Archive for December, 2006
Colombia Almost Done Spraying
5:00 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Colombia| Ecuador · Comments Off
26 Dec 2006
Colombia has been spraying potentially harmful herbicides over 25,000 acres of coca fields in a border zone shared with Ecuador. This spraying, backed by the United States, has created problems to say the least between the two South American nations, including Ecuadorian president-elect, Rafael Correa cancelling a planned visit to Bogota to protest the spraying. Colombia is saying that the spraying will end soon.
Via / Fox News
Target pulls Che CD case
3:41 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Controversia| Marketing · 4 Comments
26 Dec 2006
The commercial use of Cuban revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara’s image is nothing new, but a CD case bearing his image has sparked controversy and retailer Target has pulled the item:
Target had touted a music disc carrying case for Che admirers emblazoned with the Argentine-born guerrilla’s iconic 1960 portrait by Alberto Diaz, or “Korda.” A set of small earphones was superimposed on the image, suggesting he was tuned in to an iPod or other music player.“It is never our intent to offend any of our guests through the merchandise we carry,” Target said in a statement. “We have made the decision to remove this item from our shelves and we sincerely apologize for any discomfort this situation may have caused our guests.”
Whatever you think of Che, it was irresponsible for Target not to consider the possible implications of this beforehand. To me it shows a lack of understanding and a lazy lack of research about basic Latin American history, and mainly just an attempt to be uber trendy without considering the meaning of the image.
Olga Tañón Gets Good News for Navidad
2:40 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Celebrities| Chismes| Music · 1 Comment
26 Dec 2006
Puerto Rican merenguera Olga Tañón got some good news for Navidad and is sharing it with all her fans and followers.
The mother of two will be giving birth to her third child and it’s a boy. Olga already has a daughter and a son.
Felicidades.
Via / Univision.com
Image Via / Univision.com
La Gaita Zuliana: The best Christmas music you’ve never heard of
4:04 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Music| Venezuela · 2 Comments
25 Dec 2006
A few years back I had the opportunity to spend Christmas in Ciudad Ojeda, a small town outside of Maracaibo in Venezuela’s Zulia state. There were two very notable things about Christmas in Zulia that I immediately became aware of: the temperature (around 90 degrees) and La Gaita Zuliana. La gaita, as it is so lovingly called in Zulia, is perhaps the one thing that best defines the culture of the people of this region of Venezuela: luchadora, resilient, proud and traditional. Gaitas are Christmas music, yes, but not in the way the rest of Latin America does it — traditional villancicos and hymns — the content of the songs are largely based around social issues, protest and politics.
A perfect example of what I am talking about is the very controversial gaita Aló Presidente by gaita superstars La Gran Coquivacoa. This gaita ruffled a lot of feathers in the Chavez camp a couple of years ago as it accused the Venezuelan president of taking advantage of the Venezuelan people. The sentiment wasn’t lost on the people of Zulia, the state with the most oil and, paradoxically, the most extreme poverty. Here’s a snippet:
Aló Presidente, aló
Qué quiere hacer con nosotros?
Respóndanos presidente
Todos estamos calientes
Nos está volviendo loco
Ay dios, qué calamidad
El país no vale medio
Porque ha sido peor el remedio
Que la misma enfermedad
¡Feliz Navidad!
2:21 pm By Maegan La Mala · VivirLatino · 2 Comments
25 Dec 2006VivirLatino wishes our readers “Feliz Navidad” and Happy Hanukkah!
Thanks for your support and for making VL a popular site for Latino news and views.
We’ve set high hopes for 2007! See you then!
Latino groups call raids “Hitleresque”
1:07 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Controversia| Immigration| Labor · 4 Comments
22 Dec 2006
In reponse to the recent immigration raids across the country, several Latino groups — among them LULAC, MALDEF and the Hispanic Bar Association — are joining forces to call for a moratorium on what they call racist witch hunts:
U.S. Hispanic groups and activists on Thursday called for a moratorium on workplace raids to round up illegal immigrants, saying they were reminiscent of Nazi crackdowns on Jews in the 1930s.They accused the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement of “racial profiling,” or selective enforcement against Hispanics, for arresting 1,300 workers on immigration violations in December 12 raids at meatpacking plants in six states.
“We are demanding an end to these immigration raids, where they are targeting brown faces. That is major, major racial profiling, and that cannot be tolerated,” said Rosa Rosales, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, at a news conference.
“This unfortunately reminds me of when Hitler began rounding up the Jews for no reason and locking them up,” Democratic Party activist Carla Vela said. “Now they’re coming for the Latinos, who will they come for next?”
While Vela’s “who’s next?” comment is a good way to get other communities of color on board with the cause via empathy/fear, the fact is no one else is next. Latinos are the target of these raids and the migra in general, and no one else has anything to be worried about. Somehow I can’t imagine a raid at one of the Irish pubs here in SF, where countless undocumented Irish immigrants work.
Via / Yahoo! News
Pesticides Can’t Stop This Mexican Weed
12:45 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Drugs| Environment · Comments Off
22 Dec 2006
Newly installed Mexican President Calderon may be on an anti-drug trip, but his biggest enemy may not be the trafficers but a hybrid type of marijuana that is resistant to pesticides and can be grown year round.
“These plants have been genetically improved,” said army Gen. Manuel Garcia. to a handful of journalists allowed to accompany soldiers on a daylong raid of some 70 marijuana fields. “Before we could cut the plant and destroy it, but this plant will come back to life unless it’s taken out by the roots.”The new plants, known as “Colombians,” mature in about two months and can be planted at any time of year, meaning authorities will no longer be able to time raids to coincide with twice-yearly harvests.
Via / Fox News
Image Via / ABC.Net.Au
Gloria Trevi is back
11:55 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Celebrities| Music| mexico · Comments Off
22 Dec 2006
I must have missed this, but it seems that after touring the Latin stages of gay pride celebrations around the country this year, la Trevi is once again a star, according to AP:
When Mexico’s scandalous pop diva Gloria Trevi — once the country’s highest-paid performer and known as “Mexico’s Madonna” — left jail, she handed out fliers to promote herself.The hard work is paying off: two years later, Trevi has shot to worldwide superstardom.
Her comeback album, “Como nace el universo,” or “How the Universe Was born,” sold more than 200,000 copies in the United States, and received a Latin Billboard Award nomination for best album.
The single “Todos me miran,” or “Everyone is Looking at Me,” whose video depicts a gay man coming out, hit No. 1 in Mexico. These days, Trevi has become an icon for gay men on both sides of the border, dubbed the “Gay Queen.”
Penelope Cruz helps spread lesbian rumors
8:38 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Celebrities| Chismes| GLBT · 3 Comments
21 Dec 2006
While the fantasy of hotties Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz being lovers might inhabit the mind of every man in the Western Hemisphere, Penelope herself says that it’s all just a publicity stunt. Apparently she has fomented the rumors herself by acting extra cozy with her Mexican friend:
Penelope Cruz claims she knows why those lesbian rumors refuse to die. The “Vanilla Sky” actress, who has long been the subject of speculation about her sexuality, says she helped keep them going.Cruz has been friends with Salma Hayek since she came to the U.S. from Spain about seven years ago. There friendship started a buzz, which grew a lot louder when she groped her friend’s behind at a press conference while the two were promoting their film “Banditas.”
“I grabbed Salma’s ass just to keep things moving, because everyone was a little slow,” Cruz said while promoting her new film “Volver” reports Australia’s Courier Mail. “And, of course, the energy changed when I did that.”
I guess Salma are the Latina Oprah and Gail, the girls with the friendship no one understands.
Via / National Ledger
Campaign to keep undocumented children here
8:19 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Immigration| children · 1 Comment
21 Dec 2006
In response to the growing problem of deportation separating families, a non-profit organization is looking for ways to keep kids in the U.S. even if their parents are expelled from the U.S. The rationale is that kids should be able to take advantage of the opportunities that this country offers since the living conditions in the home countries of their parents may be less than optimal, the circumstance which motivated the family to immigrate in the first place.
Osvaldo Cabrera, President of the coaltion, told Efe “this initiative arises from the need to protect minors who have the right to, because they were born in this country, to grow up as American citizens and have better possibilities of development and social protection.”“Family desintegration is a sad and cruel reality, as is the situation in which children must go with their countries to a country where conditions of poverty and extremse need determine their future,”he said.
So what’s worse, a family split by deportation but with successful children, or a united family living in poverty?
Via / MSN Latino
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- Transgender Day of Remembrance and Latin@s
- Dear Troll(s):
- Puerto Rican, Latino Clergy, Theology Professors, Community Members To Condemn Brutal Hate Killing of Gay Puerto Rican Man
- Vigils for Justice y en Memoria de Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado
- Russell Athletic rehires fired union organizers
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