After a group of more than 80 student-teachers forced their way onto three local buses in Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico Sept. 26 municipal police opened fire. The situation ended with six dead, 25 injured and 43 peo-ple missing. The men, who were taken in an “enforced disap-pearance,” are now part of the 23,322 individuals missing in Mexico since 2006.

UTPA political science As-sistant Professor Sergio Bejar-lopez said protests have been sprouting up throughout the country castigating the authori-ties and demanding the govern-ment protect its citizens. British newspaper The Guardian re-ported the student-teachers had been demonstrating against in-creasing university fees and gov-ernment education reforms be-fore taking control of the buses to return home from Iguala.

“This isn’t an isolated event. What people are protesting here is obviously about these 43 guys but also the lack of safety in the country,” said Bejarlopez, who is originally from the state of Irapuato in central Mexico. “People don’t trust the govern-ment anymore, they don’t trust police officers and they don’t trust politicians. The fact that they repeatedly see these events happening fosters protests.”

While citizens fight for an-swers in Mexico, Hong Kong’s student population has been clashing with its government

as well. Their gatherings have attracted tens of thousands of demonstrators since Sept. 28, demanding democratic elec-tions be held in 2017. The city’s Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying announced Oct. 16 that he was ready for talks with the protesters.

The fight for justice and clar-ity transcends borders and time periods as well. In 1971 the Mexican-American population of Pharr became tired of what it considered local law enforce-

ment’s racist violence, along with the city’s segregation laws. They gathered outside police headquarters Feb. 6 and held a peaceful demonstration when officers began to shoot at them. Seventeen-year-old activist Al-fonso Laredo Flores was killed by a deputy sheriff, according to the Texas State Historical Association.

UTPA graduate student Danielle Lopez helped orga-nize a vigil in Pharr Oct. 21 in memory of the fatal Pharr Po-lice Riot. She said it was created to honor Flores and to stand in

solidarity with the missing stu-dents of Iguala.

“I hope to combat the evils of all these injustices by creat-ing a new consciousness in the community,” the Pharr native said. “It is a great hope that more people will join other es-tablished activists and contin-ue to unite and overcome many of the humanitarian and civil rights issues that not only affect those targeted, but affect our society as a whole.”

EFFECTS OF WARMeanwhile in Mexico, it has

been nearly a month since wit-nesses said they saw the 43 stu-dents of the Raúl Isidro Burgos Normal Rural School Teacher’s College in Ayotzinapa, Guer-rero herded into police vehicles and hauled away, according to The Guardian.

There have been 30 arrests, including 22 police officers, who are being charged with mur-der according to Mexican news site La Vanguardia. Those de-tained confessed to delivering the missing men to local drug

cartel Guerreros Unidos, which Iguala’s fugitive Mayor Jose Luis Abarca allegedly has ties to. The state’s prosecutor Inaky Blanco said the men were most likely ordered to be killed by the gang.

Four suspects in custody led authorities to four mass graves in Iguala Oct. 4 that held 28 partially burned corps-es. Ten more secret burial sites were uncovered around the city leading up to Oct. 14 but DNA testing revealed none of the recovered bodies matched the IDs of any of the students from the southern state as re-ported by CNN Mexico. Au-thorities have attributed these graves to the work of local car-tels and Bejarlopez agrees.

“Organized crime has bought the local police forces,” he said. “One possibility is that they were kidnapped by the organized crime. This is not the first inci-dent of people missing because of organized crime groups.”

According to the Human Rights Watch, more than 60,000 people have been killed as a re-sult of the drug war that start-ed in December 2006 after vari-ous cartels began a violent battle for control of Mexican turf. As a way to combat this violence, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto employed a national crime prevention strategy in February 2014. The plan is also meant to lower addiction rates, curb do-mestic abuse and discourage

dropping out of school. In No-vember 2012 Peña Nieto said a lack of social programs and jobs led citizens to join gangs. He be-lieves this is “the best way my government can prevent orga-nized crime.”

The drug war spilled the most blood in 2009 when the death toll reached 9,635. Then came a lull in 2010-11 when large, pub-lic shootouts and killings de-creased following the arrests of several gang members and cartel leaders such as Sergio Villarre-al, a top member of the Beltran Leyva cartel. On Oct. 1 Mexican troops captured the leader of the group, Hector Beltran Leyva, af-ter 11 months of surveillance by the country’s government.

According to CNN, this group is aligned with Los Zetas as well as the Gulf Cartel. The latter is based in Tamaulipas, Mexico which borders the Rio Grande Valley and was once one of the most powerful cartels in the country’s drug trade.

The 2012 Texas Public Safe-ty Threat Overview released by the Texas Department of Public Safety stated that cartels such as the Zetas, Gulf and Leyva have ongoing operations in Texas, in-cluding the Valley.

“The Mexican cartels are the most significant organized crime threat to Texas, with six of the eight cartels having com-mand and control networks op-erating in the state and using it

Volume 71, No. 9 October 23, 2014

Pages 4-5UTPA library staff discusses student charges

Fees and fines

panamericanonline.com

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People don’t trust the govern-ment anymore, they don’t trust police officers and they don’t

trust politicians. The fact that they re-peatedly see these events happening fos-ters protests.

-Sergio BejarlopezAssistant professor

The Pan American YouTube channel

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October 23, 20142 opinion

The Pan American is the official student newspaper of The Univer-sity of Texas-Pan American. Views presented are those of the writ-ers and do not necessarily reflect those of the paper or university.

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@evolfosseddogItzel Lopez/ The Pan American

as a transshipment center,” the report stated.

The overview lists drug and human trafficking, pub-lic corruption, money laun-dering and the use of chil-dren in criminal operations as some of the crimes commit-ted by cartels in the U.S.

AN UPRISINGOf the 25,700 murders in

Mexico in 2013, 532 end-ed with a sentencing, or 1.8 percent, as reported by Span-ish news site Animal Politi-co. Bejarlopez, who teaches courses such as Mexican Pol-itics at UTPA, said this is the main reason for civil unrest among Mex-icans along with insuffi-cient explana-tions for the recent disap-pearances.

“ ( M e x i c o needs) to pro-vide answers about these guys, but there is something more important with this problem and that is the lack of the rule of law,” he explained. “This is an incident that boils down to how good the rule of law is in Mexico and when the state can’t protect its citizens then we see incidents like this one.”

A national series of pro-tests took place Oct. 8, two days before the two-week mark of the 43 disappearanc-es. The hashtag #Comparti-mosElDolor, or “we share the pain,” began making rounds on social media to get the word out. According to Mex-ican newspaper Excelsior, more than 60 protests were anticipated around the coun-try. Mexico City police said about 15,000 people attend-ed the capital’s event while protesters chanted in Span-ish “they took them alive, we want them alive.”

In Chilpancingo, Guerre-ro’s capital, there was a turn-out of 10,000 individuals. According to Animal Politi-co, 20 out of the country’s 32 states participated. Signs and banners also criticized Guer-rero, some reading “repressive state,” “assassin state” and “Iguala, cradle of murderers.”

Bejarlopez said the coun-try’s authorities may quell these demonstrations by giv-ing the people what they want.

“What the government can do to appease these pro-tests is provide answers about these guys,” he said. “Most substantially, the government

needs to make an effort to in-crease the rule of law, to pro-tect the citizens and to make the country safe.”

He also believes unrest over the disappearances will die down but other outcries will quickly produce more demonstrations.

“If they never find (the missing students) protests will eventually come to an end. This is historical in Mexican society,” he explained. “Peo-ple protest for a few months then they forget about it as if nothing happened, unfortu-nately. Is this the last protest we will see? Obviously not.

We are seeing more and more protests happening, people demanding more safety, de-manding the government to actually act and do something about it.”

DIGGING FOR ANSWERSIn 2012 Guerrero topped

the country’s list of most ho-micides per state with 2,310 and 99.3 percent of the time those murders went without any arrests. Bejarlopez believes this is another issue the gov-ernment has to address even though it may be difficult.

“Corruption is rampant in the country, organized crime has spread out,” he said. “It’s not easy to change institu-tions but that is precisely what the government needs to do. They need to increase the quality of democracy in the country.”

The United Nations is one organization demanding jus-tice in Mexico. The UN’s Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappear-ances published a press re-lease Oct. 13 stating that this event will gauge how Mexi-co’s system deals with such a violation of human rights and the uproar following it. The group’s experts also urged the country’s government to gather more information about the missing individuals as to speed up the search.

“For many years we have identified the impunity that prevails in Mexico in cases of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial executions and

torture,” the release said. “We have also highlighted the ex-isting deficiencies in the search and identification of disappeared persons.”

Mexican federal forces took charge of the case after the initial discovery of four mass graves in Iguala eight days after the men went missing. Nieto told the nation that the guilty will be brought to justice.

“We need to find the truth and make sure the law is ap-plied to those responsible for these outrageous, painful and unacceptable acts,” he said in a TV address Oct. 6.

Later that day he sent another mes-sage via his Twitter ac-count.

“Like all the Mexican society, I am shocked by this situation and I can as-sure you that

there will be no impunity,” the tweet read.

With no bodies recovered, the 43 students are still con-sidered missing. Gladys Or-nelas, president of UTPA’s Mexican American Studies Club, feels the odds may not seem to be in their favor, but Lopez continues to pray for their safe return.

“My initial hope is that they will be found and pro-vided due justice,” Lopez said. “I always keep faith and hope of a bright out coming and do not like to give in to grim possibilities.”

Although she would like to believe otherwise, Orne-las said they were massacred. She sees this event as a way to inspire others into speaking against corrupt authorities.

“Our voice matters. It’s ab-solutely vital for us to stand up for what we believe in and have the moral courage to take action,” the Pharr native said. “We need to know that our stories, our narratives, are unique as (people from the Valley) and that our struggles are not to be taken for grant-ed. We have a voice, we can make people listen. We just need to start speaking up.”

3news October 23, 2014

This is an incident that boils down to how good the rule of

law is in Mexico and when the state can’t protect its citizens then we see incidents like this one.

- Sergio BejarlopezAssistant professor

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

THE PAN AMERICAN THE PAN AMERICAN October 23, 2014 October 23, 2014 Page 5Page 4

Some might think that in the Digital Age books are obsolete, but the em-ployees of the University li-brary can attest otherwise. The library currently has 6,842 overdue books and $106,038.17 in unpaid fines on its record. Fines date back from 30 years ago to as recent as seven days, according to Associ-ate Director of the UTPA Library Rick Peralez.

Peralez explained there are three actions that can take place in order to over-come fees going unpaid. The first action is a hold on their student bill, which only prevents a student from checking out material from the library but does not affect class registration.

A library fine of 25 cents per day per book will ap-pear on their student bill to be capped at $35. If the book is still not returned after the cap, they are con-sidered “lost” and the stu-dent will be billed the total cost of the book.

If a student graduates without paying a library fine, a transcript hold will then be placed on their account.

“In the case of some-one graduating and they leave still owing the li-brary money, (the library) will put a transcript hold,”

said Peralez, an Edinburg resident. “(So) even if you graduated 10 years ago and you later come back to get a transcript, the school will not give you a transcript until you pay the fine you have.”

Not only does the library have a record of what is un-paid but the state of Texas does as well. By law, state agencies such as public and private universities are re-quired to report a Texas Identifi-cation Number System docu-ment addressing anyone indebted to them and will keep that infor-mation current.

“When you owe money to the library it’s not money for us directly, it goes to the state. Even if the fine is 10 or 20 years old the state has a record of you owing them mon-ey,” Peralez said. “If the state ever has funds to give you in the form of a check or some kind of disburse-ment what they’ll do is subtract the amount you owe them and give you the difference. (The fine) will then be removed from their record.”

The average budget the

library has for ordering book is approximately $569,000 a year. The budget cannot be used for anything other than library books for students and faculty.

The money that is col-lected from unreturned books is then put back into the budget and used to re-place the missing books.

“Every year (the library) runs a report of all the

books that have been miss-ing, then the collection development librarian will make a list and determine which books we need to replace or wait to order,” Peralez said. “Sometimes we might not order the same book that went miss-ing in the first place. It all depends on which books are in demand and other books we may just be able

to wait and see if someone returns it.”

Depending on the sub-ject of the book, Peralez said the library will use the lost book fees to replace health and science books over humanity books due to their high demand.

Dean of the library Far-zaneh Razzaghi explains the library has evolved over the past 20 years when it comes to helping borrow-

ers return books. Tech-nology has played a large role in making it easier to extend due dates such as online renewals where a borrower can continue holding onto checked out material that is not over-due through the library’s online catalog.

“Nowadays, compared to 20 years ago, there was not an online cata-

log where you could re-new your books. You had to bring your book to the circulation desk to renew it,” said Razzaghi, an Ed-inburg resident. “Now, before (the books) expire you can actually renew the books for another two weeks and can keep renew-ing it as long as no one else asks for the book. But even with all these things that have been facilitated for

students there are still times when students forget to return material.”

Another way the library tries to collect missing books is by offer-ing amnesty for all missing books that are returned during National Library Week. First sponsored in 1958 by the American Library Association, Na-

tional Library Week is a country-wide observance celebrated each April by libraries across the country.

Library assistant Edna Luna, who is in charge of collecting fines, ex-plained that in 2013 the library received 253 books and waved $1,800 in fines during National Library Week.

“During this week I have

a report of everyone who has overdue books and we get flyers offering amnesty. We mail them out and we even put it on Bronc Notes,” the Edinburg na-tive said. “I’m so glad that they make use of (National Library Week). I frown upon the students that come in and say they’re upset about the fines when (the library) gives you so much time and ways to get the books back.”

Razzaghi explained the library has many different patrons such as students, faculty and community members. She believes fees and fines come with work-ing in a library that serves more than 20,000 students and 4,000 faculty affiliates and Edinburg citizens.

“I honestly don’t think there is an issue because every single library in the world has patrons that bring books late or lose the books,” she said. “(The library) is not in a unique situation at all, it’s a nor-mal issue that happens in all libraries. People think it’s sort of ideal for a li-brary not to have fines, but in reality no there’s no such thing as a library not hav-ing fines...it’s just part of the business.”

By Elisa GarciaThe Pan American

- Farzaneh Razzaghi Dean of the library

People think it’s sort of ideal for a library not to have fines, but in reality no there’s no

such thing as a library not having fines...it’s just part of the business.

and

transcript

THE PAN AMERICAN THE PAN AMERICAN October 23, 2014 October 23, 2014 Page 5Page 4

Some might think that in the Digital Age books are obsolete, but the em-ployees of the University li-brary can attest otherwise. The library currently has 6,842 overdue books and $106,038.17 in unpaid fines on its record. Fines date back from 30 years ago to as recent as seven days, according to Associ-ate Director of the UTPA Library Rick Peralez.

Peralez explained there are three actions that can take place in order to over-come fees going unpaid. The first action is a hold on their student bill, which only prevents a student from checking out material from the library but does not affect class registration.

A library fine of 25 cents per day per book will ap-pear on their student bill to be capped at $35. If the book is still not returned after the cap, they are con-sidered “lost” and the stu-dent will be billed the total cost of the book.

If a student graduates without paying a library fine, a transcript hold will then be placed on their account.

“In the case of some-one graduating and they leave still owing the li-brary money, (the library) will put a transcript hold,”

said Peralez, an Edinburg resident. “(So) even if you graduated 10 years ago and you later come back to get a transcript, the school will not give you a transcript until you pay the fine you have.”

Not only does the library have a record of what is un-paid but the state of Texas does as well. By law, state agencies such as public and private universities are re-quired to report a Texas Identifi-cation Number System docu-ment addressing anyone indebted to them and will keep that infor-mation current.

“When you owe money to the library it’s not money for us directly, it goes to the state. Even if the fine is 10 or 20 years old the state has a record of you owing them mon-ey,” Peralez said. “If the state ever has funds to give you in the form of a check or some kind of disburse-ment what they’ll do is subtract the amount you owe them and give you the difference. (The fine) will then be removed from their record.”

The average budget the

library has for ordering book is approximately $569,000 a year. The budget cannot be used for anything other than library books for students and faculty.

The money that is col-lected from unreturned books is then put back into the budget and used to re-place the missing books.

“Every year (the library) runs a report of all the

books that have been miss-ing, then the collection development librarian will make a list and determine which books we need to replace or wait to order,” Peralez said. “Sometimes we might not order the same book that went miss-ing in the first place. It all depends on which books are in demand and other books we may just be able

to wait and see if someone returns it.”

Depending on the sub-ject of the book, Peralez said the library will use the lost book fees to replace health and science books over humanity books due to their high demand.

Dean of the library Far-zaneh Razzaghi explains the library has evolved over the past 20 years when it comes to helping borrow-

ers return books. Tech-nology has played a large role in making it easier to extend due dates such as online renewals where a borrower can continue holding onto checked out material that is not over-due through the library’s online catalog.

“Nowadays, compared to 20 years ago, there was not an online cata-

log where you could re-new your books. You had to bring your book to the circulation desk to renew it,” said Razzaghi, an Ed-inburg resident. “Now, before (the books) expire you can actually renew the books for another two weeks and can keep renew-ing it as long as no one else asks for the book. But even with all these things that have been facilitated for

students there are still times when students forget to return material.”

Another way the library tries to collect missing books is by offer-ing amnesty for all missing books that are returned during National Library Week. First sponsored in 1958 by the American Library Association, Na-

tional Library Week is a country-wide observance celebrated each April by libraries across the country.

Library assistant Edna Luna, who is in charge of collecting fines, ex-plained that in 2013 the library received 253 books and waved $1,800 in fines during National Library Week.

“During this week I have

a report of everyone who has overdue books and we get flyers offering amnesty. We mail them out and we even put it on Bronc Notes,” the Edinburg na-tive said. “I’m so glad that they make use of (National Library Week). I frown upon the students that come in and say they’re upset about the fines when (the library) gives you so much time and ways to get the books back.”

Razzaghi explained the library has many different patrons such as students, faculty and community members. She believes fees and fines come with work-ing in a library that serves more than 20,000 students and 4,000 faculty affiliates and Edinburg citizens.

“I honestly don’t think there is an issue because every single library in the world has patrons that bring books late or lose the books,” she said. “(The library) is not in a unique situation at all, it’s a nor-mal issue that happens in all libraries. People think it’s sort of ideal for a li-brary not to have fines, but in reality no there’s no such thing as a library not hav-ing fines...it’s just part of the business.”

By Elisa GarciaThe Pan American

- Farzaneh Razzaghi Dean of the library

People think it’s sort of ideal for a library not to have fines, but in reality no there’s no

such thing as a library not having fines...it’s just part of the business.

and

transcript

October 23, 20146 arts & life

Lorenzo Pace, a UTPA art professor, traveled back to his hometown in Birmingham, N.Y. in 1991 to mourn the loss of his father. While his family gath-ered to eat dinner one night, his uncle handed him an iron lock. He explained how it had be-longed to Pace’s great-grandfa-ther, Steve Pace, who was tak-en from his family and made a slave. The lock, which shackled Pace’s great-grandfather when he was brought to America from Af-rica, has been in his family for more than 100 years. When Pace was freed, he kept the lock as a

reminder of everything he had gone through as a slave.

“Everybody (gasped). The food stopped, everybody came to a complete halt when they decid-ed that I would be the keeper of the lock,” said Pace, who began working at the University in Au-gust 2007. “And I said, ‘why the hell are you giving me the lock for? I don’t know what to do with this.’ So I went back to New York and I put the lock in the closet be-cause I didn’t want to deal with it. ‘What am I gonna do with a slave lock?’ So I hid it from myself.”

Pace kept the lock hidden for about a year and a half. Then his daughter, who was 9 at the time, was asked by a classmate if she came from a family of slaves.

Pace decided to tell his daughter about their family. After that he began to write his first children’s book, Jalani and the Lock!, which was published in 2009 and tells the story of his great-grandfather.

“That’s what inspired me to tell the truth to her, from a child’s perspective,” said Pace, who received his doctor-ate in art education from Illi-nois State University in 1978. “(It was) very difficult. I had to retrain my brain to go back to childhood and try to convey (the story) as simple as possible to a child, my daughter.”

FROM BOOK TO PLAYPace met Phil Zwerling, a

UTPA assistant professor of cre-

ative writing, in January 2013 at an art walk in downtown McAllen. Zwerling is the au-thor of works such as Nicara-gua: A New Kind of Revolution, which was published in 1985. It was at their initial meeting that Pace asked Zwerling if he would help him write a stage produc-tion of his book. Zwerling, fas-cinated by Pace’s heirloom and history, agreed.

“It just struck me that (Pace has) an object, such a historical object that is just so imbued with so much history and controver-sy and it’s just as scary, impres-sive and frightening today as it was then,” said Zwerling, who re-ceived his doctorate in dramatic art from the University of Cali-fornia at Santa Barbara. “That’s something that you can put on stage because the stage is very vi-sual and he really made some-thing of it so I said yes.”

Pace and Zwerling co-wrote the play, Locked, which depicts an African-American family torn apart by shame when they dis-cover their personal ties to slav-ery. Locked is scheduled to run Oct. 23-25 at 7:30 p.m. and Oct. 26 at 2 p.m. in the UTPA Studio Theatre beside the Albert L. Jeffers Theatre in the Arts and Humanities Building.

“It’s been a difficult thing to talk about. Something that’s very difficult for African-Ameri-cans is slavery and all the things that went into that,” Pace ex-plained. “The book is a real-

ly telling story of our development here in this country (and) I just felt that it was some-thing to talk about. It’s s o m e -th ing very

difficult for us, especially for a black person and a white person to come together and talk about something that is so difficult in this country.”

The full-length play, which Pace and Zwerling have been working on for almost two years, consists of fictional char-acters, but Zwerling used names from Pace’s family as the seven characters in the cast to make it easier for him to imagine what would happen if a contempo-rary black family suddenly in-herited the lock.

“I wrote a draft and I would give it to (Pace) and he would say ‘oh no not that, not that.’ So I re-wrote it 12 times,” Zw-erling said. “(Pace) would say, ‘that isn’t how that’s done’ and ‘a family in the South wouldn’t say this,’ and ‘a family in the South wouldn’t eat that kind of food, they would call each other these kinds of things, they would have

this kind of relation-

ship in the family,’ things

that I wouldn’t know. And then

we kept working at it. It was a lot of work.”

According to Pace, this is the first time UTPA will present a play from an African-American perspective. He also stated that the University has never had a black professor and a white pro-fessor collaborate and said that he has worked with artists, mu-sicians and writers throughout his life but never on an issue that personally affects him.

“I think that (it’s great) just to collaborate on something like this with (Zwerling) on a sub-ject that is so sensitive, especial-ly for this state and for this coun-try, to deal with,” Pace said. “I just think that this is important for the University because we’ve never had anything as such a sen-sitive topic as this.”

UTPA will host its annual Carnival of the Great Pumpkin Oct. 25 with free admission at the University Field House from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. This event is part of a last set of annual UT-PA traditions before the merger with the University of Texas at Brownsville, set for fall 2015.

According to the UTPA Of-fice of Public Affairs, the Carni-val of the Great Pumpkin began in 1966 as a way to bring the community closer to the Univer-sity and has been a Bronc tradi-tion since. Recently, the carnival has gained popularity according to University Program Board adviser Daniela Venegas. The UTB alumna has noticed an in-crease in attendance from about 2,000 people in 2011 to 5,200 in 2013. Pedro Rangel, Univer-sity Program Board commit-

tee chair, estimates the carnival will bring a lot more than 5,000 people this year.

“Right now we have been distributing fliers to all the ele-mentary schools around the Ed-inburg Independent School Dis-trict, giving out 600 to 700 fliers to each school,” Rangel said. “It is a big event and we want it to be a good turn out, just like ev-ery other year.”

Because this year is the last Great Pumpkin celebration for UTPA, Rangel said he wants the night to be a little more Hallow-een-themed. In order to do so, he will be making this year’s car-nival theme Despicable Me, af-ter an animated movie released in 2010 about a criminal mas-termind, Gru, and his little yel-low goggle-wearing “Minions.” In the movie they adopt three girls: Margo, Edith and Agnes as pawns for his scheme to become

the world’s best super villain. In doing so, Rangel asked those that are participating to dress up accordingly to the theme.

“I want people to be able to go into the Field House and know it’s a Halloween festival,” Rangel said.

This year’s celebration will have many activities, such as a costume contest with three age groups: newborns to 5-year-olds, 6-12-year-olds and 13 and above. Other contests include pie eating and the “Wrap Your Mummy” competition where contestants compete to see who can cover their partner in toilet paper the fastest. The winners will receive prizes such as toys, Beats headphones, iPods, cam-eras and a TV.

Members of at least 50 stu-dent-run organizations will be at the carnival handing out can-dy and providing giant inflata-

bles. They will also sell snacks and hold games in their deco-rated booths to raise funds for the year. The Psychology Club will host a ring toss, UTCARES will have a cake walk and the so-rority Kappa Delta Chi will sell fruit cups.

“We chose to sell fruit cups as a way to promote healthy eat-ing habits to the kids,” said Rox-anna Padilla, a rehab services major and president of Kap-pa Delta Chi, “We will also be dressing up as Minions to en-tertain them and show our Hal-loween spirit.”

There are many factors that make this festival possible. But it’s a labor of love for Rangel, who coordinated everything from reserving the Field House to coming up with the funds for prizes, inflatables and other items bought for the public..

“We do it because we want

for the community to know what UTPA is all about and keep the traditions alive, and

what a better way to celebrate than to offer it to the public and share it with them,” Rangel said.

By Nerio CelayaThe Pan American

Halloween celebration tobe held on campus

UTPA professor unlocks relative’s pastStory and photoby Melinda GarzaThe Pan American

Lorenzo Pace and Phil Zwerling discuss their upcoming play, Locked. It will debut Oct. 23-25 at 7:30 p.m. and Oct. 26 at 2 p.m. in the UTPA Studio Theatre in the Arts and Humanities Building.

October 23, 2014 ADVERTISEMENT Page 7

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8October 23, 2014sports

The UTPA women’s basket-ball team is ready to head into its second Western Athletic Conference season. Last year the Broncs had 14 wins, tying for the most in UTPA history. However, last year’s record will only carry them so far as they prepare to face off against some of the toughest pre-season op-ponents around.

“We have the hardest non-conference schedule in the history of the program,” Head Coach Larry Tidwell said. “But we are hoping we can dig in and earn some wins and get us ready to compete for the con-ference championship.”

The team will be facing not only top 10 schools such as Bay-lor University, but they will also be playing against Texas A&M, Texas Tech University and Texas A&M-University Kingsville.

According to Tidwell, this preseason is unlike any the Broncs have faced before. The way the games are set up this

year stacks the Broncs against the toughest teams very early on, starting with New Mexico State Nov. 14. However, UTPA guard KaeLynn Boyd believes that no matter what, the Uni-versity team will not be intimi-dated.

“I feel like when we step on the court we are equal,” said the junior from Los Angeles who scored 266 points, had 97 re-bounds and 75 assists last year. “To me it is all about heart and not the intimidation factor in the name of the school.”

CHOSENThe Broncs’ schedule is

mapped out and gets into full swing Nov. 14. However, they have already gained recogni-tion from last year’s season. The Broncs were chosen to finish in second place by the WAC coach’s poll, beating out all but last year’s runner-up, Bakers-field University.

Even though the team and Tidwell consider being chosen as No. 2 in the league an honor,

Shawnte’ Goff knows their sea-son performance and has noth-ing to do with polls or predic-tions. The sophomore guard from Texas knows they have to live up to the hype.

“It is really not about where they pick us,” said Goff, who scored 386 points with 64 assists and 101 rebounds last season. “They could pick us second but if we are not going to perform that does not mean anything. We have to prove why we are up there; we need to prove we are the best in this conference.”

For the team and its premiere players the drive to win is only strengthened by the poll and their shot at facing the new competition. The first games come at the Maggie Dixon Classic tournament in Chicago as they go up against The Uni-versity of New Mexico, DePaul University and Texas A&M Nov. 14-16.

But soon after that the Broncs will play their first home game exhibition Nov. 19 against TAMUK. After that they will

play 12 games before the start of the WAC action Jan. 10 at Chi-cago State.

Despite the schedule, Goff has little fear of what is to come and is looking forward to the team’s second chance at a WAC postseason and another shot at the championship.

“We demanded respect last year,” Goff said. “Of course we did not come out with as many wins as we wanted to but we de-mand respect and we are going to keep demanding it. We are going to take it to anybody we need to play.”

The Broncs are looking to make another strong impression at this year’s conference cham-pionship. Though the team has a competitive schedule ahead against tough schools, the wom-en are out for a title this year.

By Kristela GarzaThe Pan American

The women’s basketball team breaks the huddle during Midnight Madness Oct. 17. The team’s first game is scheduled for Nov. 14 against the University of New Mexico. The Broncs are picked to finish second in the coach’s poll.

Jon Nutt/ The Pan American

men’s golfweekly updates

Won 3-1 against Chicago State University Oct. 16 at the Field House

soccer

Finished with a score of 300, placed 8th at the Herb Wimberly Inter-collegiate at the New Mexico State University Golf Course Oct. 20

Lost 4-0 against Seattle University Oct. 19 at the UTPA Soccer and Track & Field Complex

Lost 5-0 against Utah Valley University Oct. 17 at the UTPA Soccer and Track & Field Complex

Lost 3-0 against Kansas City Oct. 18 at the Field House

Broncs play against Grand Canyon University Oct. 23 in Phoenix

Next event is against California Bakersfield Oct. 24 at Bakersfield

Next competition is the Arkansas State Fall Beach Classic Nov. 3

volleyball

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