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The sweetest remedy: Need help falling asleep or managing your weight? Try consuming honey before bedtime

Share/by Rose Lidell

 

02/03/2022 / Honey is a versatile ingredient often used in desserts. Raw, unprocessed honey, in particular, is a healthy, natural alternative to sugar. This amazing superfood also offers many health benefits. Consuming a bit of honey before you go to bed can help improve sleep quality and aid in natural weight management.

Honey is considered a top-tier superfood because it has laxative and antibacterial properties. It is also believed that honey can help calm a person, thus inducing sleep naturally.

Benefits of consuming honey before bedtime

Honey is often used as a sleep remedy because the sweet superfood is a natural relaxant. It can help soothe your mind, making it a great choice if you are looking for a natural treatment for insomnia.

If you’re having trouble sleeping, make a honey remedy. Pour some warm water into a glass, add the juice from the two halves of a lemon, then add honey.

Don’t add honey while the water is boiling because this will destroy the superfood’s natural goodness.

It can aid digestion

Drinking warm water and honey before bed can help eliminate toxins in your digestive system.

Honey contains antimicrobial agents that can kill harmful pathogens in your gut. At the same time, raw honey’s prebiotic content helps feed the “good” bacteria in your colon.

You can also drink the honey mixture in the morning to promote faster digestion and detoxification.

It can stop midnight hunger pangs

Some experts say that it’s best not to eat anything after 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. But if you feel hungry late at night, you can relieve your hunger pangs with a bit of honey.

Honey can give your blood sugar levels a little boost, prompting the release of the amino acid tryptophan. This then gets converted into serotonin, a hormone responsible for the relaxation of the brain, which can help induce sleep.

It can promote weight loss

It can be difficult to lose weight if you love processed foods or sweet treats. If you want to lose more weight, try consuming some honey before bed. Since honey is fat-free, you don’t need to look any further for a guilt-free snack.

Consume a bit of honey before bed to help manage your weight. Add a teaspoon of honey to a glass of warm lemon-infused water. The drink will help promote weight loss and naturally control coughs or other symptoms of asthma and bronchitis.

Using honey to improve sleep quality in children

Coughing at night is a common occurrence among children, and it often disturbs their sleep. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, many cough-related medicines contain codeine and dextromethorphan, two ingredients linked to long-term health issues in children.

Codeine may cause side effects like difficulty urinating, headaches or stomach pain.

Dextromethorphan is linked to the following adverse effects:

– Dizziness

– Drowsiness

– Lightheadedness

– Nausea

– Nervousness

– Restlessness

– Stomach pain

– Vomiting

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends natural ingredients like ginger, honey and lemon to cure the symptoms of cough. Because these ingredients are also full of nutrients, they are safe for children and can also promote sleep naturally.

In one study, researchers worked with 105 children in Pennsylvania. One group was given dextromethorphan, while the other group was given honey and a third group was given no treatment at all.

Out of all the young participants aged two to 18, the ones who were given honey did better than those who were given dextromethorphan. The children who consumed honey before bedtime had fewer occurrences of coughing and slept more peacefully than those who took dextromethorphan.

Honey is a superfood that can help boost your overall health. Consume a bit of honey before your bedtime as a natural sleep aid and to get rid of those late-night hunger cravings.

$500 monthly stipend proposed for low-income Cal State students

by Suzanne Potter

 

A bill will soon be introduced in the California Legislature that would grant low-income students at five California State University campuses a stipend of $500 a month for basic living expenses. The idea is to provide a universal basic income, so more students can afford to stay in school.

State Sen. Dave Cortese, D-San Jose, said the pilot program would serve about 14,000 students, or about 11 percent of the campus population, “because that’s roughly the percentage of students who are essentially in abject poverty. They’re either homeless or severely at risk for being homeless.”

To qualify, the student would have to have a household income below $20,000. The program would cost the state an estimated $84 million a year. Opponents of universal basic income criticize it as a government handout that could be squandered. However, Cortese said data from two such programs, launched in Stockton and Santa Clara County, do not support that concern.

Many campuses in the state already provide housing referrals, food banks and other resources to students in need, but they vary widely. Cortese said if the bill passes and the universal basic income program ends up working successfully to reduce poverty and dropout rates in the Cal State system, it could be expanded.

“If it is effective, you’d want to be doing it on all campuses,” he said, “and probably extend it to community colleges as well.”

The specific schools that would take part in the three-year pilot have not been announced. The legislative deadline to file bills is a week from Friday.

 

In other non-related news in Mexico:

 

Mexico City government criticized for providing ivermectin to treat COVID

Some 200,000 people were treated with the unapproved medication

The Mexico City government has become engulfed in scandal due to its distribution of the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin to people who tested positive for COVID-19, its alleged completion of an unauthorized study on the medication’s efficacy and its publication of a paper detailing its supposed benefits.

The government spent just under 29.3 million pesos (US $1.4 million) to buy 293,000 boxes of the drug – usually used to treat conditions caused by intestinal parasites, head lice, scabies and other skin infections – as well as significant quantities of aspirin and azithromycin, an antibiotic.

The medications are not approved by the federal government or the World Health Organization for the treatment of COVID but the administration led by Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum nevertheless distributed them to some 200,000 people who tested positive, according to an investigation by the news website Animal Político.

The drugs were distributed in medical kits handed out at Mexico City testing stations starting in December 2020. They continued to be distributed until September 2021.

The Mexico City government as well as the federally-run Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) announced last year that they had carried out a “quasi experimental” analysis that found that people who received the ivermectin distributed in the capital were 68% less likely to develop serious symptoms that required treatment in hospital.

 

US turns up heat on AMLO’s energy reform on eve of climate meeting

Embassy warns against promoting dirtier, outdated and more expensive technologies

 

by Mexico News Daily

 

The United States has once again criticized the federal government’s proposed electricity reform, warning that the continued use of fossil fuels will hurt both consumers and the economy.

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico published a statement Tuesday that noted that the U.S. government has repeatedly expressed concern about the energy sector proposal, which would guarantee 54% of the electricity market to the fossil fuel-dependent, state-owned Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) and thus limit the participation of private renewable firms.

“Promoting the use of dirtier, outdated and more expensive technologies over efficient renewable alternatives would place both consumers and the economy in general at a disadvantage,” said the statement, published on the eve of U.S. climate czar John Kerry’s meeting with President López Obrador.

“We will listen to the points of view of the Mexican government on a range of energy issues, while we consult with United States private sector companies in order to better understand how to achieve our energy and climate objectives.”

The statement, which summarized Ambassador Ken Salazar’s visit to Baja California Sur on Monday and Tuesday, also said that “Mexico has abundant wind, sun, water resources, geothermal energy and essential minerals that provide big opportunities to lead the clean energy revolution.”

“… By partnering with the United States and Canada to design green energy technologies, and offering clean, accessible and reliable energy that companies increasingly need, North America can become the world’s clean energy power,” it said.

The statement quoted Ambassador Salazar, who has come under fire in recent days after contradicting the Biden administration by saying last week that López Obrador is “right” to seek energy sector reform.

“As the solar and wind facilities that we visited in Baja California Sur show, we can achieve incredible results by deploying the most recent technologies to advance to energy transition needed to combat climate change,” he said.

The United States’ renewed criticism of the proposed reform comes three weeks after U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm visited Mexico City and conveyed “real concerns” about the constitutional bill.

Ana López Mestre, general director of the American Chamber of Commerce of Mexico (AmCham), also raised concerns about the government’s plans at an “open parliament” forum on Tuesday, warning the reform would jeopardize investor confidence, the transition to clean energy and the operation of North American supply chains.

Although López Obrador has championed the continued use of fossil fuels, he said Tuesday that Mexico would ramp up its clean energy production if the United States supports the endeavor by providing low-interest loans.

“… It’s a matter of reaching agreements with the United States government,” the president said.

“… Receiving low-interest loans … would be an injection in favor of the environment. The only thing we want to do is strengthen the CFE because it dispatches energy to domestic consumers and guarantees that prices don’t go up excessively,” he said.

López Obrador, Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard and other federal officials will meet Wednesday with Kerry, the United States special presidential envoy for climate, who is in Mexico for the second time in less than four months.

A statement issued by the U.S. Department of State Monday said he would “engage with government counterparts and accelerate cooperation on the climate crisis.”

Any loans provided by the United States could be used to fund the modernization of CFE’s aging hydroelectricity plants.

López Obrador said Wednesday that the United States’ funding of anti-graft group Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI) would also be a topic for discussion in his meeting Wednesday with Salazar.

“… Today when I see the ambassador I’m going to remind him to tell us why the United States government gives money to [businessman] Claudio X.González’s group,” he said.

The federal government sent a diplomatic note to the United States last May, asking it to explain why it has provided funding to MCCI, a civil society organization that has been critical of López Obrador and his administration.

AMLO has complained about not receiving a response, although the U.S. government published a memorandum last June that outlined its commitment to tackling corruption and its intention to increase support to international partners committed to its elimination.

During a meeting with López Obrador the same month, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris reportedly asked him to not interfere in the work of NGOs such as MCCI and press freedom advocacy organization Article 19, both of which have drawn the president’s ire.

At his Wednesday morning press conference, López Obrador railed against MCCI president Maria Amparo Casar and journalist Carmen Aristegui, who he recently accused of misleading people during her long media career.

He accused Amparo of defamation and labeled Aristegui “dishonest.”

“[There are] dishonest journalists like Carmen Aristegui, journalists who are not just dishonest but also corrupt and mercenary, capable of inventing any situation, like [Carlos] Loret de Mola,” he said.

MCCI and Loret de Mola recently collaborated on an investigation into the living arrangements in the United States of AMLO’s 40-year-old son. Their exposé contrasted the luxury in which José Ramón  López Beltrán apparently lives with his father’s exhortations for people to live a life of austerity.

With reports from Milenio and Reforma 

 

Why single payer died in the California Legislature, again

by Alexei Koseff

 

February 1, 202 – Despite, or perhaps because of, an aggressive last-minute push by progressive activists ahead of a crucial deadline, legislation to create a government-run universal health care system in California died Monday without coming up for a vote.

The single-payer measure, Assembly Bill 1400, was the latest attempt to deliver on a longtime priority of Democratic Party faithful to get private insurers and profit margins out of health care. Because it was introduced last year, when it stalled without receiving a single hearing, it needed to pass the Assembly by Monday to continue through the legislative process.

But even the threat of losing the party’s endorsement in the upcoming election cycle was not enough to persuade the Assembly’s Democratic supermajority to advance the bill for further consideration, effectively killing the effort for another year.

After several tense hours Monday afternoon, during which a scramble of meetings took place just off the Assembly floor, Assemblymember Ash Kalra, the San Jose Democrat carrying AB 1400, announced that he would not bring up the measure for a vote.

Kalra declined multiple requests to discuss his decision and whether he would seek another path forward for his proposal. Following the floor session, he waited on a members-only balcony outside the chamber until a group of reporters was told to leave by a sergeant-at-arms.

“I don’t believe it would have served the cause of getting single payer done by having the vote and having it go down in flames and further alienating members,” Kalra said on a Zoom call with disappointed supporters later in the evening, in which he shared that he believed the bill, which needed 41 votes to pass, was short by “double digits.”

Stuck between powerful interests 

The political obstacles to such a radical restructuring of the health care system remain enormous, even in a state as putatively liberal as California.

The influential California Chamber of Commerce, which represents business interests in the state, labeled AB 1400 a “job killer” shortly after it was reintroduced in January, indicating it would be a top priority to defeat. Its lobbying campaign — joined by dozens of insurers, industry groups and the associations representing doctors and hospitals — included social media advertisements and a letter to members denouncing the “crippling tax increases” that would be needed to pay for the system. After the bill stalled Monday, the chamber declared it would be ready if ideas from the “dangerous proposal” resurfaced.

Republicans were eager to make it into an election issue this year. Though Kalra’s bill was largely conceptual, with a separate measure introduced to address the financing, they attacked it as a massive tax hike on Californians. (Kalra proposed a series of taxes on businesses and high-earning households to fund the single-payer system, estimated by legislative analysts to cost between $314 billion and $391 billion annually.) A 4,000-page petition signed by voters who opposed AB 1400 sat in the back of the chamber on Monday for Assembly Republican Leader Marie Waldron of Escondido to use as a prop in a floor debate that never happened.

Democrats also faced a squeeze from the left flank of their party. Activists with the California Democratic Party’s progressive caucus said last week they would push to withhold endorsements from members who did not vote for the bill. That ultimatum generated fierce anger in the Assembly caucus from members who felt cornered, though many refused to speak publicly about their frustration.

Backlash from activists

The decision not to bring up AB 1400 for a vote on Monday may have been about protecting members from having to take a position one way or the other on the bill, as Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon did with the last single-payer measure in 2017.

Legislation to move the state toward a government-run health care system passed the state Senate that year, but was held by Rendon without a hearing because the bill included no plan to pay for it. That put him in the crosshairs of single-payer supporters, who blasted him on billboards.

This time, Rendon said he supported the effort, but he was not closely involved in rounding up votes for AB 1400. He declined to answer questions after the floor session on Monday and, in a statement, he pushed the blame onto Kalra.

“The shortage of votes needed to pass this bill out of the Assembly indicates the immense difficulty of implementing single-payer healthcare in California,” he said. “Nevertheless, I’m deeply disappointed that the author did not bring this bill up for a vote today. I support single-payer and fully intended to vote yes on this bill.”

The explanations are unlikely to assuage the measure’s most enthusiastic proponents.

The California Nurses Association, the main sponsor of AB 1400, slammed Kalra for “providing cover” for his colleagues by not holding a vote.

“Nurses are especially outraged that Kalra chose to just give up on patients across the state,” the association said in an unsigned statement. “Nurses never give up on our patients, and we will keep fighting with our allies in the grassroots movement.”

Amar Shergill, chairperson of the California Democratic Party’s progressive caucus, said he would continue with plans to pull endorsements from Assembly members who did not publicly support the bill.

During the Monday night call, he and other advocates repeatedly criticized Kalra for setting back their movement and urged him to name the members who were opposed. “We are protecting them from negative scrutiny of a ‘no’ vote,” Shergill said.

Kalra said it would give him more time to work on winning over colleagues who were on the fence about AB 1400 and try again next year.

Where was Newsom?

One prominent Democrat who did not express support for AB 1400 was Gov. Gavin Newsom, who ran for office in 2018 on a platform to create a single-payer system in California but has since distanced himself from that pledge.

During a press conference in January to unveil his budget proposal, Newsom reiterated that he believed “the ideal system is a single-payer system,” but dismissed questions about Kalra’s approach.

“I have not had the opportunity to review that plan, and no one has presented it to me,” Newsom said at the time.

As AB 1400 marched toward defeat, the governor remained mum. His public remarks in recent weeks focused instead on several of his own budget proposals that he said would bring universal health access to California, including an expansion of Medi-Cal, the state’s health insurance program for the poor, to all residents regardless of their immigration status.

Kalra said Newsom’s stance undermined the bill. He told the Mercury News on Tuesday that “it hurts when you’re trying to garner votes for a policy that the governor is brushing aside despite a prior commitment to it.”

The distinction Newsom has drawn between universal access to health insurance and an actual universal health care system has also infuriated the nurses’ union, one of his earliest endorsers during the 2018 campaign, who accused him of flip-flopping on single payer. It seems unlikely to cause him much trouble in his upcoming re-election campaign, however, where he has yet to draw a significant challenger.

Long time Salvadorian resident in SF passes away, he will be missed

Tears still flow from the pupils of his family and friends after his departure

 

The family of Chris V. Matal Sol’s are suffering the departure of this beloved son of El Salvador, who came to the US at the age of 18 looking for better economic opportunities. Born on Nov. 29, 1958, he surrendered his soul to his Creator on Jan. 27, 2022. He was 63.

On the latest days of his life he suffered from multiple illnesses.

Mr. Matal Sol was the son of Cristo Salvador Matal Sol and Tomasa Aparicio Matal Sol. He met his wife Urania in S.F through mutual friends.

His family described him as a hard-working man who worked for the City & County of San Francisco for over 20 years.

“Chris was a very funny, humble and down to earth man who loved his animals and enjoyed nature,” said his daughter Isabella. “He was a smart man who loved to read and could’ve very well been a teacher or a lawyer as he was a very giving person who cared and always thought of others before himself.”

Mr. Matal Sol adored and loved his two children dearly and his wife, said a family member. He once said that if he came to the U.S, was not only for a better opportunity for himself, but also for his children. He wanted them to be born in the great city of S.F.

A big sports fan of the SF Giants and 49ers, Chris was a strong believer in his spirituality; he was raised as a Catholic. His faith was and meant everything to him.

Mr. Matal Sol is survived by his wife Urania Campos and his two adult children Isabella Matal Sol & Cristo Matal Sol.

Services will be a mass with a celebration of life ceremony, which date will be announced later.

 

Community Outreach Public Notice SF

The Redistricting Task Force has begun!
Every ten years, the boundaries of the San Francisco Supervisory Districts are
redraw to ensure each district maintains the same number
of residents. Members of the public are encouraged to participate in the process
of redistricting.
The task force needs your input!
Tell the task force where to draw the lines of the District of Supervision
from San Francisco!
As they meet, they will look at YOU and collect your opinions,
ideas and concerns about the boundaries of your District and the impacts on our
communities.
● Visit the website to view the meeting schedule: https://
sf.gov/public-body/2020-census-redistricting-task-force
●  Create your own map using the mapping tool! Visit the
Redistricting website and look in the redistricting section.
mapping.
●  Don’t have Internet access? Visit your local public library!
● You can find your local library and hours by visiting the site
redistricting website and searching on “Information”.
● Users can make reservation of a computer in
https://pcbooking.sfpl.org/easybooking/ and enter your booking number.
library card and PIN. Reservations are available 120
minutes (2 one-hour sessions) per day.
● The SFPL web services team has added a link to
the Redistricting mapping tool on your
home page, which will appear on all computers in the
library to access.
Check with the Office of the Clerk of the Board for information.
on ruffles on the windows.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE IN THE MEETINGS:
● Attend meetings Check the website for
specific instructions. https://sf.gov/public-body/2020-censusredistricting-
task-force
● Send your comments by sending an email to rdtf@
sfgov.org or by calling (415) 554-4445
● Join the email list to receive updates
issued by the Redistricting Task Force.
To sign up, go to sfelections.org/rdtf
● Follow the Redistricting Task Force on
Facebook and Twitter: @RedistrictSF
February
SF.GOV/EN
The City and County of San Francisco encourage
public disclosure. Articles are translated into various
languages ​​to provide better access to the public. The
newspaper does its best to translate correctly
articles of general interest. Neither the City and the County
of San Francisco nor the newspapers assume any
liability for errors or omissions.
CNSB #3548700

2022 Millbrae Lunar New Year Festival

Compiled by the El Reportero‘s staff

 

Millbrae Lunar New Year Festival Street Fair is coming! Write it on your calendar and make sure you don’t miss it!

After pressing the pause button on the New Year event in 2020, with the love and sharing of our community we are bringing back the Street Fair this year!

Boba tea, mocha ice cream, Asian BBQ, coconut pudding, fresh popcorn, mini donut… 20+ food vendors offer you amazing delicious food!

Custom face painting‍, cute bounce houses, fashion clothing, fortune talking… and more fun vendors adding tons of joy to the event!

On top of that, free Covid testing, kids zone, live performance and firecracker show will blow your eyes and ears!

Come support our local vendors and share a fresh start with love at downtown Millbrae,

Saturday, Feb. 5, 2022 – 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. | Cost: FREE 300-400 block of Broadway.

 

Free de Young Museum Day for Bay Area Residents (Every Saturday)

 

Every Saturday, the de Young offers free general admission to the permanent galleries to Bay Area residents. Please note that admission to any special exhibits is not included nor discounted and will require the full admission price.

Saturdays feature engaging art experiences for the entire family, including art-making, gallery guides, and tours with discussion and sketching in the permanent galleries.

Saturday, February 5, 2022 – 9:30 am to 5:15 pm | Cost: FREE*
de Young Museum | 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, San Francisco, CA

Golden Gate ParkSan Francisco

Essential and Frontline Workers Discount

We are pleased to offer free general admission for essential workers — including emergency services, health care, grocery stores, city operations and maintenance, social services, public transit, and delivery services — to receive a $15 discount on tickets to special exhibitions, through December 2021. This discount can be redeemed on-site with your work badge.

 

2022 Chinese New Year Parade + Fireworks (San Francisco)

Saturday, Feb. 19, 2022 – 5:15 p.m. to 8 p.m. | Cost: FREE*
Chinatown | Washington and Grant, San Francisco, CA

Named one of the world’s top ten parades, the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco is the largest celebration of its kind outside of Asia. It was started in the 1860s and takes place the weekend of the Chinese New Year Community Street Fair (Feb. 19-20, 2022).

Fireworks! The parade will close with a 3-minute firework display finale.

Nowhere in the country will you see a lunar new year parade with more gorgeous floats, elaborate costumes, ferocious lions, exploding firecrackers, and of course the newly crowned Miss Chinatown U.S.A. and her court.

A crowd favorite will be the new and spectacular 288-foot Golden Dragon (“Gum Lung”). It takes a team of over 180 men and women from the martial arts group White Crane to carry this dragon throughout the streets of San Francisco.

Border communities focus of new exhibition at San Francisco Main Library

 

Submitted by the SFPL

 

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 14, 2022 – For photographer David Bacon, the border region between the United States and Mexico is a land marked by life and death. Each year, at least 300-400 people die trying to cross into the U.S. in

The exhibition opens on February 12 in the Main Library’s Jewett Gallery, which is located on the lower level. The public is invited to the opening event, The Media, Art and the Border, which will feature Bacon in conversation with San Francisco artists and photographers about the way the border is represented in media and the arts.

February 12, 1 p.m., Main Library, 100 Larkin Street, Latino/Hispanic Community Room. Per the City’s Health Order, masks are required at all times in the Library.

On view at the Main Library, Jewett Gallery, Feb. 12 – May 22, 2022.

2022 Millbrae Lunar New Year Festival

Compiled by the El Reportero‘s staff

 

Millbrae Lunar New Year Festival Street Fair is coming! Write it on your calendar and make sure you don’t miss it!

After pressing the pause button on the New Year event in 2020, with the love and sharing of our community we are bringing back the Street Fair this year!

Boba tea, mocha ice cream, Asian BBQ, coconut pudding, fresh popcorn, mini donut… 20+ food vendors offer you amazing delicious food!

Custom face painting‍, cute bounce houses, fashion clothing, fortune talking… and more fun vendors adding tons of joy to the event!

On top of that, free Covid testing, kids zone, live performance and firecracker show will blow your eyes and ears!

Come support our local vendors and share a fresh start with love at downtown Millbrae,

Saturday, February 5, 2022 – 10:30 am to 5:00 pm | Cost: FREE 300-400 block of Broadway.

 

Free de Young Museum Day for Bay Area Residents (Every Saturday)

 

Every Saturday, the de Young offers free general admission to the permanent galleries to Bay Area residents. Please note that admission to any special exhibits is not included nor discounted and will require the full admission price.

Saturdays feature engaging art experiences for the entire family, including art-making, gallery guides, and tours with discussion and sketching in the permanent galleries.

Saturday, Feb. 5, 2022 – 9:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. | Cost: FREE*
de Young Museum | 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, San Francisco, CA

Golden Gate ParkSan Francisco

Essential and Frontline Workers Discount

We are pleased to offer free general admission for essential workers — including emergency services, health care, grocery stores, city operations and maintenance, social services, public transit, and delivery services — to receive a $15 discount on tickets to special exhibitions, through December 2021. This discount can be redeemed on-site with your work badge.

 

2022 Chinese New Year Parade + Fireworks (San Francisco)

Saturday, February 19, 2022 – 5:15 p.m. to 8 p.m. | Cost: FREE*
Chinatown | Washington and Grant, San Francisco, CA

Named one of the world’s top ten parades, the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco is the largest celebration of its kind outside of Asia. It was started in the 1860s and takes place the weekend of the Chinese New Year Community Street Fair (Feb. 19-20, 2022).

Fireworks! The parade will close with a 3-minute firework display finale.

Nowhere in the country will you see a lunar new year parade with more gorgeous floats, elaborate costumes, ferocious lions, exploding firecrackers, and of course the newly crowned Miss Chinatown U.S.A. and her court.

A crowd favorite will be the new and spectacular 288-foot Golden Dragon (“Gum Lung”). It takes a team of over 180 men and women from the martial arts group White Crane to carry this dragon throughout the streets of San Francisco.

 

Border communities focus of new exhibition at San Francisco Main Library

Submitted by the SFPL

SAN FRANCISCO, January 14, 2022 – For photographer David Bacon, the border region between the United States and Mexico is a land marked by life and death. Each year, at least 300-400 people die trying to cross into the U.S. in

The exhibition opens on February 12 in the Main Library’s Jewett Gallery, which is located on the lower level. The public is invited to the opening event, The Media, Art and the Border, which will feature Bacon in conversation with San Francisco artists and photographers about the way the border is represented in media and the arts.

February 12, 1 p.m., Main Library, 100 Larkin Street, Latino/Hispanic Community Room. Per the City’s Health Order, masks are required at all times in the Library.

On view at the Main Library, Jewett Gallery, Feb. 12 – May 22, 2022.

After 80 years, historic Puebla city mini-neighborhood still an artists’ haven

A haunt of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, the Barrio del Artista remains a vibrant art community

 

by Joseph Sorrentino

Puebla city is probably not the first place you think of when listing off the world’s venerable old artists’ quarters, but the Puebla state capital’s Barrio del Artista (artist’s neighborhood) has been going strong for over 80 years, a small but cohesive community of creatives ever since it was founded by a pair of brothers.

Artists José and Ángel Márquez Figueroa raised the idea of creating an artists’ neighborhood in the city back in 1940 while holding outdoor classes in an area known as El Parián. José asked his students if they’d like to have an area in the city dedicated to artists and, of course, they all did.

After several months of effort, they secured a meeting with then-governor Gonzalo Bautista Castillo, who agreed that it was a good idea. Mayor Juan Manuel Treviño gave them a location at Calle 8 Norte, Esquina 4 Oriente, and the artists soon formed the Union of Plastic Arts of Puebla, an artists’ collective. The union held its first exhibit on May 5, 1941.

Eighty years later, the Barrio, the gallery and the union — now named the Union of Plastic Artists of Puebla of the Artist’s Neighborhood — are all still in existence, despite the fact that most of the union’s members are painters. “Two are sculptors and three are musicians,” Laura Díaz Heredia, the union’s secretary, said.

Díaz herself is a painter who specializes in portraits — “I like the expressions in portraits,” she said — but she also works as a sculptor, restores a variety of artwork and, like most of the artists there, gives classes.

She’s apparently an excellent and influential teacher. María Fernanda Castañeda Coiro, a preschool educator who, after studying with Díaz for four months, said she’d consider a career change. “If I have the opportunity, I would like to work as an artist,” Castañeda said.

The Barrio occupies a plaza that’s a block long. “There are 43 workshops,” Díaz explained. “Everyone in the Barrio is a member [of the union], and we are 38 members.”

One of the studios in the Barrio is used for a café, two are used to give courses and two are called the Rincón Histórico (historic corner), where photographs of the Barrio’s early years are on exhibit. The first one is a photograph of the extraordinary group of artists who exhibited in 1962.

In May of that year, a gallery named for José Luis Rodríguez Alconedo, a painter and revolutionary who was executed in 1815 for his antigovernment actions, opened on the second floor of one of the buildings in the neighborhood. Its exhibit featured some of Mexico’s most famous artists, including Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo and Rufino Tamayo.

So it’s perhaps not surprising that becoming a member of the Barrio is no easy feat.

“There is an exam to get in,” Díaz said. “An artist must show the type of work, the way one works. It is a process that takes several years. It is a little difficult to join, yes. It is not impossible but it is hard.”

There are many benefits to having a studio here and being part of the union, she said. “[It] is to know other artists, to share knowledge, to talk about problems and to talk about art,” she said.

A couple of doors down from Díaz’s studio, Julian Villalobos Pérez was putting the finishing touches on a painting. Most of his work depicts Mexican pueblos.

“My technique is applying oil paint with a spatula,” he said. But he doesn’t always paint on a canvas. “I paint on papel amate,” he said, “a pre-Hispanic paper from San Pablito,” a pueblo in the Puebla municipality of Pahuatla.

Black history as American history

by Ken Blackwell

CP Op-Ed Contributor

 

Today, Americans of all stripes are constantly bombarded with an insidious propaganda campaign against our shared history. From critical race theory to ripping down historical statues, our national story is being rewritten as irredeemably sinful. These efforts have taken a particularly racialized characteristic by implying that Black history is somehow distinct from, or in opposition to, “American history” itself, rather than an integral part of it.

Looking back to our past, we realize that this narrative of scorn isn’t how the great heroes of American history saw their homeland. The American patriots we still honor today — including African Americans — did not see Black history as something apart from American history. In fact, they saw the principles of the American Founding, enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, as the key to their story of perseverance.

Fredrick Douglass, in his 1852 address “What To The Slave Is The Fourth Of July?” called the principles of the Declaration of Independence “saving principles,” the Constitution a “glorious liberty document,” and Independence Day “the very ringbolt in the chain of your yet undeveloped destiny.” He knew that liberty and equality were the keys to the American Founding, and he knew that any nation founded on such revolutionary propositions could not remain a slaveholding nation forever.

Rather than berate America’s founders, Douglass went on to call them “brave men,” “statesmen, patriots, and heroes.” He urged his audience to “honor their memory” because “they seized upon eternal principles.” According to Douglass, through these very principles — fundamentally American principles — “liberty and humanity” rather than “slavery and oppression” would be final.

Just over 100 years later, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his “I Have A Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. King’s vision, he emphasized, “is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.” Like Douglass, King mentioned with favor the “magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence,” calling them “a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.”

To King, slavery, segregation, Jim Crow laws, and all other forms of racial inequality were ultimately a betrayal of American principles. King’s dream, he said to more than 200,000 people from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, was that “one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

Both Douglass and King saw the course of American history as the ironing out of America’s founding principles, even with all of the ugly bumps and bruises that came along the way. Equality, in their minds, was a promise baked into America’s very DNA. It was a promise that took far too long to fulfill, but a promise that America pursued nonetheless.

This embrace of Americanism can be seen throughout the entirety of American history. It is in the blood of Crispus Attucks falling as a martyr to spark the American Revolution. It is in the steely resolve of the Massachusetts 54th regiment charging Fort Wagner to change the course of the Civil War. It is in the ingenuity of Elijah McCoy revolutionizing the locomotive industry with his automatic lubrication system. It is Jesse Owens humiliating Naziism on the world stage. It is at the tails of the Tuskegee airmen patrolling the skies of North Africa and the Mediterranean.

These examples, and countless others like them, testify to the truth that Black history is an integral part of American history — not set apart as something in contradiction to the story of American life, but a vital part of our national identity.

We remember the past to lead us through the present, and we seek inspiration by looking back to the example these great figures left for us to follow. They realized that, as Americans, they were more similar than different. But we can only be genuinely united when we rediscover our shared American identity, rooted in our Founding principle: “all men are created equal.”

Today, just like at the time of Douglass and King, these principles are our “ring bolt.” They are our “promissory note.” These truths inspired the words and deeds of heroes of the past, and these same principles guide us through the future.

This Black History Month, let’s remember that Black history is American history and come together to reunite under our American principles — just like our forefathers did before us.

Kenneth Blackwell is Chairman of the Center For Election Integrity at the America First Policy Institute. He formerly served as Ohio Treasurer and Secretary of State.

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