7:02 pm By Maegan La Mala · New York City| Politics · Comments Off
26 Oct 2005
It seems I’m not the only Latina in NYC not jumping on NYC mayoral hopeful Freddy Ferrer’s bandwagon. The latest Quinnipiac University poll has Ferrer leading current NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg among Latinos polled by a measly five points, 48 percent to 43 percent. 61 percent of likely voters overall support Bloomberg, while Ferrer hangs on to 30 percent.
I haven’t seen that much outreach to the Latino community specifically by Ferrer. Whereas Bloomberg has been filling my mailbox with bilingual flyers and speaking to me in choppy Spanish between novelas. No doubt some of this is because the incumbent mayor is a billionaire who could air ads in pig Latin if he wanted to because money is no object. Pero what about old fashioned pressing of the flesh? Yeah we’ve seen Ferrer waving at parades but when was the last time he was in your hood? Sources have placed Ferrer at an event last week in the highly Latino concentrated Jackson Heights, Queens but it wasn’t publicized. I’m sure many members of the immigrant would have had plenty of questions and concerns that Freddy could have played up.
Of course Freddy’s camp says that polls don’t mean anything and that
Quinnipiac pollsters have always underestimated the NY Rican.
We will certainly be able to decide for ourselves in just two more weeks when election day comes.
Via / New York Post
4:37 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Activism| Politics · Comments Off
26 Oct 2005
I read a blog post today where someone was talking about how happy they were that there were no “real” Latino leaders, so that no one has to deal with the political baggage that goes with them duking it out in the press. Maybe there are no leaders anymore, and if there were, one of them left us on Monday:
Edward R. Roybal, who spent his political career, including three decades in Congress, fighting for minorities, the poor and the elderly, has died. He was 89.
When elected to the House of Representatives in 1962, Roybal was the first Hispanic from California to serve in Congress since 1879. Roybal, who also served more than a decade on the Los Angeles City Council, died Monday night of respiratory failure complicated by pneumonia at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, according to a spokeswoman for his daughter, Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Calif.
Leaving behind a legacy is not an easy thing. A lot of people leave this world having left a legacy of success or ambition, yet devoid of meaning. In the case of Roybal, his legacy was of a struggle and a triumph in civil rights for Latinos. Roybal was someone who lived discrimination and out of his hatred for it was born a fight against it.
“A champion for civil rights and social justice like him does not come around every day,” Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said in a statement. “He wanted nothing less than what all Americans strive for — a good job, safe neighborhoods, quality schools and a place to call home.”
A simple legacy, yet a heroic one.
Via / The LA Times
3:18 pm By Maegan La Mala · Miami · 5 Comments
26 Oct 2005
Our readers might have noticed a decrease in posts in the last couple of days. As many of you know, I am located in Miami, which recently got a good hit from Hurricane Wilma.
The eye of Hurricane Wilma crossed the state of Florida in just 6 hours on Monday, and with that, I believe that about 4 million homes across the state lost power. In just Miami, Broward, & Palm Beach counties here in South Florida, we still have about 2.4 million homes/businesses without power. (I’m one of them.) But I’m one of the lucky ones. I have water, and I don’t have to boil it before I drink it, as most people in Broward & Miami Beach do. I didn’t have my windows blown out from the pressure or flying debris. My roof didn’t collapse. But many others weren’t so fortunate.
1:13 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · California| Politics · Comments Off
26 Oct 2005
And tries to appease them via a community meeting attended by “hand-selected” Latinos. San Jose’s Mercury News reports:
Schwarzenegger began the meeting where he’d left off in a televised debate Monday night, touting his Nov. 8 slate of ballot initiatives as the remedy for a “broken system” of governing in Sacramento.
But a barrage of questions from the Spanish-language audience sent the governor into territory he’d worked to avoid since the campaign began: immigrant driver’s licenses, the state’s relationship with Mexico, his record of judicial appointments and social services for immigrants.
He and his advisors must be pretty naive if they think they cold put him in a room with nothing but Latinos (however hand-selected) and not get hit with Latino-related issue questions. And he’s still trying to live down that “close the border” comment he made — the one he attributes to a problem with the English language (which admittedly after over 30 years in this country, he seems to struggle with). Unfortunately for him, conservatives have taken it upon themselves to never let anyone forget this comment. They are emblazoning it on bumper stickers that say “Join Arnold. Close the Border”.
And he’s still trying to live down that “close the border” comment he made — the one he attributes to a problem with the English language…
The new bumper stickers and lawn signs were made by the California Republican Assembly, a conservative group headed by Mike Spence.
He said the signs and bumper stickers went over well at the recent Republican Party convention in Anaheim. “One of the Minutemen took them to the border.”
Oops. It’s going to take a lot more than community meetings and some broken Spanish added to his broken English to win the Latino vote. His own supporters are doing him a disservice via a grass roots campaign that seems designed to destroy him.
Via / San Jose Mercury News
Photo: Michael Maloney, San Francisco Chronicle
10:55 am By Maegan La Mala · Features · 3 Comments
26 Oct 2005
A new feature on VL, Community Cara profiles Latinos y Latinas making their mark in the community and the world at large.
She may be the President and CEO of a multimedia entertainment company, Latino Flavored Productions Inc., a writer with numerous award winning and critically acclaimed theatre productions, and a mami, but Linda Nieves-Powell doesn’t feel like she’s doing any more than the average Latina. She just wishes there were more hours in the day to do all she has floating in her head and flowing from her pen.
VivirLatino is a daily publication published by 2 Mujeres Media, dedicated to featuring all the latest politics, culture, entertainment of interest to the diverse and influential Latino and Latina community in the U.S.
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