fellowships/grants/prizes
scholarly presentations
Writing Selections
Antiauthoritarian Youth Culture in Francoist Spain: Clashing with Fascism
The Rise of the European Far-Right in the Internet Age
EuropeNow Editor's Picks
Centre for Analysis of Radical Right
The Gallows are Busy
teaching & syllabi
In Remembrance of Kristallnacht
Is He a Fascist? The Election of Jair Bolsonaro
Book Now Available from Bloomsbury!
Review of "The Prado: Spanish Culture and Leisure, 1819-1939"
DCUQ
Review of "Arresting Development: Comics at the Boundaries of Literature"
Superman says: "Hop on the Welfare Wagon"
Taste Test
Yvonne Craig: A pioneer of women's representation in the super-hero world
Moulinsart Sues Fanzine; Fans Produce 1942 Document Stripping Moulinsart of Tintin Copyright
Occupy_______: So what is this Global Youth Movement?
Louie Dean Valencia
BurntCitrus Notebooks
Fair disclosure: This is only my opinion based upon my experiences in Madrid and New York. This movement is about a lot of things for a lot of people. The problems are complex. We are currently learning how to articulate these problems. Only then can we be ready to solve them in a way that is meaningful and significant.
It started in Tunisia and the broader Middle East, and then moved to Europe (look up Iceland, or the 15th of May Movement in Spain). Many of the strategies that are being used in the US were first tested in Iceland and Spain—they stopped major cuts to social services/education/health/public funding and stopped huge bank bailouts. The European fight continues. In the Middle East this movement has given them a chance to fight for democracy. With each country this global movement takes local characteristics. This is the world's first glocal youth movement. It's cause: lack of democracy, politicians paid for by corporate interests, corporations willing to do whatever is necessary to make profits.
In the US, the Occupy Movement is about (broadly):
1) It's about re-imagining democracy in the 21st century—why don't we have direct democracy? Shouldn't we try harder to understand our pluralistic world?
2) It's about wealth distribution—why does 1% of the population have 40-50% of the wealth (i.e. fair tax code).
3) It's about social justice and equal access—how is it that every member of congress, and every other "developed" country in the world has free health care? Shouldn't we all have access to security in health and home? (i.e., "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness").
It's about unemployment—why can't educated, young people get jobs? Why can't MOST young people afford to get an education? (See: wealth distribution/social justice and equal access)
How do we solve this?
Capitalism has gone wild. We must reign in big business/industry/corporations that have wrecked the global economy, oppressed peoples, and wrecked our planet while making record profits. A corporation's profit is the result of someone, somewhere in the world getting cheated out of their hard work—forced to live in poverty and oppression.
In this movement you see a wide-variety of issues represented. To address these problems we can't look at it piecemeal, trying to patch together single acts and laws that can't possibly address all these problems. A holistic approach is necessary. These occupations are creating a place where people can learn to articulate these problems, so that to better address them.
What seems chaotic from the outside is direct democracy in action. Fair tax codes/wealth distribution/regulation ARE related to the environment. Fair tax codes/wealth distribution/regulation ARE related to immigration issues. Fair tax codes/wealth distribution/regulation ARE related to why teachers don't have supplies in their schools. Fair tax codes/wealth distribution/regulation ARE related to why your friend/family member is out of a job. Fair tax codes/wealth distribution/regulation ARE why the wealthy get richer and the poor get poorer.
World Revolution 2011 – The Arabian Spring!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6S8iQ5KSkU
Arab spring: an interactive timeline of Middle East protests
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2011/mar/22/middle-east-protest-interactive-timeline
Europe's Economic Protests May Be Contagious, 30 January 2009
Anti-Government Protests Erupt Across Egypt, 25 January 2011
http://www.npr.org/2011/01/25/133218489/Anti-Government-Protests-Erupt-Across-Egypt
Youth Protests Sweep Spain As Unemployment Soars, 26 May 2011
http://www.npr.org/2011/05/26/136683688/youth-protests-sweep-spain-as-unemployment-soars
The Rap Songs of the Arab Spring, 9 Jun 2011
http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2011/06/09/137067390/the-rap-songs-of-the-arab-spring
A Growing Indignant Global Youth Movement, 10 August 2011
http://burntcitrus.com/?p=391
Wall Street action part of global "Arab Spring"?, 11 October 2011
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/11/uk-global-politics-protest-idUSLNE79A03Z20111011
Occupy_______: So what is this Global Youth Movement? (pass it on)
Twenty reasons why it's kicking off everywhere
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/paulmason/2011/02/twenty_reasons_why_its_kicking.html
Puerto Rican Voice at Occupy Wall Street Previous
Truth, Justice, and the American Way in Franco's Spain Next
Louie Dean Valencia-García is an Assistant Professor of History at Texas State University. Prior to joining Texas State, he served as a Lecturer on History and Literature at Harvard University. He studies modern European, Spanish, and Transatlantic history, studying urban spaces, youth and queer culture, fascism, anarchism, exile and displacement, and technology. Dr. Valencia-García currently serves on the Research Editorial Committee for EuropeNow, the new monthly journal of Council for European Studies at Columbia University. He holds both a Ph.D. and M.A. in Early and Late Modern European History from Fordham University in New York City. He has been an Andrew W. Mellon Predoctoral Fellow, a United States Library of Congress Swann Fellow, a Santander Universities Fellow, and has received numerous other prizes and fellowships.