Archive for December 18th, 2008
Isabel Garcia awarded $150,000 Grant
3:36 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Immigration · Comments Off
18 Dec 2008
Remember Isabel Garcia? The woman who was sexually mocked and ridiculed in effigy by a racist shock jock? Well, I just received the following news through email about her!
A Tucson human-rights activist received a $150,000 prize from a cultural foundation for her community work.
Pima County’s legal defender, Isabel Garcia, was among five people awarded the Lannan Foundation’s Prize for Cultural Freedom for 2008.Garcia is a co-founder of Derechos Humanos, a local organization that defends immigrant rights and works to publ icize conditions on the U.S-Mexico border.
“I’m very happy the foundation would be willing to recognize somebody like me, who is considered controversial with the mainstream media,” Garcia said.
But her greatest reward, she said, comes from people on the street thanking her for her work with the community.
“This prize will allow me to continue the fight for the most basic human rights for migrants,” Garcia said.
A large portion of the prize will go to Derechos Humanos, she said.The foundation gave ou t $750,000 to the five winners for their work in the U.S., Mexico and the United Kingdom, according to the foundation’s Web site.
Other winners this year were rewarded for their work on environmental justice, American Indian cultural preservation, prisoner’s rights and stopping violence against women.
The Lannan organization is a 40-year-old family foundation dedicated to “cultural freedom and diversity” based in Santa Fe, N.M., that recognizes artists, writers and activists. The Cultural Freedom Award was created in 2003 “to honor individuals working on behalf of communities struggling to uphold and defend their right to cultural freedom and diversity.”
Copyright © 2008 TucsonCitizen.com.
Obama has chosen another Latino to be in his cabinet. This time it’s California Congresswoman Hilda Solis and she’s slated to be the Secretary of Labor. This hija of Nicaraguan and Mexican parents represents California’s 32nd Congressional District, which includes portions of East Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley.
Progressives seem genuinely happy with this choice and looking at her campaign website, they have good reason.
Saturday Night Live Doesn’t Know When Enough is Enough
3:21 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Entertainment · 2 Comments
18 Dec 2008I’m a little bit late on posting this, but it’s important nevertheless. Fred Armisen is just about one of the most irritating a-holes I have ever witnessed. He is a biracial (German and Japanese) man who presents as white who plays every ethnic character in the Saturday Night Line up, including Barack Obama, Prince, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
And now, he just put forth this little beauty in which he mocks New York Governor David Paterson:
Paterson rightfully calls out the show by centering the lived experiences of the disabled community and how representations of disability as bumbling and fumbling has consequences:
“I can take a joke,” he told the New York Daily News. “But only 37% of disabled people are working and I’m afraid that that kind of third-grade humor certainly adds to this atmosphere.
“Let’s just say I don’t think it helped,” he said.
More Latin American/ Latino Problems for Obama Attorney General Pick Holder
1:11 pm By Maegan La Mala · Latin America|Politics · Comments Off
18 Dec 2008
Last month, I wrote about how while Obama’s pick for Attorney General, Eric Holder, was historic because he would be the first African-American Attorney General, he had some issues with Latin America, specifically his defense of Chiquita.
Now the Republicans, who are going to try and block Holder however they can, are bringing up his involvement in another high profile Latin American incident, Elian Gonzalez and his role in Clinton pardoning Puerto Rican nationalists.
Latin American Leaders Makes Shoe Jokes at Summit
11:23 am By Maegan La Mala · Latin America · Comments Off
18 Dec 2008
At the Latin American Summit this week, some leaders couldn’t help themselves and just had to make jokes about the recent Bush shoe throwing incident.
“Please, nobody take off your shoes,” Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva joked to reporters at the start of a news conference on Wednesday.
“In this heat, if anybody takes off their shoes, we’ll know right away because of the smell,” quipped Lula, reaping laughter from reporters and politicians alike.
Earlier in the day, Lula threatened to throw a shoe at Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Bush’s fiercest critic in Latin America, if the long-winded leftist leader spoke beyond his allotted time.
Via / Reuters
According to a study released by the America Association of Retired People (AARP), at least 82% of Latinos 45 and older do. Pero that’s not all they believe in. They also believe in spirits, angels, and divine healing.
What bothered me about the study and the way the news is presenting the story, is how believing in these things is out of the realm of the religious especially when it compared Latino beliefs to the beliefs of whites. It sort of plays to the stereotype of Latino’s faith as being more “folky” and less real and respectable.
Oh you know those crazy Latin retired people and their magical thinking.
Via / Hispanic Tips, AOL Latino
U.S. Auto Industry Hits Pause as They Await $
18 Dec 2008
After the U.S. Congress failed to come up with a deal for the country’s top auto makers, the companies are taking drastic steps to save money and survive.
Chrysler said it would extend the normal two-week holiday shutdown that begins Friday to at least Jan. 19 at all 30 of its factories due to slumping sales. They and General Motors were looking for Congress to approve $14 billion in loans.
Chrysler spokesman Dave Elshoff said four plants will be temporarily closed beyond Jan. 19: two plants in Toledo, Ohio, and one each in Ontario and Detroit.
Workers at the shuttered factories will get their regular vacation pay for the scheduled two week shut down. For the extended shut down, the workers will be hitting the unemployment rolls and also receive a supplement from the company, earning 85 percent of their normal pay.
Hola!
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