Do we feel safer every year the police budget increases?

Photography ©Julian Lucas

Updated 12/06/2024 5:52pm PT

More than half of the City of Pomona’s budget goes toward funding the Police. This is historically true, and it is still true today. It is an emphasis that we need to continually scrutinize - even with the recent passage of Measure Y that reallocates 10% of the City’s General Funds to child and youth services by the years 2030-2031. 

Pomona’s police budget has increased about $20 million since 2020, and currently $80 million is allocated for Police. This was enabled, in part, with the voters’ approval of the 0.75% sales tax in 2018, and again in spring of 2024, that has resulted in an influx of about 16.8 million more dollars per year to the City’s General Fund.

It is a sobering fact that at the same time as the police budget has increased, the City’s homicide rate has basically remained the same. Since 2016, the City has averaged about 17 homicides a year. Which means that preventing violent crime remains a constant and ongoing concern, raising all sorts of basic questions:

Is the amount of funding devoted to policing translating into safer streets and effective crime reduction, or is this funding failing to address the root causes of violence?

Will allocating a slightly bigger slice of the City’s overall budget to youth programs, with the passage of Measure Y, help us secure safer streets and see a reduction of crime?

Now that our governing bodies, the City Council and Commissioners, are charged with allocating more funds toward child and youth services, are the individuals that make up the governing body, including Pomona’s Mayor, capable of being creative enough to manage a large city like Pomona?

Many members of the City Council and various commissions actively campaigned against Measure Y. Among them was the Pomona Police Officers Association, which contributed nearly $25,000 to the "No on Measure Y" campaign opposing the Pomona Kids First Initiative. Despite their efforts, the measure passed with a 62.5% majority. Their slogan? “The Wrong Way to Help Pomona’s Children.”

This raises an important question: given their level of opposition to Pomona’s Kids First Initiative, are they capable of making the new funding formulas work?

The City’s traditional disproportionate focus on police, while homicide rates remained roughly the same, means that there continues to be room for reflection and re-evaluation. It is with great hope that by enhancing support for community-driven initiatives and preventative strategies, Pomona can build a more holistic approach to public safety. It is also with great hope that focusing funding for youth will not only address the immediate needs of our young population, but also address long-term reductions in crime.

THE NUMBER OF HOMICIDES SINCE 2016:

2016: 13 Homicides
2017: 17 Homicides
2018: 17 Homicides
2019: 12 Homicides
2020: 13 Homicides
2021: 21 Homicides
2022: 19 Homicides
2023 :  (Pending) Discrepancy

In 2023, there was a body found  “in front of a house on Towne Ave, titled, ‘Suspicious Death’ (Reference# P000288-091324).This unfortunate incident, which took place July 1, 2023 at 5:45 am has not been included in The Pomonan Homicide Report count. When the Pomonan submitted a public records request on this incident, the city’s response was vague and only stated information of what officers observed upon their response. The request did not state if this incident was deemed a homicide.

After submitting a public records request for the total number of homicides in 2023, the city reported a figure of 14. However, our independent review and cross-referencing of the data revealed the actual total to be 16. Notably, the city's report included one incident classified as manslaughter, which does not meet the criteria for homicide.

This raises important questions about whether all homicides are being accurately reported in the city’s crime data. Are all homicides being included in the official reports, or are some intentionally left out and swept under the asbestos, making it appear that the homicide rate is decreasing when it may not be?

Do we feel safer every year the police budget increases? 

Rep Norma Torres Votes to Give Trump Unchecked Power to Pursue His "Domestic Enemies"

On November 21, Pomona’s Congresswoman Norma Torres, a Democrat, sided with the House Republicans to pass an act that would allow the US secretary of treasury to revoke an non-profit organization’s tax-exempt status by labeling it as “terrorist-supporting.”

This Act, called the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act, comes with few checks and balances, and the vast majority of Democrats are wondering why, in this political atmosphere, with a newly-elected president who has vowed to use his presidential powers to wreak vengeance against his “domestic enemies,” Democrats would support such an act.

In all fairness, Torres was not the only Democrat who voted in favor. However, she is one of a minority of fifteen who have won the dubious distinction of crossing party lines to favor an Act that would only make it easier for the President-elect to pursue his enemies. The other Democrats include: Colin Allred (Texas), Yadira D. Caraveo (Colorado), Ed Case (Hawaii), Henry Cuellar (Texas), Don Davis (North Carolina), Jared Golden (Maine), Vicente Gonzalez (Texas), Suzanne Marie Lee (Nevada), Jared Moskowitz (Florida), Jimmy Panetta (California), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Washington), Brad Schneider (Illinois), Tom Suozzi (New York) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Florida).

Last week, the same bill failed to advance out of the House because it failed to garner the two-thirds majority needed to pass during a suspension of the lower chamber’s rules. It was subsequently sent back to committee and retooled for a simple majority vote. While 52 Democrats voted for the bill previously, enormous pressure was applied to get those who backed the bill last week to come out against it.

The bill was originally aimed at curtailing the legal actions of pro-Palestinian protesters, and is extremely problematic as it messes with citizens’ basic right to free speech as outlined in the First Amendment of the Constitution. It's also redundant. It is already illegal to provide material support to terrorist organizations.

While it is unlikely that President Joe Biden will sign this bill into law, the same cannot be said for President-elect Trump. The bill, if passed, would make it possible for his administration to place punishing sanctions on many activist organizations, certain universities along with any number of news outlets to raise or bank money. The Act would prevent sanctioned organizations from pursuing legal recourse to plead their case.

Pomonans, who voted overwhelmingly for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, should be wondering why their House representative Norma Torres, sided with the Republicans this round. Norma Torres, whose interest are you representing?

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The Pomonan editorial board consists of opinion journalists whose perspectives are shaped by their expertise, research, discussions, and established principles. This board operates independently from the newsroom.

Virulent Racism and the Valley's First Settlers

Sadly, when reviewing the white history of the Pomona Valley, it pretty much always arcs back to a virulent racism.

By Pamela Casey Nagler

Agricultural laborers
Eagle Rock, California 1901-1910

Los Angeles Public Library Legacy Photo Collection

Published 10/30/2023 | 1:14pm PST

William T. "Tooch" Martin has generally been touted as the first Anglo settler of Claremont. On June 5, 2023, local historian John Neiuber wrote in the local Claremont Courier:

"Which brings me to William “Tooch” Martin, known as the first Anglo settler in Claremont . . . William T. “Tooch” Martin was a justice of the peace, civic leader, and Los Angeles County Supervisor. Tooch purchased 160 acres in Claremont that he farmed and where he built a house for his wife and seven children near Indian Hill and 11th Street. He was first a teacher, then justice of the peace, founded the Masonic Lodge in Pomona, was a civic leader, and was elected to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.”

Unfortunately, as it turns out, Tooch Martin, led a vicious anti-Chinese campaign in Pomona.

The Progress, the local newspaper of the Pomona Valley of Feb. 25, 1886, urged everyone to join in supporting “the policy of boycotting Chinese manufacturers, labor and industry of all kinds.” The newspaper claimed that by neither buying from nor hiring Chinese, residents would find “an effective cure of the Asiatic curse.”

A couple of days later, The Progress reported that on Feb. 27, most of the leaders of the then-unincorporated community convened on a Saturday night to form the Pomona Branch of the Anti-Chinese Association.

Led by the future Los Angeles County Supervisor William T. “Tooch” Martin as chairman, the organization authored a pledge urging every resident to sign and affirm that “I am in favor of all lawful means for the expulsion of the Chinese from the Pacific Coast, and I hereby pledge myself that I will not employ Chinamen directly or indirectly nor purchase the produce of Chinese labor.”

According to an April 7, 2014 article written by Joe Blackstone and printed in the Daily Bulletin, titled, Anti-Chinese hysteria enveloped Pomona in mid-1880s, “one action taken in 1886 encouraged employers of Chinese laborers to find ‘competent white labor’ by turning to a group called the White Labor Bureau.

Photo attributed to William T. “Tooch” Martin, though some people have questioned this attribution. The photo appears to be a picture of a mountain man in his hunting lodge at Mt. Baldy, whereas Los Angeles County Supervisor Martin was generally viewed as more urbane than that.

On April 8, the Progress reported that the Anti-Chinese Association’s steam laundry committee had met and determined $5,000 would be required to open such a plant in Pomona. Steps were to be taken to sell 500 shares of the future business at $10 each.

Martin and businessman W.R. Carter joined W.F. Reynolds in a project to cultivate an extensive garden to raise vegetables to sell to the community. Reynolds would provide the land, allowing residents to avoid buying vegetables grown by the ‘Mongolians,’ as the Progress called them.

Ultimately, for obvious reasons, Pomona’s Chinese population soon went elsewhere, its abandoned shacks between First and Second streets later removed.”

The Progress reported that on April 15, 1886, “one of our leading Chinese, ”Ah Wong, pointed out what he saw as the real cause for the conflict - US citizens wanted the Chinese to cross the Pacific Ocean to labor for them, but the US citizens did not want the Chinese to live among them. Wong said,

“It is not the fault of the Chinaman. It is American man’s fault. American man sell steamboat ticket (to Chinese). It makes him dollars. American man likes those dollars. Chinaman likes to work. American man likes cheap-working man, It is not the fault of the Chinaman; it is the big fault of American man. American man likes dollars, also does Chinaman. You understand?”

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LINKS
Anti Chinese Hysteria Enveloped Pomona in Mid 1880s
Village parking, ‘Tooch’ Martin, and the end of Claremont

Pamela Casey Nagler is currently finishing her book, A Century of Disgrace: The Removal, Enslavement, and Massacre of California’s Indigenous People 1769 - 1869.

Zionist Logic by Malcolm X

By Malcom X
Published October 23, 2023 | 7:09 Am PST
This article was originally produced by Egyptian Gazette, September, 1964.

After visiting Jerusalem in 1959, Malcolm X visited Gaza, Palestine, in September 1964. While there, he met with government representatives, went to Palestinian refugee camps, prayed at a masjid, and addressed a press conference in the Parliament Building. His visit there and the people he met served as the basis for an article he wrote for the Egyptian Gazette the same month.

The Zionist armies that now occupy Palestine claim their ancient Jewish prophets predicted that in the "last days of this world" their own God would raise them up a "messiah" who would lead them to their promised land, and they would set up their own "divine" government in this newly-gained land, this "divine" government would enable them to "rule all other nations with a rod of iron."

If the Israeli Zionists believe their present occupation of Arab Palestine is the fulfillment of predictions made by their Jewish prophets, then they also religiously believe that Israel must fulfill its "divine" mission to rule all other nations with a rod of irons, which only means a different form of iron-like rule, more firmly entrenched even, than that of the former European Colonial Powers.

These Israeli Zionists religiously believe their Jewish God has chosen them to replace the outdated European colonialism with a new form of colonialism, so well disguised that it will enable them to deceive the African masses into submitting willingly to their "divine" authority and guidance, without the African masses being aware that they are still colonized.

Camouflage

The Israeli Zionists are convinced they have successfully camouflaged their new kind of colonialism. Their colonialism appears to be more "benevolent," more "philanthropic," a system with which they rule simply by getting their potential victims to accept their friendly offers of economic "aid," and other tempting gifts, that they dangle in front of the newly-independent African nations, whose economies are experiencing great difficulties. During the 19th century, when the masses here in Africa were largely illiterate it was easy for European imperialists to rule them with "force and fear," but in this present era of enlightenment the African masses are awakening, and it is impossible to hold them in check now with the antiquated methods of the 19th century.

The imperialists, therefore, have been compelled to devise new methods. Since they can no longer force or frighten the masses into submission, they must devise modern methods that will enable them to maneuver the African masses into willing submission.

The modern 20th century weapon of neo-imperialism is "dollarism." The Zionists have mastered the science of dollarism: the ability to come posing as a friend and benefactor, bearing gifts and all other forms of economic aid and offers of technical assistance. Thus, the power and influence of Zionist Israel in many of the newly "independent" African nations has fast-become even more unshakeable than that of the 18th century European colonialists...and this new kind of Zionist colonialism differs only in form and method, but never in motive or objective.

At the close of the 19th century when European imperialists wisely foresaw that the awakening masses of Africa would not submit to their old method of ruling through force and fears, these ever-scheming imperialists had to create a "new weapon," and to find a "new base" for that weapon.

Dollarism

The number one weapon of 20th century imperialism is Zionist dollarism, and one of the main bases for this weapon is Zionist Israel. The ever-scheming European imperialists wisely placed Israel where she could geographically divide the Arab world, infiltrate and sow the seed of dissension among African leaders and also divide the Africans against the Asians.

Zionist Israel's occupation of Arab Palestine has forced the Arab world to waste billions of precious dollars on armaments, making it impossible for these newly independent Arab nations to concentrate on strengthening the economies of their countries and elevate the living standard of their people.

And the continued low standard of living in the Arab world has been skillfully used by the Zionist propagandists to make it appear to the Africans that the Arab leaders are not intellectually or technically qualified to lift the living standard of their people...thus, indirectly inducing Africans to turn away from the Arabs and towards the Israelis for teachers and technical assistance.

"They cripple the bird's wing, and then condemn it for not flying as fast as they."

The imperialists always make themselves look good, but it is only because they are competing against economically crippled newly independent countries whose economies are actually crippled by the Zionist-capitalist conspiracy. They can't stand against fair competition, thus they dread Gamal Abdul Nasser's call for African-Arab Unity under Socialism.

Messiah?

If the "religious" claim of the Zionists is true that they were to be led to the promised land by their messiah, and Israel's present occupation of Arab Palestine is the fulfillment of that prophesy: where is their messiah whom their prophets said would get the credit for leading them there? It was [United Nations mediator] Ralph Bunche who "negotiated" the Zionists into possession of Occupied Palestine! Is Ralph Bunche the messiah of Zionism? If Ralph Bunche is not their messiah, and their messiah has not yet come, then what are they doing in Palestine ahead of their messiah?

Did the Zionists have the legal or moral right to invade Arab Palestine, uproot its Arab citizens from their homes and seize all Arab property for themselves just based on the "religious" claim that their forefathers lived there thousands of years ago? Only a thousand years ago the Moors lived in Spain. Would this give the Moors of today the legal and moral right to invade the Iberian Peninsula, drive out its Spanish citizens, and then set up a new Moroccan nation...where Spain used to be, as the European Zionists have done to our Arab brothers and sisters in Palestine?

In short the Zionist argument to justify Israel's present occupation of Arab Palestine has no intelligent or legal basis in history...not even in their own religion.

Where is their Messiah?

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Civil rights activist Malcolm X was a prominent leader in the Nation of Islam. Until his 1965 assassination, he vigorously supported Black nationalism.

Genocide Explained: A History of the Term

Illustration by Julian Lucas

By Pamela Casey Nagler
Published 10/21/2023 | 10:37am PST

“a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups” - Rafael Lemkin, a Polish lawyer of Jewish descent who coined the term, genocide, and lobbied tirelessly for international law to cover the destruction of groups.

The word, genocide repeated often, in various contexts, has a distinct meaning and a distinct history. 

Raphael Lemkin, a Polish lawyer of Jewish descent, coined the term in 1943 from genos (Greek for family, tribe or race) and cide (Latin for killing), as a reaction to the Armenian Genocide in WWI and the Holocaust or atrocities in Axis-occupied Europe during WWII - the Nazi regime’s treatment of Poles and Jews - but it was intended to be extrapolated to cover many other situations including the European conquests in the Americas that began in the 1490s. 

Lemkin defined genocide as the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole, or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious or national group:

"Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation.

It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves. The objectives of such a plan would be disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups. Genocide is directed against the national group as an entity, and the actions involved are directed against individuals, not in their individual capacity, but as members of the national group.Genocide has two phases: one, destruction of the national pattern of the oppressed group; the other, the imposition of the national pattern of the oppressor. This imposition, in turn, may be made upon the oppressed population which is allowed to remain or upon the territory alone, after removal of the population and the colonization by the oppressor's own nationals.”

According to Lemkin, genocide can refer to mass killing, but it also refers to such coordinated actions as removal and assimilation, the threat to the security of a people and their exposure to substandard living conditions. Genocide refers to government-sanctioned activity, rather than the act of independent individuals against other individuals.

In 1947, the Secretary General of the newly formed United Nations, pursuant to its Economic and Security Council Resolutions, assigned Lemkin to head a committee charged with drafting a law to define, prevent and punish the crime of genocide. As the head of the Committee, Lemkin clarified, and expanded, who was protected under his definition of genocide. Formerly, he had referred to “national” or “oppressed” groups, but he updated his list to include “racial, national, linguistic, religious, political” groups - with economic groups implied.  

Lemkin defined policies as genocidal if they worked for the destruction of a group and/or prevented the preservation and development of the group. He characterized genocidal policy in three interrelated ways: physical, biological and cultural - not arranged in any particular hierarchical order.

According to Lemkin’s definition, physical genocide included more than outright and direct extermination, but also including “slow-death measures” such as, subjection to conditions like improper housing, clothing, food, hygiene and medical care; excessive work likely to result in debilitation or death; mutilations and biological experiments for other than curative purposes; deprivation of the means of livelihood by confiscation and looting, curtailment of work; denial of housing and supplies otherwise attainable to other inhabitants of the territory.

He defined biological genocide as including involuntary sterilization, compulsory abortion, segregation of the sexes or other obstacles to marriage as well as other policies that were intended to prevent births within a target group.

He defined cultural genocide as the imposition of an alien national pattern on a target group, and he included all policies aimed at destroying how a group defines themselves, forcing them to become something else. Among these destructive acts, he included the forced transfer of children; the forced and systematic exile of individuals who represented the group; the prohibition of the use of a language; the systematic destruction of books printed in the national language; the disruption of religious works; the prohibition of new publications; the systematic destruction of national or religious monuments (or their diversion to alien uses); and the destruction or dispersion of objects of historical, artistic, or religious value including objects used in religious worship.

Lemkin’s draft, submitted initially to the UN’s Economic and Social Council,  was eventually reviewed by a seven-member committee. The delegate from the Soviet Union managed to have political groups removed from the list, while the delegate from the United States managed to eliminate or ‘gut’ the cultural genocide category for obvious reasons - it stood as an indictment of the way the US Government had treated, and continued to treat Indigenous People. In spite of these revisions, the final draft, though diluted, still retained many of Lemkin’s original ideas.  

The 1948 United Nations’ Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide states that instances of genocide have taken place throughout history, but now places the crime of genocide under the jurisdiction of international law. Its Second Article defines the crime of genocide as occurring if any of the “following acts were committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” It included killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

According to the UN, persons - rulers, public officials or private individuals - committing these crimes could be punished. 

Since the 1940s, others have suggested other kinds of genocide - mathematical or bureaucratic genocide and environmental genocide. Mathematical or bureaucratic genocide refers to the deliberate miscounting of numbers of people affected and environmental genocide as a result of local, unwanted land use (LULU). 

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Pamela Casey Nagler is currently finishing her book, A Century of Disgrace: The Removal, Enslavement, and Massacre of California’s Indigenous People 1769 - 1869.

Always Keep Your Back to the Wall: A 1988 Interview Conducted in Two Parts with Former Pomona City Council Member, State Assembly Member and State Senator Nell Soto

Part I:

The Early Years: Growing Up With Segregation in Pomona in the 1920s, 30s & 40s - Neighborhoods, Swimming Pools, Movie Theaters, Public Schools & Jobs.

By Julian Lucas
Edited by Pamela Casey Nagler

Published 8:30 Am PST

Nell Soto

In this interview, conducted by Carlos Vasquez of the UCLA and State Government Oral History Program, Former Pomona City Council Member Nell Soto (1926-2009) talks about  her early days growing up as a Spanish/Mexican girl and young adult,  and, later, describes her days helping her politician husband, Assemblyman Phil Soto in the 1960s. 

Soto was proud that her husband broke race barriers in California politics:

“I think the most significant thing to me was that Phil [Soto’s husband] was one of the first Hispanic legislators. To me, that was very significant. Although he never ran on that banner, as the standard-bearer of anything, it was very coolly and calmly accepted. But we knew that we had broken a barrier— the two of us knew it— that had been there for years;- - I mean, in the whole century of this State, a state that had been founded by and been [part of] Mexico, they had never had a Mexican in the legislature. I think that is still significant, and I would hope that somebody would put that in the history. To me, it’s really very important that people know that.”  (pages 55-6)

She also acknowledged that she would have liked to have run for office herself in the 60s, 70s, 80s, but the time was not right for a woman: “My mother used to say, ‘Why don't you run? Why don't you? That poor guy [Soto’s husband]! You're just making him run! You're always campaigning. Why don't you run it? You're the one that should run.’ I'd say, ‘Ma, people are never going to elect me. This is not the time for women. Women are not going to be elected.’ I would have loved to have run then. I would still love it, to be an assemblyperson, but I'm too old now. That'll never happen.” (47)

However, history proved Soto wrong on this one. She served as an Assembly member between 1998 and 2000, and again in 2006 and 2008. In the interim, she served as a member of the California State Senate. In 2006, she authored legislation that included expansion of the Nell Soto Teacher Involvement program, improving foster care licensing, and improving welfare to work programs.

During Soto’s life, she attended many colleges and loved to study, but poverty, jobs, marriage, babies and politics interfered. She took many business courses because that was expected, but she loved history and English - and loved to write. She talks about attending Mt. Sac in Pomona in the early days:

“A lot of the G.I.'s who came back from the war just went back and enrolled at Mount San Antonio [College]. A lot of us had never gone on to higher education, so we went to school there. That was quite an experience because Mount San Antonio, if you see it now, is a beautiful college campus. In those days it was in army barracks on dirt hills. We had to climb through mud and rain to get to the barracks to our classes, but it was fun.” (3)

Throughout the interview, Soto’s vibrant personality and optimism shines through. Even though she grew up in poverty with the attendant problems of segregation and discrimination, she says,  “It was a fun life because we used to laugh at everything. No matter what happened, we would make fun of things that happened to us. Being so poor, it didn't really matter.” (15-6)

At the end of the interview, she sums up her life in politics when the interviewer asks her, “Of all the lessons that you learned in your political experiences to date, which stands out most in your mind?” She answers, “About politics, either as a woman, as a wife of a politician, or as a principal player?  Always keep your back to the wall.” (107)

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Nell Soto Part I: The Early Years: Growing Up in Segregated Pomona in the 20s, 30s & 40s - Neighborhoods, Swimming Pools, Movie Theaters, Public Schools & Jobs

NELL SOTO:  I’m a sixth or seventh-generation Pomonan. I don't know which, but my dad always said we were seventh generation. I've gone back and counted, but he must have known . . . My grandfather [Antonio Marta Garcia] was from the Palomares and Yorba and Veja people who got the land grants here in Pomona. My great-great-great-grandmother [Nelli Garcia] was a Garcia who married into the Palomareses and Vejars. Some of them are buried here in the historical cemetery [Palomares Cemetery]. My great-grandfather [Forestino Garcia] was born here, and so on, all the way back . . . 

The poor people lived on the south side of the tracks . . . The haves lived on the northside of Holt[Avenue] and the have-nots lived on the south side of Holt. Holt is one of the main streets and runs east and west. What always stands out in my mind is that my dad, being a descendant of one of the founding families, should have been treated with a little more dignity. But there was so much prejudice that if you had brown skin or a Spanish surname, there was a lot of prejudice. At the time it wasn't noticed that there was prejudice. It was just understood that the [Mexican] people here became sort of like the servants, the peons. They picked the oranges and the lemons. The "settlers," as they called them, were the Anglos who bought the land, cultivated it, planted oranges, and became very successful citrus growers. The people who lived in Pomona who were Hispanic and had come here in the late 1700s and early 1800s became the labor force. They're the ones who harvested the oranges and lemons. On the outskirts of Pomona and in Chino there was a great agricultural industry. A lot of people from Pomona worked in the fields in Chino . . .” (4-6)

CARLOS VASQUEZ:  When you say discrimination wasn't noticed, by whom was it not noticed? 

Soto: The Anglos.
Vasquez: Did you notice it?

Soto: Oh, yes. (6-7)

Soto: Some people don't like to admit to this—that is, people who are old-timers in Pomona--but Mexicans were not allowed to live on the north side of town.

Vasquez: There were restrictive covenants in the selling of homes?

Soto: There wasn't any [legal] segregation, it was sort of de facto segregation. It wasn't anything that was written. It was just understood that you lived in a certain part of town if you were Mexican. They didn't recognize that you were Spanish, like my dad was. His great-grandmother was from Spain. They didn't recognize it. They didn't really care, and I don't think the dignity that was owed him was given. But he didn't seem to mind. He just went on his way and didn't need them for anything. He just didn't get in their way. My mother never allowed us to be humiliated in that manner. She would say, "No, you don't go there, because you're not wanted. You're not going to go there.”

Vasquez:  Why were you not wanted at the swimming pool? 

Soto:  Because we were "Mexicans" even though we were considered Spanish by my parents. They had only one day in which Mexicans could swim.

Vasquez:  What day was that?

Soto: I don't remember if it was Monday or Friday, but on that day the pool would be cleaned out at night. Then the Anglo kids would swim. If there was a Mexican child who didn't know the rules and went there, they would just chase him away, ‘No, Mexicans aren't allowed in here.’ The same way in the theaters. There were a lot of places where they wouldn't allow Mexicans. They didn't hire any Hispanics on Second Street until the end of the war.

Vasquez:  What is Second Street?

Soto: Second Street was where the main shopping [district] used to be. I was one of the first  Hispanlcs to go to work on Second Street. I worked as a salesgirl [at the] National Dollar Store. I'll never forget it, because the man had the courage to give me a job. It must have been 1943 or '44, towards the end of the war. There were only maybe two of us Mexican/ Hispanic girls working on Second Street- At the time my mother used to tell us, “Don't let anybody tell you that you're not as good as anybody else. You go out there and you look for a job. You make them see that you're smart and you can do the job.”  She never really let us believe that we were less than anybody else because we were Hispanic/Mexicans And she used to say, “You're not Mexicans. You just have to remember that. You're not Mexicans as in 'came from Mexico.' You're Spaniards like your father is. You have to remember that.”  My dad was very proud of the fact that he was a Spaniard, a pioneer-native rather than a Mexican. Because he was a Spaniard. But my mother came from Tecate, Baja California. She was very proud of the fact. I could never see myself saying, "I'm Spanish." I always said, "I'm a Mexican."

I didn't see the difference.

Vasquez:  Now, when the war came along and you went to work in the defense industries, was the composition there pretty reflective of the society? That is to say, was there discrimination there too?

Soto: In the factory that I worked in in Pomona, there were a lot of Mexican girls from school who went to work there. And there were some Anglos.

Vasquez:  Was there any pay differential?

Soto:  No. Not that I knew of. Even my mother worked there, because they needed it. One thing happened which I think is very significant. It's not written in history books, but I think it should be. We moved to the outskirts of Pomona one day, because in those old days, when you were poor, you just kept moving. You moved around a lot.

Vasquez:  Why was that?

Soto: Because you just sometimes couldn't afford to pay the rent. You would go two or three months without paying your rent and get evicted-. You’d go find another house for rent. You didn't need a first or last month's rent. You would just need a few dollars and you could move in. We moved to the outskirts of Pomona towards Chino. The Chino school was closer than the Pomona school, so my mother took my little brother and sister there. I didn't want to go there because I was already in high school and wanted to go to Pomona. My mother took the kids to Chino. The schools were segregated. There wasn't any covenant, as you call it, or de facto [segregation]. It was blatant. She took them to the Anglo school [Chino High School]. The principal told my mother that her children couldn't go there because they were Mexicans. 

She asked, “Why? My children are Americans.”

He said, "No. No, they're Mexicans and they can't go here."

She said, ‘Okay, will a bullet go around my son should he go into the service? Since he's a Mexican, is the bullet going to go around him? . . . I want you to answer that. He's an American. He's going to be fighting for his country. Is a bullet going to go around him? Or is it going to stop with him just like it does with the other kids?’

Vasquez:  What answer did she get?

Soto: Nothing. He let the kids in . . .

So I used to tell my mother afterwards, during the days of the civil rights movement and everything that was going on, I'd say, ‘Mom, you don't even realize that you were a pioneer in integration, because of what happened in Little Rock [Arkansas] and so forth.’ . . . I said, ‘You know, you were probably one of the first people that had the nerve to stand up to people who were segregating children.’ 

I wish that somebody would have been there to record that, because it was very significant around here. Nobody had the nerve to stand up to those people. And she did. She called him a dirty name.

She said [whispers], ‘You sonuvabitch, is a bullet going to go around my son?’ (7-11)

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LINKS

UCLA ARCHIVE

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Julian Lucas, is a photographer, a purveyor of books and writer in training, but mostly a photographer. Julian is the founder of Mirrored Society Books. Julian was once called a “bitter artist” on the Nextdoor app. Julian embraces name calling, because he believes when people express themselves uncensored, they are their most creative self.

Pamela Casey Nagler, Pomona-born, is an independent scholar, currently conducting research on California’s indigenous people, focusing on the Spanish, Russian, Mexican and US invasions between 1769 and the 1860s. The point of studying this history is to tell us how we got here from there. 

Fight For Your Right to Programming

Photography Courtesy Julian Lucas ©2013

By Anthony Solorzano
Photography Julian Lucas
Published August 1, 2023 12:15 Pm

This might be too much information for you to handle right from the start, but when you have to go, YOU HAVE TO GO. A few years ago, I found myself in a situation where my business couldn’t wait until I got home. An emergency pitstop at Ganesha Park in Pomona was imminent. 

After quickly parking, I dashed out the car and ran towards the restroom. On my way in, I exchanged head nods with a teenage boy loitering outside the restroom. Once inside the restroom, I encountered a conundrum: Is my emergency worthy of a public restroom with no stall, only half a wall covering the restroom and a few squares of toilet paper? 

As I contemplated my situation, the teenager approached me. He introduced himself by extending his hand for a handshake and called himself Henry. After acknowledging his presence, Henry asked if there was anything he could do for me in a very objectifying manner. His eyes swept me from head to toe as he licked his own lips.

It's an uncomfortable situation that reminds me of how much the city of Pomona has failed its youth.

During my teenage years, I had the opportunity to play soccer and be involved in activities that kept me from the streets and occupied. I played soccer until I started working at the age of 16. 

When playing in the Sunday leagues, the popularity of soccer in the city was evident in numerous public parks. Regardless of which park you found yourself at on a Sunday, you would come across teams of various age groups, ranging from 5 years old to 30-something year olds, celebrating a goal.

Throughout my adult years, and especially since the pandemic, I have noticed a significant decline in the number of Sunday soccer leagues in the city, along with other types of teen programming. Currently, the city offers soccer and basketball programming for kids between the age of 4 to 7-years-old. The only options for teenagers are limited to tennis and music classes available for individuals aged 8 through 17 years.

Meanwhile, four private baseball leagues also operate within parks in the city.

According to the Gente De Pomona Equity Report, from 2021 to 2023, the city experienced an increase of $20,412,383 in their general fund expenditures. The majority of this funding is allocated to the Pomona Police Department, which has seen $15 million dollars increase since 2021.

Instead of prioritizing investments in youth and creating programs specifically for teenagers, the city places a higher emphasis on policing. According to the same report by Gente de Pomona, during the period of January 2019 through December 2021, it was found that 44% of the individuals arrested for gang-related crimes were youth and transitional age youth.

“Money for parks and [recreation]. That has been an issue for a long time,” explains Garey High School student Isabella Luna Tovar. “More than half the money [the city gets], it's going to the police, because crime rates are so high and everything, and that's understandable. But, they are so high because kids have nothing to do.”

Isabella became aware of the lack of teen programming in the city when she started playing soccer. After her high school season ended, she embarked on a search for leagues within the city by seeking recommendations from friends. Unfortunately, instead of discovering a league operated by the city,  Isabella had to rely on unorganized private leagues where she often feels  deceived due to the lack of effective communication.

“It took me a while to pay, because it's a random person,” explains Isabella. “I paid 50 dollars a couple of weeks ago and I still haven't gotten a uniform.”

When the city does offer an opportunity for teenagers to participate in their desired sport, it often makes it challenging for them to access it without adult supervision. The city’s requirement to rent out a goal post at a park can be costly and necessitates the use of a credit card. In a community where most of the parents work overtime, having an adult to accompany them is not always feasible.

“The city attempts to counter our work, they are trying to give themselves credit for just ridiculous things,” states the co-founder of Gente Jesus Sanchez. “Under the scope of youth funding, you'll see Santa Cop. You’ll see a school resource officer. These are all our funds that go to our youth.” 

“It's misleading. They’re trying to claim something they’re not. There's no strategic plan to work with young people in this city that's effective. There's no [collaboration] that the city is behind that's leading us into the future and that's a problem.”

The citizens of Pomona are joining forces to take matters into their own hands by supporting an initiative called “ Pomona Kids First.” The initiative aims to allocate 10% of the city’s budget towards creating programming specifically for children throughout the city.

If the initiative is successfully passed, it will become the second largest department in the city of Pomona, trailing behind the Pomona Police department and Public Works. 

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Anthony Solorzano II was born and raised in Pomona, California. He writes about the Dodgers and the LA Galaxy to overcome the anxiety the teams cause him.

Julian Lucas, is a photographer, a purveyor of books, and writer in training, but mostly a photographer, but don’t ever ask him to take photos of events. Julian is also the owner and founder of Mirrored Society Book Shop.

Abuse of Power, Lies and Videotape

It is well past time to call out the Pomona City Council for their egregious behavior during a City Council meeting nearly four months ago on February, 6, 2023.

By Julian Lucas

Published 06/06/2023 9:11 Am PST

Updated 06/06/2023
Last original paragraph retracted.


Pomona’s Mayor Tim Sandoval lost control of his meeting, and failed to stop his fellow Council Member, Robert S. Torres, son of Congresswoman Norma Torres and current candidate for the California State Assembly, from berating a member of the public from the dais.

The incident occurred during the beginning of the meeting on the agenda item listed vaguely as “ MAYOR / COUNCIL MEMBER COMMUNICATIONS. Reports on conferences, seminars, and regional meetings attended by Mayor and City Council and announcements of upcoming events, and also items for future City Council consideration as requested by Mayor or Members of the City Council.” 

No one in the public could have known from reading the agenda that this was the time that the Council would address two recent events within the last couple of weeks that involved the murder of three teens in the area: 

1. On Saturday night, January 28th,  a 17-year-old Pomona boy and a man were killed in a shooting at a house party in Pomona. 

2. A few nights later, on Thursday, February 2nd, a 15-year-old boy was killed in a shooting at Montclair Plaza. A second shooting victim was wounded. At least four people have been arrested as suspects in connection with the incident at Montclair Plaza shootings. The Montclair Police Department said detectives served search warrants in Pomona and arrested three suspects: two 20-year-old men and a 16-year-old boy.
   

Understandably, emotions ran high discussing these youth deaths and arrests in the recent weeks. Mayor Sandoval issued a call for “all community members to come together to bring forth change,” and Council Member Nora Garcia applauded several organizations in Pomona who have directed their efforts to helping teens - Gente Organizada among them. Even Council Member Torres, in the first part of his speech, spoke in favor of the organizations in the City who worked with teens and spoke of the need for the City Council to “engage the community” to do more to solve its problems.

However, after Torres announced that he had been instrumental in working with the City to secure a 4 million dollar federal grant for La Casita Teen Center at Palomares Park, he launched into what can only be characterized as a personal verbal attack on Jesus Sanchez, founder and former Executive Director of Gente Organizada, who now serves as the organization’s Economic Justice Director. 

In the past, Sanchez has been an outspoken critic of public officials who have used violent incidents such as the aforementioned as an opportunity to expand police presence. He has maintained that it is the wrong approach to the problem - insisting that the best allocation of resources are those that address the root of the problem. In the past few years, Gente Organizada has published several reports that have pointed out the inequities of arrests and incarcerations in the city. 

Sanchez had not yet spoken in this meeting, but Torres took exception to the fact that Sanchez shook his head at some of his comments. 

Torres’ diatribe against Sanchez began by warning members of the public that “we have individuals here who I call divisive individuals, who represent themselves, and they don’t represent this community. And the bottom line is each one of the City Council members here have been elected to represent this community whether you like it or not, Sir.”  Here, Torres began addressing Gente Organizada’s Jesus Sanchez directly, continuing: “And the sad part about it is this - we need more police presence - whether you like it or not. We need to hire more police on the street.” 

Torres’ comment about expanding police presence elicited a quiet rumble of dissent from the audience. 

Mayor Sandoval attempted to interrupt Torres, saying “Ro-, Ro-, Ro-,” but Torres continued: “the fact that you have a few officers patrolling the streets at one time is flat-out dangerous. And if you talk to the residents of Pomona . . . they want more investment in public safety. And . . . If you knock on that door, Jesus, (Here, Torres addresses Sanchez directly, while knocking 4 times on the dais)  and you tell them to defund the police . . . they will throw you out.”

This is the part of the meeting when Sanchez, from the audience, directed an expletive at Torres. It is easy to pin culpability on the person who is yelling and swearing in the audience, but upon examination, Sanchez was provoked. It is not the job of public officials to incite the audience in the way that Torres did.

From that time on, it became a cacophony of voices. Other members of the audience and City staff members chimed in.  At various junctures, Mayor Sandoval tried to address both Torres and Sanchez, by repeatedly calling them out by their first names. Sandoval also called out several times to Police Chief Ellis. 

From the audience, Sanchez yelled that he was angry that Council Member Torres took the topic of the teen deaths only to turn it around and make it about him. Sanchez said, “that’s the message here tonight. All of you haven’t done shit. And the kids are fucking dying.” 

The Mayor’s response was: “I want him removed,” and called for the Police Chief to do so.

Both staff and the Mayor called for a break, but even after the Mayor stood to leave the dais in order to walk toward the audience, and even while he was walking behind Council Member Torres and some of the other Council Members, Torres continued to taunt Sanchez: “Dude [he said to Jesus Sanchez] . . . Don’t be flipping people off. Don’t represent yourself like that. And, if you are the type of person who likes to dish it out, try to be the type of person that can take it.” 

It’s been reported that after speaking with the Pomona Chief of Police Ellis, Jesus Sanchez removed himself from Council chambers. 

When Gente Organizada’s Jesus Sanchez was escorted out, Mayor Sandoval told the remaining members of the organization that they should ‘keep him in check since he represents all of you”. When they replied that Council Member Torres represents the entire Pomona City Council and the Mayor should ‘keep his own Council Members in check, the Mayor disagreed and said that Council Member Torres “represents himself.” The double standard was definitely in play that night at the Council meeting.

On the original videotape, Torres’ last comment to Sanchez is audible, but shortly after, the videotape is muted for the next 7 minutes or so. During this time, the Mayor is seen on screen, speaking to several individuals including staff and security officers, at least one member in the audience, along with several other Council Members.

However, the official ‘scrubbed’ version of the videotape, does not include Torres’ last comments to Jesus, nor does it show the muted film footage of all that ensued during the break. 

While there are no laws that require the City to show the full tape, it appears shady when the city’s original tape was specifically edited for public review. This raises the question of transparency. How can city council members including the mayor campaign and include transparency as a core value, but take time to edit something so minuscule as a city council meeting not being butterflies and unicorns as they often imply.

In addition, while it appears no laws were broken, a public meeting where the Mayor allows a member of the Council to single out, target and slander one member of the public reflects poorly on the entire City Council. It is the job of the Mayor to keep the individual members of the Council in check. At times during the meeting, the Mayor did try to interrupt Council Member Torres, but Torres disregarded him. This should be addressed. There is a risk here that this kind of action could become the norm, with any Council Member choosing to ignore the Chair. In this case chaos, rather than order, would rule. 

The Mayor needs to reaffirm his role to the Council as Chair, and the Council needs to reaffirm that they are a body dedicated to representing and making decisions on behalf of the public - rather than attacking them. 

The kind of behavior, exhibited on February 6th, could very well have had a chilling effect on public participation. No member of the public wants to feel like they could be potentially singled out and publicly ridiculed as a consequence for their attendance at a public meeting.

The appropriate remedy is for the Mayor to apologize to the public directly and schedule a meeting with the Council to discuss and adopt norms and protocols for public meetings. Currently, it does not appear that Pomona has anything on the books concerning such for its Council Members, other than referring to Robert’s Rules of Order. That said, there's an existing version of Robert's Rules  recommended by League of California Cities called Rosenberg's Rules of Order, which states that:

"The chair should always ensure that debate and discussion of an agenda item focuses on the item and the policy in question, not the  personalities of the members of the body. Debate on policy is healthy, debate on personalities is not. The chair has the right to cut off  discussion that is too personal, is too loud, or is too crude."

While this particular rule applies to the conduct between Council Members, it would seem like this rule would apply to the conduct between Council Members and the public as well.

No meeting should begin with elected officials taking jabs at people. It needs to be made very clear that Council Members should only speak directly to members of the public if they are seeking clarification on issues that the members of the public addressed in their comments during the time allotted for public participation. It is not the job of an elected official to berate, argue or debate the public from the dais. The job of an elected official to take on the role of active listener - it is not always easy, but officials were elected to respond to the public's concerns.

It is important that the Council determine clear requirements for agenda items that include more specificity - preventing abuse of the topic in the future. It’s very hard for the Mayor to call out ‘point of order’ when the topic has not been defined.

Ordinarily, cities and school districts begin meetings with recognition of typically positive things that are happening in the district. This sets a positive tone for the meeting. No one should be surprised about the topic. This means that the agenda should be specific enough so that members of the public can decide beforehand whether they want to speak on a topic.

Once the Council passes a set of protocols or norms, these should be posted so that the public can hold the Council accountable. The City of Pomona, though a fairly large City, lacks a newspaper that consistently reports on its Council meetings. In lieu of this kind of reporting, it is particularly necessary that the Council have systems in place to hold themselves accountable to the public who elected them in the first place.

The bottom line is politicians should not be attempting to catapult their careers over the deaths of two Black kids.

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The Pomonan delayed writing about this incident out of respect for the families, friends and loved ones of the victims, and offers sincere condolences to all who have been adversely-affected by these deaths.

Download transcript of the Pomona City Council Member Robert Torres’ speech here

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Julian Lucas, is a photographer, a purveyor of books, and writer in training, but mostly a photographer, but don’t ever ask him to take photos of events. Julian is also the owner and founder of Mirrored Society Book Shop.

Riverside Art Museum: The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture - Viva Poesía Draws Large Crowd

By David A. Romero
Published 05/30/2023 9:00 Am PST

Riverside, CA – The voices of poets rang out through a microphone and echoed upon the brightly-colored canvasses of paintings and the bronze of sculptures, and into the ears of the approximately hundred and fifty, both sitting and standing in attendance, at The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art, Culture & Industry, as part of Viva Poesía: the first live poetry reading event in the museum’s history. 

Opened on June 18, 2022 in the former Riverside Public Library building, next to the Riverside Art museum, “The Cheech” holds the largest collection of Chicano art in the world (approximately 700 pieces). It is the culmination of actor, comedian, and art collector Cheech Marin’s support of, and investment in, Chicanx and Latinx artists over the decades. 

Viva Poesía featured poets Paul S. Flores, Sonia Gutiérrez, Margaret Elysia Garcia, Donato Martinez, Ceasar K. Avelar, Wendy L. Silva, Bernice “bere” Espinoza and myself, David A. Romero. The event was hosted by Darren “Aztec Parrot” de Leon, poet, radio host, and founding member of Los Delicados: Poetas del Sol.

The event was introduced by its co-organizer Jorge C. Hernandez, aka Mr. Blue, host of Radio Aztlan, who began it with a solidarity clap, known well to members of the Chicanx Movement. As he stood atop the stage set in front of the De La Torre brothers’ two-story installation of the Aztec earth goddess Coatlicue, Hernandez spoke to the genesis of the event:

“Lilia [Acevedo], my collaborator said, ‘Hey, we need to do a Chicano poesia night’ ... and the next day Donato [Martinez] called me and said, ‘Hey Blue, any chance I can get on the radio program?’ and I said, ‘Well, why don’t we do something better? Why don’t we put together a poetry night?’”

Lilia Acevedo (leader of Cultura Con Llantas) and Hernandez have collaborated and supported each other for decades in Riverside County and beyond, with events including, but not limited to: Vinyl & Rides on the Riverside Art Museum rooftop, Cantos de la Lucha at UCR, and holiday themed events at the Riverside Art Museum. 

“Jorge and I have known one another for over 25 years. He was my Chicano Sociology professor. A couple months ago, while prepping for the Cantos de La Lucha program, Jorge handed me a binder with several different items he’s collected. On the cover of the binder was a flyer for a Cesar Chavez event at RCC, with his name listed as the speaker. It took me a few minutes to realize that I had created that flyer for the event I organized in 1999.” Acevedo said, following the event. 

Thanks to Acevedo and Hernandez’s efforts, and with help from The Cheech, Viva Poesía was able to gain co-sponsorship from Los Cinco, Latino Network, RideNPride Car Club, as well as hors d'oeuvres and refreshments from Zacatecas Café. A Son jarocho group, Conjunto Axolotl, was also invited to play and sing as guests filtered into the museum and settled in for the poetry, playing their own folk versions of, and telling the stories behind, such classics as “La Bamba.”

In the weeks leading up to the event, after his phone conversation with Jorge C. Hernandez, poet and professor of English composition, Literature, and Creative Writing at Santa Ana College, Donato Martinez, reach out to his publishers with El Martillo Press, myself, and Matt Sedillo, asking us to join him for the event and to help him fill out the evening’s performers. With our collaboration, the event would combine authors published by FlowerSong Press of McAllen, TX, with authors published by El Martillo Press, as well as local poets important to the community of Riverside. 

Martinez spoke of what Viva Poesía meant to him, following the event:

“This place was a former public library that I used to visit as a young man. The library was old, musty, and somewhat eerie. It was always cold there. And now we have this great, amazing, and beautiful place that houses Chicano art.... It was a poetry reading of “coming home” even though I have never left... I consider Corona/Riverside my home, and this was the first time in many years that a large group of family and friends have seen me read.”

Martinez struck a chord with an audience that included many of his friends, family, and students from Santa Ana College who drove out to see him. Between poems like “Drunk Tias” and “A Long Line of Pachucos” he engaged in conversation with them, asking them questions, and urging them to audibly respond to the poetry. They shouted out and clapped and cheered him on.

Margaret Elysia Garcia, author of the daughterland, found her own ways to engage the audience, carefully setting up poems like “Spanish” and “Pico Rivera: Rain Drive,” bracing them for poetic journeys that would move them from laughter to tears.

“There were so many people who'd come to listen to us and it really was such an honor. Also, I understand and read Spanish, but I don't speak it very well and that always fills me with nervous anxiety in bilingual spaces where I'm expected to [speak Spanish] on top of performance nerves. I've read at many spaces and I've often been the only Chicana at the reading and searched for 'relatable' pieces to read to all white audiences. But here it was different. I read what I wanted to read and I saw heads nodding in the audience and laughter and people totally getting what I was expressing and that was a wonderful feeling.” Garcia said, following the event.

The current poet laureate of Pomona, Ceasar K. Avelar nodded his head in agreement upon hearing Garcia’s words, reflecting upon his experience of performing poems from his collection, God of the Air Hose and Other Blue-Collar Poems, “There was a dope connection with the audience. You could see in their eyes that they understood what we were saying. They had been there. They had lived it. The good and the bad. The night was like medicine for all of us.”

Each poet preceding and following Garcia, took the audience on their own unique journeys, showcasing styles that ranged from those influenced by the American literary tradition, to hip hop, to more classical Chicanx styles of performance, and beyond, demonstrating that their performance styles and writing techniques were as varied as the mediums, colors, and brushstrokes used in the paintings hanging on the museum’s walls.

Sonia Gutiérrez, who drove up from San Diego to join the reading, brought her unique, playful, and meditative style to her time onstage, reading both prose and poetry, from her collections Spider Woman/La Mujer Araña and Dreaming with Mariposas. In a poem creating a counter-narrative to the Adam and Eve story found in the Old Testament/Torah, Gutiérrez posited that Adam and Eve, and their respective reproductive organs, might have had very different origins than typically imagined. This elicited some of the most riotous laughter of the night. 

A true highlight of the evening, was the penultimate performer, San Francisco-based poet and educator Paul S. Flores who had also traveled (down from the Bay), who exploded from the crowd, and instead of electing to begin his performance onstage at the podium, as all the other poets had, performed his appetite-whetting poem, “Arroz Con Pollo,” from his forthcoming collection WE STILL BE: Poems and Performances, as he wove in and out of the audience. 

“That really made me hungry,” Said one audience member, Julie, of Temecula, CA following the event, remembering the various Latin foods and cooking techniques Flores described in his poem.

With his performance in the crowd and poems performed on stage, Flores demonstrated to the audience why he is considered one of the most influential Latino performance artists in the country and why he has moved crowds to respond to issues of transnationality and citizenship ever since he appeared on Season 4 of HBO’s Def Poetry. It was astonishing to see him perform live for the first time.

As for myself, I had the great honor of closing out the night, thanking Donato Martinez, giving a shoutout to Matt Sedillo (who unfortunately wasn’t able to join us), celebrating the publishing of El Martillo Press authors: Flores, Martinez, Garcia, and Avelar, excitedly teasing the announcement of Gutiérrez to our lineup, and speaking to what the reading meant to me, personally.

As the nephew of Frank Romero, whose “Arrest of the Paleteros” is one of the signature paintings in The Cheech, and the cousin of Sonia Romero, whose “Sacred Heart” papercut/linoleum cut was visible to most audience members behind us for the event’s entirety, Viva Poesía held special importance. It was a celebration of our arrival as Chicanx artists, whatever the medium. 

Through a poem “Micro Machines,” the final poem of the evening, I recounted a story of how once on a field trip to the LA County Museum of Art (LACMA) I encountered a micro-aggression from a museum docent after asking if my uncle might have had his art exhibited there. After hearing my uncle’s Spanish surname name and a description the subject matter of his paintings, the Caucasian docent responded with skepticism and pointed to an alternative placement of my uncle’s work, based upon a prevailing stereotype for Latino males: that my uncle didn’t, in fact, paint cars in his paintings, but that he was merely a car painter.

This moment at LACMA impacted me for years and similar events shaped the way we as Chicanx and Latinx people often view our own artistic and intellectual accomplishments, with a pre-set fear of reduction and trivialization by others. What The Cheech and I hope, Viva Poesía, demonstrated for all those who attended, as well as those who watched the event live, or even just heard about it, is that we have arrived. No matter what the rest of the world thinks of us, we have a home. A place where we belong. We have a tradition as Chicanx and Latinx people. We are brilliant. We are high art. We will not be made to feel ‘lesser than.’ I thank Cheech Marin for giving the artwork of my uncle and cousin a home, and for providing a grand space for us poets to share our words.

I am honored to say that El Martillo Press and FlowerSong Press books have been welcomed into The Cheech for sale in their gift shop. Thanks to Annie Guadarrama, Guest Services Manager, at The Cheech for making that possible.

When I thanked Lilia Acevedo for all she had done in co-organizing the reading, she responded with a statement that deeply resonates with me, one that I believe would be reflected by all others who worked to make it happen.

“As a Chicana I have a personal responsibility to my community. I will always advocate for my people and do my best to enrich my community by being of service.”

¡Que viva!

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David A. Romero is a Mexican-American spoken word artist. Romero is the author of My Name Is Romero (FlowerSong Press), a book reviewed by Gustavo Arellano (¡Ask a Mexican!), Curtis Marez (University Babylon), and founding member of Ozomatli, Ulises Bella.

The Importance of Museums - What Pomona Can Do About It

Annual museum attendance in the US is around 850 million, and that number is steadily increasing.

By Julian Lucas

Published 4/27/2023 6:00 AM PST
Illustration Rebecca Ustrell

To many of us museums are impactful, to others not so much, but museums provide a look into the past, which assist people in understanding and appreciating various groups and cultures. They promote dialogue, curiosity, and self-reflection in order to improve our understanding of our shared history which propel us into the future.

Many people feel, especially city leaders, and local developers, that museums are not very profitable. However, the city of Riverside felt the opposite - they understood that museums are even more important today as they can be an economic and cultural driver to the region. 

The Cheech, the brainchild of entertainer, Cheech Marin, and the City of Riverside, has been a game changer for the Latinx community, the art community, the city of Riverside, the Southland - and really, the international art world.

In 2017, when the nearby Riverside Museum of Art exhibited Cheech’s collection, “Papel Chicano Dos: Works on Paper,” over 1400 people attended the opening - the most attended reception RAM had ever hosted, Riverside’s City Manager noted the popularity and set the project in motion, and in the summer of 2022, The Cheech made its grand opening in the repurposed mid-century building of the old Riverside Public Library - located right next to the Mission Inn and the new Riverside Public Library. 

The Cheech, managed by the Riverside Art Museum under a 25-year partnership agreement with the city, will provide around $1 million annually for operating expenses.  An additional  $9.7 million state grant along with private donations helped the Riverside Art Museum finance  the $13 million renovation of the library building. In the Cheech’s first ten years of operation, admissions are expected to bring in $3 million. But that’s not the extent of it. It makes Riverside more of a destination and people will dine, spend the night, visit the local library and pursue local businesses.

After a recent visit to the Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, I absorbed so much information from what I saw. I learned that seeing something in person is entirely different than seeing it within a book or on a computer screen.

Museums encourage and promote conversation to help build bridges, inquiry, and self-reflection, and provide context to build common ground between disparate groups of people. They help future generations understand their history and value the accomplishments of those who came before them. They provide context.

The city of Lancaster, CA with 170,000 people launched the Lancaster Museum of Art and History (formerly known as the Lancaster Museum/Art Gallery or LMAG) in 1986 to provide residents with a venue for enjoying the works of artists living in the area. Along with contemporary art, the museum exhibits the history of the Antelope Valley through its permanent collection of historical artifacts and records.

Their acquisitions of art objects have centered on early California landscape painting and figurative painting along with objects of historical significance, including Native American artifacts, geological specimens and other artifacts related to the history of the Antelope Valley. The Museum's two locations reflected its twofold mission. During its first 24 years, the Museum's modest exhibition space for visual art was located on Sierra Highway not far from the new facility while a second location, the historically significant Western Hotel Museum, provided exhibition space for historical artifacts from the permanent collection.

In 2022,  the Los Angeles County Museum of Art LACMA made mention that  it is at the halfway point in constructing its new, Peter Zumthor-designed building, the David Geffen Galleries. The museum is said to be complete construction by late 2024. The museum also stated that a $700 million of $750 million fundraising target had been raised. The public-private partnership received $125 million in government support from Los Angeles County. 80% of the expenses will be covered by individual donations, the museum announced in a press release.

Meanwhile the Lucas Museum, a billion dollar project of the famed director George Lucas and his wife Mellody Hobson, has been challenged with delays due to the pandemic and is set to open in 2025, will be a nice, beautiful addition to south Los Angeles with its spaceship-like structure.

The Lucas was designed by prominent Chinese architect Ma Yansong. Mia Lehrer, a landscape architect, conceptualized the gardens and parks.The building's facade is made up of more than 1,500 uniquely curved fiberglass-reinforced polymer panels. 281 seismic base isolators support the building to prevent a catastrophic earthquake from destroying it and its priceless art collection. It also boasts three elevators that resemble starships, two 299-seat movie theaters, an elliptical oculus, a rooftop garden with old trees, and more.

Lastly, Pomona, the city of the forgotten. The city with architecture designed by Welton Becket. The city that never completed a museum during the construction of city hall, the library, and civic center in 1969. The city known as, having lots of potential, but can never seem to advance.

Potential property for adaptive reuse?

Potential property for adaptive reuse?

But, lets think of space in terms of Pomona. Space is the most valuable asset a city can have, well, space and money. Space to imagine, space to create something imaginable. Pomona has a surplus of space. So, what does it take? Many would say a vision, creativity, an imagination with others to jump on that bandwagon and agree. How about confidence and vision instead of meekness. How about audacity instead of trepidation?

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Julian Lucas, is a photographer, a purveyor of books and writer in training, but mostly a photographer. Julian is the founder of Mirrored Society Books. Julian was once called a “bitter artist” on the Nextdoor app. Julian embraces name calling, because he believes when people express themselves uncensored, they are their most creative self.

The Flawed Process

Who said what when.

A Timeline of Events - City of Pomona’s Call 4 Visual Art & the Advancement of Spectra Company’s Application to Install a Harriet Tubman Statue at Lincoln Park

By Julian Lucas
Published December 12, 2022 8:00 Am PST
Updated April 11, 2023 9:20 Am PST

Monday, December 12, 2022 the Cultural Arts Citizens Advisory Committee will meet at 4:30pm in Council Chambers to discuss agenda item, “Call 4 Visual Art Process Review Staff will facilitate a discussion at the Committee level on strategies to improve and update the Call for Visual Art process for the next round.” The public is invited to speak.

In anticipation of this discussion, The Pomonan is releasing a timeline of what happened with the application to install a Harriet Tubman statue in Lincoln Park in the last Call for Visual Art cycle, the involvement of public elected and appointed officials and the lack of opportunity for the public to engage. 

March 15, 2022

The City of Pomona launched a Call 4 Visual Art application process soliciting applications from visual artists and non-profit organizations for proposed ideas for public art citywide in previously- approved locations. "This call is for artists of all ages living anywhere and any non-profit organization located anywhere interested in public art in Pomona." The City stated that non-profit organizations may be required to supply additional information, such as a copy of Form 990 with an operating budget, and so forth. 

All applications were to be considered by the Cultural Arts Commission and its Citizens Advisory Committee. Applications were accepted between March 15 and 5PM, April 21, 2022. 

March 24, 2022

Perhaps this was the first announcement of an unveiling of the Harriet Tubman statue on July 4 at a Pomona public park. On March 24th an article appears in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin the city of Pomona Mayor Tim Sandoval called Spectra Company’s founder and President Ray Adamyk’s efforts and the statue an opportunity for youth to learn about Tubman’s impact. 

“[Spectra Company’s CEO Ray]Adamyk also hopes to raise money for the church through Unity Day LA on July 4 . The 1.5-mile walk will start at Lincoln Park before ending at the Fairplex. A Tubman statue is expected to be unveiled at a city park to coincide with the event . . . 

Spectra Company is a for profit corporation, not a non-profit.

Sandoval said, “It's important to ‘have a statue of a person that represents what it was like to go through and endure slavery and not just endure but to fight back,’ Sandoval said by phone last week.” Daily Bulletin

April 21, 2022

Deadline for City of Pomona Visual Art Applications.

A few days prior to April 23, 2022 Mayor Tim Sandoval, Lincoln Park posted on the Nextdoor app with his personal, not official account:

“Please join me this Saturday, April 23, at 10 am at Lincoln Park to discuss the following items: city finances, Garey and Holt Avenue Rehabilitation projects, and a proposed statue at Lincoln Park. I will provide pastries and coffee. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to call me at 909 762 - 1982. Thanks!”

There were 61 responses on NextDoor to Sandoval’s personal post. This raises questions about using social media as a site to conduct private serial meetings beyond the purview of the public. It also raises questions about conducting private meetings to build consensus between more than three members of any governing body without public input.

Historic Preservation Commissioner Ann Tomkins, appointed by Mayor Sandoval responded on Sandoval’s Nextdoor post just after Sandoval’s Lincoln Park meet-and-greet:  “Most of the discussion was about a proposed Harriet Tubman statue for Lincoln Park . . . The city is in the process of reviewing applications for art projects in many of the city parks and this proposed statue may be part of that process.”

Mayor Tim Sandoval commented at the City Council meeting on Sept. 22, 2022, that several City Council Members, Commissioners, Committee members, etc. were present at his meet-and-greet at Lincoln Park.
If more than 4 members of any of the voting bodies - including the Historic Preservation Commission, Park & Recreation Commission, Cultural Arts Commission, Cultural Arts Commission Cultural Art Commission Citizen Advisory Committee or the City Council - attended the meeting OR read the comments posted on social media it could very possibly mean a Brown Act violation. And if not a clear Brown Act violation, this meeting, since it was not public, certainly violates the intents and purposes of the Brown Act, which is to allow public access to public decision-making at every level of the decision-making process.

The use of a public park for a private event raises another issue entirely. The Pomonan is unaware if city permits need to be issued for private citizens to host events in Pomona's public parks - like the Mayor's private meet-and-greet OR non-profit or private fundraising events like the Unity Walk, but a person would think so. Or is anyone allowed to stage an event at a public park?  It raises the question - who can stage and advertise events at Pomona's public parks and what is the process? 

Therefore, Mayor Sandoval's meet and greet raises four major issues: 

1. The use of a personal social media account to arrange what looked like a public-sanctioned meeting, but was actually a private meeting.
2. The use of social media to discuss a public issue before it was ever on a public agenda.
3. The use of a private meeting to discuss a public issue before it was ever on a public agenda.
4. The use of a public park for a private event. 

May 9, 2022

ABC7 News – Unity Day LA Producer and Spectra Company President & Founder Ray Adamyk on Harriet Tubman’s Last Stop on Underground Railroad, 328 views

Time stamp: 1:24 - Mayor Tim Sandoval speaks.

Unity Day LA is the name Producer and Spectra Company President & Founder Ray Adamyk assigned to his promotional event at Lincoln Park and the Pomona Fairgrounds on July 4th to raise money to restore Salem Chapel British Methodist Episcopal Church in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. The event involved speakers, a march, boxing and entertainers and the unveiling of the Harriet Tubman statue at a Pomona public park.

The article was reprinted in California News :

“This was just one opportunity to potentially bring to one of our parks, a representation of the Harriet Tubman statue,” said Pomona Mayor Tim Sandoval. “To have a conversation not about our past but to start looking at our future.

May 26, 2022

Cision PR WEB and Benzinga Published Press Release

"The dedication of the Harriet Tubman statue at Lincoln Park is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. on July 4, 2022, along with remarks from Adamyk, Dr. Alveda King, Pomona Mayor Tim Sandoval, President of the Pomona Valley NAACP Jeanette Ellis-Royston, and Elizabeth Zamora, CEO of Bright Prospects. The park is located at 400 Lincoln Blvd. in Pomona, and anyone who wishes to attend the unveiling and participate in the Unity Walk is welcome." Cision PR WEB / Benzinga

June 7, 2022

Unity Day LA: Press Release Publishes Press Release, “Inaugural Unity Walk Set for July 4 in Pomona, California”

“The dedication of the Harriet Tubman statue at Lincoln Park is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. on July 4, 2022, along with remarks from Adamyk, Dr. Alveda King, Pomona Mayor Tim Sandoval and Elizabeth Zamora, CEO of Bright Prospects. The park is located at 400 Lincoln Blvd. in Pomona, and anyone who wishes to attend the unveiling and participate in the Unity Walk is welcome.” Unity Day LA / Spectra Company

June 16, 2022

City of Pomona Agenda, Park and Recreation Commission:

1. Request from Applicant [Spectra Company] to Approve the Installation of Public Art at Lincoln Park. (See Staff Report)

This is the first time the Harriet Tubman Statue shows up on any City of Pomona agenda. Previous to this request, Lincoln Park was NOT on the list submitted as approved sites for public art, and none of the other 137 or so submissions were for Lincoln Park.

During this meeting, the City of Pomona’s Park and Recreation Commission voted to approve the Lincoln Park site for the Harriet Tubman sculpture. 

Based on this decision by the P & R Commission, on June 22, 2022, the Planning Division authorized a Minor Certificate of Appropriateness for the installation of public art in the form of an 80” bronze figurative statue to be located at the center of the existing rose garden at Lincoln Park. This letter was addressed and sent to Ean Frank, Project manager of Spectra Company.

The decision by the P & R Commission and the City’s Planning Division occurred prior to the City of Pomona Cultural Arts Commission (CAC)’s & Cultural Arts Citizen Advisory Committee (CACAC)’s consideration of the 137 or so Call 4 Visual Art applications, including Spectra Company’s application for this Harriet Tubman statue. 

This is an instance where one application gained Commission approval and momentum prior to actual official approval of funding. Other applicants did not have the opportunity to submit an application for this unapproved site of Lincoln Park.

Just a few days before the scheduled Unity Day event on July 4, 2022, GOOD DAY LA airs a segment interviewing Ray Adamyk, President, Spectra Corporation about his Unity Day.

“Unity Day LA came up a few months ago working with Mayor Tim Sandoval, he came up with the idea to
have this sculpture in the center of Lincoln Park.” 

July 8, 2022

City Pride Magazine publishes, “Harriet Tubman Statue Unveiled in Pomona on Unity Day”

“The African American Museum of Beginnings, the NAACP, Pomona Mayor Tim Sandoval, Unity Day organizer Ray Adamyk, and many others joined together for the unveiling of the Harriet Tubman statue on the grounds of Lincoln Park in Pomona Monday.” City Pride Magazine; July 8, 2022

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An unpublicized date after the July 4th event, 2022 
National Sculpture Society News, NY, NY publishes “Manuelita Brown’s Harriet Tubman Unveiled”

 “On 4th of July Manuelita Brown’s Harriet Tubman was unveiled to the public in Pomona, CA. The unveiling happened at the Unity Day L.A. celebration and Pomona Mayor Tim Sandoval as well as representatives from The African American Museum of Beginning and the NAACP were present for the activities.  After the unveiling, there was a half-mile walk for racial unity and community reconciliation which included all ethnicities, police, and the community walking together under the theme “There is a time to protest – There is a time to Unite.” Brown is a member of National Sculpture Society’s Southern California Sculpture Community.” National Sculpture Society

July 28, 2022

On July 28, 2022 La Nueva Voz, (The New Voice), a Bilingual (English/Spanish) Publication: Pomona’s only Community Newspaper publishes article entitled, “Statue of American abolitionist Harriet Tubman unveiled in Pomona’s Lincoln Park as ‘Unity Day’ activities unfold”

‘This in my view is the true embodiment of community,’ said Pomona Mayor Tim Sandoval, referring to people of all ages and backgrounds. ‘This is what a city should be is people coming together to love, to maybe even debate and discuss, but that’s what a healthy democracy looks like.’ He added that the statue will remain for generations to come as people come to Pomona to see it and so I see this beautiful statue as an opportunity, one of many opportunities, for us to bring folks together, Sandoval said.

 ‘Art has a way of bringing people together,’ Sandoval said. ‘As you know we have real serious social and economic challenges in this country and there is no group that has been harder hit than Black Americans in this country. There is more work to be done not only here in Pomona but all over this country,’ he said.
‘We have to work together to come up with the solutions . . . and so I see this beautiful statue as an opportunity, one of many opportunities, for us to bring folks together,’ Sandoval said.” page 2. La Nueva Voice

(Unfortunately, we could not quote the Spanish portion of Sandoval’s statement, due to the article not containing the Spanish translation. In fact, La Nueva Voz has very limited or less than 5% of Spanish translations for most of its articles, as it claims to be a bilingual (English/Spanish) community newspaper in a city that is 75% Latinx including Spanish speaking families.)

August 8, 2022

The City of Pomona hold a joint meeting with the Cultural Arts Commission (CAC) & Cultural Arts Citizen Advisory Committee (CACAC), Joint Meeting. This is the first time that any of the City of Pomona’s Commissioners and Committee members had the opportunity to review the proposal for the Harriet Tubman statue along with some 136 other applications for the funding of public art across the city. Prior to the meeting on August 8th meeting, the City of Pomona’s Planning Department sent the Cultural Arts Commissioners & Cultural Arts Citizen Advisory Committee Members this Conflict of Interest Disclosure:
(See Staff Report, Page 10)

“For all individual Committee Members and Commissioners, please note:

In light of the high dollar amount before the Committee and Commissions, a friendly reminder to carefully review the full list of artists and organizations and to timely disclose to staff any financial affiliations or connections with any individuals or groups on the list, as this would constitute a direct conflict of interest.

Also, please consider any formal or informal interactions that you may have had with individuals or groups with art proposals being considered for funding and be sure you are able to make a fair and unbiased decision. 

Best practice dictates public disclosure of any interactions to avoid any appearance of bias. A conflict of interest arises when an individual’s personal interest or bias compromises his or her ability to act in accordance with professional or personal obligations. 

Please feel free to reach out to staff should you need any clarifications.” 

On August 8, 2022, no one on either the Committee or Commission recused themselves in spite of the fact that some Commissioners and Committee members attended the Harriet Tubman event in Lincoln Park on July 4th, some advertised the event on social media, some were featured in the advertisements of the event, and some spoke at the event. Unity Day LA

Both the Committee and Commission voted not to fund the Harriet Tubman statue for the $158,000 based on questions of: 

• Financial receivership: The application was originally submitted by Spectra Company, a private company, rather than a non-profit organization or individual artist. It was Ray Adamyk, President of Spectra Company who revealed during his public comments at this meeting that receivership should be changed to Village Pomona/PTowne, his non-profit. This non-profit lacked significant documentation of its non-profit status for the Commission and Committee to review at the time. It’s not clear whether or not the City of Pomona has received the appropriate documents from Village Pomona/PTowne to date. A google search for this non-profit has yielded little information. There is a PTowne website that advertises for tenants for the former YMCA building.

  According to the P Towne website, P Towne is a "PROJECT FINANCED BY NEW MARKETS TAX CREDITS THROUGH NEW MARKETS COMMUNITY CAPITAL, LLC. A TELACU COMPANY, SHELF-HELP FEDERAL CREDIT UNION (SIC), U.S. BANK, AND CEDAR RAPIDS BANK & TRUST."
  
  

•  The high cost of installation requested by Spectra Company a for profit company

• Aesthetic valuing/selection of appropriate site

•  Violations of City protocols - the advancement of one application over the 136 or so others submitted for Committee and Commission review.

The CACAC and the CAC voted not to fund Spectra Company. There are no minutes from that meeting.

September 19, 2022
City of Pomona City Council Meeting - Appeal Hearing

“7. Appeal of a Cultural Arts Commission Decision Denying the Award of Public Art Fund Dollars for Public Art (Sculpture) to be Installed at Lincoln Park 

It is recommended that the City Council adopt the following resolution: 

RESOLUTION NO. 2022-174 - A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF POMONA, CALIFORNIA, UPHOLDING CULTURAL ARTS COMMISSION TO DENY A PUBLIC ART FUND AWARD TO AN APPLICATION FOR PUBLIC ART FOR A PROPOSED PUBLIC ART PIECE (SCULPTURE) TO BE LOCATED AT LINCOLN PARK IN THE CITY OF POMONA” 

[time stamp, agenda item begins around 1:04:00

On Sept. 19th, Pomona’s City Council considered an appeal filed by appellant Ean Frank, Spectra Company’s Project manager for funding the Harriet Tubman statue. City Council overturned the CAC and CACAC’s decision not to fund, going against the staff recommendation by a vote of 5-2, amending the funding from the $118,000 requested to $42,250 for the maintenance and installation of the statue. The appeal doesn’t come from P-Towne Productions the alleged non-profit who resubmitted their application changing it from Spectra Company. The appeal comes from Spectra Company the private corporation.

Unfortunately, Spectra Company’s appeal formed much of the narrative of appeal. Since there were no minutes from the meeting of the Cultural Arts Commission and its Citizen Advisory Committee, the comments that carried over were mostly framed by the appellant, “Spectra Company”.

Petition submitted by Spectra Company

Mayor Sandoval and City Council Members Nolte, Preciado, Garcia,, Lustro, voted in favor. Vice Mayor Ontiveros-Cole and Council member Torres voted against. [time stamp, agenda item begins around 1:04:00]

Starting the discussion, Mayor Tim Sandoval revealed more about private meetings that took place prior to the CACAC and CAC meeting to approve or disapprove the funding for the project. Sandoval said the idea was born at a Christmas party that he attended hosted by Spectra Company in discussion with Spectra’s President & Founder Ray Adamyk.

Later, Sandoval said that he spoke with members of the AAAA (African American Advisory Alliance), a non-profit organization initiated by Sandoval as an outgrowth of conversations he began in June of 2020 with a few dozen Black advocates, educators, elders, faith-based leaders, and youth in the community. The ‘4As’ does not hold public meetings. Sandoval stated that he also met with members of the African American Museum of New Beginnings and with the Chair of the Cultural Arts Commission.

In addition, Sandoval stated that, prior to the funding & application review by the City’s Cultural Arts Commission and Cultural Arts Commission Citizen Advisory Committee - the Commission and Committee charged with that task of accepting the applications for public art and approving the funding - the application for the Harriet Tubman statue was reviewed by the Historic Preservation and the Park and Recreation Commissions as evidence that the statue had received a full Commission review process.

Sandoval’s statement was both false and misleading. After the application period for the City’s Call 4 Visual Arts applications, the City revealed that Spectra Company’s proposed site for the Harriet Tubman sculpture at Lincoln Park was NOT on the City’s approved site list generated on March 18, 2021. Therefore, the City got to work to approve Lincoln Park as a site for public art in anticipation of consideration of the Harriet Tubman statue. On May 4th, 2022 the Historic Preservation Commission determined that there was no need for a Certificate of Appropriateness to locate a sculpture at Lincoln Park, and on June 16th, the Parks & Recreation Commission also back-pedaled and approved Lincoln Park as a site for a statue. However, even though both Commissions approved the SITE for future public art, neither of the Commissions approved the Harriet Tubman sculpture to be placed there per se. That decision was beyond their jurisdiction.  That decision was reserved for the CAC and the CACCAC to vote on in a meeting scheduled for August.

Later in the meeting to consider Spectra Company’s appeal, Council Member Nolte cited Sandoval’s statement that two Commissions had voted approval of the Harriet Tubman statue as evidence of a comprehensive Commission review process, but Planning Department staff member Ata Khan corrected both Nolte and Sandoval, saying that the HPC and P & R C had never considered the Harriet Tubman statue in a public meeting. In spite of this correction, it did not change Council Member Nolte’s mind - he voted to approve of funding the Harriet Tubman statue.

This is problematic because none of the other applicants in the City's Call 4 Art knew that Lincoln Park could be considered as a site for public art until after the application deadline. The City of Pomona should not be in the business of limiting fair competition in its Call 4 Artists. An additional concern is that the City's application for public art called for the submission of conceptual proposals - indicating that the City wanted to work with applicants to develop artwork that was appropriate for the various already-approved sites. At the time of submission of the proposal for the Harriet Tubman statue, it was already complete and had already been bought and paid for by Spectra Company. 

Sandoval, in spite of his engagement with the media and his private meetings, including attending and speaking at the event itself prior to CAC and CACCAC review, declared that he did not “weigh in on'' the decision before any of the City Commissions or Committees. However, there is plenty of evidence otherwise.

During her comments, Vice Mayor Ontiveros-Cole revealed that prior to hearing the appeal, she had a private meeting with Ray Adamyk, President of Spectra’s Company to discuss the Harriet Tubman statue. 

This raises the question - how many private meetings were held prior to holding a public meeting? If 4 or more City Council members met privately, one on one, in a group, or serially to discuss this statue than they would be in violation of the Brown Act. The problem with serial meetings is compounded by the use of social media. Posting on social media can also be considered as part of a serial meeting.

Council Member Preciado, voicing his support for funding the Harriet Tubman sculpture and voicing his support for circumventing public process, stated, “Every time we hear about a fight for process . . . it always seems that process is used to obstruct things we want to get done.” Preciado was not specific as to who he considers “we” in his statement. (Time-stamp around 2:28:00)

Such a statement by Council member Preciado - along with other statements by the Mayor and Council Members - show an unhealthy disregard for the public, for public process and the public’s right to be involved in government decisions. It is important that government business be conducted in public, rather than as a series of secret, private meetings that the public has no access to. Elected officials are supposed to be responsive to the people of the community, rather than dictate what they think is ‘best.’

California’s Ralph M. Brown Act is one of California’s main laws written with the intention of regulating transparency and disclosure in government. Its intention is to provide public access to meetings of local government agencies. Codified as Government Code sections 54950-54963 in 1953, the Act reads in it preamble:

“The people of this State do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created.”

Conclusion
Prior to proper Committee and Commission review, City of Pomona elected and appointed officials granted particular attention to one of the 137 or so applications the City received in its Call 4 Visual Art applications.

Considering this one application, elected and appointed officials were involved in private meetings that may or may not have violated the Brown Act. They talked to and were quoted in the press and they posted on social media. Some participated in a much-advertised “unveiling” that the City permitted on public park land. These private meetings, media announcements and this well-advertised event on public land helped promote one application over the others, allowing the project to gain momentum long before the application was ever considered for public funding in a public meeting with public access. This heavy-handed and premature promotion of one application was unfair to the other 137 or so artist applications, but also to the public at large. Based on what transpired, it would not be unfair to say that public perception is now that public officials can use their status to fast-track projects they like.

In addition, though the Planning Department issued a Conflict of Interest Disclosure form prior to the meetings, some elected and appointed officials did not respond to the dictate to disclose “any formal or informal interactions that they may have had with individuals or groups with art proposals being considered for funding.”

The City of Pomona’s leaders, by failing to adhere to their own protocols to ensure accountability, accessibility and transparency, have eroded the public trust.

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Editors' Update and Note (2/21/2022)

The application for the Harriet Tubman statue was originally submitted from Spectra Company, a for-profit corporation, though this is non-compliant with the City's Call 4 Artist application process requiring applicants be either artists or non-profit organizations. The City allowed this corporate designation to stand through the Parks & Recreation Commission meeting on June 16, and the City staff's issuance of the Minor Certification of Appropriateness on June 22, 2022.

It was only at the August 12th joint meeting of the Cultural Arts Commission and the Cultural Arts Commission Citizen Advisory Committee that staff substituted the name, The Village Partners/PTowne, as the name of the applicant. Presumably, The Village Partners/PTowne is the name of Spectra Company's non-profit, though the Pomonan has been unable to locate this name as a registered non-profit. However, PTowne is registered as an LLC. It is unknown whether or not staff required, at that time, for The Village Partners/PTowne to submit a Form 990, operating budget and other materials as suggested in the application requirements. On September 19, for the City Council meeting, the appellant was Spectra Company's Project Manager Ean Frank, rather than a representative of Spectra's non-profit. For its appeal, Spectra Company reverted back to its corporate appellation.

This raises the question:

Who is the City of Pomona making the $42,250 check to? The Company? The Non-Profit? or the LLC?

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Commentary from an ex-Cultural Arts Citizens Advisory Committee Member

During the process of approving and funding the Harriet Tubman statue, much talk circulated about the desire to represent the Black perspective and educate the public - particularly children - about her legacy of abolition and the fight for racial justice.

The sculptor, Manuelita Brown, was quoted by ABC News: “Manuelita Brown [the artist] said she was inspired to sculpt Harriet Tubman knowing she was not only a soldier but also an abolitionist who fought for women's right to vote and for Black people's right to vote.”

Later, during September 2022’s City Council Appeal Hearing, Mayor Tim Sandoval stated that the installation of the Harriet Tubman statue on Lincoln Park was borne out of a desire to address issues that flared up over the police murder of George Floyd as well as private contractor Ray Adamyk’s desire for racial reconciliation. He said that the selection of its location at Lincoln Park was to include more than just Lincoln’s perspective on emancipating the slaves. 

In spite of these intentions, the quote selected for the statue’s base does not fully address these political concerns or Tubman’s desire to free her people, but rather centers on her belief in God to free herself: “God’s time is always near. He set the North Star in the Heavens. He gave me the strength in my limbs. He meant I should be free.”

Neither the Cultural Arts Commission nor the Cultural Arts Commission Citizen Advisory Committee were consulted on the choice of quote. The Pomonan considers it an opportunity diluted to educate people about slavery, abolition and emancipation.

A Commissioner or Committee member's job is a complex one. It’s not just about aesthetic valuing and site approval. We have to also consider historical context as well. In the end, the member needs to consider the proposed statue’s value to the community - aesthetic, educational, etc.

When Mayor Sandoval states that the statue was born out of the George Floyd Uprising of 2020, it has to be put in the context of Pomona’s own policing politics. According to a report published by Gente Organizada, from 2016-2020 Pomona PD arrested 251 juveniles 11-17 years of age, 27% of those were Black youth, while the Black community only accounted for 6% of the population in the city of Pomona. These figures are precisely why it is so important that the selection of a figure as important as Harriet Tubman is presented as fully as possible. She was an abolitionist and that is the message that should be brought forward - not just that she was an abolitionist, but it is important to inform the public about all that being an abolitionist means.

The artist, Manuelita Brown mentions how Harriet Tubman’s life inspired her, highlighting that Harriet Tubman was not only a soldier and a liberator, but also an abolitionist. 

After going through a plethora of quotes about her experience and how she defines slavery, the quote chosen was a strange whitewash of these facts. It raises the question - How do we really learn about Harriet Tubman by a single quote stating, “God's time is always near. He set the North Star in the heavens; He gave me the strength in my limbs; He meant I should be free.”?

Furthermore, with all the hoopla of the unveiling on the 4th of July, the City of Pomona should have taken a page from the famous lecturer, abolitionist, and former slave - and the Mayor’s first consideration for a statue in Lincoln Park - Fredrick Douglass who delivered the speech, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? on the 5th of July 1852. His motivation to write such a speech was to address and respond to the hypocrisy of those who wanted to whitewash slavery.

Moreover, I find it interesting that the applicant Spectra Company’s founder Ray Adamyk while being interviewed by ABC news during the unveiling event stated “There is a time to protest, but there is a time to unite. United we stand divided we fall.'' (1:22) This was said in such a way to counter the ongoing protests that have been happening across the nation including those in front of Mayor Sandoval’s house in regards to police shootings of unarmed Black men. Furthermore, it is mind-boggling that Adamyk quoted from a statement made by founding father and slaver, John Dickinson, a federalist who opposed this country’s separation from Great Britain. Dickinson owned 37 slaves. Dickinson wrestled with his slave-ownership since he was a Quaker, and the Quakers in the Philadelphia area made it known that holding humans in captivity was unacceptable. It was strongly recommended that all Quakers set slaves free. It would appear that the Quakers’ protest’ worked. Dickinson, under pressure, freed his slave. So clearly, unity should not trump protest where protest is warranted.

I fear that the installation of the Harriet Tubman statue ends up being politics as usual. Political figures gain votes, a private businessman ameliorates his standing in the community, but the question remains, in the end, does the Harriet Tubman statue serve the educative value so many during the process suggested?

THERE REMAIN UNANSWERED QUESTIONS:

1. Who did the City of Pomona issue the check for the installation and maintenance of the Harriet Tubman statue for something like $42K? Did it go to the original applicant, Spectra Company, a private company as listed in the May - July City meetings and then listed again, in the City's appeal process in September? Or did it go to the non-profit, Village Partners, P-Towne which was changed for the combination CAC and CACCAC meeting in August?  Or did it go to a private individual, Spectra’s Company CEO Ray Adamyk? The Pomonan has been unable to locate Village Partners P-Towne as a non-profit operating out of Pomona.

2. What were the financial results of Ray Adamyk’s Unity Day LA's two fundraising events held at the City of Claremont’s Lincoln Park in July 2022 and March 2023, respectively? These events listed a church in Canada, the last stop on the Underground Railroad, as the recipient for the fund-raising effort. Has there been a report of how much money has been turned over to the church in Canada?

Julian Lucas
Ex-committee Member for Pomona Cultural Arts Citizens Advisory

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Julian Lucas is a photographer, a purveyor of books and writer in training, but mostly a photographer. Julian is a Committee member for Pomona Cultural Arts Citizens Advisory Committee, but his comments are strictly his own.

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Other Related Topics
How Best to Honor an Abolitionist? Honor Abolition
Harriet Was an Abolitionist in Case You Forgot
What to the Slave is Fourth of July

Thanksgiving: Countries Are Built Both on Myth and Reality

This engraving, depicting a scene from the Pequot War, shows a militia as they attack and ultimately set fire to an encampment that belonged to the Pequots, in what became Mystic, Conn., 1637. Bettmann

By Pamela Nagler
Published 11/21/2022 12:00 Am PST
Updated 11/22/2022 9:41 Am PST

Whereas Columbus’ so-called ‘discovery’ of America has become our nation’s creation myth, a feast between Pilgrims and Native Americans has become our nation’s covenant myth. We repeat it, reenact it, celebrate it as Thanksgiving because it tells us that there was some kind of tacit agreement between Indigenous nations and the English colonists, though this is not the truth.

The true story of Plymouth Rock, the Mayflower and the Pilgrims began a few years before they arrived in 1620. Previous to colonization, European fisherman, explorers and slave traders had already visited the continent’s east coast. The true story of the European invasion did not begin as a story of fellowship, but rather a story of captivity and plague. 

Before Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, English enslavers had kidnapped Squanto, actually named Tisquantum, a Paxtuxet Native from the region. They took him and a handful of others to England to labor and be viewed as an oddity. While in Europe, a disease killed his people - likely imported by the Europeans - possibly smallpox or a parasitic disease brought by the rats that the Europeans brought with them. When Tisquantum returned to his homeland, he returned to find that his entire population of his village were dead, and that he was the last living Paxtuxet.

Tisquantum became extremely important for the Pilgrims - along with the Wampanoag. It is unlikely that the Pilgrims could have survived without the support of him along with the support of the Wampanoag nation. Tisquantum surprised the Pilgrims with his ability to speak English, and he quickly became their ally, serving as their guide, interpreter and teacher. He taught them how to plant corn with fish for manure. He taught them the best locations to catch fish, and guided them to other sites that helped them survive. He helped them trade with other indigenous peoples.

Crossing the Atlantic Ocean had been rough for the Pilgrims. On the way, they became sick with various diseases, including scurvy. Less than half survived, and only four women. Though they landed in late fall, most did not emerge from the ship until March. Those who could, took care of the sick. 

The Pilgrims had few good reports to send back to England.
However, about a year after the Mayflower landed, in December of 1621, Pilgrim leader Edward Winslow submitted a brief report of a feast between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag to their investors, the London Company, back in England:

“And God be praised, we had a good increase . . . Our harvest being gotten in, our Governor sent four men on fowling; that so we might, after a more special manner, rejoice together, after we had gathered the fruit of our labours. They four, in one day, killed as much fowl as, with a little help besides, served the Company almost a week. 

 At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our Arms; many of the Indians coming amongst us. ‘And amongst the rest, their greatest King, Massasoyt, with some ninety men; whom, for three days, we entertained and feasted. And they went out, and killed five deer: which they brought to the Plantation; and bestowed on our Governor, and upon the Captain, and others . . . These things I thought good to let you understand . . . that you might on our behalf give God thanks who hath dealt so favourably with us.” Hanc

There were clear motives behind Winslow’s description of a bountiful harvest, a successful hunt and a three-day feast with friendly Indians. It was embedded in a report to convince investors back in England that the Colony was a worthy investment in spite of the many, dismal reports of sickness, death and hardship.

However, this momentary peaceful event belies the truth. Relations between the Indigenous people of this region and the Pilgrims quickly disintegrated into fierce and extirpative warfare that set the stage for even more extirpative warfare in the future.

Shortly after this feast, the Pilgrims began constructing a palisade for self-defense against the Native Americans. By February of 1622, the colonists had constructed a stockade eight feet high and twenty-seven hundred feet long that ringed their entire settlement that they had built on top of the hill. In the next year, they expanded this fort, adding six cannons. 

That year, 1623, the Pilgrims heard rumors that their Native American neighbors planned to attack them, so they attacked first. They invited the Massachusett men to a “peaceful summit,” and proceeded to ambush, poison and murder them. The Pilgrims cut off one of the warrior’s heads, and brought it back to their fort for public display, along with a flag drenched in “Indian blood.”

In 1630, even more English colonists arrived - a whole different group of Puritans - and not long after, in 1636, war, the Pequot War, broke out between the newly-arrived and the Native Americans.

Plymouth Colony Governor William Bradford wrote about a major battle within  this war, the Mystic Massacre, in which few indigenous people escaped. Some 400 -700 Native Americans were  either roasted in a fire that the Pilgrims set, or they were hacked by swords:

“Those that scraped [escaped] the fire were slaine with the sword; some hewed to peeces, others rune throw [run through] with their rapiers, so as they were quickly dispatchte, and very few escapted. It was conceived they thus destroyed about 400 at this time. 

It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fyer, and the streams of blood quenching the same, and horrible was the stincke and sente there of, but the victory seemed a sweete sacrifice, and they gave the prayers thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them, thus to inclose their enemise in their hands, and give them so speedy a victory over so proud and insulting an enimie.” 114, Stannard

In spite of the sheer numbers of murdered Natives, the rivers of blood and the stench, Mayor Governor Bradford considered it a “sweet sacrifice.”

After this, the Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor John Winthrop reported: “There was a day of Thanksgiving kept in all the churches for the victory obtained against the Pequot, and other mercies.” 123, Winthrop

In England, thanksgivings were somber days of prayer, fasting and private reflection - in New England, the Puritans often called thanksgivings to commemorate massacres and the mass murder of Indigenous people.

To the South, the Dutch learned from the Puritans about both massacre and taking body parts as trophies, and in 1643, the Dutch Governor Willem Kieft of the village of Manhattan, New York, ordered the massacre of the Wappinger People, a previously friendly tribe. The Dutch killed 80. Afterwards, they kicked around their severed heads like soccer balls on the village streets. One Native was castrated, skinned, and then forced to eat his own flesh, while the Dutch watched and laughed. 

In 1675, the Puritans launched another war - King Philip's War. The Pequot War had been more of a local action, but King Philip’s War involved the entire region and various Indigenous nations. It  is still considered the bloodiest war per capita in US history. It was never certain that the Puritans would win, but on June 20, 1676 the Puritans governing council held a meeting to determine a way to “express thanks for the victories in War with the Heathen Natives.” They proclaimed June 29 a "day of public thanksgiving,” saying, "there now scarce remains a name or family of them [the Indians] but are either slain, captivated or fled.”

Later, in 1704, Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor Thomas Dudley declared a “General Thanksgiving for God’s infinite goodness to extend his favors . . . In defeating and disappointing . . . the expeditions of the Enemy Indians against us. And the good Success given us against them, by delivering so many of them into our hands.” Overdine

Some eighty years later, in the late 1780s, when things looked bleak for the rebel forces who fought against the English, General George Washington sent out a plea to all that “supported the cause of Freedom” for a day of prayer and thanksgiving to rally everyone’s spirits. The Revolutionary War was also a war against Native Americans and thanksgivings came fast and furious after the Europeans and the English colonists waged war against them. Massacres were coming around with such frequency that, as President, Washington consolidated them into a single day, and in 1789, he proclaimed November 26th to be observed annually as a Day of Thanksgiving. 

Not all the states observed it, and neither did the Presidents who succeeded him, but to offset the bleak days of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln revived the tradition. Struggling to unite his divided country, Lincoln declared a national day of Thanksgiving. This time, the other Presidents followed.

1960s Black family at dining table with turkey saying grace praying.

Some 40 years after President Lincoln’s Proclamation to celebrate Thanksgiving, US satirist, Mark Twain commented in his article, The Dervish and the Offensive Stranger, how odd it was to designate a day to celebrate the Native American genocide:

“Thanksgiving Day became a habit, for the reason that . . . the exterminating had ceased to become mutual, and was all on the white man’s side, hence it was proper to thank the Lord for it, and to extend the usual annual compliments.”

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LINKS

Hanc, John. The Plymouth Hero You Should Really Be Thankful for This Thanksgiving: Without Edward Winslow, we probably wouldn’t even be celebrating the holiday. Smithsonian Magazine November 21, 2016.

Stannard, David E. American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Winthrop, John. The Journal of John Winthrop, 1630-1649. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1996.

What is Cadiz? And why does it matter to the people of the Pomona Valley?

. . . The true story (with plot twists) of how a private corporation is trying to water-mine the Mojave Desert - and how Pomona Valley got involved

Photography Courtesy of Julian Lucas

By Pamela Casey Nagler
Photography Julian Lucas
Published 10/24/2022 12:00 Am PST

The story of Cadiz begins in the 1980s, when British investor Keith Brackpool arrived in California after pleading guilty to criminal charges relating to securities trading in Britain.

In 1983, Brackpool teamed up with others to locate water sources for development and sale to municipalities. Studying satellite images with a geologist, he located an aquifer in the Mojave, and proceeded to buy up a patchwork of creosote scrub for the private corporation he founded: Cadiz, Inc. 

Brackpool remains connected to Cadiz today. He was appointed to the board in 1986, served as CEO from 1991 to 2013, and as board chair from 2001 to 2022. As founder & chair of Cadiz, Brackpool makes $626,111 a year. There are no executives at Cadiz getting paid more.

In the 1990s, Brackpool hatched a plan to store trillions of gallons of Colorado River water beneath the Cadiz tract and to extract water from its underlying aquifer that they would ship to California neighborhoods via a pipeline. He began courting the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the agency which serves 26 Southland public water agencies, including our local Three Valleys Municipal Water District that serves the communities of Pomona, Claremont, LaVerne, San Dimas, Glendora, Covina, West Covina, Charter Oak, Hacienda Heights, Diamond Bar, Walnut, City of Industry, La Puente and Rowland Heights. 

Although MWD seriously considered the partnership, in 2002, it bailed. They said that the project lacked economic feasibility and the requisite natural resources.

Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik acknowledged the scheme had “a sort of shimmering authenticity, like a desert mirage.” But while Cadiz promoted the project as an answer to our water shortage, the Colorado River simply has no surplus to store.

In 2005, Cadiz sued the Metropolitan Water District for "stopping the project in its entirety,” costing MWD $3.1 million and 3 ½ years of legal resources. It was a lawsuit that MWD ultimately won.

However, none of this stopped Cadiz from continuing to propose new plans, seek new investors and partners. From 2011 to the present, according to OpenSecrets.org, Cadiz has spent nearly 7 million dollars lobbying government officials. Open Secrets calls the majority of Cadiz' lobbyists ‘revolving door’ lobbyists - that is, lobbyists who used to work for the government. 

In 2009, Cadiz proposed supplying water to Southern California neighborhoods, pumped from their Cadiz aquifer “before it evaporates,” and delivered via a pipeline. In 2012, Orange County’s Santa Margarita Water District approved Cadiz’ environmental documents. The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors followed suit.

Thus began Three Valley’s involvement with Cadiz. That year, Three Valleys voted to “reserve supply and storage from the [Cadiz] project in the event it is constructed,” wrote Three Valleys board member Brian Bowcock in his October 7, 2022 COURIER Readers’ Comment.

In the meantime, Cadiz faced several lawsuits from various environmental groups.

In 2015, the LA Times’ Bettina Boxall wrote that, “Cadiz has acknowledged that over the long term, the project will extract more groundwater than is replenished by nature.”

At this time, federal scientists expressed concern that the operation could dry up springs vital to wildlife on the nearby Mojave National Preserve and other public lands. Experts disagreed over exactly how much groundwater there is underlying the Cadiz tract, how much the company could legally pump out, and how pumping could affect neighboring aquifers with the contamination of carcinogenic minerals. 

In 2015, the Metropolitan Water District continued to refuse to have any ties to Cadiz. Their official statement, "We are not pursuing any negotiations or conversations at all.”

That same year, United States Senator Dianne Feinstein voiced her opposition, declaring it folly to draw down the aquifer. “I remain concerned the Cadiz project could damage the Mojave Desert beyond repair … We need to use water more responsibly, not less, and the Cadiz project is a bad idea.”

Jay Cravath, cultural director of the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, warned that pumping water at Cadiz would take water from springs on the tribe's ancestral lands. He said that the company is using "fuzzy math" to justify its goals. “It is greedy and narcissistic of them to take what is there from its natural and rightful place,” Cravath said.

In 2016, appointees of the Trump administration were determined to waive environmental concerns and fast-track projects like Cadiz, and, in a momentous decision, the Bureau of Land Management approved Cadiz’ pipeline permit.

As a result of this decision, in June 2019, the Three Valleys Board approved a study of the Cadiz Water Project’s impact on nearby Bonanza Spring, the largest fresh water spring system in the Mojave. This, in spite of the fact that, one year prior, in 2018, two scientific studies were published in Hydrology and Environmental Forensics that substantiated that nearby Bonanza Spring is, in fact, connected to the aquifer that Cadiz wants to pump, and that Cadiz’s proposal to pump the aquifer is unsustainable. According to the study in Hydrology, Cadiz is planning to pump 10 to 25 times more each year than is annually replenished. Water-mining at Cadiz’ proposed level would most likely, in almost every scenario, cause Bonanza spring to dry up. 

While additional environmental review sounds appropriate, the study that Three Valley’s voted to support does not meet the standards of unbiased, peer-reviewed analysis. Led by Anthony Brown of Aquilogic, Inc., a longtime advocate for Cadiz, his Aquilogic study  has all the earmarks of an “in-house” promotion. In May of 2015, Brown wrote an op-ed for San Bernardino’s Press Enterprise, “Time to Get the Cadiz Project Flowing.”

 “Their concerns are that a private corporation should not be able to degrade lands, flora and fauna held in the public trust.”

Just last month, on September 13, a federal court threw out Cadiz’ pipeline permit, stating it was approved without tribal consultation or a proper review of the environmental impacts on nearby national parks, national monuments and Native American sacred sites. Their concerns are that a private corporation should not be able to degrade lands, flora and fauna held in the public trust. Representatives from various organizations, including the Native American Land Conservancy, National Parks Conservation Association’s California Desert Program, Mojave National Preserve Conservancy and Sierra Club, among others, have lauded this decision.

Again, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein weighed in: 

“This is a major win for the Mojave Desert. For decades, Cadiz has tried to avoid the federal permitting process in order to drain a vital desert aquifer. If successful, it would rob the desert of its most precious resource: water. Everything that makes our desert special – from the iconic Joshua trees and breathtaking wildflower blooms to the majestic bighorn sheep and rare desert tortoises – would be lost.”

Just one week after the federal court decision, the Three Valleys Board emerged from a closed session, announcing that it had voted to terminate its role in the Cadiz study. While this sounds like something to celebrate, board member Bowcock reminded us that walking away from the Cadiz study may expose Three Valleys to legal action. “They’re going to sue us. And rightfully so,” he said.

Thus far it appears Cadiz hasn’t produced the study, nor have they paid the more than $1 million they promised to Three Valleys. Differing amounts have been mentioned, but it’s very difficult for the public to determine what has or hasn’t been paid. Bowcock told the COURIER “We never did see it … We never received $805,000.”

Cadiz’ official response to September’s federal court ruling is “it will have no impact” on the completion of what they now call the “Cadiz Water Conservation and Storage Project.” 

Cadiz plans on moving forward, seeking new investors and new partnerships. However, their press release includes the disclaimer that these kinds of investments and partnerships come with “significant risks and uncertainties.”

Stay tuned.

Pamela Casey Nagler is a Claremont resident.

Indigenous Day 2022: Freedom Fighter and Resistance Leader Hatuey

Bust from the statue of Taino Chief Hatuey (~ / 1512) in Baracoa, Cuba. Hatuey was burned alive by Spanairds for leading a defense of his homeland against Spanish invaders.

By Pamela Nagler
Published 10/11/2022 6:00 Am PST

October 11 is Columbus Day or Indigenous People's Day depending on where you live and what your perspective is. To say the least, celebrating Columbus these days can be a very complicated business. Too many people have read his journals and studied the history, too many people have examined the meaning of discovery, to fall into those old tired tropes of Columbus hero worship. Columbus statues have been removed in Chicago, Mexico, NYC, Boston, Baltimore and many other places including LA. 

Suffice to say, there remains much to deconstruct about Columbus landing on the island he called Hispaniola (present-day Dominican Republic) where he and his men proceeded to massacre and subjugate the Taino - all by his own admission. 

But Columbus’ sphere of influence was vast. Even in his own time, the Spaniards extended their reign of terror beyond Hispaniola to include other islands Columbus misnamed the West Indies, the present-day Caribbean Islands. 

When potential landowner who later became a Dominican Father, Bartolomé de las Casas arrived on the islands, in 1509, Las Casas explained how Columbus influence other Spaniards who “perpetrated the same outrages and committed the same crimes as before, devising yet further refinements of cruelty, murdering the native people, burning and roasting them alive, throwing them to wild dogs and then oppressing, tormenting and plaguing them with toil down the mines and elsewhere.” 26, penguin 

And, in 1511, when the Spaniards invaded Cuba, the story was really no different from the earlier stories on other islands, except for maybe, one singular figure emerged - Hatuey, a leader of Native resistance.

Earlier, Hatuey, a cacique or leader had fled his homeland of Hispaniola, arriving in Cuba with canoes holding 400 of his people. Las Casas reported that Hatuey warned the people of Cuba:

“we have to throw them [the Spaniards] into the sea . . .They tell us, these tyrants, that they adore a God of peace and equality, and yet they usurp our land and make us their slaves. They speak to us of an immortal soul and of their eternal rewards and punishments, and yet they rob our belongings, seduce our women, violate our daughters. Incapable of matching us in valor, these cowards cover themselves with iron that our weapons cannot break.” 28, penguin

Hatuey and his people battled against the Spanish, but the Spanish managed to capture him. Before tying him to a stake and burning him alive, the Franciscan Father preached to him about the everlasting life and the consequence of Hell if he did not accept the Christian God. Hatuey, in turn, asked the Father if Spaniards went to heaven. Las Casas reported:

“When the reply came that good ones do, he [Hatuey] retorted, without need to further reflection, that, if that was the case, then he chose to go to Hell to ensure that he would never again have to clap eyes on those cruel brutes.” 28-9, penguin

After Hatuey’s execution, the Spaniards continued to massacre large settlements of Cuban Natives - the Arawaks. Of those that they did not enslave or murder, some attempted to flee, but others chose death by suicide: “Men and women hanged themselves and even strung up their children.” 30, penguin They saw this as an alternative to being tortured or worked to death.

Children, without their parents, died of starvation. The Spaniards pursued those who ran away, until Las Casas noted that the “whole of the island [of Cuba] was devastated and depopulated . . . transformed . . . into one vast, barren wasteland.” 30, penguin

Present-day Cubans are forthright about their colonial history. A bust of Hatuey sits in front of the oldest Church in Baracoa, in the main town square of the first city the Spanish colonized. Some tour guides will tell you that the nearby Yumurí River, lined on each side by sheer limestone cliffs, means ‘beautiful river,’ but others will tell you that Yumurí means ‘I kill myself’ because this is where the Arawaks threw themselves off of the ten-story drop-offs to escape the oppressions of the Spanish. The coffee plantations on Cuba display the chains, shackles and goads next to the excavated farm implements at ground level, just downstairs from the colonists’ former opulent dwellings upstairs.

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REFERECES

Casas, Bartolomé de las. Nigel Griffin, trans., Anthony Pagden, intro. A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies. 1st Edition. London: Penguin, 1999. pages 26-30. 

How Best to Honor an Abolitionist? Honor Abolition

By Lucia Nagler
Published 9/20/2022 6:23 am PST
Updated 9/20/2022 2:00 pm PST

Just last Fourth of July, the City of Pomona hosted Unity Day LA. It was a day marked by festivities and fundraising, and it began with the unveiling of black woman artist Manuelita Brown’s bronze statue of Harriet Tubman, followed by a ‘Unity Walk’ around the Park, and culminated in a host of events at Pomona’s Fairplex which included live music, comedy acts, and boxing. 

The event was orchestrated by Ray Adamyk, President of Pomona’s Spectra Company, a historic restoration and construction company. Adamyk, working in conjunction with Pomona’s Mayor Tim Sandoval, hosted the event as a part of his ongoing effort to raise three million dollars to restore Salem Chapel in Adamyk’s original hometown of St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. Late in life, Adamyk uncovered the truth that the Chapel was Tubman’s last stop on her Underground Railroad.  

As to how her Underground Railroad that guided enslaved African-Americans ended up all the way in Canada, in 1868, Tubman said, “I wouldn’t trust Uncle Sam with my people no longer. I brought them all clear off to Canada.”

Brown’s statue of abolitionist Harriet Tubman is a powerful statement that has already made a major impact on the Pomona community - demonstrating to everyone the powerful impact that art can make in the community - and how much we hunger for representation. I hope that, in the future, Brown’s artistic vision, her representation of Harriet Tubman, will be more centered in the news features.  

That said, the event surrounding the unveiling raises other concerns. The City of Pomona leap-frogged over its own public processes in its introduction of the statue to one of its prominent public parks. Before Pomona’s Cultural Arts Commission and Cultural Arts Citizen Advisory Committee had an opportunity to review the 137 or so artist applications for public art in the city, this one singular application received preferential attention. By disregarding the public process, not only did the other artist applicants receive short shrift, but so did the public-at-large. All were left out of what should have been a very public decision-making process. Though the City of Pomona installed both the Commission and Committee to review all applications, by unveiling the statute before any kind of public review, the City determined that the recommendations of the Commission, the Committee, and its own City Planning Department were essentially irrelevant. 

Why this matters is that it is important that our public government remains responsive to public opinion when distributing taxpayer money and resources. In a democracy, it is important that decisions are made by the many rather than the few.

It is even more disturbing that in Adamyk’s interviews on the network news, Adamyk described the ‘Unity Walk’ as not only a walk for people of all races but also as a walk for the police and the community. During this walk, there was a heavy police presence.

I consider the spectacle of this photo-op moment of “community policing” tone-deaf - a whitewashing of Harriet Tubman’s legacy, overshadowing Tubman’s message of abolition. Everyone, including the youth in this community, deserves to learn about Harriet Tubman’s real principles and her opposition to unjust structures of power.  

Harriet Tubman, abolitionist and suffragist, believed in direct action. She broke the law and helped fugitives escape. They ran from slave patrols and the police in this country. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 enslaved people using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. During the American Civil War, she served as an armed scout and spy for the Union Army. In her later years, the first woman to lead an armed expedition in the war, she guided the raid at Combahee Ferry, which liberated more than 700 enslaved people. 

The placement of Tubman’s statue at Lincoln Park holds a certain kind of irony. Though the two were contemporaries, Tubman never spoke with President Lincoln. During an interview for The Chautauquan magazine in 1896, Tubman stated that she did not like Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War days and only learned to appreciate him after her friend, Sojourner Truth, told her Lincoln was an ally:

“No, I’m sorry now, but I didn’t like Lincoln in them days. I used to go see Missus Lincoln, but I never wanted to see him. You see we colored people didn’t understand then [that] he was our friend. All we knew was that the first colored troops sent south from Massachusetts only got seven dollars a month, while the white regiment got fifteen. We didn’t like that. But now I know all about it and I is sorry I didn’t go see Master Lincoln.”

Harriet Tubman’s true legacy is that abolition is an ongoing process and it is from this perspective that the installation of her statue needs to be viewed. Not as a mere gesture at ‘racial reconciliation,’ but as an ongoing effort to make things right. 

This most recent walk happened at the same time as the Pomona Police Department continues to target and arrest black youth at a higher rate than their non-Black peers. In 2021, Gente Organizada, located here in Pomona, released a report that 22.4% of youth arrested are Black while only making up 5.6% of the population in Pomona. Black female arrests account for 44.9% of youth female arrests despite only being 5.6% of the population in Pomona. (2)

Courtesy of the Library of Congress
Full-length portrait of Harriet Tubman (1820? -1913)
Harvey B.Lindsley 1842-1921 (Contributor)
Matte Collodion Print

This walk happened at a time when protestors fighting for women’s bodily autonomy and reproductive rights faced violence throughout the country. This walk happened as protestors were in the streets of Akron, Ohio because Jayland Walker, an unarmed 25-year-old Black man, was fired at 90 times and struck 60 times by eight Akron Ohio police officers for a traffic violation. 

UCLA Professor and Black activist Bryonne Bain tells us, “Los Angeles is ground zero for mass incarceration. With an average of 17,000 people incarcerated daily (as of 2015), LA incarcerates more people than any city in the world. The City of Angels is, in fact, the City of Incarceration.” (3)

According to a recent research initiative by Catalyst California, Los Angeles County’s jail system is the largest in the country. The incarceration rate for Black people in Los Angeles County is 13 times higher than that for white. White people in L.A. County are incarcerated in state prisons at a rate of 1.6 per 1,000, Blacks are incarcerated at 20.8 per 1,000, and Latinos are imprisoned at a rate of 4.3 for every 1,000. Per capita, blacks in L.A. County died at the hands of police more than four times than that of whites in 2015, the project found - and Latinos died at the hands of police nearly twice that of whites. (4)

1849 advertisement for the return of “Minty” (Harriet Tubman) and her brothers “Ben” and “Harry,” in which their mistress, Eliza Brodess, offered $100 for each of them if caught outside of Maryland

Per capita, Black people in L.A. County died at the hands of police more than four times than that of whites in 2015, the project found - and Latinos died at the hands of police nearly twice that of whites. (4)

According to the Los Angeles Times: Homicide Report, since 2001, 972 people have been killed by law enforcement in Los Angeles County, according to homicide records from the county medical examiner-coroner. Nearly 80% were Black or Latino. Black people make up less than 10% of LA County’s population, yet they represent 24% of law enforcement killings.  White people, who make up more than a quarter of the population, are killed in 19% of the incidents. (5)

Some of us may know police who are very good people (depending on who we are), but it is undeniable that, historically, the systems and structures of police have maintained the status quo in this country. According to the NAACP, “the origins of modern-day policing can be traced back to the ‘Slave Patrol.’ (6) 

Policing helped enforce slavery and enforce Black Codes, strict local and state laws that regulated and restricted access to labor, wages, voting rights, and general freedoms for formerly enslaved people. Policing helped enforce Jim Crow laws, upholding segregation. Police have targeted and continue to target Black and Chicano activists. Police have worked against the interests of the working class and poor people.

Pomona does not need to be used as a fundraising and publicity stunt. Pomona does not need the city government and police’s performative gestures. Pomona needs real racial justice and change. Artist voices should be elevated. Pomona schools should have arts equity. How can we develop ways to keep everyone safe? Does this current system of disproportionate funding and support for police meet the needs of the people in Pomona?  Harriet Tubman’s legacy needs to be celebrated in authentic ways with the awareness that her mission does not belong to the past, but to the present and the future.

“I was free, but there was no one to welcome me in the land of freedom. I was a stranger in a strange land.” 

• Abolitionist Harriet Tubman after she made 13 trips to bring 70 enslaved people to freedom beginning in 1849. 

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Lucia Nagler is a member of the City of Pomona’s Cultural Arts Citizen Advisory Committee, but the opinions expressed here are strictly her own.

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REFERENCES

1. Good Day LA. Unity Walk in Pomona ahead of Harriet Tubman Statue Unveil. July 1, 2022.

2. Gente Organizada. Gente de Pomona Equity Report 2021.

3. Bain, Bryonn. 21st Century Harriet Tubman: An Interview with Susan Burton.

4. Los Angeles Daily News: There’s a Huge Race Gap in LA County Incarceration Rates, Study Says. 11.15.17.

5. Los Angeles Times Staff. “Police Have Killed 972 People in L.A. County Since 2000. July 5, 2022

6. NAACP. The Origins of Modern Day Policing. 2022.

The Exploitation of Witchcraft in the Wake of Social Media

By Michelle Gatewood
Published 9/14/2022 6:00am PST

Crystals, altars, and burning sage. These are the apparent new staples of many households. I find that I meet more people who “practice” or are learning to than those who don’t. You can scroll endlessly on TikTok or Instagram with #beginnerspells, #babywitch, or simply #witchtok. 

While many content creators approach their videos with some semblance of respect, it’s impossible to ignore the uneasiness of watching a beauty-filtered video of someone explaining a binding spell obviously attuned to their aesthetic though apparently blind to whom their prospective audience may be.

Of course, I believe knowledge should be free. But these are not tutorials on how to, or change a tire or perform a derailleur adjustment. Spells should not be common knowledge. However, this is not an attempt to gatekeep. This is an opinion piece. The opinion is, that those who are quick to seek solutions to personal problems through witchcraft may be abusing and consequently disrespecting a sacred practice. 

So how did we get here? Was it escapism from COVID19? An outlet for the feelings of helplessness brought on by a global pandemic? Or perhaps just a consequence of the hyper and immediately accessible information on these platforms. After all, all it takes is one viral video to initiate a flood of others seeking the same number of views. 

In a 2020 article, writer Bianca Bosker suggested that the “rebranding” of witchcraft was likely to blame. Noting that previously, calling yourself a witch was associated negatively whereas now, calling yourself a witch equates to calling yourself  “intuitive” and “wise.” Naturally, this would attract many who struggle to feel empowered daily. 

Whatever the case, those who find themselves interested should be sure to interrogate their motivations. For example, if you find yourself in conflict with your partner, you could perhaps take steps to create open communication rather than turn to the option of a  jealousy spell. 

If, after careful consideration, you still find yourself met with a passion for witchcraft, acknowledge your place in a long history of culture. Consider the sources you choose to learn from and why. Is it just those sources that are readily available and currently trending? Are you simply seeking to feel a part of something greater? Would you choose to educate yourself if the internet did not exist? 

Would you desire to label yourself this way if there was no one to perceive you? 

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LINKS

Bianca Bosker for The Atlantic

AUTHOR

Michelle R. Gatewood is a Mexican American poet and writer from Fontana, California. Her work often explores relationships and the language of identity. She received her B.A. in Linguistics from Cal Poly Pomona.

Interspecies Assemblage: The San Gabriel Valley through the lens of Jesús Romo

“Riding the River”

Text by Daniel Talamantes
Photography by Jesús Romo
Published 6/22/2022 6am PST

This essay was produced by Boom California, a publication dedicated to inspiring lively and significant conversations about the vital social and cultural issues of our time in California and the world beyond…. The Pomonan is Co-Publishing this Essay

Taking Shape of the River

“In it, you realize the river has no shape,” reflects Jesús Romo on his photo, “Riding in the River.” The photo depicts a pair of vaqueros wading through a tributary in Whittier Narrows. Above the horses’ cannon, water splashes above their knees, infusing motion in the still. Twilight eclipses a vaquero’s greeting hand and sombrero as his riding partner advances toward us—or is he following Jesús Romo? Ripples, ephemera, trace the contours of Jesús Romo’s ghost in the water, out of frame as he puts the scene in focus. The patina of ordered ripples contrasts with the shoreline brush of shadowy chaos.

“Riding in the River,” though taken recently, feels like it belongs in another place and time. The photo conjures modalities in movement, of diaspora, and an environmental legacy that were once ubiquitous in the region, but now reduced to a rare and confined natural space. Wilderness and vaqueros elicit a pathos or melancholic reflection of what could have been. While the photo may hint toward a better depiction of the San Gabriel Valley’s natural setting, it does not necessarily portray the accurate social history of Mexican and Latinx communities. Still, it shows how vaqueros or vaqueras have gained success in claiming public space and reclaiming Mexican presence in the San Gabriel Valley.

What remains of Whittier Narrows is only a hint of what the region used to be. As David Reid in East of East: The Making of Greater El Monte writes, “[Whittier Narrows] ensured the survival of some 400 acres of forest, lakes, trails, lawns, and soccer fields… preserved a link to the Whittier Narrows area’s history and to the natural world… and offers the first taste of the natural world to many locals.”1 Always under threat of development, Whittier Narrows, cleaved and siloed by the 60 freeway, 605 freeway, and Rosemead Boulevard remains a site of natural wonder, preservation, and recreation for the surrounding communities of Avocado Heights, El Monte, South El Monte, and La Puente, among others.

“Riding in the Narrows”

The oneiric quality of Whittier Narrows is troubled by the waking reality of the Whittier Narrow Dam. Despite community efforts to preserve Whittier Narrows by relocating the dam further down the river, the dam ultimately punctuates the city and county’s priority for energy extraction and management. But there’s a great irony here: the county’s erection of the dam had arguably secured Whittier Narrow’s survival. This is an important consideration. It evinces this space as an example of a contested site of culture and power. The dam becomes a veritable metonym for the industrial and settler control and extraction of diaspora’s flow. Just beyond the frame, a titanic urban landscape lurks. It encroaches. Matrices of roads and freeways, telephone wires, and pipes fasten to strangulate the veritable island of wilderness. Waste facilities, manufacturing plants, and distribution centers leech pollutants into streams and soil. The air over it so thick of smog can be noisome of sulfur, ammonia, rubber, or other strands of toxic fumes.

“Trail ride with Esteban and company”

In winter, without any other form of access or way bridge neighboring communities, Jesús Romo explains that the tributaries are the only passable trails connecting this natural corridor to his community of Avocado Heights, until they are too deep to traverse. Auto industries, waste facilities, and housing developments converted a rich agricultural and natural landscape into grids of pavement, fences, pipes, and wires. Avocado Heights, among many surrounding communities, became what city planner scholar William Fulton refers to as the “suburbs of extraction” where Latinx individuals, despite attaining political power, struggle in economic scarcity to find resources and fund public services.2 Furthering this, scholar Laura R. Barraclough writes in Charros: How Mexican Cowboys are Remapping Race and American Identity, suburbs of extraction like the many in San Gabriel Valley, “[find] themselves empty-handed, with few strategies available beyond luring businesses such as casinos, pawn shops, and scrap metal recycling yards—all of which…extract any remaining wealth from already-disinvested sources.”3

“Employee at feed store near Sports Arena”

Situated between the Puente Hills, California canyons and Whittier Narrows, Avocado Heights is an unincorporated neighborhood east of the 605 freeway and just north of the San Jose Creek which feeds into the San Gabriel River. The town’s population remains approximately fifteen thousand people, yet it is surrounded by much larger cities such as City of Industry, La Puente, El Monte, South El Monte, and adjacent to a constellation of other unincorporated communities such as Bassett and North Whittier. A distinct feature of Avocado Heights is its designation as an equestrian district which traces its legacy to the vaqueros of early Californio’s and Mexico—of which hold a vast majority of the demographics. And while Avocado Heights has a prominent identity and agency of its own, its characteristics are as interpretable as the river.

“Rancho Jimenez”

“Mis tíos”

Wading through the river, vaqueros interact with assemblages of making and being. Contested sites, specific histories, and cultural exchanges emerge and submerge in expression of power and resistance. Though we can abstract histories and narrative from the photo, “Riding in the River” is material. The photograph is now a part of Whittier Narrows’ ecology. It is a fragment of the location, both as a living portal and as artifact. It would not exist if not for its historical contingency. Despite attempts at cultural erasure or despite the elision from regional, state, or national narratives, Avocado Heights is immutable. Photographs expose. They are taken, putting moments, people, and places into focus.

“Colitas”

“Community desfile”

“la paseada patron saint festival in Avocado Heights”

“Community desfile” and “la paseada patron saint festival AH style” are celebrations of the patron saint festival, La Paseada. Celebrated in Avocado Heights annually, this is the second biggest event in Avocado Heights Park after the Easter celebration. Romo says, “Starting a few years ago after a group of different families in the area formed an association to raise money and connect with their loved ones back home by several individuals who were undocumented and unable to visit their home communities.” The organizers of the event originate from Las Palmas, Jalisco and like most patron saint festivals, these are religious celebrations that coincide with the whole community having the week off.

The celebration in Las Palmas is known for having a large cabalgata (cavalcade) to inaugurate the event, Romo continues, “Given that this is horse country, we all join in their festivities in the Avocado Heights version as if we are there in Las Palmas for the week.” Along with the tamborazo, a reina (queen) usually carries the American and Mexican flag while following an altar containing the patron saint. The Independence celebrations in Yahualica, Jalisco are on September 16, 2016. The celebrations in Avocado Heights and among the equestrian community, at times, closely resemble the celebrations in Mexico.

“Industry Expo feria de caballo español”

It is not uncommon for the escaramuzas and charros of the San Gabriel Valley to compete with some frequency down in Mexico, or to attend an annual coleadero at their ranch, and then to come back to the US and give an update to their family and group of friends about the latest community gossip, who’s the leading equestrian athlete, and what musical group headlined the event. For being a relatively small neighborhood, Avocado Heights epitomizes in many ways this unique bilateral relationship with Mexico. These are not relationships that exist because parents grew up in a particular place, but rather, these are relationships that are constantly reinforced by the consistent back and forth travel that occurs for recurring events, such as the patron saint festivals, or the patriotic independence celebrations.

“Privadita”

“Filming a music video”

“Horse Parade in Jalisco”

On September 16, 2016, in the city streets of Yahualica, Jalisco, Romo joins a cabalgata underway. The vaquera centered in the photo is named Nadia. And while she doesn’t announce her sexuality publicly, she is widely known in the horse community for being a prominent fixture at horse events and is often seen accompanied by her partner. Romo explains, “After marching on horseback in the parade, Nadia hired the banda and it was myself and one other escaramuza, kind of a protege of Nadia’s, who joined her for an impromptu parade once again throughout the town.” Nadia was not dressed in the typical escaramuza outfit, but rather a charro outfit. “She triumphantly led us on a long-winded post-march route with a loaded gun in her holster. It was a very public and triumphant display and I just had to document the photo.”

In Nadia’s story we have a unique exposure to the dimensions of gender embodiment and representation. She is both a leader and yet presents herself in traditional charro outfits. Likewise, her partnership, according to Romo, remains a discretionary fact. It is no doubt the case that vaquero culture celebrates and predominantly masculine traits. Yet, it is and historically has been a space and identity that has opened gender fluidity and resistance. Across the United States and in Mexico, vaquerx spaces foster hetero-, homo-, and transsexual performance. Massive conventions occur every year in cities including Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Dallas, and Mexico City which host queer reuniones vaqueros. The events feature live performance combined with regional Mexican food, drink, music, and dancing. Though these conventions are unique, they also amplify the reality of the vaquero/a/x everyday—one very present in Avocado Heights. Romo, who established his ranch in Avocado Heights as a queer space for artists and vaquerx, disrupts masculinized narrative in his photographs’ style and through his positionality.

Historian Susan Stryker argued that gender representation is analogous to a digital image. She writes, “It’s unclear exactly how [a digital image] is related to the world of physical objects. It doesn’t point to some ‘real’ thing… it might in fact be a complete fabrication built up pixel by pixel or bit by bit—but a fabrication that nevertheless exists as an image or a sound as real as any other.” Like the digital image, gender is a construction, not a material fact. Pixel by pixel, bit by bit, the bodily stylings through clothing and accessories, a person’s behaviors and interactions, their movements, dancing, songs, vocal utterances, and expressions add up to the mix of gender, sexuality, class, race, ethnicity, and nationality identifications present in vaquerx lifestyles.

Away from the recursive performance of male bodies in vaquero spaces, Romo shares that out on the trails, men transcend typical male behaviors and share intimate details and stories about their lives with each other over bonfires. They exhibit acts of care, play, and bonding that transgress traditional male roles. Heteronormative behavior characteristics are often found to be more fluid where the binary gender model of nuclear family orientation is out of the picture. Men and women ride together in the desfile around the central park of Avocado Heights to show off their horses, socialize, and play. Performative gender hierarchies, though present here in there, are most often ambiguous and indeterminable within these events or settings. Vaquero/a/x practices can disrupt imposed binaries and essentialist notions through endless re-imaginings of sexuality models/gender models, white/brown bodies, and middle class/working class lives. Vaquero/a/x performance digitizes and decolonizes the body. Like music, it blends and flows in measures and meter imperceptibly.

“Towards the San Jose Creek River Trail”

“Ranch in Avocado Heights”

Horses become the witness of human behavior. Witnessing their play, love, and connection, exists an entire irreducible lifeworld. The horse, the viewer from vantage of horse, is immersed. They can grasp a sense of the embodied experience but are always in some way dispositioned. One can lament the separation, but the degrees of connection and distance are innate in every interaction, whether that is by photograph or in embracing a partner for the dance. The interaction between man and animal exposes gestural language. In behaviors between animal and human, or photographer and researcher, or dance partners are modes of interaction, coding and decoding practices, and unconscious and conscious choices.

In “The Vaquero Way” a horse trainer, Sheila Varian explains, “The Vaquero method of training is a beautiful song sung with the softness and beauty of the rhythm of the horse. It is about the total harmony and togetherness of horse and rider.”7 The process of becoming a vaquero often begins at an early age. Training involves more than the act of breaking or taming a horse, but developing a mutual relationship, a partnership with another being grown from mutual respect. The best horses are trained over varied terrain and can navigate their surroundings through experiential learning. Feeling and unity with the horse comprise the methodology.

“Pajaretes”

“Recycled wood chips”

Like a photographer and their subject, or a historian and a past culture, animals and human beings train together to become “available to events.”8 French ethologist Jean-Claude Barrey’s analysis of a phenomenon called isopraxis. To him, isopraxis articulates the “unintentional movements” of muscles that fire and contract in both horse and human at the exact same time.

“Talented riders behave and move like horses… Human bodies have been transformed by and into a horse’s body. Who influences and who is influenced, in this story, are questions that can no longer receive a clear answer. Both, human and horse, are cause and effect of each other’s movements. Both induce and are induced, affect and are affected. Both embody each other’s mind.”9

Animals and humans, like material and their environments become response-able. The interface reveals that between space and place, signifier and significant, forms lose distinction. Through iterations, intention, and idiosyncratic relations, emergent patterns evince rich cultural understandings.

“Herrero”

The complex, interactive relations described between Avocado Heights’ connection with horses, their fellowship of other riders, how the vaqueros/as become innate stewards of the land, and how this connection ties history to the present situates humans, nature, and horses are central actors in the story. As anthropologist Anna Tsing invokes, “Species interdependence is a well-known fact— except when it comes to humans. Human exceptionalism blinds us.”10 No matter the cultural variety available, many believe humanity, the biological human, is a constant. Instead, from molecule to ecosystem, humans reshape as they are reshaped. In considering the domestications that closely knots humans with horses and all other organisms, Tsing asks, “What if we imagined a human nature that shifted historically together with varied webs of interspecies dependence?”11 She and Haraway submit that humanity is an interspecies relationship. It is more than us. It is more than human.

With the connection to the horses, the specific natural history of the San Gabriel Valley, and continual exploitation of the community’s health, Jesús Romo’s photographs convey that we are indelibly intertwined with our environment. Our subject of human nature and what is natural has historically excluded, or marginally considered, nature as a critical element of culture and society. Human behavior is a part of natural processes and never exempt from them. Everything from viruses, evolution, mycelium, deforestation, drought, food systems, tectonic shifts, to cosmic events are essential explanations for behavior. Environmental racism through development discourse is not just material but epistemic violence. Between fact-retrieval through the modalities of linguistic conventions, embodiment and space, or nature, these are “exposures” which emancipate past stories, events, places, things, and people from the rigor of hegemonic, settler, colonial regimes. As each modality can lead one down a lifetime of research for just one subject alone, the researcher alone depends on this collaboration to make something of the findings. The intention of the project and the responsibility of its representation are most important.

Photographs, when not outright exploitative practices, almost ensure a type of embodiment or positionality less credible in alternative medias. Jesús Romo’s positionality, affiliation, and agency inspire an even greater trust in the content and intentionality in representation. Jesús Romo ’s photographs are exposures of interspecies assemblage of the San Gabriel Valley.

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Notes

[1] David Reid, “Whittier Narrows Park,” East of East: The Making of Greater El Monte, edited by Romeo Guzman, Caribbean Fragoza, et al. Rutgers, 2020. 191

[2] Barraclough, Laura R. Charros: How Mexican Cowboys Are Remapping Race and American Identity, 1st ed.. University of California Press, 2019. 164

[3] Barraclough, Charros, 159

[4] Kara L. Stewart. ”The Vaquero Way.” Horse Illustrated. November 16, 2004

[5] Donna Haraway. When Species Meet. Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press, 2008.

[6] Vinciane Despret. ”The Body We Care For: Figures of Anthropo-zoo-genesis.” Body & Society. Vol. 10(2–3): 111–134. DOI: 10.1177/1357034X04042938

[7] Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt. Friction: an Ethnography of Global Connection. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2005. [1] Ibid.

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Daniel Talamantes is a writer from the Central Valley of California. He is working toward a doctorate at Claremont Graduate University currently as an environmental historian, ethnographer, and environmental justice activist. Essays, short stories, and poems of his have been published with Entropy, Elderly, SF Chronicle, Soft Punk, to name a few. His first poetry chapbook Ruminate Emergent was the winner of the Desert Pavilion Chapbook Series and set to be published Fall 2022. 

Jesús Romo is an activist, photographer, and resident of Avocado Heights. You can find him on the trails and fighting for clean air, water, and land with and for SGV residents.

Boom California is a free refereed online media publication dedicated to inspiring lively and significant conversations about the vital social and cultural issues of our time in California and the world beyond. It aims to be the place where the most serious discussions are happening about the world in California and California in the world. To do this we host academic conversations in the forms of peer reviewed articles that both highlight and advance scholarly discourse about California culture, and do so in a manner that is public-facing and oriented toward the social and practical concerns of ordinary Californians.

Harriet Tubman Was An Abolitionist In Case You Forgot

By Julian Lucas
Published 8/15/2022 6am PST
Updated 8/15/2022 6:30pm PST

“Defund the Police” might be a phrase that ‘pisses’ many of you off, but if Harriet Tubman were alive today she would be a police abolitionist. She would be a prison abolitionist. She wouldn’t call the police for help because she would understand their goal is to arrest and incarcerate. Being born into slavery, she understood what is was like being held in captivity. Furthermore, we should all know, or at least should understand, that our modern-day police originated from slave patrols.

Harriet Tubman would understand who is disproportionately arrested and incarcerated in the US.

If Harriet Tubman had been alive during the Great Migration, she would have been guiding 6 million Black people from the rural south to the urban north to escape Jim Crow laws and the formation and rise of the Klu Klux Klan. She would have helped guide my father’s family out of Greenville, Mississippi to the south side of Chicago.

If Harriet Tubman were alive during the Great Depression, she would have fought for including Black people in the New Deal because we all should realize, by now,  that Black people were left out. Harriet Tubman would have helped my grandmother Mattie, my aunt Sis, and my great-aunt Minnie obtain social security benefits, unemployment insurance, and federally-insured subsidized loans. Instead, those so-called ‘government handouts’ were often only issued to White Americans. 98% of the subsidized loans were issued to Whites so that they could move away from Black people to create the suburbs in places like Pomona and Covina, California or Park Forest, Illinois. 

If Harriet Tubman were alive right after WW2, she would have helped my father, Thomas Lucas known to his peers as Be-Bop among other aliases depending on the setting. Harriet would have also helped over one million other Black GIs, receive their benefits from the GI Bill - benefits that would have given them a ‘leg up’ on obtaining college degrees and housing. If the GI bill had been made available to the Blacks as promised, it would have helped them enter the American middle class. My father, a US veteran, wouldn’t have had to run underground gambling joints and work in bowling alleys fixing the bowling machines if he had the same opportunities extended to him as were extended to his white peers.

If Harriet Tubman would have been alive during the Civil Rights years, she would have supported Malcom X. She understood that while Martin wanted to integrate, Malcolm knew that the fundamental problem was that the Black communities lacked the resources of the white communities. 

Harriet Tubman understood all this because she had received only $200 for her three years of service in the Civil War, under Abraham Lincoln. Harriet was no fool and wasn’t going to settle for less. She spent the next three decades seeking the additional compensation she deserved. During the late 1890s, she submitted her affidavit to Congress explaining her request for payment of an additional $1800 as the proper compensation for her military service commensurate with what her white peers received. She understood there was a significant gap in pay between Whites and Blacks - a gap that exists today. 

Harriet carried a pistol and a sword during her missions to free slaves just as Malcolm felt it was necessary to guard himself and his family with a rifle. 

If Harriet Tubman had been alive, Malcolm and Martin wouldn’t have died violent deaths by gunshot but would have been laid to rest peacefully of natural causes. If Harriet Tubman were alive during the War on Drugs era, she would have saved my cousins, Alvin, Kenny, and Kylie, including the millions of Black lives that were lost to the system and to early graves. Harriet understood that both business and the government benefit from prison labor, and she would have also understood the school-to-prison pipeline and how it systemically targets Black and Brown youth. If Harriet Tubman were alive today, she would have done more than kneel in protest alongside Colin Kaepernick, or march in a Black Lives Matter Protest. She knew well the injustices - the killing of Blacks at the hands of the Police and the overrepresentation of Black people in the prisons. I know this because she said, “Every time I saw a white man I was afraid of being carried away.” Harriet’s statement reminds me of the time in my life when I was a Black youth growing up in a predominantly White city being constantly harassed by police.

So when people get upset over the phrase “Defund the Police!” - remember that Harriet Tubman would have been fighting the whole time to abolish the police and prisons because let’s not forget, Tubman was an abolitionist. 

According to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics, Whites make up 76% of the population, but only 69% of the arrests, while Blacks, who make up 14% of the population, constitute 27% of the arrests. Furthermore, Black U.S. residents (465 per 100,000 persons) were incarcerated at 3.5 times the rate of white US residents (133 per 100,000 persons) at midyear 2020.

LINKS
FBI Crime Report 2019
Jail Inmates 2020
How the GI Bill’s Promise Was Denied to A Million Black WII Veterans
For Black Artists, the Great Migration Is an Unfinished Journey

Julian Lucas, is a photographer, creative strategist, a purveyor of books and writer in training, but mostly a photographer. Julian also works as a housing specialist which, includes linking unhoused veterans to housing.

Book Review: CITY ON THE SECOND FLOOR

City On The Second Floor: A work of mastery about the social and civil structures that we live and work under. An intellectually riveting description of the struggle in America today, put together with the patience and  skill of a precision clock maker.   A tremendous work of our times.

Review by Eddie Grijalva
Published 6/5/2022 9:47am PST
Buy Book —> Flower Song Press

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Some poets write of love and bravery. Some write of politics, plague and war.  Matt Sedillo writes of America today, which means he writes of all these things, though he does so with ferociousness.  He writes during an age of great transition and wrath.  The very face of America is changing, which scares a lot of people.  Powerful ones too.  Though when the powerful become remorseless in their actions towards the less powerful it takes an equally remorseless (also fearless) pen to alert the masses that a sword of Damocles looms overhead.  City On The Second Floor, the third book by Matt Sedillo and second with Flowersong Press is a foray into sociology and his version of a love song/intervention to Los Angeles, the city he was born and raised in.

Excerpts from L.A. IS FULL OF PIGS:

“Los Angeles is falling apart / In the streets, in the suburbs / In the wind / In a barely kept Hollywood

bathroom / Wheezing, vomiting, coughing up blood / The past few days, these past few years / I have

spread myself across this sprawl / and fear this drive may kill me / May kill us all and I wander / Over to

general hospital / Between whose walls desperation wears in high concentration / Across the faces of the

shopworn / And prematurely ill alike as they wait upon news of illness they cannot afford to have /

Survival without insurance / This may take a while….”

“…Los Angeles is full of good people / Who time to time / can turn a blind eye / to killer policy ....”

Sedillo’s last book: Mowing Leaves Of Grass, was a visceral yet intellectual sally into ethnic studies which took on a life of its own in the Chicano community and beyond. It is now taught in ethnic studies classes in universities around the country.  City On The Second Floor is an indictment of the governmental systems that created the society we’re all stuck with today.  One of racism, police killings, gentrification, consumerism as God, environmental exploitation, suffering of the poor and many other travesties.  Sedillo isn’t shy about it either, he’s a fire-spitter and he’s mentioned before, “ I’m not here to make friends” .   He’s been described as, “The stone-cold best political poet in America '' and the “Poet Laureate of the struggle”.  He’s been featured in a litany of publications, including The L.A. Times. He’s also appeared on CSPAN and has spoken at over one-hundred universities. He’s been compared to everything from a Biblical Prophet to a lyrical Marx. Whether you agree with his politics or not there are   undeniable truths in Sedillo’s historically dense works, or what the Chicano streets and Dr. Jose Prado—the Sociology Professor who authored the foreword—calls “La mera neta!”

Even with the deadly serious nature of the topics Sedillo covers in City On The Second Floor, he expertly balances them out with a bit of comic relief.  For example, in his poem Precarious Rex: after reminding us, “Just how precious little / Democracy there is in the way of things”, he then tempers this hard lesson with a bit of levity:

“An invitation to reunion with a dear friend / Only to be met with attempts to be roped in / Into

some type of / Academic pyramid scheme / A tenure track position / In Carbondale Illinois / I would

rather die / A thousand deaths / in all the chain restaurants / of Monrovia / Then…./ I woke up

in the back of a rideshare/ Better there than the jailers I suppose, though I could not help but / Wonder if I had left the bar of my volition / Checked my pockets / losing tickets / still in place / I am after all / A fool

of / Odd and tragic / Sentiments….”

Having lived in the region of Carbondale in Southern Illinois (go Salukis) for a time as a young adult, I totally understand why one would rather, “die a thousand deaths” before committing their future to a life of academic exile in middle America, which I found particularly funny.  Sedillo skillfully uses this technique of weaving humor amongst some of the heaviest topics known to mankind throughout this volume of work.

With an extensive knowledge of history and philosophy Sedillo uses the cold hard facts of the past to demonstrate the ethical and moral dilemmas that are still right in front of our faces today.  As a result of this historically-deep research used to craft these poems, Sedillo speaks with the authority of a Will Durant.  Though also possessing a healthy suspicion of political and social structures he displays a natural instinct to investigate power, similar to a Mike Davis.  And akin to a Martin Espada, he’s on a mission to reclaim the historic record and undo the whitewashing of our past.  We are watching the blossoming of an incredible talent.  At this pace with his tremendous erudition, work ethic, and unflinching ability to tell the whole absurdly-tragic truth, in my humble opinion, he has the ability to be as important to the twenty-first century as Ginsberg and Neruda were to the twentieth.

Another theme in City On The Second Floor is that of environmental exploitation and the global warming that it’s ultimately leading to.  He touches on this subject in a few of the poems.  Painting a vivid picture of environmental crimes and the consequences we’ll all pay so the powerful can globe-trot and strip goods from the hinterlands of weaker nations to feed the insatiable appetite of ever-starving industry.

Excerpt from Storm Warnings:

“When it all finally goes down / When the Titanic / Finally sinks / When there is nowhere / Left to hide the money / When the Alps finally melt / When Switzerland / Becomes a barren desert / And the Caymans/ Are buried / Miles below / Sea level / The fortune five hundred / Will set up / Tax shelters / On the moon /

A storm is brewing / From the winds of Fukushima / From the ash of Three-Mile Island / From the

Criminal negligence / The killing plunder / You can hear the distant thunder / strip the Earth to feed

Industry / Pillage the country / To please the city / Milk the city / To engorge the capital / Make weapons capable / Of destroying the planet / Turn profit /  From tankers that poison / The ocean / From factories /

That darken the sky / And a storm is brewing / From the ghosts of Bhopal ....”

As mentioned before, there’s history in every nook and cranny of this volume, lessons in every throwaway line.   He invokes the environmental disasters of Fukushima and Three-mile Island.  Two well known nuclear accidents in Japan and America respectively, though he mentions a third incident with “the ghosts of Bhopal”.  Which refers to a gas explosion at a Union Carbide Plant near Bhopal, India that killed three-thousand instantly and poisoned hundreds of thousands more in 1984.  It’s still killing people today and is considered one of the world's worst industrial accidents.  Here Sedillo reminds us of the true cost of industry while at the same time teaching a historical lesson and confronting the reader with a moral dilemma.  It is also a “storm warning” to the billionaire class.  Reminding them of the fact that they can run but can’t hide from the effects of climate change and the social chaos that comes with.  Eventually  the Earth will reckon with those who marshaled the wrath of the wind.  Golden parachutes are useless in category five hurricanes.

 
The Sea:

“Whatever it is we are doing / It is only making the storm stronger / There is land under the water /

And there too we drill / Capitalists dream of bottomless pits / Then piss and shit the bed plastic / All life

began in the ocean / And there too we kill / There are mountains under the water / Cities too I imagine /

Arrogant and delusional / One day the sea will swallow us whole.”

City on the Second Floor is a call to action.  Especially to the Chicano community.  Sedillo is on a mission to get his message across to as many people as possible. This book is his, “ Molotov, tossed towards Camelot”, his way of sounding the alarm.   Will we hear it though?  We can all smell what’s in the air in America today and we know that something is wrong in the way of things. Maybe we can’t put our finger on it, but a self-taught Chicano intellectual from Los Angeles just put a big red X on it for us all to see. I take an optimistic view of this complex work: that even though the world and our society are the way they are today, if we wake up and start pulling in the same direction the descendants of the poor and suffering of this world can shake off their yokes and experience a more saturnian society in their future. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys well-crafted, deep and meaningful, historically inspired poems, with an edge. It’s a powerful work destined to become a classic.  Following his seminal work, Mowing Leaves of Grass was always going to be tough. Though Sedillo definitely rose to the occasion and answered the bell with this sublime volume of Poems.

What it Means to Live on Indigenous Land

Illustration from De Agostini Collection/DEA/M. Seemuller/Getty Images

By Pamela Nagler
Published 5/31/2022 8:51am PST

It was in 1958 when then US Senator John F. Kennedy wrote his best-seller, A Nation of Immigrants, that he advanced the notion that the United States could be best understood through its immigrants - excluding the reality of millions who had neither lived the immigrant experience personally - nor lived it generationally through the experiences of their ancestors.

Indigenous people were already here when the immigrants arrived, and it was not long after the immigrants or settler-colonists arrived that they demanded the import of enslaved people from Africa to labor for them.

It is a myth that the US is a nation of immigrants, but based on this untruth, our nation has constructed a national story that continues to perpetuate itself - morphing into new constructs. It is, at the heart, a false story used to justify the primacy of our nation’s position in the world, and it has permeated our textbooks, been taught in our schools, been circulated by our politicians, and has contributed to our national rhetoric and the way we think about ourselves. This myth forms the basis for what we call American Exceptionalism - a belief held by many that the United States is so inherently different, so uniquely superior, its values so exceptional, that our political system - and our history - is beyond comparison. It’s a distorted view that is useful to prop up our regime because it tells us - and everyone else - that our country is both destined - and entitled - to play a distinctly positive role on the world stage.

Mitt Romney, in his acceptance speech as Republican nominee for President, in 2012, said, “Optimism is uniquely American. It is what brought us to America. We are a nation of immigrants.”

Former President Barack Obama, speaking at a Nevada high school in 2016, said, “We are a nation of immigrants, and that means we are constantly being replenished with fighters who believed in the American Dream, and it gives us tremendous advantage over other nations.”

That same year, Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton evoked the Statue of Liberty, when she said that it serves to remind “us of who we are and where we came from. We are a nation of immigrants and I am proud of it.”

Nicholas Galanin "Never Forget" art installation, part of Desert X outside Palm Springs, California, in 2021.

All this rhetoric masks the violence involved when settlers first arrived here and killed, raped, removed indigenous people so that they could live on their land. Further, it whitewashes the truth that their new settlements were often built or propped up with the labor of the enslaved.

The more accurate lens to look at the foundations of our nation is not through the lens of immigration, but through the lens of settler-colonialism. And even though settler-colonists may have called themselves immigrants from time to time, they were not. They did not move to new places to live among those who already lived here. They did not come to assimilate - to learn their language and customs - they came for land and opportunity that they could not find in their home country - and the removal of the indigenous people was part of their so-called 'immigration.' 

Contemporary Rebecca Dunbar-Ortiz tells us:

“The history of the United States is a history of settler colonialism. The objective of settler colonialism is to terminate Indigenous people as nations and communities with land bases in order to make the land available to European settlers. Extermination and assimilation are the methods used. This is the very definition of genocide.”  

And so there it is. As a nation, we tell ourselves stories to motivate ourselves, to move ourselves forward, to justify our actions and our history. By refusing to tell the authentic stories of our real origins, by refusing to utter the actual word, genocide - state-sanctioned murder and erasure - we are refusing to acknowledge what’s at the root of the problems we face today. Institutional racism, wealth and income inequality, poverty and the unhoused, lack of access to resources, the destruction of our environment also define us as a nation, but our country, rooted in fraudulent narratives, dismisses who ‘we’ really are. Sly hint - we aren’t only immigrants. And even at that, the immigrant experience is a widely divergent one.

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REFERENCES
Dunbar-Ortiz’ Not a Nation of Immigrants: Settler-Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion