Oh lord, here we go again... For the record, I work for La Raza Galería Posada, so my apologies to the Sac Press if this violates any of your community rules, but I really cannot sit by idly and let this kind of slander continue. So, in short, here's the deal: "La Raza" is a contraction of the title of a 1925 essay by Mexican philosopher Jose Vasconcelos, entitled "La Raza Cosmica" (The Cosmic Race). It was, in essence, a repudiation of the silly societal divisions based on appearance that had been proffered by European colonizers in the Americas. From Wikipedia: "The phrase, "La raza cósmica", in English "the cosmic race", embodies the notion that traditional, exclusive concepts of race and nationality can be transcended in the name of humanity's common destiny." From our organization's mission statement and by-laws: "La Raza Galeria Posada is a multi-disciplinary cultural center and public space serving the Sacramento community by offering Latino/Chicano and Native arts programming, art education workshops, and a community gathering place. LRGP is a center of cultural pride, self-governance, self-expression and community empowerment through the arts. We remain a public space where young and old come to pass on their stories, share their challenges, create art and build community." For the record, people of all - and multiple - races, ethnicities, sexual orientations and other societal identities work, volunteer and participate in our events and programming. As an IRS-recognized 501c3 organization, we are expressly barred from endorsing or participating in the affairs of politics and politicians. If, rather than sit behind an anonymous screen name and default photo, you'd rather come in and actually have a conversation with us, I invite you to come to any and all of our events, or even just to drop by during our regular operating hours: 11am - 6pm, Tuesday through Saturday, year round. All, even the snide and cowardly, are welcome.

Hi Kelsey! Thanks so much for the article. There's just a couple things - and I know I was talking really fast on the phone today, so no worries: - it's Marcos, not Michael Sanchez - Alta California: Celebrations of Home is the first of many community celebrations for Mexico's Bicentennial Celebrations, all of which are sponsored by the Mexican Consulate of Sacramento and the Foreign Relations Secretary of Mexico - the community participation part of the exhibit is where we ask people to bring in their own memories, photos and memorabilia to be a part of the second iteration of the exhibit, when it moves to the new Mexican Consulate building in 2011 my thanks again, -m

Hi Jim! I hope you're having a good Monday. I'm not even going to give you the pleasure of having something to raise your blood pressure at me for. Haters gonna hate, Waiters gonna wait, Taters gonna tate and Jim Knapp is...ah, the puns abound. I'll tell you what, for every person like you who screams themselves blue in the face about the Mexican take over and god-knows what else, three more curious people come in to the gallery and find out that not only do we mean them no harm, but that we're actually in the midst of some pretty cool stuff. One can only hope that, in spite of having so much energy to spare on us, a significant portion of this passion you obviously have is dedicated to some constructive activities. I wish for you only the best things in life, and maybe the stones to come in and see us one day, We're at 1022-1024 22nd street, Tuesday through Saturday 11am to 6pm. Looking forward to making your acquaintance, Michael Collett

so the Lou Dobbs reprint was..? The topic is my place of employment, and baseless accusations about us and the work we do. The use of ad hominem insults - even in passing - diversionary tactics and plagiarism; that's where we disagree. Well, that and the ability to spell. with this, i end my troll feeding. good night, and good luck.

so long as we're trading completely unrelated news stories: (from CBS News) PHOENIX (CBS/AP) Anti-illegal immigration "extremists" murdered a Hispanic father and his 9-year-old daughter and gravely injured the man's wife in order to raise money for their cause, say Arizona police. Jason Eugene Bush, 34, Shawna Forde, 41, and Albert Robert Gaxiola, 42, have been charged with two counts each of first-degree murder and other charges, said Sheriff Clarence Dupnik of Pima County, Arizona. The trio is alleged to have disguised themselves as law enforcement officers, forced their way into a home in rural Arivaca on May 30, and shot and killed Raul Junior Flores, 29, and his daughter Brisenia Flores, 9. Raul Flores' wife obtained a gun and fired back, hitting Bush. The wife was also wounded, according to police. Her name is not being released at this time.

For the record, this entire comment is plagiarized from a blog post by Representative Charlie Norwood (R-Georgia) that was written on HumanEvents.com, the self-styled "headquarters of the conservative underground." Rep. Norwood died in 2007 and per the Washington Post (via wikipedia), he was "one of 33 House members who voted against renewing the Voting Rights Act [in 2006]". This post is the subject of a 100+ post thread on avowedly racist website stormfront.org and appears on the websites of the munitemen border millitia and other right-wing groups.

To be clear, while I am an employee of LRGP the opinions above are strictly my own and are not those of our organization, our board or our sponsors.

Mr. Knapp, As an employee of La Raza Galeria Posada, I am compelled to address a few of the accusations you've levied at us. (My apologies to the kind folks at the sacpress if this crosses a line, feel free to remove this comment at your discretion) 1. As someone using a picture of a man in uniform for your posting avatar, you should (though you may not) understand the role that the United States (and our armed forces in particular) have played in the subjugation of "third world" countries, especially those in Latin America. Driven by a desire to control resources and capital, and through abject force, coercion and/or collusion, these United States have supported and continue to support some of the most entrenched, stomach churning villains the world has ever known, tyrants whose impact on the people of the countries they lorded over has yet to be undone. Mexicans and Latin Americans in general have fought and died in nearly countless numbers to re-gain freedoms stripped from them by despots on our speed dial. 2. The red herring accusation of antisemitism should really be viewed as just that. In my time with this organization, we have worked with people and organizations of discrete, disparate and multiple faiths and we certainly do not look upon violence as an acceptable resolution to disputes or border alignments. 3. "La Raza" is a contraction of "La Raza Cosmica", or "the cosmic race", the title of a 1925 book by Jose Vasconcelos that attempted to refute the perversions of Darwinism that were in vouge at the time. The term then denoted what the author perceived as the beginning of the end of petty pseudo-racial and nationalistic delineations between people, and advocated a pan-ethnic consciousness that reflected the already mixed nature of people living in the iberic american colonies. While the phrase has been picked up by radical groups, it certainly does not have the exclusively nationalist connotation you're imbibing it with. A similar mistake would be accusing all followers of Islam of sharing the Black Nationalist beliefs of the Nation of Islam (although, judging by the specious quality of your reasoning, this might be something you'd do. Please, don't.) 4. Cherry-picking one piece of correspondence from one organization and attempting to slander the goals and reputation of another with it is really minor league stuff. This is not in the spirit of rational debate and apparently serves only to bolster through bluster what amounts to an untenable argument. A similar tactic, if I wanted to respond in kind, would be to drone on about how everyone in uniform is of the same mind as the prison guards ad Abu Ghraib; which, aside from being patently untrue, is actually a more rational argument, since the Abu Ghraib guards are professional kin-folk of every man and woman in uniform and a similar kinship does not exist between us and the organizations you've cited. All that said, I, like Mindy invite you to come to our events. Here at 1022-1024 22nd street you will find people of all ages, races, creeds and political leanings who are interested in sharing and exposing themselves to new and different customs and cultures, and appreciating the differences and commonalities between them. By the way, Mexico celebrates its 200th year of independence in 2010 (not it's 400th, as you mistakenly wrote), and by my yard stick, keeping anything going for 200 years - never mind an entire country! - is quite an achievement, wouldn't you say?