GO TO http://oxtogrind.org/archive/565 for a proper profile of Richard Martin Oxman. What’s here is only appropriate for people from Salinas, California and a few others. This is being archived mainly for reference in the future.

Note: This is an archived site, and most of what’s here is very dated. Aside from Mayor Donohue of Salinas, those who are NOT connected with UFW or the recent Si Se Puede demonstrations should glance at a previous posting (”The Black Brown Moonbow Party”) for directions to articles I may have recommended recently. For Mayor Donohue of Salinas, please check out the archived sites of www.useutravel.blogspot.com and/or www.frenchpaintbox.com …after glancing at this bio. Each piece on oxtogrind is designed for a very specific audience for a very specific purpose. Without the proper context the writing may be puzzling or even off-putting.

Select Profile for Ricardo Bueyhombre
Prepared for UFW

Richard Martin Oxman
1713 Jennifer Drive
in the Vienna Woods of Aptos, CA 95003
831-688-8038 at any hour

I will give out family information upon request. In the meantime, readers might want to glance at the 5′ video below as an introduction of sorts. If readers are very short on time, just scroll down to Education, Select Teaching and Work Experience and/or Great Influences/Moments in My Life.

*Our “Marcello” provides, I believe, a great family introduction at www.marcelsgeo.blogspot.com. His http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM-Hdn7h7tU#GU5U2spHI_4 shows one of his home schooling segments at Stanford University, preparing for the arrival of Nigeria’s Nobel Laureate in Literature, Wole Soyinka… when he was only six-years-old! Shortly after the footage was taken, Marcel (www.marcelsgeo.blogspot.com) and I were escorted off of the campus… for speaking out against Bechtel’s privatization of Bolivian water in front of the Bechtel International Center of Stanford. So much for so-called higher education.

Education:

1960/61 Founded Patrice Lumumba Justice Club under the auspices of members of the Mouvement National Congolais, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Private study with Felix Pollak, poet.

1962 Creative Writing study with Wendell Berry, New York City

1963 Private instruction with Bernard Grebanier, Brooklyn College, NYC, studying
Shakespeare and Playwriting.

1964 B.A. in Dramatic Art and Speech, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey

1965 M.A. in Speech and Theatre, Teachers College, Columbia University, NYC.

60s-70s Doctoral work in Educational Theatre+ at Columbia University and New
York University. All course work completed for Ed.D., including individual
study with Shakespearean scholar John McCabe (Shakespeare, Laurel and
Hardy, and biography)

1989 Royal Society of the Arts/Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults equivalent training, St. Giles College, San Francisco/UK+.

Select Teaching & Work Experience:

1989-2009 Director of businesses whose primary purpose has been to help others to self-educate overseas+. See archived sites: www.cancerfreeitaly.com, www.parisgraves.com, www.frenchpaintbox.com*, www.useutravel.blogspot.com, and www.ctravelc.blogspot.com. Our latest project www.nativeitaly.org is unlikely to be fully active (the site is not currently completed) until we can definitively identify toxic hot spots on the Italian peninsula. All of this has included ESL work, and writing articles (500+) on current events/cultural topics worldwide. Playwriting instruction the last five years, all levels, virtually all ages. Involved in Campaign to Free Leonard Peltier in late 2000.

*An example of a lucrative business which we put an end to, in part, because of environmental concerns related to encouraging regular air travel overseas.

Early 90s Director of Wyland Art Galleries, Maui, Hawaii. Record sales for twenty-six galleries which still stands. Theatre Arts Director for Hawaii Players (separate children and adult groups).

1988-1990 St. Giles College/John Adams Community College, San Francisco, CA.
I prepared immigrants for the TOEFL SAT and GRE exams. In addition, my responsibilities included the placement of students in host homes.

1986-88 TESOL Director for International Education Research and Analysis Corporation in Osaka, Japan. Also, I directed plays for cultural outreach programs throughout Japan, and taught playwriting.

1984-86 Investigative Journalist for The Russian River News and The Paper of West Sonoma County in Guerneville/Forestville, California. Worked with Stephen Pizzo around the time he researched for his Inside Job: The Looting of America’s Savings and Loans, which was nominated for a Pulitzer.

Early 80s Fundraiser for Massachusetts Fair Share. Community Organizer.

70s/80s Taxi Driving, NYC, encounters with Adrienne Rich, Ridley Scott, et. al. Met Peter Brook while raising funds for Teatro Campesino transition/productions. McGraw-Hill Publishing, Newsletters. Bookie for sporting events.

Late 70s Research Project in the Caribbean on the British Slave Trade+. Witnessed
widespread protests against repression of Haiti’s press, and severe violence.

1964-74 Professor of Theatre, Cinema History, and Comparative Literature Rutgers - The State University of New Jersey, Bronx Community College, Long Island University, Seton Hall University, and New York Institute of Technology, among others. I also taught Creative Writing, and was involved in educational outreach in connection with The Parkway Playhouse (Burnsville, North Carolina) and The Paper Mill Playhouse (NJ). Special studies under the auspices of Dario Fo and Franca Rame in Italy. McGraw-Hill Pulblishing stint. Boxing articles for Ring Magazine’s Nat Fleischer in NYC. Construction work on Long Island.

Late 50s Hitchhiked, as teenager, from NJ to CA (RT), and from NJ to GA (RT). Day laborer during travels on farms and in railroad yards. Illegal postal worker.

1950s Co-writer/performer with L.Russell Brown, Fury Records+, Harlem, NY.

1952 Worked during long stay at Kid Gavilan’s training camp in Pennsylvania. Witnessed first bout between white and black man in segregated Miami, Florida.

Great Influences/Moments in My Life:

http://oxtogrind.org/archive/402 will explain a lot.

1942 Given the name Richard… after Richard Brinsley Sheridan (whose radical politics my parents never stopped talking about). Uncle Max translates parts of two new works by Camus for the family, arguably the biggest influence on us all for a long time.

1945-46 My mom “introduces” me to David Dellinger during her work time at Direct Action, WRL, IWW and the Collier Printing Company… when I am only three-years-old. The vibes resonate… and stick.

September, 1949 Experience of Paul Robeson concert/riots Peekskill, NY

September, 1950 Private Meeting with Edna St. Vincent Millay Austerlitz, NY
Contact with Robert Fitzgerald and Flannery O’Connor Redding, CT

1957 Recorded with L. Russell Brown/Fury Records Harlem, NY

Summer, 1961 Visits with Flannery O’ Connor Milledgeville, GA

1961-67 Mentored by George Weber, Lester Moore and members of The Royal Shakespeare Co. Contact with Alan Schneider and Samuel Beckett on set of Film; viewed Buster Keaton films with them at Museum of Modern Art, NYC. Interaction with members of La Mama, Theatre Genesis, and the in-crowd at Small’s Paradise, including James Baldwin. Patricia Highsmith… Philip Larkin in Hull. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead opening (NYC).

July 12-17, 1967 Survived destruction of my birthplace Newark, NJ. Witnessed Whites I grew up with (who had become police officers) killing Blacks… as tanks rolled through the city.

60s/70s Encounters with Alan Watts, Joseph Campbell, I.F. Stone, Robert Bolt and Paul Scofield et. al. at the ANTA opening of A Man for All Seasons, 1st Chomsky read! CA+/UK. Altamont!

Late 60s/early 70s Mentor contact with Tennessee Williams. I learn the full truth about Fred Hampton’s death. Unmentionable involvement in campus anti-war protests.

January, 1976, attending Paul Robeson’s funeral at Mother AME Zion Church introduces me to many important people in my life (Low-profile people who have a greater influence on me than most of the famous individuals mentioned here.). May, witness to repression/riots+ in Hispaniola.

1986 Moviemaking/Interview with Francis Ford Coppola, California

1988 Time with Andy Goldsworthy Boston, MA/Japan

July, 1988 Companion to Emil White* Big Sur, CA

*Emil was a longtime intimate friend of Henry Miller’s

1990s Observation of/Aftermath of Gulf War Iraq+
Fund raising for Ken Saro-Wiwa, Nigeria

2003-2004 Produced One Dance: The People’s Summit Santa Cruz, CA
See http://www.counterpunch.org/mickey02102004.html This Ralph Nader-inspired event, organized for over a full year at a 24×8 pace, was arguably the biggest cultural/political happening in the history of Santa Cruz, California (well-known for such gatherings), and was accomplished with virtually no experience and… less of a budget. Mickey Z, our MC, dedicated his The Seven Deadly Spins: Exposing the Lies Behind War Propaganda to me and Sylvie. Met Iris Chang, San Jose, CA/ Began reading Derrick Jensen and Ward Churchill. Mitch Hedberg rendezvous.

2007-2008 Interior Design/Vintage Furnishings business Los Gatos, CA

2010 - I am invited to meet with members of the Coordinating Committee for a March 4th statewide protest at the UC-Berkeley campus. It is a disaster, but quite instructive, and it leads me to counterparts in Southern California… who also prove to be highly disappointing. I offer to lead a(n) (uncompromising) hunger strike if educational matters are linked to larger societal issues… and my offer is rejected. As a result of that frustration (and a lack of response from mainstream members of the African-American community), I am moved to radically transform my concept of TOSCA. As of March 22, 2010 I am renewing my efforts to connect with United Farm Workers. As of March 23, 2010… I am initiating contact with Mayor Donohue of Salinas, California. [He wants to increase tourism in his city, and it's very clear to me that one of the very first things he needs to do is end all of the bad publicity which the mainstream media outlets insist upon highlighting on their broadcasts. Keep them from compounding ignorance with ignorance. That's easy to do... and it won't cost Salinas a penny. Not only that... by doing so the community can contribute to a great deal of progress in solidarity... which could lead to advances on a number of counts. I've got a ton of suggestions along those lines which I pray the mayor will embrace. For by starting with Salinas -- with its above-the-national-average-homicides -- we can have a shot at improving things nationwide.]

Interesting update as of 3/27/10: The United Farm Workers refuse to make time to even discuss my questions, suggestions, etc. They seem only to be interested in top-down communication. Mayor Donohue has not responded at all to my missives. Law enforcement officers have (finally) directed me to Sgt. Sheldon Bryan, Director of Operation Cease-Fire, a professional who is in a position to make decisions about some of the major challenges facing Salinas. I am now waiting for a response from him. Other professionals in Salinas have not responded at all. Ditto for citizens of various stripes. This all has added up to my having a profound experience… which I am unable — at the moment — to process sufficiently. That said, I cannot regret this eye-opener. It seems to me that anyone I send to this entry should be very interested in discussing the details of my experience.
UPDATE AS OF APRIL 3: SEE http://oxtogrind.org/archive/554.