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a publication of the Esperanza Peace & Justice Center April 2013 | Vol. 26 Issue 3 San Antonio, Tejas
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a publication of the Esperanza Peace & Justice Center
April 2013 | Vol. 26 Issue 3 San Antonio, Tejas
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ATTENTION VOZ READERS: If you have a correction you want to make on your mailing label please send it in to [email protected]. If you do not wish to continue on the mailing list for whatever reason please notify us as well. La Voz is provided as a courtesy to people on the mailing list of the Esperanza Peace and Jus-tice Center. The subscription rate is $35 per year. The cost of producing and mailing La Voz has substantially increased and we need your help to keep it afloat. To help, send in your subscriptions, sign up as a monthly donor, or send in a donation to the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center. Thank you. -GAR
VOZ VISION STATEMENT: La Voz de Esperanza speaks for many individual, progressive voices who are gente-based, multi-visioned and milagro-bound. We are diverse survivors of materialism, racism, misogyny, homophobia, classism, violence, earth-damage, speciesism and cultural and political oppression. We are recapturing the powers of alliance, activism and healthy conflict in order to achieve interdependent economic/spiritual healing and fuerza. La Voz is a resource for peace, justice, and human rights, providing a forum for criticism, information, education, humor and other creative works. La Voz provokes bold actions in response to local and global problems, with the knowledge that the many risks we take for the earth, our body, and the dignity of all people will result in profound change for the seven generations to come.
La Voz deEsperanza
April 2013vol. 26 issue 3
Editor Gloria A. Ramírez
Copy Editor Alice Canestaro-Garcia
Design Monica V. Velásquez
Contributors Jesús Alonzo, Manuel Barraza,
Alice Canestaro-García, Lupe Casares, Marisol Cortez,
Jaime González, Teresita Jacinto, Ricardo César Gaitán Muñoz, Glenaan O’Neil, Kamala Platt,
René Roberts, Cynthia Spielman, Perla Terrazas
Esperanza Director Graciela I. Sánchez
Esperanza Staff Imelda Arismendez, Itza Carbajal,
Marisol Cortez, J.J. Niño, Jezzika Pérez, Melissa Rodríguez,
Beto Salas, Susana Segura, Monica Velásquez
Conjunto de Nepantleras-Esperanza Board of Directors-Brenda Davis, Araceli Herrera, Rachel Jennings, Amy Kastely,
Kamala Platt, Ana Ramírez, Gloria A. Ramírez, Rudy Rosales, Nadine Saliba, Graciela Sánchez
• We advocate for a wide variety of social, economic & environmental justice issues.• Opinions expressed in La Voz are not
necessarily those of the Esperanza Center.
La Voz de Esperanza is a publication of
Esperanza Peace & Justice Center 922 San Pedro, San Antonio, TX 78212
210.228.0201 • fax 1.877.327.5902www.esperanzacenter.org
Inquiries/Articles can be sent to:[email protected] due by the 8th of each month
Policy Statements
* We ask that articles be visionary, progressive, instructive & thoughtful. Submissions must be literate & critical; not sexist, racist, homophobic, violent, or oppressive & may be edited for length.
* All letters in response to Esperanza activities or articles in La Voz will be considered for publication. Letters with intent to slander individuals or groups
will not be published.
Esperanza Peace & Justice Center is funded in part by the NEA, TCA, theFund, Astraea Lesbian Fdn for Justice, Coyote Phoenix
Fund, AKR Fdn, Peggy Meyerhoff Pearlstone Fdn, The Kerry Lobel & Marta Drury Fund of
Horizon’s Fdn, y nuestra buena gente.
This issue brings you the third installation of Cities as if Women Mattered by
Marisol Cortez. The article, Thinking Hays Street and HemisFair in an Era of Neoliberal Urbanism examines issues of “gentrification” and “revitalization” of downtown San Antonio and what the real motivation is behind these moves. This series will continue in the next two issues of La Voz as Marisol delves deeper into the politics of urbanization locally and worldwide.
A new series is introduced in this issue in anticipation of immigration legislation. Lupe Casares & Teresita Jacinto have written a series of stories about the experiences of being a migrant farmworker–the first story includes a short history lesson and introduces a strong mujer who confronts la migra with dignity.
Our front page offers a tribute to the victims of Fukushima in Japan, two years after a nuclear plant meltdown. A short article by Kamala and Alice bring the issue to the fore. In the next issue of La Voz, we will be talking more about issues of energy and sustainability and things happening in our own backyards.
Tributes to Erica Andrews and Mim Scharlack round out this issue of Voz along with informative articles on the Tip Integrity Act, the Texas Civil Rights Project’s VAWA program assisting immigrant victims of domestic violence and the reopening of La Casa de Cuentos. Como siempre each issue of La Voz is made possible by people like YOU. Send articles and other literary contributions to [email protected]. Gracias!
- la editora, Gloria A. Ramírez
Homenaje a EVA GARZA y las divas de la canción Mexicana
appy Spring! – dear readers of La Voz de Esperanza. H
...an exhibit about Eva Garza y las divas– Rosita Fernández, Beatriz Llamas, Lydia Mendoza, Blanca Rosa, Chelo Silva, Perla Tapatía, and Rita Vidaurri
continues through April 30th at Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, 922 San Pedro, Monday-Friday 10am - 7pm or by appointment. 210.228.0201.
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Mariela moved to the U.S. from Mexico because she thought all of her dreams had finally come true. She was a young bride, married to a United States citizen she met at church.
After a whirlwind romance, Mariela was overjoyed to be starting a new life with her husband out on a ranch in Gillespie Coun-ty. She felt certain that the future ahead of her was a bright one. However, her hope and optimism faded quickly as her husband began to control, isolate and degrade her. Six weeks after their wedding, Mariela called the police after her husband accused her of being unfaithful and choked her. It was the first time Mariela called the police, but not the last.
During her eight year marriage, Mariela’s husband abused her physically, emotionally and economically. He kept her isolated from the rest of the world and did not even permit her to speak with her family back in Mexico. He also prohibited Mariela from learning English. He told Mariela that since he could speak Span-ish, it was the only language she should need since she was never allowed to leave the house anyway.
“My life was a prison with my husband,” Mariela recalls. “He was so jealous he would not let me even get the mail from our mailbox, so that I would not look at the male neighbors.”
Soon after Mariela’s husband brought her into the U.S. on a fiancée visa, they were married. After things settled down a little bit, he promised to help her get her papers as soon as possible. Unfortunately, this was a promise he never kept. Whenever Mari-ela brought up her immigration status, her husband would say, “Why do you need papers? You don’t have to work. You just want to leave me and run around with other men.”
Mariela and her husband had three daughters. They watched Mariela endure vicious beatings, and often went without as a re-sult of his economic abuse. “I can remember one day my eldest daughter’s shoes fell apart when I tried to put them on her feet. They were her only pair. My husband spent his whole pay check gambling and drinking. It was cold out, so I gave her my shoes to wear to school. I felt so ashamed, but I did not have a choice,” Mariela confesses.
Without immigration status, Mariela did not have the right to work legally in the U.S. or the right to drive legally in Texas. She says she felt stuck. “I couldn’t feed myself or my children if I left, and besides how would I go anywhere? I did not have a car, and did not know how to drive and if I tried, I thought I would be pulled over and deported. I had no friends or family to go to. It was like every door was closed in front of me,” she says. “I did not know there was a way out.”
Barriers for immigrantsMariela felt desperately alone while she lived with her hus-
band – but sadly, her situation is not uncommon. Immigrant vic-tims of domestic violence, like Mariela, often come face to face
with nearly insurmountable barriers as they try to escape abuse. Domestic violence relies upon one individual having power and control over the other. This dynamic becomes particularly stark when applied to families with an immigrant spouse without legal status. Immigrants without status must rely completely and ut-terly upon their U.S. Citizen or Legal Permanent Resident (LPR) spouses.
Finances frequently compel immigrant victims of domestic violence to remain with their abusers. Without a living wage, vic-tims like Mariela have no hope of renting an apartment to house themselves and their children. “I did not think I would be able to feed my daughters if I left, Mariela confides. “I did not think I would ever be able to make more than maybe a few dollars here or there, cleaning houses.”
Cultural and religious reasons can also play a role in the deci-sion to stay with an abusive spouse. Machismo and marianismo (the idea that “my wife and mother to my children” must be long-suffering and modest) are a big part of the gender roles that some women are taught during their childhoods. Some churches teach that it is the wife’s duty to stand by her husband, no matter what the danger of doing so may be to the wife. These deeply held beliefs and traditions are hard to break from, even when faced with abuse.
However, two of the biggest barriers to accessing services for immigrants are language and lack of knowledge of resources. It is hard to ask for help if no one speaks your language and many immigrants assume that they do not have certain rights or access to services since such rights and services are not available in their home countries.
A WAY OUT: BATTERED IMMIGRANTS, BARRIERS and SOLUTIONS by Glenaan O’Neil
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Rights that immigrants share with everyoneWe all have the right to call the police and we should call the
police in dangerous and life-threatening situations. We all have the right to obtain emergency medical care, when necessary. We all have the right to access our court system. This means immi-grants have the right to petition the court for protective orders, divorces, and child support or child custody, whether or not they have valid immigration status in the U.S.
When in court, any person not fluent in English should be of-fered an interpreter. Interpreters can be expensive, and the courts may be obligated to provide one for people who cannot afford an interpreter due to dire financial need. In denying access to in-terpreters, courts deny persons with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) their constitutional right to due process and access to courts and make it impossible to tell their story.
Battered immigrants married to U.S. Citizens or LPRs – like Mariela – also have the right to submit their own applications for status to Immi-gration. In 1994, Congress included the “self-pe-titioning” process as part of the Violence Against Women Act after recognizing the particularly vul-nerable position of immigrant victims of domes-tic violence. Self-petitions take abusers out of the equation. Immigrant victims of domestic violence married to a U.S. citizen or LPR may now submit their own immigration application without rely-ing on their abusive spouses. The self-petitioning process is completely confidential; survivors can rest assured that their abusers will not find out.
Immigrant self-petitioners spouses must dem-onstrate to Immigration that they married their
U.S. Citizen or LPR spouse in good faith and that they lived together. Additionally, they must show that they were victims of battery and/or extreme cruelty, and that they are people of good moral character. Please note that abused husbands, abused chil-dren, and abused parents of abusive U.S. Citizen children can self-petition as long a bona fide relationship is proved.
Approved VAWA Self-Petitioners receive “deferred action status,” which helps protect them from deportation and quali-fies them to apply for employment authorizations. Eventually, an approved Self-Petitioner may qualify for and receive Lawful Permanent Residence - what they could have applied for had it not been for their abusive spouse’s refusal to legitimize their status.
Freedom from the fear of deportation coupled with the means to become financially independent often empowers sur-vivors like Mariela to leave abusive homes and begin a new life for her and her children, without violence. This, in turn, helps make our communities safer.
A life with hopeIn 2011, Mariela heard a public service announcement on
the radio: “It said women like me could get help. It said that I could get my papers fixed, without having to depend on my husband. I was scared to call, but I did, because I was so tired of feeling sick and afraid all the time.”
Mariela contacted the Texas Civil Rights Project’s VAWA program. TCRP’s VAWA program works with immigrant victims of domestic violence living in Texas’ rural areas to obtain valid immigration status. A year after her application was submitted, she was approved and she received her deferred action status. Three months after that, her employment authorization arrived. Mariela goes on to say, “I knew that I could support myself and my family when I got my employment authorization. As soon as I got a job and saved up enough money to get my own place, I left my husband.”
Now, Mariela and her two daughters live in an apartment in San Antonio. They are all in counseling to cope with the years of violence they endured. But, Mariela says with a smile, “I know that there are still hard times ahead of me, but now I know any-thing is possible for me and for my children. Now, I know that I can live my life with hope instead of fear.” q
Immigrant victims of domestic violence married to a U.S. citizen or LPR may now submit their own immigration application without relying on their abusive spouses. The self-petitioning process is completely confidential; survivors can rest assured that their abusers will not find out.
a nonprofit foundation, promotes civil rights and economic and racial justice for poor and low-income people throughout Texas, with offices in Austin, San Juan, El Paso, and Odessa. If you are an undocumented victim of domestic violence seeking legal assistance, please contact the VAWA Program at the Texas Civil Rights Project at 1-888-364-8277.
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K oinobori (carp-shaped wind socks) have become a symbol of the end of Japanese nuclear power that Energia Mia has adopted in solidarity to send the same message to our local utilities. The wind socks are traditionally flown on May 5th, Children’s Day. Two years after the nuclear plant meltdowns at Fukushima Daiichi, Japan, March 11, 2011 (our time), Japanese women are demanding that all nuclear power plants be closed. The nuclear disaster is still
unfolding, and tens of thousands of people have permanently lost their homes, businesses and land because of it. In Japan, “women’s groups have been particularly ...effective in condemning the government’s casualization of exposure... its
inadequate attention to ‘hotspots’ outside of the official evacuation areas, its calculation only of external radiation...” according to a JapanFocus article. While polls last June indicated 80% of Japanese prefer at least a gradual phase out of nuclear energy, women’s groups there have made “some of the most consistent and specific demands” drawing “attention to issues such as the exposure of children to radiation as well as food safety.”
Energia Mia joins this majority to call for replacing nuclear energy with energy conservation, wind, solar, geothermal and sources of energy that are decentralized/ local, sustainable and affordable to all. Consider flying Koinobori with us: energiamia.org. q
ow that most of the renovations are complete on the Casa de Cuentos (the main building) a group of sabios, keepers of
community stories and memories, have come together to share ideas and plan projects for the space every Monday from 11am to 2pm. We are creating a statement of purpose and setting goals, compiling a history of the buildings for tours, formulating guidelines for volunteers, drawing up outlines of future projects, and planning for upcoming events, such as a the monthly second Saturday convivio of elders, and the upcoming Paseo por el Westside event. Some of our goals include community outreach - historias and interviews, platicas about the history and the future of the Westside. We will work on documentation and archiving and such proposed projects as a Westside cookbook with traditional recipes and stories. While we do this–we talk and share stories, cook, and eat. We share recipes, stories and memories, ideas, photos, songs, and so much laughter!
We call ourselves Corazones de Casa de Cuentos. We meet every second Saturday morning from 10 am to 1pm to share historias, memories, coffee, pan dulce, and laughter. If you or someone you know has memories of the people, stories about the neighborhood, or photos to share about the Westside from the ‘30s through the ‘60s, please join us at the Casa de Cuentos, 816 Colorado (near the corner of Guadalupe and Colorado Street). – Cynthia Spielman
In solidarity with
Fukushimaby Kamala Platt & Alice Canestaro-García
Corazones de Casa de Cuentos
Drawing by Pájara
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Erica AndrewsQue en paz descanse
T he news of Erica Andrews’s death on March 11, 2013 spread across social media and our community like a savage fire. Much like a fire,
this news burned many of us at our core, leaving us to sort through the life-long memories she left us. At the Esperanza, Erica made an impact as an actor in Jotos del Barrio (2002) and Miss America: A Mexicanito Fairy’s Tale (2009). Below, former cast and crew members offer their remembrances.
I’ve been trying for a week to put together a few words for Erica and I realized no matter what I jot down it won’t ever be enough to express how I feel about her loss. My greatest memory of her will always be working with her at the Esperanza while we did Miss America. We mourn Erica Andrews the entertainer but what I’m going to miss the most is my dear friend Erica Salazar. -Manuel Barraza
I remember admiring Erica from afar. I always wished I could talk to her; maybe even get to perform with her. Years later I had the honor of sharing the stage with her in Miss America and my dream came true! We not only talked, we worked together and we built a life-long friendship. She taught me about strength, hope, and courage. She was a teacher of LIFE and a human filled with a lot of LOVE. She lives in me and in the hearts of everyone she touched. -Jaime Gonzalez
¡Una diosa de primera categoría! We had already known each other for a while,
but what brought us closer together was working on Miss America, her as an
actress and I as a choreographer. A true friend that gave me the nickname “Rufina.” All I can say is, I guess God needed her by His side. An angel will be watching and guiding us from above, keeping us safe. Con todo respeto,- Ricardo César Gaitán Muñoz
The first time I met Erica she asked if
she could audition for a part in Jotos del Barrio. I thought this was absurd; Erica could have any role she wanted! But being the true professional artist and respectful person that she was, Erica came to her audition and blew us all out of our seats. Erica – amiga, hermana, compañera en el arte – ¡muchas gracias por todo! Above all, thank you for the lessons in courage, strength, respect, y humildad -Jesús Alonzo
I met Eddie 25 years ago working at Glamour Shots and learned all about glamour from Erica. Thanks for all the talent and my very first drag make-up. I remember her calling me Goddess from that point on and I was never scared. THANK YOU MISS ANDREWS!!!!!! LOVE, - Rene Roberts aka BETTY ANDREWS
Erica > Sister. Her Love = Beauty.
Perfectionism + Professionalism. Humilde, Reina y Mexicana.
Master prankster • Fairy godmother.- Javier Simons
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ne of the common misunder-standings about the struggle over the fate of the Hays Street
Bridge is that the struggle is merely about the integrity of the
bridge as a physical structure. It’s not: at bottom, it is about relations between people, about the relations of inequality that motivate conflicting desires for urban space. The struggle over the Hays Street Bridge exposes the bigger forces driving downtown redevelopment gener-ally, forcing the question of whether those forc-es serve those most vulnerable or whether they work in the interest of the most connected and secure. What happens to the bridge and the land surrounding tells us much about how we relate to one another, and how we relate to the land it-self, as nature: that’s why it matters.
Thinking Hays Street and HemisFair in an Era of Neoliberal Urbanism
In previous segments of this series, we’ve been discussing the nature of these social and environmental relations, widen-ing our lens so as to sketch out the basic characteristics of capitalism that inform land use decisions within cities. Overall, following urban geographer David Har-vey, we’ve argued that the logic of capital-ism is the logic of “accumulation through dispossession,” the logic of the land grab: the creation of wealth for a few through the enclosure and privatization of the com-mons that the many depend on—the land, air, and water which belong to everyone and to which we all belong. We’ve also ar-gued that urbanization is one way that the state attempts to regulate “crises of accu-mulation,” or the patterns of boom and bust inherent to a capitalist economy. Building up cities to tear them down to build them up again is one way of absorbing surplus capital and labor during inevitable times of recession.
In the third segment of this series, we continue exploring the struggles around the Hays Street Bridge and downtown redevelopment in relation to these two ar-guments, asking: How do the city’s plans for downtown and its peripheral neighbor-hoods represent a new phase of “accu-mulation through dispossession”—profit through land grabbery? The case I want to make is that we cannot understand the city’s plans, nor resistance to them, with-out understanding what Julie Sze and other
by Marisol Cortez
PART THREE
Cities as if Women Mattered: a special series of La Voz
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3•urban scholars mean by neoliberal urbanism. Because if there is a single term that names what is happening, that is it.
Neoliberal What? The importance of understanding a technical mouthful like
“neoliberal urbanism” is the importance of placing local efforts to protect public spaces into the wider context of long term shifts at the level of both national and global economies. Within the past 40 years, the development of a neoliberal style of capital-ism has produced new strategies of profit-making, new forms of urban governance, and new kinds of urban spaces and identities as well. As Gihan Perera from Miami Worker’s Center puts it: “Take New York, for instance. To really understand the econo-my and structure of New York, you need to understand its role in finance and real estate not only in New York but throughout the globe. … [Similarly,] Miami holds almost every bank head-quarters in Latin America, and most decisions about investment are happening in cafeterias across the street from those banks on Brickell Avenue in Miami. And it’s from that context that investment and economic and policy decisions are being made throughout the world.” To understand local fights around Hays Street and HemisFair, we have to think global, in other words—which means under-standing the shift to neoliberal forms of capitalism insofar as these shape urban governance, and by extension, the production of urban space.
As urban geographer David Har-vey put it in 1990, neoliberalism is a “different regime of accumulation,” a new stage of capitalism that has emerged since the crash of the global property market in the 1970s, prompt-ing a shift in how capitalism works on the economic, political, and cultural levels. While the essential logic—ac-cumulation through dispossession—has remained the same, this logic has a different style and flavor. On the economic level, no longer do we see the post-WWII triumvirate of big business held in check by big labor and big government. This earlier era of what Harvey and others have called mo-nopoly or Fordist capitalism was marked by large, centralized manufacturing sites able to offer workers a standard of living approximating something called “middle class” (or, the ability to consume what one produces without actually controlling the process of production) via stable, lifelong positions with ben-efits.
Instead, we find ourselves amidst a new relationship be-tween state and capital that goes by different names: postindus-trial, flexible, postmodern, global, transnational, post-Fordist. Its biggest characteristics are casualization (the conversion of stable jobs for life into the uncertainty of “permatemp” posi-tions based on short term contracts); the deindustrialization of traditional industrial centers as manufacturing relocates to third world spaces where production is cheaper and more profitable; the rise of a post-industrial service- and knowledge-based econ-
omy in the global North; and—perhaps most significantly—the withdrawal of state regulation to permit and encourage capital’s new border-hopping, globalized character. Where monopoly capitalism was stable and centralized, neoliberal capitalism is flighty and unstable, with even less of a commitment to loca-tion. Neoliberal capitalism is also notorious for restricting pos-sibilities for a democratic political process, as it has meant the greater power of transnational corporations to shape the lives and wellbeing of local populations, with less input from those most impacted and with far less accountability to national gov-ernments.
Within cities, neoliberal restructuring has also meant “ex-tensive changes in the institutions of urban governance,” ac-cording to geographer Mark Purcell. Whereas the function of local government in an earlier era of monopoly capitalism was to administer federal distributions, Purcell states that the “local economy [is now] increasingly less a function of the national economy[.] Local governments have become more concerned with ensuring that the local area competes effectively in the global economy”—as evident in the emphasis of SA2020 on be-coming a “world class” city. In this shift, local governments have
begun to contract out previ-ously public functions and services to “volunteer orga-nizations and private forms, and [they] have developed quasi-public bodies—such as … urban development corporations and public pri-vate partnerships—to carry out many of the functions of local government.” In this way, corporations become the model for public entities (education, health care, parks and recreation, arts), which more and more are forced to function like for-profit indus-try (witness the renaming of the city’s Office of Cultural Affairs as the Department of Creative Development, rid-
ing the wave of neoliberal rhetoric around “creative economies” driven by the “creative class”). As on the global level, the chief side effect of these developments has been the disenfranchise-ment of urban residents, as real decision-making is transferred from local governments to the developers and industry boosters whose investments cities frequently court just to stay afloat.
Under neoliberalism, even the mechanisms cities have cre-ated to redress histories of uneven development become tools for the transfer of wealth from poor communities to wealthy investors, without much say so from anyone at all. For instance, what we see in case of the Alamo brewery project is that, in the most cynical manner, the city is using programs intended to reverse decades of inner city disinvestment and resulting ra-cialized poverty as tools of gentrification, displacement, and resettlement. As sociologist Robert Bullard and other transpor-tation scholars have pointed out, the TEA-21 funds used by the Hays Street Bridge Restoration Group to restore the bridge have been used by many communities around the U.S. to mitigate the
. . . what we see in case of the Alamo brewery project is that,
in the most cynical manner, the city is using programs intended
to reverse decades of inner city disinvestment and resulting racialized poverty as tools of gentrification, displacement,
and resettlement.
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racist impacts of urban renewal, connecting inner city neighbor-hoods gutted by highway projects back to the downtown core. Additionally, inner city reinvestment money, infill policy fee waivers, and other public incentives offered to Alamo Beer have been given not to those historically excluded from this access, but to those already privileged by their political connections. Re-distributive mechanisms that should be used to disrupt and cor-rect histories of disinvestment are instead being used to extend a long history of transferring public wealth to outside investors rather than to local residents— except where residents can be redefined in accordance with neoliberal preferences as “paying customers.”
The Park Formerly Known as HemisFair
But the controversy over the Hays Street Bridge is not an isolated or anomalous case—another common misunderstand-ing—but rather the visible outer edge of the exclusions and dis-placements inherent to downtown redevelopment generally, as evidenced in the case of the Hemisfair redevelopment project. Briefly, for those not yet acquainted with the details of the 10-15 year project, the city’s intent is to revitalize downtown in part by recreating HemisFair Park as a “world class urban park,” in the description of the Hemisfair Park Area Redevelopment Corpora-tion (HPARC), the public-private entity tasked with the project. Features of HPARC’s plans include restoring the original street grid; widening the streets to accommodate pedestrians, bikes, and car traffic; demolishing the existing Convention Center to free up acreage for park land; and restoring the approximately 1200 residential units displaced in the creation of HemisFair ’68 by constructing downtown living space.
As always, however, we have to look beyond the promise of
downtown living and increased green space to ask: what kind of residential space will be created? What kind of green space? For whom? If rents will be anything like those in the restored South-town lofts cited by Mayor Castro in his recent State of the City address as an example of the success of the “Decade of Down-town” ($1330 for a 1 bedroom apartment and $1845 for 2 bed-rooms, with no affordable units set aside or section 8 allowed), then these are not questions we can afford to stop asking. More-over, while the city is not technically selling the public lands of HemisFair Park outright to housing developers, those developers will have long term leases with the city, proceeds from which the city will use as income for park upkeep. While this sounds like a tidy solution to austerity-era budgets, what it means in effect is that the promised increase in green space acreage will be subject to increased private surveillance. This green space will no longer be for everyone—public space as commons—but for those who can afford to live there.
In fact, journalist Alex Ulam goes so far as to argue that this way of funding parks represents the “contem-porary park privatiza-tion model,” in which public dollars fund park construction, while maintenance and op-erations budgets derive from revenue generated by private development constructed on park grounds, leading to a conflict of interest be-tween public function and commercial inter-ests. As Harvey says in his recent book Rebel Cities, “much of the corruption that attaches to urban politics relates to how public invest-ments are allocated to produce something that looks like a common but which promotes gains
in private asset values for privileged property owners.”Tellingly, the rebranding of HemisFair Park to drop the “park”
suggests this dual move to restrict physical access to urban space and political access to the decision making process over land use, displacing from both those who actually use city space to make way for a preferred class of urban identities. As an HPARC official reported in La Prensa in January of 2013, “another rea-son the word ‘park’ was removed is because research shows that in an urban setting people associate the word with vagrants and the homeless.” To redevelop The Park Formerly Known as Hem-isFair in these ways, the city moved to amend a state law pro-tecting public lands from sale so that plans might proceed apace without the public votes otherwise required. While this move was blocked by state legislators, this same attempt to restrict public input on the question of public land sales has become the basis for the Hays Street Restoration Group’s lawsuit against the city. The statute is designed precisely for situations such as these,
. . . much of the corruption that attaches to urban politics relates to how public investments are allocated to produce something that looks like a common but which promotes gains in private asset values for privileged property owners.
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3•so as to protect the right of those who use land held in common to say what should happen to that land. This is especially critical when the city’s plans would effectively restrict access to public lands or displace a diversity of uses/users - homeless and resi-dents and tourists in the same space - for a monoculture befitting a “world class” downtown. If plans are good, what can be the threat of a vote?
Understanding neoliberal capital on the economic and politi-cal levels ultimately helps us understand it as a set of cultural transformations seeking to “colonize space for the affluent,” as Harvey puts it, especially in parts of the inner city previously treated as economic sacrifice zones. As with the Dignowity Hill neighborhood, as with the former neighborhoods of HemisFair Park, as with my dad’s old neighborhood now bordering the new Pearl, as with the Broadway corridor and the near-Westside near UTSA downtown, city space is unmade and remade to at-tract desirable new cosmopolitan mobilities and identities. Thus BudCo land becomes microbrewery turf, while high end retail spaces where local elites can lunch over business decisions are constructed on the ruined factories and foundries and quarries and railway corridors of the deindustrialized city. High rises and loft living then change the fabric and character of the working class neighborhoods that remain. For instance, real estate speculation on the eastern edge of downtown transformed the local neigh-borhood association from an advocate of longtime residents—a
largely elderly, historically black and mexicano population—to a promoter of the city’s preferred development model. With the influx of residents from the Vidorra high rises, the neighborhood association became mouthpiece and justification for city’s priva-tization of the bridge and its surrounding land in an attempt to draw tourist dollars to the area, no matter that this project would betray the work of community groups that worked closely with the city to realize a more accessible vision for bridge and land. As with the role played by Avenida Guadalupe Association in the struggle to preserve Casa Maldonado from demolition, Dignow-ity Hill Neighborhood Association has functioned in the case of the Hays Street Bridge as a de facto public-private partnership, undercutting the work of community to protect the commons, and promoting instead the enclosures and removals required to make over a formerly working class neighborhood as a choice destina-tion for preferred consumers.
To Gentrify Does Not Mean to Make Something More Beautiful
Understood within the historical and political context of neo-liberalism, the neighborhood changes on the edge of downtown are less revitalization than gentrification, or the process by which “capital and affluent populations flow to low-income and working class city quarters often resulting in displacement for the original inhabitants” (in the words of urban studies scholar Jonathan Jack-son). As community trying to resist displacement, this is also why it is important that we get our terms right. Gentrification cannot and should not be understood (as in the city’s preferred definition) as a neutral process of neighborhood change, or worse, as making something implicitly ugly into something better or more beauti-ful. Within the historical and sociological context of neoliberal-ism, we can see how the rhetoric of redevelopment—terms like blight, underutilized, surplus, renewal, revitalization—is deeply racially and class-coded. Here, “underutilized,” a term often used to describe land around the Hays Street Bridge and HemisFair Park, means not un-used, but more nefariously, used by the wrong people for the wrong reasons.
The point is not that places like HemisFair Park or the lot at the corner of Cherry and Lamar are better off the way they
are (or were). The point is that scholars like Harvey accurately point out the dynamics shaping cities around the world, includ-ing here in San Antonio. The point is that powerful forces re-peatedly build up the city to tear it down to build it anew, not to directly remedy histories of ra-cialized and gendered poverty, but to continue ensuring capi-tal accumulation for those who already own. The discourse of “economic development” is in fact a smokescreen for the dispossessions and displace-ments— the land grabs—on which redevelopment efforts
necessarily rest.My task in this analysis is not to indict powerful individuals,
but ultimately to understand the structural nature of power, the sys-temic forces involved in producing urban space in particular ways for particular interests. It is these structural forces, not individuals, which produce the historical repetitions we want to disrupt. It is not about the personal integrity of HPARC’s well-intentioned CEO, or even of headline-grabbing former deputy city managers with conflicts of interests (well, maybe it is). While individuals change positions, what we want is an understanding of the structural logic that persists to produce the same outcomes. Because what we want is nothing less than a different logic altogether. Next in this series, that new logic: Right to the City, Rights of Mother Earth.
Bio: Marisol Cortez attempts to inhabit the impossible interstices between academic and activist worlds. She works primarily on issues of environ-mental justice as a creative writer, community organizer and liberation sociologist. Email her with thoughts at [email protected]
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Tip Integrity Act
The year 2013 marks the 30th anniversary of my mother’s arrival to this country. She came from Mexico to the United States as many had before and continue to do so. She came across the border as an “illegal” immigrant. She moved with her father to Dallas, Texas where she began to work in order to support herself. A few years later she and my father met and started a family. They had three children for whom they worked hard to support. My dad would go to work every morn-ing, doing construction. My mom would stay home and cook, clean, wash, and care for us. They both did all they could to make sure we always had what we needed, or at the very least make us feel like we had everything we needed.
They both became legal residents in the early 1990s. In 2002, we moved to San Antonio, the place we now love and consider home. My dad struggled to find work that paid enough to support a family of five, so my mom applied at the Hyatt Regency, where an aunt of mine was working at the time. She was hired as a housekeeper, a job she has done since with a lot of pride.
After a few years, she began complaining of pain through-out her body. Her shoulders, arms, knees, her hands and back would ache. It was difficult seeing my mom come home from work, too tired to play with her grandchildren, or do work around the house as she had done for so many years. Finding courage through the UNITE HERE union organizers, she stood up to her managers. Over the years Hyatt increased the number of rooms the housekeepers had to clean from 18 to now up to 30. More work in the same 8 hours a day meant working faster, getting injured more often, and having no time to stop and rest. The Hyatt has for years abused their workers who they see as
machines, not as my mom, or my nephew’s grandmother, or my father’s wife. They
disrespect workers by treating them as objects instead of as human beings.
Aside from increasing the work-load, other problems emerged over the years. When my mom began working at Hyatt, and for a few years after, she received tips that guests left for her at the front desk. Although it was not a great deal of money, every bit
helped–maybe for a few extra groceries, paying a little
more towards the bills, going out for dinner every now and then,
or buying something
special for her grandchildren. On several occasions, my mom was told by guests that they would be leaving a tip for her, but then she wouldn’t receive it. When she asked her manager about it, she was given no reason for the missing money.
For too long, big hotel corporations have been taking tips that belong to the workers and pocketing it for the sole purpose of padding their pockets. Not that these companies are in dire need of a few extra dollars. The Grand Hyatt received $207
million dollars from the City of San Antonio in tax abatements when they came to the city. Aside from taking millions in resi-dents’ tax money, they are blatantly stealing tip money intend-ed for workers. In a tourist city like San Antonio, millions of dollars are paid in service charges. This is no small amount of money these companies are taking. I know for my family a few hundred dollars a month would have made a big difference.
But why has the City of San Antonio done nothing to stop tip theft from happening to hard working people like my mom? Why do these companies feel it is OK to take money that does not belong to them? It is because no one had done anything about it, or shined a light on it. Hotel and restaurant workers like my mom are standing up and supporting Mi Tia. This ordinance would make hotels and restaurants be honest about where money that is left for workers is actually go-ing. Getting workers the money they work so hard for is the ultimate goal. People who work in the third largest industry in San Antonio should not be struggling to support a family.
That is why we should all be urging our City Council rep-resentatives, and Mayor Julian Castro to support and pass the Tip Integrity Act! To get involved and have your voice be heard, find us online at www.supportmitia.org or call UNITE HERE at 210-224-1520.
y name is Perla Terrazas. I was raised by two hard-working parents who worked tirelessly to provide the best for their family. Mi Tia, the Tip Integrity Act, is one way thousands of hard working San Antonio families like mine, can do the same. Mi Tia would prevent mil-lions of dollars in tips from being stolen from service workers by their employers. Stealing hard earned tips from San Antonio families is wrong, and it must end!
Perla Terrazas (right) with her mother, Elvia Claudio. Photo: SACurrent.com
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The constant loud barking alerted Dona Teresa Navarro that something was terribly wrong. She had just assured herself that the baby’s bath water was exactly luke-warm, for, although it was midsummer, the two-year-old Dora didn’t like water cold. Teresa noticed the first man running past the window as she gently placed the baby inside the round tub. The neighbors that followed him were evidence of a
colonia turned into an infierno. As children screamed, men and women held small personal belongings on their backs with babies were clutched tightly as everyone ran to save them-selves. “La migra! la migra! Dona Tere, corra, nos llego la migra.” Margarita from next door was warning her, but it was not in Tere to run. She did what she had done in previous raids, she remained calm and dealt with the fear. Decisively, she sped up the baby’s bath and dressed her comfortably. Rushing over to the small closet, she reached for her husband’s jacket where documents were tucked safely in a small plastic wrap. Outside the screaming had given way to children sobbing. The agents were barking orders in an attempt to load people unto green cattle trucks.
The moment she had dreaded had arrived, and she could hear heavy footsteps outside her door. The short delay had given her time to do what she needed to do. She picked the baby off the bed and held her snugly next to her breast to minimize the alarm.
The old door swung open abruptly to the shadow of a man standing in a frame of sunlight. He seemed much taller than other agents she remembered. His cold, gray eyes fixed on her, and his hand rested on the butt of a holstered gun. “Ondey ehsta otros?” He managed in awk-ward Spanish. “No hay nadie mas, sólo mi niña y yo!” Tere answered. The agent scanned the room making a mental note that there was not much space for anyone to hide. “Tener tu papeles?” he continued. She quickly unfolded the small plastic bag removing a document. “Solo esto.” On other occasions the letter had been enough to keep her from being arrested. The document was a notarized letter describing her husband as a U.S Citizen and herself as a beneficiary in line for legal resident status. The agent did not take too much time studying the document. Unimpressed, he waved a hand signaling her to step before him. Without hesita-tion, she quickly packed a few more things in an old paper bag.
All her movements were those of a submissive prisoner, until the agent attempted to grab her by the arm. She stopped him cold. “No señor, a mi no tiene que mangoniarme, yo no corro de nadie.” (No sir!, there is no need to subdue me; I don’t run from anyone.) It wasn’t her words that surprised the agent since he didn’t understand much Spanish anyway. It was her expression and demeanor that he had not seen before today. Both Tere and the agent looked at each other with a new understanding. Despite the circumstances, Tere was keeping her dignity, and the agent was meeting with an unmistakable demand for respect. q
la Migra Immigrant stories, a seriesby Lupe Casares & Teresita Jacinto
editor’s noteAs the politics of im-migration legislation heats up, it must be noted that the stories of Mexican immigrants and their descendents have been with us for generations. Our ex-periences as Chica-nas/os have been in-extricably linked to the immigrant experience. In tribute, La Voz de Esperanza presents a series of stories begin-ning with La Migra.
A historical perspective
What the United States Department of Immigration and Naturalization officially called a repatriation proj-ect from the late 1940s to the 1950s, was in fact the militarization of the southern border of the United States in a de facto police state impacting thousands of families living mostly in states north of Mexico. The massive deportation campaign, known as “Operation Wetback” targeted men, women, and children for simply looking Mexican, although great numbers were then and later found to be US citizens. The operation employed police-state raids and practices that arbitrarily held hostage the residents of colonias and barrios throughout the south-west. The political scheme of the time was designed to rid the country of a mostly innocent and hard working people blamed for the economic woes of a country emerging from a world war. The project was largely enforced by white immigration agents who acted without protocols, training, or the rule of law. With the help of local and state police agencies, they simply enforced a policy that permitted them to use any and all means necessary to accomplish the ultimate goal of deporting the “Mexican-looking” population. To date there has not even been a national apology for the illegal seizure, torture, and deportation of well over a million Mexicans, many of whom were citizens of this country. While we are willing to forgive those who terrorized our people, we will never forget the humiliation, anguish, and degradation suffered at the hands of a country without a conscience.
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Abraham De La TorreAlexis Marie Estrada
Alice Canestaro-GarcíaAngie Merla
Antonia Castañeda y Arturo Madrid
BatBernard Sánchez
Carlos Salazar SolorzanoCynthia Spielman
David Zamora CasasEdward Vela &
Evergreen NurseryEfrain Loredo
Ellen Riojas ClarkEloise Castro
Elva Perez TrevinoGilda “Gigi” Carreon
Gloria RamirezGrace Ibarra
Graciela Sanchez &Amy Kastely
Hilda ArévalosImelda Arismendez
Isabel & Enrique SanchezLeticia L. Sanchez
Itza CarbajalJanie Barrera
Jeremia BredvadJezzika Lee Perez
Josie Merla MartinLaura Varela
Los Corazones de la
Casa de CuentosLucy & Ray Perez
Luis MercadoMariana Vasquez
Maria & Manuel BerriozabalMaria Salazar & JoAnn Castillo
Mario E. CarbajalMario Tristán
Marisela BarreraMarisol CortezMartha Prentiss
Mary Esther & Joe BernalMelissa Ann Rodríguez
Mildred HilbrichMiriam Bujanda & Gerald Poyo
Monica VelásquezRachel HinojosaRaul Castellanos
Ray ZamoraRonald Valdez
Roy FazSam Bruce
Samantha ValdezSandra Cisneros
Sandra & Raphael GuerraSharyll Teneyuca
Tina Garza MooreTino Villanueva
Tomás Ybarra Frausto & Dudley BrooksVelia Sánchez
Victoria TraversiYolanda Broyles González
Agradecimientos
Photos by Antonia Padilla, Bernard Sanchez y Esperanza staff
Homenaje a Eva Garza
Friday & Saturday, February 23 &24, 2013
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3•Amnesty International #127 meets at various sites during the year. Contact Arthur Dawes at 210- 213-5919 for details.
Anti-War Peace Vigil every Thurs-day (since 9/11/2001) from 4-5pm @ Flores & Commerce Contact Tim 210.822.4525 | [email protected]
Bexar Co. Green Party [email protected] or call 210.471.1791.
Celebration Circle meets Sundays, 11am @ JumpStart at Blue Star Arts Complex. Meditation, Weds @ 7:30 pm @ Quaker Meeting House, 7052 Vandiver. 210.533-6767
DIGNITY S.A. mass at 5:30 pm, Sunday @ Beacon Hill Presbyterian Church, 1101 W. Woodlawn. Call 210.735.7191.
GLBT Wellness Support Group sponsored by PRIDE Center of SA meets 4th Mondays, 7-8:45pm @ Li-ons Field Club House, 2809 Broad-way. Call 210.213.5919 for info
Energia Mia meets 3rd Saturday, 1pm @ Oblate School of Theology, 285 Oblate Dr. Call 210.849.8121
Fuerza Unida, 710 New Laredo, Hwy. 210.927.2297 www.lafuer-zaunida.org
Habitat for Humanity meets 1st Tues. for volunteer orientation, 6pm, HFHSA Office @ 311 Probandt.
S.A. International Woman’s Day March & Rally planning committee meets year-round. www.sawomen-willmarch.org or 210.262.0654
LGBT Youth Group meets at MCC Church, 611 E. Myrtle on Sundays at 10:30am. 210.472.3597
Metropolitan Community Church in San Antonio (MCCSA)
611 East Myrtle, has services & Sunday school @ 10:30am. Call 210.599.9289.
PFLAG, meets 1st Thurs @ 7pm, 1st Unitarian Universalist Church, Gill Rd/Beryl Dr. Call 210.655.2383.
PFLAG Español meets 1st Tues-days @ 2802 W. Salinas, 7pm. Call 210.849.6315
Proyecto Hospitalidad Liturgy each Thursday at 7pm at 325 Court-land. Call 210.736.3579.
The Rape Crisis Center, Hotline @ 210.349-7273. 210.521.7273 or email [email protected] 7500 US Hwy 90 W.
The Religious Society of Friends meets Sundays @ 10am @ The Friends Meeting House, 7052 N. Vandiver. 210.945.8456.
San Antonio’s Communist Party USA holds open meetings 3-5 pm 2nd Sundays at Westfall Branch Li-brary, 6111 Rosedale Ct. Contact: [email protected]
S.A. Gender Association meets 1st & 3rd Thursdays, 6-9pm @ 611 E. Myrtle, Metropolitan Community Church, downstairs. www.sagender.org
The San Antonio AIDS Foun-dation offers free HIV testing 6 days a week at 818 E. Grayson St. 210.225.4715 | www.txsaaf.org.
Shambhala Buddhist Meditation Center classes are on Tuesdays at 7pm, & Sun. at 11:30 am. at 1114 So. St. Mary’s. Call 210.222.9303.
S.N.A.P. (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests). Con-tact Barbara at 210.725.8329.
Voice for Animals: 210.737.3138 or www.voiceforanimals.org for info
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¡Todos Somos Esperanza!Start your 2013
monthly donations now!Esperanza works to bring awareness and action on issues relevant to our communities. With our vision for social, environmental, economic and
gender justice, Esperanza centers the voices and experiences of the poor & working class, women,
queer people and people of color. We hold pláticas and workshops; organize political actions; present
exhibits and performances and document and preserve our cultural histories. We consistently
challenge City Council and the corporate powers of the city on issues of development, low-wage jobs,
gentrification, clean energy and more.
It takes all of us to keep the Esperanza going. When you contribute monthly to the Esperanza you are
making a long-term commitment to the movement for progressive change in San Antonio, allowing Esperanza to sustain and expand our programs.
Monthly donors can give as little as $5 and as much as $500 a month or more.
What would it take for YOU to become a monthly donor? Call or come by the Esperanza to learn how.
¡Esperanza vive! ¡La lucha sigue!
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Progressive Movementin San Antonio
Notas Y Más Brief news items on upcoming community events. Send info for Notas y Más to: [email protected]
or mail to: 922 San Pedro, San Antonio, TX 78212. The deadline is the 8th of each month.April 2013
The 10th annual Center for Mexican Ameican Studies & Research (CMASR) Conference, Higher Education: Cultural Issues & Cultural Studies, takes place April 4 & 5 at Our Lady of the Lake Uni-versity. See www.ollusa.edu.
The Scholar: St. Mary’s Law Review on Race and Social Justice will sponsor the Immigration Symposium on Friday, April 5th at the San Antonio Plaza Club in the Frost Bank Tower in San Antonio. Con-tact Claudia at [email protected] or Francisca at [email protected].
The Benjamin V. Cohen Peace Confer-ence–Promoting Nonviolence at Home and Beyond takes place April 5th and 6th in Muncie, Indiana. Visit www.bsu.edu/co-henpeaceconference for details.
Dignity San Antonio will host an art ex-hibit, If you are going to paint my world, paint it in fabulous colors! Saturday, April 6th, 1-5 pm at Viva Bookstore, 8407 Broadway. Contact vivabooks.com or www.dignitysanantonio.com
The San Antonio Communist Party USA Club will meet on Sunday, April 14, 3-5pm at the Westfall Public Library meeting room, 6111 Rosedale Ct., 78201, (210) 344-2373. The topic of discussion will be the May city and school elections.
The first San Antonio Q Fest, an LGBT themed film festival will occur April 21, 22, and 23. See www.farrisfamilyfp.com/video/sa-q-fest/ for more.Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society is calling for submissions on conditions of Indigeneity in local contexts & how these relate & interact with larger global decolonization movements. Submit to www.decolonization.org by April 26.
Mujeres Unidas, Inc. that provides educa-tion & support services to bilingual/bicul-tural communities faced with HIV/AIDS & other health concerns will sponsor the 15th Annual Baile de Vida on Friday, May 10th at 300 Callaghan Rd. Tickets are $30. Call 210.738.3393.
The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center is looking for writings on conjunto music for its 32nd Annual Tejano Conjunto Festival publication. Email: [email protected] no later than early April. The 2013 Tejano Conjunto Festival will take place May 15–16 at the Guadalupe Theater and May 17–19 at Rosedale Park in San Anto-nio, Tx. Contact (210) 271-3151 or www.guadalupeculturalarts.org.
URBAN-15 is seeking outstanding short films in the categories of narrative, docu-mentary, animation & experimental films from students or independent artists 21
years of age & younger for the 7th Annual Josiah Media Festival to be held July 11th-13th. Postmark deadline is June 1st. Call URBAN-15 at 210-736-1500 or email us at [email protected].
The 9th Annual Queer Women of Color Film Festival is scheduled on June 14-16 in San Francisco. See www.qwocmap.org/
CantoMundo for Latina/o poets convenes June 27-30 at UT–Austin. Apply at: www.cantomundo.org/guidelinesapplication/
Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio So-cial (MALCS) invites submissions for its annual Summer Institute: ¡Aquí Estamos!/We Are Here!: Movements, Migrations, Pilgrimage and Belonging to be held July 17-20 at Ohio State University in Colum-bus, Ohio. Check: comparativestudies.osu.edu/events/malcs-2013-summer-institute
The 38th National Conference on Men & Masculinities ~ Forging Justice: Cre-ating Safe, Equal & Accountable Com-munities of the National Organization for Men Against Sexism meets August 8-10 in Detroit. See: www.nomas.org.
The 2013 American Grants & Loans Catalog contains more than 2800 financial programs, subsidies, scholarships, grants & loans offered by the federal government. To order call: 1 (800) 610-4543.
The Esperanza began a journey into the queer visual experience on May 19, 1989 that was sparked by a diminutive elder, Mim Scharlack. who had been a dancer in
Hollywood and lost friends to the AIDS pandemic including Liberace. She expressed her feelings of anger and sadness for friends who had died from AIDS in a series of
paintings. Attending the exhibit was David Zamora Casas who later wrote:
“The Esperanza was the only gallery that would house an exhibit at the time deal-ing with issues related to AIDS. Large dramatic red, black and white paintings
inspired by death, suffering and pain created by a little lady who I would come to know as Mimi Le Mew. Art brought me to the Esperanza. Art and AIDS…”
That same spring David curated an exhibit in observation of Gay Pride entitled, Equal
Rights for Whom? –the first public exhibit of its kind in San Antonio and in Texas. The lesbian and gay community had finally come out unwittingly prompted by Mim’s bold step in exhibiting The AIDS Series. Mim, a gifted dancer, musician, performance artist
and poet was an integral part of the San Antonio arts community who made a difference in Esperanza’s history as well as other organizations, most notably Jump-Start Performance Co.
She will long be remembered. Que en paz descanse.
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La Voz de Esperanza922 San Pedro San Antonio TX 78212210.228.0201 • www.esperanzacenter.org
LA VOZ de ESPERANZA • April 2013 Vol. 26 Issue 3•
Celebrating the Spanish Romani (Gypsy) Historia y Arte
Join us for our monthly concert series with singer/songwriter Azul
SaturdayApril 20th 8pm$5 más o menos @ Esperanza
Fuentes Sanchez LANIER scholarship fund
tickets$7
Saturday, 8pm April 13, 2013
@ Esperanza peace & justice ctrCall Isabel at 227.6868 or the Esperanza at 228.0201
@1412 El Paso St, (210) 223-2585
Mother’s Day Exhibit & Sale
@ Rinconcito de Esperanza, 816 S. Colorado
¡Vengan, enjoy a day of música, films, photos, food, y más!
For more info: (210) 228.0201
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Special PreviewFriday, May 3rd, 6pm$20 AdmissionExhibit May 4th-11th
10am-3pm, Free
handcrafted ceramics to honor all women who have nurtured and advocated for their families, friends and community.
Haven’t opened La Voz in a while? Prefer to read it online? Wrong address? TO CANCEL A SUBSCRIPTION EMAIL [email protected] CALL: 210.228.0201
An ongoing public education program of the Esperanza Center presents
City of HopeDir. joHn sayles 1991
sat april 27 6pm Hays st BriDge free
film screening
Friday, April 5th
7pm-10pm • Free Workshop on Belly Basics (all skill levels)
w/ Gio of Zombie Bazaar Belly Dance • Raza Cale Plática with Spain’s Silvia Salamanca - $5 Saturday, April 6th 9am-10pm • Registration • Workshop w/ Erin Gillespie - $15• Zambra Mora Workshop - $30 • Gitana Revolución Performance - $8
@ Esperanza, 922 San PedroContact Gio at [email protected] | 210.459.6660
with DJ El General
BAILE!
