Mario's Blog

The Returning of Freedom

The Returning of Freedom

For Elvira and Saul Arellano

by Mario Rocha

August 24, 2007

One year ago today, I walked out of the Los Angeles County Men's Central Jail a free man. People continue to ask me to describe that moment and many times, I have unsuccessfully attempted. 

What words exist that can capture what I felt as I took my first steps onto the sidewalk that quiet summer day and finally... finally... FINALLY received the chance to squeeze my entire family (which now included a mob of little people – my nephews and nieces) in one single embrace? "Milagroso" (miraculous) is one adjective that comes to mind. "Victorioso" (victorious) is another – my mother, Vicky, has her name rooted in it. If there is one symbol that epitomizes the great victory that I experienced that day, it was of my mother and me holding hands as we crossed the street. I reached for her hand as we made our way towards the car – afraid of not knowing where to go, who to follow, how to be . . . free.

Today, I imagine what young Saul Arellano must have felt as his mother Elvira sat in a prison cell awaiting deportation, as he reached for her hand in his day dreams and midnight reveries. One year after my release, I feel it is my civic responsibility and moral obligation to stand up for Elvira, for Saul, and for every other human being who is unjustly persecuted for simply being who they are – in Elvira's case, for being a mother.

I too have felt the pain of separation. I see image after image of Elvira and Saul, mother and child – but in many ways these photographs are of me and my mother; they are images of all the young people that I grew up with in juvenile hall (and eventually prison) and their mothers; they are images of all the children and their parents who bravely risk their lives in order to secure a better and brighter future for us on this side of the border.  They are the images of my generation and our ancestors, who, by breaking an unjust and unnatural law crossed a man-made border, and actually tried to mend the huge and horrific gap between the haves and have-nots, the privileged and the poor. 

On my one year anniversary of Freedom, I ask everyone I know to send Elvira and Saul their most positive and hopeful energy. As a former prisoner, I know it does make a difference.  There was a time when I could feel the light of hope seep through the cracks of my cell, especially when I found myself in isolation and nearly everyone around turned against me, and some even wanted me dead.  It was this transmission of love that enabled me to hold on and not lose my grip. It was this sense of hope on the outside that preserved my sanity on the inside

One year ago today, I stepped out into the world, reborn in a sense. Cocooned in the cage of injustice for ten and half years, from age 16 to 27, I emerged like the monarch butterflies in August, when they begin their southward journey to the place where the warrior spirits rest. The monarchs endure a two-month migration from August to October from the Rocky Colorado Mountains to the green sanctuaries of Michoacan– where Elvira Arellano was born, raised, and began her ongoing quest for freedom and justice. The People of this land belive the returning monarchs contain the souls of lost warriors. Far from lost, Elvira's warrior spirit continues in struggle.  Perhaps the monarchs will conspire, this October, with those who lived in this land and nurtured it for centuries before the claws of imperialism stabbed the sacred soil and created a huge hole in the heart of humanity.  Perhaps they will plot to reunite Saul and Elvira, the way my mother and I were reunited one year ago today.

Acknowledging A Warrior

It was an honor to be standing at the edge of the stage last Saturday night, April 7, 2007, at the We the People Music Festival in Watts (www.wethepeoplefestival.com).  Staring at the heads and eyes of all those young people of color coming together to celebrate the human voice by the thousands--with folks from all walks of life making the day possible--I was humbled to be greeted by such a lively response.  As co-host of the event, and my good friend, Fidel Rodriguez handed me the microphone, I didn't know what I was going to say or how far to hold the heavy piece of steel from my lips.  But as I spoke from my heart, words manifested the years of praying for the day when I could share my story with you, my community, friends and family, pueblito y patria, and I truly appreciated the warm welcome home.  Gracias.   

I am grateful for Fidel, a true brother in the struggle, who helped my family organize on my behalf while I was imprisoned.  In 2004, he co-organized a screening of the first documentary to feature my story, Dreammakers (co-directed by Paloma Suau and Susan Koch), at his wife Sol's bookstore, Imix Books, in Eagle Rock (www.imixbooks.com).  He then continued to be an active and vocal supporter of my cause during my last--and most troublesome--years in prison.  While graciously standing in solidarity with me and my family, Fidel also provided us with a strong and keen spiritual mentorship, teaching us with his actions how to be smarter, healthier, better human beings.  His friendship has eased my oftentimes difficult transition back to a society where, in the words of Eduardo Galeano, "Advertising enjoins everyone to consume, while the economy prohibits the vast majority of humanity from doing so."  (See Upside Down, 25.)  In other words, knowing him, and knowing that he is on my side, has made it much easier to adjust to a culture that I had long been extracted from.  Thanks to him and to Devine Forces Media, I was able to share the stage with artists I have long respected--the RZA, GZA, DJ Muggs, Psycho Realm, X Clan, etc.--whose music I used to listen to before my incaraceration, when I was a kid.     

It is important that we continue to support Fidel Rodriguez in his efforts to spread the messages of hope and healing in our communities.  On top of being the host of the best underground hip hop show in L.A., Divine Forces Radio on KPFK-LA 90.7 FM, Fidel is a dedicated community organizer, teacher, spiritual mentor, martial arts facilitator, yogi, father, husband, and exponent of indigenous culture and knowledge.  Visit www.divineforces.org to learn more about his many projects.

Mumia Abu-Jamal was framed for the killing of a Philadelphia police officer in 1981, many believe, for bravely exposing the illegal and inhumane wrongdoings of racist cops as a young radio journalist.  Today he is an acclaimed author, radio commentator, and scholar, still speaking truth to power from Death Row, but imprisoned, with his fate in the hands of the state, nonetheless (www.mumia.org).  Like Mumia, Fidel Rodriguez has become a "voice for the voiceless," walking shoulder to shoulder with others who are marching for a better future, and speaking out for those who are caught in the war on gangs, the war on youth.  As keepers of the knowledge his voice brings let us continue to recognize and reward him for being, like Mumia, a true warrior for justice.

"Much love, brother!"

Keep the fire alive!

Gripping the ximalli with honor,

Mario Rocha

http://www.facebook.com/p/Mario_Rocha/509114580

   

 

 

Fasting for the Future

March 26, 2007

I think of the fallen warriors, the infant souls who did not have the choice of whether they were going to eat or not eat, who survived just a few days past their expected deaths by starvation because their heart and spirit enabled them to outlive their hunger; I think of them and every other child who didn't make it past their seventh birthday due to disease or human frailty, children who did not have the choice of whether they wanted to play outside or watch TV because their lungs were too busy holding on to sweet breath inside hospitals, day after day, night after night; I think of them and their brave mothers and fathers, who tried till the very end—till the very last glimmer of life--to be there and do everything they could to support their child in a fight for air, a fight for existence . . .

I think of them and those who struggled and sacrificed for our future, for our right to exist: our parents, grandparents, elders, and ancestors; I think of them and every other human being--and not just the heroic leaders usually mentioned in books--who took a humbled stand for justice, imparting light upon a world of darkness for warriors of light across the globe; I think of you who have committed yourself to the struggle for humanity.

I think of you, my brothers and sisters, as I fast for the next four days with leaders of Academia Semillas del Pueblo Xinaxcalmecac and members of a growing alliance for dignity in Los Angeles, a group of persons I am proud to be a part of. 

"We are fasting for our future and for the coming Seven Generations," declared Marcos Aguilar, Principal at Semillas, speaking a stern, yet gentle Spanish standing alongside the circle we had formed on the elevated circular kiosk at the entrance of La Placita Olvera in Downtown.  Just across the street from the historic Pico House, where Pio Pico, last governor of Mexican California, lived during the American invasion in 1846, we began our day with a Sunrise Ceremony, receiving the fresh songs of birds and the indigenous prayers of two elders, understanding how the founders of the original city must have felt when deciding to build El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora on that very Mexican road.   Cleansed with the natural medicine of native hymns, we saluted the Four Directions, kissing the winds with the whale-like cries of the caracoles in the hands and at the faces and blowing lips of the ceremony’s leaders. 

Though the clouds hovered over the skyscrapers and hills that surrounded us, cloaking the great solar miracle that happens every morning, affirmation gripped my spirit when I heard that ancient cry in the streets, a cry from what Marcos would later tell me came from a crow; flying somewhere in that deep gray mist, telling us that the sun had risen, that the sun had listened, that the sun had heard our cries.

To learn more about Academia Semillas del Pueblo, please visit www.dignidad.org, or to get involved immediately, visit www.seedsofstruggle.org and email for instructions on how to help.

I also urge you to join us in our Walk for a Better Education on March 29, 2007.  Meet us at La Placita Olvera at Noon.  There we will convene and begin our walk through Main Street, First Street, and Beudry, where we will gather outside the Los Angeles Unified School District's Headquarters.

We are calling on political leaders and el pueblo to take a humbled stand for the future of our children.  Academia Semillas del Pueblo is a symbol of not only what is necessary but what is just: the right to be educated by people who care and to learn at a pace in accordance with one's level of comprehension.

In Pedogogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire writes that liberation is “not a gift, not a self-achievement, but a mutal process."  It is a process that occurs when the people are finally taught to teach themselves, to explore their imaginations and creativity for knowledge, to apply their emotions and intuitions in every learning situation, to seek answers to questions about one's identity through learning about one's culture, to learn how to love one another in harmony with the earth, and to break from the chains of ignorance while freeing the oppressor from his.

In Peace and Solidarity,

Yours for the cause of Justice,

Mario Rocha

The Quest for Justice Continues

Tomorrow I will begin to take writing classes at UCLA; part of an 8-month fellowship awarded to a small, selective group of writers every year by PEN USA, an international organization of writers and free speech advocates.  It is called the Emerging Voices (EV) Fellowship and I learned about the program through Leslie Schwartz, author of Angel's Crest, who was the EV director when, in the spring of last year, she sent me an application and encouraged me to give it a try, even though we did not know if I would even be free when the program finally started in January 2007.  Of course, we were hopeful. 

I started filling out the application right there, at Calipatria State Prison, working on several other projects while awaiting word from the California Supreme Court about the then recent reversal of my conviction by the California Court of Appeals.  Though I did not understand the magnitude of opportunity this EV fellowship would provide, as I had way bigger things to worry about then (as I do now), I was smart enough to mix the application with other "legal documents" stuffed inside the one manilla envelope I was allowed to carry during the transfer from Calipatria to L.A. County Jail after receiving "the good news" and finally leaving prison in late May. 

For the next three months, I worked on the application--in between writing letters, experiencing riots, keeping quiet during prayer circles, and singing songs--living under the worst conditions known to this human being: awaiting a retrial for the same false charges that costed me a decade of freedom, feeling so close to being on the other side of that tiny visiting room glass--just ask my friends and loved ones--yet trapped inside that despicable Downtown Men's Central Jail, like the rest of the "nobodies" nobody wants to hear about.  I kept filling it out even while writing "Commentaries from the County," a short column I created for my friend Fidel Rodriguez's hip hop show, Divine Forces Radio, on KPFK-L.A. 90.7 FM (www.kpfk.org, www.divineforces.org).  I would deliver these short pieces, by telephone, on the air every Friday night until--after ten and a half years of wrongful imprisonment--I finally made it out alive.  (Even after August 24, 2006, the day I was released, I have continued to work with Divine Forces Radio, contributing my "Notes on Freedom" the way I did the "Commentaries" every Friday night until recently, as I now need to focus my efforts on completing my book, Young Lifer: A Prisoner's Quest for Justice & Freedom, as part of the PEN Fellowship.)

Finally, during my first days of freedom, I met with Leslie Schwartz at my friend Javier Stauring's Downtown office.  It was about noon, the sun had been shining brightly all morning, and I was there to hand her my EV application the way we had optimistically planned months prior. 

But first, I had to fill out the final question.  Can you believe that? 

Tomorrow I will begin the 10-week course, "Writer as Witness to Life: The Power of Observation," with liz gonzalez as my teacher.  Along with the writing classes at UCLA Extension, the fellowship offers so many other opportunities to advance as a writer, such as participating in writing workshops and public readings as well as working with a professional writer as one's mentor throughout the course of completing a manuscript for possible publication.

For the next eight months I will be working with Mike Davis, author of City of Quartz: Excavating the Future of Los Angeles, whose work I truly respect, and whose credibility as historian scholar I will uphold through my dedication to the written word.

In the coming months you will see less of me, and more of the hope--and change--I strive to see.

Thanks for the love, encouragement, and support everyone.

With much gratitude and appreciation,

In Solidarity and Struggle,

Yours for the cause of Justice,

Mario Rocha

http://www.facebook.com/p/Mario_Rocha/509114580">Facebook

 

 

The Holidays

December 25, 1995 was the last time I spent Christmas with my family.  Living behind those walls for more than ten years, I used to push the holidays so far away in the back of my mind because I could not be with the people I loved the most.  This "holiday season" I am grateful to be right here, in their presence. 

Everyone is buying presents, lights fill the neighborhoods where usually it is creepy at night, and the kids--my many nephews and neices and the children of my community--glow with joy at the prospect of love and genorosity to come. . . . A feeling we share as I embrace life as a free human being.

I approach these days of familial celebration and cultural ceremony with the warmth of a long burning fire in my heart.  Being mindful of my brothers and sisters in the struggle--those who will not be able to spend these precious days with their families--I hug my mother and brothers and others a little tighter. . . . How many times did I refuse to pick up that prison telephone to avoid reminding them of my absence during the holidays?  How many times did they try to make the best out of life, though their hearts were broken, while daydreaming of the day that, finally, now has come?

When the path becomes too hard to travel because of the terrible conditions, adversity, and darkness, I will cling to the same natural and divine forces that have guided me this far.  Though I am now free--free from physical restraints though not yet from the false charges--my quest for justice and freedom continues.  And I will never give up the struggle for social justice and community liberation.

I envision the best for everyone who has supported me throughout the years; my tears of joy are your triumph.  Together we shall remain committed to the causes of love and liberty in our society.  Together we shall move one another to act in the spirit of so many who gave themselves, often fully, and some would even charge "foolishly," to the betterment of life in the world.

May we continue to build bridges over the cracks of the broken hearted and crushed--

"Hasta la victoria siempre."

In faith and solidarity,

mario rocha

http://www.facebook.com/p/Mario_Rocha/509114580

http://badge.facebook.com/badge/509114580.22.119075226.png

Bienvenidos

"If you believe that change is impossible, you guarantee that change is impossible." --Noam Chomsky Welcome everyone to the blog of all community-based blogs. Here we will waste no time arguing over things that make no difference in our efforts to rebuild our society. For as participants in a much needed movement for social justice, our primary goal should always be to move forward, refusing to find contentment in remaining where colonialism, slavery, exploitation, repression and war have left us. Here we will, thus, focus less on what we are against and more on what we are for, in hopes of achieving for ourselves a concrete vision of where we want to be and what we want to become. Thank you for your time and willingness to practice the art of resistance. Please invite others to join this blog; everyone's input and contribution is needed. Yours for the cause of justice, Mario Rocha Facebook me!