The Sacramento Movimiento Chicano and Mexican American Education 
Oral History Project


Name of Interviewee: Teresita Romo
Name of Interviewer: Alondra Cruz
Date of Interview: 22 May 2015 

Name of Transcriber: Destiny Carrasco 
Date of Transcription: 15 February 2020

BEGIN TRANSCRIPTION
[00:00:03]
Well first of all I wanted to start with, “what is your full name?”
Teresita: It’s Teresita Romo.
Alondra: When where you born, like what day? 
Teresita: November 15th 1952.
Alondra: What is your marital status?
Teresita: Single.
Alondra: So, you don’t have any children? 
Teresita: No, but I raised two [laughs]. 
Alondra: Where were you born and raised?
Teresita: Guadalajara, Jalisco. 
Alondra: Were you also raised in Guadalajara?
Teresita: No, we came to the United States when I was about three, so I basically grew up here,  in Sacramento. 
Alondra: What did your parents do for a living?
Teresita: My dad, when he first got here, worked a little bit as a farm worker but then he got a job at the Saint Mary’s cemetery doing maintenance and so he did that most of his life. And then my mom was, she stayed home with the nine of us.
Alondra: So you had nine brothers and sisters? 
Teresita: Yeah, I have six sisters and I had two brothers. One passed away when he was 17.
Alondra: Oh, can you please describe your experiences as a child and your youth, and like your family and your neighborhood?
Teresita: Well we moved around a lot because every time there were more kids, [laughs] it was harder to stay. And then we were also in the neighborhood around 4th and T. Then when the freeway went through there, we were displaced. Finally, ended up living on T street, which was our home for most of my growing up period. Before that I always remember being in neighborhoods where the extended family, like my grandparents, were always around the corner. My aunts and uncles moved close by. We had relatives that were either related through either through compadres [godfather of one’s child] or they were actually related to us 
[00:02:03]
somehow as cousins, so I always remember being able to go to different people’s houses and within walking distance, which was really nice. That all changed when we moved to T street cuz we were the only Mexican family in that area. So, that was kind of interesting growing up in that area. And I was, I did find out later from the neighbors, that when they heard that we were moving in, [laughs] they were concerned because it was a big family. They thought we were gonna make a lot of noise and you know cause a lot of problems. But they were always happy. And I always made a point of saying that, you know, we were very well behaved and that they liked having us as neighbors. 
Alondra: You said that you had like nine siblings, how did that affect you? Cuz like a big family, like did they make you more outgoing or because it is obviously a lot of children, so like you had to like make your voice stand out. So how did that shape you in a way?
Teresita: Well, I was the oldest, so a lot of times I got. Sometimes my mom, especially when um my dad was working. He was, I remember he was working at an office, cleaning offices, so she would go with him, and then I would stay with the kids. So I think, you know, a lot of responsibility. I mean to me I never felt like it was a lot because like I said other, we were, always close to other families that had more kids as well. So, it didn’t seem like a big deal at the time. 
Alondra: Were you ever involved in the Felos, Felitos, or in the Mexican American Education Project? 
Teresita: No, but I knew José Montoya who was involved in it. That’s where I heard a lot about it. And then later on, I did actually work for a time period, with the Cross-Cultural Resource Center. I knew from Steve Arvizú who ran that, that he was a Felito as well. 
[00:03:56]
Alondra: Do you know anything about the mission of the project, I know you were not involved, but you said you knew people? 
Teresita: I think from what I got from José and Steve, was that it was really like a leadership development program. A way to bring together other Mexicans American persons in different educational fields to form like a cohort, to be able to learn from each other and then do projects and things together that would develop them and help them in future careers.
Alondra: Do you think this was like helpful to, get Chicanos out there and like you said that it was like an educational program. Do you think this gave them a sense of leadership and make them know that   people do value them? 
Teresita: I think it did that because it. My understanding was that you were chosen to be in it. So there’s that feeling of belonging to something that was special. And then also the fact that there were different people from different sectors in it. Even though I think there was a strong education focus in it and to learn from each other but I think also to feel like they weren’t alone, that they could talk to each other. That if there were things going on, especially during that time period cuz it’s the beginning of the Chicano movement. It was a time period where you kind of look to each other to see what else was being done, who else was doing things and learning from each other and feeling like there was a sense of belonging. So I think it really did develop that. And I know that a lot of them kept in contact even after the program. You know feeling like   even though the cohort was over, that they still belonged to this Felitos. Program and I know José and Steve both talked about it, about being very proud that they were a part of it. 
Alondra: Did your study of cultural anthropology or your knowledge of cultural issues influence your belonging in the Movimiento Chicano [Chicano movement]?
[00:06:02]  
Teresita: I didn’t study cultural anthropology [laughs] so, no. I actually began looking, when I started my college career, I was really looking at history and psychology. When I came back to,   because I went to school in San Francisco and I did my BA there. When I came back, I was going to do social work. Until I discovered, the La Raza bookstore and the RCAF and then that sort of got sidelined [laughs]. So, I didn’t really do a lot of cultural anthropology, I was really more on a track of social work when I started at Sac State. 
Alondra: Did your social work influence like your involvement in the Movimiento Chicano [Chicano movement]?
Teresita: No, I think the influence actually came when I was. I went to USF, and I think at that time it was the beginning of the UFW movement. So, one of our professors said that as part of the class we had to do volunteer work and he didn’t care who we did the volunteer work with. So, I actually went and volunteered for the UFW office there in San Francisco. And I think that’s what really made me, gave me much more exposure. And cuz I knew about it, I mean I knew about the civil rights movement, about Martin Luther King and what was happening in terms of the African American civil rights movement, but then being able to be more exposed to what it meant to be a part of a Chicano movement. And that’s where I learned more about not only, César Chávez, and what he was trying to do, but also, Tijerina, in New Mexico, Gutiérrez, in Texas. It was as more, just learning more. At the time I think we were, because it was a college course, and because of the fact that this professor who was a Chicano as well exposed us to more literature than we were finding out about. 
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What could we read? Not only in history but also poetry and literature. So, I think that really helped to kind of open up my perception of the Chicano movement, being yes it was very political and social economic, but also literary. But there was this renaissance going on in terms of the arts and that there were poets and there were writers and there were visual artists, performers, Teatro Campesino [theatre] was one of those examples of coming out of the UFW movement, but using the art to be like an organizing tool but not losing sight of the fact that he also wanted it to be artistic. I think that’s what really opened it up for me in terms of my perspective on the Chicano movement. 
Alondra: Do you know of any specific memories of events that attracted you to Movimiento Chicano [Chicano movement] specifically? 
Teresita: Specific events…[pause] I think for me it was going to the boycotts and joining people there. You know especially Safeway, and even now I still don’t go to Safeway, just because I can’t [laughs]. I think for me that was one of the biggest events because it was not only being there with a lot of other people, but also knowing that we were doing something that had ramifications because you know if the boycotts succeeded, then it was going to be able to bring about these major changes. Not only for the farm workers in California but it was really about a national movement as well, for farm workers across the Southwest. So, I think part of that really for me made it not only just attending and doing a small piece but being event but being a part of something bigger. 
Alondra: Do you think the fact that your father was a farm worker influenced you to get more in the Movimiento Chicano [Chicano Movement], especially the UFW, the union for…. 
Teresita: I think at the time, I didn’t really make that connection cuz
[00:10:02]
 he had already been at the cemetery for so long. It was really more about, like I said here was a Chicano professor telling us that there was this movement going on and to be offering us, the opportunity to be part of it and for me hearing about what the farm workers were trying to do. I felt that, I could you know make a contribution that way. 
Alondra: You probably heard the term Chicano used like a lot in Movimiento Chicano [Chicano Movement]. How you think other Mexican Americans and Latinos reacted to the term “Chicano”? 
Teresita: Well, I don’t remember my parents having any problem with it. To me, I think and I don’t know if I haven’t really talked about to any other parents about it. But for me I think they saw it as an extension of being Mexican. Because for us I mean the way we grew up, it was very Mexican, you know we went to church, we went to the tardeadas [gatherings]. I mean there, we spoke Spanish at home. The only music we heard in the house that we didn’t bring in was you know mariachi music or norteño music because that’s what my dad liked. So in a way, when we started being, and when I say we, it was because my sisters as well got involved about the same time I did. They saw it as an extension because I’ll give you an example. When I got to Sac State I was able to meet a woman who was on the student senate, Chris Cervantes, and so she told me about you know there was money, they wanted to do cultural events, but they just needed somebody to present the idea about what it could be. So, at the time that’s when, uh, Daniel Váldez was you know, he was having a lot of touring and he had just put out that album Mestizo which was, you know, everybody was playing it. So, I wrote a grant to the student senate and asked for some money to do it, and they said yes. 
[00:12:03]
So we brought the- group Danny Váldez and the group to Sac State for I think it was the dieciseis de septiembre [September 16th], septiembre [September] or Cinco De mayo, I don’t remember which one it was. So afterwards they needed a place to stay, so I brought them over to the house [laughs] and I told my parents they need a place to stay and you know where can they. I was surprised that they said yes, you know that they could stay there. My mother cooked food for them they had a chance to talk and, so I think for them it wasn’t here’s a Chicano event and here is a Chicano performer coming to stay at our house the group and meeting the group. I think they saw it as, oh, this is Daniel Váldez, he singing in Spanish, he’s singing about things that relate. So they didn’t really see that something, negative. But I don’t know if other families probably thought well why are you calling yourself a Chicano and why are you cuz I have heard other people in the past, have said why do you not want to say you are Mexican. You know why do you have to make up another term? So, then it’s a process of letting them know. It’s more politicized term and why it was important to do that, but I think in my family, it wasn’t such an issue. 
Alondra: At that time, have you heard about the civil rights movement, like during that time?
Teresita: Yeah. Yes, Martin Luther King and like I said the, you know what was going on in terms of the South, voting rights, and all of that. And I think for me because I did go to college in San Francisco, which there was students from all different kinds of cultures there. Because of the Chicano movement I actually started hanging around more with African Americans and Latino’s and less so with whites because I felt more of an affinity and I think because San Francisco and I don’t know how much 
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you know about. There were Third World Liberation Fronts, strikes that happened at Berkley and San Francisco State, so I think there was already a history by the time I got there because those were in ‘68 and ’69. That students from different cultures related much more about what were the affinities between the struggles as opposed to, I’m just going to be a Chicano and I’m only going to care about Chicano things, it was really more about strength in numbers and understanding that if we could all work together then we could all accomplish something bigger. So, I think for me it was it was really more about that. 
Alondra: Do you think that your involvement in the Movimiento Chicano [Chicano Movement] changed you personally? 
Teresita: Oh, I always talk about how I’m a product of the Chicano movement [laughs]. Yeah, because I really do see where I am now is a direct relationship, because like I said when I got to Sac State, and I met people form La Raza bookstore because I was interested in the arts already in terms of literature, and writing and history. For me it was this great opportunity, here’s a bookstore that has all these books and, you know, the main idea was to get the literature out to the people to have a center where if I wanted to learn more about Chicano history or I wanted to read another Chicano poets’ work, I could go there and actually see an array of the work. It was volunteer-run, the persons who were, who I met at the time, Philip Santos, who was one of the founders, along with, I met Louie González, Louie “the-foot”, I met Gilbert Gamino, I met Peter Hernández, who was also another one for the founders. So, for me it was like here’s a group of people who are very dedicated and committed to 
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doing this very, like I said, it was all volunteer run. But they felt it was important so I felt like I could contribute and the good thing was that I think they were open to having someone come in with a certain sets of ideas about how to do things maybe differently. I think they welcomed it so, you know like setting up files for the invoices [laughs] and the bills and you know some things that for me was like basic, but for them because they were doing all these other things, it was, it wasn’t a priority so, eventually, I did become the director. And then when we did have an opportunity, because the bookstore was located in a very small little space, and then at a certain point the space next store which had been run by this older Chicano couple, it was a dry cleaning business. They decided they were going to retire, and so we contacted the landlord and said you know, “can we take over the space?” and he said yes. Gave it to us for 100 dollars a month [laughs] which was, for us was a lot of money cuz you know we were paying 65 in the other space, but it offered us the opportunity to expand. And so then that’s when I talked to Philip Santos who was still the director at the time and I asked him if I could start a gallery because by that time I had met all the other RCAF artists, I had seen the work, they were doing this great output of posters, prints and paintings and then they couldn’t show them anywhere because none of the galleries were interested in Chicano art, the museums less so. So, I asked Phillip so can we start a gallery because it seemed to me it was like a natural extension of here’s all these art books, and poets and writers, now we need the visual arts component of it. And so, he said yes, if you can find the money, because the reality was like I said none of us were getting paid
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neither was he. So, you know to take on an extra responsibility, it needed more funding. And at the time we were lucky that the California arts council had become an entity that was going to regrant funds, so I put together my first proposal, I didn’t really know how to write a proposal [laughs] but I figured, you know I answered the questions the best I could. We got the grant, so I was very happy. It was 8,000 dollars but that was a lot of money for us and so we started the gallery. And we ended up calling it “Galería Posada” after José Guadalupe Posada who had been this great Mexican print maker and who had been also big influence on the RCAF artists and other poster makers. So, we felt it was a good way to honor him and also pay tribute to the influence he had on you know the artists as well. So I think if it hadn’t been for the Chicano movement, I wouldn’t have gotten to that point and then that’s when I got interested in curating, putting shows together, writing about Chicano art, looking at different aspects of it, looking at other artists outside of Sacramento, bringing in artists from other parts of California so that the artists here could see what other artists were doing and then taking our art to other places as well. We set up a collaboration with “Galería La Raza” in San Francisco so we can take shows and you know, take our shows there and they could send shows to us. So it was a nice relationship that then led to, participating in the Concilio De Arte Popular which was coalition of all the different cultural centers in the state, so then now we were able to take shows to San Diego, to the Central Cultural de la Raza, to Self Help Graphics and it really opened up bigger world about what were the similarities of the art that we were doing here, what kind of art work was being done, you know, in other places. 
[00:20:03]
And then, wanting to write more about it and put it in a historical perspective within the mainstream artworld so that eventually now, I think,  I’m more interested in figuring out how Chicano art can be positioned within American art because we’re all here in the United States and to amplify the idea of what American art is and be able to then show that we have as much right and that our aesthetics is just as valuable and that our artists can have something to say and it can still be considered art. So, I definitely see it as there’s a direct connection there.  
Alondra: What role do you believe Chicanas played in the movement? 
Teresita: Well I’ve talked a lot about and I’ve written articles about Chicana artists and their art because I really feel that a lot of times, and I’m not going to say all the artists, but there were certain male artists who didn’t think Chicanas could do Chicano art because it was, sometimes they thought it was too, it wasn’t political enough, that it was maybe too religious especially like some of the artists that started doing ofrendas [alters] or they would do art about you know the home, and that it wasn’t considered Chicano because it wasn’t so political and I think that was sometimes used as a way to exclude it. And also to not have it not be considered, but I think they were really not understanding how important it was to have that perspective and I think what the Chicana artists did and I think especially the early ones like, Carmen Lomas Garza who grew up in Texas, but I met her when she came to Galería La Raza, and was an artist there. Patssi Váldez in LA who was with you know Asco which was this 
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crazy group of high school students she was you know the only women in the group, and   Yolanda López you know who has done some of the most iconic pieces in terms if Chicano art. She’s the one that did the one about you know where the, the Aztec and it says “who’s the illegal alien pilgrim?” Right, which a lot of people recognized now. But didn’t know it was actually a Chicana who made that piece, Ester Hernández from Dinuba who did the Sun Mad poster, so all of these artists from that time period I think some of them maybe did more things that were more political like, Ester and Yolanda, but then when you like at Carmen Lomas Garza’s work, it’s these, it’s almost like these little narratives, these stories and it’s all stories about her growing up in South Texas, in Kingsville, and trying to hold on to the, the more positive memories because of just the overt racism and just what she had to go through and, and a lot of the Chicanos who still live there go through because it’s a very racists place and there was a situation where she felt I need to be able to show the positive things that are in the culture and the things that I grew up with that I know made me who I am and that will give others a sense of pride and also that you can relate to. So, she had this great painting of a Tamalada, she has another one, where the family is out on the porch and you can tell it’s almost night fall and they’re all sitting around and the grandmothers cutting the watermelon cuz, its very hot and humid in South Texas. So those kinds of images for her was a way of reaffirming, the fact that these are experiences that we, all of us share somehow even if we didn’t grow up in Texas, but to be able to say this is important for us to remember this because this is a form of resistance as well
[00:24:03]
to be able to show the positive aspects as well as to be able to say you know, yes you can think   you have a right to call me illegal or whatever but you came over on the May Flower so what’s the big difference, right? For her it was that important to do both of those things and I think sometimes that gets lost in terms of looking at Chicano art. 
Alondra: Did you personally help initiate or initiated in this Chicano Movement? 
Teresita: I’m sorry I didn’t hear the first part?
Alondra: What did you personally initiate or help initiated in the Chicano movement?
Teresita: Well, the Galería Posada for sure. I’m just trying to think. I know that I worked with a lot of people, I’m not going to say I initiated myself but I think when we were part of the RCAF, looking at some of the exhibitions we did at the Galería in terms of curating I wrote a book on Malaquías Montoya which I’m really proud of because I think he represents a lot of the work that I’ve been talking about. Then also I know when we had the cultural affairs committee, I worked with a lot of great people, like Rosemary Rasul, David Rasul, a lot of the artist, Gina Montoya to begin a whole series of cultural events that hadn’t been done before. Including Día Del Los Muertos [Day of the dead] which also Armando Cid had been a key initiator of that and then also we did Fiesta de Colores, we did Fiesta de Maíz, which a lot of communities are now doing up and down the state. So being part of that group
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I’m still very proud of that because like I said you could still see there’s persons in other places that have come in and taken it over as well. 
Alondra: What significance do you think these groups and organizations you were part of helped, what played in Movimiento Chicano [Chicano Movement]? 
Teresita: For me the biggest role has been the RCAF because it grew out of just being mostly visual artists because it was the Rebel Chicano Art Front. It started here in Sacramento and so it was something that we could be proud of. It was also something that started on a university campus at Sac State. And then it grew so it became a group that also had writers, poets, scholars, it had organizers. I mean Joe Serna who became the mayor twice here in Sacramento was a part of that. So there was also organizing, working to help the UFW as well, but I think what was really good about it was that because it was so inclusive, it really was a model in some ways that a lot of people then looked at. So I think there are some places internationally that know about the RCAF, they may know only a certain component of it, they may know the visual artists, or they may know that there were literary people in it: José Montoya, cuz he did both. He was an artist and he was a poet and he always referred to himself as an RCAF artist so I think there’s a lot of institutions that know about it. Like I said, even nationally and internationally that I feel like that was an important part of the movement because I think it took it from being very local and then also gave a lot of the Chicano art
[00:28:03]
much more emphasis internationally. And the interesting part of it was that because a lot of people knew about it, they were invited to a lot of Floricantos (cultural art events), they had exhibitions in other cities. So, I think it was really important to also as a way to influence other artists to be able to think about themselves as we can come together and be part of a group and work together and do different things rather than just being in our studio and do art but and I can’t talk to the poets or writers because I’m a visual artist. That you really could come together and do something much bigger that not wasn’t just artistic but also it could be political it could be organizing, it could actually get people elected and be part of the UFW. So, it made it a lot more feasible for others to look at that as a model.
Alondra: How did the Movmiento Chicano raise your consciousness of social, cultural, and political lines?
Teresita: Well, I think that it by itself it didn’t do that. I think in conjunction with all the other movements, it’s changed American history. I mean I don’t think that you could look at now with the legislature that we have with all the different Latino elected officials. The fact that you have Obama as president, I mean Latinos had a big part in doing that and I don’t think it would have happened without the Chicano movement because Chicano movement had all these layers. So, there was the cultural, the social, and the political, and so I think all of that together changed the course of American History. I don’t think we’re through yet, [laughs] but even though I think it’s still very hard right now to look at how that’s going to play out because we’re still
[00:30:03]
even with an African American president, it’s still very racist out here and you can see it in terms in just the way you know who are the ones who are in the prisons? It’s mostly Latinos and African Americans. Who are the ones that are not graduating from high school? Who are the ones that are always getting sent home for suspensions and all of those different aspects? I mean who’s getting killed out in the streets? Gangs and killing each other along with the police are killing us. So, I think it’s still part of a lot of work that still needs to be done. But I don’t think we can ever go back to the way it was in terms of people thinking that somehow or another we’re going to go away or be invisible or be put back in our place. I don’t think that’s gonna happen. So in some ways its really more about how we can go forward to look at how we can work together and I think as Chicanos we’re starting to find that out, that we can try to do things by ourselves but that its not’s gonna work and we really need to look to how we can work together to do things that are going to not only help us but help everyone else as well. 
Alondra: How did these changes impact your personal relationships with your families, your peers, or your significant others? 
Teresita: I think, I mean I feel like it expanded my family. So I now, I have friends who are a part of my family. I think for me, like all of the members of the RCAF became part of a family. It was like my second family. I still consider them that way so I think for me it just expanded   my relationships with other people in a much more deeper way. 
[00:32:03]
Alondra: Can you please describe some of the impacts that the Movimiento Chicano, like your involvement in the Movimiento Chicano like shaped your career or your career choice?
Teresita: Well as I mentioned earlier it really did put me on a track to be a curator and a writer so I can write about our history. And then I think also it helped me to understand arts in culture in a way that helped me to get a job actually giving money to arts organizations and then being able to help the organizations, Chicano organizations get more funding. So now I work at a foundation and I oversee all of the funding. It’s the San Francisco Foundation and we’re a community foundation so we get funding. And then we give it back out to the community. So, the portion I do is arts and culture and I’m lucky because now that foundation has had a director and a new director that both believe in social justice and equity. It’s allowed me to look at, “okay how can I get these funds that I have to organizations of color especially to organizations, Latino organizations, Chicano organizations to do their work so I can help La Galería La Raza.” I can help La Peña, those organizations to get stronger and they’ve been but they been there forever but always struggling. So, in a way having gone through this and understanding the importance of support and resources I can help those organizations get not only more funding but some technical assistance so they can get stronger so that hopefully the communities won’t lose out because these organizations at some point don’t have enough resources to keep serving the community. 
Alondra: Looking back at your experiences from the Movimiento Chicano [Chicano Movement], are there any issues that were left unsolved, that you believe are still there? 
[00:34:03]
Teresita: Like I said earlier it’s still developing, I still think we have a lot to do. I think we’re still trying to figure out how do we make sure that our culture doesn’t get lost and that we’re still fighting. I mean what happened in Arizona where they wiped out the ethnic studies and Chicano studies and we can’t read the books about our history. I mean it’s like thinking that you know we   that somehow or another all the problems were solved, it’s not right and I think we still have to be cognizant of the fact that we’re still dealing with a lot of these issues. As Chicanos, I mean like I said how do we deal with the education issues, and prison issues and I mean all of that is still unresolved because that was the dream, was that somehow or another we would be able to not only have political power, but also not have to be in poverty and not have to be in the same situations that farm workers have now, even with the union. I mean I was reading a story last week about, you know, whole families in Tulare County who don’t even have water. I mean   this is like 2015, how many years after the Chicano movement and yet, those families are yet still in some ways, same situation that we were trying to deal with. So there’s still issues that still have to be resolved but you know it’s not all I don’t think it’s all negative because we can also look through the successes of having more representation having more scholars and professors and people in positions of power. But I don’t think we‘ve met our goals yet. 
[00:36:00]
Alondra: Many Movimiento Chicano [Chicano movement] activists have passed on, can you like identify any individual or individuals that you feel has shaped your impact on the Movimiento Chicano [Chicano Movement] and like their significance?
Teresita: Some of the ones I mentioned earlier Tijerina, all the work he did in New Mexico   Gutiérrez, José Angel, starting La Raza, the Raza party. I mean all of these people did something, it seemed really outlandish at the time. You know like taking on the government, saying you know these land grants were ours saying and you have no rights to this and being able to do that legally. Then of course César Chávez, what he was able to accomplish is amazing. I mean to organize farm workers, I mean I still don’t know how that happened [laughs]. I’m glad it did but I mean it’s really amazing when you think about it. Some of the artists that we’ve lost, José Montoya who was a big influence in terms of being part of the RCAF and getting to know him and his work. We lost Gilbert Luján, we lost in Los Angeles “Magu,” who was an amazing artist as well. Carlos Córtez an artist in Chicago who was a print maker, I mean he lived a long life and he actually was one of those conscientious objectors during the Vietnam war and got put in prison. I think there’s a lot of people I think I look to and I still get inspired by. 
Alondra: What do you see our current or future challenges for the Chicano community and how do you see yourself staying involved and trying to defeat these challenges? You mentioned Tulare doesn’t have water and the you mentioned Chicano’s still live in poverty. 
[00:38:03]
Alondra: So do you feel you can stay involved in trying to do something or change?  
Teresita: I think part of it is like I said working at a community foundation trying to help those organizations that are working with the communities and then also within the arts, also arts education because I think a lot of times people don’t understand how important arts education is. But arts education that’s culturally relevant. So, having Chicanos that can go to school and have classes and Mariachi or different kinds of music so it’s not just European music, that they get to be exposed to all these different artists that I just talked about and not just Picasso and mostly Western European artists and that they can have a sense of their culture being important and that that is something worthy of being not only expressed in terms of what they know about it but also that other people get exposed to it and understand how important it is and be able to use it as a bridge to other cultures as well. I think that that would help a lot in terms of the education system which, for me is the key to the whole thing is that if we don’t have an investment in the future, then that to me is the biggest challenge because you can’t keep this pipeline of school to prison. It’s really one of the biggest challenges that we have. Right now when you think about, especially California, we’re already where the rest of the country is going in terms of the demographics and the Latinos are the biggest population here and in Texas, Arizona and in New Mexico, the Southwest. But if we can’t get the education system down then,   
[00:40:03]
I don’t see how we’re going to be able to make a better society, if we don’t deal with that. And I think the arts are a part of that because I do believe the arts is really what makes us human. Because animals don’t have art. I mean humans are the ones that can express themselves, and I think if we don’t get it right, it’s because we don’t see how the arts can really be a way to bridge that and have people talk about the arts within, because those are also a part of our culture. So, if we can’t do that then we’re always going to be thinking that other people do the arts and other people have value that we don’t have and that our culture doesn’t have value. And if we don’t make those connections, then the kids who go to the schools and learn just Western European History or somebody else’s culture are always going to be feeling like there left out that they don’t belong that they don’t have a place here, that they’re not smart enough, that they can’t really be who they are, and be successful. So for me, that’s gotta be one of the biggest challenges is how do we make that shift so that then all of the Chicano, Latino kids, African American kids, Asian kids can feel like, this is exactly where they belong and they have a place here. 
Alondra: Thank you so much for your time. 
Terestita: You’re welcome. 
[00:41:26]
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