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Celebrate the 4th of July with New Latin Radio Show

10:16 am By Maegan La Mala · Music| New York

3 Jul 2009

radioI’m a fan of Latin Alternative and rock music pero have struggled to find a radio show that caters to my tastes (the exception is la Nueva Alternativa on WBAI pero my mami vieja as can’t usually stay up late enough to listen).

Just in time to celebrate the 4th bi-culturally comes “The Latin Alternative” from WEXT 97.7 (Albany, NY).

“There is something amazing about a radio station in Albany launching the nation’s first syndicated Latin-alternative radio show. In my childhood growing up in a small town outside of Albany, I couldn’t wait to leave the area and move to a bigger city that had a Latin alternative music scene,” says show co-host Josh Norek. “Ironically, now I live in Los Angeles and it’s an adventurous radio station in upstate New York that has taken the lead and launched the first syndicated show for the genre.”

‘The Latin Alternative’ will begin airing weekly on Saturday nights at 8PM Eastern Time starting on July 4th. Highlights of the program include a weekly ‘Spotlight Artist’ and a ‘Homegrown’ segment focusing on U.S.-based Latin alternative acts. Among the initial Spotlight Artists will be Grammy-winning acts Manu Chao, Café Tacuba, Aterciopelados and Los Fabulosos Cadillacs.

LISTEN LIVE (Saturdays at 8PM Eastern starting on July 4th) at: www.exit977.org

I know I’ll be listening in.

Uruguayan Bishop Resigns over Gay Sex Scandal

9:25 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Controversia| GLBT| Latin America| Uruguay| sex| society

3 Jul 2009

mons_barbosa_vcgI guess the bishop of Minas, Uruguay, Francisco Domingo Barbosa Da Silveira, 65, thought it would safe to report extortion attempts against him to police without anyone knowing what the alleged extorters were threatening to reveal: that he was having sex with other male members of the clergy as well as two prisoners he had hired to help out around his office. How silly of him.

Pope Benedict XVI dismissed the bishop of Minas (Uruguay), Francisco Domingo Barbosa Da Silveira, who denounced an extortion that left uncovered he was having homosexual relations, informed today the Vatican.

In a brief bulletin the press office of the Vatican informed that the pontiff has received the resignation in accordance to the paragraph 401.2 of the Code of Canon law, the fundamental law that applies to the catholic Church.

This regulation says: “The diocesan bishop is asked earnestly to present the resignation to his office if for illness or another serious cause there was remaining diminished his aptitude to redeem it”.

“The Holy Father accepted the resignation to the pastoral government of the diocese of Minas presented by monsignor Francisco Domingo Barbosa Da Silveira, in conformity of the article 401,2 of the CDC”, indicated the Vatican in the bulletin.

The two prisoners videotaped the encounter with a cell phone and were threatening to use the material to “out” the bishop.

Thinking about it a bit more, I guess with all of the child molesters in the clergy that get off with nary a slap on the wrist, Barbosa was probably right to think he could do the same.

Via / Momento 24 and 20 Minutos

23 Dead in Bus Accident in Peru

8:24 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Latin America| Peru| World| society

3 Jul 2009

978307

Some very tragic news out of Peru today: at 23 people have died and 50 have been injured in a head-on collision between two buses near Lake Titicaca. AP reports:

The morning crash occurred in the Santa Lucia district, about an hour’s drive from Lake Titicaca high in the Andes, a Puno state highway police officer told The Associated Press by phone.

The officer requested anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the crash.

Emergency crews said there could be as many as four more people still trapped in the wreckage, the officer said. Fourteen of the dead were identified, all of them Peruvians.

Unfortunately, as Peruanos know, this kind of thing is quite common. In January of this year, a bus fell 500 feet off a cliff, killing 30 passengers and injuring 20 more. According to the BBC, in 2008, at least 875 people were killed and more than 5,000 injured in this type of accidents in Peru.

Via / Google News

Image via 20 Minutos

Want Happy Latino Teens? Stop Forcing Assimilation.

7:42 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Bilingualism| Culture

3 Jul 2009

020For as far back as I can remember, I was told, by the words and actions of my parents that assimilation was the key to success. Success meaning a good education, a good job and acceptance by those around me. Comprehensive immigration reform, browned as Latino, is telling the undocumented the same thing. If they want to be successful and be accepted by others they must assimilate, learn English and everything will be alright. Look at the case of Walter Lara, he’s an “all-American” success story that other immigrants are expected to live up to. And if they can’t?

Success doesn’t equal happiness or health, however. A recent study shows that Latino youth who are taught to embrace their bi-cultural status, that is their Latinidad as well as their experiences living in the United States, make them happier, healthier, smarter and less likely to “do bad things”.

“We found teens who maintain strong ties to their Latino cultures perform better academically and adjust more easily socially,” Smokowski said. “When we repeated the survey a year later, for every 1-point increase in involvement in their Latino cultures, we saw a 13 percent rise in self-esteem and a 12 to 13 percent decrease in hopelessness, social problems and aggressive behavior.

“Also, the study showed parents who develop a strong bicultural perspective have teen children who are less likely to feel anxiety and face fewer social problems,” he said. “For every increase in a parent’s involvement in United States culture, we saw a 15 to 18 percent decrease in adolescent social problems, aggression and anxiety one year later. Parents who were more involved in U.S. culture were in a better position to proactively help their adolescents with peer relations, forming friendships and staying engaged in school. This decreases the chances of social problems arising.”

“Such results suggest that Latino youth and their parents benefit from biculturalism,” Smokowski said.

Via / Science Daily

Just Because la Macha loves you

7:27 pm By la Macha · Lifestyle

2 Jul 2009

and I know we all need a pick-me-up this close to the weekend.

neetu-chandra-a-profile

Neetu Chandra is not Latina. But I think we can all agree that is ok. Yes?

Republican comes out in support of coup

7:21 pm By la Macha · honduras

2 Jul 2009

s-demint-largeAnd just to add one more layer to the confusion: Sen. Jim DeMint, a Republican senator from South Carolina, has come out in support of the coup. And strangely enough, his reasoning sounds very similar to that of Honduran bloggers.

via Huffington Post:

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) has come out in support of the military coup in Honduras, chastising President Obama in a statement for what he calls “a slap in the face to the people” of that country.

From his statement:

“The people of Honduras have struggled too long to have their hard-won democracy stolen from them by a Chavez-style dictator. The Honduran Congress, the Honduran Supreme Court, and the Honduran military have acted in accordance to the Honduran constitution and the rule of law. [...]

“I am hopeful that as President Obama grows in office, he will eventually turn away from despots like Ahmadinejad, Chavez, Castro, and Zelaya, and give the United States’ full-throated support to the people of any country who are fighting for the same values we cherish and defend in America. The people fighting for freedom around the world, in Iran and Honduras, should never have to wonder which side America will choose between freedom and tyranny.

“President Obama’s call for the reinstatement of Zelaya is a slap in the face to the people of Honduras. And the resolution written by the Organization of American States tramples over the hopes and dreams of a free and democratic people.

“The rule of law is working in Honduras. President Obama should not undermine the democratic institutions that guarantee freedom by forcing an illegitimate President back into power.

The big question now appears to be, who gets listened to in this case? Latino congressional members say boo! on coup. White conservative members say yay! Honduras appears to be saying yay as well, but the entire rest of world leaders say boo. Nobody likes the evil socialists, so capitalists say boo, but social justice people think that socialism is the lesser of two evils–so they say yay.

Everybody is screaming “rule of law”–but in Latin American nobody really has any clue what that means, and Indigenous peoples wish we would all shut up and get the hell out.

What is to be done?

Yes, Latin@’s you have stumped my ass again.

Honduran coup from the ground

6:41 pm By la Macha · honduras

2 Jul 2009

We’ve been talking a lot here at VL about the many strange “truths” of the Honduran coup–and then I came across this post by Latina Lista. It is a blog post written by a blogger in Honduras, and she presents a completely different version of what the coup means to Hondurans. It makes things much clearer to me.

An excerpt:

I have not seen any US media outlet show coverage of the tens of thousands who gathered yesterday in support of the new government. A friend commented on the remarkably one-sided coverage of the crisis, “A few hundred rioters throwing rocks at soldiers and the police and water cannon makes much better news than thousands of supporters holding their hands above their hearts with tears streaming down their face singing the national anthem.”

Honduras is a small and underdeveloped country. It can ill afford the bad reputation that the world has for its leaders. However, I hope and pray that world would consider carefully the events surrounding the removal of Mr. Zelaya.

I am reminded of the words of the prophet Amos:

Do you know what I want?

I want justice–oceans of it.
I want fairness–rivers of it.
That’s what I want. That’s all I want. Amos 5:24

As rivers and oceans of people are marching across the land of Honduras, one can only hope and pray that the world will take notice of a small country that seeks to live in peace, freedom and development.

Read the whole thing here.

Paquito Cordero is Dead

4:52 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Celebrities| Media| Puerto Rico| TV

2 Jul 2009

Puerto Rico lost a television pioneer this past Tuesday, when Paquito Cordero passed on at the age of 77. The Puerto Rican government has declared 3 days of mourning for Cordero. EFE reports:

“The people of Puerto Rico start the day in mourning for the sad loss of one of the greats among our artists and a man of the people,” Fortuño said in a press release.

Francisco Cordero was born in 1932 in San Juan’s Santurce neighborhood, and after attending the Central Upper School, began his artistic career as an actor when television arrived in Puerto Rico in 1954 on the program “Mapy y Papi,” together with his aunt Mapy Cortes (1910-1998).

His greatest legacy as a producer was the program “El Show de las 12” (12 O’clock Show) for Telemundo Channel 2, which aired at midday.

The program was transmitted for the first time on Jan. 11, 1965.

In addition to his work as a producer and comedian, Cordero is often credited with the international success of Menudo.

Via / Latin American Herald Tribune

Is it “Adios” for MySpace Latino?

4:33 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Internet| Marketing| social networking

2 Jul 2009

360063615_1be4928ee9About 2 years ago we told you about MySpace’s bid for Latino market share, aptly named “MySpace Latino”. Back then, MySpace was leading the social networking revolution, but fast forward to today, and we find that MySpace “original” is becoming more irrelevant by the minute in the shadow of Facebook. Perhaps that’s why the Latino version of the service might be going the way of the Walkman. GigaOm’s Jennifer Martinez reports:

As MySpace struggles to regain ground it’s lost to Facebook and sort out its revenue woes, executive departures from MySpace Latino, a combination Spanish-English site targeted at U.S.-based Latinos that launched a little over a year ago, indicate it may be on the chopping block. MySpace Latino’s VP of Hispanic sales and strategy, Manny Miravete, has left the company, and the site’s managing director, Victor Kong, has reportedly left as well. The site itself hasn’t been refreshed in over a week amid a wave of layoffs at MySpace’s U.S. and international offices.

I’m not sure how successful the Latino version was, but it’s no loss to me. I never touched it, and I don’t know anyone who did. This is an instance in which the brand didn’t need to niche itself out to appeal to Latinos – it did it just to please advertisers who wanted to target the Latino segment. Disingenuous attempts at catering to an audience are seldom successful, and much less when the main brand is already creaking under the weight of one hefty competitor and a series of dispersed services and sites that have innovated while MySpace has remained asleep at the wheel.

Martínez also reports that an email statement from MySpace says that the site will “remain live and not shut down” and that MySpace Latino is merely “restructuring”. Whatever the case, I won’t be visiting anytime soon.

The phenomenon apparently extends beyond the U.S. Latino operation. Late last month it was reported that MySpace Brazil, Mexico and Argentina would also be shutting down. That was quick.

Via / GigaOm and Salon

Saving Walter Lara y the Rest?

3:44 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration| Justice| Politics

2 Jul 2009

20090630inset-lara-soloWhen I wrote about Walter Lara it was in the context of how heavy his case was being pushed while I was hearing little noise from pro-migrant/liberal bloggers about Cirila Baltazar Cruz.

To summarize, Walter was a DREAMer, an immigrant student who was brought to the United States by his undocumented parents. An honor student, he was facing deportation. A massive email, letter writing, phone campaign was launched on his behalf so that he could stay and it looks like there is somewhat of a victory for Walter.

Today, after 48 hours of intense activism by Congressional Leaders, bloggers, and thousands of grassroots activists who made calls and sent letters on Walter Lara’s behalf, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) moved to defer 23-year old Lara’s scheduled deportation back one year until July 3, 2010. In response to DHS’s deferment, Walter Lara issued the following statement:

“Today, words cannot express my gratitude to Secretary Janet Napolitano, Senator Bill Nelson, Representatives Corrine Brown, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, and the thousands of grassroots activists whose unified efforts have given me a second chance to live out my American Dream.
“As I look to celebrate Independence Day with family and friends this weekend, I have once again seen what makes America the best country in the world. Americans are fair, just, and kind. When we unite our strength to defend our shared values -opening rather than shutting the doors of opportunity - we can achieve anything. As I have said before, America is the only country I have known and I am an American. I have never been more proud to say that than I am today.

“But even as the dust settles on this tremendous personal victory, my sights are clearly set on the struggle ahead to build a long-term future for me and the more than 2 million like me whose lives may be cut short and dreams deferred.

“The action taken by the leaders in Congress and the Department of Homeland Security is an acknowledgment that our immigration laws are broken. The DREAM Act, if passed, would help people like myself, who came here through no fault of their own, stay in this country, be put on a path to citizenship and contribute to our nation.”

Click Here to read more about Walter Lara or visit http://www.firstfocus.net/pages/3608

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