Power of the Purse: Contributions of Hispanic Americans in Texas, by the New American Economy Research Fund

As I look at these 2021 figures and consider yesterday's post on how the Latinx —along with the Black, Asian, and Lavender—graduation ceremony was recently eliminated at UT, I think of the contributions we all make with our labor and taxes to our great state of Texas. 

It's not only backward but discriminatory for UT to be a public institution that we all pay into for our beautiful heritage ceremonies that are open to all—to get callously disregarded. Excuse me, we're a diverse state and nation. Let's embrace, not shun, it.

This should be of particular concern to taxpayers who want to see their taxes show up in meaningful ways, especially those that value diversity and promote a sense of caring and belonging in our K-12 and higher education institutions.

-Angela Valenzuela

Power of the Purse: Contributions of Hispanic Americans in Texas

New American Economy Research Fund, November 18, 2021

New research from New American Economy underscores the crucial role the Hispanic population plays in Texas’ labor force, population growth, and economy. The new series of factsheets, Power of the Purse: Contributions of Hispanic Americans in Texas, were prepared in partnership with the Texas Association of Business and the Texas Association of Mexican American Chambers of Commerce (TAMACC).

Key Findings:

• Hispanic Texans are contributing billions in taxes and consumer spending. In 2019, Hispanic households earned $213.7 billion in income, with $32.6 billion going to federal taxes and $18.7 billion going to state and local taxes, leaving them with $162.4 billion in spending power that can be reinvested in local communities. Robust consumer spending by Hispanic households supports small businesses and keeps local economic corridors vibrant.
• Hispanic Texans are helping drive population growth in the state. Between 2010 and 2019, the U.S.-born Hispanic population grew by 26.7 percent, while the foreign-born Hispanic population grew by 8 percent. In 2010, 37.7 percent of the overall population in Texas were Hispanic, that number grew to 39.8 percent in 2019. 
• Hispanic Texans play a crucial role in meeting the state’s workforce needs. In 2019, 66.7 percent of the overall Hispanic population and 66.4 percent of the foreign-born Hispanic population were active in the labor force, compared with 64.1 percent of the non-Hispanic population. 
• Hispanic Texans hold substantial voting power. In 2019, there were nearly 5.7 million eligible Hispanic voters, including more than 960,000 naturalized citizens. Overall, the Hispanic population made up 31.1 percent of the electorate, including Hispanic naturalized citizens, who on their own made up 5.2 percent.

The factsheets are based on NAE analysis of the American Community Survey from 2010 and 2019.

More on Hispanic contributions in eight of the state’s largest areas: 

• Power of the Purse: Contributions of Hispanic Americans in Austin
• Power of the Purse: Contributions of Hispanic Americans in Brownsville
• Power of the Purse: Contributions of Hispanic Americans in Dallas and Fort Worth
• Power of the Purse: Contributions of Hispanic Americans in El Paso
• Power of the Purse: Contributions of Hispanic Americans in Houston
• Power of the Purse: Contributions of Hispanic Americans in San Antonio
• Power of the Purse: Contributions of Hispanic Americans in the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission Metro Area
• Power of the Purse: Contributions of Hispanic Americans in the Rio Grande Valley

LULAC—Our Civil Rights Organization—and Online help make this year's UT Latinx Graduation Possible Despite DEI Cuts

I am SO proud of our students and LULAC, our largest and oldest civil rights group in the Mexican community. Thanks, as well, to journalist Suzanne Gamboa for giving this very important story some ink. My husband and I plan on attending the graduation, greeting the students as they walk across the stage. We couldn't be more honored. 

When Latinx graduation was canceled (read Zamora & Valenzuela, 2024, on UT's disastrous implementation of Senate Bill 17), this took me back to a memory from my high school years growing up in West Texas in San Angelo, not far from Austin. I'm not sure if it's still happening, but for decades, Mexican Americans attended their own, separate graduation prom. This was because whites didn't want to have it with Mexicans. Of course, segregation, or Juan Crow, was the order of the day for decades, implying what David Montejano terms, "a culture of racism" in his multiple award-winning history book titled, Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas. The Mexican community made the best of it and turned it into a scholarship banquet and community celebration.

We have precedence with this, folks. White supremacy dies hard. Community uplift does, too, fortunately. In fact, it's growing, getting more organized on a daily basis—with everyone's help, of course.

I've belonged to LULAC for over 30 years. This is a very proud moment for our precious civil rights organization.

It takes place on Thursday at 1:30PM at the AISD Performing Arts Center.

Congratulations to the Class of 2024! Muchas felicidades!!!

-Angela Valenzuela

References

Montejano, D. (1987). Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas, 1836-1986. University of Texas Press.

Zamora, E. & Valenzuela, A. (2023, Feb. 13). "Anti-DEI Law Implementation Has Been a Disaster," Texas Observer. https://www.texasobserver.org/anti-dei-law-implementation-has-been-a-disaster/

UT Austin students get civil rights group, online help for Latinx Graduation canceled by DEI cuts

UT Austin eliminated the symbolic graduation after the enactment of a Texas law prohibiting universities to fund diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

University of Texas in Austin. Jordan Vonderhaar / Bloomberg via Getty Images

By Suzanne Gamboa | NBC Latino

A graduation ceremony that celebrates Latino students’ culture at the University of Texas at Austin will go forward off campus, despite cuts to diversity programs that left the event unfunded.

The cancelled Latinx Graduation will take place thanks in part to the League of United Latin American Citizens, the nation's oldest Latino civil rights group, and online donations.

UT cut off funding for the symbolic Latinx Graduation and graduations for other groups as part of its eradication of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and the elimination of some 60 employees working on DEI. This followed the enactment of a state law banning DEI initiatives in public colleges and universities.

UT shuttered its Multicultural Engagement Center and defunded Latinx Community Affairs, which organized the graduation. UT also cut off money for Black Graduation, GraduAsian and the Lavender Graduation, which celebrates LGBTQ students. These ceremonies are held in addition to the universitywide graduation and those held by the different academic departments.

View on Instagram @UTLatinx

Latino students lamented the elimination of a ceremony that focused on the bicultural heritage of many graduates and their families. The Latinx Graduation was bilingual and allowed for multiple family members to attend. It included Latino food, music and decor that is not present in the universitywide or individual school graduations.

Latino programs, events such as the Latinx Graduation and venues such as the shuttered multicultural center, have been seen as important to recruiting, retaining and graduating Latino students, particularly at the state’s flagship, which has lagged in enrolling Hispanic students.

The events' cancellations left students to scramble for other ways to hold the events and pay for them. The university alumni group, Texas Exes, is holding multicultural celebrations where families can meet and greet but not actual graduation ceremonies.

Latino students tried to turn to private donors, but initially only raised $2,000, well short of their estimated of its GoFundMe goal of $9,000, and not enough to secure a venue.

Katherine Ospina, outreach chair of Latinx Community Affairs, one of the groups UT stopped funding, said the students did not want to end up with a deficit. She began cold-calling elected officials and Latino organizations, including LULAC.

The funds were going to cover security, printing, insurance, chords for students to wear, and graduation speakers. The group had cut other costs such as music and the buffet they've held at previous Latinx graduations.

"The venue was going to be its own cost in and of itself so LULAC said they would be more than happy to cover the venue costs," she said. Austin elected officials also discounted the cost of the venue, the Austin Independent School District Performing Arts Center.

"Among my cold calls, LULAC was one of them and they were 100%," she said.

This year's Latinx graduates will be given an orange chord, a color of the monarch butterfly, to drape across their shoulders, Ospina said. Monarchs, which migrate from Mexico to the U.S. and back, have been used in the immigrant community and by young immigrants who call themselves "Dreamers." The chord represents the Latinx Graduation theme of "dreaming for better."

"It's so easy to feel deflated after all this," Ospina said. "But Latinos have always survived as part of their dream for better."

Before Texas' anti-DEI law, the university allowed the group to hold the graduation in Gregory Gym on the campus, that has a capacity for thousands of people.

While speaking to NBC News, Ospina looked at the status of the GoFundMe and discovered the group's $9,000 goal had been met. The money is not just for the graduation. Its purpose is to help the next group of students hold the new student orientation, leadership symposiums and other events that were ended when UT eliminated their funding. Another student, Liany Serrano, who is in charge of the group's special events, had set up the GoFundMe.

"Oh my gosh!" Ospina said after opening the GoFundMe site during the phone interview with NBC News. "That's crazy. We just met our goal just now."

Because LULAC is helping out with the graduation cost, the GoFundMe money can be used for the other events, she said.

Domingo García, LULAC president, said that when he learned UT was ending the Latinx and other graduations it reminded him of the group having to intervene on students' behalf when Humble High School in Texas barred students from wearing serape stoles at graduation last year.

"We helped the teacher with graduation there and I just think students should be proud of their heritage and their culture and have a certain way that recognizes that, especially because many of them are first-generation college graduates from the top state University of Texas," he said.

García said the Texas anti-DEI law is "regressive" and "xenophobic."

LULAC was founded in 1929 and its creators included professionals and veterans from upper and middle class sectors of the Mexican American community who fought for civil rights and equal treatment as U.S. citizens.

"We are celebrating our 95th anniversary. What better way to celebrate than to celebrate those young men and women who are going to be part of the future of America in business, education and government?" García asked. "That's what our legacy is about."

For more from NBC Latino, sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Suzanne Gamboa

Suzanne Gamboa is a national reporter for NBC Latino and NBCNews.com

What’s happening in Texas is an assault on American democracy, Peniel E. Joseph, Ph.D. CNN.com

Important read by UT History professor Dr. Peniel E. Joseph. I couldn't agree more.

What's happening in Texas right now is most definitely an assault. It's Texas manifesting the intent of the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 about which I just posted. If you want to ruin your day, just keyword the words, "abolish" and "eliminate" to learn of their explicit intent of a "scorched earth" administration should Donald Trump get elected. These are not my words, but their words as you can also see from this recent April 19, 2024 New York Times article by  Jonathan Chait titled, "Lara Trump Threatens ‘Four Years of Scorched Earth’ If Trump Retakes Power: Sounds like a fun time for America" [see video where you can hear Lara express these sentiments].

Since Trump's extremist party has no vision for the future, they're quickly working themselves out of a job when they could be doing the opposite and at least offer a little hope for an increasingly diverse and complex world, clarifying to us why they are the party to lead our democracy. In contrast, they have no high-sounding rhetoric or hopeful vision for the future. Quite the opposite. This means that they're at rock bottom, showing that all they have left is fear, spite, violence, and repression.

What is sad and lost is a recognition of how these very communities they seek to continue subordinating—with their cynical and horrific 900-page plan that Project 2025 represents—namely, Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, Native American, immigrant, queer, and working class communities—are the very ones that have strengthed our democracy.

Theirs is a power grab that threatens to consume the whole. We must clearly vote this far-right party out of power. 

If you're in Travis County, here is all the information you need on the vote. This calendar document is also a good tool that we can all pin to our refrigerators to make sure that we never miss an election. I imagine that similar information is available for every county in the U.S.

Everyone must fully understand and accept the importance of voting. It's remarkable to consider that we could effectively reclaim our country from extremism if everyone understood the true power of their vote. The fact that those in power go to great lengths to prevent us from voting, through gerrymandering and other tactics, underscores just how potent our votes can be. Limiting education is yet another way to disenfranchise people.

Voting is the ULTIMATE form of patriotism, a gift to ourselves and the next generation.

As expressed by the late Willie Velasquez,

"Su voto es su voz." / "Your vote is your voice."

Sí se puede! Yes we can!"

-Angela Valenzuela

Opinion: What’s happening in Texas is an assault on American democracy

Opinion by Peniel E. Joseph
8 minute read
Updated 6:00 PM EDT, Thu May 2, 2024

Editor’s Note: Peniel E. Joseph is the Barbara Jordan chair in ethics and political values and founding director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is a professor of history. He is the author of “The Third Reconstruction: America’s Struggle for Racial Justice in the Twenty-First Century.” The views expressed here are his own. View more opinion on CNN.

CNN —For nearly a decade, I have been honored to be a faculty member at the University of Texas at Austin. As a scholar whose research and teaching hinge on histories of racism and activism, this April was an exceptionally harsh one for me — and for all of Longhorn Nation. A month that began with the gutting of resources devoted to our students has ended with shocking scenes of crackdowns by law enforcement in our midst. I have been left heartbroken. This spring, our motto, “What Starts Here Changes the World,” has taken on a bitterly ironic meaning.

On April 2, the university’s president, Jay Hartzell, delivered a devastating blow via email, announcing the firings and demotions of nearly 60 individuals, all victims of the university’s newly enforced compliance in the wake of Senate Bill 17, which prohibited DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) initiatives in all parts of campus except research and teaching.

Hartzell, in a letter, said, “associate deans who were formally focused on DEI will return to their full-time teaching positions,” while the “positions that provided support for those associate and assistant deans and a small number of staff roles across campus that were formerly focused on DEI will no longer be funded.” These people are not just numbers. They were members of our community. The shortsightedness of this decision led over 500 professors, including me, to sign a letter of no confidence with respect to the president.

What made the firings especially hurtful is this university’s long history of racial exclusion, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and discrimination against students of color. The “40 Acres,” which constitutes the original size of land set aside for the university, is also shorthand for the pride that Longhorn Nation takes in the campus as both a real and imagined community. A significant part of that community’s history includes racial discrimination that required the courageous activism and organizing of students and community members to break down ancient barriers. The social integration of Black people and people of color at the university has been paralleled by the growth of Black, Women and Gender and Mexican-American Studies as globally recognized academic disciplines and departments.

To see these programs arise and grow, and to know that this flagship university has acknowledged marginalized communities only to then shut down programs that offer them a critical lifeline during their time here is profoundly disturbing to witness. Countless numbers of students have expressed to me their fear, anxiety, disappointment and depression. My colleagues and I have commiserated about the devolution of racial justice in Texas and nationally over the past four years. And an even larger number of “allies” have disappeared from view, which, although expected in many ways, is disappointing.

What makes the present so dispiriting is the reckless manner in which the goodwill of the recent past has been squandered.

George Floyd’s murder on May 25, 2020, sparked a nationwide movement that forced institutional reckoning with America’s long history of racial subjugation.

I watched this history unfold while simultaneously participating in it, writing for CNN, conducting numerous interviews and delivering keynote speeches that doubled as sermons, evangelizing my hopes for building a Beloved Community out of the ashes of our centuries-long agony of racial discontent, political division and police violence.

For a time, it appeared that things were, in fact, changing, with corporate America embracing the Black Lives Matter movement and the cause of racial justice in ways that enhanced opportunities, recognition and dignity for employees of color.

Meanwhile, universities expanded their DEI programs to create a welcoming environment for historically marginalized and underrepresented students but also to correct moral failings that included histories of racial segregation.

On this score, the University of Texas at Austin — still affectionately referred to as the “40 Acres” — has considerable work to do. Founded in 1883 as a racially segregated university of “the first class,” the university did not open its doors to a single Black student until 1950, when Heman Sweatt (the Sweatt Center for Black Males was forced to drop any mention of race as part of the SB 17 compliance) began but did not finish law school.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators face off with Texas DPS officers on Wednesday, April 24, 2024. Jordan Vonderhaar/Bloomberg/Getty Images


When racial integration arrived in the 1950s on the heels of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision, the earliest Black Longhorns — known as the “precursors” — found an inhospitable racial climate where they were not allowed to live on campus dorms joining fraternities and sororities and faced general disrespect.

Flash forward to 2024. At the very moment the university announced the creation of a new School of Civic Education to bolster viewpoint diversity that favors conservatives, it fired dozens of staff connected to DEI, the favorite target of the far-right.

As a vocal scholar-activist whose work continues to revolve around histories of race, democracy, and power in the United States and globally, I have watched, with growing alarm and sadness, the impact anti-DEI legislation has had on my students, colleagues and staff. The waves of political backlash unfolding around the nation also extend beyond DEI and indeed, beyond the walls of the university to include protests against the horrors in Gaza. This moment has turned universities such as Columbia in New York and Emory in Atlanta — among many others — into roiling battlegrounds that echo the clashes between anti-war and Black Power advocates and law enforcement on college campuses in the 1960s and 1970s.

Students march with anti-war placards on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley, California, 1969. Archive Photos/Getty Images


But UT is different from a number of these other schools. What makes us unique is our public mission to leverage higher education in a way that positively and life-alteringly impacts the city of Austin, the state of Texas and the nation. Before the shuttering of the university’s Division of Diversity and Community Engagement (DDCE), we had the largest such initiative in the nation, the jewel in the crown of efforts to offer a world-class education to students of all backgrounds.

The violence on campus against student protesters and the anti-DEI legislation are both parts of a larger suppression of speech and expression. They are aspects of a political environment that have also given rise to attacks on voting and reproductive rights, marked by book bans and threats of retaliation against college students with unpopular opinions.

I abhor the very real instances of antisemitism that have flared across college campuses in the wake of the October 7 massacre and pray for the safe return of hostages. I also denounce the very real instances of anti-Palestinian, anti-Muslim and anti-Black sentiment that have occurred in that time.

Unfortunately, our leaders have widened political and ideological divides instead of building bridges toward healing on campus. The far-right has used fear, name-calling and outright lies to suppress freedom of speech and expression on college campuses, the latest salvo in a concerted, and thus far successful, effort to erode public trust in longstanding institutions.

For those of us committed to building a vibrant, multiracial democracy in the heart of the largest state in the former Confederacy, these attacks represent more than a backlash against the era that I have characterized as the nation’s “Third Reconstruction.”

What we are experiencing here in Texas is an assault on the nation’s democracy. As in Gov. Ron DeSantis’s Florida, Gov. Greg Abbott’s efforts here amplify conservative legislators’ vision of “reclaiming” the university from a so-called “woke mob” apparently populated by folks who look like me.

I attended two demonstrations at the university this past week — one in support of Palestinians and free speech (where I was heartened to see a small pro-Israel demonstration taking place alongside the larger gathering), the other a long-delayed protest in support of DEI. At the same time, elsewhere on campus, activists attempting to set up encampments were confronted by law enforcement, placing this community I love in the news for all the wrong reasons.

What gives me hope now, in the face of all this, are my students and their allies among the faculty and advocates here in Austin. So many of them are standing up for the need to continue working in the belly of the anti-DEI backlash to build a multiracial democracy.

Standing beneath a hot sun, chatting with students and colleagues, bumping into familiar faces and meeting new ones reminded me of the promise and potential of higher education I first encountered in New York at the age of 17. Attending Stony Brook University improved my life, paving the way for me to grow the voice I have today.

Higher education, both its positives and negatives, is simply a reflection of us, our society and its constantly evolving understanding of what dignity, citizenship and democracy mean. It is also an engine of wealth and job creation, a policy and technology hub, a sports, entertainment, and artistic incubator, and a site for science, health, engineering and law innovation.

The humanities — the study of our intellectual, spiritual and moral purpose through inquiry and experimentation — is perhaps the least well-regarded part of the university and most important. All the talk about Artificial Intelligence and transformation in technologies of the future will be for naught if we lose sight of our horizon by failing to invest in the multiracial democracy necessary to make our universities and the nation thrive.

This will not happen by scapegoating DEI programs, brutalizing student protesters and threatening the livelihood of faculty and staff. What happens here can indeed change the world. But not just in one direction. April has offered definitive proof that institutions of higher education can be leveraged as a tool to crush dissent and curtail freedom of speech and expression.

What starts here changes the world: Only we — students, faculty and staff collectively — can make that slogan something to be proud of once more.

I for one still believe in the power of a just university and intend to fight for it.

However you feel about Biden, read here Why Trump CANNOT Win the Presidency—READ "Project 2025," a "Blueprint for a soft coup": Inside the far-right plan that could grant unchecked power to Trump [Video & Transcript]

Friends,

WE CANNOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, LET TRUMP WIN. We must get the word out on this extremist "planned coup" laid out in Project 2025 in anticipation of a Trump presidency. 

It's being spearheaded by The Heritage Foundation and their large network of neoliberal and authoritarian populist supporters. It is over 900 pages long. Just keyword-search the words "abolish" and "eliminate" to get a sense of just how scorched earth their agenda is.

Do watch the whole video with Velshi on MSNBC (posted below). 

For ease, here is a partial transcript of Velshi's opening comments so that you can get a quick sense of the aims of this far-right leadership and their dystopian vision for the future of our country that we must vigorously oppose.

-Angela Valenzuela

TRANSCRIPT

Project 2025 ‘Blueprint for a soft coup’: Inside the far-right plan that could grant unchecked power to Trump

Velshi: If you have you been keeping up with our show, you're likely familiar with the radical plan of the far right to overhaul our government within the first 180 days of a new Republican administration, the plan known formally as Project 2025. It's spearheaded by the conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation. 

The plan is more than 900 pages long and it's filled with far-right policy ideas for dozens of federal agencies. Project 2025's advisory board consists of nearly 100 groups representing various far-right interests, including Trump loyalists, anti-abortion activists, Christian nationalists, opponents of LGBTQ+ rights, and anti-environmentalists. 

The threat that Project 2025 poses to our democracy cannot be overstated.

At the top of the list or plans to consolidate presidential authority, fill the ranks of the Executive Branch with loyalists, dismantle civil rights, and weaken federal agencies that are responsible for a wide array of social services spanning from poverty and education to healthcare and environmental protection. 

It also advances a Christian nationalist agenda, aiming to replace secular education with a Christian curriculum by redirecting funding from the Department of Education which it refers to as a "woke education cartel"—those are their words—and redirecting the money to charter and private schools.

Probably the most troubling aspect of Project 2025 is its plan to grant Donald Trump unchecked power over the Executive Branch, potentially allowing him to weaponized it against his critics, including, including those in the media who he constantly says he's going to target anyway.

Project 2025 is ultimately a blueprint for a soft coup, one that replaces our age-old system of checks and balances with cronyism. What Trump couldn't achieve in his first term, Project 2025 seeks to facilitate by removing obstacles to his authority. This includes an active plan for purging the Executive Branch of any dissent by replacing longtime civil servants with those who pledge fealty to Trump.

The group's database of potential political appointees includes more than 4,000 vetted candidates who are, according to the document, ready and willing to begin "dismantling the administrative state from day one."

In an interview with the New York Times, Trump advisor Russell Vought put it plainly. "What we're trying to do is identify the pockets of independence and seize them."

Doesn't stop there by the way, Project 2025 calls for invoking the insurrection act which would allow presidents to deploy the country's military forces against American citizens who protest their actions, something that is illegal at the moment. 

Additionally, it claims to reverse recent LGBTQ+ civil rights protections, including same-sex marriage. It criminalizes transgender identity, equating it with "pornography." It would designate librarians who promote banned books as "sex offenders." 

It would define life as the beginning—life as beginning at the very moment of conception for the purposes of legal protection. 

These are just some of the things that the religious right plans to implement under Project 2025. And if this alarms you, it should. 

The greatest danger lies in underestimating and dismissing the gravity of this plan, especially because it's already underway. 

Just in March, tucked within a larger spending bill, Congress quietly approved a Project 2025 proposal to ban the LGBTQ+ rainbow flag from flying over U.S. embassies across the globe. 

As abortion, rights advocate, Jillian Kane aptly warns, "There's a line in Tolstoy's War and Peace that's useful for the moment we're in, "Nothing was prepared for the war that everyone expected."

Invitation: Educación con Corazón: Una Plática Comunitaria/ Education with Heart: A Community Conversation—May 4, 2024, 10am - 3pm

Friends,

It's such a vast juxtaposition to be sharing with you our upcoming event, "Education with Heart: A Community Conversation," taking place this Saturday, May 4, from 10AM-3PM while simultaneously witnessing state violence and repression at this very moment at UT Austin. This is playing out on college campuses nationwide, as well, as we know.

Like my grandfather, who was a Baptist minister, used to say, "El diablo anda afuera," meaning that "the devil is running amok." 

It sure feels like it. I hear students tell me that they are fearful, that they feel bruised, that they are angry, sad, and disgusted. And let's not let it get past us that this year's undergraduate graduating class sat out the pandemic four years earlier, seriously impacting life's milestones that the rest of us have taken for granted.

Atop this, our students here at UT are literally still coping with the shock of losing their programs, initiatives, mentors, and supporters as a consequence of Senate Bill 17 (Texas' anti-DEI bill), and now they are experiencing added violence, both symbolic and real. 

So much dark, noxious emotion in the air right now. People speak in whispers, censuring themselves. Are we not still in a democracy where we all have a voice and are guided by democratic principles?

Que triste. How sad, especially when there is still so much good—and good to be had—in the world. I remain confident that there still exists a real promise of better days WHEN we commit to supporting ALL of our youth, particularly the most vulnerable. Why can't we not evolve as human beings and as a culture into an ethic that centers, instead of intentionally harms, young people? They are our future, our treasure, our joy. 

Texas parents, I know that I speak on behalf of most, if not all, UT faculty that we love your children. What we are witnessing right now is way beyond the bounds of what should ever get considered as normal.

Ok, so now I'm putting out something into the atmosphere that is super positive, namely, Academia Cuauhtli's 10th Anniversary celebration! I've blogged on it occasionally since 2014. For those of us involved, it is a labor of love.🩷

Throughout the day, we will be speaking Spanish, English, Spanglish, and translanguaging, playing with language, celebrating bilingualism, and culture (see details below). 

As the late poet and artist José Antonio Burciaga used to say, "La cultura cura," meaning that "culture heals." I can definitely say that Academia Cuauhtli is what has sustained our community through the years.

 Open to the public. Welcome all!

-Angela Valenzuela

Follow us on Twitter: @AcadCuauhtli

Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AcademiaCuauhtli/

Instagram: @acadcuauhtli

Event hashtags: #LaCulturaCura #Palabra #JovenNoble #CulturalHealing #EmpowerYouth #EmpoweringYouth #strongyouth

Hope you can join us this coming Saturday morning to be in community with us as we celebrate Educación con Corazón, our tenth-anniversary celebration of Academia Cuauhtli. It’s amazing just how quickly the time has flown. 

 

Bring your babies, children, and family members. Educators doing work in the community might be particularly interested in joining us and learning about our work. We’ll have bouncy houses for the chiildren, food, pláticas, musical performances, a raffle, and other goodies. We’re showing some love to the Dove Springs community.  It’s over at 3 PM.

Academia Cuauhtli means "Eagle Academy"

 

Info below, as well as attached on who we are as a community-based initiative. Do reach out to Dr. Maria Unda (copied) if you have any questions.  Please help us get the word out, too. 

 

-Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.

***

 

Summit Title: Educación con Corazón: Una Plática Comunitaria/ Education with Heart: A Community Conversation

Date: Saturday, May 4, 2024 | Time: 10am - 3pm

Location: Consuelo Mendez Middle School, 5106 Village Square Drive Austin, TX 78744 (not the charter school part) 

 

About the Summit:
"Educación con Corazón: A Comm(unity) Conversation" is a summit convened by Academia Cuauhtli to champion equitable access to transformative education by integrating bilingual education, cultural arts institutions, and indigenous epistemologies into public schools. In celebration of Academia Cuauhtli’s ten-year journey, this public gathering expresses a profound commitment to cultural heritage, social justice consciousness, and collective identities for educational freedom.

Bringing together educators, students, parents, school board members, and community members, we are dedicated to fostering a collaborative environment where diverse voices come together to shape the future of education. Emphasizing cultural diversity, healing, and artistic expression, we strive to create holistic learning spaces that champion educational freedom. 

 

Event Links:

City Event Landing Page:

https://www.austintexas.gov/event/esb-macc-education-heart-community-celebration-mendez-middle-school

Facebook Event: https://fb.me/e/1ZcwBUEYD 

Eventbrite:https://www.eventbrite.com/e/education-with-heart-a-community-celebration-tickets-873709006157

 

 

Register on Eventbrite

Furthermore, in recognition of AISD's support, we warmly invite y'all to join us for an exclusive VIP breakfast before the summit at 9 am. This intimate gathering presents a unique opportunity for our esteemed attendees, including keynotes, education, and community leaders, to forge connections and delve deeper into potential collaborations. Noteworthy attendees include Superintendent Matias Segura, esteemed members of the AISD School Board, distinguished members of the City of Austin Council, and influential education policymakers. Their enthusiasm for engaging in substantive dialogue and sharing insights promises to enrich the summit experience for all participants. 

 

 

Sincerely, 

 

Dr. María Del Carmen Unda 

Cell: 310-651-4558 

https://linktr.ee/maricarmenphd