VivirLatino

Living & Luchando la Vida Latin@

Shakira leads MTV Music Awards Nominees

July 31st, 2006

Colombiana pop star and nominee for VivirLatino’s Most Influential Latino 2006 Shakira is getting some other award nods, this time from the MTV Music Awards. People Magazine reports that Shaki leads the list (along with The Red Hot Chili Peppers) with 7 nominations.

MTV announced its nominees for the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards on Monday, with Shakira and the Red Hot Chili Peppers leading the list with seven nominations each.

Both will compete for video of the year – the Peppers’ “Dani California” and Shakira’s “Hips Don’t Lie” will go up against Christina Aguilera’s “Ain’t No Other Man,” Madonna’s “Hung Up” and Panic! At The Disco’s “I Write Sins Not Tragedies.”

The MTV Music Awards air at 8:00 pm ET on August 31, on MTV.

Related: Latinos nominated for MTV Music Awards (Latin Gossip)

Via / People

VLMIL Candidate #20: Jorge Ramos

July 31st, 2006

Name: Jorge Ramos

Age: 48

Occupation: Television news anchor, journalist, author, activist

Place of residence: Miami, Florida

Bio: From his website: “Jorge Ramos has been the anchorman for Noticiero Univision since 1986. Among his many recognitions, he received the Maria Moors Cabot award from the University of Columbia and has won 8 Emmy awards for excellence in journalism (including the first one ever presented by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences to honor leaders of Spanish Language Television).

He writes a weekly column for more than 40 newspapers in the United States and Latin America distributed by The New York Times Syndicate, provides a daily radio commentary to dozens of radio stations, collaborates with one of the largest Spanish-language websites in the world and is the author of six books, which have become bestsellers.”

Eva Longoria is a Ghost

July 31st, 2006

Eva Longoria needs to have us on her payroll because this mujer is anything but desperate for publicity. She is all over the place, including here. According to Female First :

She will play the dead fiancée of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ star Paul Rudd in ‘How I met my Boyfriend’s Dead Fiancée’. Eva’s spooky character tries to keep her boyfriend away from a female psychic who falls in love with him. Filming starts at the end of August.

Why do I have a feeling this is a movie that I and millions of others will not see.

Via / Female First

Immigrants (and those that hire them) are No Longer Safe

July 31st, 2006

Among the immigrants here in the NYC area, labor raids have never been taken for granted as an article in today’s New York Times suggests. What may be more true, is that those in search of low cost workers, employers and business owners have been taking intervention by Homeland Security for granted, after all they are not the ones being sent back to their home countries, they are not the ones having their families destroyed and there always seems to be an unending flow of more workers to chose from. But now thanks to a new campaign, the focus is on those who hire undocumented workers, slapping them with felony charges that could lead to huge financial penalties and the seizing of assets.The focus of this article of course is not on the workers, but the employers and doesn’t even attempt to touch on the reasons why people want to work here at any cost and why employers hire at low cost.

Via / The New York Times (Registration required)

Eva: Not engaged, still “frugal”

July 29th, 2006

According to People magazine, actress Eva Longoria is spilling the beans, and to Playboy no less. Unfortunately, she isn’t saying much of anything scandalous at all, but instead revealing how she’s “not pregnant” and telling about how she called the makers of Zip Loc to complain about a box of defective plastic bags:

Despite the success of her show, “I’m still really frugal, which is funny,” she says – citing how rather than simply buy a new box she once called the manufacturer to complain that “every zipper was broken in a box of Ziploc bags I was using.” The result? “They sent me five free boxes. I felt better. It’s the principle of the matter.”

Of her long distance relationship with San Antonio Spurs player Tony Parker, Eva says:

“We use our Sidekicks to send photos, which of course we’re keep clean. We’re both so afraid of anything obscene turning up on the Internet.”

Snooze….

VLMIL Candidate #19: Los Estefans

July 29th, 2006

Names: Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo and Emilio Estéfan, Jr.

Ages: She is 48 , he is 53

Occupations: She is a singer,songwriter and author. He is a musician and producer.

Place of Residence: Star Island, Miami

Bio: From Wikipedia, “Emilio Estéfan, Jr. was born March 4, 1953 and is a Cuban musician and producer of Lebanese ancestry. Estefan’s first taste of celebrity came as a member of the Miami Sound Machine, but he is currently better known as the producer of many famous singers. In 1968, Estefan moved to the United States, where he shared an apartment with 15 family members. He earned a living by running errands for neighbors, using an old car. Estefan then began to work at local beauty contests, and at Bacardi, where he was employed as a mailroom worker. He later was promoted to the company’s Latin marketing department.
Estefan’s real passion, however, remained with music. He started a group which became known as the “Miami Latin Boys”. The group had success, being hired to play at multiple private parties and events around Miami. It was during one such event in 1975 that Emilio met Gloria Estefan, then Gloria Fajardo.

Mexican Elections: U.S. Unions Want a Recount

July 28th, 2006

During their 20th Quadrennial Convention yesterday, delegates of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union called for a complete and immediate recount of all the votes cast for President in Mexico’s July 2, 2006 national elections. According to a press release distributed yesterday:

RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum said, the RWDSU represents many workers who are immigrants from Mexico and many of these joined with almost 40 million other Mexicans to vote in the July 2, 2006 elections to choose a new President and Legislature. The RWDSU is a democratic trade union that supports the will of the Mexican people to choose through free elections their representatives in government just as it supports the right of all peoples around the world to democratically elect their own leaders.

I’m not sure how much influence or pressure such a solidarity statement has or will has but it just goes to show how intertwined lives in the U.S. are with Mexican politics.

VLMIL Candidate #18: Don Francisco

July 28th, 2006

Name: Mario Kreutzberger

Age: 65
Occupation: Television host

Place of Residence: Miami, Florida

Bio: From Wikipedia: “Don Francisco (Born on December 28, 1940 in Talca, Chile) is the artistic name of Mario Kreutzberger, a Chilean television host. He was born into a Chilean-German Jewish family; his parents had fled to Chile escaping from Nazi persecution. Back in Chile, where TV was just beginning, Don Francisco started a TV show in 1962, and he named it Sábados Gigantes. In it, he adapted many of the formulas he had seen in American TV to the Chilean public. The show became an instant hit that has lasted 40 years. In 1985, the show began to be produced in Miami, Florida, with the same formula used in Chile, with the slightly different name of Sábado Gigante. Don Francisco immediately became a household name among Latino families across the United States, and in the following five years, television networks from all over Latin America started buying the show. Spain also became a show customer during that period, and with that, 99 percent of the world’s Spanish-speaking people knew who Don Francisco was.”

López Obrador to Univisión: I am the President

July 27th, 2006

According to Spain’s El País newspaper, left-wing candidate for the presidency of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador told Univisión yesterday that he is in fact the President of his country, though election fraud has placed that honor on his opponent Felipe Calderón:

Leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador told U.S. network Univision today that he is “President of Mexico”, as the Electoral court continues to examine the charges of voter fraud during the July 2nd elections. López Obrador, according to the Mexican Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) took second place by receiving 0.58% votes less than conservative candidate Felipe Calderón.

According to El País, this declaration seems to have been brought on by the fact that

“…powerful teacher’s union leader and close friend to President
Vicente Fox, Elba Esther Gordillo, referred to Calderón as ‘President Elect’ in an official speech.”

President or not, López Obrador is still not giving up, and to prove that point, he’s organized yet another “Vote by Vote” march for this weekend, which will end at Mexico City’s main square, el Zócalo.

Related: López Obrador: No faith in election agency (Houston Chronicle)

Via / El País

VLMIL Candidate #17: The Daily Kos

July 27th, 2006

Name: Markos Moulitsas Zúniga

Age: 35

Occupation: Blogger, writer, activist

Place of residence: Online at DailyKos.com

Bio: From Wikipedia: “…often known by his username and former military moniker “Kos”, is the founder and main author of Daily Kos, a left-wing weblog focusing on progressive, liberal, and Democratic Party politics. Moulitsas currently resides in Berkeley, California, with his wife and son.

Moulitsas was born in Chicago, Illinois to a Salvadoran mother and Greek father, and grew up in El Salvador. (Following Latin American custom, his last name is actually “Moulitsas”, not “Zúniga”.) His family moved back to the United States in 1980 due to the Salvadoran civil war. He served in the U.S. Army from 1989 through 1992; while stationed in Germany, and after missing “by a hair” deployment to the Gulf War, he changed his political affiliation from Republican to Democrat.”