10:43 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Family| Immigration| children| holidays| houston
3 Dec 2009
Update:Due to protests and no doubt media attention, the Salvation Army announced they were not going to ask families to provide social security numbers in order to get gifts for their children.
Santa Claus has a list and he’s checking it twice. According to some charities, that list has to be cross-reference with the Department of Homeland Security. There have been numerous reports over the internet that some charities are requiring families asking for help for holidays show proof of legal status. So before you send your kids on Santa’s lap, make sure your papers are in order.
Some Houston charities have decided to confirm immigration status before conferring Christmas cheer. It’s about “making the best decisions about whom to help” these charities claim. And naturally, a few aren’t directly asking for proof of citizenship, just a birth certificate or demonstrated need via receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and/or Medicaid (both of these programs exclude undocumented residents).
9:13 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Latin America| Politics| honduras
3 Dec 2009After a 10 hour session, the Honduran Congress voted yesterday not to reinstate ousted president Manuel Zelaya, 111-14. The vote followed the guidelines set in The Tegucigalpa-San Jose agreement signed on Oct. 30, sponsored by the United States. Zelaya, regardless, wasn’t pleased with the decision and made statements saying that the congress was acting illegally since no actions were taken before last Sunday’s elections in which conservative Pepe Lopo won.
Mr Zelaya, who was removed from office in June, told the BBC the decision “ratifies the coup” and meant Hondurans were “living in illegality”.
Brazil, in whose embassy, Zelaya has taken refuge, has refused to accept the election results and has vowed not to normalize relations with Honduras until Zelaya is returned to power.
Roberto Micheletti, who led the summer coup against Zelaya, will return to the presidency until Lobo starts his term on January 27th.
The concerns that are raised for me include, the status of the numerous human rights violations that have happened and that will likely continue to happen under Micheletti. Also there is something about a coup being legitimized by a congressional vote that doesn’t sit right with me.
Via / The Latin Americanist, Two Weeks Notice, La Prensa, BBC
I’m supposed to be working another job right now and not blogging, pero I wanted to express extreme disappointment in the The Marriage Equality Act not passing in the NY State Senate.
The vote was 38-24.
Hiram Monserrate, my state senator, whom I have written about, apparently has no love for women, and has no love for the many LGBT residents in his district and trust me, there are many. He, a Democrat, voted against the act, and I would be more than down to help organize some sort of protest in front of this vendegente’s office.
1:52 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Health| Immigration| Politics
2 Dec 2009
With the health care debate in full swing in the U.S. Senate, there is much focus and attention being paid to access to abortion and rightfully so. My inbox is filled with petitions and requests to email Senators. Hell, even my 60 some year old mother says she wants to make sure she has access to an abortion. But so far there has been just one petition demanding that the undocumented should be able to purchase their own insurance with their own money (isn’t that what capitalism is all about?).
Recent polls show that overall Latinos are in favor of health care reform especially the public option.
Overall, Latino registered voters are very supportive of efforts to reform the nation’s health care system, and show especially strong support for including the ‘public option’ as part of the reform effort. While President Obama continues to enjoy strong support from the Latino electorate, less than 1 in 7 survey respondents felt the needs of the Hispanic community were fully taken into account during the health reform debate.
Mala may struggle with Thanksgiving, pero I’m a sucker for the Christmas season. Not the Christ-y religious part of it (although I acknowledge that I carry stuff from my Catholic upbringing), pero celebrating Navidad as a Rican in NYC is one of my favorite cosas in the world and I’m not ashamed to say it.
If you need a reason to love Navidad en NYC, here’s one: Los Nutcrackers: A Christmas Carajo .
“HO! HO! HO!” becomes “HA! HA! HA!” this holiday
season with LOS NUTCRACKERS: A CHRISTMAS
CARAJO.This queer, Latino, holiday play
returns for
the 6th triumphant year to celebrate the holidays in a
whole new way. Written by BAAD!’s own Charles
Rice-González and directed by the award-winning
Jorge Merced.The play features a talented and sexy cast of Latino
actors including: Johnathan Cedano, Indio
Melendez, Gabriel Morales, Cisco Perez, and
Yosvany Reyes. Returning this year, in a
special role is the legendary Bronx drag diva
Appolonia Cruz.This play centers around a couple, Carlos and
Gabriel, who have been together for almost 15 years.
Their arguing and fighting has reached the queer
heavens from which comes a ghetto thug/diva spirit
who guides them on a trip through their lives. They
travel to the first time they met back in 1986 at a white
party at the Palladium dancing to Lisa Lisa and Cult
Jam to a catastrophic trip to City Center to see The
Nutcracker, to a dinner party with Martha Stewart
fanatics, and more.Show times are:
* Thursday, December 3 at 8pm
* Friday, December 4 at 8pm
* Saturday, December 5 at 8pm
* Thursday, December 10 at 8pm
* Friday, December 11 at 8pm
* Saturday, December 12 at 8pm
Ay someone needs to watch my kids so I can go see this or por lo menos buy tickets and tell them merry crica from la Mala.
7:33 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Latin America| Politics| honduras
2 Dec 2009The Honduran presidential elections took place this past Sunday and despite there being a winner, Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo with 55.9% of the vote, the political crisis in the Central American country is far from resolved.
Assistant Secretary of State Arturo Valenzuela:
…while the election is a significant step in Honduras’ return to a democratic and constitutional order after the 28th June coup, it’s just that. It’s only a step, and it’s not the last step….
A government of national unity needs to be formed. The congress has to take a vote on the return of President Zelaya to office…
The issue is not who is going to be the next president. The Honduran people decided that. The issue is whether the legitimate president of Honduras, who was overthrown in a coup d’état, will be returned to office by the congress on December 2nd, as per the San Jose-Tegucigalpa Accord.
Today the Honduran Congress is set to vote on if Manuel Zelaya will be reinstated to serve the rest of his term, that is until January 27, when Lobo will assume the presidency.
Via / Plan Colombia and Beyond
10:35 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Events| Immigration| Internet| New York City| media justice
1 Dec 2009
Before I was a blogger, I was a young activist. The transition from being “in the trenches” so to speak, to blogging hasn’t been an easy one and a large part of it is due to my status as a single mami. I needed to (and still do) be realistic as to my capacities. Pero deep down I still want to be down on the ground and in the calles. So part of my goal as a blogger has been to make connections between this online media work and what is happening on the ground. Which is why I’m very excited to be participating this weekend in the Organizing 2.0 Conference.
Is online organizing really ‘organizing’? That’s a challenging question for those of us from a labor or community organizing background. That said, online organizing has received a lot of positive attention recently in connection with the presidential elections. What does this mean for our organizations? What skills do we need to share to make the most of no-longer-new online tools for our campaigns in New York?
I’m on a panel on with some of my blogamigos. The panel is People of color/immigrant/non English online organizing (how’s that for a catch-all?). On the panel with me are Liza Sabater from Culture Kitchen/Daily Gotham and Jackie Mahendra from America’s Voice. Not on my panel pero equally una amiga in the struggle is Rachel LaBruyere from Reform Immigration for America who is heading a workshop on mobile phone activism.
The conference is relatively affordable, so if you are in the NYC area this Saturday come through, learn, support, and represent.
Today is World AIDS Day, a day to raise awareness about HIV and AIDS around the world. Late last night I received an email from the Latino Commission on AIDS on the state of the Latino community in terms of not just infection rates but perhaps more critically now, rates of testing.
Latinos in the U.S. represent 15.3% (U.S. Census Bureau) of the population but account for 19.0% of people living with AIDS and are reported to be 18.0 % of those living with an undiagnosed HIV infection (According to CDC figures for only 34 States, which do not include Puerto Rico)… CDC data shows that Latinos progress to AIDS faster than any other racial or ethnic group with 42% being diagnosed with AIDS within 12 months after learning of their positive HIV status compared to 34% late diagnosis among white non Hispanic and 35% among blacks.
11:43 am By la Macha · Uncategorized| Venezuela
30 Nov 2009
I found the news that Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, is working to strengthen ties with the on again off again mostly defunct state of Palestine to be very interesting. Read the rest of this entry »
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