Espejos de Aztlán; Fred Griego and Rita Padilla

Queola y muy bienvenidos a su programa es Pejos Island, yo soy Cecilio García Camerillo y en la noche vamos a estar platicando con un viejo amigo el señor Fred Griego y la señorita Rita Padilla, they are both members of the social and arts issues of a massive, I would call it a very big program called Shared Vision and Fred Shared Vision came out of something important that happened back in 1991 and October of 1991 I understand and maybe we can start by telling us how the idea of Shared Vision came about and then we'll take it on from there. Well in October of 1991 there was a Shared Vision conference that was through a resolutions by the county and city governments and supporting the effort and

what it was to look at what we wanted Albuquerque to be like entering into the next entry. And you're looking at it from different perspectives. Yes I think what we looked at was how we wanted to look at physically and economically and also socially and developing some of the aspects of art and things that would give some kind of look as to what our society within the Albuquerque and Burnley County area would look like and how we wanted to redirect some of the efforts in trying to do that. Rita would you say that right now there's still a lot of visions

of Albuquerque are we still pretty far from having what you folks are calling a Shared Vision. That's a good question because in fact there are visions out there but I believe in the community it's so fragmented right now and everybody sort of has their own agenda if you will and what we're trying to accomplish here is to try to bring all those agendas together to share them in one setting in one form but yes the vision is there if we can just try to get to a uniform vision that everybody sort of agrees on. We can move forward with it. Can you tell us what has happened since October of 1991 Rita? Well what's happened since is that many individuals have come together in the form of subcommittees to put a lot of work together into this report that we will then present and share with the general

public on December 4th at the town hall that's coming up and we're excited about that but what has happened in between literally weeks and months of work on the part of volunteers sitting together and dissecting issues and finally surfacing issues that we think are so important for the city and those are the issues that will bring forward on December 4th Fred in order to have a shared vision of course there a comprehensive shared vision there have to be a lot of very small visions and they all have to come together not perfectly but somehow they have to come together. What can you tell us about the participation of and this committees that have been formed as a consequence of that crucial meeting in October of 91? Who is participating and are we talking about individual organizations?

Well we have a fairly diverse group of volunteers who have come forward since that October 91 shared vision conference we have people who are from organizations that are quasi-governmental governmental we have neighborhood associations we have nonprofit organizations we have individual residents and citizens from the community that are just interested in having input into the process through this all we have tried to be as inclusive as possible and try to bring in as many diverse groups whether that be socially, racially, educationally and try to reach out into the different age groups of the community, senior citizens, university students, working people and even trying at this point trying to bring in high school students who have

some kind of idea and that was basically one of the reasons I got involved was to make sure that the young people are not forgotten in developing the shared vision because if we're talking about our future we're talking about our young people. Absolutely Rita, you form a part of the social and arts committee, I'm wondering if you might be able to tell us something about the makeup of that committee can you give us an idea as to what are some of the things that has been discussed. That was an interesting experience to chair that particular subcommittee we called it the social issues arts subcommittee and in fact of the three committees I would say this one was the most diverse in terms of gender, ethnicity and all of the major groups that were sometimes concerned about today in terms of representation.

Many individuals, lawyers, educators, different people from different backgrounds and entities within the city made up this particular committee. We felt very good about the makeup of this committee and the bringing together of these people and trying to come up with one or at least five issues that we finally did surface out of this committee was an interesting process in terms of the dynamics of what happens to a group when they're discussing sensitive issues which we did and one of them being how do we combat racism in Albuquerque. We first had to come to a point as a group as it reached consensus to say does this in fact exist here do we have this problem in looking at all of the social ills or social problems that we have in the city some of the more obvious problems like homelessness

and poverty and kids at risk and all of the most more obvious problems we began to scrutinize that even further and say so we have those things yes we recognize them and this committee acknowledges them but what is really the underlying problem here what can we can we look seek to find more tangible explanations and reasons and answers for why these things exist and we came to the consensus that in fact we should organizations in the city, city, county, institutional, whatever need to look at their own institutions and organizations to find what might be the problem in terms of equity, achieving equity and fairness and reducing racial tensions whatever the case may be this is the task at hand for this particular

committee so needless to say there was a lot of discussion and very passionate discussion on trying to get to that point and finally saying in fact yes we have a problem we recognize it what are we going to do about it Fred Rita has mentioned in trying to reach a consensus of or a shared vision of what Albuquerque and Berlio County is like one of the major social issues is racism do you think that there are some others that are very important that merit the discussion in that subcommittee well basically I think what we were looking at outside of that is to have our community to understand that we need to respect, understand and value the diversity of the makeup of Albuquerque and the surrounding greater Albuquerque area south valley east mountain and all the surrounding county areas not only just the city of Albuquerque

and other things that we looked at were hopefully that we could get them to look at providing equal access and education employment the arts and economic opportunity and ensure the quality of services of the government and look at how we as people within the community can start looking at how we as different diverse groups within the larger community of Albuquerque can start sharing power that is one of the things that we look at where a lot of people are in a situation of poverty is that they are lacking power and trying to get communities and these pockets of poverty throughout the city looking at themselves critically and start organizing and developing ways to look at leveraging their numbers and getting to

share power so that they do have some equity and access to services and programs that would level the playing field throughout the city and then the others were to look at all the other social barriers that exist throughout the city and I think each individual entity and institution as Rita mentioned needs to look within itself initially and to deal with those issues before we can go out and move out into the community and start developing that. Rita, you've been meeting, I don't know how many meetings you've had, how many hours of your time you've had to put into this but you've been working on it for over a year and developing, honing, fine tuning your observations about how to create a massive shared vision for our city and our county and I'm wondering do you think that is there an enthusiasm and

a feeling that perhaps when all the work gets put together that some action might be taken on this or is there the fear that this might just become another intellectual exercise by intellectuals? Well, we certainly hope that there is enthusiasm and if the indication from last year's attendance at the first conference, shared vision conference there were at least 400 people who attended that function and from that came the initial concerns and reports in writing that said this is what this group of 400 people who we think was probably a very good representation of the city at large said to us, these are the issues and areas you need to look at when you start breaking up into the subcommittees and whatever it is you all are going to do, you all meaning the persons who were heading shared vision to begin with.

So the enthusiasm is there and we expect on December 4th to have at least that many participants we hope again representing the city at large to bring the issues forward and discuss them even further and after that immediately after the conference we expect and our hope is that we would then begin doing some very tangible things like implementing the action steps and strategies, first the strategies and then the actual action steps that come from this sharing of information on the fourth. One of the things that we looked at was trying to be as inclusive as possible and trying to not feel that it was just a government concern that it was not just institutions but we want to get the grassroots involved because they are the ones who are going to benefit the most, I feel in the long run if we have that input from them and I urge those people

out there listening tonight to sort of jot down this phone number and call in so that they can participate, they can call the city planning office at 7, 6, 8, 3, 2, 6, 6 and they will send you out the information and this report and you whether you be a part of a neighborhood association or a PTA or whatever kind of group civic organization your input is needed into this process otherwise it does get caught into that situation of it just being a verbal exercise and nothing comes of it and we need more people to get involved in this, this is not, this is a living document that we are dealing with hopefully it will grow and it will reshape and will refocus in a lot of things, none of this is etched in stone, we want to make sure that people do have an opportunity to come and be part

of this process, I would like to see a large group of grassroots people come out and look at what is happening in part taken in the shared vision town hall meeting on December 4th at the convention center. So it is all subject to changes, amendments, deletions, etc and everyone will have an opportunity to have a say so on the final shared vision, final report of the shared vision and Fred mentioned there will be a town hall meeting on December 4th, December 4th, where did you say for it, the convention center, the east side, no? It will be, yes I believe it is on the east side and it will start at what time?

It will start at 8 o'clock in the morning with a breakfast, we will have a continental breakfast coffee and then it will break into groups, into committees, there will be a general session for breaks into the breakout groups and those groups will be broken out into those subject areas of the committees. When there is massive organizations, groups of people that come together for a very important purpose, it is good to notice who is participating and also who is not and I am wondering if among those participants or corporations included such entities as UNM, TVI, hospitals, how big a participation are we talking about, is the, for example, the air base a part of this?

How big is it? Well initially they invited all the institutions from the military bases here to the governments to the organizations, whether they be organizations such as like the economic forum, the chambers of commerce, the arts alliance, there is quite a diverse group that they set out and requested the input from them and to send representatives. But one of the things I look at is that we not only need those people who have a constituency represented, but we need those at large community residents to make them feel that they are part of this process because those community areas, neighborhood communities need representation just as well as UNM or TVI or the public schools.

And just to give you an idea of some of the participants, if you noticed our panelists include Mayor Sabedra, Pat Bacca, Chairman of the New York County Commission, Leonard De Lao, President of Board of Education for APS, Jan McCauley, Provost for Instruction at TVI, and we have a Board of Rainbow President of Board of Regents at UNM. We hope that the community feels comfortable in asking them questions during the town hall portion of the meeting. These individuals are in leadership positions and in a sense of that day should be put to the test, so to speak, in terms of questioning and clarification. Hopefully we can elicit a sense of not only from those leaders on the panel, but also from representatives of different organizations in looking at this process, an ongoing process,

and start working collaboratively in looking at what we as individuals, as organizations, as segments within communities, neighborhoods can start doing to add to the process, hopefully that we can start looking at how we can develop relationships from within the city where there has been sometimes complete animosities and adversities developed because of the geographical locations of communities that we need to start looking at sister neighborhoods, start developing cross-town relationships, and in developing some positive relationships and looking at each other, not only in the eyes of someone else and not through those eyes of people that feel that there is a slanted view, we need to all be looking with the same vision at each other as well as the city as a whole.

Absolutely. We're talking to Fred Griego and Rita Padilla of the Shared Vision Project. We're going to take a musical break and then come and talk to them about what's going to be happening after the Town Hall meeting. We're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez,

and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez,

and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez,

and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez,

and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez,

and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez,

and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez,

and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez,

and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez,

and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez,

and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez,

and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez,

and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez, and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez,

and we're going to listen to a song of one of my favorite singers, Silvio Rodríguez,