today the latina leadership is in our studio. and the dual language academy. this is your community life. ♪ >> we begin today with graffiti as art.

he's an authorment his book is on our table. you're driving up and down the highways, the billboards, the train trestles and overpasses and it's annoying to see the taggings of the graffiti. when does graffiti become art? >> you already answered the question by tagging. tagging is when people think of graffiti art. that's the first thing they talk about. i'll be the first to acknowledge me myself i'm not a big proponent of tagging. never have, never was. most individuals who view graffiti as art are not proponents of tagging. damaging public property and vapd likewising, you're not going to get an argument from me about that. everyone who is a graph writer starts off with tagging. tagging in and of itself has a certain social value.

i believe that whether you like it or not in terms of approving of it, you should still try to understand it because there's a lot of messages that happy with tagging, whether it's gang stuff, whether it's describing social ills or something like that. so there's always something going on when there's a lot of tagging in a certain community. >> tag your own house. quit tagging the buildings. >> i used to. i used to. >> here's a shot of your book. your website has some of your workings. but you're commissioned by cities, municipalities and agencies to do art for them in the form of graffiti. >> correct. >> tell us about that. >> graffiti is a school. you start tagging. what you do with it is you start developing styles and techniques. i mean, i started doing graffiti way back in 1985. that was a while ago. but i didn't stop developing my

styles and techniques. so these days i have taken a lot of the core concepts within my graffiti art and put it into what one would call fine art. >> what kind of graffiti? >> i was just doing stuff on paperful soon after i started doing stuff, what i like to call uncommissioned public artwork. >> the misconception is that graffiti is tags. >> this is a correlation there. that's where it started from. if you go back in time, the further back you go, graffiti, for example, everyone thinks of it starting in new york. it started in philadelphia in the '60s. the further back in time you go, there's strains from the 40s to the 30s to 1800s and just going way back in time to prehistory where men or humankind always had a desire and need to express themselves, mark their

territory, tell stories. there's graffiti in the bible, if you can believe that. so what we're doing today and what i try to convince people who are proponents of it, it's bigger than just johnny tagging on a wall. it's part of a greater movement. and individuals who did it, if they understand it's part of a greater movement, they can take more of a responsible active role in it. >> do something with it. >> do something with it. these days in many aspects it's also big business. when i talk to young adults, why do something for free when you can make money off of it. >> that's what you're doing? >> exactly. taking my ideas in graffiti talk, three dimensional wild style lends itself well into art and architecture. >> do you think you have touched some taggers? >> yeah. i get a lot of e-mails because manufacture book -- >> you go to high schools? >> that's something i have a passion for, sharing my

experiences about art and stuff. for me, it's not explicitly just about graffiti. it's even bigger than that. it's about connecting your creativity to something bigger than yourself. that's a pretty open conversation. for me it's a vehicle for me to do it. but since this book got released, i've gotten e-mails from around the world from different people. i mean, i got an e-mail from a soldier in iraq asking me about graffiti styles. that is humbling to me. a few days later i get an e-mail from a pastor's son in canada asking me about graffiti style. it's not the stereotype of, you know, johnny tagging in the bathroom or what have you and stuff like that. that's also what i try to share with high schools. if i'm at andrew hill talking about graffiti art, it's not an excuse for you to go to the bathroom and hit it up. >> we'll show information on how to get a hold of you. tell us about your book. >> the art and technique of graffiti is the world's first

how-to graffiti book. i talk about the history of graffiti, everything from developing a name. where do you get your names from, how do you develop your individual style and step by step walking through the concepts, doing it on paper and executing it on the wall 100% in a legal way. >> there is his book right there. thank you for being on our show and for doing it the right way. >> that's correct. >> i think you convinced me. >> coming up next, the dual language academy. [ male announcer ] when meg whitman arrived at ebay, they had 30 people and an idea.

meg's job was to make it happen. it took leadership. focus. and the ability to bring people together. meg whitman delivered. named one of america's best ceo's by harvard business review, she grew ebay 15,000 strong and made small business dreams come true. now meg has a plan to create jobs. fix sacramento. and deliver results. meg whitman. for a new california. school is right around the corn ner san jose. diara dorsey is going to be a fifth grader. and rinaldo gill providing important equipment to them. welcome to the show. >> thank you. >> vanessa, you have children going to the school. >> that's correct. >> tell us about why this was the wisest decision you ever made. >> sure. i have a fourth grader and second grader, both boys. and i decided to send them.

we started our education in another dual immersion program in mount pleasant school district. it's been discontinued. they took in many faels, so they have been able to continue their education there. it's a great environment. aside from having the opportunity to become proficient in english and spanish very in an ges, there's environment where they have learned to become socially sensitive. at any given time there's going to be a student there that is the second language learner. when they first start they are primarily taught in spanish. as they increase in grade level, their english increases. >> they say my child is going to school in the u.s. they should learn english and perfect that. this is a unique concept to perfect both languages. >> exactly. they can learn to become very socially sensitive to people that are from other cultures and

that speak other languages. >> why did your family decide, hey, this is a school for you? >> because the first school that i went to, it was closing down. and then my mom wanted to register to a different school before it was closing. >> what did you think? boy, you have to learn spanish first. what were you thinking at that time? it's going to be hard? is it possible? what were you thinking? >> at first it was really hard for me because none of my family could help me with speaking spanish. >> uh-huh. and it's important with your homework. what can you say in spanish at this point? >> [ speaking spanish ]. >> [ speaking spanish ]. all right. well, this is a prime example, i guess. this is what we're talking about when we talk about success. and success also involves community involvement.

you're helping out. tell us what you did for them. >> well, i'm a member of this organization called link. and we are a nonpartisan group of community-interested people that want to give back to the community. for example, i'm a graduate of alum rock school district. i went on to a tech career. and so i've developed a lot of experience with building systems and i want to give it back. my interests and all the group's interest is education and technology. >> and what did you give specifically? >> what we have done as a group is we have donated our time and also computers. $50,000 worth of computers. >> wow. that's got to go a long way to your kids. >> absolutely. yeah. and we have such a high level of parental involvement. that's one of the things that makes our school very unique as well. there is a policy in place we have to have 100% of parent participation in the volunteering effort.

you will see parents all the time on the school grounds. renaldo has them working with the students, working with children. it's really a unique environment. >> right now the middle schoolers, six account and seventh graders, you're enrolling and accepting? >> right. that's something that's now information. we are actually adding seventh grade to our school. the school is six years old. it started in 2004. it only started with two kindergartens and first grade. so in a very short time it's grown very happenedly. we're now k through 7. we have openings in sixth and seventh grade but we expect them to fill rapidly. you should call right away if you're interested. >> some of the administrators and the staff there, how do you think this is going to help you when you actually later go on to high school? junior high school and high school? >> it's going to help me because when i get older i can find a

job more faster because sometimes the first thing they ask you is do you speak a different language. >> [ speaking spanish ]. >> [ speaking spanish ]. >> you speak it beautifully. renaldo, does it make you feel good that your investment in this type of educational process is paying off? >> it is. because we're turning kids who are not just bilingual but trilingual. it will give a competitive advantage. the group goal was to do that. and anna cruz is a parent in the group. she's the one who brought the project to us. and introducing the technology and it's been a big success. >> you have openings for seventh grade but there is a waiting list to even get into the school. my daughter will be attending

there in -- next week. but there's a waiting list. so you're nervous to see if you're in or not. it's that prestigious. >> that's right. those interested in sixth and seventh grade, call right away and get the spots while they're still open. >> we have information if you want to participate or help out. want to donate computers or anything else. there's the web address for more information. any final thoughts, vanessa? >> i have to say with the administration, the teachers and staff and parents have really put into practice that whole philosophy of it takes a village to raise a child. and so it's a great place to be, and i think we're really fortunate. >> [ speaking spanish ]. good work. keep going. coming up text, the latina leadership project.

they are part of the latina leadership project. this is kind of your brain

child, mira, you and the supervisor -- former supervisor. tell us how it started and why it started. >> well, our journey. our journey started in 2008. we brought together a number of latinas through various organizations throughout the county. latinas not necessarily involved but wanted adai log in leadership development that will lead us to places. it will lead us to important organizations and in other journeys in higher -- i guess i will say in politics. and so the project basically gave us an opportunity to begin this dialogue, begin to take a look at so what are the areas

that oftentimes are barriers or hinder us from moving forward and seeing ourselves in leadership positions. and part of the journey is looking at the leadership that we have within us in our own environments, our own homes and how do we take that out into the community to make a difference, to get more involved and to be able to, in fact, look at the ways in which we can advance latinas politically in different places. >> how do you think that you benefited or that maybe you felt the program in creating the future of latina leaders of this community? >> i think as a community we're on the verge of becoming a majority in the state of california. if you look at it in public education -- >> we have to be ready for that. >> and we have to be ready for it. what does leadership look like? what does a latino community

bring to the table? what do we have to plan for? how do we build bridges between communities? we automatically think we can automatically move forward at the same time. that's not true. we have to do bridge building, community buildings, coalition building with other communities. so i think we're able to participate in something that's very exciting, that is very unique. in one of the programs that i run for la academia, we have space to talk about what's the same. what's different. what do we need to learn about each other. how do we support each other. >> are you finding maybe jewels under the stones when you pick maybe they didn't -- they needed a small push to realize that, hey, i'm going to be one of those latina leaders? this community is full of

jewels. have you found in your travels the fact that we do have them here in the bay area? >> of course. we have many of them. again, it was obviously to us in 2008 as we started a conversation with a larger number of women. now that we are in the leadership la academia, we can see what's coming up. we can see those strains that are basically part of the tools that we need in order for us to be able to engage more in leadership development and engage more politically. >> there's no going back. once you commit, there's a strong commitment you made to this latino community? >> exactly. and the former supervisor has been totally instrumental in making sure she ignites the passion within all of us to think of ourselves that, yes, we can, that we can do this work. we can embrace our families.

we can ask our families for the support that we need. we can ask the folks around us and members of the community to be able to take a look seriously as to houla tinas need to be represented in our surroundings. we know from our journey that the part of what moved us was about, you know, looking around and seeing who is where and how many of us are there. and part of that evaluation helped us determine it was important to take a look at the work others were doing, like the latina coalition, the alliance but la academia would bring right into town or right in town a way of being able to train folks, to prepare them to start thinking of possibilities in the future. >> all right. because it's right around the

corner, becoming the majority. information if you would like to get a hold of these folks. we'll be back to get a phone number after these messages. and see if, in fact, we are ready to take over or if there's still a long road ahead. stay with us.

we mentioned we're going to become the majority in the near future. are we ready for that, or do we have a ways to go? >> demographically we'll be the majority. politically will we be the majority? if we don't work at it we'll be a population without appropriate representation. we need to plan for the future. we need to not be afraid of latino leadership. it's been working-class people, education, jobs. so we have a lot of similarities with all the communities in california. >> networking is a big one.

>> networking is key. that's what's going to lead us to coalition building to take us to be a political force in the state. >> and i think you put it right in the break about creating a political pipeline. where is that pipeline as far as construction and at what point can we put a valve there so we can open and close it as we wish? >> we're just basically at the early stage. we have planted seeds. and the academia going on at this moment as we speak is actually that -- those seeds that need to be planted.o we have a ways to go. but i think we are moving in the right direction. i think as long as we pursue the collaboration and coordination with the different groups that are, in fact, have committed to latino and latina leadership, that we'll be in a good place. >> and you've been successful already because you yourself are a member of the school board.

there are several others who have been on the ballot? >> that's correct. and we have folks like darcy green who have been instrumental in our dialogue and discussion in the last year and a half who is also going to be running for the school board seat. so i think an important part to realize about this work is that we have folks who are very supportive of making sure that latinos advance and latinas advance politically. we're thankful the office of the president. institute of community engagement as well as the office of organization of professional development who have understood early on that this would be an important task for the college to be involved with ala tina leadership project in involving

this academia and hopefully our first one and more to come. >> that's awesome. how excited are you about what the future holds? >> i'm very excited. to have the the space where we're talking about democracy, to talk about what could the future hold. we are already doing the work. how do we get to the table? so to be able to tap into the wealth and knowledge our community already has is very exciting to talk about how do we want to be represented in the future? what does it mean? what does every community leader need to know about immigration. it's a good time to be ala tina. >> and for teblanca alvarado speaks volumes. >> exactly. we're very grateful to her vision, to her, you know, passion. it's just been a joy for all of us in the planning committee to

actually work with her and following her steps and her footprints to make sure what we do is something that is going to stay and be part of the community for years to come. >> [ speaking spanish ]. if you would like to get a hold of these folks with the latina leadership project, there's the web address. >> they can call 408-864-8215. and final thoughts is basically it's our time. it is our time. and i am very excited that as latinas we are finally gathering to begin to position ourselves in a different way. >> [ speaking spanish ]. thank you for being on our show. thank you very much. here's what's happening in your communidad.

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