Archive for May, 2006
Italian pop star: Mexican women have moustaches
11:03 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Celebrities| Chismes| Controversia| mexico · 2 Comments
26 May 2006
An Italian pop star named Tizziano Ferro (sorry…who?) is at the center of a media firestorm in Mexico after saying Mexican women have moustaches. According to Spain’s 20 Minutos, the singer, who lived in Mexico for two years is not into Mexican girls (video, with Spanish subtitles, after the jump):
In an interview given to Italian media he stated that in Mexico it is completely impossible to find beautiful women because “they have moustaches”.It seems the only one not guilty is Salma Hayek: “It’s impossible to say that the most beautiful women in the world are in Mexico. No offense but…they have moustaches…I’m sorry, but they know it. Maybe not Salma…”, he said on the Che Tempo fai show on Italian network RAI.
After his mention of Mexican women’s moustaches on Italian TV, the program’s host warned Ferro that his insulting comment could offend all Mexican women, to which the singer replied “They know it”.
Immigration Reform Makes it Through Round One
8:28 am By Maegan La Mala · Controversia| Immigration · Comments Off
26 May 2006
Late yesterday, the Senate gave the green light to immigration legislation with a 62-36 vote. The legislation gives funds to beef up security at the U.S. southern border, a revamped guest worker program, and a please don’t call it amnesty path to citizenship which would include fines and an English language requirements. Arizona Republican John McCain said:
Why not say to those undocumented workers who are working the jobs that the rest of us refuse, come out from the shadows.
Most conservative Republicans just want to get rid of the shadows all together, favoring a House bill which focuses on border security and criminalizing undocumented immigrants. Put on your fighting gloves ladies and gentlemen as we move into round two.
Via / Yahoo
“Legals” vs. “Illegals” for papers
7:07 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Immigration · 1 Comment
25 May 2006
AP has a good piece today about how “legal” immigrants feel about the move towards legalizing thousands of undocumented workers. It’s a muddy area. The subjects interviewed in the article seem to sympathize with the plight of the undocumented workers, but fear that bureaucratic gridlock currently keeping them from legalizing their stays here in the U.S. will only worsen as the system absorbs all of these new cases:
Commuting to his home in suburban Bethesda, Md., Francisco Gonzalez passes scores of busy Latino construction workers, most likely illegal immigrants from his native Mexico. To the 36-year-old Latin American studies professor at John Hopkins University in Washington, those immigrants’ presence is at once a humanitarian crisis to solve and a real threat to his own ability to stay in the country.“Our morals are on the side of the illegals. The paradox is that if they’re legalized, the line of 8 millions will become 20 millions, and the green card, they’re going to give it to me when I’m ready to retire,” Gonzalez said.
The system is to blame here. The need for mano de obra in “unskilled” jobs is great, but there is also need for immigrant workers in other areas, such as tech, teaching and nursing. All immigrants, documented or undocumented, are being failed by a system that makes it too expensive to legally immigrate for those who don’t have the means or the education, and nearly impossible for immigrant professionals to do so because of the low number of H-1B visas handed out per year — 65,000 for the entire country.
Joan Baez up in a tree over L.A. real estate
12:48 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Activism| Celebrities| Los Angeles · Comments Off
25 May 2006
Folk singer and long-time activist Joan Baez has climbed into a tree in L.A. to protest the commercialization of a piece of farm land there, according to Spain’s 20 Minutos:
The object is to raise public sympathy to impede the eviction of 350 families that live off the land of this modest farm and who have been served an eviction notice.The owner of the property at first accepted the 6 million dollars offered by the farmers, but later upped his demand to 16 million.
According to Los Ángeles newspaper La Opinion, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa stated that he cannot do anything else for them: “I am the only elected official who has supported them — the only one. I’ve raised 6 million dollars, but I could not raise the 16 million tat Mr. Horowitz is asking for. What can I say? We tried, we raised a lot of money to buy the land, and there are many officials that have worked against the interests of farmers. I’m not one of them.”
According to 20 Minutos, actress Daryll Hannah has also jumped on the bandwagon in support of the campesinos:
Actress Daryl Hannah asked that the owner of the property “swallow his greed” and accept the 6 million dollars being offered by the farmers. “He would not only get back the 5.1 million he paid for the land, but also the interest.”
See all related stories on Google News.
Via / 20 Minutos
Latino Juvenile Justice Series
9:22 am By Maegan La Mala · Events · 2 Comments
25 May 2006
Today in Philadelphia, the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) is hosting the first in a series of Latino community forums on juvenile justice. The focus of the series are the disparities within the juvenile justice system including overrepresentation of Latino youths within the system, unjust sentencing, and unnecessary transfer of youth into the adult criminal justice system. The panels will have experts and real life testimonials from youth who were formally incarcerated as well as from employees of the juvenile justice system. Nicolas Torres, Executive Director of Congreso de Latinos Unidos, a NCLR Affiliate said through a press release:
It is unacceptable that Latino children receive harsher treatment than White children, even when charged with the same types of offenses. Change will only occur if we hold stead-fast to political accountability and advocacy on behalf of the Latino community.
Via / NCLR
Fear of deportation makes immigrants spend less
7:34 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Immigration| Money| Texas| houston · Comments Off
24 May 2006
The Houston Chronicle has a very interesting piece today about the economic impact of recent raids against undocumented immigrants in the Latino goods and services sector in Houston. Apparently people are leaving their houses less, some have left their jobs and others are stashing away cash out of fear of they’ll be the among the next group of rounded-up immigrants. The impact is being felt mostly by businesses that cater to the Latino immigrant population in Houston:
Although temperatures are rising, sales of paletas are not.Carlos Gonzalez said his sales are half of what they should be during this peak season when his mostly Hispanic customers traditionally try to stave off the heat with the fruit-flavored frozen treats.
“It has gone down a lot,” said Gonzalez at an international bus station on Harrisburg Boulevard where he stopped his paleta cart to sell to passengers. “People are afraid to go to work.”
Across Houston, some small businesses that cater to the Hispanic immigrant community are reporting a sales slump that began last month after federal agents swept through pallet company IFCO Systems, detaining undocumented immigrants.
Read the whole article at Chron.com.
Via / The Houston Chronicle
Latinos vs. Blacks for jobs, revisited
6:01 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Immigration| Labor| Media| race · Comments Off
24 May 2006
A while back we wrote about how it seemed that the media was making a whole lot more of the contention between Latinos and African-Americans with regard to a struggle for jobs than what reality really tells us. Before that, we’d already written a few times about the Latino vs. black rhetoric that’s out there. Today there’s yet another piece on this issue (or non-issue, however you choose to view it):
Hispanics and blacks tend to gravitate to the same inner-city areas and low-skill labor markets – and the result is a clash over jobs that require less skill and less education, experts say.“In this era of mass immigration, no group has benefited less or been harmed more than the African-American population,” says Vernon Briggs, a Cornell University professor who researches immigration policy and the American labor force.
What do you think? Is this issue driving a wedge between Latinos and African-Americans or is it just media hype?
Latinos and African Americans working side by side is nothing new. Just check out the image — circa 1930 (you can see it large by visiting the third link below).
Related: Immigrants Stealing Jobs from Black America
Via / Christian Science Monitor
Image via the University of Texas
Got Sofia?
11:15 am By Maegan La Mala · Celebrities| Health| Marketing · 1 Comment
24 May 2006
Sofia Vergara wants to know if you have your leche. She is the latest celeb to lend her face to the Milk Processors Education Program (MilkPEP)known to us as the Got Milk? campaign. Seems like someone wants more Latinos to drink their leche not just as a way to get calcium and stay healthy but actually as a way to lose weight. What better person to promote weight loss through milk than a mujer who doesn’t need to lose a pound and has enough tetas to provide milk to a small nation? Sofia said:
I am thrilled to be a part of this campaign because as a celebrity I think it’s important to try to convey useful information to Hispanics.
I’m sure the hombres will be thrilled too.
Via / So Hood
Image Via / People en Espanol
Vigils of Defiance
8:53 am By Maegan La Mala · Events| Immigration| New York City · Comments Off
24 May 2006
Some immigration activists are calling today National No Human Being is Illegal Day of Actions. Here in NYC that means a 4 pm vigil of defiance in front of the offices of New York Senators Hilary Clinton & Chuck Schumer at 780 Third Ave & 48th Street in Manhattan. The vigil is being called to protest the recent U.S. Senate bill which calls for the buliding of an extended wall along the U.S./Mexico border as part of an immigration reform plan. According to the website of the organizers of the event, Immigrant Communities in Action, Coalicion de Comunidades Inmigrantes (Washington Heights), and American Friends Service Committee, they are demanding:
1. Full Legalization for all immigrants. No three tier legalization system that will divide our families and No guest-worker programs! 2. Faster Family reunification 3. Protect the rights of all Workers 4. No more deportations, detentions, border walls, and police making immigration arrests 5. Drivers licenses for immigrants.
Holy calling card gets you blessed by Mexican priest
6:49 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Marketing| Religion| mexico · 9 Comments
23 May 2006
File this under: tacky marketing ploys. I’m usually not shocked by the sketchy marketing tactics that some companies use to promote their products to the Latino market. After all, I am in the business, so I’ve seen my share of lame campaigns, promotions, slogans, etc. But when I read about the Mexican Catholic Church getting kickbacks from a calling card company for use of the image of the Virgen de Guadalupe…I wanted to be amused but I just felt…ick.
The Catholic Church in Mexico is set to receive a cash bonanza from a U.S. company planning to sell prepaid phone cards with a printed image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico’s most revered religious symbol.“We are not selling blessings, we are promoting benefactors,” said Mexican Monsignor Diego Monroy Ponce, whose recorded voice will bless customers when they use the $3 and $5 cards to place long-distance or cell-phone calls.
Talk about cheapening one’s supposedly deeply held beliefs. I’m no Catholic, but this makes me sick.
Hola!
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