Casa Maria, Author at Casa Maria Soup Kitchen

H.T. SANCHEZ: FIGHTING FOR FAMILIES IN TUSD

Casa Maria November 20, 2013

2 min readby Brian Flagg, The new school board, along with their new superintendent, H.T. Sanchez, seem to be fighting for families instead of against them. It’s a real breath of fresh air. Mr. Sanchez is standing up to a so-called national desegregation expert, William Hawley, who thinks that Carrillo and Davis elementary schools, and Pueblo High School, are not integrated enough. Because Mr. Hawley was appointed by a federal judge to oversee the district’s desegregation plan, he could take magnet status away from those three barrio schools , denying them funding sorely needed for their survival. According to the Arizona Daily

Casa Maria Thanksgiving Benefit Concert

Casa Maria November 18, 2013

< 1 min readHola companeros de Casa Maria! This Friday, Nov.22 we will be celebrating our annual CASA MARIA THANKSGIVING BENEFIT at CLUB CONGRESS!!! Come celebrate with Brian Flagg and all the volunteers and friends of Casa Maria this day of Gracias! The admission will be $5.00 or free if you are friends of Casa Maria and have a flier or handbill to give us at the door. The doors open at 8pm. To start the show starts at : 8:30 with THE SAND RUBIES(Rich “Vato Loco” Hopkins from the Luminarios) will be on the electic guitar ready and willing to shred!! 9:30…Brian

Rasquacho Art

Casa Maria November 18, 2013

2 min readby Kassandra Manriquez Pancho Medina, the Minister of Culture at Casa Maria calls his art gallery, The Rasquacho Gallery. The gallery is built into his home alongside many of his art pieces displayed from room to room. Rasquacho is a term often used to describe somebody who is low-class, poor, disrespectful or dirty. An example of this might be someone who repaints his or her car using a bottle of spray paint. The term rasquacho is versatile; it can be used as an adjective, verb or noun. It can even be exaggerated; rasquachon (big rasquacho). “It means a way of

Lessons I’ve Learned from Riding the Bus

Casa Maria November 14, 2013

4 min readby Ellen Courtney One way to see how the other half lives is to ride the bus. A few years back, I was a regular commuter on Sun Tran, and I’ve traveled back and forth to El Paso on the “dog” (the Greyhound) a number of times in the past couple of years. I confess that my earliest experiences as a bus rider were sometimes uncomfortable, not because of the seats, but because my fellow passengers seemed strange to me. They looked and acted and talked differently, and sometimes their behavior seemed odd and disrespectful of boundaries. For instance, it’s

Wireless Disconnection

Casa Maria November 12, 2013

5 min readby Cesar Aguirre, A few weeks ago I was blessed with the opportunity to take my girls out to a pizza place for dinner. After playing arcade games with Alissa and Jasmine we sat down together to enjoy our pizza and salad. As we ate we talked about our day, they both told me about what they had done in school. I told them about my day in the soup kitchen. After eating I cut them loose to play a little more while I got a box for our leftovers. Once I had done that I sat for a moment and

Pancho Medina Honors a Nacozari Hero

Casa Maria November 7, 2013

2 min readby Kassandra Manriquez Maquina 501 is a corrido that jogs Pancho Medina’s memory of his father and is the inspiration behind his Dia de los Muertos altar. Pancho Medina is the Minister of Culture at Casa Maria as well as a local artist and activist. Over a century ago, Jesus Garcia, a railroad brakeman was killed near the village of Nacozari, Sonora as he saved the village from a train loaded with dynamite that caught fire. Without Garcia, the fatalities in the village would have been numerous. In his honor, the song Maquina 501 is sung. Jesus Garcia was a

Money Grubbers

Casa Maria November 7, 2013

2 min readby Brian Flagg The UA basketball team is ranked as high as 5th in the pre-season polls. The first game is on Friday, November 8 against Cal Poly. And neither I nor most of my friends nor many of the poor and working people in Tucson will watch or be able to afford to watch. It will be available only on PAC 12 TV. Regular cable won’t do it. In fact a poor guy like me might get only about a third of the games this year on TV. That is because thanks to the UA and the PAC 12,

What’s going on right now…

Casa Maria November 4, 2013

< 1 min readEl barrio se reunió la noche del lunes para participar en la procesión de celebración del Día de los Muertos. La procesión empezó en Casa María y culmino en el Fortín de las Flores. _____________________________________________________________________ The barrio gathered together Monday night for a procession in celebration of Dia de los Muertos. The procession began at Casa Maria and wrapped up at Fortin de las Flores.

Vote Yes on 405 the Sunnyside School District Override!

Casa Maria November 4, 2013

3 min readby Jimmy Ojeda On Saturday, November 2, Cesar Aguirre, Gilbert Contreras, Gloria Espinoza and I walked on behalf of Prop 405. This proposition, if voters approve it, would allow the SunnysideSchool district to have more money for its schools. Basically, it is asking peoplewho live in the district to pay a little more on their taxesin order to provide money for public education. This money is really needed and would be of much help for the schools, and especially for our children’s education, and the future of Tucson. I met lots of wonderful people who arevery interested in public schools

FOOD STAMPS CUT, CASA MARIA BREAKES RECORD

Casa Maria November 1, 2013

< 1 min readby Brian Flagg Today’s headline, (Arizona Daily Star, Nov. 1, 2013) CUTBACKS IN FOOD BENEFITS HIT HERE In case you missed it, the Federal government cut food stamps. It goes into effect today. More than 1.1 million Arizonans will see their benefits reduced. The effects of this are going to make a bad, intolerable situation even worse. ON TUESDAY OCTOBER 29TH, WE SERVED 580 BAG LUNCHES, AND 200 FAMILY BAGS. We don’t know how many more we can do! In the wealthiest, mightiest, most powerful country in the history of the world, this is a sin that cries out to

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