Reminder: A Class Apart

Don't forget to check out the "A Class Apart" documentary airing tonight, February 23rd, 2009 at 9:00 p.m. on your local PBS station. See previous post to find out more about the documentary.

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TED Talks

by Eduardo Garcia

I've been a fan of TED for a while now. In case you have never heard of TED.com, let me give you a brief introduction. TED started off as a conference about "Technology, Entertainment, Design", however, in recent years, the conference has been expanded to include topics ranging from robotics to the meaning of happiness. Some of the most brilliant minds of our time have presented at this conference and now, thanks to technology and corporate sponsors, it's available to the world for free. The motto of TED is "Ideas Worth Spreading", and I think it is exactly what the site contains, and why you should take a look.

Today, I watched "The Need for Virtue and Practical Wisdom", a 20 minute talk by Barry Schwartz about rules, and how they can sometimes prevent wisdom. It's a really interesting talk that I feel touches upon one of the things that is wrong with Civil Service today; the lack of empathy and the emphasis on the rule and not the purpose of the rule. I hear it all the time, "I don't make the rules, I just enforce them". Sadly, as the talk implies, rules can sometimes prevent something more important from happening...wisdom. Watch it. Let me know what you think.




Eduardo

PBS Documentary: Latinos in Civil Rights

From the PBS website:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/class/introduction
Airing on February 23rd, 2009 at 9:00 p.m. on your local PBS station.


American Experience: A Class Apart

In 1951 in the town of Edna, Texas, a field hand named Pedro Hernández murdered his employer after exchanging words at a gritty cantina. From this seemingly unremarkable small-town murder emerged a landmark civil rights case that would forever change the lives and legal standing of tens of millions of Americans. A team of unknown Mexican American lawyers took the case, Hernandez v. Texas, all the way to the Supreme Court, where they successfully challenged Jim Crow-style discrimination against Mexican Americans.

AMERICAN EXPERIENCE presents A Class Apart from the award-winning producers Carlos Sandoval (Farmingville), and Peter Miller (Sacco and Vanzetti, The Internationale). The one-hour film dramatically interweaves the story of its central characters— activists and lawyers, returning veterans and ordinary citizens, murderer, and victim — within the broader story of a civil rights movement that is still very much alive today.

The film begins with the little known history of Mexican Americans in the United States. In 1848, the Mexican-American War came to an end. For the United States, the victory meant ownership of large swaths of Mexican territory. The tens of thousands of residents living on the newly annexed land were offered American citizenship as part of the treaty to end the war. But as time evolved it soon became apparent that legal citizenship for Mexican Americans was one thing, equal treatment would be quite another.

“Life in the 1950s was very difficult for Hispanics,” Wanda García, a native of Corpus Christi, explains in the film. “We were considered second-rate, we were not considered intelligent. We were considered invisible.”

In the first 100 years after gaining U.S. citizenship, many Mexican Americans in Texas lost their land to unfamiliar American laws, or to swindlers. With the loss of their land came a loss of status, and within just two generations, many wealthy ranch owners had become farm workers. After the Civil War, increasing numbers of Southern whites moved to south Texas, bringing with them the rigid, racial social code of the Deep South, which they began to apply not just to blacks, but to Mexican Americans as well.

Widespread discrimination followed Latinos from schoolhouses and restaurants to courthouses and even to funeral parlors, many of which refused to prepare Mexican American bodies for burial. During World War II, more than 300,000 Mexican Americans served their country expecting to return home with the full citizenship rights they deserved. Instead, the returning veterans, many of them decorated war heroes, came back to face the same injustices they had experienced all their lives.

Latino lawyers and activists were making progress at state levels, but they knew that real change could only be achieved if Mexican Americans were recognized by the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution — something that could only be accomplished by bringing a case to the Supreme Court.
In his law office in San Antonio, a well-known attorney named Gus García listened to the desperate pleas of Pedro Hernández’s mother, who traveled more than one hundred and fifty miles to ask him to defend her son. García quickly realized that there was more to this case than murder. The real concern was not Hernández’s guilt, but whether he could receive a fair trial with an all-Anglo jury deciding his fate.

García assembled a team of courageous attorneys who argued on behalf of Hernández from his first trial at the Jackson County Courthouse in Texas all the way to Washington, DC. It would be the first time a Mexican American appeared before the Supreme Court.

The Hernandez lawyers decided on a daring but risky legal strategy, arguing that Mexican Americans were “a class apart” and did not neatly fit into a legal structure that recognized only black and white Americans. As legal skirmishes unfolded, the lawyers emerged as brilliant, dedicated, humorous, and at times, terribly flawed men.

“They took a gamble,” says University of California-Berkeley professor of law Ian Haney-López in the film. “They knew, on the up side, that they could win national recognition for the equality of Mexican Americans, but they knew, on the down side, that if they lost, they would establish at a national level the proposition that Mexican Americans could be treated as second class citizens.”

The Hernandez case struck a chord with Latinos across the country. When funds to try the case ran out, the Mexican American community donated to the cause in any way they could, despite limited resources.

“They would come up to me and they would give you crumpled-up dollar bills and they’d give you coins. These were people who couldn’t afford it, but couldn’t afford not to,” recalled attorney Carlos Cadena, Gus García’s partner in the case.

On January 11, 1954, García and Cadena faced the nine justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. Cadena opened the argument. “Can Mexican Americans speak English?” one justice asked. “Are they citizens?” asked another. The lack of knowledge stunned Gus García, who stood up and delivered the argument of his life. Chief Justice Earl Warren allowed him to continue a full sixteen minutes past the allotted time, a concession a witness noted had not been afforded to any other civil rights lawyer before García, including the renowned NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall.

On May 3, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its ruling in the case of Hernandez v. Texas. Pedro Hernández would receive a new trial — and would be judged by a true jury of his peers. The court’s legal reasoning: Mexican Americans, as a group, were protected under the 14th Amendment, in keeping with the theory that they were indeed “a class apart.”

“The Hernandez v. Texas story is a powerful reminder of one of many unknown yet hard-fought moments in the civil rights movement,” says AMERICAN EXPERIENCE executive producer Mark Samels. “It’s easy to forget how far the country has come in just fifty years, reshaping our democracy to include all Americans.”

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If you would like to submit to the LACECA blog, please send an email to eduardo@laceca.org

Employment Opportunity

During these times of economic uncertainty, we are sure to run across a friend, family member, or neighbor in need of a job. Who knows, we may even find ourselves in need of some extra money.



The U.S. Census Bureau is recruiting temporary part-time census workers for the 2010 Census. The pay is good, the hours are flexible, and the work is close to home. Census jobs are excellent for retirees, college students, persons who want to work part-time, persons who are between jobs, or just about anyone who wants to earn extra money while performing an important service for their community.

To find out more about census jobs, click the link below and forward to a loved one!

http://2010.census.gov/2010censusjobs/howtoapply.php

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If you are interested in submitting an entry to the LACECA blog, please email eduardo@laceca.org.

Career Development Strategies

By Maria Villarreal, Contributing Writer

As the economic situation deepens, the time is ripe to jump start career development plans for the coming year. Fortunately, you don’t need to look very far or reach too deep into your wallet to improve jobs skills or enhance career opportunities. The best place to start is by visiting the City’s Personnel Department website for a bonanza of course offerings (you will need to use a City computer to access this site):

http://per.ci.la.ca.us/EmpDev/sCourse.htm

For those in management or preparing for it, the Frontline Supervision course is a must! Keeping up to date with and learning about current management techniques and practices is key to being a successful manager. This two-day course provides a broad overview of the principles of supervision. One of the best features of the course is that it presents different work place scenarios to help you understand how to apply certain principles to a real workplace setting.
Are you well-versed on the City’s Civil Service Rules? There’s a course and link for that here, too! While it’s a good idea to know these rules for your own benefit, expert knowledge of these Rules will help you land a good score on certain City job exams.

Does the thought of speaking before a large crowd leave you speechless? Does the thought of a static banking account and stagnant career path scare you even more? If so, you can overcome these fears by taking a Public Speaking course. Being able to deliver a speech, presentation or training session can greatly accelerate your career path, so why not enroll? At the very least, the goal of the course is to have you become a better public speaker than you were before; at most, you might discover your inner Tony Robbins.

Perhaps you’re looking to improve your time management skills? Don’t waste any more time, and sign up for a Time Management course today! Learn about the three keys to successful time management and how to eliminate time wasters. Mastering how to save time will help you make career gains.

These are just a few of the class resources offered by the City. In these times of shrinking budgets and possible layoffs, the time is now to take advantage of free offerings. Make sure to browse your Department’s training bulletins, which are usually issued via email. To sign up, you will need your Supervisor’s approval. Contact your department training office or personnel office for the latest class offerings.

For those of you in search of basic PC or software training, you won’t need to drain your bank account to get it. Explore the nifty link below:

http://events.lapl.org/

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Are you interested in writing a story for the LACECA blog? Please email eduardo@laceca.org and submit your story!

Breakfast With My Mother

Submitted by member: Victor Vallejo

CASTING CALL!

TeAda Productions is casting its 2009 7th Annual TEADAWORKS New Performance Festival production of Breakfast With My Mother, a play about three generations of Chicana women and the role reversal of their lives as dementia enters their isolated world of retirement, gardens, and Spanish-language television.

Seeking
LUZ: Grandmother in her 80s-90s (can be played by younger actress with lots of talent!), suffers from dementia and osteoporosis, walks with the aid of a walker and enjoys singing Mexican songs. Will also play an active woman in her pre-dementia years. Must speak English and Spanish and have good comedic timing.

MARIA: Caregiver in her mid-40s-50s. Obsessed with the care of her mother and oblivious to the outside world. Must speak some Spanish.

Maria G. Martinez, writer; Elizabeth Kay Otero, director.

Rehearsals begin February 9, 2009. Performances run March 6-8, 2009, at CASA 0101 Theatre, 2009 E. First St., Los Angeles, CA 90033. And June 26-28 at THE MILES MEMORIAL PLAYHOUSE, 1130 Lincoln Blvd, Santa Monica, CA. 90403

Auditions will be held on Wednesday, Feb 4th 6:30-8:30PMAt Brooklyn & Boyle, 2003 East First Street, Los Angeles, CA 90033Call or e-mail for appointment

Email pix and resumes to marie@teada.org or bring them to the audition.
To schedule an audition call (310) 998-8765, or email marie@teada.org.

A prepared 1-2 minute comedic or dramatic monologue is preferred, and sides will also be provided to all who audition. Please note this is an Equity Waiver production with some pay.

For more information visit www.teada.org TeAda Productions: Modern Multidisciplinary and Interpretive ArtSource: www.teada.org