Today in New York City a Silent Procession for Puerto Rico takes place. From White Park, El Barrio, East 106th Street between Lexington and 3rd, 10:00 a.m. to Trump Plaza on 5th.
Sol
Episode 113 | Episode 113 | Bringing in some oral history from Eugenio Maria de Hostos Community College.
Here is an educator - real and true. Linda Hirsch. Dust of inspiration for the times & #OurPowerNYCpr | Community gathering one-year after Hurricane Maria | Union Square | 20 September - 6:00 p.m.
Lourdes Torres is a native Puerto Rican from the Bronx. Blond and blue eyed you’d think she was Irish if you passed her by on the street. That’s the thing about Caribbean and Latin American people, they fool the ignorant of history. But back to Lala, her affectionate nickname belies her unapologetic reasons for standing up for her people and a community marginalized and oppressed by a systemic racist system that keeps brown and poor white people down.
This share is one of two others I have with her. We focus here on Hostos Community College and she touches on her experience with the battle against the Fort Apache film, led by Evelina López Antonetty. Lala was a part of that. In fact, watch this YouTube video, of one of the public hearings.
The things that were happening 50-years ago are happening today. Grotesque racism, prejudice, judgment, ignorance, vitriol, some of it invoked in the name of God…
Children in cages, Puerto Rican refugees left out in the cold, Syrian refugees shut out, and all over the world, the poor are escaping strangling conditions only to be punished. I sense a storm forming, a disgusting whirlwind impulsed by white supremacists here and abroad who want a worldwide holocaust. We, the people, have nowhere else to go but here, the promised land is the earth.
Somehow, Lala’s hour-long share addresses all of it. The Bronx in general and the South Bronx specifically can pin itself a speaker who can bring down all the categorical notions and reasoning of sterile people without hearts who refuse to see people different than themselves as equal human beings.
I’ve been working with Puerto Rican families living under FEMA’s TSA program and have found so much beauty and so much nobility, I’ve cried myself to sleep a couple of times thinking how many promises have been broken. I had never experienced the homeless feeding the homeless. The exchange happens with pride and abundance, I’ve eaten their food.
Those small and unseeable good times break my heart for the world. Really does.
Thank you Lala for all you have done and taught many of us.
Be kind, look to give, stand up for injustice, and watch out, for “they” might be going after you next.
Sol
Today, Episode 106, Howard Jordan...
Howard has had a long and active career as an attorney, community activist, journalist, radio host and, last but not least, an educator. Aside from being the host of The Jordan Journal (Friday’s 3 to 5 pm on WBAI), Howard is Chair of the Behavioral and Social Sciences Department at Hostos Community College. He’s been around Hostos since its founding days, as part of the movements of people who fought for the survival of the South Bronx.
A true chronicler of the times, then and now, he integrates the progressive ideas that brought about change in the Puerto Rican community of 50 years ago and references the changing demographics of Hostos as a new Pan-Latino identity in the making here in the heart of the South Bronx.
He builds on the small examples while keeping the larger picture front and center. For Howard, the bigger picture shows that communities of color are important and essential.
Diverse communities need one another, and a new era in relating to the collective “brown community” is the responsibility of all of us.
In that sense, Hostos has delivered on its promise and continues to do so.
Gracias Howard, you're one of the coolest people out there.
Sol
The White Shirt Project is about courage. The portrait collection captures people from all walks of life in a white shirt but not before engaging in a heart-to-heart talk with José Ramón about vulnerability and courage.
Our conversation fits this Memorial Day weekend. The son, brother, and nephew of Veterans, José Ramón calls the wars his Puerto Rican family members fought in and describes his memory of the picture of him with one of his brothers that fought in Vietnam.
Jose Ramón is all courage and he took me with him. We go deep and sincere in this talk that touches on issues of PTSD, trauma, loss, caregiving and agreeing that recognizing ourselves and others as brethren is a matter of giving oneself with honesty, respect, and love.
Amen,
Sol
Episode 102 | In my heart and mind I owe this to Julio.
Julio Pabón is incredible. History. Really. Listen to him.
Dad sometimes stays at his house when he visits New York City, and Dad is not a man to stay at people’s houses, but it’s Julio.
He is jovial, kind, noble, a badass, funny as hell, what a way to tell a story. A natural storyteller. And, he always stands for respect and justice for Puerto Rico.
This is a chronicle of Puerto Rican migration, New York City, the South Bronx, and earning a life of dignity.
That's all I have. Sometimes, less is more.
May the force be with you,
Sol
Episode 101 is dedicated to Rosa. I met her almost two years ago through a mutual friend. She’s one of the most decent and giving people I’ve met in recent time. Always a smile, always sending a blessing, and always ready to listen. Without having she gives. Lessons.
You will hear her honesty and sweetness in this talk I recorded somewhere back in time before ICE came and took her husband.
She hid. She lives and does things but kinda’ has to move around carefully because they might take her too and separate the family. She has three children. An older son who had to drop school to work and provide for his mother, two sisters, the little one loves to swim, and the rest.
Rosa’s countenance is marked by despair and desperation, and listening to her dreams last night as I edited made me sad for all of us.
To protect her, I edited out spots from the conversation.
These days I feel I live with a permanent heavy heart for all the heartless shit that’s going on. Crude racism, prejudice, dangerous ignorance, and the list goes on. There is money galore for bombs, guns, nuclear arsenals, plans for war, and death and destruction.
And there’s little to none for the “least, the last, and the lost,” the mission of the Promised Land Covenant Church in Parkchester the Bronx. I met those good people this past Thursday and I can’t shake off the words.
Little gestures matter. Rosa and her family need help.
Here’s the Go Fund Me page to find out more.
From the heart and with love,
Sol
For reference, CODA I here.
Puerto Rico needs us desperately. Desperately de Socorro.
Through my work at Hostos Community College, I’m a part of The Bronx Coalition Supporting Hurricane Maria Evacuees. The BxCoSHME is composed of organizations representing a range of sectors. As organizations, it sprung from Union Community Health Center with Diaspora X Puerto Rico, Hostos Community College, Bronx Community College, NYC Department of the Aging, New York Disaster Interfaith Services, and Public Advocate Letitia James.
On 24 March a Bienvenida and Resource Fair held at Hostos’ gymnasium organized by the BxCoSHME, brought over 50 agencies covering a range of services and offerings. As much as it was about offering guidance, it was also about letting our Puerto Rican families know, they are not alone. There are many people behind-the-scenes working overtime on their dime to help. It is a beautiful display of solidarity and love. I stand with love and looking for ways to strengthen our ties and bring others on board.
Other coalition meetings have been taking place throughout the City. About two weeks ago, two different meetings took place in one week, theBxCOSHME and another, where the leadership of #OurPowerNYCpr and the Creative Justice Initiative with Speakers Elizabeth Yeampierre from UPROSE, Marta Moreno Vega from CCCADI, Nelson Denis, Edgardo Miranda-Rodríguez, Perla De León, and others inspired action and an alliance of coalitions to come together for a cause.
At this meeting of about 100 people in-and-out, a few of the families came out and shared what they were going through. Two hats passed around and almost $2,000 in cash showed up for the families. The share illustrated how the displacement of hurricane refugees affects in a greater number women with children and vulnerable adults with various types of needs. Three women have stepped up as spokeswomen for themselves and the rest of the families: Sofia Miranda, Brenda Suarez, and Andrea Tejada Rivera. These women have been nurtured or guided by Victor Martínez, Surey Miranda-Alarcón, Luz Correa, Lilah Mejia, Lizette Colón, Ana López, and many others. At this meeting, we had Grand Dame Elba Cabrera, Nydia Edgecombe, Wally Edgecombe, Julio Pabón, Ruth Rodríguez, Minerva Urrutia and many many more behind-the-scenes champions. More things are being created and planned out by these groups and individuals and many more coming on board.
So much to stay. I’m feeling el colmo de los colomos. Revolting. It’s a slow death showing hues of done on purpose. A rude awakening to many. And, it’s way more and deeper still than all I can or care to express right now. I’m giving you the gist because this is a crisis.
A real serious crisis.
Crimes against humanity crisis.
Lost at sea crisis.
SOS.
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Below: Press Conference update and 2 Calls-for-Help
SEE | 19 April 2018 | City Hall steps press conference | Coalitions stand for Puerto Rican families living in FEMA’s Transitional Shelter Assistance program:
NY1
GETTY IMAGES
LATINO REBELS
TELEMUNDO 47
EL DIARIO NY
CBS New York
NOTICIA LONG ISLAND
ENCLAVE MAGAZINE
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LITTLE GESTURES MATTER
Two (2) things you can do now to help
SEEKING: An organization or individual to donate Five (5) Nursing Books for Urban Health Plan.
+Let me know if you are interested in supporting and I’ll connect you. “I just want to ask if there is any organization you may be aware that can donate 5 nursing books (CLEP) for the nurses we have hired.”
LOOK OUT FOR Zulema Arroyo Farley - ArtzCureSarcoma
+I cut-and-pasted the most important part of her email.
“Don Fran is a 61-year-old, living in inhumane conditions in Cabo Rojo Puerto Rico, not far from where I grew up. He is battling vocal chords cancer. The surgery he had 3 weeks ago, has left him mute for life. He worked for over 30 years in the local municipality as a temporary employee Every new administration promised him a permanent position with health and retirement benefits, but each time he was misled. The government was more concerned about saving money. Consequently, he does not have private health care or a pension. The case reached my foundation two days ago.
No human being deserves to live like this and furthermore, it puts into perspective the fortunate lives we truly live.
While Don Fran heals from the surgery and awaits treatment, I have secured 20 volunteers who will spend one-day cleaning and organizing his house. One of our board members met with the mayor of the town today who promised to pick up all the debris surrounding his house from hurricane maria tomorrow. We have secured a few urgent things for him such as bedsheets, pillows, and converting his home from 110 to 220 watts (all appliances in Puerto Rico run on 220v), but I would like him to have a decent home prior to him starting his chemo regimen. A clean home, a clean stove, a refrigerator and a bed for him.
This is how you can help: a monetary donation to my foundation (tax deductible) OR I can tell you where to purchase what we need. The list of what we need is below:
- A roof
- A bathroom
- Stove
- Washer
- Kitchen Cabinets
- King Bed with Mattress Set
- Refrigerator
- Weekly groceries for soft foods and liquid diet
- Transportation to treatment (he is not allowed to drive)
- Bedroom Set (nightstand)
- Dining Table and Chairs
- Labor and materials for rebuilding his roof and bathroom which in turn will help a local business.
Where to donate? Click here ArtzCureSarcoma
We are all extremely privileged, so tonight instead of that bottle of wine, the new pair of shoes, or the restaurant dinner, how about making a donation and make a lasting impact on their lives.
Love Always,
Zulema”
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Thank you to so many of you. That’s all I got for now. More to come.
Write to me, join us.
With love,
Sol
Flora Mancuso Edwards. Photograph by Eduardo Hoepelman
Flora Mancuso Edwards, Former president Eugenio María de Hostos Community College (Hostos ) 1979-1987
The short version. Earlier this week 45 revealed he didn’t understand the role community colleges played in the country. Alas. Scathing ignorance.
Here is former Eugenio María de Hostos Community College President, Flora Mancuso (1979 - 1987). A woman leader. I hadn’t played a woman’s voice in three weeks, so here it is. A woman leader sharing who was part of shaping and solidifying the course and impact of the institution, this month celebrating 50-years. More broadly this is also about community colleges, public-urban education, and minority-serving institutions in the United States.
The survival and growth of Hostos depended on the actions of a lot of noble people. The South Bronx community in general fought hard for their future on a lot of fronts, and Hostos was part of that ticket. Community colleges across the country are a necessity; they predominantly serve people who might otherwise not have a chance for an education.
Hostos delivered. It made a home on 149th Street and Grand Concourse transforming thousands of lives over the past half-century. That's the truth.
Sol
Episode 96 is a Spanish episode.
Jean Carlos Rivera, a systems engineer by day, is also serving as Executive Director of Diaspora X Puerto Rico (DXPR), a volunteer-led group of four who are doing all they can to help newly arrived Puerto Ricans in the United States.
Junto a ellos, y como parte de la Coalición del Bronx apoyando a los damnificados del Huracán María, estamos trabajando juntos y organizando una feria de recursos a darse el próximo sábado 24 de marzo en el gimnasio de Eugenio María de Hostos Community College en el Bronx, Nueva York.
Cientos de familias puertorriqueñas están en limbo aquí en Nueva York. Los casos de muchas de estas familias se han estancado en burocracia. DXPR es una de las organizaciones que trabaja buscando e identificando servicios y vias de consejería y conectar a estas familias con los mismos.
Alongside them, and as part of The Bronx Coalition Supporting Hurricane Maria Evacuees, we are working together and organizing a resource fair taking place next Saturday, March 24, at the Eugenio Maria de Hostos Community College in the Bronx.
Hundreds of families are in limbo here in New York. Many of the cases have stalled in the system. DXPR is one of the organizations working to find and identify proper guidance channels and other services and connect these families with them.
Good people. Gente buena. Write to me for more info.
Soldanela
Jean-Marc Berne has a mission - The Heart-Voice Connection. His new book is about just that, connecting to our hearts and our voice, and by extension our empathy. His travails are heavy, but his road to self-healing is the stuff of outer-time. But also, art and healing go hand-in-hand.
A working voice over artist and coach, Jean-Marc writes. Poems are coming out of him almost daily, and for it, on a whim, he launched a private Facebook group called, Poetry for the Soul. He composes songs - It’s My Time_Leave the Past Behind, and does a great deal more - Berne Media Enterprises. Woven into his reason is to speak on behalf of sexually abused victims, on vulnerability and men, about disconnection, and communicating from a place of Love.
Lindo. Lindo.
Sol
Mónica Félix is living life to the fullest. Young at heart, thoughtful, daring, she launches forward. There’s a certainty about her that I can’t put in words, but she has it. A hold of the whole. Blonde and green-eyed she’s often told she doesn’t look Puerto Rican, but she is, from Cayey. Mónica shares about being puertorriqueña now and living for her love of photography.
An intimate portrait with a free spirit. Dignity is all over the place.
A Puerto Rico Women’s Shelter Provides a Post-Storm Lifeline by Ivelisse Rivera Quiñones and Mónica Félix for the Village Voice.
Be with the day,
Sol
Sita Chay is the only Korean to ever win a Latin Grammy. Fancy that…
Since I started this podcast project and on the website, you’ll see that Pan-American voices or Pan-Americanism is what I seek out. Who are we people of color? What is a person of color? Where do we come from? What makes an individual Pan-American? These questions sometimes have clear-cut answers, but as time passes I tend to feel the answers are not so simple. My concerns, interests, and various answers have been informed and are intertwined with W.E.B. Dubois’ Pan-Africanism, The Antillean Confederation of Ramon Emeterio Betances, Bolivar’s Dream, The American Dream, Pan-American Airlines, and Bernardo Ruiz’s La Quinta Raza. When I think of the “America” that I live and experience, hundreds of faces come to mind and heart. How pure blood are we really? And does blood matter? I’m still against the fence on that one but I can honestly say, that in my 28-years of living in North America, Pan-American has come to signify people from all over the world open and willing to be a part of the whole - accepting, creative, curious, interested, willing, empathetic - and for whatever reasons they mostly come in the form of artists or creatives.
Sita Chay is a bright example of this very diluted sea of people that make up Pan-Americanism, to me. Before we recorded she asked me, “What does Pan-American mean?” And we talked. And then we recorded, and a poetic answer revealed itself.
When she was little Sita wanted to be a princess. In a way she is, she’s a princess of the violin.
She’s also a member of the all-woman Mariachi band Flor de Toloache, who won a 2017 Latin Grammy for Best Ranchero Album - Las Caras Lindas. Sita has played folk music from all over the world and she gets into it in this intimate talk.
Sita holds that artists have a responsibility to be political and to use their medium to bring people together. Her latest musical project, the Cosmopolis Collective, which means a citizen of everywhere, weaves everything that matters to her.
Social duty with her responsibility as an artist to connect with others through music, marching together. “Together we are big.” Her words. I agree. Tears of gratitude. Thank you, Sita Chay.
Carry on.
Sol
GIG ALERT: 2/21 9 p.m.
Cosmopolis Collective
New World Stages Green Room
A PRIME Latino Media event
Episode 90 is dedicated to all the hard working creatives.
Fabian and I recorded last fall shortly before Hurricane María hit. I had several weeks of pre-recorded shows, but when the storm hit everything changed. I owed him.
Fabian is so poised. So nice. So full of valor. He is indeed a hard-working creative. A Colombian man through and through, Fabian knows history, legends, and folktales. His mother had an artistic incline but was not allowed to go-for-it because she was a girl. Though no one in his family took the “legit” artistic path, the family had it in them, and he absorbed it. He describes how you could see kids with rifles, kids alone at night at midnight, harsh things we know happen, but he explains that the circumstances his country endured led to a flushed underground creative realm and an instinctual bent in favor of humanity.
Fabian found mentors in elderly artists who actively work or worked on projects well into their 90s. For him, that is the goal. And I agree. Artists don’t retire. They evolve with time because there is always something do. Creativity is a way of life.
Live long and prosper,
Sol
Photo by Sabina Rivera
“Brick x Brick is a public art performance that builds human “walls” against misogyny.”
Last year we marched in D.C., here's last year’s post.
This year, Brick X Brick held simultaneous walls against misogyny beginning at 1:00 p.m. EST, in 12 cities across the nation: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, St. Louis, Nashville, New Orleans, Greensboro, Columbus, Providence, Boston, Montpelier, and New York City.
Facing 6th Avenue, about 60 of us stood in silence holding hands, for well over two hours. I think I lasted 2:15 minutes. The initial intention was 1 hour. We began our silent stand before the marchers passed. It was quiet. People were walking up and down and taking pictures, but it was mostly quiet. When you know you have at least an hour to go in silence, you start thinking. To my left was a beautiful woman named Solange and to my right another beautiful woman named Carolyn. I kept thinking of them. I wondered about their lives, their mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters. I wondered where they came from, the root of us. I thought about my two sisters, Sabina at the wall site taking pictures and Ariana in Mexico. I thought about Mom, who’s in the hospital, hating it, and insisted Sabina and I go to the march for all the woman nurses and doctors that work in New York Presbyterian. I thought about Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico, and the faces and hearts of so many people I love who are living a new existence on the island and abroad. Hurricane María changed the tide forever, and tears just flowed. And in the absolute concentrated state, I suddenly noticed the men and women in wheelchairs and walkers with signs of protest and I wanted to cry harder. My heart gripped with sadness and pride for their vulnerability and invincibility.
The frail dignity of us all hanging on a string. I practiced breathing. I looked at a capital letter “A” across the avenue on the window display and began thinking of affirmative words - Access, Almighty, Amorous, Action, Accomplishment, Awesome, Adventurous, Amiable, Accepting, Adoring, Adorable, Astounding, Assemble. Then came the drums and the thunder of the people. For two hours I stood in silent and watched as the marchers passed. And they saw us, the wall of love, assembled, accepting, accomplished, astounding, and adoring the almighty people coming together.
I loved many of the signs, some great new ones. I could not take pictures, but two stand out for me:
“If you think you’re too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.”
“When Voldemort is President, we need a lot of Hermiones.”
Amen.
Thank you, Brick X Brick (NYC) Sarah Sandman, Andrea Lauer, Katy Kirby, Jeannette Subero
In Solidarity,
Sol
Probably few people out there like Carlos. Twenty-years of Latin American cinema under his eyes, inside his heart and intellect. Nothing succinct can explain the entire “movement,” because people are not aware of the magnitude of the region’s relentless production work these past two decades.
Latin American cinema is speaking to us loud and clear. The list of male and female directors make up a lengthy roster of active, daring, intelligent, industrious, and fabulous artists. For the most part, productions get made with meager budgets, but, "the limitation freed the filmmakers," Carlos says, and the wealth of material has not stopped coming and is beyond what anyone imagines it is.
Public Relations and promotion are one of the most significant challenges facing the film industry, and especially, for the niche that is Latin American cinema. This very topic is subject to further discussion. More to come.
Cinema Tropical is now going on 18-years of championing filmmakers from all over the northern and southern American Continent and celebrating the 8th Annual Cinema Tropical Awards. Here is the 2017 Short List of films. A new approach did away with the fiction and non-fiction category, listen to the talk to hear why. Carlos rocks for a lot of reasons, but he is unique in his ability to contextualize the cultural voice of the Latin American and Latino filmmaking industry against the present cultural and political landscape. We don't go into that so much in this talk, but perhaps he will write about it for Cinema's 20th Anniversary.
Last but not least, this was the year for Dominican cinema, check out Cocote. And, Daniela Vega is on the cover of W Magazine.
I sincerely wish everyone a blessed year 2018. Live long and prosper,
Sol
Thank you for your time and consideration throughout this open dress rehearsal process of the project notes from a native daughter. It carries on and slowly growing at the right pace and evolving as I do with it. This was a self-imposed exercise that gave me industry at a time when I needed to strive for a purpose. I was a broken lady then, a year and a half ago. And it worked, and the work, the time, the listening, the writing, the research, the people and their stories have made me a better woman and a better person.
Today, at year end and eighty-something weeks and episodes later I can sincerely say that NFAND is a "must do" for me, every week, from the bottom of my heart. It's raw and one-on-one, and it is that intimacy that I stand by. And, I stand by all these talks. These people are thoroughbred people. Noble. Tall order. Our stories.
In gratitude:
Adriana Teresa Letorney
Alex Rodríguez
Alfonso Díaz
Angel Manuel Soto
Aris Mejias
Arnaldo J. López
Bill Aguado
Bobby Sanabria
Bronislaw Czarnocha
Carlos Gutiérrez
Charlie Vázquez
Claudia Norman
Daniel Maldonado
Danny Rivera
Fernando Guzzoni
Fran’ Ferrer
George Emilio Sánchez
Honorable Congressman José Serrano
Honorable Fernando Ferrer
Howard Jordan
Jane Gabriels
Javier Gómez
Jorge Merced
José Morales
Joseph and Gloria La Morte
Judy Mam
Julia Solomonoff
Kim Sanabria
Lew Levine
Liz Guerra and Hector Gerardo*
Luis Fernando Coss
Malín Falú
Manny Vega
Maria Nieto
Maria Torres
Marlena Fitzpatrick
Melissa Rendler-García
Native Nations March
Paola Mendoza
Pete “Bariman” Miranda
Rhina Valentín
Rokia Diabi
Rosalba Rolón
Rosary Solimanto
Rosie Berrido
Sarah Sandman
Tere Martínez
Veronica Sánchis Bencomo
Wallace “Waly” Edgecombe
Willie Perdomo
Yaraní Del Valle
End of Year repost of Episode 37 #ADayWithoutAWoman.
Blessings and providence for 2018.
I look forward to January 20, 2018. I'll be marching with BrickXBrick. Sign up.
Thank you again.
Be safe. Be good to you. And stand against Neo-Facisim.
Sol
* Correction: Last week, in the share for Episode 84, Liz Guerra was erroneously presented as Liz Torres for 1Freedom. Since corrected on the platform.
If the legendary Puerto Rican educator, writer, and patriot Don Eugenio María de Hostos were alive today, I wonder what he’d think of the community college in the South Bronx named after him, that no one thought would make it. Alas.
Just this past Thursday, Eugenio María de Hostos Community College launched its 50th Anniversary Season.
I can't help but believe that Don Eugenio would be proud of what one of the most marginalized and disenfranchised communities to have ever been in United States history did for themselves.
The story of Hostos is deserving of a lot more attention than it has ever received. It truly is an amazing story. A story about the Bronx, New York City and a reveal of margnalized communities. My relationship with the College is long and now very profound. Life changing really. And I’ll share that story as the year unfolds.
But for part one, for the past 8 months, I’ve been coordinating, conducting, and editing an oral history project for and about Hostos Community College - Hostos50. To date, I have interviewed well over 100 people and counting for a grand goal of 200. From former College Presidents Cándido de León and Flora Mancuso Edwards, to Congressman José E. Serrano, and former Bronx Borough Presidents Fernando Ferrer and Adolfo Carrión, to young students with a promising future like Rokia Diabi.
Once a month, for the next year, I’ll share some of these testimonies if you will. The testimonies are moving, sincere, revealing, courageous, some devastating, others empowering, and the story of triumph over adversity. And more relevant than ever.
Which brings me to Tere Martínez. I wanted to start with her because I love her because she has been nothing but noble to me and because her purpose is beautiful and her testimony open and to the point.
Like the song says, I must have done something good, for the grace of God gave me the opportunity to work on this project when we have, arguably, the most despicable crew of racists, sexists, homophobic, fear mongering, science deniers, xenophobes and troglodytes leading the world order.
The point indeed is that the voices emerging from this Hostos Community College oral collective as I’ve heard it first hand, confirm to me yet again that the leaders have it all wrong.
Ignorance judges the so-called “moochers” for being good for nothings. The truth is you find moochers and good for nothings at every level and anywhere you go, is not an exclusive club of poor people of communities of color.
The bottom line is that the power of education is real and access is imperative.