Archive for September, 2010
DREAM Act & Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Not Moving Forward as Part of Defense Bill
8:04 am By Maegan La Mala · DREAM Act|Immigration|Politics · 7 Comments
22 Sep 2010After an emotional buildup for many towards the 2:30 pm EST hour yesterday, when the U.S. Senate voted, 56-43, against a motion to proceed on the National Defense Authorization Act. This shut down the possibility of the DREAM Act and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell being presented as amendments to the Defense bill. All Republican senators voted against cloture and two Democrats, Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor, both of Arkansas.
Up to the moment of the vote, I watched U.S. Senators, all white old men, talk about gays in the military. Republican Senators like John McCain danced around their homophobia by saying they didn’t want to add DADT because the military hadn’t had a chance to do polling about the impact on combat readiness if there were out lgbt folks in the armed forces. Other Republicans looked at the DREAM Act in one of two ways : a ploy by Senate Majority Harry Reid to get the Latino vote and/or a version of “amnesty” for some undocumented.
DREAM Act and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Amendment Vote Today
8:16 am By Maegan La Mala · DREAM Act|Immigration|Politics · 1 Comment
21 Sep 2010Today at approximately 2:15 pm EST, there will be a vote in the U.S. Senate as to if to add the DREAM Act Amendment and the Don’t Act Don’t Tell repeal Amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act. Technically speaking, from my understanding (and peeps who know more about Senate procedure feel free to jump in) the vote will be whether or not to proceed with a debate on the Defense bill. It will be during that debate, if allowed, that the DREAM and DADT amendments will be presented.
Call for Submissions : aaduna … a timeless exploration into words and images
10:41 am By Maegan La Mala · literature · 1 Comment
20 Sep 2010
This is a project that yours truly is intimately involved in. Please consider submitting.
aaduna seeks to uncover new and emerging creative visionaries, especially people of color, in the realm of fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and the visual arts
Submission Philosophy:
aaduna seeks to broaden the current online paradigms associated with publishing works by emerging writers and artists especially for people of color. From a multicultural viewpoint, aaduna comprehends the fact that while cultures and ethnicities tend to exist separate from each other, that development is a political, social, and contrived construct. Therefore, aaduna seeks to erase such artificial distinctions, and welcomes submissions from emerging writers and visual artists whose work goes beyond expectations based solely on physicality or cultural characteristics. While aaduna is primarily interested in providing a viable publishing platform for people of color, the world is huge, and there is a widening audience for other artists whose creativity reflects voices that are divergent; voices that are powerful, and voices committed to change.
The aaduna editorial policy is committed to presenting work in the manner and style that reflects how the creative person behind the work wants to see that work presented to the public, realizing that the most effective judge of any work’s quality and import ultimately rests within the marketplace. It is within this reality that aaduna will be a conduit for providing the public with works that are stimulating, enjoyable, insightful, open for vigorous discussion, and in some measure, a catalyst to embolden the intellect, imagination, and human spirit.
aaduna does not provide honorarium. However, aaduna will work with each published artist to build an appropriate platform that may lead to a wide variety of market opportunities.
Aaduna si dofa rey. (The world is huge.)
Lunes Libro : Last Days of Summer Edition Featuring Bloody Twist
8:43 am By Maegan La Mala · Books|GLBT|Women · 3 Comments
20 Sep 2010
I don’t think I have read a mystery book since my days reading Nancy Drew. So when I was pitched the latest book in a series, Bloody Twist, by longtime author Carolina Garcia-Aguilera, I said why not. The Lupe Solano series features a young, sexy and smart Cubana private investigator in Miami and is written by a Latina. Could be a fun and interesting read. Here’s the official synopsis:
Two years after having been shot in Bitter Sugar, fiery heroine Lupe Solano is back on the job. Tommy MacDonald, Miami’s premiere criminal defense attorney and Lupe Solano’s sometimes lover, needs help with a case involving his new client, the mysterious Madeline Marie Meadows. Twenty-two-year-old Ms. Meadows is Miami’s highest paid call-girl. Although Ms. Meadows has not been charged with any crime, she hires MacDonald as a result of the murders of two men she has relationships with. Although Tommy is drawn to Ms. Meadows, he is skeptical of her story and asks Lupe to begin an investigation.
Monday Musica : Rebel Diaz -”Libertad”
6:11 am By Maegan La Mala · Chile|Linking Latinos|Music · 1 Comment
20 Sep 2010During this Latino Heritage Month, we are marketed to, studied, talked about and analyzed. During this month many of our homelands, ancestral and actual celebrate their independence days but also within these countries we struggle onward seeking true freedom.
The following video comes from us gracias a Rebel Diaz. Filmed on the streets of Santiago de Chile and produced Chilean team, Artefacto Visual, the video features Villa Grimaldi, which was a concentration camp site during the Pinochet dictatorship ushered in by the United States and where two of the Rebel Diaz crew members, RodStarz and G1′s, parents were tortured.
For me, this video is what this month and every other month of the year is about.
Enjoy
The Complicated Messy Way the DREAM is Coming
9:29 am By Maegan La Mala · DREAM Act|Immigration|military|Politics · 9 Comments
17 Sep 2010Electoral politics is a dirty, messy affair that seems to inevitably involve heart wrenching compromise. Such is the case with the DREAM Act.
Earlier this week, Nevada Senator and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pledged to bring the DREAM Act to a vote in the Senate next week.
Happy (?) Latino Heritage Month
8:17 am By Maegan La Mala · history|Latin America · 5 Comments
16 Sep 2010
Yesterday marked the official start of Latino (of Hispanic) Heritage Month, 30 days or so of corporate cafeterias serving tacos. Ok so I’m being cynical. The marketing is so over the top some time (see picture). The political pandering so offensive, especially at a time like this with the mid-term elections, it feels like all fluff and no substance.
It’s not that I don’t love being a Latina, it’s my primary identity above all others. I think in large part because of my political awaking when I was a teenager, whenever someone asks that tired old question and I am forced to limit myself to one answer, I’ll go with Latina over mujer. It’s just it is who I am, how I live. I don’t wake up in the morning thinking about how can I be more Latino and don’t try extra hard to be extra Latina during this month. But that, that not trying so hard to prove myself, is a shift for myself so maybe in that there is value in this month as a kind of “new year” of sorts for our multiple communities.
Read more…
Sexo and the Sports Reportera, Ines Sainz
6:23 am By Maegan La Mala · Media|sexuality|Women · 2 Comments
15 Sep 2010Ok we get it U.S. media. The only way you would believe that Ines Sainz was subjected to sexual harassment is if she looked like Betty la Fea before her “transformation” of course.
For those that don’t know what I’m referring to, Ines Sainz, a sports reporter for Mexican TV Azteca was at a NY Jets practice, and later in the locker room, specifically to conduct an interview with quarterback Mark Sanchez. It was during that practice that Sainz alleges that footballs were thrown her way to bring players to where she stood and it was in that locker room that she says she was catcalled.
And then the firestorm began. And no the firestorm wasn’t about the harassment. Save that for a sports reporter who doesn’t have a Latino surname. The firestorm was about what Sainz was wearing and how her “booty” and how her daring to work with that body was to blame. It especially helps that Sainz has that accent because women with accents and certain body types and Spanish surnames especially have it coming.
Here are just a few headlines I saw found while Googling :
Did Ines Sainz’s Tight Pants Invite Harassment From the Jets Players?
Andrea Peyser: It’s Ines Sainz’s Fault She Was ‘Sexually Harassed’ by Jets Players
The Jets, Ines Sainz and sharing blame
Education for everyone involved could be the best way to address this controversy
And then there are the tv interviews…
Read more…
Martes Musica : All I Want Is You (People’s Remix) – Rodstarz of Rebel Diaz and Baron of Red Clay
14 Sep 2010Mala would be ok with this song being dedicated to her.
Reflections on Primary Day : The Latino Vote (or Not and That’s Ok)
9:14 am By Maegan La Mala · Politics · 2 Comments
14 Sep 2010In lots of places across the country it’s primary day. Yours truly spent much time last night and this morning researching and planning who to support in the voting booth.
VivirLatino doesn’t endorse candidates but I will tell you that some decisions for me today were easy, like NOT voting for Hiram Monserrate who is running for NY State Assembly in my district. Other choices are not so easy.
Much is being said in the media and in other spaces about the “Latino Vote”, that is nothing new. What is new this election season is the discussion about if Latinos will stay home and sit this one out. Often this discussion is more a chiding (even from within our own ranks) treating the Latino electorate like children and warning of almost apocalyptic results.
Hola!
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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