The Peace of Bakersfield

roadtrip to La Paz and Bakersfield. Dwight Yoakam and Mika on the iPod. fun and spiritual fulfillment ensue. too grandiose? we visited Cesar Chavez's grave (que descanza en paz) and saw what remains of UFW dream from decades ago: La Paz, the erstwhile (i've never used that word before, i'm a dork) self-sufficient commune - endless fields of vegetables, and interactive, critical education. idealistic and doomed.
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it was real, once, we talked to someone who lived it. saw the

photos. as a commune, it has fallen into ruin, i guess, though the Chavez memorial and visitor center are beautiful. and one of the old tuberculosis wards (the whole site was once a TB hospital) is to become a hall for retreat events. we climbed hills, pondered drying pools, listened to freight trains and fraught beats. the whole experience gave us a weird sense of loss and peace.

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the night before, party at Dolores Huerta's house. That's her in the middle, this was taken at 1:30am, during a mashup of "in da club" and a merengue beat. si se puede dance to fity cent. may we shake it so when we hit 77.
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squeezed in a monster breakfast and a family barbecue. Back home, listened to Saul Williams and Mark Gonzales, live at UCLA. Talked to Mark, he lives here so we'll hang out. on the number 6 going home, listened to Dwight Yoakam, again.

I'll shine up my old brown shoes, put on a brand new shirt
Get home early from work, if you say that you love me
Didn't I, didn't I, didn't I see you cryin'?
Oh, didn't I, didn't I, didn't I see you cryin'?
Feeling all alone without a friend, you know you feel like dying
Oh, didn't I, didn't I, didn't I see you cryin'?
And I want you to want me
Yeah, I need you to need me

Comments

Refugees in Europe deserve help, but refugees in U.S. deserve to "be sent back"?

--> September 4, 2015 Hillary Clinton on the refugee crisis in Southern Europe: “Well the pictures, well the stories, we’ve been watching this terrible assault on the Syrian people now for years, are just heartbreaking. I think the entire world has to come together, it should not be just one or two countries, or not just Europe and the United States. We should do our part, as should the Europeans, but this is a broader, global crisis. We now have um, more refugees than we’ve had, in many years, I think since the second world war. And as we’ve seen tragically, people are literally dying to escape the conflict in Syria. Uh, I think that the, the larger Middle East, I think Asia, I think everybody should step up and say we have to help these people. And I would hope that, under the aegis of the United Nations led by the Security Council, and certainly by the United States which has been such a generous nation in the past, we would begin to try to...

translation of the Manu Chao song "Me Llaman Calle"

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Should we use a capital framework to understand culture? Applying cultural capital to communities of color

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Kip Austin Hinton

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