On March 31st, César Chávez Day, the Yolo County Sheriff’s Department raided the buildings at Deganawidah-Quetzalcoatl, also known as D-Q University.
For decades, the school has been a forum and place for native people to learn about their cultures, educate each other, and experience a closeness to the earth. The school was formed in the 1970′s, when indigenous people stormed an old army base and eventually forced the government to turn it over to Native hands. D-Q U was born in struggle and in struggle it stays today! Read More and View Photos
On Sunday, March 30th, a group of about 15 people drove from Santa Cruz to DQU in support of DQU students, elders, land and future generations. At 7:38pm, a Yolo County Sheriff drove onto the property of DQU and then left after about a minute. It is very rare for a Sheriff to drive onto DQU. 
At the March 27th meeting to discuss the Beach Flats Community Garden, Reyna Ruiz of the Beach Flats Community Center passed out flyers encouraging people to “spend the day outside making the neighborhood beautiful” by participating in a Community Clean-Up (Día De Limpieza en La Comunidad) on March 29th. Some people lent a hand or two by picking up trash throughout the neighborhood and other folks gave their time to beautify the Beach Flats Community Garden. Everything was going really well until Reyna arrived at the garden insisting that everyone stop gardening until the next meeting about the Beach Flats Community Garden on Thursday, April 3rd. 
On March 27th, a meeting was convened at the Beach Flats Community Garden to preserve the special community space and support it’s gardeners. The well-attended meeting was a discussion between various concerned parties, including Santa Cruz City Parks and Recreation Superintendent Carol Scurich, Reyna Ruiz from the Beach Flats Community Center, about a dozen community gardeners, neighbors and other local supporters. Translation between English and Spanish was important, though there were times when Spanish was not translated and other times when English was not translated. It is not completely clear why there is pressure to evict the gardeners from the land they have been cultivating, and where the pressure is really coming from. People were able to express their concerns and ideas, and the main decision was to meet again on April 3rd, 5pm, at the Beach Flats Community Garden. 
Protests and vigils were held across the nation on March 24th following an announcement the day before of 4,000 dead US soldiers in Iraq. A demonstration was held at the Military Recruitment Center in Capitola, where a Santa Cruz County coalition known as People United for Peace (PUP) demanded “an immediate end to the killing and occupation in Iraq.” One woman was arrested for trespassing as she occupied the Army’s recruiting office and refused to leave until the occupation of Iraq is over. 
Hundreds of people protested in Richmond on March 15th, 2008, to demand that Chevron stop stealing oil around the world while polluting our communities. The actions were in solidarity with the peoples, plants and animals of Ecuador, Nigeria, Burma, Iraq, Alberta and every other community exploited and poisoned by Chevron (Texaco, Unocal, etc!) 
