Noel Castellanos

CCDA Philly Slideshows

2006-11-02T10:22:00.000-06:00

The following slideshows were produced for CCDA’s Friday and Saturday morning general sessions.

Part 1
Photos from the first two days of CCDA, including Mayor John Street, John Perkins, Tony Campolo, Dr. Wayne Gordon, Dr. Alyn Waller, Noel Castellanos, Rev. Herbert Lusk, II, workshops, candids, and more; music by Fred Hammond, Casting Crowns, and Bethany.

Photos by Jeremy Del Rio.

Part 2
Pictures include John Perkins, Noel Castellanos, Dr. Wayne Gordon, Ms. Marian Wright Edelman, Dr. Louis Carlo, Spencer Perkins Fellows, general session presenters, workshops, and candids, with music by Jason Upton, U2, and Isaac Houghton.

Photos by Jeremy Del Rio

Feel free to post the slideshows on your website/blogs, but kindly include appropriate photo credit to www.JeremyDelRio.com and a link back to CCDA.

BARRIO SHALOM

2006-07-12T14:58:00.000-05:00

I have seen amazing changes in the city of Chicago the last 15 years. We are a city that is being gentrified by the day, with the wealthy and upper class returning to the center of the city to take advantage of its amazing assets: a world class skyline, an amazing lake front, out of this world restaurants, great parks and museums, and the World Champion Chicago White Sox!

Especially the barrios of Humboldt Park, La Villita, and Pilsen have gone through unthinkable transformation. 10 years ago, you could buy a city lot in Pilsen for $10,000. Today, that same lot will cost you between $200,000 and $500,000.

Latino churches have overnight found themselves surrounded by new middle-class 'neighbors' right in the barrio, while many of their members have been forced to move away from the communities where they have grown up all of their lives--because the can no longer afford to live there.

The pastors of these churches are dealing with 'White Real Estate Might' instead of 'White Flight' that was experienced 20-30 years ago, which gave their flocks an opportunity to move into these traditional inner city neighborhoods.

Now, in the face of all of these changes, what do we do if we care for the barrio? What do we do if God has called us to love our Latino neighbors and neighborhoods?

BARRIO SHALOM. This is what God has been speaking to my heart as I have been reflecting, studying, and praying about my role in La Villita. Seek the 'Shalom' of my barrio. Seek the wholeness, and vitality, and spiritual revival of my barrio. Seek to invite, encourage, and engage others to enter into a journey of working together for the Shalom of La Villita.

What this will look like is yet unclear, but if it is to be deeply Biblical, it must be rooted in community. It must be rooted in the fullest understanding of what Shalom is:

Peace- Our neighborhood is so violent with gangs and domestic violence
Love- We all desperately need a safe place to let God expand our heart for the Prince of Peace. We all need grace and forgiveness
Justice- A way to deal with the injustices we see in our barrio and in all barrios around our globe, and beyond
Fiesta- Real fiesta will spring forth when a group of broken people who are seeking God find their joy in celebrating the good things that God is doing in our midst, in our barrio, in our world

Our barrio is amazing, in that we have so many positive elements to our community. Thriving businesses; lots of homeowners; many churches; some economic diversity; good leadership on many fronts. But we are a community of need of SHALOM.

Families are afraid to let our children and teens out because of gang violence. Men abuse their wives and girlfriends and children far too often. Fear and violence are clear manifestations of evil in our barrio.

I am convinced that Kingdom people in our barrio can unleash God's love and justice with such a powerful force, that SHALOM can flow like a gushing stream--in the place of violence. This is something worth praying for, working for, and worth living for.

Along the way, let's party...as we give glory to God for what He is doing to bring His Shalom to our needy world.

Reflections

2006-07-12T10:33:00.000-05:00

Psalm 9:18
"The needy will not be forgotten forever; the hopes of the poor will not always be crushed."

Today, there is word from Colorado that the state legislature has passed some very tough laws that prohibit undocumented residents from receiving basic services. (A taste of things to come as our nation continues the debate over our immigration policy)

As a follower of the ultimate 'friend of the lowly, the forgotten, and the poor' I feel compelled to care. I feel moved to pray and do what I can to act in love-filled way towards these individuals who have become such lighting rods of controversy.

I feel deeply saddened and burdened that we are so unable to understand the hopes that these men and women have for a better life, and for many, for economic survival.

Forgetting politics for a moment. I am trusting God that the words of Psalm 9 are indeed going to be fulfilled at some point. That if the Lord has anything to do with it, 'the hopes of the poor will not be crushed forever.'

Proverbs 19:4
"Wealth makes many friends; poverty drives them away."

Do I only welcome others when they make my life better and more prosperous, (or at least have no negative impact on my life), or do I see the value of others for who they are; men and women created in the image of God. In fact, am I open to the possibility that the very presence of Christ might be uniquely found in the poor and forgotten that I easily walk past?

Lord, help me to see the vulnerable as you do, and help me do whatever I can so that your Kingdom will come here on earth as it is in heaven--where the hopes of the poor will not be crushed.

NY Without Immigrants

2006-07-06T17:18:00.000-05:00

"Although they broke the law by illegally crossing our borders ... our city's economy would be a shell of itself had they not, and it would collapse if they were deported, the same holds true for the nation."

- New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg speaking to a Senate committee. Source: CNN

Burro Genius

2006-06-30T18:53:00.000-05:00

If you want to read an amazing account of a young boy's struggle to overcome discrimination, low expectations, and Dyslexia to become a world-class writer, check out this book written by Victor Villaseñor .

Patricia's Story

2006-06-30T17:54:00.000-05:00

Patricia's Strory
Behind every 'undocumented immigrant' or 'illegal alien' is a real human story. This is one of them.by 'Patricia,' as told to Juan Hernandez and Noel Castellanos

On May 1, 2006, as many as 800,000 immigrants flooded into the streets of Dallas and Chicago to demonstrate that their presence in the United States is neither insignificant nor to be taken lightly. Imagine the courage it took for these individuals to risk coming out of the shadows of our nation’s underground and to openly declare their desire to be woven into the tapestry of the country with other immigrant citizens...

Pick up a copy of this month's Sojourners magazine to read the rest of the story.

From Poverty to Opportunity

2006-06-30T17:34:00.000-05:00

This past Monday through Wednesday, I was in Washington, DC with over 600 'progressive' Christians. We were brought together by Jim Wallis and the Call to Renewal / Sojourners movement that is seeking to forge new solutions to end poverty that are neither Republican or Democrate, but committed to justice.

Mary Nelson, Jim Wallis, Tony Campolo a few others and myself, were carrying the banner on a few mile march from the National Church to the lawn at the Capital. It was a great time to take our faith to the streets in a role of advocacy aimed at letting our lawmakers know that Christians care about more that just a few issues, and that we care alot about what God cares about-the poor and the marignalized.

There were many highlights. Seeing lot's of young leaders eager to get engaged. Meeting with our Senators and going to see Congressman Gutierrez of Illinois. Getting a chance to hear Barak Obama...he is a very compelling leader in DC.

Finally, we had the chance to introduce the Covenant for a New America, a documented put together by Sojourners that outlines a list of commitments that Christians who care about poverty and justice are asking our lawmakers to support.

I encourage you to find out more about the Covenant at the link provided above.

New Mestizo Cohort Starts BGU Program

2006-06-21T23:15:00.000-05:00

Twenty-five folks from around the globe began the Bakke Graduate University D Min program with me in Seattle, WA. I will bring you all with me on this journey as I travel around the world with this group.

If Only Finding a Church Was this Easy

2006-06-11T10:33:00.000-05:00

Very early Sunday morning, I set out to find a breakfast spot before starting my day. I found my experience very much like looking for the perfect church.

First of all, it has to be perfect. That is, it has to match the image that I have in my mind of what a 'perfect breakfast' will look and taste like.
It has to serve all the traditional breakfast stuff: eggs, potatoes, and chorizo.
It has to serve great coffee, ala Starbuck's.
The Waite staff has to be cool and attentive (after all, I need to be well taken care of).
Also, the venue has to be artistic, cool, open, non-traditional, and of course, right in the heart of the city.
If it were a unique, one of a kind place, that would be ideal, but I'll settle if I have to.
It has to have great music. New talent; funky; stuff I can enjoy while eating that gets me grooving just a little bit is perfect.
Being walking distance from home is a must!
Finally, it has to be hopping with a diverse crowd.

After an hour of walking around, past, in and out of, numerous places, I was getting so hungry my standards began to plummet downward. I even began to remember restaurants I had seen in other parts of town that served breakfast, and I was tempted to get on a bus and commute to find my perfect place. But, eating breakfast was much too important for me to give up so quickly. I had to press on.

Maybe I should go back to the great doughnut place right be my apartment. No. Too much sugar and not enough substance.
The dining room at the Ramada Inn would probably serve the eggs and bacon I was looking for, but the place is too old and unhip for me to really enjoy my breakfast.
Then there was the very nice hotel joint not far away, but it was a bit to up scale for me. I did not want to spend $20 for eggs and toast!
Then there were the 10 Starbuck's I passed by. (No joke, this is Seattle) Even though they now serve a pretty good breakfast sandwich, I couldn't bring myself to settling for something so familiar and so canned.
Not to mention the numerous storefront places that served other interesting food, but no breakfast.

I was now so hungry, I was really ready to settle for anything, when it happened. I came across a sports bar that was serving breakfast. I walked down into the huge space filled with TV lights and the sounds of the World Cup. It was comfortable and contemporary. The African American greeter (I mean host) was great, and made me feel at home.

I was drawn to the feel, to the sounds (very loud) and to the visuals. And the finals of the French Open were on (showing on 20 huge HDTV plasma screens) with the Mexico versus Iran game coming up next. What could be better?

I ate my breakfast. Nadal won, and Mexico was not losing. To top it off, after the offering (I mean, after paying my bill) they moved me into the cigar bar to watch the game on a couch in absolute comfort.

Too bad I'm only in Seattle for one weekend, because this would be a great regular breakfast place, especially during the World Cup!

If only finding a church home were this easy!

Report Number One from Seattle

2006-06-05T03:48:00.000-05:00

I just arrived in Seattle for my 2 week stint at the Bakke program. My friends Lisa and Hayden picked me up at the airport, brought me a mattress, and helped me find my apartment.

It is an amazing place 1 block from the Space Needle (which I have a full view of from my living room window). The young man who I am renting a room from is named Jaspreet: He works at Microsoft and seems to be a real nice person. (First impessions at midnight)

I start at 8am, and expect to get a wake-up call from my wife Marianne at 6am.

Chitaliano

2006-06-01T14:56:00.000-05:00

My 3 kids are a mestizo blend of Chicano & Italiano (Chitaliano). My oldest son Noel Luis will attend USC in the fall, and he will not be living in the Chicano Studies dorm. I guess he may have to establish the Chitaliano Club himself.

My sister recently bought me t-shirt that says, 'USC- University of Successful Chicanos'. We may need to make a new one that says, 'USC- University of Successful Chitalianos'.

Heading to Seattle

2006-05-27T12:38:00.000-05:00

After a few years of wanting to start my D. Min program at the Bakke Graduate University, I am finally going to start on June 5th. I will be in Seattle for a two week intensive to start the 3 year program. I'm very excited to take another step in my preparation for the Kingdom work God has me to do.

Here are a few reflections I have as I enter this new endeavor:

As oppossed to having to go to school, I get to further my studies
This a family affair, as I could not do this without the support of my wife and kids
With great knowledge comes greater responsibilty
New insights, I believe will lead to more mature ministry initiatives
If I want young Latino leaders to value and pursue education, I must model this commitment myself
I'm grateful to CCDA for helping me to make this a reality by giving me this time away

Check Out Our New Immigration Website

2006-05-23T18:55:00.000-05:00

I invite you to check out a new website I have created with Any Bales, Juan Hernandez, and a few others to help Christians become better informed on the issue of immigration reform.

www.churchandimmigration.info

Sleeping After Seattle

2006-05-23T07:22:00.000-05:00

I just picked up Rudy Carrasco from O'hare airport for our CCDA board meeting here in Chicago. He flew in from a World Vision board meeting in Seattle on a red-eye, and arrived at 5:15am (what was I thinking agreeing to pick him up?).

After picking up a latte at the new urban Starbucks here in Lawndale, we came to my house for a couple hours before our meeting...

Right now, Rudy is dead asleep on my couch!

FYI

Did We Miss the Mark at Azusa?

2006-05-21T23:15:00.000-05:00

In the same month of this past weekend's UYWI, our nation experienced the closest thing to the civil right's marches of the King era with well over a million immigrants, documented and not; Latinos and not; democrates and not...all marching in support of changing our current immigration laws.

And while this revolution-crisis is at the height of national debate, from the halls of Congress to the hallways of school campuses (it effects so many lives of Latino young people--especially in California) we missed an opportunity to engage the 1500 plus urban youth workers in the process. To inform. To connect it to Kingdom justice, which was the theme of this year's conference.

80 - 100 UYWI attendees came to an afternoon workshop on Saturday to find out more about this issue, which I am so thankful for, but we missed an opportunity to connect a national crisis to the very theme of the conference- Biblical justice.

By the time next year's UYWI comes around, only God knows where our nation will stand in regards to dealing with the 12 million undocumented immigrants that reside in our nation (6 million in California alone). Will there be millions more that take to the streets to march and demonstrate? Will there be more boycotts and walkouts and anxious moments as more walls are errected and more troops are deployed?

My gut tells me that 1400 more informed young people broken up by the love and compassion of Christ for the least of these...for of our immigrant neighbors (a good number that were attending the conference) would have made a difference for the Kingdom.

I regret I did not push harder to highlight this issue on a larger scale at UYWI; as a result I believe we missed a historic opportunity to live the Kingdom, NOW.

CCDA Emerging Leaders at UYWI

2006-05-21T13:53:00.000-05:00

30 emerging CCDA leaders met at Azusa before the UYWI conference this past week to explore how the movement of Christian Community Development, characterized by grass roots, faith-based, incarnational (living among the people we are seeking to impact), development (versus hand outs), and justice (that begins with economic justice) will flow into the future.

In the light of gentrification (Cabrini Green in Chicago is an example of what is going on all over the country- desirable land close to lakes, oceans, rivers, downtown attraction that were once home to public housing and the poor, are now being re-claimed by the 'gentry' (the landowners with capital) who now are seeking to exploit low property values and especially, close proximity to the city center.

What will CCD and 'relocation- living amongs the people look like in this reality? Not only in Chicago, but everywhere throughout our nation!

What kind of relationshops, and networks (geographical and cyber) will it take to connect CCD leaders of this generation to faithfully and effectively transform our changing cities?

Will our statagies move us into old suburbs becoming home for the displaced city poor? Will our churches in the hood become more cross-class (class will be more a more difficult gap to bridge I believe, than race and culture in many places)?

Will the Latinoizing of our nation impact our strategies, our focus on collaboration with other ethnic groups? Will we see a 'poor people's march / movement' in the next decade with Blacks, Latinos, Native Americans, Asians and others taking to the streets ala the May 1st demonstrations to demand justice in an exptreme rich and an extreme poor society?

The emerging leaders of CCDA will be at the center of finding solutions to these, and other crisis' facing our nation and our church. Thanks to all the leaders who paticipated!

The Both-And Reality of Mestizaje

2006-05-20T11:38:00.000-05:00

I feel both Mexican and North American! That is my reality. Tacos. Venti latte. Menudo. ESPN. Huaraches. Puma (Italian).

The reality, my life is a clash of multiple influences and I refuse to choose just one expression to identify, express, identify, who I am. Soy pocho. Soy rico. Soy pobre. I am rich and poor at the same time! I am educated and illiterate at the same time! I am legalistic and grace motivated at the same time. I am secure and insecure at the same time.

Soy Latino ( Mexican by heritage. Infulenced by my Puerto Rican & Dominican friends, brothers and sister) I am North American (Influenced by Italian, Greek, German, Dutch, Scananavian, and other cultures that still live on in the live of brothers and sister I know).

In a sense, I'm Cuban and Columbian. I'm idigenous. I am part Native American. I am African-American...At least all of these realities are a part of me in a way that feels like I belong.

And yet, at the same time, I don't belong.

Finally, I know I am saved through Christ, and yet I am still being saved, as the Holy Spirit continues to shape my life and character into the likeness of Jesus.

My world is a both - and reality, and I would not have it any other way.

Jewish - Mexican Mestizaje

2006-05-20T11:18:00.000-05:00

One of the perks of being at the UYWI national event at Azusa this week is getting to hang out with amazing urban pioneers like John Perkins and Ray Bakke.

At breakfast this morning, I was talking to Dr. Bakke and he expressed his excitement that I was entering the Bakke Graduate University D. Min program beginning next month. He then began to share some of this church history discoveries in Mexico and Latin America.

An amazing revelation was the Jewish migration with Cortez the Spaniard, to Mexico. To complicate the Spanish/indigenous mestizaje of Mexico, is the Jewish/Spanish reality. Ray mentioned that he learned from Samuel Escobar that Mexican last names ending in 'es', 'ez' and 'za' were all names taken to identify their Jewish heritage.

Could it be that as mestizos, we need to discover their Jewish roots?

The Central Role of Faith

2006-05-01T20:59:00.000-05:00

The New American Pioneers

2006-05-01T20:53:00.000-05:00

There were thousands of American flags demonstrating immigrant's realization that while they love their country of origin, that they also love the USA, and desire an opportunity to come out of the shadows.

It is important to note that thousands of US citizens like myself came out to march and support our undocumented immigrant neighbors.

400,000 at Chicago's 'Day Without An Immigrant' March

2006-05-01T20:35:00.000-05:00

A group of young people from La Villita join Noel at today's May 1st March here in Chicago.

One of the most impacting sign's I saw was one that said, "The giant wasn't sleeping, he was working!"

Well, it seems like thousands of these hard working men and women made their way to today's rally. It was undescribable to see masses of people making the 3 mile walk from Union Park on the Westside to Grant Park downtown.

Men, women, and children draped in Mexican, American, Polish and other flags marched side by side, carrying signs and lifting their voices with chants of, Si, Se Puede (Yes, we can), and USA!

During my hours downtown, I spoke to Juan Hernandez in Dallas, Gil Contreras in Miami, Luis Villareal in Denver, Andy Bales in Los Angeles, and to others who also took to the streets.

The question is, what impact will today's march / demonstrations have on the reform process?

Finally, there we numerous Christian and church groups out marching, which was encouraging, although I did not see many Chicago pastors in the crowd.

More to come...

DREAM ACT Reintroduced in Congress

2005-11-23T09:06:00.000-06:00

Great news! On Friday, November 18th, a bipartisan group of Senators officially introduced S. 2075, the DREAM Act of 2005, giving new life to legislation that has been in a holding pattern since the beginning of the year.The sponsors of the DREAM Act of 2005 are Richard Durbin (D-IL), Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Richard Lugar (R-IN).

The other original cosponsors are Norm Coleman (R-MN), Larry Craig (R-ID), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Mike DeWine (R-OH), Russ Feingold (D-WI), Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), John McCain (R-AZ), and Barack Obama (D-IL).

It will become law if passed by both houses of Congress and signed by the President before the end of 2006.These Senators will now be targeted for their courage by the anti-immigrant lobby and their vocal supporters. It is essential to balance the abuse with expressions of appreciation from those who care about the great young people who the DREAM Act will help.* Please act now to thank the DREAM Act sponsors.Cutting and pasting the following address into your browser will allow you to send a message of thanks to Senators Hagel and Durbin. The message will also go to your own cosponsoring Senator(s) if you live in one of their states. The address is:http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/NILC/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=1551&t=DREAM blank.dwt

Important: Please forward this message to anyone you know in any of the states the cosponsoring Senators represent to make sure they hear from their constituents.

Background: If enacted, the DREAM Act would transform the lives of persons who were brought to the U.S. years ago as undocumented children and who have stayed in school and out of trouble since their arrival. Currently these individuals have no pathway to legalize their immigration status and get on with their lives.

The DREAM Act would correct this flaw by providing that upon high school graduation, these individuals who have grown up in the United States would be able to apply for six years of conditional legal immigration status which would be made permanent if they continue on to college or to serve in the military.Among those helped would be Marie Gonzalez who grew up in Jefferson City, Missouri. A Latina Magazine Mujer of the year, she became a symbol for others like her when she was able to stave off deportation earlier this year with the help of thousands of supporters. Now she is quietly attending college, but her reprieve only lasts until July of 2006, at which time she could again face deportation if the DREAM Act is not enacted.The features of the DREAM Act of 2005 are nearly identical to the version that passed the Senate Judiciary Committee last year by a 16-3 vote. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), formerly the Chair of that Committee, was then the sponsor of the DREAM Act. He has assured constituents that his failure to introduce it again this year does not mean that he is any less supportive than he was in the past.Introduction of the DREAM Act comes at a time when the broader immigration debate is becoming more and more politicized and contentious.

DREAM Act supporters argue that it deserves to be considered on its own merits, regardless of one's position on other immigration issues. It will have a far bigger impact on education, fairness to children, and American competitiveness than on immigration to this country.Supporters argue that young people facing high school graduation and major decisions about college or work should not be asked to wait until Congress resolves all of the other vexing immigration issues. Rather, Congress should act now and take these young people off of the field of battle of the immigration wars.Additional information about the DREAM Act is available here (http://nilc.org/immlawpolicy/index.htm#DREAM)

Amazing Time at CCDA 2006

2005-11-21T11:31:00.000-06:00

I wish you all could have been at our CCDA conference this past week. It was an amazing time of inspiration, instruction, and interconnection with men and women of faith who are working with the poor. There were 2000 of us...and it was amazing. Here are a few of the highlights:

Over 150 people started the conference taking a 7 hour CCDA Institute class to equip themselves for ministry back home
We got reports from our CCDA ministries in New Orleans
We had fantastic worship
Dr. Juan Hernandez challenged us to take up the cause of 13 million undocumented immigrants
Dr. Jim Wallis gave us a fresh understanding of the alter call, as a call to sign up to confront the social ills of our nation
Richard Townsell from Lawndale ministries gave a powerful admonition of how we have to deal with our poor communities
Dr. Ray Bakke gave an amazing talk called, 'The Gospel from Iran and Iraq". He proceeded to show us how Abraham, Daniel, and Jonah are Biblical figures who come to us from these present day nations
We had over 100 workshops
Over 200 people attended RELOAD, which we held in connection to our CCDA event
Kit Danley and Skip Long were elected new CCDA Board members
We had a group of Native American leaders present at CCDA and we began a fruitful process of responding to our brothers and sisters who have not been present in CCDA
We brought together 25 young leaders to express to them that CCDA needs their input, leadership, and experience

As I write this, I am listening to Dr. John Perkins' Thursday morning Bible Study. It is amazing, and I encourage you to get your copy at our CCDA website. I'll post some photos in the next few days.

Peace.

Join Me in Miami in January 2006

2005-11-12T08:49:00.000-06:00

A Large Contingency of Latino Leaders will Attend CCDA

2005-11-11T23:20:00.000-06:00

Look for a larger representation of Latinos at the 2005 CCDA conference in Indianapolis this year.

New Book by Dr. Robert Lupton

2005-11-11T23:10:00.000-06:00

The CCDA Institute just published our first book, written for us by Bob Lupton, President of FCS Urban Ministries in Atlanta, GA. Bob and his late wife Peggy have done amazing work transforming neglected neighborhoods in inner-city Atlanta into thriving communities. Read about the philosophy of CCDA in this new publication entitled, So you call yourself a Christian: Towards a responsible Charity.

The only place to get this book is through CCDA. Let me know if you are interested in a copy.

Mantenemos El Sueño

2005-11-11T18:55:00.000-06:00

Abraham Suarez, a great young man from Arizona did a workshop on immigration reform at the Phoenix RELOAD event a couple of weeks ago.

It is absolutely necessary that Mestizo young people be involved in bringing about change.

Walter Payton HS one of the Best

2005-11-11T18:39:00.000-06:00

Our family has been very blessed to have our boys attend Walter Payton College Prep; a public school in Chicago that is rated #2 in academics in the entire state for public HS schools.

Unfortunately, not every kid has the same kind of opportunity, especially not Mestizo children. There is no greater mission field in the USA than our inner city neighborhood schools. As we pray for the 'Shalom' of our cities, let us not forget to pray for the teachers

who have such a huge impact on kid's lives.

Just a few weeks ago, I was in Seattle and had the opportunity of staying the

night with my fifth grade teacher and her husband.

When I was a young kid, she loved me,

encouraged me, and instilled a belief in me

that I could be somebody.

Thanks Mrs. Risse (Mary Jo)

for impacting my life forever!

By Any Means Necessary?

2005-11-11T18:33:00.000-06:00

Do the riots in France make you a bit concerned that marginalized young people in the USA might react in a similar way if we do not begin to invest in their future?

2005-11-11T18:30:00.000-06:00

I love this image of this young girl on Palm Sunday. As a Mestizo, my heart is drawn to the strong symbolism of my early religious upbringing.

The CCDA Conference in Indianapolis Just Days Away

2005-11-11T18:26:00.000-06:00

Next week, I will be at the CCDA conference in Indy for the entire week. It should be a great time, with over 1500 people already registered to attend. There is still room to sign up for one of the 7 Institute classes that we will offer on Wednesday the 16th, from 9am-5pm. More info about the conference can be found at www.ccda.org.

Turning 46

2005-11-11T18:21:00.000-06:00

I just celebrated my 46th birthday on the 9th. I doesn't seem possible that I'm past the mid point of my life (If the Lord wills). Lot's to contemplate. Lots to think and pray about. I'm grateful for my wife and kids. I'm grateful for so many good friends. I'm grateful for the opportunity to fullfil my life's calling to serve Christ in so many exciting ways. I look forward to the new adventures my next year will bring.

Chicanismo

2005-10-05T15:05:00.000-05:00

When the article on multiculturalism came out in Christianity Today, someone responded on Rudy's blog that it was a joke that I was included in the discussion because my LLF website was all about Latino leadership, ministry, ect. How could someone so down for 'Brown' lend an authentic voice to mestizaje and multiculturalism?

I respond without apology that while I am theologically convinced that a mestizo kingdom is what God is building, that it is still possible, and at times necessary to be an advocate for a specific ethnic / cultural group in terms of the justice or developmental issues that effect that group.

While being all about Latinos, I am convinced that I must also advocate for Chicanismo. While a bit young to have felt the full force of the Chicano Movement in the 60's, I was impacted greatly by the notion that being a Mexican-American was about much more than race...it is also about culture, politics, power, domination, resisting aculturation, and forging a self identity apart from the defentions of the dominant culture.

To be Chicano was to be militant. To be proud of our culture (as Mexicans living or born in the USA). To be active in our barrio. To be about the concerns of our gente.

Today, as I travel around the country and hang with many prominant (don't let them know that is how I see them) Latino leaders that are working to do some damage for the Kingdom of God and for the RAZA / Barrio, I am both thrilled, and greatly concerned.

I am afraid that I see too few Mexican-American / Chicano leaders engaged fully in the work of transforming our barrios and mobilizing our churches. With around 65% of the Latino population being of the Chicano variety, a majority of the leaders I encounter are of other Latino backgrounds.

Take for example my Puerto Rican brothers and sisters, that in Chicago represent around 15-20% of the total Latino popultation in our area. It seems that there are so many more pastors and empowered leaders that are running in circles that I would say are progressive and involved in the issues that effect our larger community.

Peter Aviles, Rose Sanches, Isaiah Mercado, Juanity Irizarry, Wilfredo DeJesus, Ray Maldonado, Willie Vasquez, John Zayas and many other Puerto Rican Christian leaders are making a difference in our city. On a national level, Danny and Luis Cortes, Jim Ortiz, Ray Rivera, Jeremy Del Rio and many others are doing the same on the national stage-- and I am so glad for this because these are fantastic leaders!

My issue is that while there are the Issac Canales, Michael Matas, Larry Acostas, Jessie Mirandas, Danny DeLeons, Rudy Carrascos, and a handful of others who have established great credebility in the larger Latino community, with respect to the enormous numbers of Chicano and Mexican residents in our nation, we need to see many more--We need to see a new force of young Chicano leaders that continue to rise to provide leadership in our Chicano barrios.

With the millions of young Chinano men and women that live in our nation and that reside in our ministries, we need a revolution of leadership development within our community, becuse who knows our people and the needs of our barrios better than our own young people?

Yes, it is time for a new Chicanismo that does not aspire to an isolated and exclusive vision of our Latino reality, but one that understands the challenges of reaching and identifying with the 20 plus million Mexicans / Chicanos, and rises up to meet that challenge.

How do we do this? For one, we need to be sure to intentinally include and affirm Chicano leaders every chance we get. We need to ask, what are the unique needs of this Latino population that we must address in all leadership development efforts. We must clarify that this clarion call is not about causing division, but about strengthening the whole by undergirding our efforts at a point of need.

My prayer is that we see empowered, engaged Latino leaders from every national and cultural group recorgnized for their giftedness and contributions to God's Kingdom enterprise. My dream is also to see a renewed sense of Chicanismo that contributes fully to what God is doing in this new Mestizo generation.

Cultivating the Soul

2005-09-29T15:14:00.000-05:00

"The forming of the soul that it might be a dwelling place for God is the primary work of the Christian leader. This is not an add-on, or third level priority. Without this core activity, one almost guarantees that he/she will not last in leadership for a lifetime or that what work is accomplished will become less and less reflective of God's honor and God's purposes."
--Gordon Macdonald

Speaking at Indiana Wesleyan University and Taylor University

2005-09-29T15:10:00.000-05:00

Yesterday and today, I am speaking to students at these two universities. Two campuses in the midst of corn fields (a long way from the barrio!) Last night I gave a talk on the Kingdom of Justice and Reconciliation. Tonight, I will talk about, Embracing Our Mestizo Future!

From Mother Teresa

2005-09-29T15:00:00.000-05:00

The fruit of silence is prayer
The fruit of prayer is faith
The fruit of of faith is love
The fruit of love is service
The fruit of service is peace.

Mestizo Leaders Must Learn to be REAL with One Another

2005-09-29T14:43:00.000-05:00

Everyday some of our best and brightest leaders fall and fail in such a way that devastate our churches and communities. The more I am around young and old leader alike, I realize how desperately we need each other to help keep us in the game of authentic discipleship and transformational leadership. I would say we need to be in groups where we can be REAL:

Remove Masks
Enlist the help of others
Attend to our own growth
Let others hold us accountable

If we are going to lead the church into our Mestizo future, we must get REAL with one another before another one of our own bites the dust!

After Katrina, Where Have All the Hondurans Gone?

2005-09-28T08:56:00.000-05:00

According to Honduran consulates, anywhere from 120,000 to 150,000 Hondurans were living in the New Orleans metropolitan area before Katrina struck. Estimates vary because so many of the thousands of Hondurans who were living in New Orleans were largely undocumented, working in the backs of restaurants, in people's homes or in Mississippi's unincorporated agricultural areas. And their faces have been largely absent from post-hurricane images of evacuees gathered at the Superdome or in shelters.

Rebuilding 'Nueva Orleans'

2005-09-27T13:43:00.000-05:00

Check out this article forwarded to me bu my friend Danny Cortes, from Esperanza USA:

By Gregory Rodriguez, Gregory Rodriguez is a contributing editor to TheTimes and Irvine Senior fellow at the New America Foundation.

NO MATTER WHAT ALL the politicians and activists want, African Americans and impoverished white Cajuns will not be first in line to rebuild theKatrina-ravaged Gulf Coast and New Orleans. Latino immigrants, many ofthem undocumented, will. And when they're done, they're going to stay,making New Orleans look like Los Angeles.

It's the federal governmentthat will have made the transformation possible, further exposing thehollowness of the immigration debate. President Bush has promised that Washington will pick up the greaterpart of the cost for "one of the largest reconstruction efforts theworld has ever seen." To that end, he suspended provisions of theDavis-Bacon Act that would have required government contractors to payprevailing wages in Louisiana and devastated parts of Mississippi,Alabama and Florida. And the Department of Homeland Security hastemporarily suspended sanctioning employers who hire workers who cannotdocument their citizenship. The idea is to benefit Americans who mayhave lost everything in the hurricane, but the main effect will be tolet contractors hire illegal immigrants. Mexican and Central American laborers are already arriving insoutheastern Louisiana. One construction firm based in Metairie, La., sent a foreman to Houston to round up 150 workers willing to do cleanupwork for $15 an hour, more than twice their wages in Texas. The men -most of whom are undocumented, according to news accounts - live outsideNew Orleans in mobile homes without running water and electricity. The foreman expects them to stay "until there's no more work" but "there's going to be a lot of construction jobs for a really long time." Because they are young and lack roots in the United States, many recentmigrants are ideal for the explosion of construction jobs to come. Those living in the U.S. will relocate to the Gulf Coast, while others willcome from south of the border. Most will not intend to stay where their new jobs are, but the longer the jobs last, the more likely they will settle permanently.

One recent poll of New Orleans evacuees living inHouston emergency shelters found that fewer than half intend to return home. In part, their places will be taken by the migrant workers. Former President Clinton recently hinted as much on NBC's "Meet the Press" when he said New Orleans will be resettled with a different population. It is not the first time that hurricanes and other natural disastershave triggered population movements. In 1998, Hurricane Mitch slammed into Central America, sending waves of migrants northward. The 2001 earthquakes in El Salvador produced similar shifts. The effects ofHurricane Andrew may better foretell New Orleans' future. The 1992 storm displaced 250,000 residents in southeastern Florida. The construction boom that followed attracted large numbers of Latin American immigrants,who rebuilt towns such as Homestead, whose Latino population hasincreased by 50% since then.

At the same time, U.S. construction firms have become increasingly reliant on Latino immigrant labor. In 1990, only 3.3% of construction workers were Mexican immigrants. Ten years later, the number was 8.5%.In 2004, 17% of Latino immigrants worked in the business, a higher percentage than in any other industry. Nor is this an exclusively Southwest phenomenon. Even before Katrina, more and more Latin American immigrant workers were locating in the South, with North Carolina and Arkansas incurring the greatest percentage gains between 1990 and 2000. This helps explain why 40% of the workers who rebuilt the Pentagon after the 9/11 attack were Latino.

Reliance on immigrant labor to complete huge projects is part of U.S.history. In the early 19th century, mostly Irish immigrant laborers, who worked for as little as 37 1/2 cents an hour, built the Erie Canal, one of the greatest engineering feats of its day. Later that century,Italian immigrants, sometimes making just $1.50 a day, were the backbone of the workforce that constructed the New York subway system. In 1890, 90% of New York City's public works employees, and 99% of Chicago's street workers, were Italian. After Congress authorized construction of the transcontinental railroad in 1862, one of the most ambitious projects in U.S. history, Charles Crocker, head of construction for Central Pacific railroad, recognized that the Civil War was creating a labor shortage. So he turned to Chinese immigrants to do the job. By 1867, 12,000 of Central Pacific's13,500 workers were Chinese immigrants, who were paid between $26 and$35 for a six-day workweek of 12 hours a day. At the turn of the 20th century, Mexican immigrant laborers did most of the railroad construction in Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada.

Mexican workers were also essential in turning the Southwest into afertile region, which by 1929 produced 40% of the United States' fruitsand vegetables. They cleared the mesquite brush of south Texas to makeroom for the expansion of agriculture, then played a primary role in the success of cotton farming in the state. A generation earlier, German immigrants from Russia and Norwegians had busted the prairie sod to turn the grasslands of North Dakota into arable fields. The major difference between then and now is that neither the American public nor the government will admit their dependence on a labor force that is heavily undocumented. When Mexican President Vicente Fox offered to provide Mexican labor to help rebuild New Orleans - "If there is anything Mexicans are good at, it is construction," he said - the federal government ignored him. At the same time, some of theundocumented Mexicans who have cleaned up and begun to rebuild Biloxi, Miss., are wondering whether they deserve at least a temporary visa so they can live in the U.S. legally.

Last week, the White House said it will push its plan to allow illegal immigrants already in the U.S. to become legal guest workers. Good. Hurricane Katrina exposed the nation's black-white divide. Post-Katrina reconstruction will soon spotlight the hypocrisy of refusing to grant legal status to those who will rebuild the Gulf Coast and New Orleans.

LA RELOAD a Success

2005-09-26T10:52:00.000-05:00

275 or so urban youth workers convened in the shadows of the Staples Center in downtown LA at the Salvation Army center to attend the first of 20 Reload training events in the next 12 months.

I had the opportunity to lead two workshops, one on developmental youth ministry, and one in Spanish on crucial questions that we must consider to have a thriving youth ministry in the Latino church.

Also, Ramiro Medrano presented a workshop that I worked to develop, entitled, 'Igniting A Justice Revolution in Your City'. Larry Acosta has put together a great team that will blowing this event out throughout the nation. Hope to see you at one of these upcoming events!

Can an Entire City Change their Racist Past?

2005-09-26T10:49:00.000-05:00

Check out this article on a Texas hotbed for KKK activity, and how this town has reached out to help non-white Katrina evacuees. Can people and entire cities really change? What role must the church play to make this transformation possible?

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/special4/article.adp?id=20050925204809990007

Post from CCDA Member Kevin Brown in New Orleans

2005-09-19T15:29:00.000-05:00

Thursday, September 15, 2005 John Paul and Roz Bartley, along with their daughter Sarai, came to visit from Houston today. JP is the guy I am grooming to be my right hand man. Sandy broke into tears at the sight of them, not because of the way they looked but because of her deep love for them. Sarai, five years old and the most wonderful kid, clung to us like long lost relatives. She has spent many days at our house and is very special to us.

We may have found an apartment for them closer to us than the current five hours (they are living in Houston in a two-bedroom apartment along with 12 other people). They would live with a woman who has MS and has an extra apartment next to her house. In exchange for some work on her behalf they would receive free rent. JP and I went into the city together. His house is ruined. Black mold is growing up the walls about 6 feet from the floor. His house is elevated about 3 feet above the ground on stilts. That means there was up to 9 feet of water in Hollygrove. Everything he owns is ruined. It was his first home, one we helped him purchase after we did years of renovations with youth groups and Adventures in Missions trips. It was a former crack house. He had only lived there for a few months.

Next we went to the Center. Part of the roof is missing and you can see the sky from two of the bedrooms. But that's not the bad news. We lost all of our trees. The downstairs had water almost to the ceiling. All the books, computers, office furniture, refrigerator, pool table, furniture, everything is ruined. The smell is indescribable, sort of like raw sewerage mixed with death. The sight is awful. The whole neighborhood is dead. The grass was killed by the toxic sludge, leaving behind a gray and black residue. All of the houses are vacant with the front doors kicked in by search and rescue crews. They left their marks on the doors, flourescent orange spray paint indicating the number of dead inside or whether the house was vacant. It looks like what you might see in a movie about the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust.

The only signs of life were stray dogs and army patrols with huge machine guns and face masks. Military checkpoints are everywhere. The military are dressed in fatigues and roam the city in Humvees armed to the teeth. It really is surreal and quite sad. Our first group is coming on Saturday to secure the roof so that we don't get any rain through the roof. Hopefully we can board up the windows, too. We anticipate many more such groups in the weeks and months ahead, rebuilding the Center as a beachhead in a rough neighborhood where people can go to get some hope. We'll need to rebuild the computer center so they can access FEMA, Red Cross and more. We'll use the Center also as a staging ground for more mission teams. If they can deal with the smell, they'll have a place to sleep. I'll need lots of help.

The sight was so discouraging. I'll need people to pull stuff out of the building because it's just too difficult to figure out what needs to go and what we might be able to salvage. The discouragement is crippling and I couldn't even begin to make a plan, it's almost 40 years of ministry wiped out in one fell swoop. Granted we have lots of lives as a testament to our work but little of the stuff that means so much is salvageable.

Here is one example. I saw our old Rolodex, full of all the phone numbers in our network. I picked it up and it was full of the toxic sludge which poured out all over me. The cards were all matted and illegible. When I got home I stunk. Sandy wouldn't hug me until I took a shower. And then the mold began to make me wheeze and sneeze. I took antihistamine tablets and a shower. Less than an hour later I involuntarily fell asleep and dreamed restlessly of the lives and dreams that have been shattered by Katrina.Posted by Kevin Brown, Trinity Christian Community on September 18th, 2005

Noel's Fall Calendar

2005-09-19T09:28:00.000-05:00

September 23-24: Los Angeles for RELOAD training.
September 28: Speaking at Indiana Weslyian University Chapel.
September 29: Speak at Taylor University Chapel.
October 14-15: Miami RELOAD and promo for CCDA Institute classes in January 2006.
October 20-22: Seattle RELOAD and promo for Institute claases in March 2006.
October 28-29: Phoenix RELOAD training.
November 16: 8 Institute classes being offered the day the CCDA conference begins. Check www.ccda.org for more info.
November 16-20: CCDA National Conference in Indianapolis, IN.
December 8-10: DeVos Urban Leadership Initative workshop in Indianapolis, IN.

TV Does NOT Reflect our Mestizo Future

2005-09-18T23:08:00.000-05:00

If you look at the winners of the Emmy Awards from tonight, there is not one Latino, African American, or Asian actor. At least this year, it seems mestizo viewers will not see themselves in the top rated shows. Just interesting.

Peggy Lupton's Memorial Service

2005-09-18T22:48:00.000-05:00

One of the amazing stories of CCDA is the ministry Bob and Peggy Lupton have established in Atlanta, GA. While Bob has played a more up front role, Peggy has been very involved in many aspects of the ministry, including working as a general contractor for the development of low income housing projects and living in the hood as a 'good neighbor'.

After four years of battling cancer, Peggy went home to be with our Lord this past week. Marianne and I attended her memorial service on Thursday in Atlanta, and we are glad we went. It was a great celebration of Peggy's life as well as an opportunity to mourn and share in her family's suffering.

For all of us that know the Lupton family, our prayers are with Bob and the kids.

David versus Goliath (In NYC)

2005-09-18T22:09:00.000-05:00

Fernando Ferrer is the democatric canidate that will oppose incumbent Billionaire Bloomberg in New York City. Could it be that we will have a Puerto Rican mayor in NYC and Antonio Villaraigosa, the son of a Mexican immigrant, the new mayor of Los Angeles in these influencial positions?

Another clear sign of the emerging mestizo future of our nation.

Boca Grande Taqueria

2005-09-18T21:51:00.000-05:00

On a recent trip to Boston, my son and I stumbled accross a killer taqueria not far from Harvard on Massachusettes Ave. The carne asada was perfect and the price was better. I didn't expect to find comida casera in Boston.

Missing In Action

2005-09-18T21:09:00.000-05:00

It has been so long since I have posted anything, someone asked me if I went AWOL. I'm not sure what happened to me since my summer vacation, but I felt very little motivation or time to blog.

Not that there has not been so much going on related to mestizaje. With Katrina and all, it seems we are at a crossroads time as a nation regarding poverty, racism, and classism.

Lots has gone on in my family, as my 18 year old is set up in Boston working with City Year. He will be serving at a local school in Roxbury.
Since the summer, I've been back to Pasadena to do a one day training at Harambee with Rudy, have been busy setting up CCDA Institute classes in New Jersey, Miami, Seattle, Chicago, and getting ready for the 8 classes we are offering before the CCDA national conference in Indianapolis on November 16th. Finally, I just returned from a few days in Washington DC at a meeting hosted by the Acton Institute, a think tank on religion and the free market/capitalism.

If you want more info check out Rudy Carrasco, Liz Rios, Jeremy Del Rio, and Abner Ramos for their thoughts and reaction.

Vacation in California

2005-08-28T21:35:00.000-05:00

Our family spent a couple of weeks traveling throughout California and visiting family and friends.

We had a great time, especially on our bike ride along the coast of Monterey's 17 Mile Drive.

Kick'n It in Jackson with Dr. Perkins

2005-08-03T14:34:00.000-05:00

After arriving a bit early for the CCDA Youth Conference in Jackson, MS, I had the opportunity to take JP to lunch at a Chinese buffet. It was a treat to listen to John talk with great enthusiasm about planting a new community-neighborhood based church right around the ministry complex that has been established here in Jackson.

At the heart of this new effort is work with children and youth (they have a very strong partnership with Young Life), and the securing of run down houses in their target area (around 8 square blocks) that they are slowly converting into homes with families from the community. We peeked into a house that had been struck by lightening to see if it might be a possible acquisision for the ministry, but the assessment was that it was too far gone.

JP and I also talked about the need for Latino and African-American believers to move beyond superficial alliances to an authentic partnership in Christ, committed to transforming the most neglected neighborhoods of our nation. I thanked John that 15 years ago at the very first CCDA meeting in Chicago, when there was hardly a Latino involved, that he had the vision or openness to embrace the need for CCDA to be more than Black and White. Even though it has taken a while to see this become a reality, we are now seeing the fruits of that early commitment.

For such a time as this we are primed to see a new mestizo/mulatto alliance that can send shockwaves throughout our nation-if we allow it come to pass. I believe CCDA is in a unique position to help make this partnership a reality, and not a moment to soon.

Not Even Tiger Can Mestizofy Golf

2005-07-31T20:00:00.000-05:00

Tiger Woods made a frantic run on the last round of this weekend's PGA tournament. This has become common place over the last ten years, as he has won 9 major tournaments including last weeks British Open.

What has not become more common in the last 10 years is more African-American golfers on the tour. While there is no one as popular, or has had a greater impact on the world of golf and beyond (just ask Nike, that sells out of every outfit Tiger wears on TV), pro golf is still a predominately White sport.

Over the years I have gone to the Western Open here in the Chicago area, and have always seen a good number of Blacks and Latinos (we are always the loudest cheerers) following Tiger, but the system and the availability of course time, expense, etc. all but make it impossible to make golf a thriving sport amongst the poor(er) folks of our land.

This has caused me to wonder that if the greatest golfer in the world, being Mestizo/mulatto, cannot bring about more diversity in his sport, what will it take to create a mestizo movement in any sphere of North American society? In baseball, poor Latinos from Latin American abound, because these players are being developed and trained on their turf and in turn, they are making great profits for their teams, which usually get them for a steal (once they get to Manny Ramirez or Pedro Martinez status this begins to change).

How about in the church? Is there opportunity for African-American and Latino and other leaders to lead? Are we serving on boards and making the short lists of major Christian organizations? With the rise of Latino leaders throughout our society in other venues like politics and media, will we see the same in Kingdom work?

It is not enough to see one 'Tiger' doing well, what we need is to see hundreds of young men and women who love Christ and are gifted ministers, speakers and leaders to get to use their God given gifts and abilities for the advancement of His purposes. If my vision for a Mestizo Future becomes a reality, that is exactly what we will see very soon!

New RELOAD Season set to begin

2005-07-31T17:13:00.000-05:00

This coming September, and on into 2006, I will be helping with the RELOAD Tour which provides training for urban youth workers, youth, and others intersted in children and youth. Check out the website, www.reloadtour.org for more info.

Jesus and Justice

2005-07-31T16:15:00.000-05:00

Check out the article in the most recent Christianity Today, about Billy Graham's decision to not segregate his Jackson, MS crusade in 1952, and how this shaped his ministry efforts during the turbulent civil rights years. It also mentions conversations Graham had with Dr. King about working together, eventually coming to the decision that they had far too different methods to make that work.

While Graham could not be called a champion for racial justice, maybe he did more that we give him credit for.

Debunking the Concept of 'Race': Could it be that most of us are mestizos?

2005-07-31T15:52:00.000-05:00

Check out this article that concludes that we as a diverse 'world humainty' are far more similar than different. Maybe a Mestizo Future is really, 'Back to our Mestizo Future!'

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/30/opinion/30sat4.html?th&emc=th

Children Stranded in Ark. Immigration Raid

2005-07-31T15:44:00.000-05:00

ARKADELPHIA, Ark. (AP) -- When immigration authorities raided a poultry plant and took away more than 100 employees to face deportation, some workers were able to call home and arrange care for their children. But about 30 children, some as young as 3 months old, were left behind with no parents after the arrests, officials said.

''A lot of those families had kids in day care in different places, and they didn't know why Mommy and Daddy didn't come pick them up,'' Arkadelphia Mayor Charles Hollingshead said. A local church ground was helping make arrangements for them.

Check out this link to read the entire story.

Sleepless in Grand Rapids

2005-07-23T19:06:00.000-05:00

I was in Grand Rapids, MI for 2 days this past week to work on a curriculum redesign with the DeVos Urban Leadership Initiative. It's nice to have the resources to do this kind of intense revamping of an already great program. (Even with limited funds, we have to find creative ways to discover our best efforts along with others.)

there were two highlights of our time :

1) I had an opportunity to hang out with my good friend Danny Cortes from Philly. He and his brother Luis head up Nueva Esperanza, an latino led and focused community development corp. that is now building the capacity of Latino churches around the country who want to engage with community.

All that said, our time was about sharing the agony and ecstacy of parenting our kids that have grown up before our eyes. (The pain was eased by the fact that we ate at a killer steak place across from our hotel.) To be allowed to share honestly about the fears and concerns we have is a real gift. It was a long and edifying evening in mamy ways, and I do thank the Lord for my friendship with Danny over the years.

2) The second highlight was having the opportunity to meet with the Republican canidate for Govenor in the state of Michigan to talk about immigration reform. I was pleased that he was very open and seemed to understand the injustice of the current policy on many undocumented families. He also assured me that he would take the time to examine the new comprehensive reform bill that many of us are trying to advocate for. It felt good to be very open and honest about my feelings regarding this issue, and to realize that this simple conversation may lead to actions and changes in attitude or opinions regarding immigration.

In both of these encounters, I was reminded of the absolute imporatnce of relationships in the economy of God. The ability to share transparently with others (letting folks see our souls) is such a huge part of being human. To be able to do so in such a way that leads to growth and respect for others is also a gift.

Although I did not sleep much for these two days, I returned home rested and full of hope, knowing that my life is about something significant because of Christ.

Check Out the New We Still Have A Dream BLOG

2005-07-19T16:41:00.000-05:00

As we work on a more formal website, you can get info and updates on the DREAM Act and comprehensive immigration reform at www.westillhaveadream.blogspot.com.

Keep praying for God to move in the hearts of His people to get involved in this very crucial hour!

En La Madrugada (At Dawn)

2005-07-12T23:18:00.000-05:00

At dawn today, I was riding a train from the United terminal to the parking lot where my car was parked for the weekend, when an elderly women stepped onto the train and sat facing. It was 4:45 am and she was just arriving for work at the International terminal.

I don't know why she made such a big impression on me, except that this elderly Latino woman looked to be someone's grandmother, and she looked so tired and burdened that I could not help but wonder what her life was like. What her story was.

Over the weekend I taught that so many people live their entire lives without ever experiencing or encountering the unconditional love of Christ that leads to forgiveness and transformation, and that God's desire is that everyone of His children come to know His love in that way. I also shared that it is that compassion that moves us to become involved in the lives of others.

In this woman, I saw loneliness. I saw hardship. And, I felt compassion, knowing that there are millions of women like her all around our globe who are struggling to survive, who will never have a retirement plan, or the luxury of having someone take care of them at a time in their lives when they should no longer have to work. With everything going on in my mind, all I did was offer her a very weak smile. One stop later, this woman exited the train, and disappeared from my sight.

I arrived at the remote parking lot, quickly found my car, and eagerly drove away to get home to my wife and kids. You never know who you are going to encounter, en la madrugada.

Spanglish Word of the Day

2005-07-12T23:13:00.000-05:00

Ya 'Stuvo- 'That's enough, or I've had enough.' As in, 'Ya 'Stuvo con este tatoo.' Ya 'Stuvo happens to be the name of the tatoo removal business that Father Boyles and his guys run through Homeboy Industries. It is one of many economic development projects that are operated by ex-gang members.

Can Anything Good Come from East Palo Alto?

2005-07-12T22:55:00.000-05:00

This past weekend I was in East Palo Alto speaking at Antioch Urban Fellowship where John Liotti is pastor. I also spoke at St Stephens COGIC Church and at Bayshore Ministries, a CCDA member organization that has been doing urban youth development for 20 years.

While I was in San Jose working with CityTeam I actually had some time with Andy, who is the founder and others. A highlight of the time was hanging out with some great young leaders and seeing all the good work that is being done in a totally different urban venue than Chicago. In EPA homes in the hood go for $500,000 and up! Can you imagine trying to create low-income housing in that environment? But especially John and some of his team have a real vision to create economic stability and capital for poor families, and is developing the foundation to establish a credit union in the hood.

Also, I had a great time just hanging out and sharing some thoughts on mestizaje, justice, and Christian Community Development. An added treat was being able to have dinner with my family one night.

One of the passages I used was from John 2 where Phillip urges Peter to come and see Jesus for himself, hearing about this unique rabbi. The response of those around them upon discovering that Jesus is from Nazareth is the rhetorical question, 'Can anything good come from Nazareth?' I am certain after being with so many great folks in EPA, that indeed, something good is happening in EPA. John, Andy, Christiana, JD, Pastor Baines, Champion, Maria, Bishop, David, Melissa, and the rest...Keep up the great work!

CRASH

2005-07-09T00:39:00.000-05:00

Crash can only be described as a raw look at race dynamics in our nation's urban centers. In LA where the movie is based, it shows how 'in your face' interaction with people of other races can be. It also shows the great divides that exist in understanding between cultures and classes while at the same time, how our lives are so intertwined and mestizofied.

Crash reveals how non of us are exempt from stereotyping others, as well as from rising above even our own expectations to show real care and compassion towards others that are different than ourselves.

I went to see the movie with a friend who is African-American. On the way, we stopped at Wendy's to grab a bite, and as we stood in line together to order, the cashier woman assumed we were not together...Why would a Latino and an African-American be hanging out?

Living in a city where languages and cultures and races crash and clash on a regular basis, it is hard for me not to think about mestizaje. Can we crash and continue working through our misunderstandings and assumptions to ever experience real friendship and community, even in the church?

I have just started reading Nicholas Vaca's book, Presumed Alliance (recommended by Dr. Harold Recinos) that describes the assumed unity that Latinos and African-American supposedly should have in this country, being that we are both ethnic minorities that suffer similar injustices often because of the color of our skin. Vaca seeks to unmask that assumption, and to get real, or raw about the tension that exists as these two cultures seek to live through the shifting demographic tsunami that is occurring before our very eyes--the browning of America.

Like in the movie Crash, relating to others of a different race, religion, or class brings many unexpected twists and turns. Only this week, I have experienced a few real life examples that make the movie look tame by comparison. Also like the movie, I am hopeful that not every situation will end in tragedy. Crash was painful to watch, because it confirmed just how far we have to go in the church and in society from being united even while embracing our diversity.

Watching Crash was not necessarily fun, but it was emotionally and spiritually jolting, like you would expect a crash to be. (Not appropriate for children.)

Mulatto America

2005-07-08T15:49:00.000-05:00

I am reading a very interesting book on the history and dynamics of Black/White relationships over the centuries called, Mulato America. A mulatto is someone mixed with Black blood, even as a Mestizo is someone mixed with Indian blood.

In chapter one the author deals with the history of White slaves that existed alongside African slaves (most as a result of White slave owners taking African women who continued to become more light skinned, but others who were Caucasian, but were sold into slavery).

The author, Stephan Talty contends that one of the factors that finally moved Whites to oppose slavery, was seeing and being repulsed by the sight of White slaves. He also writes about a book written by a White author, who tells the tale of a White slaves life, as if it were a historical autobiography.

Here is an excerpt from this book:
"Instead of his fresh and rosy Color, a livid Paleness overspead his Cheeks--his eyes lost [a] great part of their former Luster, and were continually cast down--his Sprightliness was converted into a kind of dead Sloth--a melancholy which is not to be express'd hung upon his heart...He knew what he ought to be, and to think he never could be what he ought...was a Dagger to his Soul, which gave wounds too severe for anything in the Power of those he was among to heal."

When I read this, it tore my heart apart. Here is this White slave lamenting that although he was White, he would never be allowed to live up to his potential as a White man, being that he was a slave. So many mestizos in our country feel this same regret. Although we know what we ought to be (fully created in the image of God to leave a mark in this world) ...to think many Mestizos will never be what we ought. And, this does feel like a dagger in our souls, with many of us longing to believe that in Christ and in the Church, His redeemed community, we may finally find that healing that has left us wounded.

The strategy that the abolitionists used, says the author, was to try and move Northern Whites into feeling the pain and suffering and condition of Black slaves. Empathy, that would lead to understanding, that would lead to conversion, that would lead to justice. Many paid a great price for working to change the status quo--many lost their own lives. But, once they had seen and felt the despair of their fellow human brother and sister, everything changed.

One of the deepest works of mestizaje is to push us all to enter into one another's pain and suffering. Finally, anything that strips human beings of the hope of becoming who they were created to be, must be opposed with all of our might!

The Rocket's Red Glare

2005-07-04T20:50:00.000-05:00

As I write this tonight, there are hundreds of fireworks going off in La Villita. I would love to think it was all about patriotism, but like in many urban communities, it is also about letting go of some steam and taking advantage of an opportunity to something dramatic (we really don't need to go downtown to see the fireworks, as it is amazing right here in the barrio).

Besides eating and watching fireworks today, I have been reflecting on the fact that I was born in this country for a purpose. Compared to many nations, we have so much. I am grateful for the freedom I have to practice my faith. I am grateful that I can provide for my family, that I can travel, that I can study, and that we live in a land that is relatively free from violence.

While I count all of my personal blessings, I am also moved to pray for the million of people around our globe who don't have it so good. Many are persecuted for their faith, many don't have enough to eat (while I've cooked out twice today), many are in constant danger because of war and civil unrest (and the rockets blowing up outside their homes are not entertainment like they are here).

I have also thought today at the amazing opportunity that we have in this country, as individual citizens, to raise our voices and participate in the democracy of our nation. If we don not like how things are going, we have a right and a duty to let let our opinions be known-regardless if others disagree!

With so many Latinos in our nation, both democrates and republicans are fully aware of the potential importance of our voice and vote. We must not let our leverage and opportunity be wasted by staying on the sidelines and not getting involved. If we can embrace a Mestizo vision of the future, where patriotism is not automatically seen as uniformity, where every citizen of our great nation has to think and look alike on every issue, and where as followers of Christ, we can hold up a banner of justice that hold's our nation's leaders accountable to lead with compassion, justice and morality, concerned not only about Latinos, but leading by being concerned for the welfare of all, then we too will do our part to ensure that we can be proud of our nation for generations to come.

Lord, have mercy on our nation. Help us to be champions of justice here at home and throughout the world.

A Revolution of Justice

2005-07-04T19:05:00.002-05:00

Yesterday Marianne and I attended Willow Creek and had the opportunity to hear the leader of their AXIS ministry to gen-xers give a message entitled, 'Where is the love?.' Darren Whitehead shared how he recently went an an trip called the 'justice journey' that was organized by a long time friend, Alvin Bibbs, who is the Extension Ministries director at Willow.

This journey took 25 leaders from Willow and 25 leaders from Salem Baptist Church on Chicago's South side (an African-American church of 20,000 members) through an experience designed to educate and move folks regarding the Civil Right's struggle in the South and throughout our nation. Dr. John Perkins of CCDA was one of the key speakers, along with Larry Lloyd, President of Creighton College in Memphis that made a huge impact on Darren on this trip.

The main part of his message was the insight he had gained that while in the Old Testament, 'righteousness' and 'justice' were almost always used together, he had never seen the connection between the two. As Evangelicals, it is almost always righteousness that get's emphasized while justice is rarely talked about as an essential concern for God. Here is the main text that he used.

Psalm 97:1-2
The LORD reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice.
Clouds and thick darkness surround him; righteousness and justice
are the foundation of his throne.

Darren went on to talk about his experience on the justice journey, especially as it relates to racial justice, and confessed that this was not on his radar screen much before this trip. As he was talking, I was amazed at how closely this ties with the stirrings that so many young leaders are yearning for today: A faith that is radically committed to putting our faith in action, not just in a personal consumption way (being blessed) but sacrificially putting our lives on the line for our Lord, Jesus the Christ.

Just last week I posted the 'Justice Revolution' logo to deal with that stirring in my heart that I have to be about justice with my life. I feel strongly that the 'We Still have a Dream' campaign to advocate for the DREAM Act needs to be a part of this larger movement amongst Christian young people. Also, this past week, I proposed to Larry at UYWI that this 'Justice Revolution' workshop be part of the Youth Track for the coming year's RELOAD Tour. Our thinking is that it may be through engaging youth in doing justice that they will have their hearts transformed by the unconditional love of God that is even able to move them to take action on behalf of the poor.

So, it was was with utter amazement that I listened to this guy end his teaching talking about starting a revolution of justice! I am certain that the Lord is up to something big in the hearts of people of faith all across our nation and world. My job is to discern how this whole justice / mestizaje thing is going to shape my future.

Right State, Wrong City

2005-07-04T18:42:00.000-05:00

This past Friday, I boarded a plane eager to visit Bible School of the Americas in San Antonio, TX. Dr. Albert Reyes is a rising leader in the Baptist world, and I was very excited to get some time with him.

I made it to San Antonio with no problem, and when I arrived at baggage claim, I knew I was to to catch a short taxi ride to this resort in Grapevine, TX. I figured it was right outside of San Antonio but when I asked a cab driver if he could take me there, he said, "Sure, but it's a three hundred mile drive!"

I immediately pulled out my email from Gabriel, Albert's assistant to see what had gone wrong, and sure enough, at the end of the email it said, in what seemed to be small print, "make your flight into DFW airport." DFW is Dallas, not San Antonio. I quickly called to let Gabriel know where I was, and they scrambled to come up with plan B in case I would not make it by 4 pm to speak. It was 1 pm and I now had to find a way to Dallas (other than by taxi).

To make matters worse, there was bad weather in Dallas and all flights were being delayed. I overheard one person say no flight would get there until at least 5 pm- I was so angry for making this mistake. Fortunately, I got onto a flight that departed at 2:30 pm (weather passed) and I arrived at DFW by 3:30 pm ready to head to my speaking engagement.

Once there, I had a chance to address a group of Latino Baptist leaders and expose them to the philosophy of CCDA, and also address the need for the Latino church to engage in doing justice, especially as it relates to the need for immigration reform in our nation.

At this amazing resort, they had replicas of the Space Center in Houston, the Alamo and the Riverwalk in San Antonio, all under a huge atrium that had the feel of a small enclosed city. If I had known I was going to see the Alamo in Dallas, I never would have flown to San Antonio in the first place.

2005-06-28T22:15:00.000-05:00

Stay Tuned!

We Still Have A Dream for My Son's Friend

2005-06-28T22:01:00.000-05:00

I just got off the phone with a friend of my son Noel, who is here in the USA as an undocumented resident with his family. He has been here since he was small and only knows life in the US, but upon graduation, is now leaving his family to go to school in Mexico because he is not able to get any financial aid to study here.

His sister is a US citizen as she was born here, and so the parents are staying here with her to ensure she gets a good education. Another family is being torn apart due to the current immigration laws.

I told this young man that many people, including myself were working hard to pass the DREAM Act and the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act. He expressed sincere thanks for our efforts and he said he was sure we would talk again after these laws were put in place.

Again, I was reminded of how personal this whole issue is, and makes me very determined to continue to do all that I can to help others see that a change in order to change our broken system.

Billy Graham Rocks in NYC

2005-06-28T21:55:00.000-05:00

It has been amazing watching the stories of the Graham meetings in NYC. What a mestizo crowd came together to hear Billy! Reporters have been amazed by the multi-cultural make up of those who attended.

Maybe Billy's last crusade will usher in a new mestizo revival as people notice what went down in NYC. It would have been great to have been there, especially with so many New Yorkers making decisions to follow Christ.

Billy Graham still rocks!

More News

2005-06-28T21:39:00.000-05:00

Met with the new religion reporter for the Chicago Tribune, Margaret Ramirez, this morning to talk about possible stories involving Latino churches and leaders.
I had a great lunch yesterday with Scott and Veronica (my sister's name) from LA, who work with Inter Varsity at state colleges where there is a higher percentage of mestizo students. We ate at Nuevo Leon and had a great time getting to know each other. We first met at the 'Day Without A Mexican' workshop at UYWI in May.
I caught a Donna Summers concert tonight at Taste of Chicago, a huge 2 week party on the lakefront that ends right after the 4th of July. (Santana, and the Lonely Boys will give a free concert on Saturday)
This weekend I'll be speaking at the seminary of the Americas in San Antonio, and hope to do some CCDA Institute classes there in September.
I'm working on getting all our CCDA workshops finalized for November in Indy.
A friend from Starbucks is going in for surgery to remove a brain tumor tomorrow; I'll be praying that it goes well.
My 2 boys are working this Summer. This is great news!
I'll be at Bayshore Christian Ministries next weekend in East Palo Alto, CA and will also be speaking at 2 churches for the weekend.

Georgia Takes Another Step Towards Being a Suburb of Mexico

2005-06-27T18:40:00.000-05:00

I came across this quote as I was checking out some blogs that shows the 'Hispanic Panic' that many cities and states not know for having large Latino populations are now facing with increasing Latino growth in places like Atlanta, Georgia.

The blogger lamented that he has to press #1 for English when calling local businesses, as Spanish is quickly becoming a common option for those working to capture the Latino consumer's dollar.

Another sign of Mestizaje.

2005-06-23T15:56:00.000-05:00

CCDA is looking to connect with Latino Christian leaders in the St. Louis Area who have an interest in community ministry. If anyone has any contacts please let me know.

2005-06-23T13:49:00.000-05:00

Stay tuned for our new website dedicated to helping the church to become informed and engaged in the struggle for comprehensive immigration reform.

Funding for Evangelism

2005-06-23T10:08:00.000-05:00

Check out the Four Square Foundation formed to fuel intense evangelism efforts around the world. After selling a denomination owned radio station that yielded $200 million dollars, the set up this foundation open to the entire body of Christ.

2005-06-21T14:25:00.000-05:00

Mexican-American/Italian/Urban Mestizo

Looking for Leaders with GUTS

2005-06-21T13:43:00.000-05:00

I am reading a leadership book entitled, GUTS. It talks about having the guts to lead with passion and love- attributes that are desperately needed in our church leaders today. Will we have the GUTS to give our lives, not for a cause, but for a person, Jesus the Christ? Will we have the GUTS to live (and die) for the things/people that Jesus lived/died for?

Our new mestizo future will be fueled by leaders with GUTS.

Major Surgery for our Current Immigration Policy

2005-06-21T11:38:00.000-05:00

Friday, May 20: "...this latest and most comprehensive package has already started earning support from Republicans and Democrats, business groups and unions, and several key Hispanic organizations. President Bush, who has been promising action on immigration for years, should quickly join them, " - New York Times.

The arrival last week of a sweeping, bipartisan immigration proposal in Congress brought forth the usual conflict between those who want a solution and those who just want an emotional issue to howl about. But this latest and most comprehensive package has already started earning support from Republicans and Democrats, business groups and unions, and several key Hispanic organizations. President Bush, who has been promising action on immigration for years, should quickly join them.

The long-awaited legislation comes from Senators John McCain and Edward Kennedy and Representatives Jeff Flake and Jim Kolbe, both Republicans from Arizona, and Luis Gutierrez, a Democrat from Illinois. Senator McCain said as he introduced the bill that it embraced the goals set down by Mr. Bush: making the borders more secure, filling jobs no American will take and finding a route to legality for workers who are already here illegally.

It is worth noting that three of the prime movers on this effort are from Arizona, a border state. They know firsthand about the hundreds who die each year trying to cross the desert from Mexico and about the many locals who are frantic about being overrun in this tragic human stampede.

Given the political tides, Senator McCain and others have focused on how their package could improve security at the borders. More than a million undocumented people are caught trying to cross into the country each year. Many make it: an estimated 11 million people are in the country illegally.

The goal is to get as many of these workers as possible to come out of their shadowy world. If that happened as planned, the strained government agencies that now deal with border issues could focus on immigrants with more sinister motives than the need for better wages.

At the center of this bill is a new temporary visa program that would allow foreign workers to fill jobs that no Americans will take. Undocumented immigrants already in the country would be eligible for these visas, which could last up to six years. To apply for permanent status, these workers would have to clear a number of hurdles, including security checks and requirements to pay back taxes and fines of $2,000 or more, and be proficient in English. Even then, they would go to the back of the immigration line. That process should be difficult enough to keep this from being an amnesty program, but not be so daunting that nobody would bother to try.

As Congressman Kolbe put it last week, this legislation "doesn't try to solve the hemorrhaging immigration problem with simply a Band-Aid. This is major surgery." The patient is definitely ready.

Father's Day at LCC

2005-06-20T15:38:00.000-05:00

I had the opportunity to teach at the 2 Lawndale Community Church services on Father's Day. It was a great time, especially seeing how many young families are a part of LLC after years of ministry by Wayne Gordon and others. Also, having the men from the Hope House men's ministry were present: 30-40 men recovering from some kind of brokenness or addiction that are in their program sit in the front rows for both services!

I am so encouraged by the way LLC accept and support me as a mestizo brother, and it's so easy to teach in that setting.

Later that day my daughter Anna gave me the most amazing card. It basically said that I really didn't a Father's day, because in her estimation, I was special to her every day. Wow, that was something for an old dad to read. I guess that is the kind of feeling we ought to experience in church on a regular basis- us expressing to our heavenly Father how much we love and honor Him every day.

Report Describes Immigrants as Younger and More Diverse

2005-06-10T11:11:00.000-05:00

WASHINGTON, June 9 - New Census Bureau figures released on Thursday show that the immigrant population in the United States is becoming younger, a shift likely to foster more tolerance for diversity and perhaps accelerate assimilation, demographers and immigration experts say.

The figures show that immigration trends are forming a unique generational divide: those immigrants over 40 are largely white, while those under 40 are increasingly Hispanic, Asian and from other minority groups.

"The older, white-dominated society is thinning out into the past," William H. Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, said. "It is being replaced by the broad diversity of a younger generation."

Mr. Frey added: "We will become a more tolerant society as these young people move toward adulthood and a blurring occurs of the sharp racial distinctions of the previous decades."

This article encourages me to continue to advocate for a mestizo youth movement that is radical in its love and commitment to Jesus, and fully committed to a new revolution of justice for all, especially for the marginalized in our society.

One place to direct the efforts of this new movement is to focus on reforming the immigration policies of our nation, that seek to backtrack on the hope and promise that this country was founded on, that of being a land of opportunity for all, which is exactly what Latino, Asian, Polish, and other immigrants continue to desire for themselves and their families.

I continue to see the DREAM Act as a practical way for us to advocate for the most vulnerable and the most promosing of immigrants, our children and youth, that desrve the chance to gain residency and then citixenship in the USA. I was at a meeting last night where HS kids, both Citizens and undocumented, advocated for the introduction of the DREAM act.

Truly, for these young people a blurring of rigid racial distinctions is being replaced by a new solidarity as they stand up together and declare that 'a policy of paranoia must be replaced by a new policy of promise' in the area of immigration.

As a mestizo follower of Christ, this fuels my passion to see the church fully engaged in this human rights and human dignity struggle. My prayer is that years from now, we won't be seen as the only ones who stood on the sidelines and did nothing because of a lack of information, or worse yet, because of a lack of commitment to justice on behalf of our immigrant neighbors.

How the Church can Fuel Immigration Reform that Demonstrates Biblical Justice

2005-06-08T22:51:00.000-05:00

"Do not exploit the foreigners that live in your land. They should be treated like everyone else, and you must love them as you love yourself. Remember that you were once foreigners in the land of Egypt. I the Lord, am your God." - Leviticus 19:33-34

The Old testament book of Leviticus is rich with instruction for God's people regarding holiness. Being a people set apart for the one true God had both individual and social ramifications that equally demonstrated His holiness and justice. In this passage, the community of faith was being instructed that how we treat the alien is in reality, an issue of holiness. If God is holy, then we reflect His holiness when we love our neighbor as ourselves, even our neighbor who is here as a stranger, and foreigner, or an alien.

It is amazing that we are to go so far as to treat these 'outsiders' as if they were permanent residents (just like us) - no distinction is to be made. And, we are to love them (these aliens), as we love ourselves.

Can you imagine if every authentic follower of Christ were to live this out today? Can you imagine if instead of being uninformed and apathetic in regards to the needs of millions of undocumented residents who live and work in our nation's 'underground economy' with few rights and no handouts, we would decide to take an active role in advocating for the just treatment of our alien neighbors who we are called to love?

Millions of believers from every denomination and ethnicity acting as champions of justice for our neighbors could fuel a revolution of justice. We could change laws to assure that men, women, and children who can demonstrate that they will be good, law abiding, wage-earning, tax-paying citizens, can have the opportunity to come out from under the shadows of our current system and pursue a legal process to becoming full citizens in our nation.

I know that there are millions of questions regarding how to do this, and hundreds of arguments that must be had in order to reach fair and reasonable policy solutions to the complex issue of immigration reform, but what I see in this Leviticus text, is that followers of God ought to be leading the charge and fueling the flames of compassion and justice.

As a pastor for many years, I have been heavily involved on the compassion side, offering to help new immigrants in any way possible regardless of their legal status. Today, I am seeing that along with these individual acts of compassion, I must also be engaged in changing the laws of our land that handicap and cripple millions of immigrants who come across our borders at great risk because they feel they have no other options.

There is a new immigration bill that has been introduced in congress , S-1033 sponsored by Senators McCain (R) and Kennedy(D), and Representatives Kolbe(R), Gutierrez(D), and Flake(R), that needs to gain support in order to have a chance of becoming law.

You and I can call our representatives urging them to support this Act. The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant Refugee Rights has great information on their website at www.icirr.org that can help you to take action.

Also, there is a bill called the DREAM Act that should be acted upon immediately that supports the process of helping High School students who are here undocumented, and are ready to enter a 2 or 4 year college, to be able to do so paying in state tuition rates, and to eligible to apply for and receive federal financial aid. Upon graduation, they would be given the opportunity to become permanent residents. This seems to be such a reasonable first step to helping some of the most vulnerable immigrants in our nation, and the most promising new citizens (HS and college grads ready to work and contribute to our nation as good citizens). Imagine how much impact we could have if people of faith were to champion this DREAM Act? Isn't this truly loving our neighbor as we love ourselves and our children?

Finally, beyond the social and humanitarian and justice aspects of being advocates for our foreign neighbors, can you imagine the amazing spiritual revival that could be ignited by a clear and decisive demonstration of love and compassion towards our undocumented neighbors! Then, when we spoke about revolutionary love of Jesus for everyone (which is what we say) our message might actually have some bite, especially in the Latino community.

What a challenge for us today, to treat the alien as if they were one of us, and to actually show them love as we would want to be loved ourselves. Now that would fuel a mestizo revolution unlike anything we have ever seen in our lifetime.

Undocumented Worker Pays Price for Immigration Policy

2005-06-08T22:37:00.000-05:00

Teresa Figueroa still has the laminated posters from the two times she was named employee of the month at Micron Industries in Elmhurst. In the center of each poster is a photo of a smiling Figueroa being congratulated by Micron President Don Clark for her exemplary work gluing together electrical transformers on an assembly line.

Figueroa proudly showed me the awards Friday in the living room of the Melrose Park home she and her husband bought three years ago for $184,000. A Sharp color TV stands against one wall of the room, a shelf of DVDs below, a Compaq computer in one corner and an aquarium in the other, a typical American home in most every respect.

But the 50-year-old mother of four sitting before me in a pink sweatsuit and flower-print blouse, offering me cookies and telling me she's sleepy from staying up late to watch the pope's funeral, has another distinction earned from her 2-1/2-year tenure at Micron. She's a convicted felon awaiting probable deportation.

The employee of the month posters help explain that, too. Instead of naming Figueroa, the posters give the recognition to Lucia Peraida -- the name on the false identification documents that Figueroa, a Mexican immigrant, presented to obtain her job.

Two years ago, the real Lucia Peraida complained to Elmhurst Police that somebody at Micron was using her name and Social Security number. Peraida, of Chicago, had learned this when the Internal Revenue Service accused her of failing to report income from Micron that left her with a $3,566 tax liability.

An Elmhurst detective went to the factory and confronted Figueroa, who confessed on the spot. She told him she had purchased a Social Security card and resident alien card for $200 from a guy named Alfredo who she met at a temporary employment agency in Melrose Park.

Convicted of ID theft

Figueroa, who came here in 1999 on a tourist visa that has since expired, says she was assured by a supervisor at Micron that her false identity wouldn't be a problem. The supervisor knew her real name, she says, because her son and a close family friend were already working there. The company denies it.

While it's difficult to believe Figueroa didn't know she was breaking the law, the part that rings true is that she didn't know it would be much of a problem, such false employment documents being commonplace and resulting so rarely in criminal prosecution. She says most Micron employees share her undocumented status.

But with a complaining victim, Figueroa was in big trouble.

DuPage County prosecuted her for financial identity theft and using fraudulent ID cards. A jury convicted her in August, and a judge sentenced her to 90 days in the DuPage County Jail. She served 45 days, then spent another two weeks in an immigration holding cell awaiting deportation before her family could post bond.

Figueroa might already be back in Mexico -- or still in jail -- if not for the Rev. Claudio Holzer, priest at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Melrose Park, where Figueroa has been an active parishioner since coming here from Tilzapotla, Mexico.

Support from the Church

Figueroa teaches a catechism class for teenagers and runs a seniors group at the church, where Holzer said half the 2,000 parishioners who attend Sunday service are without proper documents. Holzer enlisted parishioners to attend Figueroa's trial to show support and asked the Illinois Coalition of Immigrant and Refugee Rights, on whose board he serves, to take up her long-shot cause.

The coalition is trying to find a member of Congress to sponsor a private immigration bill to allow her to remain here. Figueroa could be ordered deported as early as April 29, when she next goes before an immigration judge.

Figueroa originally came here to join her husband, who entered the country two years earlier (also illegally) and took a job as a landscape worker. She later snuck their four children across the Texas border through El Paso. Their oldest son is now married. Another son attends junior college, while two daughters are high school honor students.

Figueroa's crime is not insignificant. I would not want anyone complicating my life by appropriating my Social Security number.

Yet, at the same time, I can't help but think that we contributed to Figueroa's entering this life of crime -- a life now being led by perhaps 10 million undocumented workers in America -- by our national failure to come up with sensible, comprehensive immigration policies that recognize the economic and social realities.

The New York Times reported last week that illegal immigrants workers are providing a subsidy of up to $7 billion a year to our Social Security system -- money they are paying in through false Social Security numbers for which they will never receive benefits, just one measure of how such "criminals" contribute to our society.

Teresa Figueroa would have made a good American, if only we had given her a chance.

Column by Mark Brown of the Sun-Times supporting comprehensive immigration reform.

2005-06-08T14:40:00.000-05:00

This logo is from the Salvation Army's Youth Movement that were present at UYWI selling T-shirts: Jesus is the real revolutionary calling us to radical commitment to his purposes of love and justice (love in action directed at the least of these)

A Mestizo Nation

2005-06-07T13:37:00.000-05:00

"The challenge the United States faces is twofold. First, it must admit that it is a multicultural society; second, it must accept that reality and fully embrace its diversity."
- Jorge Ramos, The Other Face of America

2005-06-06T17:00:00.000-05:00

Che Guevara

Can We Learn Anything From the Life and Death of Che Guevara?

2005-06-06T16:39:00.000-05:00

Check out this Time magazine article on the life of Latin American Revolutionary, Che Guevara. If it's true that everyone will eventually die, but very few of us ever live (for something bigger than ourselves), than a recap of this man's total abandonment to 'Revolution' may have something to teach those of us who are seeking to experience a new 'Mestizo Revolution' of love, diversity, and 'justice for all' that Jesus of Nazareth initiated when He came into our world to lay down His life so that all of us could live under His Lordship.

Monday, June 14, 1999.

By the time Ernesto Guevara, known to us as Che, was murdered in the jungles of Bolivia in October 1967, he was already a legend to my generation, not only in Latin America but also around the world.

Like so many epics, the story of the obscure Argentine doctor who abandoned his profession and his native land to pursue the emancipation of the poor of the earth began with a voyage. In 1956, along with Fidel Castro and a handful of others, he had crossed the Caribbean in the rickety yacht Granma on the mad mission of invading Cuba and overthrowing the dictator Fulgencio Batista. Landing in a hostile swamp, losing most of their contingent, the survivors fought their way to the Sierra Maestra. A bit over two years later, after a guerrilla campaign in which Guevara displayed such outrageous bravery and skill that he was named comandante, the insurgents entered Havana and launched what was to become the first and only victorious socialist revolution in the Americas. The images were thereafter invariably gigantic. Che the titan standing up to the Yanquis, the world's dominant power. Che the moral guru proclaiming that a New Man, no ego and all ferocious love for the other, had to be forcibly created out of the ruins of the old one. Che the romantic mysteriously leaving the revolution to continue, sick though he might be with asthma, the struggle against oppression and tyranny.

His execution in Vallegrande at the age of 39 only enhanced Guevara's mythical stature. That Christ-like figure laid out on a bed of death with his uncanny eyes almost about to open; those fearless last words ("Shoot, coward, you're only going to kill a man") that somebody invented or reported; the anonymous burial and the hacked-off hands, as if his killers feared him more after he was dead than when he had been alive: all of it is scalded into the mind and memory of those defiant times. He would resurrect, young people shouted in the late '60s; I can remember fervently proclaiming it in the streets of Santiago, Chile, while similar vows exploded across Latin America. !No lo vamos a olvidar! We won't let him be forgotten.

More than 30 years have passed, and the dead hero has indeed persisted in collective memory, but not exactly in the way the majority of us would have anticipated. Che has become ubiquitous: his figure stares out at us from coffee mugs and posters, jingles at the end of key rings and jewelry, pops up in rock songs and operas and art shows. This apotheosis of his image has been accompanied by a parallel disappearance of the real man, swallowed by the myth. Most of those who idolize the incendiary guerrilla with the star on his beret were born long after his demise and have only the sketchiest knowledge of his goals or his life. Gone is the generous Che who tended wounded enemy soldiers, gone is the vulnerable warrior who wanted to curtail his love of life lest it make him less effective in combat and gone also is the darker, more turbulent Che who signed orders to execute prisoners in Cuban jails without a fair trial.

This erasure of complexity is the normal fate of any icon. More paradoxical is that the humanity that worships Che has by and large turned away from just about everything he believed in. The future he predicted has not been kind to his ideals or his ideas. Back in the '60s, we presumed that his self-immolation would be commemorated by social action, the downtrodden rising against the system and creating, to use Che's own words 'two, three, many Vietnams.'

Thousands of luminous young men, particularly in Latin America, followed his example into the hills and were slaughtered there or tortured to death in sad city cellars, never knowing that their dreams of total liberation, like those of Che, would not come true. If Vietnam is being imitated today, it is primarily as a model for how a society forged in insurrection now seeks to be actively integrated into the global market. Nor has Guevara's uncompromising, unrealistic style of struggle, or his ethical absolutism, prevailed. The major revolutions of the past quarter-century (South Africa, Iran, the Philippines, Nicaragua), not to mention the peaceful transitions to democracy in Latin America, East Asia and the communist world, have all entailed negotiations with former adversaries, a give and take that could not be farther from Che's unyielding demand for confrontation to the death. Even someone like Subcomandante Marcos, the spokesman for the Chiapas Maya revolt, whose charisma and moral stance remind us of Che's, does not espouse his hero's economic or military theories.

How to understand, then, Che Guevara's pervasive popularity, especially among the affluent young?

Perhaps in these orphaned times of incessantly shifting identities and alliances, the fantasy of an adventurer who changed countries and crossed borders and broke down limits without once betraying his basic loyalties provides the restless youth of our era with an optimal combination, grounding them in a fierce center of moral gravity while simultaneously appealing to their contemporary nomadic impulse.

To those who will never follow in his footsteps, submerged as they are in a world of cynicism, self-interest and frantic consumption, nothing could be more vicariously gratifying than Che's disdain for material comfort and everyday desires. One might suggest that it is Che's distance, the apparent impossibility of duplicating his life anymore, that makes him so attractive.

And is not Che, with his hippie hair and wispy revolutionary beard, the perfect postmodern conduit to the nonconformist, seditious '60s, that disruptive past confined to gesture and fashion? Is it conceivable that one of the only two Latin Americans to make it onto TIME's 100 most important figures of the century can be comfortably transmogrified into a symbol of rebellion precisely because he is no longer dangerous?

I wouldn't be too sure. I suspect that the young of the world grasp that the man whose poster beckons from their walls cannot be that irrelevant, this secular saint ready to die because he could not tolerate a world where los pobres de la tierra, the displaced and dislocated of history, would be eternally relegated to its vast margins.

Even though I have come to be wary of dead heroes and the overwhelming burden their martyrdom imposes on the living, I will allow myself a prophecy. Or maybe it is a warning. More than 3 billion human beings on this planet right now live on less than $2 a day. And every day that breaks, 40,000 children (more than one every second!) succumb to diseases linked to chronic hunger. They are there, always there, the terrifying conditions of injustice and inequality that led Che many decades ago to start his journey toward that bullet and that photo awaiting him in Bolivia.

The powerful of the earth should take heed: deep inside that T shirt where we have tried to trap him, the eyes of Che Guevara are still burning with impatience.

By Ariel Dorfman holds the Walter Hines Page Chair at Duke University.

Soul-Mestizaje

2005-06-01T18:15:00.000-05:00

The change process is always painful. When it comes to our own deep soul transformation, it can be more than discouraging. I was pleasantly surprised when I read in the sports section that A-Rod, the future Hall of Fame shortstop turned third baseman by the Yankees has been in therapy for many years. He said it has helped him to find himself. What happens if after finding your self, you don't like what you find? That has often been my experience, as I come face to face with my pride, selfishness, and lack of self control.

My deepest hope at times like this, is the reality (I'm counting on it by faith) that Christ is in me forging me into the image of his Son, Jesus of Nazareth. I am on a journey of change, transformation and soul-mestizaje.

More later.

A New Beginning

2005-05-28T15:58:00.000-05:00

Marianne and I just attended the wedding of a great friend who was in one of my LLF training groups. He has been the pastor of a vibrant church, Liberty Christian Center here in Chicago for a number of years. Three years ago, his then wife died suddenly at age 29 or so. It was devastating!

They had just had a miscarriage, and out of nowhere, a week later she went into a coma and never came out. They had a 2 year old boy at the time, and as you can imagine, it has been a hellish journey for Larry and the entire family.

Today, Larry married a beautiful woman named Yisena, and they both seem extremely happy and grateful to God for his restorative work of grace. Ysenia said some touching words to Larry's 5 year old son Caleb, to the effect that while she can never replace his mom, she wants to be there for him. (Lot's of Kleenex were being passed out)

One of the most touching and powerful moments is when Larry's former Father-inLaw, who is a pastor, came and gave the new couple his blessing...can you imagine the mixed feeling? The entire ceremony was very emotional.

I am so glad I had the chance to experience this union, as it was a vivid reminder of how God can make all things new, and how He can take tragedy and turn it into blessing. It is a lesson all mestizos come to learn and appreciate.

A Night Out on the Town

2005-05-28T00:16:00.000-05:00

Tonight, Marianne and I spent a great evening with Ann and Wayne Gordon from Lawndale Community Church. We ate dinner at cool little restaurant called the May Street Cafe, on the Corner of May and Cermack. Mario, the owner and chef used to cook for Frontera Grill of Rick Bayless fame, and opened his own place here in Pilsen. It is a mix of every kind of gourmet Latino cuisine you can imagine. It was a fantastic dinner: Chayote and maiz soup with shrimp, chipotle and cheese quesadillas, diablo shrimp pasta, portabello mushroom with dandelion and spinach, and an awesome porkchop served on pineapple and black beans, along with tostones to get the meal started. It was amazing!

After dinner we went to a Blues Club called, Rosa's. Tony the owner and his Italian mom were both there taking care of us. One of the Gordon's leaders is the doorman (or bouncer as Wayne called him) and he really gave us the VIP treatment. The guitar player and his band were great; he even played a Santana song cuz I mentioned to our friend that I liked his music--great time. I can't believe we stayed out 'till almost midnight.

Chicago really has some great places.

CHICANOS/MEXICANOS AND THE LACK OF OPTIONS

2005-05-27T14:04:00.000-05:00

According to the September 2002 Interim Report of the President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans, ethnic Mexicans in the United States fall below every other Latino group "on almost every social and economic indicator." First-generation Mexican immigrants, who make up 54% of all legal Latin American immigrants, have significantly reduced life chances than their U.S. born Mexican American counterparts. High-school drop out rates of around 30% for U.S. born Mexican Americans are bad enough, but the rate more than doubles to 61% for new immigrants.

Although Mexican Americans do better in the field of education than their recently arrived counterparts, when their educational achievement is compared to every other Latino subgroup they lag behind. Among all Latinos over the age of 25, for example, only 10.8% of ethnic Mexicans hold a Bachelor degree or higher compared to 13.9% for Puerto Ricans and 18.1% for Cuban Americans (2002 Interim Report).Although Latinos have a high rate of participation in the labor force, over 11% of Latino workers live in poverty. About 7% of Latinos with full-time jobs were still living below the poverty line in 2001 (compared to 4.4% of African Americans and 1.7% for whites). Among all private sector employees in the U.S., 41.5% are considered blue collar, but 63.5% of all Latinos hold blue collar jobs (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission 1998). In 2002, 61% of all workers in agricultural production were Latinos, the vast majority of Mexican descent. While nearly 11% of non-Hispanic whites earn more than $75,000 a year, only 2% of all Latinos earn as much. Among all high school graduates who attend graduate and professional programs, Latinos make up only 1.9% (compared to 3% Black, 3.8% Whites, and 8.8% Asian).

One could elaborate further this bleak picture of what the future holds for Latino communities. The paucity of good union jobs and the decline in public funding for cultural workers only adds to the sense of diminished opportunities. Is it any wonder, in the face of these daunting material conditions, that young Latino and Latina faces are filling the lowest ranks of the military in the lowest-tech occupations? As they do so, the pipeline of Latino and Latina teachers, doctors, and other professionals continues to dry up, a fact that will have devastating consequences for our communities for decades to come.

For more, check out the complete article at:
http://www.ccmep.org/2003_articles/Iraq/041803_future_for_latinos_in_an_era_of.htm

Latinos and War

2005-05-27T13:51:00.000-05:00

Of the 60,000 immigrants in the U.S. military, about half are noncitizens. More than 6,000 Marines are noncitizens, with the largest group -- 1,452 -- from Mexico. At least five Mexican-born soldiers have been killed in Iraq and several more Latinos have died.

The practice of recruiting noncitizens is not new.The armed forces have a long-standing tradition of recruiting soldiers of color and sending them off to the frontlines. During the Vietnam War, some 80,000 Latinos served, incurring about 19 percent of all casualties. At the time, however, Latinos made up only 4.5 percent of the total population.

Desperate economic situations in Mexico have left many young people prey to military recruiters. There rumors abound that if immigrants volunteer for U.S. military service they will get automatic eligibility for citizenship, causing eager young adults in Mexico to flood the American Embassy and consular offices with inquiries about joining the armed forces.

Latinos’ Vietnam Stories: From Fieldworkers to Warriors

2005-05-27T13:46:00.000-05:00

Check out this article about Latinos going to fight in Vietnam as we head into the Memorial Day weekend.
http://www.laprensa-sandiego.org/archieve/november21-03/warriors.htm

Spanglish Word of the Day

2005-05-27T00:12:00.000-05:00

Charp (Cha-rp) The car looks real charp! (Sharp) I went to speech classes for many years to be able say sharp without the hard CH.

Prayer Request

2005-05-27T00:08:00.000-05:00

Pray for the entire UYWI team as they recover from last weekend's event. They all did a fantastic job and they need to know we appreciate their dedication and hard work. I love you Larry and Jayme and the whole team!

Mestizaje on Steroids

2005-05-26T23:39:00.000-05:00

Tonight was an amazing night. I was invited to attend a meeting a few days ago by a guy who used to pastor a Willow type church, but now heads something called Planet Ventures. It is a very eclectic thing that seeks to bring together innovative leaders to address some our planet's most challenging issues. (something like that)

Well, at tonight's gathering, 25 folks, a mix of a few Anglos, a few Latinos, a few women, and a few folks from different Middle Eastern countries were all there to hear a young man (43) speak who has a very dynamic story, surviving domestic abuse as a young Mexican-American kid. Coming into this country and having to enter the dangerous school atmosphere where he was a minority- experiencing rejection, isolation, intimidation and humiliation because he did not fit in. He is now a successful business person who speaks to hundreds of youth in similar situations. Juan Ortiz did a fantastic job.

One of the reasons John Henderson reached out to me is their interest in expressing gratitude to the Latino community for their contributions to the USA. They are planning a Labor Day Fiesta to honor Latino workers, hoping to get businesses to invite their employees and also hoping to get some significant corporate sponsors. I'm just learning about this vision and project, but it sounds very exciting.

Also, Planet Ventures has a project going to promote bridge building between Israeli and Palestinian folks, thus the Middle eastern contingency. It was a very fascinating mix of people, (most followers of Christ) and all very interested in multi-culturalism.

At the end of our time, we had an opportunity to share a few words, and I thanked everyone for the chance to sit in, and then I shared how the theme of mestizaje has been brewing for me, and shared how it may be a different paradigm by which to address the issues of race and cultural diversity around the globe. Folks were very responsive and I pray we'll be able to keep learning from some of these new friends.

I was impressed with how easy it is to get wrapped up in our little corner of the world, and act as if all issues mestizo deal only with the needs of Latinos, where in fact, there is a desperate need for dialogue and transformation in conflicts all around our globe. Expanding the discussion of mestizaje beyond my usual framework has caused me to feel like it's mestizaje on steroids!

The mestizo world is literally coming to our doorsteps at this hour in history.

A New Generation of Mestizo Leaders Seeking Justica Para Todos

2005-05-26T11:36:00.000-05:00

I am convinced that God is up to something as a newgen of believers seek to become instruments of justice in our world. In order to be champions of justice around the world, we must start by being authentic champions for justice in our own land.

I am praying to God, that He would continue to raise up a huge cohort of young men and women across the nation who will aggressively and passionately (for Christ and justice) engage to give witness to the presence of God's Kingdom here on earth. One very practical way to begin is to stand on the side of our undocumented young neighbors by pushing for new immigration policies like the DREAM Act, that will open amazing opportunities for youth and their families, but also for the church, as we demonstrate real and concrete compassion for our marginalized neighbors.

Last night I wrote a letter to Senator Richard Durbin (D) from Illinois telling him about the meeting we had in LA with Christian young people eager to engage in this process. Please consider how you can get involved as well, and be watching for a new website that we will have up and running soon to help fuel this movement: www.westillhave adream.net.

While the DREAM act and the immigration issue is one tangible justice issue that needs to be addressed by people of faith, it is only the beginning of seeking 'Justicia Para Todos' (Justice for All).

Mestizaje as an Alternative to Assimilation

2005-05-26T10:56:00.000-05:00

To most citizens of the USA, to be 'American' is be assimilated into the dominant Anglo culture (67% of the total US population right now, with an estimated drop to about 50% in the next 30-40 years). While everyone acknowledges that we are a nation of immigrants, with a multitude of cultural and ethnic backgrounds coming from Europe to Asia to African and from Latin America, the paradigm of 'melting pot' has lost its appeal to many immigrants who make this country their home from the 4 corners of the world.

While accepting the reality that English is our official language, and that the American (I hate using American with qualifying it with 'north', because the USA is only a small part of the Americas) way of doing business has been the norm, many of our mestizo citizens of the USA are now raising a new paradigm to describe our multi-cultural, multi-demensional, pluralistic nation: the paradigm of tapestry, where particular strands of cloth and material are interwoven to create a vibrant piece of art. In the same way, while united as a nation, we are enriched by the myriad of multi-colored strands that are woven together, each distinct in its make up, but unmistakably part of the same tapestry.

Mestizaje is the process of creation. The interdependence. The learning to embrace and appreciate every culture and class. The pain of making mistakes. The sorrow of being misunderstood before reaching common ground. The possibility of losing ultimate power for the sake of justice. Mestizaje is raw.

Yet, with all of the challenges that mestizaje brings, it also represents hope that every citizen will be fully embraced as a full-fledged, mestizo North American who loves his or her adopted country in all its diverse splendor.

Frontera Faith

2005-05-24T22:21:00.000-05:00

The frontera (border) is a dangerous place. Literally and figuratively. The frontera is where one encounters opportunity and great risk. I remember years ago watching the movie, El Norte, that chronicled the crossing into the USA of a woman and her son from across the border.

The frontera is a vulnerable place, where the difference between agony and ecstasy is razor thin. To make the journey across the border is one thing; to live constantly in that reality is flat out exhausting. That is the constant state for millions of what Juan Hernandez calls VIP's (very important paisanos). They are very important to the majority of North Americans that take it for granted that they have people to serve their meals, cut their lawns, and take care of their kids. (How could such a vital segment of our society be so invisible at the same time?)

In La Villita, a thousand miles from the frontera, on Avenida Mexico (26th Street) you would swear the border was right here in the heart of Chicago. Though only a 20 hour bus ride away on el conejo (the bus line) life here is just as vulnerable, just as risky, just as brutal for many men, women, and children having to survive without a greencard.

La frontera is a constant reminder that although we are 'here', a part of us is from 'over there'. It is a reminder that life must be lived between two realities. As followers of Jesus of Nazareth, we too know the struggle of 'Frontera Faith': having crossed over into new life in Christ, there is still so much in us and around us that reminds us of life on the other side, where we knew there had to be a better way.

Frontera Faith keeps us dependent on Christ everyday (while our true citizenship is not in this place, we do have a heavenly citizenship to look forward to). Frontera Faith makes us grateful for our loved ones (rather than for more things). Frontera Faith teaches us to risk and to embrace suffering as the passage way to abundant life (anyone who wants to be my disciple must pick up your cross daily and follow me).

Mestizo sojourners survive with Frontera Faith as part of our reality.

2005-05-23T23:22:00.000-05:00

Noel Luis, ready for Boston!

Heading to Boston

2005-05-23T23:05:00.000-05:00

My oldest son, Noel Luis is heading to Boston this August to give one year to CityYear, an Americorp program that has sites throughout the country. He will most likely serve at a school or afterschool program. While we are very excited about this opportunity, we are also having to trust God to let our 18 year old son get out on his own (they grow up so fast).

Noel will need to secure his own housing in Boston, will get a public transportation pass each month to get around, and will have to select a roommate (potentially another CityYear participant, but not necessarily), all before August.

If anyone has any leads or contacts that might be helpful, please get in touch with me.

2005-05-23T16:11:00.000-05:00

We Still Have a Dream!

Noel Castellanos

CCDA Philly Slideshows

BARRIO SHALOM

Reflections

NY Without Immigrants

Burro Genius

Patricia's Story

From Poverty to Opportunity

New Mestizo Cohort Starts BGU Program

If Only Finding a Church Was this Easy

Report Number One from Seattle

Chitaliano

Heading to Seattle

Check Out Our New Immigration Website

Sleeping After Seattle

Did We Miss the Mark at Azusa?

CCDA Emerging Leaders at UYWI

The Both-And Reality of Mestizaje

Jewish - Mexican Mestizaje

The Central Role of Faith

The New American Pioneers

400,000 at Chicago's 'Day Without An Immigrant' March

DREAM ACT Reintroduced in Congress

Amazing Time at CCDA 2006

Join Me in Miami in January 2006

A Large Contingency of Latino Leaders will Attend CCDA

New Book by Dr. Robert Lupton

Mantenemos El Sueño

Walter Payton HS one of the Best

By Any Means Necessary?

The CCDA Conference in Indianapolis Just Days Away

Turning 46

Chicanismo

Cultivating the Soul

Speaking at Indiana Wesleyan University and Taylor University

From Mother Teresa

Mestizo Leaders Must Learn to be REAL with One Another

After Katrina, Where Have All the Hondurans Gone?

Rebuilding 'Nueva Orleans'

LA RELOAD a Success

Can an Entire City Change their Racist Past?

Post from CCDA Member Kevin Brown in New Orleans

Noel's Fall Calendar

TV Does NOT Reflect our Mestizo Future

Peggy Lupton's Memorial Service

David versus Goliath (In NYC)

Boca Grande Taqueria

Missing In Action

Vacation in California

Kick'n It in Jackson with Dr. Perkins

Not Even Tiger Can Mestizofy Golf

New RELOAD Season set to begin

Jesus and Justice

Debunking the Concept of 'Race': Could it be that most of us are mestizos?

Children Stranded in Ark. Immigration Raid

Sleepless in Grand Rapids

Check Out the New We Still Have A Dream BLOG

En La Madrugada (At Dawn)

Spanglish Word of the Day

Can Anything Good Come from East Palo Alto?

CRASH

Mulatto America

The Rocket's Red Glare

A Revolution of Justice

Right State, Wrong City

We Still Have A Dream for My Son's Friend

Billy Graham Rocks in NYC

More News

Georgia Takes Another Step Towards Being a Suburb of Mexico

Funding for Evangelism

Looking for Leaders with GUTS

Major Surgery for our Current Immigration Policy

Father's Day at LCC

Recent News

Report Describes Immigrants as Younger and More Diverse

How the Church can Fuel Immigration Reform that Demonstrates Biblical Justice

Undocumented Worker Pays Price for Immigration Policy

A Mestizo Nation

Can We Learn Anything From the Life and Death of Che Guevara?

Soul-Mestizaje