Unit 3-5

In Sometimes People March, Tessa Allen teaches the reader about the different types of causes that people have advocated for past and present and highlights the different ways that people have engaged in activism (sit ins, marches, song writing, etc.) The author uses drawings to give multiple examples of social and environmental movements, and to support the reader with understanding ways of “resisting” or advocating for change. The text also includes a summary of popular movements that have taken place in the United States to enhance the reader’s understanding of the visuals.

Text 1: The text is a biographical summary of Guadalupe “Lupe” Figueroa’s contributions to the East Chicago area of Indiana, which accompanies a picture of her in a Ballet Folklorico costume. The biography shares the immigration story of her parents, Consuelo and Francisco, who left Mexico in the 1920s and settled in Indiana Harbor (East Chicago) where Francisco worked in the steel mills. Francisco and his brothers began a printing press and circulated a newspaper called El Amigo del Hogar (A Friend in the Home) for five years after arriving in the United States. In the 1950s, three Figueroa sons revived the printing press to circulate The Latin Times, which was published until the early 1980s to serve as a voice of the Latino community of East Chicago.

Text 2: As retold by Lupe T. Figueroa to a reporter, the Figueroa family owned a print shop in East Chicago, Indiana in the 1920s. Until the Great Depression, the parents of the family wrote and printed bi-weekly newsletters in Spanish to keep Spanish-speaking community members informed. Feeling like the Latino community was not being treated fairly, in the 1950s the children of the Figueroa family resurrected the publication as a new weekly, bilingual newspaper called The Latin Times. For almost 30 years, they printed and sold 2,000 copies each week to build awareness within the Latino community and to ensure the local government heard the voices of the community.

This is the front page of The Latin Times from May 1963. The text prominently features a cartoon written in Spanish that depicts an armed man looking for someone who is “going to pay” and he is being stopped by another man who tells him that the weapon of the Latino community is in the voting booth. There is a political commentary piece written in Spanish and a sidebar written in English. The sidebar shares local news about new teachers who were hired in the community and the vacant teaching seats that haven’t been filled. There is also an editor’s note that points out that the names of the new teachers are not Latino names and attributes that to the policy of someone currently in office who is running for re-election. The editor’s note implores readers to vote for Nicosia. There is also the beginning of a story about George Lamb, who was the City Controller and was later indicted in a bribery scheme.

This excerpt demonstrates how The Latin Times was able to keep East Chicago residents informed of local news and events that were having an impact on the Latino community and potentially influence people to take action, for example, by applying for open jobs and voting.

La Plaza is a Latino-led organization whose mission is to support Latino families in Indianapolis. La Plaza offers families a variety of supports, including educational resources to help students thrive in school and apply to college; translation and interpretation services; and mental and physical health programs, which were especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic. Reporter Natalia E. Contreras summarizes La Plaza’s important work not only to celebrate the organization’s 50th anniversary, but also to make the experiences, contributions, and advocacy of Latino Hoosiers more visible. Contreras accomplishes this by using interviews, anecdotes (short stories), and statistics to make La Plaza’s positive impacts very clear and engaging for the reader.

“Resident Stresses Latino Issues”

• The article discusses how Maria Luisa Tishner, a Latina resident and community leader in Indianapolis, led important efforts to educate Indiana’s Latino residents about the risks of smoking and to support the passage of legislation that banned smoking in Indiana’s public places.
• Tishner’s example demonstrates the importance of engaging and educating community members when seeking to create change in that community. As part of her advocacy, Tishner helped plan panels and workshops to better inform Latino residents about the risks of smoking.

Tobacco Prevention & Cessation: Indiana’s State Smoke Free Air Law

• Since 2012, almost all public places in Indiana are smoke-free, which means that people are not allowed to smoke cigarettes within them.
• This law is important because both smoking and being around smoke (second-hand smoke) carry serious health risks.

Early Start of the Indiana Latino Institute and Work on Smoking Cessation

• Tishner’s example demonstrates the importance of engaging and educating community members when seeking to create change in that community.
• Tishner thought carefully about the various tactics that she could use to effectively engage and educate community members about smoking. These included organizing students to contact government officials; directly talking to/teaching people about smoking; using compelling visuals/artifacts to get her message across; and using media outlets like radio stations.

The article is a summary of Indianapolis youth poet Alyssa Gaines receiving the title of National Youth Poet Laureate. It guides us through the process from being a finalist to post community engagement and activism. The article describes her commitment to her community through the power of poetry around causes that are important to her such as communal healing, communal grieving, and gun violence. Ultimately, the article expresses the connection between poetry and providing a platform to make effective change.

In the poem #BlackLivesMatter, the author recounts telling a former friend “September” to take down their Confederate Flag prior to a birthday party. She then shares why she is so upset about this experience, tying it back to police brutality and the treatment of Black people in America. While explaining the history, she weaves in personal family experiences and the lasting, yet ineffective tactics used to comply with law enforcement. Ultimately the author shares that the weapon is not something that can cause physical harm, but the minds of law enforcement bias toward the Black community and being born Black. As the author continues, they begin to ask September, and “every September” hypothetical questions that they have answers to if the tables were turned. In the end, the author stands strong in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and those who have been killed at the hands of police.

Murals for Racial Justice

• The Murals for Racial Justice project was an effort by various organizations in Indiana to mobilize, organize, and support local artists to create original pieces of art as a form of protest against racial injustice. The project was motivated by the broader racial justice protests in summer 2020, wherein many activists called for change in various injustices continuing to face Black Americans, especially police brutality. In order to preserve the works of art, the Indiana State Museum and Indy Arts Council created an exhibition, and many of the murals have been preserved as part of an online collection.

BLM, 2020

• This painting displays a Black girl holding a “Black Lives Matter” protest sign, with a red heart behind the words. The girl is centered in the frame. The composition’s prominent colors are red, black, yellow, and green. By displaying one figure holding a protest sign in the center of the frame, the painting is a simple, yet powerful, expression of support for the BLM movement. Facing injustice, the figure’s stance suggests confidence and conviction, while the heart on her sign suggests a tone of both care and optimism. The color composition suggests pride in African heritage/lineage, given that red, black, yellow, and green are colors often associated with Africa and pan-Africanism.

The main idea will vary depending on what mural is selected.