Latest / Austin Signal / Austin DeFlock movement, Hispanic Heritage Month at MACC, Central Health budget

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Austin DeFlock movement, Hispanic Heritage Month at MACC, Central Health budget · Austin Signal

0:09
You probably heard a little
0:10
something about the pushback against
0:12
automated license plate readers.
0:14
The biggest name in the game is
0:16
Flock Safety, and there's a growing
0:18
movement to deflock Austin and
0:20
other cities in central Texas.
0:22
We're going to tell you about that.
0:24
And Austin's Mexican American
0:25
Cultural Center is back open to the
0:27
public after some renovations and
0:29
additions to the site.
0:30
They're gearing up for a whole host
0:31
of Hispanic Heritage Month events
0:33
over the next few weeks.
0:34
We've got more about this weekend's
0:36
kickoff celebrations and a little
0:38
local music spotlight coming
0:40
up on today's show.
0:41
The Austin Signal is a production
0:43
of KUT News, hosted by
0:45
Jerry Quijano.
0:46
Plus, we've got a budget update
0:48
for our local health district,
0:50
Central Health, and a budget update
0:52
from Hayes County, too.
0:53
Those stories and more, it's
0:55
all up next.
0:56
And it's right here on Austin
0:58
Signal.
1:09
Howdy out there, this is
1:11
Austin Signal.
1:12
I'm your host Jerry Keehanel.
1:14
It is Wednesday, September
1:15
16th.
1:16
Thank you for being with us.
1:18
No heat advisory today from the
1:19
National Weather Service, but we're
1:21
not yet through with that
1:22
triple-digit heat.
1:24
The forecast high for today is 101
1:26
and an even 100 tomorrow.
1:29
After that, highs are only expected
1:31
to reach 99, only
1:33
99. Thank you tuning in and
1:35
thank you for bein' with us!
1:37
Hayes County has approved a
1:39
$650 million budget
1:41
for its next fiscal year.
1:43
County commissioners debated
1:44
last-minute amendments, and
1:46
as QUT's Lee Walden reports,
1:48
one of those dealt with the Hayes
1:49
county sheriff's new contract with
1:51
Axon AI.
1:53
The contract would have used around
1:55
$96,000 from the
1:57
sheriff's office budget to pay for
1:59
new AI-assisted services from
2:01
Axon, the company that makes
2:03
police body cameras and surveillance
2:05
tech. The services include AI
2:07
translation and transcription of
2:09
body camera footage.
2:10
The commissioner's court had voted
2:12
last week to pay those services,
2:14
but changed their minds by Tuesday.
2:16
Commissioner Michelle Gutierrez
2:18
Cohen was among those who switched
2:20
their votes.
2:20
And I think a lot of counties
2:22
and other cities are dealing
2:24
with the same thing, is how do we
2:26
responsibly incorporate
2:28
AI into our
2:30
work?
2:31
Commissioners decided to spend money
2:33
instead on helping fund two
2:35
correctional officer positions.
2:37
From San Marcos, I'm Lee Walden.
2:46
Cities around Central Texas have
2:48
been canceling their contracts with
2:49
Flock Safety and its automated
2:51
license plate reader technology, but
2:53
there are still many cameras out
2:55
there in use.
2:57
QUT's Gabriel Velázquez-Neda
2:59
tells us about a coalition of
3:01
citizens, advocates, and elected
3:02
officials working to get rid of
3:04
those cameras, and he tells us
3:06
others who want to keep them
3:08
on the streets.
3:09
It's all over the news.
3:11
Flock cameras being vandalized.
3:12
Let's talk about these flock
3:13
cameras.
3:14
Police departments across central
3:15
Texas are reconsidering their use
3:17
of flock safety's license plate
3:19
reading cameras.
3:20
Flock cameras is what you usually
3:21
hear, but the formal term is
3:23
automated license plate readers,
3:26
ALPRs. Flock is just the best known
3:28
brand.
3:29
The cameras use AI software to track
3:30
where cars and the people in them
3:32
are going.
3:33
The tech has been used to find
3:34
missing persons, identify suspects,
3:36
and solve crimes.
3:37
It's also been used by law
3:38
enforcement officers across the
3:40
country to do things like stalk
3:42
their exes.
3:43
And that's led to a growing sense of
3:44
mistrust in cities in central Texas,
3:46
including Austin, Pflugerville,
3:48
San Marcos, and Bastrop.
3:50
Have been canceling contracts with
3:51
ALPR companies like Flock Safety.
3:54
It's a deflock movement, and one of
3:56
the biggest forces working for the
3:58
removal of this technology is the No
4:00
ALPRs Coalition.
4:01
It's made up of groups like the
4:03
Texas Civil Rights Project, Local
4:05
Progress, and Grassroots Leadership.
4:07
Austin City Councilmember Mike
4:08
Siegel is part of Local Progress.
4:10
A group of progressive community
4:12
organizers and elected officials.
4:14
Austin was one of first major cities
4:16
to decide not to renew its contract
4:17
with Flock, And see you go!
4:20
Was on the front lines against the
4:21
technology.
4:22
Ever since then, myself,
4:25
as an elected official, a member of
4:27
national organizations, I've been
4:29
trying to recruit folks from around
4:30
the country to join us in opposing
4:32
flock safety and opposing ALPRs.
4:35
And one of the most important things
4:37
that came out of the Austin
4:39
movement was a
4:41
collection of community-based
4:42
organizations that formed what they
4:44
call the No-ALPRs Coalition.
4:46
Siegel says he and his staff have
4:47
been reaching out to other elected
4:48
officials, developing presentations
4:50
and analyzing the vulnerabilities of
4:52
the surveillance systems,
4:54
specifically how they threaten the
4:55
privacy and liberty of citizens.
4:57
And so, for example,
4:59
I worked closely with a couple of
5:00
the Fluterville council members as
5:02
they were studying their block
5:04
safety programs and
5:06
trying to decide whether they should
5:07
fight to end those programs.
5:08
What happened in Pflugervo is
5:09
interesting.
5:10
This is a city council meeting in
5:11
late August.
5:12
Uh... That brings us to item
5:14
six
5:17
The push to get rid of the cameras
5:19
there didn't come from a group or
5:20
organization.
5:21
It was a citizen who made a public
5:23
information request.
5:24
The request was for organizations
5:26
that had been accessing the city's
5:27
database.
5:28
Pflugerville had a list of 83
5:30
approved vendors who could pull the
5:32
data.
5:33
Mayor says the city thought only
5:34
those 83 organizations could access
5:36
that info.
5:37
But the request showed that 459
5:40
agencies across the country had
5:42
access to Pflugherville's data.
5:44
And that led to a cancelation of
5:46
the contract.
5:46
This afternoon I asked the city
5:48
manager to bag
5:50
and tag the cameras around town.
5:54
Blue River's Mayor Doug Weiss says
5:56
that had the request not been
5:57
publicized, the outcome at
5:59
this council meeting might have been
6:01
different.
6:01
If the citizen had not submitted
6:03
that, if we had not discovered that
6:05
information, that is a scary
6:07
scenario.
6:07
I don't know if the vote would have
6:09
been as unanimous as it was
6:11
once that information was
6:13
revealed.
6:14
So what does this have to do with
6:15
the no ALPR coalition?
6:17
The request came from a citizen.
6:19
But one of the most vocal proponents
6:21
of canceling the contract in that
6:23
meeting was Pflugerville council
6:24
member, Rudy Metair.
6:26
And he is a part of local progress,
6:29
which is a part of the no-ALPR
6:31
coalition.
6:32
Here's Metair at the meeting.
6:33
Let's be blunt here.
6:36
They're a terrible company,
6:38
not a bad partner.
6:40
A terrible company.
6:42
And to see over and
6:44
over again, them not
6:46
learning from us. We were in this
6:47
room, what?
6:49
Six, eight months ago?
6:51
And lying to our face about
6:53
what the hell they do.
6:55
The council voted unanimously to
6:57
end its contract with FLOC.
7:00
Another way organizations in the No
7:01
AOPRA coalition engage with the
7:03
public is with gatherings like a
7:05
FLOCKWALK that happened in August.
7:07
They searched 83,000 cameras
7:09
across 6,800 law
7:12
enforcement networks in the country,
7:13
including a number of other law enforcement
7:14
It's a group of people walking to
7:16
different ALPR cameras and learning
7:17
more about the technology.
7:19
Like a walking info session, but
7:20
with umbrellas for the Texas sun.
7:24
Lydia Fortuna was at the Flock
7:26
Walk. She's a part of the No ALPRs
7:28
Coalition.
7:29
I actually had an experience with my
7:31
roommate being targeted by
7:33
a misread license plate
7:36
from a cruiser-rounded
7:38
ALPR.
7:39
Lydia discovered the group at a
7:40
conference, found the tech
7:41
concerning.
7:43
The reason that I'm out here today
7:44
is because of
7:46
the history of fascism and
7:48
what it means to
7:50
take a stand in the
7:52
beginning before you see
7:54
everything, anything,
7:56
criminalized.
7:57
And again, it's not just local
7:59
progress and individuals like
8:00
Fortuna.
8:01
Another group in the No ALPR
8:03
Coalition working against the
8:05
technology is the Texas Civil
8:07
Rights Project, which, as the
8:09
name indicates, advocates for
8:11
civil rights.
8:11
Chris Harris is the organization's
8:13
Associate Advocacy Director.
8:15
We see these flock cameras
8:17
and automated license plate reader
8:19
more broadly as
8:21
something that ultimately is
8:23
incompatible with our privacy
8:25
as people in the community.
8:27
And we believe that the solution
8:29
is to take these cameras
8:31
down and not collect
8:33
the data about the
8:35
travel habits of everybody across
8:38
our community and across.
8:39
Our state and our country.
8:41
So at the beginning of the story,
8:42
when I said there was a deflux
8:44
movement in central Texas,
8:46
there are council members, civil
8:47
rights organizations and citizens
8:49
like Lydia Fortuna working against
8:51
this technology.
8:53
But the cameras have their
8:54
supporters.
8:55
The technology does help solve
8:57
crimes.
8:58
I asked council member Siegel about
8:59
the repercussions of not having the
9:01
tech. And he pointed out that
9:03
surveillance cameras have existed
9:04
long before flock.
9:05
You can have cameras without
9:08
having the data be
9:10
in the cloud that's available to a
9:11
private company and can be sold to
9:14
anyone who wants to buy it.
9:15
We had cameras in this country
9:17
before we had ALPR systems.
9:19
And so I believe it's a little bit
9:20
of a false choice
9:22
between safety and liberty.
9:24
I think we can have both.
9:26
Flock Safety has spent over $2
9:28
million on federal and state
9:29
lobbying since 2025,
9:31
according to lobbying watchdog
9:33
OpenSecrets.
9:34
Councilmember Siegel says the group
9:35
has attempted to lobby Austin to try
9:37
to get the city to reverse course,
9:39
and in Pflugerville, before the
9:41
whole data privacy debacle,
9:43
Flock representatives had lunch with
9:44
the councilmembers.
9:46
But regardless of what cities do,
9:48
the Texas Department of Public
9:49
Safety is using the technology,
9:51
including in Austin.
9:52
I reached out to DPS
9:54
for an interview but they declined.
9:56
Flock Safety did not get back to me
9:57
in time for publication of the
9:59
story.
10:00
One of the cities still using this
10:01
technology is Caio.
10:03
The police chief, Jeff Barnett, told
10:05
me about a number of cases solved
10:06
with the help of the cameras,
10:08
including one involving Alonso
10:10
Echeverria.
10:11
He's in jail now, accused of
10:12
stealing a car with a five-month-old
10:14
baby in the backseat.
10:16
I think we would have solved it,
10:17
yes, but I don't know how long it
10:18
would have taken.
10:20
And I don t know what else could
10:21
have occurred or what
10:23
danger that child could have been in
10:24
beyond the time that it already took
10:25
us to find him, which was about 20
10:27
minutes in another town, by the way.
10:29
Now, Chief Barnett says there are
10:31
safeguards in place.
10:32
Officers have to put in a police
10:33
case number and the nature of the
10:35
search. And there's also a commander
10:37
who puts together a monthly report
10:38
and audit to make sure no one is
10:40
abusing the information.
10:42
The city of Kyle has 35 license
10:44
plate reader cameras, 12 live
10:46
view cameras, and two drones,
10:48
all as part of its contract with
10:49
Flock Safety.
10:51
Round Rock also has ALPR cameras,
10:53
and other cities are likely going to
10:55
continue using the cameras, because
10:57
at the end of the day, They do help
10:58
solve crime.
11:00
But this defloc movement and the
11:01
counter effort to keep the
11:02
technology is going to be an
11:04
ongoing battle.
11:14
Some Travis County property owners
11:16
can expect to pay a lower property
11:18
tax, at least for the
11:20
county part of their bill.
11:22
Travis County Commissioners voted
11:23
this week to approve a new tax rate.
11:25
It's one penny higher per $100
11:27
valuation compared to the current
11:29
rate.
11:30
But property values are slightly
11:32
lower, which will mean a lower bill
11:33
in some cases.
11:35
People owning homes valued around
11:37
$391,000 will pay
11:39
about $30 less than last time.
11:41
That's around $1,440
11:43
on the Travis County portion of
11:45
their annual property tax bill.
11:47
But there's another part of the bill
11:49
where Travis County taxpayers can
11:50
expect to see a slight increase.
11:53
KUT's Olivia Aldridge reports the
11:55
money will go toward bolstering
11:56
mental health care in the Austin
11:58
area.
11:59
Travis County Commissioners approved
12:01
a $1 billion budget for the
12:03
local health district, Central
12:04
Health, on Tuesday.
12:06
That includes around $127
12:08
million in funding for mental
12:09
health services.
12:11
Travis County Judge Andy Brown said
12:13
those investments would build on
12:15
collaborative local efforts to
12:16
strengthen mental health crisis
12:18
care, such as the county's mental
12:20
health diversion pilot.
12:21
We've laid the groundwork for an
12:23
idea which is closing
12:25
the revolving door of mental health
12:27
crisis in our community.
12:29
Included in Central Health's budget
12:30
is funding for 22 new psychiatric
12:33
department beds in Austin,
12:35
as well as startup costs for a
12:37
future mental health crisis center.
12:39
It'll be paid for in part by a
12:41
tax increase.
12:42
The median homeowner will owe about
12:43
$36 more on their tax
12:45
bill this year.
12:47
I'm Olivia Aldridge in Austin.
12:55
All right, thank you for tuning in
12:56
to Community Powered Public Radio.
12:59
This is KUT News.
13:01
Yesterday kicked off Hispanic
13:03
Heritage Month, and today is Mexican
13:05
Independence Day, so we're gonna
13:07
celebrate in style here on the show.
13:09
We're gonna put a little highlight
13:10
on the local music scene and
13:12
let you know about some events
13:13
happening this weekend and
13:15
really for the next month here in
13:17
Austin, and make
13:19
a visit out to the Mexican American
13:21
Cultural Center.
13:22
Not physically, but.
13:23
We're gonna let you know what's new
13:25
in that space.
13:25
That's coming up next.
13:27
It's right here on Austin Signal.
13:31
Welcome back and thanks for being
13:33
with us, this is Austin Signal.
13:36
This Hispanic Heritage Month we are
13:38
highlighting Latina and Latino
13:40
artists that have helped shape the
13:41
Austin music scene over the years.
13:43
So let's kick it off in style
13:45
with one voice who has made
13:47
a memorable mark.
13:49
One, two, three,
13:51
two.
13:59
Native Austinite Carrie Rodriguez
14:01
began her musical journey when she
14:02
started playing violin at five
14:04
years old and she hasn't
14:06
looked back since.
14:09
You bend it,
14:11
I'm too tired
14:13
to bend it I don't
14:15
wanna play
14:17
house anymore
14:21
Her Ameri Chicana sound
14:23
is grounded in her powerful voice
14:25
and fierce fiddle playing.
14:27
It's also rooted in her family's
14:28
rich musical background.
14:30
Her father was folk musician David
14:32
Rodriguez, and her great aunt
14:34
was the renowned singer and actress
14:36
Eva Garza.
14:38
La puñalada
14:40
que me diste
14:43
fue trapera
14:47
y esa se
14:49
salva
14:52
el que no tiene
14:55
mi corazón
14:58
Mala forma
15:01
de pegarle
15:04
a un corazón.
15:09
She spent some time at the Oberlin
15:10
Conservatory, but Rodriguez soon
15:12
realized that she would rather be
15:14
listening to Hank Williams than
15:16
studying Tchaikovsky.
15:18
After catching the ear of
15:19
singer-songwriter Chip Taylor at
15:21
South by Southwest, the duo were
15:23
soon recording their first of many
15:25
successful collaborations, beginning
15:26
with 2002's Let's
15:29
Leave This Town.
15:33
Rodriguez released her debut
15:35
full-length album, 7 Angels on
15:37
a Bicycle, in 2006.
15:40
Taylor sent that album to Lucinda
15:42
Williams, and soon Rodriguez was
15:44
the opening act for Williams'
15:46
2007 tour.
15:48
Say, little darlin', won't you marry
15:49
me?
15:50
We live in the holler, dear the old
15:52
oak tree Say, darlin'
15:54
say
15:55
She's since released four additional
15:57
solo studio albums and
15:59
three live recordings, including
16:01
one that was recorded at the Cactus
16:02
Cafe.
16:05
You
16:11
In 2017, Rodriguez launched
16:13
what has become one of Austin's
16:14
great musical traditions,
16:16
Laboratorio.
16:17
The concert series features
16:19
Rodriguez, her backing band,
16:20
and a different guest star for each
16:22
event, making for a truly
16:24
unique aural experience each
16:26
and every time, and has featured
16:28
artists like Ruben Ramos,
16:30
Gina Chavez, and Adrian Quesada.
16:33
Tell me what you've been doing at
16:35
night in Austin, T.A.
16:40
And to learn more about Kerry
16:42
Rodriguez, go to KUTX.org
16:44
or visit today's podcast
16:46
show notes.
16:51
Say that thing, but I'm
16:53
never gonna be your bride
17:00
And as Hispanic Heritage Month gets
17:02
underway, there's no shortage of
17:04
events to celebrate.
17:06
Here to give us a preview of some of
17:07
them is Olivia Tamzarian,
17:10
marketing representative with the
17:11
Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American
17:13
Cultural Center.
17:14
Olivia, welcome to the show.
17:15
Thanks so much for having me.
17:17
Okay, so first off, can you just
17:18
tell us a little bit about the Mac
17:19
for folks who might not be familiar?
17:21
Definitely. The MAC is on Rainy
17:23
Street. It's at 600 River Street
17:25
right in the center of the Rainy
17:26
street neighborhood and it's a
17:28
center that was built by the people
17:30
for the people.
17:31
It actually started in the 1970s
17:33
with activists at UT.
17:35
They weren't seeing a lot of
17:36
representation for Mexican-American
17:38
cultural arts so they really
17:39
advocated for many years for the
17:41
center. It was finally built in 2007
17:43
and it is actually part of the city
17:45
of Austin. It's under ACME which
17:47
is Austin Arts, Culture, Music and
17:48
Entertainment.
17:49
The center is a place where we
17:51
preserve and promote Mexican,
17:53
Mexican-American, Latino, and
17:54
indigenous art.
17:55
It's a wonderful multimedia space.
17:58
So we have visual art,
18:00
there's an art gallery, there's a
18:01
lot of summer camp programs and
18:03
things for youth, families,
18:05
and then workshops, classes,
18:07
and big events.
18:08
So the Mac is just a jewel right in
18:10
the center of Austin and a lot
18:12
people might jog by it on the hike
18:14
and bike trail and not really know,
18:15
they might see a mural and not know
18:17
that the center exists.
18:18
It's free to visit, and again,
18:20
it's a space by the community for
18:21
the community, so it's really a
18:23
special place to work and a special
18:25
kind of feature of Austin that
18:27
a lot of folks might miss.
18:28
Yeah, I think it's kind of easy to
18:30
miss because there's those statues
18:31
of the Tejano legends right outside
18:33
and you see the building and then
18:35
you just can easily get sucked back
18:36
into the trail.
18:37
But I think maybe it might have
18:38
caught some folks' eyes because
18:39
there were some renovations going on
18:41
over the last year or so.
18:42
Can you tell us a little bit about
18:43
those changes?
18:44
It's been amazing.
18:46
So we opened again to the public on
18:47
June 6, and we've just been going
18:49
strong since then.
18:50
So the Mac was always intended to be
18:52
built in phases.
18:53
If you see the building, it's a
18:55
semicircle.
18:55
So what phase two did is it built
18:57
two wings on the edges of the
18:59
semicircal. It's a beautiful kind of
19:01
half moon shaped building.
19:02
It's really unique space.
19:03
All the rooms open into our central
19:05
plaza. That's where we have our big
19:06
events. And so the renovation
19:08
allowed us to add some multi-purpose
19:10
rooms, classrooms.
19:11
We added a culinary space.
19:13
So that's kind of my favorite new
19:15
space at the renovated Mac.
19:16
That's where we get to teach
19:18
tortillas and salsa and all these
19:19
things that the community really
19:21
appreciated.
19:22
And again, phase two was born out of
19:24
community advocacy.
19:25
People wanted to see the Mac expand.
19:27
They needed more spaces to rent,
19:29
spaces to hold big arts programs.
19:32
And as you know, there's not that
19:33
many spaces in Austin that offer
19:35
kind of affordable cultural art
19:36
space and the Mac is one of them,
19:38
so. When we reopened, it was with
19:40
a gran fiesta.
19:41
It was called Juntos de Nuevo,
19:43
together again.
19:44
And it was amazing to see kind of
19:45
our founding members come out and
19:47
new folks and families.
19:49
And then since then, we've just been
19:51
going strong.
19:52
The MAC, you know, will continue to
19:54
grow and develop, but right now
19:55
we're really happy with the size of
19:57
the building and the fact that we're
19:58
able to accommodate so many
19:59
different types of program.
20:01
When you think of Latino cultural
20:03
arts, you know some people think,
20:04
okay, that's music, that dance.
20:05
But there's so many more things.
20:07
Visual art, theater productions.
20:10
We have a Casa de la Cultura program
20:12
which teaches different types of
20:13
skills. Things that the abuelos
20:15
might not have passed on to us,
20:17
like things like sewing classes,
20:19
cooking classes.
20:20
There's music, photography,
20:22
singing courses.
20:24
We have gardening program.
20:25
We actually have a garden on site at
20:27
the Mac where we grow fresh herbs
20:28
and then you can use those in the
20:30
culinary classes.
20:31
So.
20:32
It's not just a space to kind of
20:34
view art. It's also a place where
20:35
community organizations, they come
20:37
in and they produce programming and
20:39
collaboration with us.
20:40
Those are some of my favorite
20:41
productions.
20:43
And the Mac, you know, again, it
20:44
sits in central Austin.
20:46
I have worked both at Mexicarte
20:48
Museum and at the Mac.
20:49
They're kind of like cousins, right?
20:51
Mexicart is the one on Congress.
20:52
They do the big day of the dead
20:54
parade and their gallery, you
20:55
that they host amazing exhibits.
20:58
The Mac is just a couple blocks away
21:00
on Rainy Street.
21:01
And it's more of an event and
21:02
programming space, but we do have a
21:04
small gallery.
21:05
So now that we're sitting here on
21:06
Mexican Independence Day,
21:08
just enjoying being able to visit
21:10
both spaces and being able share
21:12
more about what we do.
21:13
Yeah, well today as you mentioned is
21:14
Mexican Independence Day, yesterday
21:16
kicked off Hispanic Heritage Month,
21:18
and you mentioned some of those
21:19
events that y'all have had since
21:20
reopening back in June.
21:21
What do y' all have going on this
21:22
weekend?
21:23
Yeah, so this weekend is a big
21:24
weekend because it's the first full
21:26
weekend of El Mese
21:27
de Herencia Hispana, so it's Mexican
21:29
Independence Day last night.
21:31
And today we had the Viva
21:33
Mexico on Saturday, September 12th,
21:35
and that was kind of our annual
21:36
event to celebrate Mexican
21:38
independence.
21:39
This weekend we have on Saturday
21:41
Fiesta de Salud, which is with
21:42
Austin Public Health.
21:44
They have a family event where
21:45
they're going to do free vaccines,
21:47
health resources, and they're having
21:48
mariachi. So it's kind of a fiesta
21:50
vibe, but very much focused on
21:52
families.
21:53
That's 11 to 2 on Saturday
21:54
the 19th.
21:56
On Sunday the 20th it's Austin
21:57
Museum Day and so a lot of
21:59
different spaces in Austin are
22:00
opening up and doing family
22:01
programming and exhibits.
22:03
We're we're going to be open for
22:05
viewing our gallery.
22:07
There's a beautiful exhibit at the
22:08
Mac right now. It's called Mitote,
22:10
Amigos Gathering and it's
22:12
by Gilberto Cardenas and Dolores
22:14
Garcia.
22:15
They are kind of a power couple in
22:17
Austin. They've been collecting
22:18
Latino art for you know half
22:20
century.
22:21
But this Sunday, it's kind of more
22:22
focused on viewing the exhibit,
22:24
creating some art projects, doing
22:25
some tours, and then there's also
22:28
a performance called Mexico de
22:29
Colores, which is a ballet
22:31
folklorico performance, and that's
22:33
at 2 p.m. And 6 p.
22:34
M. I love seeing the mat come alive
22:36
on the weekend.
22:37
I love families coming in.
22:39
We have a parking lot, so folks can
22:40
park for free.
22:41
It's just a great space to take
22:43
the family out on like a Sunday
22:44
afternoon and be able to enjoy some
22:46
different types of art.
22:47
Then when you're there, you can pick
22:49
up information to find out what
22:50
other classes and programs you might
22:52
be interested in.
22:53
Well, it sounds like you have a lot
22:54
of events planned for the future
22:56
and hopefully even more
22:58
as more people learn about the Mac
23:00
and its existence there.
23:03
What is the best way for folks to
23:04
keep up with everything that's going
23:05
on at the Mac?
23:06
We have a great active social media.
23:08
It's ESB for Emma
23:10
S. Barrientos, M-A-C-C.
23:12
So our social media is at
23:14
ESBMACC.
23:17
We do a lot on our Facebook and
23:19
Instagram. You'll always see us
23:20
posting all the events that we have
23:21
coming up. And then the official
23:23
website is austintexas.gov
23:25
slash M-ACC so austintExas.Gov
23:28
slash Mac for Mexican
23:30
American Cultural Center.
23:31
We have really long name.
23:32
I'm
23:33
The Emma S.
23:34
Barrientos, we had to name our
23:35
center after Emma because she was
23:37
one of the founding members and she
23:38
was somebody who really advocated
23:40
for representation in the
23:42
educational system.
23:43
OK, well, we'll have a link to the
23:45
Emma Esparrientos Mexican-American
23:47
Cultural Center page in
23:48
today's show notes, and we'll make
23:50
it a little easier for our listeners
23:51
to find it right off the bat.
23:53
We have been speaking with Olivia
23:54
Tamsarian from the Emma esparrients
23:56
Mexican-american Cultural Center.
23:58
Olivia, thank you for your time.
23:59
Thank you! Viva Mexico!
24:01
And thank you out there for joining
24:03
us today here on Austin
24:05
Signal.
24:06
That's it for us, but we have more
24:08
about the stories we shared with you
24:10
in today's podcast.
24:12
Show notes and always at kut.org
24:15
slash signal.
24:17
Caroline File is our technical
24:19
director.
24:20
Alexandra Hart is our producer.
24:21
Kristin Cabrera is our managing
24:23
producer.
24:24
I'm your host, Jerry Kehannel.
24:25
We'll be back with you tomorrow.
24:27
Talk to you then.