After a 12 year hiatus Texas A&M International University held a summer commencement ceremony. Although held on a warm August evening, TAMIU’s Kinesiology and Convo-cation Building packed quickly with the family and

friends of the graduates.The procession came in

amidst the loud applause and shouting as over 160 candidates filed into their seats−an increase from previous summer gradu-ates. It seemed the main reason for the return of TAMIU’s Summer Com-

@TheBridgeTAMIU facebook.com/TheBridgeTAMIU thebridgenewspaper.com October 2014

ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE LAREDOPAGE 8

SPORTSPAGE 7

ALFONSO-GOMEZ REJONPAGE 8

Autmus Fest

ROCK AND ROLL ALL NIGHTon Campus

New solutions for student

safetyBy Judith Mae Aguilar

@TheBridgeTAMIU

In the past several years, there have been reports of violence in schools or universities. Some that come to mind include Columbine, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, and, recently earlier in the year, University of California at Santa Barbara that resulted in 7 deaths and 13 injuries.

What could be on the mind of most that attend Texas A&M Internation-al University, may be the question: ‘Am I safe?’

In a special interview with Juan Castillo, Vice-President of Finance and Administration, and Gabriel Dominguez, Safety Risk Manager, this was the main topic of conver-sation. The general response to the earlier questions was positive for TA-MIU.

Louis San Miguel | The Bridge Staff

For More on AutMus Fest head to Page 5 and 6 safety page 8

Summer Graduation

TAMIU hosts first summer ceremony in

12 years

Judith Mae Aguilar | The Bridge StaffDenise Montano celebrates getting her degree during the first summer diploma ceremony in 12 years.

summer page 2

The first gubernatorial de-bate between candidates State Senator Wendy Davis and Texas Attorney Gener-al Greg Abbott, was held on September 19th in Edinburg, Texas. The debate held at the Edinburg Conference Center at Renaissance, made history as being the first gubernatorial debate held in the Rio Grande Valley

The Texas state senator went up against Texas state attor-ney general for their first live debate. This has been the first governors debate, sans current governor Rick Perry, since he

was elected to office in 2002. Both Davis and Abbott an-swered questions that includ-ed topics such as border secu-rity, education, and the like.

The debate was broadcast-ed on television, online, and

radio. The debate ran for an hour and each candidate had a chance to answer questions posed by the panel of moder-ators.

The first topic on the nights debate was about the plans for

balance between border se-curity and economic growth. Davis lead the debate with the topic of border security in which she was quoted saying that she supported the surge of “boots on the ground”, en-forced by current Texas gover-nor Rick Perry.

“The surge that the gover-nor supported was one that I supported as well because if the federal government will not act to protect our borders, Texas must and will,” Davis said.

The senators plans are to ensure that our Texas borders have heightened security so that she can, “work with this community through our tour-

Governor hopefuls debateGubernatorial Debate

Abbott DAVIS

debate page 2

Student Organizations

TAMIU offers more groups

Fall Semester has official-ly started! The 2014-2015 academic year has a lot to offer Texas A&M Interna-tional University students. Are you new on campus or a returning Dustdevil? Well you might be interested to know that there are plenty of student organizations to keep you busy this year. Ac-cording to Miguel Trevino, Director of Student Orien-tation, Leadership and En-

gagement, there are over 72 active student organizations on campus.

Each club is operated by stu-dents at TAMIU. Each orga-nization is responsible for their budget and fundraising. All money is handled by the bur-sar’s office at TAMIU where each club has an account to deposit their money. 18 out of 72 student organizations were started this school year. A&M International University Pod-cast Radio, ARSSB Student Advisory Council, Bone Col-lector’s Wrestling Organiza-tion, Global Citizens, Global

Medical Brigades, Health Oc-cupations Students of Ameri-ca, Indian Student Association, Innovative Business Adminis-tration, Latinas, National Or-ganization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), Oak Tree, Rotaract Club, South Texas LULAC, Stu-dents for Global Communi-cation, TAMIU Association of School Counseling, TA-MIU Lights, Camera, Action, Translogistics and Wellness Education Leaders are the new clubs students can join.

Maybe none of the new or existing student organiza-

tions caught your attention or they are probably not what you’re looking for. If this is the case, one can start their own organization on campus! Trevino explained that as long as there are ten members that wish to create a club they can do so by obtaining the prop-er forms need to start the organization. These forms are located at the Student Orientation, Leadership and Engagement office lo-cated in the Student Center

Groups page 2

By Tina Gomezcristina.gomez@ dusty.tamiu.edu

By Louie Canelaluiscanela@dusty.

tamiu.edu

By Judith Mae Aguilar@TheBridgeTAMIU

The Kumbia Kings All Stars close AutMus Fest night out with a performance on a stage constructed on the Killam Library Greens. A.B. Quintanilla’s group was just one of the many musical acts that performed at the Festival

When the panel invited by Dr. Peter Haruna for a spe-cial lecture in honor of Con-stitution Day, was presented a question about the rele-vancy of the Constitution of the United States in the 21st Century, the question was met with a resounding “yes”.

Dr. Haruna, an associate professor of American Na-tional Government, hosted a special Constitution Day lecture on September 17th in the Senator Judith Zaf-f irini Success Center and was joined by Dr. Mark Menaldo, Director of Po-litical Science, Dr. James Norris, associate professor of Political Science, and key speaker, Mr. Douglas Ferrier, Director of the Sue and Radcliffe Killam Library.

Mr. Ferrier gave a concise speech and highlighted the history of the Constitution and how it came to be. He held the attention of the au-dience as he described how the representatives from the original 13 states came to-gether to revise the Articles of Confederation, but moved to begin anew with a Con-stitution. He went further on to describe the trials and obstacles that our founding members went through in order to get the Constitution approved.

After Mr. Ferrier’s lec-ture, Dr. Menaldo was asked to provide his thoughts. With a firm voice he said, “We take every-thing for granted today, but one thing we take for grant-ed is that we are individu-

als…[it is] as natural to us as breathing air.”

He went on to comment, “The concept of the idea of being an individual took a revolution of the highest proportions…which was an outgrowth of the way con-stitutions were [previously written].” This statement seemed to entrance the audi-ence as a unique view of how revolutionary the Constitu-tion actually was at the time.

Dr. Haruna then provided his perception of the Con-stitution. “The way I view the constitution…may be very simplistic…but it helps me get a handle of what the Constitution was intended [to do]. [The Constitution] is a commonly founded document that helps us to, at least frame our ideas, at least frame our arguments

and use this founded docu-ment to persuade each oth-er rather than baseball bats and [beating] each other to death.”

At the end of the lecture, the audience was offered to ask questions to the pan-el, which included the one about the Constitutions rel-evancy in today’s world. Mr. Ferrier explained further, “I believe it is still relevant. It does not always work the way we would like it to, but it still works.”

Dr. Haruna added to that statement citing some land-mark cases like Dred Scott v. Sandford, Plessy v. Fer-guson, and Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, “One of the accom-plishments of the US is the fact that the Constitution has endured…In spite of

all of these [cases], we have something that we can hold on to. And I thank, whether it is relevant now, helps me understand that at least there is something that we can hold on to.”

After questions, Dr. Ha-runa then questioned the audience’s knowledge of the Constitution. If answered correctly, the participants re-ceived a special gift that in-cluded a pocket book of the Constitution of the United States of America that Dr. Haruna commented that he never is without.

All in all, the Constitution Day event was an education-al highlight of the nationally recognized day to celebrate and honor the document that made our country what it is, and that continues to devel-op our country.

October 20142

STAFF LISTEditor-in-chief............................Louis San MiguelAssoc. editor-in-chief...............Judith Mae AguilarAsst. editor-in-chief.......................Leo HernandezOnline Editor.....................................Louie CanelaSocial Media Editor...........................Louie CanelaHead Copy Editor..............................Anna EstevesCopy Editors...............................George Gonzalez

Khloe TorresSpanish Editor....................................Karen AlanisDesign Editor.............................Louis San MiguelReporters.............................................Tina Gomez

Contact InfoThe Bridge staff can be reached through a multiple number of avenues. As jour-nalists we always strive to be factual and unbaised. You can contact us with any comments or concerns through the following locations:

Additionally, reporters can be reached at their individual emails and Twitter pages which are detailed in the bylines of the various stories contained within our pages.

Twitter:twitter.com/TheBridgeTAMIU

Facebook:facebook.com/TheBridgeTAMIU

Website:thebridgenewspaper.com

Room 226. This will be the last year forms will be filled out manually. Trevi-no ecstatically noted that next year everything will be done online.

To start a student group on campus students must do the following:

1. Schedule a meet-ing with the Director of Student Orientation, Lead-ership and Engagement (SOLE) to discuss the pro-posed organization and se-cure the appropriate forms.

2. Become famil-iar with The Leader and TAMIU rules/regulations concerning student organi-zations.

3. Secure at least one (1) advisor for the orga-nization. At least one advisor must be a full-time staff or faculty member at TAMIU.

4. Complete the necessary paperwork and submit to SOLE. The neces-sary paperwork is:

o Student Organization

Registration Form (for new organizations only).

o A constitution and by-laws that describes your organization. Every consti-tution and/or by-laws must be voted and approved by the majority of your members and will serve as your guide of how your organization will run. A sample one can be found in The Leader.

5. Have your Pres-ident (or equivalent), Risk Manager/Service Coordi-nator (or equivalent), and Advisor attend a state man-dated Risk Management Training.

This information was ob-tained on SOLE TAMIU website.

For more information please contact Mr. Miguel Trevino at 956-326-2283 or stop by at the SOLE office located in the Student Cen-ter Room 226.

(Louie Canela can be reached at luiscanela@dusty.tamiu.edu)

group continues from page one

ism fund to help repair the tarnished image that has oc-curred as consequence [from border violence].”

Abbott rebuttled by saying that secure communities will support economic growth. He also touched on SpaceX’s plans to develop a base here in the Rio Grande Valley.

SpaceX is one of the private-ly owned space transportation companies which mission has been to reduce the costs of space transport. The Attorney Gener-al stated that, “It is important to point out that after those law enforcement officials came here, --that SpaceX announced it was opening operations for an entire new world for business and space exploration right here in the Rio Grande Valley.”

Another hot topic on that night’s agenda was the edu-

cation system and its future under the new Texas Gover-nor. A recent judgement by Texas District Court Judge John K. Dietz, ruled that the Texas School Funding sys-tem was unconstitutional. In this 383 page settlement, the court agreed that the fund-ing structure of the current Texas School system is not properly funded which results in an improper “diffusion” of knowledge in relation to each student. Both the at-torney general and the Texas senator had similar plans to rebuild the foundations of education for children. In his supporting answer Abbott stated, “What I want to do is to reinvent educations and school in the state. My goal is to ensure that Texas has the number one-ranked high

school[s]...and we do that by focusing on the fundamental building blocks of education.” Both candidates agreed that the Texas education system needs to be re-built from the ground up. In rebuttal, Davis called out on Abbott’s pro-posed plans on budget cuts for Texas state schools. She said, “As governor, I will make the education of our children a priority and I will fight to make sure that our schools have more resources, not less.”

As for who won the debate that night, it is questionable. The debate continued with both candidates making their arguments for their plans to change the way Texas Gov-ernment is being run. Each Candidate made their points on topics that have been on the minds of many Texans.

However, a recent polling conducted by Real Clear Politics stated that Abbott is the favorable candidate for the governorship. The poll, conducted from May 30th through September 2nd, and shows Abbott with a 49.3% of votes which gives him a 12% advantage over State Senator Davis.

This is the first debate be-tween both Davis and Ab-bott. The second debate will take place in Dallas on Sep-tember 30th. Both debates are considered crucial in this years November 4th elections for the next Texas state gov-ernor.

For more information, questions, or comments on this article, Tina Gomez can be reached at cristina.go-mez@dusty.tamiu.edu

debate continues from page one

mencement ceremony. The group included undergrad-uates and graduates from the College of Arts and Sciences, A.R. Sanchez, Jr. School of Business, Col-lege of Education, and the College of Nursing and Health Sciences. The last commencement held, after the spring semester, hap-pened over the course of one day in three separate ceremonies for each of the colleges.

As Dr. Ray Keck, TAMIU President, began his Com-mencement address, he held the crowd’s attention. It was the end of a point in their lives but a beginning of an-other—fitting as the 2014 Academic year came to a close.

After Dr. Keck’s speech, the presentation of the di-plomas began with those earning their bachelor’s degrees. Soon after, those earning their master’s de-grees earned their master’s hoods and diplomas—a departure from the norm when the hooding cer-emonies are held be-fore the commencement ceremonies.

Even considering the large group of graduates, the ceremony was over rel-atively quickly after about an hour after it began. As

it started later in the eve-ning, this left time for the family and friends of the graduates to celebrate the success. Those celebrations and congratulations begin outside of the KCB build-ing while the newly grad-uated were joined by their loved ones as they took photos with them and their fellow alumni. The crowd stayed for some time—even considering the sweltering Laredo heat.

Allowing students fin-ishing their degrees in the summer an opportunity to walk, instead of waiting until the winter commencement, seemed to have been an ex-cellent move by TAMIU. The graduates and their families appeared excited and happy in the chance to walk and presented with their degrees directly after earning them.

Usually shorter, the sum-mer session would not usually be considered ide-al as some persons may feel rushed. It can be said, though, that this can be considered a successful move for TAMIU. In view of this, could this possibly mean further ceremonies for the summer graduates? It is a definite possibility as TAMIU’s graduating pop-ulation continues to rise in all semesters.

summer continues from page one

TAMIU celebrates Constitution DayOn Campus

Judith Mae Aguilar| The Bridge StaffDr. Haruna, associate professor of American National Government, speaks at the Constitution Day lecture.

The most recent emergency plan, the 2012-2013 version, is available through UConnent for employees. “The emer-gency plan tries to cover hypotheticals; you try to think and make it as general as possible,” said VP Castillo when asked if the plan covers situations similar to the recent school shootings, “[But] the reality is, until you are in a situation you do not know exactly what is going to happen.”

A more recent update TAMIU has in-vested in is with a mass notification sys-tem. Over the course of one and a half years, and recently completed the sum-mer of 2012, the campus upgraded the fire alarms system and added voice noti-fications with pre-recorded messages for several types emergencies like fire, bomb threat, or active shooter. This included adding two large speaker arrays—one on top of the Fine and Performing Arts and the other on top of the Lamar Bruni Vergara—that people who are outside of the building and may not be able to hear the notifications inside the buildings, are able hear.

During the spring 2014 semester, spe-cifically in February, TAMIU held drills in every building and included students, so that students could learn what is need-ed to be done during a fire drill, a typical evacuation. “In the years to come, we will do a shelter-in-place [and] a lock-down; we will do different drills so that people can become familiar with it,” VP Castillo

mentioned of potential plans. During orientation, incoming students

will go through active shooter training, which is similar to the yearly training that university employees go through every year. However, what was noticed of the drills that happened in February and pointed out to VP Castillo and Manager Dominguez, was that because the drills happen at similar times but in different buildings it could potentially limit which students learn about the emergency plans since the campus operates from early morning to evening.

A good practice, is that TAMIU police department maintains rela-tionships with surrounding agencies, mostly with Laredo and Laredo I.S.D. police departments. “We do have memorandums of understanding with other law enforcement that basically we say ‘Hey, if something happens, will you help us?’” said VP Castillo. This is clearly a good way to be able to poten-tially handle diverse situations that can occur on campus. “Several years ago, we changed our [TAMIU PD] radi-os, so that the radios our officers have now have interoperability—which, since 9/11 has been a big thing.”

“By changing the channel, we can com-municate with LPD, US Border Patrol, Laredo Fire Department and some of the Feds.” The university PD also has the ability to the Dusty Alert—which can

also activated by TAMIU’s Public Rela-tions department. The upgrades that TA-MIU recently went through, also updated the Dusty Alert that activates digital sig-nage, a crawl on the university computer screens, and social media.

What most may not know, is that re-cently the university police department has or will receive assault rifles and have already received assault rifle certification. “Obviously, when you do have an active shooter, you don’t you know what kind of weaponry they’ll have but to approach with a handgun is not as effective.”

“This is something that we take our cues from what chief thinks is best, and he requested that and we have moved forward with [getting them].” There was reassurance that they are secured and not on display but that if we have a need for them, if the situation required the use of the assault rifles, they would be available.

The university should feel confident that they do know and understand what is happening around the United States in other campus. However, there may be some concern as to how far they will take it. The new PA system with voice notifi-cation is a great solution; but, is arming the police department with assault rifles when there is constant communication with local enforcement that has access to such measures a correct measure? This is a decision that students and the commu-nity will have to decide on.

safety continues from page one

Students interested in a writing, editing, photography or graphic design position with

the bridge are welcome to contact editor in chief Louis San Miguel at louis.sm@gmail.com

By Judith Mae Aguilar@TheBridgeTAMIU

We pass them on our way to work, school, and home but can we identify what they are? We see them from the comfort of our vehicles and pay no mind to where they go or where they come from. What are these fixtures? --these bodies that stand at bus stops, under trees, and can sometimes be seen standing in bunches. If you are a resident of Laredo or have called Laredo your home at one point, you know who I am referring to. These women who conviene under the unforgiving sun, are fixtures seen around the most affluent neighborhoods of our town. These “Transnational Workers”, International women who migrate to the United States for “Domestic Work”, can collectively be found in these locations.

Ariadne Gonzalez is a professor of Communications at Texas A&M Inter-national University, and a PHD hope-ful studying at Texas A&M Universi-ty. Professor Gonzalez, soon to be Dr. Gonzalez, is working on her disserta-tion that shed’s light on these “transna-tional workers”. Her dissertation work focuses on the ethnography of local and international Mexican women who have made their career out of “domestic work”.

When asked what her main focus was, Gonzalez stated that, “The study [fo-cuses] on these women and how they construct their identity”. The catalyst for her research was posed from her curios-ity, “I came across these [multitudes] of women [at the bus stop]. Twenty women, thirty women, and i’m thinking, who in the world are these [women]? Where are they going?” Her background in organi-zational communications triggered her to get answers to these questions. Gonzalez has since then made it part of her research to find out how these women shape their identity in a country known for it’s free-doms.

In order to perform her research Gonzalez knew that she was going to have a difficult time interviewing and

getting to know these women. Professor Gonzalez’s first challenge,

was finding the amount of subjects that she needed for her study and the basic requirements. For her study, the requirements were to interview women eighteen years old, a Mexican citizen or Mexican in origin, and currently em-ployed as a “domestic worker”.

Her second challenge was, getting to know these women and having them feel comfortable enough to participate in her study. When asked how she was able to land these interviews with these women she said she first had to gain their trust. The PHD hopeful rode El Metro Bus lines from all over town to the end of the line, the main bus sta-tion downtown, in order to observe her potential participants. Gonzalez said, “It took a long, long time to get these women to talk to me -- to even acknowledge my presence.” However, once she found her subjects her study took flight.

Gonzalez is currently mapping out her dissertation and hopes that her qualitative research helps other schol-ars in their work. She said hopefully, “What I want out of all of this is for us to focus on the workers. The workers are not just part of an organization. People should consider the worker for who they are and not because they represent the organization.”

The transnational worker is a subject for many ethnographers. These domes-tic workers, whether they realize it or not, are part of a bigger organization that is being studied by researchers like professor Ariadne Gonzalez. With her efforts in conjunction with other professionals in her field these women will no longer be seen as fixtures. The work that scholars, like Gonzalez, are performing will be important for oth-er women in this field who are hoping to shape their identity in the United States.

For more information, comments, or questions regarding this article, Tina Gomez can be reached at cristina.go-mez@dusty.tamiu.edu

Gonzalez sheds light on workers

who migrate

october 2014

3

LOCAL CALENDAR

Nov 26-29Thanksgiving

break

oct 24-nov 2Carnival @ Lea

nov 8The bazaar

@ french quarter

oct 30 - nov 2Feria de la

hispanidad @ LEA

oct 30halloween fest

@ TAMIU

nov 4judas priest @ Lea

PINK TO DO WALK

Judith Mae Aguilar | The Bridge StaffCitizens of Laredo, including members of TAMIU’s own Kappa Delta Chi turned out in great numbers to support Breast Cancer Awareness at the Pink to Do Walk held on Laredo Com-munity College’s South Campus.

TAMIU PROFESSOR PROFILE

By Tina Gomezcristina.gomez@ dusty.tamiu.edu

We are living in an era of intelli-gent technology. Our phones rec-ommend us the best places to dine, our computers crunch through al-gorithms such as, Apple’s Genius to predict music and playlists recom-mendations based on what we listen to. Even some wristwatches don’t just tell the time, but also reminds the user to exercise. However, these consumer-level examples of artificial intelligent (AI) are only the surface of larger business-level advance-ments in the field of AI. Businesses are finding new ways to share their information internally.

Texas A&M International Universi-ty (TAMIU) Management Informa-tion Systems (MIS) instructor, Hugo Luis Garcia states, “aside from the hu-man resources, what is really valuable in an organization is the information and the knowledge that the organiza-tion has.” But what happens when that knowledge is lost? Graduating from TAMIU in 2003 with a Masters in

Science and a concentration in MIS, Garcia proposes the unfortunate sce-nario of an institution losing that in-formation and experience. If business-es are able to recover from a minor loss of intel, how quickly can they come back from a larger setback? The profes-sor raises the questions, “what can we do to enhance that process? What can we do to make it more quickly or with more efficiency?”

With the guidance of his Inter-national Business & Technology Studies colleagues, doctors Jacque-line and Milton Mayfield, Hugo Luis Garcia’s work has taken to exploring complex concepts in the field of “knowledge sharing” for the international journal, Devel-opment and Learning in Orga-nizations. Mr. Garcia elaborates that, “in an organization you have many different people; all these ‘human’ resources” of which are the most precious in an organiza-tion due to the idea that human beings are “creative.” Explaining, “people can solve problems, people can recognize patterns” however, it is the “right people with the right

knowledge that are the most cru-cial to an organization,” states the instructor. “One of the things that hurts an organization is when an employee leaves and they take that knowledge that they have with them,” insisting, “it’s kind of a huge loss to have an employee leave an organization, especially one who is a veteran and didn’t record their solutions.”

Instead of re-inventing the wheel, the 38-year-old professor explains, “you want to share the knowledge and make it the responsibility of every employee, that when they en-counter a problem they solved cre-atively, well for goodness sake, docu-ment and record what you did.”

As far as methods go, Mr. Garcia is using data analytics, statistical methods, and artificial intelli-gence studies to reach a cohesive perspective on his research. In us-ing data analytics, Hugo instructs that he is, “looking for different strategies, different information, and different forms of processing information that we can use to analyze and understand our busi-

ness.” Citing the advancements of inventor and computer scientist, Ray Kurzweil as an influence in his own research, Garcia ties in the learning process with AI; a topic he has dabbled with before in his previous paper for the Deci-sion Sciences Institute, “Business Applications of Artificial Neural Networks,” in-which the instruc-tor extends earlier classification efforts and maps the deployment of artificial neural networks into new system frameworks.

Using the idea of bio-mimicry, Hugo explains if the test subject is intelligent, then that subject’s responses are to be recorded and programed into the computer in-order to have that computer regurgitate those responses at the appropriate time and we could im-itate intelligence. “This is the basis for expert systems that are trying to present you the right informa-tion at the right time,” says Garcia, “but in the discipline we wanted to go beyond that, we wanted to go and create something a little more genuine.”

By using these concepts, Mr. Gar-cia’s research hopes to minimize in-formation losses for organizations. One of those businesses will be in San Antonio, however Garcia in-forms that he does not yet have the clearance to reveal the name of the institution at the time of publica-tion. Nevertheless, even though the instructors’ work isn’t yet complete, Hugo plans to have a solid draft fin-ished for his mentors and colleagues to read by the beginning of next year before submitting his work into the Emerald Group Publishing’s journal.

So as the age of intelligent tech-nology advances, the ability for an organization to recuperate from a heavy loss of information in a quick and effective manner by using AI foundations and documents with actionable conclusions seems to be one-step closer. Perhaps those same algorithms in-which calculated our personal preferences may just be able to save, document, and adapt to an institutional-sized level of knowl-edge sharing. Only time will tell.

(George Gonzalez may be reached at jorge.gonzalez@dusty.tamiu.edu)

Garcia shares artificial intelligence researchTAMIU PROFESSOR PROFILE

“Jesus is sneaky, you got to watch out” were the first couple of words Sister Helen Prejean started off with in her seminar on October 7th at Texas A&M International University. Sister Helen is not only a member of the Congregation of St. Joseph, but also an author. She has two novels, Dead Man Walking and Death of Innocents: An Eye-witness Account of Wrongful Ex-ecutions, currently on available in book stores nationwide. Dead Man Walking was later adapted into a movie in 1995

It all started when she moved into the St. Thomas Housing Proj-ect in New Orleans and worked at Hope House in 1984. She was raised in a well brought up fami-ly. During Sister Helen’s time in

St. Thomas Housing Project she learned the reality of poverty.

“African Americans in the proj-ects became my teachers, because I had grown up privileged,” Sister Helen said.

She learned so much from her ex-perience there she claimed that the poor people were the most privi-leged ones, deserving our love and our care. She would later receive an invitation from somebody from the coalition prison office asking if she would like to be a pen pal for an in-mate, Pat, on death row.

The letters went back and forth, they discussed things they would do throughout the day, and Sister Helen realized Pat was alone.

The pair grew a connection and eventually Pat asked Helen to be his spiritual advisor. Sister Helen filled out the forms without hesi-tation, not knowing he would be

executed only two year later.No lawyers nor any friends and

family could be present during the execution, with one exclusion — Sister Helen.

“I m going to be with him and he’s going to look at my face while he dies, that moment changed my life forever.”

When hearing brutal stories about innocent people being vic-timized, it’s only natural to feel outrage. That’s only human nature, its ethical to want or seek revenge. Sister Helen has learned through her journey that two wrongs don’t make a right. There are other ways of dealing with punishment, and death is not the right one.

Whether or not you are for or against the death penalty, listen to the words of Sister Helen. See it not as right or wrong but the beauty of someone’s faith.

Dead Man Walking Author speaks to TAMIU students

TAMIU SPEAKER SERIES

By Khloe Torres@TheBridgeTAMIU

By George Gonzalezjorge.gonzalez@dusty.

tamiu.edu

Louis San Miguel | The Bridge Staff

October 2014

4

AUTMUS FESTSTORY BY GEORGE GONZALEZ

It was a hot Saturday night as 3Ball-MTY, Hysteria, Stitched Up Heart, and local favorites Two Lions took over two stages at this year’s AutMus Fest. Held behind the Texas A&M Inter-national University’s Sue & Radcliffe Killam Library and put together by the TAMIU Alumni Association, this marked the festivals 10th year. Despite the diverse set of musicians and bands, it was colossal headliners A.B. Quin-tanilla’s Kumbia Kings All-Starz that really brought the crowd to it’s feet.

For TAMIU student Cristina Yanc-ey, this was the second time she had been to an AutMus Fest. The art major proclaims, “The band line up is really interesting. I am looking forward to seeing Hysteria.”

For students Caleb Sanez and Bianca Cantu, this was their first time ever at the festival. Sanez said, “I was encour-aged to come and I thought it would be a great idea. I love music, fests, and to come here with friends.” When asked about which band she was looking for-ward to seeing, Ms. Cantu stated, “the Kumbia Kings.”

The festival also had a lot of non-mu-sical related activities for attendees to participate in. Various different booths and food available were made available. From craft vendors selling jewelry, to The Artisans doing face painting, to

paintball shoot-outs, and to the Laredo Wrestling Alliance (LWA) showcasing local wrestling talent, there was some-thing for everyone at the music festival. Commenting on the various activities, Caleb Sanez highlighted that shooting paintballs with friends was, “very exhil-arating!”

Local Laredo bands DB3 and Two Lions opened the Budweiser Stage to a handful of applause. The two local groups have gained lots of notoriety around town and they both even won this years AutMus Got Talent: Battle of the Bands event this past Summer.

However, as the sunlight decreased the more people arrived to the festi-val. TAMIU alumni Erika de la Torre looked forward to seeing Stitched Up Heart and Immortal Guardian. “I had heard of them because of AutMus Fest. They were pretty good” claimed the Bi-ology graduate when talking about Im-mortal Guardian.

By the time Hysteria took the stage it felt like a party had only just begun. If the heavy metal stylings of Immortal Guardian made you stand up off your feet and start head banging, then it was Def Leppard tribute band, Hysteria that made you groove. Doing classic renditions of hits such as, “Pour Some Sugar On Me” and “Rock of Ages,” most of the crowd was dancing and

singing along. Still, it was the goth rock anthems

of Stitched Up Heart that elevated the energy from nostalgia to pure hard rock angst. Having performed in Lar-edo a few times before, the Los An-geles-based band assaulted the masses with their intense songs and screeching vocals. Part of their “Heart-On Tour” the female-fronted band were a perfect balance for many of the nights diverse groups.

3BallMTY brought the noise with their brand of eclectic mixes of samples and music. The DJ Collective turned what had seemed like a rock concert into an all-out dance party. Their in-fectious hooks, thumping beats, bright LED screens, and erratic light show was a sight to behold. It was difficult not to get into it.

Nevertheless, it was A.B. Quintan-illa’s Kumbia Kings All-Starz which closed out the night toa packed crowd. With their Latin flair and hit songs, the Latin Grammy award winning group turned up the crowd for one last party. It was an excellent way to end a day full of exciting music and fun. Lar-edoans and Dust Devils can expect the next AutMus Fest to be next year on Saturday, October 5th 2015.

(George Gonzalez may be reached at jorge.gonzalez@dusty.tamiu.edu)

Louis San Miguel | The Bridge StaffLouis San Miguel | The Bridge Staff

1. 3Ball MTY2. A.B. Quintanilla’s Kumbia Kings All Stars3. Sergio Zavala of 3Ball MTY4. The Autmus Fest Crowd sings along to Hysteria

5. A member from TAMIU student group, the Artistans, paints the arm of a crowd member6. The lead singer of local band, Two Lions7. A young member of the AutMus Fest crowd enjoys the

sounds of 3Ball MTY8.Erick Rincon of 3Ball MTY

Judith Mae Aguilar | The Bridge Staff

Judith Mae Aguilar | The Bridge Staff

Judith Mae Aguilar | The Bridge Staff Louis San Miguel | The Bridge Staff

Judith Mae Aguilar | The Bridge Staff

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Judith Mae Aguilar | The Bridge StaffLouis San Miguel | The Bridge Staff

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Louis San Miguel | The Bridge Staff

Judith Mae Aguilar | The Bridge Staff

9. The Kumbia Kings All Stars10. The lead singer of Stitched Up Heart11. A member of Hysteria12. A crowd member struggles to capture the perfect video of 3Ball MTY13. TAMIU volunteers play with Hula Hoops during the festival’s early hours.14. The lead singer of Two Lions.15. One of the Laredo Wrestling Alliance’s many matches in the shadow of the Killam Library.16. Members of Immortal Guardian. 17. The many booths offering various goods and food for the public to enjoy. 18. The TAMIU crowd enjoys the sounds of the Kumbia Kings All Stars

Louis San Miguel | The Bridge Staff Judith Mae Aguilar | The Bridge Staff

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Adultery released April 10, 2014 is the Paulo Coelho’s new novel and his sixteenth book to be published. Although in the United States the released date was on April 19, 2014 in English and Spanish and is published by Knopf. The book has become a best seller in Amazon, Coelho is best known for his book The Alchemist. The book was first published in 1988, recieving reaching international acclaim and became a world’s best seller., with 65 million copies sold worldwide. The Alche-mist was translated into 56 different

languages making the Brazilian born author an instant hit, breaking Guin-ness’ World Record for books trans-lated into 56 languages by a living author.

I have to be honest with the read-ers, the first time I saw the book I was reluctant to read it because of the title. But as I saw people reading the book, everywhere I went and seeing my friends post pictures and com-ments of the book on social media, I got intrigued. I decided to read it, and see what all the fuss was about. I decided to write an article about the book and I promised myself I would be completely honest about my thoughts. After reading the first few pages I was hooked.

Adultery is a must read, the book is so well written that you feel an instant connection to the character of the story. The book is not about passion and love; it is more about adrenaline and the desire to change. Psychologically speaking, the book takes you into the mind of a woman who has it all. She has the perfect life, the life most people dream of achieving in their life time. Her life is so per-fect that Linda’s (the main char-acter) life has lost its thrill. Linda is a top Swiss Journalist who is happily married to a rich Swiss investor who loves her very much. They have two wonderful kids, the perfect home and every luxury

money can buy. During one of her interviews with a famous author, a simple response changes her life forever.

“I haven’t the slightest interest in be-ing happy. I prefer to live life passion-ately, which is dangerous because you never know what might happen next.”

This answer turns Linda’s world upside down and she starts feeling the urge to question her life. Bat-tling with depression, boredom, and envy, Linda’s perfect world is threat-ened when she has to interview one of her old boyfriends who is now a top politician. The urge to glance at her past threatens her present and future, but will she give in or resist her urges?Will these urges threaten

to become an addiction from which there is no coming back from?

After reading the book, several questions come to mind. We aspire to become someone, we attend a university and engage in a carrer we love. We set up goals for ourselves and imagine pretty much how we want our life to be. But what happens after all your goals have been accom-plished? When your life is exactly the way you envision it? When nothing holds excitement, nothing is new anymore and your life becomes ordi-nary and lacks excitement. What are we supposed to do then? This book takes you exactly to that moment in life and we live vicariously through Linda’s life.

By Leonardo Hernandez@TheBridgeTAMIU

Book Review: Paulo Coelho’s AdulteryLiterature

DALLAS, TX - It was a rainy and stormy Saturday night as the Carnivores Tour featuring alt-rocker’s Linkin Park and Thirty Seconds to Mars made its stop at the Gexa Energy Pavillion in Dallas, Texas on September 6th.

Despite the heavy rainfall, the crowd never showed any signs of slowing down, nor did the bands. Performing before headliners Linkin Park, Thir-ty Seconds to Mars smashed opened their set with their energetic hit single, “Up in the Air.” Consisting of lead singer Jared Leto, drummer Shannon Leto, and multi-instrumental-ist Tomo Miličević, the band blasted through power-pop ballads such as, “Do or Die,” “City of Angels,” and “Kings & Queens.”

Thirty Seconds to Mars frontman, Jared Leto applaud-ed fans for still making it out to the concert regardless of the pouring rain. In fact, it was that transparency and engagement with the crowd that painted both Mars and Linkin Park as classy, professional showmen, as opposed to the angsty rock-

ers that they are often depicted as. In fact, Leto was so engag-ing, the actor-turned-singer would repeatedly jump off the stage to run and sing alongside with both the crowd in the mosh pit area, as well as those seated further up in the amphi-theater.

The majority of their 12-song set list was made up of tracks from the trio’s latest two albums, 2013’s “Love, Lust, Faith + Dreams” and 2009’s “This Is War;” with five songs played from each of album. Strangely enough, the only song performed off their breakthrough album “A Beautiful Lie” was an acoustic rendition of the 2006 radio smash, “The Kill.”

However, it was the groups instrumental rendition of the heavy-metal classic, “Enter Sandman” by Metallica that was both unique and surpris-ing. By that point there was so many fans on stage that it looked more like a party, rath-er than a rock show. Lastly, the LA-based band ended with, “Closer to the Edge” making way for the headliners Linkin Park to take the stage.

At around 9:20p.m. the six-member hard-rock out-fit took the Texas stage with sounds of thunderous ap-plause. Consisting of lead

singer Chester Bennignton, drummer Rob Bourdon, gui-tarist Brad Delson, DJ Joseph Hahn, bassist Phoenix Farrell, and multi-instrumentalist Mike Shinoda, Linkin Park kept the raw and heavy theme of their latest album, “The

Hunting Party” as a template for the evening. The Califor-nia-based rockers started their set with an all-out assault of heavy guitar-driven songs. Be-ginning with “Guilty All The Same,” the band followed it up with their most aggressive

single, “Given Up” and then the classics “Points of Author-ity” and “One Step Closer.”

Notably, despite the heavy nature of their set, the band didn’t let go of the DJ scratch-ing elements that had been more apparent during their first two albums “Hybrid The-ory” and “Meteora.” In fact, turntablist Joseph Hahn had an entire solo in which he mixed and twisted several different Linkin Park songs with syn-chronizing, EDM-like lights. It was very intense and created a great balance of electronica and D-tuned guitar samples. Even the bands electronic, dubstep, rendition of “Castle of Glass” was unique and a lot of fun because of how much it had been changed from their original 2012 recording. The vastly different and very danceable song was an incred-ible surprise, creating a perfect break from their heavier songs. For a moment, it really felt like being at a concert headlined by Deadmau5 or Skrillex.

Interestingly enough, how-ever, was also Linkin Park’s choice of shortening many of their songs by eliminating the second verses. Songs such as, “Papercut,” “Runaway,” “Lost in the Echo,” “New Divide,” and “Crawling” all got trimmed down renditions

during the show. Nevertheless, it is the bands

innovative mixing and match-ing of instrumentals and mel-odies that showed how versa-tile and flexible they can be with their music. For instance, rapper Mike Shinoda did the first verse of “Wretches and Kings” as well as “Remember The Name” (from his 2005 solo album) over the instru-mentation of “Skin to Bone.” Another example of this was a piano melody section in their set that combined “Leave Out All The Rest,” “Shadow of the Day,” and “Iridescent” as one big, longer song.

Towards the end of the night, Linkin Park closed their set with a five-song encore, end-ing with an extended rendition of their hit single, “Bleed It Out.” Overall, the band really encompassed everything that makes them who they are, while also putting more of an emphasis toward their raw and heavier side. Though admitted-ly the band hasn’t had much of a mainstream influence these past few years as they had in the mid-2000’s, that hasn’t compromised the energy and velocity of their live show whatsoever.

(George Gonzalez may be reached at jorge.gonzalez@dusty.tamiu.edu)

David Orozco | Courtesy PhotoChester Bennington on stage performing at the Gexa Pavillion in Dallas

By George Gonzalezjorge.gonzalez@dusty.

tamiu.edu

Linkin Park, 30 Seconds stop by DallasConcert Review

Among all the remarkable pro-grams Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) has to offer, the International Student Exchange Program (ISEP) is one that every student should be knowledgeable about. TAMIU is one of the many universities worldwide that offers this program to their students, al-lowing them to study outside of the country and learn in a completely new environment. It is also the home of numerous exchange students that have chosen TAMIU to help them achieve their desired careers.

Danny Parchao is an exchange stu-dent from Switzerland who is in his first semester at TAMIU. He is dou-ble majoring in History and English with the hopes of going back to his

native land and becoming an English professor. Moving to the US has had a tremendous impact on Danny’s life. He has had to adapt to a whole new culture, to different food, and to a new school system. But he is slowly learning and he is grateful for all the new things he is experiencing.

One of the things Danny miss-es most about home is the weather. He is not used to such a dry and hot climate, since in Switzerland they have up to 8 months of snow. But he is hopeful that with time he’ll grow accustomed to Laredo weather. He is still having a hard time adjusting to the new food he is receiving, but he is slowly adjusting. A major difference he is still getting used to is the use of public transportation. “If you don’t have a car, it is hard to get around. I’ve been using the bus to get around, and everything is so far! Back in my hometown, everything is close. It

would only take me 10 minutes to get to my university.”

Something that Danny has really enjoyed since his stay here in TA-MIU, is the opportunity to interact with people from all over the world. ISEP often holds events for all the exchange students, allowing them to participate in all sorts of activities. They have taken the students to the mall, to local convenient stores, and even to Laredo’s downtown. They will soon be traveling to San Antonio to visit Six Flags. ISEP students have formed a tight bond, and together they are excited to continue learning about everything TAMIU and Lare-do have to offer.

When asked about his classes and professors, Danny is confident that he is doing well but he says that the schooling system is very different from the one back at his university. “The classes are way easier here, but

some things are different. Like I don’t like the multiple choice quizzes and tests because I am used to only hav-ing to write essays.” It’s been a sur-prise to him how much homework and assignments he’s been receiving, “In Switzerland, we only have one fi-nal exam at the end of each semester. We don’t have assignments or any-thing like that. We only have read-ings for each class.” Danny is taking 5 classes this semester, and he is still amazed that one of his classes ends at 8 at night, “I am not used to classes being so late!”

In his free time, Danny likes to play his guitar and hang out with the oth-er exchange students. He is looking forward to his trip to San Antonio and to someday visiting the movie theatre. ISEP provides cultural les-sons for the exchange students. The exchange students are able to attend these lessons and learn all about dif-

ferent cultures. “The next culture we are studying is French, so my friends will be able to learn about my native tongue.”

Danny Parchao has been exposed to a whole new environment here in TAMIU, but he is grateful for every-thing that he has learned and his is hopeful for everything that he will soon experience. When asked what he would say to students who were interested in study abroad Danny ad-vised: “Just try it. Travel! You can get to some wonderful universities, and see beautiful places from all around the world.” So with that said, we should all give some thought about traveling abroad!

For any further questions about study abroad or exchange programs, you can contact the Student Affairs office at (956) 326-2280 or (956) 326-2281 or email them at studen-taffairs@tamiu.edu

Swiss exchange student shares his taleStudent Profile

By Anna Esteves@TheBridgeTAMIU

started, I had a resume (or “Cur-riculum Vitae” as I would ob-noxiously call it back then) and I just kept working.

TB: Do you have any nota-ble experiences in Hollywood that’d you like to share?

AGR: I wouldn’t know where to start. I’ve been blessed with developing rela-tionships with so many of my heroes: Martin Scorsese, his editor Thelma Schoonmak-er, Nora Ephron, Nicholas Pileggi, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu -- plus every actor I’ve ever been lucky to direct. So there’s a story for every minute that I’m been in their company. What’s import-ant is the trait that the good ones all share: humility.

TB: Speaking of Scorsese, I know you worked with him on the set of Casino. Could you tell me a bit more about him?

AGR: People are often ner-vous about meeting their heroes because you build them up in your head to be something larg-er than life and you’re just setting

yourself up for deep disappoint-ment. But not Scorsese. He’s an even bigger hero after knowing him. He taught me – and con-tinues to teach me – not how to make movies (because “the voice that sparks you is your voice”), but why to make them. I ad-mire his obsession with teaching film history and preserving films from the past masters, and I’ll al-ways do my part to continue that tradition.

TB: As a kid in Laredo, did you ever think you’d get as far as getting an Emmy nomination? What was your reaction?

AGR: Anyone in this business who hasn’t dreamed of this mo-ment is a liar. But because there are so many channels and shows on television now, the odds are simply against you. There are literally hundreds of channels now, and with the internet, may-be more. Throughout my entire childhood and most of my adult-hood, we only had the big three networks. So I was shocked and thrilled when I started to receive texts congratulating me. Then I

read about it online. And was instantly nervous.

TB: What was it like to step on the red carpet?

AGR: Surreal. Chaotic. And great, great fun.

TB: I heard you were plan-ning on taking your mom with you. How did she react?

AGR: First of all, if you don’t know my mother, you should. Everyone should meet her. She is the funniest, the most loving and genuine human being I know. I was honored and excited to share

this extraordinary moment with her. She handled the red carpet with total grace. When Telemundo asked to interview her, you would’ve thought she had walked the red carpet for years. It was weird how calm she was about the whole thing. It was only until the following morning that we both looked at each other over and said, “Did that really happen?”

TB: How’d you feel not get-ting the win?

AGR: I was certain that Ryan

Murphy would take home the prize, and deservedly so. So I was surprised when he didn’t. But you feel absolute relief when it’s all over. I hope to continue to do work that is recognized because it’s a collaborative art. When I get recognized so do the hundreds of people on the crew that make it happen.

TB: Any thoughts on Lare-do?

AGR: Well, I’m proud of my hometowns, Laredo and Nue-vo Laredo. They will always be home to me. And I want to do good work that hopefully in-spires young artists on both sides of the border and encourages them to take risks. There are no limits. You can’t be afraid of any-body or anything.

Filmmaking aside, and most importantly, I’d like to give back by reminding Laredo of my fa-ther’s legacy, Dr. Julio C. Gomez Rejon. He was my best friend and his passion for life, his ap-proach to the service of med-icine, and the generations he affected positively shouldn’t go

unnoticed or worst, forgotten. I’m creating a scholarship in his name to encourage a career in the arts (whether it be the fine arts or the healing arts).

TB: Any words for young Laredoans that aspire to act/write/direct in Hollywood?

AGR: Stop talking about it and do it. Put yourself out there. Don’t be afraid of failure because it’s part of being an artist. As Scorsese always says, “If you’re scared it’s because you’re grow-ing and growing is always good.”

TB: Any upcoming projects you’d like to mention?

AGR: I just wrapped the sec-ond episode of the new season of American Horror Story. It’s called “Freak Show” and it’s going to be another wild experi-ence. But what I’m most excited about is my new feature, “Me & Earl & The Dying Girl” starring Connie Britton, Molly Shan-non, Nick Offerman, Olivia Cooke and Thomas Mann. It’s a cancer comedy, and the experi-ence changed me. I can’t wait to share it with the world.

Gomez-rEjon continues from page eight

Courtesy Photo

restaurant, you are hit with two immediate conclusions, the aroma of good food and the heat. The restaurant is small and quaint with only seven booths and six tables usually kept in pairs. There is an industrial look to the ceil-ing with the open duct ceiling.

The menu is varied though with traditional Vietnamese cuisine, including the restau-rants namesake phð, a rice noo-dle soup. Some of the type of meats that can be ordered in the

phð include chicken, shrimp, and beef. They also have tra-ditional “Chinese” cuisine that can usually be found in Chinese buffet restaurants like General Tso’s chicken and fried rice.

The difference in the restau-rant’s food, though, is that it is all made to order instead of food that has been sitting un-der a hot lamp. That does not take away from the expedien-cy in which that they bring the food out—the service is quick and they apply great at-

tention to their clients.In my opinion, the restau-

rant is not entirely entic-ing and the continued high temperature inside does not induce a person to stay long, however, the food has good flavor, is served in large por-tions for a very reasonable price for those portions. The recommendation for this restaurant would be more for takeout rather than dine in but it does provide an option to the usual food in Laredo.

for cosplaying which is a form of costuming role playing of different genre of fantasy and science fiction movies, games, and animation. The cosplay contest, judged by visiting professional cosplayers, including Lyndsey Elaine and Spencer Doe.

When asked what they looked for when judging the local con-test, they both mentioned they looked for persons who put a lot of passion and effort into their costumes. “I do love just see-ing the creations that people do—the heart and soul the people puts into things—in that regard, I do feel bad trying to pick somebody be-cause you see a lot of good [cos-tumes],” Spencer said of judging, “I am not a huge fan but I am honored when people ask me to do it.”

TAMIU will once again host the South Texas Collec-

tors Expo on its grounds for the second time. “We had a really good reception at TAMIU, so we will be going back there in January,” Mr. Saucedo stated. As the Fall convention progressed, some of the artists that will be coming to the Janu-ary 24th and 25th include Sam Jones

who portrayed Flash Gordon in the hit Sci-Fi show, Peter Mayhew ac-tor who portrayed Chewbacca in

Star Wars, and Austin St. John, the original Red Power Ranger and other actors. Joining them will also be Nicole Marie John and

Leanna Vamp who are professional cosplayers.

For further information con-cerning the upcoming conven-tion along with any updated information, visit the South Texas Collectors Facebook page or the STCE webpage http://stcecomiccon.south-

texascollectorsexpo.com/

The Mr. Laredo Classic 2014 competi-tion was held on Saturday September 13 at the Laredo Civic Center. The intense, sold out bodybuilding competition consisted of eight categories: Beginner, Novice, Master, Middle Weight, Light Weight, Men’s Phy-sique, Figure Contest and Bikini Contest. The grand prize of the absolute category was $1,500.

Many would think it would be nearly impossible to be a single mother, full-time educator and bodybuilding competitor. However, Gabriela Cadena, 27, single par-ent to son Kaleb, a first grade teacher for a local school district proves by all odds that it is possible. Cadena is a graduate of Texas A&M International University. She obtained her Bachelor of Science in Early Childhood Education.

“I prepared myself to compete five weeks before the actual competition. I’ve always been the fitness girl always working out and eating healthy meals. I try to stay away from junk food, but it is very different when you are going to compete,” Cadena stated. “I incorporated a rigorous training schedule and diet. I doubled my workouts by working out at 5 a.m. and then again in the evening Monday thru Sunday,”Cadena stated when asked how she prepared for the competition.

The supermom would wake up daily at 4:30 a.m. to prepare her breakfast which consisted of egg whites and oatmeal. She would take off to the gym for a 45-50 min-ute cardio session, and then she would head back home to get her son and herself ready for school so she could be at work by 7:30 a.m.

After work she would continue her motherly duties by attending to her son, and head off to the gym once more in the evening. She would work out her entire body from legs to arms to abs and ending her evening workout with another cardio session. She ate six meals throughout the day which consisted of protein, chicken, tilapia, ground turkey with brown rice or sweet potatoes.

Cadena competed in the Bikini Category of the competition along with fifteen other women. After years of being asked to par-ticipate in the competition by Dave Guti-errez speaker of the Mr. Laredo Classic competition, she finally agreed to compete. Most women had been preparing for the competition for over fourteen weeks. Ca-dena prepared herself in five weeks with the guidance of her coach, Vital Nutrition owner Oscar Saucedo.

“On a weekly basis, he would check my body fat and my weight which would keep decreasing every week. The best part about it is that I kept my all my muscle!” Cadena noted ecstatically.

Cadena placed second in her first compe-tition. She will be competing in Houston, Texas on October 18 at the Formulation1 Competition. Cadena possesses determi-nation and commitment. Without a doubt, her drive will help her excel once more in bringing the first prize to Laredo making her entire community proud.

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SPORTS

ALMUnUS PROFILE

TAMIU alumnus shines as bodybuilderBy Louie Canela

luiscanela@dusty.tamiu.edu

SPORTS BRIEFLY

TAMIU ATHLETICS GETs NEW

LOCALly DESIGNED LOGOTAMIU Athletics annouced the adoption of a new logo designed by a local artist in August. The new logo in-troduces gold as a accent color to the traditonal ma-roon and silver the dustdevils usually sport. The new logo features a profile view of a cowboy complete with a bandana.

Basketball kicks off seasonThe Heartland Conference Champion TAMIU Men’s and Women’s Basketball team kicked off their season with a Maroon Madness event on campus this October. The event had a variety of contests including a Slam Drunk and shooting competiton for athletes and even let students compete in their skills test.

LEMURS BOUGHT OUTThe Laredo Lemurs will have a new owner in the up-coming season. As first reported by the Laredo Morn-ing Times, Benito Torres and his family bought out the team owned by Mark Schuster in October, appointing Arianna Torres, Benito’s daughter, as primary owner. She will become the first Mexican and first female owner in the history of the American association. The Lemurs also annouced a home-and-away series to be contested between the Lemurs and the Tecolotes of Nuevo Laredo. The exhibition will take place on No-vember 6 at Uni-Trade Stadium and November 7 at Nuevo Laredo’’s Parque la Junta Field.

Men’s Soccer comes back against utpbThe TAMIU men’s soccer team manged a 6-4 victory against the University of Texas Premian Basin on Oct 13. The Dustdevils trailed until finally taking the lead with their fifth goal. Senior midfielder Jovany Macias scored a hat trick for the Dustdevils.

Courtesy PhotoCadena Posing with her trophy at the Mr. Laredo Classic 2014

Originally from Brazil, Zema says the metal group has been based in Austin, Texas for 2 ½ years now. Despite that, the rest of the band members are from all over the United States. De-scribed by their fans as “Super Metal”, Zema dives into their sound by elaborating, “we come from all the schools of hard rock, heavy metal, and basically flirt with the styles between them. We can be very melodic, but also very energetic.”

Working with legendary metal producer Roy Z, the band was able to refine their sound for their latest release.

The Brazilian singer states, “we have been produced by the producer that produced Judas Priest, Sebastian Bach, Bruce Dickinson, and Rob Halford’s solo career. In fact, he was also the guitar players for their solo careers. So we are in that kind of genre and we basically ex-plore that part of the music that is very virtuous.”

Since joining the group in 2012, Zema says that past two years have been very busy for the

band. “We did a South Ameri-can tour and right after that we went to Hollywood [California] to finish mixing the new al-bum,” says the frontman. “I also just came back from Brazil and I am going back later in October for national tv interviews for the Brazilian release.”

Upon returning to the United States, Immortal will be taking the stage at this year’s FunFun-FunFest this November in Aus-tin. The “Super Metal” band will be opening up for Amon Am-arth, King Diamond, and Judas Priest at the festival.

“As for the rest of the year, [we] just plan to play all the tours that we have right now,” Zema states, but also informs fans to expect a new album next year. The vocalist announces, “we are going to start producing it probably at the beginning of next year and have it released by the second semester.”

Amongst producing and mixing the album, Immortal Guardian also has plan to tour Japan next year considering

how successful their latest al-bum had been received in the land of the rising sun.

After sending,“two huge boxes” of their CD’s to Japan, a proud Zema was excited by how they had sold out of all their albums in just a matter of two days. Needless to say, the band plans to, “be hitting up Japan soon, hopefully.”

Nevertheless, Carlos Zema and the rest of Immortal Guardian invite new fans to listen to their special brand of hard rock. The frontman states, “if you are interested in knowing about this revo-lutionary new music that our fans are calling Super Metal, our website is www.Immor-talGuardian.net.” There fans can find links to listen to their music, news, their online store and the group’s official social media websites. Zema closes, “There you can also ‘Like’ us on Facebook and add us on all those other good things!”

(George Gonzalez may be reached at jorge.gonzalez@dusty.tamiu.edu)

metal continues from page eight

STCE continues from page eight

Kiara Riojas | TAMIU Sports Information

jectors and promises to also have “amazing Dolby Digital sound.” In addition to the superior AV equipment, the layout of each screening room will eliminate the traditional front row, ensuring every seat in the house allows for a great viewing experience.

Alamo Drafthouse Laredo will also feature a lounge of-fering an extensive menu of draft and bottled beers, wine and food. The lounge will be called Glass Half Full and will offer patrons a chilled out atmosphere to socialize before a movie or to just to hangout with friends.

The establishment’s menu consists of burgers, pizzas, wraps, sandwiches, chips and dips, fried pickles, hot wings, and milkshakes (including adult milkshakes!) Guests can

also expect weekend brunch, salads, and foods that cater to meat lovers, the veggie lovers, and even the gluten free lovers.

Other great events Lar-edoans can look forward from the franchise are spe-cial events such as cult-clas-sic screenings, musical sing-a-longs, and even movie quote-a-longs.

Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) stu-dent, Itzamara Flores wel-comes the project and enjoys the fact that it will be close to home since the nearest loca-tion was, “always so far away.” The young english major also adds that, “it gives the city some sort of popularity. I like it!” Marina Elida Benavides, a student at TAMIU, is also delighted by the news stating, “now people have something

else to do besides going to the mall or bowling.”

Laredo Community Col-lege freshman, Leslie Mi-chelle Gallegos is also excit-ed for the cinema but hopes that, “there are age restric-tions because I want to enjoy the movie without having any babies crying,” referenc-ing the theaters PSA’s about their low tolerance for in-dividuals who talk and text during a movie.

Nevertheless, the news is a welcome surprise to our vastly growing city. For more information on the Draft-house visit their website at: www.drafthouse.com The Bridge will have further fea-tures upon its opening.

(George Gonzalez may be reached at jorge.gonzalez@dusty.tamiu.edu)

alamo continues from page eight

Judith Mae Aguilar | The Bridge Staff

Judith Mae Aguilar | The Bridge Staff

Situated on the border with Mexico, it would not be a sur-prise to know that Laredo has a strong Mexican food cul-ture and specialization. If you

search “Mexican restaurant” at YellowPages.com, you would get a result of 134 listings. There are surprising restau-rants in Laredo, though, that the general population may not be aware of. One of these restaurants is Phð 1 which, recently, I took the time to

sample.The restaurant is located

7511 McPherson Rd, south of the H.E.B. located at the intersection or McPherson and Del Mar Blvd. Located in a small shopping center next to a nail salon, this fam-ily run Vietnamese restaurant

and has been open for around the last 4 years. Only a short bus ride from the Texas A&M International University cam-pus to a bus stop on Del Mar Blvd and then a short 5 min-ute walk.

When you walk into the

After years of rumors and speculation, it seems as that the dream of hav-ing an Alamo Drafthouse in Laredo is now officially going to become reality. Alamo Drafthouse Cin-emas, in association with franchise partner BACH Holdings announced ear-lier this Summer that they will be opening the popular movie-dinner venue this coming Spring 2015. Ac-cording to the official Al-amo Drafthouse Cinemas website, the Laredo venue

has been in construction since mid-July and will be will be located at the San Isidro development, near International Boulevard and Bob Bullock Loop.

Dubbing the name Alamo Drafthouse - San Isidro, the building will be a 32,000 square foot space and will be, “a state of the art venue with eight screens” making this the only dinner theatre in Laredo. Each of the audito-riums will also be equipped with Sony 4K digital pro-

American Horror Story has quickly become one of the most seen and talked about TV series on the air today. 6.17 million viewers tuned in alone to watch the premiere of the fourth sea-son on October 8th. However, few know that one of the men that’s behind the camera and re-sponsible for the scenes that both terrorize and excite audiences was actually born and raised in Laredo.

Alfonso Gomez-Rejon serves not only as a co-executive pro-ducer for the series, but also as a director, whose vision brings to life the scenes and creatures that have made the series so popular.

The Bridge got a chance to talk with Gomez-Rejon about his past in Laredo and his experienc-es at the Emmys. The interview, which was conducted through email is below.

The Bridge: Tell me about

your background in Laredo. Was there anything here that spurred your interest in the film industry?

Alfonso Gomez-Rejon:I was always more of a fine art-ist, mainly drawing. It suited my personality because I was incredibly shy. I’ve also always been a bit of an insomniac so I’d stay up late, watching HBO and Late Night with David Letterman. When one of my best friend’s brother (Shannon Jordan) lent me his VHS copy of Apocalypse Now, it changed

the way I watched movies. The sheer scope of it. Luckily, the first pre-Blockbusters had started to open around this time (Video Huts) and I finally had access to all the movies I had missed (we only had one and a half theaters back then) -- and that’s when I discovered Martin Scorsese. My world changed after that. Mean Streets spoke directly to me. It was deeply personal. I could re-late to it… and I’m as far from being an Italian-American kid from 1970s Greenwich Village. I think that’s when I realized that,

as a filmmaker, not only could I continue painting pretty pictures, but I could also say something. When I realized that directing was a legitimate career, I pretty much decided that that’s what I was going to do with my life.

TB: How did you get your start?

AGR: I got my first job my very first morning in New York City (where I went to under-grad). The dining hall in my dorm wasn’t open yet (it was still orientation week) so I had to cross Washington Square Park to a different dorm to eat. They happened to be shooting Ses-ame Street in the park and I’d never seen a set that big before (in retrospect, it was tiny). I just stood there, in awe, for hours and I never made it to the dorm. I was there so long that a producer noticed me and put me to work stopping traffic. The next day, she hired me on a music video. Later that week, another music video. So before school officially

With a stage shared by headliners A.B. Quintan-illa’s Kumbia Kings All-Starz, 3BALLMTY, and Def Leppard tribute band, Hysteria, there was plenty to expect at the 10th annu-al AutMus Fest. However, it was the heavy metal styl-ings of Immortal Guardian that won a lot of praise among attendees.

A relatively unknown band to many Laredoans, the Texas-based rockers consist of guitarist Jyro Alejo, drummer Cody Gil-liand, guitarist/keyboardist Gabriel Guardian, bassist Thad Stevens, and vocal-ist Carlos Zema. Coupled with shredding guitar sounds over melodic vocal stylings and their enigmat-ic stage presence, Immortal Guardian quickly won over

new fans.Blanca Cantu, an art ma-

jor at Texas A&M Interna-tional University (TAMIU) proclaimed, “It was my first time seeing them and I fell in love automatically!” The young freshman also jok-ingly admits, “I wanted to buy everything from their booth, like t-shirts, post-ers.. I want everything!” Nevertheless, Cantu did purchase the group’s latest album, “Revolution Pt. 1.”

Communication Disor-ders major Caleb Saenz was also very impressed by the band stating, “they were pretty sick! They have the best vocalist, honestly. He is very good.”

Performing for the first time in Laredo, Immortal Guardian’s lead singer Car-los Zema took some time after their set to speak with the Bridge about the bands influences and plans for the future.

LIFE & ARTS8 october 2014The bridge

Artist Profile

Photographer | The Bridge StaffAlfonso Gomez-Rejon acting as the director of an episode of American Horror Story: Coven. The director, born and raised in Laredo, recently earned two Emmy nominations, one as a director and another as a co-executive producer.

ALFONSO GOMEZ-REJONThe Bridge talks with the Emmy-nominated director who was born and raised in Laredo

By Louis San Miguel@louis_sm

Autmus Fest

Louis San Miguel | The Bridge StaffImmortal Guardian takes the AutMus fest stage with their own brand of metal.

Immortal Guardian

brings metal to TAMIU

Comics

Notable work from gomez-rejon

Argo American Horror Story

Glee

South Texas Collector’s Expo returns to Laredo

“Everyone here has been so friendly; the fans have been great. It’s a smaller conven-tion, which is actually kind of nice, because you can take some more time with the fans,” said Jason Faunt of the South Texas Collectors Expo held at the Laredo Energy Arena on September 13th and 14th.

Jason Faunt, an actor who has portrayed the Red Rang-er on Power Rangers Time Force, was also joined in the convention by Erin Cahill, the Pink Ranger also from Power Rangers Time Force, Verne Troyer from Austin Powers and Harry Potter, and Kylie Szymanski, from AMC’s The Walking Dead.

The STCE is held twice a year, once in the Spring and one in the Fall. The last one was held at Texas A&M In-ternational University at the

University Student Center in January. This was the first time that the STCE was held at the Laredo Energy Arena and, based on the crowd, it was successful.

“It’s going better than we expected…we are getting beyond what we [were] ex-pecting,” said Juan Ricardo Saucedo, one of the organiz-ers of the convention, “Con-servatively, we put the num-ber at about 3,000 but those numbers are growing.”

“In many ways, this is where we needed to be because every year, we noticed that it con-tinued to grow. More venders wanted to come down and [more] artists wanted to come down as well. Because of that, we felt that the [Laredo] Civ-ic Center was not going to hold us forever.”

During the convention, there was a range of venders—from visiting and local artists of comics and other media, special guests, and suppliers of

coming to laredo

Courtesy PhotoPatrons enjoy a film at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas.

Alamo Drafthouse coming to

Laredo

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Judith Mae Aguilar | The Bridge StaffCruz Pizano III poses at the South Texas Collectors’ Expo cosplay contest.

Restuarant Review

Pho 1 gives different option

stce page 7

pho page 7

By George Gonzalezjorge.gonzalez@dusty.tamiu.edu

By George Gonzalez

jorge.gonzalez@dusty.tamiu.edu

By Judith Mae Aguilar@TheBridgeTAMIU

By Judith Mae Aguilar@TheBridgeTAMIU