Archive for October, 2005
Latinos: One Big Happy Family?
4:11 pm By Maegan La Mala · children · 2 Comments
27 Oct 2005
An article in today’s HispanicAd.com basically feeds into the stereotype that there is one type of Latino family. According to the article:
Parent-child relationships are a unique element of the Hispanic family.
Yeah because parent-child relationships don’t exist in other cultures. Using such respected sociological sources (like MTV), the writer from Florida State University helps prop an argument that’s been floating in the internet lately, that Latinos are failing in school because Latino parents place more importance on the family than on academic success. Yes Latino culture makes us do poorly in school Pay no attention to unequal distribution of resources or ::gasp:: dare I say it, institutional racism.
Throughout the article there is an assumption that Latino families are two parent families, with mami worrying about the kids being too skinny and papi bringing home the tocino. Girl children are to help with chores and take care of the other children. Working mothers are given lip service and single mothers, like the one that raised this Latina, are non-existent.
If this is the information being used to market to modern Latinos, no wonder I mute the commercials during my novelas.
Via/ HispanicTips and HispanicAd.com
Viva Venezuela!
12:31 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Sports| Venezuela · Comments Off
27 Oct 2005
Venezuela’s feeling proud today of their native son, Ozzie Guillén, who did what no one thought was possible; he took the White Sox (or “las medias blancas” as they are known in Latin America) to the World Series and they won. This makes him the first Latino manager to ever lead a team to victory in a World Series:
Ese orgullo por ser venezolano es lo que también le ha dado una personalidad especial, porque en cada una de la entrevistas que ofrece en inglés siempre las finaliza con un recuerdo al país y el “Viva Venezuela”.
“En mi Venezuela están celebrando como si fuese carnaval, están disparando cohetes. Eso me llena el corazón de felicidad. Todo esto es por Venezuela, que necesitaba esta alegría”, afirmó. “Como desearía estar ahora mismo en mi tierra”.
Venezuela’s passion for baseball has always been insatiable. It remains that way now, as evidenced by the fact that despite strained relations between Venezuela and the United State, President Hugo Chavez took a moment to congratulate Guillen on his victory in a weekly radio address.
Venezuela has played a key role in professional baseball in the United states since the 1960s, when Luís Ernesto Aparicio Montiel, a native of Maracaibo, was named to the Hall of Fame. But America’s game became Venezuela’s game far before that. Baseball arrived in Venezuela with oil-hungry Americans in 1895 and has thrived there ever since.
Venezolanos everywhere see this win as not just a win for Chicago, but more of a win for Venezuelans and their favorite sport. America’s favorite pastime is Venezuela’s national pride today.
Via / ESPN Deportes
Walk with Me Freddy
10:10 am By Maegan La Mala · Events| New York City| Politics · Comments Off
27 Oct 2005
It seems like yesterday that I was complaining about not seeing Freddy Ferrer in the hood. Oh wait, maybe because it was yesterday. Bueno you too can caminar con NYC Democratic mayoral hopeful Freddy Ferrer. According to the Daily Gotham Freddy will be stumping in the ‘hood of Sunset Park, Brooklyn on Sabado. He won’t be alone, Rican Congresista Nydia Velasquez and even the Governor of Puerto Rico, Anibal Acevedo-Vila (who just threw Ferrer a fancy fundraiser on the isla del encanto).
Such events are a good opportunity for peeps to get up close and personal with the candidate or at the very least get your pic taken with him.
Via/ The Daily Gotham
Freddy’s Not Rockin’ So Steady Among Latinos
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
The Legacy of Edward Roybal
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
From Miami, After Wilma
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.
Arnie realizes he needs Latinos
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
Community Cara: Linda Nieves- Powell
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.
The Rabbi habla español
8:05 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Religion · 4 Comments
25 Oct 2005
A synagogue in Florida is looking to attract Latino congregants and is using the preferred tool of marketers these days — español:
Beginning next month, Sabbath services at Temple Beth Torah/Tamarac Jewish Center will be conducted in Spanish and Hebrew.
Spanish religious services will continue the second Friday of every month in an effort to entice the Argentines, Cubans, Peruvians and Colombians to attend.
It is just part of the movement in Broward and Palm Beach counties to attract Latin American Jews and to change with the new demographics.
I am admittedly ignorant about Jewish culture, but I never knew that synagogues were in the business of recruiting new congregants to the religion the way Christian churches are. Or are they reaching out the an already existing base of Spanish-speaking Jews? And is that base so large so as to constitute a decision to conduct services in Spanish?
Temple Beth Torah Rabbi Michael Gold says he sees this addition as a chance to grow his 600-household synagogue that started in 1972 in a small storefront. Gold isn’t sure how many Spanish speakers attend now, but he thinks there are about 20 to 30 families. He’s pretty certain that number is going to grow. Services in English and Hebrew will remain at 6 p.m. Fridays.
The need to change toward becoming multilingual “is a reality,” Gold said. “If we do this once a month, they would bring family, and they’ll bring friends and they’ll become part of the mainstream.”
I think it’s great for Spanish to be available at all houses of worship for whomever would like to receive service in their native language — I’m just surprised that the demand is so presumably high. I’m also surprised that an ancient religion such as Judaism is more open to reaching people in their native language than so-called modern Fortune 500 companies. Latino marketing in the synagogue — who knew?
Via / The Orlando Sentinel and Hispanic Tips
VL Opinion: Attention Hipsters: Our Holidays Are Not Just an Excuse for you to get loaded
12:54 pm By Maegan La Mala · Culture · 2 Comments
25 Oct 2005
I’m sure Gothamist meant well today when they suggest
getting a group together to taste everything (and share a pitcher of margaritas) or make a crawl out of this, after all we’re celebrating a return to the land of the living, to eating, drinking and making the most of it
While I am all for cultural exploration in the form of learning about and trying things from various cultures, it’s cultural appropriation I have a problem with. Too many people seem to think that Latino culture comes in two flavors: margaritas and mojitos. This idea seems to be especially popular on days of historical importance like Cinco de Mayo (which by the way is neither Mexican Independence Day nor an excuse for hipsters to don a cheap sombrero and sing “la cucaracha”).
Día de los Muertos is not chile flavored Halloween. It is a holiday and a tradition that has its roots in the mestisaje of spiritual and cultural practices of indigenous peoples and Spanish conquest. It is a day to honor the ancestors.
Wanna learn more about Día de los Muertos and don’t have any authentic Mexican friends to ask? Local museums such as el Museo del Barrio in NYC are sponsoring events. You can also check out Mexconnect.com for some background.
Via / Gothamist
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- Dear Troll(s):
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