A unique business collaboration in West Valley City

Posted on November 16, 2008 by comm5775

by PHI TRAN

West Valley City is fast becoming one of the most ethnically enriched communities in Utah. With the number of different cultures and their businesses increasing in the city, some may think it will cause some competition between the communities. But the opposite has actually occurred at 1824 W. 3500 South. Tenochtitlan Market, a Hispanic grocery store, and Super Saigon Oriental Market, are a perfect example of this collaboration.

Tenochtitlan and Super Saigon have been doing business in the same plaza for more than seven years. Many people say the association between these two businesses is unique, because it does not exist in many other cities. The Hispanic and Asian markets in other places are usually not found in the same plaza.

Acela Ceja, the office manager and president assistant of Tenochtitlan, said there is no competition between the two markets. In fact, they work together to provide the best service for all the customers who come to this plaza. She also believes it is very convenient for customers to have these two markets so close to one another.         

Mayor Dennis Nordfelt of West Valley City believes that although the situation was unplanned, it has evolved into a positive business collaboration. “It demonstrates that these two communities can get along and benefit from each other,” Nordfelt said.

He also said in other cities various cultures seem to be separated into different parts of the neighborhood. For instance, Hispanics are clustered in one area of the city, while Asians are located in another. However, ethnicity is disbursed all over West Valley City.

“I see Utah as a state and West Valley City in particular, as very welcoming to all ethnic minorities,” Nordfelt said.

Furthermore, the plaza creates a richer community, said Pamela S. Perlich, the senior research economist of the Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the University of Utah. Having these types of businesses in the same area means there are more points of view and many more ideas and cultures, which ties the city to the rest of the world and create a more cosmopolitan community, she said.

In addition, Perlich said Utah has attracted a lot of business talent from all over the world and the concentration of people from so many diverse places into one area has never been seen before. Although there are those out there that assume there are just too many differences between the two cultures for it to work, Perlich believes otherwise. “Sometimes differences in opinion and differences in ideas can bring a new synthesis of doing things and that is one of the benefits this community brings to Utah,” she said.

According to the demographic census data done in 2000 by Perlich, of Utah’s 2.2 million population 238,667 was made up of Hispanics and Asians, and she presumes that their numbers have been steadily increasing over the last eight years, although the exact numbers will not be known until the 2010 census. The growth of the Hispanic and Asian population created the need for the Tenochtitlan and Super Saigon markets, therein creating the unwitting collaboration.

Perlich also mentioned that Utah has been plugged into the internationalization of markets. She referred to the theory “Internationalization is our best hope for world peace,” from Thomas L. Friedman’s “The World is Flat.” These two markets are a great example of this theory being applied to the actual economy.

Mayor Nordfelt agrees with this theory as well and said history itself proves it. He talked about how in the past people marginalized Hispanics and Asians because they were so different. And although it still happens, it is less frequent in West Valley because of the increase in their populations. “As their numbers have grown it just seems like we have been able to take the best from the minority cultures and the majority culture and put those all together for a new culture,” he said.

Moreover, customers have indicated that this association has created a better understanding between the two communities. Muoi Ha, 55, a resident of West Valley City for 24 years and a longtime customer of Super Saigon, said she has seen a difference in the way people interact with each other. “I’ve been shopping in this area for over 10 years and I notice that people are nicer and respect each other more,” Ha said.

She also said an area such as this did not exist before; people of different cultural backgrounds shopped in their own areas. Ha gave said when she and her family came from Vietnam to Utah in 1980, they sought out markets in Asian areas of Salt Lake City, because it was a comfort and language issue as well as a convenience factor. She did not want to have to travel to so many different markets and be around so many different people.

Yet, she said when these businesses opened in the same plaza things began to change. After a few years, the comfort and language issues were not as apparent as before. She said even though the people who did business as well as shopped in the plaza did not speak the same language it did not stop them from working together and being friendly to each other. Ha said it gave her a different perspective on things.

“It’s been a really good learning experience for me and my family,” Ha said. She also said it is very convenient, because if they needed to get something from both the Asian and Hispanic stores, they would only have to drive to one location. Ha said when they were finished shopping at one market, they would only have to walk next door to the other market and could finish all their shopping in one stop.

Super Saigon Oriental Market is located on the west side of the plaza.  Inside the market, people can find freshly roasted ducks and pigs, and deli sliced and prepared meats for Asian entrees like pho, a popular Vietnamese noodle dish. Desserts like che, a Vietnamese version of pudding using either coconut milk, different kinds of beans, tapioca, sweet rice and/or various types of fruit and a bountiful variety of Asian snacks from shrimp chips to durian crème wafers can also be found in the market.

On the east side of the plaza is the Tenochtitlan Market, inside people will find a deli and bakery where customers can buy flan and tres leches cake, which literally translates as, “cake of three milks.” It is made out of three different kinds of milk: evaporated milk, condensed milk and either whole milk or cream. People can also find a variety of different Hispanic drinks and snacks. Also, to provide convenience for customers, service centers located in the store such as Sprint and Cricket.

Nevertheless, people cannot really capture the true vision of this unique association until they see it for themselves and experience the diversity that is the Super Saigon and Tenochtitlan collaboration.

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Utah Division of Indian Affairs seeks more accurate history education

Posted on November 16, 2008 by comm5775

by ANNE ROPER

“History is a race between education and catastrophe,” said writer and historian H.G. Wells. 

Forrest Cuch, executive director of the Utah Division of Indian Affairs, has been in the thick of that race for decades, and shows no signs of slowing his pace.

The importance of teaching accurate history is paramount for Cuch, an avid reader who can throw a book recommendation into any conversation.

He is dedicated to education and ensuring correct accounts of history be disseminated. A misinformed public can precipitate the disastrous result of repeating history’s mistakes, so Cuch’s work with the UDIA aims to prevent such a calamity.

“Democracy in this country hinges upon an educated public,” Cuch said.

Cuch’s biggest accomplishment in his career with the UDIA centered around educating the public, one small group at a time.  One hundred people took part in an empowerment training in the years 2002, 2003 and 2005. The training lasted 10 months and aimed to educate minorities in four sections: History, community developments and spirituality, physical health and mental health. 

The training, costing $90,000 to $100,000, became too expensive to continue. Cuch would like to do it again, if the money were available.

But the best place to start education is with children. Unfortunately, Cuch remembers his education to be inaccurate, even about his own people.

He recalls learning the history of his people in the K-12 system, then comparing it to his self-study after he graduated from high school. He found there were two histories, the one his teachers taught him and the one he had been taught by his parents.

“The teacher is an authority figure, so I thought my parents were lying,” Cuch said.

The path to the truth was not an easy one for Cuch.

“It did me trauma,” Cuch said. “Our people were here first. I had that understanding. All the information (taught in school) was painful to me.”

Nola Lodge, director of American Indian Teacher Education at the University of Utah and member of the Oneida Tribe of Wisconsin, says proper history has been neglected and in turn, everyone suffers.

“I think that in general, K-12 Indian history has been inadequate,” Lodge said. “There have been teachers who have tried to provide more information, but that is not the usual.”

This inadequate knowledge has damaged understanding between the American Indian people and their peers.

“At best we may get six to 10 pages in the early years of U.S. history, and then we disappear,” Lodge said. “Furthermore what is taught does not help anyone to understand us. We are depicted as slowing down progress, as savages and ignorant.”

But this lack of understanding from other cultures is coming from the same textbooks and teachers that are instructing American Indian students as well. They, too, suffer.

“For the American Indian, it is important for them to know the real history too.  Most Indians are taught in public schools whether on or near reservations, and they receive the same text and curriculum as non-Indians.” Lodge said.  “Consequently, there is a lack of knowledge and understanding by all.”

Teaching American Indian students in the same setting as their peers is a problematic situation, Cuch also believes.

“Our kids learn differently,” Cuch said. “The Indian world operates on feeling, this one works on intellect. There needs to be a balance.”

Lodge believes focusing on “federal Indian policy and subsequent events is crucial to understanding American Indian history” and is key for obtaining a fuller, more accurate U.S. history.

The big lesson to take from history, Cuch said, is humanity. Sometimes mistakes are made but shouldn’t necessarily be condemned.

Even after learning that American Indians were sometimes unfairly pegged as the “bad guys,” Cuch still resists playing the blame game. He also encourages white people to forgive their ancestors for the actions some took against the American Indians.

“It was just something that happened,” Cuch said. “But don’t blame yourselves entirely.”

Cuch continues to race against calamity with a love of history and education. But he has a trick to beat out his competition: He knows how to get the message out and into public knowledge.

“The best way to teach is out of love,” Cuch said. “Love is the best curriculum.”

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SLC graphic designer promotes Native American business development

Posted on November 16, 2008 by comm5775

by ALLISON JOHNSON

Cal Nez, founder of Cal Nez Design, is a man with a vision to revolutionize the Native American business industry in Utah. As the owner of one of the most successful graphic design companies in the state, he is well on his way to accomplishing this goal. 

Throughout his life, Nez has strived to define himself as a strong, independent Native American. Nez was raised by his grandparents on a Navajo reservation in Tocito, N.M. He enjoyed a very traditional upbringing, speaking only Navajo until he entered a Bureau of Indian Affairs Boarding School near Sanostee, N.M., at the age of 6. Nez recalls his years in boarding school as being a very difficult time. 

“I literally felt like I was in prison for six years,” he said. “I was mentally and emotionally abused and manipulated.” 

Despite going through such a hard experience, Nez is not angry. He believes the experience strengthened him and equipped him with the motivation he needed to succeed. This motivation carried him through junior high school and eventually led him to Salt Lake City.  

In Salt Lake City, Nez took part in the Indian Placement Program sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

“The Indian Placement Program was created [to give] Native American children opportunities for a better education,” said Brenda Kilpack, a Navajo who participated in the program as a child. “Children were placed with LDS families in urban areas during the school year so they could attend public school.” 

Some Native Americans who participated in the program did not have a positive experience because of cultural issues and homesickness. However, Kilpack says the experience really helped her growth and development as a child.

“I really learned a lot,” Kilpack said. “The program helped me to become an independent and well-rounded person.” 

Like Kilpack, Nez had a positive experience on the Indian Placement Program. Nez remembers well the day he left his home in New Mexico to come to Salt Lake City. 

“I said to my grandma ‘I will remember who I am. I’m going to go to Salt Lake and make it. I’m going to succeed no matter what has happened to me,’” Nez said. 

Nez quickly adjusted to his new surroundings in Salt Lake City. At South High School, he excelled in his studies, especially his art classes. Nez had been interested in art since childhood and really began to develop his talents during high school. 

After high school graduation, Nez began to pursue another form of art: graphic design. He quickly fell in love with graphic design and decided to pursue a career in the field. 

Nez started his career by working for several different graphic design companies in the Salt Lake City area. After a couple of years, he decided he wanted to start his own company. He quit his job that same day and pled with his pregnant wife to trust him. 

“I don’t have a job, but we are going to make it,” Nez recalls telling his wife, Yolanda. 

Nez grabbed his portfolio and drove to Arizona. He met with Peter MacDonald, then the tribal chairman of the Navajo Nation, and asked if he could do some graphic design work for him. After only a brief meeting with MacDonald, Nez secured two high-profile graphic design jobs. Within the coming months, after many sleepless nights and a lot of hard work, Cal Nez Design was born. 

Cal Nez Design, Inc., was officially started in 1989. From the beginning, the company has strived to maintain artistic integrity.

“The graphic design industry has been messed up,” Nez said. “They have lost the integrity of art. I’m trying to keep integrity of communication, of artistic expression.” 

Most importantly, Nez believes that his designs are a way of giving Native peoples a voice in modern society. 

“The Native Americans, we are here. We’re still here,” Nez said. “We have a right to fulfill our space as human beings. I’m trying to keep [Native American] traditions alive through modern technology.” 

Despite his success in the business world, Nez believes he still has much to accomplish within the Salt Lake City Native American community. 

“I need to work that much harder, reach out to my community, the younger generation,” he said. 

In April 2008, Nez helped start the first Native American Chamber of Commerce in Utah. He hopes the Chamber will promote economic and business development for Native Americans. 

“The time [has] come when Native Americans need to have a voice in business [and] politically,” Nez said. “The time has come where we need to teach our young to be employers and not employees.”

Even though Nez feels the Native American community in Salt Lake has a long way to go, he is optimistic. “We’re going to keep going,” he said. “That is my goal.”

 

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SLC designer takes long road to finding identity

Posted on November 16, 2008 by comm5775

by ANNE ROPER

Cal Nez entered the room so serenely, he almost went unnoticed. He came to address a journalism class at the University of Utah and brought with him two seemingly contradictory symbols of his life: the first, a copy of Utah Business Magazine bearing his picture on the cover placed carefully in a protective plastic bag. The second, a wrinkled green paper certifying he is Navajo.

The two objects begin to coalesce when Nez states he is both owner of Cal Nez Design in Salt Lake City and president of the Utah Native American Chamber of Commerce. But his search for his identity as a Native person, like many, is more complicated than his prized possessions. 

Nez’s life has challenged norms, making it hard for him to rely on someone like him to aid his identity search. He was given to his grandparents in Tocito, N.M., to be raised, which isn’t uncommon in Navajo culture. But instead of following the Navajo tradition of being given to his mother’s family, the dominant clan, he was given to his father’s. He never knew his mother and hardly knew his father. Then, at 6 years old, he was enrolled in the Bureau of Indian Affairs Boarding School in Sanostee, N.M.

“Boarding school is one of the demons of my past,” Nez said with sudden seriousness. “I really feel like I was in prison for six years in boarding school.”

Nez spoke only Navajo before attending boarding school, where he was forbidden to speak anything but English. He said the school shaved his head, a stark contrast to his now long hair, tied back in a ponytail. Children stood at attention for hours and were punished for acting too much like a child, Nez said.

“It took the beauty, serenity and peace out of being a child,” Nez said.

For his sophomore year of high school, Nez decided to go to South High School — in Salt Lake City.

Before he left Tocito, he made a promise to his grandmother.

“One day, I’ll come back for you,” he said. “No matter what my trials may be, I’m going to make it.”

Through the Indian Placement Program, an initiative of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1947 to 1996, Nez found a family to live with in Utah. He somehow always knew he was supposed to go to South High School, he said. It was there that his art teacher saw his talent and encouraged him to pursue art as a career. Nez agreed, and knew a little more about who he is.

“I’ve always been an artist,” he said. “I’ve always been able to duplicate, [to] capture.”

Although Nez could identify himself as an artist, he still struggled knowing what to call his ethnicity. After considering the terms American Indian, Native American and Navajo, he felt most comfortable with Diné, meaning “the people.”

Lena Judee, the American Indian program coordinator at the University of Utah, has addressed this issue herself. Finding a name isn’t as important for her.

“It’s just a label,” Judee said. “As long as I know who I am, it doesn’t matter.”

However, knowing who she is didn’t come easily. Judee also attended boarding schools. She said she couldn’t say anything bad about them because they gave her an education and something to eat. The trouble came when they would show “cowboy and Indian” movies in school.

She didn’t understand the Indians were supposed to be representing her, and she thought the people in the movie were stupid. When she found out she was being stereotyped by the “Hollywood Indian,” Judee was upset at the misinformation being mass-produced. She decided she wanted to be the one who informed people.

However, she soon realized taking on the world at once in order to change it was ineffective. She would have to work one-on-one to get a result.

“I can’t rescue all stray cats,” Judee said. “But I can make a difference.”

Nez has adopted this same give-and-take approach to change.

“We can’t do anything about the past, but there’s the future,” Nez said. “That’s where the answer lies.”

Maybe Nez will find the answers to his existential question in the future. But for now, he knows one thing for sure about his people.

“We’re here. We’re still here,” he said. “We have a right to fulfill our space as human beings.”

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Two Utahns find power in their personal history

Posted on November 16, 2008 by comm5775

by BRYNN TOLMAN

“History empowers people!” says Forrest S. Cuch, director of the Utah Division of Indian Affairs.

Cuch, a Ute, is one of the many people who has used his history to find power and strength. He says, “What I’ve learned from my own history is my own humanity; my good side along with my bad side.”

As Cuch attended public and private school in Utah, he was taught that Indians were savage. He says the lessons he learned each day were very different than the ones that his parents taught him at home. It wasn’t until after college that he was able to really learn the truth about the history of his people; the Utes.

Discovering the truth about Native Americans has empowered Cuch. It has given him the motivation and the desire to teach others about his own history. He recognizes the misconceptions many people have about American Indians as ignorance. His goal is to change the way people view the natives of Utah, his ancestors.

According to his Web site, “He sees his present job as a major challenge with primary emphasis on educating Utah leaders and the general public, not only calling [others’] attention to the ancient presence of American Indian people in Utah, but also their present and enduring plight as citizens with very unique contributions yet to be made to modern day society.”

Some of those contributions are featured in “A History of Utah’s American Indians,” a book he edited that was published in 2000 by Utah State University Press.

Learning the truth through research and study has given Cuch a power to stand as a symbol for the American Indian people.

Jeanne Ludlow, a resident of Sandy, Utah, is another individual who has learned how history empowers people.             

Ludlow is a family history expert and has found a similar empowerment from discovering her history. In a recent e-mail interview she was asked how discovering her family history has empowered her, “It has changed my outlook on life because I don’t have to stumble through life alone. When you research someone, you become very close to him/her. I can endure because they endured. Not only that, I believe they’re pulling for me – cheering me on – maybe even guardian angels in this and other aspects of my life.”

Ludlow grew up with two grandfathers who were very diligent in the research of their family history. They taught her at a young age to appreciate this skill and to desire to learn and discover the world and people that came before her.    

She recognizes that as she has researched her personal history, she has developed skills that she can use in the world to help herself and others succeed. “I have learned how to read early handwriting. I have become familiar with Scandinavian, and German resources, and [am] familiar with words on research documents. Computer skills have changed my life. I could make an income with [these] skills. I have had people offer to pay me. Or, like others, I could compile my work and sell it in a book, or write a biography.” She continues, “I have the means of being of great service to others. I could teach or research for other people. I guess the empowerment is the perspective I get about my place in the community and the world, today; an interest in all people, and a desire to learn their history.”

Ludlow mentions the simple things she now appreciates because of the lessons she has learned from her ancestors. “I’m grateful for electric lights, bathrooms, refrigerators, pick-up trucks…there are so many relatives, who have gone before me, it makes me want to make the most of my life.”

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Salt Lake graphic designer builds business from scratch

Posted on November 16, 2008 by comm5775

by LANA GROVES

Cal Nez remembered working at a small but growing graphic design business in Utah in the late 1980s. He was content being an artist and working on logos and designs, but the pay was small for the number of awards his designs were receiving.

“We were the ad agency, graphic design [company] of that era,” he said. “We were taking every award. The designs in there, they were mine.”

Nez, a member of the Navajo Nation, realized that he was working at minimum wage or less, and not receiving as much credit for his work as he should. After another couple of weeks contemplating the issue, Nez decided to quit and open his own business.

Nez explained the decision to his pregnant wife, Yolanda, and set out in his car to New Mexico in search of work. He introduced himself to Peter MacDonald, former chairman of the Navajo Nation, and showed his portfolio.

“I picked up two jobs that meeting,” Nez said. “The dollar amount was quite significant for someone who was making 6 dollars an hour.”

Nez started out designing the Navajo Nation poster in 1989 and has since gone on to create the design for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, former Gov. Mike Leavitt’s re-election campaign and others.

More than 20 years after that fateful day, Nez is the one of few Native Americans in Utah to own a business in Utah.

Nez said he was one of the first design company owners to create a web site for his company, Cal Nez Design, Inc., which is a prospering graphic design and advertising company. He said the thrill of finishing designs for a client still makes it worth the effort.

“Right now I just finished a project for the United States Marines,” Nez said. “I get this energy. I love art; I love that challenge.”

In addition to running his own business, Nez started the Utah Native American Chamber of Commerce in April 2008 by sending out letters to registered businesses in Utah.

“We’ve started small, but it’s going well,” said Sandy McCabe, a board member and owner of Sandy’s Kitchen. “Cal has done a lot.”

Nez remembered the path he took to become a business owner. He spent six years in a boarding school run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs that he despised. The schools were part of an effort in the 1800s that required Native American children to attend English-speaking schools to assimilate them into American culture. By 1902, the United States government had opened 25 federally funded schools.

Despite that turmoil, Nez said he first realized his potential as an artist at the school.

He left his grandparents in New Mexico at 16 to live with a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints family in Utah and studied at South High School in Salt Lake City. Nez said his experience in Utah changed his life, and although he thinks of his Navajo heritage with pride, he also considers himself an active LDS church member.

Now, Nez has a family of his own. He remembers when his first daughter, Courtney was going to school for the first time.

“I sat out there literally all day to make sure she was going to come back to my arms,” he said, remembering the terrifying experience of his first school.

Nez’s son, Colby, is in high school, and Nez said he is proud of the school work he brings home.

Besides spending as much time with his family as possible, Nez continues his business and produces designs for other organizations. He cherishes his Native American roots and includes that in his designs as much as possible.

“I can go out there and oil paint any concept you can imagine,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any sign that looks alike.”

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Keeping art alive through graphic design

Posted on November 16, 2008 by comm5775

by AARON K. SCHWENDIMAN

A black hat and mirrored aviator sunglasses stares from the page. A Navajo person looks onto an audience cheering for the participants in a rodeo while a carnival goes on in the background. In the reflection is a community joining together for its nations fair.

“I wanted every viewer to ‘become’ a Navajo for a split second and to look through the eyes of a Navajo person,” said Cal Nez, a Navajo-born graphic designer about one of his first works.

In 1989, former Navajo Tribal Chairman Peter McDonald hired Nez to create a poster for the annual Navajo Nation Fair. This is still the most meaningful and powerful piece for Nez.

Staying true to his artistic roots is what has made Nez so successful in the graphic design field. As different forms of art progress, Nez has brought his graphic design business back to the basics and kept the integrity of art alive.  

Nez owns a graphic design firm in Salt Lake City that is presently celebrating its 20th anniversary. Nez has always been an artist at heart and the consistency in providing quality pieces of art for clients has stayed true throughout the years.

Not only is Nez an artist, with his job as the president of the Utah Native American Chamber of Commerce he gives a voice to the local Navajo owned businesses. 

Chamber board member Rosemary Giles has known Nez for only a couple months, but is very surprised at how many people he knows in the community.

“That’s what really surprised me, is that when you mention his name in the [Salt Lake] valley, everybody knows him,” Giles said in a phone interview.

Nez was born for the Tanaszanii Clan from Tocito, N.M. He was given to his grandparents, Bitonie and Mary B. Nez, to raise him from infancy. 

At a young age Nez was forced to attend the Bureau of Indian Affairs Boarding School in Sanostee, N.M., where he first learned to speak English.

Even though boarding school was a dark chapter in Nez’s life, it was at that school where he ventured into the world of art. He recalled a picture he created depicting Abraham Lincoln chopping a piece of wood as one of his earliest works. From that experience Nez said that he has always been able to duplicate real life on surfaces.

After boarding school Nez made a conscience decision to move to Utah where he still resides today. Though Nez wanted to stay in New Mexico with his grandparents he knew there was nothing left for him in his community.

“I’m going to make it,” Nez said to his grandmother before for Salt Lake City. And that’s exactly what he did.

Nez attended South High school and graduated as one of the top students in his class and earned a Sterling Scholar award.

Nez worked for several graphic design firms before deciding to take on clients by himself. He was not receiving the credit he deserved for many of his works. So he quit his job and gathered a portfolio of his works together. He drove to New Mexico to see former Navajo Tribal Chairman Peter MacDonald and was soon hired to do the Navajo Nation Fair poster. Nez has done projects for many clients during the twenty plus years he has been in business and still has the focus and drive he did when he first started.

Abel Saiz, a good friend and vice president of the Chamber described Cal’s artwork in a phone interview as being very “professional.” With his drive and determination he is always focused on keeping his work professional and unique.

Nez said today many graphic design companies have ruined the creative aspect and originality of the graphic design business. Even though the industry has been saturated with pre-installed templates on computers, graphic design companies are demanding the human element side of the graphic design versus standardized design Nez said. 

Nez’s passion for his community and his success in the arts has surpassed many of the hardships he has faced in life. He is a person who keeps the spirit and roots of art alive in his work and it shows through the hundreds of designs he has created for clients such as the Utah Museum of Natural History, Eastman Kodak Company, Navajo Transit System and many others.

Nez offered some advice to aspiring graphic design artists: “Bottom line: don’t forget the artistic aspect of art itself.  Keep the integrity of the artistic aspect alive.”

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For SLC graphic designer, a life spent searching for home and helping others

Posted on November 16, 2008 by comm5775

by CHRIS MUMFORD

Perched on the edge of a mesa overlooking Albuquerque, N.M., surrounded by a desert calm interrupted only by the occasional breeze, is where you’ll find Cal Nez with his laptop, sending email, completing the mundane clerical tasks associated with his work as a graphic designer.

Nez, speaking to a reporting class at the University of Utah, shifts his recollection from the sweeping vistas of New Mexico to the dreary confines of the boarding school where he was, by his reckoning, held as a prisoner for six of his formative childhood years. He remembers ranks of children, standing at strict attention like soldiers, sometimes for hours. Mincing no words, Nez refers to the experience as one of the biggest demons in his past.

“It took away the beauty of being a child—the beauty, the peace of it,” he says.

Nez, who was born in the Navajo Nation, relates his life story in a series of evocative, symbol-laden snapshots like these—some real, some imagined, others a mixture of the two. Beneath each image, the fight to define a geographic and spiritual home simmers, informing Nez’s dual roles as artist and founder of the Utah Native American Chamber of Commerce.

The impetus behind much of his work, Nez says, is an effort to reassert the presence of Native American people.

“We have a right to fulfill our space as human beings here on earth,” he says. “We are not history; we are not what you see in movies. Our drums, our songs are still going on.”           

Following boarding school, Nez was uprooted once more, this time landing in Salt Lake City, where he enrolled as a sophomore at South High School. Here, he invokes the mental picture of a long school building corridor, his grandmother silhouetted against the light spilling through the door at the end, never turning back.

Nor would he turn back, racking up a dizzying number of achievements and accolades by graduation, including a Sterling Scholarship, a position as editor of the school newspaper, a spot on the wrestling team and student-of-the-year honors.

“I knew I was supposed to go to South High School,” he says, emphasizing the sense of providence he felt in making the wrenching move away from his grandmother and the Navajo Nation. His voice soft, he gazes above the class and, as if speaking to her in person, recalls promising his grandmother that he “won’t ever cry,” and that he was “going to make it.”   

But, even as he celebrates the 20th anniversary of Cal Nez Design, his Salt Lake City–based graphic design company, the 50–year–old father of three still muses over what life would have been like had he been able to stay with his grandparents on the Navajo reservation in New Mexico. 

The tension between these two versions of home is evident in much of his work. Using a diverse range of media, including oil paint, pencil and airbrush, he has produced art and designs for everyone from Governor Michael Leavitt, to the Navajo Nation, to the Utah Museum of Natural History. They are works that dot the spectrum of his identity, which stretches between his life in Utah and his roots in the Navajo Nation.

In April, Nez, in a drive to provide support for fellow Native American business owners, founded the Native American Chamber of Commerce. The organization, he says, is designed to unite Native American voices, bring increased awareness to Native American issues and for lobbying purposes.

He further hopes to foster a spirit of entrepreneurship in the younger generations of Native Americans.

“[There is] nothing you can do about the past,” he says, his voice low but clear, “Read about it, study it. But there’s the future…future. That’s where I think the answer lies.”

Abel Saiz, owner of Saiz Construction, is a member of the chamber and an acquaintance of Nez. He speaks of the organization as a support network for Native American business owners who are often discriminated against.

“We’re not called the invisible people for nothing,” Saiz says, adding that he wishes an organization like the chamber had been around when he created his construction company 22 years ago.

Though Nez acknowledges that many challenges remain in his life, he has found some measure of peace on questions of his identity and his true home.

“I’m beginning to find home is here,” he says, pointing to his heart. “And it doesn’t matter where I’m at.”

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IRC helps Salt Lake City refugees enjoy local culture

Posted on November 16, 2008 by comm5775

by BRETT PERFILI

On a warm fall Saturday morning a handful of Burmese refugees gather outside of the International Rescue Committee building in downtown Salt Lake City.

They are meeting to catch the light rail system of public transportation, TRAX, across the street on 400 South to go to a University of Utah football game. The university donates the tickets to the IRC. This is just one example of an activity refugees experience when arriving in Utah.

Throughout refugees’ first few months of resettlement in the United States the IRC provides activities and recreation for the foreign families and individuals for a number of reasons.

“When people are spending time with Americans and feeling comfortable it avoids the awkwardness or fear rather than giving them a sense of an outsider,” said Jonathan Codell, acculturation PORTAL coordinator at the IRC located in Salt Lake City.

Located at 231 E. and 400 South, the IRC, is an organization that provides refugees with aid throughout the resettlement process. The IRC works with refugees for the first six months of their residency and helps to offer essentials such as food, shelter and employment.

According to the United States Department of State a refugee is a person who may be fleeing from their country to escape from war or persecution on account of race, religion or nationality.

Codell said the IRC brings certain cultural groups to at least one activity per month, but typically it is more than that. Other activities the IRC offers to the groups is trips to the parks, mountains, and bringing them to the library for educational purposes.

A piece of the big picture the IRC wants to reach by providing these outings is to relieve some stress of the movement procedure for the refugees.

“The resettlement process is dramatic,” Codell said.

Nyaw Paw, 33, a Burmese refugee who has been in Salt Lake City for two months feels getting out and being with Americans helps the process.

Paw said through Han Win, a Burmese speaking IRC interpreter, that she feels happiness, a sense of freedom, stress relief and enjoys just being part of the American culture.           

Paw grew up in Burma, but moved to Thailand with her family when she was 6. There she was not allowed to get out and be involved with the activities like the IRC provides.

Paw finds the freedom she has discovered in the United States lets her do anything that she wants. 

Within the activities the IRC reaches out to makes sure the refugees feel more welcome and feel home in the United States.

“The more someone feels comfortable the more likely they’ll return and be more integrated into our society,” Codell said. “They won’t be so marginalized.”

A key for resettlement is introducing places around the homes of refugee is a key for resettlement, Codell said. Even something as small as a park close to home where they can go have a picnic will help he said. He feels showing the refugees places to go does help, especially, when he sees a refugee doing this on it own.

This is what the IRC is aiming for.

“One big thing is it shows them what is out there,” said Emily Fishbein, education program coordinator for the Salt Lake City IRC. “It shows what they can do on their own.”

An American football game is something many refugees have never seen.

The only football game they are familiar with is soccer. Codell admitted that seeing American football can be strange and maybe confusing to the refugees. However, it allows them to be out there with the public, which benefits the resettlement process.

“This is a way for them to see what being in the U.S. is all about,” Fishbein said.

Bringing activities and recreation is only a small part of what the IRC does, Codell said. However, it does show where the refugees can access resources when they want them. It also brings camaraderie throughout the groups.

“A main aspect is just bringing them all together so that they can be in a social setting and get to know the other refugees,” Fishbein said. “It’s sort of nice for them all to be in one place together.”

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For Cal Nez, it’s all in the journey

Posted on November 16, 2008 by comm5775

by KATHRYN JONES

Cal Nez says he didn’t like the six years he spent in boarding school, that it was more like a prison than a school. He says it didn’t make him angry even though he was forced to leave his grandparents when he was 5.

He describes his Navajo beginnings in Tocito, N.M., the beauty he knew there as compared to the loss of childhood via harsh treatment at school. He talks about today, living in Salt Lake City as a successful business owner.

But he asks, “What do I call home?”

And he wonders, “Is home a physical place, or is it inside me? Is home where my clan is? Am I Navajo or American?”

Today, Nez appears to be living the life of both.

A business owner since 1986, Nez works as a graphic designer at Cal Nez Design as well as on the mountain tops of New Mexico. He enjoys his business and will tell you this is how he does a portion of it, “with a laptop in the middle of nowhere.”

“We have a right to fill our space as human beings here on earth,” he says. “We’re not history; we’re not what you see in movies or on book covers. We are people.”

We are Native Americans who must move forward, he adds. There must be a reconciling between the past and the present. Those who have reconciled, while still maintaining their Native American heritage, can make significant contributions. And that means owning a business over working as an employee.

But the journey is not an easy one, nor is entrepreneurship for every Native American., says Sandy McCabe, Navajo, and owner of Sandy’s Kitchen, a catering business located in Salt Lake County.

“Living in a white society, is a new world,” she says in a phone interview, and not every Native American is able to make the shift. “If not for my husband, Samir, I wouldn’t be where I’m at.”

McCabe calls herself a “worker,” a quality, she says, not every Native American thinks they have within them. “A lot of us are afraid to make that next step, that next challenge. It was so true with me.”

She describes her East Indian husband’s motivating power in getting her to go to college to obtain her business degree, something she says she did “kicking and screaming.”

Years before, she was a high school drop-out as well as a single parent raising a son she’d had at 17. “I had to earn my bacon and come home and make the bacon,” she says.

Today, McCabe runs her own catering business. The idea came from the question, “Do you cater?” by a fellow Wal-Mart employee requesting help for a 300 person catering job.

After that, “one thing led to another,” says McCabe, who counts her business a success. She caters two weddings a month and organizes at least three catering jobs a week – all out of her home and at a “little place” she rents out at the Jordan Landing center in West Jordan.

Despite the pain of the past, McCabe counts her life blessed.

“I had to go back and take a look at myself. My hardships. No money. Now I have a house that I can call home,” she says.

The detours haven’t always been easy, but the journey has definitely been worth it.

“I have to work,” McCabe says. “It’s hard, but it’s easy. You just have to put your heart into it, and it will come to you. You will have it.”

As for Nez, he seems to echo McCabe’s words with a direction he hopes other Native Americans will not only consider but take on as part of their own journey: “There is nothing we can do about the past. The future, that’s where I think the answer, lies.  My journey is not so much a Cal Nez journey but a journey of the Native American.  Home is here. It doesn’t matter where I’m at.”

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