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Mas on the Young Lords Party

6:28 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · New York City| Puerto Rico| chicago| history · Comments Off

25 Aug 2009

I would have liked to see more of the mujeres of the Young Lords Party represented here, pero a good video none the less that I think especially points to the power of grassroots organizing by the people.

The first Bud Billiken: Willard Motley

8:41 pm By la Macha · Blogs| chicago| media justice · Comments Off

6 Aug 2009

Willard_Motley1 The Socialist Worker has a really interesting historical post up about Willard Motley, who folks in Chicago will know as the first Bud Billiken.

Willard Motley was a writer, activist and supporter of a black man who killed a white landlord after the landlord burned down the apartment complex the black man lived in (killing four of his children) so that the landlord could rebuild smaller apartments, get more tenants and get more money:

The defense committee had Motley’s appeal circulated to many of the largest Black newspapers in the country, including the Chicago Daily Defender. Motley didn’t hold back his feelings about the case when he wrote of visiting Hickman:

You have seen many pictures of men who have killed. You have seen the photographs of the returned soldier. Perhaps next door lives a boy who killed some other boy during the war. In the war, millions of men killed other millions of men because they believed they were a threat to their homes, their wives, their children. This threat was thousands of miles from home. These were strangers killed, with whom there had been no personal contact.

James Hickman killed the man who had threatened his wife and children with a death more horrible than the Nazi gas chambers. And carried it out. This is what I was thinking of as I sat talking to Hickman today. Hickman needs help. There are three children left who need him. A wife who needs him. Will you help us help him?

It’s a really powerful post, one that reminds of historical truths people would rather have forgotten: there are black socialists/communists, most of our ‘parades’ and ‘fun holidays’ in the U.S. have a hugely radical past, that the work and radical activities of people of color are almost always ignored until they are forgotten…

It’s also interesting to me to notice how even in those days, there was tension between the “liberal” economically upward bound media makers and the grassroots members of the community. You see the same tension now–just look at how bloggers are treated by “real” media makers like BET. Look at how bloggers are treated by “liberal” economically upward bound organizations like La Raza. How many grassroots stories do bloggers blog about relentlessly until there is huge amounts of grassroot support such that “liberal” groups can no longer ignore the story? And then those “liberal” groups basically steal the story and act like *they* are the ones that did all the work investigating the story?

The more things change, the more the say the same–so goes the over used trite phrase.

Sunday Funnies : “People from Central and South America may also be insulted if police make an assumption that, if they look Hispanic or speak Spanish, they must be from Mexico”

8:54 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Funny| chicago| race · 1 Comment

2 Aug 2009

I got this from Blabbeando and thought it too funny not to share. This video is an actual Chicago police department’s “sensitivity” training video.

Miercoles Musica : Quetzal Sabe el Camino

12:06 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Activism| chicago| media justice · Comments Off

13 May 2009

I’ve liked the L.A. group Quetzal for awhile now pero now I may love them a little mas.

To Whom It May Concern:

Quetzal will not be performing at the Fiesta Shalom on May 17th. When first presented with this performance, it was presented as “an opportunity to improve Jewish and Chicano relations”, which we are certainly in accordance with. When we received the contract, we noticed it was sponsored by the Israeli Consulate. For Quetzal to perform for the Israeli Consulate would mean that we ignore the following:

• Decades of zionist occupation of Palestinian lands and the historically ironic holocaustic genocide of the Palestinian people

• The Israeli/US relationship that has permitted the creation of “permanent” war against people throughout the world.

• Decades of Chican@ solidarity with the Palestinian people and their struggle for Self-determination.

• Decades of solidarity with the non-zionist, non-imperialist peace-loving Jewish community.

• Over 500 years of genocide, enslavement, and abandonment of all people of color as well as poor whites including all the victims of the Jewish holocaust.

Quetzal is but a small part of a massive community of artists that is committed to using art as a tool to redefine and reconstruct our neighborhoods. We hope that elected officials (barrio pimps) such as Jose Huizar begin to see the light of accountability.

Chicago Latino with Autism Beaten by Police

8:49 pm By la Macha · Controversia| Family| chicago · 3 Comments

27 Apr 2009

From the community news section over at Flip Flopping Joy comes the story of a Chicago teen, Oscar Guzman, who was beaten by the police because Guzman was “threatening” to the police. Totally justified. Except that Guzman was 16, autistic, and standing in front of his family’s restaurant doing nothing.

Guzman, 16, was standing on the sidewalk Wednesday night, taking a break from working in his family’s fast-food restaurant in the Pilsen neighborhood. He was watching cars go by when a police cruiser pulled up and two officers began asking him questions, his family says.

Guzman didn’t understand the questions, said his sister Nubia, 25, and looked down, away and eventually began walking away. Diagnosed with moderate autism at age 4, he doesn’t like confrontation, his sister said.
The officers went after him, his family said, prompting the frightened boy to run into the family restaurant, yelling “I’m a special boy!” as he fled, his sister said.

Despite Guzman’s parents yelling to the officers that he was a “special boy” with “special needs,” one of the officers struck Guzman in the head with a baton, cutting a gash that would require eight staples, his sister said. The parents witnessed the blow being struck, she said.

On the ground, blood pouring from his head, Guzman, who has the mental capacity of a 5th grader, mumbled again and again, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I submit. I submit,” his family said.

Vivir Latino has covered previous cases of disability interacting with the police–and again, the results weren’t good. Although the Chicago police have set up a program to help officers understand and work with autistic folks–clearly the program has had the greatest success as of yet.

My heart is broken for Oscar and his family. I’m just overwhelmed with the level of violence people who should be “protected” are forced to deal with.

One Catholic Cardinal Gets it Right, Asking Obama to Stop Immigration Raids

11:55 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration| Religion| chicago · 1 Comment

23 Mar 2009

So the institution of the Catholic Church hasn’t been winning points with people, well with me anyway. I mean really? Thankfully Cardinal Francis George has given me a little hope that not all is lost. He told a crowd of hundreds in Our Lady of Mercy Church in Albany Park, Chicago, that Obama should stop the immigration raids to show that the new administration really is about change.

George sought to cast the issue in moral terms, calling it “a matter of conscience” and an important step to creating a more peaceful society.

“We cannot strengthen families when people live in fear from day to day,” he said.

“May this be the year that raids and separation of families stop,” George said. “May this be the year that our legislators pass comprehensive immigration reform.”

Can I get an Amen?

Via / The Chicago Tribune

Where Are the Latina Mamis Going to Take Their Children : Clinic in Chicago Faces Closure

9:07 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Health| Immigration| chicago · Comments Off

6 Mar 2009

Yesterday La Macha wrote about President Obama’s Healthcare Summit and how he said what so many of us already know, that the healthcare system needs to be built anew and fast. Pero what do we do in the meantime especially in immigrant neighborhoods where so many of the undocumented are uninsured? I know my neighborhood is full of storefront clinics and if those clinics were to close? That’s exactly what one immigrant community in Chicago is facing.

The University of Illinois at Chicago says it’s closing a medical clinic geared for low-income women in a mostly Mexican neighborhood. But a community group is fighting to keep the facility open. We report from our West Side bureau.

UIC says it runs 10 community clinics in the city. In Pilsen, the Center for Women and Families last year handled some 6,400 patient visits.

The university says the clinic runs an annual deficit of $200,000. A spokesman says Illinois’s budget crunch leaves no choice but to close the facility by June 30.

The decision isn’t going over well with campus unions or a neighborhood group called the Pilsen Alliance.

PAREDES: This clinic is really important for our community.

The alliance’s Rodrigo Paredes spoke to pickets in front of the clinic last night.

PAREDES: All the women come here. All the pregnant women want to come here. So it’s our time to fight. The community of Pilsen is going to fight to the end.

Paredes says a petition drive will begin this weekend.

The university, meanwhile, is referring the patients to another clinic about four miles south

Four miles may seem like nothing if you have a car or access to public transportation and access means more that having a train or bus nearby. It means being able to afford that transportation. So I was wondering if the right to health care includes having good local healthcare?

Via / Chicago Public Radio