Fathers Writes

[fatherswrites]

It’s a Saturday morning and my kiddo has completed his first week of his third grade year. I’m not excited for my kid. I’m not excited about his school. I am glad that he made it through week one with no incidents.

My hope is that my kiddo meets great friends and builds healthy relationships with them. Maybe he will encounter a adult who impacts his life positivley. What I should be hoping for is that the learning my son acquires will give him tools for the things he is passionate about in life.

I’m not convinced that schools are doing this or even want to. Instead I encourage my kid to find ways to enjoy his day at school. Have fun with his classmates. Give him ways to excersize his emotional development and push him to find moments of learning that he is interested in.

Beyond that he will have to do what I did and my mother did. Which is to develop the skills to navigate the oppressive institution of education. Find ways to take what is useful and reject what is not. Sabotage in places where it is needed. Most importantly make connnections with peers and become an advocate for justice!

[fatherswrites]

It's a Saturday morning and my kiddo has completed his first week of his third grade year. I'm not excited for my kid. I'm not excited about his school. I am glad that he made it through week one with no incidents.

My hope is that my kiddo meets great friends and builds healthy relationships with them. Maybe he will encounter a adult who impacts his life positivley. What I should be hoping for is that the learning my son acquires will give him tools for the things he is passionate about in life.

I'm not convinced that schools are doing this or even want to. Instead I encourage my kid to find ways to enjoy his day at school. Have fun with his classmates. Give him ways to excersize his emotional development and push him to find moments of learning that he is interested in.

Beyond that he will have to do what I did and my mother did. Which is to develop the skills to navigate the oppressive institution of education. Find ways to take what is useful and reject what is not. Sabotage in places where it is needed. Most importantly make connnections with peers and become an advocate for justice!

[fatherswrites]

REST IN POWER STEVE CASAS!

Today was the day I've been dreading since my move from Texas to the Bay Area. I knew at some point, on one day, I would get a call from family back home about the transitioning of a loved one. There are elders in my family who I am expecting to get calls about passing away. Today that call would not be made. Instead the call came in that my cousin had taken his own life last night.

What I am now realizing is that I am not prepared as a parent to talk to my child about loved ones who commit suicide. My only family here in the Bay is my own child. So I have to handle the frustration of not being close to loved ones right now to comfort them and be comforted while also having to be there for my own child and his daily needs coupled with manuevering threw my own grief.

This post is really about Steve and the culmination of the trials and tribulations in his life leading up to this day. We use to be close and after my mother passed in my teen years Steve often helped me out. I spent a lot of time at his family home, going with him to work in those days. Times changed and our paths split and our bond began to shift. It's been years since he and I have had a valuable conversation. The last time I saw him was in December 2016 and he didn't seem stable. We can never know what was really going through his mind and heart in his last moments. There is no judgement here. I want my cousin who I know believed in heaven to have found his peace in his transition. He wasn't happy here and if his beliefs are true for him then I hope he is resting his soul. Rest in Peace Steve Casas!

I love you!

*steve on the far left.

[fatherswrites]

Four years and one month ago I singed the lease for the apartment my kiddo and I live in. It was our first step toward creating our own home. Although there is much that makes this little space not feel like a home it is the one we have and we do with it what we can. This coming November will be five years in one place for us. Not sure what the future holds for him and I in terms of housing in the East Bay. we are grateful to have a roof over our heads and to be able to afford it. I make sure my son understands what that means in this social/economic climate we survive in.

(2012) I couldn't think of a better group of characters to sit at a table and sign documents with. My son, 'firebot', two dinosaurs and banana man! The move to Cali to find a way to have fair time with my son has been a long struggle. This will be my third place to live in less than two years. Prior to my move I lived in the same place for thirteen years. That soil I call Texas was and is my home. For the first time my son and I have a chance to try and make a place our own little home. Where pots of Tejano style frijoles will simmer day-long, early morning coffee will brew, Saturday cartoons will be watched and the voices of friends turning into family will linger in the air.

[fatherswrites]

My son loves the hero archetype. Even more so he loves super heros like I do although we have differing tastes of characters. This story isn't about superheros per say although Invisible Man is the character of choice here. What I'm sharing is my personal experience with invisibility as my son's father. Some background information to start. My son's mother and I have 50% custody timeshare each. At his other home with his mother he has a step-father and step-brother. On multiple occasions I have encountered people who become confused when I introduce myself as the father of my child. In some instsances it could be while meeting another parent from my son's school. Or when I was completeing paper work for my son's school file the office worker had a hard time believing that I was the father. Then there was the time that a friend of mine came across my kid's step-father who spoke of my son as if I didn't exist. The conversation confused my friend until he realized that stepdad was refering to my son as his child. More than confusing for people it is awkward. It's awkward for me as well. I'm not in opposition to the "blended family" concept. Niether am I opposed to new partners seeing my child as their own family. What occurrs in my situation is that my son's mother and new partner introduce themselves as the parents to our child as if our son has no biological father present in his life. Even in paperwork I will be left out leaving people to believe that my son's only parents are mother and her husband. When these instances surface I handle them. Set the narrative straight and make sure that it is known who I am to my child. For whatever reasons she can try to invisibilize me but there is no dissapiearing act happening here.

[fatherswrites]

OUSD School Board: Pay the full raise promised to OUSD Unions. #promiseskept #noexcusesOUSD http://thndr.me/0IWIwh

[fatherswrites]

Diamond Reynolds: 'I want justice'

Diamond Reynolds speaks out after her video of the aftermath of her fiancé's killing reignited a debate on fatal police shootings of black men.

My son is in the bathtub now playing. I had to put him in so I could have some space. About an hour ago I told him that I was in a bad mood and that I didn't know why but he needed to know. After watching Diamond Reynolds interview a few minutes ago I realized that the last two days have been too overwhelming. Not just the murders of two more black men and the easy access we have to witness their murders. But also the vicious racist commentary I see on social media. I'm scared for all my black students and comrades. My son and I have had too many damn discussions about the assualt on black bodies by white supremacy and it's insitutions that today I don't know what to say to him. Other than what I have already spoken. It saddens me that my seven year old needs to know that where he lives is a dangerous place for our black friends and for us as brown people. When I say where we live I don't mean America or the United States. Those are just the titles. We live in white supremacy! #fuckthepolice #dismantlethepolice #endwhitesupremacy

[itzelaalejandra]

Cósmica: an art show celebrates critical consciousness, intersectionality and the creativity spawned from a need for self discovery and self love in a society where the work of young women of color is dismissed or deemed as inferior.

Photography/GIFs: Itzel Alejandra 

[afuerzas-deactivated20260216]

Ahhhhh 😍🙌🏾❤️

[fatherswrites]

Great to see my homegirl (3rd picture down) floating around the internet.

[fatherswrites]

My kiddo is being raised in an urban environment. We do have access though to undeveloped natural spaces that we can make short trips to. In this picture he swings with his cousin out in the country where my niece is being raised. Their upbringings will be very different and how they associate with the natural world will be shaped by the landscapes that surround them. In my life I know that having one foot in the streets and one foot in the natural world impacted me greatly. Thanks to my uncles who took me on fishing trips, hunting, and all the amazing family get togethers on the deer lease. Many lessons were learned in the outdoors that I want my kiddo to have access to.

[fatherswrites]

My latest tattoo of a photo I took in the mid 90's of a mural in a autonomous Zapatista territory. I've held on to this picture with great care and it has now found its way onto my skin. Visiting the Zapatista territories was an enormous impact in my life. My time in Southern Mexico pushed me through a political transformation that has changed my life. This tattoo has come to life at this time for multiple reasons. This is a year of loss and transformation for me. As the end of this gregorian year comes to close I am pushed to reflect. Recently I transitioned out of my employment as an educator in two Oakland public schools. My position termination forced me to leave the young people that I care for which became its own transition of sorts. My students and I made the best of it and we closed out our time together last month. I am still getting used to not seeing them every week. That is my loss. At the beginning of the year I with a partner lost a child together. It was not my first time losing a child in womb but it was my first time being present for the procedure. That was life changing and I still have episodes where it feels unreal that we went throught that. We came out strong and moving forward. As I considered this image for my next tattoo I began to see it as a memorial to my mother who I lost as a teenager and for the two mothers who I have lost children with. Not simply as recognition of loss but as thanks to the women who have endured and protected and created life. My mother was my defender. Always ready to stand up for her child and provide. It's my honor to be her child. For the mothers who have lost the children we co-created they are proof of the ability to naviagte the most difficult of circumstances and rise beyond. These transitions have surfaced and I have dealt with them as best I know. Now I await the next transition whatever it may be!

[fatherswrites]

My kiddo writing me a letter to explain that he really wants to spend time with me. I appreicate my lil dude. Even when we have hard days together he always shows love. He's a great example and I hope to one day be as gentle and caring as he is. #lifegoals #lovemyson #parentlife #kidsrock

[fatherswrites]

My most challenging sqaud of youth to date. Too many are missing from the pic but this core of Castelmont students are amazing young people. They have been through too much in just the first four months of school. By the time I got to them they had already lost a permanent teacher been throuth multiple substitutes and were once again used to having no caring adult in their class. I stepped in and they challenged me constantly but we stuck with each other and had some really amazing classes where they used their own experience in the world to make sense of the curriculum. There will always be a place for The Caslte in my heart. I hope we stay connected and that in four years I return to see this crew as graduating seniors preppared to handle this world and impact it. What time is it? Knight Time!

[fatherswrites]

Spent my last day with my students yesterday. My position was terminated and now I am on to a new transition. The night before I couldn't sleep. All I could think about was my last day with these young people. It's been an amazing year up to this point with this crew and I have a lot of love for them. As I begin to map out my new journey I can't help but wonder what their journeys will be like. What transformations they will make by the end of this school year. It probably won't hit until next week that I don't have students to work with daily. What I will have is more time to spend with my kiddo and that is where my focus will be as I decide what it is I will do next. Skyline Class of 2016 I love you! Go change the world...

[fatherswrites]

A week of being ill leads me to the worst snack for my sickness but the best snack for my soul. #fallfood #allpumpkinerrthang #veganpumpkinpie #oakland

[fatherswrites]

Give me three months with my students and they become tree huggers. #learningisteaching #treehugger #howleftysteach

[fatherswrites]

Woke up feeling ill, going to bed feeling ill but the in between time with my students was all good. #teachingislearning #teambuilding #skyline #titans #kidsrock

[fatherswrites]

My little pumpkin and our first co-created jack-o-lantern. Kid designed and father crafted. #lovemyson #dayofthedead #diademuertos