The days September 15 and 16 are special holidays in the history of Latin America.  It is important to discuss the meaning of these days when, for too many people in the U. S., because of money-hungry advertisers, the days are now comprised of beer commercials and Latino stereotypes.   A hidden meaning is the unity that diverse racial groups played in organizing for their “independence.” Continue reading →

See the Daily Bulletin  editorial at this link:  Economic injustice in Pomona: Editorial

The Daily Bulletin editorial, “Economic Injustice in Pomona,” is on the right track in proposing solutions to the growing street violence in the city that include the creation of a climate where community residents have some trust in their city officials and where Pomona becomes “a city of opportunity.” In a series of “Community Messaging Ad Hoc Committee” meetings last Spring, I, and other community advocates in the region, proposed that the most successful strategies for dealing with growing violence among youth needed to focus on prevention rather than criminalization and enforcement. At an April 30th meeting, I proposed that “gang violence would not exist if they (gangs) did not satisfy the desperate needs of young people for family, education, mentoring, housing, employment, health, spiritual, and social support.” In the last few years, the Pomona Habla coalition has consistently raised to the city council that there could be no “trust” as long as the Pomona Police continue to use checkpoints and saturation enforcement tactics that primarily target the majority-minority population in the city. There have continued to be “deaf ears” to the studies, such as that of the Latino Decisions/Center for American Progress Action Fund/America’s Voice poll, which found that “79 percent of Latinos nationwide believed that Latinos who are legal immigrants or U. S. citizens will get stopped or questioned by police.” It is no coincidence then why many of the cases in Pomona are not solved when the tactics used have not been in the direction of cooperation but more focused on strategies that have affected both the immigrant and non-immigrant communities. The use of enforcement tactics do not get at the long-term needs of a community for employment, health, housing, education, and economic development opportunities. These needs cannot simply be solved through ideological “messaging” or “spiritual” soul-awakening from the pulpits, but need to be concretized in long-term collaboration and planning between the public and private sectors. The successful model, created by Father Gregory Boyle in Los Angeles, gets at the “spiritual” needs of gang-involved youth by creating programs that get at the “material” foundations of those needs: through the development of an alternative elementary school, an after-school program, a day care program, a community organizing project, and a Homeboy Industries’ economic development project (that includes Homeboy Bakery, Homeboy Silkscreen, Homeboy/Homegirl Merchandise, Homeboy Diner, Homeboy Farmers Markets, Homeboy Plumbing and Homegirl Café). A similar prevention program could be advanced in Pomona but needs the economic investment of both the government and business sector in developing an “economic justice plan” that includes the capacity-building strategies of quality jobs, housing, health, education, and pre-school/after-school programs (particularly in the low-income sectors of the community).

A poem from “Lalo” Delgado — appropriate for these times:

Stupid America Continue reading →

Remembering Raymond Rodriguez who, along with Professor Francisco Balderrama, exposed how, during the depression, Continue reading →

Interestingly, I had picked up the book “Born to Run” about a month ago and could not stop reading it —  because I am a runner, Continue reading →