BACK TO MY HOME PAGE

Welcome students and colleagues, friends and family, if you have made it this far, I encourage you to stay a bit longer and read about some of my work. The writings reflect many of the thoughts that I carry with me throughout the course of a day, evening, and often times, the dreams that take hold of me while I sleep. The verses represent the inner voice in me that speaks of the past, the present, and the future. Writing is my ultimate form of expression that allows me to reflect, inspire, get well, and grow. The energy that feeds my work, I pull from themes that correspond to Mesoamerica, my ancestral place of birth, and the area I study. References to symbols of the past, deities, and natural phenomenon, dominate certain pieces, and blend with current verses of life, love, and death. I have never taken a writing class... the only "style" that exhibits my work is the one that I create from my imagination, heart, and dreams.

I’m an avid builder and horticulturalist, and so I spend a lot of my time building things and growing different types of herbs and plant food. I do not identify as an artist nor do I make art for aesthetic purposes; my work solely materializes a ritual-ceremonial or utilitarian function. The craft of working with wood I learned from my father, by watching him design and build homes throughout much of my adolescent youth. I also learned how to work with stone by watching my uncles construct brick and rock landscapes, in the wealthy neighborhoods were they labored during much of the 1980s, when construction was booming. My paternal grandpa Juan was also a craftsman, hence why all his sons became builders of some sort, and so building has always been an integral part of my family’s trade history. I learned about plant cultivation from my abuelita Mercedes on my paternal side and my abuelito Severo on my maternal side. Much of the landscaping strategies that I learned from my grandparents came with them from Mexico when they migrated to Alta California, in the early 1960s, along with my parents. A lot of the building and planting strategies that my family has implored have been in use for over 3,000 years. It is my purpose to revitalize and sustain these ancestral practices through ceremony, household building, and plant cultivation.

My fascination with building and growing food is not only familial, but also physical-skeletal (see my Physical Anthropology 101 blog), and because so, I have an admiration for the morphology of the human hand. The hand is unlike any part of the body, and because we use our hands every day, we literally take them for granted, sometimes failing to notice their full potential use. Our hands are our first weapons of choice in an attack, yet they are the first part of the body that we extend when helping or consoling someone. With our hands, we build shelter, writer letters, prepare food, and unknowingly, make love. Our hand-digit coordination is unique because it is precise, well adapted for creating, and for using and making tools. Hand-digit use coordination has been a part of our human evolutionary past since we inhabited arboreal environments, way before we developed bipedalism. When combined with tool use, the creative use of the hands has the capability of decolonizing our minds and bodies.

My inquiry into the relationship between hand-bone morphology usage and social behavior remains in the early stages. Nonetheless, some preliminary findings I modeled in a recent paper where I discuss the role of the hands, and early human tool making, in the creation of spatial wellness. The paper is published in Vol. 3 No. 4 of the International Journal of Development and Sustainability.


I am a widow now

I am a widow now

Aravan is dead

And I am sad
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How bad do you want to succeed?



I like this video!
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As long as they prosper


I appreciate your help that has no price attached to it… You know when you teach someone something that person remains in debt to you as long as they prosper.

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The Apple and the Possum


An apple has changed my life forever, and today is the first day of my new life.  Today I will take every creative piece of memory and build something with it.  It will all feel right, because it will all have derived from my heart, and all love at first sight.

Today I will tell her everything that I have always wanted to tell her; everything that I have kept from her, that she deserves to know.  I will tell her because I’m not afraid to die and she needs to know that I love her even though we don’t see eye to eye.
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Chaaks karma card reading

 
"Remember the servicing of others for humanities sake."
 
According to my daughters karma card reading the above "action" from a spiritual point of view should be considered.  This after posing the question "How long will I be a teacher."
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Physical Anthropology 115L @ Cerritos College

 ¡Tengo los mejores estudiantes del mundo!
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Left written on paper


Left written on paper the plan will forever influence how we act, how our children will act, and how future generations will act!
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Add codes

Cerritos College
We are not cutting teachers…  We are cutting sections.  And teachers are not asking students to leave, they’re handing them add codes.  In any case, let's all prepare.
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No money

There ain't no money coming into this house, but we sure as hell building some really nice things!
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THE GRE

I’m not a test taker.  I have never been good at taking tests.  I don’t like them, and I don’t think I’ll ever like them.  I’m too slow, and these things have a time limit.  I prefer to work at my own pace, and break things down.  I like to look at my problems in the eye, from every angle, before attempting to solve them.  You can’t do that with tests on a screen, they’re not real, and I’m not a computer, or a human android.
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The Community College


Social Sciences @ Cerritos Community College
 If bad bureaucracy exists here, I have not experienced it.  If staff drama takes center stage here, I have not been dragged into it.  If big researcher egos thrive here, I have not been infected.  The only thing that happens here is TEACHING.

The Community College
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Time and space


Like the Mesoamerican landscape, this site is a reckoning of time and space, a place of memorial for those that have come and gone, and for those that lie in wait…
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Something Beautiful

 Gardening is not easy, such as life!  Some things grow and some things die.  But you continue to cultivate the earth and sow seeds, in hope of growing something more…
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Man of Steel

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Sunburst Squash

Sunburst Squash plants (also known as White Patty Squash).  These took about 7 days to germinate in partial sun.
Young sunburst squash plants in 3"x3" containers.  Seeds sowed in full sun germinate much faster.  Beets for example germinated in 5 full days in 8+ hour sunlight.  Water twice daily!
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Zucchini

Just add an egg and you have a zucchini omelet...
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Planting Seeds

Zanahoria (carrot) and White Patty Squash.  Seeds sowed 6/16/2012.
Zanahoria and Crimson Sandia (watermelon).
White Patty Squash after germination.  Picture taken 6/29/2012.  The germination process took about six to nine days.  The weather here in the East San Gabriel Valley has been warm, and temperatures are expected to rise to the 90s, which is typical for late June and early July.  Surprisingly the seeds in the green plastic seeders germinated first, where as the seeds in the organic feeders germinated a full two days later.  I am still unaware of why not all of the seeds germinated?  Bad seeds?  The placing of the seed?  Or perhaps just the natural probability of germination.
Newly sowed Yellow Squash, Beet, and Jack-O-Lantern.  Sowed 6/26/2012.  Picture taken 6/29/2012.  These are germinating right next to the White Patty Squash.  They are in a location where they catch the early morning sun and all of the afternoon rays.  I water once a day in the mornings or at night and will be looking to water them more often as the temperature rises.
6/29/2012 8:30 am
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Honeydew Melon

Honeydew Melon (Cucumis melo) 6/22/2012
View of the honeydew melon next to the corn (top), and beets (left).
Bottom of honeydew melon 6/22/2012.
Top of honeydew melon 6/22/2012.
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Raddish

Radish 6/18/2012
Radish 6/18/2012
Radish 6/18/2012
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