Ballet folklorico, teenagers, immigration--they are all one in my world.

It has been just over a week since I last posted. Why? El Gran Show de Primavera. Last night was the Ballet Folklorico's 2nd annual spring show. We do two full-length shows a year at the school, one in December, which is a dinner theater production in the cafeteria, and one in the spring in the Performing Arts Center. There is a lot involved besides just the dancing and the dancers. There are costumes and hairpieces--which thank goodness, another teacher, Ana Luna helped be make last weekend--9 hours on Saturday, the programs, the light and sound cues, the set-up (or lack there of...tracking down a microphone 30 minutes before the show, because those who were supposed to set it up never did), the script I have to write and deliver about the various Mexican regions in both English and Spanish, so the girls have time to change, the ticket collectors, the ticket vendor, the process for the kids to get extra credit in Spanish for various other teachers who don't come themselves on the last day of the marking period, the hair and make-up, the nerves, the tears, the fear a non-make-up wearer has when she gets her eye glued shut putting on her fake eyelashes, the late pizza delivery and making sure everyone eats so they don't pass out on stage, the ticket-selling contest for which the prizes are dinners at restaurants that you pay for out of your own pocket, your choreographer giving the kids a homework assignment for next week without asking you if you have planned something and changing a costume plan, without telling you, which already has been recorded on the costume inventory for the costume mistress, the constant whining of your Spanish students because you are not grading fast enough for them while you are taking care of all these things, teaching all week through thick and thin to keep all your classes on track with the curriculum, because state testing week is not far off and then all you can do is have salsa lessons and play games, because you never know who will be in class and who will be finishing tests and the kids' brains are mush anyway. And you do all this for free, because the school wants to have a folklorico program, but they don't want to fund it. And while you don't really care about folklorico per se, you care about these kids and you want it to be good, because you want other people to see these kids and see how they are great and that their culture is great and that they matter and they have something to add to the world and the country and to the school. Because they do. Because they aren't here to take away anything. They are here to add to it. And they do. They just need a chance and an outlet in which to do it.

And I was asked to do it and so I do. But I have told the school that I am not going to do it next year, because I have real talents that I want to use, but I can't really teach folklorico, as I am dependent on a choreographer. It causes me to not be able to control and plan my classes they way I would like. I can direct plays in Spanish, organize events to promote Hispanic culture, work with salsa dancers, help produce spots for the campus TV station about Hispanic life and history--and have time to explore my own interests, like starting an online magazine to promote international interests in young women. But I really fear that the program will die. I pray that the administration really commits to getting someone on board with real experience in Mexican folklorico. It is important that there is a continuity, that the school see staying power in a Mexican program. In the meantime, we get ready for our Cinco de Mayo performances. We never stand still.

Today, I will get my hair done--the gray roots that I am too young to have are creeping back and then I will finally grade my Spanish tests. Tomorrow (Sunday), I will go into school to enter grades in the computer so that I can submit them on Monday. All the while I will be thinking about those kids and the immigration debate. Yesterday the Senate failed to pass anything, thanks to the conservative Republicans with their scores of amendments and the Democrats that didn't just let them be voted down. I wonder, on their recess back home fundraising like mad if they will be thinking about these kids. Probably not. On Monday I know a number of my kids are going to march about immigration, not understanding fully what the Congress being in recess means. They didn't march last week when kids from other schools did, because it was towards the end of the grading period and they cared about their grades and also they were getting ready for their show--these kids are really criminals, man. Some were talking about buying little American flags to wave, but I know that the kids with Mexican flags will make the papers, because that stirs up more debate--but let's face it, they are Mexicans until we let them in, and I, a Spanish teacher, have a funny Irish bumper sticker in my classroom, because five generations ago, some Irish people showed up here and now here I am and I am still proud of that, and here in Texas, not far from here, tens of thousands of people in New Brunfels celebrate Wurstfest every year and drink too much beer and listen to an unending stream of polka music and noone thinks they are unAmerican. But these kids will at best get unexcused absences from school and may get into more trouble than that. I want to adopt them all and keep them safe and let them grow and be what they should be allowed to be--their best.