2008 August | VivirLatino

Archive for August, 2008

INCITE! Asks for Help in the Path of Gustav

7:36 am By Maegan La Mala · Activism| New Orleans| Women · No Comments

31 Aug 2008

Dear INCITE! friends and supporters,

On the eve of the 3 year anniversary of the devastation wrought by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and subsequent government criminal negligence and assaults on the low income people of color on the Gulf Coast, our sisters from INCITE! projects in New Orleans (including the local chapter, the Women’s Health and Justice Initiative, and the New Orleans Women’s Health Clinic) are bracing for the potential landfall of Hurricane Gustav, which is currently projected to hit the Louisiana coast on Monday or Tuesday at a category 4 or 5. Voluntary evacuation of New Orleans has already begun, and mandatory evacuation could be declared as early as today. INCITE! organizers in New Orleans have made over 700 phone calls to women of color and their families that make up the constituency of the New Orleans Women’s Health Clinic, working to prepare and implement evacuation and safety plans.

Your assistance is urgently needed to help the low-income women of color and their families evacuate safely if need be, stay safe for the duration of the evacuation, and return to the city as soon as possible so as not to fall prey to the pushout that has kept so many folks from being able to return to New Orleans since Katrina. Local organizers are using whatever resources and funds at their disposal to help women and their families evacuate, bond people being held in Orleans Parish Prison out, and support those who make the choice to stay in whatever way they can.

Your support is urgently needed: financial donations of any size are needed and would be greatly appreciated.

Donations online are preferred because we can more quickly send the funds to our folks in New Orleans.
You can send your donation to INCITE online by going to this website:
http://incite-national.org/index.php?s=137
Click the Donation button
Put New Orleans in the “Purpose” line

Or you can write a check directly to WHJI and send it to:
PO Box 51325
New Orleans, LA 70151

This money will go directly to supporting the hundreds of low income women of color that are the constituency of the New Orleans Women’s Health Clinic.

Once again, the particular vulnerability of low-income women of color and single female-headed households (including folks with disabilities, seniors, undocumented immigrant women, and incarcerated women) has been erased in the face of disaster and overlooked in the days leading up to the storm. With few resources, facing challenges and concerns for their families of their own, INCITE! New Orleans and WHJI have stepped in to fill the gap. Please send all your support, solidarity, sisterhood and strength their way, and join us in hoping for the safety and well-bein g of the people who are already suffering from Gustav in Cuba, Jamaica, and Haiti, and willing the storm to subside or veer off safely before it strikes the Gulf Coast.

We will keep you posted as things develop.

peace,
INCITE!

Urgent Community Action Needed in the Gulf in the Face of Gustav

5:18 pm By Maegan La Mala · Activism| Justice| States| Weather| housing · No Comments

30 Aug 2008

One of the lessons of Hurricane Katrina was that people of color can not trust that government will protect and take care of our communities. So while we must demand that they do, we also have to prepare.

Hurricane Gustav is building strength and headed to the Gulf Region. Already, thousands are evacuating the area.

From an email :

In the attempt to learn from preparedness shortcomings of Hurricane Katrina, a network of New Orleans activists, some whom have evacuated already and others whom are intent on staying are in the process of creating a support network which is in need of all our help.

How you can help (outside of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast):

1. Serve as a point of contact in your area for evacuees.

2. Help create safe and accessible relief networks and stations in your city/region. This is particularly going to be crucial for allies in Northern Louisiana, Jackson, and Memphis, where it appears most of the evacuees are going to be stationed. We hope to have identified the rest of the specific cities by this evening.

3. Serve as a media liaison for the support network and the forces staying in New Orleans.

If you or your organization can serve in one or more of these capacities please contact one of the following individuals and send your name, cell phone, land line, email address and relevant address information for relief stations.

Kali Akuno 510.593.3956 (please text if no answer if possible) or kaliakuno@gmail. com

Lydia 314-537-0537 (C) 770-559-1461 land line

Molly 510-847-6101 (C)

Another Vision of Travelling Through Denver and the DNC

10:14 am By Maegan La Mala · DNC| DNC08| denver · No Comments

29 Aug 2008

Amigo Kai, fellow traveler through the locura of Denver, and source of strength, writes about his experience:

On the ride from our Lakewood hotel into the teeming heart of downtown Denver, I’m looking out the window as we roll past homeless folks lined up outside the community service center. I see a thirty-something blonde woman wearing jeans and a white tank-top standing on the side of the road holding a cardboard sign welcoming DNC attendees and asking for spare change.

Read the entire post here.

Ecuador to Take in 50,000 Colombian Refugees

2:37 pm By Maegan La Mala · Colombia| Ecuador| Immigration| Latin America · No Comments

28 Aug 2008

We hear a lot of talk about big countries like the U.S. offering aid to neighbors and other countries of interest, but I always raise an eyebrow when I hear these reports. We are supposedly “helping” Irag, remember? But when a small, poor country extends a helping hand to neighbors there is something significant in the act. Ecuador, a nation which has seen its share of hard times and has in turn seen a large exodus of its citizens, has announced that it will now return that favor to Colombian refugees living on the border of the two South American countries. Reports Venezuela’s El Universal:

The government will initiate in September a program to grant formal refugee status to some 50,000 Colombians living in the border zone, nearly three times the number currently registered, announced Chancellor María Isabel Salvador on Wednesday.

The “Colombian refugees registered are currently 18,000 but we will extend refugee status to at least 50,000 more.”

The Chancellor told reporters that “Ecuador is a country that looks to help everyone”, and from the statistics it looks like that’s a philosophy they are actually living by. El Universal reports that Ecuador has taken in more Colombian refugees fleeing the armed conflict than any other in the hemisphere.

Via / El Universal

Media, the DNC, and the Latino Vote : The Criminal, Macho Latino Male and the Hot Blooded Latin Sterotype Mujer

28 Aug 2008

Everyone wants the Latino vote, even if we are all gang bangers and putas, at least according to the mainstream media. Day after day, out hotness and criminality is highlighted, even in so - called political articles covering endorsements and independent media here at the DNC.

I never thought I’d have anything in common with Daddy Yankee, who recently endorsed Republican presidential candidate John McCain. And no, I’m not talking about being Puerto Rican, I’m talking about being stereotyped.

DNC 08 : Change in Denver Looks Like a Police State

28 Aug 2008

Keeping it real by staying outside where the gente be, Nezua captured the aftermath of the police brutality around the DNC.

Via / Awearness Blog

VivirLatino at the DNC 08 : Riding the Back of the Ghetto Bus in Denver

11:22 am By Maegan La Mala · Colorado| DNC| DNC08| Politics| denver · 10 Comments

27 Aug 2008

One blogger has criticized this website, with a personal attack on me and the use language and identity. Normally, I would unleash a stream of Spanish curses at my screen and move on, pero the reality of the Democratic National Convention against the reality of Denver ties it all together.

It’s all in the representation. Carlos attempted to do an incomplete post about the Latino (he puts the word in quotes) bloggers covering the convention. I say incomplete because he misses many Latino bloggers and other POC bloggers here covering not the speeches, that can be followed from a hotel room as well as from the “privileged” space of the credentialed blogger area, a room with a tv, but rather the extreme space between those spaces and the real, physical reality of Denver residents, especially residents of color.

Iowa Town Fears It May be Next in ICE Raids

9:57 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration| Labor| society · No Comments

27 Aug 2008

The immigration raids which are dividing families and negatively impacting local economies just don’t seem to stop. After raids across the South, now a Midwestern town trembles as rumors swirl that it may be next on the list. The tiny town of Perry, Iowa, home to the Tyson chicken plant fears it may be next. Reports AP:

When Mayor Viivi Shirley watched TV news reports of the Postville raid, one of her first thoughts was, “Thank God it wasn’t Perry.”

Soon after hearing about the raid at Agriprocessors, where more than half the employees were found to be illegal immigrants, Shirley sought out the Tyson plant’s manager to ask about the legal status of its workers.

Tyson, of course, denies that is has employed any undocumented immigrants. I find that extremely hard to believe, and somehow I don’t see ICE buying it either.

We’ve been reporting on these raids as they happen over the last couple of months and looking at them one by one. But now I’m wondering what the big picture is. What was the push for these to start up this year? Who, specifically, is behind this initiative? And what — if any — impact will the presidential elections have on these raids?

What do you think?

Via / AP

Celebrities Singing for Presidential Candidates

9:00 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Celebrities| Music| US Presidential Race 2008 · No Comments

27 Aug 2008

In light of the news that Daddy Yankee endorses John McCain, I thought this video in support of Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente featuring Kenny was interesting.

All the different politicians are doing what they can to get endorsements from various celebrities, but how many of us really vote according to who our favorite celebrity endorses? After viewing the following video, would you be more inclined to vote Green? What do you think of celebrity endorsements of politicians?

Number of Latinos in Schools Doubles

7:48 am By Maegan La Mala · Education| Immigration| children| society · No Comments

27 Aug 2008

story.hispanic.students.ap.jpg A lot has changed in the world since 1990, and over the past 18 years, the Latino population has grown exponentially. The Pew Hispanic Center has released a new report titled “One-in-Five and Growing Fast: A Profile of Hispanic Public School Students” which, as its name suggests, shows that one in every five public school students is Latino.

A majority of Hispanic students — about 75 percent — live in what the study calls “established” Hispanic states: Texas, Colorado, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

In Texas, more than 40 percent of enrollments from 1990 to 2006 were Latino students.

Almost 20 percent of the nation’s Hispanic students — nearly 2 million — live in Texas.

From 1990 to 2008, the Latino public school population grew from 5 million to 9.8 million.

Via / Chron.com

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Archive for August, 2008

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