蜜柚直播

For the third time.

In December 1999, she retired as head of Pima Community College鈥檚 ethnic studies program.

She retired twice 鈥� in 2010 and again in 2020 鈥� as co-director of the University of 蜜柚直播鈥檚 Binational Migration Institute.

Which frees her up for other causes 鈥擟oalici贸n de Derechos Humanos, Fundaci贸n M茅xico, serving on the board of the Little Chapel of All Nations, supervising a couple of grad students, serving an advisory role in the Binational Institute and the Justice for All campaign.

This 鈥渕other of ethnic studies鈥� in 蜜柚直播 may have stepped down from paid work but clearly hasn鈥檛 stepped away from working.

In her near north-side home recently, Rubio-Goldsmith talked about her intertwined personal and professional lives. In many ways, she has lived the racial and social injustices she continues to call out.

The first of nine children of Mexican immigrants in Douglas, young Raquel first confronted racial segregation entering first grade, when her white neighborhood friends were sent to one school and she was sent to another mere blocks apart.

鈥淚t taught me a heavy lesson,鈥� Rubio-Goldsmith told Jeff Bannister in a Journal of the Southwest interview last year.

Heavy lessons continued. Although she was fluent in English, she was automatically placed in a limited-English class. In junior high, she was refused permission to transfer into an Anglo study hall so she could play in the orchestra. She was eventually allowed to drop her Mexican-section spelling class. But she couldn鈥檛 attend Anglo study hall.

In high school, she 鈥� like the other Mexican-American students 鈥� was counseled into vocational classes.

鈥淪o I took typing, shorthand鈥� to qualify as a secretary, but she also took a full load of college prep courses 鈥� enough, in fact, to skip ahead two years and graduate at age 15. She relates one final, painful race-related experience in band (鈥渢he one thing I loved鈥�): While she and other Douglas Senior High School musicians were waiting for their Band Day competition on the UA campus, a group of 蜜柚直播 High Band members began taunting them, calling them 鈥済reasers and beaners.鈥�

鈥淎 fistfight broke out,鈥� says Rubio-Goldsmith, and Douglas鈥� band was kicked out of Band Day. 蜜柚直播 High鈥檚 wasn鈥檛.

鈥淢y family always spoke a lot about injustice,鈥� Rubio-Goldsmith muses. 鈥淛ustice is something people seek. That鈥檚 why I studied law.鈥�

She did her undergraduate and graduate work at the Autonomous University in Mexico City, where she got to know artist Frida Kahlo, saw her first student demonstration (recognizing Diego Rivera in the crowd), encountered injustice in the rigid Mexican class system, and studied philosophy and law.

Experiences in her early adulthood strengthened Rubio-Goldsmith鈥檚 own resolve to 鈥渙rganize the world in a new and just way.鈥� In 1961, her husband, Barclay Goldsmith, took a U.S. State Department job in M茅rida, Yucat谩n. She had seen poverty before, but nothing like that of the Indigenous people there. Later, when they returned to the U.S., she encountered virulent racism against Blacks in the Pittsburgh ghetto Hazelwood.

鈥淭he segregation was phenomenal,鈥� she says.

Although Rubio-Goldsmith had never wanted to be a teacher (she wanted 鈥渢o do, not teach鈥�) she realized that 鈥渋f we were ever going to do anything to change, it had to be through education.鈥�

So it was, she said, 鈥淕od-sent鈥� that in 1969 her husband was hired as director of the 蜜柚直播 Theater Company. The couple, with their two sons, came to 蜜柚直播, and she was hired by Pima Community College.

Newly founded, Pima at the time was jettisoning old assumptions about learning. Rubio-Goldsmith was hired to teach history but was tapped to head up the new ethnic studies program. She quickly turned to constituent communities for instructors: She drafted a Yaqui who knew tribal lore to teach Yaqui history, a Tohono O鈥檕dham to teach O鈥檕dham history, and she persuaded the University of 蜜柚直播 to accept transfer credit for them. They held workshops with wide-ranging debates and discussions.

鈥淚t was a heady time,鈥� she says.

Border activist and retired PCC history teacher Guadalupe Castillo said that Rubio-Goldsmith brought with her the 1960s and 鈥�70s civil-rights energies from the world outside 蜜柚直播. She reached into the community and drew students to Pima 鈥� often in bilingual classes 鈥� offering teaching assistants and volunteers in schools, for example, access to college degrees. She remains a 鈥渄evoted mentor to young people,鈥� Castillo said.

But policies change, politics impinge, attitudes change. She retired after 30 years.

In the meantime, she had been volunteering with the Manzo Area Council War on Poverty program. The program, led by attorney Margo Cowan with Castillo, Rubio-Goldsmith, and then Isabel Garcia (the group to be known as 鈥淟as Mujeres de Manzo鈥�), assisted the community with practical application services. But it soon became clear that what was needed was assistance in regularizing immigrant status. They helped many navigate immigration bureaucracy until April 1976, when police and Border Patrol swept in and confiscated the files of 500 clients and summarily deported hundreds of them.

Rubio-Goldsmith said she chose to leave the hands-on, human-rights and immigrant-rights work to co-found the UA鈥檚 academic, research-based U.S. Mexican-American Studies Binational Migration Institute so that she could help find the data to back up the immigration works she had been doing with the Manzo program. It was 2004, and U.S. border policies were forcing migrants to cross the desert, where they were dying in unprecedented numbers, she said. But 鈥渢he stories (of deaths) were anecdotal,鈥� which is where the institute comes in, said Rubio-Goldsmith. To argue for change, they needed hard evidence and data, which the institute would provide through its research.

Since then, the institute has researched, published, presented and centered students in its mission to examine the impact of enforcement practices of the American and Mexican governments on Latinos in the 蜜柚直播-Sonora region.

And now she has 鈥渞etired鈥� to Justice for All, a campaign to put on the 2022 ballot an initiative to grant undocumented people legal representation in immigrant court.

As Cowan points out in the Justice for All website (where you can see all the 鈥淢ujeres de Manzo鈥�), 鈥淚n criminal court, if you are facing just one day in jail鈥� and can鈥檛 afford a lawyer, the courts supply one. Not so in immigration court. That is fundamentally unjust, they claim. Legal defense should be a right in this country.

鈥淲e are at a time,鈥� Rubio-Goldsmith asserts in the video, 鈥渨hen we must fight for justice for all.鈥�