Our readers have voted, and their Santa Ana Woman of the Year for 2010, is Sarah Rafael Garcia, creator of Barrio Writers, a creative-writing program that encourages students to grow through exposure to the cultural arts and the written word, according to the O.C. Register.
The runner-up in our voting was the O.C. Register’s Therese Cisneros, who does such an awesome job covering all things Latino here in Orange County. You can friend her on Facebook by clicking here.
Jackie Cordova, the co-owner of Calacas, in Santa Ana, came in third. Calacas sells products made in Mexico as well as local artwork. It is a great place to find gifts and fun t-shirts, and great handcrafted art that celebrated our heritage. I must say that Cordova is not only one of the friendliest persons you will ever meet, she also pours her heart and soul into improving downtown Santa Ana. She is very involved in local events and community affairs. You can friend her on Facebook by clicking here.
Gustavo Arellano wrote a nice post about Garcia over at the OC Weekly. Here are a few excerpts from that article:
García figured life in Santa Ana—where she grew up during the 1980s—would’ve gotten better for teenagers when she returned in 2008. She had just released her first novel, Las Niñas, a memoir of growing up in one of the most Latino cities in the United States, after trying the corporate life for a good decade and hating every moment of it. (Seewww.sarahrafaelgarcia.com for more info.) But when she took the stage at Willard Intermediate School to read, García realized nothing had changed—in fact, things were worse. “I was filled with pride thinking I would change young lives with my book,” García says. “But the resources for the kids were so limited. The library where I spoke was small and overcrowded. Language was no longer the only issue that kept them down—it was also immigration status. The teachers didn’t seem to care—you could tell the students wanted to learn, but no one was listening to them.”
García wanted to help change that. She remembered what a social worker gave her at 15, when García’s father passed away: a journal, plus some words of advice (“There’s nothing I can say right now that can make you understand what happened to your dad, so I’m giving you a journal to write your feelings in”). The young García filled that notebook fast. “Writing gives youth an opportunity to have a voice without anyone judging them,” she says. So in 2009, García decided to start Barrio Writers, a summer reading-and-writing workshop for Santa Ana teens.
The O.C. Register also wrote about Barrio Writers. Here are a few excerpts from that article:
Thirty high school and college students signed up for the 10-week program. They met twice a week in Santa Ana to read and reflect on essays written in various styles by a range of authors, including Ray Bradbury, John Steinbeck and Malcolm X.
In the end, 25 students finished the program. Stories by 20 of them made their way into the first edition of “Barrio Writers,” a paperback modeled after the class textbook that touches on topics ranging from death to deportation. Two hundred copies were printed up.
You can buy the Barrio Writers book at Santa Ana’s Calacas. Click here to visit their website. And you can sign up for Garcia’s email list by clicking here.
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Naui,
Keep looking for your skin heads in the US! Wise up!
Nuts, radical leftist's, hate other skin colors and despise religion!
Sounds like you and Theo! Are you two classics skin head's?
Sure you are!
Chicuey-Ollin Cuetlachtecuhtli
Naui Huitzilopochtli
Great names .... just keep on maginalizing yourselves, it does lots of good.
So now you hate the natives as well as the gays?
It's Sunday, why don't you go to church and listen to the Good Word?
As for being marginalized, we now have an all-Latino Council. Isn't it you that has been marginalized?
Congratulations to Sarah - a former stduent of mine at IVC. So good to see all the good work she does.
sorry about the typo!
To Michelle Quinn, Putting it in the best words possible, from a honors, AP, straight A student from Santa Ana, non pregnant teenage Hispanic female, "SUCK IT!!!!"
P.S. I happen to be a Barrio Writer and I find it rude and pathetic about how much time and hate you put into analyzing this culture you know nothing about.
To Michelle Quinn, Putting it in the best words possible, from a honors, AP, straight A student from Santa Ana, non pregnant teenage Hispanic female, “SUCK IT!!!!”
MQ says:
To be a straight A student who is a writer could you not come up with something else other than, "SUCK IT?"
How about: You are intoxicated my your own verbal verbosity? Cool ah?
"P.S. I happen to be a Barrio Writer and I find it rude and pathetic about how much time and hate you put into analyzing this culture you know nothing about."
MQ says;
And I find it pathetic and sad that you cannot write about the fact that thousands of hispanic children are abandoned, abused and neglected everyday in Santa Ana instead of coloring it pretty with your colorful "Barrio writing" Maybe if you took the time to really, really look at your community you could see through your rose colored brain washed glasses!
And congratulation on breaking through the mold, welcome to my club!
Sorry typo: Intoxicated BY your own verbal verbosity!
Michelle Quinn. Don't you think if you took the time to read the book then you would have the rights to judge. We are not "coloring it pretty with what you call colorful barrio writing" a lot of the stories in there show many hardships which young teenagers have faced. Barrio Writers, just as much as teaching us to find our writing voice, it is an inspiration to learn and go beyond the "Barrio". I'm sure if you would go outside Santa Ana, you would find that hundreds of thousands of white, black, etc children are abandoned, abused and neglected daily. Instead of condemning and judging from the side lines, jump in and try to make a real meaningful impact on your community.
And yes I said suck it because if I used what you would call "intelligent words" my points would never get across.
"Michelle Quinn. Don’t you think if you took the time to read the book then you would have the rights to judge."
MQ says:
I will read the book!
I am suspicious though of why your writings are not posted on your barrio writer web site?
" I’m sure if you would go outside Santa Ana, you would find that hundreds of thousands of white, black, etc children are abandoned, abused and neglected daily. Instead of condemning and judging from the side lines, jump in and try to make a real meaningful impact on your community."
MQ says:
Lets stay in Santa Ana, that is where most killings, abandoned children, high school drop outs, single mothers, teen mothers and gang members congregate! Lets not worry about Newport Beach or Ladera Ranch. Why, when things are not as rosy as one would hope, does one go looking for problems else where?
You are the A student, you speak spanish, i am assuming and you know the area well; I suggest you write something in Spanish and send it to a Spanish station that really reflects what is going on in your community. Don't sugar coat it and don't use words like vulnerable, needy or underserved, use words like child neglect, not assimilating, bad parenting, lack of educating , welfare recipients, dead beat dads, government dependent..etc....
You will not be popular when you write it, in fact you will be down right hated, but a least you can hold your head up high and know that words are very powerful and maybe, just maybe you got your POINT across so well that someone listen and their kids lives became a little more important and this country will benefit for that!