Caravan for Peace from Mexico Visits the Rio Grande Valley Town of Alamo

By Nick Braune… I was pleased to see an article in The Monitor — and it was front page in the Sunday Mid-Valley Town Crier — about the Caravan for Peace which stopped in the Valley for a rally last Thursday. The Caravan was founded by a Mexican poet, Javier Sicilia, whose son was murdered [...]

Some History of Solitary Confinement in America

By Nick Braune… In the 1790s in the Philadelphia home of Dr. Benjamin Rush, an important discussion took place. This was during that period when Americans were trying to formulate what it would be like to have a democratic republic which could tap the best qualities in everyone. This particular meeting was held to discuss [...]

Forum in Rio Grande Valley: Bringing Back Ideas, Freeing Ramsey Muñiz

By Nick Braune… Smugglers? — Yes, book smugglers, “librotraficantes,” traveled this spring in a caravan across Texas and across New Mexico, eventually reaching their destination, Tucson, Arizona. Back in 2010, when the harsh anti-immigrant bill (SB 1070) was passed in Arizona, there was also a coordinated attack against Mexican-American Studies, and Tucson took the whole [...]

A New Book on the “Texas Model,” Part II

By Nick Braune (I continue reviewing a 2012 book by Gail Collins, As Texas Goes. Part I was posted on Texas Civil Rights Review on July 16, 2012) When Rick Perry was fairly new in the Texas governor’s mansion and George W. Bush was early in his first presidential term, No Child Left Behind (NCLB) [...]