Blast from the Past

This  is how I restarted my writing career. Thankyou Lord and others who have supported me to come back to my true home.

I published these letters as a concerned private citizen and was not affiliated to any network or medium in 2011.

Courtesy of Dallasnews.com/Letters to the Editor
Healthcare Reform
From: January 29, 2011

On health care reform

Respect individual choicesWatching the House Republicans' desire to repeal and replace the health care law, my mind and heart have acted like a see-saw -- the same way the power in Washington has tilted back and forth.
Perhaps the best sense I can make of this law is that it is a government responsibility to help people who are disadvantaged. Americans can benefit from this law because it is a human right to be healthy and live a long life.
Yet, it is also a government responsibility to respect its dissenters and people who have a difference of opinion.
This new law is proposed to help 95 percent of the American people. However, the people who don't want health insurance don't have a choice. For every year that I am without health insurance, I will be penalized 1 percent of my hard earned income.
I will pay interest without using the service. It doesn't make any sense.
It would make more sense if the government didn't force it on everyone.

Alain Castillo, Dallas

 

From: July 15, 2011

http://letterstotheeditorblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/07/back-immigratio.html

Back immigration reform

It is illegal to enter the U.S. without proper authorization, but, above all, it is inhumane to allow people to undergo 100-degree-plus heat and drown in rafts to reach our soil due to our broken immigration system.
For the most part, people come here for a better economic opportunity. Some also come to use its privileges. However, most come to work hard and have a better future for their families.
For those who crossed the border illegally, there should be a consequence. I agree with a financial penalty, but not with deportation. After this, there should be a better way to invite people to not only have a worker's permit but also a chance to establish residency, then a path to citizenship. After better immigration laws are established, there should be deportations.
We Latinos care about our home countries and our new home in the U.S., but we may feel betrayed when we helped others in the previous presidential elections.

Alain Castillo, Dallas

 

From: November 5, 2011

On The Occupy Wall Street Movement
Don't count on our supportWe, the young voters of America, helped vote Barack Obama into the executive office in the 2008 election. He is asking us to help him again during the 2012 election, but what we ask for right now is a career.
The recession "ended" two years ago, but its effects remain rampant. For instance, the median income has decreased and there is still high unemployment -- even for college graduates.
How is it that we worked so hard to leave our grocery and retail jobs during our college time and we are forced to remain in those jobs to just make ends meet, and put a roof over our heads and food on the table?
I understand the Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Dallas movement's woes; nothing is working for those who have sacrificed their minds, hearts, souls and family time in order to build a better future.
For those out there who want our support and votes, you need to build a better economy -- immediately.

Alain Castillo, Dallas

 

 

Courtesy of Latina Lista

Young adult author creates series targeting low-level readers

Marisa | April 9, 2012 | 0 Comments

By Alain Castillo
LatinaLista

Leslie Borhaug Tillit wants everyone to master their ability to read.

“It’s so important to be able to read in order to be in control of your life,” said Tillit, a former North Carolina school teacher who taught for 16 years, including nine years of instructing at-risk students.

So far, author Leslie Tillit, has written three titles in the urban street lit Gravel Road series targeting low level, young adult readers.

Nowadays Tillit writes the young adult urban street lit series, Gravel Road, published by Saddleback Educational Publishing.

Tillit shares the stories of teenagers who face real-life conflicts such as date-rape, gangs, violence, pregnancy, and drug abuse, a stark difference to today’s hot topics of love triangles with vampires and werewolves in Twilight or the magical adventures found in Harry Potter.

The series may not touch on what’s popular today, but they speak to a different audience — teens who connect with these situations and read at a third grade level.

Though the teens in her stories face harsh situations, Tillit said she intentionally made the characters academically strong so that they would not be stereotyped as low-readers themselves.

Stereotypes about low-level readers are common, Tillit notes, and says that people would be “surprised” to know that they are found in every ethnic group and socio-economic class.

“It is true that you find children struggle (with reading) when fewer resources are available to them, including written texts in the home or if they have no adults that model reading for them. (But) in addition, if education is not valued in the home, then those students can struggle, too.

According to ProLiteracy, 29 percent of the country’s adult population —over age 16 don’t read well enough to understand a newspaper story written at the eighth grade level. Forty-three percent of adults with the lowest literacy rates in the United States live in poverty. More than 65 percent of all state and federal corrections inmates can be classified as low literate.

However, having low literacy skills doesn’t begin in adulthood, it starts in childhood and it’s a learning challenge Tillit wants to attack head-on with her book series.

Tillit bases her stories on her students’ real-life experiences at Davidson River School, in Brevard, an area in southwest North Carolina. There, she built positive teacher-student-parent relationships with low-level readers and at-risk students at the 6-12 school.

“For me, teaching has always been about the relationships and about inspiring individuals to believe in themselves so they will one day become responsible, productive adults who can then touch the lives of others,” said Tillit.

One way Tillit inspired her students was to engage them in working on a book project. Over a three-year period, Tillit worked with various classes on researching the local town’s history.

Blessed by school administrators with the freedom to teach what and how she wanted because her students were considered possible dropouts, Tillit’s efforts paid off.

The students created three books: Behind Closed Doors of the Allison-Deaver House (2003), Lake Toxaway…Back in the Day (2004) and Brevard Standing Alone, North Carolina’s First Integrated Football Team, The Untold Story (2005).

The book project led to a total of six North Carolina Society of Historian awards, including the Jim and Lynn Rumley History Book Award from 2003-2005.

Tillit says that this proved to the students “that by engaging in their learning they could produce a product that others, especially adults, could respect and value.”

“As a result, the students experienced authentic learning by reading, writing, researching history, editing, using critical thinking skills and ultimately took an interest in their own learning.

Tillit looks forward to the success of her series and plans to write more on school bullying, depression, homelessness, overcoming a learning disability, challenges as a teen mom and even love stories.

To Tillit, reading is a gateway to a better life.

“If you cannot read, you remain at the mercy of those around you who can access a greater amount of knowledge,” she said. “It is also about self-confidence. As those, like me know, when you cannot read well your confidence is low because you are embarrassed. Some students act out as a result because they do not want others to know they can’t read well. So if others at least think the low reader is tough, then he/she feels a sense of protection.”

But putting on a tough act lasts only so long. The real solution is what Tillit advises her readers to remember:

“Read as if your life depends on it,” she said. “Because it does!”

Latina Lista contributor Alain Castillo is based in Dallas, Texas.

English vs Spanish

A customer walked into the Publix grocery where I worked as a clerk while I lived in Hialeah, Florida (Miami).

The customer looked flustered and stressed out.

She looked at me in the eye and asked me, “Why don’t your coworkers speak English? I am looking for sunflower seeds and every person I ask shrugs their shoulders and don’t answer my question.”

I looked at her with shock at the question and I tried to hold my anger.

I began to walk her to the snack food area and then commenced to talk out of my ass.

“You know, English is a very hard language to learn. In this city, they say that 90% of the residents speak Spanish only. I think that if you want to get something done, you should go pay for all of their English classes,” I said.

I told her the truth the same way I would’ve done if she asked why my own mother doesn’t speak English-which she does....well, un poquito.

As you can imagine, my days at the store started to expire.  I became terminated for disrespecting a customer. My rage exploded and my blood boiled on that day.

In an unproductive way, I defended my first official language and I lost. If I would’ve been a jerk, I could’ve shrugged my shoulders and not spoken. 

Yet, I felt vindicated to tell the truth.

I wanted to educate her because I couldn’t stand her ignorance.

There are more truths to this matter though.

It’s true that Leif Erikson and his Scandinavian vikings spoke the first European language in North America in the 1300s. A few centuries later, Spanish settlers spoke and established their language and culture in the US mainland, Central and South America beginning in 1492 with the discovery of San Salvador (Central America) and later Florida in 1493 (North America).

English explorers and settlers brought their language and culture starting in the 1620s.

As our nation flourished, newcomers spoke French, Italian, German, Irish, Polish, and Russian, Chinese and Japanese, among others.

With time, most of these immigrants learned English and adopted it as their common language.

Lastly, the first official language in any part of the Western Hemisphere were the languages of Native Americans.

Today we don’t care of knowing and even acknowledging any of these truths. Perhaps we do, but they are quickly forgotten or just plain ignored.

The Native Americans, 1% of our US population, still speak their ancestor’s language and practice the culture that was handed down to them.

In a way, these coworkers of mine are going through the same thing that they and most other immigrants to America have done-passed down their language and culture to future generations.

I am sure that if I said all these things to that customer, I still would’ve been fired. Hell, maybe she planned the whole thing.

The truth is that I am glad that I stood up to this bully because if not, I would’ve probably not told you this story and I still would’ve lived in Hialeah.

I am here today in Dallas, Texas because I spoke the truth, and I always will.