2011 February | VivirLatino

Archive for February, 2011

Miercoles Musical Interlude : Shakira Sings in Spanish Again

3:41 pm By Maegan La Mala · Music · 3 Comments

9 Feb 2011

As I deal with moving servers and other administrative issues, I am happy to report that Shakira’s latest song/video release is in Spanish where we see a little of the Shaki that, at least I fell in love with, the Shaki who sings Spanish language power rock baladas about longing, amor ,and new starts.

Thank goddess it’s not that She-Wolf loba howling cosa. Now if only she would go back to her natural hair color

Here’s the video for Sale el Sol:

Huff Po, Open Left and VivirLatino

9:52 am By Maegan La Mala · Media|media justice|Politics|VivirLatino · 1 Comment

9 Feb 2011

There are interesting happenings in the online blogging world that just happen to coincide with big changes here at VivirLatino.

The first was the AOL – Huffington Post merger, which on twitter I proclaimed was a sign of the need for more support of REAL independent, radical/left media makers. You see HuffPo launched the same year that VivirLatino launched (HuffPo beat us by a few months). I don’t know how much it cost to get VL online, as I started here as just an editor, but certainly it did not have the backing of millions of dollars. And yet, my personal/political blogging, which I began doing in the late 90′s before it was called blogging, has gathered attention. I have covered major political and entertainment events. I am not saying this because I want some big company to buy me out but rather as a parallel. HuffPo, where I think one of my pieces was published once upon a time, became known for taking posts from independent media makers and using the talents of writers for free while it raked in millions. The new merger, according to some, threatens to widen that gap.
Read more…

So Now the Senate Wants to Get Real About Immigration Reform?

7:27 am By Maegan La Mala · DREAM Act|Immigration · 8 Comments

8 Feb 2011

So the political rumor mill has it that my own Senator, Biometric Chuck Schumer, and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham are teaming up to work on some sort of immigration reform deal.

Why does it feel like we’ve heard this before? Oh yeah because we have. Since 2009, immigrant communities have been hearing that Senator Schumer was going to be the “champion” of immigration reform. And remember how far that got us? His “blueprint” which was far from an actual plan included :

a requirement that all U.S. workers verify their identity through fingerprints or an eye scan and he rejected the euphemism “undocumented workers,” he said: “Illegal immigration is wrong — plain and simple.”

Doesn’t sound like my champion. Then Schumer delayed, delayed again (this time with Graham). And then all talk of CIR essentially disappeared from Schumer’s mouth, even with young DREAMers on hunger strike outside his Midtown Manhattan office.

Oh and then the state whose interest Schumer is supposed to represent, NY, adopts Secure Communities.

Pardon me if I’m not engraving a trophy for Schumer.

Reproductive Health Care and Latinas

2:11 pm By Maegan La Mala · Health|New York City|Women · 2 Comments

5 Feb 2011

This Monday I am attending a media breakfast hosted by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Latina Magazine titled Nuestra Comunidad : Nuestra Salud , Our Comnmunity : Our Health.

The stated purpose of the event is to discuss inequities in reproductive health care affecting Latinas, to share the latest information on STD’s and unintended pregnancy, and teen pregnancy rates in Latinas, to review public opinion polling among Latinas regarding co-pays for prescription birth control, and to unveil the latest technology available to reach Latinos with reproductive health information and services.

As a Latina, I know I will be asking about the access for the uninsured (like myself), youth access and information, multilingual access, access and safety issues for undocumented women,, access and safety issues for lesbian, transgender women, and gender nonconforming people, and more.

But perhaps more important is what you, some of our VivirLatino readers would like to ask or know. I plan on live-tweeting the event (as connectivity allows) via our twitter account. You can submit questions and comments there. You can submit questions and comments via the comment form below, via our Facebook account, or you can send an email to info@vivirlatino.com.

Who/Where Are the Undocumented in the United States and What About All Those Babies They Are (Not) Having?

3:03 pm By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|Media · 8 Comments

4 Feb 2011

I have been told that policy makers, the ones who keep making and passing the laws that have continuously criminalized immigrant communities, Latino communities, and all communities of color really, love statistics. They love numbers and charts (like Michele Bachmann’s following the SOTU?). It seems fitting then, that while anti-migrant bills get tossed around in both federal and state legislatures, the Pew Hispanic Center released a study that attempts to take a statistical snapshot of who the undocumented immigrants are in the U.S. and where they are.

As of March 2010, 11.2 million unauthorized immigrants were living in the United States, virtually unchanged from a year earlier, according to new estimates from the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center. This stability in 2010 follows a two-year decline from the peak of 12 million in 2007 to 11.1 million in 2009 that was the first significant reversal in a two-decade pattern of growth. Unauthorized immigrants were 3.7% of the nation’s population in 2010.

The number of unauthorized immigrants in the nation’s workforce, 8 million in March 2010, also did not differ from the Pew Hispanic Center estimate for 2009. As with the population total, the number of unauthorized immigrants in the labor force had decreased in 2009 from its peak of 8.4 million in 2007. They made up 5.2% of the labor force in 2010.

The number of children born to at least one unauthorized-immigrant parent in 2009 was 350,000 and they made up 8% of all U.S. births, essentially the same as a year earlier. An analysis of the year of entry of unauthorized immigrants who became parents in 2009 indicates that 61% arrived in the U.S. before 2004, 30% arrived from 2004 to 2007, and 9% arrived from 2008 to 2010.

Hasta Pronto Amiga : Saying See You Later to VL’s Co-Publisher

7:00 am By Maegan La Mala · VivirLatino · 3 Comments

4 Feb 2011

It is with great sadness that I announce that VivirLatino’s co-publisher, Jennifer Woodard Maderazo, will be stepping away from her role here at the site. When the site launched by Blogs Media in 2005, Jennifer was an editor like me, brought onto to help this new space and bring her personal experience and expertise. When Blogs Media stepped away from the site, her and I formed Dos Mujeres Media and while she wasn’t posting as much, her work behind the scenes, because of her experience in public relations and marketing, was critical to to sites survival and growth. While in many ways I have been the public face and name of VL, Jennifer was the backbone. Jennifer is stepping away to dedicate more time to her professional and familial obligations but VivirLatino will always be her home. Jennifer was more than a partner, she was and remains a close hermana/sister and friend. I thank her for all her years of dedication, commitment and effort and I know you, the readers, will join me in wishing her the best.

When a Conspiracy is Denied, Full Justice is Denied : Luis Ramirez Case

8:37 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|pennsylvania · 1 Comment

1 Feb 2011

Last week marked the end of criminal cases surrounding the racist killing of Luis Ramirez. Last Thursday, A jury issued a split verdict against three former Shenandoah police officers accused of obstructing justice in the investigation of a fatal beating. Former police Chief Matthew R. Nestor was found guilty of falsifying records, hindering a federal investigation. Former police Lt. William Moyer was found guilty of making false statements.

Perhaps more importantly than the charges the former officers were found guilty of is what they were acquitted of. Former police Chief Matthew R. Nestor, Former police Lt. William Moyer, and Former police Officer Jason R. Hayes were all found not guilty of conspiracy.

While Nestor faces up to 20 years in prison and Moyer faces up to five years incarcerated, this should be interpreted as injustice for multiple reasons. One, after the horrendous killing of Mexican immigrant/hermano Luis Ramirez, we have continued to see attacks on the Latino community, especially the immigrant Latino community. The list of our dead continues to grow, Marcelo, Jose, Brisenia. The lack of a conviction on the conspiracy charges supports the claim that walls do indeed kill those in our communities. In this case it was the “blue wall of silence” The blue wall is a collective process embedded in police forces around the United States. It allows criminal officers to cover their tracks and threatens those within their ranks who would attempt to break that wall with labels like “snitch” and “rat”.

Take for example the police brutality case here in NYC of Anthony Baez. After the young Puerto Rican was choked to death by former NYPD officer Francis X. Livoti, former NYPD officer Daisy Boria, refused to go along with the cover up that concocted a story blaming Anthony for his own death in an illegal police chokehold. On the stand, Boria revealed the conspiracy and found herself fearful for her own life. That police conspiracy to lie and cover up was never investigated and the blue wall of silence continues to surround the NYPD. It clearly extends beyond the 5 boroughs, wraps around Shenandoah and parallels the U.S. border with Mexico.

While the officers in Shenandoah did not kill Ramirez with their own hands, the collusion, the working together to protect “boys” they considered “part of their own kind” contributed and continues to contribute to an environment of anti-immigrant/anti-Latino hate. As birthright bills and the case against the killers of a 9 year old Arizona Latina girl with her own dreams not referenced in Obama’s last State of the Union Address carry on, the temperature continues to rise. You do not have hate crimes against Latinos in a vacuum. So long as 287(g) and Secure Communities are the answer the Obama administration gives the community to cries for “immigration reform”, the blue wall of silence will continue to choke, stab, and shoot our own.

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