The annual event drew thousands of El Pasoans to the scenic city overlook, to visit Santa and view the region by the soft glow of the luminarias.
Our very own Ace Acosta was there and brings you his view of the event via this ‘Story in Many Pics.’
The annual event is scheduled from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday, December 16, 2017.
The luminarias’ amber light will guide vehicles slowly westward along Scenic Drive — past the serenity of campfires manned by event volunteers — and toward Santa Claus.
Old St. Nick will be joined by Mrs. Claus, Santa’s cousin Pancho Claus, their elves, and a live nativity scene. Santa and Mrs. Claus will be collecting canned foods or cash donations to help El Paso families in need.
Each Christmas season, more than 100 Centro de Salud Familiar La Fe, Inc. (La Fe) staff members and volunteers work together throughout the day to stage this beloved holiday tradition.
La Fe CEO Salvador Balcorta MSSW said, “This is our organization’s gift to El Paso. Luminarias are traditional, shining beacons of hope for peace and social justice. They are a symbol of the commitment that La Fe has had to our community’s families since 1967.”
The 4,000-plus Navidad de La Fe Luminarias symbolize much more than just La Fe’s Christmas spirit.
“These luminarias represent La Fe’s hope that every El Paso child and family receives peace, health, quality housing, education, and social justice in the New Year. It’s up to each of us to work together to make that happen. It is what La Fe’s founders believed in 1967. It’s what we believe today,” Balcorta added.
Canned foods can be dropped off at the top of Scenic Drive with Santa and Mrs. Claus. Cash donations to help feed El Paso families in need are also welcomed. Checks can be made out to “Centro de Salud Familiar La Fe” or to “La Fe.”
The event is free and open to the public. Beginning at 6 p.m., vehicles can enter Scenic Drive at Richmond Avenue (eastside of the mountain). Traffic will enter Scenic Drive at Richmond Avenue and head westbound in a single lane.
Vehicles will exit Scenic Drive at Rim Road. Drivers are asked to dim their vehicle’s lights and proceed slowly and cautiously along the event route. For safety reasons, participants are asked to remain inside their vehicles at all times.
For more information, the public can call (915) 545-7190.
Five classic Mexican-made, themed, or directed horror films will be screened during this community event. Food and refreshments will be available for sale during each screening.
All proceeds will benefit La Fe’s culture, arts, and education programming. This event is made possible thanks to support from the City of El Paso Museums and Cultural Affairs Department and community members.
Screenings will take place at noon and at 6 p.m. at the La Fe Culture and Technology Center, 721 South Ochoa in the Rear Building.
Admission for all screenings is free. Students, artists, educators, and community members of all ages are encouraged to attend.
Doors open 30 minutes before each screening for food and refreshment sales. For more information about this and all La Fe or CAPEA events, please call (915) 545-7190.
MIEDO A LA MEXICANA 2017 film list …
▪ Monday, Oct. 23, 2017: “Más Negro Que La Noche” (Blacker Than Night)
Director: Carlos Enrique Taboada, 1975; Starring: Claudia Islas, Lucia Mendez, Susana Dosamantes, Helena Rojo, and Pedro Armendáriz Jr.
▪ Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2017: “El Libro de Piedra” (The Book of Stone)
Director: Carlos Enrique Taboada, 1969; Starring: Marga López, Joaquín Cordero, and Norma Lazareno
▪ Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2017: “Hasta El Viento Tiene Miedo” (Even the Wind Is Afraid)
Director: Carlos Enrique Taboada, 1968; Starring: Marga López, Maricruz Olivier, and Alicia Bonet
▪ Thursday, Oct. 26, 2017: “El Laberinto del Fauno/ Pan’s Labyrinth” (R)
Director: Guillermo Del Toro, 2006; Starring: Ivana Baquero, Sergi López, and Maribel Verdú
▪ Friday, Oct. 27, 2016: “La Leyenda de La Llorona” (Animated/TV-G)
Director: Alberto Rodriguez, 2011; Starring the Voices of: Monica Del Carmen, Erick Canete, and Miguel Couturier
Officials say the reception will run from 6 to 9 p.m., this Friday, September 8, 2017 at the La Fe Culture and Technology Center’s (CTC) Galería Aztlan, 721 South Ochoa (Rear Building). Admission to this event and to the exhibit is free.
Throughout the evening, community members will be able to meet one-on-one with the 11 established and emerging photographers behind this impressive collection of visual art.
The 2017 Foto Frontera Exhibition features the works of select Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona photographers. The artists include: Emmitt Booher, Claudia Cárdenas, Patrick Craig, Sazhrah Gutiérrez, Karen Hymer, Barbara McCourt, Paulo Peres, and Roger Spencer-Jones.
Noted El Paso photographers Federico Villalba, Arturo Enriquez, and Vallarie Enriquez curated this exhibit and have several of their own works in this exhibition, as well.
Foto Frontera will be on display from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday until Oct. 20, 2017, at the La Fe CTC’s Galería Aztlan. Students, educators, activists, artists, and community members of all ages are strongly encouraged to participate in this exhibit’s opening reception and showing.
This event is made possible thanks to support from the City of El Paso Museums and Cultural Affairs Department and the Texas Commission on the Arts.
For more information about this or other La Fe events, please call (915) 545-7190.
An estimated 20,000 to 30,000 Chicano youth and activists marched on Los Angeles on Aug. 29, 1970 in protest of the overwhelming numbers of Chicano soldiers dying on the frontlines of the Vietnam War.
Acclaimed Journalist Ruben Salazar — a central figure of the Chicano Civil Rights Movement and a native of El Paso — was killed that day, reportedly by a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy who hurled a live teargas canister into a building where Salazar and others were standing.
Doors open at 9 a.m. for a pre-forum menudo sale. A free screening of “Requiem 29,” Moctesuma Esparza’s 1971 documentary on this historic event will take place at 10 a.m.
A panel discussion featuring El Pasoans who were present at the 1970 Chicano Moratorium will take place at 10:30 a.m
This educational event is made possible thanks to support from the City of El Paso Museums and Cultural Affairs Department, the Texas Commission on the Arts, and the University of Texas at El Paso’s Chicano Studies Department.
When & Where: “For Our Brother Soldiers: Lessons from the 1970 Chicano Anti-Vietnam Moratorium”
Saturday, Aug. 26, 2017 | La Fe Culture and Technology Center
721 S. Ochoa (Rear Building)
Menudo breakfast sale starts at 9 a.m.
Screening of “Requiem 29” starts at 10 a.m.
Community forum starts at 10:30 a.m. Admission is free.
For more information about this or other La Fe events, please call (915) 545-7190
This Friday, July 14, 2017, La Fe welcomes its special guest, Community Singer María Melín and her romance and bolero-inspired music. This family evening will also include live music from the Guitarras De La Fe.
Students, educators, artists, and all community members of all ages are encouraged to attend. La Fe’s Café Quetzalcoatl series and other cultural arts activities are made possible thanks to support from the City of El Paso’s Museums and Cultural Affairs Department and the Texas Commission on the Arts.
All proceeds from food and refreshment sales benefit La Fe’s culture, arts, and education programming.
Café Quetzalcoatl will take place at 6 p.m. at the La Fe Culture and Technology Center, 721 S. Ochoa (Rear Building), in the heart of El Paso’s Segundo Barrio. Admission is free. Food and refreshments will be on sale.
For more information about this or other La Fe events, please contact (915) 545-7190.
La Fe Preparatory School (LFPS) will hold a celebration this Friday, May 26, to honor its students who have been accepted into some of the region’s early college programs and specialized health, public service, and international baccalaureate magnet high schools.
“Education changes your life,” said La Fe CEO Salvador Balcorta. “Hard work, self-discipline, and focus have paid off for our students. These children are now on a path that will take them toward promising careers in health care, community leadership, and education. The La Fe family could not be prouder.”
During the ceremony, these students — all members of the LFPS’ graduating eighth-grade class — will reveal to their families and teachers which schools they have chosen for their high-school education.
In addition, seven of the 15 LFPS students have been accepted into magnet schools and early college programs that will award two-year associate’s degrees upon graduation. These associate degrees will come at no cost to the students’ families.
El Paso Community College (EPCC) President William Serrata PhD is the event’s scheduled keynote speaker.
Founded in 2007, the La Fe Preparatory School is a public charter school based in El Paso’s historic Segundo Barrio community. It offers its pre-K through eighth-grade students a dual-language immersion curriculum based on arts, culture, and technology thematic units. Classes are limited to no more than 16 students per class.
The majority of the school’s 250 students live in South El Paso’s Segundo Barrio, a historically low-income, marginalized immigrant community.
Representatives from the University at El Paso, area magnet schools, and early college programs are also among the invitees scheduled to attend this event.
Children from Segundo Barrio’s La Fe Preparatory School (LFPS) will honor the life and legacy of Chicano Icon César E. Chávez this Friday morning (March 31, 2017) by following in his footsteps and marching for their community’s rights.
This Friday would have been the civil-rights icon’s 90th birthday.
At least 260 LFPS’ students and their teachers will march out the school’s front door at 10 a.m. and walk east on Father Rahm Avenue. They will turn south on Ochoa Street and then west on 7th Avenue. The students will then march north on Campbell Street back toward their school’s playground.
“Our students may be little children, but at their tender age they are already beginning to understand that their community needs to unite and demand their rights to a good education, a dignified home, to fair wages in a safe workplace, and to quality, affordable health care,” said Centro de Salud Familiar La Fe CEO Salvador Balcorta.
LFPS’ educators have been working closely with the school’s students to teach them about the important and groundbreaking contributions of activist heroes like César Chávez. “César would have been proud to see these little ones becoming tomorrow’s leaders. They are being taught and raised to be confident, educated, and proud voices of their community. Teaching our youth what it means to be a true activist and an informed voter is everyone’s responsibility,” Balcorta added.
After the march, the LFPS’ students will release balloons in Chavez’ memory and take part in classroom activities that focus on Chávez’ life and legacy.
The children’s march is part of the school’s observation of César Chávez and Social-Justice Month.
The LFPS is a public, dual-language immersion charter school based in the heart of El Paso’s historic Segundo Barrio. The school offers its 260-Plus students, most of whom live in this low-income community, an arts, culture, and technology-based curriculum.
What: 2017 La Fe Children’s César Chávez Day March
When: 10 a.m., Friday, March 31, 2017
Where: La Fe Preparatory School, 616 E. Father Rahm Avenue
Centro De Salud Familiar La Fe once again hosts the Annual La Fe César Chávez Celebration, a community festival honoring the life, legacy, and vision of one of our nation’s greatest leaders.
The celebration will take place from 3 to 9 p.m., Saturday, March 25, 2017 at 721 S. Ochoa, in the heart of historic Segundo Barrio. The festival’s main stage will feature live performances including El Paso Chicano hip-hop and rap artist Sabor Gandaya; Grupo Budda; the Bowie High School Mariachi; and the La Fe Preparatory School.
The evening’s headliners are El Paso music legends Little Mike and the Blue Kings. For more than 50 years, “Little Mike” Saenz has been one of the region’s most recognized and beloved performers of “El Paso-style” oldies. Los Payabrothers, Elsa from Frozen, Payasito Resortito, and Batman will be among the performers in the event’s children’s area.
Gorditas, Juarez-style hot dogs, aguas frescas, nachos, corn in a cup, and other delicious foods and refreshments will be on sale throughout the event.
Admission is free and all proceeds from food and refreshment sales will benefit La Fe’s cultural, arts, and educational programming. This event is made possible thanks to support from the City of El Paso Museums and Cultural Affairs Department, the Texas Commission on the Arts, and community members.
For more information about this and all La Fe events, please call the La Fe Culture and Technology Center at (915) 545-7190.
The Christmas spirits of hope and giving will come alive this Saturday night, when 4,000 luminarias (sand-filled paper bags with a candle) will be aglow at nightfall along El Paso’s Scenic Drive during the 25th Annual Navidad de La Fe Luminarias.
The luminarias’ amber light will guide vehicles slowly westward along Scenic Drive — past the serenity of campfires manned by event volunteers — and toward Santa Claus, his cousin Pancho Claus, their elves, and a live nativity scene.
Santa and Pancho Claus will be collecting canned foods or cash donations to help El Paso families in need.
Each Christmas season, more than 100 Centro de Salud Familiar La Fe, Inc. (La Fe) staff members and volunteers work together throughout the day to stage this beloved holiday tradition.
La Fe CEO Salvador Balcorta MSSW said, “This is our organization’s gift to El Paso. Luminarias are traditional, shining beacons of hope for peace and social justice. They are a symbol of the commitment that La Fe has had to our community’s families since 1967.”
The 4,000-plus Navidad de La Fe Luminarias will symbolize much more than just La Fe’s Christmas spirit.
“These luminarias represent La Fe’s hope that every El Paso child and family gets peace, health, quality housing, education, and social justice in the New Year. It’s up to each of us to work together to make that happen. It is what La Fe’s founders believed in 1967. It’s what we believe today,” Balcorta added.
The event is free and open to the public. Vehicles can enter Scenic Drive at Richmond Avenue (eastside of the mountain) beginning at 6 p.m. Vehicles will exit Scenic Drive at Rim Road. Drivers are asked to dim their vehicle’s lights and proceed slowly and cautiously along the event route.
For safety reasons, participants are asked to remain inside their vehicles at all times. Display time runs from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 17, 2016.
Canned foods can be dropped off at the top of Scenic Drive with Santa or Pancho Claus. Cash donations to help feed El Paso families in need are also welcomed.
Checks can be made out to “Centro de Salud Familiar La Fe” or to “La Fe.” For more information, the public can call (915) 545-7190.
The Christmas spirits of hope and giving will come alive this Saturday, when 4,000 luminarias (sand-filled paper bags with a candle) will be aglow at nightfall along El Paso’s Scenic Drive during the 24th Annual Navidad de La Fe Luminarias.
Each Christmas season, more than 100 Centro de Salud Familiar La Fe, Inc. (La Fe) staff members and volunteers work together throughout the day to stage this beloved holiday tradition.
La Fe CEO Salvador Balcorta MSSW said, “This is our organization’s gift to El Paso. Luminarias are traditional, shining beacons of hope for peace and social justice. They are a symbol of the commitment that La Fe has had to our community’s families since 1967.”
The luminarias’ amber light will guide vehicles slowly westward along Scenic Drive — past the serenity of campfires manned by event volunteers — and toward Santa Claus, his cousin Pancho Claus, their elves, and a live nativity scene. Santa and Pancho Claus will be collecting canned foods or cash donations to help El Paso families in need.
The 4,000-plus Navidad de La Fe Luminarias will symbolize much more than just La Fe’s Christmas spirit. “These luminarias represent La Fe’s hope that every El Paso child and family gets peace, health, quality housing, education, and social justice in the New Year. It’s up to each of us to work together to make that happen. It’s what La Fe’s founders believed in 1967. It’s what we believe today,” Balcorta added.
The event is free and open to the public. Vehicles can enter Scenic Drive at Richmond Avenue (eastside of the mountain) beginning at 6 p.m. Cash donations to help feed El Paso families in need are also welcomed. Checks can be made out to “Centro de Salud Familiar La Fe” or to “La Fe.” For more information: (915) 545-7190.
When & Where: 24th Annual Navidad de La Fe Luminarias
■ Event Gates Open From 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 19, 2015
■ Traffic will enter Scenic Drive at Richmond Avenue and head westbound in a single lane. Vehicles will exit Scenic Drive at Rim Road. Drivers are asked to dim their vehicle’s lights and proceed slowly and cautiously along the event route. For safety reasons, participants are asked to remain inside their vehicles at all times.
Author: La Fe
More than 1,000 teachers, school administrators, and bilingual-education professionals from throughout Texas are scheduled to attend the 2015 Texas Association for Bilingual Education (TABE) conference taking place in El Paso October 14 through 17th.
“The focus of this conference is to promote bilingual education programs and provide professional development to all participants. Our society and education system have finally begun to recognize the true value and profound impact of quality, enrichment-bilingual education programs for our children,” TABE Conference Chair Josie Villamil Tinajero PhD explained.
Dr. Tinajero is an education professor at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) and the former dean of UTEP’s College of Education.
Being bilingual, Tinajero explained, gives young people more opportunities.
“It is an asset and an intellectual accomplishment. Bilingual education should be seen as a national treasure. This conference gives our community a great opportunity to showcase the groundbreaking work that takes place every day in El Paso’s classrooms,” she added.
At least 100 of the TABE conference’s participants are members of the Bilingual Education Student Organization (BESO) the majority of whom are undergraduates preparing to be bilingual educators.
One of the conference’s highlights will be the presentation of the Dr. Joe J. Bernal Community Advocate Award on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2015 to Texas Sen. José Rodríguez. Bernal — a former Texas legislator — is an educator, social worker, and a renowned Mexican-American civil rights activist, Tinajero said.
The conference’s full agenda and program are available at www.tabe.org
Author: Centro de Salud Familiar La Fe, Inc
El Paso Herald-Post El Paso News & Opinion
