The place was packed, no seating, and despite the rain. This is a good sign in LA, which often shuts down when a few drops fall (sorry about that–I spent fifteen years in Chicago so I know about bad weather). Anyway, I had a great time. My recent visit to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico also included talks with a leader of the fight against the “Femicides,” a woman who lost her own 14-year-old daughter. There are now more than 600 young women killed or disappeared since 1993. This exhibit and poetry reading was to affirm our commitment to stop the murders of our women and to continue bringing attention to these deaths that have also been occurring in Chihuahua, Mexico; Guatemala; and other places of poor and abandoned people.

I was also honored to present a poem by a new poet on the scene—self named Matriz—who first read at Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural’s Open Mic the day before. She is part of a women’s writing circle at Tia Chucha’s. The women were asked to provide poems for a gathering next Saturday, March 13, 2010, known as the 3rd annual Policy con Pan Dulce. Here community members are invited to engage with local elected officials on key social, economic, and political issues. This event is sponsored by Initiating Change in Our Neighborhoods/Community Development Corporation and is being held in Sylmar, CA.

I must also disclose, in full transparency, that Matriz is the pen name of my companera Maria Trinidad Rodriguez—we celebrate 22 years of marriage this month. There is now a complex of poets at my house since both my sons at home, Ruben and Chito, as well as Ruben’s girlfriend Katrina, are grand poets (as are my daughter Andrea, my son Ramiro, and at least three of my four grandchildren). As I’ve said many times before: Poets are Everywhere and Everyone is a Poet.

Here’s the poem by Matriz. Enjoy:

policy of sweet bread for the hungry heart

asked to voice our knots, display our tangles
present them in beauty, fit for the public
a contradiction, a delicate artful challenge
thus this attempt, holding close the interest of we

bombarded by so much sensation, news of abuse
shooters erupt, thirst blazing, wrinkled with fears
uterus empty of mothering, broken warrior gone wild
loss felling children, uniformed walls, all distant relatives

tired, bones witness the gathering day workers storm
weary, business suits fit to neglect needs
angry, skeletons fed on promises of better tomorrow
self-medicated, sick of bankruptcies, graduation job lies

so the marchers emerge, demanding rights
to knowledge, to health, to be spectators no more
expecting a world to transform, to allow worth in this lifetime
together pounding the pavement, lifting spirits to the sky

listen to the prayer of a nation humbled by mistakes
embrace and brace for changes, expect this once and for all
rely on the wealth of the creative, let it flow into every gap
reject addictions rooted in usurped authority, robbed power

Mother Earth waits for her children to grasp their lesson
that there are natural laws greater than the toys of man
that a well being is measured by dignity beyond its own
that the abundance we seek is already in our midst

so be wise, responsive: there’s only enough time to align

c/s

On Thursday of last week, I held three separate discussions at the consulate’s community room—the first with Fundacion Comunitaria de la Frontera Norte, including donors and community leaders with a talk on “A Pathway to Authentic Community.” The second with community organizers and youth leaders called “Conflict Management Training: Breaking the Cycle with Dignity.” And the third with youth leaders and activists on “Creating Community in Violent Times.”

I can’t begin to tell you how engaging these talks and dialogues turned out. The people in Ciudad Juarez have been withstanding an extraordinary amount of violence for decades, but more so in the past three years. Last year around 4,000 were killed in a city of 1.2 million. This alone was greater than El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras respectively (with 6 million, 15 million, and 7 million people in each country—I’ve been to those countries where violence is extreme and painful).

Like somebody wrote on my Facebook page, this was like crawling out of a weeklong sweat lodge, in deep desperation and darkness, yet emerging renewed and hopeful.

There is much hardness, fear, and even helplessness to get through in order to bring out the great capacities for change that is intrinsic in the poorest and most devastated communities. Through these dialogues we found the energy needed to begin on a new path, with new imaginations and new ideas.

I shared a number of my books, in particular my memoir “La Vida Loca” and the nonfiction summary of forty years I’ve had working with violent and broken communities, “Hearts & Hands: Creating Community in Violent Times.” I also shared the “Community-Based Gang Intervention Guidebook,” which was created with forty other gang intervention experts, peace advocates, and researchers (approved by the LA City Council in 2008 and available for free from Councilman Tony Cardenas’s office).

In fact the US Consulate and community-based groups now plan to order hundreds of these guidebooks, which we also hope to be translated for use in Mexico. Already I’ve taken this invaluable resource to cities throughout the US, a few of which have also decided to adopt its principle strategies.

Perhaps the most significant talk I gave occurred the next day, Friday, at the Juarez Correctional/Juvenile Detention Center. The writers group, Palabras de Arena (hola to Ivonne and Laura and the others) has been working with these youth for some time. It’s the only juvenile facility that provides arts training and expression. I met with poets and artists. A rich and intimate discussion was held with spiritually hungry and intelligent young people—although many have committed serious crimes, including murder.

The facility’s director, a young woman with a big heart, even allowed five of the youth to leave the detention center and show me several murals they painted with members of the community along the high concrete walls. They plan to cover even more walls once they obtain more resources. I could tell the administration was helping move the minds and hearts of youth offenders to become whole and healthy—and creative—when they leave this facility.

Sadly, very few juvenile lockups in Mexico—or the US for that matter—have such programs in place.

I also did a number of TV and print interviews that were good at presenting properly the substance and goals of my presence in Ciudad Juarez—not to be “anti-gang” or “anti-drugs,” but to be pro-youth, pro-community, and pro-arts.

In the afternoon, I did a presentation to NGO (nongovernmental organization) leaders, sponsored by Centro Para el Fortalacimiento Social.

Other talks included with the state-sponsored Department of Human Rights, who asked for a special audience with me. They hope to try and bring me back with other university and community-based groups. A reception—called un hamburguesada—was held that evening at the home of Consul General Raymond McGrath, a wonderful man and friend. That evening I got to read poetry with a number of local poets, including the amazing “Poeta Enmascarado” (the Masked Poet, in the style of Lucha Libre wrestlers).

The next morning, we went to some of the poorest colonias in the city (including Colonias Morelos, Libertad and Mineros) to meet with poor barrio youth, some of whom worked with Philadelphia muralists to paint murals on a new canal created after a massive flood in 2006 that killed a number of residents.

We did writing exercises, including one in which the youth—about twenty-five—articulated the values they wanted expressed on the walls (such as Liberty, Equality, Peace, Justice).

Still, all good things must end. The week was quite an initiation for me, but I also hope inspiring for the diverse audiences I addressed… like planting seeds in fertile soil for truly deep personal, social, economic, and cultural transformation.

I have to thank the US Consulate in Ciudad Juarez for the amazing work they did in organizing the presentations in conjunction with various organization (libraries, schools, cultural centers, universities, churches, jails, juvenile lockups, and others too many to name here). In particular much thanks to Juan Pablo, but also Neal, Pati, and the program director, Silvio Gonzalez.

It makes me proud to know that the US consulate is working to bring positive influence and connections to places like Ciudad Juarez.  That’s what I’m about—and when this happens, I’ll work with anyone who has the same goals and methods.

Para todos mis nuevos amistades en Juaritos y Chihuahua—que viva la paz, tolerancia, y un gran justicia para todos.

c/s

In the evening, we created a Poetry Jam with students from Chihuahua State University/School of Literature and Philosophy. We had more than a hundred people in the auditorium, graciously listening to my poems. I then invited anyone there to step up and read their poetry. Several students left, but not because they didn’t want to take part—they wanted to get their poems from lockers and cars so they could Jam. Sure enough about a dozen or so students read their original work, which I found quite developed, interesting, and compelling. Mexico is a land of poets, even without many options to develop as one. Yet in Chihuahua these students proved how powerful poetry remains in the heart of the people.

The next day I visited the largest state penitentiary. We drove for an hour outside the city limits. We met with the prison director who told us there were 2250 prisoners, including a section for women. They had maximum security and minimum-security cellblocks. I spoke to about 100 men in a lower security section. This proved to be quite fruitful and eye opening. Most of the men said they wanted jobs, training, rehabilitation, and workshops. Apparently the prison lacks many resources and even though there are machines to create furniture and other products, most of them had no access to these machines. Gang violence has forced the prison system to divide the two major gangs in the state into different facilities. Last year, in a Ciudad Juarez prison, one gang rioted against another gang, leading to the massacre of 21 persons. Yet the men we talked to were respectful and open—leading to a group photo in the yard that I hope to share with my blog readers once I get this. I also presented my book “La Vida Loca” to start a library at the prison—they have no books to date—that the US Consulate staff said they would help with donations of other books.

Today I was privileged to visit the US Consulate in Ciudad Juarez, the largest in the world for temporary and tourist visas to the United States. It is a new building—about a year old—that since its opening has brought new malls, hotels, restaurants, and other businesses to the surrounding area. The consulate staff was attentive and amiable—and quite active as intermediaries with community-based NGOS and groups among the poorest and most gang-ridden communities. We met with leaders in community-based organizations and a few of their donors. Later I met with youth leaders and activists who are trying to provide levels of resources, mentorship and infrastructure to marginalized communities.

In the afternoon, a number of young people, average age of 15, came to the consulate to take part in one of my Empowerment/Expression workshops with words and writing. As always, this proved to be engaging and powerful, especially when they read back their words, full of detail, emotion, and deep soul revelation. I met a woman working with impoverished youth who is also active in justice for the hundreds of women who have disappeared or been killed in Ciudad Juarez since 1993—she also lost a daughter. Despite a few arrests, and many theories, the vast majority of these deaths and disappearances have yet to be solved. This mother told me that women continue to be killed or kidnapped, but with the increased rise of murders due to drug and gang wars in the last three years—making Ciudad Juarez the deadliest city in the world—most of the media has changed its focus.

I must say how rewarding all these talks, discussions, workshops, and visits have been. I have even more on Friday and Saturday. Tomorrow I visit a juvenile detention center, have more media interviews, and will present to a group of NGO leaders a presentation entitled: Hearts & Hands: Creating Community in Violent Times.

c/s

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

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

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