 Good afternoon. My name is Christina Brooks, your Chief Equity Officer and Director of the New Department of Diversity and Inclusion for the City of Fort Worth. There is so much happening in America right now. Everybody is learning to navigate our new normal in the face of tremendous challenges arising from the impact of COVID-19 on our family, health, school, businesses, and social justice issues. Now more than ever, it's vitally important to pause and honor the rich cultural, artistic, educational, and business industry contributions of Americans from the Latin and Hispanic diaspora during Hispanic Heritage Month. We invite you to join us today for our virtual program. We have an amazing cascade of events for you to engage in and act. From an Q&A with Ola Tarrant County's local oral history project to the musical trip through the valley to a visit with our local taco editor and a conversation with Juan Velasquez on his mural for social justice and so much more. For continuing engagement on inclusion, diversity, equity, and access topics, join us in action to bring Equity Home to Fort Worth in criminal justice, education, economic development, governance, health, housing, and transportation as outlined in the Race and Culture Task Force recommendations. To find out what we're doing to bring Equity Home in the Department of Diversity and Inclusion, visit our city of Fort Worth website. To find out what you can do to bring Equity Home to Fort Worth, contact the Department of Diversity and Inclusion by visiting our webpage. Together, this Hispanic Heritage Month, let's bring Equity Home to Fort Worth. My name is Luce Early. I'm a public education specialist with Fort Worth Public Library. We're here today because this is Hispanic Heritage Month. So we're going to talk for just a moment. What does that mean? Hispanic Heritage Month begins September 15 and ends October 15. But those dates are not arbitrary. In 1968, Congress gave the president authority to proclaim a National Hispanic Heritage Week. Initially, it was a week. It began September 15 because that is the date of the celebration of independence of five Latin American countries. Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. September 16th is the celebration of the independence of the country of Mexico. And September 18th, the independence of the country of Chile. So, although initially a week, two decades later, Congress decided that it would be a month of celebration. And that is why we observe September 15th through October 15th. Our panelists are here today to discuss the topic of identity. What does it mean to be Hispanic? And they are going to share a discussion with us today. So before we begin, I would like our panelists to introduce themselves, and we will begin with Annette Landeros. Hello, Annette. Hello, Luce. Gracias. It's such an honor and a privilege to be here with Dr. Valenzuela and school board president, Jacinta Ramos. So excited to speak to you all today. My name is Annette Landeros, and I have the pleasure of being the president CEO of the Fort Worth Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. I recently took over this role about one year ago after a 12-year career in the federal government. I moved to Fort Worth, Texas approximately 10 years ago, and have really fallen in love with our community and just love doing as much as I can to help the Latino community here in Fort Worth, our business community, be a champion for the economic trajectory of our city, and help as much as I can. That's wonderful. Thank you so much, Annette. Next, we have Jacinto Ramos Jr. Hi there, Jacinto. Hi, and I apologize for the sound in the background. I'm in a public space and can't take the mask off just yet. But yeah, husband to Anita for over 21 years. I have three sons, Juan Marcos, Antonio Daniel, and Andres Samuel, which is Dr. Valenzuela and Annette have had the opportunity to meet. Born and raised in Fort Worth, particularly in the north side, Diamond Hill community, currently serving as the president of Fort Worth and the Phinness School District. It's an honor and a privilege to be able to lead a major educational system, and especially with the board that is progressive and as open minded as they are. You know, the work that we've done around these topics has been phenomenal. And I'm just super proud to be here with two amazing human beings who I adore and I think the world of and appreciate the opportunity. Thank you so much, Jacinto. And we have Dr. Angela Valenzuela. Thank you, loose. It's so wonderful to be on a panel with all Fort Worth people. I feel very honored. Thank you so much for inviting me to be a part of this. I'm faculty at the University of Texas at Austin. I am in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy, and my area is policy. Although I'm also in curriculum studies and education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and so a lot of the, you know, the stuff that we teach right that we address is very germane to the current that has to do with Black Lives Matters, the ethnic studies movement. I'm so happy to be just interlocked with our community there. It's so beautiful, really this moment with the Fort Worth and with other sites throughout the state as we're trying to elaborate ethnic studies for Mexican Americans, African Americans, Native Americans and indigenous peoples and Asian Americans and that's been an ongoing struggle and real victory with the State Board of Education. So I think I think I'll bring a note of optimism to some of that on top of the optimism that you already bring with the honoring the celebrating of our heritage. Thank you, Dr. Valenzuela. So now we will have our panelists begin the discussion. I want to pose a general, general question. The question is, what does it mean to be Hispanic? And I'd like Annette to begin. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, well, it's a different experience for everyone. And I know that even the term Hispanic is something that is a challenge for most in terms of relating to whether it be the term Hispanic or Latina, or, you know, whatever it may be as the, you know, the term of choice. But for me being Hispanic or Latina means, you know, a deep level of connection with family, a deep level of tradition and cultural passion and depth. I think that it really is to be Hispanic or Latina is really centered in an appreciation for our culture because it's so deeply rooted in who we are and how we're raised, especially here in the United States. Often we cling very, very strongly to those traditions because it's our family that, you know, may or may not have come from our origin countries, our Latin American origin countries. But I know that for everyone, it's a different term and a different experience and we're such a complex and diverse group. You know what I mean? The Salvadorian experience is so much different from, you know, the Mexican American experience to the Puerto Rican experience being even more, you know, different. And so I think that for us we are just, we are the true melting pot of Latin American passion and culture and really there's just so much to be celebrated. And so I know you mentioned that, you know, it used to be a week and now it's month. I think we need a whole month. We might need a couple for all the countries that we're supposed to be really learning about, you know what I mean? And I know that it's different in each part of the country even. The East Coast Latinos to the Texas, Tejanos to the California Latinos. But we each have so much culture and just rich identity that it's really wonderful to have an entire month to be celebrated and to share that culture with the rest of the United States. Well, thank you Annette. And let's turn to Hasinto. Hasinto, what do you think? What does it mean to be Hispanic? Well, I've wrestled with that term from my formative years and then on, right? So I grew up identifying as Mexican native and then the more I learned, you know, there was a point where, okay, I guess I got to embrace this term Hispanic because it's on every box for me to check. And then the conversations progressed to, you know, where the term Hispanic came from and when it was actually utilized in the census. So that sent me on a journey to say, well, who the heck am I? And how does this work? And that really just sent me on the journey of understanding and unpacking the social construct of race. And that infuriated me because then I was like, okay, you mean to tell me that this whole system has been designed for me to be disconnected? Like, is that really what this intention is? And when I came to the realization that that is actually what it was for me, then I went through my identities. I wanted to be identified as a Chicano. I wanted to, you know, go back to my roots. And so I did, I had the privilege of being able to go back to Coahuila and Michoacán. And then as Dr. Valenzuela has taught me as well in reading the literature that she's published in is I wanted to connect to the point of liberation. Where was my history from a point of liberation? Where was I free of this construct? Where could I just connect culturally to who I am and where I came from? Where was I the most free? And that was of the Purupecha Indigenous people, which happens to be like in present day mountains of Michoacán all the way down to Central South America. And so when I learned that history, I learned how to peel back the layers and I went through the assimilation phase and then I got to the acculturation phase. And now I'm at the point where I just can't stand the term Hispanic, at least for myself. I won't identify myself that way. If anything, I'll probably start at born in the US of Mexican descent and then I peel back the layers to get to, but I'm really at the purest form. My Indigenous bloodline that runs through my veins is powerful for me. And so that allows me to function and carry myself in a much different manner, but because not only is my mind free, but now my heart and my soul are free. And when I navigate these spaces, it's a different mindset. It's a different attitude. And I also get that when I speak to this topic, it can push people away and shut them down, but I've also found that it welcomes other people into this space. And it's kind of the call to consciousness, which I think I've been privileged to be able to be around pretty regularly. Thank you for that, Jacinto. Dr. Valenzuela, what are your thoughts on that? What does it mean to be Hispanic? Well, I'll echo everything that has been said that it's very complex and there were very diverse people. These are umbrella categories. It does come from the federal government. People historically did not identify as Hispanic. And so it's, it is felt by many as a sense of erasure, including myself. But then, you know, I mean, other categories are also, I think sometimes unwittingly excluding other groups. For example, we have Afro-Latinos. We have Afro-Indigenous, Hispanics. You know, we have all of these people from countries of origin that don't get the attention, right, that they need if we need to, if we're going to provide effective remedies and policies for the crises that they're experiencing and will experience, such as what we're witnessing right now along the US-Mexican border. And on the other hand, not just, you know, addressing from a policy perspective, but actually enriching our own community in our own sense of history from just all of the cultural wealth that they bring in terms of their languages and they are Indigenous, their cultures, their Adencias. It is really important that we're having this conversation as part of the general independence movement. So what is it that we were wanting independence from when we are on it? You know, when we remember the independence movement that we're celebrating this month and it was Spanish colonial rule. Well, all of Latin America was colonized. The US was colonized by the British. And so what continues today is that very struggle. And so these categories that we have are so many of them are ones that we have inherited, not ones that we have ourselves devised. And even the concept of Mexico or the United States or Texas, these are nation states that also represent extensions of that same colonial rule. Race did not exist. It didn't exist prior to the 1600s when the concept of white and African American got consolidated under slavery. And so what's what's fascinating to me is to think about how we do have pre-colonial identities in the way that Hasindo Cremos was just suggesting, but we don't necessarily know these histories. Hence the importance of knowing our histories and hence the importance of advocating for ethnic studies and curriculum that incorporates our histories. With all the information and all you've shared, I want you to look at another question. And it's that of cultural appropriation. What and what does role does that play in your life and your work when in particular you see cultural appropriation, particularly when it has to do with Latino or Hispanic or any of these identifiers, these self identifiers that you use. And what is your response to cultural appropriation when you see it or experience it? And what do you use as maybe a constructive way to deal with that when you come across that cultural appropriation? Can you begin for us, Annette? Sure. So I know that it's that's a great topic that I think a lot of folks are still struggling with. And I think that even, you know, I think everyone's trying to figure out what the fine line is between appropriation and appreciation, right? Because I get that our culture is beautiful and that there's so many cultural aspects that they can be appreciated and worn and celebrated. And, you know, there's just so much to be said for our music and our food and our clothing and the talents that come from our Latin American countries and the goods, the textiles, all of that. And I think that for as a personal experience, I think that when you sense that a person potentially is not trying to appreciate either the talent or the time that went into creating whatever it is, or if potentially they're profiting in maybe an unfair way off of maybe labor from a different country, or if they're utilizing or making fun of like if there's like a, you know, even potentially a slightly insulting light to whatever it may be, I think that the immediate reaction is discomfort. And then maybe a little bit of, you know, am I angry at this? And then you have to really step back and say like, okay, what's going on here? Are they, what is it that they're trying to do, especially in the days of social media and an online presence, right? Because right now you really can't connect with people when we're socially distanced. So you're really trying to take in information in a whole new way. And so whether it be a website or a social media post or a photo, you're trying to not jump to conclusions, but really just say like that doesn't feel right. And I don't know if this business, if this side hustle is really utilizing potential talents or trades of Latin American folks in a potentially, you know, a not okay manner. I would say that generally I, the first thing that I recommend everyone do is that we have the power of our pop kit book and you basically vote with your, your, your money and you do not have to invest in anything that makes you feel uncomfortable and I think that likewise I often will counter whatever that is by making a donation or a purchase at a, you know, what I feel like is the correct manner to, to, to appreciate and sell and, and give fair wages for products. So I would say that that's the easier for those that are not confrontational, you're going to mean buy from somebody that you know is, you know, giving, giving credit to, to the talents and time of whoever it is that is doing that. And if it's something else that makes you incredibly uncomfortable, then say something or, you know, just say hey you know that's, that's disrespectful that is cultural appropriation that is, you know, do you know what that means. Do you know that that, you know, is not okay this is, you know, my culture. And I feel like you're potentially utilizing it in an unfair way or a disrespectful way, or you potentially are just not really taking the time to learn about my culture but instead are just using it as some sort of either fashion or, you know, photo op or whatever it may be. So I mean on the very basic sense, and I know that Hasintl and Dr. Valenzuela are going to give way better answers, but on the very basic sense, I, you know, that was, that's what I would suggest is really, you know, being aware of where you spend your money. And, and know that that in itself is power, and that there are so many ways that you can make sure that your dollars are being invested in communities that you want to invest in. Yes, Annette. What are your thoughts Hasintl? Yeah, I think I think that final part of what Annette said is where my mind went as I listened to her and it's to me, it's going to be power dynamics and, you know, acknowledging as she mentioned, when it is a dominant society is hijacking, you know, cultural aspects of the non dominant societies. And so I think about Elvis Presley. First time I ever heard Elvis Presley wasn't who I thought he was, was when I heard public enemies, you know, mentioned him in their fight to power song. And then I was like, wait, what? Hold on, wait, Elvis Presley is supposed to be the king of rock and roll. And when I, you know, began to find out a little bit more about where he got his mojo. And, and, you know, his start of fame, you know, I think about it. I think about people that do critical race theory. I think about Tim Wise, he's a gentleman who I love reading and listening to about white privilege and white, you know, but I also know scholars that say the same thing that are people of color, but don't get the notoriety. And don't get the acknowledgement and really don't get the financial benefits that that Tim Wise would get. So, you know, the power dynamics to me is important to recognize that, but none of that is really going to happen, unless we really do teach about the social construct of race. And so, you know, I've gone around the state and the country saying that races and rocket science, it's harder than rocket science, because we don't teach about that in K through 12 school systems. So when we're all talking about these different terms and we're coming, coming at it from our own lens, it's because we've, I'll speak for what's true for me. I have been exposed to unique and amazing scholars and human beings that pushed me into consciousness. In the meantime, I catch myself on a day to day basis. I can't just have a conversation about race with just anybody seems like people will come from the thinking quadrant to believing quadrant to feeling quadrant. And as Dr. Valenzuela said, the millennials are already in the acting quadrant. They're like, whoa, what are we talking about? Right? We, let's get to work. We got stuff to do right now. And but because the school systems have been designed to keep us unrooted, as by the way, this is my plug for Dr. Valenzuela's book subtractive schooling is it's it's a reality that we cannot really engage in a meaningful conversation, much less policy changes. And so we acknowledge that that that race is a construct human made phenomenon designed for us to not be rooted and designed for us to have rubbings and bumpings into one another as what is evident right now all over our country. Everyone is coming at from different places. So to go back to the power dynamic then, if we can't even have that conversation, then everything that I'm watching on Tik Tok is cultural appropriation. I am watching a lot of white women, white young ladies, you know, hip hop dancing and doing all these cool moves and stuff in their bikinis and stuff like that. And then I'm watching people doing cooking. And there is white people showing us how to make fajitas and how to do this. And I'm like, wait, hold on, like, no, this is wrong. Right. But if I mentioned that in an average circle, it's gonna be like, well, what's wrong with it? Hold on, I understand what you're being a racist, right? What's wrong with you? Why aren't you cool with this? Well, because I can put the financial dollars and the policies and know where all of that is hurting. Thank you, Jacinto. Can you call us on Dr. Valenzuela? Yeah, such a big issue. And sometimes it falls into the category cultural appropriation of unaware racism. And sometimes that's very generous because a lot of times it's actually malicious. There's countless stories the whole day of the dead, you know, the whole day of the dead cultural appropriation that's happened throughout the country with Disney wanting to trademark it. And, you know, as if you can trademark, you know, something that's that's part of our culture and that's part of our history that I think speaks to the larger question of, you know, I also anglows having been miseducated. We talk about our own miseducation. But when we think about about how probably most of the white supremacists have received a public education in our country, probably all of them, or most of them, that speaks to the right. And let alone our own miseducation, because then we also, as a consequence of the curriculum, we buy into white logics, right. And, and these are logics that make it okay to treat others as objects, or as reducible to a product that you can consume, right. What thinking it makes that possible, right. Well, that's the colonial thought. That's the colonial inheritance and what's really, really sad to me is to see, you know, young people, or even adults that are just so wrong in theirologies, to the point that they think that that the stereotypes about them is what is reality, right. And so inadvertently we feed we feed into those same processes and logics because we give even greater permission for the oppressor or the dominant group in power to continue stealing from us, to continue segregating us. What we have is a real crisis right now under COVID that is exposing all of these incredible inequalities. And, and we believe so much in hierarchy, and the idea that intelligence is measurable, which has been disproven. And, and intelligence is multifaceted that the state of Texas is planning on administering a high stakes test to every single kid during a pandemic, this next spring, and not just one test but all of our full menu of tests. And that is part of the same logic of colonization of treating of treating students like a number, right, as something that you can manipulate that you can even monetize in terms of the whole industry that benefits from the under and socially constructed underachievement of our children. I feel very upset about this and I think we all should. And we should eliminate high stakes testing from the state of Texas. We're one of very few states that has even a state test. One of 10, that's down from 20 in 2011. It's ridiculous and of course the system came out of Texas, and it's a way to oppress and keep us oppressed. And so I see that as part of again the part of the larger logic of other in of objectifying of treating us as a community that is, is unworthy and and and it is not allowing us to be empowered. Right. And so when that's the dominant ethos as the dominant discourse those test scores and those ratings, it crowds out everything else that we know we will actually profit from in terms of the extent to which we can flourish academically and intellectually in our souls and all the ways that we've been talking about it so this is a cultural appropriation I think it has to really be viewed as part of this larger process that is fully about domination and keeping us oppressed. Thank you Dr. Valenzuela. I'm going to pose one last question and it has to do with when we think of the Spanish speaking. There's this continuum as far as the language. We are bilingual, they're proficient in English and Spanish. Those who have limited proficiency in one of the two languages, and then those who speak either English or Spanish so where do you find yourself on this continuum. And does that have any effect in your life or in the lives of others that are around you if you could touch on that concept. Yeah, so I do have a pleasure being bilingual, which I am very thankful for Spanish was actually my first language, primarily because it was my great, like a lot of, you know, Latino children I was you know cared for by my grand, my grandmother and so I learned Spanish there then learned English when I went to school, lost a little bit of Spanish so then it was a journey back to Spanish later in life. But it's always just very much been the language that my family communicates with and are just in our homes and so so that has been kind of my personal journey I do know that that is not everyone's journey. I do know that some families come from towns that potentially where they were not encouraged or even discouraged or even you know forbidden from from really speaking the language and so I know that there are some folks who say that you know well we decided not to teach the language because, you know, we didn't want them to struggle. There's just so many different journeys for Latin American, you know, folks that have grown up here, whether your family embraced the language or didn't, and really what your experience or feelings are and it can be definitely a topic, a self conscious topic, especially now that, you know, resoundingly, bilingual is actually seen as a pro. And so and you know we're looking for folks that are bilingual everywhere and so I think or you know if you potentially look really, you know, Latino and you don't speak the language and someone speaks to you in Spanish I know that that can be kind of an emotional experience for some folks that potentially feeling like they that like that's a shortcoming or something like that. And I do you know feel feel for them and that journey of mine was just totally 100% just out of familial situations that I learned Spanish. First, and I know that even now as a recent mom of a seven month old, you know, we're trying our best to speak Spanish at home to, you know, have that foundation for him as well. And so, and it's hard, you know, because you now speak English as your, your dominant language, but really understanding that that was something even being able to be exposed to the beauty of our language and him being able to hopefully communicate with all generations of our family. Because even within our family, there are some, some folks that can't communicate with grandma, you know, I mean our little and it's just, it's a complicated kind of dynamic when, when, you know, within different generations, not everyone's able to speak the same language and I think that that's something very unique for the Latino culture, a unique experience that other, you know, other races probably don't have to experience in the household, and or, you know, at a family gathering but that's the reality. And so that's an added complication of the Latino experience here in the US. Thank you Annette. Hasinto if you would touch on that last question. Yeah, absolutely. I think of the privilege that I have and have had being able to speak two languages and I look at that kind of at the passport that allows me to navigate multiple spaces. And again, I'll note what Dr. Sissa Cruz, you know, mentioned to me and a lot of young boys of color that at the end of the day it's still my colonizers languages. And so me being able to reflect on having access to multiple environments and multiple communities is a great is a great gift that I've been given by my family in my community. So, you know, I think about how my sons are struggling to retain and learn it really because my wife grew up not not speak Spanish and her watching her make the connections to why her family discouraged her from speaking Spanish. My family members within my immediate family who just recently we're talking about this, saying that that their parents were adamant that they would not speak Spanish because they wanted them to speak perfect English. And, you know, the mindset to think of how people were socializing conditions to think that we can only speak one and speak one one speak one well. But that speaks to the times. I think that speaks to the level of education at the time as well and even probably now because I still hear those conversations. And again, if we're not able to get in those academic settings and realize that we can tap into other parts of the brain that that expanding language is a beautiful thing and as a gift. I think about what people could, you know, people are missing out on. And I also think of that dominant narrative in the US that everyone ought to just speak English. And I've had the privilege of traveling different parts of the world and seeing how not only will they not only is there a likelihood that they're going to speak some English, but even some Spanish. Right. So I'm like, well, okay, you're at the minimum trilingual. And that is encouraged by their society in general. So there isn't that sense of dominance from other areas of the world, as there is from here. And that that again, just looks like everything I mentioned today, how this heartening that can be for me at times. But yet then I'm a pretty optimistic person don't get me wrong. But I do allow myself to enter that space of feelings of what that feels like for me. I grieve it. I grieve what racism has done to me, what is under my family. Because if not, I feel that I'll internalize it. And I know what it's been like for me when I internalize it. It's not good. It's not pretty. And so I just, I allow myself in the racial healing to be able to come to terms with that. But this one, I'm super blessed and privileged to be able to navigate with two languages. Love to have more. Thank you, Jacinto. And Dr. Valenzuela, if you would share on that last question. Yeah, yeah, well, the late great Gloria Anzaldua said, I am my language, right. And so the thought that we would eviscerate that from anyone's identity is criminal. It's horrific. Yet in the state of Texas, you are successful if you have done that as a system, because the Texas Education Code never allowed for fully vested bilingualism. And so I, you know, I feel that I've been a victim of that code, because we didn't get bilingual education. I grew up Spanish with my first language. And so I grew up speaking Spanish and English came later. And then when I went through the school system, we were not encouraged to speak Spanish and Spanish was viewed as inferior in so many ways. We were taught Spanish by white teachers who told us that our Spanish was inferior. And, and so it's been a lifelong struggle for me of, of recovering that Spanish that and the identity that goes with that. I think I speak truthfully that even if we speak, most of us bilingualy, we couldn't teach in the college classroom bilingualy. And so, and that to me, that would be a dream come true to be able to teach bilingualy in Spanish and at the college level because we don't get the academic Spanish. So even if you can do the colloquial and navigate cultures and systems, which should be a bare minimum, right. But if you don't get that then, you know, you're really out of what we're talking about, right. And this opportunity to navigate cultures and enjoy and celebrate difference differences among ourselves talk to our grandparents. My God, how vital is that to me is sad and tragic that you have families where, you know, children can't talk to their, their own grandparents and other relatives because they don't command the language. And sometimes you end those same families, you see a real disparagement of elders, because, or just an indifference and indifference. I mean, I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it happen. I've seen it play out. And maybe that's a measure of self protection. I do as well. I really do disdain. I really do disdain what what what what has happened to us under racism and colonialism and coloniality and I am encouraged though by, you know, by changing demographics, demographics are destiny. But with them we have to guide the, you know, the learnings, the, you know, the, the processes through which we arrive, I think at a conceptualization that's much bigger than ourselves and open, right. I mean, we, we are our potential of being multi literate, right. And we're also potential as a society of also being multilingual. And yet the forces and power keep us as a monolingual country, right. And we enforce that globally throughout the world so that you become a citizen of the world if you speak English. I mean, isn't that empire at its best, right, or worse. And so I think with the Latino community, the bright spot here is that we are ascendant and we're having this conversation right now. We're definitely ascendant. We're ascendant. And I think the future as awful as it is right now. I think it's, it's, it's very promising because of who we are right and we and we also bring with us a wealth of culture and identity that's very community oriented and long histories, political histories of that are very social justice oriented. We may not know those histories, but, but we are politically socially just in our ways as communities when we advocate for our children when we advocate for ourselves and our elders when we teach in the classroom. And so, I mean, I wish I could teach, again, in Spanish, but maybe I can at least cultivate in my students, a generation, a generation that will be able to really reap the benefits of the, you know, the language ideologies that we're talking about that are empowering and that are nurturing and that are, that are fun. Right. And we're where we can be playful. Right. To me, that's a real achievement with each other and in all our ways. Thank you so much, Dr. Valenzuela. And as we close, I want to thank the three panelists so much. Anetlanderos, Sintoramos Jr. and Dr. Angela Valenzuela. I hope to my viewers, I would hope that listening and absorbing this discussion amongst our panelists gives you the opportunity to look forward to this National Hispanic Heritage Month with added viewpoints, added perspectives, and that it would give you the momentum to look deeper and to ask questions. Of the many, many cultures that contribute to this society in the US and the meaning behind what these three amazing panelists have shared. So I want to thank you all once again. I can't say thank you enough. And again, may you look at Hispanic Heritage Month with new eyes and a new perspective. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Hola. Hello. My name is Sandra Garcia, and I am a member of the City of Fort Worth Hispanic Heritage Employee Celebration Committee. On behalf of the committee, I want to thank you for joining us, and I'm excited to announce the next segment of our program. An artist's walk and talk with local muralist Juan Velazquez. Mr. Velazquez is a forward native and Army vet and is still active in the reserves. He began experimenting with art as a teen and honed his skills at Tarrant County College. Juan is a muralist and uses spray paint as his media and works from photographic images to create oil paintings that explore and capitalize on the autofocus areas. He uses traditional fundamental oil methods married with modern photographic influences while playing with the contrast between black and white backgrounds with a brightly colored subject for emphasis. Although Mr. Velazquez has been painting professionally since 2018, it is his work in recent months focusing on social justice that has touched the hearts of many and brought a community together. Gardening him attention in the local media and a following of admiring fans who can't wait to see what his next project will be. Juan has been married for 10 years to Chelsea Velazquez and has a two-year-old daughter named Lila Velazquez. His inspiration to pursue career in arts comes from his daughter. He said that when she was born, he was inspired to go back to school and follow his dreams of being an artist and one day teaching in a major university. Thank you Sandra for the introduction. I'm going to give the city a tour of some of my murals that inspire me to speak about these social issues that are important to me and we're about to look at four of them that I painted recently. This first mural that we're going to look at is the one that really brought attention to my art and it's a mural of Vanessa Guillen who is a United States soldier that was found dead and due to her disappearance and the handling of the case united the communities to ask for change and justice. One of the reasons why I painted this mural was because I'm also in the military, I'm in the army and one of the reasons is that she was murdered by another member of the military and it really made me sad that one member of the military would do that to another. But I also wanted to show the community that not everybody in the military is bad, that some of us are here to support each other and her being a member of my military family, I'm here to speak on her behalf. So it started with an idea to paint a mural. I put it out on social media. I asked anybody that had a wall that I could paint a mural in to reach out to me. The owner of Noa's art and supplies reached out to me. He said that I could come look at his wall if I was interested on. I did and the next I had one day to plan the mural so I asked anybody that wanted to be part of this project to reach out to me. I had close to 400 or 500 messages the next day. A lot of people wanted to come be part of this. That day it was Sunday. We had about 25 different artists that came out. A lot of them were beginners from different stages and everybody got to paint a little bit. This was done as a community project and we had so many people here that even if they weren't painting they were just here to show support. I'm very proud to be in the military. I'm very proud to be in the army. I wanted to show a message that you can be part of the military, support the military and also want justice for Vanessa. A lot of people want you to pick one side but it's not black and white. I'm in the military, I support the military but I also want justice and that's why this mural is so important to me. We're at the corner of Evans and Allen at the Atatiana Jefferson Memorial mural. What you guys are looking at here is a portrait of Atatiana Jefferson and some of the things that she liked. I was contacted by a grassroots movement that they were interested in painting that mural to remember her. I was already working on another project so I wasn't able to help them what they were asking. I did show up the last day and I asked them what they still needed my help with that I was here to help and then they asked me to paint the side of the building which is the side that I actually have the Black Lives Matter mural and that's what I ended up painting. I agreed to paint this mural because I'm against any form of racism. I don't believe that anybody is better than anybody I believe we're all the same and this was one of my ways to say that. I understand that that message doesn't always come across to everybody but that is what I'm trying to say. I'm trying to say that we're all equal, that nobody is better than anybody and I'm bringing awareness through these issues through my art. I like painting portraits. That's what I actually like doing. I'm not the best in lettering but I can do it. They already knew what they wanted and the portrait was already done so I went and just went ahead and helped them. I meant it when I said I'm here to help whatever you guys need so that's what I did. The inspiration behind this mural came from, I got to meet with a reporter that had just talked to her sister and her sister said that she wanted someone to paint a mural with her smiling because not a lot of people did. She remembered her smile from her sister the best so the reporter actually gave me a photo that she got from her sister which is a photo that I actually used to paint a mural and that was the inspiration behind this mural. The location of this Vanessa Guillen mural is right where you're coming into downtown. You can see the buildings from here. It's right where you're coming into downtown and that's the location that I wanted for the second mural. For the second Vanessa Guillen mural I collaborated mainly with Marielle, Marielle Guzman. I put out on social media and we had a lot of people that asked for sunflowers because they said it was her favorite flower. So I told Marielle that if she wanted to help me design the background that I would paint the portrait and she was able to incorporate the flower to make it look like she's a flower and be a sunflower. The way I paint portraits, mural portraits, is using spray paint. I use what they call the doodle grid to do the outline and then I blend the spray paint to create realistic portraits. About two years ago I was on the north side of Fort Ward located right off Main Street and this next mural is one that is a bit hard to find but it's been really popular with the community. So one of the reasons why I painted this mural of Selena was because Hispanic Heritage Month is coming and she's a big figure in the Hispanic community. And I wanted to bring some awareness to the community and another reason too is that this is the first one in Fort Ward. A lot of people drive to Dallas to go take photos with Selena murals. This is the very first Selena mural in Fort Ward. So I wanted people from Fort Ward to not have to go to Dallas. They can stay here in Fort Ward. So when I started planning the mural of Selena, I wanted the community to be involved. So I put out about five images out on Facebook and I told everybody that the one with the most votes is the one I'm going to paint. And this one got about half the votes. I love Fort Ward. I've always talked about Fort Ward when I was in the military. I actually have a few friends that are moving to Fort Ward from the military because of how much I talked about Fort Ward. I think it's a great city and I want to make it more beautiful more than it already is. And I want to show people that here in Fort Ward we have talent that can compete with any other city. So I want to give people a reason to even be more proud of Fort Ward. What's next for me is I'm going to keep painting as much as I can and it's going to be all landscapes of very known locations of Fort Ward. The courthouse, the botanical gardens, Trinity Park, a lot of the places that remind me of Fort Ward. These are a lot of things that I had in my mind when I was away from home in the military. These are the things that kept me going and just reminded me of home. And that's what I'm going to share with this next solo art show. It's going to be in Canvas, not murals in Canvas, but the title of the show is going to be called Fort Ward. It got pushed back because of COVID. I think it's going to be at the end of this year or early next year. And it's going to be at the Artes de la Rosa Theater near the stockyards in Fort Ward, Texas. Hello, everybody. I'm Jennifer Broncato, archivist at the Fort Worth Public Library. I'm thrilled to have with me today community volunteer and advocate Rosalinda Martinez to speak about the historians of Latino Americans in Tarrant County, a new community-led organization. OLA is an all-volunteer group which aims to research, document, archive, and share the experiences of the Latino community. Thank you, Rosalinda, for joining me today. How's everybody doing? Good. Thank you, Jennifer, for having us. Rosalinda, can you tell us a little bit about how OLA was formed and why? Yes. I just want to say thank you for having us. I'm happy to be here and participate and share more about our organization, OLA. About a year ago, probably a little bit longer than a year ago, Ms. Rita Ott had a vision to organize a small group consisting of historians, educators, journalists, activists, librarians, archivists, and active community members who all shared a passion for recording history of Latinos in Tarrant County. So our mission is to research, document, and preserve the Latino American history of Tarrant County and share it with our community. So once we formed this organization, our group, we started to research other organizations. So about a year ago, we met with Dallas Mexican American Historical League in Nogar, which was a Hispanic organization, genealogy research, you know, just to combine some resources and have them share their expertise in order to build our organization. And so that's how we started, and then we partnered up with the library. And so we had, I would say, monthly meetings at first, just with our group, and then trying to, you know, help Rita with her goal and her vision of organizing this group. And that's how we all started. What type of work are we currently doing right now? And what do we hope to do in the future? Something that we are working on is the, one of us, one of our projects that we're currently working is the voter participation videos. So we decided to produce 30 second videos, which have, you know, people just saying why we should vote and to give personal reasons on why it's important that Latinos should vote. And I believe, I believe that Arturo is also trying to work on another kind of like his pop up exhibit for the Mexican, the trail of the Mexican American experience. But now I think he wants to do a new one with Abraza and Lexito. I'm not sure what the title is right now that I know that he's working on another pop up exhibit, but it's going to be virtual, of course, because of, you know, due to the coronavirus, we're trying to do a virtual one this year. And we will make that available. We'll share that on our website, which you'll hear at the end and also through our Facebook page. And Arturo does very, very excellent exhibits. They're wonderful. So due to COVID, we are unable to meet in person, which is why we're doing this virtually. But do you foresee us being able to speak with groups, either virtually or in person to speak about the Latino culture and heritage and history in Fort Worth? Yes, I believe that our organization is open to speak to groups, but due to the pandemic, we can make presentations through, you know, like a virtual setting, as we are now, and through our website and our blog. If you go to our website at OlatterraCounty.org, you can find more information and links. So if people want to see updates and then our contact information. So if you want to support in our organization, you can contact us at OlatterraCounty.com, or you can call us at 817-437-5168. And if you want to, like Richard said before, we're doing oral interviews. So if you want to share your story, and if you're a longtime resident of Tarrant County, and you want to share your story, we can interview you through Zoom or, you know, virtually, and then upload all of those links to our website. And like Jennifer mentioned, we do have a Facebook, so we would love for people to go and follow. And like our Facebook page, it's just Olatterra County, you know, Facebook page. And then we also have some updates on there. So you can see more of our written works and then links of those interviews that we've done so far. And I think a lot of times it's our own Mexican American community that doesn't know our history. And I think it's important for a present and past generations to, you know, know our history, because a lot of times I feel like our community, we are presented as foreigners in, you know, in this country, and we're not, you know, we've always been here. So I agree with Richard. I think it's important that not just our community, but our, you know, everyone else know about our history and that we've always been a part of this. You know, we've always been a part of this country and know our history and our roots. Our website is OlatterrantCounty.org. OlatterrantCounty at gmail.com is the email address. And Rosalinda, what was the phone number again? Our phone number is 817-437-5168. And once again, I would like to invite everyone. If you are on social media, please go to Facebook to our Facebook page, OlatterrantCounty. And I don't just like our page, but please follow our page because then you will get all our updates. Well, thank you very much for joining me. I'm thrilled to be a part of this group for you to have me. It is a community led organization and we would love to have community members involved with us. So thank you again. And I can't wait until we're actually able to meet in person. Thank you.