April 27, 2021
To Our Wonderful Friends and Partners,
I want to take the time to thank those individuals and organizations that went above and beyond to make this already exceptional year, possible. Due to remote instruction, our cohort was larger than all previous years such that our collective efforts focused on serving forty families with fourth-grade children throughout this school year of the pandemic. It truly takes a village!
Gracias mil to the Austin Independent School District's Department of Multilingual Education, especially to Executive Director Dr. David Kauffman, Ana Rojas, and Assistant Director of Humanities Jessica Jolliffe. Your hard work has not gone unnoticed. To the staff at the ESB-MACC, Michelle Rojas, Ulises Gave, Lori Navarrette, Olivia Tamzarian, and Cassie Smith, muchÃsimas gracias! We cannot imagine a better home for our escuelita, Academia Cuauhtli.
We are also very grateful to the University of Texas at Austin’s College of Education, especially Dean Charles Martinez, Dr. Victor Saenz, Zhandra Andrade, Andrea Kehoe, Anthony Martinez, and Ezra Rebollar. It’s so important to have the resources of the university behind us. Gracias mil!
We are indebted to the Austin Area Association for Bilingual Education (AAABE) President Carolyn Slavin, and AAABE, as a whole, for their continued support to our Academia Cuauhtli students and community. Muchas gracias, as well, to maestro Manuel Martinez and maestras Patricia Nuñez, Julia Hernandez, Liliana Batista- Rodriguez, and Luz Alvarez-Sims for their many contributions. The Austin History Center—through Marina Islas and its many treasures—has also been a constant source of support and inspiration for us throughout.
We are also in appreciation of our partners, Dr. Mario Garza, Maria Rocha, and UT Fine Arts Professor Dr. Roxanne Schroeder-Arce of the Indigenous Cultures Institute (ICI). We look forward to our students attending this year’s ICI Powwow—in addition to danza Mexica. Though we couldn’t teach danza this year because of the pandemic, the sacred space that maestra Rosa Tupina Yaotonalcuauhtli’s teachings nevertheless made for a culturally-rich, identity-affirming experience.
The Mexican Consulate has been a steadfast supporter, too, helping us in the early days of the pandemic with resources to help us address parents’ computer literacy skills. What at first seemed insurmountable with all the challenges of technology, now feels like a path that we broke through with everybody, especially our teachers and volunteers, helping out.
Were it not for Lourdes Zuñiga with the Financial Literacy Coalition of Central Texas and other donors, Christmas would not have been as nice. Our elder, Martha Cotera, was genuinely happy about meeting the parents in her home and gifting them all with $50.00 gift cards.
We cultivated a brand new friendship with “Su Teatro” out of Denver, Colorado. They, along with so many other individuals, heard our pleas for help in the aftermath of the epic winter storm and its impact on our families, some of whom needed rental assistance, resources to evade eviction, and food, together with ongoing vaccine information that involved numerous evening phone calls to homes to help them navigate the city’s Central Health websites. Su Teatro raised funds for us with one of their plays serving as a fundraiser for our families. Dr. Blandina “Bambi” Cardenas was equally generous as part of this same drive to support our families.
Last, but not least, is our appreciation for LILLAS, particularly, Tiffany Guridy, for your ongoing support to our Saturday school. It’s beyond cool when they reach out to you before you reach out to them. Gracias, Tiffany and LILLAS!
We invite you to read the following three reflections published on my blog that reflect the ethos of doing this work while capturing some of the more gripping moments of the pandemic. Reading these still puts a lump in my throat.
Garcia, Itzel Guadalupe(2020, Oct. 2). A Historical Moment of Dream Remembering: Returning Education to Rootedness [Inaugural essay]
In sum, we faced numerous and significant challenges this year with the pandemic, the time-consuming process of going digital, and surviving the winter storm, with several among us, sadly, experiencing serious personal tragedies. It’s all the more touching and humbling to know and feel in a deep way the power of love that we have for our escuelita to not solely provide quality, culturally rich, asset-based curriculum and pedagogy, but to also be a loving force for good in the world.
May all have a wonderful Summer break!
Sinceramente,
Dra. Angela Valenzuela, Convener
Nuestro Grupo / Academia Cuauhtli
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