What I Do...

In the organization that i am in we help the immigrant with their rights as human beings. we give them pamphlets so that they can read and share with their friends and family in the event that they are taken into custody by an immigration officer or in a case of an injustice committed against them. This summer i will be working with the Tiera Y Libertad Freedom summer classes and with my "job" in which i am being trained as a community health advisor, an organizer, and a farmer. so far we have conducted a community profile in which a group of us took on different parts of our barrio and we profiled most of the houses and the way that they look so that we can improve the community's health and the rights of the people. I wanted to bring attention to some of the things that are happening in my community and as well as in many other communities.

In the city that i live in Tucson, AZ we have a school district called TUSD (Tucson Unified School District) in this district we have a wonderful program called the Mexican American/ Raza Studies. this program mixes in the Mexican American cultures and history into one class. The 2007 and 2008 school year was my fist year actually attending classes like this one, i would have to say that in a year i have learned so much more about the thing that i am more interested, where i come from, because not everyone comes from the european background and from the west. some actually come from the south. well in the past and just recently we have gotten attacks that in the classes they are actually teaching us how to be racist and that it separates the students into different ethnically based classes. yeah the class may be based on one ethnicity (mexican americans) more than the white culture. But the classes are open to anyone who is interested in joining the class. just because the class has inspired a lot of students to continue with their education and to stand up for what they believe in. Others misinterpret that and say that all the class is doing is catering to a bunch of rebels and that the teachers are teaching us how to be racist and disrespectful. how can learning about my culture make me a rebel? have i ever been disrespectful to anyone? How can they know what the classes are teaching us when they have never had the integrity to come into our classroom and listen to some of the things that are being thought to us? if you where against something wouldn't you first want to know what it is that you are against of?