Mexican American Civil Rights in Texas Bus Tour Spring Break (March 10-15, 2018)

This is so wonderful!  Taking a bus tour related to Mexican American Civil Rights history in Texas. This is such one of the best ways to learn this history.  I remember a long time ago when I was 18 years old and taking a tour with a professor and group of students along the trail of the Mexican Revolution, beginning in Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato, Mexico, where Father Hidalgo tolled the bells of the revolution. The class was my first exposure to Mexican scholars like Octavio Paz, Carlos Fuentes, and literature in Spanish on the Revolution itself.

Far be it from being a mere curiosity of the past that makes taking these kinds of educational tours so important, rather they help re-root us to our landscape while answering questions regarding who we are in this world and how we are to be oriented to one another, particularly in the context of a protracted history of vexed Anglo-Mexican relations that this history illuminates.

Wish I could hop on board... :-)

 

-Angela Valenzuela 

 

Historia Chicana

22 February 2018

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Mexican American Civil Rights in Texas Bus Tour 

Spring Break (March 10-15, 2018)

v

From: Carla Mendiola [mailto:cmend100@gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, February 19, 2018 9:49 AM
To: Calderon, Roberto <Roberto.Calderon@unt.edu>
Cc: Arellano, Ruben Alexander <tlakatekatl@gmail.com>
Subject: Gracias & MxAmCivRtsTx Activist Speakers Inquiry

Fifty high school and middle school students and adult chaperones from the Dallas Wesley-Rankin Community Center will be traveling across the state on a Mexican American Civil Rights in Texas Bus Tour over Spring Break (March 10-15). The trip takes them from (Sat. 3/10) Dallas to Austin, to (Sun. 3/11) San Antonio, (3/12) Crystal City traveling through Alice to the Valley, (3/13) the Lower Rio Grande Valley, (3/14) Corpus Christi, (3/15) through Edna to Houston and back to Dallas.

Last year, the community center took students on the SMU Civil Rights bus tour that features African American Civil Rights activists, museums and historic sites. This year they wanted to take students on a Civil Rights tour that more closely represented their students' history.

Our state has a proud history of activism during the Chicano Civil Rights Movement. Although there are few memorialized sites of where these activities took place, the people and history are still alive and need to be shared with younger generations. The core goal of this tour is to introduce these young people to this history through meeting participants from that time period and hearing first-hand accounts of their experiences. We also want to help these students better understand those events in connection to the broader historical context of the Chicano Movement of the 1960-70s, and in connection to key events of the preceding decades and centuries that contributed to the need for the movement. The tour will include examples of cultural pride and activism as expressed through education protests, court cases, music, art, and politics. We will visit multiple sites to give the students a feel for where these historic events happened in the past and prompt them to consider how so many of those issues are still relevant today. Hopefully, by planting the seeds of historical awareness, coupled with examples of the importance of civic engagement, these students may take active roles in their community one day, too. 

I am excited about this opportunity to introduce these students to a part of their history that is often overlooked and is always inspiring. As a history professor at Texas A&M University-San Antonio, I also look forward to working with this younger generation and encouraging them to pursue higher education. To learn more about the Wesley-Rankin Community Center, and their programs to promote education, please see their website, http://www.wesleyrankin.org/ .

If you, or someone you know, was an activist during the Chicano Civil Rights Movement and would be interested in talking with our group, please contact me at your earliest convenience. We hope for at least two guest speakers per city and can offer a stipend for your time. I welcome suggestions for activist speakers, their contact information, and curriculum materials appropriate for this age group (brief, visual, engaging). You can reach me, Carla Mendiola, at cmend100@gmail.com. Gracias!

v

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Historia Chicana

Mexican American Studies

University of North Texas

Denton, Texas

Happy International Mother Language Day!—February 21, 2018

Today is  International Mother Language Day.  Never heard of it?  You can learn about it here.  Thanks to Dr. Deborah Palmer at UC Boulder for sharing.

 -Angela

UIL blog

• 21 February 2018

Linguistic diversity should not be a cause for exclusion

It is sobering to reflect that some 40 per cent of the global population do not have access to education in a language they can speak or understand. Many millions of children are taught in a language they do not speak at home, while, for equally huge numbers of adults, the unavailability of learning programmes in their mother tongue remains an insurmountable barrier to furthering their education.
This is why International Mother Language Day, observed worldwide each year on 21 February, is so important. Everyone has a right to speak and learn in their mother language and that right should be reflected in national education systems around the world.

The challenges are most acute in global regions where linguistic diversity is greatest, such as sub-Saharan Africa, and where poverty and gender inequality tend to magnify disadvantages to do with ethnicity and language. Being taught in a language that is not one’s own can have a significant negative impact on a learner’s confidence, creativity and ability to achieve. That is a huge proportion of the global population whose educational circumstances are preventing them from achieving all they might.

The Education 2030 Framework for Action notes the importance of context-related bilingual and intercultural programmes of education in ensuring that ‘all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy’ (SDG 4.6). Respecting people’s cultural and linguistic rights, and paying attention to the role played by a learner’s first language as a medium of instruction and in becoming literate, is essential if countries are to meet this target.

But mother language and multilingual education has a wider significance, too, as the use of a learner’s mother language has been found to have a wide and positive impact on learning, supporting better dialogue between teacher and student, boosting participation in society and opening up access to new knowledge and understanding. It can be key in boosting a learner’s confidence and self-esteem, affirming their sense of self-identity, which, in turn, can lead to further learning and development, for the individual and for their community.

In short, to foster sustainable development across the board, which is to say, across the breadth of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, learners must have access to education in their mother tongue, as well as in other languages. Diversity, whether linguistic or ethnic, should never be a cause for exclusion.

International Mother Language Day gives us an opportunity to acknowledge those who have fought for the recognition of their mother language, as well as to reflect more generally on the importance of respecting and celebrating linguistic diversity. Respect for linguistic diversity is a precondition of authentic dialogue and cooperation. The better we understand and value different languages, the better our chances of building a world that is creative, inclusive and peaceful.

David Atchoarena

SAVE THE DATE—Historic UT-AISD Summit, Friday, March 2, 2018, 5-8:30PM

I'm noticing that there is renewed interest in our Ethnic Studies work here in AISD. Here is the link to the actual March 2, 2018 UT-AISD Summit that folks can view for themselves. The community conversation went really well and the presentations by the students and Ethnic Studies teachers were truly wonderful and inspiring.

-Angela Valenzuela

Open to the Public

 
This history-making, UT-AISD Ethnic Studies Summit is taking place on Friday, March 2, 2018, from 5-8:30PM, dinner reception included.  Please click here to RSVP.  Open to the public, this program aims to inform the community at UT about the first year of the Ethnic Studies roll out in AISD. Ethnic Studies is currently taught in 8 AISD schools and is already showing promising results to which this summit shall speak.

This summit seeks to provide a unique opportunity for Ethnic Studies faculty and students at UT to hear from AISD staff, faculty, and students on their experiences this year with implementing this novel program that plans to extend to all AISD high schools by 2018-19.

Event Details [link to Facebook event page here; and download flyer here]:

 

Where: Gordon-White Building, Multi-Purpose Room (GWB 2.206) | UT Austin 

When: Friday, March 2, 2018, 5:00-8:30pm

Parking Info: https://utdirect.utexas.edu/apps/fasweb/parking/nlogon/garages/sag

          Event hashtag: #UTAISD2018

Acknowledgements:

The Texas Center for Education Policy (TCEP) at the University of Texas at Austin is very grateful to the following event co-sponsors:

Austin Independent School District (AISD)

Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS)

Latino Research Initiative (LRI)

Department of Mexican American and Latino Studies (MALS)

Center for Asian American Studies (CAAS)

Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS)

Institute for Urban Policy Research & Analysis (IUPRA)

Special thanks to Lizbeth Lynch in Education Policy and Planning, Sandra Telles Rojas, my Graduate Assistant, and CMAS Operations Manager, Alberto Gonzalez and MALS Events Coordinator Luis V. Guevara for logistical support.

Perspectives and Reflections From Latino Teachers

Latina & Latino teachers are under-represented within the teacher workforce and should concern us given that the school-age population is 25% nationwide. Download the full report at EducationTrust: www.edtrust.org/LatinoTeachers

-Angela

Our Stories, Our Struggles, Our Strengths

Feb 14, 2018 by Ashley Griffin

Perspectives and Reflections From Latino Teachers

America is experiencing a diverse, cultural shift and the teacher workforce is lagging behind: While Latino students make up 25 percent of the U.S. student population, and that percentage is growing rapidly, just 8 percent of the nation’s teachers identify as Latino. And although greater numbers of Latino teachers are entering the classroom, they, like other teachers of color, are leaving the profession at higher rates than their White peers.

Download the Full Report

Our Stories, Our Struggles, Our Strengths expounds on the challenges of Latino teachers, who are:

• A diverse group with diverse experiences, and identify by their country of origin, their immigration status, their language, and their race;
• Often belittled or perceived as aggressive when they incorporated Latino culture or Spanish language in the classroom, especially when advocating for Latino students and parents;
• Expected to take on additional roles, most often as a translator (even if they did not speak Spanish), but were overlooked for advancement opportunities; and
• Role models for Latino students especially, but still felt inferior and had to validate their ability to teach.

“While research shows that students from all races benefit from being taught by an educator of color, our study shows that the discrimination and implicit bias that Latino teachers face leave them feeling discouraged and perceived as unqualified to be professional educators, which hurts the teachers and in turn students. By listening to and learning from Latino teachers, school leaders can start to create and implement supports and working environments aimed at increasing the number of Latino teachers and retaining them.”

– Interim Director of P-12 Research, Ashley Griffin

Listening to Latino Teachers

We spoke with more than 90 Latino teachers in a series of nationally representative focus groups, adding rigorous qualitative data to the ongoing national conversation about teacher diversity. The purpose of these focus groups was to better understand Latino teachers’ experiences separate from the broad category of teachers of color, including why they teach, what they believe they bring to the classroom, and what challenges they face in the workplace.

Every discussion was a continuous reminder that Latino teachers are not a monolith: Their experiences based on cultural, racial, and ethnic backgrounds not only differ from other teachers of color, but also from each other. Yet, despite their differences, they held a common passion for teaching, sharing their culture with all students, and creating empowering spaces and encouraging students to do the same.

To build and maintain a teacher workforce that is representative and capable of serving an increasingly diverse student population, district leaders must pay as much attention to understanding and creating the right conditions to retain Latino teachers as they do to recruiting them.

Why Do Latino Teachers Matter?

Understanding the differences among teachers of color is critical for diversifying the workforce. The Latino men and women educators with whom we spoke represent a multitude of ethnicities, nationalities, and races. They serve as community resources, advocates, role models, and educators, creating empowering and empathic spaces for parents and strengthening educational opportunities for students.

Despite their strengths, however, Latino teachers face discrimination and stereotyping that leave them feeling discouraged and inferior as educators. By examining these dynamic experiences of Latino teachers, all educational stakeholders can begin to develop supports and working environments aimed at increasing the number of Latino teachers in the workforce and, more importantly, retaining them. This is imperative for building a truly diverse workforce capable of serving an increasingly diverse student population.

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LBJ Future Forum: Race and the Future of Texas Public Education, Feb. 21, 2018, 6:30PM

I am looking forward to attending this Future Forum on Wednesday, February 21st at the LBJ Presidential Library Atrium on the 10th floor.  Aside from the topic, which is of immense importance, I am glad to see one of our Education Policy and Planning (EPP) doctoral students, Greg Worthington, on the panel.  Please register online (see below).  

Consider liking EPP on Facebook.

-Angela Valenzuela

Race and The Future of Texas Public Education

Feb 21, 2018

Wednesday, Feb. 21
6:30 p.m.
LBJ Library, Atrium on 10th floor
Register Online
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With questions of race and racism at the forefront of political and policy conversations nationally, the LBJ Future Forum invites you to an intimate panel discussion and audience Q&A to explore the projected demographics of the schoolchildren and educators in the Texas public education system and some of the related policy, political, and socioeconomic issues.
A cocktail reception will follow the panel, and attendees are encouraged to continue the conversation over drinks and light bites.

Schedule
Doors open, Registration: 6-6:30 p.m.
Discussion: 6:30-7:30 p.m.
Reception to follow

Panelists

• Rafael Bejar, Outreach Coordinator, Policy Advisor, Texas Public Policy Foundation
• Morgan Craven, Director, School-to-Prison Pipeline Project, Texas Appleseed
• Gina Hinojosa, State Representative for House District 49
• Gregory Worthington, doctoral student in UT’s Education Policy & Planning Program and former public school classroom teacher
• Moderator: Julie Chang, state education reporter for the Austin American-Statesman

How to Attend
This program is open to the general public and Future Forum members. Please register online if you plan to attend.
Location & Parking
The library is located at 2313 Red River Street. Free parking will be available in the library's visitor lot (#38), entrance located right off Red River. (Look for the LBJ banners.)
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The Future Forum is the LBJ Presidential Library's vibrant, public policy group. Join today.

Immigration 101: What is Family Migration (or so-called ‘Chain Migration’)?

Chain migration is not anywhere close to the level that Trump makes it out to be. Nor is it so easy.  Most importantly,

Family migration is sometimes referred to as “chain migration” by opponents who want to cast it in a threatening light. This is a misleading, inaccurate, and derogatory term used by Donald Trump and other anti-immigrant extremists to slander immigrants who want to reunite with their families.

This is yet another manifestation of hyperbole and racist fear-mongering.  Another consideration is that liberal family-friendly policies attract immigrants with great talent and stellar qualifications.

Read on.

-Angela

Immigration 101: What is Family Migration (or so-called ‘Chain Migration’)?

by Anna Núñez on January 17, 2018

Tags: AVEF, Family Unity, Highlights, Immigration 101

The family migration program has  been around since the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 and allows U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents to bring in their immediate relatives to the U.S. This law did away with the racially discriminatory national origins quota system from the 1920s.

Through the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), U.S. permanent residents (or “green card” holders) can sponsor their spouses and unmarried children for permanent residence. U.S. citizens can petition for residence for their parents, siblings, and married adult children. There are 480,000 family migration visas available every year.

Donald Trump wants to restrict family migration, but it’s already hard enough: at the current rate of visa distribution, families are forced to wait years or decades before being able to reunite with family members.

View here.

Donald Trump and family migration

Family migration is sometimes referred to as “chain migration” by opponents who want to cast it in a threatening light. This is a misleading, inaccurate, and derogatory term used by Donald Trump and other anti-immigrant extremists to slander immigrants who want to reunite with their families.

Trump has called family migration an instrument for terrorism, which is completely false. He and other right-wing Republicans have also referred to family migration as a backdoor method for legalizing the undocumented, which is also false. For example, a U.S. citizen who marries a Mexican national who entered without inspection likely would not be able to sponsor him through family  migration channels, because those who enter the U.S. without documents are required to return to their home countries and wait 10 years before they can obtain a visa.

Furthermore, because there are only a certain number of family migration visas available every year, the waiting process to obtain one can be very long. According to the New York Times, more than 3.9 million people from around the world are currently waiting in line for immigrant visas, and many have been waiting for decades.

Donald Trump said he wants to replace the current family migration policy with a so-called merit-based system.  The idea is to have potential immigrants judged on a point scale, with points doled out for education, existing knowledge of the English language, a firm job offer, and other criteria.  Put simply, “merit-based immigration” in Trump-speak is code for “English-speaking, educated, affluent, and white.”  

The goal of this policy is twofold.  Not only do proponents hope to slow-down the “browning” of America, but they also want to reduce the overall number of immigrants coming to the U.S.  This is in line with the far-right immigration playbook and immigration restrictionists’ long-time goals of decreasing legal as well as undocumented immigration.

Trump currently backs the RAISE Act, a bill sponsored by Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and David Perdue (R-GA) which would limit visa sponsorship to spouses and minor children of U.S. citizens while implementing a point-based merit system to prioritize skilled workers. The number of family migration visas would be cut in half, and immigrant family reunifications would be made much more difficult.

Trump’s opposition to family migration is interesting, considering how much his own family has benefitted from the policy he is attempting to modify. His Scottish-born mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, and grandfather, Friedrich Trump, followed their siblings to America. Trump’s German-born grandmother, Elizabeth Christ, also arrived in America using family ties. And, Trump’s own foreign-born wife, Melania, helped her Slovenia-born parents live in the United States. As Columbia University historian Mae M. Ngai noted, “Donald Trump is a product of ‘chain migration.’”

The economics of family migration

“The contributions of family-based immigrants to the U.S. economy, local communities, and the national fabric are manifold. They account for a significant portion of domestic economic growth, contribute to the well-being of the current and future labor force, play a key role in business development and community improvement, and are among the most upwardly mobile segments of the labor force”, reports the American Immigration Council.

According to the Council, relatives sponsored through family migration help their family members with child care and provide other household assistance, facilitating greater workforce participation for those who hired them. Their family members provide them with resources and information not provided to other new immigrants, allowing them to quickly adjust to American life. And they often have high employment rates and high earnings growth, allowing them to contribute to the U.S. economy and their communities.

A prime example of the successful achievement of the “American Dream” by an immigrant entrepreneur is John Tu (ranked No. 87 on the Forbes 400 list) who came to the US via family migration. Tu successfully created billions in wealth with his company Kingston Technology, and – in a rare move generating worldwide attention – after selling his company, distributed $100 million in profits in bonuses to his American employees. Ranging from $100,000 to $300,000, Tu’s generosity proved life-changing for funding the “American Dreams” of his employees and their children.

Trump’s move to create a less family-friendly admissions policy would have serious negative implications to our nation’s economy, as noted by economist Harriet Duleep:

Family visas are…an important complement to high-skilled visas; skilled immigrants have families too. In considering which country to move to, will an emigrating scientist be more likely to move to a country where his family members, including siblings, parents, and adult children, can also live, or to a country where only certain family members are welcome? Would Einstein have continued to live in the U.S. had he not been able to bring over his sister Maja? A family-friendly policy may be one reason the U.S. has been able to attract immigrants with stellar qualifications.

The emotional benefits of family migration

Of course, family-friendly policies are also important to Americans and to the U.S. independent of economic benefits. As Jen Smyers of Church World Service recently said:

Being able to see your family members, hold your children, and live with your family are the most basic of family values. That is what is being attacked by proposals that would redefine family under U.S. immigration law and keep U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents from sponsoring their parents, siblings, and even children….To redefine family and prevent family reunification would not only devastate individuals’ lives, it would turn our backs as a nation to our collective future and invalidate our claim to prioritize family values.

Policy experts have repeatedly defended family migration. The White House’s rhetoric about ending “chain migration” in exchange for a possible DACA deal “is reminiscent of what brought about shameful moments in history like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1992 or Japanese incarceration during World War II,” said John C. Yang, President and Executive Director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC).  He further stated the proposed immigration cuts “are completely counter to what our nation values the most – family, which is the cornerstone of the community. Lawmakers who purport to be for family values should value families.”

AAJC recently spearheaded a sign-on letter in Support of Family Immigration, Diversity Visas, and Refugees, in which it reminded congressional leaders that the currently family migration system established by the INA of 1965 was created to end previous racist national origin quotas heavily favoring Northern and Western Europe. Yang also expressed concern that a “merit based system” will reduce the parity of women in the workplace by prioritizing the “immigration of men over women due to gender discrimination in other countries where women do not have equal opportunities.”

In short, our current system of family migration is beneficial to the U.S. economically as well as emotionally. Americans value united families, and Congress should honor that by ignoring Trump’s rhetoric and protecting family migration policies.