Archive for July, 2007
One Woman Wasn’t in Good Hands with Esai Morales
7:47 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Celebrities|Justice|Los Angeles · Comments Off
23 Jul 2007
He may be busy asking Spanish language television viewers if we are in good hands as the new Latino face of Allstate but one woman in Los Angeles is saying she wasn’t in good hands as Esai Morales‘s girlfriend. Last Thursday the actor, best known for his roles in La Bamba and NYPD Blue, had a lawsuit filed against him by former girlfriend Elizabeth Mazzocchi who claims that he assaulted her on numerous occasions and gave her herpes.
According to her lawsuit, the couple began dating in January 2006. Two months later, Morales moved into Mazzocchi’s home and she began managing his career, believing it was “in their mutual interest as a couple working towards a permanent relationship to help [him] further and improve his career.”However, their relationship rapidly deteriorated, and by April of that year, the actor began a “systematic pattern of abuse” against Mazzocchi that included forcibly raping her in May 2006, and kicking and punching her in a November 2006 incident that led her to dial 911—even though Morales had allegedly threatened to have “every gangbanger in town looking to kill [her]” if she ever called the police.
Mazzocchi is also claiming that Morales owes her $25,000 in management fees. Morales and his reps had no comment.
Via / Yahoo!
“Savage attack” on Chilean futbolistas?
5:17 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Canada|Chile|Controversia|Sports · 1 Comment
20 Jul 2007
The words “savage attack” seldom come up in the context of a story about arrests made by Canadian police. But those are the words used to describe what happened at the end of the Argentina-Chile match of the World Cup U-20, after two Chilean players were expelled and Argentina went on to win the match 3-0. Spain’s 20 Minutos reports that a Chilean journalist witnessed the arrest and gave this account:
“We don’t know exactly where the police’s attitude came from but from where were, about 50 meters away, we could see how the police savagely attacked the players,”said [a reporter] in a telephone dispatch from Toronto.
According to reports corroborated by more than one journalist, the players were handcuffed and reporters were restricted from filming what was going down.
Apparently things got worse when the arrested team members, who were detained in a paddywagon, attempted to escape from the vehicle through windows when police activated a tear gas bomb inside. Watch a video account from Chilean television after the jump.
Cuba defeats the U.S., in spite of Castro’s expectations
3:59 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Cuba|Sports · Comments Off
20 Jul 2007
Cuba’s baseball team beat its U.S. counterpart 3-1 in the finals of the Pan American Games today. While Fidel Castro, a huge baseball fan claimed the match up between rich and poor countries was “unfair”, he must have been delighted to see the results.
The game, originally scheduled for yesterday, was postponed because of rain, giving Fidel a moment to reflect on the match before it happened in his column:
In many countries, athletes do not even compete for their own nation. Some of them earn up to 102 million dollars a year, more than the owner of a large sugar mill. Cuba only has her own athletes, and they are not professionals. It is an unfair contest.
Cuban players were indeed happy that whatever unfairness existed was overcome, and the team’s manager went so far as to say that they owe success to Fidel’s mention of them in his column: “The words of the Commander are like an injection into our veins; el jefe mentioned us,” he said. Castro’s son is part of the team — he’s the team doctor.
Via / 20 Minutos and Prensa Latina
Nicaragua : Remembering a Revolution
10:20 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · history|Nicaragua|Politics · Comments Off
20 Jul 2007
It was a Latino lefty party yesterday in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua as the Central American nation celebrated the 28th anniversary of the 1979 Sandinista revolution. President Daniel Ortega, presided over the celebrations along with the presidents of Panama, Honduras, and what leftist Latino celebration would be complete without Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez?
Demands to Shut Down Congonhas Airport
8:02 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Brazil · Comments Off
20 Jul 2007
Prosecutors investigating the cause of “this week’s Brazilian airline tragedy, sought a court order to shut down the nation’s busiest airport until the cause of the incident could be determined. Such of a move would certainly impact air travel not just in Brazil but in South America.
“It is necessary to temporarily paralyze the activities at the Congonhas airport in Sao Paulo until a complete renovation of both of its runways can be completed and there is certainty that they are fully secure,” prosecutors said in a statement.
The runways in the airport are shorter than most other international airport runways by at least 1,000 or so feet. Additionally there were concerns prior to the crash that wet runways posed a serious problem.
Via / Fox News
In Mexico, cops watch the cops
6:04 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · crime|mexico|society · Comments Off
19 Jul 2007
In Mexico City, a bribe paid to a cop can get you out of the stickiest situations. But local government is looking to change all that by keeping an eye on police who blackmail motorists into coughing up the cash. A tough job indeed, but the tactics being employed are even more curious: they are paying cops to keep an eye on cops:
For 100 days, inspectors from local police will make sure that police behave with honorable conduct in the streets when ticketing traffic violations, and that they don’t ask for nor accept “mordidas” (bribes).
It’s a case of good cop, bad cop. But who’s to say that a good cop won’t go bad? I’ve said before that one of the reasons why corruption exists in the Mexico City police force is the incredibly low salary (between 400 to 500 USD per month). They get paid so little that it’s awfully cheap to make them go bad.
A testament to that is the fact that this program says it will reward “good cops” with boxes of food and a shot at a promotion.
Via / Diario de Yucatan
Image via Ed Fladung’s Flickr page
Dame Otro Tequila: Paulina wants booze and to smell good
2:30 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Celebrities|Chismes|Spain · Comments Off
19 Jul 2007Newly-hitched Paulina Rubio hasn’t shed her diva personae one bit since settling down. She’s a star and wants star treatment, as evidenced by a strange demand imposed on concert organizers in Vigo, Spain:
Mexican singer Paulina Rubio has asked that for ther stay in Vigo, where she will give a concert next Saturday, she have 18 types of perfume and several bottles of tequila, and that her dressing room be very colorful.
Concert promoters say they’ll give her whatever the hell she wants, as long as she shows up on time, since Pau Pau “hasn’t said which day she’ll be arriving in Vigo, accompanied by an entourage of 40 people.” They have reason to be worried, as Paulina has been known to skip out on engagements.
I don’t know.La Chica Dorada may be bitchy and demanding, but she’s no JLo.
Via / El Universal (Venezuela)
Feliz Cumpleaños Computer Virus!
19 Jul 2007
Many, myself included, would rather be celebrating its death but alas the computer virus turns 25 years old this year. Sadly this is one thing that doesn’t look likely to get weaker as it ages. In fact, given the fact that everything and everyone is connected, it’s only getting stronger. Where does the story begin? With an adolescent urge to prank.
A tech-savvy 9th grader named Richard Skrenta got an Apple II for Christmas. Over the following few months he began cooking up ways to trick his friends using the machine. “I had been playing jokes on schoolmates by altering copies of pirated games to self-destruct after a number of plays,” Skrenta once told the tech news site Security Focus. “I’d give out a new game, they’d get hooked, but then the game would stop working with a snickering comment from me on the screen.”
Almodovar Going English?
8:38 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Chismes|Movies|Spain · Comments Off
19 Jul 2007
Rumor has it that Spanish film genius Pedro Almodovar(we heart him here at VL) is thinking about making a film in English with English actress Kate Winslet no less. The source of the chisme? A quote by Almodovar himself from a UK newspaper interview. He reportedly said:
What I’d really like to do is make Ian McEwan’s latest book into a film. And there is no shortage of British actresses to cast in it; I would definitely like to work with Kate Winslet who is a good friend of mine.
McEwan’s latest book is On Chesil Beach. I haven’t read it but I have to wonder: Almodovar’s gift has been his portrayals of pedacitos of Spanish life and culture andhe obviously has a deep well to draw from. Would such an adaptation of a foreign culture mas encima work?
Via / Film ick
Dems Not Letting Immigration Reform Rest in Peace
4:50 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Immigration|Politics · Comments Off
18 Jul 2007
Call it a ploy to make sure they keep (get) the Latino vote, but Howard Dean, scream queen and President of the Democratic Party, is saying that just because the senate said immigration reform is dead doesn’t mean it really is. Instead Dean wants Latino voters to put their hopes on Dems being able to pass smaller bills like the DREAM Act and the AgJobs program (aka the new Braceros). Dean is sitting on the laurels of the 2006 election and how the famous Latino swing vote helped to change the congress (not enough to pass immigration reform though). In the Q&A Dean touts the Dem’s use of Spanish language radio ads (I only listen to public radio so I missed them) and other outreach efforts.
So do you buy what Howard Dean is selling? Read the entire Q&A here (in Spanish) and weigh in.
Do I even need to say how I feel?
Hola!
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