La Plaza Central

Back in 2008 the down economy had me squeaking by, dabbling in some graphic design stuff and just hanging out. I had heard about AmeriCorps back in the day but mostly had forgotten about it. The grapevine informed me there were some positions available, one at a certain “El Centro de las Américas”. Here I am nearly two years later, rocking the Education and Technology Program Coordinator position. And guess what? The turnover for our current AmeriCorps volunteers is September, so tell your bilingual friends that there will be one full-time position and two part-time positions opening up and they should apply with Deb Buckman over at the F Street Community Center. You can go as far as the ganas take you.

(photo by: GWYNETH ROBERTS - Lincoln Journal Star)

Thank you to those in attendance and those lending assistance for the GED program and graduation ceremony last Saturday. We are ever grateful to Gloria Sarmiento, Maria Fernanda Joya, et al, for the program leadership, and to Wesleyan University and Tesia Risk for realizing need and recognizing accomplishment.

Further reading: Lincoln Journal Star

El Centro de las Américas to Graduate Largest Class Ever of Spanish-Language GED Students

55 students from 10 communities graduate Saturday — including 30 from El Centro de Las Américas

Fifty-five students from Lincoln, Hastings, Wayne, Wakefield, West Point, Fremont, Schuyler, Crete, Norfolk and Lexington will gather at Nebraska Wesleyan’s O’Donnell Auditorium on Saturday, June 26 at 3 pm to celebrate graduation from the GED (General Education Development) program.  The group will include 30 students from the program coordinated by Lincoln’s El Centro de las Américas.

The ceremony will celebrate the dedication of the adult student graduates, some of whom work, have families and children and drive up to three hours to get to the classes.  Since the successful GED in Spanish program began, many students have gone on to higher education degrees. El Centro de las Américas will also award three scholarships at the ceremony to its top students to help them further their education.

The O’Donnell Auditorium in the Vance D. Rogers Center for Fine Arts at Nebraska Wesleyan University is located on the north side of Huntington Street between 50th and 51st Street in Lincoln, Nebraska. In attendance will be GED students, family and administration of El Centro de las Américas, and Nebraska Wesleyan University.

As noted in the prior post, we celebrated the last days of our most recent Family Literacy sessions. Thanks again to Karen at Lincoln Literacy Council for the great shots of the W Lincoln potluck. Check out the entire album!

All are invited to this national event combining workshops, planning groups, assemblies, art shows, etc. to clarify objectives and build movements for social change. This year it will be in the Forum-dubbed “Solution City”, better known as Detroit.

Detroit is in an interesting position to reclaim itself post-collapse, making it an appropriate host for a grassroots event looking to toss around ideas for improving “the system”. There is a caravan going from Lincoln, so read up the website and perhaps you will consider joining them.

And congratulations, if you are graduating.

Hasta el lunes.

¡Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

As we all know, today marks the anniversary of an unlikely victory at the Battle of Puebla, 1861, pitting the scrappy Mexican army against a taxing-without-representing France.

That’s why it’s not really celebrated around Mexico, because there are 31 other states besides Puebla.

Luckily, America has since adopted it as a holiday celebrating Mexican heritage, akin to celebrating the Irish on St. Patrick’s day. Area Mexican restaurants reach capacity, area restaurants hone their margarita recipes, and we are aloft, looking out from the third floor sun-porch, windows open, the gentle yet anguished melodies of Agustin Lara rising and falling while we dine on the expected culinary feats of chile verde, guacamole, lengua and other delights from neighborhood El Chaparro.

And with Negra Modelo accompaniment, we reflect on other unlikely victories.

Here’s the title to the story:

Arizona schools superintendent pushes ban on ethnic studies.

What? So…teaching by withholding information is the preferred methodology. This brand of racism is baffling, as evidenced by the quotes drawn in the story, e.g. “The job of the public schools is to develop the student’s identity as Americans and as strong individuals. It’s not the job of the public schools to promote ethnic chauvinism.” Right, since this whole thing isn’t chauvinistically American…

Here’s the bill itself, which was passed by the Arizona State Legislature.  Yet another hole in reasoning: an exception will be made for classes for Native American pupils.

Nice afterthought.

This Saturday, AZ Governor Jan Brewer will pass or veto a new (anti-) immigration bill. Among other things, the bill would allow police officers to determine the legal status of whomever strikes them as suspicious, which will be 1 out of 3 people. For the record, Gov. Brewer has “worked with the legislature to make sure that no public services are being offered to anyone who is in this state illegally,” so I’m a bit worried.

Already, nine university students have been arrested for protesting outside the capitol, as reported by the Arizona Republic. And of all days it has to be Earth Day! At least Reid/Pelosi want to make immigration the next box on the big To-Do List.

As for immigrants in Arizona, I hope they can find a way to support their families without going outside. Oh wait — the bill also gives a free ride to your country of origin (let’s say Mexico) if you are harboring illegals (let’s say your own grandma). Let’s pray Brewer sees the light come Saturday.

UPDATE: Friday was a sad day in America.

There’s a nice posting from Stop Big Media here, via the National Institute for Latino Policy, about the NBC/Comcast merger and how it would negatively affect Latino media and its constituents. I’ve been passively following the net neutrality issue and until now haven’t seen an argument involving the implications for our Latino population. Even more reason to get behind the issue and break up the telecoms monopoly!

For readers who aren’t up to speed on this, here’s and example of part of this monopoly: graphical history of the AT&T break-up (and “get back together”).

Do you love that Red Map vs. Blue Map ad campaign or what?