Drought Aid in California to Evaporate – Spring is coming, and with it, California’s rainy season will end. For the fourth consecutive year, the rains have been scarce, and the drought continues. The first to be affected by the lack of water are farm workers. Governor Jerry Brown announced last year a packet of aid that gave millions of dollars to help those affected by the drought with food and rental assistance. It’s estimated that thousands of families have benefited, but many still need help, and the funds are about to disappear. Our reporter Juan Santiago has more from Madera, California, one of the counties most affected by the drought.
Intense Debate in San Francisco About Violence in Mexico – The recent forced disappearance of 43 college students in Ayotzinapa in the state of Guerrero, at the hands of Mexican police forces, has sparked months of unprecedented mass protests inside and outside of Mexico. To analyze this crisis, which deeply impacts Mexican families in the United States, Radio Bilingüe organized a public forum in San Francisco, California, which brought together students, teachers, human rights organizers, local activists, and the Consul of Mexico in San Francisco. The main guest was renowned Mexican poet and activist Homero Aridjis, joined by a group of Latino thinkers and artists who call themselves “Los MacArturos”, after having received the prestigious MacArthur fellowship. Our correspondent Rubén Tapia prepared a report with voices from the forum.
Goodbye to King Tiger – One of the great pioneers of the Chicano Movement, Reies Lopez Tijerina, has passed away. Son of cotton sharecroppers and known as “King Tiger,” Tijerina founded the Alianza Federal de los Pueblos Libres or Federal Alliance of Free Peoples, in New Mexico. Using deeds from the times of the Spanish colony, the Alianza demanded restitution of the lands of the Southwest to the families of Mexican and Native-American people that had originally lived on and worked them. A few years ago, our news director Samuel Orozco spoke with another leader of the movement in the sixties, José Ángel Gutiérrez, who is also the translator of Tijerina’s memories, about the episode for which the deceased leader is best known: the armed assault on the Rio Arriba County Courthouse in Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico.
