[Minutos] First Meeting of WINTER08!! =)

Minutos from First MALCS Meeting of Winter 2008
January 16th, 2007 ~ 4:00 – 5:30 p.m.
Integrated Humanities Center

Mujeres Presentes: Margarita, Profa. D., Erika, Reina, Adilia, Lucila, Michaela


I. Check-In
After deciding to move our meeting from the lively Cross Cultural Centers to the IHC, we all shared some of our goals for the Winter quarter with each other. (Thanks to the Profa. for the great prompt!)

II. MALCSista Development
a. In the spirit of the discussion during the last meeting of Fall 2007, we talked about the importance of making time for both planning and personal development during MALCS meetings.
b. We agreed that there should be distinct times to do business (planning) and distinct times to have discussions specifically focused on our growth as mujeres.
c. We all seemed to like the idea of having different mujeres volunteer to facilitate meetings ahead of time and be catalysts for discussion.
i. As part of facilitating the meeting, mujeres can bring in a poem/topic/etc. of their own choice to share with the group and talk about!
ii. [Note: So who’s down for next time?? J]

III. Winter Events
a) Vagina Monologues Update
i) Mark your calendars! The Vagina Monologues will be presented on Friday, February 22nd from 7 – 9 p.m. in the Golden Eagle.
ii) Volunteers are needed to make this wonderful event happen! The site
will be open from 5-9 p.m. on the 22nd for decorations and set-up.
iii. “Sponsorship” will be $10. All proceeds will go to the East L.A. Women’s Center.
iv. Adilia gave us the following updates:
(1) Auditions took place on Monday, 14.1., and over 20 mujeres came out to read.
(2) Our very own Profa. as well as Eva are among the mujeres who we will see on stage the 22nd…! J
(3) If anyone knows of a good band/musicians to perform throughout the evening, please let her know.
(4) Finally, don’t forget to volunteer if you can! For any further questions or information, Adilia is the woman to see!

b) Thesis Workshop
i) Per the feedback from Fall, we wanted to have another grad school workshop in the Winter with an original proposed date of Wednesday, Jan. 23rd, 2008.
ii) The 23rd, however, is the CSGS OPEN HOUSE at 3:15 p.m….!
iii) We thus decided that a better option for this quarter is to have a Thesis Workshop on Monday, January 28th. It will be facilitated by Lucila following her groundbreaking thesis work in CHS and equally as important/successful Thesis Workshop from the 2005-2006 school year.
iv) Save the date: Mon., January 28th at 3:15 p.m. This is a workshop you won’t want to miss!

c) Plática by Lucia Muñoz on Violence Against Women in Guatemala
i) Another big date you will want to be there for: Tuesday, February 26th at 6:00 p.m.
ii) Lucia Muñoz, founder of Mujeres Iniciando en las Américas (MIA), will be on campus to speak about the Femicidio en Guatemala. This is the 2nd time in 2 Winters that MALCS has had the privilege of hosting Ms. Muñoz for such an important event.
iii) She will also be bringing with her a man who was in the guerrilla movement to talk about the state of the country today.
iv) As part of sponsoring the event, MALCS will be forwarding $100 to Ms. Muñoz as honorarium.

d) International Women's Day/Día de la Mujer
i) The campus celebration for Día de la Mujer will be on Thursday, March 6th.
ii) Profa. D. suggested that MALCS do an event in the community to commemorate the importance of both the day and the month of March.
iii) Many great ideas were shared, including:
(1) Showing a film
(2) Getting involved with the PUENTE project (which is in the heart of Boyle Heights!) à Note: Margarita has been very involved with PUENTE in the past, and suggested that even if not this time, it would be great for MALCSistas to consider some type of involvement with PUENTE in the future e.g. mentoring
(3) Doing something for the Chicana/Latino community in PasaDENA
iv) In the interests of time, we decided that yes, we would do an event in the community, to take place after March 8th, and to be discussed more in depth at future meetings!

e) New Sanctuary Movement
i) Profa. D. shared information about a new interfaith movement that is taking place in our own backyards.
ii) Specifically, there is a current project to offer support to an undocumented woman named Yolanda Santuario and her daughter who are living in Immanuel Presbyterian Church on Barindo and Wilshire Boulevard.
iii) La Profa. more information on detailed ways that folks can help them. If you are interested in visiting with Yolanda and her daughter, please speak to La Profa; gracias!


IV. Saturday Breakfast/Brunch at Homegirl Cafe
So many good MALCS events, so many good times! On Saturday, Jan. 26th at 10 a.m., come grub and chillax with your mujeres at the Homegirl Café, 130 W. Bruno Street, L.A. 90012. (The Café is located on the corner of Alameda and Bruno, just a few blocks north of Plazita Olvera/Union Station). Thanks to Margarita, we will have a nice set-up in which to chat and enjoy each other’s company; no formal business, just fun brunch! J


V. "Word on the Street" (announcements/updates/etc.)
Other notitas that came up during the meeting included:
i) MALCS has not yet been formally recognized as a group for this Quarter. (There are some issues with whether or not we have a Constitution on file?) Adilia and La Profa. are in the process of getting to the bottom of this apparent mix-up!!
ii) La Profa. will be taking charge of the MALCS account as there have been some questions/uncertainties about how our funds stand in the past.
iii) The Garment Workers Center is creating a Rapid Response Network to deal with redadas; they will have a meeting on Monday, January 28th, 2008. For more information, ask la Profa.
iv) El Huarachito Restaurant on Eastern and Floral is a great place to eat/study that is also really interested in working with students! Support your community small businesses and check them out!
v) Eagle Fest (the campus Open House-type event for prospective students) will be on Saturday, Feb. 16th. MALCS will have a presence there, so start clearing that date so you can come and be part of the outreach!



** Gracias a todas por su energía; it will be a lovely Winter indeed! =) **

Now that we're done with work (más o menos...), it is time to spend some time with good people over some good food!

The Fall/Holiday Potluck is this SUNDAY, December 16th at 12 p.m.! Click on the link below to view the Evite and get all the info ~ hope to see you there!

http://www.evite.com/pages/invite/viewInvite.jsp?inviteId=HVCFYBCHFFRPQNDSFXVP&li=iq&src=email

[Minutos] Meeting on November 5th, 2007

MALCS Minutes
Day: November 5, 2007 (Fall Quarter)
Time: 3:20
Location: CSGS

Robin called the meeting to order at 3:20 pm at the CSGS. Robin, Reina, Adilia, Erika, Karla, Carmen, and Eva were in attendance. There was no formal agenda and discussion, just updates and event information.

Robin informed the mujeres that elections will take place during the next meeting for the winter 2008 quarter.

Eva proposed, as a collaborative idea, to put together a booklet of research, creative though writing and art. This is a good way to fundraise, simultaneously show working research and document expression from the MALCS CSULA chapter. Most of the women seemed to agree.

Erika asked that the women come out and show support at two events where she will be at this weekend, one of them being at Olvera Street.

Eva proposed that MALCS put on a workshop for individuals interested in learning about college, especially for undocumented peoples in the community. The consensus was that we have this information during the Grad Workshop. Karla proposed that we have the Grad Workshop every quarter and all women were in agreement.

Robin also brought up the symposium, as an event that we could have in the future. As of yet there has been no further discussion of what or when it will be, but Robin proposed that we keep it in mind for a future event as it involves a lot of planning.

Adilia is working on the Vagina Monologues, and asked women if they are interested in collaborating in planning. Adilia provided the details as to when the next VM meeting is to be.

The meeting ended at 4:15 and it was decided that we would meet next Monday, November 12, 2007 at 3:15, again at the CSGS.

Summer Social!

MALCS de CSULA

Summer Social :

you're invited!

Location:
Dockweiler Beach

12000 Vista del Mar, Playa del Rey, CA 90293

When:
Saturday, August 11, 6:00PM

"Fuego, fuego!": Did someone say Bonfire??!

Save the date: Saturday, August 11th, 6pm @ Dockweiler Beach

CSULA MALCSistas will be taking over your local fire pit at Dockweiler Beach in Playa del Rey for a BONFIRE! It will be a time to come together with current members, friends, and any other mujeres who are down for good conversations, good munchies, and good energy on a collective scale!

Remember to bring something to sit on as well as any goodies that you'd like to share with the rest of us!

Click here to view the Evite and RSVP:

http://www.evite.com/pages/invite/viewInvite.jsp?event=MSVZFZFLVAFEWNQXEWRC&inviteId=OWWKCWIAQVTNRQQLNKZG&showResponse=&sortOrder=&responseToExpand=not+yet+replied

[Minutos] La Segunda del Verano ~ Our 2nd Summer Meeting

MALCS Minutos

July 25th, 2007

3:00 – 4:15 p.m.

Cross Cultural Center

Mujeres Presentes: Gladys, Connie, Robin, Adilia, Lizbeth, Mica

I. Just a Reminder: Officers* for 2007-2008

As a few of us needed a refresher on which mujeres were taking on which positions for the upcoming year, here they go:

• Chairmujer: Robin
• Co-Chair: Mica
• Treasurer/Fundraising: Martha
• Programming: Addy
• Herstorian: Eva
• Mentorship/Outreach: Margarita
• Publicity: Connie

*Please note, these positions are more to indicate point-people for the different responsibilities that we take on in the planning of events, etc.; however, the most important MALCSistas are all our mujeres as a whole, hence decision-making and buy-in is collective! =)

II. Update on Paleta Sales for Welcome Week

• CSDP won't be giving away any popsicles or cold items during Welcome Week... so we have the market cornered! =)

• Now we need to get the paperwork from them (CSDP) for tabling, as well as looking into more specifics about the paleta sales --> Connie has the contact info for a dry ice vendor; any more help/411 that mujeres can offer???

• Note Dates: We will definitely be selling on Wednesday, Sept. 26th but still need to decide if our 2nd date for selling will be the 25th (Tues.) or 27th (Thurs.)

III. Update on Flor y Canto Event...

• We are in the process of confirming the October 3rd date for our Flor y Canto ~ Connie has been a major help in this effort by submitting it for the official Cross Cultural Center calendar! =)

• Still very much needed: a location! The library pation sounds most attractive to everyone, and is something we will be pursuing...

• Martha is going to further investigate funding from ASI ~ we need to verify the date of the meeting that we need to attend in order to be recognized for funds; it may be either the 2nd or 3rd week of August

• And... we picked a title for the event: "An Evening of Flor y Canto with Las Mujeres de MALCS" --> simple yet muy sofisticada and powerful, just like us! ;)

IV. More on Our Grad School Workshop

• Questions to consider: Should we invite other professors to present? Grad students from other campuses to share their stories??

• Date: Either late October or early November; we need to pick a specific date SOON!

• Adilia has fliers from last year's event, and we will work on modeling the event on whatever other information we have from that time, too... (namely, major consultation with our Profa. Dee!!)

V. Other Events to Consider...

• Panocha Platicas: Robin shared the exciting possibility of having a group of mujeres come and facilitate a workshop that is part of a series called "Panocha Platicas". *Things to Think About: Would this be most appropriate to do during our Winter Symposium, or at another time? (We need a date in order to schedule the group...) If we did have them as part of the Symposium, we will have to look into funding sources for an honorarium outside of ASI (since the space will be mujeres-only)...

• Service Learning: In the future, we will be looking for opportunities to serve and learn from our community together as MALCSistas...!

• Fun Fun FUNDS: We currently have about $700 in the bank, which means we're in an aiiight position but it definitely would not hurt us to raise some more dollars! ;)

VI. "Fuego, fuego!": Did someone say Bonfire??!

Yep, we sure did! Save the date of Saturday, August 11th: CSULA MALCSistas will be taking over your local fire pit at Dockweiler Beach in Playa del Rey for a BONFIRE! It will be a time to come together with current members, friends, and any other mujeres who are down for good conversations, good munchies, and good energy on a collective scale!

More details will be coming soon (e.g. what to bring, specific location, etc.) ~ in the meanwhile, be ready at 6 p.m. because that is when the fun begins! =)

VII. Finally... Our Next Meeting Dates!

• Wednesday, August 8th at 3:15 p.m.
• Wednesday, August 22nd at 3:15 p.m.

Both meetings will take place in the Cross Cultural Centers (King Hall D140 -- in the basement!)..... See you soon and see you there, mujeres! =)

[Pa' que sepan] Ana Castillo in Town...!

Author Ana Castillo
Will be reading and signing her new book, The Guardians
Wednesday, August 1, 2007 @ 7:00 pm
IMIX bookstore - Los Angeles

http://www.imixbooks.com/events.html

Ana Castillo is a celebrated poet, novelist, short story writer, and esaayist. Castillo was born and raised in Chicago. She has one son, Marcel Ramón Herrera, born in Evanston, Illinois, on September 21, 1983. Long considered one of the leading voices to emerge from the Chicana experience, Castillo is a prolific author whose work has been critically acclaimed and widely anthologized in the United States and abroad. Ilan Stavans writes “She is the most daring and experimental of Latino novelists.” Castillo’s books include the novel, The Mixquiahuala Letters (Bilingual Review Press, 1986; Doubleday, 1992), for which she received the Before Columbia Foundation’s American Book Award in 1987. Sapogonia (Bilingual Review Press, 1990), is a complex and engaging novel and a literary triumph, according to the renowned Chicano novelist Rudolfo Anaya who calls Castillo “one of our finest Chicana novelists.” Her more recent books include the novel So Far From God (Norton, 1993), which earned her both the Carl Sandburg Literary Award in Fiction of 1993 and the Mountains and Plains Bookseller Award of 1994, and a work of non-fiction, Massacre of the Dreamers: Reflections on Mexican-Indian Women in the United States 500 Years After the Conquest (University of New Mexico, 1992). Michael Sinayerson writes in Vanity Fair that her essays “make the case for a new, aggressive brand of feminism she calls Xicanisma, to win brown women a place in a black-and-white country.” The 1991 edition of Hispanic Writers describes Castillo’s epistolary novel, The Mixquiahuala Letters, as a probing description of the relationship between the sexes that encompasses both Mexican and United States Hispanic forms of love and gender conflict. That work has been hailed as having “ushered the Chicana voice into the feminist discourse with a bang.” One critic of Chicana literature, Norma Alarcón, has identified the deft use of irony as one of Castillo’s trademarks. Another, Alvina Quintana, believes that “her style reflects the influence and power of many of Latin America’s greatest writers.”

As a poet Castillo is the author of several works, including the chapbooks Otro Canto (1977) and The Invitation (1979); these were followed by several volumes of poetry which include Women Are Not Roses (Arte Publico, 1984), and My Father Was a Toltec (West End Press, 1988). In reference to Women Are Not Roses Marisa Cantu writes, “Castillo’s artistry lies in her ability to discover the meaning in the random experiences that fill our lives and communicate directly to us in sensuous, heartfelt bursts of revelation.” Most recently she published Water Color Women, Opaque Men, a novel in verse (Curbstone Press, 2005).

Castillo has coordinated an anthology on la Virgen de Guadalupe entitled La Diosa de las Americas/Goddess of the Americas (Riverside/Putnam, 1996). She signed a three-book contract with W. W. Norton: one of new poetry, another a collection of short fictions, and the last one a novel.

Castillo, along with Norma Alarcon and others, co-founded the literary magazine Third Woman; she has since been a contributing editor to Third Woman and Humanizarte magazines. Castillo’s speaking engagements are extensive and have been internationally sponsored, including the Sorbonne University (1985-1986), and a Germany reading tour (1987) sponsored by the German Association of Americanists. In 1988 Castillo was honored by the Women’s Foundation of San Francisco for her “pioneering excellence in literature.” She was featured, along with three other renowned Chicana writers Sandra Cisneros, Julia Alvarez, and Denise Chávez, in Vanity Fair (September 1994) and Hispanic (March 1995).

Castillo’s education was in Chicago. Following her graduation from Jone’s Commercial High School, she attended Chicago City College for two years before entering Northeastern Illinois University, where she received a B.A. in 1975, majoring in Art and minoring in Secondary Education. Castillo then relocated to Sonoma County, California where she taught Ethnic Studies at Santa Rosa Jr. College in 1975-76. Between 1977 and 1979 she was a writer in residence for the Illinois Arts Council. Due to her keen interest in Latin America, she became a Graduate Fellow in 1979, earning an M.A. degree in Latin American and Caribbean Studies in the Social Science Division at the University of Chicago. She was a community activist throughout the 1970s. Throughout this period, Castillo taught English as a Second Language, Mexican and Mexican American history in community colleges in the Chicago and San Franisco areas. She returned to California from 1986 to 1990, where she taught feminist journal writing, women’s studies, creative writing, and Chicano literature at various colleges and universities.
From 1989 to 1990 Castillo was a Dissertation Fellow in the Chicano Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara. It was there that she continued her work on a new collection of poetry, I Ask the Impossible (Anchor Books, 2001) and her collection of essays Massacre of the Dreamers. From 1989 to 1994, she taught fiction writing and Latina literature at several colleges, including the University of New Mexico, Mills College of Oakland, CA, and Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, MA. Supported partly by a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in this period, Castillo finished So Far from God in 1993. It has been also published in Great Britain, Germany, and elsewhere. Castillo received a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Bremen, Germany, in 1991. In 1995, Castillo won a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts for creative writing (fiction).

Until recently Ana Castillo lived in Chicago with her son. In June 2006 she relocated to her new home in New Mexico. In addition to the works cited above, she published Peel My Love Like an Onion (Doubleday) in 1999 and a children’s book My Daughter, My Son, The Eagle, The Dove. In 2005 she published a dramatic work Psst…I have something to tell you, mi amor (Wings Press) and this year The Guardians will be published by Random House. A noted columnist and essayist, she has written for newspapers and magazines across the country on various topics as far ranging as the murder of Tejano singer, Selena; gender roles in the farmworkers movement (Los Angeles Times, 4/20/97); being a mother (Salon, 4/12/99); and feministas turning 50 (Oxygen.com). She has been profiled and interviewed on National Public Radio and the History Channel, and has been featured along with Sandra Cisneros and Denise Chavez in Vanity Fair (9/94) and Hispanic (3/95).

Her awards include an American Book Award for The Mixquiahuala Letters ,the Carl Sandburg Award, a Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts in fiction and poetry. In 1998 she was awarded the Sor Juana Achievement Award by the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum in Chicago. In 2006 she was winner of the Independent Publisher Story Teller of the Year Award.

[Minutos] First Meeting of Summer 2007!

MALCS Minutos
July 18th, 2007
3:00 – 4:15 p.m.
Cross Cultural Center

Mujeres Presentes: Adilia, Connie, Martha, Marlen, Lizbeth, Mica

I. Summer Meeting Time
For the summer quarter, we will be meeting bi-weekly on Wednesdays at 3:15 p.m. in the Cross Cultural Center. This will allow us to have 4 more meetings before the Fall quarter! *Note: There will be a meeting on Wednesday, July 25th, since many of the mujeres will be leaving for Minnesota on August 1st!

II. MALCS Symposium Update
Those present at the meeting unanimously decided to plan the MALCS Symposium for Winter 2007. Besides the benefit of having a whole Fall quarter to plan out sessions and schedule, an added plus of a Winter date is that we will not be restricted to having it in the Golden Eagle and can use the Student Union for free!

We would, however, like to start a conversation amongst all MALCSistas to hear their thoughts so that the final decision is truly a collective one!!

III. Programming Brainstorm - Overview
We had an energetic and creative discussion about smaller events that we can do during the Fall to generate interest for the upcoming Symposium. Here are some of the ideas we came up with:

• Paleta Sales (Fundraiser) during Welcome Week
• Flor y Canto event
• Applying to Graduate School Workshop
• Movie Night(s)

Now, for some more detail....

IV. Paleta Sales During Welcome Week

• We are looking into the possibility of selling paletas during Wednesday (26.9) and Thursday(27.9) of Welcome Week.

• What this would look like: MALCSistas moving up and down the walkways where folks table during Welcome Week with a decorated cart holding a cooler of paletas for sale!

• Each paleta would have a mailing label that says "MALCS" on it and possibly other brief information

What we need to make this happen:

• Lizbeth knows a paleta wholesale business in L.A. and volunteered to find out the price of paletas and the cost of possibly renting a cart

• We will be asking mujeres for their availability on September 26/27th so that we can assign shifts of a few hours each

• We will eventually need to make the labels and affix them to the paletas

• We also need to apply for a table for Welcome Week (sooner rather than later!)

V. MALCS Flor y Canto

• Proposed date: Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007

• Possible locations might include the library patio or University Club

• At this event, we would like to schedule campus and community performers to share their work - whether it be poetry, art, or any other type of creative expression! - and then open up the space for others to share as they feel inspired!!

• We could also have an art exhibit set up at the location, as well as a jar for donations

What we need to make this happen:

• Martha will contact Raquel Salinas and invite her to perform

• CSULA MALCSistas attending the Summer Symposium will invite the mujeres from UCLA to attend our event and possibly perform

• We need to advertise the event on campus and contact others who might be interested in sharing some of their work that we have heard in other spaces

• At our next meeting, we will brainstorm a theme for the Flor y Canto

VI. Applying to Graduate School Workshop

• Possible Date: To be determined, but definitely after Flor y Canto
• This has been a successful event for the last two years, so we will be consulting with Profa. Dee for more specifics on how we'd like to do it this year
• Past Profesoras participating have included Profa Dee, Profa. Hernandez, and Profa. Talavera-Bustillos

VII. Movie Nights with MALCSistas!

• Since we typically spend so much time working on putting together events for and recruitment from the wider campus, it is important to carve out times when we can foster our own relationships amongst each other!
• Movie nights can be rotational --> move from house to house
• We can also invite mujeres from other local chapters to join us in viewing good movies and afterwards engaging in good discussion
• We will determine the schedule and movies at future meetings... so start brainstorming some titles now! =)

VIII. Other Random Bits of Information!

• A note to keep in mind: ASI can provide funding of up to $999.99 per event, so we need to be proactive and get us some of that money!
• We would like to attend more cultural events together, so keep those ojitos open for some good ones to peep!
• A great suggestion was made to compile a binder to let folks know more about MALCS, using basic information such as : *explanation of organization; * contact info (email) of officers/members; *older and newer minutos.
• And finally... next meeting will be July 25th at 3:15 p.m. in the CCC; see you there!