Pima Community College board member Dr. Sylvia Lee is recognized as one of the 2013 Corn Mothers at the Return of the Corn Mothers Photojournalist Exhibit

Dr. Sylvia Lee, PCC Governing board member

what: Pima Community College Return of the Corn Mothers exhibit

where: Pima Community College West Campus Student Art Gallery, 2202 West Anklam Road, Tucson, AZ, building A, second floor.

when: April 24 through August 29, 2013.

Opening Reception: Wednesday, April 24, 5:30-7:30 p.m. admission: Free and open to the public. Gallery hours: Monday-Friday, 7:30 a.m.-10 p.m.

Tucson, Arizona– Dr. Sylvia Lee, Pima Community College Board of Governors member, District 3; along with her mother Sofia Lee, are named the 2013 Corn Mothers at the opening reception of the Return of the Corn Mothers exhibit hosted by Pima Community College West Campus.

“It is an honor for me and my mother, Sofia Lee, to be among such a distinguished group of women of the Southwest. As the great granddaughter of a Chinese immigrant and Arizona pioneer, I am proud to share my story and source of inspiration,” remarks Sylvia Lee.

Return of the Corn Mothers exhibit runs April 24 to August 29, 2013. The Southwest multi-generational and multi-cultural photojournalist exhibit features the portraits and stories of 34 Corn Mothers from Arizona, Colorado, Texas and New Mexico. Eight Arizona Corn Mothers are honored. Arizona Corn Mothers Barbara Clark, Anne Zapf, Judy Newland and Raven Mercado have artwork displayed in the exhibit. The opening reception program features five Pima Community College students who were selected to recite their poems and stories after a call for submission of creative writing. The students are (Brenna Mirano-McSpadden, Elizabeth Hullar, Jill Pierce, Ken Rosburg and Ashley Cuen)

The exhibit is based on the Pueblo myth of the Corn Mother, the giver of life. This legendary entity is important to the Pueblo cultures and synonymous with Mother Earth, who represents growth, life, creativity and feminine aspects of the world. The Return of the Corn Mothers exhibit is an opportunity to celebrate women from the Southwest who have earned the respect and admiration of their communities for leadership, activism and creative endeavors. The exhibit is the creation of Renee Fajardo, Chicano/a Studies Program faculty member and coordinator of the Journey Through Our Heritage Program at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Todd Pierson, an award-winning master photojournalist, traveled from desert to canyon to mountaintop to capture women in their home environment.

Organizing the exhibit is PCC West Campus executive assistant to the president, Geneva Escobedo, who is one of the featured Corn Mothers. David Andres, gallery director for the Louis Carlos Bernal Gallery and the Student Art Gallery is instrumental in installing the exhibition.

Pima Community College West Campus Student Art Gallery is located at 2202 West Anklam Road, in Tucson, Arizona. For more information about The “Return of the Corn Mothers” exhibit contact Geneva Escobedo, 520-206-3110 or gescobedo@pima.edu.

I personally know both Sylvia and her mother Sofia, and they are both strong, single mothers with friendly, outgoing personalities. Congratulations to both of them for this well deserved honor. Sylvia Lee was just elected to the PCC Governing Board in November, 2012.

My husband and I saw this show last year at PCC West and it is hilarious (hard to believe that monologues about vaginas and women can be funny, but it is.) Both men and women seemed to enjoy the stories told onstage by talented women (students/staff of PCC).

And this is another event to celebrate Women’s “Herstory” Month of March.

Dr. Henry “Hank” Oyama

Memorial services for Dr. Henry “Hank” Oyama were held today at St. Augustine’s Cathedral, 192 S. Stone Ave, with hundreds of people from the Tucson community in attendance. Dr. Oyama was 86 years old and passed away on March 20. He was born and raised here in Tucson, and at age 15 was innocently interned along with 120,000 other Japanese Americans in relocation camps in the western United States. Hank was sent to such a camp north of here in Poston, Arizona with his mother and sister. He was drafted into the U.S. Army after spending 15 months in that internment camp, and later enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, from which he retired as Lt. Colonel.

After returning to Tucson he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Arizona in education, and taught at Pueblo High School for 18 years. Following that he was hired at Pima Community College as director of bilingual and international studies, later became Associate Dean of that program, and eventually retired from PCC in 1991 as Vice President Emeritus. He was bilingual in Spanish and was well know for his advocacy for Hispanic students in Tucson, and established the Hispanic Student Endowment Fund. In 2003 an elementary school in Tucson was named after him at 2700 S. La Cholla Blvd.

Today’s service started off with a welcome by Bishop Gerald Kicanas, who said that Hank was “proud of his roots” and “rejoiced in them here in Tucson.” He also said that Hank “taught by example.” Father Gonzalo Villegas said that Hank exemplified Pope Paul VI’s statement “If you want peace, work for justice.” Particularly touching were when “Amazing Grace” and “Ave Maria” were sung.

Beautiful eulogy delivered today by Ward 5 Councilman Richard Fimbres (also a pallbearer), who spoke of Hank as a “man of integrity, a role model for all”, and listed the many awards/honors that Hank received over his lifetime including Pan Asian Man of the Year in 2005. Hank’s only surviving daughter Mary Catherine Tate spoke of her dad as the person she “learned tenacity from” and that “love is a choice.” Hank was survived by his 2nd wife Laura Ann Toledo Oyama, four children, five stepchildren, fourteen grandchildren, six great grandchildren.

Attending today’s service were many notables:

Ruben Reyes for CD 3 Congressman Raul Grijalva
Former State Senator Victor Soltero
LD 3 State Rep. Macario Saldate (pallbearer)
Pima County District 4 Supervisor Ray Carroll, District 5 Supervisor Richard Elias
Tucson City Councilmembers Richard Fimbres, Karin Uhlich, Regina Romero, former Councilman Steve Leal
TUSD governing board members Adelita Grijalva, Mark Stegeman, Kristel Foster, Cam Juarez
Sunnyside board member Eva Dong Carrillo
former TUSD Superintendents Roger Pfeuffer, Stan Paz

In 1959 he and his Caucasian college sweetheart Mary Ann Jordan challenged Arizona’s anti-miscegenation law which prohibited a Caucasian person from marrying someone Asian American. The actual statute stated: “The marriage of a person of Caucasian blood with a Negro, Mongolian, Malay or Hindu is null and void.” Hank and Mary Ann became plaintiffs in the ACLU of Arizona’s first case, to challenge this law, which was stuck down by Pima County Superior Court Judge Herbert Krucker, but then appealed to the Arizona Supreme Court. Before that court could rule, the Arizona legislature repealed that law, so Hank and Mary Ann’s case was dismissed as moot.

I (an ACLU state board member for five years) attended the ACLU of Arizona’s 50th anniversary dinner on March 20, 2009 where the attorneys for that case were honored, as well as Hank. His wife Mary Ann had passed on by then, but Hank said that she should have been there that night, because she had a harder time with the verbal abuse she endured by being a white person married to a non-white person back then. For Hank and Mary Ann, love was indeed a choice, and they had to fight to remain together and get married.

He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Arizona for this civil rights challenge.

More about Hank in

Arizona Daily Star: http://azstarnet.com/news/local/tucson-education-civil-rights-advocate-hank-oyama-dies/article_fa0197ee-9185-11e2-b1b5-0019bb2963f4.html

Rum Romanism Rebellion (by former State Rep. Tom Prezelski): http://www.rumromanismrebellion.net/2013/03/21/dr-henry-hank-oyama-1926-2013/

Rest in peace civil libertarian and “father of bilingual education” Henry “Hank” Oyama.