Not all of them, but some, yes.

This past Tuesday, July 1st, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and his Partnership for L.A. Schools took control of ten LAUSD schools: Ritter Elementary and Markham Middle School in Watts, 99th St. Elementary, Figueroa Elementary, Gompers Middle, and Santee Educational Complex in South L.A., and Sunrise Elementary, Hollenbeck Middle, Stevenson Middle, and Roosevelt High in Boyle Heights.

This Partnership is a result of his failed attempt at taking control of a larger number of LAUSD schools via Assembly Bill 1381, which was eventually ruled unconstitutional. These schools are under the Partnership’s control for the next five years, and if this Partnership shows results, it will most likely be instituted in a wider basis.

What does the Partnership provide? Since the schools are under control of Villaraigosa, he can bring in city services. The Partnership fundraises and also lobbies the LAUSD for increased funding per student. The greatest benefit, in my opinion, are these two bits from the press release:

[A] new contract that gives schools independence from burdensome district rules and regulations, the Partnership is beginning to break down the District’s bureaucracy by returning decision-making authority over budgets and priorities to staff at the schools themselves.

. . .

For the first time, principals at Partnership schools will be in classrooms three hours per day, taking a hands-on leadership role and providing direct feedback to teachers. In addition, all new teachers hired at Partnership schools were selected by hiring committees unique to each school - and not by a remote bureaucracy.

Less bureaucracy and local control over hiring: steps in the right direction. in my years as a student at LAUSD schools and talks with teachers, one of the areas of contention I had was with the UTLA and the LAUSD bureaucracy above. Too often I saw administrators sent to my schools to spend the final years of their careers or overly eager teachers and administrators doing all they could to move up in the bureaucracy, short-changing the student’s education for the sake of improving their status. In the pursuit of moving up the bureaucracy, the administrators and teachers often worked to impose the policies of the bureaucracy above (i.e. small learning communities, block scheduling) to win the favor of others and move up.

Also, the UTLA was just ineffective and made it harder in dealing with teachers. Rather than firing teachers who under-perform, UTLA forces the LAUSD to shuffle teachers from one school to another, making some schools dumping grounds for ineffective teachers and hurting education as a whole. Schools should have always had better control over who they hire, who stays and who leaves.

Another positive that I see out of this partnership is more aggressive hiring practices for qualified teachers. Rather than using seniority and amount of preparation (measured by degrees acquired), schools should offer teachers salaries based on how important they are to the school. Some teachers should be paid more than others, at the discretion of the school, in order to keep highly-desirable teachers (science teachers, especially) at the school. The teacher unions are the biggest detriment and they are only working to keep the state of education in their schools the same. I saw too many well-qualified, respectable, engaging and effective teachers leave the LAUSD because they were no longer paid enough and sought higher pay. Let the school itself barter the salary with the teacher, not the union.

I am for these partnerships and charter schools (a la Green Dot Schools) to improve education in Los Angeles and in other areas of the United States. Public education has stagnated long enough and different methods should be tried.

Image of Antonio Villaraigosa used under Creative Commons from David Markland’s photostream. Cross-posted over at my L.A. Eastside.

La paz del alma la regala sólo Dios

Songs about retribution always get to me. Whether the retribution comes at the hand of the original victim or from a divine power, the concept of making the other person feel pain is a sweet one. This belief in retribution is one of the cores of rancheras. Rather than having a few songs about retribution, there are thousands of this type of songs, each one different in the method of retribution.

“Sólo Dios” is one of my favorite rancheras, especially this version with Jorge Negrete. This song was composed by Chucho Monge, who also wrote “La feria de las flores” and 175 other songs, according to the Sociedad de Autores y Compositores de Música. Jorge Negrete is also one of my favorite singers (none of this “Pedro Infante is a better singer” tripe; I don’t like Infante’s voice at all) and his voice, with its quiver and strength that his opera training developed, complete this song.

This song is perfect for Negrete’s somewhat arrogant voice and personality. “Sólo Dios” is sung by someone who suffered at the hands of someone. Rather than wishing hell on earth, the singer leaves it all to God. The ambiguity in the wishes of the singer to cause suffering on the other person is also a form of retribution. The singer no longer cares enough for the other person to wish pain on the other person; he simply does not care what happens to the other person. Torturous inaction is a great method of inflicting pain on another person.

One thing I’ve always wondered is how much these songs served to impose modes of conduct on other people. It’s not something that I have the time to go into right now, Just keep in mind que la paz del alma la regala sólo Dios.

Today the L.A. Times’ website is linking to this article over at Metromix. The article is of little importance and relevance. The article is accompanied by a gallery with the accompanying image.

The caption reads for this picture reads: Where am I? A Kanye concert?

She is referring to Kanye West’s most recent album, Graduation, and the second single, Stronger, which features a teddy bear wearing white shutter shades on the cover of the single. Here’s West wearing the shutter shades:

The first time I saw West wearing these kinds of shades, I had to laugh because they became very hip for people to wear. I knew I had seen that style before.

Then it clicked. You know what you people who wear this kind of shades look like? You look like the back of a late-1980s Ford Mustang GT.

Seriously, that shutter look is ugly. Stop wearing the shades. You all look like idiots. It looks great on cars, not on you.

First image is taken from Los Angeles Metromix’s gallery accompanying the article. Photo is by Michelle Lanz. Second photo, Kanye West, is taken from the Hip Hop Chronicle. Third photo, that of the 1987 Ford Mustang, is taken from the Mustang Source.

I have lived most of my life in the outskirts. I have never enjoyed being in the spotlight or being part of the large group because I feel uncomfortable at being looked at by everyone or I feel slighted, somewhat left out. Birthday parties, large celebrations, you name it, I prefer being on my own than within a group. At most parties you’ll find me against the wall, talking to people or looking at the group. When I went to birthday parties as a smaller child, I tried my best to play with other small children, but Fate decided that most children at these parties were either newborns or older by about four years, which at the age of six is a tremendous difference. I also don’t have any much close family in Los Angeles, thereby isolating me more.

As I grew older, I naturally sought to keep quiet at parties, eventually taking books or a Game Boy to these parties and spending hours at the edge of a table and playing or reading under whatever light there was. I’ve burned through whole books at parties, like Riders on the Storm (the autobiography by John Densmore, drummer for the Doors). Sometime in high school, I stopped going to parties at all, stayed home and would either read books or do homework.

Even at my age right now, I feel too young to participate in the conversations that my dad is in and I am obviously too old to play with children, unless they are babies in their carriages. As I write this, I am in a park in Hawthorne with my parents at a meeting sponsored by a club, an association of people from the same locale in Mexico. However, I am at a reunión of people not from the pueblo I consider to be the home of my parents; rather, this is a club of the pueblo of origin of one of my grandparents. My parents joined it in order to get to know more people from her pueblo, possibly find some relatives, and just spend time from the same part of Mexico. Here it is layers of isolation for me. I don’t consider myself to be from the same place as them because I’ve never visited the pueblo. I know no one here, largely because this is the first of such reuniones I attend. While my parents already know a large number of the people here and my little brother has made a few play friends, I have my backpack with my laptop, my copy of Pedro Páramo/El Llano en llamas, City of Quartz, and the Harvard University Courses of Instruction so I start picking classes for next year.

I just heard one of the parents at this party talking to my parents about their daughter and her college plans. The mother said that her daughter’s counselor told her that the first two years of college are the same, what makes each college different from the others is the intended course of study. The counselor suggested that she attend a community college for the first two years and then transfer to a four-year college. I had to shake my head at this logic because of how hard it has become for transfer students to enter college and the counselor telling the student that she cannot make it into a four-year college out of high school.

Though I appreciate her daughter looking at college after high school, I am dismayed that the counselor at her high school is sabotaging her with this “go to a community college first” tripe. Counselors should do their best to get students to attend four-year colleges and not have to deal with the trouble of transferring later in their lives. If a student has the grades to attend a four-year college, they should. The only times I think a student should go to a community college before going to a four-year university after high school is if the student did not have the grades for admission into a four-year university or if dire straits force a student to not go to a four-year college. Rather than writing about this, I should be talking to her daughter about college right now, but I feel that a reunión is not the best place for it.

There are two men at this party, one playing a twelve-string guitar and another on the violin, singing mostly songs by Juan and David Zaizar, including “La palma” and “Indita mia”. These men are good jalisciences.

As I look around, my perception of la gente de los Altos de Jalisco is strengthened: most are light-skinned due to the large immigration of Spanish people to the region. I’ll go as far to say that most people are not really products of mestizaje, but rather products of intermarriage between all the Spanish families that came to Los Altos de Jalisco.

A few weeks ago, my mom asked me why it was that my phone never rang and I simply answered “No one calls.” I don’t give out my phone number to many people and I don’t enjoy talking on the phone. I have not yet established relationships with people where phone conversations are justified. I am now living with the people who would call me when I was away this past school year.

I’m so happy that next year I’ll be living in Cabot House. I really can’t live with other people my age. I enjoy my privacy and really need it in order to be happy. This past year, living in a suite with three other guys, I had a hard time studying because there were often distractions brought on by people coming by to visit or play video games. As much as I like being with people, I do not like being with them in what constitutes my house. I strive to have a clear distinction between my “public” life, which is social interaction, classes, work, mariachi performances, and club meetings, and my “private” life, which is where I live, where I eat, mariachi practices, and close friendships/relationships. I’m so grateful that Cabot House is in the Quad, away from the center of campus and the other houses. Most people will be dissuaded from calling me or showing up at my dormitory unannounced by being far from the other Houses and Harvard Square. Not to mention that Cabot House has the highest senior satisfaction numbers in the annual senior surveys and has great singles. Accommodation-wise, I have all that I wanted and could have asked.

I value my solitude. I cherish it. No one can take it from me.

Yes, you read right. Last night, I was checking out the Metro 2008 Draft Long Range Transportation Plan (website here, download here [PDF]) and I found something that made me do a double-take. On page 35, there is a graph describing high priority regional projects. One of the current ones is a maglev train connecting Downtown Los Angeles and Santa Ana that would run through South Gate. Yup, through South Gate, directly connecting one of its busiest intersections (Firestone/Atlantic) directly with Downtown L.A. and Santa Ana.

Though it is a long-range and currently unfunded project, I want it built BADLY because it would directly join South Gate with Downtown L.A. (no need to take the Blue Line if I don’t want to) and Santa Ana. Also, at the corner of Atlantic and Firestone a shopping center will be built soon, the Gateway and it would serve to bring even more people to the shopping center and without the need to drive.

View Larger Map

I created a map of the proposed project all the way to Downtown Santa Ana (the graphic says it will end in Western Santa Ana) based on the alignment presented in the image above. Once in Orange County, I followed the right of way. The right of way used once the maglev heads southeast out of Hollydale is the old Pacific Electric right of way.

I am ecstatic to see the day when I can leave my house in South Gate and go to Downtown L.A. without a bus. Let’s start building many train projects, not only in the county, but in the state. High speed trains, more commuter trains, subways, light rail in dedicated routes, a train to Las Vegas, let’s build it all. With rising gas prices, this is one of the best ways to alleviate the pressure.

Someone outside my house is blasting low-quality reggaeton right now. To you I dedicate this:

I cannot wait until I get my driver’s license sometime this summer so I can drive around and blast my Chalino, Gavilancillo, and other assorted Mexican music outside your house.

Oh, and I want the freedom to drive places, albeit with limits (gasolina).

Video of the week is back this week to show this gem. I am part of the Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán Yahoo group and one of the members just uploaded a video of Mariachi Vargas before a concert. Seeing them at the San Antonio Mariachi Vargas Extravaganza made them seem like actual people, but seeing this video made them humans.

They eat!!! They ARE human after all!

Before coming to Boston last September, I was not much of a sports fan, in the sense that I did not follow sports constantly or attended games. I’d check in on the Dodgers’ and Lakers’ standings once a month, but unlike my friends, I didn’t have favorite players or went to games often. I’ve gone to three MLB games in my life (two Dodgers games, 1998/9 and 2007; one Angels game, 2005, which had the bitter farewell in the form of a “protest” by SOSers) and they’ve been all free. Soy codo, ¿y qué?

I can’t work myself up to be gung-ho over a sports team’s performance, trades and drama. The only sport that approximate that level of support is fútbol, and even then it has to be FMF (¡CHIVAS!). I’m just not a sports kind of fellow. Since I’ve been here in Boston, however, I’ve slowly been moving more and more towards becoming a fan. Maybe it’s how devoted New Englanders are to the Red Sox, Pats, Celtics and Bruins that changed my perspective towards fanaticism. I started following the Dodgers last September as they were close to getting the wild card spot, but then they lost ten games and were eliminated. Depressing, I know, but so it goes.

Being in Boston, however, always brought up the question of basketball: “Are you a Lakers fan?” (Most people figured I was from L.A. because I wore my Dodgers cap almost religiously, sometimes alternating with a Red Sox cap). The rivalry has been dormant for a while (maybe a decade or two), but it continues in the minds of Celtics and Lakers fans. It was on my mind in November, when I checked the Lakers’ schedule and saw they had a game the day after Thanksgiving at Boston. I wasn’t going home for that weekend, but a bit of home was coming my way!

I started looking for friends to go with and tickets to buy and we were able to snag six tickets really, really high up in the stands of the Garden, but at that point, any tickets were great. It was my first pro basketball game and it was Celtics-Lakers! I couldn’t contain myself as I rode the subway with my friends and stood out like a purple-and-gold (in my case, blue) thumb in a sea of green.

I don’t own Lakers clothing (¡codo!), but I figured my Dodgers cap and N.W.A were L.A. enough. Once at the Garden, we saw a number of Lakers fans, almost all wearing Kobe or Fisher shirts (0.4!). We sat in a section completely surrounded by Celtics fans, got a number of catcalls. We were even called “fahckin’ bahnies!” for rooting for the Lakers. The game was a good one, with our fearless leader, the Governator, in attendance with family (I’m sure they were visiting the Kennedy Compound), and a number of other luminaries. The game was a good one, though the Celtics won it in the end, 107-94 (not a sign of things to come, not a sign of things to come). Kobe was booed every time he got the ball in his hands when only the previous year Celtics fans were applauding him and shouting “MVP!”

After this experience and the Dodgers getting Joe Torre, I started getting more into sports and started following the teams with more regularity. I tried to see their games online, but very few regular season games were streamed online and I could not make the time for them. I followed their standings, saw the stats, and all was good. When the time came for the Red Sox-Dodgers game at the Coliseum, I made sure to watch it because I knew that would probably the only time a Dodgers game would be shown in New England in the whole season, barring a World Series appearance. Though I wish I had been there (I could have. The game fell during spring break), it was great seeing the Blue once again.

Chivas and fútbol remain at the top, but those two other sports and teams now connect me more with home. Now that the NBA Finals is once again Lakers-Celtics, I am happy to know that I’ll be able to experience it from the other’s perspective, being the fan of the currently most-despised team in Boston (not hated; that’s for the Yankees), even if it is for just a game or two before I return.

Don’t expect to run into me at a Lakers, Dodgers, Clippers, Kings, Galaxy, or Avengers game, though. I’m too much of a codo to go, especially by myself. However, when Chivas comes and plays in L.A. or Chivas USA plays, keep a look out. I might be there, screaming culero along with everyone else.

Crossposted over at L.A. Eastside.

I took time out from studying for my last final of my first year of college (HOLY SHIT!!!) to check out the most recent issue of Puro Pedo Magazine (downloadable here; it’s a PDF). Tucked away in page 11 of the magazine I found this gem of a parody ad:

If the developers come out with a vihuela, guitarrón, or bajo sexto expansion pack, I’ll buy it immediately.

I suggest you listen to “Las ciudades” by José Alfredo Jiménez while reading this post. The version I have chosen is sung by Lola Beltrán, whose version I prefer. If you would like to read the lyrics as well, they are available here.

- - -

As my bus approached its destination and I boarded a cab, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I knew you and I would be face-to-face within a few minutes, but this time would be different. The last time you and I were face-to-face, there was a bond that intricately and intimately brought us together. Now, more than a year since you and I had seen each other and bid our farewell, I did not know how I would act, how I would react, how different I would be in your presence.

Te vi llegar
Y sentí la presencia de un ser desconocido

When you came in, one look at you told me that you had drastically changed since we last said goodbye. You no longer carried yourself as you did when we knew each other. You were now a strong, confident person compared to who you had been. I don’t know what occurred in that year since we last each other (or maybe it was a remnant of the time we knew each other), but something inspired that change in you.

Te vi llegar
Y sentí lo que nunca jamás había sentido

This was the first time we saw each other since that bond was destroyed by our atrocious actions. Should I have greeted you? What was I supposed to do? Anxiety was not the only thing I felt when I saw you. I felt this deep yearning to return to that time, relive the past, right the wrongs, set things on their path and continue our lives. Never in the time since our last meeting over a year before had I felt that. Never again have I felt it.

Te quise amar
Y tu amor no era fuego, no era lumbre

La última vez que nos vimos un año antes, todavía existía algunos restos del lazo que en un momento nos unió. Entraste en la aula y volteé la mirada para no verte. No nos hablamos mucho, pero dentro de mi ardía algo que solo mis propias acciones podría apagar. Cuando al fín estuvimos solos, los dos nos miramos, hablamos de las acciones terribles que los dos habíamos tomado los meses anteriores, y nuestro sendero se separó en dos. Aunque todavía sentíamos lo que habíamos sentido meses antes, no era lo mismo.

Las distancias apartan las ciudades,
Las ciudades destruyen las costumbres

It all began to unravel when you left that summer to Mexico. At that point, I had resigned myself to the knowledge that, come the end of August, you would leave your home and me and go off to college. I knew that our personalities would lead to our end, but I did not want to miss you. It hurt me too much to think that since we began seeing each other, I knew you would leave at the end of the summer and I had never accepted that fact. I had put it off my mind. When you came back, we only had a few weeks before you would make that first trip away from home, alone. Once you had finally left, I knew that it was only a matter of time for the end to come, I just tried to maintain normalcy. The distance between us eventually destroy us: I lost my trust for you, we stopped talking to each other, we were no longer able to see us during the day after a phone call. As I walked through the streets we had often walked, I was reminded of the routines we followed and the spontaneous actions that broke that blissful monotony. Finally, it was the actions we took in distant cities those two fateful weekends in October and November that ultimately ended our relationship, our friendship, our customs, our world.

Te dije adiós
Y pediste que nunca, que nunca te olvidara

You never asked me to never forget you. You knew you didn’t have to because the time we spent with each other defined that period in our respective lives.

Te dije adíos
Y sentí de tu amor otra vez la fuerza extraña

We never properly said goodbye to each other. However, our actions, even before you left, spoke volumes for each of us. I felt what at that moment was strange but I now recognize: a desire for the something past though you were before me.

Y mi alma completa se me cubrió de hielo
Y mi cuerpo entero se me llenó de frío

The fire that warmed me was extinguished and hasn’t been lit ever since. I have put the cauldron behind seventeen locks and destroyed the seventeen keys. There is now an empty space, waiting for a new fire to take its place. I’m in no hurry to be warm, however. I’ve always had a preference for colder temperatures.

Y estuve a punto, de cambiar tu mundo,
De cambiar tu mundo por el mundo mío.

I can’t begin to think how our worlds could switch, considering that even now, they are very similar. I’ve considered of how this switch could be attained and I’ve horrified myself by the thoughts that have at times taken hold of me. I wonder if you ever felt what I did.

I know that each time we see each other, I’ll get an urge to somehow make you feel how I’ve felt. I never will.

I first heard “Estrellita,” composed by Mexican composer Manuel María Ponce, four years ago, when my teacher lent me a copy of Mariachi Cobre’s Este es mi mariachi. At first, I didn’t want to hear it because it was not a mariachi song; instead, it was a single voice accompanied by a guitar. One day, however, when I had my music library on “random,” “Estrellita” started playing and I was amazed by the song. The singular voice, accompanied by the guitar, were remarkable. I realized it was a song meant to be sung as an opera.

The Mariachi Cobre version is not online, but I did find a version supreme to it. It is a version of “Estrellita” recorded by Spanish tenor Alfredo Kraus. Kraus’ voice is so strong, so full, so rich that words don’t make justice to his interpretation.

This is the last “Video of the Week” for a while. It may come back sporadically.

I’m saddened to say that the city of South Gate is in the news today, but not for any positive reasons (but with the state of the media today, all news is bad news, right?). The principal, Jesús Angulo, and an assistant principal, María Sotomayor, of South East High School were charged yesterday with a misdemeanor for failure to report a possible sexual encounter between a substitute teacher and a student. If found guilty, they face up to six months in prison and a $1,000 dollar fine.

The encounter occurred in March and the substitute teacher, Jesús Salvador Saenz, was fired by the LAUSD and awaits trial on a felony count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor.

Information was taken from the L.A. Times and CBS 2 websites.

This past week has had some good spring weather. I’m now wearing shorts and sleeping with the windows open! Alas, I fear it will get hotter. Hotter in Boston means more humid, which blows. :\

Today I woke up listening to the Tom Tom Club, in particular, “Woody Rappinghood” and “Genius of Love.” I have to admit, before my mariachi concert this past Saturday, I played “Genius of Love” for a few minutes, just mouthing the words. I had no idea its video was so… cartoonish. Listening to it reminds of old school hip hop.

I’ve listened to this song at least once an hour since Sunday, after our mariachi concert. El falsete del Rey del Falsete es casi inigualable, pero creo que hay alguien quien es igual a él. Eso será para otro día.

Por ahorita, disfruta de esta canción, arreglada por Rubén Fuentes, claro.