Archive for April, 2009
Verdict in Angie Zapata Case : Guilty
9:08 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Colorado|GLBT|Justice|media justice · 8 Comments
23 Apr 2009Allen Ray Andrade was found guilty of the first degree murder and of bias motivated crime charges. He was sentenced to life without parole.
Here is what the family of Angie Zapata had to say following the announcement of the verdict:
Watching this made me cry. While the verdict is a legal victory it certainly can’t feel like justice to a family that will never have their daughter/sister/aunt back. While the verdict proved that attempts to make transpanic a legitimate excuse for violence against women failed, the verdict doesn’t make it safer for transwomen, especially transwomen of color to live without fear. Media ignored this case in my opinion and in doing so doubly victimized and silenced Angie, her family, and entire communities.
Angie Zapata Case Goes to Jury as a Hate Crime
4:21 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Colorado|crime|GLBT|Justice|society · Comments Off
22 Apr 2009The trial of transgender murder victim Angie Zapata goes to the jury today in Colorado, and marks the first time the state will try a case in which gender identity — recognized as a protected class by Colorado and 11 other states — gets hate crime status.
The killer, one Allen Andrade, claims he lost control upon learning Angie’s gender but prosecutors say the killing — by blunt force trauma with a fire extinguisher — was premeditated:
But prosecutor Brandi Nieto argued that Andrade learned the truth about Zapata’s gender 36 hours before he killed her. Andrade had accompanied Zapata to traffic court, where clerks called her Justin Zapata, Nieto said.“This was not a snap decision,” she said.
Last month, a judge threw out Andrade’s confession to police, saying it came after the suspect told them he was through answering questions. Prosecutors say they intend to use statements he made to others, including, “It’s not like I . . . killed a straight, law-abiding citizen.”
Wow, what a heartless individual.
The L.A. Times reports that controversy has erupted in the courtroom as the defense attorney insisted on referring to Angie as “Justin” or “he”, while the prosecution referred to her as “she”.
The video above shows coverage of the trial from earlier this week. The question that remains is what Andrade will be charged with. Since his defense concedes he is guilty, it’s now up to jurors to decide whether he will be charged with 1st degree murder — which will mean life in prison without parole — or a lesser charge.
Via / L.A. Times
Miss California Says She “will be praying for Perez Hilton”
3:55 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Blogs|Controversia|GLBT · 8 Comments
22 Apr 2009There seems to be no end to the continuing saga of Miss California vs. blogger Perez Hilton. In less than 48 hours, la Miss appears to have turned herself into a bible thumping representative of the religious right and Hilton appears to getting angrier rather than cooling off.
In the above clip, watch Miss California give her side of the story, and MSNBC manipulate the facts.
Trouble in Cuba?
22 Apr 2009Oh, dear. Seems that President Obama’s Spanish speaking skills may not be as good as we thought they were. Seems that Cuba is not as ready to talk about “everything” as we thought it *said* it was:
Fidel Castro said Tuesday that President Obama “misinterpreted” his brother Raul’s sentiments toward the United States and bristled at any suggestion Cuba should free political prisoners or reduce official fees on money sent to the island from the U.S.
Raul Castro touched off a whirlwind of speculation that the U.S. and Cuba could be headed toward a thaw in nearly a half-century of chilly relations last week, when he said Cuban leaders would be willing to sit down with their U.S. counterparts and discuss “everything,” including human rights, freedom of the press and expression, and political prisoners on the island.
I can’t help it, I must say that it amuses me to think of the trouble that Raul must be in right now. How badly did he screw that whole thing up? We can blame it on “misinterpretation,” but you know Fidel is threatening to keep him hidden in an attic room somewhere now.
I don’t think anybody really knows what to do with Obama’s extended hand rhetoric. Chavez is shaking hands with Obama, Raul is offering to talk, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is talking to resident flake, George Stephanopoulos… Obama is making world leaders look like total assholes if they don’t also extend a hand–but hell, who really wants to extend a hand when you can be a macho anti-U.S. crusader?
It will be interesting to see what happens in the upcoming years when the newness of Obama rhetoric wears off.
Torturing Detainees
22 Apr 2009
I just finished reading this Newsweek article about how detainees are being treated while being held in U.S. custody. Controlled drowning, forcing detainees to wear dog collars and perform like animals, “invasion of personal space by a female,” imprisoning in small boxes, and identifying phobias of prisoners and using those phobias against them were all named as techniques used against prisoners at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib prisons.
The ironic and horrible thing is, the people who were being asked to do this crap are also the people who had qualms with doing it:
While the basic outlines of these interrogations were previously known, the report provides new details and will likely add fresh momentum to calls for a “truth commission” or similar Justice Department investigation of U.S. interrogation practices—both of which President Obama suggested for the first time Tuesday that he was willing to support.
The report, an advanced copy of which was provided to several news organizations, draws on newly declassified documents that Levin says bolsters his principal message: That the abuses at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison and Guantanamo were not caused by “a few bad apples,” as Bush administration officials repeatedly asserted. Instead, Levin said in a statement Tuesday, it was the product of high-level White House decisions to utilize a controversial series of “enhanced” and coercive interrogation techniques despite vociferous warnings by U.S. military lawyers and FBI officials that they could subject U.S. officials to prosecutions for torture and war crimes.
I don’t even know what to think about this mess anymore. I’m just so sickened and disgusted. Yes, I understand that whoever the hell we’re torturing is “evil” and all that, I really do. But will our torture kill an idea? Because isn’t resistance against U.S. (for whatever reason) based on an *idea*? Whether it’s the belief in freedom from the U.S. or a belief in martyrs and virgins (or whatever)–how does our torture kill those ideas?
Can it?
Also see this photographic history of torture. It’s ugly and brutal and makes you lose all hope in humanity. Just so you know.
White Privilege in Latin America : Ricans, Race and Passing
10:10 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Latin America|race · 4 Comments
22 Apr 2009
I wanted to link to this post from Afro-Netizen as a direct response to a comment on the post about the Puerto Rican quarter. It’s actually an issue that has come up a few times, especially, it seems, when there is a post related to Puerto Rican identity.
Race.
Latin America has a long history of white privilege and white supremecy, including: is colored with white privilege, from its political roots: U.S. implementation of Jim Crow in the Panama Canal, brutal Dominican dictatorship that erased African presence from its history and its culture, the massacre of hundreds of thousands indigenous Mayans in Guatemala, and blancismento (whitetification) in Argentina (South America) in which governments actively recruited Europeans to emigrate to their nations in order to “whiten” the society of its heavily indigenous and African populations.
Latinidad is not a race. It’s not even a sole ethnic group. The way I have consistantly used it is related to a shared history of colonization coming from the Iberian Peninsula. In using this definition I include indigenous populations, African slaves and their descendants and yes the colonizers and their descendants. While being Latino isn’t a single race or ethnic group, colonizers in the region from the Europeans to the U.S. have lumped all Latino together, makes it easier to oppress I guess. Currently this is easily witnessed in the racialization of the immigration issue that equates immigrants with Latinos, regardless of legal status.
April is Poetry Month : Louis Reyes Rivera
7:29 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · literature · Comments Off
22 Apr 2009I missed yesterday’s poetry post so today there will be two. The first one of the day is from Louis Reyes Rivera.
Perez Hilton on Miss California: “She lost because of that answer”
2:30 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Blogs|California|Celebrities|Controversia|GLBT · 5 Comments
21 Apr 2009Latino blogger Perez Hilton joined Larry King last night to break down the reason why he asked Miss USA contestant, Miss California, the “fatal question”. In this clip, Perez says he didn’t mean for the question to be a “bomb” and that he could tell by the look on Miss Cali’s face that she knew she was going to lose her shot at the title because of her answer.
Hilton also alleges that television had a hand at editing out the “loud boos” that Miss California received upon stating her opposition to gay marriage.
What do you think about Perez’s stance? Is his analysis fair? Does he defend his point well?
Via / YouTube
Why the Hell Does Joe Scarborough Insist on Making Chavez Sound Kind of French?
12:07 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Media|Obama|Politics|Venezuela · Comments Off
21 Apr 2009I am grateful I don’t have cable so I don’t stumble upon the cable news nonsense pretending to be fair and balanced.
While the Summit of the Americas has come and gone, some people just can’t let it go, especially U.S. President Obama shaking hands with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
What did Joe want? For Obama to punch Chavez? Or tell Ortega to shut up the way the Spanish King told Chavez once.
You also have to love the revisionist history that vilifies Ortega with no mention of the U.S. supported coup that led to civil war in Nicaragua pero instead wonders why Obama didn’t school the two Latin American presidents on Democracy.
May I suggest that people start sending Scarborough a copy of the book “Shavez” gave to Obama?
Via / Media Matters
Homophobic Bullying Leads to a Child’s Suicide
11:38 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · children|GLBT|society|youth · 3 Comments
21 Apr 2009
If you think kids calling other kids gay and taunting them for their sexual orientation is child’s play, think again. A child in Atlanta, 11 year-old Jaheem Herrera, took his own life last week after being tormented by schoolmates who called him gay.
Masika Bermudez said her son was being consistently bullied at school. She said she had complained to the school, and she said it was her 10-year-old daughter who alerted her to the stress Jaheem was under.
Channel 2 Action News reporter Pam Martin went to speak to Jaheem’s mother Monday.
“She said, ‘Ma, did you know they called Jaheem gay again today in school,’” said Bermudez.
Bermudez said bullies at school had called Jaheem “gay” and had taunted him about his accent. She said when he came home Thursday and she asked him about it, he denied it. She sent him to his room to calm down. That was the last time she saw him alive.
Little Jaheem hung himself with a belt after school on April 16th.
Read more…
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