Luis Javier Rodriguez

The increase in violence over the last three years in Mexico has filled headlines and newscasts throughout the world. More than 15,000 people have been killed since President Felipe Calderon declared all out war against some of the most entrenched drug lords in the world. Mexico is now one of the leading countries in the number of murdered journalists. Kidnappings are at an all time high. Millions of dollars and thousands of federal troops have amassed on border towns and key drug-producing states.  However, like most efforts of this kind, it has only resulted in more violence, extension of drug gangs and even greater drug use, especially in the United States, the world’s largest illicit drug market. This week I’m visiting Chihuahua City—where my mother was born—and Ciudad Juarez, where my family lived when I was born in El Paso, Texas. They are the principal cities in the Mexican state considered the most violent: Chihuahua.  I love this land. I love these people.  So it saddens me to see so much pain and lack of options that many of the people have had to deal with in these extremely difficult economic, social, and violent times. Yet, there are solutions. There are ways to go. There can be a new imagination, with new ideas, tactics, and adequate personal and social change to meet these challenges. That is one of my goals on this trip as a recipient of a US Speaker and Specialist Grant of the US Bureau of International Information Programs. There are in my view many common realities that people in Los Angeles and people in Chihuahua face. One of them is violence. Although the level of violence in LA is far less than that of Ciudad Juarez, the LA area has around 700 gangs, of which 500 are Chicano/Mexican/Central American gangs. From 1980 to 2000, some 15,000 young people died in gang violence in LA. While this violence has gone done tremendously over the past ten years, with suppression policies (more police and more prisons) we also see the squeezing of poor communities and the spread of LA gangs throughout the US, Mexico, and Central America. Yet there are also key differences.  I hope to bring some experience, awareness, and knowledge of the forty years I’ve had working with the most marginalized, poor, and neglected US communities, in particular those in Chicago and Los Angeles. But I’m also aware that there are already wonderful and active people, programs, and ideas in Chihuahua. And that whatever I say has to be re-imagined and re-tooled for the particulars that my brothers and sisters in Chihuahua have to work with. Yesterday, I spoke to around sixty middle school and high school students—they were respectful, engaged, and had great questions. I also did radio, TV and print interviews. And I was able to hold a major discussion at Casa Chihuahua, a museum/cultural space in the heart of the Chihuahua City, with around 150 people—including youth, activists, and governmental leaders. It was a truly inspiring experience. I’ll try to posts more details of this trip that will include more school visits, including colleges, more media interviews, more community gatherings, poetry events, and a couple of prisons, culminating in Ciudad Juarez. We’ll address immediate and vital issues that I believe together—across borders, barriers and economic/political limitations—can help create authentic and whole communities from the broken pieces of community we see today. c/s

Recently the Los Angeles community obtained two important victories. One involved the "shelving" of a proposal to cut the main funding stream for the city's Department of Cultural Affairs. Hundreds of people gathered at City Hall for two days to protest and speak out against these cuts as well as cuts to the neighborhood councils, the disabled, the elderly, and hundreds of city jobs. Trini and I were two of the speakers at the full City Council meeting on February 3, along with many others, who made impassioned pleas to keep the arts alive--as well as the jobs of city workers and programs for the smaller bureaus and departments helping the disabled, homeless, and senior citizens. Presently LA City is facing a $700 million deficit. It must make cuts. But very little imagination or even community input is utilized to help address this crisis. Instead fiscal officials are proposing to slash whole departments and projects, mostly on the backs of the most underrepresented constituents in the city. This recent demonstration of defense for the little that exists for artists and the underrepresented was heartening--and needs to continue. The City will have to keep looking at where to cut. For now, we've held off the big cuts that were on the table. We need to stay involved so that our most precious essentials--like care for the disabled, homeless and the elderly as well as the arts--are not sacrificed. Arts for LA took on much of the organizing and outreach to save the Department of Cultural Affairs--they generated 5,000 letters to city council members and had hundreds attend both the city's Budget & Finance Committee meeting and the full City Council meeting. Go to www.ArtsforLA.com to find out more--and how you can help. ALSO--community leader and gang intervention expert Alex Sanchez, wrongly accused of conspiracy in a RICO case involving 23 alleged members and associates of the Mara Salvatrucha street gang in LA, is now free on bail. He was let go on February 5 to the arms of his family after community and family members put up $2 million in sureties and property--this is how much the community believes in Alex's innocence. Alex spent seven months in downtown's federal lockup waiting whether he would even get a chance to make bail. Two federal judges turned down bail for Alex until the Ninth Circuit Court ordered a reopening of the bail hearing after it found that Alex was neither a flight risk nor a danger to the community. The community is only asking for a fair trial where the truth is allowed to be heard so Alex can clear his name and continue to do the invaluable work to save the lives of young people in the predominantly Central American communities he's dedicated his life to. Again, if anyone wants to get involved please go to www.WeAreAlex.org. Funds are also needed to help with Alex's defense and for his young family, which has suffered seven months without Alex's support. Please send checks for Alex's Defense Fund and to assist his family to: Delia Sanchez, 1625 West Olympic Blvd., Suite 706, Los Angeles, CA 90015. We've had two major victories recently. But the struggle continues on these and other fronts. We need to keep organizing, keep writing, keep sending funds, and to keep hope alive for a decent and just world. c/s

The LA City Department of Cultural Affairs provides grants to organizations and individuals to maintain arts creation, presentation, festivals, education, and delivery. It's the main source of neighborhood arts development, sorely lacking in this city that touts itself as the "Entertainment Capital of the World." Now, in the midst of the current city budget crisis, proposals are underfoot to undercut the main way the DCA gets its funding--the one percent from the tourist tax dollars from hotels in LA. Members of the City Council's Budget & Finance Committee has apparently signed off on this proposal, which is slated to be heard by the whole council on Wednesday, February 3, 2010 at 10 AM. I urge anyone who loves the arts, in particular for whatever neighborhood arts exists, to come to this meeting and speak on behalf of the Department of Cultural Affairs. You can also send a letter to your councilmember to insist they oppose any cuts in the funding source for DCA and the arts. Here's a response from Arts for LA to assist in this important effort: URGENT CALL TO ACTION The arts in Los Angeles are in crisis and they need your voice. The City of Los Angeles Budget and Finance Committee has put forward a motion to eliminate the Department of Cultural Affairs' dedicated source of revenue. Voice your support to maintain the only dedicated revenue source for neighborhood art and culture in the City of Los Angeles.  Take two minutes and send your city council member an email. Remind your Council Member that the arts: Make money Attract tourists Attract businesses Arts, like parks, are for everyone This motion will go before Council for a vote this Wednesday, February 3rd. Show the City Council the power of the arts community. Attend the Council meeting and provide public comment. We need to remind Council of just how important the arts are to Los Angeles. Please forward this information to your friends and networks and post it on Facebook to encourage others to take action.  Send a Letter. c/s

This past weekend I was honored to be part of an important gathering of peacemakers at the Barrios Unidos headquarters in Santa Cruz, CA. The aim and purpose was to create the first real Barrio Peace Plan that would include families, youth, elders, adults, organizations, activists, but also those involved in the violence--gangs and the gente in prisons. This is unprecedented and necessary. We are in a time of change, of prophecy, of real peace. It's about healing, alignment, consciousness, cooperation, and the liberating force of our own creative minds and spirits. Already through the efforts of Nane Alejandrez and the Barrios Unidos organizations, connections have been made in the prisons with key leaders who also want to see peace in our time for our barrios. I've been making similar connections on my end with my ties in the pintas. During the weekend, more than 100 leaders and activists--including such notables as Dolores Huerta, Jose "Dr. Loco" Cuellar," Jerry Tello, Henry Dominguez, Amanda Perez, Albino Garcia, among others, hashed out the essential ideas and points that should be included in the plan. An elders council was created, most of whom signed a pledge to continue this work until its completion. Wonderful ideas, words, sentiments, and challenges were brought up at this gathering. We still have a long process of meeting, connecting, outreach, evaluating, and more before we'll have this plan. This was a good and strong beginning. I'll keep everyone informed on this development. As many of you know, barrio violence is the worse of any in the country. In California, rival barrio gangs and prison gang associations have been responsible for thousands of deaths over the past three decades--and for many even longer, being that barrio gangs are the oldest continuous street gangs in the country. It's also true that with suppression, gang injunctions, three-strikes-and-you're-out laws, deportations, and such, California gangs have now spread throughout the US, Canada, Mexico, Central America, and even parts of South America and Europe. The concept that the street and prison warriors will also help bring peace is an old one, with many pitfalls and dangers, but one that can be the most capable of bringing lasting and comprehensive peace. We also held three sweat lodge ceremonies (I took part in two, including one at 5:30 AM), indigenous drumming, chants & songs, and one evening we held a "barrio cafe" with oldies, cumbias, poetry, and even jokes. Jerry Tello and Jose "Dr. Loco" Cuellar rocked the place with piano and saxophone. Others brought in flutes and blues guitar. I threw in a few of my poems with accompaniment and we were really into la mode bohemia--Chicano style. I've pledged to continue this work where I'm at, but also across this state. Of course, we also agreed this needs to grow into other states, other countries, and of course, to other communities and races. With elders, adults, mentors, youth, families, and lots of heart, intelligence, experience, and ganas, we are on the verge of the first major barrio peace effort in California—tied, of course, to forty years of actual local and statewide marches, gatherings, truces, summits, and urban peace work. We also brought up the case of our friend Alex Sanchez, director of Homies Unidos, who's being held in a federal facility awaiting bail hearings and possible trial on trumped up gang conspiracy charges. He's been a longtime and genuine peace advocate.  Whatever happens to Alex can happen to any of us. We are all Alex. c/s

On Friday, Jan. 1, 2010, NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams broadcast a short segment on my life and work. NBC has made that broadcast available from their website in three parts - with additional footage. The three video streams are presented here with the titles provided by NBC. If for technical reasons you cannot see the videos, simply follow the links to the NBC website. Part 1 - Luis J. Rodriguez: New chapter for gang member turned author. Click here to view at NBC website. Part 2 - East Los Angeles gang member and notable author Luis Rodriguez takes us to the heart of L.A.'s gang territory and discusses life in the barrio. Click here to view at NBC website. Part 3 - Rodriguez's son Ramiro discusses the mistakes he's made in his life and how's its affected his relationship with his father. Click here to view on NBC website.

In a great display of democracy in action, the Youth Justice Coalition has been soliciting the ideas, opinions, experiences, and concerns of the community as LA County works on determining a new chief for its juvenile probation department. The community, particularly its youth, have no say- so in this process--even though it is young people, particularly black and brown, most affected by what the juvenile probation department does. In fact, the selection process has been moving in secret. However, the county's chief executive officer, William Fujioka, who was directed by the LA County Supervisors to oversee the selection process, by now has received hundreds of calls and emails from Youth Justice Coalition and their supporters. I know Kim McGill, director of YJC, and have met many of their youth. They are truly innovative, consistent and persistent, on making the voices of the voiceless get heard. The YJC survey has just been completed. It is available at: https://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5438/images/12-22-09YJCActionUpdate.pdf The main issues the survey participants showed concerns over included 1) addressing racial inequality in the system--the fact nearly everyone in the system is black and brown 2) improve conditions in the juvenile halls and youth camps 3) reduce the number of youth in lockup 4) transfer funds to community-run alternatives to lockup 5) reduce the use of incarceration for probation violations 6) Support California Senate Bill 399 to give youth serving Life Without the Possibility of Parole a second chance. 100 percent of those taking the survey agreed that LA communities should meet the candidates for chief of the juvenile probation department before a final decision is made. They also looked strongly at possible candidates within the department, at the best criteria for chief, and other issues. Most interestedly they asked the survey participants to pick the person they most wanted as chief. I'm honored to say that 48 percent of the participants picked yours truly. A while back Kim McGill asked me if I'd be interested. Of course, I'm too controversial and not involved in the system to be selected. But if an opportunity could exist like this I would do it. Sometimes having an outside, community-based voice with vision and experience is exactly what's needed. Below is what the survey revealed about why I may even be a good candidate. I thank YJC for considering me as well as all the participants who supported me. The youth organizing team from the Youth Justice Coalition talked about our ideal Chief, and we decided that if it was our decision, we'd pick Luis Rodriguez, a leading Chicano novelist and poet, acclaimed gang intervention worker, and founder of Tía Chucha’s Centro Cultural in the SF Valley. Mr. Rodriguez said that if asked, he would serve! Do you agree that Luis Rodriguez would make a great Probation Chief? Or do you have someone else that you'd like to nominate? Let us know your thoughts. 48% of the people who responded to the survey said that they would definitely support having Luis Rodriguez as our next Probation Chief. Here are some of their comments: “Even though the county CEO and Board of Supervisors will not allow community based folks to hold high positions in government. Luis would be great.” “I believe that youth throughout the County of Los Angeles would see a much brighter future if Luis Rodriguez was our next Chief Probation Officer. By putting him into office, we would be planting the seed that could ultimately impact the lives of millions of youth in the future.” Respondents said that Luis would -- • have wonderful ideas • make a great Probation Chief • make a big change for people of color • relate to the youth and families of Los Angeles • be the best choice for L.A. • bring a genuine heart to the job • be a great leader for our community • I agree he has been an ideal role model for myself he has came from the streets and understands the struggle. he understand what I mean to be working class as well as why many youth becomes incarcerated. I believe he will be the best person to rely on. People mentioned the skills he would bring to the job including being – • a great Gang Interventionist • He has demonstrated a genuine interest in working for the youth. • Mr. Rodriguez is an interesting choice. I believe his philosophy aligns with a more collaborative approach with a focus on innovative arts interventions. • an ideal role model for myself and other youth. He has come from the streets and understands the struggle. He understand what it means to be working class, as well as why many youth become incarcerated. I believe he will be the best person to rely on. A few people raised reservations about Luis Rodriguez’ experience – • He's a great writer, and a valued community leader, but reforming juvenile justice is not a community issue, as such. In fact, there are very clear, evidenced based approaches that work, in Santa Clara County, in Missouri, etc. that need to be applied here. My suggestions: cut or decrease incarceration for probation violations, use best-practice therapy models, promote and support job training and education during incarceration, provide wrap-around support for post-incarceration kids, work with the DA to cease overcharging minors, encourage all judges to visit incarceration facilities monthly, promote more access for child advocates as long as the facilities are in such bad conditions, etc. • As much as I respect his work, I don't think he has the experience or background needed to manage a huge county system. • Although Rodriguez may bring needed insights to the department, we need someone who has experience working within the system. c/s

This past weekend I was fortunate to take part in a special holiday event at the Barry Nidorf Juvenile Hall in Sylmar, CA. Sponsored by the LA County Public Defender's Office, other guests included John Forte, formerly of the Fugees and a one-time prisoner for seven years; Cesar Milian of "The Dog Whisperer" TV show; LA City Councilman Tony Cardenas; Donald "Big D" Garcia and William "Blinky" Rodriguez of Communities in Schools; DJ Skee; and others. There were also singers, Aztec dancers, and other performances. I read poems and spoke about destiny, purpose, meaning, and redemption. Nidorf Juvenile Hall is the largest juvenile lock up in the northern hemisphere. It is located only a few blocks from my house and not far from Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural. On Saturday, December 19, hundreds of wards sat on the main yard in front of a temporary stage. They were patient for hours, attentive to speakers and acts. These youth were also given meals of sandwiches that one person told me was the best food they ever had. Maximum security youth in secured lockup facilities were not allowed on the yard, but were able to see the event on TV. Several of us also entered these facilities to talk to these young people. I even got to hear amazing poems in a special writers group, thanks to Inside Out Project. We even went among the different groups on the yard, talking to the young people, including a section of young women in a corner. One of them made it a point to tell me she was a poet. I signed many papers and one guy's shoes while I was there. This event led to a concert at the world famous Roxy Theater on the Sunset Strip Sunday night. Called "Babies Behind Bars," the concert was to benefit Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural, A Place Called Home, Youth Justice Coalition, and Youth Mentoring Connection. Featured on the bill were John Forte; Freddie Gibbs and DJ Skee; Broken Ornament with Zak De La Rocha's cousin, Mike De La Rocha; Terra Incognita; and Bricks. My daughter Andrea and my wife Trini accompanied me to this wonderful event, full of ideas, politics, action, and music. It's important that we not forget these young people behind bars. Many of them in the maximum security units were 14 and 15 years old and awaiting to serve life sentences. This is a waste of humanity that we need to move away from as soon as possible. We simply cannot let our children rot in stale prisons for their whole lives. They need help. They need guidance. They need resources. They need hope. They need love. c/s

Los Lobos played to thousands of Guadalajara fans Saturday night. Trini and I were in the VIP seats for LA folks. Before you know it, people there were off their seats dancing. Michael Alexander of Grand Performances even managed an Irish jig to a Son Jarocho tune. Department of Cultural Affairs Director Olga Garay seemed pleased when Los Lobos played "Guantanamera," she being of Cuban descent. Besides the Mexican standards and some of their own Spanish-language songs, Los Lobos also rocked the house with their particular blend of blues, R&B, and rock that has made them one of the top live bands in the world for over thirty years. There was no doubt that Guadalajara loves Los Lobos. This is important since we heard that the last time Los Lobos played here, some eighteen years ago, they were not well-received. Anyway, Saturday night the borders and barriers that often mark our existence as Chicanos broke down. Trini and I were fortunate to spend some time with Louie Perez, an original member of Los Lobos. On Friday evening we went to a showing of photographs by our friend Estevan Oriol at the Bullet store in the central part of the city (Estevan also signed books of his latest photographs called "LA Women"). Accompanied by Denise Sandoval, we saw hundreds of mostly young people flock to the store to check out Estevan´s work and meet the man. It was a success. We then had dinner nearby at an Argentine restaurant that turned out to have great food at reasonable prices. Louie and I go way back, although this was the most we have ever talked. When I left LA in 1985 for Chicago, the last thing I did was catch a Los Lobos free concert at Lincoln Park. Then whenever Los Lobos played in Chicago, Louie gave me backstage passes for family and friends. When I left Chicago in 2000, my daughter Andrea went backstage to catch a concert or two as well (I was grateful that Louie asked about her). And Los Lobos helped Tia Chucha´s Centro Cultural when we had our art auction last spring at the home of John Densmore of the Doors. They donated a guitar signed by all the members. With this and other items, we raised $26,000 in four hours. We are most grateful. On Sunday, Trini and I spent time with her family here in Guadalajara. They took us to Tonala, a city next to Guadalajara that on weekends transforms itself to one of the largest open air markets in the world. You can find anything from furniture, ceramics, wood products, art, sculpture, food, artisania, and more. The market goes for blocks and blocks, encompassing most every street and in front of the cathedral and in the main plaza. Thousands of people gathered there. At one point the crush was overwhelming, unable to move except for a few steps at a time. For a good twenty minutes, rain fell on everybody. This helped disperse some of the crowd, but not by much. We ended up walking around mud holes and water puddles. It was truly an exhilerating experience. We returned in time to catch the end of the largest book fair in the Western Hemishphere. There was something sad about this as books were being sold at deep discounts and vendors began to pack up their stock and tear down their booths. The party ended with Chicano conga player Poncho Sanchez and his band playing at the Esplanade to another appreciative crowd. I wish to personally thank the National Endowment for the Arts and the LA City Department of Cultural Affairs for making the LA Pavilion happen, and for inviting Tia Chucha´s to organize the lowrider show, a hit at the book fair. They also had hundreds of Tia Chucha Press books, which my wife Trini worked hard to promote along with other non-profit presses from the US. And I did around five panels that were well attended--the Chicano Encounters were spirited and helped articulate the Chicano experience to an interested mostly Mexican audience. An addition, I did around a dozen TV, radio and print interviews in Spanish. For all the years I´ve been coming to Mexico, more than thirty years now, this is the most welcomed I´ve ever felt as a Chicano. In honoring Angelino writers and artists, we also honored the many Chicanos among them. I was pleased to see Dagoberto Gilb, Ruben Martinez, Marisela Norte, Yxta Maya Murray, Michael Jaime Becerra, Alex Espinosa, and other Chicanos at the hotel restaurant and at the Expo. And that my old friend from Chicago, the accomplished Cuban American Achy Obejas, was also there. Non-Chicano writers like David Ulin, Susan Straight, Suzanne Lummis, Jane Smiley, Paul Beatty, Gary Phillips, among others, also spoke on panels or did readings. And that my old friend poet Peter Harris turned up accompanying the Brazilian dance group that entertained at the Esplanade on Thursday evening with Hawaiian and India dance groups from LA. Trini and I have been in Guadalajara for thirteen days already. Tomorrow, Trini returns to LA while I venture out to Puebla, Mexico to see an old friend and his family. I'll be back on December 10, then I go to Oakland for a couple of days. While safety issues have been raised about being in Mexico, I must say I felt quite safe. People were very open and generous. It´s a wonderful country, with some of the most hardened yet open-hearted people in the world. Still it´s a country in deep economic and social despair. Just to remind us that not all is well, a group holding a conference at the hotel we´re at will be discussing "how to prevent money laundering." c/s

Although born in El Paso, Texas, and raised in Los Angeles (with fifteen years in Chicago), I´ve been able to visit Mexico frequently in my adulthood. In the early 1980s, I took part and wrote about a number of indigenous uprisings in Oaxaca and Baja California. In the 1990s, I visited Mexico City, Taxco, and Chihuahua to attend writers´s conferences, to visit family, and to trace my own indigenous roots among the Raramuri people (La Tarahumara of southern Chihuahua). I´ve also been fortunate to visit Nicaragua and southern Honduras in the early 1980s during the Contra War (I was bombed twice in Honduras and survived). And in the 1990s, I went to El Salvador a couple of times from 1993 to 1996 to study the phenomena of LA-based gangs being deported there. I also went to Guatemala in 2001 and 2006 for the same reason. And I was invited three times to social forums, poetry festivals and book fairs in Venezuela (including the Mexico City Book Fair in 2006) and twice to Peru for indigenous ceremonies. My wife´s family also has a home in Baja California that we have gone to with our boys and many friends over the years. I feel comfortable in Mexico as well as Central and South America, despite my having lived in the United States my whole life. I speak Spanish well, mostly because when I grew up my mother and father only spoke Spanish at home, even when the language was being beaten out of us in school and devalued most everywhere else. This was in the 1950s and 1960s. The Chicano Movement helped change this for coming generations with the implementation of bilingual education programs and the idea that we can learn English without having to sacrifice Spanish. Although in places like California and Arizona, bilingual education programs have been scrapped, this is still an important educational need throughout the country. Now with the large influx of Mexicans and other Latinos to the United States over the past three decades, I feel comfortable speaking Spanish and interacting with mi gente throughout the country. And this despite growing movements of "English Only" and anti-immigrant sentiments. The fact is Mexicans and other Latinos are now in Georgia, North Carolina, Utah, Missouri, Oregon... and points beyond, not just the US Southwest. And still the border has divided the Mexico people who remained in Mexico, many of them struggling for a better life there (there continue to be hundreds of protests, uprisings, and takeovers across the country) and those who had to move to the United States to survive. Some 25 to 30 million Mexicans and Chicanos are believed to be part of the United States, not counting another fifteen to twenty million of Latinos from other countries. Estimates are that by the year 2050 Mexicans and other Latinos will be the majority of the US population. However, for years, me and other Chicanos who have traveled in Mexico have found a lack of connection, or even disdain, among some Mexicans. Not among the poor, many of whom have family in the US, but among academics and much of the media. With a general repression of our culture and language in the US, and with many Mexicans denying or decrying our existence, we felt for years without a home, without a pueblo, without family. This time I´m in Guadalajara as an invitee of the International Book Fair here--the second largest book fair in the world after Frankfurt, Germany, and the largest in the Western Hemisphere. I´m part of the City of Los Angeles contingent--for the first time the Guadalajara Book Fair has made a city its honored guest (honored guests have been countries in the past). The cultural space that my wife Trin and I helped create--Tia Chucha´s Centro Cultural--organized the lowrider show here with Chicano Studies professor, Denise Sandoval. This has become a hit (many people in Guadalajara were not aware of the lowrider culture, although Mexicans and their descendents were the creators). We also have hundreds of Tia Chucha Press books for sell as part of the LA Pavilion´s 7,700 titles of nonprofit presses, organized by the National Endowment for the Arts. In addition, I´ve taken part in about five panels, all of which were well-attended, including a "Encuentro Chicano" (Chicano Encounter). And I´ve been interviewed by many TV, radio and print media, for once happy to hear about Mexicans in the US, including the millions who call themselves Chicanos. For the first time, I´ve seen a favorable opening among academics and Mexican media toward Chicanos. There have always been those academics, like my friend Arturo Santa Maria out of the University of Sinaloa, and others, who have written about and studied the Chicano experience. Now I feel the door has opened wider to bring what we´ve created through culture, through art, through theater, through music (Los Lobos and Oxomotli were two LA-based Chicano bands playing at the Expo here), and politics to a wider audience in Mexico. My hope, and my commitment, is to help this door open even further as we create a dynamic and long-lasting dialogue among Chicanos and Mexicans about who we are as a people, our present common struggles to survive economically, politically and culturally, and how we can move together into the future. I thank all the Mexican media and academics who have been part of the present conversation emanating from the Guadalajara International Book Fair. And the LA City organizing group that made sure that Chicanos were intimately involved in the organization, but also an important part of the contingent of US and LA writers, musicians, dancers, and artists that are taking part in this year´s book fair. More has to be done. But today, in Guadalajara, we´re establishing a strong foundation from which to build from. c/s