Norma Rodriguez's blog

a long time later...

So its been a year and a half since I embarked on the grad school journey... I am graduating in June but have so much left to do!!! After going back to read my blog I realize that what has suffered the most in my life has been my creativity. I am reading my poetry and my ponderings and musings on here and want to wake up my dormant creative energy!!! I want to paint and draw and drink wine and stay up all night painting!!!! All of the analytical nonsense of grad school is seeping into my creativity!

However this whole grad school journey has been amazing and I am glad I am doing this!!
I have met amazing people, read and learned amazing things.
I am ready to go out there and be unleashed- I have learned so much and paired with community organizing I feel that I will be an asset to my community in fighting the issues and people that continually try to break us and hurt us and deny us of our rights. I am ready for the fight, its like I have been in intense training bootcamp--- on one hand continuing to be engaged in whatever level I am able to while im in grad school and also learning about the theory and the issues from an academic side-getting ready with all of this knowledge, and understanding and most importantly: Passion for this life, for this fight, for the people.

I am continually inspired by the brave, courageous, beautiful community of people I have gotten to know and respect here in San Diego and across the country--- DC. Maine, Chicago, and everywhere in between--- doing wonderful amazing work---- this essence of connections between people with a passion for living and fighting the good fight continually renew me. I am not letting grad school and its calculations take that away from me. I take the good and discard the bad---- I cannot wait for June--- be ready world--- I'm a force 3 Tornado right now, wait til I turn to a freaken Hurricane of Normitaness!!!!!

August 1 2009-Immigration canvassing training

I am organizing the community action area of Fiesta Del Sol- it will have a hundred volunteers each day- trained to canvass the festival, the three asks they will ask the fiesta del sol attendees:

1) Sign a pledge card addressed to Senators Feinstein and Boxer-asking them to commit to Immigration Reform.

2) Asking them to sign up for the national text messaging campaign- texting Justice or Justicia to the number 69866 to get updates on whats going on with immigration reform.

3) Inviting them to join us at the March on August 21 from San Diego City College to Senator Feinstein and Boxer's offices to deliver the pledge cards we collected at Fiesta Del Sol community action pavilion.

In order to do this,we strategized with organizers from ACORN de San Diego, and SEIU local 1877, and a few other allies to have a training today. We met at the Turning the Hearts Center In Chula Vista. It was a slow beginning, but I helped prepare the materials and training agenda for the day. It was a two hour training that involved role playing and signing up for time slots for the weekend of Fiesta Del Sol. It was very exciting, we had high school students, community members, members from our member institutions and ACORN and SEIU members. This event was also awesome because my momma was there for the week of and she helped me get people to sign in and distribute fliers. She was so proud of me and so happy to be helping out. Because of my dedication to getting our work done and to keep people accountable, I have gotten a reputation with the other organizers about being tough, and I like it! We need to hold each other accountable in order to get this powerful, amazing work done! This is going to be great!!!!!

La Colleccion Event July 19, 2009

Yesterday night, we had "La Colleccion: event in Golden Hills At the Marquee and it was beautiful. The Marquee is a great church-turned event hall in Golden Hill. The event started off as a fundraiser mostly for the art pavilion for Fiesta Del Sol and quickly became a family event with music, food and drinks!!!

LaColeccion

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Because I was working on Fiesta Del Sol and the Community Action Pavilion and with the Immigration Task Force, I did not become involved with a lot of the planning but was definetely on hand the day-of to help out! We had live art out front, artists selling their different art, jewelry and shirts. There was an art auction, drinks, small snacks, and live music, spoken poetry. Un poquito de todo. It ended up being a beautiful event. We also had a photo booth! Everything was cheap either $1 or $3 dollars except for the art/art auction. Earlier in the day, I had already ran the 5k pride run for pride weekend and been on the Padre Andres radio show again to promote the Fiesta Del Sol and Immigration campaign. Talk about a great day: running a race, promoting immigration reform and then celebrating communities and families at this even, not bad for a Saturday! It was so beautiful to see all of the effort and energy and passion that so many people from so many different walks of life put into the event. Its always so beautiful when you see this coming together, feeling the connection to something bigger. I am full of happiness. I think I'm still in a daze- I am where I am supposed to be, I'm not working a corporate job: I am in grad school focusing on immigration reform, and learning different organizing methods for when I graduate: community organizing or law school. :) The only thing I am not getting enough of or actually any of- is making my own art- there will be time for it sometime soon I hope. 

"We come together, some of us tentatively at first, knowing that we want to do something to feel connected to our communities and to do something positive. We create connections in our humanity- beautiful smiling faces, beautiful comunities, for something so much greater than ourselves."

Immigration Task force-takes off!

So my personal goal as an organizer this summer, was to build up the Immigration Task Force group here in San Diego. We have had shaky turn out and continuity for about three years now. I wanted to make the task force a group of accountability and continuity. And After the June 27th summit, we had a great first powerful meeting! In partnership with allies ACORN, SEIU, and our member institutions; key staff/leaders from each organization gathered to plot out what our game plan was with the immigration task force. We had our meeting at the SEIU offices, and we had pretty good turn out about 40 people. We strategized on what it was that we were going todo within the "Community Action" pavilion of Fiesta Del Sol. The Festival has different pavilions dedicated to different issues: healthcare, childrens, education, community action, art. Our plan is to have a training August 1 prior to the Fiesta Del Sol (August 8 and 9) to bring 200 people to a training to learn how to "canvass" during Fiesta Del Sol. This week I am going to be on the Padre Andres show (a catholic radio talk show) speaking about this and the national text message campaign- if you text the word Justice or Justicia to the # 69866, you get updates on where we are with immigration reform, when a politician makes a statement or there is new updates, you get a text letting you know who to call and let them know about your support or disgust :) its a great tool! I will be on the show with Christina, this student who is an amazing mujer, We meet for a few hours today to discuss talking points and it was awesome! I realized that she is very interested in Immigration law, which is something I have been thinking about lately. While the community action area is being developed through the immigration task force, the rest of Fiesta Del Sol is moving right along. It is in the exciting phase, my co-chair and I, just feel so energized after the meetings, like what happens every year, amazing people come out of the wood work to head up and join the pavilions. The energy is tangible, the people amazing, the movement vibrant, I wouldn't be anywhere else, doing anything else!!! I love organizing!

our greatest fear is our own power

Our Greatest Fear —Marianne Williamson

it is our light not our darkness that most frightens us

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.

There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other

people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of
God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.

—Marianne Williamson

"When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less importrant whether I am afraid."

Immigration Leadership Summit-June 27, 2009

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This has been an amazing summer, and I am trying to capture it in all of its amazing awesomeness! A week after completing my finals for my first year of Grad School, I began to work on an Immigration Leadership Summit that Justice Overcoming Boundaries (JOB) was putting on. I had not been as involved as I wanted because I was finishing up my finals. So, I was thrown into putting the summit together. Norma, my tocaya, left to DC and the summit was only half planned. Within the week, I was in full force organizing mode with the other organizer, Pedro. We had to get the conference together. Over 50 people ended up attending, leaders, students, church members, all backgrounds and ages! We had speakers from the National Reform Immigration for America (RIFA) campaign (this is the national Campaign for immigration reform that orgs that we as JOB are affiliated with (GAMALIEL and CENTER FOR COMMUNITY CHANGE) I have worked with organizers from both organization and love the work and partnership that the do! So we had speakers from the National campaign come out of DC, we had organizers from Oakland, Ventura, Los angeles and from orgs such as CHIRLA- come out. 

             We had workshops on media messaging, grassroots organizing, the issues... it was awesome! All of them were being trained on how to be leaders to be able to push a positive and comprehensive Immigration Reform. The time is now. Our president is a democrat, the movement is the most organized it has been in awhile. We are using modern technology- we are on twitter, facebook, we send letters, we call, we text, we organize! I feel the hope! We are growing in our capacity. Our keynote speaker, Shu Ohno, was amazing, his speaking style was great, he spoke about the RIFA campaign- he is the director for the National Immigration Forum. I was reminded about why I do this sort of work when I heard people talking about how excited they were to learn these new tools. When we broke into committees to plan, it was amazing! It all came together. What a day! The day started on having only four hours of sleep because we were finalizing a lot of things the night before. Yohanna, and amazing young AB 540 student, helped co chair the event with me, she is definetely a future organizer in the making! After the Immigration Summit finisheday, my heart was doing cartwheels in my chest, tears of joy were welling in the corner of my eyes, a shiny sheen of sweat covered my nose and cheeks- I felt exhilarated, hopeful and proud... The pics are as we were finishing up the summit, I did the closing, and another one of the co-chairs for the summit- Yohanna and I.

No wonder Tina Fey said Grad students are the worst people

She said it on her show 30 rock and after a year of grad school, I get it. Grad students and academics kinda suck... the world of academia is designed to create drones within very specific fields which only few people understand. It is made to make people interested in writing and reading rather than DOING. There is a huge amount of narcissim in grad school- grad students and teachers alike are ALL about their own research and little else. Grad students make lousy friends- they are too disconnected from the real world... grad students have continuous lame conversations about theory and other bullshit in front of non academics which is super annoying...academic writing is super dry and uninspiring...

so why do I keep on going?
because unfuckenforutnately I need that damn degree to prove that I know something.  And fortunately there are glimmers of hope, those true academic activists, professors and students that apply what they know to the real world and don't keep it reserved to obscure journals that no one but their colleagues read and argue and refute...

In order for academic to truly succeed it needs to be engaged and shared with the real world!
GAH!

reflections on grad school

After two quarters of grad school, I feel like I can now reflect a little on my experiencias en grad school-
 1. First of all, figuring out what to write for my thesis is difficult, with my background in art, my experience in community work, I am interested in a cajillion different things. I started off wanting to do border art. Then I decided that ultimately, I needed to write a thesis around more practical matters- taking into account future job opportunities. I decided to ground my work on policy and law around immigration- I considered immigration raids, but after research and discussion with other grad students/professors, didn't think there was a viable argument in that arena. Now I have finally decided on doing my work around the latest anti-housing city ordinances and their racial implications- perhaps a continuity of previous laws designed to racially segregate.
 
2.  We need more people of color represented in higher education- while we need more people of color in undergrad, the number of people of color at the graduate level is ridiculously low. It really frustrates me that sitting in a class on immigration- there is one or two people of color to represent. while academia continues to break from eurocentric ideologies, we still need more of the voices of us that have actual real experiences in this spaces that academia studies. Our viewpoint and knowledge is invaluable and necessary for academia to advance in its understanding

3. Academia has too much theory and not enough application. I completely understand and believe that theoretical framing is important in understanding movements, actions, etc, but this theory cannot just remain that. Academia is wary of activism and vice versa. These two fields need to be in constant communication in order to bring about positive change, activism informs academia and vice versa, imagine the collaborations possible if this were to happen?

4. after these past two quarters, a phd, seems too long. For me, it means putting my life on hold for far too long- personally, and financially... perhaps though, I just haven't found something I am passionate enough to study for 5-6 years, and as far as community and social justice work, well, i would rather do more of it than theorize around it.

5. There is a lot of amazing work being done at this point in academia. I have read tons of great articles and books int the last two quarters

6. in academia, as in all other aspects of life, there are many egos involved.

7. I am glad to be right here

QotD: Winter Activities

What's your favorite winter activity?

waiting for spring to hurry up, get its act together and show up already!!

Fortunately, I am spoiled and live in mostly awesome weather here in San Diego! Today for example, it is about a breezy sunshiney 75. I am wearing a t-shirt and capris and I feel fantastic, yesterday was the same and the day before too. It does get cold, but I know its nothing compared to the east coast. But really, I prefer it to be 85 than anything below 70. I like to drink hot chocolate and stay inside warm, does that count as a winter activity?

QotD: Accomplishments in 2008

What are you proud for accomplishing in 2008? Anything you wanted to accomplish that didn't quite happen?

I am proud of many things this past year, but specially for developing my "super-hero serum." Just a few drops of this serum will send you into super hero status, you gain super hero powers unique to you and also don a fancy outfit, usually involving brightly colored spandex, and an emblem on your chest... I am finalizing the patent, this should be out in stores early 2009. My outfit has a rubber ducky on the chest, with a lower case n for Normita. My outfit is turquoise with orange lightning bolts on the cape... yeah crazy color combination but it goes well for me! I can fly, I can jump from building to building and I am bullet proof-yes! :)

 

but really, besides that, my greater accomplishments this year were getting accepted into grad school, finishing my first quarter- alive and with good grades, chairing fiesta del sol 2008 with my co-chair Lorena, doing community work with JOB, running my best half marathon time ever, and of course quitting my job in September :) Personally spending time with family, friends as much as I could given grad school, was awesome- Whoo hoo! :)

Can't wait for 2009!!