La Plaza Central

Buenos días,

Please check out our newsletter from the link below, especially if you want to brush up on your español.

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¡Gracias!

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.

For the past seventeen years, Lincoln Public Schools have recognized triumphant students and outstanding collaborating agencies (GED en Español graduates and El Centro de las Américas to name a few) in ceremonies for different minority groups. We are honored to host the Latino ceremony here in the Malone Center gymnasium from 4-6pm this Saturday. Present will be food and drink, faculty and admin, students and parents, and the community at large to celebrate the year’s accomplishments, like high school graduation, graduation with honors, special programs completion (like our family literacy programs), and many others.

En los ultimos diecisiete años, las Escuelas Publicas de Lincoln han reconocido a estudiantes triunfantes y agencias colaboradoras incomparables (graduados del GED en Español y El Centro de las Américas para dar algunos ejemplos) en ceremonias para distintos grupos minorías. Somos agradecidos de presentar la ceremonia latina en el gimnasio del Centro Malone de 4 a 6 de la tarde este sábado. Habrán comida y bebida, facultad y administración, estudiantes y padres, y la comunidad para celebrar los exitos del año, como graduación del high school, mención honorifica, terminación de programas especiales (como nuestra Alfabetización Familiar), y muchos más.

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!

This week has been nothing short of thrilling. Under the original auspice of LPS’ last day of school being today (had there not been those snow days), this week marked the final sessions for Everett Literacy, West Lincoln Literacy and Migrant Ed Literacy. Pot lucks, certificates, and celebration — plus two lucky students were donated computers for home use.

I’ve got a few photos up and will soon have more.

Beyond that, today we received news of two grants coming in! Thank you United Way and Community Health Endowment for looking our way and recognizing our commitment to the population we serve. The latter agency is funding a new summer program designed by yours truly called Latino Bike Tour which will promote health, community integration, and local business economy — all from bike rides!

Entonces, next week I’m fuera de la oficina for a quick break between program seasons, and will soon be back to grind the summer axe.

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.

May is usually a loco month, what with the weather finally coming around, subsequent bar-be-cues, May/Armed Forces/Memorial Day(s), my dad’s birthday, Cinco de Mayo, plus everyone all graduating and getting married and stuff.

But this Sunday we will take a collective, historical break to promote the mothers we love. The ancient Romans called it Matronalia, Julia Ward Howe wrote a stirring Proclamation about it in its nascent days, and on Monday at El Centro we are celebrating Mother’s Day with an almuercito followed by regalitos and a rifa. For those of you who don’t sprechen sie español, I’m talking about a small lunch, some presents, and a raffle!

Point is, despite May’s swirl of events, take a minute to give ol’ ma a hug.

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.