This past Saturday I went to see the new Cesar Chavez film in theaters. I was excited to know that the director of the film was Diego Luna, a Mexican-born actor, director and co-founder of film festival Ambulante, which brings documentaries to places where there aren't any. I imagined that Luna would portray a radical view of Cesar Chavez, the farm workers movement, and the people that were activists in it, and in many ways it was radical. However, I was disappointed to see that the women who were part of this movement and major contributors of placing Chavez at the forefront of the movement, were more or less downplayed in the film. An article by Colorlines talks about this: The Neglected Heroines of 'Cesar Chavez'

This got me to thinking about the ways that in communities/circles of activists/community organizers there still tend to be issues of sexism, transphobia and homophobia.Some people say they work for the betterment of the community and presume to be conscious individuals, and yet in other aspects of their identities they are still oppressing others. Can there be real change in a community if there aren't honest reflections over other aspects of people's lives?

I did a bit of research and found this blog post I think is pretty interesting and on point in many ways:
A Letter to Male Activists
"Simply asserting that you are a "feminist" does not make it true. In fact, by calling yourself a feminist in the face of criticism of your attitudes and those of other men, you not only fail to actively reject and challenge the sexism within yourself and society, you also deflect our critique of your behavior and silence our already marginalized and seldom heard voices. If you truly wish to join the fight for female liberation then you must listen to us when we are detailing our experience in your and other males' oppressive behavior - denying its existence does not make it go away. You must engage with our perspective and embark on a long and arduous journey of self-criticism, analysis and reflection."

This morning I woke up to an article in the Atlantic Cities website. It talks about the cities and metro areas in the US with the most class segregation, where the poorest people all live in one area and the most wealthy in another. At the top of the list is Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It wasn't a surprise to see Milwaukee on the list but nevertheless, it still saddens me that the state where I spent my teenage and undergrad years has areas that are the most segregated. I lived on the border of Wisconsin and Illinois. Milwaukee and many towns and small cities in southern Wisconsin are very segregated, racist and police brutality is rampant. It's no surprise then, that Wisconsin sends the highest percentage of black men to prison. 

The U.S. Cities Where the Poor Are Most Segregated From Everyone Else

Hello!

I was looking through different articles about design on Good and I found this one about old grain silos (which if you don't know what a silo is, it's a large structure used to store bulks of product, like grains) that was transformed into affordable student housing in Johannesburg by using recycled shipping crates http://dzinetrip.com/old-silos-johannesburg-converted-student-housing/ I had never before heard of housing built with shipping crates and then I started finding more articles about other places that are using them! (like this one http://dzinetrip.com/container-housing-complex-in-canada-by-atira/)

This got me thinking about alternative housing solutions. What would happen if this affordable housing option was not just offered to students? Would that change the dynamics of the housing complex? What other needs might need to be addressed? How might neighbors and businesses in the area react?


Some time ago I saw a trailer for a documentary on Torre de David in Caracas, Venezuela. Torre de David is a skyscraper in downtown Caracas that was never completed and has been vacant for over a decade. Since then over 2,500 people have occupied the entire building and transformed it into their home, turning what was once meant to be a banking center, into an informal vertical community.

 It is incredible to think of the solutions that people will create in order to survive! I also wonder what are the differences between a non-vertical/horizontal informal community and a vertical one? What pops into my mind right now is that horizontal informal communities are found on the edges, borders, being pushed out and simultaneously trying to stay put. Whereas this vertical community is found in the center, disrupting the order of the city's downtown, and the realities of the families living in this community can't be easily ignored.

This is an article that The Guardian published last month with photos of Torre de David http://www.theguardian.com/cities/gallery/2014/feb/12/la-torre-david-vertical-slum-caracas-venezuela-tower and this is a short video tour of the tower by the Washington Post last summer...

Enjoy!