RSS Feed

April, 2005

  1. Kentucky

    April 23, 2005 by elenamary

    I am in Kentucky this weekend. I drove down Friday afternoon from Columbus to Louisville. I cried the whole drive (approximately 3 hours). Too many memories running through my head, too many people I have lost and never let myself mourn. I finally did during that drive. I also drove through a lot of rural Ohio and some rural Kentucky. I thought about the migrant farm workers that I had meet who would go to Kentucky when things got rough in Ohio.

    I am in Louisville, hanging out with Preston. It has been very interesting. His friends are very, …well, very…Kentucky. They are white, all the females are blond, they are almost all Republicans a few of them are blind-following Republicans. It has been a challenge for me. Preston and Chris (his friend whose house we are staying at) really seem to love these friends of theirs who are so politicaly different. While I sit there and want to scream at them. Luickly, I haven’t. Preston has said that he has found that the best offense is somtimes too just let them talk and they will keep talking and at some point realize that they aren’t making any sense.

    When I pulled off the freeway in Kentucky, and arrived to Chris’ neighborhood, I saw a Mexican family. I tossed my dirrections aside and started to follow the family, I wanted to see where they were going. They ended up pulling into a Meijer’s Grocery Store. I like seeing Mexicans when traveling and seeing where they have estabilished communities.

    Unfortunatly, when I left Columbus I forgot money and identification. Fortunatly Caonabo was coming out Kentucky the very next morning. However, getting my stuff to him was a huge hassel as my friend Becca had to drive to my house to pick up my stuff and then drive to Caonabo‘s apartment on the other side of town and drop it off. At least now I have money, right? And if I get pulled over while driving home at least I’ll have some sort of ID. The only speeding ticket I’ve ever gotton was in Kentucky in January of 2000.

    Right now people in Louisville are all excited about the Kentucky Derby. They had the largest fireworks show tonight that I have ever seen in my life. People great each other with “Happy Derby”. There is Derby merchandise everywhere. I am just not understanding it. The boys here, that have been such great hosts to me, have been planning Derby parties. Can anyone explain all of this to me?

    Category Latinos | Tags: | No Comments

  2. Defiance, Ohio

    April 21, 2005 by elenamary

    I am off to Bernie’s to see one of my favorite bands Defiance, Ohio. Defiance, Ohio is a punk band with an upright bass, cello, banjo and violin (as well as other instruments).

    Will, Geoff, BZ.jpg.

    For more pictures of Defiance, Ohio at Bernie’s you can click here.

    Your Linguistic Profile:
    50% General American English
    20% Yankee
    15% Upper Midwestern
    10% Dixie
    5% Midwestern

    Thanks Tortilla Sanwich

    Category Ohio | Tags: | No Comments

  3. Catholic Church / To Whom it May Concern

    April 20, 2005 by elenamary

    Dear Cardinals,

    I was laying in bed ill, when you set your first votes on fire. I was surprised at my reaction. I pulled my snotty, achy body up and watched with interest. Was that white or black smoke? I was so eager, so overwhelmed with an emotion of “who is that at the door”. Yet, it was black smoke. It wouldn’t be until the next day that I would find out while reading a blog, soon after the white smoke had cleared that you had elected a new Pope. A new leader for all Catholics. But you see this new pope wasn’t one of us. He is not one of the “65% of Catholics [who] now hail from non-Western countries“.

    I had sadly come to accept that the new Pope would not be as progressive as I desired. I didn’t think the church would choose someone like Cardinal Godfriend Danneels who encouraged “urging the Vatican to allow women to hold top posts normally taken by cardinals, by saying condoms could be used in the fight against AIDS and by arguing that Islam in Europe has to reform in order to integrate there.” Nor did I expect you to choose the most conservative of all Cardinals, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger whose “blunt judgments delight conservatives and outrage liberal Catholics“.

    I expected the church to choose someone who was middle of the road. Someone who I would disagree with for the most part. I also expected you to choose someone who was of the people. Someone who we the majority of Catholics could identify with as one of our own. This would be the person that would bring people like me back into the fold. I defended the church as not being racist that at least the Catholic church had that. But how can the majority of Catholics be outside of Europe and yet we continue the thousands-of-year old tradition of a European Pope?

    I understand that Catholic Europe does not face an AIDS crisis the way Catholic Africa does. I understand that the some in the Catholic church are not ready to admit that homosexuality is not “an intrinsic moral evil“.

    I have agreed to allow you time to unify the church. I have agreed to allow you to change slower than the rate at which AIDS grows. I have asked that you meet me half way. That you give me a pope who will listen. A pope who understands my Latin American world. Instead Cardinals, you have given me a man who has made me cry for all the Catholics who will now abandon the church either by choice or death.

    Why did you do this?

    Love your child of the Catholic church,
    Elenamary
    (more…)

    Category Uncategorized | Tags: | No Comments

  4. Nicholas Gonzalez

    April 19, 2005 by elenamary

    (I am sick with Bronchitis and am not feeling up to a real entry—my apologies).

    Nicholas Gonzalez

    I’ve never seen The OC nor have I ever seen MTV’s Undressed. However, Nicholas Gonzalez has appeared in both. I am interested in that he seems to have acted for Zapata Theater in a performance of Zoot Suit, The Princess and the Barrio Boy, and his involvement with PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Nick Gonzalez, according to his bio page, also has a BA in English from Stanford and completed a thesis on James Joyce’s Ulysses. While, I am not a big fan of James Joyce, I am glad to see an educated Latino excelling. I know nothing about him but I’d like to imagine that he is a progressive Chicano too!

    Nicholas Gonzalez.jpg

    Category Uncategorized | Tags: | 8 Comments

  5. Teachers

    April 13, 2005 by elenamary

    I’d like to give you some links to educators whose blogs I love to read.

    pencilman.gif

    Emily blogs about teaching middle school english.

    2. Look at them with a hint of angry disdain and wait quietly until they shut up.

    Gustavo a Student teacher in California.

    This student has had the bad habit of ditching music class by 1) hiding in the restrooms 2) walking home and hiding in the closet….These damn sixth graders mess you up in the head. I am glad to be back with the second graders tomorrow.

    A First-Year Teacher’s Online Journal; This guy teaches New York City’s incarcerated youth about carrers.

    In the prison we have a nice cross-section of New York’s most influential gangs: the Bloods, the Crips, and the Latin Kings. I decided that I could use the exisiting role structures provided by their gangs to augment group involvement and provide clear, defined roles to children who might otherwise be lost in my classroom environment.


    The Education Wonks     is conservative but posts a lot of things about education and schools in the United States.

    Category Uncategorized | Tags: | No Comments

  6. No Homework

    April 13, 2005 by elenamary

    So here is the follow-up to the teacher conference.

    I don’t know the name of Rosa’s school or even the real location or I would share it with you. Rosa does have multiple hours (not just one hour as in most Columbus schools) of ESL class. I only meet with her ESL teacher. I introduced myself and apologized for coming without any notice and explained that I wanted to help with Rosa, was their anything she recommend I do or work on with Rosa? “No, there isn’t anything for her to do at home. She is a very good girl.” I tried again and said “I ask Rosa when she gets home if she as any homework and she always says ‘No’ and I assumed that couldn’t be true.” Her teacher nodded and said “Oh, no it is true. I haven’t been assigning them homework because we do a lot of work in class. We work very hard in class and they are doing writing in class right now. Writing is a lot of work and leaves me with lots of grading. There are two problems I have been having with Rosa” I started to worry at this point and kept listening “She is a good girl but on Friday she skipped class. She hid in the bathroom with of her friends and then they went to the gym to go look for a boy Rosa likes.”

    I have to say I was rather excited by this “bad” news. I was worried about Rosa not making friends and other kids picking on her. I am glad to hear she is behaving like a “normal” adolescent. Her teacher continued “The other problem I’ve had with Rosa and it has become quite a problem. I have told her many times and she doesn’t listen. She is a good girl and I don’t know why she misbehaves this way. She chews gum in class.” I must have given some kind of unintentional facial expression at this point and her teacher reiterated “It is a problem. It is very annoying to have to tell her more than once not to chew gum.” I smiled, nodded and said I would talk to Rosa about it. This was the problem? The problem her teacher was most concerned with? Chewing gum?

    Bubble_Gum_Child.gif

    I once got lunch detentions for being caught with gum. I told Rosa about it and told her that I knew it was a stupid rule and that it was probably annoying to be told not to chew gum but this was just one of those things we have to get through.

    Category Latinos, Ohio | Tags: , | No Comments

Older Entries
Newer Entries