2008 August 19 | VivirLatino

Archive for August 19th, 2008

Texas Teachers Pack Heat

5:38 pm By Maegan La Mala · Education| Texas| children| society · 2 Comments

19 Aug 2008

At least one school district in the great state of Texas is letting its faculty carry concealed firearms into their classrooms:

Harrold ISD Superintendent David Thweatt said his school board unanimously passed the concealed weapon policy in October to protect employees and students in the case of an armed intruder or hostage situation.

The school sits near a major highway and is a 30-minute drive from the Sheriff’s Office.

While Harrold is currently the only district we know about allowing teachers to carry guns, Texas governor Rick Perry says that he supports anyone with a permit being able to carry a concealed weapon wherever they like:

Gov. Rick Perry said Monday that local school districts should be able to decide whether to allow concealed weapons on their campuses.

“I’m pretty much a fan that if you’ve been trained, if you are registered, then you ought to be able to carry a weapon,” Perry said.

America Ferrera Wins at ALMA Awards

4:53 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Celebrities · 2 Comments

19 Aug 2008

Ms. America Ferrera of “Ugly Betty” fame, won entertainer of the year award for her portrayal of Betty Suarez at the ALMA awards yesterday.

ugly%20betty.jpg

My thoughts? I love America and the work that she does in both television and movies–but that does not prevent my from really disliking her dress. Zebra stripes are just not my thang, I guess.

Christina Applegate has Double Mastectomy

4:45 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Celebrities · No Comments

19 Aug 2008

christina%20appelgate.jpg I’m not much of a fan of Christina Applegate, but I was mighty shocked to hear that she recently underwent a double mastectomy to deal with her breast cancer. Apparently she only had cancer in one breast, but because of a family history of breast cancer and genetic testing that showed she carried the cancer gene, she decided to remove both breasts. I admire that she is talking about this to the world, especially seeing as she’s in such a looks oriented profession. I hope she recovers beautifully.

Latino Henry Cejudo Gets Olympic Gold, Gets Stereotyped

4:04 pm By Maegan La Mala · Sports| mexico| race| society · 3 Comments

19 Aug 2008

Latino wrestler Henry Cejudo took home the gold for the U.S. in men’s freestyle wrestling in a dynamic win today over opponent Tomohiro Matsunaga.

According to The L.A. Times, Cejudo, the son of undocumented immigrants, invoked his Mexican heritage as he spoke about his win:

“This is cool. Coming out of a Mexican American background, it feels good to represent the U.S.,” said Cejudo, whowasborn in Los Angeles. “Not too many Mexicans get the chance to do that.”

Cejudo’s parents divorced when he was 4 and he saw his father, Jorge, only one more time before he died in Mexico City. But his mother, Nelly Rico, raised a family of six children on her own, bouncing from low-paying jobs in California to New Mexico and Arizona, where the family sometimes slept four to a bed.

It’s a nice story, indeed. But what I personally don’t care for is the way his win is billed as “The American Dream”, supported comments from people who know him make it seem like that it’s a miracle he didn’t turn out to be a criminal in light of his family background. In fact, that’s exactly what they imply:

“He has done an unbelievable job coming from the environment that he came from,” his coach, Terry Brands, said. “Could be in prison. Could be a drug runner. Could be this, could be that. He’s done an unbelievable job of not being a victim.

Is this because he comes from a situation of adversity or because he comes from a situation of adversity and he’s brown? Way to taint an otherwise uplifting story…

Via / LA Times

231 Dominicans Tweet

1:03 pm By Maegan La Mala · Dominican Republic| Tech · No Comments

19 Aug 2008

There’s a really interesting article up about the use of Twitter in the Dominican Republic. According to the article there are 231 tweeters in D.R. 11 of them being non-Dominicans who live/work there. 26% of the Dominican users have protected entries (hmm what are you hiding). 42% of the tweeters have blogs. 1 of the tweeters is a politician.

For more on who tweets in D.R. check out the full post here.

Via / Global Voices, My 2 K-Cents

Argentina’s Olympic Women’s Soccer Team Gets on the Hate Bandwagon

11:32 am By Maegan La Mala · Argentina| Beijing Summer Olympics| China| Sports| race · 3 Comments

19 Aug 2008

When the Spanish sports teams did their offensive eye posing, it was easy to dismiss the racism as coming from Europeans with their own history of conquest. But now the women’s Olympic soccer team from Argentina has been caught doing the same exact “slant-eye” pose, we have to wonder just what the hell is going on that makes people think that this is ok?

Besides the gesture being obviously offensive, there is the dismissal that all three teams have made: that they didn’t mean to offend. Which begs the question, what exactly did they intend? To make us laugh with their antics? To get us excited about China? To reveal a deep desire to be Chinese that they all have? To show us how stupid they are?

In this case payback is a bitch, as they say because Argentina’s women lost 2-0 to China. In fact, they lost all three of their matches.

Via / Who Ate All the Pie

South Central L.A. Farm Site to be Forever 21

9:32 am By Maegan La Mala · Fashion| Labor| Los Angeles| Shopping · No Comments

19 Aug 2008

The South Central Farm, a 14 acre Los Angeles space used by mostly Latino, immigrant community members, that became the center of controversy when the city took it away from those that worked the land, will be Forever 21, as in the space will be used as a warehouse for the cheap and cheaply made clothing company.

Inspiring a movement and a movie wasn’t enough for L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who supported the farm, has received a nice sum of money from the clothing company with a history of poor labor practices.

He has received nearly $1.3 million in contributions and commitments from Forever 21 and its executives over the past two years for initiatives ranging from tree plantings to his own reelection campaign

Via / Feministe and LA Times

Latino Conspiracy Theories : Gloria Estefan to Retire and Be Honored by Latin Recording Academy

7:32 am By Maegan La Mala · Music · No Comments

19 Aug 2008

According to various news sources, Gloria Estefan’s tour through Spain beginning August 22nd, titled 90 Millas, as in the distance that separates Cuba and Florida, will be her last. The Cuban artista wants to dedicate her time to her daughter writing children’s books we would never buy our kids and getting the Castro’s out of Cuba (ok we made that last one up).

This morning, the Latin Recording Academy, that is pretty much run by the Estefans, or so feel many in the Latin music industry, announces that Gloria Estefan will be the 2008 LATIN RECORDING ACADEMY PERSON OF THE YEAR. Isn’t that kind of like rewarding yourself?

You can see the complete Latin Recording Academy press release after the jump.

Archive for August 19th, 2008

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