The Power of Texas Social Movements to Heal Fear, Inspire Hope, and Build Islands of Sanity in Troubled Times, by Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.

The Power of Texas Social Movements to Heal Fear, Inspire Hope, and Build Islands of Sanity in Troubled Times

by 

Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.

Nov. 1, 2025

I know there is a lot of anxiety right now in this moment of institutional unraveling. It’s hard not to be afraid or uncertain about what comes next. But I want to suggest a different way of holding this moment. I hope you take a few deep breaths, listen to my vlog, and get inspired 

In times of fear and uncertainty, social movements remind us that hope is a collective act. Across Texas, communities are rising—teachers, students, parents, organizers, and Indigenous leaders—refusing to surrender to despair. Their courage shows that democracy is not a spectator sport but a living practice of solidarity and imagination.

When we stand together, fear loses its grip and anxiety gives way to purpose. Social movements transform pain into possibility, reminding us that power does not reside in institutions alone but in people who dare to believe that another Texas—and another world—are still possible. From the halls of education and policy to the sacred work of land and water protectors, these intertwined movements embody a deep remembering: that care for people and care for the Earth are inseparable acts of justice.

These are the truths we live and build through the Texas Association for Bilingual Education educators movement, the Texas Legislative Education Equity Coalition, the Ethnic Studies Movement, the Mariachi Music in the schools movement, the Texan Genealogical Society movements, the For the Love of Texas Higher Education Coalition, the impressive youth movement of those involved in legislative battles, and the growing Indigenous and Native American movement—and many other spaces where imagination meets action and where love, courage, and community become the most enduring forms of resistance and transcendence. 

Transcendence. 

Isn't that what we all want?

Each and every one of us is entitled to a life triumphant—a life of dignity, joy, and purpose. And no one has the right to deny us of it.

As the writer and systems thinker Margaret Wheatley (2017) reminds us, our charge in these turbulent times is to create “islands of sanity” in the midst of chaos—places where truth, compassion, and shared purpose can still flourish. In nurturing these islands together, we reclaim our power to heal, to organize, and to dream the future into being. Si se puede! Yes we can!

Reference

Wheatley, M. J. (2017). Who do we choose to be? Facing reality, claiming leadership, restoring sanity. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Texas NAACP and Faith Leaders Launch“Building The Beloved Community”Initiative to Reclaim Civic Dialogue and Protect Dignity Across Texas Sept. 22, 2025

Friends:

So glad to see this happening. And how timely! 

On the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, Texas NAACP President Gary Bledsoe calls on all of us to help build Dr. King’s Beloved Community. This initiative reminds us that freedom is a moral commitment to one another. It’s inspiring to see LULAC, faith leaders, and community partners uniting to restore dignity, dialogue, and hope across Texas.

-Angela Valenzuela 

Texas NAACP and Faith Leaders Launch“Building The Beloved Community”Initiative To Reclaim Civic Dialogue And Protect Dignity Across Texas

Press Statement

NAACP Houston Branch Statement

September 22, 2025

Texas NAACP and Faith Leaders Launch “Building the Beloved

Community” Initiative to Reclaim Civic Dialogue and Protect Dignity Across Texas

On Sept. 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the venerated Emancipation

Proclamation. Today, 163 years later, our state still in many ways is debating the

dignities, humanity and freedoms conferred to People of Color by that document.

“We have fractured into communities that see this nation as us against those

people. And social media, some political operatives, extremists and others have

exploited those fissures to the point where civic dialogue, respect, and dignity are

on the decline. While violence, indifference, race-baiting, and hopelessness are on

the rise,” said Gary Bledsoe, President of the Texas NAACP.

“Before he died 57 years ago, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. challenged us to be part of Building the Beloved Community. That is why we are launching this

initiative to reclaim the moral high ground.”

“We’ve worked on putting different pieces in place for more than a year, but we are

now asking other people who want to be part of this initiative to join with us at

every level.”

“This is our follow-up to Dr. King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Bledsoe said.

Specifically, The Texas NAACP is calling on our partners to join with the Texas

NAACP and its units to create roundtables across Texas to engage in civic dialogue and take other steps to create a better path forward for all Texans.

“I am honored to represent Pastors for Texas Children in supporting this initiative

by our friends in the Texas NAACP to create a conversation of mutual respect and

dialogue to address the challenges faced by our communities with the increase in

incidents of violence and verbal abuse in our classrooms and communities, said

the Rev. Dr. Larry Bethune, Senior Pastor Emeritus of the University Baptist Church,

Austin.

“We believe every Texas student should be treated with dignity and respect and

should feel safe in his or her school and wider community. We believe schools

should provide and protect an environment where Texas youth can learn the value

of respectful civil discourse where their voices are heard and their concerns

honored. Every person is precious in God’s eyes, no matter their background.

“We hope these conversations will strengthen the frayed fabric of our wider

communities and rekindle the dream of our forebears for a nation united by our

democratic ideals of listening to one another and living as “one nation, under God,

with liberty and justice for all.” Therefore, Pastors for Texas Children endorses this

program of community building conversations in our communities and

congregations.”

Texas LULAC General Counsel, Gloria Leal said, “LULAC, the largest and oldest

Hispanic advocacy group in the United States, joins the NAACP in support of the

First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution , a cornerstone of our democracy

protecting free speech, belief and association. LULAC joins the NAACP in opposing

any form of violence which impinges on Firm Amendment rights , in the face of

retaliation and other forceful efforts aimed at suppression and imposition of --

ideological conformity.”

Theme and mission: The Texas NAACP along with faith leaders and other partners are announcing an initiative to continue the work of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King in Building a Beloved Community.

We want round tables in each community to help address issues of violence and to

provide safe spaces for dialogue on issues in our communities. We hold true to the

desire of Dr. King to seek to achieve a Beloved Community. In order to facilitate

discussions we are providing the following documents for our Texas NAACP units

and other partners to consider for use in their round table discussions: (a)

Reimagining Public Safety — Moving to Safe, Healthy, and Hopeful Communities

(Travis County); (b) Public Safety Suggestions Document for College Campuses

(Texas NAACP); and (c) Proposed Policy on K-12 Bullying (written from legislation

by Senator Menendez, Rep. Ron Reynolds and Rep. Senfronia Thompson, IDRA and

Texas and Lubbock NAACP Branch).

Bledsoe said, it falls to people of good will to meet the challenges we face and not

expect or wait for leaders to rescue us. And that means we must come together

and work together to create communications that respect the dignity and

humanity of all people. This means reaching out to people across the political

spectrum, people of all faiths, and building coalitions with local entities for a better

way forward toward that Beloved Community Dr. King spoke of. 

It doesn’t mean that we stop fighting for justice and civil rights, but it means we also look for common ground. Though there may be fundamental political and even religious

issues that may sometimes divide us, we know that people of good will respect all

people and believe that all of us, without regard to race, creed, color, political

affiliation, faith or religious beliefs, be treated with dignity.

Our partners: While the Texas NAACP is leading this work, we are proud that

already we have a large and diverse group of religious.

Gary L. Bledsoe, President

Texas State Conference of NAACP Units

Honoring Native American Heritage Month and Its Origins [Video]

Good morning! Today is Nov. 1, marking the beginning of Native American Heritage Month, sometimes referred to as American Indian Heritage Month. Here is a great video on how Native American Heritage Month came to be, with roots that easily go back to 1914. If you're a professor or a school teacher, it might be a cool thing to do a land acknowledgement and talk about what this month means to you personally.

For my part, I would like to acknowledge that my home sits on the Indigenous lands of Turtle Island, the ancestral name for what now is called North America. Moreover, I would like to acknowledge the Alabama-Coushatta, Caddo, Carrizo/Comecrudo, Coahuiltecan, Comanche, Kickapoo, Lipan Apache, Tonkawa and Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo, and all the American Indian and Indigenous Peoples and communities who have been or have become a part of these lands and territories in Texas.

I also want to acknowledge my own Indigeneity—of Purépecha and Apache descendancy—from Michoacán, Mexico and the Southwestern region of Arizona/Northern Sonora/Southeastern California, respectively. I owe my very life and well-being to my ancestors.

I also want to acknowledge the important work that we do at our Saturday School, Academia Cuauhtli (or Eagle Academy in Nahuatl) together with the Kalpulli Teokalli Teoyolotl that teaches danza to the children at the school. We are in partnership with the Indigenous Cultures Institute in San Marcos, the Austin Independent School    District, and the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center. A key partnership is with Azteca Sirias' Aztech Kidz Code Summer Camp that offers our Indigenous STEM Summer program. We are largely comprised of volunteers and all of our educators are certified bilingual/dual language teachers from within the Austin Independent School District. 

Academia Cuauhtli is in its ninth year of operation. In addition to our two-week summer program that promises to expand to even greater numbers of students next summer, we have already expanded to five after-school programs in AISD directed by current and former Academia Cuauhtli teachers. In nine years, we have prepared well over 250 teachers to teach our co-constructed curriculum and the units are made available districtwide to all AISD teachers.

As student, professor, elder, and parent volunteers, our work in maintaining the school is truly a labor of love to offer an East Austin, largely immigrant, Spanish-speaking, working class community a free, culturally revitalizing and enriching curriculum. Many thanks to the staff at the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Culture Center, our physical home. Many thanks, as well, to our AISD partners for working with us and supporting our work despite shrinking budgets.

We all benefit from this magnificent work that invites the sacred into education. After all, what could be more sacred that the education of our youth? That we, in the process, are ourselves revitalized, speaks not only to ways that we are capable of knowing, but also a lived experience that combines a life of the mind, heart and spirit that lives in and breathes through community.

At our best, as once expressed by the Rev. Dr. King, our efforts equate to the "beloved community" about which he spoke. In Spanish, "El pueblo amado," is so incredibly sonorous and resonant, if not inviting.

Shouldn't this be the gold standard anyway toward which we should all aspire in education? Are we not better with, than without, escuelita (our school)? Should there not be many more? Should there not be many more everywhere?

No question about it. Because of Academia Cuauhtli, our lives, if not our very species-being, which is, at its base, communal, finds fulfillment—a replenishing source of joy, love and identity. We are alway much more than we know ourselves to be. We are always much more than who we are told that we are. Hence, an ingrained need for self-discovery, a kind of psychic anchoring and epistemological commitment.

It's all so very tender and humbling. Working around, with, and for children and youth does that to you...💗

Friends, do get out and vote. Native Americans have also fought long and hard for the franchise.

We must all do our part to perfect the union.

Check out the video below. Happy Native American Heritage Month!

-Angela Valenzuela

#StandNVote #NativeVote #EveryNativeVoteCounts #Indigeneity  #IndianCountryCounts #NativeAmericanHeritageMonth @AcadCuauhtli @IndigeCultures