santacruz coalition

A fascinating account of an organization dedicated to promoting peace and justice and ending gang warfare.
This is the compelling story of Barrios Unidos, the Santa Cruz-based organization founded to prevent gang violence amongst inner-city ethnic youth. An evolving grass-roots organization that grew out of the Mexican-American civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s and 1970s, Barrios Unidos harnessed the power of culture and spirituality to rescue at-risk young people, provide avenues to quell gang warfare, and offer a promising model for building healthy and vibrant multicultural communities.
Co-founder Daniel “Nane” Alejándrez spent his childhood following the crops from state to state with his family. His earliest recollection of “home” was a tent in a labor camp. Later, he was drafted in to the Army and sent to Vietnam. “Flying bullets, cries of anguish and being surrounded by death have a way of giving fuel to epiphany. This war made as little sense to me as the war raging on the streets of the barrios back home.” He decided that when he returned home, he would dedicate himself to peace. Nane Alejándrez’s story of personal transformation, from heroin-addicted gang banger to social activist and youth advocate, is closely tied to that of Barrios Unidos.
Through interviews, written testimonies, and documents, Frank de Jesús Acosta re-constructs the development of Barrios Unidos—or literally, united neighborhoods—from its early influences and guiding principles to its larger connection to the on-going struggle to achieve civil rights in America. Today, Barrios Unidos chapters exist in several cities around the country, including San Francisco; Venice-Los Angeles; Salinas; San Diego; Washington, DC; Yakima; San Antonio; Phoenix; and Chicago.
With a foreword by Luis Rodríguez, former gang member and author of La Vida Loca: Always Running, the book also includes historical photos and commentaries by leading civil rights activists Harry Belafonte, Dolores Huerta, Tom Hayden, Manuel Pastor, and Constance Rice. Mandatory reading for anyone interested in peace and social justice, The History of Barrios Unidos gives voice to contemporary inter-generational leaders of color and will lead to the continuation of necessary public dialogue about racism, poverty, and violence.
“Barrios Unidos follows in the positive spiritual traditions of Gandhi, Dr. King, César, and Malcolm following his pilgrimage to Mecca. The story and example of Barrios Unidos is an inspiration to everyone in the movement.”—Harry Belafonte
FRANK DE JESUS ACOSTA was born and raised in East Los Angeles. He has worked with a number of non-profit organizations in California, including the United Methodist Social Service Center, Downtown Immigrant Advocates, the Coalition for Humane Immigrants’ Rights of Los Angeles, and the Center for Community Change in Washington, DC. Most recently, he served a five-year tenure as Senior Program Officer directing a California Wellness Foundation grant-making program, the Violence Prevention Initiative. He lives and works in Whittier, California.

For 12 years we’ve run a Peace Camp for one precious week each summer. We picked the first week of August–the anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki–with a purpose, since that’s when many people reflect on the threat of nuclear annihilation.

The camp is supported by Santa Cruz and Watsonville WILPF, as well as the Resource Center for Nonviolence and the Center for Nonviolent Communication.

It is with intention that we choose to work peaceably and for peace in the world. The volunteers who organize the Jane Addams Peace Camp believe that the place to start is with children. We serve 60 children each summer, ages six to 17. Campers come from diverse backgrounds and every corner of Santa Cruz County. We fundraise and provide scholarships for all children who want to participate. Our goal is not to discriminate in any way, including ability to pay. We’ve even traded a sushi meal with a parent for a scholarship.

The generosity of many community members and organizations make scholarships available. We conduct the camp at Orchard School, a private school in Aptos, CA. We also have many artists and community activists who come to camp as guests.

Each year we choose a theme such as “Every Voice Counts” or “Extending Hands” to inspire our curriculum. In January we start looking for counselors, contact the facility we use for the camp and start our letter-writing campaign for donations of money, food, supplies and volunteers. We prepare a brochure promoting the camp. The camp’s mission is to foster an understanding of peace and justice through art, music, drama, games, stories and discussion. The WILPF branches help distribute our brochures and spread the word about the camp.

Local artists auction teacups to build schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan

Don’t underestimate the power of the tea party—it could start a revolution. Bonnie and Steven Barisof, Santa Cruz potters with more than 70 years of combined experience, understand this. Spurred on by the power of another little everyday thing, the written word, the Barisofs are spearheading a teacup party in town to raise awareness and funds for education in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

It all started just over a year ago in an unlikely place—a neighborhood book club. That was how Bonnie, a mild-mannered mother who confesses she’s actually “not much of a reader,” was introduced to “Three Cups of Tea” and the now-famous story of Greg Mortenson: After the Montana mountain climber’s failed attempt at K2 in 1993, he ultimately forged a friendship with the local villagers and began building schools with an emphasis on teaching girls in that remote part of the world. He has since established more than 100 schools.

“Three Cups of Tea” and Mortenson’s recent sequel, “Stones into Schools,” relate how educating girls in the war-torn area means more educated wives and mothers, which creates a noticeable trend of smaller families, healthier children, and greater community awareness. And as far as international relations go, a son will less likely join the Taliban if his mother doesn’t give him permission. A mother is less likely to give him permission if she’s educated.

The Pentagon estimates that it costs $1 million to keep one U.S. soldier on the ground in Afghanistan for one year. According to Mortenson, that same amount of money can build 30 to 40 schools in the region and transform a generation of kids.

It may sound like a foreign cause too far from our beachfront radar, but raising funds to build schools where our troops are being sent has become a very local issue in Santa Cruz.

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If we help [in Pakistan and Afghanistan], which doesn’t take huge sums of money, we won’t have to send all the money here into having our military over there. It’s going to help us faster this way than the other way around.” —bonnie barisof

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After reading “Three Cups of Tea” Bonnie told her husband of 32 years to read it. “I’ve never read a book that’s moved me like that,” she says.

Steven remembers how Bonnie was immediately inspired to help Mortenson in some way: “She said to me, ‘I want to help this guy, he’s doing such important stuff. Cups—we make cups, we can make cups! We know other potters who make cups. We can have some sort of cup sale. We gotta do something to raise money.’ And that’s how it all started.”

The ‘it’ is an online auction at 3-cups-of-tea-santacruz.com (built by Steven who doubles as a web designer) selling locally made teacups in sets of three, 2D art and jewelry. This year’s auction began on Jan. 25 and culminates in the second 3 Cups of Tea Santa Cruz fundraiser on Thursday, Feb. 11, at the Rio Theatre. Proceeds benefit Mortenson’s nonprofit Central Asia Institute (CAI).

The event will feature the former president of the CAI board, Julia Bergman, speaking and presenting a slideshow about the work of the CAI and the schools being built. Santa Cruz’s Lou Renner, an artist and international mountain guide who trains people to climb Mount Everest, will also speak about the K2 trek Mortenson attempted—the one he failed to accomplish but which triggered his immense humanitarian efforts that many predict will earn him a Nobel Peace Prize.

I chat with the Barisofs around the kitchen table where Bonnie first brainstormed ideas for a fundraising effort. I find myself welcomed into their artful and pottery-laden home by the smell of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and, of course, a steeping pot of tea with a set of three homemade teacups glimmering with aquamarine accents neatly arranged for each of us.

As we share some orange blossom tea, I learn that while last year’s inaugural online auction and event at Gault Elementary School raised $9,500, with every item selling and bids coming in from as far away as New York and Paris, the Barisofs are hoping to approach twice that amount this time around. And the surrounding community is all for it.

Along with nearly 70 artists donating their work to the auction, five area schools are contributing to the cause by raising money on campus through “Pennies for Peace”—titled because each penny can purchase a pencil for a student abroad, opening the doors to literacy. Gault Elementary, Westlake Elementary, Branciforte Middle School, San Lorenzo Valley Elementary and Harbor High School are all hosting “Pennies for Peace,” and some students have gone so far as to craft teacups being auctioned.

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“People want to help if you give them a way to participate and do something positive. And giving a set of teacups isn’t a hardship—people want to do it.” —bonnie barisof

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Local government has even joined in. Mayor Mike Rotkin just issued a proclamation declaring the month of February 2010 “3 Cups of Tea Santa Cruz Month” in order to “encourage all citizens to promote peace through education.”

Still, it begs the question: Why all this effort for schools so far away when we have enough problems with our own educational system? Bonnie responded to that concern plenty of times, replying that “if we help [in Pakistan and Afghanistan], which doesn’t take huge sums of money, we won’t have to send all the money here into having our military over there. It’s going to help us faster this way than the other way around.”

She adds that when they started piecing together the whole 3 Cups of Tea Santa Cruz idea, we were still living in the Bush age; they were determined to do something that generated a sense of hope. “We wanted to show that there are wonderful things happening in the world that you never hear about,” Bonnie begins. “People want to help if you give them a way to participate and do something positive. And giving a set of teacups isn’t a hardship—people want to do it.”

Bonnie says that 3 Cups of Tea Santa Cruz, which started after her silent reading steamrolled into the clay community’s call for action, has given her “a new direction as a human being.”

All in all, the Barisofs, backed by a legion of 100 local donors, volunteers and sponsors, are giving a simple reminder that if you try to see the cup as half full, you might just make it overflow.

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3 Cups of Tea Santa Cruz takes place at 5:30-9 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 11, at the Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. Tickets are $10 in advance, $15 at the door. For more information or the online auction, go to 3-cups-of-tea-santacruz.com.

As the winter deepens, the United States moves closer and closer to war. As the January 27 report from UN weapons inspectors approaches, the Defense Department is positioning troops in the Middle East for an immediate military campaign. Pentagon sources state that there will be possibily as many as 250,000 troops fighting in Iraq.

The protests were called to coincide with the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, invoking his legacy to mobilize people from all walks of life to take action. People are planning to turn out to march in across the world on January 18.

Massive demonstrations and walkouts are planned for the day the bombs “officially” start falling. Human shield missions for peace are also getting underway, with dozens of Westerners going to civilian locations throughout Iraq. All across the US, from coast to coast, from churches to campuses to union halls, a movement is uniting in action against war on Iraq. Moreover, opposition to Bush’s war on the poor in this country, as well as on the rest of the globe, is growing, connecting the links between poverty and war enunciated by Dr. King.

In Washington DC, hundreds of thousands of marchers are expected on Saturday, January 18 in the largest US anti-war demonstration since the Vietnam War. A concurrent protest in San Francisco the same day is expected to draw crowds not seen in the city in a generation.

Further coverage is available from a SF IMC webcast on Saturday, and a documentary from Paper Tiger TV.

Two Iraqi labor leaders are featured speakers at a program offering local residents the chance to hear from workers who are struggling to end the occupation, sectarian violence, and the repression of women and working people in Iraq. Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein, the first woman to head a national Iraqi labor union, is President of the Electrical Utility Workers Union, and Faleh Abood Umara is General Secretary of the Southern Oil Company Union.
They will explain why unions oppose the proposed privatization law favored by the Bush administration and oil corporations. They will also address the role of unions in rebuilding Iraq, and the prospects for a stable, democratic, non-sectarian future.
The event is part of a national tour sponsored by U.S. Labor Against the War, United for Peace and Justice, and the American Friends Service Committee. Local sponsors include Central Coast Workers Against War, Monterey Bay Central Labor Council, Resource Center for Nonviolence, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Santa Cruz Peace Coalition, Families Against War, UC-AFT 2199, UPTE CWA-9119, and the Pajaro Valley Federation of Teachers. The event is endorsed by the Santa Cruz Green Party.
A sliding scale donation is requested—no one turned away.