I was a teacher for almost 10 years here in NYC. When I started, I was very young (21 years old) yet had had years of experience teaching children, teenagers and adult alike as a Spanish language instructor.

I decided to work as a teacher a few years after graduating from college, so when I started as a Public High School teacher here in NYC, I couldn't teach Spanish, for it wasn't my major in college. I was thrown into the History department of Eastern District High School to teach a mostly immigrant population of teenagers History and Social Studies in (mostly) Spanish and (some) English.

It was a horrible and yet formative experience in my life.

Years before teaching, when I was still a Catholic, I had studied the teachings of  Gustavo Freire's in "Pedagogia do Oprimido" and Leonardo Boff in "Teologia da Liberação". What struck me, as a  middle class intelectual wannabe of "grey collar" parents, was the focus on the violence of poverty.

Hunger, homelessness, unemployment, discrimination, illiteracy : We don't even have to talk about actual physical violence acts in order to think of all the different violent ways in which poverty and marginalization hit many communities of color.
 more this way»

Think Progress just discovered that the Bush Administration is forcing HPV vaccines on immigrants :

In July, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services quietly amended its list of required vaccinations for immigrants applying to become citizens. One of the newest requirements? Gardasil, which vaccinates against the human papillomavirus (HPV). From the agency’s press release:

CDC’s revised Technical Instructions to Civil Surgeons for Vaccination Requirements require the following age-appropriate additional vaccinations to adjust status to legal permanent resident:

* Rotavirus
* Hepatitis A
* Meningococcal
* Human papillomavirus
* Zoster

This regulation goes directly against the advice of Dr. Jon Abramson, chairman of the CDC’s advisory committee on immunization practices. In Feb. 2007, Abramson said that he and other committee members advised that Gardasil should not be mandatory because HPV is not a communicable disease like chicken pox.
 more this way»

69% of Latinas do not vote. Even though we have the highest pregnancy rates and the fastest growing incidences of AIDS in the United States. 70% African American and Asian American registered voting women also abstain from voting.

Pass on this video clip to every single, Black, Latian, Asian, Native US American woman you know and ask them to pass it on to their family friends.

Faced with the prospect of a McCain presidency that would squash any hope of Universal Health Care and would put on the bench Supreme Court Justices that would bring back reproductive slavery, it is absolutely necessary that each and every minority woman and man go out and vote.

From the EngageHer blog :
 more this way»

A growing number of women of color are seeking alternative mental health services to help cope with stress and other recurrent struggles in their lives more effectively. Many of these women are now utilizing hypnotherapy, breathwork, and reiki as means of effective therapeutic intervention minus psychiatric labels and medications.

One of them is "Maya," a 36 year-old African American woman. Among many things, Maya is a single mom of two pre-teens, and a lawyer. In the past, Maya sought treatment from a psychiatrist and was diagnosed with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). She had been an incest survivor since age 8 and experienced recurrent nightmares, flashbacks, and anxiety attacks. Maya also had difficulty maintaining relationships with men as a result of her childhood trauma. Years of intensive talk therapy and anti-anxiety medication led Maya to see very little improvement in her recovery, until a friend recommended that she try hypnotherapy.

Maya says, "At first, I was skeptical about hypnosis and what it could do for me. But I was frustrated. I felt like I was hitting a wall with my therapist and that she didn't really understand where I was coming from. This had been the eighth therapist I had been to, and I was beginning to feel like talking about my symptoms and my past was beating a dead horse. When was I going to get over it? I just wanted to feel better and stop the panic attacks. . . "
 more this way»