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"El Magonista" | Vol. 8 No. 44 | Dec. 17, 2020

Commemorating 10 years of work by the

California-Mexico Studies Center

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The CMSC is celebrating our 10th year anniversary and the

first Advance Parole application approved for our Winter
2020 California-Mexico Dreamers Study Abroad Program
The California-Mexico Studies Center (CMSC) celebrates this month
our 10th year anniversary as an educational and cultural 501(c)(3) non-
profit organization, whose mission is to research, develop, promote, and
establish policies and programs between higher education institutions
and cultural organizations, to enhance the teaching, mobility and
exchange of faculty, students, and professionals between California and
the U.S. with Mexico and other nations in the Western Hemisphere.

The CMSC was established by California State University Long Beach

(CSULB) Professor Armando Vazquez-Ramos in December 2010, as
an extension of the California-Mexico Project that he founded in 1998
at the CSULB Chicano and Latino Studies department.

During the last 10 years, the CMSC has hosted numerous international
seminars, conferences, and binational educational programs focusing
on Chicano Studies, the Mexican Diaspora, Ethnic Studies, immigration,
cultural and educational exchange between California and Mexico.

However, the project that defines our legacy the most as a pro-
immigrant, pro-education binational organization is the creation
and implementation of our California-Mexico Dreamers Study
Abroad Program, which has given the opportunity to study in
Mexico to over 160 DACA recipients through 6 different travel-
study classes, and returned ALL of them legally to the U.S. through
DACA’s Advance Parole provision.
In 2014, Prof. Armando Vazquez-Ramos took the first two DACA
students to Mexico as part of a CSULB Chicano Studies study abroad
class. After their successful return to the US, he then created an all-
DACA students pilot class in Spring of 2015, which later became the
precedent-setting model for our Dreamers Study Abroad Program. This
led to 5 additional travel-study classes from 2015 to the Summer of
2017, until the Trump Administration rescinded the DACA program and
its Advance Parole provision on September 5, 2017.

Ever since, during the past 3.5 years, the CMSC has been the only
organization fully dedicated to the restoration of DACA's Advance
Parole at the national level. In 2019 alone, the CMSC took a total of 90
DACA recipients, allies, and Dreamer moms from across the United
States to Washington, D.C. during 3 trips in January, June, and
November to defend and advocate for the restoration of DACA’s
Advance Parole.
Culminating today, we also celebrate the approval of the first of 85
Advance Parole applications for our Winter 2020 California-Mexico
Dreamers Study Abroad Program participants.

However, since the year is coming to an end we still need to seek

approval for the Advance Parole applications for all 85 participants.
Please consider donating to the CMSC in recognition of our 10th year
anniversary, our 3-year Campaign to Restore DACA’s Advance
Parole and to support our Winter 2020 program !

Your support matters, and makes a difference!

The CMSC launched a new fund drive initiative until December 31,
2020 to solicit sponsors and grants in support of the Winter 2020
California-Mexico Dreamers Study Abroad Program.

We need to raise about $50,000 to cover the increased costs of the

program and ensure the safety of all participants while traveling in
Mexico during the pandemic. The additional costs are related to
increased expenses due to doubling the cost for single-room hotel
accommodations and all transportation costs due to social-distancing,
COVID-19 pre- and post-testing, and 24/7 medical attention and
prevention protocols.

Thus, we urge our community, Dreamers’ supporters, corporate

and business sponsors, community and church groups, and
academic colleagues to help us raise $50,000 by the end of the year
with donations of any amount, or by sponsoring at least one
Dreamer participant at $500 each.

MAKE YOUR TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATION TODAY!

ADVANCE PAROLE VOICES

Please watch the following videos from our Advance Parole

Voices series, featuring current participants of our Winter 2020
California-Mexico Dreamers Study Abroad Program.
Please share these videos and donate to our Winter 2020 California-
Mexico Dreamers Study Abroad Program Fund Drive Initiative.

LATEST NEWS

COVID infects Latinos at more than double

the rate of others (Los Angeles Times)
Latino residents are bearing the brunt of an
unprecedented surge in coronavirus infections,
underscoring the racial and economic inequities the
pandemic has had in California, and particularly in Los
Angeles County... Read More
Biden should nominate Eloy Ortiz Oakley to
lead the Education Department (Cal Matters)
President-elect Joe Biden won the election with the most
ambitious education agenda in the modern era.
From tripling Title 1 funding for low-income schools
to eliminating tuition for most families, his plans will need
an Education Secretary with the savvy to match the
boldness of the agenda... Read More

DACA program for immigrants could end in

Houston court case (ABC13 Houston)
A federal court on Tuesday will consider whether to
invalidate a program that shields from deportation
immigrants brought to the United States as children,
potentially creating complications for the incoming
administration of President-elect Joe Biden...
Read More

Illusion of Justice: the case of Leonard

Peltier, a Native American Political Prisoner
for 44 Years (CMSC)
Native American activist Leonard Peltier has served 44
years in Federal Prison. In the 1977 trial, which was
almost universally recognized as controversial, he was
given two consecutive life sentences for the murder of
two FBI agents (Ronald A. Williams and Jack R. Coler).
The verdict was related to the June 26, 1975 shoot out
at the Pine Ridge Reservation... Read More
Latino groups push for former NEA president
Lily Eskelsen Garcia as Education Secretary
(Inside Higher Ed)
More than 40 Hispanic civil rights and policy groups,
including the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute,
are urging President-elect Biden to pick a former
National Education Association president, Lily Eskelsen
García, as education secretary... Read More

What Americans don’t know about Latino

history could fill a museum (LA Times)
On Thursday, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) blocked a
bipartisan congressional effort to establish a new
Smithsonian National Museum of the American Latino,
declaring that “the last thing we need is to further divide
an already divided nation with an array of segregated,
separate-but-equal museums... Read More

SDSU and Mexico Education agencies sign

pact for future collaboration (SDSU Alumni)
San Diego State University has entered into an
agreement with the government of Mexico that paves the
way for the expansion of binational cooperation across a
wide range of initiatives that will serve as a framework
for future collaborations in research, academic and
educational activities... Read More
 L.A. Times Letters to the Editor regarding
‘Latinx’: sounds inauthentic, what’s wrong
with being Mexican? (LA Times)
While I am skeptical of the “Latinx,” I believe Francis-
Fallon’s article is important because it contributes to the
discussion about “what we call ourselves” and,
inevitably, what others call us... Read More

The CMSC is in dire need of funding support !!!

Please support the CMSC's 2020 projects, initiatives, and campaigns,

including our advocacy to provide and facilitate our Winter 2020 Dreamers
Study Abroad Program and our National Campaign to Restore DACA's Advance
Parole.

DONATE TO SUPPORT THE CMSC

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Copyright © The California-Mexico Studies Center, All rights reserved.

The California-Mexico Studies Center, Inc.

Prof. Armando Vazquez-Ramos, President & CEO
1551 N. Studebaker Road, Long Beach, CA 90815
Office: (562) 430-5541 – Cell: (562) 972-0986
californiamexicocenter@gmail.com
www.california-mexicocenter.org

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