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Archive for August, 2009

puerto_ricoFor as long as I have believed in self-determination for Puerto Rico, I have thought that talk about the island becoming the 51st state was just that, talk. This is partially because of issues of race and identity. Despite the post-racial times the U.S. finds itself in (allegedly), the U.S. will not accept a brown, Spanish speaking nation as a state. I also think though, that annexation isn’t attractive because economically, Puerto Rico isn’t attractive. Claro, the island has been exploited economically, pero statehood would require the U.S. to invest more than it would get back from the island. Just take a look at the unemployment numbers coming out of la isla del encanto:

The unemployment rate in Puerto Rico stands at 16.5 percent, the highest of all U.S. jurisdictions, and the government is announcing even more layoffs of public employees.

Via / Latin American Herald Tribune

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Edward Kennedy: A life in photos

10:05 am By la Macha · Massachusetts · Comments Off

26 Aug 2009

The AP put out this really nice montage of photos of Edward Kennedy. Very touching in that it shows both the tragedy and triumphs of his life.

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Edward Kennedy RIP

9:57 am By la Macha · Careers|DNC|Massachusetts · Comments Off

26 Aug 2009

(note from la Macha–oops, looks like Mamita and I both posted about Kennedy passing away at about the same time! We’ll keep both posts up, as each post carries different links and represents a different understanding of Kennedy!)

health_care_0226Although I don’t think Edward has the same reputation in the Latino community that his brother, Robert, has, Edward Kennedy was still a tireless advocate for the issues that concerned so many of us, including immigration. And yes, I know at least two Mexican American men who are proud bearers of the name Edward.

He had a long troubled and triumphant life–he was always the one who pointed to the cracks in Camelot. Not quite as good looking, not quiet as athletic, not quite as eloquent, but definitely always there, solid and dependable, the shoulder his family and fellow citizens needed.

He died after a long bought with brain cancer and just a few weeks after his sister Eunice also passed away.

May he rest in peace.

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Rest in Paz Senador Kennedy

9:28 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Politics · 2 Comments

26 Aug 2009

story
Last night Senator Edward Kennedy passed away after a battle with brain cancer. He was 77 years old.

He was known as the “liberal lion of the Senate”

From the Kennedy Family:

“We’ve lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism, and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever,” it said. “We thank everyone who gave him care and support over this last year, and everyone who stood with him for so many years in his tireless march for progress toward justice, fairness and opportunity for all.”

I am not a fan of the electoral political game in general or of most of the players in that game, however, Kennedy is being remembered as a progressive who pushed policy in the areas of health care and social justice (including immigration).

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victor_toroVictor Toro is like familia to me. Whenever I am at a rally/event, I see him and he kisses me and my children warmly. His life exemplifies the ways in which U.S. foreign policy in Latin America is connected with current immigration policy, and how the two work together at attempting to destroy community.

Victor Toro is a citizen and national of Chile who was jailed and tortured there because of his opposition to the illegitimate Pinochet government (1973-1990). For more than 23 years, Victor and his wife Nieves Ayress (also a survivor of torture by the Pinochet regime) have been living in New York City and engaging in activism in the South Bronx, where they founded Vamos a La Peña, a nonprofit community organization that has served as a space for free expression and people’s power for undocumented workers and other disenfranchised community members. On July 6, 2007,Victor Toro was arrested by US Border Patrol, an agency of the US Department of Homeland Security, while on board an Amtrak train in Rochester, New York. He was released on bond on July 9 and is now seeking political asylum with the help of his legal team. His wife Nieves is a US citizen; their daughter, Rosita Toro, is a legal permanent resident.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2009

12PM-3PM

26 Federal Plaza

Corner of Worth & Lafayette

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When an immigrant, or two in this case, don’t fit into the the “good” immigrant narrative because of a criminal (in)justice system based, since its inception, on oppression, does the community turn it’s back? That is the question that the pro-migrant movement needs to ask itself in the face of the case of cousins Denis Calderon & Julio Maldonado who were victims of a hate crime yet find themselves behind bars, awaiting deportation.
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Mas on the Young Lords Party

6:28 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · chicago|history|New York City|Puerto Rico · Comments Off

25 Aug 2009

I would have liked to see more of the mujeres of the Young Lords Party represented here, pero a good video none the less that I think especially points to the power of grassroots organizing by the people.

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Women’s bodies used as leverage in war on terror

8:48 pm By la Macha · Uncategorized · Comments Off

24 Aug 2009

In all the reporting about the CIA documents that prove abuse, torture and other types of violence on the part of the CIA against “terror suspects,” the one thing I would really like to point out is how women’s bodies were used (and presumably are still being used) in the “war on terror.”

From the BBC News:

The declassified document released by the justice department said that one agent told key terror suspect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed that “we’re going to kill your children” if there were further attacks on the US.

Another agent allegedly told Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a suspect in the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, that his mother would be sexually assaulted in front of him. The agent has denied the allegation.

In other incidents involving Mr Nashiri, he was allegedly threatened with an unloaded gun and had a power drill held near him which was repeatedly turned on and off.

Another incident involved an agent pinching an artery in a detainee’s neck. As the man was passing out, the agent shook him awake, then repeated the action twice.

I read this and thought–hm, aren’t these U.S. interrogators acting in the name of the same nation/state that said the reason we had to invade Iraq and Afghanistan is because women were treated like shit in Muslim nations?

On a side note, I also want to ask, if this is how women are being used in the war on terror, how are they being used AND TREATED in immigration detention centers? Or just regular old prison/jail?

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michael_jackson_youngIn truly sad news, it is looking like Michael Jackson’s death didn’t have to happen. The L.A. corner has released preliminary findings which say the cause of death was an overdose of overdose of propofol, a powerful sedative Jackson was using to sleep.

The 32-page warrant said Dr. Conrad Murray, Jackson’s personal physician, told a detective that he had been treating Jackson for insomnia for six weeks. Murray said each night he gave Jackson 50 mg of propofol, also known as Diprivan, diluted with the anesthetic lidocaine via an intravenous drip.

Worried that Jackson may have been becoming addicted to the drug, the Houston cardiologist said he attempted to wean him from it, putting together combinations of other drugs that succeeded in helping Jackson sleep during the two nights prior to his death.

But on June 25, other drugs failed to do the job, as he recounted to detectives in an hour-by-hour account that was detailed by detective Orlando Martinez of the Los Angeles Police Department:

This is just so sad. The irony in the fact that Jackson “made it” after starting off in desperate poverty–and he still wound up meeting the fate so many of us in the ghetto do–a drug related death. His drugs may have cost more than anything you or I have ever gotten, but they’re still drugs. And presumably, Jackson was taking those drugs for the same reason so many of us are: over work, isolation, depression, and past abuse.

Jackson’s death either shows that you can’t outrun your past–or that racism is a lot more pervasive than we think. And that it is our *culture* and *physical surroundings* that are as sick as we are. That we are living in an unsustainable world.

Or maybe it’s a little of all of it.

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Yesterday was the 40th Anniversary celebration of the Young Lords Party here in NYC. As amiga Bianca wrote, some peeps, myself included, couldn’t be there. It really bummed me out that I couldn’t be there because if it weren’t for the Young Lords, Mamita Mala wouldn’t exist. And I don’t mean that in some abstract homage to movement forepapis and foremamis kind of way. I mean it in a real physical, tangible way.

I have a worn out black tee shirt from when Iris Morales was still finishing her film, Pa’lante Siempre Pa’lante and the quote on the back says something about each generation moving the struggle forward and I was fortunate enough to see this in action even after there was no more YLP thanks to federally sponsored flame fanning of normal internal organizational conflicts.

I wasn’t even alive when the YLP was formed pero when I was just a teenager myself, their legacy and lesson marked me forever and opened the path on which I walk.
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VivirLatino is a daily publication published by Mamita Mala Media, dedicated to featuring all the latest politics, culture, entertainment of interest to the diverse Latin@ diaspora.

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