Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Have Their Say w/ Tony Diaz

Texas State Board of Ed. Candidates Discuss Requiring Ethnic Studies for Graduation.

Racial bias training for police officers is good, but Ethnic Studies courses in high school can have a more profound effect on cultural awareness. Tony Diaz interviews two Texas State Board of Education candidates about requiring Ethnic Studies for graduation on Latino Politics and News.

Host Tony Diaz interviews Democratic Run-off candidate for TX SBOE 6

Dr. Kimberly McLeod, & Republican candidate for TX SBOE 6 Will Hickman.

We are in pledge drive. There are no regular shows about our art, culture, and politics on commercial television or radio. KPFT hosts a monopoly on community cultural capital. We answer to our community. Please budget a donation to KPFT, and make it support of Latino Politics and News today. Call 713.526.5738. Or visit www.kpft.org. We have a monetary goal, a goal for new members, and a goal for online donations. We thank you in advance for helping us to meet and shatter those goes.

There are no regular shows about our art, culture, and politics on commercial television or radio. KPFT hosts a monopoly on community cultural capital. We answer to our community. Please budget a donation to KPFT, and make it support of Latino Politics and News today. Visit www.kpft.org. We thank you in advance for your support.

Thanks to our crew for donating their cultural capital to the show:

Leti Lopez, Rodrigo Bravo, who mixed the show remotely, Claudia Soler Alfonso, MD., Jesse Aranda Comer our summer inter through Rice University, Laurie Flores, Stefano Cavezza, and Al Castillo President of LULAC Council 60.

Tune in every Tuesday from 2 pm to 3 pm for Latino Politics and News with Tony Diaz on 90.1 FM KPFT.

That's followed by Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say at 6 pm.

And catch Tony Diaz on the political talk show What's Your Point on Fox 26 Houston, Sundays at 7 am.

Two Latina poet laureates join Tony Diaz to discuss the power of poetry to heal and its role in a just and thriving society: Texas Poet Laureate Emmy Pérez and Madison Poet Laureate Angela C. Trudell Vasquez. This episode aired Tuesday, June 9, 2020, 6pm 90.1 FM KPFT Houston.

Tune in for NP Radio every Tuesday 6 pm – 7 pm CST on 90.1 FM KPFT, Houston. Livestream on www.KPFT.org. On Demand at www.NuestraPalabra.org.

Bios

Emmy Pérez, Texas Poet Laureate 2020, is the author of With the River on Our Face and Solstice. Her work also appears in Other Musics: New Latina Poetry, Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology, What Saves Us: Poems of Empathy and Outrage in the Age of Tr---, and other publications. She is a recipient of a poets laureate fellowship with the Academy of American Poets, an NEA poetry fellowship, a CantoMundo fellowship, and the Alfredo Cisneros Del Moral Foundation Award. Since 2008, she has been a member of the Macondo Writers Workshop, and for the past 20 years, she's taught writing in the Texas borderlands. In 2017, she co-founded Poets Against Walls and makes #RascuacheProductions poetry videos. Currently, she is Professor of Creative Writing and Associate Director of the Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

Angie Trudell Vasquez received her MFA in creative writing with a concentration in poetry from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her work has been published in

Taos Journal of Poetry, Yellow Medicine Review, Raven Chronicles, Return to the Gathering Place of the Waters, and Cloudthroat among other journals and anthologies. She has a page and poems from her first two books on the Poetry Foundation’s website, and was a Ruth Lilly fellow as an undergraduate at Drake University. She has new work forthcoming from RED INK: International Journal of Indigenous Literature, Arts & Humanities.

There are no regular shows about our art, culture, and politics on commercial television or radio. KPFT hosts a monopoly on community cultural capital. We answer to our community. Please budget a donation to KPFT, and make it support of Latino Politics and News today. Visit www.kpft.org. We thank you in advance for your support.

Thanks to our crew for donating their cultural capital to the show:

Leti Lopez, Rodrigo Bravo, who mixed the show remotely, Claudia Soler Alfonso, MD., Jesse Aranda Comer our summer inter through Rice University, Laurie Flores, Stefano Cavezza, and Al Castillo President of LULAC Council 60.

Tune in every Tuesday from 2 pm to 3 pm for Latino Politics and News with Tony Diaz on 90.1 FM KPFT.

That's followed by Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say at 6 pm.

And catch Tony Diaz on the political talk show What's Your Point on Fox 26 Houston, Sundays at 7 am.

www.KPFT.org

www.NuestraPalabra.org

www.Librotraficante.com

www.TonyDiaz.net

Two civil rights icons address dismantling the structural discrimination that led to the slaying of George Floyd.

KPFT General Manager Jew Don Boney and Mr. LULAC Johnny Mata share history and wisdom with Tony Diaz on Latino Politics And News 90.1 FM KPFT Houston. www.kpft.org.

This episode aired Tues June 9, 2 pm - 3 pm #LatinoPoliticsAndNews

There are no regular shows about our art, culture, and politics on commercial television or radio. KPFT hosts a monopoly on community cultural capital. We answer to our community. Please budget a donation to KPFT, and make it support of Latino Politics and News today. Visit www.kpft.org. We thank you in advance for your support.

Thanks to our crew for donating their cultural capital to the show:

Leti Lopez, Rodrigo Bravo, who mixed the show remotely, Claudia Soler Alfonso, MD., Jesse Aranda Comer our summer inter through Rice University, Laurie Flores, Stefano Cavezza, and Al Castillo President of LULAC Council 60.

Tune in every Tuesday from 2 pm to 3 pm for Latino Politics and News with Tony Diaz on 90.1 FM KPFT.

That's followed by Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say at 6 pm.

And catch Tony Diaz on the political talk show What's Your Point on Fox 26 Houston, Sundays at 7 am.

Nuestra Palabra; Latino Writers Having Their Say broadcast on Tuesday, June 2, 2020, with host Tony Diaz.

Today we focus on 2 Latinas changing the world through their brilliance and art. One is stars in a new film about the struggles of our undocumented community, and the other is making a national impact telling our community's stories through classic and new media.

We first talk to Erica Muñoz, who stars in the film LONG GONE BY by acclaimed filmmaker Andrew Morgan and Untold Films. This film portrays the impossible realities of undocumented Latino immigrants. It is currently playing on HBO.

In the second half of the show, We interview Jessica Hoppe, a New York-based writer and social media strategist. Former Lifestyle Editor at StyleCaster, she founded Nueva Yorka. She has been tackling the challenges of alcoholism and recovery during the COVIED19 lockdown, esp. for the Latino community.

We are recording remotely and sometime weeks ahead of our air dates. This makes it complicated to address breaking news; however, we must address the current death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

That is an on-going and rapidly changing situation, so facts sand analyses will change day to today. However, today's show is about unleashing our voices, the power of art to heal, and changing the world.

Sudden acts, such as the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis streets by those assigned to serve and protect us, are examples of racial bias coming to a dangerous boiling point. We must address the layers that lead to that. That is shaped by the inequities of the educational system in black and brown communities. That has been overlooked for too long.

African American and Latino youth must receive the best education this nation has to offer. And sharing their stories, cultivating their imaginations, and edifying their spirts play a vital role in that.

Social injustice is hard to quantify, easy to hide, and profoundly shapes our community's confidence, tranquility, and peace of mind. Those factors are also vital to thrive.

George Floyd grew up in Houston. He attended our schools. He walked our streets. We feel he and his family's loss, and we will continue to unite to uplift the voices of our communities.

The mission of Nuestra Palabra since it was founded in 1998 has been to address these issues. We must be humanized and imagined and treated as intellectuals capable of great thoughts and great deeds.

We have walked with you on this path for 22 years, and we will continue.

Thank you.

We are in pledge drive. There are no regular shows about our art, culture, and politics on commercial television or radio. KPFT hosts a monopoly on community cultural capital. We answer to our community. Please budget a donation to KPFT, and make it support of Latino Politics and News today. Call 713.526.5738. Or visit www.kpft.org. We have a monetary goal, a goal for new members, and a goal for online donations. We thank you in advance for helping us to meet and shatter those goes.

Thanks to our crew for donating their cultural capital to the show:

Leti Lopez

Rodrigo Bravo, who mixed the show remotely

Claudia Soler Alfonso, MD.

Jesse Aranda Comer

Laurie Flores

Stefano Cavezza

Al Castillo

I'm happy to join you every Tuesday from 2 pm to 3 pm for Latino Politics and News, here on 90.1 FM KPFT.

That's followed by Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say at 6 pm.

And I also get to see you on the political talk show What's Your Point on Fox 26 Houston, Sundays at 7 am.

This is Tony Diaz with Latino Politics and News.

Latino Politics and News with Tony Diaz aired Tues, June 2, 2020, 2 pm on 90.1 FM KPFT, Houston. Livestream at www.KPFT.org. Join us every Tuesday.

Today, we are providing a Latino perspective on the new book "Prophetic City: Houston on the Cusp of a Changing America" by Stephen Klineberg.

Almost 40 years of research surveying Houstonians form the basis for the book.

We will talk to Dr. Stephen Klineberg, who, as I am, is an alum of the American Leadership Forum. I'll also talk to other ALF alumni to provide an introduction to the book, which I believe lays the groundwork for creating structural change in Houston.

Hispanic Chamber of Commerce CEO Dr. Laura Murillo will provide an analysis of Latino Leadership, and Texas Senator Carol Alvarado will provide us insights into Houston and Texas's political structure, which have shaped the lives of our community.

In news, we are recording remotely and sometime weeks ahead of air dates. This makes it complicated to address breaking news; however, we must address the slaying of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

That is an on-going and rapidly changing situation, so facts and analysis will vary day to today; however, today's show addresses structural issues.

In "Prophetic City" John Guess, Chief Executive Officer Emeritus of the Houston Museum of African American Culture, is quoted as saying that the survey does not convey the level of racism that exists in Houston.

Sudden acts, such as the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis streets by those assigned to serve and protect us, are examples of racial bias coming to a dangerous boiling point. We must address the layers that lead to that. “Prophetic City” quantifies inequities that limit the potential of black and brown communities to thrive.

Social injustice is hard to quantify, easy to hide, and profoundly shapes our communities' confidence, tranquility, and peace of mind. Those factors are also vital to thrive.

George Floyd grew up in Houston. Houston police have been involved in six lethal shooting in just over a month. Most of those killed were Black or Brown.

Their names are: Nicolas Chavez, Chris Aguirre, Adrian Medearis, Rayshard Scales, Randy Lewis, Joe Castillanos. These acts must be thoroughly examined, transparently.

This issue erupts then gets swept under the rug. However, if we do not address many of the social inequities quantified in Prophetic City, Houston will not be able to thrive. As the book says, Houston's fate relies on the fate of young Blacks and Latinos.

As we discuss 40 years of research about Houston, it is clear the time for change is now.

Latino Politics and News is intended to address those issues over the long haul. We hope our discussion today on "Prophetic City" will pave the way for more profound discussions about our communities and with our communities.

We must be humanized, and imagined and treated as intellectual capable fo great thoughts and great deeds.

We are in pledge drive. There are no regular shows about our art, culture, and politics on commercial television or radio. KPFT hosts a monopoly on community cultural capital. We answer to our community. Please budget a donation to KPFT, and make it support of Latino Politics and News today. Call 713.526.5738. Or visit www.kpft.org.

Thanks to our crew for donating their cultural capital to the show:

Leti Lopez, Rodrigo Bravo, who mixed the show remotely, Claudia Soler Alfonso, MD., Jesse Aranda Comer our summer inter through Rice University, Laurie Flores, Stefano Cavezza, and Al Castillo President of LULAC Council 60.

I'm happy to join you every Tuesday from 2 pm to 3 pm for Latino Politics and News on 90.1 FM KPFT.

That's followed by Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say at 6 pm.

And I also get to see you on the political talk show What's Your Point on Fox 26 Houston, Sundays at 7 am.

This is Tony Diaz with Latino Politics and News.

NP: ALL LIT I: Poetry, Prose, Music From Beginning to End.

Featuring poetry by Matt Sedillo, Gris Muñoz Acosta, Lupe Mendez, Jose Torres-Tama, and prose by Tony Diaz, Alvaro Saar, Leticia Manzano.

Aired Tuesday, May 26, 2020 6 pm - 7 pm CSt 90.1 FM KPFT. Houston, Texas.

We are in pledge drive. There are no regular shows about our art, culture, and politics on commercial television or radio. KPFT hosts a monopoly on community cultural capital. We answer to our community. Please budget a donation to KPFT, and make it support of Latino Politics and News today. Call 713.526.5738. Or visit www.kpft.org.

Thanks to our crew:

Leti Lopez

Rodrigo Bravo, who mixed the show remotely

Claudia Soler Alfonso, MD.

Jesse Aranda Comer

Laurie Flores

Stefano Cavezza

Al Castillo

Tune in every Tuesday from 2 pm to 3 pm for Latino Politics and News with Tony Diaz 90.1 FM KPFT, Houston. Livestream www.KPFT.org.

That's followed by Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say at 6 pm to 7 pm CST. 90.1 FM KPFT, Houston. Livestream www.KPFT.org.

Tony Diaz also appears on What's Your Point on Fox 26 Houston, Sundays at 7 am.

www.NuestraPalabra.org

www.Librotraficante.com

Livestream: www.KPFT.org.

Thank you for tuning into Latino Politics and News Tuesday, May 26, 2020. I'm Tony Diaz.

Today, you will find out about our Pablo Neruda Challenge. And, can you guess which city has more Latino city council members? Houston or Dallas? Houston does have a slightly higher percentage of Latino population.

You will get all these answers and more on today's episode.

We will pose our #PabloNerudaChallegen to congressional candidates for battleground TX district 22. At the top of the program today, Sri Kulkarni, Democratic Candidate for the post, joins us.

You will find out if he accepts or declines this opportunity to celebrate, in Spanish, one of the greatest poets to ever live. Will his Republican opponents accept? Or maybe, they don't like Pablo Neruda?

Of course, the race for Texas's 22nd Congressional seat has made national news as a major battleground seat. We will find out how Sri Kulkarni plans to engage Latinos.

On the second half of the show, Dallas City Councilman Omar Narvaez joins us. So now you know Dallas is at the very least tied with Houston for the number of Latino City Council representatives since Houston has only one. Does Dallas have even more?

Stay tuned; we'll also talk to Omar about a potent letter he wrote to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who interceded on behalf of an Anglo nail salon owner for breaking stay at home orders. However, Paxton has not intervened for Latina salon owners jailed in Laredo.

News:

Kudos to Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo for spearheading increased COVID19 relief for Harris County residents. The commissioners' court voted along party lines to pass the policy. Three Democrats supported it. The two sitting Republicans opposed it. This plan will also include helping undocumented families.

This should remind you of our past broadcast where journalist Alfredo Corchado shared insights about his essay "A Former Farmworker on American Hypocrisy", which appeared in the New York Times.

He writes that it is wrong to exploit the labor of the undocumented and call them "essential workers" in national policies because their back-breaking work is vital to maintaining our food supply chain, and then scapegoat immigrants for everything that is going wrong in the nation, and deprive them of essential relief to be able to survive so that they can keep working their essential jobs.

Local policies such as that passed by Harris County commissioners court are vital to undo the hypocritical policies at the national level.

In other national news:

Joe Biden has begun to court the Latino vote more aggressively. He has hired the granddaughter of Cesar Chavez, Julie Chavez Rodriguez as an adviser on his campaign.

This is a good step, but as we discussed on our preimere program, a truly profound engagement would consist of a Latino Vice presidential pick, announcing which Latino cabinet members he would support, as well as more Latino surrogates to represent him ASAP.

Our mission is for every candidate to consider our community's concerns for every issue on their platform. Our broadcasts sheds light on the many facets of the Latino experience.

We are in pledge drive. There are no regular shows about our art, culture, and politics on commercial television or radio. KPFT hosts a monopoly on community cultural capital. We answer to our community. Please budget a donation to KPFT, and make it support of Latino Politics and News today. Call 713.526.5738. Or visit www.kpft.org.

Thanks to our crew:

Leti Lopez

Rodrigo Bravo, who mixed the show remotely

Claudia Soler Alfonso, MD.

Jesse Aranda Comer

Laurie Flores

Stefano Cavezza

Al Castillo

I'm happy to join you every Tuesday from 2 pm to 3 pm for Latino Politics and News, here on 90.1 FM KPFT.

That's followed by Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say at 6 pm.

And I also get to see you on the political talk show What's Your Point on Fox 26 Houston, Sundays at 7 am.

This is Tony Diaz with Latino Politics and News.

We are happy to bring you another remote installment of the Latino Literary Renaissance.

As always, we are going to thrill you with art from around the country and history in your own back yard. We are recording remotely for broadcast May 19, 2020, and we are bringing you voices from New Orleans and Houston's La Bonia barrio, also known as City Council H.

At the top of the show, you heard the poetry of poet, performance artist, and activist, Jose Torres Tama from New Orleans. We are happy to bring you the national debut of his Video Cortaditos, Poesia Picante.

He joins us for a full interview during the first half of our show, and you will enjoy more of his work throughout the program-broadcasting at 100,000 watts.

During the second half of the show, you will meet Laurie Flores. She is our new Nuestra Palabra Community Representative for Houston City Council H. She'll be talking about how art builds community.

As always, we will bring you art, culture, history, and the soundtrack to a revolution.

The Nuestra Palabra Radio Show is archived at the University of Houston Digital Archives. Our hard copy archives are kept at the Houston Public Library's Special Collections Hispanic Archives.

You can listen to Nuestra Palabnra on-demand by visiting at www.NuestraPalabra.org.

Also, our pledge drive begins next week. There are no regular shows about our art, culture, and politics on commercial television or radio. KPFT hosts a monopoly on community cultural capital. We answer to our community. Please budget a donation to KPFT, and make it support of Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say.

Recorded remotely for broadcast May 19, 2020.

Alfredo Corchado discusses “A Former Farmworker on American Hypocrisy”. The Down Ballot: Penny Shaw, candidate for TX State Rep. District 148.

“It’s time to offer all essential workers a path to legalization.” That is a quote from an essay by Alfredo Corchado.

That quote, his work, and today’s episode represent our mission.

We are bringing you a Latino perspective on politics and news on a national level and a local level.

At the top of today’s show, we will talk to award-winning journalist and author Alfredo Corchado. He will discuss and read from his potent essay “A Former Farmworker on American Hypocrisy” appeared in the New York Times.

We have spoken to Alfredo in the past on our sister show Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say. However, his work, especially this essay, is literature, is politics, is news.

That is the fate of the Latino artists and writers. We do not have the luxury of being only writers, or only artists who can simply create art for art’s sake.

Our community’s well being is on the line. And our fate is also the fate of the entire nation.

The figures we focus on do not find this to be a limitation. They are empowered by the challenges of our time, and they strive to empower.

That means, Nuestra Palabra create this second radio show to more directly lean into the political aspect of our work, while never striving too far from and always edifying our community’s cultural capital.

With that said, the second half of our show is all about the down ballot.

We speak with Penny Shaw, a Latina, in the democrat primary for Texas House Set 148. She has a run-off July 14, early voting starts July 6. The general election is in November.

Also, our pledge drive begins next week. There are no regular shows about our art, culture, and politics on commercial television or radio. KPFT hosts a monopoly on community cultural capital. We answer to our community. Please budget a donation to KPFT, and make it support of Latino Politics and News.

Thanks to our crew:

Leti Lopez

Rodrigo Bravo, who mixed the show remotely

Claudia Soler Alfonso, MD.

Jesse Aranda Comer

Laurie Flores

Stefano Cavezza

Al Castillo

I'm happy to join you every Tuesday from 2 pm to 3 pm for Latino Politics and News, here on 90.1 FM KPFT.

That's followed by Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say at 6 pm.

And I also get to see you on the political talk show What's Your Point on Fox 26 Houston, Sundays at 7 am.

This is Tony Diaz with Latino Politics and News.

Recorded remotely for broadcast on Tuesday, May 12, 2020.

Thank you for tuning into Latino Politics and News with Tony Diaz Tuesday, May 12, 2020.

Today, we are focusing on the traditional Latino topics of Oil and COVID19.

Of course, Immigration is an issue important to our community. So candidates must be well-versed on that. But if they focus on only Immigration when it comes to us, they are hispandering.

And no Hispandering is allowed on this show.

Instead, we have 2 Latinos who are taking on county-wide and statewide issues.

COVID19 is a Latino issue.

At the top of show, we talk to newly appointed COVID19 Relief Czar for Harris County, Texas State Representative Armando Walle.

Texas Railroad Commission usually flies under the radar. On Tuesday, May 5, the commission rejected statewide production cuts. And yes, that is a Latino issue.

In the second half of the show, Roberto Alonzo, candidate for the Texas Railroad Commission, tell us what that means and how the commission can serve Latinos.

In the news:

Nationally: Journalist Alfredo Corchado wrote a poignant op-ed in the New York Times titled: A Former Farmworker on American Hypocrisy

In the pandemic, "illegal" workers are now deemed "essential" by the federal government.

The essay reads:

The best way to guarantee food security in the future is to legalize the current workers in order to keep them here, and to offer a pathway to legalization as an incentive for new agricultural workers to come. These people will be drawn not just from Mexico, but increasingly from Central and South America.

This piece powerful portrays how the COVID19 pandemic and relief efforts have revealed the double standards and hypocrisy of The Trump Administrations' treatment of the undocumented community and Latinos.

In language news:

I want to remind folks that metaphors are forced confessions.

The use of the term "illegal alien" instead of "undocumented" reveals bias.

The Texas Supreme Court ruled that term could not be used in court because it was biased. Some folks point to the use of the term "illegal" by Immigration. I would remind you that governmental institutions also once coined terms and used language to facilitate the owning and selling of slaves.

Modern language guides for professional associations have institutionalized preference of the term "undocumented" instead of "illegal."

Don't be bias.

Thanks to our crew:

Leti Lopez

Rodrigo Bravo, who mixed the show remotely

Claudia Soler Alfonso, MD.

Jesse Aranda Comer

Laurie Flores

Stefano Cavezza

Al Castillo

I'm happy to join you every Tuesday from 2 pm to 3 pm for Latino Politics and News, here on 90.1 FM KPFT.

That's followed by Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say at 6 pm.

And I also get to see you on the political talk show What's Your Point on Fox 26 Houston, Sundays at 7 am.

This is Tony Diaz with Latino Politics and News.