Shining the Light on Academia Cuauhtli: Where Community, Culture, and Young Voices Thrive in Austin, Texas🌟🌟🌟

Shining the Light on Academia Cuauhtli: Where Community, Culture, and Young Voices Thrive in Austin, Texas🌟🌟🌟

A huge gracias to Becky Morales for sharing this super-cool 9-minute video posted below about my career journey, my passions, and—most importantly—the community-rooted work we’ve built together through Academia Cuauhtli. It’s always humbling (and a little surreal!) to see your story told back to you, but what matters most here is the spotlight on our collective vision for the program and the young people it serves.

I appreciate Morales’ focus on Academia Cuauhtli because the work of nurturing young minds, sustaining cultural heritage, and building just communities is, at its core, collective work. It draws on the wisdom of our elders, the creativity of our youth, and the steadfast commitment of friends, colleagues, and partners who share the same vision. To act alone would not only diminish the richness of what we create together, it would also erode the very values—community, reciprocity, and shared purpose—that give this work its soul. 🧘‍♀️✨🕊️

I must interject quickly here, as well, that Academia Cuauhtli is an important site for research and here is a link to our publications.

But here’s the really exciting news: The City of Austin has officially approved funding for Academia Cuauhtli! 🎉 This support comes at a perfect moment, as we prepare to settle back into our home at the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center (ESB-MACC) once our brand new classroom section is completed with our official move-in date happening in early January.

Entering our 12th year of existence, this space will be more than a location—it’s a cultural anchor where our children can learn, create, and connect with their heritage in deeply affirming ways. It's also a culture and language revitalization professional space for bilingual/dual language Central Texas educators, the majority of whom are certified teachers in the Austin Independent school district with whom we are also partnered. We have big dreams and plan to share them at the ESB-MACC's Día de los Muertos opening on Nov. 1, 2025 so stay tuned. 

Special thanks to our other partner, the City of Austin and all our city champions at City Hall, especially Council Member and Mayor ProTem Vanessa Fuentes and council members Chito Vela, José Velásquez, Marc Duchen, and Zo Qadri who represents the ESB-MACC.

While this journey has truly taken a village, I joyfully honor all who have recently poured their energy and heart into our program development and fundraising, including Martha Cotera, Dr. Emilio Zamora, Dr. Christopher Milk, Rosa Tupina Yaotonalcuauhtli, Patricia Nuñez, Ana Carrasco, Aldo Frausto, and Dr. Maria Unda, whose brilliant legwork kept our vision moving forward while many of us were out of pocket this summer.

Special thanks, as well, to Michelle Rojas, Katya Guzman, and Marie Ortiz at the ESB-MACC for their awesome support, creativity, and hospitality as we prepare to make our brand new space a vibrant home. Their dedication ensures that our cultural and educational mission will flourish within the walls of the ESB-MACC, enriching the lives of our students, families, and the broader Austin community.

So here’s to the next chapter: more storytelling, more community, and more young voices discovering the power of their own stories and histories. And here’s to the people—like Becky—who help share our story far and wide. 💛

-Angela Valenzuela

Angela Valenzuela is a professor in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction and the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy. She is a researcher and prolific published scholar, focusing on subtractive schooling and authentic caring. Valenzuela is a community advocate and policy activist, fighting against the misuse of standardized tests and their effects on students of color. She also is the founder of the Academic Cuauhtli, a school that celebrates the linguistic and cultural capital of the Latino students it serves. and curriculum expert.

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The Mexican American, Immigrant, and Greater Latino Community Deserves Palm School

Travis County Commissioner Sarah Eckhardt recently announced that she wants to sell the iconic, historically Mexican American Palm School located in downtown Austin.  Not only is it a place to which Mexican children were segregated, but it belongs to the rich and storied experience of the Mexican American Community here in Austin, Texas.

Arts Commission Chair Jaime Castillo suggests in a recent interview in the Austin Monitor, that Palm School will work best as a "museum and cultural learning space, with the possibility of hosting arts and music events to help address the programming overflow from the MACC."  He is urging to the county to sell the school to the City of Austin "as a gesture of respect and honor for Mexican Americans and their place in Austin’s history.” Plus, he adds, its proximity to the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center would make it another important touchstone for the City's Latino community.  

Another argument is that Mexican Americans and Latinos, generally, immigrant and non-immigrant alike, simply merit much greater investment by their city leaders than has frequently been the case.  Not only is this fair, but Latinos pay a heck of a lot in taxes and should have much more to show for it than we do.

One doesn't have to look too far to see that Latinos pay dearly in state and local taxes.

A recent study by the "New American Economy," a bipartisan immigrant advocacy group found the following about the Austin Metro Area based on a state-by-state analysis of U.S. Census Data.

Immigrant Household Income equals  $11.0 billion while the taxes they  pay equals $2.8 billion.  Broken down by state and local taxes, Austin metro immigrants paid $747.1 Million.  Moreover, the amount they pay to a federal government is a whopping $2 billion!  It's so shameful and disgusting to consider that these very dollars are used to harass, round up, and deport them.

Consider also other evidence of immigrants' contributions to the Austin Metro Area with a literal 25,037 immigrant entrepreneurs residing here. Another statistic additionally shows that immigrant residents are 13.6% more likely to be entrepreneurs that U.S.-born residents.

Given my focus herein on the immigrant community, this is a gross underestimate of our contributions as Mexicans and Mexican Americans to this city because these figures do not even include Mexican Americans or Latinos/as, generally, like myself.

Inasmuch as this is a calculus or subtext in these deliberations, it is nonsense and terribly offensive for anyone to think that the Mexican American and immigrant, largely-Mexican, community is taking and not giving back when, as the Palm School-coveted-land-grab helps illustrate, that the exact OPPOSITE is true.  

Our community is deeply invested in this issue.  We are involved and we are watching.  To this end, please note the following, happening at this very moment:

Oct 22, 2019 1:30pm Travis Co Public Hearing Save Palm School

May what is right and just prevail.

-Angela Valenzuela

Immigrants In Austin Pay More Taxes, Have More Spending Power Than In Other Large Texas Cities

By ANDREW WEBER • MAR 22, 2019

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