Raza on the Spot
- Los Angeles Poet Society
- Mar 29
- 3 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
LA Poet Society & LA Poet Society Press join the annual Association of Raza Educators. We are meeting the gente and offering Publishing on the Spot!
As a small press that is Brown womxn led, we emphasize publishing the works of creatives who are QTBIPOC, and we prioritize social justice.
Inspiration
What does this event mean to you? (Being at the Association of RAZA Educators Conference)
How does being raza impact you?
What is your raza super power?
Unbreakable
This event is important to me because I was a middle school history teacher for four years before law enforcement retaliated against me for my activism in my neighborhood of Fontana. I lost my teaching career as a result of the false charges that the criminal state put on me. Being at this conference is prepping me for my return to the classroom because I know I'll be teaching again.
Being Raza impacts me because the state came after me and 7 other activists in a high profile case dubbed the "justice 8" in San Bernardino County. I was held as a political prisoner with no bail because I am Raza and because the Yankee Anglo war against Mexicans never ended. My Raza super power is my discipline and dedication to sobriety.
-Jag Arreola
@jag.arreola
Comunidad
I grew up around Raza organizing my whole life.
This space expands the political into a social- community,
vibrant with life, love and care. As I walk around and check
people in, I see familiar faces who hug me and tell me that they
think of me. Raza education es amor en la movimiento de justicia y liberacion.
We have always been here and we will continue to be.
-Nayelli Flores
Historia De La Raza
Being here is an honor it is good to see this event be held at Los Angeles Mission College which is a direct result of El Partido Nacional de La Raza Unida's struggle for education in the Northeast San Fernando Valley. One of the buildings is actually named after the Partido member that organized the committee to struggle for LAMC and her name was Guadalupe Ramirez. The building says nothing about her having been a PNLRU organizer and leader which is a shame but it is a reminder of our peoples long struggle that today bear the fruit of hosting the ARE conference.
Being Chicano/Raza impacts all of us daily as we are under occupation in our homeland by the USA. That is why we organize and struggle for Self Determination for our people and Aztlan.
My Raza superpower is being a dad to a Chicanita and a Chicanito.
-Ernesto Ayala
V Chair
PNLRU
March 29, 2025
esta es nuestra tierra, esta en nuestra lucha
is what i live by
no imposed borders will define our path
self-determination and liberation son la meta
aqui estamos y no nos vamos
las semillitas are looking up us, we gotta lead and learn along side them
we build and transform
unlearn and learn
we hold each other
fight back against this garbage system by any means necessary
we are winning
aqui y alla el pueblo vencera
tiahui
-Alejandra Ramos Almaraz
IG: nepantla.states
La Raza
Raza es mi abuela cantando
un dia a la vez
Raza es el cafecito caliente
al llegar del atardecer
Raza es nuestro derecho de ser
Raza es todo lo que podemos hacer
Por raza deleamos hasta vencer
Porque la Raza
la Raza es poder
-David De La Cruz Rosales
________________________________________________________________________________
When you're older
When you're older you'll understand what I told you
whether words were spared or spilled
I never said what wasn't true.
Drugs may have played my fickle brain
like boleros played in the worn-down lowrider
on the front lawn for display
but the promises remained the same.
I always wanted what's best for you.
A nice home, A family to love,
nice things and dreams;
A reason to continue.
Many reasons to stop sometimes
outweigh the reasons to pursue,
which is why I knew
you'd understand when you were older.
After ideas and decisions brewed
in the soul,
conflicts and issues resolved
on their own,
I knew you'd understand.
It was always you who'd
change the land.
-John White (jonathan j. williams) East Los Soul
