Thursday, March 31, 2016

César E. Chávez (March 31, 1927 – April 23, 1993)

-





Oración del campesino en la lucha


Enséñame el sufrimiento de los más desafortunados;
así conoceré el dolor de mi pueblo.
Líbrame a orar por los demás
porque estás presente en cada persona.
Ayúdame a tomar responsabilidad de mi propia vida;
sólo así, seré libre al fin.
Concédeme valentía para servir al prójimo
porque en la entrega hay vida verdadera.
Concédeme honradez y paciencia
para que yo pueda trabajar junto con otros trabajadores.
Alúmbranos con el canto y la celebración
para que se eleve el espíritu entre nosotros.
Que el espíritu florezca y crezca
para que no nos cansemos de la lucha.
Acordémonos de los que han caído por la justicia
porque a nosotros han entregado la vida.
Ayúdanos a amar aun a los que nos odian;
así podremos cambiar el mundo.
--------------------------------------------------Amen.




------------------------------por César E. Chávez

------------------------------Fundador del UFW




by Robert Lentz



-----Prayer of the Farm Workers' Struggle


Show me the suffering of the most miserable;
thus I will know my people's plight.
Free me to pray for others,
for you are present in every person.
Help me take responsibility for my own life
so that I can be free at last.
Grant me courage to serve my neighbor
for in surrender is there truly life.
Grant me honesty and patience
so that I can work with other workers.
Enlighten us with song and celebration
so that the spirit will be alive among us.
Let the spirit flourish and grow
so that we will never tire of the struggle.
Let us remember those who have died for justice
for they have given us life.
Help us love even those who hate us;
thus we can change the world.
-------------------------------------Amen.




----------------------b--by César E. Chávez

----------------------------------UFW Founder


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Farm_Workers


-




 “Si se puede!” the slogan of the United Farm Workers (which was used by Barack Obama in his presidential campaigns) has been a rallying cry for the farm workers for decades. Tonight we salute those who grow and harvest our crops, and the organization created by Cesar Chavez in 1962 to organize workers for better working conditions and a living wage. Or, as the UFW puts it, “to provide farm workers and other working people with the inspiration and tools to share in society’s bounty.” The struggle for that goal continues, and as we salute Chavez’s crucial role on this day, Cascada de Flores provides music for listening, dancing, and organizing!
www.ufw.org

The lively Mexican music band Cascada de Flores (Cascade of Flowers) features singer Arwen Lawrence and guitarist Jorge Liceaga, who are well-known not only for their stage shows for grown-ups, but also for award-winning children’s concerts. They are joined by Miguel Govea (of La Familia Peña-Govea). For all ages they combine a wide range of regional Mexican styles, classic songs, and some originals. Their songs speak of the diversity of roots in Mexico and Mexicans in the U.S. and of indigenous, Spanish, and African roots.
http://
www.cascadadeflores.com/

Mexican poet Rafael Jesús González, whose moving reflections on the American “standard of living” have touched lives coast to coast, will read from his works with flautist Gerardo Omar Marín. Named a "Remarkable Californian" by the Museum of California, González is a passionate voice for freedom and his commentaries often are stinging rebukes to American assumptions.

The joyful music making of La Familia Pena-Govea began over 30 years ago as a simple family pastime. Mother and father and two daughters have since brought their gift to venues as varied as Davies Symphony Hall and San Quentin Prison, from the streets of Bakersfield to the pubs of Donegal, and to countless festivals, weddings, baptisms, funerals, libraries, classrooms, hospital wards, and backyard barbecues. Their infectious music raises the spirits, and creates an irresistible urge to dance and sing and join in the fun. Named "a cultural voice in the Bay Area" by Latin Beat Magazine, the members of La Familia Peña-Govea sing play traditional Mexican, American, Tex-Mex and Colombian music, including: rancheras, polkas, valses, vallenatos, boleros, danzónes, chachas, and cumbias. 

-

-

Sunday, March 27, 2016

Easter Sunday

-


------------Ha resucitado


Cuentan que un hombre
tan amoroso y justo 
que muchos lo toman 
por benévolo dios 
fue muerto porque su enseñanza

tan amorosa y justa amenazaba
los meros cimientos del imperio
y que contra toda ley de la vida
tres días después resucitó,
cosa no inaudita en el mito
pero asombrosa aun.

Su enseñanza aun amenaza imperios
y muchos que atreven seguirla
son perseguidos y muertos
y la resurrección de él es nada
menos que revolución.



------------------------------------~ Rafael Jesús González 





En un mundo de odio el amar es revolucionario


In a world of hate, to love is revolutionary 




------------He Is Risen


They tell that a man
so loving & just
that many take him
for benevolent god
was killed because his teaching
so loving & just threatened
the very foundations of empire
& that against all law of life
three days later resurrected,
not unheard of in myth
but wondrous still.


His teaching still threatens empires
& many who dare follow it
are persecuted & killed,
& his resurrection is nothing
less than revolution.



----------------------------------~ Rafael Jesús González 

-- 

Friday, March 25, 2016

Good Friday

-

---------------Desviado


La luna asoma  

por entre las ramas de los olivos,
sube sobre la cercana loma
donde los vergonzosos sucesos
ocurrieron hace ya un buen tiempo.
Hablando sin pelos en la lengua,
debía haberse casado, tenido familia,
practicado su honesta artesanía,
haber hecho algo de si mismo.
Un tipo guapo y listo,
prodigio, dicen algunos,
de mero muchachito presumía
discutir con sabios.
Pero aun joven salió
en alguna búsqueda de visiones o se perdió,
vaya a saber, en la anonimia de la ciudad.
Le gustaba la juerga y en una fiesta una vez
logró encontrar vino donde no lo había
causando lenguas contar chismes exagerados.
Recogía gente en alguna colina
y les hablaba — revolvía la plebe, si gusta.
Una vez se metió con los banqueros
y vendedores de palomas y borreguitos
en la casa santa. ¿Para qué?
Las casillas de cambio y puestos de animales
estaban allí al día siguiente.
Nada mas disgustó a las autoridades
y mire como paró  —
--------------------------estirado y colgando.
-------Y las cosas sin cambiar una pepita.





----------------------------------------------- © Rafael Jesús González 2016





https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Paul_Prud'hon
  



-----------Gone Wrong


The moon peers
from among the olive branches,
rises over the nearby hill
where the shameful happenings
took place a good while back.
Bluntly speaking,
he should have married, had a family,
practiced his honest craft,
made something of himself.
A handsome fellow and bright,
a prodigy, some say,
a mere boy he presumed
to discuss with scholars.
But a young man still he went off
on some vision quest or lost himself,
for all we know, in the anonymity of the city.
He liked a good time and at a party once
managed to find wine where there was none
setting some tongues to tell tall tales about it.
He would gather folk on some small hill
and talk to them — rabble rouse, if you will.
Once, he messed with the bankers
and sellers of pigeons and small sheep
in the holy-house. For what?
The exchange booths and animal stalls
were back up the next day.
It just upset the authorities,
and look how he ended up —
---------------------stretched out and hanging.
-----And things not changed a pip.






 ----------------------------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2016


-
-

-

Thursday, March 24, 2016

Archbishop Óscar A. Romero G. 8/15/1917 - 3/24/1980

--
36 years ago

Let us remember and honor in our hearts the memory of Archbishop Óscar Arnulfo Romero Galdámez, Archbishop of San Salvador murdered while he said mass in the chapel of a hospital March 24, 1980, El Salvador. He was killed because of his opposition to injustice, to cruelty; he was killed because he loved and tried to protect those he loved. He was killed for being a good shepherd.






------La Consagración Del Cafe

-----------------al monseñor Óscar A. Romero


Un día de dios
en mi patio tomando café
nada es normal —
------ni el alcatraz
------con su pene dorado
------ni el iris
------como lava morada
------que derrama un volcán.
Encuentro en el fondo de la taza
casullas bordadas
de mariposas negras
y guindas manchas —
-----el sol dispara
-----centellas de balas plateadas
-----y de cirios ahogados —
----------hay sangre en su brillar.
Pongo la burda taza en su platillo
con un tierno cuidado
como si fuera cáliz
y digo la letanía:
-------Guatemala
-------Nicaragua
-------El Salvador.
Y un lado del corazón
me sabe blanco y dulce
como la caña
------y el otro,
-----------como el café,
------------------negro y amargo.




------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2016


(Siete escritores comprometidos: obra y perfil; Fausto Avendaño, director;
Explicación de Textos Literarios vol. 34 anejo 1; diciembre 2007;
Dept. of Foreign Languages; California State University Sacramento;
derechos reservados del autor.)









------The Consecration Of Coffee

----------------------to Archbishop Óscar A. Romero


One day of god
drinking coffee in my patio
nothing is normal —
------not the calla
------with its penis of gold
------nor the iris
------like purple lava
------a volcano spills.
I find in the depths of the cup
chasubles embroidered
with black moths
& red stains —
-----the sun fires
-----a scintillation of silver bullets
-----& of candles drowned —
-----------there is blood in its shine.
I place the cup on its saucer
with a most tender care
as if it were a chalice
& say the litany:
-------Guatemala
-------Nicaragua
-------El Salvador
& one side of my heart
tastes white & sweet
like cane sugar
-----& the other,
----------like coffee,
---------------bitter & black.




----------------© Rafael Jesús González 2016


( Visions-International, no. 44, 1994;
author’s copyrights)


On this day 36 years ago, Oscar Romero, the archbishop of San Salvador, was assassinated, sparking El Salvador's 12-year civil war.

 
Romero was appointed San Salvador's archbishop three years before, in 1977, at a time when violence in El Salvador was rapidly escalating. The conflict was largely one of class warfare: the landed wealthy — who were aligned with the rightist government and paramilitary death squads — against the impoverished farm workers and other laborers who had begun to ally themselves with leftist guerrilla groups looking to overthrow the government.

Romero had a reputation for being bookish, conservative, and even for discouraging priests from getting involved in political activism. But within weeks of becoming bishop, one of his good friends was killed by the death squads. His friend was an activist Jesuit priest named Rutilio Grande, who had been devoted to educating peasants and trying to bring about economic reforms. He was gunned down on his way to a rural church, along with a young boy and elderly man he had been traveling with. It was a clear moment of conversion for the previously apolitical Oscar Romero, who suddenly felt that he needed to take up the work his friend had been interrupted from doing.

Romero canceled Masses all around the country that week, and invited all to attend the funeral Mass on the steps of the National Cathedral, which he presided over along with 100 other priests. One hundred thousand people showed up at the cathedral for the funeral. He also broadcast his sermon over the radio, so that it could be heard throughout the country. He called for government investigation of the murders going on in rural areas, and he spoke of the reforms that needed to happen in El Salvador: an end to human rights violations, to the regime of terror, and to the huge disparity in wealth, with the landed classes getting rich from the labor of the poor. He announced to his congregation that he wanted to be a good pastor, but he needed everyone's help to lead.

He was called to Rome. The Vatican did not approve of his activism. Romero had become a proponent of liberation theology, a way of viewing the teachings of the Christ from the perspective of the poor. Poverty and oppression came from sin, it argued — institutional sin or structural sin, such as an authoritarian regime or unjust government. In liberation theology, the Gospels are not so much a call to peace or social order; instead they are a call to action, even unrest, to eradicate the sin that is causing poverty and widespread suffering. 

 
On March 23, 1980, the day before he was shot, Oscar Romero gave a sermon in which he pleaded with low-level soldiers and policemen carrying out murderous orders to choose God's command over their government's. The very next day, March 24, 1980, Romero was killed by a paid assassin while consecrating bread at the altar during Mass. A single bullet from an M-16 assault rifle was fired down the center aisle of the church, striking him in the heart.

Romero's funeral was attended by a quarter million people from around the world. The events galvanized many previously apolitical poor people, who then supported leftist guerrilla fighters trying to overthrow the Salvadoran regime. The 12-year civil war resulted in more than 75,000 deaths and more than a million displaced people. In 1992, peace accords negotiated by the government and leftist rebels were signed in Mexico, with the United Nations and Catholic Church looking on. It included a 70 percent reduction in armed forces, programs for economic growth and to alleviate poverty, and an outside observing system to monitor elections. The accord included a nine-month cease-fire, which began February 1, 1992. That cease-fire has never since been broken. 


The way to Archbishop Óscar A. Romero's canonization, held up by the two previous popes who called him a communist,  has been cleared by Pope Francis who declared that Archbishop Romero had died a martyr.
 
-

-

Holy Thursday

 -



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot_washing
 



---Ritual para Jueves Santo


Llegan como mariposas 
de largas distancias, 
otros países, otros continentes, 
pies cansados, gastados, 
heridos, polvorientos 
de cruzar ríosy montes, 
selvas y desiertos 
huyendo hambre y asesinos. 
Y nosotros que vivimos 
en el imperio que los desplazó 
podemos hacer no menos 
que lo que hizo el Maestro: 
tiernamente lavales los pies 
y decirles, "Les tenemos lugar 
puesto en la mesa."



--------------------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2016



 

                          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot_washing





---Ritual for Holy Thursday


They come like butterflies 
from long distances, 
other countries, other continents,
feet tired, worn, wounded, dusty 
from crossing rivers & mountains, 
jungles & deserts 
fleeing hunger & murderers. 
& we who live in the empire 
that displaced them 
can do no less 
than what the Master did: 
to tenderly wash their feet 
& say, "We have a place 
set for you at the table."



-----------------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2016 





-
Join us in this special event to honor immigrant communities.
Annual Footwashing Ceremony
Join us for our annual footwashing ceremony honoring our immigrant communities
Join us next Thursday, March 24th, at noon  for our unique annual footwashing ceremony for immigrants! This will be a beautiful and prayerful ceremony where we have the opportunity to respond to the toxic anti-immigration rhetoric with a meaningful and welcoming ritual of blessing.  This act of hospitality can serve as a healing ritual for the many immigrants who feel unwelcome in our nation, and it honors their dignity as human beings and full members of our community. 

This year we will hold the ritual in front of San Francisco's City Hall- as we pray that SF continue to be a symbol of inclusion and equal treatment under the law,  that regardless of people's immigration status, this City’s public institutions are there to serve them, not to turn them over to ICE.  

Faith leaders and city leaders will perform a foot-washing ceremony on the steps of
San Francisco City Hall to honor the common humanity of all immigrants - and to reject rhetoric which seeks to criminalize and divide the city's immigrant communities. 

The ritual will particularly highlight values of common humanity and the inherent dignity of each person. Faith leaders will celebrate  immigrants from all walks of life - including people who have past convictions.

Let us uphold and uplift the spirit of Sanctuary, radical hospitality and welcome.

Religious leaders of any tradition who would like to participate as a footwasher, please contact:  dpinell@im4humanintegrity.org.    (Please wear religious attire.)

All immigrants invited to have their feet washed!

We hope to see you there!




What: Annual Footwashing Ceremony Honoring our Immigrant Community
Where: San Francisco City Hall
When: Thursday, March 24th at 12:00 noon



 
Rev. Deborah Lee
Daniel Pinell
Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity
Nor. Cal Immigration Program
310 8th Street  #310
Oakland, CA  94607

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

full moon: Full Moon on Purim

-
-






-----------Luna llena en Purim 



Si la luna llena sobre Israel 
fuera una Ester tan justa como sabia 
vería bajo las máscaras 
de los hijos pérfidos de Mordoqueo 
e intercedería por Palestina. 
Pero es sólo testigo 
de que el poder y fuerza hacen tiranos 
y que los Amanes llevan 
muchas máscaras y hacen muchos papeles 
bajo su luz.




------------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2016






https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Netanyahu





--------Full Moon on Purim



If the full moon over Israel 
were an Esther as just as wise 
she would see past the masks 
of the perfidious sons of Mordocai 
& intercede for Palestine. 
But she is only witness 
that power & might make tyrants 
& that the Hamans wear 
many masks & play many roles 
beneath her light.



-------------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2016




 -

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

César Chávez Day Celebration March 31

-




 “Si se puede!” the slogan of the United Farm Workers (which was used by Barack Obama in his presidential campaigns) has been a rallying cry for the farm workers for decades. Tonight we salute those who grow and harvest our crops, and the organization created by Cesar Chavez in 1962 to organize workers for better working conditions and a living wage. Or, as the UFW puts it, “to provide farm workers and other working people with the inspiration and tools to share in society’s bounty.” The struggle for that goal continues, and as we salute Chavez’s crucial role on this day, Cascada de Flores provides music for listening, dancing, and organizing!
www.ufw.org

The lively Mexican music band Cascada de Flores (Cascade of Flowers) features singer Arwen Lawrence and guitarist Jorge Liceaga, who are well-known not only for their stage shows for grown-ups, but also for award-winning children’s concerts. They are joined by Miguel Govea (of La Familia Peña-Govea). For all ages they combine a wide range of regional Mexican styles, classic songs, and some originals. Their songs speak of the diversity of roots in Mexico and Mexicans in the U.S. and of indigenous, Spanish, and African roots.
http://
www.cascadadeflores.com/

Mexican poet Rafael Jesús González, whose moving reflections on the American “standard of living” have touched lives coast to coast, will read from his works with flautist Gerardo Omar Marín. Named a "Remarkable Californian" by the Museum of California, González is a passionate voice for freedom and his commentaries often are stinging rebukes to American assumptions.

The joyful music making of La Familia Pena-Govea began over 30 years ago as a simple family pastime. Mother and father and two daughters have since brought their gift to venues as varied as Davies Symphony Hall and San Quentin Prison, from the streets of Bakersfield to the pubs of Donegal, and to countless festivals, weddings, baptisms, funerals, libraries, classrooms, hospital wards, and backyard barbecues. Their infectious music raises the spirits, and creates an irresistable urge to dance and sing and join in the fun. Named "a cultural voice in the Bay Area" by Latin Beat Magazine, the members of La Familia Peña-Goveasing play traditional Mexican, American, Tex-Mex and Colombian music, including: rancheras, polkas, valses, vallenatos, boleros, danzónes, chachas, and cumbias. 

~ * ~
-