by Henry Suarez

​
This was my first real check. I’d worked a summer job before and been paid for odd jobs, but this was my first steady job. Don’t be fooled though it’s not like I was minting money, at $7 per hour and working part-time hours I was lucky to pull down $150. Nonetheless, I’d never felt so proud, real money earned by my hard work. Stocking reams of paper at Staples wasn’t back-breaking work but I earned this damn check and acquired a vast knowledge of copier paper. You only live once, splurge for that card stock.
 
Soon as my shift let out, I wandered down to the check-cashing place to turn this bad boy into cold hard cash. Maybe head down to Sam Goody or The Wiz, pick up that new Ghostface album. The lyrics are a bit unorthodox but he can put together an album.
 
Waited my turn in line to cash the check and I was floored when the lady said it would be a 5% fee. Get the fuck outta here! She must be crazy, I thought to myself, Uncle Sam already took a third of this thing without doing anything, now these fools want another five on top of that? “Nah I’ll take that back, thank you,” I said.
 
My dad had cashed one of my summer checks for me and he rounded it up to the next dollar when he paid out, why would I settle for less?
 
For anyone that hasn’t had the displeasure of the check-cashing place experience, it’s truly depressing. You’re typically greeted at the door by a drunk or homeless person who graciously opens the door in the hopes that you’ll slip them a few bucks on the way out. After you cross the doors into this palace of dreariness, you’re usually met by the usual band of characters, the local building porter cashing his check and then spending half of it on lotto tickets hoping to hit it big, the much too young couple with a stroller waiting for some money being wired to them so they can buy milk for the baby and on the opposite side of the spectrum is the lady wiring money back home to DR so her family can go food shopping and buy her mother’s medicine. It’s like a diagram box of how crappy life is, especially when you can’t have a bank account. I’ll hop off this soapbox and get back to my story.
 
My father happily agreed to deposit the check for me and said he’d bring me the cash the next day, my CD shopping spree would have to wait another day. The following afternoon I was off from work and so I went straight home after school to catch my dad as soon as he arrived. From the moment he walked through our apartment door my eyes were fixated on him. Watching his every move to see when he would give me my money.
 
After about 10 minutes he finally asked, “¿Qué es lo que pasa?”
 
“What happened to the money?” I replied.
 
Out of his work bag he pulled a small money envelope, he stretched out his arm to hand it to me and as I extended my arm he pulled it back and asked me to have a seat at the table.
 
What could it be? Or worse what have I done? Is he in need of money? Will I have to give him a percentage in return for everything I’ve received over the years?
​
We sat down across from each other at the table and he slid the envelope my way. There’s no telling what he’s about to say, so I figured I’d grab it and open it before I’m talked out of it. As expected he rounded the money up, it was already a win. The excitement was overtaking me, physically I was still in the chair but mentally I was on my way to the record store. And then he started, I could tell he was going to preach.
 
He put his hands together like a Dominican Dr. Evil and stared intently, this is his signature move. I should’ve known a sermon was coming because everything with my dad involved lecturing. Was I better off just giving the 5%?
 
“Son, you’re starting to earn your own money and I’m proud of you. This is a big step in a man’s life. You’re not independent yet but you’re on the way.” he said.
 
“On my way? Fuck is he talking about? Is he kicking me out? This is $130, I can barely get an unlimited metro card. I ain’t paying rent,” I thought.
 
“An important part of life is not just making money, but saving it and investing it, so that one day you’ll hopefully see it grow,” he continued.
 
“Papi, I’m sitting on a couple of twenties here. I’m lucky if I can buy lunch with this,” I said hoping to avoid a drawn-out ordeal. Guess I’m lucky he’s talking about saving and not about using it to reimburse him.
 
“That’s where it starts though, sacrifice. You sacrifice buying lunch and you take the leftovers that your mother packs. It’s better for you and you’re not spending unnecessarily,” he rebutted.
 
“There’s no way I’m taking leftovers with me. ¿Usted cree que yo voy a calentar bacalao en el trabajo? Será para que me boten. Plus what chicks are gonna wanna go out with the dude eating leftover locrio?” I pleaded.
 
The raised right eyebrow was a sign he was growing tired of my constant interruptions. It was time to change my game plan, so decided I would entertain it.
 
“Ok, so are you recommending I open a savings account?” I asked, with an inquisitive look.
 
“That’s a good idea or maybe put it into a sociedad (or susu). You get your money together and buy something that will grow in value. Ahora mismo vamos a comprar unas vacas para la finca. You won’t be ready for this round but we’ll be buying continuously. You put some money into cows and it’ll grow exponentially,” he said.
 
All I could give back was a blank stare. Open a savings account to purchase cows. God damn cows! The ridiculousness of it just seemed too much. Here I am born and raised in NYC, the financial capital of the world and my father’s investment advice is to buy some cows in a fucking campo back in DR. Not a bond, nor stocks or even a bank CD, but bovine!
 
“Dad, this sounds like a fantastic idea, it’s a lot for me to process right now but I’ll give it some thought.” It was all I could say, this man was dead serious about this livestock purchase. “I’m going to head out, mind if we continue this another time?” I asked.
 
He nodded in approval, so I grab my $130 and I was off. Heading straight to the record store and after picking up my CDs I stopped off for a burger and fries. It was a sign that I couldn’t be trusted to own cows, I’d eat all the product.
 
I never gave the cows another thought. My father either forgot or just decided I wasn’t a worthy investor.
 
About 6 months later the whole family went to DR for Semana Santa. DR never disappoints: the food, the beaches, the beautiful women, and the ice-cold Presidentes. You haven’t lived until you’ve enjoyed a frosty Presidente in the Dominican sun. “Vestida de novia,” as we say. Even our time in the campo was great. Easter dinner was at my grandmother's house and on the menu was sancocho, which is one of my favs. The one thing I noticed absent from the whole trip was my dad’s prized cows. Where was the investment that would literally change this family’s fortunes?
 
“Papi, what happened with the cows I haven’t seen a single one?” I asked.
 
“Didn’t work out with the cows. They got sick and died,” he said matter of factly.
 
“¡Pero dieron justamente para el sancocho!”

​Henry Suarez is an emerging Dominican-American writer from New York City. Residing in Westchester, NY with his wife and daughters. His writing focuses mainly on the immigrant experience, growing up bicultural/bilingual, and his journey through fatherhood.
https://twitter.com/_suarezhenry

​​By José Antonio López
 
Joe Lopez has been writing columns about south Texas and Texas history in general for over ten years, along with contributing commentaries to various newspapers. He recently retired as a columnist for the online newspaper, Rio Grande Guardian International News Service. We plan to publish monthly the “Best of Joe Lopez” featuring his wit, his knowledge and commitment to telling the truth about the history of Texas. The opinions expressed in his columns are his own. (Full disclosure, the Editor of Somos en escrito Magazine is from San Antonio, Texas, but is unbiased in his views about his home state.)

(Note: This article first appeared in the online newspaper, Rio Grande Guardian International News Service, July 2011.)

Ever since the extremist super majority took over the Texas state legislature, they have embarked on a lock-step campaign to push for legislation that can only be described as limiting the freedom of Hispanic citizens in Texas.  Their political agenda shows an underlying contempt, suspicion and distrust for any Texas attribute that is Spanish Mexican in nature.  For example, a bewildered Texas state senator recently was visibly upset to learn that Spanish-surnamed Texans speak Spanish as their language of choice.  Another extremist political leader in Austin complained that “the trouble in the Texas legislature is that there are too many Hispanics”.  The question is what can explain their rancor against Texas Hispanics?        
 
In my view, they choose to ignore the common thread of Hispanic presence in Texas since its very foundation.  Additionally, they confuse two different problems – (1) illegal immigration and (2) the rapidly browning of the Texas population.  They unwisely believe the first problem causes the second.  That is a false cause and effect picture.  To begin, illegal immigration is wrong.  However, it will be solved only when all the affected parties unite to develop a common solution.  Now, let’s look at the second issue – the browning of the Texas population.
 
Very clearly, the core of Hispanics in Texas is Spanish Mexican.  So, let us call it what it is.  This group is half white (Spanish = European) and half brown (Mexican = Native American).  They are the direct descendants of the first citizens of Texas.  They are not immigrants.  This critical point is what separates our group from our other sister Hispanic groups, such as Cuban Americans and other groups from Central and South America and the Caribbean.  Spanish Mexicans were once the majority in Texas and are now poised to once more regain that distinction.               
 
In short, the recent hateful legislation is ill advised and is due to blatant ignorance of Texas history.  To that end, and with all due respect to our many supportive Anglo friends who know the full story, the details below are provided.           
 
1.  There was a Texas before 1836.  Texas was not created by Anglo Saxon immigrants from the U.S.  Nor is Texas the English name for Tejas.  Both are Spanish names derived from a Native American Caddo tribe word meaning friend.  The x sound in Texas is also pronounced as in México, Béxar, and Mexia.  Texas was born in 1691.  There were over 30 Spanish-surnamed Texas Governors between 1691 and 1821.  
 
2. Beginning in the early 1700s, Spanish Mexican pioneers built thriving communities “Deep in the Heart of Texas” along El Camino Real (San Antonio, Nacogdoches, Goliad, and the Villas del Norte in the Lower Rio Grande).  With skills they brought from Central and Northern Mexico, Spanish Mexican pioneers established the original ranchos.  These first citizens of Texas also perfected the cowboy way of life in the state.  This is why basic cowboy terminology is of Spanish language origin.  After 1836, many of these Spanish words were Anglicized, such as ranch, cowboy, rodeo, corral, lasso, riata, cinch, ten gallon hat, remuda, mustang, etc…  Unfortunately, movies and heavily Anglicized western novels have been very unkind to the Southwest Hispano Mexican culture.  They continue to portray Spanish Mexicans only in minor and passive or negative roles.          
 
3.  San Juan Bautista Presidio, the “Gateway to Texas”.  In 1699-1700, the San Juan Bautista Presidio was established along the Rio Grande in a pass of the river near present-day Guerrero, Coahuila and Eagle Pass, Texas.  The Presidio was the only port of entry into Texas for the many families from Central and Northern Mexico who passed through its gates.  Its ruins today serve as a reminder of the close relationship between Texas and (Coahuila) Mexico.  Descendants of many of the early 1700s pioneer families throughout Texas have genealogical ties to San Juan Bautista.
 
4.  Compañías Volante were the first Texas Rangers. As Spanish Mexican pioneers moved into Texas from elsewhere in Mexico, Spanish authorities were incapable of providing any more than the most minimum number of soldiers to provide security.  As such, colonist leaders organized groups of citizen soldiers based in large ranchos and towns.  Each team was then responsible for an assigned territory.  Carrying only the most basic essentials, the team could literally fly off to any rancho being attacked by bandits.  The lean and mean company became known as the Compañía Volante.  Their legendary riding skills clearly characterize them as the Cossacks of Texas.  When the Texas Rangers were established after 1836, the key role of the Compañía Volante was largely forgotten in the telling of Texas history.
 
5.  The Emerald Green flag is the first flag of Texas Independence.  The color was apparently chosen to honor Irish American Lieutenant Augustus McGee, Lt. Colonel Bernardo Gutiérrez de Lara’s protégée and chief military assistant during the initial part of the first Texas Revolution.  Don Bernardo adopted the plain Emerald Green flag as the banner for the Army of the North (First Texas Army).  Is the flag a legitimate flag of Texas Independence?  The answer is yes.  The facts are as follow:  (l) Don Bernardo became the first President of Texas on April 6, 1813; (2), he wrote, signed and issued the first Texas Declaration of Independence; and (3) he wrote and issued the first Texas Constitution, modeled on the U.S. Constitution, on April 17, 1813.  Oddly, even though it is the mother of all Texas independence flags, the Emerald Green Flag is not one of the six generally accepted flags of Texas.
 
6.  The Battle of Medina fought on August 18, 1813, is the largest battle ever fought on Texas soil, according to the Texas State Historical Commission.  Lt. Colonel Bernardo Gutiérrez de Lara’s hope of complete victory over the Spanish forces vanished quickly when he was betrayed by some members of his immediate military staff.  Don Bernardo was relieved of command and forced into exile in Louisiana.  Under a different commander at the Battle of Medina, the Tejano Army was outmaneuvered by General Arredondo, a more experienced Spanish general.   On a very hot August afternoon, the Tejanos were encircled and defeated about 20 miles south of San Antonio, bringing an end to Texas independence. 
 
7.  Tejanos did the heavy lifting, sacrificing, and dying for Texas Independence.  In the name of self-rule, the suffering of the Spanish Mexican citizens of Texas continued for many years.   The year 1810 can be referred to as the birth of Texas independence.  It was then that a young Don Bernardo Gutiérrez de Lara, born and raised on the banks of the lower Rio Grande, decided to light the spark for freedom and liberty in Texas.  Coincidentally, there was another largely forgotten act of sacrifice in the name of Texas liberty.  Juan Bautista de las Casas, a retired captain and native of Nuevo Santander, set up a revolutionary government in San Antonio in 1811.  He was betrayed by accomplices and was executed by the Spanish military commander. 
 
8.  The Texas Independence movement did not begin in 1835-36.  Sam Houston took over a work in progress.  When he and many of the other Anglos immigrating from the U.S. arrived in Mexico, the country was embroiled in a battle between the centralists and the federalists (Tejanos).  Initially, the Anglos supported the federalists.  However, Mexico had abolished slavery in 1829.  That fact displeased the Anglos who wished to retain slaves they had brought from the U.S.  As a result, they opted for a clean break from Mexico.  Doing so, the Anglos betrayed the Tejanos, who thought (until too late) that they were fighting for a federalist system.  How did the Anglos reward Tejanos?  They spread lies and propaganda about their loyalty.  Facing death threats, Colonel Seguín was hounded out of San Antonio and forced to move in with family in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas.  He died there, across the river from his beloved Texas.  It took officials of Seguín, Texas, over 120 years to realize that indeed Colonel Juan Seguín was a Texas hero.  In 1968, Seguín’s body was exhumed and his bones were brought back home.  
 
9.  The 1836 Battles of the Alamo, Goliad, and San Jacinto are part of a chronological chapter of Mexico’s history, not the U.S.  As mentioned earlier, Texas did not join the U.S. until 1845.  The U.S.- Mexico War (1846-48) was fought because the U.S. admitted Texas, a state that Mexico considered part of its republic.  Losing the war and fighting for its land, Mexico lost Texas, South Texas, and over half of its sovereign territory, which encompasses the Southwest.     
 
10.  The Rio Grande – A Permanent Mason-Dixon Line.  The Rio Grande has not always been the political boundary that it is today.  The area from Texas to California is called the Borderlands for good reasons.   The people living on both sides look identical because they share common bloodlines and history.  They are descendants of the same families that were split apart in 1848, when the U.S. conquered over half of Mexico’s sovereign territory.  Significantly, the Southwest territory (including Texas) is the only part of the U.S. that was forcibly taken by military force from a sovereign nation, the Republic of Mexico.  It should be noted that in the U.S., New Spain is over twice as large as New England. 
 
11.  The Alamo is a San Antonio Mission.  The building and its grounds are equal in historical stature to the other missions (San José, Concepción, Espada, and San Juan), the Spanish Governors Palace, La Bahia Presidio, and similar structures.  These splendid buildings must be honored for their strength, beauty, and the creativity of their Spanish Mexican builders.  They must no longer be marketed only because armed Anglo expatriates from the U.S. died there. 
 
12.  Irony of Ironies.  Lt. Colonel Bernardo Gutiérrez de Lara’s Texas Revolution freed slaves in Texas in 1813.  Also, Mexico freed all slaves in 1829, which included Texas.  In fact, runaway slaves from the U.S. had already found refuge in Texas as free men and women.  However, in 1845 Texas Anglos traded their 1836 independence to join the U.S. as a slave state.  For blacks, the Anglos’ decision to join the U.S. was devastating!  Free blacks living in Texas were treated as runaway slaves.  When caught, they were returned to their previous masters, or sold as slaves yet again.
 
Finally, the more that non-Hispanics learn of early Texas history, the more they will see that the Spanish Mexican roots of Texas run deep.  Continuing to celebrate our rich centuries-old unique heritage is a natural process, because Texas is in New Spain, not New England.  Once and for all, anti-Hispanic politicians must be reminded that “looking Mexican” and speaking Spanish in Texas and the Southwest are not sins of U.S. citizenship. 
 

​​José Antonio (Joe) López was born and raised in Laredo, Texas. USAF Veteran. Served over 37 years in military/Federal Service.  When he retired on January 1, 2000, he held a senior civilian management position at the U.S. Air Education/Training Command, Randolph AFB, TX. 
He is a direct descendant of Don Javier Uribe and Doña Apolinaria Bermúdez de Uribe, one of the families that settled José de Escandón’s Villas del Norte in what is now South Texas in 1750.  
                                  
He is married to the former Cordelia Jean “Cordy” Dancause of Laredo.  He and his wife reside in Universal City, TX.  They have one daughter, Brenda Jo.   Mr. López is a Martin High School (MHS) graduate, Class of 1962; inducted into MHS Tiger Legends, Class of 2019. 
He has college degrees from Laredo Jr. College and Southwest Texas State University, San Marcos, TX.  Earned a Master’s Degree in Education.
 
Author of several books:  “The First Texas Independence, 1813” (2013), a bilingual reprint of “The Last Knight” (2009)), “Nights of Wailing, Days of Pain (Life in 1920s South Texas)” (2009, a novel),  “Preserving Early Texas History (Essays of an Eighth Generation South Texan)” (2015), “Friendly Betrayal” (2017, a novel), and “Preserving Early Texas History (Essays of an Eighth-Generation South Texan), Volume 2” (2018).
 
Lopez served for over ten years as a senior columnist for the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service online newspaper and other print newspapers. He is the founder of the Tejano Learning Center, LLC, and www.tejanosunidos.org, web sites dedicated to Spanish Mexican people and events in U.S. history.

by ​Elena Dolores Solano

Recently I made migas for breakfast.  I ripped the tortillas up and placed them in a cast iron pan of hot olive oil and cooked them until they were golden colored. There are a myriad of ways to make migas, a traditional Mexican dish. While the tortillas fried, I chopped onion, garlic and green pepper on an old cutting board mi mamá bought for me years ago.

After the tortillas were crispy, I added the vegetables. I sautéed them for a minute and then gently folded in the eggs and waited for them to cook, stirring the dish occasionally. The best corn tortillas are made from three ingredients, corn, lime and water, but when the lime is fried it lets off a peculiar smell of bitter tones. Eventually the smells of the green pepper and garlic catch up, and the mezcla, the mixture of flavors fills the air.

My mother taught me to cook that dish and many others. When we made migas, she handed me the bag of corn tortillas wrapped in paper and told me to rip them up. If the pieces were too big, she told me to rip them up smaller. If I cut them into pieces with a knife, she said, “No, no, no,” and shook her head. I eventually figured out what size she wanted for them. For some reason I was always determined to learn how to cook from her, so I let her tell me again and again what to do in the kitchen.

She believed in my ability to become a good cook. For her, being a “buena cocinera,” a “good cook,” as I often teased her, was important for many reasons. It meant you could take care of yourself. You could stock a pantry and fill your kitchen with homemade food.  

But her cooking was also tied to being a traditional Mejicana, where culture, faith, identity and being a woman, were also a mezcla. She was renowned for her cooking in our small barrio in Detroit. She constantly offered food to anyone who walked through her doors or sat on the stoop. I recall her making me take a full plate of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and corn to a homeless man who was sitting outside on the stairs to our building. At that moment I learned, not by words but by action, to serve others, to give freely, even when you have a large brood of your own to feed.
 
She cooked with her comadres, making menudo to sell after mass. They sold the menudo to raise money for flowers for the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. To her, cooking was second nature.  When I use her recipes, I sometimes look around the kitchen, as if she is here, waiting with a toalla, a kitchen towel, draped over her shoulder, waiting to eat. Cooking was a gift of love you gave to yourself and others.
 
I am eternally grateful that I learned to cook from her—and that she had the patience to put up with me. I remember being five years old, making tortillas with her. She let me roll small tortillas on her wooden board. She put them on the comal for me. I always let them burn. I loved the smell of the burnt masa. But more so, I loved her turning to me, saying, “You're fired, vayase.” I feigned resignation.

When I was in my twenties, she gave me several of her molcajetes, a tool made of smoothened volcanic stone. In English it is called a mortar and pestle, but there is so much more. It is a touchstone, a memory stone, a portal to the past. When I grind garlic, tomatoes or peppino in the heavy bowl, I feel deep calls to tradition and culture. 

I feel my mamá, her comadres, my abuela and tías when I use those molcajetes.  I am filled with memories that cause me to yearn for arms that are no longer here, to dial a phone number that no longer exists. I strain to hear a voice that has passed to the other side.  I yearn for the smell of her comal, fire—hot, ready for tortillas.

This longing is the hardest to bear. It is the call from the deep that causes such surprise. I know it well. I have seen it in the face of friends as they talk about husbands and wives, abuelos and abuelas, and friends now gone. I have heard that yearning in the voice of my siblings.

​Elena Dolores Solano was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan.  She is one of fifteen children. Her parents were migrant workers who moved north in the 1940s.  She is a certified school counselor and works with Latino/a students in the public school system of Detroit.  She is also a Licensed Professional Counselor.   Ms. Solano  has written for many years of her experience growing up in a large Mexican American family in Detroit.  In her spare time Ms. Solano enjoys collecting anything old, a Solano family tradition, cooking Mexican food and spending time with her children, her family and friends.  

by Armando Arias, Ph.D.
One year ago, Somos en escrito Magazine published an earlier version of this article by Professor Arias on the subject of Enterprise Architecture centered on a systems engineering approach to designing Active Knowledge Models for institutions of higher education. This article not only revisits ideas from that article, but also builds on the most recent technological developments in the field of Enterprise Architecture/Systems Engineering as well as explores how Active Knowledge Models can support the entire collegiate journey of Chicano/Latino students in American society today.
​

​It is through the use of e-Enterprise Architecture, an advanced form of systems engineering, that I suggest an overall Information Technology (IT) strategy, while at the same time moving both IT and instructional systems beyond traditional ways of creating, transforming, managing, and administrating institutions of higher education (IHE) through the application of active knowledge models (AKM) all in support of the entire student journey. 

The COVID-19 virus pandemic of 2020 caused a sudden cognitive shift in American society in how it is that both traditional state-supported university systems as well as private colleges offered instruction by suddenly requiring online teaching, learning, research and administration almost overnight. The shift to online instruction (namely the utilization of virtual online learning platforms as a lecturing tool, plus a variety of LMS platforms came suddenly and the majority of institutions of higher education (IHE) were simply not prepared, nor were administrators (see “The Chronicle Review: University Leaders Are Failing. The pandemic reveals ineptitude at the top.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, May 19, 2020, see, https://www.chronicle.com/article/university-leaders-are-failing/248809.

In short, the manner in which the pandemic caused a rapid shift to online instruction and virtual administration is the core example of how institutions of higher education got on with their business of managing their universities/colleges. At the same time and due to the emergency situation, there was a cognitive shift away from following policies and rules about which tasks could or could not be completed online (away from the university), especially since physical plants were closed to students, staff, and faculty. Interesting to note is that the stigma often applied to non-traditional universities (i.e., University of Phoenix, etc.) was swept under the proverbial rug, at least for now.

Moreover, the pandemic caused a good deal of rapid technological change not just for teaching, learning and research but especially for how to manage and administrate institutions of higher education. Interesting to note is that most university administrators were not skilled nor experienced to manage the impact of rapid technological change of this sort. Nonetheless, we (taxpayers, stakeholders, etc.) need to hold administrators of especially state supported institutions of higher education accountable for misspending state funds, especially funds related to IT and their handling of issues directly related to the pandemic no matter how rapid they occur.
The pandemic also caused a cognitive shift in how it is that people in American society (and in the world for that matter) think about the value of a college education and to become more open-minded about how to achieve education in systems that are broken as is so aptly stated: “Everybody agrees that our higher education system is broken. They might disagree about what needs fixing first. But everyone is aware of the brokenness.” Michelle Jones, founder of Wayfinding College in Portland, Oregon, see https://hechingerreport.org/as-enrollment-falls-and-colleges-close-a-surprising-number-of-new-ones-are-opening/. I argue that through the application of Enterprise Architecture and active knowledge models we can not only come to see what is broken in systems of higher education, we can also prioritize “what needs fixing first” especially since AKM demonstrates the value every individual brings to an enterprise (university/college). I see this as an opportunity to suggest an even larger shift in how higher education “gets done” through the use of Enterprise Architecture (EA) through a combination of IT and Systems Engineering beyond what most college/university administrators can currently comprehend.

This book provides a blueprint for how it is that EA is the most advanced tool of our time to manage rapid technological change today and in the future. I will layout a blueprint and suggest how IT improvements can remain efficient and accountable to stakeholders (taxpayers, students, and parents). Also suggested is a plan for radical transformation of what constitutes an institution as part of the higher education-system and how to better serve educationally underserved student populations.
​
Let me be clear. I am not here to discuss whether or not the shift to online instruction is being assessed and/or evaluated or whether important workload policies are being followed; we can and should take those topics up elsewhere. Rather, I am here to suggest new ways of knowing the idea of a multi-university (“thinking university-system”) predicated on the idea of a university-system as an e-enterprise where all things in the enterprise are linked and connected at all times in real time. With such an EA design and the application of active knowledge models, rapid changes like pandemics can be managed in the most appropriate manner possible with or without leadership that can see this vision.
 
Evidence of what I am pointing to and experiencing in American society today is captured in a series of reports published by The Chronicle Store, for instance:

Active Knowledge Models & e-Enterprise Architecture Can Help Stoke the Intellectual Imagination for Chicano/Latino Students to Enter STEM Fields
 
I propose the development of a capability for enterprise architecture (EA) for large-scale state university systems that are designated as HSIs (Hispanic Serving Institutions). IHEs will include those with which I am most familiar such as Texas A&M University, Auraria Higher Education Center, California State University and the University of California. As part of our rendering a smooth IT transformation, our vision is to create outcomes-base special projects, while at the same time infusing active knowledge models targeting those universities in Baja California Norte where we trained in Enterprise Architecture when we started California State University, Monterey Bay. As part of the start-up team, we applied the METIS EA platform as the primary active knowledge model. We are targeting the following Mexican IHE as research and development partners because we have had collaborative success in our former projects while working under the auspices Mexico’s leading social and behavioral sciences institute, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte.
​
In brief, we trained faculty from Mexican institutions of higher education that were part of the consortia I brought together in the form of  BESTNET (Binational English & Spanish Telecommunications Network), to include Centro Estudios Technica y Superior located in Mexicali and the Instituto Tecnológico campuses located in Tijuana, Mexicali and Ensenada. See https://works.bepress.com/armando-arias/7/. Brand new small (start-up) private Latino colleges will also be considered when suggesting new virtual designs, such as Colegio Chicano del Pueblo (Virtual), the InterAmerican University as well as the new Sea Mar Chicano University in Seattle.

Enabling HSIs Transformation to University e-Enterprises
Enterprise architecture enables enterprises (herein: university-enterprises) to fully align administrative planning strategies with the technological infrastructures that support all of them. EA facilitates a university-system’s ability to communicate with all components that make up the entire system (academic departments, curricula, faculty, staff, students, and community partners, and much more) all at once in real time. At the same time, it will strategically align with whom it interacts allowing boundary-less information flow, more effective decision support and the alignment of administrative, application, data and instructional and university-enterprise transformation, effective communication structures and practices, multimodal communications, and the effective management of disruptive technologies.
 
One definition of EA-based active knowledge models is that it is the organizing logic for all university-systems processes and IT infrastructure reflecting the integration and standardization and/or customized requirements of the university’s operation model, again, while remaining aligned with the university’s vision statement. (See basic AKM orientation at: https://akmclient-beta.herokuapp.com).
 
In 2019, the University of California, San Diego turned out its first strategic plan in the history of the university; it provides a conceptual blueprint that defines the structure, operation, and goals of the university. It is an excellent plan for this vibrant (relatively young) university. As good a Strategic Plan as it is, it is stagnant in the sense that it is not linked to anything that provides real time data. Conversely, by using EA and AKMs as planning tools, the Strategic Plan could become a document connected to its university-enterprise in real time, constantly sensing, interpreting, reinterpreting, adding to and asking “What if?” scenarios of the ever changing landscape from things like budgetary, financial, research, and instructional perspectives to perspectives on core values from the vision statement. It has already been suggested that, in their quest to create “smart campus-communities” plans for said community in Baja California Norte, just 10 miles east of Tijuana (along Carretera 2000) that EA and AKM start the urban plans, see “A High-Tech Campus Community at the U.S.-Mexico Border” (Arias 2023) https://works.bepress.com/armando-arias/126/.

 What most university administrators don’t realize is that their strategic plans are in fact changing as they are producing the document; you might say “the document is obsolete even before it is completed.” It is important to note that the same goes for all other planning that is stagnant (not linked to real-time data). This would have been an opportune time for UC San Diego to apply EA to its strategic planning.
My point is that once realized, EA will change the nature of their planning. A major intent of EA and active knowledge models is to determine how a university-system-enterprise can most effectively achieve its current and future objectives—in real-time—between the relations found in AKM models.

​
​“Years ago, it was the idea of Viable Systems Models (VSM) developed by Stafford Beer that first acted as an aid to the practical process of diagnosing all problems in human organizations and helping to improve their functioning. Stafford believes that effective organizations should maximize the freedom of their participants, within the practical constraints of the requirement for those organizations to fulfill their purpose. He believes that the science of cybernetics can be used to design organizations that fulfill these objectives. The VSM is intended to act as an aid to the process of diagnosis of organizational problems, and the subsequent process of organizational re-design. The re-designing process should use technology, particularly information technology, to assist in providing organizations with a nervous system which supports their aims, without the burden of bureaucracy.”
From Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model: An Interpretation by Trevor Hilder © Cavendish Software Ltd. 1995, portions © Stafford Beer 1985.
​

​In the past few years, only a handful of major university-systems have developed university-enterprise architecture; MIT applies EA across their system, while the University of California system applies it for partial system-wide administration. That is why UC San Diego did not apply it in the development of their Strategic Plan. This is the case because the University of California views EA as a topic for research and development as an experiment, not quite yet an application, if you will.
 
Interesting to point out is that in a recent announcement (2022) about changing the name of California State University, Humboldt to a “polytechnic university,” Cal Poly Humboldt will now focus on the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). They may now be poised to incorporate EA and active knowledge models as it was only a year ago they were reportedly considering reorganizing the university to cut a number of programs due to financial woes.
 
Last year (2021), Gov. Gavin Newsom approved a $458-million investment for the expansion of Cal State’s STEM initiatives. In addition to the re-designation of Humboldt, the funding included $25 million to launch a technology hub at Cal State Northridge intended to draw Latinos and traditionally underserved students into STEM fields. (Los Angeles Times, February 23, 2022).
 
The University of California has developed its own system-wide Enterprise Architecture BoK–Body of Knowledge as a “repository of assets including guidelines, principles, reference architecture and standards, that have been reviewed and recommended for use. System-wide use of these assets increases the interoperability and reuse potential of technology investments made, thus improving overall efficiency.” In addition, EA involves administrative process reengineering and alignment with the technological infrastructure needed for such improvements. Note: This will prove critical as we prepare for the overall impact of pandemics and new conversion forms of university-systems.
 
The significance of university-enterprise architecture is demonstrated in moving from the idea of a university that adapts new technologies to a new paradigm for looking at transforming it to a thinking system, notably:

​

• Transforming the university into a thinking enterprise through the application of Enterprise Architecture as a tool for IT
• Viewing today’s university and its relationship to the regional community as a modern-day landscape or research setting for applied (real-time) research
• Engaging the community through transformation and through prioritizing resource allocations between various competing demands for resources (in-real time)
• Developing road maps for community engagement and service learning
• Developing road maps for leading modernization efforts in this country and beyond (especially in the borderlands)
• Developing road maps for acquiring skills and specialties in the workforce required to operate the university for the future
• Focusing on the university’s aspects for change

More than ever during the time of a global pandemic, we have the opportunity to rethink the idea of the university and add integrated diversity wherein minds that are connected (stakeholders) administrate behind the scenes through an integrated model for all to see at all times. It is through the application of Enterprise Architecture, IT, and Systems Engineering that act as the infrastructure designed to create real-time “What if?” scenarios that respond to rapid social change, such as pandemics.
From a teaching, learning and pedagogical perspective, I am suggesting a new “thinking university system” that will re-make universities as organizations and institutions into a new form of housing the production of knowledge to be taught to future students. It is important to note that I am not suggesting that this design be driven by Artificial Intelligence but will also have real-time (live) ongoing input from humans and algorithms based on human behavior. Important to note is that this approach will not employ a business model as is the case of current universities, hospitals, police departments, corporations, etc., but rather an approach that takes into account the real values and beliefs of its constituents and stakeholders.
 
Beyond providing new pathways for teaching and learning, this approach will assist in downsizing the physical plant of traditional universities, restricting operating budgets, setting priorities in curriculum and academic specialties and most of all finding new modalities for the actual imparting of knowledge in a professor-student relationship, etc. The new innovative thinking university-system of the future (the one being proposed) will at all times incorporate input of actual faculties in defining the role of the future of universities.
​
Keep in mind that much larger universities (as found in the California State University System) found it difficult to reconcile the new approaches to teaching that were practiced briefly and planned as alternative pedagogical models. In this way, EA can assist universities in transforming entire university systems. It can be applied to complex organizations to create “What if?” scenarios that assist each and every stakeholder know how it is they are a part of the university (enterprise) and how they contribute to the overall vision of the university as demonstrated in the diagram below.

​EA and active knowledge models are vital to all digital transformations and can assist university-enterprises. This design becomes the basis for the idea of a “thinking university” and would definitely call for e-architecting these new processes. [I made the same type of suggestion for the United Farm Workers to restructure their organization utilizing EA (see, Chapter Twelve: Reinventing the United Farm Workers through Systems Engineering and Enterprise Architecture in my book, Theorizing César Chávez: New Ways of Knowing STEM, Armando Arias, Somos en escrito Literary Foundation Press, 2020)].

In that chapter, I point out how I was introduced to EA when César Chávez turned down a rather lucrative offer to help the Boeing Corporation solve ongoing conflicts between union and non-union workers as he was at the height of the UFW Movement and could not assist. Instead, I gained insight into how to construct jet aircraft through the use of EA, that is, applying a model that brought together over two million parts, and thirty thousand people to create one jet aircraft.

The problem you may not find comforting to know is that no two aircraft ever come out the same because parts and human behavior change over the build-out of the aircraft; this is the central idea I borrowed from EA and applied to building out brand new universities as an enterprise unto themselves. Case in point: During the manufacturing of passenger jet aircraft, Boeing could suddenly not acquire copper rivets for wing assembly from Zaire and had to go to Costa Rica for aluminum alloy rivets; the EA model could ascertain costs, weight, aerodynamic, training factors, labor costs, implications to contracts, and much more.

​EA has advanced tremendously over the years to a point where I began applying it to the rapid build out of brand-new universities. The relevance of EA and AKM to universities is that:

​Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary approach and means to enable the realization of successful systems. It focuses on defining customer needs and required functionality early in the development cycle, documenting requirements, then, proceeding with design synthesizing and system validation while considering the complete problem: Operations, Performance, Test, Manufacturing, Cost and Schedule, Training and Support and Disposal. Systems engineering integrates all the disciplines and specialty groups into a team effort forming a structured development process that proceeds from concept to production to operation. Systems engineering considers both the business and the technical needs of all customers with the goal of providing a quality product that meets the user needs.
Definition of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE).

​Moreover, the benefits of integrating systems engineering and enterprise architecture based on active knowledge models as applied to the build-out of jet aircraft to entire university systems are many. As aforementioned, I first learned about EA at Boeing and at the same time met senior members of the ARPANET project, precursor to the Internet. As a direct result, I founded BESTNET (Binational English & Spanish Telecommunications Network) and we ran parallel human factor analysis experiments by creating communications knowledge models through DECNET as a tool for computer mediated conferencing, learning and group research and development and working together while apart. A more specific description of this type of work can be referenced in the Preliminary Phase of The Open Group Architecture Development Methodology. For more information refer to:
http://pubs.opengroup.org/architecture/togaf9-doc/arch/chap06.html.
 
Advantages of EA Applications to Social and Behavioral Science Students
 
Enterprise architecture (EA) will:

​

• Take the social science imagination to new heights and new possibilities
• Cause a new logic, cognitive and paradigm shift in thinking about social injustices in the community that are social responsibility skills and more than encourage community builders
• Impact endowment injustices away from funders that are racist
• Impact endowment funding toward interesting projects involving the underrepresented communities
• Help stakeholders (from citizenry to students and beyond)
• Hold administrators of state supported institutions of higher education accountable for misspending state funds, especially if we define misuse as not graduating students of color in proportion to their standing in their respective regions
• Assist in the facilitation of individuals holding social sciences degrees to become supervisors of engineers (Silicon Valley) by learning to speak engineering
• Proffer ideas and strategies for marrying social sciences to STEM fields to stay relevant
• Align offerings with student and labor-market demand data and analysis on the trends and demographic shifts that are impacting enrollment numbers, including the Great Recession, declining birth rates, and diversifying student populations
• Assist colleges/universities to adapt and respond to emerging student needs
• Effectively communicate projections (profitability) about  innovative cross-disciplinary degree programs in higher education
• Provide innovation data to stir “What if?” scenarios and engage stakeholders in data-informed decision-making
• Study why financial and demographic pressures have given rise to the argument for innovation in degree programs
• Research the context for waves of higher education reform movements
• Address the barriers to change on campuses with real-time data
• Assist elements for meaningful innovation in the community
• Transforming cities into thinking cities through the application of Enterprise Architecture as a tool for IT
• View the thinking university-enterprise as a modern-day landscape or research setting for applied (real-time) research 
• Engage the community through transformation through prioritizing resource allocations between various competing demands for resources (in real-time)
• Develop road maps for community engagement and service learning
• Develop road maps for leading modernization efforts in this country and beyond (especially in the borderlands)
• Develop road maps for acquiring skills and specialties in the workforce required to operate the university for the future
• Create a model that at the same time acts as a paradigm for restructuring higher education and infuses Enterprise Architecture, IT and Systems Engineering for planning, administrating and instruction in institutions of higher education.

​EA is only a tech-tool to be sure, but it is also the most effective tool to date to cause an ongoing sparkling interchange of innovative ideas between very different types of people and start and/or transform institutions of higher education. Moreover, in all of the technological capabilities that exist today there is no better tool than EA to cause a confluence of knowledge.
​
A Sustainable Design for Higher Education Transformation
Active Knowledge Modeling (AKM) and digitalization support the capture and management of enterprise knowledge and data, creating digital models of human mental models for more effective and sustainable design, operations, and cyclic reuse. Human mental models are captured and enhanced by practical collaborative innovation and learning, modelling novel concepts and approaches to products, processes, and properties and methods. Digitalization and AKM capabilities enable cyclic design and operations of instructional science and technology models and work-processes, collaborative innovation and learning, and creation of sustainable instructional, collaborative research and workspace solutions.
 
Background
Active Knowledge Modeling (AKM) were first applied in a university setting in 1994 upon the founding of California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB) while utilizing the METIS platform, created by Frank Lillehagen, in Salongbakken, Norway. As members of the start-up team to initiate a new university, Armando Arias, Ph.D., Founding Dean/Founding Associate Vice President and Beryl Bellman, Ph.D., Academic Director at the FEAC Institute, co-founders of BESTNET (Binational English & Spanish Telecommunications Network), acquired METIS resources and tools and trained engineers from El Colegio de la Frontera Norte (COLEF), see, https://works.bepress.com/armando-arias/4/. 
 
At the same time, Arias and Bellman garnered research support from the Western Behavioral Sciences Institute (WBSI) in La Jolla, California where BESTNET was located for over a decade. Working collaboratively, METIS staff trained faculty/staff from CSU Monterey Bay, BESTNET, COLEF, and WBSI. Together they invested in novel capabilities for modelling reusable collaborative infrastructures, services, and instructional, collaborative research, teaching, and learning workplaces. Industrial solutions for university design based on the prototype for creating new universities through object-oriented enterprise modeling and the applications of communications knowledge management (now the AKM Modeler) were implemented and demonstrated for institutions of higher education, research and development institutions, and university construction industries for the development of brand-new colleges/universities.
 
The following journal articles by Arias and Bellman provide additional insights: Object Oriented Enterprise Modelling & Distributed Cognition at a New University: The Case of CSU Monterey Bay, describes in detail how METIS was applied in starting a brand-new university, see, https://works.bepress.com/armando-arias/7/; Creating a New University Through Object Oriented Enterprise Modeling, focuses more on how EA modeling infuses the strategic planning process to create an overall vision for the university, see, https://works.bepress.com/armando-arias/5/; and, the article, Agile Learning, New Media, and Technological Infusement at a New University: Serving Underrepresented Students, describes how METIS is applied not only to starting a brand new university but also in serving underrepresented students, see https://works.bepress.com/armando-arias/20/.
 
Since the founding of CSU Monterey Bay and as the application of the METIS platform industrial digital markets matured, only one new small-scale application was initiated at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). In early 2022, we held a series of meetings, with active knowledge model scientists in Norway. As a direct result and infusing the lessons learned, we started reanalyzing use-case modelling which used the early version of the AKM Modeler, METIS. The initial focus was on use-cases for transforming Fort Ord, the world’s second-largest U.S. military base, into a university. In short, we learned about the practical needs and challenges, as well as potential capabilities and outcomes of AKM modelling. The mutual innovation, operations and learning included quite a few lessons learned for all parties. The figure below shows the scope of work for some of the roles of the project teams.
 
 

Any sector implementation effort should start with a pilot project. We are viewing the case of CSU Monterey Bay as our pilot project, and scoped use-cases involving selected domains for higher education, collaborative partner and clearly stated outcomes/deliverables, and cyclic design and operations. Designing use-cases and modelling roles and instructional workspaces, and collaborative workplaces and research needed for sustainable operations is cyclic innovation and learning for all involved. Teams will serve the purpose of the mutual learning among partner roles and AKM modelling experts. Early prototype solutions and practical use-case demonstrators are produced, removing doubts and creating proven approaches and methods, and a solid understanding of the AKM modelling and meta-modelling concepts and challenges.
 
Active Knowledge Models for Higher Education
In order to ensure sustainability, AKM models must be developed for institutions of higher education, related research and development industries and the public sector. These models must embrace societal laws and technologies, practices of markets, communities and societies and partner dependencies. Innovation projects should find partners that can be Sector-specific Platform responsible operators and appoint partners that will be market and society responsible for AKM outcomes that cause social change by design.
 
Opportunities for Research and Development for Institutions of Higher Education: Platforms, Components, Outcomes-Based Teaching/Learning and Services
Institutions of higher education are invited to form platform design and operation teams composed of administrators, faculty, staff, students, IT builders, users, and operators. This novel opportunity, created by advances in digitalization and AKM modeling offer collaboration, interaction and cyclic design and operations across life-cycle disciplines. Novel capabilities and services in fabrication, commissioning and operations will enable sustainable and profitable outcomes-based solutions and services. 

​1. The core AKM platform is adapted to applying AKM’s modelling tools. Most categories of knowledge models and meta-models are initially modelled by the Open Source AKM tools and can later be developed and applied by collaborating customers and leading partners.
2. Most sector-specific AKM models will be developed, supported, and managed in a sector-specific AKM e-architectures.
3. Utilizing e-architecture tools will be designed for digital data services, capturing, ingesting, and managing big data, performing analyses, and developing new methods. Users will collaborate to create their real-time product and process monitoring tools and will develop special methods and services to be integrated and delivered to their sector.
4. Active Knowledge Modelling – for novel object types, properties, and outcomes-based services. Users will be offered AKM models, meta-models, and services to capture new concepts, properties and values exploiting partner and supplier knowledge and data. Sustainable methods will be delivered across sectors.
5. Active Knowledge e-Architectures – generic, as well as sector- and educational-specific e-architectures will be developed over the coming years. Each sector will build best-practice reference e-architectures (based on lessons-learned) for each respective project in support of the delivery and operations of responsible deliveries that meet clearly stated outcomes.

​Future Vision for Active Knowledge Models
What I am proposing and at the same time envisioning for the future of transforming Hispanic Serving Institutions is the creation of web-based visual collaboration arenas for teaching, learning, research and development and administration of a new form of university-enterprise enabled by evolving sustainable sector platforms and customized active knowledge models designed through the application of e-architecture platforms like METIS. AKM teaching and learning workplaces and services will integrate and extend the use of AKM-driven ICT systems.
 
In a similar fashion as we did when starting-up CSU Monterey Bay and while working in collaboration with El Colegio de la Frontera Norte (Mexico’s premier social and behavioral sciences institute, we will once again be positioned to begin immediate research and development in the application of active knowledge models and e-Enterprise Architecture.  We will propose a pilot project for reorganizing higher education in the State of California (University of California/California State University) and also in both private and public university systems in Baja California Norte: Centro de Enseñanza Técnica y Superior and the Instituto Tecnológico. The initial core AKM Platform will be composed of open generic digitalization tools and to be applied through binational collaborations.
 
We will collaborate to design Hispanic student services, and teaching, learning and research solutions, that are bicultural, bilingual and transnational, especially designed for serving educationally underserved student populations. 

​Armando Arias, Ph.D., was part of the start-up team and founding member of California State University, Monterey Bay, where he now serves as a professor in the division of Social and Behavioral Sciences and Global Studies. He is the author of the international award-winning book, Theorizing César Chávez New Ways of Knowing STEM, Somos en escrito Literary Foundation Press, 2020, in which he shares a critical analysis of STEM studies, portraying his views as César Chávez would have had he gone on to earn a doctorate in science. He has served as a start-up team member for more than a dozen new universities in the U.S. and consulted on the founding of new universities in Japan, Mexico, Europe, and Africa.

                                         (CW: Bulimia, Mentions of Suicide)
 
          Some things are innate in us: breathing, walking, blinking. Over time, we develop habits that feel instinctual, even though they are learned from mimicking the people around us. Despite my mother never explicitly telling me what bulimia was, I learned from watching her. She taught me how to force my fingers back and tickle punching bags until our stomachs call for a truce, how to let it out, how to etch in my brain that my daughters will learn to do the same too because it’s tradition at this point.
 
The average person takes 66 days to develop a habit,
                       but how long does it take if the habit is already inside you –
                                                                                             waiting for you to cave in?  
 
                When I was in fifth grade, my biology teacher taught a lesson about owls and their pellets. She told my class that pellets are just regurgitated balls of fur and bones and that owls usually swallow their prey whole. So, when they eat, everything that can dissolve does. Everything else stays in their gizzard where it will compress into a tiny brown ball. Then, they cough it up. I didn’t really understand how owls were okay with that: eating then throwing up habitually. It wasn’t until my mother showed me how she did it that I finally understood.
               The first time I heard her throw up, I ran downstairs and tried to help. I pulled her hair back until I realized that she wanted it to happen (and was forcing it). Her fingers kept going down her throat, in and out, and I backed away as she gagged with no release. I remember thinking how I’d never seen that much saliva before as she drooled over the toilet. She never looked up at me or talked to me about it after. My mom never told me how or when she learned to purge (I never asked), but once, I was at my grandparents’ house for dinner, and my grandmother ran to the bathroom after we ate. It was just the two of us at the table, so I followed her in case she needed me. The lock of the bathroom door clicked, silence, then the voiding came. I heard her gagging and the soft plops of chunks hitting the water. That noise sounds like home sometimes. The nerves in my stomach let me know this wasn’t her first time. I realized in that moment that women in my family do nothing more than empty themselves. 
 
           How long does it take to not digest a mouse?  
 
                      How long would it take if the mouse were a whole box of pizza instead?  
 
           My mother has got it down to a science: 30 minutes after eating or immediately after an argument with my father. I have clear memories of her running downstairs with tears in her eyes after hearing them yell for an hour and her being locked in the bathroom for a few minutes. 
         My first time was at Olive Garden. I was 11 years old, and my cousin was having a birthday dinner. I had a soup that was made with kale, potatoes, and spicy sausages, and a plate of spaghetti and meatballs. I don’t remember how, but I finished my food way before everyone else. Maybe I scarfed it down and swallowed it whole like an owl would. I chugged a glass of water and excused myself to the bathroom. Honestly, I didn’t know I was going to do it until I was on my knees and already rolling my sleeves up. I tried pushing my stomach at weird angles to make myself nauseous (that didn’t work; that’s not how stomachs work). So, like my mother, I shoved two fingers down my throat and gagged. My eyes watered, and I made an embarrassing noise, but nothing came out. I did it again. My throat burned, and in front of me sat bright reddish pink slime and little pasta worms, floating. I kept going until there was nothing left in me, and I was cramping over the toilet. As I flushed, I wondered if owls felt pain when they coughed pellets up (they don’t; they’re supposed to make themselves vomit, we aren’t). I ran to the sink to wash my hands and my mouth. Looking in the mirror, I convinced myself that I looked skinnier as I dried my hands off. Dinner went back to normal, and the scent of sour tomatoes hasn’t gone away since.
 
                                       Why does dry heaving smell minty?  
 
           Ask my mother and me; it is a flavor too strong to ignore, but not strong enough to become a mask. At some point, your body stops fighting the heaving. Everything you touch starts smelling like it could burn you: acid, bile disintegrating all that it touches. You’re sour. Pieces of you and remnants of your quick bathroom trips leave a stink that cannot be washed out with detergent. Once, I was sitting in a field with my mom on a picnic. Is it still called a picnic if the only thing brought to consume is water? We picked some flowers to pass time, and I found feathers of a bird scattered across the field. I grabbed them and showed them to my mom, but she told me not to touch them because they were dirty and smacked them out of my hands. She told me once that our touch was permanent, and I didn’t understand what that meant until we rolled the picnic blanket up, and it smelled like fermented tomato sauce. 
              I always wondered if owls notice when their feathers fall off, or if molting was as important to them as getting periods is to us. Out of every girl in my middle school friend group, I was the last to menstruate. My backpack always had 2 pads and some liners in it, even though I didn’t get my period until freshman year of high school. Each of my friends told me about their bloody stories: how and when they noticed that their pants had been stained by womanhood. I didn’t have the courage to tell them that I hadn’t experienced any of that yet (and I wouldn’t for 3 more years). 
                                                          We
                                                                                      are
               what
                                                                                                                we
                                                                   hide.
 
                 Mantling is an instinctual habit that owls have where they use their wings to cover their food in order to survive. They hide smaller birds from hawks above, and mice from snakes below. I watched a documentary once about mantling. As their wings spread and their heads bowed down, I realized that we all mantle at some point in our lives. I used to stuff candy wrappers and empty bags of chips under my bed. Every night, as I laid down to sleep, the sharp scents of expired chocolate and stale Fritos welcomed me back. The crackling sounds of plastic sounded like accomplishment. My mother and I aren’t good at a lot of things but hiding has been a pride of ours for as long as I can remember. We push things away often: why I got my period so late, my appetite loss, my suicide attempts. My mother hides her insecurities with tummy teas that make you shit water and skipping meals with me (only to find bowls of old food in her room once she leaves). I hide my anger in shame and long sleeve shirts when it’s too hot outside and locked doors – even when no one else is home. My grandmother hides her feebleness by baking cakes daily and sharing them with her neighbors and never saving a slice for herself.
 
                                                                                                      Is that mantling too?
If you throw up  
                        and it goes  
                                         down the drain, does the  
                                                                                 shame  
                                                                                            go with it?
               Much like in a pellet, there are things that will not go away. The bones and fur stay solid for a reason. The dissection of an owl pellet can tell a person a lot about an owl’s lifestyle: what it ate, how often, and where it came from. Unlike owls, the food we eat (or don’t eat) is not all there is to know about our lives. You cannot know of my generosity from the clear, syrup-like fluid floating atop the toilet water. You wouldn’t know what loving me is like from the recurring neon-green chunks dripping from my lips or my chin. 
 
                                                Why do we keep flushing pieces of ourselves away?
 
              I think my mother knows the answer, but I am so afraid for her to find out that her habit isn’t a secret anymore, so I stay silent and keep my questions to myself.  

by Ricardo Romo

The seventies are remembered as a monumental decade for most Americans. In the early years of the decade President Richard Nixon’s resignation and the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade dominated the news. Earth Day, Godfather movies, and disco music fascinated young people. The advent of the computer revolution marked a major change in society.​

For Latinos, the decade included significant events as cities across the Southwest experienced school walkouts, and California farmworkers won important union and legislative policy victories. Talented youth introduced Chicano poetry, plays, and film, and universities developed Chicano Studies classes and programs. 
 
Chicano artists who grew up during the seventies witnessed great transformations as they saw for the first time a flowering of their own artistic cultural creations. Jacinto Guevara of San Antonio emerged as one of the fortunate individuals who rode the early waves of this artistic movement. His story provides some important insights into one of the most significant eras of Chicano artistic creativity.
 
From an early age Jacinto Guevara discovered that art represented an important means of communicating. Guevara came of age artistically during the early 1970s while attending Belmont High School in East Los Angeles. At the time, few Latinos went to museums but most grew up surrounded by commercial art, usually in the form of billboards and posters. Significantly the early expressions of Arte de La Raza appeared in public art. ​

Chicano art originated with the mural movement in California. Art historians place the birth of Chicano art between 1968-1973. Guevara was a teenager when Chicano artists painted a mural at the headquarters of Cesar Chavez’ United Farm Workers Union in Del Rey, California. Some of the earliest Chicano murals originated in the heart of East Los Angeles, in close proximity to Guevara’s home.
 
When Joe and John Gonzalez decided to convert an abandoned meat market into an art gallery, they recruited two future Chicano art stars, David Botello and their brother-in-law Ignacio Gomez, to paint what UCLA art historians have identified as the first public Chicano mural in East Los Angeles. Muralism became the most prominent creative development of Chicano art.
 
Guevara enrolled at California State University Northridge [CSUN] in 1975, a time when colleges throughout Southern California were reaching out to East Los Angeles students. Guevara had seldom gone to the San Fernando Valley, home of the Northridge campus, but he liked CSUN’s Chicano Studies Program which was in its sixth year. He majored in Ethnic Studies and took classes with famed Chicano historian Dr. Rudy Acuña. Guevara loved music and joined the mariachi band headed by Professor Beto Ruiz. Guevara became a frequent art and cartoon contributor to El Popo, the Chicano student newspaper founded in 1970. 

In 2016 Lewis Fisher published Saving San Antonio: The Preservation of a Heritage. It told a story of the San Antonio Conservation Society’s organized efforts to save historical houses from destruction. Guevara is also “saving San Antonio” through his paintings. His work captures the essence of the city, areas where not all the houses and buildings are spectacular, but they contain meaning and beauty for their owners. Guevara’s structural portraits, such as that of the 1880s building, “Liberty Bar,” which became a hangout for many Chicano artists, capture a heritage that makes San Antonio unique. ​

Ricardo Romo is an author, educator, and Latino Art connoisseur. He has degrees from the University of Texas at Austin (BA) and UCLA (PhD).

by Daniel Acosta, Jr.
  
                                               
Prologue

I grew up calling my grandmother—Cuca-- and my aunt--Babe--by their first names; I don't know why but Louie (Babe’s son) and I always did.  Babe was my mother's younger sister and Cuca was their mother.  Babe, Cuca, and my mother were very close.  They seemed like sisters.  Louie was named after our grandfather, Luís.  Louie was five years older than me and was the one who taught me about life.  My maternal grandparents did not have any sons; Louie and I were the boys in the family.  A good part of my early childhood was split between my parents' run-down rental home and Cuca's house, which seemed like a palace to me because it had a bathroom with a tub.  My parent's home finally got a stand-up shower when I started first grade because there was not enough room for a tub with a shower.  When I started first grade in the fall of 1951and until I completed the 4th grade, I remember spending many days and nights with Babe, Louie, and Cuca.  Papa Luís had died when I was very young, and I do not remember him. 

 
Cuca’s House

I really liked staying over at Cuca's house on Piedras Street.  From her front door we could see the dirt-brown Franklin Mountains looming in the distance.  Her house had a small front yard with a white picket fence and vines growing on the enclosed screen of the front porch.  There was an unpaved driveway to park the car and further down the driveway was a detached garage, which was used mainly for storage of old furniture.  Next to the garage was a wobbly gate that led to a tiny backyard with a peach tree and some scrubby bushes. The backyard was mostly dirt with a few, scattered patches of grass.  The house next to hers had a large backyard; a rickety wooden fence separated Cuca's house from the neighbor's yard. 
 
Over the fence I could see my parents' rental home on Hamilton Street, which was essentially two houses away if I wanted to take a shortcut by jumping over two fences.  Instead, I ran up the rocky alley between Hamilton and Idalia, which dead-ended on Piedras.  One could enter the house from the back by entering a half-door that that connected the unfinished part of the basement to another area with a locked door that was finished into a bedroom for Babe.  Outside of Babe's bedroom door was a small area where an old-time washer was located.  It had a wringer attached to the washer and once the clothes were washed, they were placed through the wringer and were wrung dry by physically rotating the handle of the wringer.  The clothes were sun-dried in the backyard on a small clothesline.  Right above the washer was a small basement window just small enough for a small boy like me to squeeze through, which I did a couple of times to get into the house.    
 
The other way to get into the house through the back was to walk up some shaky wooden steps to a door that opened into a small breakfast room and then to the kitchen.  At the top of the stairway was a small landing with a window on the side of the house where Cuca's bedroom could be seen.  Next to the breakfast room, off from the kitchen, was the bathroom, directly opposite Cuca's bedroom.  Leaving the kitchen there was an area I guess one would call the formal dining room, which had a dark mahogany table with six matching chairs.  From the dining area there was an arched opening which immediately became the living room, where there was an upright piano under the north window and a sofa next to the piano.  Later when I was older a large black and white television was purchased by Babe and Cuca.  We spent many nights watching professional wrestling and boxing matches.  I learned to recognize many of the fighters from Babe and one of my favorites was Sugar Ray Robinson.  We would keep the front door opened so a nice breeze from the west came through the screened front porch into the living room.   One could reach Babe's basement bedroom by going down a very narrow staircase which came off from the dining room.
 
During the winter months, Louie and I often slept together on the sofa in the living room; a large gas heater was in the dining area which was turned on in the early morning by Cuca so Louie and I could get warm before we had breakfast.  During the warmer months we slept downstairs with Babe in her large queen-size bed.  In the summer the basement was always much cooler than the rest of the house, and I liked the dampness and darkness of the basement, where I could read my comic books under a small lamp. 
 

Babe and Louie

What I remember most about Babe is the way she treated me, as if I were much older.  Babe, Louie, and I often watched the soap operas on TV during the summer months, and she would explain things to us about why so and so was divorcing her husband and who was stealing money from the company.  We all laughed when Babe got it right and gasped in horror when someone was killed in an accident without any warning.  When there was time in between the shows, I jumped up from the couch and ran down Piedras to Beacon’s grocery store to get her favorite drink--not the stubby Coke bottle but the long, thin Pepsi which was sold cold.  I also remember watching "A Tale of Two Cities" with Babe, and when the novel was required for my ninth-grade English class, I already had a good idea of the plot. Through Babe and TV, I learned much about how white people lived in America. I instinctively knew that we were different from the Anglos, but it was Babe who taught me to be proud of my Mexican heritage. 
 
With Louie’s guidance, I learned to play all the sports, especially baseball.  I was able to play with boys 4 or 5 years older than me and picked up many tricks on how to become a skilled ballplayer.   I became interested in organized Little League and Pony League baseball, playing first string as a centerfielder and shortstop for two different teams.  Babe, Louie, and her long-time boyfriend, Johnny, were the only ones in my family who saw me play baseball during the summer months.  Cuca called Johnny El Árabe; there was a large contingency of Lebanese families (but not really Arabians) living in El Paso.  I was not much of a hitter, but I played first string because I was the best defensive outfielder and shortstop on the team and made several outstanding plays each game.  They would be in the stands each night rooting for me.  After the games, we often walked down Piedras to eat out at two greasy spoons which were near Beacon's.  There were two bars directly opposite each other on Piedras—Jimmy's and Pike's--and both had small kitchens.  When we were in the mood for good tacos we ate at Pike's Bar and when we wanted great hamburgers we ate at Jimmy's.  We leisurely ate and listened to songs on the juke box that the bar customers had selected.  
 


Babe and the Authorities
 
One summer Babe decided to paint the interior of the house and she said let's go, Danny, and get some paint on Paisano Street, the supposedly dividing line between the Mexican and Anglo neighborhoods in El Paso.  Cuca's house was in Manhattan Heights where there were mixed neighborhoods of whites and Chicanos.  We got into her old 1950-something Ford Fairlane and took off.  Along the way she pointed out the differences in the neighborhoods and the types of people.  We both laughed when we saw a man turning left using both his blinking turn signal and sticking his arm straight out with fingers extended; Babe said he wanted us to know where he was really going.  On the way to the paint store, we were pulled over by a cop for not coming to a complete stop at an intersection.  Babe was very polite and smiled nicely at the policeman, who eventually gave her only a warning ticket.  Babe told me that it pays to be always friendly!
 
When my cousin Louie and I were both going to Rusk Elementary School in El Paso during the 1950s, I remember seeing Babe talking fast and excitedly about her son, Louie, to the principal and some teachers after school.  He had been reprimanded for speaking Spanish on school grounds during recess; it was a school rule that only English could be spoken at school.  It is a cliche to say now that Babe was a woman before her time.  I only wished I could have heard her take down the authorities for what they did to Louie.  A few days later she told me what happened, and broadly smiled that Louie would have no demerits on his school record. 
 
One night, when all three of us were sleeping in the basement bedroom of Cuca's house, I heard someone jump over the back gate and look through the bedroom window next to the gate entrance.  I nudged Babe and told her that I saw a man outside.  She jumped out of bed and took Louie and me to Cuca's back bedroom upstairs.  We sat on her bed while Babe called the police and made sure the doors were all locked.  It was fortunate that were two locked doors in the basement which made it difficult for the intruder to get into Babe’s bedroom.  However, while Babe and Cuca were in the front of the house, Louie and I heard steps on the back stairs.  When he reached the back door, we saw his profile against the moon light through the thin curtain of the window.  He banged on the back door to make it open but was unsuccessful.  He then ran down the steps because police sirens were now getting louder.  We heard him yell when he slipped and fell.  It was on that same bed that Cuca would often tell us stories of her life and family in Mexico.  We learned from her that David Siqueiros, the famous Mexican muralist, was a distant relative.  She smiled wickedly that he was a Comunista!
 
The last thing I remembered seeing was Babe in the living room calmly talking to the police about the intruder, who had fled the scene.  A few years later Louie told me that the intruder had recently been paroled from prison and made the mistake to try to break into Cuca's house. He had to go to jail again when he was caught by the police.  I also learned much later in life that he was Babe's former boyfriend. 
 
When I was in my fourth-grade class later that same year, our teacher, Mrs. Shlanta, gave an in-class assignment to write a personal story about our family, all within an hour of class time.  I thought quickly and decided to write about the intruder.  I titled the story, "The Burglar", to make it more interesting and which I could write about without much difficulty in one hour.  I left out the part of seeing the intruder a second time on the back stairs.  She was very impressed and asked if I was scared.  No, I said.  It was because Aunt Babe knew exactly what to do to keep the burglar out of the house.   Louie and I were really scared to see the intruder so close to us and to hear the banging on the door.  I guess we were so lucky that he did not get in. But I couldn't tell Mrs. Shlanta that.  I was given an A for the story.
 


Louie and Danny

Two years later our family had moved to another rental house, still on Hamilton Street, directly across from our first house.  Louie was now in high school and was driving a cool, light green Studebaker.  I did not spend as much time at Cuca's house as I used to, but I still went over to see Babe and Cuca after school.  Having a car and being a teenager, I did not see Louie as often.  But one evening around 10 PM my mother and I heard Louie knocking at our front door.  He was out of breath, and he told us that a Mexican gang from Chivas Town (several blocks west of Piedras near Alabama Street) was chasing after him.  He had left his car up the block on the corner of Piedras and Hamilton, next to Mr. Wicks' house.  We called Babe and she said for Louie to sneak over to the back yard, just a few houses from ours.  She would be waiting for him at the small basement half-door.  About an hour later, we heard police sirens and saw police cars parked near Mr. Wicks' side lawn.  My mother and I walked up the street and saw that Louie's old Studebaker front windshield had been completely smashed in with rocks and bricks.  Again, I saw Babe calmly talking to the police and asking them what would have happened to Louie if he had been in the car?  Louie was not at fault; the police had to go after the gang members.  That was my Tía Babe. 
 
The only gangs near my neighborhood were Mexican.  There were two Mexican gangs who fought mainly among themselves over territory and if you did not belong to either gang, you had to be careful about showing any preference for one gang over the other.  There were no white gangs at my school, and I never saw any whites trying to beat up Mexicans in my neighborhood.  Louie taught me to avoid any interactions with the Mexican gangs, unlike his run-ins with some of the gang members.  Seeing his front car window completely smashed on that summer night made a deep impression on me.  I kept a low profile at school and stayed away from gang members. It didn't hurt that I was known for being an A student, who academically outperformed many Anglos in the classroom.  The word in the street was to not hassle Danny.  However, there was a time when I had to intercede when some female Mexican gang members were trying to beat up an Anglo girl, who I knew in one of my classes.  This incident occurred as I was walking home after school down Piedras about a mile from Cuca's house.  Luckily for me none of the male gang members were around and I was able to convince the Mexican girls from hurting the white girl."
 
I was friendly with many of my Mexican classmates, and several of them advised me to not associate with the gringos and to keep my Mexican identity untainted.  But I wanted to be accepted by the more popular whites at school.   I tried out for the 8th grade football team and started as the first-string end, offensively and defensively, which gave me status with some of the white elites.  I began to walk a fine line between my white and Mexican classmates by trying to please both groups.  In the end, I had problems with my ability to accept my Mexican heritage and my desire to be part of the elite whites in school.  It was later in high school that I became proud of my Mexican background.  My deficiency in speaking fluent Spanish, like the rest of my Mexican friends, was beginning to be more difficult to hide from everyone
 
In my 8th grade Spanish class, our Spanish teacher, Mrs. Curry, complimented several of the Mexican students for their excellent pronunciation of Spanish words.  Because I was the straight A student in all my classes and recognized openly by many of my teachers, it became noticeable to several of the Anglo students that I was not highlighted for my proficiency in speaking Spanish.  An Anglo member of the football team in the class jokingly asked Mrs. Curry about my Spanish abilities.  There was dead silence in the class, except for a few giggles.  Mrs. Curry quickly started a new topic, and that started my decision to be less sociable with my classmates. Throughout my years at home and school I refused to speak Spanish.  I thought by being less Mexican I would be more accepted by my white classmates.  Of course, when I spoke in Spanish to my Mexican friends, it was terrible, and I was mocked for trying to be more Anglo.  Still, I had some good Mexican friends.  Many of my Anglo classmates attended Austin High School and were cordial and somewhat friendly, but I knew my secret was out and that I really did not belong entirely to any one group at school. 
 


Epilogue
 
By the time I was three, I had decided on my own to not speak Spanish at home or at school; I thought that I would be more accepted by my white neighborhood friends and classmates and by my teachers.  My parents would talk to me in Spanish and English and did not force me to respond in Spanish.  Babe never made me feel ashamed when she spoke Spanish to me and did not care if I responded in English.  She mainly spoke Spanish with me when she wanted to make an important point about some matter. 
 
I learned a lot from Babe:  she was a forthright woman, who was proud of her Mexican heritage and spoke out when confronted with discrimination and racism.  She had a long and good life, passing away when she was in her late eighties.  Louie became a captain in the El Paso Police Department. and later in his career, Chief of Police at El Paso Community College.  He received a letter of reference from Mr. Wicks when he first joined the department.

Daniel Acosta is a Mexican American born and raised in El Paso.  His grandparents emigrated to the US in the early 1900s. Daniel's parents never completed high school, and he was the first in his family to graduate from college.  He has a professional degree in pharmacy and a doctorate in pharmacology and toxicology.  Daniel's career spanned 45 years as an educator, scientist, and administrator in academia and the federal government.  He recently retired in Austin, and plans to write about his experiences with discrimination and bias during his career.   He hopes that he can help young minorities with their careers by writing about the barriers he encountered in academia, professional societies, and the federal government.  ​

Michael De Rosa was born in New York City and grew up in Spanish Harlem. His mother was born in Najuabo, Puerto Rico. He holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the City University of New York. From 1973-1989 he taught organic chemistry (in Spanish) and did research at Universidad Simón Bolívar in Caracas, Venezuela. From 1989-2020 he was a faculty member at Penn State Brandywine and retired as a professor emeritus of chemistry. This piece is from a memoir he is writing on growing up in Spanish Harlem. He recently published a short story, "The Nuptial Dance in Xs and Ys,” in Academy of the Heart And Mind. 

Home is not always where you hang your hat as it is said. Sometimes home is where you grew up as a child. Other times home is the place you raised your own children. Perhaps home is neither, but a place that you visited during your childhood years. A place where your family roots are embedded in the soil, intertwined with tradition and cultures of those who spread their wings and flew to another land. A small island caught between the Atlantic and the Caribbean Sea whose people call to you in your dreams.

Throughout the years, I have had many different homes. I left my mother's apartment at an early age to live with my boyfriend at the time. A year later when it didn't work out, I lived alone, then with a roommate and alone again. Until eventually I married and moved from Chicago to New Jersey. During that time my mother remained in her three-bedroom apartment filled with memories, great food and many plants. I often visited my mother in my childhood home throughout the years especially when I lived only a couple of blocks away.

Now married with a family of my own, we plan a trip to visit the island once called Borinquen. The fear of flying and the expense of the flights make these trips few and far between, however when the decision is made and the time has come, it is greeted with much anticipation. The plans of where we will take the children sightseeing, whom we will visit and what we need for the trip consume the days prior. Calls are made to the extended family on the island and ideas are exchanged, the excitement is palpable. Our kids try to recall the names of their aunts, uncles and cousins based on their prior visits. They never forget Aunt Vicky and Uncle Jorge whom we've stayed with in the past and spoiled the kids during that stay, ensuring that they will not be forgotten. The many cousins become confusing. However they cannot wait to eat the non-traditional spaghetti that my aunt makes. For me, it is the traditional food my Aunt Margarita cooks in her home. Just the thought of her brings back the smell of arroz con gandules and pulled chicken with authentic spices, making my mouth water.

Boarding the plane, I recall the nervous energy my mother used to have and how I inherited her fear of flying. The mornings of those years past when she would spill her café, drop items and lose her temper before a flight, all symptoms of her anxiety. Yet, it was never a deterrent for getting us there every year. As I try to appear brave before my children, I quietly pray the rosary from the moment my feet move me onto the plane until we land with a few distractions in between. Sitting on the plane in those moments of being transported through the air from one home to another, I wonder how things have changed since I was last there. Flying seems to bend the time, in some ways I expect everyone to be as I last left them, but know that isn't so. One year when I visited I was surprised to find one of my cousins was bald. Apparently not something that made the weekly phone conversations.

The kids eagerly watch as the plane ascends into the air and four hours later, clap the moment the wheels touch the ground. While they are being entertained with numerous movies on their electronic devices, I try my best not to focus on the flight itself but the destination. Memories flow of conversations with my cousins when we were teenagers hanging out on the side of my grandmother's house; of sitting with my grandmother on her balcony shelling gandules while she told me stories; watching the mountainous views from the balcony; and going to bed at night listening to the coqui frogs under mosquito netting while my mother, sister and aunts all giggled about the events of the day. When the plane finally lands my tears spill over, as I not only feel relief for arriving safely, but jubilation at having returned.

When the doors open and we step off the plane my hair does what it always does, unforgivably curl no matter how hard I worked that morning to get it straightened. The humidity not only ensnarls my hair it gently kisses my skin. I inhale the scent of the island's indigenous Flamboyan trees and exotic plants, bringing me back to my youth and overwhelming me with emotion.

This trip is different from all others as I carry with me a plant from my mother's house to intern in this soil. A plant that she nurtured and flourished over the years in her home and unfortunately was not doing well in mine. A living reminder of the woman that once nurtured us both, that will take root in this soil and grow for years to come. On this trip I will be greeted by my extended family and will finally grieve with them the loss of my mother, their sister and family matriarch. My aunt and uncle wanted her buried on the island. But selfishly all I brought was a plant. The decision wasn't mine alone but we buried my mother where my siblings and I could visit her grave and where my mother had chosen to call home for 62 years.

Walking out of the airport the heat feels like a cloak over the island and a warm embrace that moves me to want to kiss the ground, because although I was not raised here it is good to be home. Even though, this is not where I reside, this feeling of connection and love will always make it feel like home. That is what my mother wanted for me and what I want for my children.

​We planted my mother's Bird of Paradise in the dirt where my grandfather once grew sugar cane and let his goats roamed free. A sunny spot where my aunt can nurture it, so it can continue to grow and flourish, forever in Puerto Rico’s soil.

​By Felipe de Ortego y Gasca and Iris D. Ruiz