VivirLatino

Living & Luchando la Vida Latin@

Miss California May Have to Give Up Crown Amid Photo Scandal

May 7th, 2009

carrie-copy-1 Yesterday La Macha told us about the apparent hypocrisy of Miss California Carrie Prejean – defender of American moral values — upon the revelation that she had posed nude. Now the firestorm against the beauty queen and 1st runner up for Miss America is getting stronger, as The HuffPost reports that yet another nude photo has leaked to press and that Carrie may have to give up her crown as a result of the scandal:

A second topless photo of Miss California Carrie Prejean has been released by TheDirty.com, days after Prejean promised the state pageant that there was only one such photo in existence. [...]

Back to the crown drama. On Wednesday Prejean’s runner-up Miss Malibu told “Access Hollywood’s” Billy Bush she is ready to step in should Prejean lose her crown because of a morality clause in the pageant contract contestants sign that promises they have no nude or semi-nude photos in their past.

In an even more surprising twist, TMZ (consider the source, take it with a grain of salt) says Prejean’s bias against gay marriage might stem from the fact that her father is gay.

Via / HuffPost

Image via TheDirty.com

More Civil Disobedience : 30 Arrested at Minnesosta Immigration Facility

May 7th, 2009

A third act of civil disobedience took place this week with 30 people blocking the entrances to the Bloomington, Minnesota Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility.

Immigrant rights activists and allies took action today at ICE headquarters, holding a conference just after 7am to demand that Obama sign an executive order to end all raids and deportations pending the passage of a just immigration reform act. Veronica Mendez described the climate of fear created by immigration raids: undocumented workers afraid to go to the police when robbed or assaulted, employees unable to fight back against employers who cheat them of wages or create unsafe working conditions, families whose children are citizens but whose parents are deported. “We in Minnesota have our own dark secrets of raids,…the times that in the middle of the night or in a parking lot you are simply rounded up and taken away,” said the Reverend Loren McGrail.

After the press conference the legal demonstration continued while those who planned to commit civil disobedience moved into place.

About 30 activists were arrested as they blocked the entrances to the Bloomington Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility as a support rally took place nearby. After activists had blocked all four driveways, Bloomington police clad in helmets and carrying extended batons, marking rounds and chemical canisters congregated around the activists at the east side of the facility. As activists from the initial blockade were arrested one by one and loaded onto a city-owned bus, others came from the other blockades to take their place. On the bus activists chanted and rocked vigorously. After the approximately twenty activists were arrested, the full bus was driven to the police station, returning thirty minutes later when the remaining activists were arrested.

Hypothetically speaking of course, wouldn’t it be something if there was a nationally coordinated day of direct action against ICE?

Via / ImmigrationProf Blog and Twin Cities IndyMedia

Chavez’s Daughter + Allende’s Grandson = LOVE

May 7th, 2009

It’s not often that we hear about Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s personal life or family, but this latest bit of chisme about Huguito’s daughter is quite interesting. It seems that María Gabriela Chávez is dating the grandson of slain Chilean president Salvador Allende, Pablo Sepúlveda Allende. Chavez introduced the couple this week on his weekly TV show, Aló Presidente. Spain’s El País reports:

“Pablo!”, exclaimed the Venezuelan leader, embracing [him] told said that [he] was “a Chilean doctor, María’s partner and the grandson of Salvador Allende”, who he regularly says he admires and calls “the martyr president.”

The Venezuelan press had recently reported that the journalist, second daughter from Chavez’s first marriage, had managed to convince Sepúlveda Allende that he leave the medical center where he worked in the Chilean city of Coquimbo, opened by his grandfather who was also a doctor, to reside in Venezuela.

Might this be the making of a Latin American left political superfamily?

Via / El País

Latino Civil Disobediance : Mexicans in NY, Ricans in DC

May 7th, 2009

mmedidiororr The past few days have been busy for activists around the issues of Puerto Rico’s colonial status and Mexican political prisoners.And yet, I can’t seem to find much information about either act of civil disobedience in the mainstream news media.

From Narco News:

Today, May 4, 2009, the Other Campaign New York took over the Mexican Consulate in New York to demand the liberation of the 12 political prisoners who have been brutally repressed for resisting neoliberal urbanization projects that are destructive to human life and culture, specifically the construction of an airport in Atenco, and for protecting displaced flower vendors in Texcoco.

Today, on this third anniversary of the repression, the arrests, the violations, the torture, and the breaking and entering made by the military police in Atenco, a delegation of members of Movement for Justice in El Barrio succeeded in entering the offices of the Consulate of Mexico in New York despite the fact that these offices have been under strict and tightened security since precisely 3 years ago when Mexicans of The Other Campaign New York with real heart and memory, demanded the liberation of the political prisoners of Atenco. We succeeded in entering the offices to hold a non-violent protest demanding the immediate release of the prisoners of Atenco.

Once inside, the compañer@s of the Other Campaign New York, amongst the clamor of: “Freedom for political prisoners (Presos politicos, libertad)!, Liberty, liberty, to those prisoners for fighting (Libertad, libertad, a los presos por luchar)!, We are all Atenco (Todos Somos Atenco)!”, along with other chants, and with our signs, some with prison bars to look like a cell, and also with bandanas, gave out to our fellow country men and women at the Consulate DVD’s of the video “Breaking the Siege”, about the repression in Atenco, and informational flyers where we explain our main demands.

Later, we demanded to speak with the consul Ruben Beltran in order to give him a letter of demands. First, they told us that he was not there because he was in Mexico, but we knew that this was a lie, since the day before the consul was in El Barrio at an event proselytizing for PAN during the imposed Cinco de Mayo celebration.

After a while, the authorities of the Consulate told us that the Consul was in New York but that he could not be found in the Consulate, and they closed consular services to the public, asking all of their clients to abandon the offices. By the end of our action, the consul arrived. We gave him a giant size letter on a poster-board with the following
demands:

1. Liberty for the political prisoners in Atenco.

2. Cancel the arrest warrants for those 2 who are being persecuted.

3. Revoke and appeal the sentences.

4. Complete respect for the human rights of the detained and the persecuted.

5. Punishment for those responsible for the violations of human rights.

The consul, Rubén Beltrán, first told us that he was open to engage in dialogue with all Mexican people in New York and listen to all opinions, but then blamed us – and our cause, the liberation of the prisoners in Atenco – for having closed the services of the Consulate and for having left so many people unattended.

Augusto Boal, Founder of the Theater of the Oppressed, Dies at 78

May 7th, 2009

augusto-boal

I had never heard of Augusto Boal until I listened to yesterday’s Democracy Now!

Augusto Boal, the legendary Brazilian political playwright and popular educator, died this weekend at the age of seventy-eight. He was the founder of the Theater of the Oppressed, a popular international movement for a participatory form of theater as a means of promoting knowledge and democratic forms of interaction. Boal conducted workshops all over the world. His techniques of using theater to discuss power and oppression have been widely inspirational and influential.

In 1971, the Brazilian military dictatorship imprisoned and tortured Boal for four months. After his release, he was forced into exile for fifteen years. He’s written a number of books, including Theater of the Oppressed and Games for Actors and Non-Actors, as well as The Rainbow of Desire and Legislative Theater. In the ’90s, Boal also served as a city councilmember for Rio de Janeiro.

Boal was tireless ’til the end of his life. According to a statement from the Center for the Theater of the Oppressed in Rio, Boal left behind a completed new version of his book The Aesthetics of the Oppressed, and he spent the day before his death, May Day, in a solidarity vigil with workers.

13-year-old wrongly convicted, imprisoned for 16 years

May 7th, 2009

VL has talked before about the injustices of prison in the U.S., including young teens being locked up for crimes for life with no chance of parole–a heinous and (in my opinion) illegal practice that should have died with Inquisition. Why, you ask? Take a look at the following video (here’s a printed version for those who don’t have video):

How much horrific could this man’s life possibly get? Imprisoned for 50 years at 13-years-old–except, wait a minute, you aren’t guilty?

What does a kid that is raised in a prison do once he’s released? When he’s been taught sexuality, relationships, reasoning skills, etc in a place that has been proven to encourage violence rather than end it?

Has he been raped in prison? Has he been beaten? Has he been taught that hitting women is a good way to prove he’s a man?

And outside of the supposition of violence, what does a person do when that person “graduated” from prison instead of high school? Or the university? What life will Thaddeus Jimenez be able to build for himself when sixteen years of his life has been stolen–because it seems so much easier to lock of up Latino kids and throw away the keys rather than find some alternative? Any alternative?

Gracias to BHSEC II

May 7th, 2009

000_0007 La Mala would like to publicly thank the administration, staff (especially Katie), and most of the the students of BHSEC II right in my home hood of Queens, who had me and other amazing gente represent for the school’s first community day.

We all had some really interesting discussions about the media, language, race and gender. I think one of the most amazing moments, was talking about the possibilities for all people to be media makers, even without them realizing it, as media is really just a method to send information about different aspects of identity.

Whenever I do workshops with students, it makes me feel old, jaja. Pero most importantly it makes me feel good about the next generation of leaders, artists, and activist coming up. I think one of the biggest mistakes people make with working with students is not being real, not being honest, thinking that they can’t handle it. In reality, it’s the deception that the world feeds them, including well meaning adults, that they can’t handle and that leaves them ill-prepared to interact with the bigger world.

I look forward to meeting and working with some of you again.