En vez de focusing on what I've uncovered about R. Bret Ruiz (see blog archives/"What I've discovered about R. Bret Ruiz"), the alternative newspaper in this town, the San Antonio Current, spends valuable ink targeting me and this blog. You call this journalism? Sad to say, it isn't. Tan jealous, porque my research is solid. Why don't they publish it? Because they work for corporate-owned media, bursting with sex ads, that doesn't want to deal with a character defamation suit. Because they know I'm right when I say all the media in this town is managed by whites. And they want to be in control of everything, even if they know it's wrong. At the Guadalupe Board Meeting I attended on March 23rd, I spoke before the board, and listed my years of concrete board experience in Dallas - to substantiate why I thought the Board should resign. I reeled off my past board credentials, not my resume: I've been a boardmember of the Girl'...

On March 30, 2006, The San Antonio Current, the city's "alternative" newspaper, published a cover story about the Guadalupe's new President, R. Bret Ruiz. Alot of my friends took issue with the friendly tone of the story toward the Guadalupe Cultural Center. Isn't an alternative newspaper supposed to ask hard questions, they asked? Apart from the journalistic problems with the story, i.e. quoting from Ruiz's former employee instead of the Anita Martinez Board which hired him, as I did - or checking his resume, as I did). Most of all, I was dismayed by the writers' texbook understanding of the word rasquache. I wrote both of the writers and told them the story was a good beginning, but that Ruiz's use of rasquache - in the context that he made it in the story, referring to the Guadalupe community, was derogatory - one word that says everything about his qualifications for leading the Guadalupe Center. (And that's why I began to scrutinize him and...

The SAEN has suggested they will be doing a substantial story on the Guadalupe Cultural Center. This is what happens when a corporation owns a newspaper - you publish stories about "good" latinos for the brown people to read your paper and read the ads. And blast/stereotype or don't write about the "bad"/rebellious/controversial/passionate brown ones because they might upset the conservative advertisers and publisher. Unfortunately, all the media in town is corporate-owned - except for KEDA, the only independent radio station in town - the conjunto station. Dave Davies, the new executive at Texas Public Radio pretty much stated that the public radio affiliate could only react - to the Guadalupe Center story. In other words, no story. He's called me before to complain about how not one Latina gets to have a real voice in San Antonio. A city where brown women are in the majority. This is the San Antonio Express-News story below that ran last Friday, M...

Its a rather poor and unappreciated fact that in Texas, independent minds and bodies are the most trifled of people. Sad thing too,seeing how a bunch of independent minds and bodies won our freedom from Mexico. The walkouts, from what I heard, were largely ineffective. And they will always be. For example. I am a 23 year old man. In my freshman year of high school at Judson,we had a walkout to protest the firing of the principal of the 9th and 10th grade campus. somewhere near 1000 students simply got up out of their chairs and walked out of class. We gathered in the courtyard. Campus police (read: Schutzstaffel) were called in and caused problems which ultimately made this peaceful walkout turn into a full-on riot. Utter chaos ensued, and to make a long story short(haha) because of irrational fear, this peaceful protest got ugly,students got arrested and there were battered minds, bodies and spirits. Fox Tech High School's "lock down" in response to a supposed walkout i...

Guadalupe's Board Chairman makes a Speech Watch the Video Juan Aguilera, the Guadalupe Cultural Center's Board Chairman, defended the Board, and accused the community of destroying the Guadalupe Center. by: barbararenaud.blogspot.com

By the way...see why i don't want my kids being educated in San Antonio schools? That savage, militaristic, anti-intellectual way of existence has no appeal to me. NOW you understand. The phrase "lockdown" came from the military which drifted in to the prison system and then in to our schools... Steve a professor at St. Edward's University in Austin and military veteran

I did an interview with Hernan Rosenberg this morning regarding the small walkouts in SA. One of my thoughts was because of the poor media coverage. A ver si aparece manyana. Thanks for this news. -from Robert Huesca, communications professor Trinity University

they tried the walk out here. i heard the kids rumbling. there was screaming and it was diffused by administrators. i am not sure if there was press downstairs. i am not sure because i am practically locked down-upstairs. i love the students. mine stayed in the room with their little strong faces. they know that it needs to be organized. they know that the reality of making a difference is much larger.

Yesterday, Brackenridge High School, an inner-city school in this latino-majority city, went into "lockdown," responding to student plans to walkout along with their peers in Los Angeles, California, as the U.S. Senate debates a controversial immigration bill. "Lockdown," a term more commonly used in the Texas prisons, is a policy that local teachers explain as a shutting down of blinds, doors, and all exits in response to student shootings or an unlikely terrorist threat. Community leaders here in San Antonio are concerned that students' civil rights are being violated - by treating the students' desire to speak out - as a terrorist threat. Yesterday, students at Lee High School, it is rumored, walked out. Or attempted to. Teachers and students alike are cautious in talking to community leaders, fearing repercussions to their jobs or punishment of some kind. But Fox Tech High School , in downtown San Antonio, a short distance from the San Antonio Expres...

Why we are fighting for the Guadalupe Watch the video The Guadalupe Cultural Center was organized 27 years ago by Chicana/o artists in San Antonio, Texas who wanted a place to exhibit their work. Now the Guadalupe is in crisis. The Board of Directors has failed in their responsibility to take care of Lady Lupe . But the Guadalupe belongs to us, and it is time that we defend her. by barbararenaud.blogspot.com

From the Guadalupe Cultural Art Center's March 23 Boardmeeting at the Guadalupe Theatre, in San Antonio, Texas. The Guadalupe Board doesn't distribute board agendas or reports to the public, so there's no way for me to give you details, but I will uplink the video from the meeting this weekend on the vlog. About fifty people in the audience, very orderly. In other words, nobody threw chingazos. Two policemen watching us. There were seven boardmembers, two new ones - both business types. No artists. As usual, they sat around a table facing each other - not the audience. Falta de respeto, and it was pointed out at the meeting. From Juan F. Aguilera, the Board Chairman, who actually turned to the audience halfway through the boardmeeting and made a short speech. Here are some excerpts: "If you hear things out there that the board doesn’t care, wants to destroy, I’ve instructed them [not to talk to the public] and they’re honoring the request... I’ve been concern...

Mae Escobar, contracted to hire logistics for the Guadalupe Conjunto Festival, told me today that she's got 19 bands lined up. There will be 20 bands in all, she said. Ken Slavin is handling the Public Relations and Marketing, and information on the Festival should be available on the Guadalupe's webpage, www.guadalupeculturalarts.org The Conjunto Festival is scheduled for May 10-13, 2006. Escobar told me that she's been fielding calls from "all over," and that the Conjunto Festival had made the Hollywood Reporter. She was unaware of the Guadalupe's problems, as I related them to her. Photo Credit: "Leroy at Salute," by http://www.joanfrederick.net/

Lady Lupe, Why Have You Abandoned Me? Come speak out and support la cultura as we confront the Guadalupe Board of Directors at the March Board Meeting, this Thursday, March 23rd, 5:30 pm. At the Guadalupe Theatre . The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center is in crisis. The Guadalupe Board of Directors has betrayed us by hiring R. Bret Ruiz, the current President. We have learned that R. Bret Ruiz lied about his resume. As president of the Guadalupe, his finances were so bad that he couldn’t even get a corporate American Express card under his own name. Juan Aguilera, the Guadalupe Board Chairman, was warned about R. Bret Ruiz. Mauricio Navarro, Board Chairman of the Anita Martinez Ballet Folklorico in Dallas , where R. Bret Ruiz last worked, called Aguilera last summer, and told him that Ruiz “was the worst executive director we ever had.” The Guadalupe belongs to us, not to the Board of Directors who aren’t listening to the community they are supposed to se...

Part 3: No 25 th Conjunto Festival Director, No Money, and the Artistas Speak Out No director has yet been hired to organize the golden anniversary of the Tejano/Conjunto Festival, scheduled barely two months away, May 10-13, 2006. In addition, the wholesale exit of the Arts Education team has left the Guadalupe Center with a devastated picture of student enrollment, with artists scrambling for their paychecks. Typically, says Mary Jessie Garza, the Guadalupe records up to 350 cabezitas per month in their in-house programs that see students. This number was confirmed by the Guadalupe’s past Board Reports that I secured via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the City of San Antonio ’s Office of Cultural Affairs. Because the Guadalupe Center will submit their student enrollment report to the City in mid-April, it was impossible to verify the actual number of credible enrollments. The Guadalupe’s January Monthly Operating Report lists 67 students in art classes ...

Part 2: The Deception of R. Bret Ruiz, President of the Guadalupe Center I’ve been scrutinizing R. Bret Ruiz for the last three weeks. In that time, I’ve discovered that he inflated his resume, lying about the date of graduation to presume curatorial experience he doesn’t have. I’ve also learned that he couldn’t get his own American Express card for Guadalupe Center business because of his bad credit. And a former Board President of the Anita Martinez Ballet Folklorico in Dallas, his former boss - warned the Guadalupe Board Chairman, Juan Aguilera, that R. Bret Ruiz was the “worst executive director we’ve ever had.” Wait. While Ruiz was Executive Director of the Anita Martinez Ballet Folklorico, he worked evenings at a Mexican restaurant. And yes, I have the papers and sources to prove all this. Mauricio Navarro, former Board President of the Anita N. Martinez Ballet Folklorico in Dallas , picked up the phone last summer as soon as he heard that R. Bret Ruiz was ...

By Bárbara Renaud González Wordcount: 2903 total in a three part investigative story Part 1: Lady Lupe meets R. Bret Ruiz, MBA, the new President of the Guadalupe Cultural Center I f you’ve ever been to San Antonio , you’ve seen the Alamo . But if your skin is brown you’ve also visited or heard of the Guadalupe Cultural Center , a mecca for latinos across the country who want to know where they came from. The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center is comprised of a blue-tiled historic theatre and adjacent buildings on 1300 Guadalupe Street , 78207, in the corazón of San Antonio ’s barrio, the city’s Westside, it’s oldest and most established neighborhood. To the tourist coming from the suburbs to the funky hueso as we call it, our city’s cultural offerings must seem colorful, quaint, the poverty of faded blue uniforms. But hueso means bone, and to the rest of us living with the memories of our grandparents who courted, married, worked menial jobs, dreaming of a better...

The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center is in crisis. It's a complicated story, and not one that you will read in the newspapers or on radio. So I'm writing it, with the help of people in the community who care deeply about our beloved 'Lupe. To begin reading the series, check the archives for February 18, 2006: A Special Series in Seven Parts (so far) featuring Interviews/Stories/Memorias/and Questions about the future of the nation's oldest and once-premier cultural center for and about la raza . Write me at lastruestories@yahoo.com, tell your friends, and help us Save the Guadalupe! photo credit: Dulces de Guadalupe, courtesy of Joan Frederick (the partial painting you see is by Rolando Briseno, photographed at the home of Sandra Cisneros, arranged by Franco Mondini)

I got another registered certified letter yesterday from Galo & Cantu LLP in San Antonio, Texas. I would share it with you but I don't want to put you to sleep with the two-step double-talk which I don't understand, except that I think they're trying not to give me any information. (which I already got anyway, thank you Mr. Cantu!) Let's just say that Juan F. Aguilera, attorney-at-law, and Chairman of the Board of the Guadalupe Center, has turned over my Freedom of Information Act request to Ruben Cantu, rcantu@galocantu.com, Galo & Cantu LLP, who in turn has written to Attorney General Greg Abbott for a clarification on my rights to secure public information! Watchate!

I asked Juan Aguilera, an attorney, and the Board Chairman for the Guadalupe Center's past Board Reports and other information at the February 23rd board meeting - basic stuff - under the Freedom of Information Act . This is a formal letter that I submitted because R. Bret Ruiz, the Guadalupe's President, and Loretta Zevallos, also denied me this information when I interviewed him. These reports are public information because the Guadalupe gets federal, state and city funds. Instead, I received this legal letter on March 8, 06. Last week. Dear Ms. Renaud Gonzalez: On behalf of the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, I am responding to your Texas Public Information Act request. Please know that the Guadalupe is a private, non-profit entity. Private entities are not subject to to the provisions of the Act. However, to ensure that it complies with the requirements of the Act, the Guadalupe has asked Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott to determine whether the requested informat...

This is the most current list I have for the Guadalupe Board of Directors I will post their emails when I get them. Chairman of the Board Juan F. Aguilera Law Offices of Escamilla & Poneck 100 Travis Park Plaza 711 Navarro SA TX 78205 210 225-0001 Vice Chairman Bexar County Housing and Human Services Ismael Chavez Hernandez Vista Verde Plaza 233 N. Pecos Suite 590 210 335-3666 ext. 3135 210 379-8286 cell Treasurer Valero Energy Corp Sammy Nieto P.O. Box 500 SA TX 78232-0500 210 370-2209 Secretary 8000 ih-10 West Suite 600 SA TX 78330 Patricia Celis 210 525-7999 office Dr. Mary Ponce 210 887-1277 cell Oralia Salame Tommy's Restaurant 1205 Nogalitos SA TX 78204 210 223-9841 210 875-0225 cell Rudy Ruiz Interlex 119 Patterson Ave SA TX 78209 210 930-3339 Harriet Romo Ph.D. UTSA North Campus 6900 North Loop 1604 West SA TX 78249-0603 210 458- 2549 and she is the wife of Ricardo Romo, the UTSA President According to "Dee"...