Saludos Familia

Welcome to the Family Activism Blog and my first news announcement. With “Saludos Familia” I am saying, “All family and friends, I give to you my greetings from my heart to yours”. The purpose and spirit of this blog is to exchange thoughts and experience for creating positive change within our families, communities and world.

My first news:

• Family Activism is out! The book was launched in July 2008, and is now being read from Hawaii to California and some in Detroit, Chicago, Montana, New York and other places. If you have not read Family Activism yet, it is about how to better our community and world beginning with our networks of family, friends, and co-workers. It is about an organizing approach I’ve been developing over the past 30 years, which recognizes that deep success and life fulfillment comes by creating a good life for everyone you care about and everyone in our world. Family activism is about mindfully relating to your family, friends and co-workers, in ways that help them become more caring and powerful.

• The Family Activism blog is now in operation! The purpose of this blog is to encourage positive family, cultural and social change. My thanks to the KaHuliAo Center for Native Hawaiian Law for sponsoring my first author presentation, ‘Olelo Community Television (Honolulu, Hawaii) for producing my first interview program on family activism, and the Hawaiian readers who contacted me to request that I begin a blog so we can share our challenges and learning. Also, my gratitude to Arts for Action (Oxnard, California) for assistance in setting up this blog.

• Doing Author Presentations. I have started in Hawaii, continued in California and will begin my outreach into New Mexico and Washington. I am invited to speak about Family Activism in community centers, libraries, colleges and organizations. I tell about why I wrote the book–because I love life and want us to do all that is necessary to prevent our destruction! When I was at the University of California at Berkeley, my studies included evaluating the well-being of Mother Earth. This led to the realization that we have less than a generation to develop a “health promoting” society and ensure the survival of much of our world population, particularly our working and middle class communities. So, I share my vision for the “great turning”, read selections from my book, and share stories about applying the tools of family activism to better our families and communities.

• Coming out more! I am a porvida activist and I am more publicly coming out. My activism is about loving life and doing all that I can to advance love, respect, and the survival of all people. Years ago I could find no word to describe my commitment so I chose to add meaning to the words “por vida” (“for life”) popular within my community. I combined these words to read as porvida and to mean “being absolutely for life, love, happiness, and all that is positive.” Making money, electing officials, and serving as leaders is not enough, unless we are also teaching love, respecting our Earth, and creating energy for positive change! Porvida is an appreciation of the best of who we are as humans and a trademark concept–meaning commitment, leadership, and success that is passionately dedicated to the support of life for all people and our evolution as humankind.

What’s coming up?

• David Korten, author of The Great Turning is coming to Ventura, California to speak at the CAUSE Community Building Luncheon on September 12, 2008! As an advisory member to CAUSE, I will be doing my best to make this event successful in developing a greater proactive consciousness among Ventura and Santa Barbara’s civic and community leaders.

• Roberto will speak at the University of California, Berkeley, on October 9, 2008, 6PM as part of the 40^th Year Anniversary Program for the Ethnic Studies Library. His topic will be “Family Activism and Celebrating the Best of Who We Are!”

• Roberto will offer a workshop on “Family Activism and Multicultural Respect” at the First Annual Symposium on Race sponsored by World Trust Educational Services on October 11, 2008, First Congregational Church of Oakland. Visit www.world-trust.org for more information.