>> hello and welcome to comunidad del valle. today we celebrate the new year. we'll have some dancers here on our show. plus, the a sfwl tek of the city. this is your "comunidad del valle." >> we begin today with some kids out of east san jose who ask why not them? they just won a national technology grant to try to improve the i.t. systems in their schools. they're out of robert sanders elementary. >> disney is brought to a sea

mammal center. >> by day he is a promising second grader at robert sanders elementary, but by night you might see carlos moonlighting as, well, a reporter. >> carlos and several classmates put together a two minute video hoping to convince race car driver jimmy smith's foundation to award them as first ever team for technology prize, an award that comes with $48,000 in tech upgrades. >> you know when you go to the computer lab. it makes you smarter. the learning gets fun. >> the problem is there's only one computer lab for 500 students. mean, each gets to log on for an average of a half hour per week. they're using old imacs and

overhead projectors, but these children don't use it as an excuse. >> the students, i think, in many cases aren't even aware of what other schools have. >> so in essence racing in the slow lane of are the super highway. many of their families too poor to buy home computers. >> it's discouraging. we're in the heart of silicone valley, and my students cannot compete with students that are just on the other side of the block. >> so they put on their ties and asked all the tough questions any good reporter might ask. why not them? race car driver jimmie johnson watched, and he listened and he was moved. >> hey robert sanders elementary. i'm jimmie johnson. >> he saw 1,500 videos from other schools nationwide, and he awarded the checkered flag to robert sanders. >> i love the video. great job. >> the principal concedes, the racing circuit community. the kids here are more into soccer, but all of a sudden they

find themselves big fans of nascar. and number 48. >> he is a racer. >> a racer who just put the kids of robert sanders into the winners circle. a stranger who believed in kids who never lost touch with themselves. >> with the kids of robert sanders elementary out for my job. we decide that is the headline of the news, and the latest issue of time magazine. it means that latinos will decide who the next president of the united states will be. supporters say the sleeping giant has awakened. this is the headquarters of the south bay robust latino voter registration drive. >> what we're doing is getting people from the neighborhood involved in voter education and voter outreach and time magazine

makes it this cover this week. they say i decide with the spaces of what is supposed to be 20 registered latino voters. >> the 21st century will be your century. >> she received an honor rather doctorate degree with the national hispanic university. he hadn't seen the time cover until we showed him on our iphone. >> what a beautiful mosaic. my hope is that front cover will also foretell a stronger and brighter future for latinos and for all americans. >> we also show the cover to blanca. alvolunteer audio was the first latina to win elected office in san jose in the early 1980s. he says today it's grassroots efforts in voter education and outreach that are helping make this their year. >> our community engagement processes are really paying off. people are more involved, more engaged, more aware.

>> well, it's significant. now we're 50 million people in this country. every day hundreds -- every day thousands and thousands of latinos turn 18. >> 18 and ready to vote says joe, a former educator and state assemblyman. they all credit the work of latino groups over the last 50 years. groups like somos mayfair. small grassroots organization that is planted a seed and are now ready for harvest. >> i decide get out and vote. up next onunom d cadelad

>> it's called the aztec of the city. it's by el santo comics. it's a brand new edition. with me here on comunidad is deana cabrera. she was here telling us about this comic. i remember having the creator of this on my show comunidad del valle, about ten years ago. so we had a couple of issues. what's going on -- what's

happened since then? >> this is volume 3, issue 1, and we're hoping to have five more issues for the rest of the we're. eventually he wants to done ainternational distribution, and there will be six issues to the volume many latin america in espania. he has released two in one comic book for this one, and there was another one, volume also had just one issue just like volume one. here we are. it's a new revamped character. tony avalos is the 19-year-old freshman student who is come from a coma, and his grandfather comes in and tries to, so he gains his powers, and before he was the a construction worker, so a lot of the people were

saying why not make him something different, right? why not a professional or lawyer or doctor? so for now he made him a student, and the main support role used to say in the story is grandma, and grandma is telling him that his story significance in the history our life and our culture. we have a good story here. based out of san jose state university that reflects the indigenous identity of our community. he does have a cape, but he does not fly. >> not yet. >> not yet, yeah. >> maybe another volume. >> his qualities are spiritual. you know, being able to foresee, you know, things that are going to happen or intervene when it does. >> it's like a real comic book. i mean, you open the pages, and it's got -- you know, it's got the beautiful illustrations in there. >> beautiful. >> it's got some writing in there from some of the

characters. what does the creator want the folks at home aside from appreciating the culture, i would imagine, what does he want them to go home with? >> it wasn't to be able to put a city poster next to a superman and a about theman poster, right, and the other thing -- >> those are american icons. they've been around for decades. >> to have them next to each other and to definitely have something that's reflective of them in their lives. he has a huge appreciation of who he is as a mexican-american. he migrates and grew up over here and ooefrt we'll in washington neighborhood. he wants to reflect that and then the other thing is he does have a huge push for increase in literacy, and so he sees that this is a possibility for folks to even learn english, right? it's more basic than -- this is a good way to start, and with tony avalos, it's a character that we can all see ourselves

in. it's a mexican-american chicano latino who speaks spanish and bringing it back to the indigenous culture. things to be proud of. >> i was cleaning out some book shelves at home, and i ran into the first couple of issues that fernando gave me back in that time, so i thought that maybe, well, it was a good venture. this shows that he has not given up. >> he actually sold out to a national distribution, so right now we're doing our push on the community based level and trying to get -- create the buzz and get the media to support eventually sell them and start on issue number two. hopefully, again, you know, with the goal of the international distribution, the story continues, you know? it's very suspenseful, and he eventually wants to try a few more stories, continue the avalito stories. there's a new story called super chicano, and that's tony torres, not to be confused with tony

avalo. we were then to be able to continue stories with children -- people our age can still appreciate and not just obviously on a visual level whose great i will frayings was done by ernie polo, but then he is also to celebrate. it's been a five-year project so far. the writing. getting it all together, and having it right here. it's been -- for him he got motivated. he says his mom used to take him to the cathedral, and he went to pedro's restaurant, and he will see the images, and that really captivated him, and then eventually working on collector's corner, he was a preteen and teenager learning more about comic world and he, of course, fell in love with "daredevil" right. he was going to -- why isn't there something? >> this comes at a perfect time. comic-con got underway a few days ago here in the bay area. the convention -- >> it's coming up may 19.

>> so we wanted to have fernando on the show who created this. we wanted to have him skype the show. we don't skype here yet. we will eventually. what's the ultimate goal of the -- does he become the save all, the cure-all of the ills of the world? >> i don't even know yet. i don't even know yet. he hasn't told me either. right now i know he is working on the second one. he is working with a different illustrator as well. i mean, that's part of -- the cool part of a comic book, right? to be announced. that's to be determined. >> all right. >> it should be on shelves. >> local comic bookstores. >> the website, i'm looking here, is aztec of the city.com. he named it that because -- >> it's an independent publishing. >>el santo comics. aztec of the city.

>> up next c comunidad del vall celebrating the new year.

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...and freezes them fast, locking in nutrients ...for you to unwrap. ♪ ho, ho, ho. green giant >> the new year is upon us. he is with -- they've been on our show before. in fact, we're going to close our show with special dance performance. beautiful, colorful, and very cultural dance performance at the end of this broadcast here. welcome to the show. tell us about this year's event. do you say happy new year? educate us if you will. >> yes, definitely. we definitely want to have people get into -- get used to that. you know, saying happy new year, and this way -- there's a lot of different calendars in the year. like, for example, just celebrated the chinese new year. just a couple of weeks back. huge gathering at the fairgrounds. then obviously december 31st, january 1st, a huge new year's celebration as well.

yeah, we want -- our goal is to educate community ask get our heads involved in our celebration as well. >> why do we have a separate new year? this is from a few years ago. why do we have a separate new year, mission can new year, if you will? our calendar is lined up with around spring time, right? when actually things are new. actually in other cultures around the world, used to celebrate the new year in march time frame. even -- it happened that julius ceasar, you know, the king of -- at that time, the emperor, he decided that he wanted to realize a new year january 1st because he was the all mighty one, he was able to do that. that's why the majority of people -- well, the people that follow that calendar, follow that calendar. we said no. >> in our culture -- if you think about it, march is when things are actually new. the mountains start getting green. everything is a rebert, right? in nature. our calendar is based around nature, and, you know, if you go

to -- march 21st around at the same time is when there's a lot of not symbols, but on march 21st, there's no shadow. there's really -- the people that go, you know, people go there to charge for energy. also the pyramid that is there, the way that the sun cast a shadow on the pyramid shows like a snake going down as the sun moves down, and that represents a time to plant. you know, the culture was aligned with nature, and that -- you know, that clock, you can say, is still working today, and millions of people go from around the world and those two places. >> my wife have been -- what a cultural experience. tell us about your event. it's march. we'll show the information in just a bit, but march 10 and 11 you're having a big celebration. >> the actual new year is happening on march 11th at 6:00 p.m. at sunset, actually. that's when the actual new year's starts because every year the few year starts at a different time.

for example, this year, the year of the flame, it starts at sunset. next year it will start at midnight. the following year it will have sunrise, and the following year it will start at noontime. high noon. it eliminates the leap year. there's no need to have an extra day every four years, so this year is actually the year that has a leap year, right? >> right. >> that's why our calendar is one of the most accurate in the world because we have 365 .25 days. >> isn't that something? >> from college days, you have been dancing with the -- for a long time. tell us why you do that. just by talking to you, you can see that you are proud of it and you want to share it with everybody else. >> one of the things that i have learned, one of the wisdom, you know, they say the child is the adult and the seed is the tree and our past is our future. it's important for us to know

who we have come from, who we are today, to know where we're going to go in the future. it's like any tree, any plant. it doesn't grow without roots. we're going to have this educational event in our community. it's going to be healthy. no alcohol allowed, right? we want to make this different from the cinco de mayo and other events that i grew up and being proud of, you know? being happy, but, you know, i see the affect that alcohol has had on our communities and on the events, you know, and we want to do this event just as big, but without the alcohol and focus on the family, focus on the children. >> budweiser can keep their money for this event? >> yes, sir. >> you're our expert when it comes to this, and i'm going to throw something at you. is there a different between the aztec calendar and the mayan calendar? everybody in every corner of the

country knows that the miian calendar expires at the end of 2012. maybe we can go through the aztec calendar. maybe we can survive a couple of years. >> there's a lot of correlations and there's a lot of different calendars in mexico, even -- it's the -- they all have different calendars. a lot of them have their -- there are a lot of -- in the city and there are a lot of them the same. a lot of them are based on months or counts of 20 days. 20 times 18. 360. then five and a quarter days. 365 about the 25. a lot of them are very similar. some of them have the similar symbol. some of them are different. pretty much they're the same. depending on the area they're from, sometimes there's a little bit of difference of timing, but for the most part, you know, from being the central mexico, which was the capital before, a lot of the information was shared from throughout the continent, you know?

there's a lot of similarities. a lot of people talk about the end of the mayn calendar and the enof the world. >> there's a movie about it. >> taking advantage of it to, you know, either fear it and get -- >> are you and i going to be here at this time next year? >> hopefully. anything can happen at any time. >> hit by a truck on the way out here. >> live every day like it's your last. >> all right. >> it's the end of a cycle, but it's the beginning of another cycle. >> there gu. >> come out and enjoy this. the fest ift is march 10th and 11th at san jose high school. it's celebrating the new year with hundreds of other people. >> free for the community. >> it is free. there's a knob northbound to call for our nervous. you can e-mail there at the e-mail address. thank you so p for your education. happy new year. >> thank you. >> up next here on comunidad del valle, they will perform herid stay with us.

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jo leerz what's happening in your comunidad del valle. snoit ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ >> cortez, world war ii veteran. the father of darrell cortez. feel free to send us your information for next week. also, pick up a copy of our newspaper and support your bilingual weeklies all across

the bay area. thank you for sharing another part of your sunday with us. we leave you now with -- happy aztec new year. ♪ [ speaking spanish ]

♪ ♪ [ speaking spanish ]

♪ >> hey!

♪ ♪ ♪ in a taco shell instead of a pyramid.

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