Archive for November, 2009
NY State Holds an Extraordinary Session for What Should be Ordinary Rights
8:56 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · GLBT|New York|Politics · 1 Comment
10 Nov 2009I’m a spoiled NY’er who thinks that the rest of the United States and yes, the world should have the same values I do which is why I’m surprised that New York State still doesn’t have marriage equality for all of it’s residents. Today could be the day that changes. In what’s being called an extraordinary session, because it’s not a regularly scheduled one, not because it sparkles or anything like that, the NY State legislature is meeting to tackle a growing deficit and possibly approval of same-sex marriage.
The not too popular Governor David Paterson has called for a vote on gay marriage but also on budge cuts that impact school aid and hospitals. What could very well happen is that the legislature could get wrapped up in the important budget issue and ignore the marriage proposal all together. We’ll just have to wait and see.
If you are a NY’er (and hell even if you’re not) you should call your NY State Senator to let them know that you don’t want cuts to our school system and that you want marriage equity for all NY’ers! NY’ers for Marriage Equality has this handy little tool for you to figure out who your state senator is. I already know who mine is. Sigh.
The (Real) Growing Acceptance of (Real) Nazism in the U.S.
2:30 pm By la Macha · Immigration · 3 Comments
9 Nov 2009We’ve heard a lot post-Obama about how Nazism just gained a foothold in the U.S.. Nary a tea-bag protest can occur without a least a few hundred pictures of Obama with the famous Hilter mustache, and every time the health care debate comes up, non-teabaggers all have to sit through long rants about how “government controlled health care” is really secretly Nazi Germany all over again.
I’ve rolled my eyes to most of this stuff. It’s infuriating, yes, but everybody has their rhetoric.
Until I saw the following video about how Neo-Nazi parties are holding their own protests–only this time the protests are against immigrants:
As if these protests weren’t bad enough–word has it that the leader of the Nazi organization is getting support from various media organizations–and even more specifically, a media organization that many in the Republican party find respectable enough to contribute to:
Otherwise, they need to own the fact that a sitting Republican congresswoman is a contributor to a website that promoted a neo-Nazi hate rally, promotion that included sharing Sam Johnson’s email address with those looking to get involved.
When politicians aren’t calling in to major media sites that endorse neo-Nazism and demanding that their essay’s be removed from the sites and promising that all future campaigning/essay writing has ended–it is little more than tacit approval of the message on the site’s message.
Considering how easily the Minutemen Project was accepted into the mainstream (due to the embracing of the organization by corporate news sources like Lou Dobbs and Pat Buchanan on MSNBC), this is a truly frightening development. The Minutemen have always been a violence based group, but actually attempted to distance itself from it’s own violence once the mainstream began to embrace it (causing several major splinters in the org). At the time, the organization knew that to be linked to open violence against immigrants would be to spell its doom.
Things have changed in the U.S., huh? When have the neo-Nazi’s *ever* been anything but a hate group? An openly violent hate group that has embraced violence as a core tenet since its inception? It’s worth noting as well, that original Nazism also began because of mainstream acceptance of what would’ve normally been recognized as nativist and extremest organizations.
And finally, the resurgence of neo-Nazism was predicted by those who work on anti-immigrant violence as late back as 2006.
Supreme Court Hearing Two Cases on Juvenile (In)justice
12:36 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · crime|Justice|Linking Latinos|Politics|youth · Comments Off
9 Nov 2009Today the Supreme Court is hearing two cases that could hopefully change how the (in)justice system sentences juveniles. The cases specifically deal with sentencing youth to life without parole and if that is unconstitutional. The cases being used are that of Terrance Jamar Graham and Joe Sullivan, who were 16 and 13, respectively, when they committed their crimes. Not surprisingly, considering how in all phases of the criminal (in)justice system people of color are profiled and targeted, the Supreme Court’s ruling could impact the case of Latino Efrén Paredes, Jr., who at age 15 and wrongly convicted in 1989 for a murder and armed robbery he did not commit; a crime to which others have admitted guilt.
This week’s News With Nezua discusses what the Supreme Court is up to and what’s at stake.
The House Health Care Reform Bill That Passed and Passed Over
11:28 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · GLBT|Immigration|Politics|Women · 4 Comments
9 Nov 2009Some are celebrating the weekend passage of a health insurance bill in the House of Representatives. Pero those unhappy and critical aren’t just tea-baggers and others crying over a red scare. From jump, I was angered that health care reform was excluding and scapegoating some of the communities I feel strongly about, immigrants and women.
The Affordable Health Care for America Act, aka HR3962, passed 220-215 but the act contains provisions that bar access to services for women.
The Stupak Amendment (does that rhyme with stupid) bans coverage for abortion under any plans that use federal monies. This amendment apparently was a response to threats from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops who threatened to dis the bill at masses across the country if abortion was covered. I went to church this Sunday specifically to see if the health care reform bill would be mentioned instead the priest talked about the World Series. Hmm.
Additionally the amendment requires that those participating in the “health exchange”, individuals and employers, buy riders for covering abortion services. The only exceptions are for pregnancies that are the result of rape/incest or when the life of the pregnant woman is in danger (her life, not her health). Additionally employer sponsored and private plans that don’t take government money are exempt. This means that women who participate in the public option of health care exchanges couldn’t even use their own money to access abortions.
Remembering Marcelo Lucero : Images and Thoughts from Vigil in Patchogue, Long Island
11:40 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Ecuador|Family|Immigration|New York|Violence · 8 Comments
8 Nov 2009On Saturday evening I took the trip from NYC into it’s suburbs, specifically Patchogue, Long Island. On about an hour and a half drive out there, it’s easier to try and understand why immigrant communities are more isolated and why Lucero’s family and his case hasn’t gotten the support that it deserves. At only 5:30 at night, the streets were dark and isolated and I remembered the Southern Poverty Law Center report telling of people being driven off the rode and not walking alone after dark. This is a stark contrast to my immigrant hood where yes, people look over their shoulders and put their heads down as they pass the police that patrol, but it never stops. The traffic, the hum of conversation, musica and children. Stores stay open late as do restaurants. In Patchogue, at the end of a road that led to the tracks of the Long Island Railroad, a crowd of a few hundred gathered where Ecuadorian immigrant Marcelo Lucero was killed by a gang of racist youth to remember.
Remembering Marcelo Lucero, One Year Later from VivirLatino on Vimeo.
Images from November 7, 2009 vigil remembering Marcelo Lucero, an Ecuadorian immigrant killed in Patchogue, Long Island in a hate crime.
The Lucero family asked that the vigil not be political, rather that the message stay focused on peace and unity and everyone in attendance respected the wishes of the family, I will do that as well by not inserting political commentary here but rather just showing what I saw, heard, and felt.
Marcelo Lucero Vigil : America the Beautiful from VivirLatino on Vimeo.
Scenes from vigil in memory of Marcelo Lucero. 11-07-09 Patchogue, Long Island, NY.
Mangos With Chili Presents Beloved: A Requiem for Our Dead in the Bay Area Tonite & Nov. 15th
11:42 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Arts|California|Culture|dance|Events|history|language|Lo Que Hay|Raices|Violence|Women · 1 Comment
7 Nov 2009
Porque we remember our loved ones from our familias and community everyday and porque the mujeres that are involved in the creation of this project are beautiful and kick culo.
Mangos With Chili: the floating cabaret of QTPOC bliss, dreams, sweat, sweets & nightmares
proudly presents the premiere of:BELOVED: A Requiem for Our Dead
because we refuse to forget youFeaturing:
Nalo Hopkinson
Charleston Chu
E. Rose Sims
SoliRose
Nico Dacumos
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Ms. Cherry Galette
and moreWith video by Storm Florez, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Kortney Ryan Ziegler, and more
November 6th and 7th, 8PM
The Lab
2948 16th St
San Francisco, CA 94103
$12-16, no one turned away for lack of fundsNovember 15th, 8PM
Hechos en Califas Festival
La Pena
3105 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA
$12-16, no one turned away for lack of fundsIn this highly anticipated premiere of the newest Mangos With Chili production, we invite you to join us at the crossroads for a night of conjuring, memory, mourning and celebration. Through elegies of story, song, dance, drag and more, the Bay Area’s noted and notorious queer and trans people of color performance crew will honor our erased, fallen and slain queer and trans people of color family lost to hate crimes, war, colonization, and genocide. We will celebrate our queer legacies and the ways we’ve found to survive through the beautiful resistance of memory, and whisper stories about grief, loss, healing, sweet darkness, and walking between worlds towards rebirth.
Beloved: A Requiem for Our Dead will feature the brilliance and blaze of renowned Caribbean speculative fiction storycrafter Nalo Hopkinson; multimedia invocation performance art heart wrench by playwright and poet Nico Dacumos; In Memoriam, a new collaborative dance theater work by Charlston Chu and Cherry Galette; ancestral prayer/spoken love letter by writer and theater artist Rose E. Sims; a mixed media jazz dance cabaret extravaganza by Charleston Chu, an autobiographical musical journey traversing the Middle East and African Diaspora by virtuoso trio SoliRose; the powerful truth renderings of queer Sri Lankan writer and performer Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha; and the premiere of Moorish Salt a burlesque-dance theater/ritual performance art piece by fusion dance artist and theater-maker Cherry Galette.
Mangos With Chili is a Bay Area based arts organization committed to showcasing high quality performance of life saving importance by queer and trans artists of color to audiences in the Bay Area and beyond. Founded in 2006 by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha and Ms Cherry Galette, Mangos With Chili has performed to sold out houses across North America, wowing audiences in world class theaters, underground performance spaces, bars, and campus halls, with their high intensity, breathtaking performance, politics, and storytelling craft, reflecting the lives and stories of queer and trans people of color, while making art that speaks out in resistance to the daily struggles around silence, isolation, homophobia, and violence that QTPOC face. Mangos With Chili is a fiscally sponsored project of the San Francisco based arts organization CounterPULSE, which provides space and resources for emerging artists and cultural innovators: www.counterpulse.org. Mangos With Chili is supported by the Horizons Foundation, the Astraea Foundation, and the generous support of our community of donors.Both venues are wheelchair accessible. The show contains material of adult nature. Parental discretion advised. Please refrain from wearing scented products to ensure that audience members and performers with multiple chemical sensitivity can attend.
For more information:
mangos.with.chili@gmail.com
mangoswithchili.wordpress.com
Vigil for Marcelo LuceroThis Evening in Patchogue, Long Island, NY
11:17 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Events|Immigration|Justice|New York · Comments Off
7 Nov 2009
Vigil in Memory of Marcelo Lucero
Saturday November, 7th @ 6:00pm
RailRoad Ave. Patchogue, NY
Religious Service to follow at Congregational Church 7:30pmMy family’s wish is to create a new environment of peace and unity for our community. We would like to invite members of all communities to share in the vigil in memory of my dear brother, Marcelo Lucero, on Saturday November 7 at 6pm next to the train station where he lost his life. Following the vigil, we will walk to the Congregational Church of Patchogue located on Main Street for a religious ceremony scheduled for 7:30pm. We request from all who attend to wear a white t-shirt in solidarity to share in this day of peace, healing and hope. Our message is no more violence but peace, no more racism but instead brotherhood and no more abuse rather respect.
During the vigil, we will collect donations for the Marcelo Lucero Scholarship that I created last year for the students of Patchogue-Medford HS and monies will also be used to send a mural to Gualaceo, Ecuador, which was created by Pat-Med students as a symbol of peace. If your organization would like to send a contribution in advance please write checks to: Marcelo Lucero Scholarship and send it directly to the Patchogue-Medford HS, 181 Buffalo Avenue, Medford, New York 11763.
Please be advised that this event will not be used for any political agendas. We would like to thank you in advance for your support and for respecting our wishes.
En Solidarity,
Joselo Lucero and family
VL At The Cine: The Fourth Kind
6 Nov 2009
***Spoilers Ahead***
I like to think that being raised by an artist helped me learn to appreciate the craft of many other artists. Perhaps this has allowed me to suspend logic in some ways; enter my adoration of magical realism. In short: I like to be entertained and The Fourth Kind was entertaining and troubling.
Horror, mystery, sci-fi, these are all the categories where the film The Fourth Kind is included. I’d like to add this film to the very small category of “Directors & Screenwriters of Color who found and earned major distribution for their films in 2009.” Olatunde Osunsanmi is a Nigerian director and screenwriter and The Fourth Kind is his first film distributed by a major corporate company.
Rihanna interview
6:11 pm By la Macha · Celebrities|TV|Violence|Women · 10 Comments
5 Nov 2009This just broke my heart. Broke my heart.
From Huffington Post, a preview on the Rihanna interview:
I think that it is really generous and loving of Rihanna to think about girls at a time in her life when she is hurting and confused and devastated and even humiliated. But that section quoted above–that part where she says, “her selfish decision to love”….Oh, how my heart breaks.
It is not Rihanna’s job to stop violence against women. It’s not any woman or girl’s job to stop violence against women and girls. Even if she stayed with Chris Brown forever–it would never be her fault that women are being killed by men. It is manipulative and even violent to say it is. It is not selfish for a woman or girl to love. Dear god, no.
It is selfish to beat a woman. It is selfish to scare and intimidate her. It is selfish to take her love and use it against her, it is selfish to beat a woman who loves you because you know you can.
It is Chris Brown’s job to stop violating women. It is men’s job to stop violating women. It is men’s job to stop twisting and FUCKING with love so freely and generously given. It is the job of men to grow the fuck up and get into some kind of healing/therapy so that they can teach *little boys* how to not beat the holy fuck out of a person who loves them.
And it’s media’s job to stop putting the lives of little girls onto the shoulders of survivors. They have enough shit to worry about. It’s time to start putting responsibility where it belongs. On the fists of men who make the choice to use them whenever they feel like it.
One of Marcelo Lucero’s Attackers Pleads Guilty
4:11 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · crime|Justice|New York|Violence · 1 Comment
5 Nov 2009
While I was writing my reflections on the anniversary of the hate motivated killing of Marcelo Lucero, , one of his attackers plead guilty to a variety of charges. Nicholas Hausch, 18, pleaded guilty to first-degree gang assault, fourth-degree conspiracy, second-degree assault as a hate crime and second-degree attempted assault as a hate crime.
Hausch’s plea is apparently part of a deal in exchange for information on what happened the night Lucero was brutally attacked. Hausch had no problem yelling slurs at Lucero almost a year ago, but had problems speaking up before a judge.
In a barely audible voice, Hausch answered a prosecutor’s questions about the events that led to the slaying, admitting that he and his six co-defendants set out to search for Latinos to attack.
“Keep your voice up, young man,” the judge said to Hausch twice during the teen’s admissions.
Responding to questions from Assistant District Attorney Meghan O’Donnell, Hausch detailed three attacks he was involved in on Nov. 8, including the Lucero killing.
Before coming across Lucero, Hausch said the group pursued another man. “I got out of the car and I chased him. We were yelling at him,” calling him a derogatory name, he said….
Hausch faces 5 to 25 years in prison on the gang assault charge and will not be sentenced until the prosecution of the other six defendants is completed.
Via / Newsday
Hola!
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