Category: Stories

Pastor walks 150 miles in the name of immigration

Bishop José Garcia during “El Camino del Inmigrante,” “The Walk of the Immigrant” (Photo/Esteban Garcia)

Bishop José Garcia, 63, just finished walking an average of 12 miles a day, for 11 days straight. Not for exercise, but for the basic rights of immigrants.

“El Camino del Inmigrante,” “The Walk of the Immigrant” in English, was a 150-mile pilgrimage from August 20 – 30, aimed at highlighting the challenges of the current U.S. immigration system, one of them being hunger of immigrants. The walk started in Border Field State Park on the U.S.-Mexico border and ended at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles, with various stops in between.

Garcia, who resides in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., with his wife, is currently the director of church relations at Bread for the World – a non-partisan non-profit organization focused on educating policy makers, and the public, about hunger in the U.S. and abroad. He also serves on the board of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition.

“It’s been very emotional walking with the people and listening to all the different stories and the reasons they are doing the walk,” says Garcia who was accompanied by approximately 120 other walkers. “One of the individuals that I met told me that as they were crossing to come to the U.S., two of the people in their group got sick and were not able to keep the pace, and the coyote told them they had to leave them behind. This person told me they felt miserable, guilty, all these emotions walking away from these two individuals…”

Walk participants placing crosses in the sand. Each cross represents a deceased individual who lost their life crossing the border. (Photo/Johnny Lim)

“I would like to create awareness of the plight of the immigrant and call to attention the political leaders, especially the candidates for the Presidency, for the need of immigration reform here in our country. We are doing this advocacy, because we see the connection between hunger and immigration.”

According to research conducted by the Center for Immigration Studies, nearly 70 percent of Mexican immigrants, and their U.S.-born children, live in poverty. Many immigrant families are farmworkers who are hungry due to low wages; they also often don’t have access to health services, and work in hazardous conditions.

“Immigration reform is more than giving citizenship but dealing with the laws and systems of why people leave their countries to begin with,” continues Garcia. “These men and women are bringing values, morality, their faith, and traditions that will contribute to making this a better country. It’s not only about what they get, but what they give.”

The Christian pastor of more than two decades, says he empathizes with immigrants, because he himself migrated from Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico to the mainland U.S. at age 27. Since the island of Puerto Rico is a commonwealth of the U.S., he did not go through a lot of the legal issues other immigrants do, but some struggles he could relate to, he says.

“[I would receive] a patronizing attitude,” says Garcia, who in addition to studying at a seminary, holds a master’s degree in public health from the University of Puerto Rico and a bachelor’s degree in biology from the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico. “Because I spoke Spanish, I was considered not smart enough. There were also stereotypes about our food.”

While working as a state bishop from 2004-2014 at the Church of God of Prophecy in California, Garcia explains he was like a pastor of the other pastors in his state – making sure that they fulfill their duties.

“Pastors have different issues. Many of them had congregants who were undocumented,” says Garcia. “That’s how I began doing advocacy for them – for immigration reform. Listening to their stories are very moving. One of the things I took for granted is that people live in fear – never knowing if their families are going to be separated. They felt that they couldn’t claim those rights. That’s why I engage in this work of advocacy.”

He says a typical day for him, today, deals with meetings concerning strategies, signing letters, making press statements, representing law makers, trying to engage leaders, and mobilizing people locally.

“My favorite part of my job is being on the field with the people crying for justice who are treated unfairly,” says Garcia. “God requires us to love one another, and the scripture teaches us to care for the stranger, and that for me is an affirmation of the work that I’m doing.”

What piece of life advice would he give his younger self?

“Be informed and engage in justice for those who don’t have a voice.”

August 31, 2016
Nation’s oldest park ranger plays pivotal role in national park

Betty Reid Soskin (Courtesy National Park Service)

At nearly 95, Betty Reid Soskin has lived a remarkable life, but her adventures are not over.

During World War II, when Soskin was 20, she worked as a file clerk for Boilermakers Union A-36, a Jim Crow segregated union. In 1945, she and her first husband, founded Reid Records, a small record store specializing in Gospel music. In the 1960’s she enjoyed writing songs and performing them at college campuses during the Civil Rights Movement. In the late 1970’s she became a community activist and started serving as a field representative for California State Assemblywoman Dion Aroner and Loni Hancock.

It was through this civic work, which led Soskin to become involved in the planning of a park to honor the active role of women during World War II, a role she knew of first-hand. For the past decade, she has been working in that very park – Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park – located in her hometown of Richmond, California.

“I didn’t become a ranger until I was 85,” says Soskin, who is considered the most senior park ranger in the entire U.S. “I think most of what moves me is the park that I’m involved with is part of my living history. I’m a primary source.”

Soskin works five hours a day, five days a week, in the park’s Visitor Center.

“I work at the desk answering phones…On Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, I screen one of our nine films and then do a commentary,” she says. “On Wednesdays and Fridays, I work on writing, answering mail, catching up with my e-mail, and am involved in planning meetings with the rest of the staff.”

She’s proud that she played such an active role in the development of Rosie the Riveter National Park, and gets to continually do so every week.

“I get to add the history of African American women,” says Soskin. “The park wasn’t meant to celebrate that part of history…History that’s not in the history books.”

She says the first people were who were hired to work in the World War II effort were men too old to fight, then single white women, then when that pool was exhausted, they hired married white women, then black men.

Betty, at 20, in 1942. (Photo by Emmanuel F. Joseph)

“Then in 1944-45, they began to train black women to be welders,” recalls Soskin. “I was working in a segregated union hall making 5×5 change of address cards for people who were constantly moving.”

She says her history was very different from that of Rosie the Riveter – a cultural icon representing the American women who worked in factories and shipyards during World War II, many of whom worked in the shipyards and factories making war supplies.

“I get to trace that history for people,” says Soskin, about her work. “It was a case of being involved in one of the most dynamic histories in our time…and I can make it come alive for people.”

Her favorite moment in history took place on January 20, 2009.

“I was a seated guest at the Capitol, and I had a picture of my great grandmother – who had been a slave – in my pocket, and the first black President was being inaugurated. I don’t think she could’ve imagined that happen in the world she lived in. I don’t think she could think that could happen. We are living in such a fast changing world. It’s absolutely unbelievable.”

As far as the current elections and race relations, she says we didn’t come so far in one piece.

“A lot of us got stuck,” says Soskin. “When I was a young woman, my father was a craftsman, and my grandfather was an engineer. We lost in everything in the 1927 floods in New Orleans, and my father lost his status in that world.”

It was not possible for him to be a craftsman in the west coast, so he started working on the railroad – he worked in the sandwich car.

“He was a very proud man, and I think being on that level must have been very, very hard for him,” says Soskin.

She continues to say that she feels that every event in her life was leading to the place she is now.

“I seem to be using everything I’ve ever learned, now, in this context,” says Soskin. “It’s an amazing place in life. I’m still an evolving person, still now. If I were to choose a favorite period, I think it would be the last 10 years.”

During the last 10 years, she’s worn her uniform proudly.

“I enjoy wearing my uniform, because I’ve seen little girls look up at me and wonder,” says Soskin. “It does give the silent message that this could be a career option that they might not have thought of.”

The piece of advice she would have liked to have given her younger self:

“Don’t get hung up on the answers. It’s the questions that lead you through life,” she says. “Answers have always been temporary for me. As I aged, if I found an answer, I knew they would never last – they developed into new questions. No one lifetime can encompass all those answers. That is still where I am.”

July 27, 2016
Sioux chief heads World Peace and Prayer Day

Chief Arvol Looking Horse (Photo: Bridgette Timmerman)

Arvol Looking Horse does not have a computer or access to internet. He is also careful with his spoken words – he has to be, as he is Chief of the Great Sioux Nation and is not allowed to use foul language.

He earned his eagle feather in 1990 by riding on horseback for 191 miles – from Standing Rock Reservation to Wounded Knee – in the middle of winter, for the annual Chief Big Foot Memorial Ride.

“I was chosen by my own people, because I rode with my Big Foot Riders,” says Chief Looking Horse, who rode annually from 1986 through 1990. “We did a ceremony in 1990 – wiping the tears of seven generations.”

Chief Looking Horse resides on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota, a total land area of 4,267 square miles created by the United States government in 1889. It is currently home to approximately 8,500, according to the 2010 Census.

“Since I was 12, I have been the 19th generation keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe – an ancient spirit bundle that was brought to us by a Buffalo Calf Woman,” says Looking Horse, now 63. “We use the sacred pipe in ceremonies. We make treaties with the U.S. government. We use the bible and the sacred pipe.”

He explains that in Sioux culture, each generation is counted by 100 years, and that 19 generations ago, “the great spirit” told them a certain way to live.

“Two scouts were sitting on top of the hill, a woman came to them, carrying a bundle. And one of the scouts looked at her as a woman to take home. When she approached him she said, ‘I know what you’re thinking.’ As he approached her, a cloud enveloped him, and when it lifted, she was a skeleton. She taught how we are supposed to pray and live in peace and harmony. When she left, she went up the hill and changed into four colors, a young buffalo calf, a red buffalo calf, a yellow buffalo calf, and then towards the top she turned white. When people are not living that life anymore, she will return to the earth as a white buffalo calf.”

He says a decade ago, a white buffalo calf was born in Janesville, Wisconsin, signaling turbulent times. According to the National Bison Association, the odds of having a white buffalo are one in millions.

“This was the beginning of big changes with the environment and climate changes,” says Looking Horse. More white animals will be born because man has gone too far. The reason we are having so much sickness is that everything is about money. We are having a hard time bringing that message to the people. The message is that we have to return to a place of prayer.”

On June 21, Chief Looking Horse will be heading the World Peace and Prayer Day – an annual ceremony he founded for all “people of the Earth.”

He asks that everyone go to their own sacred site or place of faith on this day to join together to pray for healing of the world’s sacred waters.

“I pray that our sacred sites can be protected, and that our people can live in peace and harmony, and the water of life can be there for our children,” says Looking Horse. “Right now, the most important thing is the water. Man has gone too far, and now we have to go back to the spiritual way – it’s all about prayer in the end.”

Looking Horse says many changes have occurred for his people over the past 100 years.

“They put our people on the reservations – they were concentration camps,” he says. “There were a lot of massacres. Back in 1890, during the Wounded Knee Massacre in South Dakota, they killed all the buffalo and horses. They killed our spiritual leaders…our people were being wiped out. Children were placed in boarding school. They are the grandfathers today. So a lot of them just speak English, but our language still survives. Today, we are trying to teach our culture and language to our children.”

He explains the Sioux people have three dialects Lakota (spoken in Nebraska), Dakota (spoken primarily in North and South Dakota), and Nakota (spoken in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Canada).

“The year I was born, we had to have a permit to leave our reservations,” he says. “When I was born Indian people could not drink whiskey. There was a sign on a bar that said, ‘No dogs or Indians allowed.’ Now there’s a resolution to allow alcohol on the reservation. To us, that’s bad, because we talk about a good mind. We pray to have a good mind. We have to eat traditional food – like buffalo. Since 1990, we have been praying for the buffalo to return, and clean our body…But today, people are trying to say marijuana is a medicine, but we say ‘no,’ we can’t use marijuana or alcohol in our body.”

The Chief adds that before the American Indian Religious Freedom Act was passed in 1978, his people were not allowed to talk about their spiritual ceremonies in public.

“We would go to jail,” he says. “But today, we are faced with a lot of sickness. We are now trying to protect our water. We use water in ceremonies. The pipeline is trying to go across our lands. We are trying to maintain our environment through ceremony. [At the start of] the four seasons we do ceremonies. In spring, on March 21, we do a welcoming in the Black Hills – they are shaped like a heart – that’s the heart of mother earth. It’s like a heart that is pumping.”

He’s thankful that his people are able to legally pray and conduct their ceremonies for the health of their future generations.

“It’s the corporations we are surrounded by – Monsanto, fracking, they are pushing everything on us. If we are to survive with our children, we have to hold our day of prayer for healing with the water,” says Looking Horse. “Our main source we are trying to protect is the water of life. We have some young people that ran from North Dakota to Omaha to bring the message to engineers. They called it Running for Our Life. Our people used to live along the river, and they put a dam for electricity there and the river got polluted. We are still drinking that water from the mining of the oil companies. We have a lot of sick people on the reservations from the chemicals. Our elders say it’s like a chemical warfare. We used the buffalo to eat, now they give us cows. Milk is not good for us.”

He considers the fact that many are becoming Christian on the reservation positive, because more people are praying.

“We pray together,” says Looking Horse. “Ten or 15 years ago, we were having problems, but now people ask me to go to church to pray in my own language.”

“When I was young, our people lived in a dark time when we couldn’t speak about our culture, now the youth have the opportunity to carry on the wisdom and knowledge of our ancestors – to carry on the teachings to help our future generations…”

June 20, 2016
Inventor auditions for “Shark Tank” soon after heart transplant

Steve Albin auditioning for “Shark Tank” on May 20, 2016.

Steve Albin grew up in the Santa Clara Valley prune orchards in northern California and has lived in nearby Los Altos his entire life. He has always appreciated the little things of his everyday life, and even more so now.

Towards the end of his successful 42-year career as the owner of a custom picture frame shop, his health started to deteriorate, and he mysteriously started losing his muscle strength.

“I’d been going downhill for three years,” says Albin, 73. “I was getting weaker and weaker…I couldn’t walk from the garage to the mailbox. We were going to doctors, and they couldn’t find anything wrong with me. My cardiologist told me I might have a disease called amyloidosis. The only testing that’s done is a biopsy of the heart, and most insurances don’t pay for it, but I was diagnosed and was told I needed to get a heart transplant.”

So, a year and a half ago, Albin went on a waiting list for a new heart. Fortunately, he had to wait only about six months for a heart transplant, and he’s now seven months out of recovery.

“I feel fantastic now,” says Albin. “I’m right back on my program – inventing.”

The grandfather of seven spends much of his time now as an inventor – an occupation which stemmed from his past experiences.

Albin is proud of the myriad jobs he has had since graduating high school – from working in a lumber yard to asphalt work, to bakeries and a paint store.

“It’s good to have all sorts of jobs, because then you know what you don’t want to do in life,” explains Albin. “The paint store had custom picture framing, and I fell in love. It was an occupational instant love. I looked at it like I had at least 25 jobs, and this is one I really enjoy…When you find what you love, you’re very fortunate. Sometimes they don’t pay as well, but you love it.”

The owner of the paint store sent the young Albin to an old framing master who taught him all the various techniques for picture framing. For one year, he’d split his time between working at the paint shop and as a student. Six years later, in 1970, Albin was able to open his own shop, Steve Albin Picture Framing, in a local shopping center.

What he enjoyed most about his profession, he says, was the fine art of mounting on different types of papers so the artwork lasts a lifetime, as well as showing affection towards his customers.

“It’s just a wonderful thing to give wonderful service and make someone happy and comfortable. It’s a good feeling,” says Albin. “It’s so wonderful having an occupation where you can give of your heart and of yourself…When you have a one man shop, customers tend to tell you all sorts of things. You just listen to their opinion. That’s the sign of a true professional – make your customer feel comfortable. Give your best service, that’s your job.”

According to Albin, anybody can put a frame together, and anyone can cut a mat, but the most important aspect of his craft is the design – putting it all together and the mounting.

“You have to know what you’re doing,” he says. “No matter what, it’s priceless to the customer.”

Albin took his craft so seriously that he was one of the founding members of the Professional Picture Framers Association.

“I was appointed the first convention chairman,” says Albin. “It exists today, and I traveled around the U.S. teaching framing, matting, and various different classes.”

During his time traveling to different trade shows with the Association, Albin says he would see different products in the framing business, and he would tell people how to improve their product, and they did.

“As my kids started to go to college, and I needed extra money, I started thinking of my own products such as, Easle Mate and Frame Connector,” says Albin. “In total, I had about eight products that I had patented and manufactured.”

Albin says he started Albin Products 15 to 20 years ago while he had the frame shop. One company ended up buy all eight of his inventions – which are now sold in Michael’s stores across the U.S., and stores worldwide.

Earlier this month, Albin was one of about 450 to pitch his latest invention – the Handy Clamp – to the ABC television series, “Shark Tank.”

“You can use the Handy Clamp when you want to glue something with your finger and thumb…you tighten the clamp so you don’t have to hold the object. You can clamp it to the table,” explains Albin. “The audition was absolutely wonderful…It was very exciting!”

He explains further that everyone gets one to three minutes at a time to pitch their idea to the judges.

“One of them said they’d seen everything, and when I showed him the clamp, he said, ‘I’ve never seen anything like this!,” recalls Albin excitedly. “We have to wait two weeks to see if I made it for the next round.”

He says what makes an invention successful is that you have to make something that is not out there.

“You don’t want to compete with a better looking screwdriver,” says Albin.” You have to have a new kind of clamp where if someone sees it, they say, ‘I need that clamp.’ When something is new and hot, you get people from all over the world wanting orders.”

What’s the most important life advice that he would like to leave us with?

“Make sure you marry someone who is better than you are,” says Albin who just celebrated his 52nd wedding anniversary this month. “The key to everything is finding the right wife for you – success for business, family…

Your wife is the most important thing you can have. She’s your partner in everything – in advice, in business, in sickness and health – everything…We got married when she was 18, and I was 20…Happy marriage is staying true to your wife. You cannot drift off. You have to stay true to your vows no matter what it takes…I feel very blessed.”

May 31, 2016
Jazz singer, Joan Cartwright, pursues doctorate at 68

Singer Joan Cartwright (Photo: Whitfield Moore & Son Photography)

Joan Cartwright has spent a good portion of her life traveling around the world singing jazz. Music had been her first love since the age of four when her mother put her in dance school, and her childhood home in Queens, NY was often filled with the sounds of jazz records being played by her father.

Now 68, Cartwright lives in West Palm Beach, Fla. where she remains a creative force using many different platforms – from writing books, blogs, and poetry. In March, she taught her first college course in speech communication at Southeastern University. She also heads Women in Jazz South Florida, a non-profit organization she founded to support the success of fellow women jazz musicians, and hosts a weekly radio talk show called “Music Woman.”

“Musicians are messengers,” says Cartwright, who calls herself “a communicator” above all else. “Music is about delivering messages. So I don’t see music as necessarily art, but as communication.”

Ever since she was in college, she was adamant about combining her love of music and communication. And now she is finishing up her doctorate in marketing at Northcentral University.

“My passion now is to get my doctorate,” says Cartwright. “I’m working on my dissertation research right now on women in jazz, music publishing and marketing. I have to interview 20 women composers and ask them about their marketing practices.”

She says she realized early on that musicians have very poor business skills, and she decided to pursue that topic, because she wants to help them – especially women, because the jazz music industry has long been dominated by men.

Cartwright herself remembers returning to New York to sing after getting her master’s degree in communication from La Salle University in Philadelphia.

“New York was a little tougher,” she says about the music industry in the early 80’s. “In Philly, there were five or seven of us jazz singers. In New York, about 30.”

She said she would hustle during the day doing odd jobs like word processing and working as a legal secretary, and at night she would sing.

“I used to be a street musician in Central Park for a while with my boyfriend who was a drummer,” remembers Cartwright. “Sometimes we’d make more money there than in the clubs.”

In the 90’s, she got her first contract which allowed her to tour Europe.

“I met a piano player who became my music arranger, and he produced my first CD in Catania, Italy, called ‘Feeling Good,’” recalls Cartwright.

“I toured Italy for four years with him, and I sang in Spain, Austria, Germany and England, Holland, France and Switzerland. I met some wonderful musicians and got to see a lot of famous musicians.”

When she moved to Florida in 1996, she had collected so many photographs of beautiful places and people all over the world that she decided to take them to the publisher of African American Travel magazine. She ended up writing for them for four years.

These days, she’s excited to be back recording music with her daughter, and fellow singer, Mimi Johnson, and also plans to keep teaching business courses once she finishes her doctorate in December.

“I keep doing what I’m doing…and then I’m going to publish “The Best Business Practices for Women Musicians,” because women have to use different strategies than men use,” says Cartwright. “One of my triumphs is that I’ve got a collection of at least six CDs of music with 63 songs from 45 women. So nobody can never say that women don’t write music.”

And what is her one piece of life advice that she wishes she could tell her younger self now?

“Love yourself first,” says Cartwright, adding that she is “blissfully single” after four marriages – she’s even written a poem about it. “Women tend to give away their hearts to men, and men generally take those hearts for granted.”

April 28, 2016