Sharing mah thoughts to mah love, cuz sharing is caring =)

Corazon, I have a lot on my mind these days. Today I have been questioning the purpose of education. Is the purpose of education to advance society? If so, how is the success of that determined? And does that process and outcome of success go against our fundamental values in social/economic justice?

This is why I'd rather not deal with education at the moment, but would rather have a discussion about the crisis of learning. We are no longer able to express ourselves freely without consequences. From the academic freedom of the teacher, to the freedom of speech of the student. I'd say we have a crisis that is increasing surveillance/testing, policing/policies/criminalization, elimination/assimilation/deportation/genocide. While this is happening the divide between rich and poor is increasing. We are living in a modern state of colonialism. Where you can have an ipod, choose between coke n pepsi, charter school or traditional public school and still never leave your golden cage.

Hey Mechista once you have your B.A. and become part of the middle-class, what job will you be left to have? Join the force of non-profits, social workers, probation officers, and many other job sectors that are forced to continue the bandage work, merely brief alleviations that do not address the root of the problem. Yeah, we may need a bit of therapy, heck give me a vacation, but nuestra gente ain't the problem.

There have been several interventions made to address the current conjuncture. Our strategies have looked different over time because the urgency of those issues have looked different over time. Never should we cease being reactionary to the ills we face, but always should we prevent future ills from coming down on us. One of those strategies is by thinking critically of the way we organize our daily lives. For example, why do we call our gestures of love “actions” or “meetings” or “conferences” why do we use robert’s rules of silence, i mean... orders? who/what is robert trying to order? Our replication of the man’s way of organizing has made us loose the essence of our encuentros.

In our constant efforts to redefine ourselves let us learn how history has shaped us. In brief we can say the Plan de Aztlan was a nationalist call to bring all Brown people togetha. The Plan de Santa Barbara was a call for Chicana/o Latina/o Studies to be integrated within institutions of "higher learning." Forty years later we have some Xicanas at UCSB saying YA BASTA! It aint enough for us to have established departments, (research) centers, organizations, and conferences of our own. What are the dangers and risks that we face for becoming an institution within an institution? What are the dangers of organizing along ethnic lines and not simultaneously building bridges across the issues we all suffer from?

We need to take a step back, so that our efforts are not solely reactionary. Rather, so that they can leave a revolutionary imprint that calls for the transformation we need. So that our children won't have to put up with the same. There is a low intensity war within the states and it is attacking the most vulnerable first (our children, elders, the poor, the most accessible food, etc). Let us continue the conversation with a couple of questions that the Zapatistas continue to ask themselves:
I. What are we?
II. Where we are now (the current conjucture)?
III. How we see the world?
IV. How we see our country which is the U.S.
V. What we want to do?
VI. How we are going to do it?

What are we up against.........What is it that we are counter-attacking, representations of Imperialism and Capitalism, such as politicians and their bills? AND/OR The political system itself? Do we want unity or solidarity? The struggle of our time is to co-exist. The hardest tasks is having an imagination of our own and listening to one another. Education is easy and deadly. This here is where the real challenge to learning comes in....

Already living the otro mundo we talk about,
Lucha