July 10, 2013

 
Teaching positions available

 Teacher, 

Centro Infantil Corretjer


Job summary: Responsible for the education and general development of the children enrolled in the agency's Head Start Program. Implements the curriculum in accordance with Head Start standards, educational plan and the agency philosophy.

Download the job description here.

Parks, Politics & People: 
A Walking Tour of Humboldt Park

Saturday, July 20

10 AM to 12 PM

You are invited to join Alliance Core Members DANK Haus German American Cultural Center, the Institute of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture and The Polish Museum of America for a tour of Humboldt Park, which has historically been a magnet for immigrants who bring their own cultural traditions to the neighborhood and park.

 

This two hour walking tour through the park and surrounding community leaves from the Institute of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture. Tickets are $20 per person.

 

This tour is part of the Chicago Cultural Alliance's Experience Chicago program, and its development was funded by a generous grant from The Boeing Company.

 

Our Urban Agriculture
MONARCH GARDEN 
CONTINUES SEASONAL GIVEAWAY

Sunday July 7th marked the 3rd Seasonal Monarch Garden Giveaway! Volunteer Gardeners and Giveaway Committee members Sarah Finkel and Alejandro Luis Molina and 9 volunteers helped harvest and give away approximately 20 pounds of produce to 13 households. Among the produce given away: Kale, Swiss Chard, Lettuce, Broccoli, Italian Basil, Parsley, Strawberries, Cilantro, Beets and Radishes. 
 
Thank you Monarch Gardeners for donating your surplus as well as those community residents that participated in the giveaway.
 
Every Sunday from 11am-1pm st the Garden, we will give away the surplus Monarch Garden produce. Download the bi-lingual leaflet here and distribute to your friends, loved ones and neighbors.

 

WHAT IS AVAILABLE?

* Monarch Gardeners surplus produce. ONLY donated surplus is available; that will be on tables in bags.

* No reserving food bags; 

first come first serve basis

* limit one bag per family

 

You are encouraged to bring your own bags 

 

 
Who's who in
NUESTRO BELLO BARRIO

Gladys Ramos

School Clerk, CPS & Homeowner, Humboldt Park

"We grew up here and want to be role models - part of the positive legacy of this community." 

 

Los Tequis
Free Top iOS Apps, Games Appear Ahead of App Store's Fifth Anniversary
App(s) of the Week!

MacLife.com-Over the weekend, a large amount of top iPhone, iPod touch and iPad apps started to go free for the first time ever, suggesting Apple may be about to celebrate the App Store's fifth anniversary in grand style. Read more here.

Visit our Social Media
Facebook

Twitter
(PRCC) #jacprcc
(PACHS) #albizucamposhs
(NBHRN) #free_olr

 

DSBDA Welcomes You to it's New Website!
The Division Street Business Development Association is excited to share all of our offerings online. For so many years people could walk into our offices and receive information about our many programs, but we have created this site as a convenient way for you to find out more about our community and businesses.
 

 

Philadelphia Vigil
for Oscar

On July 25, 2013 in a Religious Vigil / Vigilia Religiosa is scheduled in honor of a Puerto Rican Political prisoner Oscar Lopez Rivera. 

We are extending an invitation to all our friends and supporters PLEASE come out and stand in prayer for justice, in unity for our brother Oscar Lopez Rivera; who has been incarcerated for the past 32 years.  

 

Place: 5th and Market Street

Philadelphia, PA

6:00 PM

 

Please bring Flags/Panderas, Congas/drums.

Thank you all for your support. For more info: 

 

 
Puerto Rico conmemorar� vida de Nelson Mandela
The Secretary of the State Department of Puerto Rico, David Bernier, announced on monday that Puerto Rico will join, for the first time, the world-wide celebration of the life of Nelson Mandela this Thursday, July 18, his birthdate. Read the full story in Spanish here.
 
The Many Faces of Oscar

San Sebastian, Puerto Rico: Recently, at the Festival of the Hammock in Oscar's hiometown, activists wore different Oscar t-shorts at the Campaign table. From left to right: Rita Zengotita, Maria Esther Ortiz, Maria Riquelme y Estrella Lagares. 

The Urban Agriculture Summer Program starts the Harvest Season of 2013!

Starting this week until October our Summer Youth Urban Agriculture Program will be harvesting broccoli, collard greens, Swiss chard, Kale, onions, carrots, garlic, and many more vegetables.  Stop at the farmers market and take home some fresh vegetables cultivated using organic practices.

 

For more information on our Farmers Market and purchasing our fresh vegetables, please contact Alyssa Villegas at [email protected] or call 773-227-7794.

Summer Theater Program now in full swing!

On Monday, July 8th, the Puerto Rican Cultural Center through the After School Matters Program began its summer Anti-Underage Drinking Campaign Youth Theater Program. The students began program by taking a Community Tour of Humboldt Park. They learned about many community organizations including Ciclo Urbano, 72 Blocks and Pedro Albizu Campos High School. They visited many landmarks in the community including many of the murals through the Humboldt Park area and La Casita de Don Pedro.  On Tuesday, they had a writing workshop with Poet Michael Reyes where they discussed issues of identity. The workshop also encouraged them to analyze what they see on their block and determine positive and negative things they see in their community. The program will continue this week with an introduction to the history of Humboldt Park with a talk with the PRCC's Executive Director Jose E. L�pez.

 

Throughout the summer theater program, youth will be focusing on self-expression and identity. They will constantly be analyzing their surroundings and attempting to find where they fit into our community and become part of transforming it.  Both instructors, Juan Morales and Meredith Montgomery feel privileged to help facilitate an active response to those discoveries through theatre, writing, and reflection, all while working to better our community through a mutual understanding of culture. The instructors each hold high expectations for what our students will be able to achieve this summer in actively working to improve our community through the arts.

PASEO BORICUA FARMERS MARKET TO REOPEN!

 

The Paseo Boricua Farmer's Market will reopen this weekend. Through this initiative the PRCC seeks to provide a place for Humboldt Park community residents to acquire fresh produce. The Famer's Market takes places on Fridays from 2pm-7pm and Saturdays from 10am-3pm at 2628 W. Division St. 


El Nuevo D�a Newspaper

Governor calls for Oscar L�pez' release

During his speech in commemoration of July 4th

Using as a foundation the heroic liberating deeds of the founders of the United States, governor Alejandro Garc�a Padilla called for the release of Puerto Rican political prisoner Oscar L�pez Rivera during the ceremony to commemorate U.S. Independence Day, July 4.

 

During his speech, given at the ceremony that took place on Thursday at Mu�iz Air Force Base in Carolina, in which nine men and two women of the Puerto Rico National Guard were honored, the governor also called for a coming together of wills to advance the country's agenda.

 

In an auditorium full of military people and their families as well as government officials, Garc�a Padilla recalled that L�pez Rivera is "a decorated war veteran of the United States of America who, for thinking differently, has lost his freedom."

 

L�pez Rivera, who comes from the Saltos neighborhood in San Sebasti�n del Pepino, was decorated with a Bronze Star for his courage and heroism in the Vietnam War. He has now served 32 years in United States prisons for seeking independence for the Island.

 

Puerto Rico celebrates a holiday on July 4 because it is an unincorporated territory of the United States since 1898, although since 1952 it has its own government, due to the political formula known as Free Associated State.

 

"To celebrate plenitude with our heads held high and with total peace of mind in celebrating that independendence, and in homage to the great leaders of that independence, it is necessary for us to repeat today our call for the freedom of one who is in prison for simply thinking differently," Garc�a Padilla pointed out, while those in attendance broke out in applause.

 

Dressed in a gray suit and a blue tie, the First Executive highlighted the collaborative work of the men who wrote the Declaration of Independence of the United States, in spite of their ideological differences. 

 

"The holiday celebrated today was not just of one group; it was a common struggle, the cause of thousands of people who led quotidian and simple lives, that united (George) Washington, (Benjamin) Franklin, (Thomas) Jefferson and (John) Adams, who among them had different ways of thinking, but who put the interests of their people first. That is how peoples become great...," Garc�a Padilla noted.

 

"Leaders are great to the extent that they respond to and share the people's best aspirations, their society's best aspirations," he added. 

 

In his 20 minute message, Garc�a Padilla also declared that people fully achieve their ideals when they defend their freedom and expand the rights of their citizens. 

 

In this regard, he recalled the recently approved legislation eliminating discrimination against sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, as well as the measures taken by his administration in favor of the immigrant population in the Island.

 

"When everyone's rights are defended, the path of freedom gets expanded," emphasized Garc�a Padilla, whose wife Wilma Pastrana accompanied him during the ceremony. "When countries come together in solidarity and do so facing difficulties that come as a natural part of history, the paths of happiness multiply," he added.

 

During the official ceremony for July 4, National Guard brigadier general Jos� Juan Medina Lamela, and Garc�a Padilla as commander in chief of this military body, gave the Service Medal

to command sergeant majors David Blakely and Alberto Luciano Romero, sergeant majors

Luis Nazario and Nelson Santos, technical sergeant Claudia Rabaza, and sergeant major Samanta Zeno.

 

Sergeant Jos� Maldonado and specialists William Candelaria, Jorge Valc�rcel, Eddie Laboy and Jos� Mart�nez received Medals for Bravery.

 

Accompanied by his family, sergeant major Juan Nazario Rodr�guez also received special mention for enlisting in the National Guard in 1947, when this work was not compensated. Retired from the National Guard in 1980, he walks with a cane.

 

The ceremony, which lasted some two hours, was embellished with formalities, but at the moment when 50 cannons fired rubber bullets, some of the children present got frightened and ran toward their mothers, while several children covered their ears so as not to hear the roar of the canons firing, that left a white cloud of smoke in the area where they were being fired.

 

Read the Spanish version here.
Piden excarcelaci�n de Oscar en Madrid

Unos 30 ciudadanos se congregaron en la tarde del viernes frente a la Embajada de los Estados Unidos en Madrid, Espa�a, para reclamar la excarcelaci�n del prisionero pol�tico boricua, Oscar L�pez Rivera.

 

El grupo, denominado "Madrid por la excarcelaci�n del puertorrique�o Oscar L�pez Rivera", entreg� all� una carta dirigida al embajador de Estados Unidos en Espa�a, Alan D. Solomont, en la cual se le solicita que le haga constar del reclamo al presidente estadounidense, Barack Obama, se inform� en un comunicado de prensa. Read the Spanish here.

Oscar Art Exhibition featured at Festival of the Hammock in Oscar's Home Town

The parking lot at the "Tit�" Ben�quez Park in San Sebasti�n holds over 200 artisans, as well as a group of writers who recited poetry and musical artists who took the stage to celebrate the thirty-third Festival of the Hammock.
The Festival als� counted with an exhibition of twenty-five 25 paintings by the Puerto Rican political prisoner and resident of "San Sebastian del Pepino", �scar L�pez Rivera.

"Antesala de la Libertad" Art Exhibition Closes

On June 27th  the closing of "Antesala de la Libertad" art exhibition featuring paintings by political prisoner Oscar Lopez Rivera took place. Clarisa L�pez, Oscar's daughter and  Mercedes L�pez, his sister participated. The audience listened attentively to their family narratives about Oscar and how his incarceration affects the family as a whole. Clarisa spoke of Oscar's deleterious prison conditions and how prison visits were very oppressive. Only when he was transferred to general population at FCI Terra Haute, were Clarisa and her daughter Karina allowed to hug him- once at the beginning and once at the end of visits. She spoke briefly of her experience speaking before the Decolonization Committee  at the United Nations on June 17th and how the petitioners all showed solidarity:  "Everyone lined-up and hugged me after my presentation. I felt so much support". The Q&A session was very interesting especially questions from younger folks as they were putting themselves in Clarisa's and Mercede's shoes. Former political prisoners Edwin Cort�s, who organized the event, Elizam Escobar and Luis Rosa were also present at the event.
PR Governor Honors Citizen Soldiers, calls for the Release of Oscar L�pez Rivera
Gov. Alejandro Garc�a Padilla used his U.S. Independence Day speech on Thursday to issue a call for unity across political party lines to push Puerto Rico forward.

The Popular Democratic Party leader cited U.S. founding fathers including John Adams, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson in his address, saying they set aside narrow differences for the good of the new nation 237 years ago.

Puerto Rico's politicians should take that example to tackle crime, unemployment and other ills on the island, Garc�a Padilla said at the Mu�iz Air Base in Carolina.

"I urge a deeper sense of solidarity among all sectors, politicians and non-politicians alike," he said. "It's not just a matter of celebrating the independence of a sister nation, it is that they showed us a path toward working in solidarity. United their people, they achieved their mission. That is we have to do among our people today."

While honoring citizen soldiers during the activity at the military installation, Garc�a Padilla also used his speech to renew his call for the release of militant Puerto Rican nationalist Oscar L�pez.

Read the rest of the story here.
Puerto Rican Youth Walk for Oscar's Freedom
Puerto Rican youth have united with the campaign for Puerto Rican political prisoner Oscar L�pez Rivera's freedom. Though a walk throughout the island, the activists look to contribute to the campaign. 
Youth joins cause to free Oscar Lopez Rivera
Youth joins cause to free Oscar Lopez Rivera
 
New Oscar Murals en Vega Baja, Puerto Rico

Obama in the face of Mandela's Martyrdom 

By Manuel de J. Gonz�lez

Published: Tuesday, July 2, 2013

 

On June 29, 2013, U.S. president Barack Obama visited the Robben Island prison cell where Nelson Mandela was held. Although during his official visit to South Africa he couldn't see the great leader at his hospital bedside, he did have access to the place where he served part of his long sentence. One of the photos that captured the moment shows Obama from the back, standing in front of the only window that opened on to the prison yard where Mandela and his compa�eros broke up rocks with hammers.

 

The press reported that the first family, his wife and two daughters, accompanied him on the visit to the historic place and that together they squeezed into the space of the small cell. Obama wanted his daughters to perceive something of what Mandela must have felt during the 18 years he spent in that prison, sleeping on a tiny mattress and looked out the only barred window toward the place he was forced to work. The South African leader spent a total of 27 years in prison.

 

I suppose that before or after Obama's visit he explained to his daughters that Mandela got to that prison because of the struggle he was involved in so that the South African people would be able to govern themselves. Did he tell them that the struggle developed by the Black leader was essentially violent? Did he tell them that Mandela and his movement - the African National Congress - developed a long and difficult armed struggle against the white minority regime that governed his country, and that during this struggle many "terrorist" acts were carried out? Did he talk to them about the many bombs the ANC managed to plant in order to respond to the violence being unleashed against their people?

Read more here. Read the article in Spanish here.