[Short Film] "Speaking Through Walls," co-directed by McAllen ISD Teacher Clarissa Riojas

I am so happy to get reacquainted with this excellent, high-quality video that I remember viewing back in 2018. It was co-directed by a former mentee of mine and McAllen Independent School District English language arts teacher and department chair extraordinaire, Ms. Clarissa Riojas.

Photo Credit: David Bacon

This short, 5-minute film “Speaking Through Walls,” was screened at Cine Del Sol in South Texas and featured, as well, in the Texas Sierra Club Newsletter. The concerns expressed in the video are as germane today as they were back in 2018 if not more so.

I am so proud of her many accomplishments and touched at how she taps into the soulful voices of our community in South Texas. Someday, as our ancestors once knew, we will have no need for this or any other border wall, allowing for free and open movement up and down the continent. When? I don't know. What I do know is the harm to our spirit when such walls divide us. 

On a personal note, Ms. Riojas and I go back to the earliest breaths of Academia Cuauhtli before we even had a name. She was a University of Texas at Austin undergraduate at the time and played the vital role of attending and taking minutes at our many meetings that led up to the establishment of our escuelita, our precious Saturday school, that is now in its eighth year of existence. She and I even published a short piece on our efforts back then titled, "No time to waste: We must advocate for books for our children."

There is still no time to waste. 

Students and mentees like Clarissa who move on to accomplish great things remind us of why we do what we do. My heart is full. 💗

-Angela Valenzuela 

#BridgesNotWalls

#OpenBorders

Trump’s Opponents Aren’t Arguing for “Open Borders”—But Maybe They Should

Particularly in light of the present catastrophe along the U.S.-Mexico border, we really should be having a larger public conversation regarding open borders.  Though still at the margins, I'm glad to see that the idea is coming back into public discourse as evidenced by these pieces in The Atlantic titled, The Case for Getting Rid of Borders—Completely and now this piece below in The New Yorker.

Putin and Trump critic, Masha Gessen is the author of several books, including her mmost recent one titled, The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia.  I heard her speak this morning on MSNBC.  She refers to Trump as fascist even if our government isn't quite there, thankfully.  Long term, however, the direction we take as a country depends on us to get this fascist and his cabal out of power.

-Angela Valenzuela

Trump’s Opponents Aren’t Arguing for “Open Borders”—But Maybe They Should

By Masha Gessen

June 22, 2018

The conversation about borders too easily falls back on artificial distinctions between immigrants and refugees, and between political and private violence.

Photograph by Philip Montgomery for The New Yorker

Now seems like a good moment to admit that we don’t know what we are talking about when it comes to immigration. President Trump has signed an executive order that is intended to stop the separation of families at the border, but not the policy of prosecuting and detaining everyone who is seen as crossing the border illegally. If the Administration has its way, asylum seekers will be warehoused together with their family members. The number of ice facilities will grow, as will the number of people whom this country incarcerates without a clear legal procedure, and without an end in sight. And, if the recent history of the immigration debate is any indication, the opposition to Trump will have little to say about that.

Continue reading here.