Dead Poets Society for Otto René Castillo (1936-1967), Roberto Obregon (1940-1970), Guadalupe Navas (1942-1980),  Luis de León (1939-1985), and all the poets and people of Guatemala who gave their lives for the people’s struggle this is not a movie starring Robin Williams this is not a white prep school…

When this whole Occupy movement kicked off back in September, I wasn’t on the streets of Lower Manhattan. I wasn’t even on the streets of Oakland. I was walking along the quiet streets of Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, where my partner Esther and I had just started a three month journey through…

Of course it’s sunny out today. After three weeks of rain upon fog upon smog here in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, we our first day of true blue skies, and I can’t go enjoy it for the same reason I can’t enjoy the frijoles and platanos I can smell in the kitchen. Today…

Mount Tajumulco, Guatemala. tonight i gather with my tribe to welcome a new year with life & laughter & the biggest bottle of cheap wine we could find in Guatemala. we are not at shul in Crown Heights or Skokie. we are at socialist, Spanish-language school in the reddest heart of this highland…

And here we go. In three days, my partner (now wife!) Esther and I are leaving the Bay to live and travel in Central America for the fall. The trip is coming off the heels of our wedding (which was crazy beautiful, I am truly blessed), but it is not…