SWOP

Many participants of the Occupy/99% Movement in Albuquerque decided to identify themselves as (un)Occupy Albuquerque as an acknowledgement of the colonial history of New Mexico and the perspectives of the indigenous communities who live here.  They were making a powerful statement that New Mexico has been occupied by various imperialist forces for hundreds of years. The name change and the ideas behind it were major points of contention, as can be expected of any decision that would affect a large movement of people, and they influenced major conversations on race, class, and privilege within the broader Occupy Movement.

Occupy Talks: Indigenous Perspectives on the Occupy Movement  was a discussion organized in Toronto, Ontario on January 23rd, and the topics they covered reflect on many of the discussions happening in New Mexico.  Featured speakers Tom B.K. Goldtooth, Clayton Thomas-Muller and Leanne Simpson provide historical and cultural context to the discussions happening amongst Occupy and (un)Occupy groups everywhere, including in New Mexico.

The Indigenous Environmental Network’s Clayton Thomas-Muller does a nice job of outlining some of the racial and cultural clashes that occur in a movement as large as the nation-wide (and beyond) Occupy Movement:

“This Occupy Movement, if not handled correctly, had the potential to set up a scenario where a lot of our social movements, existing social movements that have beeng gaining a lot of power lately through good, resilient leadership from local, frontline communities supported by hardcore solidarity movements that are rooted in anti-colonial, anti-racist, anti-oppression frameworks… and I said I’m afraid that if we don’t find a way to deal with this huge influx of activists, of radicalized, recently radicalized people who, for the most part, have never been exposed to social movements, who, for the most part, have no idea about the history of the Civil Rights Movement, or Black Panthers, or Red Power, or the American Indian Movement, or even more contemporary stuff that’s been happening. You know, if we dont have a solid group, like a whole army of anti-racist trainers to deal with these people, all of our people are gonna experience a whole [lot] of lateral violence. Because these people don’t know how to check their white privilege at the door.”

“And then the emails started coming… the emails started coming in from Denver, from Oakland, from LA, from Santa Fe, from Albuquerque, you know, from the Southeast US, from Miami, from DC , from New York City about crazy [stuff] that was happening that was… just people who were not educated, had no experience organizing in a people’s assembly, using a mic check system, all these different things that- basically, in every single city there were crews that were predominately white dudes who were dominating and not allowing women of color, indigenous women and everybody else the space that we have become accustomed to in our own spaces. And not recognizing the importance of having, if we’re gonna truly challenge the power and create systemic change, of why it’s so important for communities to speak for themselves, of why it’s so important for lifting up and elevating the most disproportionately affected by all these problems we face to the forefront of the movement. …[A]nd why it’s so important that people with privilege, whether it’s male privilege, or racial privilege, or privilege of being older, or privilege of being hella rich, of taking a step back. Why that’s so important.”

The Occupy Movement is a reaction to the current state of politics and economics in the United States, but many of the participants and organizers involved bring their own unique perspectives, influenced by cultural and geographic background. Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a writer, activist, and scholar who has worked with Indigenous communities and organizations across Canada and internationally on environmental and political issues. Leanne offers her perspective from North of the Border, and provides historical context that helps to crystalize the “indigenous perspective”:

“Our children have been stolen from us and sent to residential schools, day schools, and a child welfare system, and now into an education system that refuses to acknowledge our cultures, our knowledge, our histories, and our indigenous experiences. And then, of course, there’s the Indian Act which until 1951 made our ceremonies illegal, made it illegal for us to hire a lawyer, made it illegal for us to leave the rez without permission of the Indian Agent, and made it illegal for us to organize. The Indian Act still controls virtually every decision and every aspect of our lives from birth to the grave. It is a continuous system of control over indigenous people.”

Tom B.K. Goldtooth, the Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, analyzes the Occupy Movement while also highlighting the power of any movement that challenges systems of power, such as government and banking entities:

“The whole economic construct has been based upon this- the taking of land. The taking of land as well as defining, not only land, but people as property rights. Slavery. Another main demand from the occupy movement, that came forward from the American Indian Movement in Denver was to support and endorse the rights of indigenous peoples. To the international right of self-determination.”

“When they say the system is broken- how many of you beleive the system is broken? My view from the shore is that it was made to be this way. And IEN [Indigenous Environmental Network] supports the necessity for civil society for peoples, our grassroots people of the world. Our popular movements to reclaim the democracy, despite however long that’s gonna take and whatever process that’s gonna be.”

Here are the videos from the evening, as well as bios of the speakers:

Thanks Giving: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtV5kzkkbxA&feature=related

Opening Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOWNHtE9ewM&feature=related

John Trudel Opening Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6mTWuC9o_E&feature=share

Leanne Simpson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfvRgx5uyQs&feature=related

Clayton Thomas-Muller: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwKIJAsOCiM

Tom Goldtooth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFWnD5UhbhY&feature=related

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a writer, activist, and scholar of Michi Saagiik Nishnaabeg ancestry and is a band member of Alderville First Nation. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Manitoba, is an Adjunct Professor in Indigenous Studies at Trent University and an instructor at the Centre for World Indigenous Knowledge, Athabasca University. She has also lectured at Ryerson University, the University of Victoria, the University of Manitoba, and the University of Winnipeg. Leanne has worked with Indigenous communities and organizations across Canada and internationally over the past 15 years on environmental, governance and political issues. She has published three edited volumes including Lighting the Eighth Fire: The Liberation, Resurgence and Protection of Indigenous Nations (2008, Arbeiter Ring), and This is An Honour Song: Twenty Years Since the Barricades (with Kiera Ladner, 2010, Arbeiter Ring). Leanne has published over thirty scholarly articles and raised over one million dollars for community-based research projects over her career. She has written fiction and non-fiction pieces for Now Magazine, Spirit Magazine, the Globe and Mail, Anishinabek News, the Link, and Canadian Art Magazine.

Clayton Thomas-Muller, of the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation also known as Pukatawagan in Northern Manitoba, Canada, is an activist for Indigenous rights and environmental justice. With his roots in the inner city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Clayton began his work as a community organizer, working with Aboriginal youth. Over the years Clayton’s work has taken him to five continents across our Mother Earth. Based out of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Clayton is involved in many initiatives to support the building of an inclusive movement for energy and climate justice. He serves on the board of the Global Justice Ecology Project and Canadian based Raven Trust. Recognized by Utne Magazine as one of the top 30 under 30 activists in the United States and as a “Climate Hero 2009” by Yes Magazine, Clayton is the Tar Sands Campaign Director for the Indigenous Environmental Network. He works across Canada, Alaska and the lower 48 states with grassroots indigenous communities to defend against the sprawling infrastructure that includes pipelines, refineries and extraction associated with the tar sands, the largest and most destructive industrial project in the history of mankind.

Tom B.K. Goldtooth is the Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN), headquartered at Bemidji, Minnesota. A social change activist within the Native American community for over 30 years, he has become an environmental and economic justice leader, locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. Tom co-produced an award winning documentary film, Drumbeat For Mother Earth, which addresses the affects of bio-accumulative chemicals on indigenous peoples, and is active with many environmental and social justice organizations besides IEN. Tom is a policy advisor on environmental protection, climate mitigation, and adaptation. Tom co-authored the REDD Booklet on the risks of REDD within indigenous territories and a member of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change — the indigenous caucus within the UNFCCC.

Sponsors were: Canadian Auto Workers, Canadian Labour Congress, CAW-Sam Gindin Chair in Social Justice and Democracy Ryerson University, Environmental Justice Toronto

Hakim Bellamy Photographed by Justin Thor Simenson

Last week, Media Literacy Project (MLP) attended the Second Annual Anti-Racism Day at the New Mexico State Legislature. Having served on the planning committee for this day of action, convened by the New Mexico Health Equity Working Group and the Deconstructing Racism Group, MLP had a chance to reflect on the anti-racism aspects of our work. Recently, we have been protecting the cyber frontier from corporate colonization through our opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), both in Congress.

Racism often frames the environment in which the most horrific human rights abuses occur. The human right to communication is certainly threatened by SOPA and PIPA, making freedom of speech the dominant argument in these debates currently happening in the U.S. House and Senate, respectively.

However, these companion bills that were initially supported by a majority of the New Mexico Congressional Delegation have a more acute impact on communities of color. With Anti-Racism Day fresh in our minds, we must at least acknowledge the disparity of that impact on our communities.

The intentionally deceptive use of language by supporters of SOPA and PIPA is something that disproportionately impacts people of color and therefore, disproportionately impacts New Mexico. The good news is that this deceptive language is not lost on folks who work in the fields of media justice and creative arts.

The idea that the SOPA and PIPA legislation was designed out of some altruistic concern of Congress to protect “the starving artist” is an utterly absurd frame. Yet, this is the frame that they have been using, with some success, to get artists to support protecting intellectual property at the expense of freedom.

The reality is that the content owners, not the content creators, are the ones lobbying this legislation through Congress. As an organization whose work is reliant upon content created by cultural workers and artists in the Southwest, we want to see the fair use and fair compensation of our partners and collaborators protected.

At the same time, we know that the most innovative and democratic model for communication and artistic distribution ever created is the Internet. The Internet is a threat to the corporate model of gatekeeping content, communication and culture for profit. Much like the artists that work in your community, the artists we work with are more likely to make a living from their art because of the Internet, not in spite of it.

Rarely are these artists in the economic stratosphere of “1%ers” who have to concern themselves with how the Internet is cutting into their movie, television or music profits. As an artist, I suspect that for artists of color approximately 99 percent of us fall into the former category.

It is not the content creators who stand to see a windfall of profit if SOPA and PIPA become law; it is the content owners who want to make sure that they remain the middle man between the artist and the audience. In the scope of anti-racism theory, the economics of this dynamic can best be explained with a plantation analogy. The plantation gets the harvest of the artist for next to nothing, and then keeps all the market profit.

However, the corporate owners have been faced with a revolt. Their attempt to put a noose around the Internet has been met with great opposition. Their attempts to control the market and bully us into giving up our freedom, is failing. Community artists figured out that working for themselves could provide much more creative and economic freedom than slaving for the owners, and have been doing so since the advent of the digital revolution in the 1980s.

Essentially, the Internet has emancipated poor people (read: artists) and communities of color from having their talent, their issues and their culture ignored or marginalized as not universal enough or not profitable enough.

So as we all apply this idea of anti-racism to the work that we do, please consider how difficult it would be for us to do the work of bringing people of all colors together without being able to share our culture freely? How would we realize the anti-racist world we seek without being able to communicate our songs, our images and our stories? Where else might we share our languages, our traditions, and our truth?

It was the Internet that gave consumer advocates, web experts and media justice advocates the power to stop SOPA and PIPA from seeing a vote. That power to catalyze change is precisely the quality of the Internet that proponents of this legislation seek to eliminate.  We ask that you write your Congressperson and Senators and tell them to leave the Internet open and free…with media and justice for all.

Hakim Bellamy is the Strategic Communications Director at Media Literacy Project

500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures, edited by Elizabeth Martinez and published by the SouthWest Organizing Project (SWOP), is included in a set of primarily Chicano and Native American books that have been banned by the Tucson Independent School District. The school district says it’s not a ban, but the books were removed from classrooms after the Mexican-American Studies program was eliminated, and teachers in that program have been instructed to not teach these books through the lens of ethnic studies. To us, this is a ban.

The SouthWest Organizing Project, in response to the current ban and the overall climate of fear and scapegoating of people of color in Arizona, is offering the book at a 50% discount to Arizona residents, and will give it for FREE to any Arizona Student who requests the book by sending a letter describing why they think the teaching of Chicano and Native American history accurately to young people is essential. Many Arizona students have already shown their disapproval of the ban, as hundreds walked out of class and marched on the Tuscon Unified School District’s headquarters earlier this week.

500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures was produced by the Chicano Communications Center in the mid-1970s with the intent of educating young Chicanos about their true history, an education they weren’t receiving in the schools. One of the staff people at the Chicano Communications Center who worked on the book, Joaquín Luján, says the book was an important step towards preserving a culture that was under attack. He had experienced, like many in his generation, the erasing of identity—expressed through language and culture—the minute he walked into the schoolhouse.

“I walked in as Joaquín, and walked out as Jackie,” he says, “which was a very sad day for mi abuelito.”

“There was a need being expressed throughout our communities for a book that accurately represented our history as people of color in the southwest, so that our children had the tools they needed to understand themselves and the world they lived in,” Luján says.

500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures and the other books on Tuscon’s banned list collectively demonstrate, through their content and their inclusion together, the interrelated nature of the Mexican, Chicano, and Native American communities. The ban is oppressive to all students of color, because it negates their histories, their shared experiences today, and their contributions to their communities. A ban on history and ethnic studies is, in effect, a ban on culture.

More information about “500 Years of Chicano History” is available at chicanohistory.org.  Like the book, El Grito is published by the SouthWest Organizing Project.

Arizona students who would like a free copy of the book should send their letters to:  

 SouthWest Organizing Project

211 10th Street SW

Albuquerque, NM 87102

OR

Send an Email to 500yearsofchicanohistory@gmail.com

 *The offer of a free book extends to the first 1000 requests from Arizona students. SWOP may print your letter on the Chicanohistory.org website. If you do not wish to have the letter printed, please indicate that in your letter.

 For more information, call SWOP at: 505-247-8832

Click here to view the embedded video.

On opening day of the 2012 New Mexico legislature, the New Mexico 99% ((un)/Occupy) movement descended on the Roundhouse to make their voices heard. At one point, the participants were able to completely encircle the Roundhouse holding hands, with more than enough people to comfortably do so. Also at the Roundhouse earlier that morning was a Tea Party rally. Marchuleta Productions was on hand to capture the 99% movement as well as hear some perspectives from participants, as well as one Tea Party representative.

Today approximately 250 people rallied in front of the Pete V. Domenici Federal Courthouse in downtown Albuquerque, joining coordinated actions around the country called Occupy the Courts against corporate personhood. Today marked the second anniversary of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision in 2010 holding that corporations and unions enjoy the same first amendment rights as people and that government can’t limit the amount of money they pump into political campaigns.

The Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan group that tracks money in elections, says that the Citizens United decision has “profoundly affected the nation’s political landscape. And not for the better.

The atmosphere today was festive with protesters chanting and songs from the raging grannies. NM State Senators Cisco McSorley, Eric Griego and Jerry Ortiz y Pino told the gathering they are cosponsoring a memorial that will denounce the Citizens United decision and assert that the NM Constitution does not give corporations the rights of people.

Ortiz y Pino said that allowing corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money on political campaigns was “not a democratic approach, but the end of Democracy.”

Joining the state senators was Albuquerque City Councilor Rey Garduno, who along with Ortiz y Pino signed the “99 Percent Pledge” to “work with particular focus” to prevent corporate dollars from influencing elections. Here is a video put together by Occupy Santa Fe about the pledge:

Michael Montoya contributed to this article.

Move to Amend sign at Occupy rally at opening day of 2012 NM Session

Strongly worded memorials calling for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to restore “Republican democracy” have been introduced in both New Mexico legislative chambers, by Sen. Steve Fischman (SM3) and Rep. Mimi Stewart (HM4).

The memorials are in response to a decision last year by the U.S. Supreme Court “Citizens United” decision holding that corporations and unions enjoy the same first amendment rights as people, and that governments can’t limit the amount of money they pump into political campaigns.

The decision effectively negates laws constructed over the last century at all levels of government that attempt to limit the influence of corporations over elections. At the Federal level, it negates the Bipartisan McCain Feingold Campaign Reform Act of 2002 that limited independent expenditures of broadcast ads during election season, defined as 30 days before a primary election, and 60 days prior to a general election.

The Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan group that tracks money in elections, says that the Citizens United decision has “profoundly affected the nation’s political landscape. “ A study by the Center documents the rise of outside expenditures since 2006:

  The percentage of spending coming from groups that do not disclose their donors has risen from 1 percent to 47 percent since the 2006 midterm elections

  501c non-profit spending increased from zero percent of total spending by outside groups in 2006 to 42 percent in 2010.

  Outside interest groups spent more on election season political advertising than party committees for the first time in at least two decades, besting party committees by about $105 million.

  The amount of independent expenditure and electioneering communication spending by outside groups has quadrupled since 2006.

  Seventy-two percent of political advertising spending by outside groups in 2010 came from sources that were prohibited from spending money in 2006

The Fischmann and Stewart memorials are part of a national wave of activity calling for an amendment to the constitution, as the only avenue for restoring limits on corporate electioneering (other than another court case through which the Supreme Court would in a highly unlikely outcome, reverse itself).

An opinion poll on behalf of Free Speech for People, conducted by a Washington, D.C. based public research firm, Hart Research Associates, found that large majorities of the electorate support such a constitutional amendment:

Fully 79% of voters support passage of a Constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court’s decision in the Citizens United case and make clear that corporations do not have the same rights as people, including 42% who would definitely support it.  Just 21% are opposed.  Large majorities of Democrats (87%), independents (82%), and Republicans (68%) support passage of the amendment.

The memorials state that the Citizen United decision “presents a serious and direct threat to republican democracy” because it “unleashes a torrent of corporate money into the political process unmatched by any campaign expenditure totals in United States history.”

Additionally, the memorials state, the decision “grants excessive power to corporate interests and threatens to overwhelm the voices of individual citizens in the political process,” concluding with a call by the NM Legislature to the U.S. congress to send to the states for ratification a constitutional amendment to restore republican democracy.

In an interview with nmpolitics.com legislative correspondent Gwyneth Doland, Sen. Fischmann said he wouldn’t be taking corporate donations for his re-election campaign later this year, and he explained why he thinks there needs to be a constitutional amendment to change Citizens United:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The decision by the Obama administration to deny the permit a Canadian firm’s applied for to build and operate the Keystone XL pipeline is greeted as a victory by Indigenous peoples who have been fighting to block the massive project that would carry oil extracted in from Canada’s tar sands to refineries on the Texas gulf coast. The following statement was released today by the Indigenous Environmental Network, including statements from tribal leaders and native organizations. 

Bemidji, Minnesota - Tribal leaders and Native organizations from the United States and Canada are standing together today pleased that President Barack Obama is acknowledging his pledge to listen to the voices of this countries’ original people, by rejecting the Transcanada Keystone XL pipeline.

Recent months have brought tribal leaders to Washington DC requesting Obama to reject the pipeline.

“Tribal governmental leaders from the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, the Oglala Sioux Tribe, and the Sac and Fox Nation met with President Obama and his administration in Washington DC in early December to deliver a message to reject the Keystone XL pipeline in defense of Mother Earth,“ says Tom B.K. Goldtooth, executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN).

“I say miigwetch, thank you, to the Creator for giving President Obama and the U.S. Department of State the courage, strength and wisdom to deny the presidential permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline. Lifting up this issue as a Native rights issue bringing our tribal grassroots and governmental leaders together with environmentalist and private land owners of the prairie lands sent a message loud and clear that this was the right thing to do,” says Marty Cobenais, lead pipeline organizer with IEN.

Debra White Plume, a grandmother of the Oglala Lakota Oyate who was arrested in the Washington DC protest of the pipeline says, “Rejection of the Keystone XL oil pipeline is a reason to celebrate! At least that source of contamination that was a threat of our drinking water sources, the Missouri River, and the Ogallala Aquifer has been removed. Now we just have to stop the uranium mining that is poisoning the aquifer every day.”

“President Obama and the State Department deserve our thanks for having the foresight and courage to reject the permit application for the pipeline.  The stated number of jobs on the project was so inflated that it started to outweigh the health, environmental and climate impacts being experienced by the Cree, Dene and Métis communities living downstream from the tar sands in Canada. In any of these carbon intense fossil fuel developments, and its pipeline infrastructures, economic externality costs have to be thoroughly assessed,” said Pat Spears, President of Intertribal Council on Utility Policy, based in South Dakota. “In the Northern Plains our tribes have alternatives for clean renewable energy.”

“This is one battle won for our Mother Earth,” said Clayton Thomas-Muller, campaign coordinator with IEN Canadian Indigenous Tar Sands Campaign.

“Other pipeline battles linked to the Canadian tar sands continue. We remain vigilant in our work with First Nations in Canada and grassroots leaders to halt the tar sands. We are working with activists in British Columbia to stop the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline, and other pipelines throughout Canada.”

If you live anywhere in the Albuquerque area, you should remember the toxic fire that occurred at the Albuquerque Metal Recycling plant on Second Street four months ago.  I live close to there and remember thinking how much worse the smoke coming from the recycling plant was than the wildfire smoke that had entered my neighborhood from across New Mexico just months before.  In fact, it was so full of toxic materials that I ended up locking myself away in my room the night of the fire just to avoid breathing it.

While this may seem like a not so often occurrence to residents of Albuquerque, industrial pollution is actually something that Albuquerque residents living in the East San Jose and Mountainview areas experience on a regular basis.  Just look at the numerous Superfund sites located in these neighborhoods for proof of how often industry has used this area as not only a place to do their work, but also to leave behind a legacy of pollution that continues to this day.

It’s in light of this history and current reality that neighborhood residents consider a proposal to the City of Albuquerque by California-based Friedman Recycling Companies to build and operate a materials recovery facility.   Local activist and San Jose Neighborhood Association President Esther Abeyta is fighting the facility being built in her neighborhood.  She recently sent a letter to NM Representatives and Senators, City Councilors, and Mayor Berry to ask for their help in getting more information out to the public about the city contract with Friedman, including where exactly in her neighborhood are they trying to build it.

Thus far, they city has avoided providing her with the potential location of the Friedman facility.

An excerpt from Esther’s letter:

1My name is Esther Abeyta, President of the San Jose Neighborhood Association(SJNA).  As a Neighborhood Association, we are interested in requesting your help to obtain a Request of Inspection of Public Records information from the City of Albuquerque.

1The reason we are requesting this information is because SJNA is very concerned about Friedman’s Recycling of Albuquerque plans to build near the communities of San Jose and Mountain View. These two communities  are located in the South Valley of Albuquerque and are predominantly Hispanic, low-income, and have a higher death rate from chronic diseases when compared with the rest of Bernalillo County.  There are two Superfund sites in our area, the South Valley Superfund Site and the AT&SF Superfund Site. There is a disproportionate of heavy dangerous dirty industry in my area when compared with the rest of City of Albuquerque neighborhoods.  Since October of 2010, there has also been increased interest of waste facilities wanting to build in our communities.

Esther has gotten nowhere with the city of Albuquerque in getting information about the location of the proposed Friedman facility, and also wonders if it is legal for the city to accept  a contract from an entity if they don’t give an address of where they plan to build.  This information is important since this facility does not need to be located near neighborhoods and schools that already have a large amount of polluting industry located near them.

Esther, in her letter, explains how the San Jose and Mountain View communities just successfully fought back a contract proposed to the Bernalillo County Commission to operate a dirty materials recovery facility in their neighborhood, only to now have to deal with another contract with a similar type of facility:

1Most recently, one of bidders of the City of Albuquerque RFP No. 2011-013-GJ, NMRT, LLC, a company based out of Huntington Beach, California,  requested a special use permit to operate a dirty Material Recovery Facility (dirty MRF) within our communities.  This company was proposing to import up to 4,000 tons per day (8 million pounds per day) of several different waste streams such as; construction waste, commercial waste, multi–family waste, mixed waste sources and recycling materials from in the county and outside of the county.   Drive over eight hundred heavy industrial vehicles through our community.  Turning approximately 528 feet from our community school East San Jose posing health issues for our children at the school due to an increase in emission fuel particles of soot and smoke.

1Thankfully, in May of 2011, we successfully defeated their special use permit request.  In July, we learned that NMRT, LLC was not going to appeal the Bernalillo County Commissioner’s unanimous decision to decline their permit request.

Now community members are again dealing with this issue, this time in the form of Friedman Recycling companies who want to build a waste to energy gasification module in the San Jose neighborhood area.  Their contract was approved by the city on May 2, 2011.  Since then Esther and other San Jose Neighborhood Association members have reached out to city councilors, Mayor Berry, the Solid Waste Department, asking to see the Friedman contract with the city.

Yet, none of this outreach has helped her find the location where Friedman plans to build their gasification module.

Esther wants this information and is wondering why she, as a citizen of Albuquerque, cannot get it:

1What I would like is for you to do, our New Mexico Representatives and Senators,  is ask why hasn’t the City of Albuquerque been forthright with  the communities of  San Jose & Mountain View when it comes to revealing Friedman Recycling location. We also want to know why won’t Mayor Berry meet with two South Valley communities that are predominantly Hispanic, low-income, have a higher death rate from chronic diseases and a disproportionate of heavy dangerous dirty industry when compared with the rest of City of Albuquerque and Bernalillo County neighborhoods?

1Is the City of Albuquerque giving San Jose & Mountain View the run around by denying us information of where Friedman is going to build their facility? Is it because the City of Albuquerque officials know we are very concerned on the impact the City of Albuquerque’s public/private partnership with Friedman Recycling of Albuquerque will have in our communities if they build their facility near 2nd and Woodward? I would greatly appreciate it if you could address my letter in a timely manner.

This is an environmental justice issue that the City of Albuquerque cannot just ignore and hope the SJNA members go away.  Mayor Berry and city officials needs to answer these ignored questions and be straight with the impacted members of MountainView and San Jose communities.  I’ll be contacting the state and city officials who represent this area in hopes of getting these questions addressed, and I’m hoping all you do the same.

On Saturday night most of New Mexico waited for the clock to strike midnight to celebrate a new beginning. In Isleta Pueblo, a group of youth decided to get a jump start on the festivities. In fact, as youth began to arrive with sleeping bags and pillows at the Isleta Recreation Center around 4pm on New Year’s Eve, it was both a culmination of months of hard work and planning as well as a time to begin thinking about the year ahead. A group who call themselves the Young Leaders Youth Krew have been working for four months to plan their community’s first-ever “Youth Lock-In” as a safe and healthy environment for young people to bring in the new year.

“We felt that there were not many safe options for youth on New Year’s and we wanted to change that, said Alex Edakie (Isleta/Zuni) proudly.  A 6th grader from Isleta Elementary, Alex said that he was excited to see youth taking part in an event that he and the Youth Krew had worked so hard to plan.

The night’s events began with the 27 youth splitting up into clans, each with specific responsibilities (e.g. cooking breakfast, clean-up). From there, they played team-building games, limbo, held video game tournaments, and played sports. I watched as one group began a game of kickball using a quarter of the gym, using their imaginations to create a playing field.

Roxanne “Roxy” Lucero (Isleta), a quiet leader of the Youth Krew had a look of contentment on her face as she watched the younger children playing, while she picked the tunes to play on the sound system. “I think we accomplished what we set out to do, making a fun environment that is also away from some of the dangers of New Years,” remarked the high school Los Lunas High School senior. “I would rather have kids here in a safe environment.”

Greg Simpson, a fellow member of the Youth Krew agreed, adding “I am already wondering what this event could grow to be next year and the year after that.” One of the things that impressed him the most was how the group, which met every Monday night over the previous months, grew together with very few youth dropping out.

The Youth Krew is supported by staff at the Isleta Behavioral Health program, one of whom is Krystal Lucero (Isleta), a Mental Health and Addictions Counselor. “This is really comforting for me,” she sighed, looking at the students playing in the gym. “I know many of these children’s older family members, so I feel that I am giving back to people I call my family and friends.”

Krystal felt that one of the important messages from this event was to show the larger community that youth have great potential to work for change. “I am really proud that they all stuck to the commitment they made to themselves and their friends to carry it out, to be here tonight as a group to celebrate not only the arrival of 2012, but to celebrate the hard work it took to get here.”

Juan Rey Abeita (Isleta/Dine’), another adult support staff at the event, pointed out that the dangers the youth identified were very much real. As in many communities, guns are shot off into the air by many in Isleta to celebrate the New Year, and he worries about someone getting accidentally hit. He recalls having a streetlight burst from a bullet a few feet away from him in a recent New Years.

Abeita also talked about the many steps it took to get to this special night, from eliciting the Tribal Council’s and Recreation Center’s support, to honoring the commitments that many of the youth had to participate in traditional dances during the holidays. ”Maybe even harder is to talk about a message of healthy living without making a young person who sees unhealthy habits and addictions in the home…often, these youth feel ashamed and do not know if they should stand against things they see mom and dad doing.”

Isaiah Jojola (Isleta/Laguna), a 6th grader from Isleta Elementary summed up the sentiments of both youth and adults, saying , “I am really proud that youth took the lead to do something like this…it makes me see how much we can do when we put our hearts and time into it.”

What will the Young Leaders Youth Krew tackle as their next challenge? Only time will tell, but their 2012 is off to a promising start.

Growing up in and now planning to grow old in Albuquerque, Carlos Contreras writes about family, place and identity. He’s been recognized as a national slam poetry champ twice. He’s an educator with a ‘moving classroom’ who these days can largely be found teaching writing at Gordon Bernell Charter School, an Albuquerque school that serves primarily an adult incarcerated constituency. El Grito periodically features pieces by Carlos in which he shares his observations about particular students, paired with their poetry and an interview. He also features poetry and other projects on his own web site, www.immastar.com. In this Marchuleta film, Carlos describes who he is, what inspires him, his work, and shares one of his poems.

Produced by Mark and Marisol Archuleta.

Check out previous El Grito Gordon Bernell features by Carlos Contreras.