Mar 31: Señas de amistad Beyond Borders

Friendship Park (San Diego) and

Playas de Tijuana

Mar 31, Saturday

More info:

Bordermeetup.org

Event on Facebook
Includes a map to spot on the US side (you can join from either side).

E mail: bordermeetup@gmail.com

If you are coming on the US side, we'll need to walk in about a mile, so please arrive about 30 min early and bring walking shoes and an ID (you don't have to cross the border but may be asked for ID, if you don't have legal residency please don't come because Border Patrol will be present and may be checking).

Mar 28: Peace and Dignity Journey 2012

Peace and Dignity Journeys was started in 1992 to continue in the spirit of the traditions of our ancestors. Every four years Indigenous communities all over North, Central and South America witness and partake in the tradition of receiving runners with ceremonies unique to their community, sharing stories, song, dance, and the wisdom that comes from community elders and ceremony.

Presentation by Oscar Montalvo

March 28, 11:10 am

San Diego City College

Room A213

Peace and Dignity Journeys runners start simultaneously from both ends of the continent in Chickaloon, Alaska and Tierra del Fuego, Argentina traversing the entire continent by foot from community to community and joining together for a final gathering in Central America, Panama. The 2012 run is dedicated to Water, reminding all who have forgotten that Water is an important resource and a shared resource for all.

More information: Peace and Dignity Journey 2012

Ramón “Chunky” Sánchez

FEATURED MESA COLLEGE CAMPUS EVENT FOR

THE ANNUAL 2012 CÉSAR E. CHÁVEZ CELEBRATION

Ramón “Chunky” Sánchez

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

9:35AM-11AM

Mesa College

Room H-117/118

Ramón “Chunky” Sánchez and his brother Ricardo will perform and talk about their personal experiences in connection to César E. Chávez and the farm worker movement in California.

Raised in Blythe, CA, Chunky was the child of farm workers and first met César E. Chávez in his hometown. Chunky’s self-described “Southwest-Chicano-Barrio Folklore” music has celebrated the farm worker movement since the 1960s. He and his band have been called “Chicano musical ambassadors” and the pride of the San Diego Mexican-American community. Whatever you call them,

Los Alacranes, founded in 1977 by Ramón “Chunky” Sánchez and his brother Ricardo, probably best live up to their most intimate, colloquial moniker: “musicos locos”. As the quintessential Chicano musicians, Los Alacranes have provided the musical soundtrack for countless strikes, pickets, weddings, quinceañeras and carne asadas all over Aztlan. Their songs "Chicano Park " and "Chorizo Sandwich" helped define a generation.

Event sponsored by the Chicano Studies Department, the Chicano Latino Heritage Celebration committee and the Humanities Institute.

Tortilla Curtain

DON’T MISS THIS OUTSTANDING PLAY!!!

STUDENTS $18

Call Nisha (619) 544-1001 to reserve

TORTILLA CURTAIN

By Matthew Spangler

Based on the novel by T.C. Boyle

Directed by Sam Woodhouse

MARCH 17–APRIL 8, 2012 ON THE LYCEUM STAGE

A World Premiere based on the controversial bestselling novel. A collision on a Southern California highway ignites a confrontation between “the haves” and the “have–nots" that becomes an epic tale about the price of the American dream.

This world premiere production is adapted from the modern fiction classic by T.C. Boyle, the writer Newsweek calls “America’s most imaginative contemporary novelist.” In the sun-baked beauty of Topanga Canyon, the lives of three people are on a collision course. Delaney Mossbacher, nature writer and staunch environmentalist, lives a tidy, comfortable existence with his wife and young stepson behind the walls of a gated hilltop community. They are living the American dream, unquestioning of their absolute right to all that they have. Cándido Rincón and his sister-in-law América, recently arrived undocumented immigrants from Mexico, live in a ravine at the bottom of the canyon, fighting the elements and tirelessly mowing lawns and cleaning houses while they save for an apartment. They cling to their vision of the American dream, which manages to elude their grasp at every turn. One summer day, Delaney, driving up the narrow, twisting canyon road, hits Cándido with his car. The lives of the two men and their families will never be the same. Playwright Matthew Spangler is the author of the critically-acclaimed stage adaptation of the blockbuster novel The Kite Runner. Now Spangler has fashioned a rip-roaring tale that screams out, “We are all in this together!” Part satire and part parable, Tortilla Curtain is humorous and heart breaking, a story that speaks passionately to the future of California and the challenges of forming “a more perfect union” in our changing America.

Coffee with a Justice AromaCafe con Aroma de Justicia

There is another way…

Join us to learn about fair trade options and promote a coffee free trade campaign

P R E S E N T A T I O N

David Schmidt

C.A.F.E.

Creating Alternative and Fair Enterprise

Mar 13, 2012

9:35 and 11:10 am

Room A 213

San Diego City College

David Schmidt of C.A.F.E. is a great-grandchild of immigrants from Russia, and has been involved in urban and rural indigenous communities in Mexico over the last decade, and has witnessed firsthand the devastating effects of lopsided trade policies and neoliberal economics on the poorest communities in the world.

Every day, hundreds of us purchase a cup of coffee at City College. This is fine—but we believe that the money we pay for that coffee should go to the hard-working farmers who grow and pick that coffee. We should not be drinking coffee that is polluted with the sweat and blood of exploited laborers in Mexico, Guatemala, Bolivia and many other coffee-producing nations. When we buy coffee, our money should go to support worker-owned coops that allow workers and their families to live with dignity and justice. We want to see City College become a campus that only sells coffee with the taste of justice—coffee that is “Fair Trade certified”.

Most of the world’s coffee is controlled by big corporations like Phillip Morris, Nestlé and Sara Lee. These huge companies often pay coffee farmers miserable prices without guaranteeing a stable wage. Farming coffee becomes a gamble: the farmers who invest the most work in our coffee are paid a few pennies, while middlemen and corporate distributers keep the profits for themselves.

Considering all of the violence and injustice involved in the coffee trade, it’s no wonder that many coffee farmers leave their home towns and migrate to the city or to another country. For many, it’s just not possible to survive farming coffee.

But there is another way…

Fair Trade-certified coffee offers a real alternative to the unjust status quo of coffee. Coffee that bears the Fair Trade label was bought from worker-owned co-ops that make decisions democratically and negotiate a fair price for their product.

For two years, the club City College CAFE (Creating Alternatives and Fair Trade) has worked to create awareness about fair trade. We are asking you to support the San Diego Community College Fair Trade Campaign. Our goal is to present a resolution to the District Board of Trustees in favor of fair trade coffee.

 

April 14 Tijuana Maquiladora Tour

 

Come to learn about Tijuana communities and workers' conditions and struggles!

Saturday, April 14 
9 am to 3 pm

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

Citizens returning from Mexico should present an U.S. passport. (Otherwise, they need an official ID, birth certificate, and waiting in line when returning to the U.S. for a period of time to be decided by the border gate officer.) More information: the U.S. State Dept. web site:

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_970.html#entry_requirements

All tour participants must read the US travel alert to Mexico and sign the tour waiver. Please read the attached file.

SCHEDULE 

(THERE MAY BE SLIGHT VARIATIONS FROM TOUR TO TOUR.)

9:00 am sharp- San Ysidro/Tijuana border-bus station. We will walk together to cross the border gate and travel to our locations in Tijuana using chartered buses for transportation.

9:45 am- The crosses at the border: More than 7,000 immigrants have died trying to cross the border.

10:30 am- Otay Industrial Park, Sanyo, Douglas Furniture, other maquiladoras: workers’ labor conditions, labor rights and struggles NOTE: We will visit the Tijuana industrial area but won’t enter any factory.

11:00 am- Community Ejido Chilpancingo-Rio Alamar: industrialization, health, environment, urban development

11:30 pm- Metales y Derivados, a story of struggle and success for environmental justice

12:15 pm- Lunch

1:00 pm- Group dialogue about the experience; time for questions and comments

2:00 pm- Working women in Tijuana are organizing artisan cooperatives and promoting an alternative economy. They will bring their handcrafts to the tour. To learn in advance about these cooperatives, please go to http://www.ollincallicm.blogspot.com/

3:00 pm- Return to the Tijuana bus station

DONATIONS

$30 regular, $20 students, $ 50 solidarity

Donations cover the bus, lunch, and a donation to the workers’ organizations.

To reserve a place, please go to http://www.sdmaquila.org/

If you prefer to use the postal system, or for more information, please contact:

Herb Shore: sdmaquila@cox.net, (619) 287-5535

Sponsored by Colectivo Ollin Calli Tijuana, Colectivo Chilpancingo for Environmental Justice, San Diego Maquiladora Workers' Solidarity Network, Environmental Health Coalition, and Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras

San Diego Latino Film Festival

San Diego Latino Film Festival Schedule

Film Festival Website

Facebook

The Media Arts Center promotes access to film and video as tools for community self-expression, social change and supports the professional development of media artists; they endorse the inclusion of underrepresented communities in the media arts field and the portrayal of accurate images of these communities by main stream media.

Students at City College will benefit from attending any of our films that capture the process of human communication that are interpreted through the political, cultural, economic, and social dimensions within each film. Your students can expand their knowledge with this advantageous experience, and even have a short paper or extra credit assigned to help their grade!

Some film titles, and dates are listed below:

0.56% - ¿QUÉ LE PASÓ A MÉXICO?-In the summer of 2006, dozens of Mexican politicians famously ripped into one another during a parliamentary session. The event was the culmination of an exceptionally tumultuous presidential election campaign that pitted controversial candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador against the representative from the party in power, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa. This incisive documentary begins with those moments of utter chaos before going back in time to analyze the events that led up to this explosive protest. Click here to view more information of film and to purchase tickets online http://sdlatino.festivalgenius.com/2012/films/056qulepasamxico_lorenzohagerman_sdlatino2012

BOLETO AL PARAISO- It’s Cuba circa 1993 and a severe economic crisis rages. Without warning, Eunice (Miriel Cejas) decides to run away from her small town and sexually aggressive father. On the road she joins up with a group of homeless teens hitchhiking to Havana. Eunice feels an instant connection to charismatic ringleader Alejandro (Francisco Garcia Gonzalez), but her damaged past and his preoccupation with his dead-end existence stand in the way. Desperate, with no opportunities to improve their lives, the two consider taking extreme measures to reach an unlikely paradise. Gerardo Chijona’s drama premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. Will screen in Narrative Competition. Click here to view more information of film and to purchase tickets online http://sdlatino.festivalgenius.com/2012/films/boletoalparaiso_gerardochijona_sdlatino2012

AB540/Undocumented Student Workshop: Education is a Right not a Privilege!

This is a great workshop students, families and teachers!

Wednesday March 7th, 2012

Lincoln High School Center for Social Justice Room 553

4777 Imperial Ave. SD CA 92113

6:00-8:00pm

There are so many resources for students who are considered “undocumented”

Come to this FREE workshop and learn about:

• How you CAN get to college

• Scholarship Opportunities

• The Federal DREAM ACT

• The CALIFORNIA DREAM ACT

• AB540 Legislation

• Rights that ALL students have regardless of citizenship status

FREE EVENT – Food and Refreshments will be available

Spider-Women

Created and Choreographed by Zaquia Salinas

Tuesday, March 6, 9:40 a.m.

Saville Theatre

The spider symbolizes balance between past and future, the physical and spiritual. Spiders represent strength and gentleness combined. They are weavers of fate and have the extraordinary capability of creating, weaving and spinning their own webs. This ability shows and awakens the gift of creation. Spider-Women is a whimsical and quirky piece exploring the extraordinary process of creativity and the many facets of femininity through the presentation of characters.

**This piece contains mature content.**

The case of Méndez v. Westminster and the Desegregation of Public Education

THE FIRST ANNUAL GRACIA MOLINA DE PICK FEMINIST LECTURE SERIES AT SAN DIEGO MESA COLLEGE

GUEST SPEAKER: SYLVIA MENDEZ "The case of Méndez v. Westminster and the Desegregation of Public Education"

11 AM TUESDAY

MARCH 6 ROOM: H-117/118

MESA COLLEGE

Sylvia Méndez is the oldest daughter of Gonzalo Méndez, a Mexican immigrant, and Felicitas Méndez, a Puerto Rican, who fought so she and her brothers could have equal education through the case of Méndez et al v. Westminster et al. Ms. Méndez continues the legacy left by her parents to campaign for education. Ms. Méndez was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor, on February 15, 2011.

The Annual Gracia Molina de Pick Feminist Lecture Series honors the founder of the San Diego Mesa College Chicano Studies Department and recognizes her life-long commitment to education, feminism, and dedication to the mission of the community college.

Organized by the Chicano Studies Department. Co-sponsored by the San Diego Mesa College Humanities Institute and the Chicano Latino Heritage Celebration Committee.

Culture and Migration: The San Diego Mixtec Experience

Valentina and Paulina Torres

Familia Indígena Unida

Monday, Mar 5, 11:10 am

Room A 213

San Diego City College

Valentina Torres and Paulina Torres will introduce students to the Mixtec culture and history in Oaxaca and in San Diego and present one of the most important experiences of a migrant Mexican Indigenous community. The Mixtecs have preserved and re-created cultural and social links between their people at home and their people in the US, in spite of cultural and national borders.

Valentina and PaulinaTorres were born in the Mexican State of Oaxaca and belongs to the 2,500 year-old Mixtec culture, one of the oldest and most extraordinary original cultures of Mexico. Like many other Mixtecs, the Torres sisters migrated to San Diego. She has worked to improve both her community in San Diego and the one she comes from in Oaxaca. Valentina is one of the first women in her community to graduate from San Diego State University. For several years she has been the director of the Mixtec Cultural Exchange Program. In this program, Mixtec children and adults learn English and Spanish and in exchange, they teach the Mixtec languages to the student volunteers from UCSD, SDSU, USD, City College and other schools. Valentina is the co-founder of Familia Indigena Unida, a grassroots organization that promotes community, self-sufficiency, civic and reproductive rights and cultural preservation among migrant Mixtec families. She is the former president of Ñuu Saa Committee for the Development of Santa Maria Natividad, a small rural village located in the mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico.

Sponsored by City College Chicana/o Studies Department

National Student Walkout

Thursday March 1st 2012

11 am