November 2003
this picture was taken Oct. 29th, 2003. i'm glad that i don't have school wed. and fri. cuz i can
spend time with my daughter. although is hard having a family and being in school, i think that
my daughter and Ale are a great source of energy and defenetly help me keep my sanity. is
hard being in grad. school, it can be a pretty lonely place, especially since i'm don't live in berkeley
but commute from salinas to b-town.
Nov. 23rd, 2003 today, my homegirl Celeste Quetzalli, my 'jaina' Alejandra and me went to the "pulga," pues la flea Market pues, pa que me entiendan. the only market i play, pues es la jc pulga. we had a good time. ale bought toys for her cousins and also for my prima daisy (who, by the way, esta enferma. pobre). i bought celeste a toy baby stroller. i also bought some "duro's" (fried dough, almost like chips, chicharrones) and put a lot of chile y limón. i also saw, believe it or not, The Matrix Revolutions being sold on DVD. wow! (i hope this practice never ends). i wanted to buy it ($10), but since i already watched it twice. pues no.
by the way, if any one is interesting in learning web desing, you guys can check out my lesson plans at: ubnapa.net. feel free to use them, but please, credit the author (with a link will be nice). i hope my students make good use of them.
i have been rethinking this whole socialization deal, and i think that is not about wether to buy them a baby doll and kitchen utensils. that in itself is not bad, since children want to immitate their parents and what we do with our kids (such as feed them and take them around in the stroller). i think the real dangerous act, is to create restrictions according to gender. meaning, celeste should be able to play with dolls just as much as with toy carpenter tools and fire engines.
we live with another two boys, and the older one sometimes excludes Celeste cuz she's a girl. he gets this from his father. just the other day, the father took ordered his son out of the kitchen, saying that "the kitchen is for women, not for men." that family is expecting a new child. hopefully is not a girl.
school is almost over. p4p reading is december 3rd and i'm still not sure what poem i want to read. maybe i should write a new one. i came out with three assignments for the Native American Poetry sections. 1. write a story/narrative poem whre the landscape is an active presence, and where there's some type of interaction between humans and the landscape. 2. write a trickster poem, where the weak oustmarts the strong, or where chaos/crisis is seen as an opportunity for change/revolution. 3. write a prayer poem that uses repetition and that calls better worlds into existence. i know that it's tricky to emulate other people's styles. but p4p and i, don't really mean to appropiate. it's very important for p4p to not pretend to be someone they are not. so we always ask students to write from their own experiences. p4p believes that poetry is a powerful medium for telling the truth and creating connections between people. and of course, we should always be mindful of power dynamics. i think that at times people are afraid to take risks, and so they never really get to learn about other people's cultures, not in a "lets learn about other cultures for the heck of it" but to create meaninful connections and allies in the struggle for social justice (real material justice, not just in the realm of law). bueno, who ever has issues with p4p, is more than welcome to speak up, as i know that there are issues.
one last note.
i may start a poetry/teatro group here in Salinas! I may do it through the Alisal Center For The Fine Arts. Jose Ortiz, a local muralist bien xingón is helping us (Ale and mua) with the project. aber que pasa.
Nov. 18th 2003
highlights: Had a real good birthday dinner/getogether. Organized by my momma, as always. we had tamales and posole. jose ate some soy "chicken" patties and soydogs. the food was really good. i hanged out with Rudy, the lead guitarrist in Mortero De Piedra (i admire my friends passion for music and how far he has gone. i'll put a song up latter on my site. I especially like El Ilegal/The Illegal, which talks about the hardships of an undocumented worker. xingona.) I also been teaching High Tech Sat. school with Upward Bound. The students are not very into web design. I think is my fault for going to fast and not really doing a good job at introducing all the implications of having a web pg. I'll change my game plan. i have been reading a lot. yesterday/today Jose and I went to Denny's and stayed there until almost 3 am reading and talking, but mostly reading. him and anabel (or is it annabelle) are really into each other, van en serio pues. it was his b-day on Sunday, so I took him out to dinner cuz i couldn't be there the day of his fiesta. ni modo.
my eyes are burnning cuz i havent' slept much, y pa' colmo, we didn't even talk much about the readings today. ale is asleep and so is "Tete" which is how Celeste calls herself. we even had a short conversation over the phone today. i asked her if she wanted to go to the park, and she said "si" she also told me "rosha" which is how she calls my mom/her gradma, she was supposed to take care of Tete, but Ale felt bad waking her up, and since her Mom stopped working, pues se la dejo.
Last week I took Celeste to my mom, so that she could take care of her; i needed to go to berkeley. and to my dismay, Tete told me, (ME!!! her father) "Papa bye bye" meaning, you can leave now. Although it is good that she doesn't make a big deal about me leaving, it didn't feel good to know that I was longer needed. well, that's how children are (that's what my mom said, after making fun of me). Tete is developing a really strong character, not just cuz her independence, but because she lets you know what she wants and will go a long way to get it, including trying to hit you. well, i need to figure out how to educate her without squashing her strong character/will. we need strong mujeres to lead the revolution.
peace. paz.
Nov. 6th 2003
i got this new program GoLive and i'm still learnign how to use it. needless to say, today is my birthday. it wasn't just another ordinary day, except we (ale, celeste y yo) went to have breakfast at Denny's, i order a meat lovers (not cuz i love meat, but because it was on special) and got stuffed. the plate came with hash browns, bacon, sausage, eggs, and three pancakes. i had a grapefruit juice. celeste made a mess, like always. ale got sleepy after eating. it was a good morning.
i had to took jose to the grayhound at 6:30, since we missed the 5:20 bus. then i went back to sleep.
THE MATRIX: REVOLUTIONS!!!! is just one of the best movies i have ever seen (hmmm?) well, at least i really like the action, special effects, suspence, suprises, etc. it felled a bit short on narrative, as it left many questions unanswered (which i wont go into it here, since some of ya haven't seen the movie yet) (who is "ya" i write this for me) i'll just give you a hint, neo and trinity.............i cant.....do....this......my....finger..............oh......and the smith does.....the oracle.....wow....wow....wow.......
more on this latter. i'm serious about putting up the matrix page, i just have to wait for winter break.
yes, i am putting a lizard on Celeste's hand. can you believe that! well, this girl is pretty brave (for being so young, not for being a girl as gender doesnt really determine nothing). i'm trying to teach her to not be like certain members of the family (both close and extended fam.) that just can't stand any time of smaller living creature, and i mean any!
yesterday, she grabbed a chocho/saltamontes/(english?) well, the thing is that she caught the jumping bug all by herself.
today i bought her a plastic baseball bat and three tennis balls, she was so happy. around here, people say things like "no, that's not for girs/boys." "boys/girls can't play with blank" Ale and I don't want this for our daughter. ella que culpa tiene.
the more i read about the situation for women in the world (and in our city/house!) the more i want Celeste to be a strong mujer capable of defending herself (with mind+body+spirit) cuz really, is hard to be a woman of color (and i swear i'm not trying to patronize).
we had our dia de los muertos reading this Oct. 30th and it turned out really good. about 28 people came and enough people read to be interesting. some folks from p4p stepped up and made the evening even better. which reminds me, i have to put some stuff in our new florycanto website. ucb. florycanto.net
peace. y que vivan los zapatistas de ayer, hoy, y mañana!