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The purpose of this article is to articulate the rewards of being immersed in a different culture and the significant impact that it can have for art educators. Being immersed in a different culture encourages examination of cultural assumptions and prejudices. Without such an immersion experience, the natural tendency is to project onto others one's own cultural perspective as the correct one--a type of cultural blindness. When the author lived and worked in Ghana, West Africa and Mexico as an artist and art educator, her life became entwined with the lives of the local women artists. She learned about herself as well as the people she was working with. In this article, the author describes how her experiences in Ghana and Oaxaca have enriched her work with students in K-12 schools, and deepened her appreciation of the power of art to be a bridge across cultures.

Provides background information on Jose Maria Velasco and includes a reproduction of his artwork titled "Distant View of Mexico City." Includes classroom activities. Discusses the subject matter of the painting, offering historical information, and explores the techniques used by Velasco. (CMK)

Introduces the topic for the next Clip and Save Art Print series: unique regions of the North American continent. Includes three paintings, with background information, on this topic. Discusses the format and use of the Clip and Save Art Prints. (CMK)

"Armadillo Ray," by John Beifuss, is the tale of a young, curious armadillo who wants to know what the moon is. He is joined in his quest by snakes, prairie dogs, sage grouse, and owls. The beauty of the book is its simplicity, illustrations and landscapes, and its potential links to reading, geography, science, and mathematics. In this article, the authors describe how they used "Armadillo Ray" to help non-English speaking students learn and understand English. The authors present a set of lessons they have developed for kindergarten and first-grade migrant students in Statesboro, Georgia, and non-English speaking students in Oaxaca, Mexico. Throughout the lessons, the authors suggest teachers to ask students to review what they are learning and have them talk about their own artwork and about what was accomplished.

Objective: To describe the morbidity and mortality associated with tuberculosis (TB) in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected children in Baja California, Mexico., Methods: Retrospective review of the medical records of all children with perinatally acquired HIV infection evaluated at Tijuana General Hospital with a diagnosis of TB between 1998 and 2007. The Stegen-Toledo (ST) clinical criteria for the diagnosis of TB were used., Results: A total of 73 HIV-infected children were followed during the study period. Thirteen (18%) children were diagnosed with TB; one was confirmed by culture to be positive. Among these children, the mean ages at HIV and TB diagnosis were respectively 3.6 and 5.3 years. The mean ST score was 8.1; 10/13 had a score of >or=7, or highly probable TB. There were a cumulative 29 hospital admissions prior to TB diagnosis; 24 of these were due to pneumonia. The mean duration of symptoms at TB diagnosis was 73 days. The most common symptoms were cough (92%) and anorexia (85%). Seven patients (54%) had disseminated TB and five (39%) died as a consequence of TB., Conclusions: We observed high morbidity, hospital utilization and high mortality associated with TB among HIV-infected children in Baja California.

At Tijuana General Hospital, between March 2003 and June 2005, pregnant women and other adults, recently identified as HIV infected, antiretroviral naïve, were enrolled to examine the prevalence of primary HIV drug resistance. All subjects had the Calypte HIV-1 BED Incidence enzyme immunoassay test to identify recent infection. Genotypic analysis of HIV-1 protease and reverse transcriptase regions in plasma was performed. Forty-six subjects participated, eight (17%) men, 38 (83%) women. Ten (22%) subjects were classified as having recent HIV infection. HIV genotype was performed in 41 subjects. One subject (2.5%) had a major mutation in the reverse transcriptase region (K219Q) conferring zidovudine resistance, one had a minor mutation at V118I (2.5%) and two subjects (5%) had minor mutation (V179D) associated with non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor resistance. There were no major protease inhibitor-associated mutations but minor mutations were common. The prevalence of primary HIV drug resistance in Baja California is low.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of the rapid antibody test Determine HIV-1/2, in pregnant women at Tijuana General Hospital. Pregnant women seeking prenatal care or admitted in labour had blood drawn for a rapid HIV test (Determine HIV-1/2), enzyme immunoassay (EIA) and Western blot. Between March and November 2003, 1068 women in labour and 1529 women in prenatal care were enrolled. The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values were 100%, 99.8%, 77% and 100%, respectively. For women in labour, the mean time between blood collection and rapid test results was 92 minutes (range: 20-205 minutes) compared with 41 hours (range 24-120 hours) for HIV EIA (P = 0.012). All HIV-exposed infants received oral zidovudine. These findings indicate that the rapid test Determine HIV-1/2 has a high sensitivity and specificity in pregnant women. Rapid HIV testing greatly diminishes the time to diagnosis and enables prompt intervention with antiretrovirals at delivery.

Objective: To evaluate the acceptance of counseling and rapid HIV testing and to determine the associated risk factors for HIV infection in pregnant women in Baja California, Mexico., Methods: Pregnant women attending Tijuana General Hospital who consented to participate in the study had blood drawn for a rapid HIV test (Determine HIV-1/2; Abbott Diagnostics, North Chicago, IL). A confirmatory enzyme immunoassay and Western blot were performed and demographic and risk factor data were obtained., Results: From March to November 2003, 1529 (92.5%) of 1653 women who sought prenatal care and 1068 (95.2%) of 1122 women in labor consented to participate. HIV seroprevalence was significantly higher among women screened during labor (12/1068, 1.12%) compared with those seeking prenatal care (5/1529, 0.33%). HIV-infected women were significantly more likely to use injection drugs (12% vs. 1%, P = 0.02), "other" drugs, including methamphetamine, marijuana, and cocaine (65% vs. 6%, P < 0.001), to have more sex partners (3.6 vs. 2.6, P = 0.0002), to not have received prenatal care (41% vs. 13%, P = 0.03), and to have a spouse/partner who used injection drugs (36% vs. 4%, P < 0.001) or "other" drugs (73% vs. 23%, P < 0.001). In multivariate regression analysis, use of methamphetamine (adjusted odds ratio, 17.8, 95% CI, 5.6-56) was independently associated with the risk of HIV infection., Conclusions: These findings indicate a wide acceptance of HIV counseling and testing and document a higher HIV seroprevalence among pregnant women delivering at Tijuana General Hospital than current established estimates in Mexico.