One thing we all share is racism. Every culture and people in different countries, can give examples of racism, if even the slightest instances. And it would seem that most of our problems and more obviously, our world’s war have roots in racism. “The Great War,” or World War I ended officially when the Treaty of Versailles was signed in France, but the cease fire went into effect on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. Though there have been changes of the date the United States celebrates this day, and even a change in name of the celebration, November 11th is Veterans Day, this day is a day to honor the dead and the living that have served in wartime and during peace. Minorities have always been part of the military, even though times of more obvious racism. It is very interesting to hear from my father, things that he had never talked much about and things I had not really asked about; his years in the Navy during Vietnam. And while he did experience or witness racism, he did make it clear, that although there was racism in the military, there was much more acceptance and camaraderie between different races. Especially during war, people were dying around you. You defended the person next to you. Black, white, yellow, brown…it did not matter. You depended on the guy in front of you, behind you and next to you. ‘Varied discrimination’ is how he described the discrimination he witnessed. It was not only discrimination between racism. Caucasians from Boston would discriminate to Caucasians from Louisiana to Caucasians from California. “You dumb hick from Tennessee” is one of the common remarks he heard thrown around. I myself laughed at this because I remember, as a Mexican-American from Texas, we used to say “Those damn California-Mexicans.” Going back to comments that stayed in my fathers’ memories, he heard things like: Well if it hadn’t been for Pedro we would all be dead. Well where’s Pedro? He’s over there…in a body bag. Comments like these were made by Caucasian military service members; discrimination was toned down in these cases. But discrimination went on at these times as well, but in a different form. It was that other people did not say anything. Nothing bad, but nothing good. Almost like not acknowledging this person who died saving them, had not really helped. From the wars of the eighteenth century, the U.S. Military was weary of non-English immigrants. Yes, yes, we all get out turn on the discrimination wheel. Scotch-Irish, German, Swiss, French, Asian, Mexican, African and every other group I fail to mention, all were discriminated against in the military. Again though, there tends to be more acceptance between the actual members in the military opposed to the outside community. As far as discrimination in the Navy during the Vietnam War, the enlisted saw lots of people dead. In my fathers’ case, he rarely made it to land because he stayed on the ship, but they were picking up bodies, ‘It’s very sobering to see bodies, sometime the same people you took over.’ People they picked up from Hawaii and took to Vietnam, sometimes returned four days later in body bags. It kind of makes you forget about being discriminatory. Mass ceremonies were held in the hanger-bay of the ship. The families were Mexican, they were black, they were Chinese, and they were White. The families all cried together.
Bride to be. Mother and child.
So the baby and mother photo, I think looked real nice in black and white. His eyes stood out more.
The bride to be wanted photos in black and white, just to have for her own, as a memory. I think she looks classic.
Drive from Texas to Washington
Before I even entered Colorado from Kansas…I got news of a winter storm that would hit. I wanted so bad to get through the storm. But it nailed me in Wyoming, just as it killed these roses. I stayed in Cheyenne for two nights. I had to take photos or felt that it would be such a losss of time. 
The town had a lot of action going on, but only on the train side of it. The entire town town was shut down. Except for a few things that I noticed. One of then being a bar that had the word ‘Skunk” in it’s title and a place to eat called Capital Diner at a hotel.
In Kansas, this was the same day of the storm. But a few hours before in the drive twards Wyoming. I kept driving for miles and miles, wondering. “Where are the people. I pulled over suddenly after seeing this irrigation set up, that I had seen in several fields. Not even a minute after I pulled over a cop was behind me. I thought, well I didn’t do anything, sooooo… He asked “Does your car use oil?”
“Oil?” I repeated
“Yes…I saw some white smoke but 
maybe it was the dirt.”
Wow I thought, he is just being helpful…
I forgot I was not in Texas anymore. I explained I needed to take photos but kept seeing fields like this. He said that if I took the next exit there was a corn field that had not been cut at a farm. (VERY interesting I thought. That this is what he had to say.) So I did take the exit. And I found some old equipment and took some photos.
Plano East and Flower Mound Marcus June 31st game. East wins.
I spent my time by the Marcus team. Needless to say, there were tears shed by the team members after the game, I felt emotional for them. After the game, Christy Tumilty, Marcus head coach’s children came into the dugout, with little tears and sniffles. They asked their mother why the girls were crying and why they were sad. She told them that they were sad because it was over. And one of the little boys said, “Well, it’s not over forever.” She agreed and said, it was just over for now.
After the game Tumily told her team that she was proud that they had come this far.
The photos of the team in red is Marcus. Plano east in black.
John Darrouzet Lawyer/Screenwriter and way interesting person
So today we had a screenwriter come in and talk to us. His name is John Darrouzet.
He said that when he taught, people never wanted to discuss their own fear or private worries or their dreams. So he had them watch movies and pretend they were collective dreams. The reason he talked about dreams was explain the connection with dreams and how they help us solve problems and make decisions. He learned this through studying Psychology.
I thought about High Noon, but did not bring it up because he was talking.
This old western was shown to me in a Philosophy Class I took with Nick Braun a few years ago. The main character is a named Will. Nick pointed out the name and what Will, which had a double meaning, had decisions to make. Was Will strong enough? A person’s will.
At the beginning of the class he asked us what are favorite movie was and I said 3-10 To Yuma and explained that I loved that the characters were faced with hard decisions and they changed and grew throughout the movie and with the relationships.
He thought it was interesting that I brought that movie up and later said that that movie was the basis for what he and his partner at the time wrote, which later became the movie The Contract with Morgan Freeman and John Cusack.
This link below is interesting. It is a blog of Darrouzet’s in which he too talks about the movie Nick Braun had us discuss.
http://opennetworkers.ning.com/profiles/blogs/644203:BlogPost:8012
Sarah Renfro at Dan’s Silver leaf (Photo’s by Elizabeth Padilla)
http://www.myspace.com/sarahrenfro
Walking into the place I heard her voice. Not only was I suprised to hear such a mature beautiful voice coming from someone as young as Sarah, but the words to her songs really moved me inside. Afterwards I asked her for the name of one of the songs. It was called One Wheel, if I remember correctly. It was beatiful. She played a few instuments, but there were times where she played her voice. The range went from one extream to another. Sometimes it was, what I guess people mean by “bedroom voice” at other times it was like a yodel. You can listen to a few songs on the link below..
http://www.sarahrenfro.com/live/
Monday I got back to Denton from Houston. I was exhausted after class. Sarah Renfro was going to perform at Dan’s Silverleaf in Denton, TX, though so I figured I had to go take some photos and check her out. She lives in New York, so I knew I probably wouldnt see her anytime soon. She had performed in Austin a couple of days before.
Swine flu. Texas and Mexico border update to yesterdays post
If you are looking for SWINE FLU info click on my link http://elizabeth79.wordpress.com/2009/04/27/swine-flu-mexico-city-and-hospital-quarantine/
I WILL ADD TO THIS THROUGHOUT THE DAY
Talking to my father today, I asked him about his daily comute across the Brownsville border. He said that border agents on both sides are now wearing face/mouth masks.
Mexico City March 2008
- Palacio de Bellas Artes
Before I left Texas, people kept telling me to be careful, as they knew I would be in Mexico City soon. For the first time in years, I did worry a little, because of the news about violence, especially in Reynosa. It is the same as always though. I go for a 4 or 6 mile run and enjoy my family, the sites and the food. My family thinks it is interesting when I told them that lately news programs and articles mention how dangerous it is in Mexico and advising American’s not to come for spring break. This is spring break for me, but I am spending time in the City, not at the beach. Wednesday I spend the day at “el Zocalo” taking photos and “el Palacio de Bellas Artes.” My 19 year old cousin was my guide. She is wonderful… I will post pictures in a few days. My aunt mentioned Obama being here, but too bad, that is a month from now.
Below are a few more added later. I thought it was interesting that they had the flag inside the church… It is common, I usually dont even think about it twice, but in the U.S. some people are so oppossed to mixing church and state. The photos of the man, I took from across the street. I just saw him waiting and someone finally went up to buy chips whith Chile. The boy, well, he was outside of a beautiful post office. He was writing on a letter, I used a wide angle lens so that it did not seem like I was getting him in the photo, his parents were sitting off to the right and were already kind of looking at me.
Denton Art’s and Jazz Festival
The three day festival is ALWAYS a hit. So much to do, in the three days I attended, I never got around to all that there was. The top photo is of Ping Irvin, who is from China and is nationally acknowledged in her home country. She is listed in China’s Who’s Who of Chinese contemporary Artists. She moved here after meeting Craig Irvin, an artist himself. Their story is remarkable.
When I drove to their house by the Sam Houston National Forest, I had no idea what a life of an aritst was like. The house is rather lonely, witht the forest as their back yard. Their house was PACKED. Art books. Sketch Pads everywhere. Prisma colors, pastels, water color and pencils laying around every where. The sent of coffee fills their house. It is amazing as to how they live art all day. As soon as I got to the house, there was a dilivery of Mats for their prints they sell at the shows……………
Swine flu. Mexico City and Hospital Quarantine with update
I talked to family in Mexico City this afternoon.
Schools have been shut down untill May 6th. Bars, gyms and theaters have been shut down too. They are handing out face masks, (or mouth/nose) for people riding the sub-way. It seems that, HOSPITAL JUAREZ, one of the biggest hospitals in Mexico City has been quarantined. There was an earthquake in central Mexico to make matters worse. Only causing somepeople to say they feel like it is a lot to handle or to be worried about on the same day. This morning Obama said there was no need to panic, but now there are 40 confirmed cases in the United States. Talking to another cousin that lives in Mexico City and I mentioned reading that some people felt that these were signs of the end of the world. We agreed that is was not, but I said it was sad that some people were feeling so bad and he said, “But I live in an apocalpytic city.” That kind of helped put another perspective on things. As a person actually living in that City right now, opposed to someone reading about the city.
Another cousin of mine says she is sad that she cant go anywhere, because of the risk of contracting the virus. She is a concert go-er 19-year-old. She says that it is very rare. Some people say that it is not such a big deal, while others say that they (the government presumably) does not know how it will be controlled. Some people have stoped going to work while others are still going, she said. But places are shutting down.
Four more cases in California have been confirmed, while 28 students of a private school in New York that travelled to Mexico have now been confirmed to have the virus. Felipe Calderon has declared a state of emergency and also said that religious mass should be cancelled at least for this following Sunday and until further notice. This seems horrible, especially since religion is part of the foundation of Mexico, the people that feel a need to go to church must feel extra hurt by this. Mexican news papers also clarified that the Health condition of Barrack Obama was safe, due to concerns of last months visit to Mexico City. I wanted to make sure that American news papers were reporting similar stories to what the Mexican papers are reporting, being that sometimes sometime, things are lost in translation. Other facts, I get from my family…I will continue to add as I get more information.
