Archive for August, 2006
The Next Juanes? or Juanes-lite?
8:34 pm By Maegan La Mala · Music · 5 Comments
31 Aug 2006
I recently saw Santino, a new and upcoming Peruvian rockero at Perlas in Long Island. (Ok, it wasn’t that recent. It was July 31, 2006.) Nothing like the lovable, albeit pansy Pedro Suarez Vertiz, the forever chubby Gianmarco, or Libido, Peru’s only “real” Latin Rock claim to fame, Santino was… surprisingly good.
He has real lyrics that talk about the plight of illegal immigrants. Indiocumentado? That’s so clever! (Ehem, like “Fijate Bien’s” landmine thing?) But this is a more universal latino issue; don’t let Juanes find out. He can swoon the ladies. He has violin riffs and andean pipe playing. Ooooh, and he makes use of the Peruvian cajón, which is used in Peruvian criolla music. He’s all about Peru. Which is nice. He can rock hard; he can rock soft. He can do the whole “Cabas-cumbia-rock-pop” thing. (See Sonríe Mi Corazón.) But why was I left thinking he could have been much more?
More Offensive Immigration Ads
11:20 am By Maegan La Mala · Controversia| Immigration| Marketing| Politics · Comments Off
31 Aug 2006
A couple of weeks ago VivirLatino reported on the 35-second Internet ad produced by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. The political ad was meant to attack the Republican agenda on domestic security, in doing so, it compared undocumented immigrants crossing the border with bazooka-toting terrorists and Osama bin Laden. DSCC quickly took the ad off the website once the ad was heavily criticized by the Hispanics community.
As mid-term elections are quickly approaching, the ad gives an inside view of the type of political ads being used this campaign season. In fact, we should expect more of them in the coming months from both Democrats and Republicans who currently running for the House and the Senate.
Earlier this week, the Star-Telegram, reported that the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) has also sponsored an anti-immigration ad criticizing Stephen Laffey, who is challenging incumbent Sen. Lincoln Chafee for the Republican nomination in Rhode Island. The ad attacks Laffey, Cranston mayor, for permitting the police to accept identification cards issued by the embassies of Guatemala and Mexico as legal identification. The political ad was also viewed as being offensive, on Tuesday, the Democratic National Committee’s Hispanic Caucus called on the NRSC to stop airing its ad.
In Caracas : Golf is Out, Housing in In
9:21 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Venezuela · Comments Off
31 Aug 2006
The Mayor of Caracas, Venezuela, Juan Barreto, has ordered that two golf courses (with a third soon to follow) be taken over by the government in order to use the land to build housing for the poor and middle class. And those critical of the move aren’t just the wealthy that use the courses.
Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel said Hugo Chavez’s government “does not share the decision adopted by the mayor.”
What? Hugo Chavez not supporting land expropriation from the rich in order to use for the poor? Is Chavez a golfer?
Walt Whitman loves Latinos
3:17 pm By Maegan La Mala · literature · Comments Off
30 Aug 2006
Well, I don’t know if he does or not. All I know is this is going on in a few hours:
Wednesday, August 30th @ 6pm
Walt Whitman: South and North
An Evening of Contemporary Latino and Hispanic American Poets, plus
North Americans with connections to Latin America.
Join us as we conclude the weeklong tribute to the poetic legacy of
Walt Whitman. Slated to read: Fish Vargas, Lidia Torres, John
Murillo, Tara Betts, Aracelis Girmay, Diana Marie Delgado, and Diana
Gitesha Hernandez. And fiction writer, Marco Fernando Navarro. Hosted by Rich Villar and the crew from the Acentos Bronx Poetry Showcase
The Cornelia Street Cafe
29 Cornelia Street
between Bleecker and W. 4th Street (near 6th Avenue)
A, C, E, B, D, F & V trains to W. 4th Street Station
$6 (includes free drink)
Image via / infoplease.com (LOC image)
Mexican Court Rejects Election Fraud Claims
30 Aug 2006
In a 7-0 ruling, the Electoral Court of the Federal Judiciary (TEPJF), ruled that they had rejected Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) claims that the Presidential election had been plagued by massive fraud. The court stated that López Obrador had failed to prove that the irregularities in many of the polling places did not stem from fraud.
TEPJF stated that they had thrown out the results from hundreds of polling stations where major irregularities were shown to have taken place, which meant annulling 81,000 votes for Felipe Calderón and 76,897 for López Obrador. Therefore, leaving Calderon with 4,000 fewer votes from his original 244,000-vote margin. The tribunal decided that the outcome of the partial recount was not enough to overcome Calderón’s margin of victory.
However, the tribunal did stop short of officially naming Calderón as Mexico’s next President, by law the tribunal has until Sept 6 to name the winner of the election to declare a winner.
Latinos not Invited to Any of the Parties
12:24 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Controversia| Immigration| Politics · Comments Off
30 Aug 2006
While Latinos are generally thought to be more loyal to Democrats than to Republicans, the recent ad run by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (which you can now see here) has Latinos questioning where their loyalties should go come election day. With Republicans pushing for immigration reforms that range from the middle of the road to the extreme with matching, they aren’t looking too welcoming to Latinos either. So what is a Latino planning on heading to the polls to do? Where have the commercials gone with politicians pandering to us in broken Spanish? Obviously this two party system is missing something that we Latinos need.
Where do we go from here?
As a Latina who votes, not so much because I trust that the system works (as we have seen from presidential elections past) but because it is one tool in our basket and because people put their lives on the line so that I could vote, I am seriously considering sitting this one out.
Via / Yahoo!
Image Via / US Diplomatic Mission to Germany
The Military is Not a Job Program for Latinos
9:18 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Careers| New York City| Politics · Comments Off
30 Aug 2006
Surprise, surprise (well, ok not really) but it seems like the U.S. Military targets young, poor communities of color to reach their recruitment quotas. In a report released by the American Friends Service Committee, a pacifist organization, in New York City the military recruited from the predominantly African-American and Latino neighborhoods of the South Bronx, Washington Heights, Inwood, central and north Brooklyn, Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, Flushing and Jamaica. In 2004 99 people from Washington Heights and Inwood joined the military. In Jackson Heights, Corona, Woodside, and Elmhurst, 119 people enlisted. Compare this to the 7 individuals who enlisted from the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
Gringo Wedding
8:47 pm By Maegan La Mala · Movies · 2 Comments
29 Aug 2006
The beautiful Ana Lucia Dominguez, who you might know from Telemundo’s “Deciciones” series is staring in a new romantic comedy coming out sometime this fall. The movie, Gringo Wedding, is your standard white man, Justin Kane, looking for ethnic love movie.
The synopsis, as you can imagine, is pretty simple. He goes to Colombia, to find a real woman, and my my, he finds the most beautiful woman in the world. She of course falls for him, he’s tall, blonde, rich, the trifecta. They each poke fun at each other’s cultures. Oh, and they don’t speak each other’s language. In comes, the token gay man, Sebastián Boscan, who does the translating for them, and I’m sure provides overly done comic relief. There are scenes of her on a hacienda, and the horses and green spaces that make novelas seem so dreamy. Her dad, Julio del Mar, is opposed to the idea, and at one point in the trailer says something about “bring me my gun!” Of course, he probably comes to see the errors of his ways…
But a movie is never just a movie…
Governors Mull Over Border Security
1:10 pm By Maegan La Mala · Immigration · 1 Comment
29 Aug 2006
Last week, governors from the US and Mexico border met in Austin, TX for the 24th annual meeting of the Border Governors Conference. Ten border governors from the U.S. and Mexico border met for two days to discuss economic and security issues facing the two countries. The conference involves the governors of California, Arizona, New Mexico and the Mexican states of Sonora, Baja, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas.
Traditionally these conferences focused on interests like trade, agriculture, water, the environment, education and health, science and technology since the Border Governors Conference began in 1980. With a debate raging in the US over the immigration policy, it is not a surprise border security dominated the talks this year.
Chavez Wants to Know Where U.S. $$$ is Going
12:14 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Venezuela · Comments Off
29 Aug 2006
The U.S. government is sending millions of aid dollars to Venezuela. What is not clear is exactly who is getting this money.
Details of the spending are contained in a 1,600-page document of 132 grant contracts, released under the Freedom of Information Act. But names and details of nearly half of those who received money have been blacked out.US officials say this was done because the Chavez government would harass or prosecute the grant recipients if they were identified.
Fair enough except I don’t think the U.S. follows it’s own lead when it comes to money coming into the U.S. (not to mention the U.S. being concerned about how other countries spend their money). Does Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez have a right/reason to be concerned?
Hola!
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