damian trujillo: hello, and welcome to "comunidad del valle." i am damian trujillo; and today, chusma house publications and my tocayo, charley trujillo, on your "comunidad del valle." ♪♪♪ cc by aberdeen captioning 1-800-688-6621 www.abercap.com damian: and we begin today with an update on the great things that are happening in the east side union high school district of san jose. lorena chavez is a trustee with east side. she's with us on the show. lorena, welcome back to "comunidad del valle." lorena chavez: thank you. thank you so much for having me. i'm really, really grateful to have the opportunity to engage with our community today. damian: yeah, i know there's a lot of great things that are doing. unfortunately, sometimes we only cover the negative ones, but let's do the positive this time.

and well, tell us. there's a lot of positive things going on in east side. lorena: a lot of positive things in east side. i mean, i want to think about it in 3-3-3 buckets, right? one, coming back from distance learning, how are we supporting our students from distance learning, academics, college access, and the digital--addressing the digital divide, if you will, with digital access. so those are three big things that i love to engage with our community today. damian: all right. well, we have a couple of segments to do that. well, let's start with the return to school. it's been, you know, a couple of months now. how are the students re-adapting to be back in the classroom wearing their masks? lorena: yes, yes, yes. you know, kids are doing really, really well. i walk through every single east side campus, and not just inside of the classrooms do they have them on, they don't have to have them outside, but they have them outside. kids are being safe. our stuff is being safe.

it was so important for people to come back and be in person. just that social interaction is so key to the development of not only our students, but also it's what motivates our teachers and our staff, right, to be in the schools, to do the work in person. and so coming back from distance learning, something that has been very top of mind for us, aside of the--aside from the academic piece is making sure that our students are set up both intellectually but mentally and emotionally, right, to do well and to excel in their instruction. coming back, we hear a lot about wellness, about mental health. and i don't know if you have heard, but la times recently shared that 25% of our youth across the us is expressing depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms. and so we were very prepared as a district to welcome our students back. and every single one of our sites has social workers.

we have wellness centers. we have increased our partnership with different organizations like new hope for youth, city peace projects. our student governing board, which is our students, they are very involved in policy, have also taken up the wellness work and really supported our work at the school sites to support the greater community, their peers. so that's-- damian: i think we missed--those are wonderful things that are happening. i'm glad the students are back, but when the students returned back, you started thinking about school safety now. and fortunately, this is--hasn't happened in our area, but across the country the school shootings are back because school is back and you need something that sometimes you can control, sometimes you can't. and you work with other schools as well. what have you se lorena: yeah, thank you for that question. so i'm speaking to you not only as a trustee at east side,

but i've been a teacher, i've been a principal, and i also am a parent at east side. and school safety is always our number one priority regardless of the pandemic, regardless of these school shootings; very unfortunate that they are happening. and this is also why it's really important for us to set up our students for success, right? we need to be proactive and meet students where they are. and, again, it's not always instruction that is the opportunity for us to support our students to be the best version of themselves. this is where the wellness comes in. this is where making sure students have resources that they need so that they can show up as the best version of themselves. it's counselors. it's student groups. it's different interactions with others in spaces that are safe for them, that are welcoming for them, 'cause our number one priority at east side is to welcome

students as they are. when you have a district of 22,000, it's important to have a diverse array of options, and that is what we're doing in every single day. that is our commitment, to continue working on that and figuring it out. damian: all right. well, i know the staff and the administration. you have a committed group there. so best of luck to you. there is the information of the east side union high school district. it's on north capitol avenue. there is a web address for more information. you can find out about all the things they're doing there. we're going to talk about a couple more of those, which is the bridging the digital divide and also east side promise. so stay with us. ♪♪♪

she's a trustee with the eastside union high school district of san jose. and so, lorena, let's talk about the digital divide. how are we bridging it or have you bridged it? lorena: yes. so i'm very excited to share a little information about east side access. so east side is working with the city of san jose in

collaboration to provide wireless access to our highest needs communities across the east side. so in 2016 we started this partnership, and since then we had one school community wired, meaning literally all that families had to do was open up their laptop or their computer and log on to the internet. they didn't need one of those hotspot devices. it was automatically accessible to them. and since i got on the board and the pandemic hit, i was like, "we need to hurry up this project." and in about a year, we were able to wire two more school communities. so james lick, overfelt, and yerba buena, the surrounding communities have access to free internets. so it's not just for our students. it's also for our community members. so, again, we're not reliant on the hotspots, which is they cost a lot of money. and that was the--what we needed to do for short-term solution

when the pandemic hit, but now that we're trying to get past this and figure out what is this mean because our students and our families are reliable on internet access not just for the academics, but also for jobs. we have a lot of parents working from home. we have parents looking for jobs on the internet. we have telehealth medicine. how to have access to benefits, all of that, is online. and so how do we support our communities to make sure that they have access to that because it's a basic necessity just like water and electricity now, right, given the state of where we are. and so east side has been able to work with the city, and they have committed to working with us to getting seven communities wired. that's 70% of the district. so about--in about a year and a half we'll have over 300,000 people wired onto the internet with permanent infrastructure. how amazing is that?

damian: that is very--that's incredible. and it's great to see that in the district it's not just the school community, it's the neighborhoods around it that are part of your school community. congratulations on that. we're running out of time, but i do want to talk about east side promise. lorena: yes, east side promise is an amazing partnership that these past few years we were able to get with san jose state university. so for us, college access is something important for our students to have access to when they graduate from school. our commitment to our community and our students is you will graduate from east side college-and-career ready. and so we partnered with san jose state, and essentially where students meet some requirements, they will get automatically accepted to san jose state. so it removes a lot of the red tape from our students in our communities. and this year we have over 600 students from east side at san jose state through this program. so we're really excited to continue expanding this program and supporting our students to have access to college.

damian: boy. and so it seems like the theory there in east side is to--you know, to do the in classroom instruction for all these students, but it doesn't end there. once they graduate, "next think of where we're going to go next." lorena: one hundred percent, yes. damian: yeah. lorena, any final thoughts that you'd like to add? i know i've asked you a lot of questions. anything that you want to add about the district? lorena: no, we're doing a lot of great things. you know, coming back from the pandemic was something new for everyone, but just being able to see how our staff and our students and our community has engaged, it gives me a lot of hope. and i encourage people to get involved, right, because your voice matters. you are part of the community and you make up all the great things that happen. so i want to encourage the families and community members to get involved, to come to our board meetings. we'd love to hear from everyone. damian: that's great. well, you know, the challenges are many for every school district across the state. it's not exclusive to any one district, but it's great to see that you have a great team at east side and that there's so many positive things to talk about.

come back anytime, lorena, and give us an update on the progress there. lorena: thank you so much. damian: gracias. and if you want more information, the east side union high school district, they have a lot of programs. you can log on to the website and find out more about maybe how you can get some help in your surrounding communities. there is a website for more information. up next on "comunidad del valle," my tocayo, chusma house publications' charley trujillo. stay with us.

male: [speaking foreign language] [guns firing] [guns firing] male: [speaking foreign language]

male: [speaking foreign language] male: those--are coming cause we--to help us. male: we're gonna get tequila--tamales. male: tamales? no tamales in vietnam. damian: well, that, it's a little bit of comedy actually with some dramatic footage. we're talking about "dogs from illusion." that's what we were watching there. that's a latest film by my tocayo, my brother from another mother charley trujillo. he's a publisher of chusma house publications. he's on my show here. charley, welcome back to "comunidad del valle." we're talking about you were first on this show 30 years ago, you said, with danny garcia. charley trujillo: yeah, yeah. so it's always a pleasure to be on your show. and i'm glad you've been doing this for so long, that the community really needs to hear a lot of these things

that--a lot of these people that you present here on this show. damian: i appreciate you, charley. you're kind of a when we need a spokesperson for one thing or another you give legitimacy to the report that we're doing. so thank you for what you've done. well, the footage, it looks amazing, charley. talk about--we all know about "dogs from illusion," your book, but now we're hoping or you're hoping to get this film now up, we're looking for they to funding through social media, through, you know, getting on television, to getting on the radio, and things of that sort. and we should be able to find some people who will fund this movie because there's a--the audience is there. the audience is there. and this is a film that has not been made from a perspective

of chicanos and other latinos. and we have fought in every war that the united states has had, but yet we have not had one film focusing in on the chicano and latino experience in the wars. damian: i mean, and even ken burns was, you know, a drag-along the carpet because of his world war ii documentary where he omitted the latino experience. and so he had to add something to that documentary later on, but that--not until there was outrage by the latino community nationwide. charley: yes, that's right. ok, "soldados: chicanos in vietnam." and in that one not only did we feature five chicanos, but we also featured the families of the soldiers and

how it affected them because it does--of course, the wars do affect the soldiers themselves, but it also affects our families, our mothers, our fathers, the sisters, and just our whole families are affected by these wars. and then when we get back home, many times it's the family members who notice the problems, the psychological, the social problems, that the soldiers have upon their return from wars. damian: and it's been 50 years for you, charley, since vietnam and you're still affected by it. is that right? charley: yeah, yeah, a lot of us are. i learned that by especially in filming the documentary--the

soldados documentary. i got to talk to a lot of the family members. and they are the ones who actually recognize it more than the veterans themselves because they saw how within a period of one year how different the soldiers came back and their behavior and their psychology. and it kind of sticks with you for the rest of your life, especially if you were in a lot of combat. in world war ii in korea, my uncles, my dad, they also have ptsd. of course, they will never admit it, especially the world war ii guys. they will never admit it, but it's--now in retrospect and understanding the ptsd, my father and my uncles had ptsd, but, of course, they would never admit it. damian: does a film like this,

charley, does it help a soldier who's returned back from war in coping with it or does it open old wounds, or what's your take on how veteranos see-- charley: you know, from--i've never done a formal survey; but yeah, i've been told by many people that the film and the documentary, the soldados, and the book, and my book "solda--"i mean, "soldados: chicanos in vietnam," and my novel "dogs from illusion," yeah, they--i've been told by wives or ex-wives of these soldiers, by mothers, by the children of the vietnam veterans, because they also get affe--are affected by the post-traumatic stress that many soldiers face. and they have told me that when they have read my book or have

watched my film, the "soldados" film, that it has helped them to understand their dad or their brother or their--whatever relationship it is they have to the veterans. damian: yeah, because it's not just the soldier who serves. it's also the family members. the entire family is serving when the loved one is out there in the battlefield. yeah. all right. well, this is called the "dogs from illusion." it's a new film by charley trujillo. he's trying to raise funds to hopefully complete this film, and he's asking for any donations to make that happen. we're going to give you the web address for chusma house publications. this is, again, "dogs from illusion." it looks fascinating. its great cinematography from what we've seen so far. there's a website for more information. we'll be back on "comunidad del valle" with my tocayo, charley trujillo. stay with us. ♪♪♪

charley trujillo of chusma house publications. and, charley, we should mention you lost an eye in vietnam. charley: yes, sir. yeah, back in 1970. damian: that probably no doubt added to the trauma that you faced there and coming back and even today maybe. charley: yes. yeah, it had a lingering effect. it took me a long time to realize that it had that effect because, you know, we're men, you know, and you're just not understanding that--you know, that it has a large effect or a big effect on you, but people would tell you, you know, especially the moms and your family. they knew that there was something wrong with you. and it's not just me. and, of course, being a soldier, you know, you were supposed to be tough.

[speaking foreign language] and men don't cry, and that you're weak, and that all these types--or the stigma of, you know, the--of going to therapy, and some of your shortcomings, and you're just supposed to suck it up. so that's very detrimental as well. i've talked to a lot of veterans. and i, through my work, i believe, many veterans and their families have been--i have helped them to recognize that the--you know, the war has a very big effect on your psychology and your social relations, and it'll linger for years. it actually, especially if you are in some real heavy combat, it'll linger for the rest of your life. you just got to know how to deal with it. but then, again, the stigma of, you know, you're weak, or maybe you're a coward,

maybe you're not much of a man. so there are many different things. and what's happening too with this ptsd stuff is that one area that's not being really recognized--well, not, shall we say, studied as well is the effects of the females that go to war because women are now much closer to the combat areas and have many more occupations within the military that are much more hazardous than they were before. damian: yeah, great perspective. i thank you for sharing that, charley. tell us about the fundraising efforts now for "dogs from illusion." charley: well, you know, i just--i'm hustling all the time. i hustle and i hustle. and i know that there's a big market for this. there's a large audience for many different reasons. it's multi-ethnic. not only is it about chicanos, but i also have a vietcong woman

who's one of the main characters. we forget that they also fought. they usually demonize the enemy, but i show the enemy as people and their perspective, which i don't find in many movies. and so that would be an added feature to this. and i do have black soldiers, i have white soldiers, and native-american soldiers. so it'll be a multi-ethnic cast, but the main guys are still--will be chicanos, three chicanos: ese, mangas, and chuco. damian: you hustle and you hustle. i love that. and you're selling your books, right, also to raise funds over at that artesiania shop in north san jose. charley: yeah, i--you can buy my book online either through amazon or through artesanias morelia on 601 north 13th

street, and you can also buy it online through them, artesaniasmorelia.com. yeah. and then you can have signed copies as well. i have signed some copies there. you can request them, and they'll have signed copies of my books. damian: it's great read. i know that "soldados: chicanos in vietnam," that was on pbs, and it's awesome. what do you envision for "dogs from illusion" once you're in full production? charley: excuse me? damian: what do you envision for "dogs from illusion" for distribution? where do you want to showcase it when it's all done? charley: well, you know, to--it's going to be--our goal is for theatrical release and, you know, streaming services. and we feel that it will have an international appeal as well throughout latin america because there's a lot of spanish spoken.

we have spanish, vietnamese, and english spoken in this movie. so that should draw, yeah, a large audience and it's--and also, you know, i have a lot of humor, even though sometimes it's sad humor, but it's there, and therefore--and it's based on many firsthand experiences of me and my comrades and things that i've--that my--i have been able to create, you know, just by through fiction. damian: yeah. and we saw part of it there on that clip. the guy says there's no tamales in vietnam. [speaking foreign language] tamales. but any final thoughts, charley. we have about 30 seconds before we let you go. charley: though i feel that if we could make this movie, we will contribute to educating, not only educating and

entertaining the public and the realities of war, but it'll also give opportunities for actors and, you know, the people, the stage hands. and also if i can be successful with this movie, we can begin to produce our own materials from a chicano and chicana perspective. so i hope i have long-term plans, but first things first, but there is a large audience and there's a lot of talent out there that's not being tapped. damian: charley, you're an american treasure. thank you so much for being on our show. charley: thank you. damian: thank you. damian: we'll see you again in a couple of weeks. we'll see you in the new year. charley: gracias. ♪♪♪

beautiful championship day here in orlando at the ritz-carlton golf club grand championship. scramble format in effect, the