Luis J. Rodriguez

The Peten Jungle--the Cradle of Mayan Civilization

2007-11-05T11:44:00.001-08:00

Guatemala's Peten jungle is a thick rainforest with spider and howler monkeys, jaguars, racoon-type mammals, several-inch long spiders, and multi-colored plumed birds bordered by Mexico and Belize. Before leaving Guatemala after a number of presentations, community & prison visits, and media events on the growing issue of gang violence, Fabian Montes & Pascual Torres, both of Homeboy Industries, and I decided to take a plane from Guatemala City to the Flores Airport in the Peten Jungle at the edge of Lake Peten Itza. We needed a few days to relax and to visit some sacred sites.

Our hotel was a clean and well-landscaped place about a half-hour from Flores in the community of El Remate. We could see the lake from our windows and the dining hall. The day we walked to the lake, a Mayan woman was washing clothes by hand on rocks at the lake's edge; one morning, we saw horses grazing.

A full moon greeted us the first night, a good sign. The next day, we ventured another half hour to the nearby Tikal Mayan Ruins, considered the largest pre-Columbian ruins ever excavated in the Americas. It has various temples, buildings, ball courts, ceremonial centers, and more on several acres of land. There are many other temples and structures, often appearing as hills or mounds, that continue to be buried beneath the jungle.

Interestingly, Mayan elders and shaman can still do ceremonies and prayers at Tikal. A number of contemporary Mayan altars are clearly marked. The place also has tourists from throughout Guatemala and other Central American countries, but also from the US and Europe. Tikal is located in a national park that is well-taken care of. The ruins were discovered in 1848 and were a major spiritual and commercial center for some 1500 years, several hundred years before the Spanish conquest. The people of Mexico's Teotihuacan--called the Toltecs, or "the artists/people of knowledge"--had taken over Tikal for a while, adding to the cultural vitality of the site.

There are 34 distinct buildings and sites in the park. It's like Disneyland in the way the roads are marked with signs telling you where each site is located. We were told a person would need seven hours or so to see everything. We spent about four hours and saw amazing structures, including the world-famous Grand Jaquar Temple, some 130 feet high in the grand plaza, with a smaller but equally impressive temple directly across the large courtyard.

We also visited a temple that had one side still in the jungle and the other side excavated to show steps and carvings. Most impressive to me was the tallest temple at Tikal, called Temple IV, which went up through the jungle's canopy some 240 feet. Wooden steep steps were built at the side of the temple so people could climb to the very top (at their own risk). I wasn't sure I'd make it, but I saw old people and young kids climbing up and down. I had to try.

It was quite an ordeal, but all three of us took the steps up to the top of this temple--again 240 feet. At the top a woman told me, "don't worry--it's worth it." Once I got my bearings at the top, I could finally see what all the fuss was about. The temple stood above the jungle. You could see the massive jungle over the land, but also various temples rising above the canopy. It was quite an amazing sight, and definitely worth the trouble (although not if one fell).

It proved to be one of the highlights of my many trips through this fantastic continent. The Mayan people--who speak varous dialects across parts of southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador (there are also other tribal groupings, including Nahuatl-speaking natives, in those areas as well)--are one of the several major indigenous peoples, including the Mexikas (Nahuatl-speaking) and Incas, who have created deeply rooted and complicated societies. They were not only masters of the jungle, nature, and relationships, but also knew about the stars, the earth's cycles, architecture, philosophy, mathmatics (they are credited for inventing the concept of "zero"), plant healing, and so much more.

Before we left, Fabian, Pascual and I did a prayer of thanks at a building called the acropolis south. We made many important friends in Guatemala. It's a country suffering through so much poverty and violence--but I also saw much hope, creativity and energy for positive and lasting encompassing change. We hope to come back, each time helping enhance what is already a vital and important place in the Americas.

Radio Free Los Angeles: KJLH 102.3 FM

2007-11-02T09:11:00.000-07:00

I've had an amazing week as guest host of the "Front Page" with Dominique DiPrima on KJLH, 102.3 FM. I'm honored to be invited again (this is my second time as a weeklong guest host this year) on one of LA's most venerable radio stations--based in Inglewood/South Central LA/Compton communities and owned by the incomparable Stevie Wonder.

I thank Dominique DiPrima for being such a gracious person and having me return to one of LA's leading African American talk shows. We had a fantastic array of guests--including ex-prisoner writers Ronald Winston, Donna Ann Smith-Marshall and Nyerere Jase; financial advisor Joseph Meyer of Meyer & Associates; gang intervention specialists Stan Muhammad and George Avalos of Venice 2000 and Julian Mendoza of Amer-I-Can; and Rev. Jesse Jackson (by phone). The callers were engaged, poignant and often challenging. What a great listener base this show has! And I'm talking early in the morning--the show starts at 4:30 AM and goes to around 6 AM.

Dominique says at least 30,000 people are listening at that time--insomniacs, graveyard workers, early risers, you name it. We also had a lively Hot Topic Tuesday in which listeners and the hosts can discuss any and all topics. We dealt with Black/Brown conflicts, Barack Obama, reparations, the housing crisis, schools, police abuse, gangs, economic empowerment, and more.

And today, Day of the Dead 2007, Dominique and I discussed the value of honoring and respecting our ancestors, those who have passed on and can still be accessed to provide protection, guidance and connection. While Western Culture tends to belittle or make this subject one with dread and fear (Halloween, ghosts, goblins, etc.), most indigenous cultures from Africa, the Americas, Asia, the Mideast, or Europe understand this concept and use the remembrance of those who have passed on for positive long-term and short-term assistance.

Please support KJLH and shows like "Front Page." Go to www.kjlhradio.com for more information.

"Social Cleansing" -- a Path to Gang Violence?

2007-10-29T14:44:00.000-07:00

One of the "solutions" we often heard in Guatemala to the growing gang violence there was "social cleansing." Repeated by officials and common people alike, this literally means what it says: the active and violent removal of alleged gang members, including by murder. In their view, courts and jails are not quick or harsh enough for them. In fact, this has also been true in El Salvador and Honduras. Cases include the vigilante murders of street kids as young as seven years old. Most of the cases, however, involved tattooed teenagers.

In Central America, tattoos for many people represent gang involvement. Of course, those of us in LA know better. When I was involved in gangs in the 1960s and 1970s tattoos were mostly gang affiliated--primarily the Chicano gangs of the time. Not even African American gangs sported tattoos like the Chicanos did, which they had been doing since the Pachuco/Zootsuit days of the 1920s to the 1940s. Chicanos perfected the "fine line" jail-house tattoos that were soon sported by Anglo bikers, prisoners, and even military personnel. In the 1980s and 1990s, Hip Hop artists and sports figures, mostly African American, popularized this style in music videos and movies (as they did other Chicano artistic expressions like lowriding). Well known Chicano street artists like Mr. Cartoon became famous placing ink on people like 50 Cent, Eminem, Cypress Hill, and others.

Now tattoos are used by actors, singers, rich people, jet setters, and coffee house afficionados. It's not a big thing. Meanwhile, Chicanos and other Latinos, including the Central Americans who came to LA in the 1980s escaping war and poverty, continued the extensive use of tattoos. Gang members in LA (and most of the Southwest) are known for tattooing every part of their body -- something that also now includes African Americans, Cambodians, Armenians, Anglos, and others.

"Smile Now, Cry Later," crosses, chains, spider webs, cholas, area codes (like 213 or 818), gang affiliations, placasos (gang nicknames), Aztec and Mayan motifs, song titles, the Virgin of Guadelupe, LA (Dodger style), and such all became popular among gang youth. Anything and everything.

So when the US deported tens of thousands of alleged gang members to Mexico and Central America beginning in 1992 (after the LA Rebellion) and then going strong in 1996 after the changes in immigration law emphasized the deportation of felons and gang members, tattooed youth flooded these countries that for the most part did not sport tattoos for fashion or otherwise.

In El Salvador and Guatemala, the two countries in Central America I've visited since the early 1990s when LA-based gangs like the Mara Salvatrucha (MS) and Eighteen Street (called Mara 18 in El Salvador) were first introduced, I saw heavily tattooed youth (including on their faces, necks, heads, hands, arms, backs, stomachs, and elsewhere) in prisons and in the streets.

You can imagine the impact they've had on countries not familiar with this kind of style or substance. But also the impact it would have on the tens of thousands of homeless, abandoned and glue-sniffing kids (most of them orphaned by war and poverty). In time, many of these joined MS or 18 Street (many home-grown gangs have also been absorbed by these two gangs).

Today death squads and other vigilantes, as well as police, have unfairly targeted tattooed and US-raised or influenced kids as gang members. Many youth have showed up in hospitals beaten and tortured. Others are brought into morgues with their hands tied behind their backs. And still many more are warehoused in the overflowing prisons--some of the most stark, inhumane and overcrowded places you'd ever want to see.

For example, in 1993, I visited two prisons in El Salvador that housed many gang youth: Mariona (the main prison in San Salvador) and San Vicente de Gotera (interviewing gang youth and officials). And I did the same thing this past week with Fabian Montes and Pascual Torres of Homeboy Industries. We entered two Guatemalan prisons: Centro Preventivo Para Hombres, Zona 18, Sector 11 (a maximum security men's prison with over 1,000 inmates) and Centro Preventivo Para Mujeres, Zona 18, Santa Teresa (a maximum security women's prison with 160 inmates).

In Guatemala there are 19 prisons housing more than 7,000 prisoners. MS and 18 Street are housed in separate facilities. While most of the prisoners in the two places we visited were not in gangs, they did have a cell block solely dedicated to alleged gang members. We were able to go into this cell block, past the locked bars, and hang for a couple of hours with the inmates there.

The gang members were leery of us at first, but as we talked (and I showed them copies of my books in Spanish), they opened up. Fabian, Pascual and I told them about our concerns to bring a new vision and imagination to working with gang youth in Guatemala--including more resources, jobs (getting companies to hire gang members), training, education, and other meaningful & effective means to incorporate these young people, tattooed or not, into the country. Incipient efforts of rehabilitation was being done there--including painting (inmates were working on murals as we talked), religious studies, and silk screen.

In the women's prison, we went through several barred gates to the deepest sections where the most violent and alleged gang women were being held. We saw women learning theater, dance, and religion (Christian). Others were making bags (from plastic-like thread), amazingly beautiful candles, and household cleaning solutions that had odors of fruit, flowers, and even bubblegum.

We spent all day in the two prisons, including talking to the rehabilitation counselors and arts volunteers.

In the end we were able to meet and talk to intelligent, artistic and articulate young people (including with tattoos all over their faces).

Our message to the country--to say no to "social cleansing" and instead focus on social healing. To help bring real jobs, training, understanding and a human face to the issue of gangs in Guatemala. We left the mud-strewn colonias and open-air jail blocks (as well as the community centers, universities, and other places we talked at) with much clarity on the extremely difficult situation that places like Guatemala are facing today. But we also left with the need to help provide whatever experiences we've gained working with gang youth (which I have been doing for 30 years, and Homeboy Industries has done for 20 years).

ALSO--for those who are up and about, I'm on the air this whole week from 4:20 AM until 6 AM on LA's KJLH Radio, 102.3 FM. I'll be guest hosting again (it's truly an honor to be invited back) with "Front Page" host Dominique DiPrima. Please tune in if you can.

Guatemala--the Time is Now

2007-10-25T09:00:00.000-07:00

Guatemala is a country about the size of Tennessee in Central America, surrounded by Belize, El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico -- with coasts in the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. Its name is Mayan -- Coactemalan -- and means "Land of Forests." An estimated 13 million people live in Guatemala. More than half are so-called mestizos (often called "Ladino," mixed indigenous & Spanish or "hispanicized" indigenous). The rest are relatively traditional Mayan tribal groups speaking in more than 20 different languages and dialects. There is also an important Garifuno group on the east coast, descendents of African slaves who were shipwrecked here during the Spanish colonial period.

An amazingly beautiful country, Guatemala has 18 of the world's ecosystems, the largest cloud forest in the world, and 37 volcanoes. It also has a violent and turbulent history. Most recently the country ended 36 years of civil war with peace accords in 1996 after more than 100,000 people were killed (mostly poor and indigenous people) and a million people were forced to leave.

Like the refugees of poverty and war in El Salvador -- and poverty and political upheaval in Mexico and Honduras -- during the 1980s, Guatemalans arrived to the United States in large numbers, landing in barrios of Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, and even in states like Delaware and North Carolina. I know because I've spoken in those areas and found many Guatemalans among new migrants from Mexico, Central America and other Latin American countries (once hearing Quiche Mayan being spoken in a laundromat in a rural part of Delaware).

Unfortunately, in the past 15 years Guatemala has been beset by a terrible increase in violent crime, gangs and drug wars. Presently Central America, including Guatemala, is reportedly a major transportation point for the huge drug cartels of Mexico and Colombia to US drug markets (which continues to be the largest in the world).

The United States, while always a major drug market, became known as the multi-billion dollar drug market it is today during the 1980s (ironically, soon after President Reagan initiated his so-called War on Drugs, which continues failing despite a constant influx of tax dollars). This happened at the same time that most industrial centers of the US lost massive steel, auto, stockyards, and aerospace industries.

The de-industrialization of US inner cities and the vast increase in the drug trade coincided to help create the most violent period in US history. Traditional street gangs--some, like in LA's Chicano communities, have been around since the 1920s--and new crews popped up as the most cohesive organized means to deal drugs (in some cases, becoming the main economic life) in their communities. In LA alone from 1980 to 2000, some 10,000 young people were believed killed in gang and drug violence. In fact, the largest manufacturing cities of the US--LA and Chicago--also had the greatest levels of gang violence.

Mexicans, Central Americans, Dominicans and other immigrants (including in smaller numbers from Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Mideast) became integral to the rise of violence--although the media continually made this out to be a largely African American "problem." The fact of the matter is poor Latinos (including many immigrants) and poor whites also took part.

By the end of the 20th century, law enforcement agencies claimed there were 800,000 gang members in the country, most of them in Chicago and LA, and growing by leaps and bounds. In reality, the majority of poor communities, although racked by drugs and crime, were not involved in the drug trade. Many tried to survive by working whatever menial means existed (or creating their own micro-businesses to clean homes, sell food or CDs, and similar endeavors).

Also, by the late 1990s, crime began to come down (actually up and down, but mostly down in comparision to the growth in population). Yet, the media perception persisted in promoting the idea that crime and gangs "ruled" the mostly black and brown urban centers.

Because of this, the US government initiated some of the most draconian laws against gangs and youth, leading to the greatest growth in a prison population in the history of the world. Presently, the US incarcerates more people than any other country. And poor Latinos and African Americans are disproportionately represented in these institutions. California, for example, in the early 1970s had a prison population of 15,000 in nine prisons. Today there are around 175,000 prisoners in 33 prisons, 80 percent of which are prisoners of color.

In addition, Latino immigrants in the past ten years have been deported in vast numbers, including those allegedly in gangs and those convicted of crimes. Immigration prisons now dot much of the US Southwest. Some 700,000 so-called criminals have been deported, mostly to Mexico and Central America (but also Cambodia, Armenia, Dominican Republic, and other countries). This has completely altered the cultural and social life of countries like El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras that do not have the resources, capacity or, in many cases, the political will to adequately integrate such an influx of mostly US-raised (and for many, US prison-raised) deportees.

This leads me to my trip to Guatemala. Although there were street gangs in the country before 1996 (mostly called maras in Central America), the influx of US-based (mostly from Los Angeles) gangs like Eighteen Street and Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) has become the most talked about concern of the people. Violence attributed to these gangs in Guatemala, like most of Central America, is quite horrific: grenade attacks, machete murders, devastating prison riots. But so has been the response. Presently, vigilante groups and death squads are hunting down and killing the highly tattooed and conspicuous-looking US-based gang members. Police have beaten, arrested, and even killed many so-called gang youth. Even ex-gang members are in danger.

I came to Guatemala as part of an independently organized effort by Homeboy Industries of Los Angeles (one of the leading gang prevention/intervention programs in the US). I was invited by Homeboys' staff members Fabian Montes and Pascual Torres, who have already visited Guatemala and other Central American cities. We came mostly to connect across borders and barriers to help provide a new vision and sense of hope in working with gangs and maras. We did not come to give the people here "the" solutions. In fact, the people of Guatemala are quite capable of providing their own solutions.

In our travels so far, we talked with and heard from various "Centros de Alcance" in extremely poor colonias in Guatemala City -- many of them in tin-roofed shacks along mud roads and sewer creeks. We found former gang members, including many US-raised youth, trying to change their lives in a "reality" show called Desafia Cien (Challenge 100). We visited a plastics factory owned by a far-sighted businessman that includes a non-profit Asociacion Manos Que Te Ayuden (Hands That Help Assocation), which hires former gang members and provides services to them when no one else will.

We spoke on TV and in various print media, including on two radio stations, about what Homeboy Industries does, but also about the need to see the humanity of these youth; what poverty, war and trauma can do to people; and how we should all cooperate to help them heal, find skills and work; and in the long run help them tap into their own innate purposes and gifts so they can contribute positively to their communities and country.

We also spoke to university students and participated in a memorial for a former gang member named Daniel "Panadero" Ochoa who was recently killed in a marketplace, although he was married and worked in his own micro-business.

In Guatemala, like many Central American countries, there are many people accepting "social cleansing" (in effect, the killing of homeless, troubled and gang youth). Many of these are Christians and decent people. The fears and confusions they face are often exploited by political forces.

We hope to reach out to them as well, to help provide a new vision and imagination to integrate and train the displaced youth--many of whom can be the new leaders, business people, fathers, mothers, and teachers in a country in need of these resources.

Guatemalans have so far been receptive, even in their disagreements. This is good--to spread the dialogue and provide a space for such concepts to be aired and related. We will visit a prison today and hope to go to other parts of the country tomorrow and on the weekend.

Meanwhile, we are here with many good prayers, thoughts and enormous respect of Guatemala and its people. The time is now for real change, balance, healing, and peace.

Off to Guatemala to continue my talks, readings and workshops

2007-10-19T18:18:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm on my way to Guatemala in a few hours. I'll be catching a "red-eye" that takes off from LAX at 1 AM. I'm going with Fabian Montes and Pascual Torres, two young men I helped mentor over the years and who are now leading staff members for Homeboy Industries, one of LA's pioneering gang intervention organizations (besides many direct services of jobs, counseling, arts, tattoo removal, treatment, and more they have Homeboy Industries that includes a bakery, T-shirt production, and Homegirl Cafe, among other components).

We'll be in Guatemala until October 28--doing presentations, meeting with community organizers, government officials, non-governmental agencies, and gang youth. Guatemala is one of the three Central American countries most hit with gang violence over the past 15 years. Most of this is due to the mass deportation of LA-based gang members in Mara Salvatrucha and Mara 18. The deportations began in earnest after the LA Rebellion of 1992. Then in 1996, a new immigration law opened the flood gates of deporting undocumented immigrants with US-based criminal records, including many gang youth--some 700,000 were deported from the US since then.

Most of these were sent to Mexico, where many gangs amassed at the border, often returning. Presently, Mexico has many LA-based Sur Trece and 18th Street gang members, among others, in various poor barrios and urban centers. Tens of thousands also ended up in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, recruiting the thousands of homeless, abandoned and glue-sniffing children in those countries who were victims of civil war and poverty. Now there are an estimated 150,000 gang members--mostly MS-13 and M-18--in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

This past week, I was able to visit Bakersfield College in the Kern County city of Bakersfield, an hour and a half up the road from LA. I spoke to students (who packed the Fireside Room) as well as counselors, librarians and community activists in another gathering. Then in the evening some 400 people showed up to a public event at the Bakersfield College auditorium where we talked about poetry, writing, gangs, rehabilitation, social justice, and personal and social change. There were amazing questions and comments in all the groups. People seemed hungry to interract and dialogue--but also to share and learn.

Last Monday, I was part of the "Skin Festival" in the city of Pasadena, CA that included speakers, performances, discussions and more. I spoke at the Pasadena City College's Forum to some 70 people. Again, we had a lively discussion and Q&A. I talked about the various "skins" that people put on just to survive in this culture--just to be seen or unseen, as the case may be.

The week before, I did a keynote speech and book signing at the Washington Library Media Association Annual Conference (mostly school librarians) in Yakima, WA. This was well received--being that librarians are some of my favorite people of all time. I went there after spending some time in San Luis Obispo on California's Central Coast, a wonderful serene and green space of earth (the weather was wonderful). There I did a breakfast talk as part of Cal Poly's Provocative Speakers series and then another talk to students and community. Again, the audiences were very kind, informed and engaged.

And the week before that, I did another event for the Puente Project in East LA College (a kind of alma mater for me), my second time this year. I spoke to 300 students, teachers, high school students, and others. I read mostly from my poetry book, "My Nature is Hunger," and discussed the struggle to become a person of language & poetry in this largely practicality-minded, business-oriented and unpoetic culture.

Speaking of East LA, my wife Trini and I attended East LA's Garfield High School benefit event on October 14 to help raise funds to re-build their historic auditorium that burned down this past spring in a suspicious arson fire. Some 7,000 people piled into the Gibson Amphitheater at Universal City in Hollywood to hear Old School Chicano bands like El Chicano, Tierra, War, Lil' Joe and La Familia, Los Lobos (with Lil' Willie G and members of the classic Thee Midniters band playing some of their hits). Starting off was Garfield's own Upground band that has been knocking people off their feet with their mix of Chicano ska/soul and barrio boogie.

Needless to say, I went through memory lane listening to these bands. War in particular--one of my favorites--I recall in the early 1970s when they did amazing (and raunchy, at least from some members of the audience) sets downtown and other venues. I also saw them live at the Bumpershoot Festival in Seattle a few years back when Lee Oskar was still their harmonica player. And in Japan, I read poetry with Tex Nakamura playing "jarana" and harmonica--he was one of War's best harmonica players--last November.

I also saw Los Lobos play at Seattle those many years ago. In fact, I've seen them play live many times, including at Lincoln Park in East LA and several gigs in Chicago where I used to go backstage to visit with my East LA "carnales" (brothers) during the years I lived there.

It was also amazing to hear Lil' Joe, one of the best Chicano singers from Texas from the 1960s (the other was Sunny Ozuna of Sunny & the Sunliners and "Smile Now, Cry Later" fame).

But I was particularly partial to hearing a few of the old Thee Midniters hits. In the 1960s and 1970s, Thee Midniters were East LA's most popular band. They had hits like "Whittier Boulevard," "Love Special Delivery," "Chicano Power," along with the ballads that made their singer, Lil' Willie G, famous: "Sad Girl," "That's All," and "Are You Angry?," among others.

For us die-hard Chicanos from those days that benefit event for Garfield High was a shot in the arm. I was also Mecha Central organizer of East LA high schools in the early 1970s, linking me to all those schools, including meeting my first wife at Garfield. I've since spoken many times to all the East LA high schools--Garfield, Roosevelt, Lincoln, Wilson, and Franklin--and many in the surrounding area (Montebello, Shurr, Century, Vail, Alhambra, among others).

So I had a great time.

If you all can, please get a copy of Bello Magazine, the October issue, which has an article by me on the Japan-Chicano connection through the music producer and promoter Shin Miyata, with side stories on Hector Gonzalez of Rampart Records and the East LA band Quetzal (most of this was based on my trip to Japan last November to see upfront the growing Lowrider/Chicano culture & music scene there). For more information go to www.bellomagazine.com.

And an amazing photo book just came out called "Mugshots: A Celebration of the Journey from Ruin to Redemption," written by Jason Porath, with photos by Jonas Mohr (Real Deal Media). It has the stories and quotes from various former drug addicts/alcoholics/prisoners--including yours truly--who have now turned their lives around and are involved in music, movies, literature, Hip Hop, dance, and more. Included are the stories of Coolio, Danny Trejo, Edward Bunker, Mr. Cartoon, Eric Roberts, Kim Minter, and others.

You can order by going to www.mugshotsthebook.com or calling 1-888-443-1442.

I'll keep you all posted on my travels through Guatemala. Meantime, stay strong, passionate and awake. A new world is possible, but first you have to dream.

Healing Work and Public Art with Gangs and in Prisons

2007-10-05T20:54:00.000-07:00

I returned to Chicago last week to do a workshop and a keynote speech at the "Stronger Roots, Stronger Branches" conference (September 27-28) of violence prevention/intervention professionals at the Wyndham O'Hare Hotel in Rosemont, Illinois. Leading practitioners involved with troubled youth, gang peace, and prevention/intervention programs from all over the state took part. Friends of mine from Chicago--including Freddy Calixto of BUILD, Myrna Torres of Gad's Hill, and Frank and Lou Blazquez of Youth Struggling for Survival, among others--attended and also helped shape the conference. I also saw my old friend, Steven Guerra, who was once director of Illinois's Prevention First and Jane Addams Hull House (among other jobs); he's now Deputy Chief of Staff for Social Services in the office of Illinois Governor Rod R. Blagojevich.

The conference addressed the holistic, comprehensive, and spiritual-based practices that must now be addressed in truly stopping gang and other violence in our mostly poor and working class urban core and rural communities. Workshops included indigenous practices, mentoring, and restorative justice. I feel that the work I helped shaped many years ago when I lived in Chicago, including helping found Youth Struggling for Survival and the Increase the Peace Collaborative, is now reaching new heights and audiences. Some of what was said at the conference would have been unheard of a few years ago--it's clear to me that the time has come for a new paradigm, new visions, and new root-based strategies in helping curb violence in our economically and socially neglected communities.

The power is in our hands--this is the same message we must give to young people, regardless of their mistakes, crimes and traumas. We must stop the enshrining of the worse aspects in our communities, with prisons but also deficit-based programming, and replace them with projects, programs and organizations that draw on the very gifts, talents, intelligences, and capacities that young people and the rest of the community already possess.

The Friday night of the last day of the conference, a sweat lodge ceremony (Inipi in the Lakota language) was held in Dekalb, IL, about an hour's drive from Chicago, at the home of Frank Tekpalzin Blazquez and his wife Lou Xochimeh Blazquez. Led by Lakota teacher/elder Ed Young Man Afraid of His Horses, from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, several members of YSS, other organizations, and conference participants took part--a few for the first time. It was an amazing ceremony. Ed surprised everyone, including Frank, by offering a brother-adoption ceremony. Frank is now a spiritual brother to Ed. The sweat lodge, as most people who read my blog know, is also used in the Northeast San Fernnado Valley with gang youth, people on recovery, and battered women. My wife Trini, myself, and our brother-in-law Hector Herrera pour water for this lodge, which has become well known throughout the LA area, but also among Native peoples in the US, Mexico and Central America (where the sweat lodge is known as temescal).

On Saturday, September 29, I also spoke at Northern Illinois University's Latino Resource Center to an engaged group of young people, parents, professors, and others about gangs, mentoring, street peace, and relationships. Frank, Lou and Ed also showed up, which helped some of the audience members link up with YSS and the sweat lodge. One of the youth mentors that helped pull this dinner and talk together is a YSS member.

On Sunday, I visited with my 12-year-old grand-daughter, Amanda May Rodriguez, who lives in Sterling, IL, a couple of hours outside of Chicago. She's grown into a smart and beautiful young lady. It was great to see her--I had not seen her in a couple of years; my hope is that we can do this every time I come into the area. I went with my former wife Camila and her husband, Alvin. We have grown together as friends and always try to unite our energies for the benefit of my two grown children (Ramiro and Andrea, who are 32 and 30 respectively) and our four grand-children.

That evening, I had dinner with my friend James Lilly, his wife Nora, and their two young sons. James is a former Chicago gang member who was shot and paralyzed when he was 15 years old. He's now in his mid-30s and is known as one of the leading wheelchair racers in the world. He participants in marathons and other races all over the country--and has taken part and even won the grueling Alaska wheelchair race that covers more than 240 miles.

Film maker Izumi Tanaka of Los Angeles has made an amazing film of Jame's life called "Pushin' Forward" that I recommend for anyone needing an inspiring story to share with troubled youth, including gang members. James has overcome extremely difficult odds to become an athlete, a popular speaker to kids in schools, and a wonderful father.

To get a copy of this film, please go to:
http://www.fanlight.com/catalog/films/463_pf.php

On Monday, I traveled to Pontiac, Illinois to again visit with my son Ramiro, who's incarcerated there. He is doing very well--trying to stay out of trouble, working (he's a janitor in the prison's psych ward), and preparing for a parole release in three-and-a-half more years (he's already done ten-and-a-half years of his 28-year prison sentence; he can get out in half the time with good time).

He's also doing a mechanic's correspondence course and trying to stay in touch with his children. That evening, I had a nice dinner and visit with another grand-daughter, Anastasia Horkay, who lives in Morton Grove, IL--she's one of two teenage grand-children I have, if you can imagine that.

I also hooked up with my friend Zorayda Ortiz, a rugby player and revolutionary activist in Chicago's Pilsen barrio. Tuesday morning, I spoke at Telpochcalli School, a specialized school in the Little Village neighborhood (the largest Mexican community in the Midwest). I spoke to eight graders who had intelligent questions and comments.

I left for Philadelphia on Tuesday, October 2 to attend the Arts in Criminal Justice National Conference sponsored by the city's uniquely potent Mural Arts Program, led by Jane Golden and a wonderful staff of organizers and artists.

I took part in a panel with an old friend, Judith Tannenbaum, who has been doing arts/writing workhshops in various institutions, including San Quentin's Death Row. I was also the keynote speaker for dinner on Wednesday night, where I received a wonderful response from the audience. It was great to see a number of old friends in the arts in prisons movement from the Bay Area, San Diego, Hartford, CT, Chicago, and other areas (I've done workshops and talks in prisons and juvenile facilities for more than 25 years). I also met other fantastic teachers and activists in this field, which is growing.

The next day, we were all invited to Graterford Maximum Security Prison more than an hour away. I met a number of prisoners and community people who took part in the Healing Walls project that brought victims of crime and offenders together in dialogue and in art. A documentary about this process called Healing Walls is also currently in production--we saw a version of it at the conference. This is another film that people should look out for and get. It's quite inspirational. At the prison a panel with prisoners and community members was held, and another talk with Restorative Justice pioneer and advocate Howard Zehr was held in the gym (along with lunch). I was given respectable recognition by the organizers and the prisoners during my visit there--a TV crew even came in and interviewed me and others during our visit. A number of the prisoners had read my book and came up to talk.

I returned back to LA a little jet-lagged, but also energized by the great visits I had in Chicago and Philadelphia.

A Busy Season for Talks, Dialogues, and Community Engagement

2007-09-21T17:53:00.000-07:00

My fall schedule of events began last week--this season being one of my busiest. I spoke at San Francisco State University and at Cal State, Dominguez Hills over the past few days. Next week I'm in Chicago and Philadelphia.

But before I address these events, I want to relate about the Community Engagement Advisory Committee's report to the LA City's Ad Hoc Committee on Gang Violence and Youth Development that was made on September 13. Headed by City Councilman Tony Cardenas (my wife Trini's youngest brother), the Ad Hoc committee has been supporting the Community Engagement Advisory Committee's work to create a truly viable and comprehensive street peace plan and gang intervention model. I believe we have it--at least one of the best I've ever seen.

Several members of the Community Engagement Advisory Committee, including yours truly, spoke on the various aspects of a new gang intervention model and levels of gang intervention work we came up with. The most powerful words came from young people, Black and Brown, in South Central LA working with the Youth Justice Coalition. I will say that the councilpersons present--including Cardenas and Janice Hahn--were open and receptive to our words and report.

I've been part of this committee since April after LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa unveiled his "Gang Reduction Strategy." While we all welcomed this development, we also felt his plan needed a lot of work. Councilman Cardenas charged the Community Engagement Advisory Committee--made up of gang intervention specialists, academics, community leaders, and others--to re-examine what the city can do to create real urban peace and help bring meaningful gang intervention work center stage to any violence reduction plan (based on the vital report of the Advancement Project that called for a concerted and adequately-supported prevention/intervention approach to the violence instead of what LA is known for--police-led suppression and more suppresion).

We wanted to make sure this plan and model were not only effective, meaningful and long-standing, but also imaginative, visionary, clear, and filled with hope. I'll post the new plans on my website soon for anyone to access. I'm honored to have worked with the various persons and organizations--including activists from the Mexican/Central American, African American, Asian, and White communities--who took part. Most important was the Black and Brown unity (the vast majority of gangs and gang violence are in the Latino and African American communities) that was temporarily created precisely by working on the common issues, traumas and inequities that connect both communties in a way that is healing, regenerative and respectful to all.

For example, South Central LA by itself has the same homicide rate as that of the world's most dangerous countries in Africa and Central America. The murder rate of Latino males in LA is even higher, although the murder rate of African American males is twice that of Latino males. We are in deep trouble here unless we come up with a truly empowering, inclusive and resource-laden response. It appears suppression led or dominated gang violence reduction plans have only made this situation worse.

Since our reporting meeting to the Ad Hoc committee on Gang Violence and Youth Development (we will continue our work--it's not finished yet), I'm talking about this work and model wherever I can. On September 19, I traveled to the Bay Area to address the Safe Communities Reentry Council's 2nd Annual Reentry Summit ("Working Together to Support San Franciscans After Incarceration") at San Francisco State University. Hosted by San Francisco County Public Defender Jeff Adachi, and including remarks by SF County Supervisor Ross MirKarimi and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, I was able to bring up the essence of our work to great applause and support. The main thing is that here in California we all have to do more to stop the largest prison system in the nation (currently holding 176,000 prisoners) from growing even larger, and the ongoing gang violence claiming many of our best and brightest.

Rehabilitation in prisons and juvenile facilities must be a reality for all institutions (although there are some good programs and people involved in prisons and juvenile facilties that are making a positive difference--I know a number of them--much of so-called rehabilitation is lip service or non-existent). And we need viable and ongoing re-entry programs for those coming out of these institutions. We must not throw away or abandon our young men and women who have made mistakes and had to be incarcerated. They will either come out as changed, wise, and positive contributors to our communities, or (as we see today) hardened criminals and offenders trained in prisons to be better at crime and violence than before they came in (without real rehabilitation and re-entry programs, we're paying for this out of tax payers' dollars).

I also had a wonderful poetry reading on September 20 at California State University, Dominguez Hills (in the southern LA area). The place was packed--who knows how many showed up but it looked to be from 300 to 500 people. Poetry is a harder thing to win people over to, considering that there are few poetry events in universities these days. But everyone there was attentive and totally into the reading. I even sold all my books and most of the CDs I had brought with me.

Expanding our ideas of what is truly responsible (and responsive) urban peace is vitally crucial today. As I've said, I'm helping spread the word about our work in LA as widely as I can--as an evangelist for peace, social justice, and truly liberating policies and programming (and in the long-run, for a cooperative, all-encompassing and truly healing and revolutionary social compact).

Chicano Moratorium Against the Vietnam War: August 29, 1970

2007-08-28T21:08:00.000-07:00

It will be thirty seven years August 29 after the Chicano Moratorium against the Viet Nam War was first held in East Los Angeles -- at the time the largest anti-war demonstration in a community of color in the country. Some 30,000 people came from all over Los Angeles, the Southwest, and other parts of the country to proclaim, "Ya Basta"--that's enough. It also became the scene of one of the worse police abuse cases in the country when LA County sheriff's deputies attacked the mostly peaceful crowd at Laguna Park, enacting hundreds of arrests, causing hundreds of injuries, and resulting in at least three dead. One of those killed was Chicano reporter Ruben Salazar -- the only national media voice Chicanos had at the time.

This was as significant as the murders of anti-war protestors by National Guardsmen at Kent State University in Ohio and Jackson State University in South Carolina earlier that year of 1970.

I was sixteen years old at the time. I was a gang member, a heroin (and other drugs) user, and quite lost. Still I took part in the march and protest. This demonstration awakened me to the vital struggle for justice, peace, and the possibilities of a new society, something I had only glimpsed at but never really understood. I didn't expect to be taken in by this--I had only come to party. Soon I got swept up in the chants, the songs, the ardor for revolutionary change.

I was also one of the cholos arrested early on in the so-called riot that ensued. Hundreds were arrested, but the cholos (at the time, cholo meant Chicano gang member) were separated from the others, held in different facilities, and held for much longer than other protestors. Eventually I was placed into two adult jails (even though I was a juvenile), including the murderer's row of the old Hall of Justice jail in downtown LA. I had a cell next to Charles Manson. The reason: we were threatened with possible charges in the murders of those who died in the rioting. Of course, they really couldn't charge us for this. But the punishment was what they were after. I was placed in a cell with two murderers -- one of whom put a razor blade to my neck. But I stood up to them, as I had learned to do from my many years in the streets (since the age of seven I had been stealing, and since 11, I had been in a gang), and I survived. I was even involved in a lightweight cellblock disturbance when we heard that Ruben Salazar had been killed.

I was eventually released -- but I was never the same after this. It took me another two to three years, but I eventually left the gang, the drugs, and the jails to dedicate myself to revolutionary study, organizing, and action. In a few more years, I committed myself to becoming a writer. I've learned a lot since then, but the initial spark of my own purposeful life had been during the Chicano Moratorium.

This year, more than 35 years later, we are still at war. This year we must protest the US role in Iraq and Afghanistan -- we are not winning anything over there, but we are losing many of our men and women (and many more civilians).

Tomorrow we must protest these wars. We have not stopped terrorism -- in fact, terrorism around the world has increased since we first invaded Iraq. We cannot win a war against terror with more terror. That's a lesson we seem to have not learned in more than thirty years. There are many ways to protest -- the Internet is one of those places. If the streets still call you then join with others as much as you can against these wars that only really benefit the rich and powerful among us (it's the working class poor, of all colors, who are dying in Iraq).

Use poetry, song, dance, film, and story. But do something. In concert with others. With millions. With dignity. With creativity. And with all the moral authority we can muster. No more dead for Bush/Cheney or the ruling class of thieves they represent. Ya Basta!

Francisco Chavez -- R.I.P.

2007-08-22T16:43:00.000-07:00

Francisco Chavez was a fighter for justice, for indigenous cultures and traditions, and a youth advocate who mentored and assisted many troubled youth in Los Angeles and Chicago, among other areas. A Chicano of Yaqui indigenous descent, his life had taken many complicated turns, including fighting in the civil war of Nicaragua as one of the many Chicanos who fought with Sandinistas there. For years afterwards, he brought medicines, foods, clothing, and other necessities to assist the many homeless and poor people of that country. On Tuesday, August 14, Francisco passed on to the ancestors after more than a decade of pain from liver damage due to Hepatitis C. He was 55 years old.

Francisco was also a friend of mine. We worked side by side in Chicago when I did active work among gang and nongang youth in the barrios of Humboldt Park, Logan Square, Pilsen, Little Village, Uptown, and other communities in the 1990s. We began the Increase the Peace Network with other gang intervention and urban peace agencies including BUILD, the YMCA Street Intervention Project, Alternatives/Youth Net, Mothers Against Gang Violence, the Community Renewal Society, among others. Francisco became director of Latino Youth, an alternative high school in the Little Village neighborhood, and hooked us up with the street peace efforts of Barrios Unidos, based in Santa Cruz, CA. He helped bring the sweat lodge and other indigenous ceremonies to our work that brought to bear a badly needed spiritual component to this important life-transforming work.

I will also remember Francisco for being there when my oldest son Ramiro was incarcerated in 1997 on three counts of attempted murder. Almost every Thursday for a year and a half, Francisco visited my son, helping him with the ordeal of the charges and his detention in an electronically-advanced maximum security facility of the Cook County Jail. Francisco was there for many of my son's court cases. And when Ramiro was finally convicted to 28 years, Francisco stood by with him and his many friends and family.

Francisco--who grew up in the Primera Flats neighborhood of Boyle Heights in LA's Eastside--returned to LA and became director of Impacto Youth Services. He hired many former gang members and youth leaders to help young men and women turn their lives around. Along with my friend Louie Ruan, he helped bring the first Indigenous Youth Conference to Boyle Heights with native peoples from East LA (Chicanos and others), the Navajo and Lakota reservations, and from Canada's indigenous reserves.

However, his health worsened with problems related to his liver (including complications from a transplant).

I will always respect Francisco for his commitment to the struggle for peace and justice and how he stood by my son during the hour of his greatest need. A special memorial will be held this Saturday, August 25 at 5 PM at the Sacred Circle Center, 7648 Greenleaf Avenue, Whittier, CA 90602.

Que descanses en paz, carnal.

A Victory for Community Arts at the Ford Amphitheatre

2007-07-31T17:22:00.000-07:00

The day started out badly--we had two flat tires on the mini-van that carried our books and other boxes for Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural's benefit event at the 1,200-seat Ford Amphitheatre in Hollywood. There was also a major accident on the 101 freeway just where the Ford Theatres are located that caused a back up for around 12 hours (the accident involved the death of an off-duty police officer and a 13-car pileup). Still, last Sunday, July 29, we managed to pull off an amazing fundraiser. Everything eventually fell into place and, despite the traffic issues, we had what looked like an almost full house. All the acts came through like champs and then some (we had two encores for the bands Upground and Tierra, both of whom had people rocking in their seats or dancing in the aisles).

Our host was the incomparable Ernie G., one of LA's rising young Latino comedians. He was right on, and for his 15-minute monologue he had everyone in stitches. We also featured Tia Chucha's own Aztec Danza group, Temachtia Quetzacoatl, which opened the event. We had the agit-prop comedy theater of the world famous Culture Clash (they were fantastic). We also had the conscious indigenous Hip Hop of Xela, formerly of Chihuatl Tonalli (Woman's Energy), and El Vuh ("The Book" in Mayan). And besides the amazing Chicano Ska sounds of Upground and the Old School Chicano R&B sounds of Tierra, we had Ollin perform an exciting and innovative set combining Mexican, Irish, German, Japanese, African, and who-knows-what-else music that wowed everyone. I also read a poem after Trini and I greeted the audience. And we had a special performance from Tia Chucha's long-time friend John Densmore (of the Doors), who did poetry with another drummer that truly brought home the meaning of Art and Culture as the path to peace, unity, and deep understanding.

It was a victorious evening for community-based and neighborhood-rooted cultural spaces and independent bookstores. Lately in Los Angeles--but also around the country--we have lost many formerly venerable bookstores and cultural venues to big development, gentrification and high rents. In February, Tia Chucha's was forced to move from the space we had for five years after the landlords practically tripled our rent to make room for a multi-million laundromat. But we decided not to give up--we are now in a temporary location in Lake View Terrace (sponsoring music workshops, Aztec Dance, Mexikayotl indigenous thought, Open Mics, author readings, and more). And we are working diligently to find and establsh an even bigger, better and permanent Tia Chucha's.

The community deserves better. It deserves more. We want to be an example of fighting for the imagination, cultural expression, and truly liberating holistic literacy. We can't just settle for "survival" skills (or barely surviving). We need to truly impact our communities with the fullness of intelligence, creativity, imagination, and skills that is possible when all community members are treated as full and complete human beings.

We want to thank all our supporters, friends, and family who showed up on July 29 (I know we had people from as far away as the Bay Area, maybe even farther). We also want to thank LA County Supervisor Zev Yaroslasky and the LA County staff who showed up as well as the LA City Department of Cultural Affairs and the Community Redevelopment Agency (who've also supported us). We want to thank our many funders such as the DCA, CRA, LA County Arts Commission, National Endowment for the Arts, the Panta Rhea Foundation, the Thrill Hill Foundation, Attias Family Foundation, Middleton Foundation, Youth Can Service, the Center for Cultural Innovation, Not Just Us Foundation, Toyota Sales, the Liberty Hill Foundation, the Border Book Festival, among others. In addition, we give thanks to our many individual donors, notably Bruce Springsteen, John Densmore, Dan Attias, the Luis and Trini Rodriguez Family (Andrea, Ruben, Luis, and Catalina), Suzan Erem, Cynthia Cuza, Mel Gilman, Dave Marsh, Denise Chavez, John Randall, the Luis & Trini Rodriguez Family, and many others.

We want to thank our many collaborators, including LA Commons, Northeast Valley Health Corporation, El Centro de Santa Ana, the Council of Venues, Teatro Chusma, Tres Chingazos Theater Collective, the EARTH Theater Company, John Trudell, the many LAUSD and LA County schools who've come for field trips to Tia Chucha's, and more.

A special shout out to our founding partner Enrique Sanchez, and his family, as well as our amazing staff: Melissa Sanvicente, Silverio Pelayo, Arlene Mejorado, Blanca Boche--and our past staff members over the years (too many to name here). Also our numerous volunteers and instructors. You're all the best (including our former program director, Mike Centeno). And we wouldn't be here if not for our hard-working board members and fellow co-founders Angelica Loa and Victor Mendoza (and Tia Chucha Press and all our wonderful authors and volunteers).

Special thanks to Ruben Guevara--our benefit event producer and long-time friend--as well as John Cantu and George Rodriguez for recording the event. We want to thank the Ford staff (tech, sales, office, marketing, books, and more), in particular Community Bridges and the tremendous efforts of Lissette Alvarez.

And we want to thank our many friends in the Pacoima Community Benefits Agreement Partners of the Price Pfister Development project; the Young Warriors (now organizing to create a new model of youth awareness, engagement, and organization in Pacoima); the San Fernando Sweat Lodge Circle; the Council of Venues; Rock & Rap Confidential; Divine Forces Radio (Fidel Rodriguez and all); Imix Bookstore; Homeboy Industries (Father Greg Boyle, Fabian Montez, Pascual Orozco, and others), Homies Unidos (Alex Sanchez and others), the Community Engagement Advisory Committee (of LA City's Ad Hoc Committee on Gang Violence and Youth Development), and many others.

And, finally, a most heartfelt thanks to the whole San Fernando Valley community, but also from our many friends in East LA, South Central LA, Pico Union, the Westside, the Harbor, San Gabriel Valley, and beyond. We will continue. We will not give up. Tlazhokamati... Muchas Gracias... Thank You.

A Time for Elders and Youth--A Way out of Gangs

2007-07-20T18:33:00.000-07:00

I've been working with a number of young people in the Northeast Valley, led by an 18-year-old former gang member (who only recently left the gang) and a 16-year-old high school student, in helping create a new Youth Center for the Pacoima/Sylmar section of LA. They are working diligently to establish a group called Young Warriors, Inc. Their vision is to obtain a space with a computer lab; job resources; referrals for treatment, tattoo removal, housing, training; among other things. One of their concerns is "Rites of Passage"--helping people become properly initiated and welcomed by community. We plan to help them establish a 501 (c) 3 tax exempt status and to have fundraisers, board development, and staff development to get this process off the ground.

Last Sunday, July 15, these two young people and myself were on Power 106-FM radio's talk show "Knowledge is Power" with Wendy Carrillo. They were strong, intelligent and articulate about the issues facing youth and their solutions. We had good response from callers and evoked a deeper sense of how to work with troubled youth in LA.

I have done this kind of work for many years, particularly with the Mosaic Multicultural Foundation's work with men, including young gang members, and in Chicago with Youth Struggling for Survival, the Increase the Peace Collaborative, and other organizations. The work I've done is to place the power, decision-making, and accountability in the hands of the young people. However, there is a role for adults, mentors, and elders. Our role is as guides, teachers, helping bring resources, structures, and options for what the youth need. However, unlike many "youth programming" going on these days, it's not about adults deciding for youth what they should do.

At Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural we've had a number of field trips from schools all over the LA area, including from Pomona (about 40 miles away). We've even had an alternative school in Oakland come by twice. These youth, including many gang and troubled youth, have always been respectful and participatory. I try to get the schools to help buy books so that as many of these students as possible leave with a book in their hands.

One of the last groups that came recently created an amazing folder with original poems, letters, drawings, and such thanking me and Tia Chucha's for having them come visit. I remember that group well because one of the youths was caught spray painting graffiti just outside our building. A principal of a local elementary school happened by at the same time, and she came into our space ready to pounce on that youth. My wife Trini, in her calm manner, was able to diffuse the situation. The principal wanted to call the police right away. Trini felt there was another way to go--a way we can handle this without having to bring in the police (which seems to be happening a lot lately... even to the point where the police have been called in to handcuff 5-year-olds who were being unruly, something that happened recently in Florida).

In the end, the principal, Trini, the teacher with the field group, and the graffiti artist met and were able to work out a measure of apology and retribution. The young man went with the principal to buy paint and they returned to paint over the young man's markings. He even wrote Tia Chucha's a letter of apology, which I include here:

Dear Luis and Trini Rodriguez,

I am so sorry that I had to bring that type of behavior and drama to your cafe. My intentions were to go there to hear some speaking about the negatives about living a lifestyle like that and I screw myself over by acting like an idiot and committing a felony. I am sorry that I embarrassed myself and my teacher, and I hope you know that I cleaned up the spot where I originally did the graffiti, and decided that the situation on Friday was too close a call for me to risk doing something like that again, so I won't be writing on walls any longer. Once again, I am sorry that it had to happen.

This is what's possible when adults and young people work together, show they really care, and help each other see themselves as stakeholders and owners of their own communities.

Recently, I did an interview at Telemundo (Spanish-language) in LA and was quoted in a couple of articles (including the Washington Post) about a new study by the Justice Policy Institute that said suppression is not working when it comes to reducing gang violence. The study compared the levels of violence in three major cities--LA, Chicago, and New York City. NYC, with much more people, had the lowest crime rates among youth and much lower gang problems. Chicago and LA are known as the most violent gang cities, although most of what policy makers do in those cities is predicated on suppression. NYC has a myriad approach to gangs; they have brought services, jobs, treatment, schooling, and other similar aspects to bear over just police and suppressive tactics.

We've also articulated similar points on the Community Engagement Committee of the Ad Hoc Committee on Gang Violence and Youth Development for the City of Los Angeles (I happen to be a member of this committee). Our plan, written to challenge and enhance the Mayor's new "Gang Reduction Strategy," calls for meaningful rehabilitation/reentry programs, jobs, treatment, more intervention services, adequate funding, and such. We know that gang violence cannot be properly addressed unless we get to the root of the problem. Presently, many LA schools and youth programs do not even allow alleged gang members to take part, even if they may be the ones who need those services the most and are often the most committed in coming through.

It's time for real elders, mentors, and youth relationships to be established all over the city. Youth need proper Rites of Passage. We can train people about how this works. We can re-weave community all over this vast city. However, we need the backing of policy makers who, unfortunately, want the "immediate" and often superficial results that come with more police and jails (the long-term effects of these only make things worse). I'm glad the Justice Policy Institute is taking this battle head on and that they've included me in their press/media outreach plans. I also want to thank Laura Rodriguez and her students for the colorful, art-filled and word-filled folder they did for Tia Chucha's.

A Season for Weddings--and other Events

2007-07-15T13:02:00.000-07:00

Yes, this is the season for weddings. I've been to three already--for Hector Herrera Jr., my nepthew; Valeria Jiminez, my cousin; and Angelica Loa, my niece. I've also been invited to other weddings that I could unfortunately not attend for various reasons, most notably Tanee Blazquez's wedding in Chicago on July 7 (she's the daughter of my good friends and Mexika Indigenous teachers, Frank and Lou Blazquez).

What's good about family members getting married is that I get to see family I haven't seen in a long time. In Valeria's case, I got to see some family I never knew I had. Valeria is the daughter of my uncle Marcello Jiminez, my mother's youngest half-brother (he's about my age). My aunt Gloria, my mother's youngest half-sister, was also there with her daughter Monica, whom I met for the first time. I also met other cousins I did not know. Also family members from El Paso, Texas/Ciudad Juarez, Mexico made the trip out as well, including my cousin Ninfa, whom I have not seen in 30 years. I got news about my other cousins along the border area of El Paso/Juarez (most are doing well, except for those cousins who have passed away).

Again, it was an honor to meet and see many of these people, some of whom are living in the San Fernando Valley, where I now make my home. It makes me think about how many other family members I may have bumped into without knowing they were related.

Angelica Loa is my niece by marriage, part of the large and wonderful Cardenas clan originally of Pacoima (my wife's parents had 11 children--they in turn have raised many more great kids). I'm glad to be part of this large family--they are active and decent and spiritually engaged. Some of them are part of our Sweat Lodge Circle in San Fernando. For example, we did a beautiful indigenous ceremony for Angelica and her new husband, Enrique Perez, a week before the main wedding date on July 7. It was attended by their friends and closest siblings. It included a sharing circle, a sweat lodge ceremony, and communal pot luck. It was run by Hector Herrera Sr., husband to Trini's sister, Licha; Hector is also one of our water pourers for the Sweat Lodge Circle (he's of Yaqui-Raramuri descent).

For many years--almost 30 years--I was out of communication with my immediate family, including my mother. But seven years ago when Trini and I moved back to LA from Chicago (after I spent 15 years there), I made sure to re-connect with my mother Maria Estela; my brother Joe; my sisters Ana and Gloria; my half-sister Seni; and their kids and grandkids. This is important. Whatever issues we may have had between us doesn't seem to matter. I simply don't have any beefs with anyone in my family anymore. I realize family is important and all the pettiness that sometimes comes between us needs to be put aside to maintain the love and trust we should have as relatives

This has been important for my two youngest sons, Ruben and Luis, who now have many cousins, aunts and uncles to relate to (two of his uncles were there for Ruben when he went through a Navajo rites of passage ceremony at age 12 on the Navajo rez).

While we don't demand that our kids follow our spiritual paths or practices, it's important for them to know them and have them in their lives as guides (or when they should ever need to turn to these ways). These are ancient traditons from both Mexico and North America (and even from Peru, where we've also done some native ceremonies).

I pray that all these young couples stay together with lots of love and to be strong, healthy, spiritually centered, and socially active for as long as they live.

ALSO--I have a couple of events I want to bring to people's attention. One is a reading I'll be doing this Tuesday, July 17 at the Industry Cafe as part of the Organic Soul Movement's Open Mic series (it's also to celebrate the birthday of "The Bus Stop Prophet," Frank Escamilla). Other performers include:

Besskepp of A Mic and Dim Lights
Sarah Cruse
Pocho Joe
Superb of Urbane Culture Lounge
Drew Amavisca of Javelin
Carvell Holloway of Rock A Mole Productions
Joshua Silverstein
Bus Stop Prophet

Plus a never before seen multi-dimensional tribute to John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme." The address is: Industry Cafe and Jazz, 6039 Washington Blvd. (four blocks west of La Cienega), Culver City. The time is: 9:30 PM-Midnight. Admission is FREE

AND I'll be reading poetry at a Community Open House for AWARE-LA (Alliance of White Anti-Racists Everywhere, Los Angeles) on Saturday, July 21 from 1 to 3:30 PM at the Shakespeare Festival LA, 1238 W. 1st Street, Los Angeles 90026.

The event is called "Tranformative Alliances: White Anti-Racists & Its Relevance to the Social Justice Community of Los Angeles." It's important that all of us who have common interests and aims--such as eradicating racism and social injustice--come together. I'm honored to be part of this important gathering.

A Shout Out to Joel Siegel, R.I.P.

2007-07-05T13:53:00.000-07:00

I want to give a belated shout out to Joel Siegel, the film critic for ABC's "Good Morning America," who died last week on June 29 at age 63. I only met him once, but I remember his kind words and genuine interest. It was February 1993. I was waiting in ABC's studios in New York City, in the Green Room, to be interviewed by ABC anchor Charlie Gibson. With me was my then 17-year-old son Ramiro (he's 32 now).

My best selling book, Always Running, La Vida Loca, Gang Days in LA had just come out in hardcover by Curbstone Press. We had embarked on a massive touring and promotion campaign--I ended up going to 30 cities in three months. I also appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," "Sonya Live on CNN," "National Public Radio," and tons of other great TV and radio broadcasts (we also had amazing interviews and reviews in publications like the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, the LA Times, Chicago Tribune, The Face Magazine, the Washington Post, among others).

Anyway, unexpectedly, Mr. Siegel came to the Green Room, seeking me out. He said he'd read my book and wanted to say how powerful it was and how good that someone like me had written it. I thanked him, introduced him to my son, and shook his hand. It was fairly quick, but I felt very good about this. Mr. Siegel didn't have to talk to me. It showed me that some people in the public eye, so-called celebrities, can also be real and kind. Of course, Mr. Gibson was also gracious and asked some good questions to me and my son in studio. When Ramiro and I walked out of the studios, people who had seen the interview on screens (it was filmed live) recognized us immediately.

It was my first major foray into big time media. I've done many of these since then. "The Oprah Winfrey Show" being one of the highlights. But I will remember the small but important gesture of Mr. Siegel. I'm sorry he's gone. Decent people like that should be around for a long time. I offer my condolences to Mr. Siegel's family and friends. And a thanks for having met, although briefly, such a nice person.

A Good and Bad Week

2007-06-27T21:05:00.000-07:00

This past week has been both good and bad.

The good part is that my grand-daughter, Anastasia, came to LA to visit us from Chicago. As many of you know, I have four grandchildren--two of them are already teenagers. One if them is Anastasia, an intelligent, beautiful, and strong 13-year-old young lady. It was so great to see her and to spend some time with her. We did the regular touristy things--my daughter Andrea and her daughter, Catalina, one of my other grand kids, and my son Luis took her to Hollywood, Olvera Street, downtown LA; my sons Ruben and Luis (and Katrina, Ruben's girlfriend) took Anastasia to Magic Mountain. She also visited with my family at my sister Ana's house, and with my mother, who's at a rest home for Alzheimer's patients. Anastasia is now with her grand-mother, my first wife Camila, who is taking her around her large East LA family, and to the beach and visits with family and friends in Long Beach, Orange County, and LA.

However, a few days before I picked up Anastasia from the airport, my back gave out on me. I've had recurring issues with several slipped discs over the years, stemming from the many years I worked in industry and construction during my late teens and twenties. The older I've gotten, the worse it has become. But I've been doing fine for several years until one day last week I couldn't get out of bed. As anyone who has gone through this knows, it's extremely painful. I was then forced to walk around in a cane. I went to a chiropractor, and then to a sobadora, which is a Mexican healer who uses massage. The last time my back gave out, a sobador in Pacoima put things back together, and it lasted for quite a while. I don't have insurance, so I have to find other more natural and less costly means to take care of my health.

Although I was hurting, I still had to go to meetings, type on my computer, and other work. I just had to take breaks and change positions from time to time. I even went to a fund raising house meeting for The Gathering, a social justice retreat group founded by Harry Belafonte. My friend Nane Alejandrez of Barrios Unidos invited me to this event, held at the home of one of Gregory Peck's daughters. Also present was Sharon Stone, Michael Farrell, Harry Belafonte's kids, Connie Rice of the Advancement Project, and others. Cane or no cane, I got around, talking to people and passing out postcards for Tia Chucha's benefit event at the Ford Amphitheater on July 29 (go to www.tiachucha.com for more information).

Today I'm feeling a lot better. I've been off my cane for a couple of days. I've had to let go my exercise regimen, which I hate to do since I got a good momentum going with this. But I'll get back on it--a lot more careful when I do, too.

Meanwhile I have a couple more days before Anastasia goes home. We'll miss her. She's a real special human being with so much energy and talent to contribute powerful and positive things to this world. Of course, I'm biased, but it's true.

"Notes of a Bald Cricket" Premiers at the Ford Little Theatre

2007-06-17T12:18:00.000-07:00

It took several rehearsals, revisions, re-assessments, and more revisions, but the staged production of a series of poems dealing with my addictions and recovery, "Notes of a Bald Cricket" premiered on Saturday, June 16 as part of The [Inside] Performances at the Ford Theatres in Hollywood.

Directed by my old friend Ruben "Funkahuatl" Guevara, who also provided the music, I was able to challenge myself, and pick up my own game, in the performance art aspect of my work.

Also on the bill were two amazing Filipina performance poets, Melinda Corazon Foley with "Second Chances," and Alfie Ebojo who did "Love Letter to Los Angeles."

I was impressed by what seemed like almost a full house in the 87-seat theater. A number of friends, including artist Leo Limon; Organic Soul Movement creator Sara Cruse; Rock & Rap Editor Lee Ballinger; "Monte Carlo 76" DJ and musician, David Gomez; and others were in attendance.

I was also pleased to meet actor Annette Bening, wife of Warren Beatty, who came with her teenaged daughter. Her daughter apparently requested to see my production after having known my book, "Always Running," from school. They came up and shook our hands and had nice things to say about our performances.

Afterwards the audience and performers gathered in the plaza area to enjoy refreshments and a Latin Jazz duo. I was also interviewed by a pair of Australian DJs and radio journalists who were in town for a few days on their way to Mexico.

My daughter Andrea showed up and filmed the performance--which was about 35 minutes long and required my total focus on my words and delivery.

Ruben Guevara and I hope to continue to rework this piece for possible staging in other theaters. It's recommended for mature audiences (we had to make this point to a middle school class, whose teacher had called about possibly coming to see the performance). I hope I can bring "Notes of a Bald Cricket" to more performance spaces in the near future.

I also want to thank Agustin Gurza and the LA Times for doing a good piece in the Calendar section highlighting this show.

Literacy as Life and the Basis for Real Personal Power and Freedom

2007-06-07T20:58:00.000-07:00

Every year for five years I've taken part in the Feria del Libro--Los Angeles' largest children's book festival. The Feria began in Roosevelt High School, one of East LA's most famous schools (and the most populated high school in the United States). Tia Chucha's, the bookstore/cultural center I helped create, has also had tables there with books, including bilingual books, for children and the community.

This year, just like last year, the Feria del Libro was held at LA's City Hall downtown. More than 30,000 people attended. Several streets were blocked off and many more booths now graced the book fair. In addition there were two stages for performers, authors, speakers, and music. I was able to read poetry and talk in one of the stages--and I was given the privilege of introducing one of my favorite bands (and one of LA's best exponents of the "LA Sound"), Quetzal.

Also this year, Guatemalan Human Rights Activist and Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Rigoberta Menchu Tum, was the featured author. I had the privilege of being on a panel with Rigoberto Menchu to discuss literacy in both local and global terms.

Right away Ms. Menchu brought in the indigenous cosmology of her Mayan heritage. When I spoke, I connected with this, using greetings from the Raramuri people of Southern Chihuahua, one of my heritages, and then proceeding to talk about literacy as the confidence and competence people need to be truly active in any area or field they want to be.

To me literacy is real freedom. If one can't read (or can't read beyond the much lower standards of a 7th grade education that "No Child Behind" is pushing), one is imprisoned to be a consumer/worker with little mobility beyond the daily survival grind at the peripherery of a global capitalist economy.

We need more than this. We being the poorest, most neglected, and often repressed working class of this country. At the heart of this working class are African Americans, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Central Americans, Native Americans, and poor Asian Americans. But the majority of this class is made up of Whites (including those who have been in this country for several generations). Literacy is a key out of this box, this so-called station of life that many of us have been forced into from birth, through schools, and a myriad of economic, social, and cultural pressures.

As a young person, I wanted to go beyond that place I was supposed to stay at--mostly unenlightened, confused, and stressed just to make ends meet (like my parents, other family members, and the majority of people I deal with every day). After an intense gang and drug life, then working for several years in industry (construction, factories, foundries, mills, refineries), I eventually became a writer in my mid-twenties. It was a difficult road to take--nobody in my family or immediate community were able to support or help me (although I did have some encouragement, mostly I got funny looks or outright admonishments about getting "real jobs").

During my panel talk, I mentioned one man who sacrificed his time to help me become a journalist/writer. His name was Mr. Takagi, a Japanese American night school teacher at East LA College. I attended classes there in journalism, creative writing, and speech. Since night classes were primarily made up of working people, many students dropped out before they could finish. Unfortunately, the second session of Mr. Takagi's class had only one student show up--me.

Mr. Takagi told me he had to drop the whole class since there weren't enough students to keep it going. He must have seen the disappointment in my eyes, because soon after he turned to me and said he'd come back every week if I would also come back every week. I accepted his challenge. So every week that semester, I showed up, and Mr. Takagi was there. He gave me assignments, I wrote various pieces, and I knew he was even tired and would prefer being home. But he stayed true to this word.

I recall once Mr. Takagi falling asleep as I read one of my pieces. My heart went out to him--as his must have gone out to me. I finished the class and passed. Mr. Takagi even recommended me for the Summer Program for Minority Journalist at UC Berkeley, which I eventually took part in becoming an alumni in 1980 (I received a journalist certificate and became valedictorian). It changed my life--I've been a professional writer (and speaker) ever since.

I'm honored to have met and talked with Rigoberta Menchu. She understood and appreciated this story about Mr. Takagi (as did the audience). It's important to recognize and even name our mentors, those willing to step out of their own lives for a short time to help someone else.

The Feria del Libro ia a great accomplishment. I honor all the founders (particularly my friend Maria Casillas), board members, staff, volunteers, and funders for helping keep literacy alive in LA. And I also want to say a word of thanks to Mr. Takagi, wherever he may be. Your trust in me helped me trust myself. Gracias my friend.

"Burning Embers"--by Anastasia Horkay

2007-05-26T20:34:00.000-07:00

Well the Rodriguez family writing legacy continues--my father and grandfather were both writers sometime in their lives. And all my four kids and four grand-kids so far have proven to be good at putting down on paper their thoughts, feelings, stories. Below is a poem by my 13-year-old grand-daughter, Anastasia Horkay. Anastasia lives just outside of Chicago with her mother, Laura, and her three half-brothers: Dakari, Joshua and Raiden. She's a fantastic student and a wonderful young lady; I'm very proud of her. I hope you all like her poem.

BURNING EMBERS

To touch a burning ember without first burning yourself

would be to be the touch itself,

To stare at the glow of a burning ember

would be to be the glow itself.

To stand the heat of a burning ember

would be to be the heat itself,

To not feel the pain of a burning ember

would be to be the pain itself.

To be inside a burning ember

would be to be the fire itself,

To live inside a burning ember

would be to be in hell itself.

To survive inside a burning ember

would be to be the devil himself,

To withstand the power of a burning ember

would be to be the ember itself.

By Anastasia Horkay

10 Year Anniversary of the "Making Peace" PBS-TV Series

2007-05-16T20:13:00.000-07:00

Ten years ago, John Valadez directed a documentary film for Moira Productions called "Making Peace: Youth Struggling for Survival, Like Father, Like Son." This 30-minute film was part of the "Making Peace" series that included profiles of individuals from across the country who were making a significant impact on peace in our streets and in our country. The series aired nationally on PBS-TV.

I was fortunate to have been chosen as one of the "Making Peace" profiles. The series was also shown to more than 200 community meetings in 1997. In addition, my particular profile was shown in a couple of national peace summits during that time.

The film is available on VHS and DVD from Films for the Humanites and Sciences. Please consider buying it for your school, institution, juvenile facility, or program.

"Making Peace: Youth Struggling for Survival, Like Father, Like Son" deals with the work I did for many years mentoring, guiding, and assisting active Chicago gang members and other youth into more positive, imaginative, and healed lives. I helped start Youth Strugging for Survival in 1994 with 250 youth people and adults at the University of Illinois, Chicago. The organization is still active and doing healing work in Chicago and Aurora, Illinois, and the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Lakota Reservations.

The film also centers on my often rocky relationship with my oldest son, Ramiro Rodriguez, who will be 32 this year. Ramiro joined a Chicago gang when he was 15, which served as a catalyst for the writing of my memoir "Always Running, La Vida Loca, Gang Days in LA" (Touchstone Books/Simon & Schuster). Unfortunately, he is presently serving a 28-year prison sentence for three counts of attempted murder in the State of Illinois.

Despite the bars and distance--Ramiro has already done ten years of this time--we have remained close. My son has left the gang life and he's trying to better his situation the best he can; he hopes to be paroled in four more years with time off his sentence for keeping things straight and honest so far.

Meanwhile, I recommend the use of this film with any groups working with gang and other troubled youth. There are no easy answers in this work. For many of us, it's dangerous and heartbreaking. But we continue to walk these streets often without pay or compensation. My experience in over 30 years of doing this is that real caring, honest dialogue, and an intense and broad social struggle for jobs, healthcare, spirituality, meaningful education, and authentic community is the key to address the violence, disaffection, and alienation of our youth.

Also I'm part of a national campaign to prevent gang violence and help youth in the Latino community called 2Cooltura . Please check this out and get more information on books, resources, organizations, and strategies to help bring peace and dignity to our families and streets.

Thanks to the "Front Page" Family and KJLH Radio

2007-05-11T20:00:00.000-07:00

All good things must come to an end. Today, I ended my week of guest hosting on the Front Page talk show with Dominique Di Prima on KJLH-102.3 FM. It was a wonderful experience. According to Dominique, I was the first Latino guest host on the show. I commend her and KJLH for having me and allowing me this opportunity to speak on some crucial issues confronting both the African American and Mexican/Latino community.

Yesterday, I was able to address key concerns about Black & Brown unity—including the value of working together when the interests of our communities converge. It’s not about unity for unity’s sake. We have common issues of poverty, bad schools, bad police relations, gangs, domestic abuse, disproportionate health problems, and disproportionate rates in prisons. We cannot move fully forward in these areas unless we forge important strategic aims and actions mutually beneficial to both communities.

It must be a principled and purposeful unity, not a makeshift or superficial one.

I’ve had a lifetime of working in this area. Including from living in South Central LA as a child, then working on police abuse actions with people like Michael Zinzun, may he rest in peace, to the coalition for Harold Washington for Mayor in Chicago (I lived there from 1985 until 2000), and the work I've currently done for many years with gang intervention/prevention and street peace, particularly in Chicago and LA.

Even now, as we move to bring developmental and policy changes in the poor working class community of Pacoima in the Northeast San Fernando Valley, which has a large Mexican/Latino population and a significant African American population, I’m involved in a Community Benefits Agreement process with the old Price Pfister Brass Foundry site that is slated to become a new mall/park/community gathering place. I’m also working through Tia Chucha’s Bookstore and Cultural Center to bring in more diverse aesthetics to our current workshop, events, and cultural expressions with African Americans as well as other communities.

Today, we had Marqueese Dawson Hawkins of the Community Coalition in studio to speak on the Coalition’s work in South Los Angeles concerning the lack of clean and adequate grocery stores (many that came in after the 1992 Civil Unrest have now left), school exit exams, and more. The Coalition has had an organic Black and Brown organizing process since its inception.

Historically Mexicans and Central Americans (who are mostly of indigenous descent) and African Americans have a long history of slavery, peonage, colonialism, and capitalist exploitation. We have more in common as far as working for the advancement of economic, social, and cultural well being than differences. I understand that there is a lot of ignorance, prejudice, and fear in both communities about each other. I have condemned the racially-based attacks against Blacks by Latinos in Los Angeles and elsewhere, and whenever this happens to Latinos from Blacks. There is already enough hate in this world—I personally don’t want to contribute any more or do anything to perpetuate it.

In addition, Mexicans have African ties from when the Spanish first brought African slaves to Mexico in the 1500s. The Native population of Mexico was greatly and quickly decimated by wars, hunger, tortures, and disease. The Valley of Mexico—the most populous area in the hemisphere before the Spanish arrived—had an estimated 25 million inhabitants when Cortez and his conquistadors first set foot there in 1519. In 50 years, only 2.5 million survived. In fact, most of the continent lost from 80 to 95 percent of their populations shortly after the Europeans came. The Spanish numbers reached a height of 150,000 during the colonial period; African slaves were believed to number around 300,000. In addition, some 100,000 Malaysians (from the Spanish colonies of the Philippines and other Asian areas) were also brought in.

In fact, Mexico had the first recorded African slave uprising in the Americas in 1546. Later rebellious slaves established the first free African pueblo in the Western Hemisphere in 1609. It was called Yanga, located in the present-day state of Vera Cruz, Mexico.

A leader of the Mexican war of independence from Spain in 1820 was Vicente Ramon Guerrero—an African-Mexican. He also became Mexico’s second president (Benito Juarez, of Zapoteca Indian, became the first full-blooded native president in the 1860s). And then Mexico eventually lost Texas and later half of its national territory in the US invasion of 1848 after Mexico refused to return runaway slaves to US slave masters after Mexico had abolished slavery in the 1820s.

Still, with all this history, the remaining native population of Mexico is the main root and source of the Mexican character and makeup. Today there are 240 native languages in Mexico. Many of the newer so-called immigrants are coming from highly Native areas of central and southern Mexico, including tribal members of Mayans, Huicholes, Raramuri, Yaquis, Mixtecos, Zapotecas, and more. There are an estimated 2 million full-blooded Mayans in the US, almost as many as the whole Native American population (believed to number 3 million, with a majority of mixed blood). Many of these tribal peoples don’t even speak Spanish, let alone English.

Now things have turned on their heads. Now the brown-red indigenous peoples of these lands, with connections here that go back tens of thousands of years, have become the “foreigners,” “immigrants” and “illegals”—mostly by people of European descent who have only been in the US areas a little more than 300 years. This is how man-made and superficial borders, created by conquerors, colonialists and capitalists, have now determined who we are, our relationships, and who we unite with and who we fight with.

To find out more about this history, the racial/cultural make up of Mexico, and the African American/Mexican/Native connections, please look up the following publications:

Occupied America by Rudy Acuna
Anything but Mexican by Rudy Acuna
The Fifth Sun by James Russell
The American Holocaust by David Stannard
1491 by Charles Mann
Cycles of Conquest by Edward Spicer
Indian Givers by Jack Weatherford

This is a beginning list. There are so many great books and articles that spell out our common historical, cultural and strategic ties. On the World Wide Web, there are now many sites and informational links. It’s important for all of us to be armed with knowledge, books, history, and stories as we move forward to better all of our communities.

I also recommend, to those who are interested, to visit the website of Xispas Magazine; I am a co-founder and now editor of this online Chicano magazine. You can check it out at www.xispas.com.

A’ho.

On"Front Page" Today

2007-05-09T12:18:00.000-07:00

This morning on the “Front Page” talk show, KJLH-102.3 FM, we took part in a lively discussion with many call-ins about the packed, standing-room only meeting of the Police Commission on Tuesday.

I’m guest-hosting the show this week with Dominique Di Prima. Our guest today was Charlene Muhammad, who also works at KJLH and writes for “Final Call” newspaper, among others.

Ms. Muhammad said many people from various LA communities—mostly African American and Mexican/Central American, but also whites, Native Americans, and Asians—came to hear Police Chief William Bratton denounce the attack by riot-gear laden police who fired “foam rubber bullets” and beat people with batons, including several broadcast journalists (officials still claim there may have been a legitimate basis for this, but I can’t imagine any legitimate reason to attack a park full of families, children, and peaceful demonstrators).

Most people at the meeting were angry at the police. Many speakers apparently also demanded that the Police Commission not renew Chief Bratton’s contract (I also read in the LA Times that a few anti-immigrant advocates attended the meeting and demonstrated outside, including the Minuteman Project, in support of the police action).

Already media reports say the number of those injured in the melee is now more than twice than was previously reported. And that police claims that “anarchist” agitators may have started the trouble may be incorrect—anarchists have fallen in number in the LA area, and the ones who are still active have denied any involvement.

So far, Chief Bratton has demoted two lead officers and is investigating the 60 officers involved. But judging by those at the meeting, and our callers this morning, there is a growing public outcry for him to be removed as chief in light of this attack.

It’s important to note, as we did this morning, that LA has had a long history with beatings, shootings, and attacks against the Black and Brown community. The 1965 Watts Rebellion was sparked by a police attack on Marquette Fry. The East LA Chicano Moratorium against the Viet Nam War in 1970 became a “riot” after police attacked a peaceful crowd. The 1992 LA Rebellion—the worse civil unrest in more than a century—was sparked by the acquittal of LAPD officers involved in the beating of Ronnie King. There is now an extremely long list of people killed by police, including unharmed grandmothers, homeless people, 13-year-old boys, even a baby in the arms of her father, and more. Most are African American and Mexican/Central American.

Yes, we need new leadership in the LAPD. But we also need to change the very culture of this entrenched institution that regardless of who’s chief maintains hostilities with the poor and vulnerable Black and Brown communities of the city.

Today, we said that police are human. That many of them have families. And that the pressures on them are tremendous and unhealthy. I know many good police officers. I have a niece that’s a police officer—I wouldn’t want her hurt (I also wouldn’t want her to hurt anybody). Most police officers need help—meaningful compensation, health care, but also counseling, drug/alcohol treatment, and training on community relationships and what to do under crisis.

We all agreed on that.

But we also agreed that they need to be held accountable for their actions. Not only that they get demoted, but charged with a crime when they beat, shoot, or kill people without cause (or for false causes, as it often happens).

A caller also evoked the memory of Michael Zinzun, rest in peace, who led the struggle against police abuse for 30 years, including the important call for a community review board. I worked with Michael in a number of demonstrations many years ago. This is now the time to renew this effort--to get the community active in insuring the police do their job without hurting or attacking our communities (unless it's true as many of us have long suspected that this is their "job").

Real Cool & Coherent Talk Radio

2007-05-08T17:34:00.000-07:00

It’s been a great time so far—guest hosting with Dominique Di Prima on the “Front Page” radio talk show on KJLH-102.3 FM. We’re on the air from 4:30 AM until 6 AM. I’ve been wondering who in world could possibly be up that morning. We’ve gotten many calls from people who are up, on their way to work, coming back from work, or just having a hard time sleeping. I mean people with sharp, coherent and poignant points to make that early in the morning. It’s been great.

I then recalled the many years I had when I was younger, working in factories, construction, in a steel mill, and either leaving the “graveyard” shift or on my way for a morning shift. This was in my 20s, soon after I left the street/gang/drug life. To stabilize myself I did what I had been raised to do—become a working stiff. I used to also be a day laborer—yes, in the days when they weren’t just undocumented guys sitting around Home Depot. In those old days, I’d fill out my coat with newspapers or rags so that I looked sturdy and strong—it’s hard to believe now, but I was unholy thin then. This also kept me warm. Trucks would come down Alameda as we sat around, stream rising from our breaths, waiting for foremen in trucks to choose us for labor in the warehouses, the vegetable stands, the trucking or rail docks.

I let that go for years in my mid-20s to be a writer and organizer. When I moved to Chicago in 1985, I was 30 years old with a small Nissan truck, and only a few haphazardly packed boxes to my name. I also worked in a national revolutionary publication, but to supplement income—and later when I left the newspaper—I worked in typesetting, dropping off magazines to vendors in and around town, in print shops, and for many years as a writer/reporter for an all news radio station, including a long time in graveyard.

So, yes, I've had much experience being around in the early before-dawn hours (not counting my homeless days as a teenager, or the late night shift in a daily newspaper of San Bernardino).

The first day, Dominique had two young men—I say young since now anyone under 45 is a kid to me—who have dedicated their lives to turning troubled youth around: Skip Townsend of 2nd Call (Second Chance of Loving Life) and Ben “Taco” Owens, a mediator in the H.E.L.P.E.R. Alliance Ceasefire Committee. They are part of the few but brave and often beleaguered gang intervention workers who have done more for peace in the city than any other community resource—yes, there’s lots of gang violence in LA, particularly the South and East LA communities, but there would be a lot more if not for these tireless activists, mentors, and mediators.

People called in to agree, to explore, to challenge. One guy got irate at the three of us for daring to care, to mentor, to talk to youth, instead of just putting them away (haven’t we been doing that for years already—and the situation has only gotten worse?). I know what these intervention specialists do works. They are skilled talkers, listeners, and healers because many of them are former gang members, thieves, or drug users who have changed their own lives and have decided to help others do the same.

I thank these two gentlemen for their centered and knowledgeable responses. And the many callers who took us to just over the 6 AM hour.

Today was “Hot Topic” Tuesday. Every Tuesday, Dominique invites any caller to discuss any topic in the news. We had an array of issues—reparations for slavery, Black and Brown conflicts, Don Imus, LAPD attacks on the community, and more. Again people were on the money, even the one or two who were adamant about what I considered wrong ways to see things. But that’s me and that’s them. The key thing is that we can share, argue, learn, and teach.

I'll be doing this all week. I can hardly wait until tomorrow morning.