By Raul de la Cruz
Rio Grande Guardian

HARLINGEN, TX — KMBH, the Rio Grande Valley’s public broadcasting station, is inviting viewers from around the world to watch the acclaimed new documentary, The Undocumented, online on Wednesday while at the same time interacting in real time with filmmaker Marco Williams.

The Undocumented chronicles efforts by undocumented immigrants to cross the Sonora Desert in Arizona. Since 1998, more than two thousand dead bodies have been found in the desert — the remains of “border crossers” who perished en route to the United States from Mexico.

The movie and discussion are being brought together thanks to OVEE, the new social screening platform that allows viewers to watch their favorite PBS and local public television programs together, from anywhere, on demand. OVEE is otherwise known as the Online Video Engagement Experience.

“KMBH is excited to be offering the new online video engagement experience or OVEE to the Rio Grande Valley. This type of social TV allows us all to communicate and interact simultaneously from anywhere in our region, state, nation or the world,” said Robert M. Gutierrez, general manager of KMBH.

“I am especially excited to announce our live webcast review of the new documentary The Undocumented. The ability for all of us to engage and provide feedback is unprecedented. This documentary will shed light on migrants and the harsh struggle they must endure to find a better life. Don’t miss this exclusive event on KMBH.org.”

Pedro Rodriguez, website manager at KMBH explained that OVEE allows online viewers to interact in real time around content by signing on through the platform or via Facebook. “Viewers can gather online in one spot to converse electronically as they watch PBS and local station content,” he said.

The film’s showing takes place at 3 p.m., Central Time, on Wednesday, May 22, on the KMBH website, www.kmbh.org. Viewers can participate by signing in at this website.

Williams, an NYU professor, will introduce his film and take questions in real time online from viewers.

The Undocumented is part of PBS’ Independent Lens series. According to Independent Lens, The Undocumented reveals the “ongoing impact of immigration laws and economic policies on the very people who continue to be affected by them. By going beyond politics, the film also tells a story that is deeply personal…

Finish reading Rio Grande Valley’s public broadcasting station to screen The Undocumented online on Wednesday

By Ernesto Nieto
La Voz

With all of the “hoopla” about the rapid growth of he U.S. Latino population and projections that one of every three will be Latino by 2050, we can ill-afford to overlook another growing reality.

Having numbers is one thing; having the critical mass of well-educated, skilled, and prepared leaders to go along with the growth is a different subject altogether.

Right now the big emphasis in our public school system is job readiness. Our schools are working diligently, or so they claim, to ensure that American businesses and industries have plenty of available workers with the competencies to navigate future job markets, especially as we go from a manufacturing to a service economy.

Invariably, however, the one missing link in this effort is leadership training.

Some teachers and administrators will argue that students from elementary school to high school have numerous opportunities to experience leadership through school clubs, band, sports, student government, and other similar activities.

I could not disagree more.

Our youth need real-life experiences in the communities where they reside, with potential competitors in other communities near and far, and with the intent of providing them with the insight and skills for self-change.

In other words, leadership is not something you read about in books or get through a classroom presentation. Leadership, for it to be internalized, has to place our youth in real-life situations that are demanding from the standpoint of concentration, engagement, and opportunities to self-learn.

No, sorry, those experiences are not present in school-sponsored programs that are prefabricated by the education system and essentially run by adult sponsors, no matter their good intentions.

Our hope is that schools start setting funds aside that encourage their students to attend well-designed leadership conferences and experiences that are skill-enhancing, designed to strengthen the competencies of our youth, and motivate them to realize the benefits that invariably come from becoming engaged young citizens.

The benefits are life-lasting, but, more important, our youth learn soon enough that they represent value to others. Once seeing this, they learn to change old habits, beliefs, truths, perspectives, and habits while adopting new ones that are transformational to their individual identities.

Ernesto Nieto is the founder and president of the National Hispanic Institute (NHI). He has spent 34 years developing youth leadership programs that occur nationwide and today serve high school students from the U.S., Mexico, Panama, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. Nearly 4,000 youth attend programs of the National Hispanic Institute for specific age projects that
include the Great Debate, Lorenzo de Zavala Youth Legislative Session, and Collegiate World Series. For more information on NHI, view the organization’s Web site at www.nhi-net.org

By John Newton
La Voz Latina

When Daniela Rodriguez and her mother moved to Brunswick, Georgia five years ago from Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Mexico, she was amazed by how quiet her new home seemed. Tuxtla is the capital city of Chiapas located on the southern tip of Mexico near the Guatemalan border and has a population of over a half million residents.

“Brunswick just felt so small and peaceful,” she said. “It wasn’t a bad thing, but I spent the first 11 years of my life in a big city so the change seemed very dramatic.”

Like many immigrant families who arrived before them, Daniela and her mother move to South Georgia in search of economic opportunity.

“My sister had established a good business here cleaning houses so my mother decided to have us join her,” Daniela said.
In the five years she has lived here, Daniela hasn’t changed a lot physically. She is still very petite with a shy gentle smile
and large dark eyes that light up when she speaks.

Like many new immigrants to this country, the biggest adjustment for Daniela came when her mother enrolled her in the 7th grade.

“When I arrived, I could not speak English,” she said. “I just knew a few words like numbers and colors. It was so scary to sit there in class and not understand a single word my teacher was saying. I had been an honor student in Mexico but when we moved to Brunswick, I got my first “F” for failing a subject.

Remarkably, in spite of the seemingly insurmountable language barrier, Daniela took the standardized CRCT tests given to seventh graders and earned passing marks in mathematics and science.

She continued to study hard during the summer break and refused to give in to the feelings of despair that threatened to engulf her.

“My first year here was very frustrating,” she said. “ It was a slow process but I refused to give up. I would come home from school and see how hard my mother was working to give me a good home. Some days I could see that she was exhausted from her own work as a housekeeper but she insisted on doing the cooking and cleaning in our home so I could concentrate on my homework.”

By the time Daniela finished her 9th grade year at Brunswick’s historic Glynn Academy, she no longer required any language help and turned her attention toward helping others.

After mastering English, Daniela turned her sights to a new language- Japanese – and has just completed her third semester studying that language.

“I became pen-pals with a girl in Japan,” Daniela said. “It’s been lots of fun for each of us to practice a new language by exchanging letters with each other.”

Diane Runkle is a veteran ESOL teacher in the Glynn County Public Schools and has developed a special bond with Daniela Rodriguez.

“She is definitely one my ESOL success stories,” Runkle said. “The thing that I appreciate most about Daniela is her willingness to help other students. She has been a valuable resource for the younger Hispanic students because of her bilingual skills as well as her understanding of math and science. She has been an inspiration and motivation for many of them.”

Daniela currently carries a 3.8 grade-point-average out of a possible 4.0 and she will graduate with extra credits earned from passing seven advanced placement (AP) classes. These credits should allow her to be exempt from taking some of the core classes that most freshmen college students are required to take.

Later this month, Daniela will join several hundred of her senior classmates as Glynn Academy graduates its senior class of 2013. Among many other honors, Daniela will be recognized as an honor student, an outstanding senior and a student-of-the-month.

There is no denying that Daniela possesses all the academic skills to succeed in college. She has been accepted by Agnes Scott University, a private Liberal Arts College for women located in the Atlanta suburb of Decatur, Georgia and also by Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah.

The big question mark for Daniela is whether or not she will win enough scholarship money to continue her education…

Finish reading A student success story in any language

By Amanda Lozano
La Prensa

SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio is a city of millions of people; however, there is a single person that literally is one in a million. Meet Betina Vega: the first San Antonian to teach braille piano music. For several months now, Betina has taught a 12-year-old blind student how to play the piano and read music.

Contrary to popular belief, it is possible for the visually impaired to read music and play an instrument just as well as a person without any disabilities. Many times, these people can play better than those who are able to read a piece of music with their eyes, because they are required to memorize their music, opposed to just glancing at a paper and deciding to practice later and never doing so.

Betina Vega has been playing piano since she was two years old. Currently, at the age of 20, Betina is torn between two paths in her life: One is law and the other is to continue her career as a braille piano music teacher. To continue her teaching career though, she must find master of braille music (classes) and further her studies. However, there aren’t very many options for her and she is trying her hardest to find what she needs.

Betina Vega plays on a piano. The 20 year old is the first and only person in San Antonio to teach piano braille music. She is looking for a master of braille music to hone her skills.

“What I really want to do is expand my career by going to a school where there is a master’s and professional in Braille music. I have been looking all over the place. East Coast, West Coast. Right now, I’m doing great, but I need a master to go farther with what I want to do. I need someone to talk to on a personal level that can help me,” Vega said. Betina has found a couple of schools so far.

One is located in California, and the other in Connecticut. Teaching Braille piano music is a very rare study and if Betina goes through with it she will be one of the only ones in the nation to master the skill.

Her goal should work as awareness for the nation. There is a need and want for visually impaired students to read music, and there just aren’t enough people in the world to do so.

Search the internet for braille music, and notice that there aren’t very many things to see. Betina may be the voice needed to create a revelation for a master’s in braille teaching in the nation.

“I’m so glad that now I am able to teach. My teacher before me taught me, and now I am. It’s a very rewarding experience. I only started this several months ago, and it’s already gone this far. I can only imagine what I can do when I further my studies,” Vega said.

By Edith Manzanares
The Venture

Marlen Esparza’s passion for boxing began at a young age. At 12 years old, she would spend three hours a day working out with no difficulties since she loved the sport. Esparza and her parents of Mexican descent were born in Juarez, MX, but soon thereafter moved to Houston, Texas.

Growing up in a middle-class home; her parents were always supportive. “I’ve always wanted to make money to support my family just so money would not have to be an issue but I never thought I would do that through boxing. Boxing is just what I love to do” Esparza said.

It soon became a full-time career for her in Pasadena at the age of 16, but the beginning stage was difficult since she had to convince people to believe. “People will never like everything about you. You can be the most beautiful peach, ripe and perfect, but there will always be someone who doesn’t like peaches. I ignore what people think about me unless they believe in me” Esparza said.

Graduating from Pasadena High School in 2007, Esparza was the student body president and graduated in the top 2% of her class. Since then, she has been a role model and positive influence to females pursuing their dreams.

The doors opened up for Esparza in 2012 when she was able to participate in the first-ever Women’s Olympic boxing tournament…

Finish reading Marlen Esparza, Houston’s Knockout Covergirl: Boxer Rises To The Top

By José Antonio López
Rio Grande Guardian

SAN ANTONIO – In a previous Guardian article, I wrote about the significance of the month of April in early Texas history.

Very briefly, on April 1-2, 1813, Colonel José Bernardo Gutiérrez de Lara and his Army of the North triumphantly entered and took possession of San Antonio, the regional Capital of Texas. On April 6, he signed the first Texas Declaration of Independence. On April 17, he signed the first Texas Constitution. Thus, jubilant Bexareños, Bexareñas, and all Texas citizens got their first taste of independence this month, 200 years ago.

Sadly, today little is known about pre-1836 Texas history. To that end, some of us are making progress, albeit at a slow pace.

Some examples are the Tejano Monument in Austin, Battle of Medina re-enactments, Hispanic genealogy and history events held throughout the year, and the preservation and restoration of historic buildings, such as the Treviño-Uribe Fort in San Ygnacio, Texas. The most recent notable milestone is the reading on April 17 of Texas House Resolution 709, sponsored by state Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, D-Austin.

As my wife and I travel throughout South and Central Texas sharing with others our wonderful history, we are often asked a very reasonable question. Why has it taken so long to restart the engine of early Texas history?

There is no simple answer. However, no one can deny that mainstream Texas history has been taught as if it begins at the 1836 Battle of the Alamo. In my view, this narrow method of teaching has stonewalled our state’s true founding.

Expectedly, it is in tearing down that wall that many Mexican-descent citizens we meet find most satisfying. For example, they embrace and welcome the mention of Spanish Mexican people, places, and events in our state’s history.

They are pleasantly surprised to find out that Texas has its own Spanish-speaking founding fathers and mothers apart from those in the U.S. English Colonies. Further, they take pride in learning that beginning in 1810, ideals of liberty, justice, and independence already existed by the time Sam Houston emigrated from Tennessee to Texas.

Why is it important today to remember the past?

The answer is simply this. The road ahead in telling our story is still a bit bumpy. Not everyone shares our enthusiasm for a fair and balanced rendering of Texas history. Expectedly, opponents of our movement come from the so-called conservative side of the political spectrum, since it is this group that still adheres to a rigid, unyielding Manifest Destiny point of view.

Exposing themselves as anti-diversity agents, they have zeroes on hard-won human dignity victories that minority groups have attained through the years.

Por ejemplo (for example), at least two conservative party leaders have said in public that they are working to undo the 1964 Civil Rights Act because for one thing, white business owners have a “right” to refuse service to members of minority groups just as they did in the 1950s.

Then, there’s that elected official from Alaska who sees nothing wrong in his using a demeaning slur to refer to Mexican-descent farm workers. Closer to home, attacks against Mexican-descent citizens are plentiful here in Texas.

Far-right politicos have amassed an arsenal of intimidation WMDs to target the Mexican-descent population, such as redistricting, English Only, Voter ID, voter suppression, and their ill-advised goal to do away with public school education.

Hopefully, all decent, sensible U.S. citizens regardless of racial/ethnic background have figured it out. Such bigotry was not fair in the 1950s, and is certainly still unfair in the 21st Century U.S.

In summary, the Tejano Monument in Austin was unthinkable just a few years ago. Yet, the Tejano Monument Committee got it done! This memorial and H.R. Proclamation 709 remind all of us of the genuine birth of Texas. To put it bluntly, they are reminders that some of us do not descend from the Mayflower; nor did our ancestors land in Ellis Island.

We Spanish Mexican (Native American) people of Texas and Southwest were already here before 1848 when the U.S. took the land from Mexico.

The bottom lines are these: Firstly, if you are a U.S. citizen of Anglo or Northern European-descent, there is no reason to fear the learning of pre-1836 Texas. This is not about rewriting Texas history; it’s about filling in the missing pieces.

Secondly…

Finish reading López: Celebrating 200th Anniversary of First Texas Constitution

La Voz Latina

A full month has passed since the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and a remarkable truth has emerged: the man remains as polarizing in his tomb as he was in life.

Two recent commentaries illustrate the point perfectly.

From Rafael Romo, www.cnn.com: Human rights groups consistently raised alarms that Chavez was using the judicial system as a political tool to repress the opposition and silence dissent.

“By his second full term in office, the concentration of power and erosion of human rights protections had given the
government free rein to intimidate, censor, and prosecute Venezuelans who criticized the president or thwarted his political
agenda,” New York-based Human Rights Watch said this week, adding that the Chavez government had shown “open disregard for basic human rights guarantees.”

Regardless, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner eulogized the fallen leftist leader on her Twitter account by
saying that “The great legacy of Chavez is the social inclusion of millions of Venezuelans that used to be invisible and today are protagonists.”

I would argue his legacy goes beyond that.

An argument could be made that the Cuban economy would have collapsed without the oil it gets from Venezuela. Chavez also ushered in a new area of populist leaders including Rafael Correa in Ecuador, Evo Morales in Bolivia and Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua.

They have all borrowed Chavez’s playbook by catering to the poor and railing against the United States, a country they call “the evil empire.” They all benefited from cheap oil from Venezuela while Chavez made allies who helped him slowly but surely tilt Latin American politics to the left.

But, for the outside world, at least, the inclusion of the poor will probably remain at the top of Chavez’s legacy.

The formula is so simple it makes you wonder why nobody though of it before. After all, a 22-year-old single mother of two in Petare, Chapeu Mangueira, Chimalhuacan or Ciudad Bolivar, doesn’t care about macroeconomic policies or free market economies, but about a leader who will make it possible to feed her children tomorrow. And to millions of Venezuelans, that was Hugo Chavez.

From Thor Halvorssen, www.reason.com: Historians and pseudo-historians favorable to Chavez have spent the better part of his 14-year rule assuring the world’s intellectuals that, domestically, Chavez embodied the spirit and struggle of a neglected population of Venezuela’s underclass that was ignored in a 50-year duopoly that never shared Venezuela’s oil wealth.

They have used every metric at their disposal to claim that, on balance, Chavez has been a significant step forward in Venezuela’s development. Beyond Venezuela, his defenders delight in how he was an impish and daring voice against what they see as a North-South divide; that Chavez stood up to the United States on behalf of the world’s poor and downtrodden.

The alternate view…

Finish reading Hugo Chavez: savior or scoundrel?

By Steve Taylor
Rio Grande Guardian

BROWNSVILLE, TX – Congressman Filemon Vela met recently with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano in Washington, D.C. to discuss the impact sequestration is having on border crossings.

The Brownsville Democrat said he came away encouraged that Napolitano may have more flexibility budget cuts to Customs and Border Protection and that this might mean that an overtime ban and planned furloughs for CBP personnel at the ports of entry may be reduced. This, he said, was due in part to a Continuing Resolution the House had passed.

“We are hoping the flexibility given by this Continuing Resolution is going to help soften the blow on some of those things. They are crunching the numbers with the Congressional Budget Office,” Vela told the Guardian, in an exclusive interview.

At the end of the interview, Vela was asked if there was any special message he had left with Napolitano on behalf the people of South Texas. Vela said there was. He said he had decried the loss of the cross-border culture he grew up in. A loss caused by drug cartel violence in Mexico.

“I wanted to make sure Secretary Napolitano understood that here along our South Texas border, our cross-border culture has been destroyed because of the violence in Mexico,” Vela said.

Vela said the reason he brought this subject up is because those who live along the border and those who represent the South Texas border region need to let people in Washington know that “the border we now live in is not the same border we lived in just ten years ago.”

Vela repeated what many living along the border knows first-hand. “In a relatively short period of time we have gone from a cross-border culture to one where our neighbors and family members who live in Mexico are no longer safe.” Vela said many Mexican nationals have moved to South Texas to avoid the violence.

“And, those of us here who enjoyed going across the border no longer can enjoy it like we used to. I think that is a message that Washington needs to hear loud and clear. I think that is something Secretary Napolitano understood, when I met with her,” Vela said.

Vela grew up in a family that crossed back and forth from Brownsville to Matamoros as a matter of course. The Guardian asked him to reminisce.

“My mother’s uncle is buried in the cathedral in Matamoros. My mother, though born in Harlingen, attended elementary school at a Catholic school in Matamoros. Growing up and well into our adult life, like many other people that live here on the border, crossing over to have lunch or dinner was an ordinary thing,” Vela said.

“My father would cross over for lunch to Los Norteños in Matamoros. To think that we can no longer enjoy things so simple to me is really an indictment of our national leadership, in both countries.”

Vela said he believes a more could have been done to prevent the U.S. and Mexico from getting to the point on drug cartel violence that the countries have reached today. “I think…

Finish reading S. Texas Congressman Filemon Vela tells Napolitano about loss of cross-border culture

La Costa Latina

April 11 is the National Day of Action (NDA), an event sponsored by the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). On the National Day of Action, hundreds of AILA members from around the country will descend on Washington, D.C. to meet with their congressmen and senators. The purpose of NDA is for AILA members to meet personally with congressional leaders to advocate for immigration policies and reform.

“Sometimes our congressmen are receptive, and sometimes they are not,” said Stanley Walker, AILA member with Southern Star Immigration in Ft. Walton Beach, Fla. “One of our goals is to present our local congressmen with as many personal letters as possible to show them that immigration advocacy and reform are important issues that you care about.”

Walkers, who will be one of the lawyers attending the NDA, is asking Gulf Coast residents to write a letter to their respective congressmen to tell them about personal experiences…

Finish reading Gulf Coast Immigration Attorneys Go To Washington

By Angela Covo
La Prensa de San Antonio

SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio is a military city – and we have a lot of military kids. Military children understand the impact of war and the sacrifice it requires. While their parents and loved ones serve, they are serving their country too; and some of the children are dealing with unimaginable challenges.

According to the Military Child Education Coalition (MCEC), a nonprofit organi­zation, almost a million kids said goodbye and goodbye again to a parent who deployed multiple times ­­and more than 44,700 children are living with a parent’s wound, injury, illness, or death.

Across the globe, almost two million kids are connected to the U.S. military – and they make terrific sacrifices, from dealing with their parents’ deployments to moving and changing schools three times more often than their civilian counterparts.

Every school district in America has military-­connected children and youth: more than 80 percent attend U.S. public schools.
So every April, our nation rec­ognizes their contributions as their loved ones serve their country in a branch of the armed services.

But this year, after more than a dozen years at war, this special group of children de­serves our attention more than ever.

April is the perfect time to spring into action and recognize their sacrifices and resilience. Militarychild.org explains that opportunities abound to recognize these quiet heroes.

In a recent statement, the group wrote: “So whether it is by public proc­lamations, special activities and events, or simply a few kind words spoken to a military-­connected child, we encourage everyone to seek out opportunities to express appreciation for these remarkable children.

We believe that our country’s future depends on our col­laborative effort to grow qualified, well-­educated citizens who will selflessly serve and contribute to our nation’s best interest. As we look to the future, these military-­connected chil­dren and youth are worthy of recognition now.”

So look for an opportunity to acknowledge their sacrifice, volunteer for organizations that support them, and recognize their contribution to the nation.

MCEC Founded in 1998 and functions as a 501(c)(3) global, nonprofit advocacy organization that works to ensure quality
educa­tional opportunities for America’s two million military-­connected children affected by mobility, family separation, and transition.