Category Archives: News

Saturday, February 11 and Sunday, February 12, 2012

10 A.M.to 4:30 P.M.

National Museum of the American Indian

4th St. and Independence Blvd. SW

Washington, D.C.

Next weekend The National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) celebrates one of the world’s most beloved foods, chocolate. “Theobroma cacao” was for the Maya and the Aztec people, as its Latin name indicates, a “food of the gods.”  Chocolate – a product indigenous to the Americas – literally has a bittersweet world history.  Once Europeans discovered it, they couldn’t get enough.  But, for the native peoples enlisted (enslaved) to harvest the cacao crops, it became a curse.  The upcoming festival presents an opportunity for visitors to explore chocolate’s complete culture and history.  I know this is short notice, but for anyone in or visiting the Washington, D.C., area, it would be worth the effort.

“It’s a Biblical principle. If you double a teacher’s pay scale, you’ll attract people who aren’t called to teach.”

— Alabama Republican state Sen. Shadrack McGill, offering a novel argument against raising teacher salaries. But McGill, who was speaking at a prayer breakfast, defended a 62 % pay hike Alabama legislators approved for themselves in 2007.

And, God forbid that we should pay our educators a livable salary!  That would ruin the whole concept of teaching.

Dallas is finally starting to recognize the contributions of Mexican-Americans with an exhibit at The Old Red Museum of Dallas County History & Culture in downtown Dallas.  In conjunction with the Dallas Mexican American Historical League, the museum presents a photographic exhibit documenting the history of Mexican-Americans in Dallas since 1900 that opens on February 10, 2012 and will run through May 27, 2012.  As a Hispanic/Mexican/German-American, I have to say it’s way past time for such an exhibit!

I’m a creative and technical writer of Spanish, Mexican Indian and German extraction – a dog-loving, weight-lifting, politically incorrect free-spirited Texas wolfman with a fetish for good books, good rum, good conversation and better redheads.  I never fit in anywhere, so I created my own somewhere.  And I’m glad you found me! 

Alejandro De La Garza