User:Andrew Parodi
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[edit] My Colegio Cesar Chavez picture reprinted in newspaper!
I woke up on Thursday, September 28th, 2006, to receive some amazing news. Erika Costaño, curator of the Multicultural Archives at Oregon State University, e-mailed me to inform me that one of my pictures, which was originally published here on Wikipedia, had been reprinted in the Salem, Oregon newspaper Statesman Journal.
The picture was taken at St. Joseph Shelter in Mt. Angel, Oregon. The picture depicts a mural that Daniel Designa had painted on the wall of the shelter building in the 1970s, back when the building served as the headquarters for Colegio Cesar Chavez. Colegio Cesar Chavez was the first four-year Chicano college in the United States of America.
Here is a link to the Statesman Journal article that reproduces the picture I took:
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006609290326
If the above link doesn't work, you can see a scan of the article here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Colegioarticle.jpg
I published this picture under a free license, which allows for the image to be republished anywhere without express permission. Never in my wildest dreams did I think this picture would be published anywhere else, let alone a major newspaper. (The Statesman Journal is the major newspaper of Salem, Oregon. Salem is, of course, the capital of the state.) Unfortunately, the article didn't cite me as the original photographer, but such citation is not necessary under a free license. It would've been nice to be credited. But I would rather they use the illustration than not. My only real desire was that Colegio Cesar Chavez be remembered.
It was just amazing to see my picture republished in a newspaper. It just goes to show that people do pay attention to what goes on here on the Wikipedia site.
[edit] About me
My name is Andrew Parodi. I have been working on Wikipedia, off and on, for about a year. I am currently preoccupied with my work on the Eva Peron page. I have been told that the article is slated for review as a "Good Article," and that means a lot to me because I am the primary contributor to that page.
I am a writer and am currently working on a book. I am also a "Top 500 Reviewer" on Amazon.com [1]. I have also written for Salem Monthly, the alternative newspaper of Salem, Oregon.
I've had an eclectic and multi-leveled life that is often reflected in my reviews.
I was born in Mt. View, California, in 1975 to Karen Elizabeth Parodi and Michael Louis Parodi Jr (formerly the CEO of Tegal Corporations in Petaluma, currently president of Isel Robotik in Sunnyvale). I took my first steps on Kodiak Island during a family trip to visit relatives. I have five half-sisters on my mother's side, and three half-brothers and one half-sister on my biological father's side. Two of my half-sisters are registered members of the Aleut tribe from Alaska (my mother's first husband was half-Aleut). When I was 10, one of my sisters came out of the closet as a lesbian.
When I was eight, I enrolled at Willamette Ballet Academy in Woodburn, Oregon and studied under ballet teacher Rick Van Winkle for many years. Eventually, we moved to Portland where I studied to be a professional dancer at the nationally recognized Jefferson High School dance program. I was one of the youngest people accepted into the student dance company The Jefferson Dancers. While a member of The Jefferson Dancers, I performed in all of Portland's most prestigious venues, and for tens of thousands during halftime at Blazer Basketball games. We also toured to Russia one year, and I was a featured performer in PBS's "A Musical Encounter: The Dance Program."
Jefferson High School has a unique student body that is about 65% African American, so while attending Jefferson I was exposed a culture that I have since realized few others are able to experience. I appreciated, and miss, the Afrocentric atmosphere of the school. I'd always felt a bond with African cultures. Spiritual teachers Malidoma Patrice Some and Sobonfu Some, both from Burkina Faso (Africa), have been important to me for years. And Nigerian-born singer Sade Adu ("Sade") is one of my favorite singers.
In addition to the above, I have also modeled in Japan, Portland, and Salem, have performed (as a singer) with bands, performed in an off-Broadway play in New York, and studied on scholarship at the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance, and was an exchange student to Argentina in 1993. (Would you believe I met Liza Minnelli at Eva Peron's tomb? I have the picture to prove it! I've also taken figure skating lessons from Tonya Harding. Seriously.) I've also made countless television appearances, from local to national talk shows, as well as an appearance on "Real TV." And I have worked as a stage director for Miracle Theater/Teatro Milagro, the Northwest's only Hispanic theater company. And in 1998, while still only a white belt, I beat out a brown belt in a Tae Kwon Do championship in Wilsonville, Oregon.
[edit] Eva Peron article declared a "Good Article"!
It looks like a 15-year obsession has finally amounted to something. The page about Eva Peron has finally been declared a Good Article, which is just a hop, skip, and jump from being a Featured Article. And the editor who approved the article as a "Good Article" said that the article has "Featured Article" potential. This was a particular honor for me because the editor who said this is a native Argentine. This all means a lot to me because I contributed heavily to this article. I wrote perhaps as much as 75% of the article, and I uploaded almost all (save for two or three) pictures to the article. I'm not ego-tripping on this. I'm just saying it's great that what has always struck so many as such an odd interest on my part is finally turning into something of value to other people. (In 1993 when I was an exchange student to Argentina, the head mistress at the school said to me, "An American boy knowing so much about Evita? We don't even know anything about her here.")
[edit] My articles for Salem Monthly
- The Blue Pepper, my review of a Salem cafe.
- An American Captive An article about a local man who was interned during World War II.
- Childhood education is safe—for now. An article about the early childhood education program at Chemeketa Community College
[edit] Martha Graham Article
Could I ask you to kindly re-edit the addition you made to Early Dancers? The problem is that you entered Donald McKayle (who surely deserves mention) into a direct quotation from a book. His name does not appear in the quotation, so it is inaccurate and harmful to the quality of the citation. I will not tell you "how" to add his name, but I urge you to read [2] what I wrote about my decision to add "Later Former Dancers". It has attracted vandalism-so I am hesitant to suggest that you start "Other Early Dancers"! Stagehand 17:34, 13 March 2007 (UTC)
