hello and welcome to "comunidad del valle." today the lieu west valez leadership academy here in our studio. plus, a new book about company e in world war ii. this is your "comunidad del valle." we begin today with a glowing need right here in the bay area. with me are pauline sack ka motto and lourdes chichas with the mothers milk bank. welcome to the show >> thank you. >> with dough have some video to show on what we are basically talking about here, but talk about what the food -- what the milk bank does and who it serves. >> the mother's milk bank has

been in operation for 40 years in santa clara county. and very similar to blood banking, we actually work with human milk, breast milk and we service the nicus, nurseries throughout california, 13 states. when mother can't find enough breast milk for her infant, we come to us. we are licensed as a tissue bank, all the requirements with fda and the cdc and so we provide that service for these mothers and actually the hospital hospitals that use the milk for the babies. >> we need more ladies to donate? >> yes, we do have a very big need for those people. you know, some moms or the families asking to donate feel that because you donate to the san jose milk bank, all the milk stays in san jose and that's not true. it is a misinterpretation, we actually service 13 states and we have over 100 hospitals that

we service, too. >> you talked about this a little bit, pauline, talk about the safety procedures in place to make sure everything is safe. >> right. so we have worked really hard on that and worked with the state department of health, very similar to blood banking and to the other tissues, like skin tissue that's transplanted, and kidneys and hearts, we we follow the same guidelines. only three in the u.s. that are licensed, we are one of them. with to have follow the same guidelines. for 40 years, we have never had a disease transmission or death because of this. in fact, the babies do so much better with human milk that we are actually here today because august is breast feeding month. and we want to make sure to give the word out to moms, please breast feed, try our darndest to help you out to breast feed. in the event that it's just not happening, we are here. wither here to help you. >> some people might have objections to that but that's whole different story, won't get into that at all in this

segment, but i mean, i guess some people might think, well, this doesn't affect me, so why i would even pay attention, unless you're hit with this problem and you are in need of that service. is that right? >> yes, that's very right. if you're a mom that has baby in the nicu. you know, for some reason, don't have the milk at that time and you're struggling and very nervous then we are here, a little bridge to help you to provide this milk for you until your supply comes in you can do this on your own. >> do you find that more people are getting involved in this or -- is it catching on? >> no, absolutely. we are getting more and more hospitals coming to us, asking for help. and families as well. so, it's something that is just overwhelmingly growing and we need to make sure that we have the supply available for them. so, we are definitely looking for more moms to help us out. >> there's a big push in august, i mean, this is an all-out bat

approximately, if you will. >> yes, an all-out battle but trying our darndest to get as much milk as possible. the worst thing we want is a child waiting and these infants are more than likely vulnerable, physicians following them, they probably will be in the hospital longer because they can't get human milk. >> as we saw on the video, everything is logged and registered and refrigerated and kept in a safe place. if you are interested maybe in the service there is the web address for more information. any final thoughts from either of you before we let you go? >> we do ask moms if you do have the extra milk, please call us, become a donor. we right now need about 20 donors per day just to service all our babies. >> 20 per day? how many are you getting on average, would you say? >> right now, it's been a little bit short, so we have been getting about 13, at max 15 donors. we are a little bit short. freezers are now full. so please help. >> thank you all for coming here

and sharing this service with our viewers. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. up next on comunidad dell via, a new book about company e. stay with us.

less ease a new book about company e during world war ii. the author is here in our studio called "the patriots from the barrio." dave gutierrez is my guest on the show. welcome to the show. >> thank you. >> tell us who the patriots from the barrio were. >> they were men from barrios of south texas that serveded in world war ii. >> this is a company of mexican-american soldiers, right? >> yes, it is. i'm sorry. >> that's all right. but this i guess kind of illustrates the service of latinos during the wars way back when. >> exactly. these men were strictly from the barrios of south texas. they were a segregated unit out of el paso, texas, originally a

national guard unit. they were part of the 36th inn fan try division, yes, they were a segregated, completely segregated mexican-american company. >> at fort bliss bugle, what they were linked to what they were talking about your family member was part of the unit? >> yes, i had a family member, a cousin named ramon gutierrez from delrio, texas, who served on the unit. they was awarded the silver star for valor on the battle field at salerno, italy, captured twice by the german army and escaped twice and he was also awarded -- he became one of the few americans to be awarded a medal by the russian government. >> your reaction when you saw the world war ii documentary by mr. burns and realized latinos were omitted from it? >> yeah. that really lit a fire under me,

as far as to get the book out. i think we have a -- a strong opportunity as mexican-americans to tell our stories because if we don't tell the stories, the stories will never be told. so i thought that really lit me to go forward and to continue to write this book. >> still in the process, not on hard covers? >> it's coming out, i'm looking at the beginning of september, early september for book release. >> what are you hope willing that the reader gets out of it, whether they be latino or not? >> well, the one thing we are looking for is making sure that people have mexican-american contributions for this nation, hispanic-americans that served during world war ii, the big picture i want to try to get.

>> what was it happened with the unit -- >> company e in el paso, texas, two in el paso texas, company h was an all-anglo company, national guard units, company e were completely segregated mexican-americans. yeah. and as they went into training into camp buoy, as more mexican-americans arrived, they were transferred into company e. so they stayed an entire mexican-american unit all the way up noll until north africa. >> you talk about texas, you're talking about [ inaudible ] delrio, texas. half of testimony rio is here in silicon valley? >> that is correct. that is correct. >> your thoughts on the fact that -- the patch on these soldiers in company read names like gomez and gutierrez and

whatnot. >> my thought on that would be -- i'm sorry -- >> i mean, it's got to be kind of a -- impressive to see the unit? >> absolutely. when you see the roster of these men and you see all the anglo names up there as far as officers, 'cause all the officers were anglo and all the enlisted men, every enlisted man in company e was of mexican-american descent. so yeah you see the names out there. >> and this isn't something that you worked on overnight. you have -- >> for a while. >> this has been an ongoing process nearly five years of research now, it's taken nee long. this is a story that took place 70 years ago, most of the men have passed away, we are losing -- losing them quickly here. so i thought it was very important to get this story out.

>> the pride of delrio, i guess, is illustrated in that book? >> yes, absolutely. ramon gutierrez is still considered one of the highest deng core rated soldiers to come out of the delrio area. >> any resistance from people by you exposing the fact that the segregated part of the unit or has it been kind of -- >> no, as a matter of fact, i have a lot of support from the text tech military forces museum in austin, texas. the 36th division has been wonderful as far as research is concerned. i think they understand also that we cannot bury our heads in the sand. >> can't deny or ignore t >> pretend that it didn't happen. >> right r >> we are never gonna learn from it if we continue to bury our heads in the sand. >> maybe your turn to make a document roipt contribution of latinos world war ii. the book is coming out, folks a, a couple of numbers for you to call for more inform was and also we threw in dave's e-mail address for more information. thanks so much. >> thank you. >> we will see you on the telemundo side.

up next, the lieu west valdez leadership academy. stay with us.

the luis valdez leadership academy is open for business, as you can same with me here on commune cad del vallely are the director. and irene is the academic dean there at the new charter school in san jose. welcome to the show. >> thank you so much for having us. >> what better person to name your academy after. talk about the importance of having luis valdez's name there. >> oh, absolutely, just an innovator like luis valdez a leader over his legacy, his contributions to the economic nanomom. the work he did with caesar chaff verkz the contributions he made through visual performing arts, in hollywood, the direction of "la bamba." also, what i have learned about luis valdez, our conversations about the school is how much digital media he has been able to integrate downed road, we

hope to embody the spirit and leg agassi of luis valdez by host a film festival, getting our kids producing short documentaries and films. >> chills just talking about that. now, irene this is on the campus of the old national hispanic university. so this is actually what's happening with that cams, you guys are taking over and taking charge? >> yes. so, national hispanic university, we are partnered up with them and i think it means a lot just because we are luis valdez leadership academy and wary school that is predominantly latino, to have the namesake be someone who is a strong latino, but also this foundation that has really believed and has fostered the latino community in the bay area. >> folks might be saying, oh, no, another charter school. what are you promising the folks of east san jose with the

academy? >> we will provide a safe, positive learning environment built on personization and what we guarantee is that we will get to know each and every one of our students and families very closely, we will work very closely with the family to allow our students the opportunity to achieve their college dream. and we have a number of programs in place that we think we would be able to ensure that we would graduate 100% of our students and get as many of them as possible into four-year colleges and universities is the plan. >> when there is a new venture like this, i read there might be some apprehension from the organizer what are we getting ourselves into? i get the opposite vibe from you, excited and raring to go >> we are excited. our founding team, one of the characteristics that we looked at when we looked at hiring teachers is this idea that it is a new school but looking for leadership, looking for both students and parents, family members, teachers that are willing to take risks, they are willing to take that academic risk to invest in really the

future of tomorrow in this group of youth that we have. >> what grades are we talking about here? >> starting with ninth and build each year as we go on. >> i mean, no -- no excuses, school -- come into school prepared, and at the same time, return teachers and ad min are going to be giving back the same, i imagine? >> absolutely. the number one characteristic i look to when looking to hire a founding team of teachers was passion, commitment, dedication to the mission of working with first generation latino high school students. and i think we have a dynamic team in place who will stop at nothing until not only are success wolf our students but the goal of the nhu foundation is to land on instructional programs and strategies that are rep applicable that can solve the crisis in latino education, communities like east san jose but all over california and across the nation. >> the ribbon cutting happened this past friday on august 1st but you've already -- you got the ball rolling, you guys went on a summer bridge tour to stanford university?

>> yes. and we also went to uc santa cruz as well. so we are trying to expose them to as many universities as possible so that, you know, a lot of them are familiar with schools around the bay area but also showing them east coast schools as well, so i went to brown. we are hoping next semester in the fall and winter hoping to taken a east coast college trip as well. >> you're starting right on day one planting that seed in their mind this is where they are going to be headed, i guess? >> absolutely. >> know for a fact, not only lodging, work done together at our charter school, through education, all dreams are possible, saw young woman, former student of ours, who was the first in her family to at only graduate high school, two older siblings high school dropouts, admitted to stanford university, we know that when you allow young people to dream and they are in -- in an environment where that can really foster their development,

whole develop social and development, the sky's the limit we wanted to shoot for, the top universities in the country. >> from what i read, you are acting like a college football recruiter, in the living rooms of families recruiting them at your school. >> i mentioned the personization piece of our school and nothing shows families that we are more dedicated to their child than us coming to their community, having a conversation in their living room or their kitchen about their child's future, their goals, their interests and what luis valdez can do for them to achieve those goals and achieve those dreams. so i think that families are refreshed by a school that their main goal is to really, truly get to work with the family and work closely with parent and student. >> very good. the new charter school in san jose, luis valdez leadership academy, the campus -- the old nhu or the new nhu, the national hispanic yoovgt the web address for more information. we will have more here, we continue on comunidad dell vie yeah and talk about the history

and comes from a long lineage of education and community service. stay with us.

back here on comunidad dell via with lieu wiz valdez leadership academy, slight correction, not on the campus of the old hispanic university, although the foundation is supporting the academy, on the campus of the high school on la creche shah avenue in san jose. now, you, jeff, come from a long lineage of educators, your mom, susan, is an awesome counselor on the peninsula what can we say about your dad, your dad is kind of the founder of chicano history, chicano studies, if you will. >> yes, he is. >> a little hard to live up to the standards. >> well, actually, it's -- their support means the world to me, to know how proud they are of me and my work and of the luis valdez leadership academy absolutely means the world to me

and in fact, embodying the spirit of professor around his work at the academy. in fact, our academic deep, is teaching a mexican-american history course that is going to be piloted this year with our ninth graders in collaboration with professor camarillo, my father and she could tell you a little bit more about that course and what it will do to empower our students in understanding their history. >> why is that important? >> actually, conversation on the way over here with one of the students part of historical thinking cops, which is are the purpose behind that is to build students to be historians, right to look at primary sources, secondary sources, kind of been the build up to the mexican-american studies class and they know that one of my students learned about valdez today, overview and one of my students said i like the history being taught here, i said, tell me more about that. because we start by learning u.s. history, we never learn about my historiful. and really stood out to me, because that is the purpose of

this course so that students become engaged in their history and history often not taught in schools and it's often left out in textbooks. so by bringing out really what has been the chicano history, hopefully, students will have that engagement, but also learn about their community and want to give back to their community. >> both of you could be administrators the some affluent school, maybe los altos hills or something and i'm gonna use barrio schools in a positive sense, you choose to teach in modern schools. why is that? >> for me, my students have been and continue to be my inspiration. i am so inspired daily by their strength, perseverance, motivation, optimism, positive the, i feed off of that and i find my energy in that and so, obviously, we didn't go into the field of education to be the richest professionals in america. but there are many a days that i honestly feel like the wealthiest man alive when i see

the light turn on for a young person who otherwise may not be able to graduate high school, when they are committed to college going future or when i'm invited to a graduation celebration of a familiar who the child is the first in their family to go to college. these are -- these types of moments are worth more than you can ever put a financial dollar amount to. so i'm just inspired by families and students daily. >> same question, i mean. >> yeah, for me, this is my community. i grew up in l.a. in a community very similar to the one that we serve, the community that we're in. to me, i went off to college and i was known as the exception to the rule that latinos shouldn't be pushed or challenged to go to college and i did get into college but i realized once i was there, i really struggled, just because i wasn't prepared, so in teaching at this school, i not only firmly believe in the capabilities of my students but i really believe they could be

challenged and could succeed at the university level and beyond. >> how many excuses are you going to accept from your students? >> oh, none. none at all. >> because we tend to come up with excuses. >> right. >> i'm a former farm worker, used to do this used to do that i'm not going to be able to make it you have to kind of check your excuses at the door. >> we have one of our goals the luis valdez academy was to put in front of our students example professionals who grew up simply to them. our entire teaching staff are first generation college students, four out of five are graduates of the stanford teacher education program. when you put role models in front of young people from barrios like east san jose, look like them, understand how to communicate with themmy ways, understand mr. reese went to notre dame, mr. camarillo graduate of ivy league university and stanford, makes them believe the same is possible for them. i think that we have done a great job in building a team of

amazing role models, latino role models for our young people to look up to >> even sounded giddy, talk you can about the class you're going to teach? >> very, very excited. >> your promise to the parents and to the students of east san jose. >> i hope they will believe in the power of edge cakes and the power -- of education to not change individuals but also societies, families like individuals, like and you know i mean your show is called comunidad del v"comunidad del cl valle"ly, give back and change institutions to the society. >> again, if you want more information on this school, there it is, a charter high school on the campus of yorba buena high school in san jose. thank you all so much for calling. jeff, by the way, his brother, former nfl player for the miami dolphins and san diego chargers. anybody else he played for? >> he played most recently for the new orleans saints. >> there you go. >> and two years with the

vikings, with brett favre. >> oh, brett favre. now he is retired and going into education? >> yeah. >> thank you all so much for the work you're doing. see you at the school. >> thank you so much, damian. and now, here's what's happening in your comunidad.

here is our guests for next week's show. support your bilingual weeklies across the bay area. thank you for sharing part of your sunday with us again. see out tell -- telemundo side.

>> are those gray hairs? well, i guess it's inevitable. we do get older. but you know, you don't have to take it lying down. in fact, researches have found that people who are physically fit; eat a healthy, balanced diet; and have an active lifestyle can slice 10 to 20 years off their biological age. so in today's show, i thought we would explore ways to give kids a fresh start and to help make seniors young again.