It was an exciting night for our magazine at the Kern Press Club awards last night, May 18.

Let me just tell you that there is some really great talent in Kern County when it comes to print products. And not that I didn't think what we submitted was good, it was good, I just really didn't expect to win because there is a lot of tough competition for us to be up against.

I just felt so surprised to first hear my name called and then the names of two photojournalists. We were crowded in a room of real talent when it comes to journalism. So wow, we won!

I think one of the most surprising wins was that I got an award in the sports category. As a reporter here, I pretty much had to do every kind of story. I must say that I really struggled with the sports stories because I'm not really much of a sports fan. So winning  that was really surprising.

Anyway, here's how the awards stacked up:

-Print, light feature: Lisa Wuertz, "Bringing 'Bobby' back"
-Still photo, sports series: Roger Hornback, "An explosive night for the Bridgade" (sorry I can't find the link)
-Still photo, feature series: Lydia Gonzales, "Tending la cultura"
-Print, sports feature: Lisa Wuertz, "Jesse Toledo: Coach, mentor, friend comes full circle"

 

I made some lovely fingerless gloves.

Check out the details on my knitting blog:

yarn-girl-lisa.blogspot.com

Someone had an appointment to see our house at 10:30 am Saturday morning. So I tidied things up, put all of Charlotte's stuff out in the garage and took Charlotte with me.

I did not know where I was going.

At first I thought that I would take Charlotte to the dog park. I was on the 178 freeway and something in me yearned to go farther. So, I didn't get off at the exit I needed to in order to go to the dog park.

Then I thought that I might take her out to the City in the Hills development. All the surface streets are in with sidewalks, so I thought it might be a good idea to familiarize her with the neighborhood that she'll be moving to. Then maybe it won't be such a harsh transition.

This made me think of when we visited the models with Ruth and Eric. Eric asked us how far away the mountains you can see from our house are and if we could hike around up there.

It also made me think about Mammoth and Stephen being too nervous to take the canyon (178) freeway back to Bakersfield for the scenic route.

I also thought about fishing while I was driving and all the places mentioned in the fishing book we bought up at Mammoth for Kern County.

So, I kept driving and driving. I was determined to not be afraid of the canyon road and drive until I came across something cool.

By now we'd been in the car for about 15 minutes and Charlotte was starting to get restless. She began panting loudly to make known her annoyance at my disturbing her day of being cuddly and sleepy and playing with her tennis ball at home. She also began to whine here and there.

I was suprised to see a sign indicating that the Sequoia National Forest began right at the mouth of the canyon.

Then it was curvy, curvy, curvy.

Every time I came around one I would catch a glimps of the glistening Kern River below, quietly meandering over rocks and around bends.

I preferred to drive slow, the recommended 35-45 mph. Because of this I kept using the turnouts to let those crazy Isabella commuters go past at unsafe speeds. I didn't care. I was enjoying the view and the pristine quality of everything.

I spotted a turnout where there seemed to be a place to walk down to the river just across the highway. So, I pulled over and Charlotte and I waited until it was safe to cross. We made our way down the side of the canyon to a deep and large pool of water that barely looked like it was even moving. I knew better though, there is a reason they call it the Killer Kern. There was a long sand bar here and we checked it out for a few minutes.

Not what I was hoping for.

So, I hopped back in my car and drove on, continuing to use the turnouts to let others pass.

On my left I spotted Live Oak Picnic Grounds, but it seemed to be closed off to the public. I drove on and soon there was Lower Richbar Picnic Grounds, this too was closed and it sort of came up really suddenly making it unsafe for me to stop.

Finally I found Upper Richbar Picnic Grounds just a short distance ahead. This was open and I pulled in and parked my car.

Charlotte and I wandered around on some little trails that connected all of the picnic areas to eachother and the river below. She was a little skittish when she would hear a leaf crackle.

We began following a trail that went beyond the grounds.

Trying to hike with Charlotte wasn't really much fun because she was too scared of everything and it was hard to control her. A couple of times she got too enthusiastic and almost pulled me down some steep areas we had walked around on.

After following the trail for about 10 minutes there was a tiny creek crossing the path and emptying into the Kern River. While the creek was tiny, the area all around it was really muddy.

So I didn't keep going. I really didn't want muddy footprints all over the inside of my car. We turned around and kept hanging out there, walking along the river on the sand bar.

After exploring for an hour or so I decided it was time to go.

The drive back was glorious. The sun began to illuminate the high canyon walls. This side of the road gave a perfect view of the shimmering river below.

How could there be such beauty in my backyard this whole time? To think I have never ventured to see it in the thirteen long years that I have lived here. Just thirty minutes from my doorstep is clean air, beautiful scenery and quiet waters away from all the hustle and bustle of my life.

My camera battery was at home charging or I would have had pictures to go along with this post. Maybe it's better that way. Next time you can go with me to see what else is up there in my backyard.

I found a map of the area. There is so much more to check out, and so close to me!

I hate going to the doctor. I hate needles. And I often try push through being sick because I hate that, too.

This, despite the fact that I have a great doctor who is very compassionate. I have a doctor whose staff knows me by name and will squeeze me in at a moment’s notice.

Needless to say I didn’t get a flu shot this year, even though I had the opportunity to get one through my employer.

And guess what?

I got sick. Really sick. I haven’t been that sick in a very long time.

After reviewing my symptoms, I’m quite sure I had the flu.

However, about three days in, I decided to ignore my body and head back to work, endangering my coworkers by exposing them to flu germs.

I made it about three hours before telling my managing editor, Olivia García that I couldn’t stay any longer.

Her response was: “I didn’t expect to see you today anyway. Go home. Don’t get us sick.”

On Friday, when I returned to work feeling 100 percent better, the first thing out of copy editor, Teresa Adamo’s mouth was: “Lisa, are you really better? If you are not all the way better, my instructions are to send you home.”

I know that everyone here put their concerns about my well-being before their concerns about the publication, which isn’t always something easy to find in a workplace setting.

I now know that I can believe in MÁS, not just as a good magazine, but as a good place to work. 

Ironically, after I got back, I was assigned to cover a story about the flu. You’ll find it in our health section. I learned that it is a bad idea to come to work sick, and whether or not Kern County is prepared for an emergency flu situation.

I hope you will find the information useful this flu season.

On Friday I was involved in a minor accident. See in our parking garage there are some real maniacs that drive around in there. So I'm always worried that someone is going to come flying around the corner and smash into me. As a consequence, I tend to pay more attention to the back end of my car when I'm backing out and not the front end. So, on Friday as I was backing out, I scraped up against the car next to me with the front end of my car.

So I parked again and left my card for the person to give me a call. As I was on my way home I got a call from the woman who owned the car that I messed up. She said, "You left your card, that is so precious." We exchanged info and my insurance took care of it from there.

$500 later my car and hers will be fixed. Well, this morning I am at the body shop getting my estimate and I get a call from this woman. She says, "Lisa, I wanted to take you to lunch today. I have had three other incidents in that parking garage and you are the only one to leave your card." So she took me to the Guild House. I met her there and she was such a neat person. I don't know if this is something that comes from a generation gone by or what, but this has to be one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had.

"A lot of it is lack of hope amongst young people. A lot of people are concerned about just the disregard young people have for adults, for their community, for each other and for themselves." -- Andre Gonzales

I had never really experienced this for myself before. I knew there were kids out there like this because you see it on the news all the time. However, my experience was one that hadn't encountered this on a widespread level.

That was until last night at church.

I found myself surrounded by three rows of high school students texting, whispering, and generally not paying attention to the message. It was really frustrating and distracting. If you want to go to church and we want to have everyone in there fine, but there has to be a line somewhere when you have a bunch of kids interrupting the whole service.

Sometimes I wish I could just shake the crap out of kids and say "wake up!". The fight you had with your mom or your sibling, or the boy that doesn't like you is insignificant. It really is. There are bigger things out there than the world around you and your current circumstances. Get a global perspective already and stop being so self centered and inconsiderate of others!

I'm never sitting in the back at church again.

There are people making a difference in this world! For our anniversary issue out September 15th, we are compiling a list of the top 20 Latinos in Kern County (Think TIME's annual most influential people list). I interviewed this most amazing guy, Andrae Gonzales. There is no way I can fit everything that he said in my little 400-600 word article, but people should know about him. He's my age and making a huge difference in the community. So, this is the transcript of what he had to say in my interview with him.

Andrae Gonzales
Age: 24
Category: Community Service

Q. So I'm not totally familiar with what it is you do, so if you could explain that.

I work for an organization called Relational Culture Institute and we are a southern central valley organization. We work in Fresno, Visalia, and Bakersfield. I am the lead organizer in Bakersfield. So, I'm coordinating projects.

We are a congregation based organization and we work on congregation based community organizing. So, I'm a community organizer of sorts.

What I do is bring people together. I find and identify people who are concerned about their neighborhoods, their property, where they worship, their church and the quality of life in the surrounding environment. I ask them what they are going to do about it to change it. How they're going to change the community. Then I bring people together who are concerned and motivated to make a change and I train, coach and organize them around issues. I walk with them and develop their leadership.

I guess the overall goal is to develop new leaders within east Bakersfield and southeast Bakersfield, a lot of the communities where people recognize as being full of neighborhood issues.

Q. What inspires you to do work like this?

I was born and raised in east Bakersfield. I went to East High, graduated, I was student body president there in 2000. I went off to school at U.C. Berkeley and studied at Georgetown for a year. When I was graduating I began to really focus and meditate and pray and asked God for guidance of where I should be. Basically, I was applying for jobs in Boston, L.A., San Francisco, everywhere a young guy wants to be, you know where its fun, but I felt like I was being called back to Bakersfield. I came to the realization that if I wanted to work in community development, which is what I studied along with politics, I needed to go back to my own community.

I would always keep up with the news here, reading the paper with the gang violence and all of the different issues related to that and compare that to the amount of growth we're seeing in this community. I just couldn't square the discrepancies and the disparity. I knew that I had to be back because there was some type of leadership deficit within our communities.

So, I was looking for a job and I contacted my pastor at St. Joseph's and it was almost serendipitous. He was beginning this ministry at St. Joseph's regarding this organization and they were developing the ministry where they were going out into the community and they were working with Relational Culture Institute which was affiliated with this national organization called PICO which stands for People Improving Communities through Organizing which has a thousand other congregations throughout the country that do the same thing I do. He told me that I needed to be a part of it. I knew that this was exactly why I came back to Bakersfield. It was just, it was a godsend. It was just perfect actually.

That is the long winded answer of how I wound up here. Now why I do this work is another question. It's on my heart to give and to provide the opportunities to other people that I had. When I was growing up, there was a lot of people in my life — family, friends, neighbors, teachers — who influenced me, motivated me to hold on to my goals. I believe that, more than anything, is what is going to motivate young people, motivate just people in general to make their lives better.

I'm really sold on the idea that the only way our communities can survive and can actually improve and the only way we can make a positive vision for change, especially in east Bakersfield, is simply by developing, fostering, and nurturing our relationships with one another. Neighbors come together, community comes together, and even people of faith and we're all at the table in building our relationships and using those relationships to identify issues that are affecting us and together tackling those things. We are so much more effective than any other government project or any program that government may mandate in any type of non-profit effort. The reality is that its about relationships in our communities. So, that is what I'm trying to develop. I network all of the time, but I network with people who live in the neighborhood.

Q. So is there just a lack of relationships in a lot of these neighborhoods?

I would say yeah. I would say that the neighbors don't know one another, but also when we take a look at the church aspect, churches are a perfect opportunity to create positive vision, they have a great set of values that is so important to and can be used so well for neighborhoods to give them hope. I think that more than anything residents and neighbors within communities are lacking hope and they lack hope for a better life. They're kind of deterministic about this situation. You know, a drug problem will never be beat in some people's minds. Homelessness, poverty, youth violence are all too insurmountable, but what the church can provide is that amount of hope and its also an institution where they can bring people together. So, I think that people are hopeless and aren't connected with one another as much as they used to be for many reasons. What happens is that leads to fragmentation of a neighborhood and all of a sudden there's a lot of assumptions being made about one another and that breeds dissent, animosity within the community. You begin to see a death of a community. You see issues that are just getting bigger and bigger. The networks, those social networks, that social capital of the civil society is not there.

I'm a firm believer in the checks and balances that our founding fathers laid out. You have government on one side, the market on another and the middle check to the two is a civil society. These informal associations of people and by the way I think that churches were supposed to be a part of that bringing people together to check the government. I don't think we're seeing that as much.

So that is what is on my heart. My heart is not to be the lead, to be the guy that comes into town on the white horse and come up with all the answers to things. That would be in my opinion too easy.  I love public policy, I studied public policy and I have a lot of ideas, but what's in my heart is to really train and to coach and to organize residents so that in my absence or in any popular leaders absence that there's actually leaders within the neighborhoods that can step up and represent themselves and in their absence they can then train other leaders. We can foster this vision, but see the vision has to be there.

The reason I wanted to be a part of this project is that there has to be a positive vision set in our communities and government doesn't have the capacity to create that vision, the market doesn't have the incentive to create that vision, but people of faith are called to create a vision of that change and people in the neighborhood that are concerned about these issues can do it. That is what is going to drive that change and a transformation.

Q. So what's like a typical day for you?

There is no typical day for me, but generally it's a series of scheduled meetings with different pastors. I'm continuously asking them what their concerned with in the community and how they see a change. I'm also talking to a lot of residents, a lot of congregants within certain churches that I'm working with. I ask them the same questions and basically what the problems are, how they see it, why they think the problems exist, what they think should be done and what they can do to solve that problem.  So, I'm continuously agitating people all day about the problems, to give me a sense of their ideal world and somehow agitate them to move, to actually do something about it. If we don't think about this stuff than nothing happens. We sometimes philosophize about the problems or dream a perfect community, but until we start talking about these things and actually looking at the nuts and bolts of how we got to where we're at and what the different issues are surrounding the problem, we're never going to get anywhere.

Q. What are some of the main problems?

A lot of it is lack of hope amongst young people. A lot of people are concerned about just the disregard young people have for adults, for their community, for each other and for themselves. I talk to generally 20-25 people in the community each week in different communities. That is basically what they are concerned about. Also about drugs in their neighborhood. Drugs and of course gang violence.

Then I was in Oildale today and we were talking about the issues along the river as far as homelessness and drugs and how all of those are related. I was just at a house meeting today and a woman was concerned about an apartment complex that is infested with a lot of drugs, drug dealers, and a landlord that is absentee and not doing anything. I had another meeting today with a group of individuals who are about to work on an issue related to a liquor store that's selling illegal cigarettes and there's a lot of prostitution and drug deals going on around that liquor store. So that was today. I was in a different area talking about specific issues in those areas and really working with residents to solve them and figure out how they can move whomever to get something done.

We had a sheriff's forum in May which was very successful. We had seven sheriff's candidates attend a forum in east Bakersfield and we had about 350 people attend our forum. The sheriff's candidates said that of any forum they had been to it was by far the biggest forum. Our group hosted it, the East Bakersfield Faith Community Alliance. It is a coalition of St. Joseph's Catholic Church, Bethany Ministries, and Emmanuel Lutheran. We all came together and hosted this forum which was actually pretty exciting.

One of the issues was surrounding the east Bakersfield substation. We found out that it actually was not a substation and really more of a community center where great agencies came in and provided services for the community which was a very positive thing, but it wasn't a substation. The sign outside said substation.

We met a woman who's husband was brutally beaten and killed at a liquor store which was right nearby. This same liquor store had a bunch of drug dealers outside, prostitution was sighted amongst many of the neighborhood residents and this liquor store is actually right across the street from this substation. So we couldn't figure out what was going on here, why these crimes existed right across from the substation. It wasn't a deterrent. The fact that the sign said substation wasn't a deterrent. Why? Because if the dog doesn't bark after several times you pass by you're not fearing it anymore. So there's a huge issue there. Especially when we took a look and residents actually did a lot of research and I coached them. Like I said its all about leadership development. So I was developing their leadership and they did a lot of research and found out that at the Rosedale substation it was actually much better staffed. They have a sergeant, an investigator and a couple of deputies on staff. So, there's a huge disparity there amongst the Rosedale and east Bakersfield substation.

I was so proud of the leaders who were part of that because they brought it up. The woman who lost her husband got up and shared her story.

Each and every candidate we're proud to say, we have it on tape, they promised to fully staff the substation if elected. Then we had a document that we asked them to sign. A huge document asking them to meet with us within 90 days of being elected. So, as soon as we elect a sheriff we'll be contacting them to meet with them on our terms to see how we can get an effective substation, how we can get really serious about these issues facing our community.

So that is what I do every day. On one aspect I'm identifying new people and finding out their issues and agitating them to step up and become leaders in their community, own their community and then the other is I'm working with leaders who are already owning community and finding out how we can make those issues and change them and really realize our vision for change.

Q. So are you seeing results?

That's really going to be the proof in the pudding on this. Our project, I really believe, is developmental. This is about relationship building and identifying issues, but it's also about a stronger community through relationships. So, this whole process is going to take years. I'm thinking long term like 20 years, but I'm 24 so I think I still have like 48 years to live or something like that to continue this.

So here's the thing, talking to some residents that have worked on the sheriff's forum have said that there a lot of the issues on their block where we targeted have decreased. They said that they see deputies roaming the streets a lot more. They don't see as much riffraff, drug deals, or anything like that. Though that's all anecdotal, there's nothing statistically that we have to sight yet. We're still pretty fresh, but we're working on that.

Q. So do you think this is something you'll be doing lifelong then?

I think I'll be doing this life long. I think so. I always thought I wanted to go into politics, but I'm less and less convinced that that's the way to change our community.

Here's the thing though I really think I need to go back to graduate school. Go to either business or law school or maybe both, probably both because I believe that non-profits especially non-profits of the future are going to be run more like businesses and the way we run our operation in town is that we treat it like a business. It's all about outcomes. It is outcome driven, not about how much we do, but how much we produce. It's really important to me that I work hard to get a significant outcomes over time. So, its not a forty hour a week job, its more like a 10-12 hour a day job and it depends on the day, but that's what it's going to take to really get serious about this stuff and I'm going to do it.

It's really exciting to see some of the innovations around the country and kind of the new way non-profits are working. A lot of it is developing that management style where people are more like a business and being more efficient. So that's what's exciting for me as a young person in non-profits. I consider myself to be, I want to be a social entrepreneur in the sense that we're looking at the cutting edge ideas and coming up with new ways of doing things because the old ways obviously aren't working. So its an exciting opportunity for us — when I say us I mean people my age: you, me and others — to kind of start imagining something new.

Q. How is it that you go about finding — besides finding already existing leaders — these concerned people and citizens?

I do a lot of different things. A lot of them are through congregations. I have a lot of meetings with people in general. I have a lot of meetings with people in congregations. Pastors give me lists of people to say meet with these people and find out what their interests are and its maybe one out of ten people who are really passionate and concerned. So, I have to meet a lot of people to find out who is really going to step up and be a leader or consider themselves passionate enough to actually do something about it. I do a lot of work within congregations to find the leaders in the community through churches, but I also do a lot through targeting neighborhoods and knocking on doors and having conversations with people that way.

Q. What's the response on that?

Knocking on doors? It's okay. It's not as great as anyone would hope, but you really get to hear a lot of different concerns and I actually get pretty lucky as far as I get the same results, one out of ten people I talk to say yeah I want to do something. So, its worth it. It's just kinda hot out there in the summer. It's definitely worth it finding those people who are really passionate and want to own their community.

Q. So do you get a lot of people who sort of reject this idea?

I get a lot of people who do that. A lot of people say nothing is going to change. A lot of people who look to other organizations that are doing stuff instead of saying, what can we do and how can we work with those other organizations. Reality is that there is no one organization that's going to be able to do everything. In fact our organization is not. I tell our leaders all the time that we're not going to be able to solve the whole problem. We identify issues that we can solve, but not the whole problem. It's just too much for one organization or two organizations. Its real easy though for someone to say well so and so organization is working on violence or so and so organization is working drugs and stuff. That's very dangerous because I think we all need to be part of this. We all need to come up with different strategies and meet and somehow find a way to a solution.

Now I get a lot of people from L.A. that are moving in to east Bakersfield that say 'I can survive. I'm gonna take care of my own business, take care of my own life, take care of my family and my household and if things get worse oh well. I think we can survive. My house can survive.' So they have no concern for that. So that's kind of the hardest and most disappointing thing when I hear that. It's like a lot of us are stuck in survival. People have the survival mentality of if I can survive then it will be okay. I just can't buy that because I feel we have to have a greater sense of our community and our neighborhood.

Q. What's been your greatest reward in all of this?

I think the greatest reward I get is when people who are interested in getting involved with this understand that this is something different and that we really need to try a new strategy. That its not necessarily about relief efforts all of the time like giving out handouts all of the time. Its about looking at the systemic causes of these problems. When leaders are starting to get that and they open their eyes to a different model, a different mentality of addressing community concerns that's the biggest reward because its hard.

Q. What is the most heartbreaking thing that you've had to witness or deal with?

I think the defeatist mentality is the most heartbreaking: 'Things will never change and its all hopeless or things will only get worse and this is impossible to do.' That and what I was talking about before just this yeah the community is getting worse, but its not my problem because I can live with it. Either people are coping or they're just resigned to it. That's just the most heartbreaking thing.

There are a lot of people who are great and they have great ideas and intentions, but until we look at the effectiveness of some of the efforts that we make its really hard to say its making an impact on our community.

Q. What's the biggest change you've witnessed?

After we got out of the forum we found that people kept coming up to me and said thank you because they didn't think this was possible for east Bakersfield. The leaders were sharp, they had done their research and they were taking ownership. Maybe east Bakersfield can change. When they said that it was a great change in itself because it gave people hope. That hopeless that I speak of is pervasive in that community. The changes that we're seeing is that when we're doing this stuff and people are developing these relationships to work together and get this done in a very strategic and intentional way there's a lot of hope and that's the biggest change.

The woman who lost her husband, her best friend came up to me and said, 'Andre I did not want my friend to be a part of this. I was telling her not to be a part of it. I didn't think anything would come out of it and I was just really against the idea,' but she goes, 'What I saw: the look in her eyes tonight and just listening to her right now talking, she just had a victory. Thank you.' She said thank you. She needed that for herself and for the situation that she's living in because her husband died and she sees these things still going on and the violence and the drugs and the prostitution. All of that stuff is still going on, but it gave her a sense of hope and for me that's what it's all about. Once we get people hopeful, we can really use that to make a change. (tears well up) Sorry. Sorry. I don't really talk about that part very often for obvious reasons (motions at tear filled eyes).

I just really believe in this stuff. I really believe the change has to come from the people who live in their community. All I'm here for is just to give it a little structure and a little strategy on how to do it. Their persistent coach in a way. So, I'm just looking for willing people and hopefully next year one of our leaders, newly developed, is community service winner for MÁS's second anniversary.

Q. Where do you get inspiration to go through all of the stuff? What drives you?

I think a couple things. Listening to the issues that are at hand. You know the problems that we see in the paper every day in our communities. But it's also my faith. My faith in God. The one command was to love one another. Jesus command was to love. Prayer and meditation and spending time with God really keeps me going because sometimes it feels like its never going to happen, but other weeks its great. It's just a matter of keeping that balance within myself and keeping motivated and really believing that this is going to happen.

Q. How is it that you get these different church organizations to work together? I know there is a lot of division amongst denominations.

One of our pastors gave a homily at St. Joseph's before the forum and he said, 'A Catholic church, a Lutheran church, and a non-denominational Christian church are going to work together on this. This is an act of God.' So it was really interesting. We have a concern, we have a common interest and that's our community. If churches really, truly recognize that then they can work past the doctrinal issues and difference. The reality is in this interfaith thing we talk about the issues that are at hand which are in our community. We all come from different faith traditions of sort, but we're all here for one common thing. So, its just sort of extending an olive branch.

Not all congregations work together, some congregations work independently. In fact, a lot of our churches are working independently, but find common issues to work together with. So we work it out. I find that the hardest thing is to find how this fits within the congregation. Sometimes the church isn't ready or at that point to really engage the community to really work on community issues, but when they are it's really exciting.

Q. How would you describe your relationship with God?

My relationship with God. I think its pretty. Well lets just say there's never been a time when I felt closer or more called. I know its really intimate my relationship with God. Honestly I feel like I don't know how to describe my relationship with God. There's never been a time when I felt He wasn't there for our community. I think its very for me I am just trying to on a spiritual level I believe in bringing the kingdom of God on earth and realizing that. I believe that God has instilled in every human being great gifts and talents and that my calling is to kind of work with different people and unlock those gifts. Whether its developing those leaders or finding those people to try to develop the capacity.

Here's the thing. I see this in a lot of different ways. Our community has like four different dimensions. There is a very real physical dimension, obviously. We're all human beings, we're material, when you hit the ground it hurts that type of thing. It's very physical. The aesthetics of our community, the environment, the actual physical environment, the air we breath has to be good healthy quality. It has to be a physically healthy environment for us to live in it as human beings. There's also a spiritual realm. Our neighborhoods have to also be spiritually healthy. A lot of churches do really great work in the spiritual realm and trying to outreach on a spiritual playing field. There's also an economic realm. We all have to go to work to make money. We all have jobs. We all have to deal with our economy. Capitalism isn't the greatest thing, but we have to work within that reality. Churches take money, organizations take money, we all take and need money to run. We all need to work. We all have to buy food. Then there's a social realm. Human beings are social creatures. We develop families, friendships and we develop relationships with others. We need to work with one another and no man's an island. We have this social realm as well.

So my relationship with God, to get back to your question, I find that to find balance within this whole thing and to really engage our community you have to recognize all four realms. All four very real realms and be able to meet people in all four. You know some people are more spiritual, some people are real physical, some people understand the economic dimension of the issues facing our community and the underpinnings of those economic realities. I feel like my relationship with God is found within all four. I kind of transcend that. Go beyond the spiritual realm to work within all four realms.

So its definitely a source of strength.

Q. So you say you feel called and close to God?

Yeah. It is a part of everything. It drives what I do. My faith and the prayer and my reflection and meditation every day it drives, it is the vehicle for what I do every day and that relationship with God is very intimate.

So my actions within the community as I work within trying to find those economic and socioeconomic problems facing our community, I go into that with a shield of prayer. Prayer is my shield, but I gauge those things not as an evangelist. I'm not evangelizing.

I believe we have to work within the secular world if we want to make changes. We have to work within even the real government, the non-religious government. You have to work within that environment. So to me I have be very clear on what it is. I believe there is a separation between church and state, but I believe a church can work as a vehicle of civil society and a civil society can be a check on the government. So its not one in the same, but its separate.

Q. How long have you been doing this?

It's going to be a year pretty soon. I can't remember when. It hasn't been that long. I just moved back actually I've been back for about a year. About as long as MÁS started. I just graduated last May from Cal, U.C. Berkely. Then I went and spent five weeks in Guadalajara. I spent a lot of time figuring out life and yeah now I'm here and I plan to be here for a couple more years before some type of grad school and then I'll come back.

Q. Is it weird being back in a smaller town after being in bigger cities?

Definitely. In a lot of different ways. I think in bigger cities there's obviously more people. When more people are together there is more of an exchange of ideas. I think it produces a lot more for our communities. Hagel, a political philosopher, said thesis and antithesis create synthesis. So when you have that antithesis, when you have both, then you are able to synthesis a lot of different information and produce.

I think that part of the work that I do is really to get people to talk about their opinions and their perspectives. Have people together, not debate, but have an honest discussion where we can move forward and find ourselves in a different position from where we were. That's the exciting part. In bigger cities you have that. You have that naturally due to common places like parks and cafes and restaurants. Especially universities which are highly populated. Densely populated areas also provide that great exchange. So, it is different here, but I think that its growing and as we grow if it is coupled with this relationship building and recognition of neighborhoods to commonly work on things we can be more effective.

Also, just the amount of I don't want to say culture, but yeah. There's more choices of entertainment, of markets. There's a lot more choices and opportunities for different things. It is hard to be back.

Q. What do you think of our city slogan, "Life as it should be"?

I have a real problem with that actually because when you take a look at communities like east Bakersfield and you hear some of the stories of our residents who are living there and the issues related to drugs, the poverty, it's really a concern of whether its their life as it should be.

Take a look at some of the parks and the fact that kids can't go and play because their too scared and their families can't spend a Sunday there because its overridden by drug users and stuff its a wonder if that's the way life should be for them. I don't think so.

I think that its nice to put an ideal to a situation. I'm very proud — don't get me wrong — I love Bakersfield. If I didn't love it I would have moved a long time ago. Someone joked once and said, 'If you don't like it get out'. I said no, its not that I don't like it. I actually love it, but if I have problems with something I'm going to work on it. In fact, I love this community so much that I'm gonna work to improve it.

Back to the whole God instilled values in the community, that's so important to me. There are a lot of great organizations in this community, but so often the response is, 'let us give you this, I have toys to give you, I have gifts to bring, I have food to give you and stuff.' The reality is that a lot of people have and are rich in a lot of different areas. People come through the neighborhoods and say this is a blighted community, this is a ghetto. That really hurts because I don't think of these places as blighted or ghettos. These people are very rich in spirit. These are some of the most faithful people in east Bakersfield. Some of the most very smart people — a lot of the people I grew up with were very smart. They didn't go off and get the education, but they were very bright people. There are savvy individuals within our neighborhoods. They are also very hospitable, some are very warm and welcoming. Talented in a lot of different ways. The best cooks are in east Bakersfield and some of the most artistic people are in east Bakersfield. Some of those little savvy business leaders are coming from east Bakersfield and these communities. The reality is that's pretty wealthy. It may not be the most aesthetically pleasing, but we're working on that. There may be a lot of issues in our communities, but that's what we need to work on.

I think if we go on that approach of, 'Here are our assets, here are our gifts, here are the things that God has given us and lets look at what we can do with that.' That  is a different response than someone coming in and saying this is a blighted community let me give you some handouts. Let me give you something that I think you need. Two different approaches.

Don't get me wrong. I think that a lot of these outreaches are nice and they're necessary for some. They benefit a lot of people, but I think that what I would like to see is that if a lot of these organizations and these businesses who give out consistently over time if they would look beyond the emergency response to these issues. Like giving out backpacks, giving out toys, giving out food, having rallies and marches. If they would look beyond that one time event to the more underlying systemic structural causes to these situations of the drug epidemic, the socioeconomic issues, poverty, the affordable housing issues, gangs and violence issues. Take a look at those underpinnings and really put our heads together to get to the root.

There's this old story. So you and I are camping and walking down a river. We see someone floating down and we pull them out. We see another person and pull them out. Then another person and we pull them out. After awhile we just see all of these people floating down the river. We're constantly trying to save people out of the river. Then we call our buddies and we call our friends and they come out. Suddenly we have training sessions on how to pull people out of the river. Then we have a rally declaring that we're going to pull more people out of the river. Hundreds and hundreds of people are floating down the river. The river is just polluted with people now. Then we are having marches saying we're going to pull people out of the river. Candlelight vigils. Eventually we have to go up the river and figure out why these people are falling in in the first place and fix the broken bridges up there.

That's what I see in our community. We are too busy, we spend all of our time doing the necessary of pulling people out. We need to do it, but we also need to start going up the river and finding out where those bridges are out. It's a both and. It's not either or. That's what I want to make very clear because I don't want to seem like I am bashing on a lot of the outreaches. I think they're great, but they focus too much on the end. We need to find out what's causing these things and get to that.

Q. What are some of the solutions that some of the residents and leaders that you've talked to have come up with and are implementing?

East Bakersfield Community Faith Alliance actually came up with a platform. They call it the safe and healthy east Bakersfield community platform. One of the issues was to develop a stronger relationship with law enforcement as residents so they can address five key points.

One was the issue of trust within law enforcement. They felt like when law enforcement deputies responded to a crime they put witnesses in danger. They would bring out witnesses to identify either the victim or the suspect right in front of the whole entire neighborhood, in the middle of the street. We would hear stories all of the time. So we decided we really needed to work on this issue of being very sensitive to the culture of these neighborhoods.

In one particular situation this woman's son had to identify the suspect right in the middle of the street. The poor boy was pretty bright and was doing really well in school. He got so scared that he only stays in his room. It's been about eight months. He won't leave his room when he comes home from school. He doesn't play outside or anything because he's just so scared of retaliation. They don't know their neighbors around the area. They don't know who's connected to the suspect, if he has family who might of seen the boy call him out. They don't know if it was gang related and if some other people who are in the gang are in the area. They don't know that and neither did the deputy. So that's one thing that we're working on.

We're also working on the substation issue. We really believe we need an effective substation where we have community oriented policing. Where law enforcement deputies are actually building relationships within the community. Where there is some type of incentive systems for deputies to be able to identify problem areas before they become an incident before it actually happens and some how improve the area.

Some of the other churches like St. Joseph's work on the issues related to the open air drug markets. We kind of identify specific points. We're still trying to come up with solutions to that too.

All in all I think the main thing is to actually come up with solutions. The main solution is to actually start talking about these problems. When you have more residents and people of faith and just more people in general meeting together and thinking about those things. Then its about working with law enforcement, public officials and that's where the effective change comes in. We have to give people a sense of home and a sense of ownership of their community so they become more vigilant. So I think that's how the overall strategy of how this is really going to transform and develop our community.

I want to have a pirate party for Halloweeen. My husband says he'll think about it, but that really means I win and we're having one.

I am pretty much obsessed with pirates. I know its kind of a dorky thing, but I love them. I know it is also a dorky thing that I'm already planning Halloween two months ahead of time.

If we decide that we are going to have one this is the wording for the Evite invitation I'm going to send out:

Have'n ye been land locked for some time and fergotten' yer sea legs land lubber? Avast me hearties!! Ye be officially invited to a raucous night of mayhem and maddness with the friendliest of pirate crews! Saturday, the 28th of October, in the year of our Lord 2006.

No need to fear for yer life me lovelies, ther'll be no pillagin' in this village, as our pirates are lovers, not fighters. Please join us for camaraderie and cheer.

We have assembled some find food offerings and grog from the wild port of Tortuga.

Don yer best sea farin' digs, polish up yer pirate pistols, shine yer boots and dig up all yer booty. Ye don't want to look like a son of a biscuit eater! Davey Jones Locker awaits for those lackin' in spirit! Arrr!!!

Shiver me timbers, it be time to weigh anchor and set sail. I'll be seein' all ye' scallywags, scoundrels and wenches soon. Wishin' ye fair winds and followin' seas.

Sail ho!
Cap'n Lisa

And here are my options for response on Evite:

yes: Aye, aye cap'n
maybe: Blimey! I may be pillagin' another village
no: I am disinclined to aquiesce to your request

I've already found my costume too! Well, I thought I had found my costume about a couple of weeks ago. I figured I could make a couple of modifications and things would be cool, but as soon as I saw it I knew I wanted something better. So, my recommendation is to not buy the "High Seas Buccaneer" costume. It is lame. It looks cool in the ad, but really its lame.



See, I was going to wear my real boots that are much cooler and some gauchos that can pass for pirate pants. In the ad, the vest looks shiny like it might be that fake leather stuff, but really it's not. I found that to be really misleading. It's this lame looking spongy fabric that looks like its been sponge painted in black and brown. Then there is the other matter of me not being six feet tall so I look short and chubby in it.

So then I found this really cool site, http://www.portroyaltrading... but the costumes were much too pricey and they didn't have much in the way of women's attire.

I had gone to WalMart to get some fabric for a part of the costume and happened upon the women's clothing section because something caught my eye. They probably have the best selection of pirate attire in the women's clothes if you know how to put it together just right.

Saavy:



poofy bell armed Pirate shirt: $14.84
velvet Pirate vest: $14.88
fabric remnant for Pirate head band: $1.91
sash buckle Pirate belt: $7.86
(I already had and planned on wearing the pants and boots)

I saved money because the lame costume cost me $54.49 and this one only cost me $39.49, a total of $15 savings. Plus, this one is a hundred times better and more authentic looking.

The vest comes in other colors and so does the belt. They also have other shirts that are pirate looking and jackets too. Just in case you don't want to completely copy me.

I'm not usually a fan of WalMart, but if you want to be a piratess this year and not look lame or spend too much money, then I suggest you check it out.
 

I don't know if you picked up on this by reading the article, but I didn’t really get to interview our "governator". The press conference he held was not open to the public.

Being that we are a fairly new publication, we don’t have all the contacts that larger, more established organizations have. So, I was told about the conference about an hour before it happened. I'm actually really lucky I was told about it at all.

I frantically tried to get in touch with his publicist, but was unable to find a number. They don’t even have it on the official governor’s website. Very frustrating! So then I tried to get in touch with some of my colleagues at the Bakersfield Californian who were covering the story with no luck (we are owned by the Californian so we share sources and info on occasion).

So, I drove out to Bolthouse East where my dad had sent me. When I knew I had only a few minutes to get to the press conference I called him because they are one of his clients. I drove up to the security gate and they told me that they couldn’t let me in because I wasn’t on the list of “allowed” publications. So I drove back to our office.

Sometime after I returned I received an e-mail from one of my collegues at the Californian telling me that at the last minute the event had been moved out to Bolthouse West in Buttonwillow, CA. I wouldn't have been allowed in anyway because I wasn't on the list though. I got me and our photographer on the e-mail alerts from the governor's office for next time. I also found out the contacts I needed for future reference.

So, I went to the Angelides press conference at this lady’s front yard in East Bakersfield after that. He was good about taking questions. Too bad I was about to pass out because I was wearing all black and standing in the sun at the hottest part of the day! Yeah… went blank and none of my good questions got asked. Such as:

1. Mr. Angelides you keep talking about supporting California businesses, but I noticed that you have contracted out a sound company based in Washington, D.C. to handle all the speakers and microphones. Why can’t you hire one of the tons of excellent California based sound companies?
2. We saw how controlled Schwarzenegger’s press events were this morning with the list of allowed publications. This is something we’ve seen throughout his time as governor. Do you plan to be more accessible to the public as governor?

Instead, all of the other reporters kept asking the same questions which had to do with some of the biggest farming organizations announcing their endorsement of Schwarzenegger at the press conference earlier (that they all got into because they were on the list of publications allowed in). Boring! Okay well maybe it isn't boring, but seriously if everyone asks the same question do they really expect that they are going to get a different answer? Isn't that the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result?

Well, like I said I was about to pass out. My heart was racing like I had just run a marathon because I was so incredibly hot. I started to feel really weak too. Finally, I made my way into the shade as things drew to a close.

Turns out, we were not interested in much more than a short brief on this though so I was able to use the myriad of press releases put out by the campaign and information colleagues let slip with their questions at the Angelides conference to piece together what happened. 

Click here to read the article.

Also, just so you know I'm not endorsing either candidate and still not sure who I'm going to vote for. I'll just say that I think both men are very good at being politicians.

As part of my story on the changing traditions of quincineras, I interviewed a young lady named Alexess that was having a belly dancing themed quincinera.
 
Before I met Alexess, her mom, sister Melissa, and her friends, I wasn’t too sure about quincineras and I definitely wasn’t too sure about belling dancing.
 
Historically, quincineras were sort of the equivalent to the American sweet 16 or coming out party. Women were married at a much younger age and so at 15 they were presented as a potential bride to the community. Hence the big white dress that resembles a wedding dress. To me 15 is way too young to be getting married and I am really glad times have changed. So, in some ways the whole idea of a quincinera celebration seemed a little outdated.
 
Call me a prude, but belly dancing also seemed like something a fifteen-year-old should not be doing. If I had a fifteen year old, I don’t think I’d be letting her belly dance. One look at the definition was all it took for me to have this attitude:
        & nbsp;   belly dancing
        & nbsp;   n. a Middle Eastern dance in which the dancer makes sensuous movements of the hips and abdomen.
I don’t know about how other parents or even potential parents feel, but no fifteen-year-old daughter of mine is going to be learning how to do “sensuous movements of the hips and abdomen.”
 
All of these were attitudes I held prior to meeting Alexess though.
 
The amount of self confidence that exudes from Alexess is amazing. I’ve always struggled with my own self image and insecurities about my weight. These girls were not like that at all. They have this attitude about them that screams, “This is the way God made me and I’m beautiful in my own right just the way I am.” I love it.
 
Through the belly dancing lessons, Alexess and her mom are really changing the self perceptions of some of the other girls that are not as confident quite yet.
 
“I mean everybody has got a little bit of a belly,” said Jiminez’ sister, Melissa Herrera, “Nobody’s perfect.”

“I think it helped them to be more outspoken,” said Alexess's mom, Julie Otero, “Everybody was like ‘oh I am too big,’ but you know what I tell them, you look beautiful. If you don’t like yourself that’s on you, but don’t worry about what other people think. It’s how you feel.”
 
The entire time I was in their home, I almost felt as if I was being treated like a local celebrity if you will. Alexess’ sister Melissa thought it was so cool that all I did was go to CSUB to get my degree and that now I actually get paid to write. It is something she hopes to do one day as she works hard to pursue her dreams by getting a degree in Communications at CSUB. She eagerly pulled out an editorial piece she had written and was excited to read it to me wanting to know what I thought of it. So, this whole time I sense that they are looking at me in awe or as inspiring in some ways. It was as if they could hardly believe that I was going to do a story about Alexess.
 
All that while, little did they know that they were truly inspiring me, just by being comfortable in their own skin. Thank you Alexess, at fifteen you already have it down. Julie, you should be proud of the daughter you have raised.


Photo By Lydia Gonzales
Alexess (front, center) in her quincinera costume as her mom, Julie, looks on in the background.