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It’s the first day of early voting in the Texas primaries and there are many statewide races for consideration: comptroller, lieutenant governor, governor, as well as lots of eyes on the Democratic and Republican races for U.S. Senate.
We’ll have an overview, plus plenty more on the ballots in Travis, Hays and Williamson counties, as well.
Also, the Austin-raised college student who was deported while trying to visit family last Thanksgiving could soon be headed back to the U.S. We’ll have the latest from a judge’s order and from the attorney representing the student, Any López Belloza.
And we mark the start of the Lunar New Year by hearing what the occasion means to some Austinites.
Plus, we have a conversation with a legendary music maker turned mental health advocate at the SIMS Foundation.
Austin Signal is made possible by listeners like you. You can support our work by making a donation at supportthispodcast.org
The full transcript of this episode of Austin Signal is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:08] It’s the first day of early voting in the Texas primaries, and there are lots of statewide races for consideration. Comptroller, Lieutenant Governor, Governor, and of course there are a lot of eyes and ears on the Democratic and Republican races for U.S. Senator, plus plenty more on the ballots in Travis Hayes and Williamson Counties too. We’ve got a whole lot more coming up on today’s show.
Laurie Gallardo [00:00:31] The Austin Signal is a production of KUT News, hosted by Jerry Kehanoff.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:36] Plus, the Austin Rays college student who was deported while trying to visit family last Thanksgiving could soon be headed back for the US. The latest from a judge’s order and from the attorney representing the student. And we mark the start of the Lunar New Year by hearing what the occasion means to some Austinites. We have more on those stories and a whole lot more coming up on today’s Austin Signal. Howdy out there, thank you for tuning in. This is Austin Signal. You’re listening to Community Powered Public Radio KUT News. I’m your host, Jerry Guijano. It’s Tuesday, February 17th, and it’s the first day of party primary early voting in the Austin area and across the state of Texas. Now, as a reminder, that means you’re gonna be choosing to vote in either Republican or Democratic primaries. This go around. And statewide, there are plenty of important races that will be on the ballot in the next few weeks, and again, later this fall. Those include governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and the race to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate. Austin State Rep James Tallarico is running for the Democratic nomination against House Rep Jasmine Crockett of Dallas. Meanwhile, incumbent Republican Senator John Cornyn is looking to hold onto his seat against Attorney General Ken Paxton and Wesley Hunt. Here in Travis County, four Democrats are running for the Precinct Four Commissioner seat, which has been filled for more than three decades by Margaret Gomez. Gomez is retiring at the end of her term. The candidates running to replace her include Susana Ledesma Woody, who nearly unseated Gomez in the primary four years ago. Ledesima Woody has served on the Del Valle ISD School Board for 15 years.
Susana Ledesma Woody [00:02:24] You know, we were just like, what’s the next step? You know how can we really push this needle? And you know, it was just run for the position, right? If you really want to make a difference, you know you have to scare these politicians that this seat is not theirs.
Jerry Quijano [00:02:38] George Morales was elected and has served as Travis County Precinct 4 constable since 2016. He says improving transportation for his constituents will be a big deal.
George Morales [00:02:48] That’s gonna be my main first priority is to go in there and say how can we fix these roads? How can we go get access for the people to drive through these roads safely?
Jerry Quijano [00:02:58] Ofelia Maldonado Zapata has served in leadership roles in education and religious nonprofits for more than three decades. She doesn’t think of herself as a politician, more so rather as a community organizer.
Ofelia Maldonado Zapata [00:03:12] Because one thing I learned is that, you know, we can be angry about the injustices that we’re living in or we can do something about it.
Jerry Quijano [00:03:23] And Gavino Fernandez Jr. Rounds out the candidates for the precinct for commissioner seat. He has a very simple priority, keeping his precinct affordable.
George Morales [00:03:33] No tax increases.
Jerry Quijano [00:03:36] No Republicans are running in this race, which means whoever wins the primary will run unopposed in November. We have more about this story at KUT.org, and we will have more about elections in Travis Hayes and Williamson counties at Kut.org slash Signal, and in the show notes for today’s podcast. Aniopis Beyoza, the college student who was detained, then deported by immigration authorities last Thanksgiving, could soon be on her way back to the U.S. That’s according to a recent court order directing the federal government to bring her back. For more about this update, we are speaking with KUT’s government accountability reporter Andrew Weber. Andrew, thanks for being on the show. Of course. Thanks for having me, Jerry. So listeners of the show and followers of KUT know that we have been following this case for a long time. Catch us up, we know that Ani-Lopez Belloza was deported back in November, what’s happened since then?
Andrew Weber [00:04:31] Right. So since that deportation in November, they’ve gone to court a couple of times. And last month, attorneys for the federal government basically admitted that Lopez Belloza was wrongfully deported. And that was kind of a remarkable admission on the part of the federal government. And, that also started a clock. The judge up in Massachusetts said the government had three weeks to make up for that wrongful deportation. And the feds, the attorneys for the fed’s basically waited until the last minute to file anything in court. So last Friday, the federal judge up in Massachusetts issued another order. Boston attorney Todd Palmerlow is Ani Lopez Beyoza’s attorney. He’s also aggressively a Patriots fan. He likens it to football. He says attorneys for the government didn’t offer a solution to the deportation and they basically gave up any standing. So that kind of forced the judge’s hand to rule in Lippis Beos’s favor.
Todd Palmerlow [00:05:34] It basically responded with really no offer to do anything to resolve the case. It effectively punted the ball. And now the judge has basically put it in the end zone for us. So we’re very happy to see this result and hopefully they facilitate a return on. Very quickly.
Jerry Quijano [00:05:52] Okay, so let’s follow the football analogy. You get the punt right and then you get the setup and you’re gonna start. And then you have to do something with the ball once you’ve gotten it. So what happens next? We know there’s a deadline, but what does Lopez Belloza’s attorney, Todd Palmerlo, expect to?
Andrew Weber [00:06:06] Happen next. He’s basically, it’s kind of a wait and see approach. They punted the ball, sure. But the government has to respond. Otherwise, they’ll be held in contempt of court. And because of that delay earlier, the federal judge basically wants progress reports on all of this. So there’s a two week deadline in which they have to basically get Ani Lopez-Pellosa back into the US. February 27th is the deadline. Todd Pomerlow, the attorney said he’s trying to work to get this, to have this process be as smooth as possible. Because Ani Lopez Belloza was, you know, she was ignorant of it, but she did not have legal status. Neither did her mother. They fled Honduras when she was a kid, and she was under the impression, as was her mom, that she was here legally. So, Palmerlo is trying to find ways to get them legal status.
Todd Palmerlow [00:07:06] Her and mom were basically wrongfully informed that there was nothing wrong with their situation. That’s why they lived their lives out in the open for so many years, completely blindsided. But we have a green card application pending on behalf of Ani and her folks. So some things have changed and she’s been deported because we’ve been looking at every stone to unturned to see what we can do to make it right for her because we don’t want her coming back on the same posture that she left on.
Andrew Weber [00:07:31] So, Palmerlo has gotten a lot of help from a bunch of different attorneys who have come onto the case while that green card is being processed. But whatever they do is dependent on what the attorneys for the federal government do. Whatever they do, whatever they file. And that deadline for the sort of progress reports that I mentioned earlier is tomorrow. So hopefully by Thursday we’ll have a clearer sense of what they’re going to do, what the plan is going forward. But again, the deadline to get her back into the country is. On or before February 27th.
Jerry Quijano [00:08:04] Okay, that is Andrew Weber. He is KUT’s government accountability reporter. You can find more of his work and updates on this case at KUT.org, and we will continue to bring you those updates right here on Austin Signal. Andrew, thank you very much. Yes, sir. Thank you, Jerry. The Reverend Jesse Jackson died today at the age of 84. Jackson was a civil rights leader, a minister, and a politician who was a protege of Martin Luther King Jr. In 1984, when Jackson was candidate for president, he spoke with John L. Hanson Jr. For his show in Black America. And even though it was more than 40 years ago, some issues like equal protection under the law and forced policy decisions were as important then as they are right now.
Jesse Jackson [00:08:52] I would think that the present policy of gunboat diplomacy, big stick diplomacy, manifest destiny, nuclear threat, and choosing deployment over negotiations is a way of progressively isolating America from the world community and making the world a more dangerous place in which to live. I think a sense of mutual respect and reciprocity and human rights and democratic principles must be the guiding line of that determines how we engage in foreign policy for example latin america’s not our back door it’s next door they are our neighbors indeed latin american’s are our good neighbors in foundation to engage in an attempt to over to overthrow of the government of Nicaragua and violated sovereignty. Is illegal, but it’s also unethical and it is short-sighted and it’s identifying with the wrong side of history. After all, it was our investment in and cooperation with Somoza across the years that created the tyranny there in the first place. For our nation to embrace the tyrannies of El Salvador is to be identifying with wrong side history. Our nation loses its credibility, its moral authority, It’s legitimacy. Will invade and occupy a nation the size of Grenada and then log out the American press that the people might not have adequate information.
Jerry Quijano [00:10:28] That was the Reverend Jesse Jackson. You can hear In Black America tonight at 10 o’clock in its regular spot, and you can hear a special rebroadcast of this 1984 show with Reverend Jesse Jackson at 10.30. That’s on KUT News 90.5 on the KUT app and online at KUT.org 10.32 tonight. We have more Austin Signal coming up for you after this break. This is Austin Signal, thanks for being with us today. It’s the start of the Lunar New Year today and KUT’s photojournalist Patricia Lim has some great photos from a celebration that she recently went to up at kut.org. Couple years ago she met up with the Summit Lion and Dragon dance team based out of Summit Elementary School in Northwest Austin. Today we’re gonna hear from students and dance team members Chloe Pham and Story Palifox and the team’s leader Derek Galban. But first, here’s Thai Chuan, better known as Mr. T, a Vietnamese dual-language interventionist at Summit Elementary, who coordinates the Summit Lion and Dragon dance team.
Mr. T [00:11:42] The Lunar New Year is a huge festival where people come together with joy, with happiness and they just pretty much want to start a brand new new year.
Chloe Pham [00:11:56] Lion Dance performances happen during Lunar New Year, and it’s a time where a lot of my family and my friends from out of town come in here. A week or two before New Year’s, we usually just clean up the whole house.
Mr. T [00:12:08] You can’t clean it after, because it’s not good. It’s bad luck. They will want to get rid of all the bad things that happened last year and hope for the best for the following years. The red envelope is the lucky envelope in Vietnamese language. It’s called bali si. The lions come to the stores or to the venues, and we bless the area. And so in return, the owners, the audience, they can also give donations to it.
Chloe Pham [00:12:37] When I was in the lion, it felt kind of like surreal, and I felt like I belonged there. I grew up outside of the Asian community. Now I actually feel connected with them, and it feels really good.
Mr. T [00:12:51] We are considered the pioneer of the Vietnamese dual-language program for the state of Texas. We have extracurricular activities after school.
Chloe Pham [00:12:59] We have to do the stands and it’s really painful on our legs.
Coach [00:13:06] Push the heads.
Chloe Pham [00:13:12] It’s got a whole stance. Not many people like it, but I don’t mind it that much.
Mr. T [00:13:18] That’s a lot of work.
Story Palifox [00:13:23] When I was in sixth grade, a few of my buddies, they were already doing it. So they invited me and ever since then, I’ve just stuck around. I’m not Vietnamese, but I grew up around the culture my whole life. Now I’m at the point where I’m just trying to give back as much as I can. Let’s see how much it’s helped me. Back in the day, it was majority Vietnamese, but now it’s expanded a lot to every culture.
Mr. T [00:13:45] If you provide these cultural opportunities, they become more respectful of the culture and it also gives them a chance to have self-identity. It helps keep tradition alive, it helps keep culture alive, but also educates young people who have an ethnic background, either from Asia or from any other country.
Chloe Pham [00:14:09] I feel a lot of other people aren’t as lucky as me to be able to do line knits and feel like really connected to their culture. So I think it’s a really big honor for me to do this.
Jerry Quijano [00:14:30] Those were the voices of Thai Chuan, aka Mr. T, a Vietnamese dual-language interventionist at Summit Elementary who coordinates the Summit Lion and Dragon dance team, as well as students and dance team members Chloe Pham and Story Palafox, and dance-team leader Derek Gauban. Mental health is essential for all of us. For creatives especially, mental health can shape everything from inspiration to burnout. But one legendary music pioneer and certified peer specialist is putting a special focus on the well-being of creatives. He has a live podcast taping tomorrow night at 6 p.m. At DAWA HQ, hosted by Jonathan Chaka Mahone, called Clarity is Sublime, Mental Health in a World Gone Mad. Host Miles Bloxton spoke with Bevis M. Griffin about this.
Miles Bloxson [00:15:20] You’ve worked as a musician for decades. How has that experience in the industry shaped the way you think about mental health today?
Bevis M. Griffin [00:15:28] Oh my goodness, it touches, it checks so many boxes when I think back historically in the arc of my career, because I basically started my career at the tender age of 18 in Austin, Texas, back in 1972. So when you see those little bumper stickers that say, Keep Austin Weird, we’re the people that were making Austin Weird in 1972, okay? And the reason that I say that is because at that point in time, drug use was fairly prolific in the youth community at large because no one had exposure to the ramifications of long-term exposure to recreational drug use. So I actually kind of fell into the deep end of the pool, you know, very naive, but in a situation where so many of my peers were older and more experienced, it was just a natural case of in Rome, do as the Romans do, and you get in where you fit in and you go with the flow. So one thing led to another, and over the course of five, six years, I had ascended to the point to where I was a professional musician looking to extend my career into a more national platform. And so I relocated to New York City in 1982, because at that time, Austin was not established as a musical powerhouse the way that it has been in the last 20 years since South by Southwest, right? At that time, Austin. Was much more colloquial. The quality of musicianship was very high. And so that really elevated my skill set, so to speak. But as far as taking that next step to getting a national record deal, so to speak, there were no major labels in Texas. So I had to make a pivot to either New York, Los Angeles, or even London, for that matter. And so I got an invitation to come to New York and pursued that from that standpoint. Having said that… That literally coincided with the crack epidemic by the time that I moved to New York City. And personally, I never had any exposure in engaging in crack per se. But what I could attest to was that the degree of recreational drug use had proliferated the industry to such a point to where it was completely normalized, right? So I’m here to tell you, you know, I had a lot of exposure at a very… Tender age. And so having gone through all of those experiences as a mature adult, once I kind of turned the page at the age of 40, so to speak, I really wanted to start thinking of myself as a, mature individual, you know, with the future, right? And I wasn’t so precarious to be so nihilistic living on the edge, so, to speak. Right? And that literally set me on my path to sobriety. Then I just embraced that, you I’ll see you in the next one. That’s literally the platform that I stand on today.
Miles Bloxson [00:18:24] How did you decide to pivot from being a musician to then being a manager, and now you’re on the board of Sims Foundation, which is all about mental health and supporting artists in the Austin area?
Bevis M. Griffin [00:18:37] I literally had a moment of clarity while I was performing in a club, thinking like, where do you wanna be in five years? And the voice answered, I don’t wanna be chasing these gigs around town, you know? I wanna be a position where I’m actually, you now, opening some doors of possibility for other people, maybe as a mentor. I was fortunate that by the time I made that pivot, one of the first acts that I started working with was the band Death out of Detroit that had a very… Powerful backstory and a documentary called A Band Called Death. And so that kind of put me in the arena of national exposure. And then from that I went on to manage the band Living Color who were friends of mine from my early days in New York City. And then the rest is history, as they say. Once I’d gotten to that echelon, things just started opening up and rolling.
Miles Bloxson [00:19:32] Right. And so it seems like a very natural evolution for you. So when did you decide to step into the mental health space?
Bevis M. Griffin [00:19:40] During the pandemic, I really started thinking along the lines of education, right? I wanted to develop a curriculum of education to kind of bring to focus the influence of black popular culture on pop culture writ large. So I started collaborating with the School of Rock. And along that line, I started having some… Deep conversations with my younger sister, who passed away a few years ago, but she was a very savvy executive in Los Angeles, and she and I started thinking about the idea of me getting into my autobiography, right, in earnest. And going, tracing back through the stages of my early development, I realized that I had actually been exposed to a lot of heavy childhood trauma, you know, and… I won’t go into the details here, but what I can say was that my personal journey informed me of how traumatized I had been and why I had such a proclivity to kind of escape into the land of, let’s say, drugs and alcohol as self-medications, so to speak. I also was probably trying to address an underlying sense of chronic depression. For all intents and purposes. So that really kind of illuminated my intrigue, right? And I happened to meet a lady that told me about peer support as a means of participating in a mental health field that didn’t require like the same rigors of being a qualified mental health professional that would need a bachelor’s degree, so to speak. The criteria was lived experience, which I had an ocean of. And so once I pursued the criteria for the certifications, that really kind of lit my fire, right? Because I could understand how just expressing a sense of identity and empathy with individuals that are going through challenges that you yourself have endured is very powerful. You know what I’m saying? And I wanted to participate in a way to use the platform that I had acquired culturally, right, to pour back to younger. Aspiring musicians and let them know that, first of all, you have everything that you need to be successful. You don’t need like an extracurricular activity to bolster your talent. As a matter of fact, those external influences can actually be debilitating to your best self. You know what I’m saying? So I’m just saying it’s so important for me to let young individuals know that your Talent is a gift. From most high.
Jerry Quijano [00:22:35] That was music pioneer Bevis M. Griffin speaking with host Miles Bloxson. The live taping of the podcast, Clarity is Sublime, Mental Health in a World Gone Mad, hosted by Jonathan Chaka Mahone. It’s happening tomorrow night at 6 p.m. We’ll have a link to more information at kut.org slash signal. That’s it for today’s show. I’m your host, Jerry Quijano. We will be back with you tomorrow. Have a great day.
This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
