DESMADRE Podcast

Beatriz "Betty" Garcia is a longtime friend of Jesus - they met as freshmen at Stanford University. Betty was one of eight kids, all who attended college, born to farm worker immigrants from Mexico with no formal educations. She has a remarkable story and that story continues to grow as she now uses her education, knowledge and positive energy to help the people who need it most. As a labor union organizer with the Service Employees International Union, she helps organize janitors and security officers along the entire west coast in an effort to give them a collective voice against employers. This episode is a must listen about one of many up and coming smart, hard working people in our community actively making a difference - please share with friends and family!

To learn more about Betty's work, please visit: http://seiu.org

This week we decided to keep it chill. Jesus and Sammy killed a six pack of beer on a lovely afternoon while talking about drinking too much alcohol, working out, work-life balance, our favorite tv shows of the moment, the African-American renaissance in film & TV - and what kind of content we want to make next year for Desmadre. 

FEA is a Chican@ punk band from San Antonio founded by Phanie Diaz (Drums) & Jen Alva (Bass) - from Girl In A Coma fame. Together with Lety Martinez (Vocals) and Aaron Magaña (Guitar), FEA is currently on tour promoting their debut self titled LP that is produced by Laura Jane Grace (Against Me), Lori Barber (Babes in Toyland) and Alice Bags (The Bags) - iconic women in punk. Mixing humor with abandon, and English with Spanish, FEA empowers listeners and inspires dissidence by exploring societal, cultural and gender related issues. The quartet stopped by Desmadre HQ a day before their San Jose show to have a couple of beers and shoot the breeze with Jesus. 

FEA's tour is still going, with multiple stops on the west coast and Texas still to come through the end of the year. Check out their schedule and download their music at: http://fea210.com

Cherríe Moraga is a Chicana writer, feminist activist, poet, essayist, playwright-director and educator. She has received an NEA Fellowship for Playwriting, Two Fund for New American Plays Awards, a Rockefeller Fellowship in Literature among many other honors. Cherrie is currently Artist in Residence in the Department of Drama at Stanford University and also shares a joint appointment with Comparative Studies in Race & Ethnicity. Cherrie is a legend, has seen it all, and she is still keeping it real as a G - evidenced by her willingness to stop by the Desmadre garage and shoot the breeze with Jesus. Join us in this conversation about her life growing up in LA and how she came to be an activist artist during the feminist movement. 

Lizbeth Mateo and Luis Angel were both born in Mexico and brought to the US by their parents as children. They hustled like crazy in school, getting through college by washing dishes, working in a deli and grinding nonstop. They both also made it a point to keep going and pursued law school. Luis received his JD from NYU and Lizbeth hers from Santa Clara Law. To make these stories even more ridiculous, they were also both very actively involved in and leading the undocumented immigrant movement - pushing for the DREAM act and mobilizing to stop all the raids and deportations. They both put it on the line on many occasions. These two are special, and this episode is special. Please listen and share it with your friends and family. These are stories that need to be heard and this episode contains practical information that the community needs to know and be aware of given the potential impact of president-elect Trump's impending actions.

PLEASE VISIT THESE LINKS FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Petition to GRANT DACA to LIZBETH: http://www.notonemoredeportation.com/portfolio/lizbeth/
Post Election DACA Talking Points: https://www.ilrc.org/daca-talking-points
IMMIGRANT YOUTH COALITION: http://theiyc.org/
ALTO TRUMP CAMPAIGN to protect ourselves and stop Trump:  http://altotrump.com/
NATIONAL DAY LABORER ORGANIZING NETWORK: http://www.ndlon.org/en/