2011 January | VivirLatino

Archive for January, 2011

The Other Arizona Shooting

10:09 am By Maegan La Mala · arizona|Immigration|mexico|U.S.-Mexico Border|Violence · 6 Comments

11 Jan 2011

Before Congresswoman Gifford and others were shot in Tuscon, Arizona , 17 year old Ramses Barron Torres was shot and killed by a bullet originating in Nogales, Arizona. There have been no national moments of silence for the apparently unarmed teenager. No memes speculating on the sanity of the shooter(s) or if violent rhetoric played a role. That’s probably because Ramses Barron Torres is Mexican and was shot by U.S. Border Patrol.

The story on what actually happened to Torres depends on what source you believe. From Immigration Clearinghouse:

It took the players all day to get their stories to a point where it was agreed that the agents fired their weapons into the air, and they put Torres as either “in the US, throwing rocks at agents, when he fell and hit his head on a rock and died”, or, he fell from the fence which he was trying to scale while chunking rocks at BP agents, a truly awesome display of athletic ability were it to be true.

But something wierd happened. Torres body showed up at a hospital in Nogales Sonora with a gunshot wound, throwing all to hell the claims that he was in the US throwing rocks at BP agents.

…

The Sonora State Investigative Police, or PEI, said 17-year-old Ramses Barron Torres, who died shortly after 3 a.m. at a Nogales, Sonora hospital, was shot in the back of the right arm, with the bullet continuing into his chest cavity, puncturing a lung, and lodging in the left side of his ribcage.

In “the back of the right arm” meaning Torres would have had his back to the BP agents who murdered him.

NYC With the University of Puerto Rico Rally Today

8:29 am By Maegan La Mala · Education|New York City|Puerto Rico · 1 Comment

11 Jan 2011

The Overly Sensitive Latino Stereotype (Via Rick Sanchez)

12:34 pm By Maegan La Mala · Media · 6 Comments

10 Jan 2011

My position on Rick Sanchez hasn’t changed since he was fired from CNN last fall. I didn’t have an opinion on Sanchez then, I don’t have an opinion on Sanchez now. It is fascinating to watch how his comments, his firing from CNN and it’s aftermath are still being covered in the media though.

This morning, I came across an interview with the Cuban journalist on Daily Beast. It is not a site I visit regularly, but it caught my eye, especially it’s framing as the “first major interview since being fired”. What also caught my eye was it’s framing as Sanchez as a Latino stereotype.
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The Road that Paved the Way for the Arizona Shooting

8:57 am By Maegan La Mala · arizona|Violence · 15 Comments

10 Jan 2011

I was searching for items for my younger daughter’s birthday party when I learned via my smartphone about the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arizona) and others in Tuscon by (as far we we know) Jared Lee Loughner, who has been charged with murder, attempted murder, and attempted assassination. The shooting left the Congress woman, who voted for the DREAM Act, in critical condition and took the lives of six people, including a 9 year old born on 9-11-01 and U.S. District Judge John Roll, who had faced threats on his own.

The speculation as to why the shooting went down in a Tuscon supermarket parking lot during an event meant to draw bridges between Congress and the communities it represents is all over the place. The FBI found evidence in Loughner’s home indicating premeditation. Some media have taken the “he must be mentally ill” stance. Others point to possible connections between Loughner and hate organizations and then there is the influence (or not) coming from the Tea Party and their Grand Dame, Sarah Palin, especially considering that Gifford was featured on a poster, that came from the Palin camp, of “targets” with her face in what appears to be the cross-hairs of a rifle.
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Mexico is Not the Most Dangerous Latin American Country

7 Jan 2011

The mainstream media, the United States government, and even some commenters here want to paint Mexico as the biggest danger to the United States since hmmm communism/the Russians/ Cubans…ay you get the point. Some stats tell a different story though.

The country currently with the highest murder rate is Honduras, followed closely by El Salvador.

There is no analysis as to why, although many will point to the drug war and gangs which really are crimes based in poverty. Much of the poverty in Latin America can be linked to inequity which can be linked in part to United States intervention ( a la NAFTA and more direct military interventions).

What I have not seen is much analysis about how many of these deaths are that of mujeres and under what circumstances. In El Salvador, 562 women were killed. We do know that in Honduras, for example, post-coup (because we can call it a coup now) there has been an increase in violence against women.

Via / The Mex Files

Puerto Rican Political Prisoner, Oscar Lopez, Denied Parole

9:38 am By Maegan La Mala · Puerto Rico · 2 Comments

6 Jan 2011

Yesterday, in the federal prison of Terre Haute, Indiana, a hearing officer recommended to the Federal Parole Commission that they deny release of Puerto Rican political prisoner Oscar López Rivera.

Lopez, 67, is serving a sentence of 70 years in prison, having been incarcerated for 29 years and nine months in prison, convicted of seditious conspiracy for his links to the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional, a Puerto Rican independence group linked to violence. The recommendation was made invoking the 1975 bombing of Frances Tavern in New York City that killed four people, for which the FALN claimed credit. However, Lopez himself though was never connected to any of the attacks carried out in the name of the FALN.

Marc Tanner, the hearing officer, presented testimony from family members of the Frances Tavern bombing and recommended that Lopez-Rivera serve an additional 12-15 years.

Via / El Nuevo Dia

Defining Citizenship Based on Who You Are Born From

9:59 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|Politics · 18 Comments

5 Jan 2011

When the rumblings re: birthright citizenship and the cries re: the scourge of anchor babies started to pick up some steam last year, many mainstream progressive organizations were pretty laid back, thinking the whole thing would blow over. Now we are in a new year with a Republican led House of Representatives taking over at noon est today and guess what? It hasn’t blown over.

Today, a coalition of at least 14 state legislatures is having a press conference to announce their legislative game plan to move to end U.S citizenship to the U.S.-born children of undocumented persons.

This is no surprise for many Latino activists and observers who have felt the danger rise around the countries. Hate crimes have gone up and Latinidad is being defined as immigrant, undocumented and largely Mexican.

What’s Ahead for Latin America in 2011 : Elections

5 Jan 2011

The last year on VivirLatino was really dominated by the immigration debate in the United States. While I will continue to cover the issue of immigration, especially with the likelihood of anti-immigrant / anti-Latino measures being pushed by the Republican led House of Representatives, it would be naive of me to function as if U.S. policy towards Latin America has nothing to do with how Latinos are treated inside the U.S. It would be equally naive to act as if we as Latinos in the United States have no ties to our countries of ancestry and as if policy inside of those countries don’t matter to us, our families, and our communities.

So one of my new year’s resolutions for the site (among many) is to make more of an effort to cover what is happening in Latin America and attempt to make the connections between that and comunities here inside the United States.

There are several elections in Latin America slated to take place this year. The countries with presidential elections this year include Nicaragua, Guatemala, Peru, and Argentina.
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Legal Battles Begin Around Arizona’s HB2281

1:19 pm By Maegan La Mala · arizona|Education · 6 Comments

4 Jan 2011

Just like part of the push back against Arizona’s SB1070 includes legal wrangling, so does the fight against HB2281, which bans Ethnic Studies in the state.

Arizona State Attorney General, Tom Horne, started the year by claiming that the Tucson Unified School District is out of compliance with HB2281 because of a Mexican-American study course, If found out of compliance and do not cut the course within a 60 day period, TUSD could lose 10 percent in state funding, an estimated $15 million.

TUSD has some options. The first is a hearing to prove that they are in compliance with HB2281. Additionally 11 teachers are filing a lawsuit claiming HB2281 violates the first and fourteenth amendments.

Via / KGUN9 and UPI

The 58 Dreams Deferred Daily : 2010 Mexican Migrant Children Statistics

10:48 am By Maegan La Mala · children|Immigration|mexico · 2 Comments

4 Jan 2011

According to an article in today’s El Diario/La Prensa, everyday an average of 58 Mexican minors are “voluntarily repatriated” , that is deported to Mexico. Of those 58, around 70 percent of them are unaccompanied. Doing that math, that means that around 40 children are sent back to Mexico without adults on a daily basis. And these are incomplete numbers, meaning they do not include children who were deported outside of an agreement signed between Mexico and U.S. Homeland Security in 2004.

These numbers, which came from the Mexican agency, Instituto Nacional de Migración (INM), further state that in between January and November of 2010, there were 439,898 deportation cases of which 19,296 were children, and out of the children, 3,653 were identified as female.
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