Archive for February, 2010
All is Not Quiet in Honduras as Unionista is Murdered
9:09 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · honduras|Labor · 10 Comments
14 Feb 2010
The swearing in of new President Porfirio Lobo hasn’t brought the peace that the people of Honduras are seeking. Unfinished business post the ousting of Manuel Zelaya is particularly impacting local labor organizers, especially women.
The body of 29-year-old Vanessa Yamileth Zepeda, still dressed in her nurse’s scrubs and killed by a bullet, turned up in the Loarque neighborhood of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on February 4. Zepeda had young children and was a leader of the SITRAIHSS labor union (Workers Union for the Honduran Social Security Institute). She had been abducted that afternoon while leaving a union meeting.
The fact that Zepeda’s death is being dismissed as an act of “common criminality” is disturbing enough, as if the murder of a mujer should be somewhat acceptable. Since Lobo’s inauguration there have been 10 to 15 assassinations of resistance members and leaders according to activists. Were those also acts of common criminals or the work of the common criminals of government?
The Troublesome U.S. Stepchild, Puerto Rico : Part I Vieques Si
11:58 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Puerto Rico · 5 Comments
12 Feb 2010Born with U.S. citizenship but without the right to vote for the president, Puerto Ricans are the stepchildren of the United States. The island was a spoil of the Spanish-American war and since then has been used as a strategic military base and its residents have been used as guinea pigs for everything from birth control to radiation.
And the question that is always asked is, well why don’t Puerto Ricans do something about their “Estado Libre Asociado” or free associated state, which in name makes as little sense as it does in practice. There are those that point to the numerous referendums, which as I have said a million times before, are nothing more than glorified opinion polls. The referendums have no political power. The only body that has the power to change the status of Puerto Rico is the U.S. Congress, not the Puerto Rican people themselves. No wonder there are organizations like los Macheteros.
And why is this relevant now? Well as a Rican, it’s always relevant to me. From the moment I wake up to the moment I fall asleep, I am aware of my Rican-ness and the privilege that living on Long Island has over living on the island of enchantment. But for non-Ricans, they may suddenly see more of Puerto Rico in their news and not necessarily from people they would expect.
Read more…
Pre-Valentine’s Day Musical Interlude Roberto Carlos, Que Sera de Ti
9:36 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Brazil|Music · Comments Off
12 Feb 2010Mala has a love/hate relationship with Valentine’s Day. It’s a manufactured holiday, made to make peeps feel bad about their romantic status or lack of one. Alternatively it equates love with materialism. Pero I got excited seeing a Valentine in my mailbox, my real mailbox, not my virtual one. It made me especially happy to see that it was from an hermana in struggle ::Valentine’s Day raised fist::.
I’m not involved romantically with anyone right now pero I’m in love. In love with con my familia and con la vida and those involved in it. My friends know I’m also a sucker for old, cheesy Spanish language music and Valentine’s Day is the perfect excuse to indulge. So here’s some Roberto Carlos, a Brazilian who is celebrating 50 years in music! Que Sera de Ti was also redone as part of the soundtrack of the original El Clon novela, which yes I also shamlessly love.
Teaching That Only English Speaking Parents and Students Are Important in Schools
7:19 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration|language|North Carolina · 5 Comments
12 Feb 2010When my daughter was in elementary school in the public school system of NYC, I spent alot of time trying to create equal access to information for Spanish speaking immigrant families. Despite NYC being an “immigrant” city, there is no standardized system of making sure that all parents, regardless of their home language get information that they can understand in order to support their child’s education and participate in the school community. Parent/teacher conferences were interpreted by children and school notices and meetings went home in English only. It was a struggle. Imagine what it is like in communities already less immigrant friendly. A recent incident in North Carolina doesn’t require our imaginations.
Ana Ligia Mateo, a former secretary at a Devonshire Elementary in North Carolina, was hired as a bilingual secretary — which makes sense, since nearly half of the school’s student population is Hispanic, and many come from homes where English is not their first language. But in 2008, a new principal instituted a policy barring faculty or staff from speaking Spanish to parents. The policy seems to be motivated solely by anti-immigrant sentiment and racism. Yet Mateo was a constant rule-breaker. When distraught or concerned parents with a language barrier came to the school, she couldn’t always bring herself to refuse to answer questions or translate so that they could understand. So she was fired.
Guest Worker Protections Officially Reinstated
4:47 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration|Labor · 1 Comment
11 Feb 2010It’s been almost a year since Labor Secretary Hilda Solis announced the suspension of Bush era changes to the H-2A agricultural guest worker program. Today, Solis announced today reinstatement of protections including remedying cutbacks in labor protections and restoring the requirement that U.S. workers be hired before foreign laborers are imported, a protection weakened under the Bush regulations.
I think it’s important to offer protection for the guest workers that are here, especially in the absence of a comprehensive immigration reform bill or plan, for that matter. It does not however solve the larger multiple issues involved in guest worker visa programs.
Via / United Farm Workers
Ask Dallas To Name A Street After Cesar Chavez
10:15 am By la Macha · history|Labor · 3 Comments
10 Feb 2010Got this note in a message on facebook. For those of you in Dallas, turn up if you can!!
Host:
LULAC District III
Type:
Meetings – Club/Group Meeting
Network:
Global
Date:
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Time:
12:00pm – 3:00pm
Location:
Dallas City Hall
Street:
1500 Marilla St., 6th Floor Council Chambers
City/Town:
Dallas, TXDescription
Join us:
Wednesday, Feb. 10, Noon to 3 p.m.
Dallas City Hall, 6th Floor Council Chambers
1500 Marilla St., Dallas, TX 75201
RSVP: jessegarciadallas@gmail.comPlease come show your support and urge Dallas City Council members to vote in favor of renaming a portion of South Central Expressway (from Pacific Avenue on the north to Grand Avenue on the south) to César Chávez Boulevard.
Cities around the nation including Austin, El Paso, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Salt Lake City, Kansas City, Boise, Portland, San Francisco, San Diego, Albuquerque and many others, have already honored César Chávez with a street. It is time that Dallas step up and recognize an individual that means a lot to the Hispanic community, a community that makes up 40 percent of the city.
NY State Senate Votes to Oust Hiram Monserrate
10:56 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · New York|New York City|Women · 2 Comments
9 Feb 2010
According what feels like every news org in NY, the New York State Senate has voted to expel State Senator Hiram Monserrate. The 53 to 8 vote was based on Monserrate’s conviction for assaulting his girlfriend.
Not surprisingly, Monserrate is already mounting an appeal with high profile attorney Norman Siegel representing him. Monserrate and his supporters feel like the expulsion vote is about more than domestic violence (because apparently that’s not enough). Some feel it’s payback for Monserrate siding with the GOP during a “coup” that kept the lawmaking body at a standstill. Of course there is also the matter of Monserrate voting against marriage equity in New York State. This could set a precedent, with Monserrate being the first state senator to be kicked out for a misdemeanor conviction.
Read more…
NYC: 12 Year Old Latina Arrested for Doodling on Her Desk
9:36 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · children|Education|New York City · 7 Comments
9 Feb 2010
My first daughter was barely walking when the New York City Department of Education put the New York City Police Department in charge of school safety. I protested the measure, supporting the high school students and parents who knew that putting the already racist NYPD in charge of public school safety would lead to racial profiling on top of racial tracking that was already happening.
Now my older daughter is 12 years old, and the school where many of her friends go, the school that is her zoned junior high school (full disclosure- she attends a private school), the school my sister graduated from, had a 12 year old arrested and handcuffed for doodling on her desk.
Alexa Gonzalez no longer faces a suspension for scribbling with a lime green marker, but principal Marilyn Grant told her mother, Moraima Camacho, that agency policy dictated that she calls the cops.
“[She said] that it wasn’t their fault that it was something they had to do,” Camacho said of her meeting with Grant at Junior High School 190 in Forest Hills. “She doesn’t consider it doodling.”
A message left for Grant was not returned.
After Alexa scribbled her name, the date and a smiley face on her desk during a Spanish class on Monday, her teacher reported her to an assistant principal, who placed a call to cops, city officials said.
The cops arrested Alexa, escorting her out of the school with her hands behind her back in metal handcuffs, Camacho said.
Aunque hace mucho frio aqui en el gran mango de Nueva York, tengo un fuego muy, pero muy adentro. Quien me lo va apagar? Los Hermanos Lebron of course.
Shout out to poeta/amigo Diego Liriko whose posted this on his Facebook late last night.
Woman wants to look like Jessica Alba
12:30 pm By la Macha · Movies|Women · 3 Comments
8 Feb 2010
Speaking of Jessica Alba, the AP is reporting that a woman in China is attempting plastic surgery as a way to win her lover back. The woman wants to look like Jessica Alba.
The actress said Saturday she’s been distressed by Internet reports about a Chinese woman who is having a plastic surgery makeover to look like Alba in hopes of getting her lover back.
“I think you should never have to change yourself like that,” Alba said. “If somebody loves you, they’ll love you no matter what.”
I do think that it’s amazingly cool that Alba is speaking out against the type of “flattery” the woman in China is attempting. Hollywood seems to be a cesspool of unhealthy thinking and encouraging degrading behavior in women in particular–it’s nice to see an actor that cares enough to put the brakes on the Hollywood mentality.
I also think it’s important that Alba is not mocking the woman in China (i.e. what the fuck is wrong with her???) but pointing to the misogyny and sexism (assuming that the woman’s ex is male) that often grounds the Hollywood mentality. In other words, it’s *women* who must do anything to keep her partner–including horribly drastic surgery. Never the men. By putting the emphasis on the ex’s reaction (he shouldn’t expect crap like that out of her), I think Jessica is making a nice feminist intervention into the politics of “looks.”
Anyway. It’s a little thing what Jessica did (or maybe huge, if the woman changes her mind after hearing Jessica’s words)–but after debating Jessica’s reaction to her Latinidad–I thought it would be good to give her props for something.
Hola!
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