AVAILABILITY: Active Record (Readily Available)

Publication Date: June 2008
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Incorporated

Description: In Family Activism, Roberto Vargas draws from his own life to apply tools such as co-powering communication, family councils, and unity circles to create family and community cultures that empower all of us to become more committed and skillful agents of positive change.

Review(s): "Vargas, a longtime corporate and community consultant, approaches social activism with high ideals, a positive viewpoint and, most helpfully, a practical and gratifying plan of action, based in his personal experience and cultural heritage. The 'Familia Approach' treats activism not as a solo enterprise but as 'a way of living so as to teach love and activate the positive power of our families and communities.' Vargas unpacks the Mexican idea of familia and finds enfolded within its notion of the extended family-'everyone you care for and who cares for you'-the American passion for social activism. Each chapter expands on this idea, including reflection questions and bullet-point 'practices,' with much insight into Vargas's own family and Latino culture in general (both modern and ancient). Though not religious, Vargas is 'spiritual,' and does consider prayer and indigenous religious practices (like unity circles) important and powerful. Equally important, however, is real human understanding, for which he introduces the surprisingly complex concept of conocimento-conversation meant to deepen participants' knowledge of each other. Vargas's text, full of new agisms like 'transformation,' 'energy' and 'synergy,' will strike some readers as redundant, but those ready to share in Vargas's passion will find much to learn." - Publishers Weekly