This weekend documentary filmmaker Rodrigo Reyes will premiere his film “Lupe Bajo el Sol (Lupe Under the Sun)” to a hometown audience in Merced. Inspired by tales of his own grandfather’s life as a migrant farmworker, the movie tells the story of an aging agricultural worker living in the Central San Joaquin Valley.
Merced County residents and real-life couple Daniel and Ana Muratalla star as ‘Lupe’ and his onscreen girlfriend ‘Gloria.
The opportunities for employment available to young people within Merced are very limited, said Michelle Xiong, youth coordinator with Building Health Communities Merced. Besides working in the fast food industry, very few jobs are marketed to teens and young adults.
Regrettably, too many of our youth are influenced a great deal by people like El Chapo. Leaders of drug cartels have slowly become fixtures on social media, and to some, are perceived as role models. Youth are attracted to the false belief that trafficking drugs is the only way out of poverty or the “hood.”
We'Ced reporters dialogued about the Paris attacks and their aftermath. Below, they consider the consequences of a knee-jerk anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim reaction and wonder if, in the wake of the attacks, America should continue it's plan to provide refuge for 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next year.
But while we acknowledge the progress that has been made, we must recognize how much further we have to go. There remains just over two million youth arrested each year in America. This would include the South Carolina girl and many like her where no video was taken. On any given day, there are nearly 70,000 youth incarcerated in the United States – six times the rate of England.
Both Trammel and Flores insist that one of the most important things about developing the Drum Corps was to ensure it came to fruition in South Merced, therefore giving youth a safe place away from all the violence plaguing the area.
“Of course teaching kids indigenous and contemporary technologies is a major component of our program,” stated Trammell. “But another component was to create a harm free zone.”
“Music can be the difference between getting in trouble or not,” added Flores.
There’s plenty of queer MCs in the underground. I listen to artists like Cakes Da Killa and Kevin Jz Prodigy, both amazing rappers who happen to be queer. There are countless others like Mykki Blanco, Stose, Chapman, Big Freedia and many more. Maybe if more people reach out and support the LGBT artists who exist below the mainstream, the powers that be will take notice and finally give gay rappers the shine they have earned. Hip-hop is ready for a gay rapper.
The issue is particularly troubling in Merced, which ranks third the state in the number of disconnected youth, or people ages 16-19 who are neither in school or employed. Nearly 12 percent of young people here fit into that category, at exactly the age when young people are desperate for a job or educational path forward.
According to a 2012 report by California Attorney General Kamala Harris, ‘The State of Human Trafficking in California,’ from 2010 to 2012, 1, 277 victims of human trafficking were identified statewide. In the Central Valley, the Central Valley Justice Coalitions reported rescuing over 130 victims between 2009 and 2013.
Attending GWU is a privilege, but adapting to a campus life has been a challenge. Working in the nursery, while I was the only college student there, everyone I saw at least looked like me, or like they could be an uncle or even a grandparent. GWU couldn’t be more different. Students here come from all over the world. Nearly 10 percent are international, more than the total number of Latino students enrolled in the entire school. And as far as I know, I am the only student from the Central Valley.
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