One of the original founders of Earth Day, along with Senator Gaylord Nelson, is a native of New Mexico and long time activist in Albuquerque. That would be the guy in the brown beret in this photo which graced the cover of Life Magazine so many years ago. His name is Arturo Sandoval and he runs a non profit group in Albuquerque called the Center for Southwest Culture.
Arturo is currently organizing and setting up business operations for small organic farms through out New Mexico. The farms are employing people in areas with high unemployment and they are making use of good arable land that has gone fallow.
2 comments:
That wasn't just any brown beret, either.
We've forgotten, became buffoonishly ignorant and docile but one day soon young New Mexicans will rediscover great leaders in their past like Mr Sandoval who actually have done something to lift 'Hispanic' and indeed all New Mexicans up in this state, unlike these so called leaders walking around in suits now who tell themselves they are worthwhile when they make rich people richer by giving them a pass from chipping in for the support of the schools and colleges and other things needed to keep New Mexico from swirling into the drain pipe.
There is a department of Hispanic studies at UNM, Highlands and other schools and a fancy institute for Hispanic studies here, and New Mexico's Hispanic heritage is acknowledged and celebrated in many and various ways only because of the protracted struggles of Sandoval and his comrades in the Brown Berets and the legions of young people of their time who they inspired to action.
He preferred the more political and specific term Chicano. This provides a small window into that, and what he's done for New Mexico:
http://www.abqjournal.com/news/metro/251148metro10-30-04.htm
That subject, that term, and the legacy of people like Sandoval are also discussed in "The Contested Homeland: A Chicano History of New Mexico," which should be taught in schools and be required reading to have residency privileges in this state.
Seems like Arturo Sandoval is a person who DOES vs someone always trying to get attention. I admirer someone with those types of values.
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