Archive for November, 2009
A little lunch time fun
12 Nov 2009Because the news has been so depressing, and it is Sesame Street’s big anniversary after all!
For you, Dear VLatin@s–a waiter who knows what effortless resistance looks like.
Rape and Im/Migrant Women
11:56 am By la Macha · Immigration · Comments Off
12 Nov 2009
Most anti-violence organizers agree that the best way to stop sexual violence is to have stable community structures that are capable of both holding abusers accountable and keeping survivors and potential victims safe.
So when you belong to a community that is not stable in any sense of the word and you are a marginalized person (i.e. a woman, a child, queer, transgendered, etc), your chances of being raped sky rocket. And furthermore, your ability to “recover” from the trauma in healing and multiple ways are almost nonexistent. Which means that across the world, ‘home communities’ are being left to deal with the results of sexual abuse–even as the survivor continues to get no relief from the conditions that led to his/her sexual abuse to begin with.
From Time:
In many cases, Normawati explains, female migrant workers are raped and then dumped on the streets by their employers, who refuse to give them their passports after discovering that the women are pregnant. The women are then arrested by police and placed in jail. Sometimes they are deported before the child is born. Herlina [a care taker of babies conceived through rape and then abandoned by mothers] claims that airport officials have called her to ask what to do with the babies who are left behind by mothers.
Normawati says there are dozens of children who were abandoned by migrant workers in homes throughout Jakarta and surrounding areas.
The unsaid truth of the linked essay is that not only are women being sexual abused, assaulted and raped in countries that aren’t their own, not only are they being jailed and deported *because they were raped*, but there also seems to be very little access to safe and reliable reproductive health choices as well (i.e. abortions, birth control, pap smears, rape kits, etc). Which means that physical trauma to a woman’s genitals and pregnancy are potentially not the only consequences to the rapes–how many women got STD’s from rapists? Or never healed properly from rapes or pregnancies?
Sexual violence against immigrant communities is not new or unusual–and it is one of the main reasons why radical that I might be, I am very anxious for immigration reform to get pushed back on the table in the U.S.. These same rapes, these same traumas are happening here in the U.S., and if it takes “reform” to bring attention to the violence and *stop it*–than so be it.
From Marriage, to Health, to Immigration : Where are the Transgender Latinas?
10:06 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration · 1 Comment
12 Nov 2009When looking at all the push for reform in various areas of social justice (as if there is no overlap), the transgender community is often overlooked or mentioned as an aside. As if gender identity doesn’t intersect with sexual orientation, or health care access, or immigration status. You would think that no transgendered identified person wants to get married, or have access to affordable health care, or want to come out of the immigration shadows.
For example earlier this year I looked critically at the groundbreaking NAM study on Latina immigrants that seemed to look at cisgendered, partnered, straight Latinas, making invisible any Latinas that fell outside of those margins. It seems that the only time the media deals with the everyday issues in transwomen’s lives is when those lives are gone. And yes the critique is aimed at myself and this site as well.
It is within the accepted narrative for Latin America to be transphobic but in the U.S. the abuse and denial of basic rights is rarely even on the radar especially when it comes to immigration. In fact in a conversation i had just last week on the issue of who are Latina immigrants, there was an attempt, I felt by the other to paint transgender Latinas as outsiders or “one-offs” in the Latina immigrant community rather than an essential and regular part of it. It is attitudes such as this that create an atmosphere that is ripe for further abuse especially within the already unjust immigrant detention system.
Esmeralda: A Transgender Detainee Speaks Out from Breakthrough on Vimeo.
For those Latinas working inside Latin America trying to get their message to U.S. audiences, they have found their own barriers and all signs point to transphobia:
On November 3, just a week before she was supposed to speak before audiences in the US about her work for sexual rights in Nicaragua, activist Silvia Martinez of the Trans Network of Nicaragua (REDTRANS) was denied a travel visa by the US embassy.
This decision came as a shock for several reasons:
- Silvia has been issued visas by other countries in the past. In 2007, she traveled to Panama to present recommendations of the LBTTTGI community to government representatives attending a session of the Organization of American States.
- She has an invitation through MADRE, a leading 26-year-old women’s human rights organization. MADRE has brought activists from around the world to speak in the US on previous occasions without a problem.
- She is firmly rooted in her community in Nicaragua and holds an important position in an organization (REDTRANS) that depends on her work in Nicaragua. There is no reason for her to give this up in order to live in a far less desirable situation in this country, away from her network of friends and allies.
Yet no member of the consulate even bothered to call MADRE to verify these facts.
Silvia clearly meets the above criteria that the US Department of State commonly uses to determine visa eligibility. The denial of this visa fits a broader pattern of the US embassy systematically rejecting visa applications from transgender people.
This discrimination constitutes a violation of internationally recognized human rights, which the US is obligated to uphold.
El Salvador After Hurricane Ida, How You Can Help
8:00 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · El Salvador · Comments Off
12 Nov 2009The death toll in El Salvador due to Hurricane Ida has risen to nearly 200 now mainly due to flooding and landslides. Hundreds of homes have been destroyed. Thousands of homes have been damaged.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Here are some ways that you can help:
The Comité Cívico Salvadoreño de New York is mainly seeking donations; they can be reached via e-mail at desastredeida@yahoo.com or telephone at 516-368-1912.
Salvadoran expats in Los Angeles helped create a bank account solely for the use of sending donations to their countrymen.
–El Salvador Relief Fund
Promerica Bank
Cuenta # 1100002375
Via / The Latin Americanist
Video : Lou Dobbs Announcing He’s Outie
7:41 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Media|media justice · Comments Off
11 Nov 2009I’m formulating thoughts pero for now peace con justicia.
Breaking News: Lou Dobbs Announcing He’s Leaving CNN
7:00 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Media|media justice · 8 Comments
11 Nov 2009Mad props to the peeps at Basta Dobbs! and Drop Dobbs and the hundreds of thousands who supported the efforts cuz it looks like little Louie is packing up his toys and going home.
Lou Dobbs, the longtime CNN anchor whose anti-immigration views made him a TV lightning rod, plans to announce Wednesday that he is leaving the network, two network employees said.
A CNN executive confirmed that Mr. Dobbs will announce his resignation plans on his 7 p.m. program. His resignation is effective immediately; tonight’s program will be his last on CNN. His contract was not set to expire until the end of 2011.
Mr. Dobbs informed his staff members of his intentions in a meeting Wednesday afternoon. He did not immediately respond to a telephone call seeking comment.
Its not clear if he was forced to resign as a result of all the negative attention he was bringing CNN or if he left on his own.
Damn I wish I had CNN just for tonite.
Remembering Women Vets on Veterans Day
2:28 pm By la Macha · Uncategorized · 3 Comments
11 Nov 2009Democracy Now! ran the following segment about the challenges women in the military are facing. It’s a horrifying and extremely important segment, I hope you listen to the whole thing.
One of the things that a lot of people don’t realize is women make up 15 percent of today’s military, so about one in seven soldiers are female. And the face of war has completely changed because of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Women are being used on the so-called front lines every single day. And commanders—and by that, I mean infantry commanders themselves—are violating DOD policy every single day by actually degrading women at the lowest levels of combat. So you have non-infantry support soldiers who are women, and male, serving with the infantry, attached to infantry units, doing combat patrols, kicking down doors.
And because of this need to sort of win hearts and minds on the ground, and because Afghan and Iraqi women are so critical in our relations on the ground with local villages, women are being used to sort of form those relationships on the ground. Women have access to local villages, to homes, that male soldiers don’t. And so, women are often taking off their helmets and going in with headscarves into local homes, doing the searches.
And it’s completely unprecedented. The DOD did not expect this, going into these wars, that women would be virtually fully integrated into the military on the ground. And so, congressional policy hasn’t yet caught up with what’s playing out in these conflicts.
Happy? Veteran’s Day
11:00 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · history|holidays|Immigration|military · 4 Comments
11 Nov 2009Today is the day set aside by the U.S. government to recognize those who lived and died in military service for the U.S. Despite my strong opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the countless smaller undeclared wars all over the world, that doesn’t mean there is no love from me for those who have chosen the military life. They include members of my own familia, primas and tios who have fought for the United States and they represent a growing number of young men and women of color who look to the armed forces as a way to survive and move forward with their lives. Pero as today’s editorial from el Diario/la Prensa points out, the role of Latinos in the U.S. military is nothing new, it’s just that people have failed to recognize it.
As many as 750,000 Latinos and Latinas served in the armed forces during World War II, according to the U.S. Latino & Latina WWII Oral History Project. During the Korean War, the 65th Infantry of Puerto Rico won the praise of legendary military commanders such as General Douglas MacArthur. Yet, in the telling of U.S. history, Latino soldiers have received little mention.
Y porque? Is it because that if the history books were to acknowledge the role of Latinos then the U.S. would have to start acknowledging Latinos as humans as part of its’ policy including passing or hell even getting started on comprehensive immigration reform?
Miercoles Musica : Johnny Pacheco, El Maestro
9:00 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Events|Music|New York City · Comments Off
11 Nov 2009Artists like Ismael Miranda, Cheo Feliciano, Domingo Quiñones, Adalberto Santiago, Johnny Ventura, Roberto Roena, Papo Lucca, Bobby Valentin, Isidro Infante, Yomo Toro, Ray Viera, Jorge Maldonado, Michel, and Nicky
Marrero gather this Saturday in NYC’s United Palace Theater to pay tribute to Johnny Pacheco
and his musical legacy spanning decades. For tickets and more info visit here.
The House Health Care Reform Bill and Immigrants
7:00 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Health|Immigration|Politics · 1 Comment
11 Nov 2009As promised, I’m spending the next few days slowly but surely exploring different aspects of the Affordable Health Care for America Act which passed in the House of Representatives this weekend. I wrote a little yesterday on the Stupak Amendment which pretty much bans access to abortion services for women. Of major concern ever since health care reform was presented was how immigrant access to healthcare would be impacted.
My reading of H.R. 3962 says that undocumented immigrants can buy into the health exchange out of their own pockets but that they are not eligible for any subsidies or affordability credits. Documented immigrants would be subject to a 5 year ban on access to subsidized public health services including Medicaid.
Liza over at Culture Kitchen writes about the impact that the Stupak Amendment has on Latina abortion access.
It is a fact of the heinous access to reproductive health education and services in this country that 67% of non-white women in this country have abortions. 22% of those women are Latinas. Why make it even more difficult for our sisters to get the kind of health care services they need to survive?
How can the infamous pro-Stupak men of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus be considered “courageous” for throwing lower-income and poorer Latinas under the bus with their? This amendment actually extends the Hyde Amendment in Medicaid legislation and goes further since it the ban would extend to any federally funded health insurance, not just Medicaid. This would mean that many more than the 2 Million Latinas who rely on Medicaid would be affected by Stupak. And it would mean many more Latinas relying even more on the “do-it-yourself” abortions that kill at least 5,000 of us yearly.
Is that what Janet Murguia and the National Council de la Raza really want for Latinas, needless to say all women in the United States? What would it have taken for NCLR to stand right next to Planned Parenthood or the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health and denounce this Health Care Reform bill as bad for all women and all immigrants? Why do we still have to debate the important of not just intersectionality in politics but in coalition building as well?
Hola!
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