Deterring Islamophobia

Note: This article originally appeared in the April 11, 2013 issue of The Pan American. The Pan American was the student newspaper at my former university, The University of Texas - Pan American, where I got into writing. Ultimately, TPA was shut down as a result of a merger with neighboring university to make way for The University of Texas - Rio Grande Valley and the new student publication did not transfer anything from TPA. Here's one of my articles for them that was saved thanks to the miracle of Google Docs.

Aarosa Sardar of Swat, Pakistan, wants to get one thing straight about Islam.

“A huge misconception is that suicide bombers and people like them are Muslims, but they’re not. The message of Islam is peace and love,” she said. “Extremists like that do not follow the word of Islam, and are therefore not Muslims.”

Sardar is vice president of The Muslim Students’ Association, an organization that interacts with UTPA students to represent the Muslim community. Their mission is to dissuade Islamophobia by educating students on Muslim people, their religion of Islam and how it affects everyday life.

According to the BBC, Muslims are followers of Islamic faith. Muslims are monotheistic and believe that Jesus is not the son of God, or Allah, but another prophet such as Abraham and Muhammad. Their holy book is the Qu’ran, which is believed to be the final record of the message that had already been given to Abraham, Moses, Jesus and other earlier prophets by God.

Laraib Safeer is the current president of the organization.

“We’re currently working on getting more members and getting the word out about us,” said the biology major from Pakistan. “There’s about seven regular members here. We’re an open group, no one has to be Muslim to join us.”

One of MSA’s regular members is Muhammad Sulaiman Rashid, who sees the organization as a way for members to help them identify themselves.

“It’s practical for Muslims to come together to sort out issues in a culture unlike their own,” the 20-year-old biology major said in an email interview. “We can use MSA as a vehicle to educate the public about what Islam truly is, a valuable goal in a post 9/11 world.”

The Association holds events like Q&A tablings once a month where the organization discusses several MSA related topics with students. Before Safeer was elected president this semester, the MSA focused on holding big events, such as a speaker series whose guests came to events and discussed Islamic topics.

After seeing how much students interacted at the Q&A’s, Safeer came up with the idea to hold monthly tablings as a way to educate people about Islam.

“There’s a lot of media coverage about Muslims, but people don’t seem to have an idea about what being Muslim is,” Safeer said. “We get asked a lot of basic questions, ranging from why we wear hijabs (head scarves that Muslim women traditionally wear), to personal questions about our beliefs. We’re helping them understand what being a Muslim is.”

In meetings, the organization discusses fundraisers and events, such as an upcoming tabling that will be held April 16; at this, members will display hijabs and allow students to try them on and learn why they’re worn as a sign of modesty.

Aside from reaching out to UTPA students, the MSA also works with the Muslim community outside of UTPA with activities such as game or movie nights in the Edinburg mosque, or place of worship, located on Jackson Road.

The Muslim Students’ Association meets noon every Thursday in Room 3.212 in the Science Building.

Hollyweird

A comedy of misadventures 

Note: This article originally appeared in the April 11, 2013 issue of The Pan American. The Pan American was the student newspaper at my former university, The University of Texas - Pan American, where I got into writing. Ultimately, TPA was shut down as a result of a merger with neighboring university to make way for The University of Texas - Rio Grande Valley and the new student publication did not transfer anything from TPA. Here's one of my articles for them that was saved thanks to the miracle of Google Docs.

Failure, according to Professor David Carren, is hilarious.

Again and again, audiences have responded to characters going through hell and back to resolve their various issues, such as the 1959 comedy Some Like it Hot where two struggling musicians disguise themselves as women after witnessing a mob related massacre.

This resulted in The American Film Institute voting Some Like it Hot as the greatest comedy ever back in 2000, and now Carren has written a play about that experience.

The communication professor wrote Hollyweird, a play based on his own experiences working in Hollywood in the ‘70s. It details the misadventures of Kelly Friedman, who represents Carren, a failed screenwriter in L.A., and her brother Bosco. Due to some comical circumstances, Brosco is blackmailed into committing several acts of murder, while a horrified Kelly must stop him.

According to Carren, his play was influenced by the many people working in the business who are starving for fame. However, he’s not referring to money.

“People in the business want recognition; there’s a hunger for it,” said Carren, who worked in Hollywood starting in 1978 and has been at UTPA since 2007. “Growing up, these people wanted to be part of the amazing process that is Hollywood and create a great story that will live on forever. It's the magic of a great story that makes Hollywood great.”

Several of the characters are portrayed as “highly fictionalized versions” of people Carren worked with. However, he stresses that the murders aren’t based on actual events and simply work as a plot device to move the story forward and dramatize how someone or something is always trying to “kill your dreams.”

According to Carren, the murders also represent how no one in the film business is safe from losing their livelihood.

“It’s chaotic, people lurch from one situation to the next, there’s no guarantee that people can keep their jobs,” Carren explained. “It’s quite scary. It makes the play closer to reality in some ways.”

Carren has experience working in Hollywood, having written for several TV shows such as Murder She Wrote, Diagnosis Murder, The Twilight Zone and Stargate SG-1 from 1997 until 1999. He reflected on how different writing for the stage was from writing for TV.

“In TV, one scene can’t be longer than three pages, but onstage, an entire scene can go on for dozens of pages,” he explained. “However, I still treated the dialogue as if I was writing for TV. Every single line had to count toward defining a character.”

Despite writing a play that deals with murder, Carren decided to adopt a comical tone to his stage and cited The LadyKillers, a 1955 British black comedy in which five men use an elderly woman to pull off a heist, as an influence.

“It’s hard to make a comedy out of murder, but The Ladykillers cracked it,” Carren said. “Like the movie, the crazier the murders become, the more absurd Hollyweird becomes. Even the cast is having a hard time keeping a straight face during practice.”

Heather Sanchez, who stars in the production as Kelly, explains the humor in the story.

“A lot of the victims are hateful characters that makes it easy for the audience to want to see them dead,” the 22-year-old theater performance major said. “The deaths themselves are bizarre accidents done so over the top that they’re almost cartoonish.”

Sanchez also adds that she sees the play as a warning to aspiring actors as to what Hollywood is like.

“The lesson is that the producers are the ones with with power in Hollywood and don’t appreciate the actual art of movies,” she said. “They’re number one priority is making the movie with the most money.”

The characters of Kelly and Brosco represent two sides of Carren. According to the University of Texas graduate, Brosco represents Carren if he'd stayed in Texas and not moved to L.A. or ever became a screenwriter. Kelly represents Carren if he'd failed in the business.

Kelly also represents a fractured relationship Carren has with his sister.

“We weren’t that close growing up, and I want to fix that,” he explained. “You can use fiction to correct things like this in your story. I wish that I had a sister who would do for me what Kelly does for Brosco.”

Despite being emotionally involved in the story, Carren decided to not be as involved with the making of the play, handing directorial and casting duties to communication professor Trey Mikolasky.

“I’m blessed to have him as a director. I’ve learned that writers and directors don’t mix well,” Carren said. ”We can get too bossy on the set if we don’t feel that the director is doing a good job with the script. It’s best to let the directors do their job, I have complete faith in Mikolasky’s vision.”

Even if Carren feels he has found that “one good story,” he isn’t done writing.

“I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished, but I still feel like my best work is ahead of me," he explained. "Therefore, I will continue to write and I don’t think I can stop. I don’t feel complete unless I’m writing.”

Hollyweird opens April 23 and will run until April 28 in the Albert L. Jeffers Theater in the ARHU. UTPA students and faculty have free admission. General admission is eight dollars. UTPA students get in for free.

Chicharrones, chamoy, Cheetos & cheese

RGV's strong culinary tastes more than a blend of North and South

Note: This article originally appeared in the March 21, 2014 issue of The Pan American. The Pan American was the student newspaper at my former university, The University of Texas - Pan American, where I got into writing. Ultimately, TPA was shut down as a result of a merger with neighboring university to make way for The University of Texas - Rio Grande Valley and the new student publication did not transfer anything from TPA. Here's one of my articles for them that was saved thanks to the miracle of Google Docs.

Shimin Cen knows a thing or two about different cultures.

Born in Antananarivo, Madagascar, the general studies major has eaten a lot during her travels, and has nothing but positive comments about Valley food.

“I’ve traveled around the U.S., and I can honestly say that the food down here is the richest I’ve ever had,” the 26-year-old said. “The cultural mix allows for so many different possibilities in flavor that is able to combine two unique cultures through food.”

Cen, who arrived to UTPA from Bordeaux, France, in 2010, said that among her favorite Valley foods are raspas, chicharones preparados, and tacos, which she said are different from the tacos she’s eaten during her travels.

Cen has traveled around Mexico (Monterrey, Zacatecas, Guadalajara), and described the tacos there as “plain corn tortillas the size of a person’s palm.”

In the Valley, she was delighted to see flour and different-size tortillas, and said she was “amazed” at the possibility of adding condiments such as lettuce, cheese, and tomato to the tacos.

CULTURES COMBINED

Valley food describes American food products influenced by Mexican cuisine. The food ranges from small snacks like raspas - or snow cones, to meals like barbacoa, a dish made out of the flesh of a cow’s face.

Among the most popular of these snacks is Hot Cheetos covered in nacho cheese, which even local drive-in restaurant Stars has begun to feature on the menu.

According to UTPA anthropology professor Margaret Graham, the affordability and strong flavors of the local fare appeals to the people of the RGV.

She notes that Valley food could be influenced by Tex-Mex cuisine. Tex-Mex is a term used to describe food made popular in central Texas as a way to make Mexican food appealing to a wide audience. Tex-Mex is known for adding cheese to several spicy Mexican dishes such as enchiladas, beans and rice as a way to dilute their spiciness.

“A lot of the Valley food is derived from Tex-Mex, it’s a reflection of the development in Tex-Mex in southern Texas,” she said. “We see their influence in how Valley food combine regular dishes with spicy condiments, like chamoy or chili powder.”

Norma Beardwood, a dietetics professor at UTPA, isn’t surprised at a phenomena like this. She said she has also noted that some of the Valley food is high in calories. For example, a 12 ounce serving of a chamoyada, a raspa with chamoy, contains 390 empty calories.

“There may be some idiosyncrasies between American and Mexican culture that allow for some room for both types of food to mix,” she explained, referring to how a lot of Valley snacks add spicy chamoy syrup or chile powder. “The culture down here is that people are used to spicy food. If it’s not spicy, then they’re going to find a way to make it spicy."

Eddie Villalobos, owner of La Hormiga: El Original, a raspa stand located at 1414 N. 23rd St. in McAllen, said he sees Valley foods as a way to make the people feel at home north of the border.

“It’s like a local connection for them. Plus, people don’t have to cross to Mexico for food like this,” he explained.

Villalobos opened his business 20 years ago as a raspa stand, then slowly expanded to include snacks or munchies, as he calls them. He sees his stand as a way to bring people together.

“College students from across the Valley make up 30 percent of the customers," he said. "The rest are either families or seniors, and they’re all cozy in this environment with food that they crave.”

Bearwood, a native of Rhode Island, Mich., said that every region has a unique spin on food.

She recalled how, at a recent potluck, she brought Boston Baked Beans, a local favorite in her hometown known for being sweet. It wasn’t exactly a hit at the party.

“People were disappointed that it wasn’t salty like it normally is here, it’s not something they’re used to,” she said. “But it’s funny because I wasn’t used to their food when I first came here in 1985.”

As for Valley foods, Beardwood doesn’t find the idea of Hot Cheetos covered in cheese “appealing” because, according to her, the idea of adding cheese on top of spicy cheese doesn't make sense. She also adds that a lot of the popular food choices can contain health risks.

UNHEALTHY CRAVINGS

In a Gallup poll released March 2012, the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission area was found to be the metropolitan area with the highest obesity rate in the country. The results show that nearly 39 percent of people in all of Hidalgo County are obese.

Bearwood thinks that that Valley foods contribute to that problem.

“This food is adding a bunch of unnecessary sugar and empty calories that we don’t need, ” she explained. “Raspas are essentially drinkable sugar, and foods like gummi bears with chamoy aren’t healthy. Gummi bears cause cavities, and chamoy is an acidic paste that can get in the cavities, it's not a good combination.”

Among the other effects she listed was sodium retention, leading to swollen hands and fingers as well as heart problems.

Graham, a native of Indianapolis, recommends alternatives. Some substitutions she suggests include switching a raspa out in favor of a trolebus, which is similar to a raspa, but is made from real fruit rather than mixed with syrup.

Even though she finds it unhealthy, Graham finds some merit in Valley food, citing it as a possible feel-good food.

“Food gives people a lot of comfort,” she explained. “We’re wired to look for comfort in food, not just in eating it, but in the preparation of it and the atmosphere in which we eat it.”

“The food here represents tradition. I may not like the nutritional content, but the food here is unique to the culture and shows how it’s something that future generations will repeat.”

Barber, butcher, baker

Sweeney Todd comes to UTPA

Note: This article originally appeared in the Feb. 21, 2013 issue of The Pan American. The Pan American was the student newspaper at my former university, The University of Texas - Pan American, where I got into writing. Ultimately, TPA was shut down as a result of a merger with neighboring university to make way for The University of Texas - Rio Grande Valley and the new student publication did not transfer anything from TPA. Here's one of my articles for them that was saved thanks to the miracle of Google Docs.

With a slash of the demon barber’s razor, Sweeney Todd’s customer is dead.

As blood gushes from his victim’s neck, Todd pulls a lever, causing his latest conquest to fall down a chute and land in the kitchen of Mrs. Lovett’s Pie Shop, where he will be ground into meat for her pies.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is an award-winning but violent musical by acclaimed composer Stephen Sondheim more than 30 years ago. It has been shown all over the world, and the latest production will be put on by the University Theater Department.

Sweeney Todd tells the tragic story of Benjamin Barker, a wrongly convicted man who returns to London under the new identity of Sweeney Todd. He had been sent to a penal colony in Australia 15 years prior to his return, by a corrupt judge who lusted after his wife. After hearing of her death, he plans to exact revenge by killing the judge, and then decides to murder unsuspecting customers in his barbershop.

Brian Warren, a professor in TV/film/theater, is the director of the product, which has been in the makings since September 2012 and will show on Feb. 27 to March 3,

“The musical, since being written in 1979, has become a classic,” the University of Houston graduate said. “We like to expose our students to all the great writers and Stephen Sondheim is one of them.”

Warren serves as the UTPA children’s theater specialist, but is no stranger to adult musicals with dark subject matter, having directed The Evil Dead Musical in fall 2010. Warren, who has been at the University since 2002, explained that musicals are more challenging to work on than a stage play because of all the elements involved.

“All theatre requires a collaborative effort from a lot of talented folks, but musicals add the extra level of vocal and instrumental music and often dance,” he said. “The coordination of music, dance and dialogue all add up to a difficult endeavor that shows the community what our students and others working on it are capable of.”

Despite his excitement to work on the musical, Warren admitted to being hesitant about the production. He worried that the amount of violence could make some audience members uncomfortable, but ultimately moved forward with it.

“It’s set in a time removed from the modern world, and in the course of the story, it shows how violence and revenge results in catastrophe,” he said. “In movies, we see people like Bruce Willis going on violent rampages, but Sweeney Todd teaches the lesson that violence as a means of justice is wrong.”

STAGING THE DRAMA

Still, the bloodshed that occurs on stage as Todd disposes of his customers is part of the reason for the musical’s popularity. Theater professor Jennifer Saxton, the costume designer for Sweeney Todd, is worried about how the blood will look on stage since it may not be noticeable to all the audience members, depending on where they’re seated.

“Blood looks great in TV and film because everyone can see it," she said. "But on stage, the blood is concentrated in one general area.”

Blood will still be shown, and Saxton figured out a way for it to not drench the costumes too much.

“The blood will only hit shirts, barber’s capes and arm guards that protect the costumes from the blood,” she said. “When Sweeney kills someone and gets blood on his arm guard, where the blood will land on, he’ll just take it off and throw it down the chute with the body.

Gina Marie plays Mrs. Lovett, Sweeney’s partner in crime. The Pharr native doesn’t think that the violence should prevent any audience members from enjoying themselves.

“I don’t think it matters because, while it does have plenty of intensity, there’s also equal parts comic relief,” the 25-year-old theater performance major said. “Knowing that it’s supposed to be entertaining helps with those feelings of seeing violence onstage, but there’s great entertainment underneath that darkness. Sweeney Todd provides equal amounts of gore and laughs. It’s a great time [for the audiences].”

For Marie, playing Mrs. Lovett, who harbors a crush on serial killer Todd, is a role she has pined for. She’s been working to make her interpretation of the role work by studying Cockney accents to make hers believable.

“Mrs. Lovett has been my dream role since I first started performing in eighth grade. I remember seeing a stage version of it with Patti Lupone as Lovett, and thinking ‘Yup, that’s the role I want for the rest of my life,’” she said of the Tony award-winning Broadway actress.

Following several deadly shootings such as the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting in Connecticut Dec. 14, and the California shooting rampage of ex-cop Christopher Dorner, several media outlets, such as Entertainment weekly in their Feb. 15 issue and ABC’s Nightline, questioned if there’s too much violence in entertainment. Warren thinks the wrong question regarding media and violence is being asked.

“In any play, it’s hard to control the violence since so many of the most famous ones are filled with violence,” he said. "Violence is ingrained so much into the human fabric, that the question isn’t ‘How much violence can we show?’ but, ‘How can we control our violent tendencies?’”

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street opens with a Pan Am night scheduled for Feb. 26. Due to the content matter, no children below the third grade will be permitted.

Will Texas legalize?

What Colorado and Washington mean for the Valley

Note: This article originally appeared in the November 29, 2012 issue of The Pan American. The Pan American was the student newspaper at my former university, The University of Texas - Pan American, where I got into writing. Ultimately, TPA was shut down as a result of a merger with neighboring university to make way for The University of Texas - Rio Grande Valley and the new student publication did not transfer anything from TPA. Here's one of my articles for them that was saved thanks to the miracle of Google Docs.

If one were to ask Jorge Trujillo his two favorite outcomes of the recent 2012 general election, he would answer that it’s between the new seats gained by Democrats in the U.S. Senate and the legalization of marijuana in Washington and Colorado.

“It’s wonderful. More states need to express sovereignty over archaic laws like federal criminalization of marijuana,” the 23-year-old biology graduate student said. “The benefits of this serve not only the user, but the government.”

The marijuana legalization, known as Washington Initiative 502 in Washington and Amendment 64 in Colorado, allows for the legal sale and distribution of marijuana to adults over the age of 21 for personal use. Both measures will provide commercial regulation of cannabis in specialty stores to licensed customers, provided that they’re purchasing an ounce or less.

This is the first time any state has decriminalized the personal use of marijuana. Trujillo predicts a domino effect occurring for other states legalizing marijuana, but doesn’t see it happening in Texas any time soon.

“Texas will be the last state to legalize marijuana. We’ll have the federal law changed before it happens,” he said.

Both measures passed with a slim margin.

According to the Colorado Secretary of State website, Amendment 64 received about 55 percent of votes and Initiative 502 received about 56 percent of votes, according to the Washington Secretary of State website.

Oregon attempted to pass a similar amendment, but the majority didn’t favor it. Fifty-three percent of voters were against it.

Colorado and Washington join a group of states that have already legalized marijuana. but those 16 did it with a caveat or two. The states legalized medical marijuana, the use of smoking pot for health benefits, and not for recreational use.

Betty Aldworth, who served on the Amendment 64 Campaign for Colorado, stated that the Denver-area district attorney is no longer pursuing cases involving marijuana possession of less than an ounce. She sees this as a benefit of the newly passed amendment.

“Some of the things people don’t think about, like wasting money on law enforcement, is a big deal,” she said. “We’re wasting too much money on it. Regulation is the better alternative.”

Aldworth predicts that as many as 10,000 Coloradoans will avoid going to jail for minor marijuana charges, and predicts an increase of $12 million to the economy from the specialty marijuana stores by 2014, a year after the amendment has gone into effect.

“We think Washington and Colorado can provide an excellent model in how marijuana can be regulated, provided that the wishes of the voters are respected by the federal government,” she said in a phone interview.

It could take as long as a year for marijuana to be sold in stores, but in Colorado, adults 21 and older can possess and grow a maximum of six marijuana plants, and sell up to an ounce of it as soon as Gov. John Hickenlooper signs a proclamation certifying the results of the election within 30 days of it. He has yet to do so.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR TEXAS

In a recent non-scientific anonymous poll conducted by The Pan American, students were asked if they believe that Texas should follow suit. Thirty-one out of the 48 participants said that it should be legalized, but expressed doubts that it would ever happen in Texas.

Texas District 40 State Representative Terry Canales shared his thoughts on the matter.

“I believe that Texas is still far from legalizing marijuana for any purpose because of the political landscape and the conservative majority,” he said.

However, Canales expressed some concern over the amount of people being housed in prison for minor drug charges.

“I believe it is time that we look past the negative propaganda of yesteryear and really address the cost-benefit analysis of housing so many criminal inmates stemming from personal or medicinal use possession of marijuana versus the alternatives,” Canales said.

He doubts he’ll see any legislation in the upcoming session addressing the issue of legalizing cannabis but plans to remain “open minded” about the issue.

“I think Texas will be one of the last ones. We’re too morally conservative,” said John Morales, a 20-year-old anthropology major. “I think most states are going to wait and see what happens with Colorado and Washington before they move in that direction”

UTPA Professor George Vincentnathan, chair for the Criminal Justice Department, said that despite a federal law that prohibits marijuana, it is possible for states to avoid persecution from the federal system.

“Even if it’s illegal in the federal level, national and federal laws can be accommodated as long as it’s not a constitutional issue,” he explained. “No state law can oppose federal law, but there are exceptions if it’s not a constitutional issue.”

Keila Sanchez, a junior majoring in psychology, doesn’t support marijuana legalization.

“If you’re just going to smoke it for fun, what’s the point? There are other outlets available,” the 19-year-old Progreso native said.

Sanchez also thinks that marijuana laws in Colorado and Washington won’t stop minors from smoking.

“You need a license to buy weed in Colorado,” she explained. “Minors can just as easily get a fake ID or get someone with an ID to buy it for them, just like how they do with beer.”

Under the Federal Controlled Substance Act of 1970, marijuana is regarded as a dangerous drug with no real medical usage and a high potential for substance abuse.

Many critics of the plant believe that legalization can increase the danger of marijuana-influenced drivers, cause lung damage, create negative mental effects on users and is a gateway drug, according to information collected by the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

James Wenzel, the chair of the UTPA Political Science Department, said that while it’ll be interesting to see if other states follow suit, the chances of it happening in Texas are the same as “a snowball fight in Veracruz in the middle of August.”

“The political climate of Texas is very different from Washington and Colorado,” the associate professor said. “We’re not exactly known as a hotbed for progressive politics.”

Philip Ethridge, a UTPA criminal justice professor, believes that a common stereotype involving marijuana could hamper its chances of being smoked in public.

“Many people believe that marijuana is a gateway drug,” the explained. “As long as there’s people that still believe that, then marijuana will remain at a personal level, for recreational use only.”

However, he also expressed some interest in the effects of the law in Colorado and Washington.

“In the next couple of years, states will look at those two states and see what impact the legislation had on them,” he said. “For now, it seems as if it’s the beginning of states realizing that arresting and prosecuting those for small amounts is too much for the system.”