Uncovering an historic mural, Honoring Joe White, and Remembering Jenny Oropeza

Para acceder a éste, se coloca una escalera de latón y se trepa hasta la azotea de una iglesia coreana en Los Ángeles. Allá arriba, los rascacielos del centro no se miran tan lejanos.

“Es un patrimonio de los mexicanos de ambos lados de la frontera”, define Armando Vázquez Ramos, “El Profe”. Lleva subiendo a esa azotea desde 2005, cuando algunos colegas de la comunidad chicana de California hicieron público un descubrimiento que podría considerarse como arqueológico.

Invisible, el mural Mitin obrero, de David Alfaro Siqueiros, se ha resistido a la desaparición durante ocho décadas, con todo en contra. La inmediata censura que sufrió por su contenido sindical y multirracial lo encadenó al anonimato desde 1932.

Garza, ex fotógrafo del mítico diario La Raza y activista chicano, pertenece al grupo de estudiosos del arte, junto con Dave Tourjé y José Luis Sedano, que se negaron a aceptar, como dictaba la versión oficial, que Mitin obrero había sido destruido.

Long Beach Ethnic Studies Program: Embracing Diversity 

CSULB COLLEGE OF CONTINUING AND PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION (CCPE) 

Expanding Opportunities: Annual Report 2015-2016 

Usually, it’s hard to get excited to go to school on Saturday mornings. But for many highs school students in the Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD), the chance to get tuition-free college credit while expanding their minds has spurred them to sit attentively in class over the course of several weekends this past year.

Originally launched in the fall of 2015, the Long Beach Ethnic Studies program (LB-ESP) is a collaboration between LBUSD and CSULB that started with one professor’s personal mission and soon grew to receive wide support from students, parents, and school district officials.

CSULB Professor Armando Vazquez-Ramos initially began teaching his Introduction to Chicano and Latino Studies course in selected area high schools, providing a new understanding of important social, political, economic, and historic aspects of the Chicano/Latino experience in the U.S. An article about the class was feature in the Long Beach Press-Telegram and garnered widespread support from the public as well as LBUSD Superintendent Christopher J. Steinhauser, who soon proposed funding the LB-ESP for $1.2 million to fund 12 classes per semester over a five-year period.

As the project’s coordinator, Vazquez-Ramos spearheaded efforts to develop curriculum, employ faculty, and produce a textbook-sized syllabus and reader, U.S. Diversity and the Ethnic Experience – all in just four months. The response was tremendous: nearly 2,000 students and parents attended the initial class orientations, with 750 students registering for 420 open enrollment spots. That led to over 300 students being put on a waiting list for the Spring 2016 semester.

Now in its second year, LB-ESP has expanded to 15 classes from 9:00 am to 12:00 noon on Saturdays at six LBUSD high schools, including summer sessions. The subject matter has also grown beyond Chicano and Latino Studies and now includes Africana, Asian and Asian-American, and American Indian courses.

“Our students and their families express great appreciation for the Ethnic Studies program,” LBUSD Superintendent Christopher J. Steinhauser said. “The program has quickly become a success, with high levels of participation. That’s a testament to the demand for these important courses, and to our school district’s enviable partnership with the university and its College of Continuing and professional Education.”

Professor Vazquez-Ramos continues to provide this expertise to help schools develop a comprehensive Ethnic Studies curriculum, as taught by their own high school teachers. The collaborations are being presented at academic conferences as well as in a new documentary film, Legacy and Leadership: The Long Beach Ethnic Studies Program. Plans are underway for this cutting-edge educational model to be replicated by other partnerships between colleges and local school districts across the country.

“I really loved the course because personally, I am Mexican, and in my classes I never really felt that I was taught anything of my culture that I could relate to. So while taking the class, I was actually able to learn more about me as a person, where my own biases came from, and how intersectional all minority groups are,” Jackie Piña, Lakewood High School student.

“Going into this class, I was kind of shy, I wasn’t open to other people’s cultures, I was really trying to learn about mine a little bit more. But [the class] opened my mind, it broadened my perspective of other people’s cultures,” Shanon Mendoza, Wilson High School student.

Download the Full CCPE Report here: Expanding Opportunities Annual Report 2015-2016

Register to COLEF-CMSC’s International

Seminar on Migration and Public Policy

El Colegio de la Frontera Norte (COLEF) and the California-Mexico Studies Center (CMSC) will host an international seminar on November 17 and 18, 2016 at the COLEF campus in Tijuana, Mexico; to address the prospects and policy agenda for the 60-million U.S. Latino population, in the aftermath of the U.S. presidential election. The seminar will focus upon issues pertaining to a comprehensive immigration reform, Dreamers on both sides of the border, the role of higher education institutions relative to policy studies and research, and other topics regarding immigration between both nations such as U.S. citizen children exiled in Mexico and Central America, and deported veterans and mothers of U.S. citizens.

Promote a post-election binational discussion between Mexico and U.S. stakeholders on migration and immigration reform in the U.S., and the role of Higher Education Institutions, through a dialogue involving immigrants, academics and policymakers.

Hosted by COLEF and the CMSC, in collaboration with:

• Hermandad Mexicana Humanitarian Foundation, Santa Ana, California
• Comunidad Interdisciplinaria de Estudios Migratorios (CIEM)
• Programa de Estudios sobre Latinos en EEUU, Casa de las Américas
• Centro Tlahuica de Lenguas e Intercambio Cultural (CETLALIC), México
• Seminario Permanente de Estudios Chicanos y de Fronteras (SPECHF), INAH-DEAS
• Coordinadora Nacional de Inmigración 2016, Chicago, Illinois
• Otros Dreams en Acción (ODA)
• Instituto para las Mujeres en la Migración, A.C. (IMUMI)
• Border Angels – Angeles de la Frontera

Seminar Schedule Overview:

Day 1, Thursday Nov. 17, 2016: Full Seminar Program

• Seminar program starts from 9 am to 4:40 pm at COLEF
• Complimentary lunch will be provided

Day 2, Friday Nov. 18, 2016: Field Research and Guided visits (optional)
Field research and guided visits to La Casa del Migrante en Tijuana, The Bunker Center for Deported U.S. Military Veterans, and the U.S.-Mexico border at playas de Tijuana.

Click here to Download the Seminar Program to see full details of the program.

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Saturday, November 19th, 2016

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For more information about the event, visit the event information page.

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