LOS ANGELES, CA. Xicano Records and Film presents their 11th Annual “Farce of July” Music and Art festival. Featuring live performances by LA’s own legendary hip hop queen Medusa, 2Mex (of the Visionaries and OMD), Jroz and DJ Ethos, Maya Jupiter of Australia, and an electric fusion of native instrumentation and poetry by Aztlan UnEarthed. Performances will also include hip-hop by Kiwi(formerly of Native Guns), MC in rebellion Olmeca, Victor E of Chicano hip hop crew El Vuh, from the gravel roads of the Santee Sioux Reservation RED, and Sherman Austin. This eclectic lineup will also include a ’sonic and lyrical assault’ by band Flatbush, poetry and song by In Lak Ech, hip-hop & soul vocals by Skim, all female punk band Sin Miedo, theater and political satire by LA’s newest all-woman Chicana theater troupe Teatro M3, and Chicano Secret Service-celebrating their 20th year in theater, as well as spoken word by Faith Santilla. The day will be filled with music, DJs, spoken word, children’s art activities, local vendors, and food and is co-sponsored by Mi Vida, Cultura y Mas and Divine Forces Radio.
Xicano Records and Film is a Los Angeles based collective network of performers, musicians, visual artists, and organizers. Since 1997, XRF has independently produced concerts and music albums in Los Angeles, built connections with artists in Mexico, Canada, throughout the US, and ‘Native’ country. “The Farce of July” was created in order to use art and music as an instrument of community empowerment, education, and celebration while bringing to light the experience of historically oppressed peoples throughout the world.
The festival will begin at 2pm and end at 10pm. The donation requested is $10 and proceeds of the event will benefit the Peace and Dignity Journeys 2008. This is an all ages event, no alcohol, drugs, or fireworks will be allowed.
Every year this concert strives to benefit and bring awareness to local and national causes. In 2007, the event benefited the United Farm Workers’ campaign to alleviate farm worker families affected by the California freezes. The Farce of July 2008 will benefit the Peace And Dignity Journeys 2008, a run promoting cultural exchanges between indigenous nations. Originating in 1992, this symbolic run is organized in the spirit of unity among indigenous peoples of the western hemisphere which promotes peace, justice, respect, and dignity. Taking place every four years, the Peace And Dignity Journeys 2008 is dedicated to Sacred Sites and will begin in Chickaloon Alaska and Tierra del Fuego, Argentina and will meet in Panama.
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The Chicano Mexicano Prison Project and The Committee On Raza Rights Dedicate Its 2008 Conference On Raza Prisoners and Colonialism To Compañero Raul Salinas.
On Feb. 13 2008, Raul Salinas, activist and poet, passed away. For four decades, Compañero Raul had fought for human rights and the national liberation of all oppressed people and nations. In particular, Compa took on a struggle that has not been particularly popular, especially when it is raised within the context of the liberation of a nation; we are talking about connecting the struggle for the rights of prisoners to the liberation of La Raza.
Born in San Antonio and raised in the barrio of “Eastside” (a barrio more than hundred years old) in Austin, Tejas. Compa Raul, as is the case for many young Raza, became a victim of the contradictions and manipulation of a capitalist society; he got in drugs and trouble, and ended up in prison.
He did time behind the walls of Huntsville (a city located in Texas, surrounded by 7 prisons, and known as “Prison City”), Soledad State Prison (California), and Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary (Texas). For Compa Raul, prison life became a 15-year journey of confinement and reflection, and coming to terms as to who he was –as an Indian, as a Mexican.
It was in prison where Compa Raul came into contact with political activists and freedom fighters, like Cancel Miranda (a leader in the Puerto Rican Independence Movement). It was in prison, where he learned about the power of the pen, becoming a prolific writer and poet. Compa Raul focused his writings on his prison experiences and poetized about life, love, and freedom.
Upon his release from prison in 1973, Compa Raul dedicated his life to working full time for the “struggle”. He joined AIM (American Indian Movement) and helped co-found the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (Peltier was convicted for death of two FBI agents on June 26, 1975).
EXPERIENCING THE CONTRADICTIONS OF RACIST WHITE AMERICA
Life’s experiences opened the eyes of Compa Raul to the contradictions and hypocrisy of white/racist “America”; a society which punishes Native Americans and Raza for exercising their right to self-defense, yet glorifies and converts into heroes the assassins and mass murders (Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, Kit Carson, etc.) responsible for the genocide and suffering of millions of people in “America” and throughout the world.
Not content with simply “poetizing”, or living a “petty bourgeois lifestyle”, as so many artists do, Compa Raul actually lived among the poor and the workers; putting into practice his ideas and beliefs. He organized various conferences, demonstrations, pickets, press conferences, visited prisoners, and donating his work and time to raise money for liberation causes. Compa Raul elaborated upon his thoughts and experiences in an autobiographical work titled “My Weapon Is My Pen.”
Up to the time of his death, we witnessed Compa Raul continuing to put into practiced the unity of revolutionary politics and poetry, through activities (meetings, readings, platicas, etc.) that took place in a small book store and arts center that he, along with a collective of young people, managed. The bookstore, “Resistencia Books”, was located in south Austin, a working class community of Africans, Mexicanos, and whites.
OUR UNITY WAS BASED IN THE STRUGGLE TO DESTROY OPPRESSION
To the Chicano Mexicano Prison Project (CMPP), the most important aspect of Compa Raul’s life was his opposition to racism and imperialism. Almost every word he spoke or wrote, expressed the thoughts of the oppressed masses’ desire for liberation. He exposed European (white) imperialism as the main oppressor and enemy of the people. He saw it as a system that needed to be completed destroyed, This was in contrast to the “reformism” of most white left/liberals and wanna-be-chicano “artsy types”, that we see today.
On June 24, 2000, the CMPP hosted its “4th Annual Conference On Raza Prisoners and Colonialism”. Organized under the theme, “Libertad Para Toda Nuestra Raza”, Compa Raul was the keynote speaker. Before more 100 people in attendance, he delivery a hard-hitting presentation titled “Down With The Pintas! Free Our Gente! “
We remember our unity with Compa Raul, as not one based on poetry, but in the struggle to destroy oppression –poetry being just one of many tools to be utilized in the process of liberation. It was this unity that led the CMPP, along with the Committee on Raza Rights, to dedicate this year’s Conference On Raza Prisoners and Colonialism, to the memory of Compa Salinas.
Compañero Raul Salinas, Presente!
Hasta La Victoria, Siempre!
Chicano Mexicano Prison Project
Editor’s note: This year’s Conference On Raza Prisoners and Colonialism will be held on June 28, 2008, in Oxnard, Califaztlán. For more information, such as location, agenda, speakers, please see web: uniondelbarrio.org
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Everyday on the way to my white-collar job in the San Fernando Valley, I pass through Cooper Road where some of my neighbors wait to get picked up for some work to survive another day. From Cooper Rd, I turn onto Oxnard Blvd, which takes me to the Transportation Center on 4th St and Meta St.
I get onto the Metrolink, which cut cross the Oxnard Plain where some of my neighbors work in the fields picking strawberries, etc. During those trips, I think to myself that my neighbors and I share a common experience in the social, political, and economic world around us. In addition, to those experiences we are connected by our history of migration in the Americas.
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I was selected to participate in the Smithsonian Latino Center’s Latino Museum Studies Program in Washington, D.C. from July 13, 2008-August 8, 2008.
Summary of Program:
The first half of the program will address issues concerning the representation of Latino art, culture, and history, and include panel sessions, lectures, workshops, and behind the scenes access to Smithsonian collections. Topics covered include various areas of museum work such as curatorial practice, education, exhibition design, collections management, public programming, and development.
During the second half of the program, participants must choose a team project. This component provides hands-on experience in different areas of museum work such as collecting initiatives, museum-based curriculum development, curatorial work, and on-line education initiatives.
The goal of the projects is to encourage the teams to develop new concepts and theories, and complete research, as well as contribute to current exhibitions, programs and research in progress at the Smithsonian.
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For the last three weeks, I had been conducting research at the Museum of Ventura County. Llibrarian/archivist Charles Johnson and staff have helped me find information on Mexicans in Oxnard and Ventura County.
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My summer research project is composed of conducting archival research and oral histories, which would develop into a research paper and notes on the history of Mexicans in Oxnard, California and Ventura County.
I will conduct archival research at the Oxnard Public Library, Local History Collection (Oxnard, Ca), Ventura County Museum of History & Art, Historical Research Library (Ventura, Ca).
The final outcome will be a research paper titled, Growing Up In La Colonia: Culture, Migration, And Community it will recount the story of Mexicans migration and settlement in the La Colonia in Oxnard, California through the narrative of my family history. The first section develops a brief social history of the Mexican community in the development of the city of Oxnard; one for whites and another for non-whites. The second section focuses on my family migration to the city of Oxnard and where they settled in the La Colonia. The finally section focuses on my family interaction and interception of culture, community, and migration within the context of living in La Colonia.
The overall purpose of this research paper is to give a voice to the Mexican community, which has been brutalized, marginalized, and segregated in United States history, especially the history of Oxnard. Furthermore, the research paper would lead to a dissertation project titled, From Segregation To Civil Injunction: A History Of Mexican Resistance In Oxnard, California.
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Before I left Michigan for the summer, I had the opportunity to do some archival research at the Walter P. Reuther Library.
I’m doing research on community organizing in Oxnard, CA. The Reuther has the UFW Collection and I was looking at the Fred Ross Papers. Within the Fred Ross Papers there are correspondence & activity reports between Cesar Chavez and Ross, which cover the years (1958-1959) Chavez was organizing in Oxnard under the CSO.
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After reading 41 books & 75 articles and writing 33 book reviews, 6 presentation essays, and 2 research papers, I have finished my first year of my PhD program!!!
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