petition

2011-07-08T08:21:00.000-07:00

Petition Asks Baseball Players to Wear White Ribbons During Next Week's All-Star Game in Protest of SB 1070

From Gustavo Arellano's blog:

"Next week, Major League Baseball will hold its annual All Star game in Phoenix, where Sheriff Joe Arpayaso roams and perhaps the only major metropolitan area in the United States that has more Know Nothings per ratio than Orange County. For the past year, activists have been calling on Commissioner Bud Selig to move the game away because of Arizona's reprehensible SB 1070--that obviously isn't happening, so those activists went on to ask Latino ballplayers such as Boston Red Sox first baseman Adrian Gonzalez and St. Louis Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols to boycott the game" Read the rest

or Sign the Petition:

Tex[t]-Mex Re-posting: Intentional Conflation and Symbol Switching

2011-07-08T06:29:00.000-07:00

Tex[t]-Mex Galleryblog: Jihad? Jingoísimo? Or just un Jumento? The Aztec A...: "A fairly brief and not-so-crude documentary on Mexican identity, Chicano/a ideology, MEChA, education and politics in Los Angeles, and an id..."

If you've been following HB 2281 in Tucson, then you're probably familiar with accusations of racism and racial chauvinism against programs designed to engage Latin@ students' achievement. On the Tex[t]-Mex blog, a youtube "documentary" put together by a far-right wing group goes so far as to use the title "Aztec Al-Qaeda" to string together people related to a Chican@ charter school--of course, with regard to the school, there are no facts to substantiate allegations--thank you Fox News for popularizing that trend. The production relies on the development of logical fallacies constructed through ideological appeals to fear and erasure of context.

You can also see the video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc1XAQc8hS8&feature=player_embedded

Check out Prof. Nericcio's Tex[t]-Mex book.

Book Trailers the New Book Report?

2011-07-03T15:56:00.000-07:00

More Visual Spatial Literacy Ideas

So I was reading about a winner of a short film who used a cell phone to shoot and I found out the director had done a book trailer for Elmore Leonard. This got me to thinking about book trailers and I ran across a great Prezi presentation by Michelle Harclerode, which appears to be a lesson she does with students and has handouts with accompany the project. The point of the book trailer, like a movie trailer, is not to give a plot summary, but to entice readers.

How To Make A Book Trailer on Prezi

Of course I had to try my hand at the process, the result of which is the below trailer for Tijuana Dust

Summer Nostalgia

2011-07-01T09:22:00.000-07:00

Cruz Medina Poem a part of César Chávez Day Programming on KXCI

July 1 Update:
There's something about Summer that makes me want to listen to music from high school--anyone else with me on that? With the fourth of July upon us, marker of time passage and reminder of fireworks past, I thought I'd re-post the link to the poem I read on KXCI as a part of their Cesar Chavez remembrance. As Victor Villanueva has said, memory is a friend, and experience is great teacher and source of knowledge, so instead of commenting on a timely piece of rhetoric in the public discourse, I turn to a fond experience during which I reminisced, remembered and reflected.

Normally, I'll be the first to tell you that I am not a poet. But as someone in Rhet/Comp, I concede that some genres better convey certain kinds of messages. So even though I have written very few poems I would ever want to see the light of day, I had written and revised a poem over the last couple years that I read as a part of KXCI's César Chávez Day Programming.

You can hear me on the podcast recording of the day's contributors at about the 4 minute mark here:
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kxci/arts.artsmain?action=viewArticle&id=1782835&pid=218&sid=16

An early post of mine on Chavez.

"The State of the Education" in Cape Town South Africa

2011-06-23T21:04:00.000-07:00

A Documentary by a Student at Cape Town University
On Wednesday, a professor from Cape Town University and a teacher from a high school in Cape Town spoke at Texas State University San Marcos. The high school teacher provided background about the school where she teaches and the professor spoke about some of the projects the university has been doing with the high school. One of the salient issues raised by both instructors had to do with the segregation that continues in most of the schools through discriminatory testing and fees which serve to keep black students out of white schools. White schools since apartheid also continue to maintain what is referred to as their "cultural ethos."

The video below was done by the son of the CTU professor.

My ebook Tijuana Dust from Hungry Panther Press

2011-06-19T19:29:00.000-07:00

Summer Reading de Cruz

In past posts I've mentioned the publication of some short stories Acentos Review and Solstice Literary Journal and I'm excited to announce the release of my novel Tijuana Dust now available on Kindle. Hungry Panther Publishing is an indie press with other authors and titles worth checking out in horror and sci-fi.

Tijuana Dust is a detective novel which takes place in San Diego where I contributed to the San Diego Reader from 2003-2006. The main character Martinez is a private investigator who wears pachuco suits and drives a beat up Integra, trying his best to not get mixed up again with the Mexican Mafia while learning too much about the structure of the City of Villages he calls home.

Martin Nakell provided a great review:

"We sorely are in need of serious literature which explores the frontiers of our country - which we too often think of as isolated and impermeable. Likewise, sorely are we in need of serious literature which explores the frontiers of our cultural realities, for herein lie the strains that we live with, that - in today's world - every country lives with. Cruz Medina's book [Tijuana Dust] addresses those needs head on."

--Martin Nakell Settlement

Don't have a Kindle? Get the apps Kindle for PC, Kindle for iPhone, Kindle for Blackberry or Kindle for iPad

Ethnic Studies Teacher Curtis Acosta in Tucson Weekly

2011-06-15T10:56:00.000-07:00

Reprinted from Tucson Weekly
The following piece by Ethnic Studies teacher Curtis Acosta was featured in the Tucson Weekly, but it wasn't the easiest to locate, so I'm re-posting it here. Thanks to Mari Herreras' original post.

Curtis Acosta's piece:
How Dr. John Pedicone has failed us

Over the past semester it has become painfully clear that many concerned citizens of TUSD were unaware of the true relationship between Dr. Pedicone and the teachers within the Mexican American Studies Department and plaintiffs in the Acosta v. Huppenthal lawsuit. The time has come to set the record straight.
Dr. Pedicone has only attempted to meet with the teachers of Mexican American Studies (MAS) on two occasions. The first was a mandatory meeting on January 3rd where we were told that we must comply with HB 2281 and that the program would be dismantled if any fines were levied by the state. The second meeting on March 29th was also mandatory and was simply to inform us of the pending state and district audit of our classes.
During the same time, our classrooms have been under unprecedented surveillance. In my personal case, a high ranking district employee, board member or auditor observed at least one class session from December to May. These included both unannounced and announced visits, yet after each observation there were never any follow-up dialogue or discussions, which is customary in education and my 16 years of service for TUSD. Most of my colleagues have had similar experiences.

In an effort of good faith after the leadership debacle of May 3rd, Save Ethnic Studies an organization that represents the legal defense of MAS, submitted a letter to Dr. Pedicone and the governing board declaring our commitment to help organize a community forum about our classes. We were never given the courtesy of a direct response or formal letter. Over the past six months we have hand delivered nine letters to Dr. Pedicone and have yet to receive any type of response. This is a consistent stance by Dr. Pedicone where arresting elders and youth is a first option and civil discourse is a last resort.

For a true leader, meeting with MAS teachers and responding to repeated formal requests to collaborate should never be seen as an inconvenience — it should be a priority. It is essential to build relationships with teachers and communicate a clear vision for the district, for not only the issue of Mexican American Studies and ethnic studies, but for the entire district as a whole. Yet, the superintendent did not set a clear vision, nor communicate the vision to the community and parties involved. He remained silent for weeks during the building tension toward the Stegeman resolution and only offered to listen to community concerns after protests and arrests, and has displayed confusing inconsistencies toward the Mexican American Studies program, students and supporters.

These actions of our superintendent over the last few months have been reactionary, haphazard and contradictory. Why would he promise community groups that he would meet with the teachers when he had no intention to do so, while simultaneously reprimanding the director of MAS, Sean Arce? If Dr. Pedicone truly supported the teachers, students and standing of the program why would he be reticent to meet with us with our lawyer present as his comments revealed last week? Our lawsuit has been the most proactive step in protecting TUSD from a law that is unconstitutional. If he truly believes the statements he has made publically, should we not be on the same side of this issue? His actions display that he clearly is not.
Meanwhile, this week the results of an audit ordered by state superintendent for public instruction John Huppenthal will be released — an audit that is unprecedented, uncalled for and not authorized by anything in HB 2281 or any other educational statute. Moreover, with legal actions ongoing to determine the constitutionality of HB 2281 — a law that legal scholars at a UA law college forum on the matter in March agreed is of dubious constitutional legality at best — this audit should at very least have been postponed until after the suit had been settled. Pedicone knew all of this and allowed the audit to proceed.

Finally, it is important to note that the plaintiffs of the lawsuit are all career TUSD teachers who have dedicated their lives to serving all students, parents, and members of our community. A few of our colleagues are products of TUSD schools and many of us have children within TUSD schools. We are no strangers to this district and have worked diligently, and for many of us with distinction, at our schools for years. In our view, his opportunity to demonstrate that he is a leader we can follow has been lost. Simply stated, Dr. Pedicone should be held accountable for the actions and treatment of his teachers and the community he was chosen to serve. He needs to recognize his failures and he must resign.

Support Ethnic Studies at: http://www.saveethnicstudies.org/

Read the article at Tucson Weekly: http://www.tucsonweekly.com/TheRange/archives/2011/06/14/update-save-ethnic-studies-calls-for-pedicones-resignation

Guest Blogger Natalie A. Martínez on Poch@ as Queer Racial Melancholia!

2011-06-07T12:23:00.000-07:00

Author's note:

I was really inspired by Marissa's post. Thank you for letting me share my thoughts on poch@ this week. paz-Natalie

by Natalie A. Martínez

Knowing the color of the sky is far more important than counting clouds. Or to put it another way, the most radical art is not protest art, but art that takes us to another place, envisions a different way of seeing, perhaps, a different way of feeling.

– Robin D. G. Kelley, “Freedom Dreams: Black Radical Imagination”

Cultural memory is, among other things, a practice, an act of imagination and interconnection. The Intermediary begins to imagine her heart—her memory. Memory is embodied and sensual, that is conjured through the senses; it links the deeply private with social, even official, practices…Memory like the heart, beats beyond our capacity to control it, a lifeline between past and future.

–Diana Taylor, “The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Américas”

A Queer Assemblage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkqlmMmPGT8

The short film linked above, Hemispheric Memories: En cada mente, su propio mundo, co-created with friend, Alan Smith over the past two weeks, was no doubt an attempt to re-understand loss and melancholia, and perhaps even alter its effects. The film is not only disorienting for the viewer because of the quality of the original VHS film, but its parts, like memory, are incomplete; assemblages of what I gathered as the most salient moments of loss, awkwardness, identity, and the familial of all bodies involved. I picked these 9 minutes and 40 seconds of images out of an archive of roughly two hours of film taken during a Martinez-Baca Family reunion in 1994 near Chama, New Mexico because it offered the most revealing tensions about the relation of memory and affect to identity. Specifically, if I can claim as much, I would say these are first and foremost poch@ memories.

Poch@ as Queer Racial Melancholia

I became interested in Cruz’s invitation for me to posit poch@ as a form of queer racial melancholia for a number of reasons.
In two critical texts I was reading, The Feeling of Kinship: Queer Liberalism and the Racialization of Intimacy, and A Dialogue on Racial Melancholia, author David Eng makes an interesting claim. By and large, structures of feeling like intimacy, privacy, home or freedom were “given ideological support” through the colonial legacies of New World material conditions like that of slavery and diaspora (12). Such an observation notes the colonial and racial dimensions that such structures of feeling carry. I see poch@ as a potential structure of feeling that is a product of these sorts of legacies.
In Loss: The Politics of Mourning, where Eng’s dialogue with Shinshee Han appears, the authors attempt to carefully investigate “depathologized structures of feeling" (344) and see marginalized people not as permanently “damaged” or incomplete subjects, but as subjects in “conflict” (363). Eng goes on to describe the sorts of struggles he saw among many of his Asian American students who experienced depression or conflict over issues of assimilation, immigration, and language. Similarly, work like that of sociology professor Gabriela Sandoval’s, uses Anzaldúa’s notion of Coatlicue state and mestiz@ consciousness to help explain self-injury among Latinas as a way of coping with the complexity of societal violence. Her use of Coatlicue, one particular expression of melancholia of the Américas, attempts to detach the stigma of self-injury to the individual, not to valorize the practice, but to recast it as a larger effect, an expression of melancholia on the skin, and an attempt to mark on the body publicly, very private losses, the kind of losses not sanctioned in everyday discourse.

Poch@ shares this similar strand of concern. Largely defined as a Mexican-American who is rejected or assimilated into dominant culture, this rejection has mostly been linked to the language or discourse one uses. I want to re-inflect the term with another shade of meaning or possibility. Or better stated, a similar meaning but from a different register.

Of course the questions become for us then, in the context of positing poch@ as an expression of queer racial melancholia, what are we mourning? Grieving? And specifically, what have we lost?

When I think of the word poch@, being the word nerd I am, I can’t help but link it to its literal meaning— bruised fruit, and all that this image conjures up for me. At its most literal, I think of the skin. A distinct marked difference. A record of activity. I also imagine the labor, networks of capital, and communities connected to fruit as an industry. I think of fruta and its link to idiomas surrounding one’s sexuality. I think of strange fruit and artist Ken Gonzales-Day’s work that makes the absent present in his Erased Lynchings and Hang Trees series which chronicles “19^th Century concepts of difference” as a reason for immigrant latin@s in the Western United States to be hung at a time when black lynchings were epidemic and horrifically spectated as a norm. I think of Communication professor and GLBTQ activist Karma Chávez’s work on Victoria Arellano, a transgender immigrant who was denied AIDS medication while being detained by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in San Pedro, California and who later died while in custody because of inadequate care. These are some other hemispheric memories that largely go unseen or unfelt. These are the sorts of losses we grieve for, but often don’t have a discursive space to do so, perhaps, because discourse is not enough.

When I have spoken of my work in these ways many have responded to it as a form of re-victimization or identity politics. The response is, “Well, eventually we need to get over it.” Another form this takes is looking only for positive representations of latin@s as in studying the rhetorics or emotional discourses of hope or pride contextualized within various hemispheric or Latin@ contexts. Our “political present” directs us otherwise. Rather, we need to dwell in these “despised states” (shame, brooding, grief…) a little longer or the very least feel their generative possibilities.

In this way, we can read poch@ as queer. Queer because its methods rely on a non-normative approach. I also read poch@ as “a conflict, rather than the damage” within the “continuum between mourning and melancholia” of an idealized form, never subsumed by idealized feelings or affects around the experience of being Mexican-American or mestiz@ but in a constant state of negotiating the demands of institutions, history, and society (Eng 363). Poch@ then is not an essential estrangement, an essential difference, nor an essential lack, but rather a state of constantly negotiating these various structures of feelings.

Genealogies of Affect in the Américas

I think conceiving of poch@ as a form of queer racial melancholia and similar lines of inquiry are important and timely. Affect studies or what has been coined within many disciplines (including Rhetoric and Composition) as the affective turn (perceived as renewed interest in embodiment, corporeal rhetoric, and emotions) has for the most part continued to cite hemispheric rhetorics that analyze and theorize affect in the Américas as only “mining emotions,” but not much more (Micciche 16). Largely, the affective (re)turn or (re)valuing of “emotion’s rhetoricity” has by and large returned to Greco-Roman traditions in what appears to be a seamless recovery of the body for the discipline’s already unchallenged historiography. Doing so whether intentional or not erases the contributions writers, artists, and activists have long understood as an interstitial life: one felt, lived, and experienced in and on the body among other bodies—because of identities.

There are exceptions of course. Outside of the discipline of rhetoric and composition, Anne Cvetkovich and Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano’s assessments of Cherrie Moraga’s work are sustained and refreshing to say the least. And within the discipline itself, Kristie Fleckenstein’s work, Vision, Rhetoric, and Social Action in the Composition Classroom while greatly indebted to Cicero and Kenneth Burke for rhetorical concepts of antinomy and agency, is one of the first more mainstream composition and pedagogy books to engage rather than simply cite a hemispheric writer or artist, when she dedicates at least ten pages of discussion to performance artist Coco Fusco as a way of theorizing “empathic social action” and “corporeal rhetoric.” Still, I want to push the presence of these theories within dominant conversations about pathos and agency that preoccupy our field further. What if we placed María Lugones’ rhetorical theory of “active subjectivity/resistant agency” or “brooding” as a “complex incarnate memory” linked to invention which emerges as a re-enactment of Anzaldúa’s concept of Coatlicue alongside Fleckenstein’s discussion of agenic invention? What if we understood Lugones’ concept of brooding as a much more complex, rhetorical form?

An even more productive question we might begin to ask instead is: what does affect/emotion/ways of feeling do in the context of the Américas? And what would a methodology that frames itself around affect within in the Américas look like? Or to put it another way, what might a poch@ methodology or politic look like if affect were its terms?

As a scholar, my work has attempted to map out a genealogy of affect within the Américas. The affective vocabulary I’ve encountered (and in no way is this list exhaustive) includes such concepts as coatlicue state, la facultad, intimate terrorism, nepantla, conocimiento, wounded skin, vendida, and now poch@.

A Not So Final Cut—Una herida abrieta

To keep the wound open, or to engage in a “living melancholia” –a “refusal to view identities under social erasure as individual pathology and permanent damage” and instead commit to its “communal appropriation” is indeed a difficult and exhausting task (Eng and Han 366).

In this exhaustion, I want to come back to the film that begins this blog entry and the reason for the two epigraphs by Robin D.G. Kelley and Diana Taylor.

In the past few years I have experienced what queer theorist, Anne Cvetkovich would call “an affective life.” It is a life where “[an] archive of emotions [has resulted] from ungrievable losses…” called into question for me long held assumptions about agency, memory within the body, and the effects of trauma not just on an individual but collectively (qtd in Eng and Kazanjian 15). This affective life I speak of consisted of a few things in the span of two years: First, I lost my father not to death, but to unspeakable trauma, and thus I lost a living link to my identity as a latin@. That same year I was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). A year later after moving to Tallahassee, Florida from Arizona, I lost my partner from the stress that illness put on our relationship and the very real struggles queer people encounter daily, advocating on behalf of, or for the rights and health of their loved ones in a system that does not recognize their relationship as valid in the first place.

As if this loss were not enough, my illness was one that literally made my body disappear. I had nerve damage caused by an earlier viral infection which left my stomach paralyzed, among other things and made it so that I could not digest food. This condition went misdiagnosed for nearly eight months. Even with a diagnosis there was no treatment but hope that with time it would slowly heal. I witnessed, as if outside myself, the body rebel. In doing so, I began to question the way we largely make the individual body responsible without accounting for its history of affects, nor the effect it has on others. Despite no clear etiology, one fact remained. The muscles of my body had remembered, recorded years of trauma, but my mind, which was part of that body, forgot. One reaction to the intensity of these experiences in such a short period was the loss of my memory. A year later I am just beginning to recall things that happened.

Days before Cruz sent me a Facebook message asking if I’d like to write for his blog, I found among a stack of unpacked boxes a DVD recording of a 1994 Baca-Martínez Family Reunion. The day my father gave it to me, two days before his 50^th birthday, was the last time I ever spoke or saw my father in person.

The title of the film came from a dicho my close friend and poet, Fernando Pérez, shared with me. The saying was in response to losing a close friend of ours who took his own life. In trying to make sense of this loss, Fernando’s father tells him in Spanish over the phone, essentially “In each person’s mind is their own world.” I selected this saying or because it is both true and not. While much of our thoughts and feelings may stay private, the way we relate to the world is largely through emotion and the bodies that feel, experience, and produce these emotions with us.

Making this film was a way of altering or transforming memory in a way that produces a new feeling, imagines another path and therefore a new relation to its history and the history it purports to tell. The process included erasing some voices in certain places and looping or splicing them in at others:

Frame 1. That is my great-grandmother, Theodora Baca Martínez, correcting my grandfather’s memory. She moves seamlessly in translation. This was our first house.

Frame 2. I try to imagine the interior life of my father. The sorts of longing he had behind his VHS camcorder capturing his history. A biracial, bicultural son. He was raised by his single-mother, a blond haired, blue-eyed daughter of German and Scandinavian immigrant farmers. On weekends he visited his father’s family in Ogden; the same families you see gathered here in these moving frames. I imagine a longing to know. A sense of grief or loss over a tongue that won’t turn, trill, or move in the ways it wishes it could.

Frame 3. This collection of film was the last thing my father gave to me. I have not spoken to him in over three years. This same year, 2008, I fall in love. This is also the same year I am diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This is not to say the two, love and trauma, are related.

Frame 4. Pocho/a. Bruised fruit. Discoloring of skin. A queer feeling.

Frame 5. Memory in Mexica thought resided in the heart rather than the head. This gives new meanings to pulling at the heart strings, arrhythmia, and the fact my father had to have his fixed.

Frame 6. If this is indeed the living museum, between my hand, sweeping red rock and canyon, I want to know then, who is its uneasy curator?

Frame 7. Even in pain I was an unusually happy and smiling kid. But in these moving pictures, I am awkward, uncomfortable, picking at my skin.

Frame 8. One of my students from last quarter reminds me that nostalgia means home-sick. I think of my grandfather’s phrase which Alan and I engineer and make a refrain: There used to be home.

Frame 9. This is the last time you say out loud, I love you. Years later, I still think your body will bloom back and walk through the door waiting for me to greet you with my mouth. Instead, I am stuck with candles and virgins that bear your same name.

______________________________________________________________________

Natalie A. Martínez , is a poet and PhD candidate at Arizona State University in Rhetoric, Composition, and Linguistics. She was a 2008 CCCCs Scholar for the Dream recipient and 2009 RSA Queering Rhetorical Studies Workshop Participant at Penn State University. Her research is concerned with Queer Latin@ rhetorics that theorize affect and posit it as a methodology. She is fortunate enough to have Keith Miller, Damián Baca, and Duane Roen as her mentors and will defend her dissertation this fall of 2011. She is healthy and newly adjusted to the rain of her native Seattle where she currently resides. If you have questions or comments feel free to email her at Natalie.Martinez@asu.edu.

Coming Soon: Guest Blogger Natalie Ann Martinez

2011-06-01T09:11:00.000-07:00

Flourishing during the Summer Flojedad

Coming up, Natalie Ann Martinez has promised to blog about Hemispheric Memory and Poch@ as Racial Melancholia, synthesizing David Eng, Anne Anlin Cheng, Cherrie Moraga with some sonidos archival.

In addition to writing, Natalie has an eye for great urban art, so I couldn't help but raid her facebook photos for these.

Presenting Guest Blogger Marissa M. Juárez

2011-05-20T20:43:00.000-07:00

A Chicana Feminist Reflection on What it Means to be Pocha

by Marissa M. Juárez

“I am a woman with a foot in both worlds; and I refuse the split. I feel the necessity for dialogue.” –Cherríe Moraga

The first time I ever heard the term pocho, it was in an undergraduate Chicano/a Lit class at the University of New Mexico. We were reading José Antonio Villarreal’s creative exploration of that word, and although I could be wrong, I do not remember discussing pocho in positive terms. (I am pretty sure we never discussed it in feminine—or feminist—terms, as pocha, either.) In fact, I am pretty sure that Richard Rubio, to many in the class, era un vendido—a punk-ass-sell-out who was too cowardly and ignorant to assert any pride in his Mexican heritage. I remember feeling embarrassed because I understood and empathized with Richard’s plight to find his identity between conflicting Mexican and American values. I kept silent, afraid that if I gave voice to this empathy, my classmates might find out my secret, might see me as less of a Chicana because of it.

But that secret has since been exposed, gracias a las feministas Chicanas. These women helped me to find strength in my mismatched upbringing; they helped me to name my experience. It all happened the first time I read Gloria Anzaldúa’s theory of mestiza consciousness. At the time, I was an MA student in Rhetoric and Writing Studies at UNM. I had grown up in New Mexico, identified as a Chicana, and felt the push and pull of conflicting identities for all my life. And for most of my life, that experience remained unnamed, bottled up, aching for confluence. For me, the struggle to name myself was, as Anzaldúa describes, an embodied (lived) experience: I was born into a Mexican family to a single mother who met and married my dad when I was six. The only dad I know, my adoptive dad, has blond hair, blue eyes, and rosy skin, and he was the first Anglo I had ever really known. Growing up within and between two cultures—one biologically inherited, the other inherited by chance—I lived (still do) the world of la mestiza. So when I read Anzaldúa for the first time, something awakened in me—an intrinsic knowing, a sense of belonging, a validation.

(Abuelos)

Because for most of my life I have lived entre dos mundos, literalmente. I have mi familia Mexicana and my Anglo family. And in more ways than one, these families are worlds apart. One night it was carne guisada with arroz and frijoles and fresh-off-the-comal tortillas at my Mexican grandparents’ house, and the next it was baked chicken and fondue at my Anglo grandparents’ house. Growing up, I was constantly shifting back and forth between locations, cultures, and values. We never talked about race in either location. It was as if race didn’t exist. But as mis hermanas Chicanas helped me to understand, you don’t have to be Cornel West to know that race matters.

(note: photo after marriage, but since divorced)

Like Cherríe Moraga, having a white father provided me with access to white cultural capital. After my parents were married, my mom and I moved from the cramped house we shared with mis abuelos, mi tía, and six or seven of mi primos and into a three-bedroom that allowed me the newfound luxury of having my own room with my own toys. I changed schools. I got a pet Cocker Spaniel that my dad named—predictably—Duchess. A couple of years later, we moved to the country. There were almost no Mexicans in the country. Even though I was one of about four or five Mexican kids in my grade at College Lane Elementary (in the country), and despite being called “beaner” and “burnt tortilla” at recess, I excelled in school. I became friends with white kids. I was quickly learning the social codes of white culture.

(Abuelos Juárez y Marissa)

But unlike Moraga, I could never pass as white, and the way I experienced the world was radically different from someone who could.

I have been the brown (and unwed) pregnant body.

I have been the brown woman on welfare.

I have been the only brown body in a graduate seminar.

I have been the angry brown mother at the PTA meeting.

My point is, I know what it’s like to feel like my brown body is being read and signified by people who have no idea what it means to live in a brown body. So I have come to understand my Chicana identity as something that is embodied and bodily—that is, both my brown body and my experiences within multiple locations (Mexican, Anglo, and in between) have shaped who I am: A person some might call pocha. But one does not have to give up one culture in order to enter another. When I was adopted into my white family, I did not stop being Mexican. Instead, I learned to sit astride the plurality, and though that seat wasn’t always comfortable, I held on and adapted. (And in case you’re wondering, adaptation is not a code word for assimilation.) Yes, there were times when I was confused, when I felt out of place. But I held on.

From a Chicana feminist perspective, pocha might be better understood as one instantiation of mestizaje. In theorizing a mestiza consciousness, Anzaldúa recalls being accused of being a “cultural traitor” for speaking Chicano Spanish, “a language with terms that are neither español ni ingles, but both” (77). As Anzaldúa perceptively notes, the “linguistic terrorism” enacted upon Chicanos/as who speak a border tongue results in a fear to speak that creates distrust: Will we be censured for our speech? Probably. Chicanos/as are, according to Anzaldúa, our language; thus attempts to discipline and domesticate our language are also attempts to discipline and domesticate our brown bodies.

When people use pocha as solely a derogatory marker of identity, they become complicit in the systems of domination that have historically served to marginalize and to Other the brown body. People who equate pocha with punk-ass-sell-out reproduce the kind of discourse that for centuries has equated Malintzín with La Malinche. I’d be remiss to say that these discursive moves are exact parallels given the history surrounding Malintzín’s so-called “fall from grace”; I mean instead to imply that the regimes of power inherent in these discourses are fortified. The result is self-inflicted historical erasure; people forget their own lived oppressions. As Moraga puts it, “oppressed groups are forgetting all the time” because “to remember may mean giving up whatever privileges we have managed to squeeze out of this society by virtue of our gender, race, class, or sexuality” (27). It’s even worse when a pocha starts to believe (as I once did) that she is somehow at fault, somehow less of a person, for not fitting in neatly within any one culture. When a pocha starts internalizing her oppression, what can she do but strive to forget? What can she feel but shame?

(Juárez family reunion)

Chicana feminist sister Cindy Cruz has contended that “the contemplation of the body…is essential in the development and evaluation of an epistemology of Chicana thought and culture” (61). Reflecting on the concept of pocha got me thinking about my own experiences—those that are archived within my brown body—because I see pocha as a label that is inscribed upon bodies that fail to perform a Latinonormative identity. In that sense, I understand pocha as a performance of identity that disrupts unwavering assumptions about what it means to be Latina/Mexicana/Chicana. Pocha is a reminder that “there is no one Chicana experience” (Anzaldúa 80).

Pocha conjures a set of memories that are felt and lived. If being pocha reckons experience, then it becomes all the more important to document these experiences, especially for Chicana scholars whose reclamation work reminds us that we stand to gain as much in sharing our personal histories as we do in recovering our collective ones. Yet how we interpret these experiences is up to us. We can sit back while others infuse this term with assimilationist ideologies (and in so doing participate in the construction of normative ideals surrounding Latinidad), or we can broaden our interpretations of pocha to challenge assimilationist ideologies (and in so doing include multiple constructions of Latina/Mexicana/Chicana identity). In sharing this partial personal history, I aim toward the latter. I remember (and rearticulate) my pocha identity to value lived experience in the production of knowledge. I remember to celebrate my brown body. I remember to nurture la mestiza with multiple voices, with multiple selves—para mantenerme en solidaridad con mis hermanas Chicanas, mi familia, y mi comunidad. Recuerdo por el bien de mi cultura.

Controversy over Navy's Plan to Honor Chavez

2011-05-18T16:40:00.000-07:00

Intolerance and Non-Violence

It's no surprise Republican congressman Duncan Hunter is complaining about naming a Navy ship after Cesar Chavez, claiming the decision is "more about making a political statement than upholding the Navy's history and tradition." Political-correctness is one of those ideographs with negative connotations attached to it which conservatives euphemistically deploy to cover intolerance to racial diversity.

However, I'm not sure I much support Chavez' name being used on a Navy cargo ship either. Chavez is known for his non-violent practices, such as his hunger strike and boycott of grapes, so it doesn't seem fitting to name a vessel used for military use to bear his name. I tend to agree with Randy Shaw from the article who says "Chavez's "absolute core beliefs was nonviolence." Shaw goes on to speculate that Chavez probably wouldn't have wanted a military vessel named after him."

You can read the story about the controversy over naming a Navy ship after Ceser Chavez here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20110518/pl_yblog_upshot/navys-plan-to-honor-cesar-chavez-irks-lawmaker

On Tex[t]-Mex: Al Madrigal

2011-05-18T16:27:00.000-07:00

Can't Help Re-Posting Humorous &Poignant Latino Daily Show Correspondent
Mucho respeto to Bill Nericcio for posting this--watched it, tweeted the Daily Show clip and had to re-post. Tex[t]-Mex shouted out http://www.sarainescalderon.com/, so I will do the same.

There's a great dig on the Daily Show clip when Madrigal comments that Obama is pandering to the Latino vote in much the same way that certain Cable Shows pander by just now hiring a Latino correspondent.

Santana Uses Celebrity for Good

2011-05-16T09:27:00.000-07:00

Atlanta/Arizona Civil Rights Baseball Game as Moment of Kairos

While honored with the "Beacon of Change" award, Carlos Santana criticizes recent Atlanta immigration bill passed similar to Arizona's SB 1070. Seizing the moment, during which he was honored for his contributions to civil rights, Santana attacked the bill for its lack of humanity. I have yet to read/watch any cable news interpretations of Santana practicing what he was being awarded for, but I am familiar with the irony of people who respond that they do not want think critically about politics during a sporting event, even when the sporting event is played in commemoration of civil rights.

(photo by Curtis Compton ccompton@ajc.com of AJC)

In the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Santana is quoted:

“This is about fear, that people are going to steal my job,” Santana said of the law. “No we ain’t. You don’t clean toilets and clean sheets, stop shucking and jiving.”
Santana referenced his 1960s rock-n-roll background and said he is an artist unafraid to speak out.
"It’s an anti-American law. It’s a cruel law, actually," Santana said. "If you all remember what it was like here with Martin Luther King and the dogs and the hoses, it’s the same thing, only it’s high tech. So let’s change it.”

Read more of the story at:
http://www.ajc.com/sports/atlanta-braves/santana-blasts-georgia-immigration-946782.html?cxtype=rss_news

Tucson Writes Night Feedback

2011-05-09T14:30:00.000-07:00

Tucson High Writing Center Blog

I just recently have gotten through the end of the semester and have had a quick moment to visit the Tucson High Writing Center's blog and I got the photo of your truly speaking below:

It was a really great opportunity not just to speak, but to hear all of the great writing coming from the writers at Tucson High.
Below is a screenshot of the Tucson High Blog and I'm going to contact the Writing Center to see if they're planning to post any of the writing on their site. In which case, I will be sure to provide a link.

Check out the blog at: http://tucsonwrites.wordpress.com/2011/05/09/tucson-writes-night-2011/

Tonight at the UA Poetry Center

2011-05-03T07:33:00.000-07:00

Cruz Medina Speaks at Tucson Writes Night

Former Gabby Gifford intern Daniel Hernandez Jr speaking...
From Tucson Writes Night website:
"Tucson Writes Night is an event-concept proposed by a group of student tutors (we prefer the term “peer mentors”) at the Tucson High Magnet School Writing Center. We coordinate an event that brings together students, their families, teachers, and community members to celebrate the work of our Writing Center and to showcase examples of excellent student writing.

Tucson Writes Night 2011

Tuesday, May 3rd
5-7pm
@UA Poetry Center"

The event will run from 5:00-7:00pm on Tuesday, May 3rd. Activities include guest speakers, a brief introduction to the THMS Writing Center through a student-directed multimedia piece, and the reading of selected student writings.

It's tough to make out on the image above, but I'm one of the invited speakers along with journalist Kirsten Boeles who will be kicking the night off, talking about writing.

See more at Tucson Writes Night website:
http://tucsonwrites.wordpress.com/tucson-writes-night/

Or at UA News: http://www.uanews.org/node/39028

Tucson High Grad & Current UA Student Speaks Out

2011-05-02T11:43:00.000-07:00

Eliza Meza Comments on New American Media

I read this article because I am acquainted with Eliza and she expressed her disappointment with how this piece was attacked as propaganda. After I read her piece, I scrolled through the comments, which were posted, and in many cases re-posted. All of the posts attacking Ms. Meza were signed anonymous and seemed to take the space and anonymity to go on anti-liberal/anti-undocumented diatribes.

Hopefully these are a vocal minority, although they still indicate the presence of discriminatory sentiment and discourse in the collective conscious. Those posting would not feel they should post unless they knew they represented more than their own voice and flawed logic.

New American Media frames the Ethnic Studies Program as "popular" even though it is successful in raising test scores, graduation rates and rates of students continuing on to college.

Even the Rain/También la Lluvia

2011-04-29T09:19:00.000-07:00

This Film Looks Scary Good

Thanks to one of my mentors Adela Licona for spreading the word about this film. I just watched the trailer and it's got me thinking of a course/unit I'll have to build around it.

Summary from Loft http://www.loftcinema.com/node/2293:
"A Spanish film crew helmed by idealistic director Sebastian (Gael García Bernal) and his cynical producer Costa (Luis Tosar) come to Bolivia to make a revisionist epic about the conquest of Latin America - on the cheap. Once on location, the filmmakers cast local resident "Daniel" (Carlos Aduviri) as a 16th century native in the film within a film. However, when the make-up and loin cloth come off, Daniel sails into action protesting his community’s deprivation of water at the hands of multi-national corporations. When riots break out in Cochabamba, protesting excessive fees for water, the film production is interrupted and the convictions of the crew members are challenged. Sebastian and Costa are forced to make an unexpected emotional journey in opposite directions.
With ample irony, EVEN THE RAIN explores the effects of Spanish imperialism, still resonating some 500 years later in the continued struggle against oppression by indigenous people.
This fictional Fitzcarraldo-like quest to make a film against all odds is set against the backdrop of the real life “Water Wars,” fought against the privatization of Bolivia’s water supply in the year 2000, and is anchored in the philosophies of historian Howard Zinn, as well as the stories of 16th century priests, Fathers Bartolome de las Casas and Antonio Montesinos, the first radical voices of conscience against an Empire."

A More Nuanced Ethnic Studies Narrative

2011-04-29T08:10:00.000-07:00

Tucson Ethnic Studies Lawyer Speaks to Board Member
From the Arizona Public Media website:
"TUSD governing board member Mark Stegeman and attorney Richard Martinez, who is representing saveethnicstudies.org, join the studio to discuss the ongoing quagmire."
The choice of the word "quagmire" by Arizona Public Media seems to demonstrate some unsettling bias.

See the website: http://www.azpm.org/news/story/2011/4/28/1851-ethnic-studies-vote-postponed/

When Playing the Game Fails and Politicians Dismiss Rational Discourse
This came after the TUSD board meeting take over:

Tucson Teachers' Press Conference Ignored
Opponents want to argue that the Ethnic Studies program breeds civil uprising, but few paid attention to the teachers' press conference earlier this week. Here's a clip from one of the earlier press conferences that receives little attention because it does not feed into the salacious narrative in the media, which perpetuates and preys upon public fear.

Buzz in Tucson Weekly

2011-04-25T17:50:00.000-07:00

'Cause if You Read it in Print, it's Got to Be True

Just announced, Gabrielle Gifford's former intern Daniel Hernandez will be speaking at the Tucson Writes Night event where I'll have the opportunity to speak a bit about writing before celebrating the work of some young writers.

Informative Interview Asking a Mexican

2011-04-22T10:11:00.000-07:00

Gustavo Gets Interviewed for Reason Magazine, Talks Reconquista and Anthony Quinn

I enjoy Arellano's Ask a Mexican column and enjoyed when I had a chance to see him speak, so it's only logical I'd post this interview with him in which he points out the discrimination that goes on within the Latin@ community.

First Year Showcase at UA Grand Ballroom

2011-04-21T12:49:00.000-07:00

Below are pictures taken at the First Year Visual Spatial Showcase at the University of Arizona's Grand Ballroom. Participants include students in Rhetorical Analysis courses from all majors across the university.

Many students presented videos and power point presentation for which they recorded audio and uploaded to youtube. I'll be sure to post links or embed student videos coming (upon consent of the students of course).

From Chris Minnix's website, the background of the showcase:

"Background: Beginning last year, we opened the First Year Writing Showcase up to instructors in English 102. The showcase was previously an Honors Showcase. In the Spring of 2008, 233 students presented their work and viewed the work of their fellow students. By the Spring of 2009, the Showcase had grown to over 400 students. In addition, we opened the showcase up to the public and had visitors from the English Department and a few from other Departments. The event is advertised in UA News (UA Now), the Daily Wildcat, and through posters placed around campus and throughout many different academic departments. It is designed to showcase the innovative rhetorical skills of our students, as they transform their arguments into visual-spatial arguments. In this sense, the showcase serves as an opportunity for the U of A community to develop a better understanding of how literacy and writing are changing and how our students are adapting to these changes."

Art by Xico Gonzalez

2011-04-20T08:07:00.000-07:00

Artist's Statement

According to the Artist http://xicogonzalez.com/casa/ :

"I create art to empower and to provide a voice for my community. In addition, art is how I express my inner thoughts, the ideologies that I have embraced, the solidarity that I have with communities around the world, and most of all, through the arts I express who I am as a person: an individual that believes and works for justice and equality."

Xico's biography:

"Xico González is an educator, artist, poet, and a political and cultural activista based in Sacramento, CA. Xico’s work contributes to the long dialogue of art, activism and the legacy of the Chicano Movement. Brash, evocative, and never shy, González’s art is an intellectual and emotional provocative experience, showcasing the way art and civil-rights activism merge to move communities to action. Xico currently teaches in the Department of Chicana & Chicano Studies at the University of California, Davis."

Arizona Senior Lecturer Speaks Out

2011-04-18T09:33:00.000-07:00

Erec Toso Argues 'Middle class can tell you: Tax breaks for wealthy haven't worked out'

Senior Lecturer Erec Toso speaks out against Bush tax cuts for the wealthy and other lapses in logic championed in the name of what's best for the country.
From the article:
"These lean times do not apply to all of Tucson, however. When I go up to the Foothills, I see new Land Rovers, Audis and Porsches parked in front of AJ's or Starbucks.
It seems the wealthier parts of Tucson - the CEOs, finance wizards and trust-funders - are doing just fine."

Great Colllection Available in June

2011-04-16T16:34:00.000-07:00

Coming Soon from National Council of Teachers of English Publishers!
Aja Martinez, blog contributor/educator/writer extraordinaire, has a co-edited collection called Code-Meshing as World English coming out with Vershawn Ashanti Young June 2011.

Contributors include: Gerald Graff, Asao B. Inoue, Min-Zhan Lu and Bruce Horner

From the description on NCTE's website:
"

Although linguists have traditionally viewed code-switching as the simultaneous use of two language varieties in a single context, scholars and teachers of English have appropriated the term to argue for teaching minority students to monitor their languages and dialects according to context. For advocates of code-switching, teaching students to distinguish between “home language” and “school language” offers a solution to the tug-of-war between standard and nonstandard Englishes. This volume arises from concerns that this kind of code-switching may actually facilitate the illiteracy and academic failure that educators seek to eliminate and can promote resistance to Standard English rather than encouraging its use.

The original essays in this collection offer various perspectives on why code-meshing—blending minoritized dialects and world Englishes with Standard English—is a better pedagogical alternative than code-switching in the teaching of reading, writing, listening, speaking, and visually representing to diverse learners. This collection argues that code-meshing rather than code-switching leads to lucid, often dynamic prose by people whose first language is something other than English, as well as by native English speakers who speak and write with “accents” and those whose home language or neighborhood dialects are deemed “nonstandard.”

Arizona Rhet/Comp de Califas as Tejas Fellow

2011-04-12T20:25:00.000-07:00

Cruz Medina, a Texas State University--San Marcos Predoctoral Summer Fellow

Start spreading the news, I'm leaving in June for San Marcos, Tejas where I will be living the dream of writing my dissertation this summer as a Fellow.

Great Panel including Ethnic Studies at CCCC Atlanta

2011-04-10T09:14:00.000-07:00

Punishing Writing/Writing as Punishment

(Aja Martinez and I with Speaker Curtis Acosta)

At the 2011 CCCC in Atlanta, University of Arizona PhD students/authors/activists presented on the importance of presenting literacy to students as a discipline rather than a punishment that doesn't match the offense. Curtis Acosta, above, a teacher at Tucson High School targeted by the HB 2281 anti-Ethnic Studies law, spoke on the framework of his literature class, asking students to reflect on themselves and culture to better understand the world around them.
Donate to Save Ethnic Studies

Kathryn Ortiz heads the UA Reads Project through the University of Arizona bookstore.

Cathy Amanti is one of the authors of Funds of Knowledge, highlighting cultural practices of Latin@ families in Tucson that can be transferred over into classroom strategies.

According to the panel description:

Punishing Writing/Writing as Punishment. It is an ironic fact that schools are contexts where writing is both highly valued and punished. When literacy is used as a discipline event, schools are often blind to the literacy aspects of unofficial and non-sanctioned student writing. The fact that some literacy [ More ]

Participant	Affiliation	Speech Title (if known)
Carlos Salinas, PhD (Chair)	University of Texas El Paso
Cathy Amanti (Speaker 1)	University of Arizona	Punishing Writing/Writing as Punishment
Kathryn Ortiz (Speaker 2)	University of Arizona	Case Studies of the Long Term Consequences of Using Writing as Punishment
Curtis Acosta (Speaker 3)	University of Arizona	Rewarding writers: Liberating and empowering Chican@ youth through prose

Georgia on my Mind

2011-04-04T21:10:00.000-07:00

Conference on College Composition and Communication Atlanta 2011

Leaving Wednesday and presenting Friday, I'm excited for this week. I know I've posted this announcement before, but I can't help but think it's fitting to re-post.

A good, Georgia-themed Ludacris jam: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kH_EZF0XqM

Cornel West & the Courage to Think Critically

2011-04-01T23:09:00.000-07:00

“Borders to Democracy: Who Draws the Line?”

Cornel West spoke at the University of Arizona. Below are my notes from Dr. West's thought-provoking, invigorating and energizing lecture.

At the beginning of his speech, West remarked that is was good to be in Arizona because it was a state “on the move in a variety of different ways.” He spoke of Arizona as the epicenter for issues of human rights in the United States.

In what would become a motif of his talk, West began with what he called a Socratic note, meaning he wanted to unsettle and unnerve the audience. He wanted to provoke because, quoting from Plato’s Apology, “the examined life is not worth living.”

As a part of his Socratic challenge, he wanted the audience to focus on the courage to think critically.

Going back to the life of a human and what it means to be human, he explained the Latin root of human, relating to burial and its connection of the body to the earth. He reminded the audience they were “born between feces and urine, and if not for their momma’s love, they wouldn’t be there.”

Referencing George Clinton and West’s affinity for him, West explained we emerge in the funk and love in the funky love stench.

West said “deodorized discourse” was the discourse that doesn’t speak of human suffering.

Criticizing the current cultural trends, he argued we are concerned with the “superficial spectacle” of a celebrity obsessed culture, generating “weapons of mass distraction.”

Education, not schooling, West argued was what we needed to learn to be human; needing to be less obsessed with celebrity, students need to understand that by being connected to technology, they do not necessarily have raised consciousness.

He said we are too “well adapted to indifference.”

One of his main points coming back to humanity and being human came back to education and how the humanities teach us how to die, so that we know how to live.

Quoting the Roman philosopher Seneca, West said that when we learn how to die, we unlearn slavery.

What dies when we become educated is the something within us that makes us afraid like prejudices and assumptions—West explained we need to teach students arguments that push them against the wall and show them “their worldviews rest on pudding.”

The problem, West explained, is that too many students don’t want to be courageous, but just want to make money and be comfortable.

West advocated being a misfit; speaking of his friendship with Arthur Miller (author of Death of a Salesman), West said they had discussions about choosing to become misfits.

One of West’s great rhetorical refutations when speaking of Bill Maher was: “I think you’re wrong, but let’s examine your argument.” He added that the God Bill Maher describes is not the God West worships.

Maintaining his Socratic method, West said he wanted to be dialectical and explained that if he were around when George Washington and the other founding fathers were going to war with England, he would have been with them because West is anti-imperialism.

However, West spoke of politicians being unable to speak outside of narrow discourses because of their allegiances to big business on both sides and looming elections; he argued “budgetary deficits” that allowed for war demonstrated “warped priorities.”

Meditating on MLK, West said “don’t fall for the hype” when it came to colorblindness because “we’re all embodied” and in bodies. He said that we shouldn’t be blind because we can’t be in love with one another if we are blind, and if we are blind to culture, then there will still be a predominant culture. This was followed by his point that we have not responded well to the legacy of MLK.

Criticizing Obama, West said that he wished Obama “treated the homeowners the same way you treat investment bankers.”

Returning to the idea of individuality and courage, West said students and hip hop artists need to find their voices because there are too many echoes.

He said we need to understand the difference musically of musicians who are “body stimulators” and those who are “soul stirrers” saying someone like Soulja Boy is much more of a body stimulator.

When asked about the Anti-Ethnic Studies bill here in Arizona, West replied that Ethnic Studies is a “quest for truth.” Education, according to West, is not high quality if there are not numerous voices. Without numerous voices, there’s only a narrow viewpoint being represented. He commented that the Attorney General in Arizona, who argues Ethnic Studies classes segregate students, needs to go on a “deeper quest for truth.”

Teachers are caretakers of the precious youth, West said. Explaining the U.S is #1 in educating the wealthy and that self-confidence, telling students they’re brilliant is something that happens in those schools. But West says not to hate the rich, but to hate the arrogance.

Aja Martinez, Cornel West and myself

Cornel West in dialogue with Jay-Z at New York Public Library:

http://fora.tv/2010/11/15/Decoded_Jay-Z_in_Conversation_with_Cornel_West

César Chávez Day Programming on KXCI

2011-04-01T10:39:00.000-07:00

Poetry from Cruz Medina

Normally, I'll be the first to tell you that I am not a poet. But as someone in Rhet/Comp, I concede that some genres better convey certain kinds of messages. So even though I have written very few poems I would ever want to see the light of day, I had written and revised a poem over the last couple years that I read as a part of KXCI's César Chávez Day Programming.

You can hear me on the podcast recording of the day's contributors at about the 4 minute mark here:
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kxci/arts.artsmain?action=viewArticle&id=1782835&pid=218&sid=16

An early post of mine on Chavez.

Presenting Guest Blogger Aja Martinez

2011-03-31T13:43:00.000-07:00

Three Generations Pocha
By Aja Martinez

My grandpa, Alejandro Ayala Leyva, is an oral historian. I’ve been raised on the stories he tells about his life and in this way I first encountered the word “pocho.” He told me a story once about being born and raised until age five in Los Angeles, and his memory of being loaded up with his parents and four younger siblings onto a boxcar during the Great Depression and sent “south” back to Mexico.

My grandpa says his dad had “enough sense” to get the family off the boxcar when they stopped in Nogales, Arizona because as he recalls his father told the kids they were American citizens and had “no business” in Mexico. As my grandpa grew up in Nogales, a small town that splits the border with Nogales, Sonora, he encountered Mexicanos who accused him of being “pocho” in the way he spoke Spanish. I was surprised to hear this because from my perspective, being raised third generation American, with no access to Spanish-speaking fluency because my parents had the Spanish beaten out of them when they went to school, I thought my grandpa’s Spanish sounded pretty legit.

I felt like I was maybe the first generation to embody “pocho” qualities such as my lack of Spanish-speaking skills and a way of presenting myself that got me accused of “trying to be white” by some Chicanos I attended school with. So to hear my grandpa say that he too faced these accusations I began to really wonder about this word and what it means. Does “pocho” mean acting white? Does it refer to those of us affected by American ideology and values? One American value I subscribe to is education, and it seems the further I go in academia the whiter I become to Chicanos from my family and ‘hood I grew up in.

So my ideas on “pocho” as a concept have to do with becoming white as you become educated. I think of movies like Mi Familia and The Barbershop where there are characters that are the "educated" ones in the family and are written into the films as sellouts and pompous idiots who are ashamed of where they come from and have something to learn from their less-educated but more wise castmates. I think this portrayal is unfair and to paraphrase my brother from another mother, Cruz Medina, education, instead of making you less connected with your culture has the potential to provoke a lot of us to have consciousness and conversations about culture that we might not have the space to think about were it not for education.

But the “scholarship” boys like Richard Rodriguez in Hunger of Memory, and also more public figures like the Clarence Thomases of our nation embody the real-life versions of these fictional characters written into Latino and black films. And the messages they promote about assimilation and selling out are pervasive to a white American public hungry for poster-child minorities. Thus the film characterizations, and I don't like the equation these films promote which goes something like this: ethnic + education = sellout wannabe white, and in our case the “pocho.” I've been called a “pocho” in this sense, because to some of my family the more educated I become the more white I am, which from their point can definitely have its advantages with the ultimate pitfall being that they still think at the end of the day that I’m “trying to be white.”

However the advantages to my education for my family are that I'm viewed as someone with the authority of a the doctor when they need one, I'm viewed as someone with the authority of a lawyer when they need one, I'm viewed as someone with the authority of a the teacher when they need one; education represents all these “authorities” to these particular people in my family, however this presentation and way of communication that I possess is both powerful when they need me on their team but a threat when they feel the need to reassert the fact that I'm, as George Lopez puts it, still "not shit," and that they can still "kick my ass." You know?

So I think this relates back to the idea of the “pocho” and those characters from films like Mi Familia and The Barbershop. Those characters are put in these films to remind us brown folk that we can get our educations but that we need to be wary of getting too tangled up in white American hegemony, and I get it, and I also get those portrayals read onto me and my education. And I don't like it, I'm uncomfortable with it, but I also understand.

Read Aja Martinez' College English article:
http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/CE/0716-july09/CE0716American.pdf

Cornel West Debating Diversity at University of Arizona

2011-03-29T06:44:00.000-07:00

Dr. West is the Building...Friday at the University of Arizona

From the website for the event:
"West is speaking during an event at UA's Centennial Hall. His 7 p.m. talk, "Borders to Democracy," will critically examine diversity issues, offering his unique assessment the broader implications surrounding race and immigration in the United States. The event is open to the public and will have a first-come, first-seated arraignment."

"West has long been a champion for racial justice since childhood. His writing, speaking and teachings weave together the traditions of Black Baptist Church, progressive politics and jazz. "

For more information:
http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/debating_diversity/invited-speakers/0401-cornel-west/

I'm hoping to take notes and report back like I did with Spike Lee.

Presenting Guest Blogger Enrique Reynoso

2011-03-23T19:24:00.000-07:00

Phenomenology and Etymology of a Fresa

by Enrique Reynoso

When I first began reading Cruz Medina’s blog I couldn't help but consider the term "pocho". In my admittedly narrow South Texas experience, I don't find it brandished around too often. Even though I was brought up aware of the negative connotations, I still never really felt them. Pocho was something that my parents were called, not me. As more generations continue to separate the "Mexicans" and "Americans", I find that the term pocho has somewhat lost its teeth.

However, one of the terms that seems to have gained momentum (at least in the Rio Grande Valley) is fresa. Literally translated as "strawberry", the original meaning seems to refer to an attractive Mexican female. I'll admit I hadn't heard the word fresa until late high school, but by then it seemed to take on a whole new meaning– a fresa was a male student from Mexico, usually upper-class. An informal poll created an overall profile of the male fresa: attending private high school or college, wearing name brand clothing, sporting a “fauxhawk”, and interestingly enough, many of the responders pointed out the repeated use of the phrase "o séa...". If we follow the logical conclusion of these responses we get what is essentially a metrosexual Mexican male.

(Cristiano Ronaldo, Portuguese fresa)

My theory here is that fresa is (an admittedly late) response to pocho. Pocho lost its teeth because pochos have assimilated and are more of a majority than fresas. It's a conscious antagonism towards the upper class–almost every single response to my question of where fresa came referred to class. However, it's also a more subconscious and insidious dig ant sexuality. By picking a red, sweet fruit as the embodiment of Mexican masculinity, pocho takes a potshot by implying homosexuality. This is especially telling considering that the original meaning seemed to refer to Mexican women...

As I was asking these questions of my friends (through Facebook I must add), I noticed something interesting. No person, be they from Mexico or from the US, admitted that they were ever called a fresa. It is always already someone else–its some (O)ther Mexican, not this one. He is from an(O)ther class, not mine. It brings to mind what Kenneth Burke refers to as congregation via segregation–we have to separate the Other in order to create our “own” self. In labeling and transforming the fresa pocho has created a monster that nobody wants to claim. Fresa is the monster constantly deferred.