Diary of a Mad Nuyorican

Rachel/Raquel “Rusty” Villegas (January 16, 1933 - February 10, 2008)

2008-02-25T17:43:00.021-05:00

Courtesy of William Gerena-Rochet

There is an old but at times useful cliché that says “It takes a village to raise a child.” If that child grows to become one of our village’s elders – whose life was marked by a degree of dedication to the wellbeing and welfare of the village – and who upon passing away, we could add: “It takes a village to say farewell …” to that person. And so last week at Johnston Funeral home, family and members of the community of El Barrio/East Harlem said farewell to Raquel Villegas.

The following is from the funeral brochure for “Rachel/Raquel “Rusty” Villegas” (January 16, 1933 - February 10, 2008).

There are three things we definitely know about Rachel Villegas: her spirituality and faith; her love for her family; and her love for the community where she always lived, El Barrio.

Rachel Perez was born in Harlem Hospital and raised in East Harlem. Always a hard worker, she began her career at Sylvie’s, a women’s clothing store located on 105th and 3rd Avenue. With the advent of the War on Poverty, in 1963 Rachel entered a jobs-training program to obtain her GED. She then began to show her true talents in helping people and perfecting systems at Flower Fifth Avenue Hospital.

Rachel had the fortunate experience of working on the staff of newly-elected Congressman Charles Rangel, in 1970. This was the position where Rachel’s reputation for empathy and dedication for the people of this community grew by leaps and bounds.

After leaving the Congressman’s staff, she continued her career with the New York City Blood Bank and subsequently with the Board of Education as a paraprofessional working with special-needs children. Her last position was serving the needs of the senior citizens at the Casaba Senior Housing Project.

Regardless of the positions, Rachel’s love for the people of El Barrio governed her tireless efforts to see it become all that it could be educationally, economically and culturally. One of the driving principles that made Rachel exceptional was her respect and concern for everyone she encountered. She never refused to help anyone, or any cause, and everyone was met with her sense of humor and exceptional warmth, which made her a well-known “magnet” in El Barrio.

The following are excerpts or messages of farewell for Rachael.

From Bob Espier

“By way of Farewell”

Although I had known Rachel for years, it was only peripherally, as Casabe Founder Ernesto Martinez' assistant in setting up the social & food services at Casabe; although her name would come across my desk more often than I could count.

Then, suddenly, she & Yolanda invited me to join the Casabe Board in the Summer of 2006, & I joined in September. This began a close & rewarding working friendship. I didn’t know much about Rachel's formal education, but after observing the skill with which she scrutinized financial reports, I concluded (in the back of my mind) that she was a CPA or equivalent. However, she was not. It was just the natural skill for incisive analysis that Rachel brought to everything she did. Of course, the tendency was then to pay less attention to the reports, since Rachel could be counted on to do such a thorough job. Regardless of my extensive experience in community organizations & governance, I had never come across a board member with that keen an eye for financial reports. After that momentary lapse of responsibility, I realized that I owed it to myself & the organization to bring the same intensity to these reports.

When Rachel began to drop out because of her illness, we had a telephone chat & she wondered if she could continue to fully serve on the board. My response was, 'come to meetings when you can but just make sure that you continue to pay close attention to the financial reports.' That is where we left it with respect to Rachel's role as a board member. She attended the December meeting, functioned perfectly well, & we were all encouraged. However, shortly after that, the hospitalizations became more frequent as her health deteriorated more rapidly -- until we learned the sad news of her passing on Saturday, 9 February 2008.

Goodbye Rachel,
Bob Espier
Chairman of Casabe Board

From Gloria E. Quinones

“An unforgettable and regrettable lose for El Barrio”

Rachel Villegas is a model of courage and integrity, a sincere and loyal friend, a fierce defender of the Puerto Rican community. Not surprisingly, she is a founding member of Women of El Barrio/Mujeres de El Barrio, established to develop the leadership capabilities of Puerto Rican women. She was so much fun to work with, as a talented lover of arts and crafts; she would have us go to her home to work on the center pieces she had designed for our annual New Year's Gala and Women's History Month events. It was Rachel who kept a checklist of all the event details: invitations, the food, drinks, entertainment, set-up, reception, clean-up, etc. and we had better be sure it was covered! For the past two years Rachel volunteered one evening per week at the office of Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito to serve constituents with problem around housing, government benefits.

Rachel loved to make you laugh and she thoroughly enjoyed a good joke. Rachel Villegas is an unforgettable and irreplaceable loss to her family, her friends and to El Barrio.

Gloria E. Quinones is an East Harlem Activist

Rachel is survived by her sons, James Benjamin Gwynne and Juan Villegas, Jr. (Michelle); her grandchildren, Mariko Gwynne, Rachel Mary Gwynne, James Paul Gwynne, Benjamin Gwynne, Insiah Villegas and Akil Hicks; her great-grandson, Nasseer Ogbourne; her sister, Olga DeLeonardis (Bepo); her niece and nephews, JoMarie Pierson (Scott), Stephan Santini (Teresa) and John DeLeonardis, Jr. (Rosalie); and their children, as well as numerous cousins and friends. All were greatly influenced by her love and wisdom. All will miss her.

Panel Discussion on Grand Jury

2008-01-21T17:34:00.000-05:00

Resist Grand Jury

2008-01-07T21:58:00.000-05:00

Dissent Is Not A Crime

2007-01-22T11:58:00.001-05:00

Watching the Media Measure the Importance of Three Leading Men: James Brown, Gerald Ford and Saddam Hussein

2006-12-30T18:13:00.000-05:00

What’s a couch potato to do when our nation's leading black entertainer, least interesting former president, and most favorite foreign dictator die in the same week?

Just sit back and watch…

To my delight, CBS News broke with tradition earlier in the week by not interrupting its programming for a special report on Ford's death. Unlike its network rivals, the station ran a printed "crawl" at the bottom of the screen: “Gerald R. Ford, the 38th President of the United States, died at the age of 93.”

The New York Times brashly speculated that his widow, Betty Ford, might leave a greater legacy since her candor about her battle with breast cancer and treatment for alcohol and substance abuse set the stage for public awareness and advocacy.

While Mrs. Ford will also be remembered for having inspired millions of women with her support for the failed Equal Rights Amendment, the “Accidental President,” who occupied the White House for just 896 days, will best be known for pardoning a crooked president upon whose coattails he rode into office and for initially refusing to support New York City during its 1975 financial crisis.

Perhaps that was why there was no military flyover, no canons, salutes or bugles, and no honorary pallbearers at Ford’s Palm Desert, California service.

Quite boring, actually, so couch potato continued clicking the remote control looking for more “livelier” news.

Since the execution of Saddam Hussein, who tortured thousands of Iraqis (and two American presidents), was not available on basic cable, all those bland talking head reports of his death seemed like yesterday’s news.

Former Iraqi Dictator Saddam Hussein was hanged at 6:10 am on Friday, December 30th in Baghdad, five days after being sentenced to death; he was 69, read the news anchors.

By gosh, could you be any more uninteresting? Why not be daring and tell us why we really started the 16-year “War in Iraq” or why Saddam turned on the Bush(es) administration in the first place?

Producers at New York 1 News, meanwhile, decided to go with daylong coverage of James Brown’s funeral service in Augusta, Georgia where dignitaries included Jesse Jackson, the Rev. Al Sharpton, and Michael Jackson. As with the memorial service at the famed Apollo Theater, I watched in awe as dozens of civil rights leaders and entertainers spoke lovingly of Mr. Brown, who died of heart failure on Monday, December 25 at the age of 73.

In the end, it comes down to priorities - and inspiring people of color to move physically, sexually, spiritually, and, most importantly, politically with songs like “I’m Black and I’m Proud!” and “Living in America” wins hands down against a few stints in jail for domestic abuse.

Couch potato stayed with New York 1 and honored the Godfather of Soul.

Perturbed by the Perturbed

2006-12-21T23:06:00.000-05:00

Personally, I am more annoyed over the media’s “coverage” of white response to the March 16th “Silent Protest” against the killing of Sean Bell than I am by Herman Badillo's contempt towards people of color.

I am particularly outraged that the media would choose to interview Steven Pagones, a former assistant district attorney from Poughkeepsie with absolutely no connection to – or authority over - the Bell case.

In addition to wasting valuable airtime interviewing Rev. Al Sharpton’s adversary, the press has also chosen to broadcast inane complaints by whites such as “They have the right to march, well we have the right to shop.”

Reports on the December 21 follow-up financial district march protesting the killing of the unarmed bridegroom by undercover police officers was met with equal disdain as white Wall Street workers were filmed complaining about being “inconvenienced” during their lunch hour.

Perhaps these disconcerted whites should get together and discuss the matter with Herman Badillo, who seems similarly perturbed at people of color due to his own sense of manifest (political) destiny.

Oh, wait, he’s already gone that route ... at the Manhattan Institute.

(Diden ju no, dude, que sour grapes lo que trae es bad w[h]ine….)

I am not afraid

2006-02-20T11:51:00.000-05:00

I am not afraid
to scream at the top of my lungs
against the injustices I bear witness to daily
as a Puerto Rican American citizen
living under the most barbaric of circumstances
in the history of this nation

I am not afraid to stand up to
and speak out against
the erosion of our liberties
and the end of our constitutional rights
in the name of "patriotism"
and "homeland security"
in the name of "free enterprise"
and profit by any means necessary

I am not afraid to document
the murder and incarceration
of a people long colonized
by a hateful imperialist clan

I am not afraid to reveal my rage
as I expose your evil deeds
for I am watching you
just as much as you are me

The Perfect Storm ... For Looting? Give me a Break!

2005-09-02T11:53:00.000-04:00

"We tend to think of natural disasters as somehow even-handed, as somehow random, yet it has always been thus: poor people are in danger. That is what it means to be poor. It's dangerous to be poor. It's dangerous to be black. It's dangerous to be Latino." --Martin Espada

Monday, August 29 - Hundreds of African Americans and other poor people lost their lives in Louisiana and Mississippi to hurricane Katrina. The nation then watched helplessly as tens of thousands more continued to suffer benign governmental neglect and outright racism. To witness so plainly how the lives of American people of color were just not valued by their very own government seemed even more horrifying than the ravages of the original storm.

Tuesday, August 30 - One day after Hurricane Katrina struck, President Bush announced he had decided to cut short his "vacation." Still, he only arrived "back to work" at the White House the following Wednesday afternoon. As Michael Moore and Bill Mahr will most likely tell you, the President has managed to beat his own September 11, 2001 record (i.e., seven minutes of public indecision and inaction) ten-thousand fold.

"Don't Buy Gas If You Don't Need It"

Thursday, September 1 - Three days after the storm, the President surveyed the devastation from Air Force One, and went on to publicly chastise survivors (i.e., those stranded with no support and blocked from leaving the city by armed state troopers) with talks about "zero tolerance of people breaking the law" and the need for "personal responsibility." His advice to the rest of the nation? "Don't buy gas if you don't need it" and "Hang in there."

Despite video footage of thousands upon thousands of people milling about or sitting idly on the streets waiting for help, the national (and international) media fed the racism with crimson-red headlines sensationalizing random cases of looting and rapes. One can't help but wonder how they managed to conduct those hundreds of interviews and to gather so much walking footage amidst all that "lawlessness."

Friday, September 2 - The issue of government inaction finally became the focus as progressive columnists had begun to gnaw at the media's collective conscious. But even those that did mention the inadequate support never questioned the government's order that national guardsmen and police abandon rescue missions to concentrate on "stopping the looters." (Of course, most have also failed to consider whether perhaps we might consider recalling several thousand of those guardsman feeding the war machine in Iraq.)

The racial disparity was roundly criticized by Black and Latino leaders across the country. At a Friday press conference, Congressman Charles B. Rangel called the crisis a "disgrace ... made all the worse by the failure of government officials to have planned."

White supremacist websites, meanwhile, are still banging away at their keyboards - littering the Internet landscape with hateful remarks about the hand of God coming down on "deserving" blacks (and gays).

There were also the usual attempts by conservatives to dismiss anyone who critiqued our failure to provide more immediate support as members of the "crazy left" (whatever that means). But this is not a partisan issue. It is an issue of incompetence, at best and callous disregard for human life, at worst.

In fact, it was New Orleans' own finest who first initiated the call for more federal aid. It was Ray Nagin, Mayor of New Orleans, who first shamed the President on national television for ignoring repeated requests for assistance. It was writer Anne Rice, who blasted the media for their racist coverage in a New York Times editorial. It was New Orleans native Jazz musician Wynton Marsalis who issued a call for more support and racial tolerance on CNN's Larry King Live. It was the city's own newspaper, the Times-Picayune of New Orleans that blasted the inaction with a front page editorial. And it was performer Harry Connick, Jr. who immediately flew in to lend a hand to his neighbors.

There is simply no way to excuse the fact that President Bush chose to spend the day AFTER the storm, which had killed hundreds of American citizens, playing the guitar at a California fundraiser. Nor the fact the he did not return to work until Wednesday, and that he failed to call in the National Guard (and other federal support) until after Thursday.

Here in New York, our own Republican mayor condemned the late response. And while Bloomberg also promised that the city has evacuation (and rescue) plans in hand, should the hundreds of thousands of poor and working folks who live on flood plains that runs along the East River - from Loisada to el Barrio rely on the government to save them if a similar disaster were to strike here?

Well, if I had to go by the nonchalant attitude on the part of many New Yorkers - most of whom seemed more concerned with their holiday plans that week than the tens of thousands of African Americans suffering in New Orleans and elsewhere - then we had better prepare for a storm of our very own come the next local disaster.

HOW TO PREPARE

Are you Ready? (FEMA)

Ready New York Household Preparedness Guide

HERE'S WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP

Make a Donation: If you would like to donate to the American Red Cross, please contact 1-800-HELP-NOW (1-800-435-7669), or visit: http://www.redcross.org/

Catholic Charities USA - Catholic Charities USA is collecting financial donations to fund emergency and long-term disaster recovery efforts. For more information, call (800) 919-9338 or visit their website.

Hurricane Housing - MoveOn.org's housing drive found over 160,000 beds for hurricane evacuees. If you know of someone that needs housing and they don't have access to the internet, give them this toll-free hotline number to call: 1-800-638-4559 or visit their website.

Local Grassroots Movement Relief Efforts: Chica Luna Productions along with The Malcom X Grassroots Movement, Sisters on the Rise and The Caribbean Cultural Center are Sponsoring a relief food and clothing drive for our brothers and sister of the gulf coast. You can drop off your donation items at any of four locations in the city.

Examples of Items Needed:

Food: Non perishables, canned goods, water, baby formula, dry animal food, etc.

Clothing: New socks and new underwear, baby clothes, next to new footwear, any clothing that is in good condition, etc.

House Supplies: Flash lights, batteries, candles (the ones in tall glass preferred), matches, sleeping bags, blankets, sheets, plastic utensils, towels, air mattress, garbage bags, etc.

Medical/Health: First aid kits, medicine for elderly, Vitamins, disinfectant wipes, etc.

Toiletries: Diapers, feminine products, toothbrushes, deodorant, insect repellant, etc.

IN MANHATTAN
Chica Luna Productions
1690 Lexington Ave., 2nd fl. (Corner of 106th)
New York, NY 10029
Tel. 212-410-3544
Drop off Hours: M-F: 10:00 am - 6:00 pm

Caribbean Cultural Center
408 West 58th Street (bet. 9th & 10th Ave.)
New York, NY 10019
Tel. 212-307-7420
Drop off Hours: M-F: 10a-6p

IN BROOKLYN
Malcolm X Grassroots Movement [MXGM]
388 Atlantic Ave 3rd Floor (bet. Hoyt & Bond)
Brooklyn, NY 11217
Tel. 718-254-8800
Drop off Hours: M-F: 10a-7p
Sat & Sun: 12:00 pm - 4:00 pm

IN THE BRONX
Sisters on the Rise
835 Dawson Street (bet. Intervale & Rev James A. Plight Ave.)
Bronx, NY 10459
Tel. 718-991-6003
Drop off Hours: M-Thu: 11:00 am - 6:00 pm

So, we're the majority "minority" now?

2005-08-13T12:13:00.000-04:00

Latinos now make up the majority of the United States population, with states like Texas, Hawaii, New Mexico and California now tipping the scales with assorted varieties of what most Anglos still (even if secretly) refer to as "spics," "Spanish niggers" and "wetbacks." Does this actually make a difference? Do you suddenly feel inspired to move to Texas? Do these numbers translate into political power? Or economic stability? "No. Not yet," we are told. "But, give it another 15 years and we will begin to see majority 'minority' elected officials and CEOs." Will this make a difference for the majority of those "minorities?" No. Everyone knows that the Census undercounts by at least 10% in large cities, so those "new" numbers are not so new. We've already hit that high (probably during the last Census), and the higher numbers haven't brought brown-skinned folks any prosperity. We are still underpaid, underrepresented (especially by truly progressive standards), and underserved. No not undeserved, Mr. Anglo. Underserved. And we'll remain so unless we pick up our bootstraps and build a meaningful movement. Finally, can our "leaders" please stop sitting around in conference rooms talking about the good old days and all the institutions they built and get back to the work of empowering our people. Or, better yet, just retire and let someone else have the responsibility (while they go back to their power lunches ... and day spas ... and vacations on the island). Please...

So, aqui se habla Espanol ... y Que?

2005-05-30T12:51:00.000-04:00

Ever since the announcement that NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg's been taking Spanish lessons to court the Latino vote, I've seen a number of articles comparing other mayoral candidates on their ability (or lack thereof) with the language. The NYC mayoral campaign has also drawn comparisons to the recent Los Angeles mayoral race where the first Latino candidate in over 100 years was elected. All this talk about "the Latino vote" has me wondering: Why, if we are really all that powerful, are the majority of us still living in poverty and why do we still lack adequate representation at almost every level in society? Does it really matter whether a candidate speaks Spanish? Does that actually "translate" into genuine concern for our well-being? What the heck do verb tenses have to do with housing, crime and unemployment?

Political Constipation

2005-03-12T12:53:00.000-05:00

Collectively, we suffer from political constipation and are in desperate need of ... a movement!

Priorities, priorities...

2005-03-01T15:02:00.000-05:00

As I sit here reflecting on the recent Academy Awards, with not one but two (wholeheartedly deserved) African American winners, I ask myself: Is the failure to award a major "Oscar" to a Latina/o for over 40 years any less horrific than the prolonged imprisonment of so-called terrorist, Jose Padilla?

Seriously, why is it that - after all these years - we still lack adequate representation?

And no, Benicio del Toro does not count because he was born a genius...