Skip to main content

STATEMENT FROM DEE MURFF WHO FILED DISCRIMINATION CHARGES AGAINST THE GUADALUPE CULTURAL ARTS CENTER THIS WEEK


I've taken the liberty of editing the complete statement because of length, but I'm impressed with Dee's courage and coraje. May you too fight back, it's the only way.


This lawsuit represents more than the damages/injuries inflicted upon me. What I want people to remember is that there are 12 women and 2 men who were also displaced. The Chairman of the Board, Vice Chairman, and the rest of the Board failed to act responsibly; choosing instead to justify the illegal behavior of the President of the organization. The Board of Directors deliberately retaliated against me instead of protecting me and my civil rights. In fact my complaints were ignored because I am brown and I am a woman.

The tax payers and citizens who have provided support to the GCAC for over 25 years have also been robbed of classes, performances and events that enrich our community and preserve our Chicano/a culture. The loss during this period is immeasurable.
The greatest injury however has been to the countless civil rights advocates who battle to ensure that employees’ women in particular, would not have to endure sexual harassment and then suffer retaliation for reporting it.

I am saddened when I think about what has happened to the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, once considered a model on the national level as a cultural institution. I am saddened when I think about the hopeful young children that have had their violins silenced because the President canceled the Mariachi classes. Gone is the Guadalupe Bookstore which helped promote local and regional authors and artists. Gone are all of the artistic directors that helped breathe life into the Guadalupe all gone except for one and how she survived is beyond me.

We expect a verdict that will send a clear message to those who still believe that females can continue to be treated like second class citizens. We expect to hold the Board of Directors accountable for affirming the actions of the President instead of defending my civil rights when I cried out and rather than protecting me; silenced, humiliated and escorted me out for my own protection.

Dolores Zapata Murff

November 27, 2007

credits:Women Resisting in Oaxaca http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.genderracepower.com/wp-content/uploads/2006



Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mary Alice, wife of Henry Cisneros, finds her voice in San Antonio as women battle for Free Speech in the Streets

She's a delicate bird of a woman, petite and beautifully apparelled. I know her husband, and she looks up to her supremely intelligent, charismatic, but scared of the status-quo husband. I suspect that she became a San Antonio councilwoman as a result of his lanky shadow. No matter. Yesterday, la Mary Alice stood up to the Man along with Councilwoman Lourdes Galvan and voted on the side of the Constitution and women's rights as one of two women on the San Antonio City Council who recognizes that anti-war or anti-immigrant protestors should be able to march on the streets without having to pay thousands of dollars for the privilege. While the city-wide Fiesta! bacchanal takes over the streets for weeks. With a vote of 9-2, the San Antonio City Council overwhelmingly voted to pass a new "Parade" Ordinance yesterday despite the organized protest of free speech advocates - mostly women - who believe that the City Council is violating the First Amendment of its citiz...
Post a Comment
Read more
Today is Tuesday, May 3rd, and so much has happened.  A brain tumor.  More yoga and walking.  A little less combat.  Weight dropping.  Spirit rising.  Back in the city, where I belong.  Looking for good photos to give you, organizing my crazy files.  And a new President!  So much to say, more than beating up on him -- that will only take us so far.  Time to hit the streets, challenge the fears that he represents.  Don't be afraid, no tengan miedo.  If I survived a massive brain tumor -- big as a grapefruit -- we can survive and transcend this. More tomorrow.  One day a week from now on. 
2 comments
Read more

A battered woman from San Antonio loses her reporting job

Gina Galaviz , 43, KSAT-TV's I-love-the-police reporter, "has been fired" from the television station , according to the San Antonio Express-News, and I'm quoting verbatim here from Jeanne Jakle's byline, "after she was charged with assault following a fight with her boyfriend," Ronald Aguillen, 46. Ok, so we in San Antonio know about the time in 2004 when Gina filed charges against another boyfriend, the former SWAT cop, who was a councilman at-the-time, Ron Segovia . There were allegations of an apple being thrown at her nalgas, which humiliated her, and that he also pointed a gun at her. It was not the first time, she told me. Tough-guy Segovia got off - I think he had three attorneys representing him if I remember correctly, and in this city, like too many, the cops are in bed with the grand jury - they need and depend on each other, and this grand jury decided there "wasn't enough evidence to pursue a criminal case against him." Seg...
3 comments
Read more