I'm in a new decade...

Well, it's finally here.  The age I've been dreading for a very long time.  I've crossed into unknown land of now becoming a 30-something.  I have to admit, I'm not liking the ring to it all that much.  One of the biggest changes I have felt is I've lost my scapegoat.  Let me explain...

I feel that 20-somethings have a pass to try new things, mess up and most of all not be definitive on their life path and where it is all going.  I know in my offices (both past and present) many of my colleagues would say, "You're 20-something, you've got time and you're not expected to know how to solve the world's problems."  However, you never hear that for 30-somethings.  For me, being a 30-something implies that you've got it all figured out, which clearly I don't.

One of the other problems I'm having with this birthday is the power of visualization.  In the spirit of still wanting to have my 20-something scapegoat, I will blame this on all the self help books that I've read that say, "Picture what your life will look like when you are (fill in the blank)."  Now, although I am a creative person and take creative liberties in almost everything I do, my visualization looks nothing like the actualization.

I wonder if I am the only one out here that feels this way?

However, on the flip side, I did have the most wonderful birthday ever.  I wish every day could be my birthday without getting any older of course!!  I loved hearing from some many of my friends and family who I don't get a chance to connect with everyday.  I also want to give a big shout out to my in-laws and my husband for such a wonderful celebration.  I truly did feel loved and it gave 30 a much gentler landing!  Thanks again.  Love to everyone.

Join us tonight on Heart to Heart at 9 pm EST (6 pm PST).

On Heart to Heart this Sunday will be three women who together uncover the laws, policies and practices that women face when they are stuck in a difficult circumstance of being in an abusive relationship and having questionable immigration status.  If you heard our first immigration show, join us for a part two of this discussion.  

Please join Shirley and Maria as we explore with our guests the challenges these women are confronted with as they try to leave their abusers, the difficulties of navigating the legal, criminal justice, and immigration systems and the impact this has on the family unit, especially the children.  This Sunday’s Scales of Justice Show uncovers the laws, policies and practices that women face when they are stuck in a difficult circumstance of trying to leave their relationships with their own safety and family intact.  Please join Shirley and Maria as we explore with our guests the challenges these women are confronted with as they try to leave their abusers, the difficulties of navigating the legal, criminal justice, and immigration systems and the impact this has on the family unit, especially the children.

This show will be packed with expert legal knowledge from Sonia Parras Konrad, Co-Director of ASISTA, an legal agency that helps advocate for women who are experiencing these issues, Azuzenna Aguayo, from the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services who works specifically on these cases, and you will hear from Rosie Sanchez who will her share her personal experiences with this issue. 

The show airs tonight 6 pm PST (9 pm EST).  To listen go to www.blogtalkradio.com/scalesofjustice  

Thanks,

Maria :)

Meet our guests here now:

SONIA PARRAS KONRAD

2529 Ingersoll Ave, Suite 8, Des Moines IA 50312

(515) 255-917Sonia@asistahelp.org
Sonia co-directs ASISTA, Technical Assistance for Immigrant Survivors, a nation-wide program that provides immigration technical assistance to front line advocates and attorneys on advanced issues arising out of the legal representation of immigrant survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking. ASISTA was funded by the Office on Violence Against Women, Department of Justice. She is also in private practice at the Law Offices of Sonia Parras PLLC.

Sonia is an activist and educator on domestic violence issues and legal remedies for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking.  She is the author of Rompiendo el Silencio(Breaking the Silence), a manual for Latino community activists organizing against domestic violence and sexual assault, published by the Family Violence Prevention Fund and Defensa y Promocion de la Mujer Latina (Defense and Promotion of the Latino Woman) published by National Latino Alliance.  Through her work Sonia strives to promote the organization and leadership of immigrant survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.  Sonia is the founder of MUNA, a legal clinic for immigrant survivors serving the entire state of Iowa where she worked for 12 years and LUNA, an innovating culturally tailored domestic violence and sexual assault agency providing services to Latinas by Latinas.

Sonia is a frequent speaker on immigration issues and innovative community organizing techniques, both locally and nationally.

In 2002, Sonia, in conjunction with the EEOC, represented a number of immigrant women survivors of sexual assault in a class action against their employer. The case resulted in a substantial financial settlement on behalf of the survivors (1.5 million dollars).  In 2008, Sonia represented more than 70 immigrants detained during the major raid in US history pro bono filing over 48 U visas To date 42 U visas have been approved and 12 more have been filed and are pending.

Sonia is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), the Iowa Bar Association, the Board of Directors of the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild Association, and a Board Member of the National Alliance to End Violence Against Immigrant Women.  She is the chair of the detention subcommittee of the Iowa-Nebraska AILA chapter and the advisory board member of the National Judicial Institute on Domestic Violence of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. On 2009, she received the Pro Bono AILA annual Michael Maggio award for her work on Postville.

Sonia graduated in 1996 from the Universidad de Granada (Spain), College of Law and completed her legal education at Drake University Law School in 1999.

Also on the show is Azuzenna Aguayo:

Azuzenna Aguayo is a Children’s Social Worker who has worked with the Department of Children and Family Social Services as a Social Worker for seven years.  She is an Intensive Services Worker who assists families who come into the system of DCFS.  Her job is to assist in maintaining the children in the home of parents and/or family members when they have been victims of abuse.   She also assists in connecting the families with services such as Individual Therapy, Parenting, Domestic Violence, Substance abuse treatment programs, etc…
A great deal of the families that she works for have Mother’s who have been victims of Domestic Violence and are undocumented immigrant.

She was born and raised in East Los Angeles.  She is the second of four children and the first person to attend the university on both sides of her family.  She graduated University of California Santa Cruz in 1994 with a B.A. in Sociology.  She completed 52 graduate credits form California State University in Los Angeles in Child Development and Education.  She was a teacher for The Los Angeles Unified School District for 5 years.
She became a stay at home Mother in the year 2000.  She raised her son for two and a half years and returned to the work force at the end of 2002.
She has worked for the Department of Children and Family Social Services for the past 7  years.  Although it is a very emotionally loaded job,  she believes she found her calling.

Appearing on the show for the personal side of this issue is Rosie Sanchez: (As written by Rosie)

Rosie Sanchez

Rosa Maria Sanchez, is currently in Mexicali, Baja California after serving a sentence of 25 years to life at the California institution for women, for a crime she did not commit.  She has the utmost respect for the sanctity of human life.

This is the fact of her unique case. In 1985, she was a business owner, operating a wholesale store called “Rosey’s of California,” in the garment district in Los Angeles, California. She sold women’s and children’s clothes, she had customers from San Francisco, Palm Spring, Chicago, Texas, Washington, Oklahoma and Mexico. She used to have a casual relationship with her neighbors and she never had problems with anyone.

At the time of her arrest, she was 24 years old, a single mother of four children, Gustavo 7 years, Irving 5 years, Rosie 4 years and Grace 2 years. Her grasp of English language was less than fair, for over a year she waited for her case to come to trial, faith walled up, in the judicial system, in her attorney and in knowing her own innocence. She knew there was no possible way that they would find her guilty of a crime she did not commit.

Her heart goes out to the victims of this tragedy and their families. Adam Ramos was greatly mistaken when he saw a profile of a woman for about 5 seconds and believe to be Rosie.  When the fire occurred, she was sleeping at home with her four children, her sister Lorena, a live in baby-sitter Juanita, and a friend and neighbor Maribel, who needed a ride from work to home because her car had broke down the day before.

She had no reason to commit such a crime, she had a successful business, and she had financial records that will verify that her business was doing very well.  Her store was in the same building where the fire occurred, it was only 2 doors adjacent from Maribel’s store.  She could have easily lost her business and she had no insurance.

When she was arrested and accused of starting the fire, her attorney arranged bail and one week later on Christmas Eve 1985, she was released on $100,000.00 bail. While she was out on bail she continued working and taking care of her children, she could have easily fled to Mexico, but she did not because she was not guilty. Rosie thought that justice would prevail, despite the enormous amount of evidence to prove her innocence and the (69) favorable witnesses on her behalf.  Evidence that the jury did not see because of her attorney’s failure to introduce it during her trial, her attorney was more concerned about saving court time that to defend her innocence. Approximately, after 8 hours of testimony, defense taking approximately 30 minutes, with not a single thread of physical evidence and only highly questionable hearsay evidence, she was convicted of a crime she did not commit.

Since her conviction she have been seeking legal assistance to prove her innocence to no avail. The courts denied her appeal not on the merits of the case, but due to 80 days delay (which were circumstances beyond her control that did not allow her to file on time).  Also the sentencing judge Sam Bubrick wrote numerous letters to BPT and CDC urging them to recommend a recall of sentencing under pc 1170(d).

Finally, on October 14, 2009, the Board of Prison Terms panel… (PLEASE ASK HEIDI)

For years she prayed that they will see her case for what it is, a miscarriage of justice. Finally after almost 24 years they review the facts of her unique case, and they determined that it was time to correct the wrong done to her and her family.  Unfortunately, the injustice did not end then, (Heidi can explain better what I mean by this). Now, she is living as a productive member of her community in Mexicali, Baja California and her children continue to visit her, the nightmare is not over yet.

Her children deserve to be reunited with their mother after more the 23 long years of pain and suffering.  As hard as it can be, the Governor should give back to her family their belief in what they thought America stood for “Liberty and Justice.”

Very truly yours,

Rosie M. Sanchez

P.S.  PERSONAL INFORMATION: (686) 556-4550 home .… (686) 243-7461 cell

SKYPE:  (RMA318201)

Restorative justice that is truly restoring...

I had just heard from my good friend and former colleague Gigi today and I have to admit, our conversation brought me to tears.  It was just over two years ago that she was able to win in the appellate courts overturning Gov. Schwarenegger's reversal of her parole decision.  This ended her 29 year stay in prison on a 10-life sentence for killing her abuser.  (In California, you can serve a portion of your lowest sentence and then you are reviewed by the parole board, which consists of law enforcement officials, victims and the community.  If you are  granted parole, which is highly unlikely as they look at three different factors (your life before prison, the nature of your crime and your life in prison) and for most, they are denied based upon a factor that isn't going to change: the nature of their crime and no consideration is given to their restoration and remorse since they've been inside.  Unfortunately, people change but crimes don't and this loophole keeps many women in prison well overdue.  If and only if you are granted parole, the governor must sign off on this decision.  Because of the political risk, 90% of cases are reversed by the governor.)

Gigi is now working her first fulltime job with benefits at All of Us or None, an agency committed to helping women when they come out of prison.  Not only is she excelling in this job, but she told me that on my birthday next week she will be flying to Sacramento.  She was chosen to testify against the current way that California determines parole choices for lifers.

As soon as she told me this, I felt such a strange feeling of pride.  This was not the inner pride you feel when you accomplish something, it was greater.  This type of pride has been explained to me by my friends who have children feel when their children accomplish something great; however, I've never truly grasped it until right now.  I felt so excited and happy for Gigi and was really moved by her persistence to keep on making the lives' of others better.  When she started working with me two years ago, I saw that she had something special.  However, all she really had to do was to start believing in that.

This couldn't be a better birthday present to me.  Gigi, keep on inspiring me and others for the rest of your life.  You have made your mark and I pray that on March 15th next week, you will be the voice that Sacramento will hear.  California, you can't afford to over incarcerate, reverse parole decisions based upon political gain and not schedule the next board hearing until 15 years later, it has got to change.

Unexpected Outcomes...

Last night was my first big charity event since I got on the bus last year.  I helped organize an intimate dinner at St. Paul's Church in Paterson NJ to benefit their Afterschool and CityServe programs.  Both programs serve the youth in Paterson, NJ, which at the turn of the century was a booming area for silk manufacturing that today houses high rates of violence, drugs and poverty.  These two programs aim to defy these risk factors for the kids that are involved.  Each year 33 elementary students participate in the Afterschool Program every day from 3:30- 6:00 pm and 50 teens participate in an all-day summer CityServe program, whose focus is community service.  The results are simple.  With the help of mentors, staff and Americorp members, students literacy, math and writing scores go up on average one-two grade levels.  They also add community service to their resumes by participating in service projects like helping seniors, volunteering at a food bank or a daycare and creating artwork to beautify their community.

The dinner's main focus was to invite new and existing donors alike to learn about the programs and to hear from the children the direct impact of what the programs have done.  Not only were we successful in doing this, I also heard an interesting story that I wanted to share with all of you.

One of the pieces that we orchestrated last night was a "Oprah-style" talk show, where yours truly was Oprah (Big surprise, I know).  I got a chance to interview one girl from the CityServe program last night about her involvement in the program.  It was a great interview all around and she was incredibly candid with her answers.  The amazing piece is (partially because of the chaos surrounding an event and partially because I forgot to ask) until she got up and spoke into the microphone, I really didn't have any idea what she was going to say.  After she sat down, I breathed a sigh of relief as my responsibilities for the evening were coming to a close and I focused my efforts on more pressing things, like packaging up the extra lasagna.

As the night ended, I inhaled a cookie and sat down and reflected on what how I thought the night went.  I thought about our guests, the food, and the agenda, but I didn't really think about the impact of the event on the kids.  Now, in my defense, I wasn't trying to be heartless, I just was thinking that this event was planned for the donors and it didn't even fall into my scope that the program participants may have felt impacted.

As I woke up this morning, I got a call from my boss.  In her commendation to me, she told me the story of the girl I referred to above.  She said that at the end of the night, she had a long conversation with the Director of the CityServe Program about what the night had meant to her.  She said that she felt so honored to be featured as a speaker.  She was even more excited that she was able to share the knowledge and the wisdom she gained by being a part of the program.  She said that "this was one of the most important things she has ever done in her life."

To say the least, I was taken aback.  This event that was supposed to be a way for the kids and the agency to thank the donors, also had a secondary side effect of uplifting and empowering the participants!  What luck!  I give myself no credit in this.  However, I have learned this lesson..Never underestimate the power of giving someone a voice, especially those out there that typically don't have one.

Thanks to everyone who came out and supported me and the program last night either physically, mentally, spiritually or all three together!!