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Archive for the ‘Immigration’ Category

When Things Go Wrong…Terribly Wrong.

4:39 pm By la Macha · Immigration · 2 Comments

18 Nov 2009

So what happens when you give an anti-immigration speech to an anti-immigration crowd–and that anti-immigration speech just so happens to target European immigration?

Why, mass confusion and chants of Columbus go home, of course! But of course, the humor could not be left unpunished. As Crooks and Liar’s reports, violence post rally was at a high level:

As they realized they’d been punked, they stood in a cold, stunned silence, while the 30 or so counter-protesters urged Columbus to go home.

Unfortunately, some of the pro-MINN-SIR audience made up for what they lacked in humor through the use of violence. Both Danielson and I saw middle-aged men attack young protesters, knocking one off a bike before he started throwing punches at the young man.

Just as shocking was the reaction of the state police working the rally, who pushed back those being attacked, rather than those attacking the counter protesters.

Neither of us have ever witnessed violence at rallies and events we’ve attended in the past. The attacks formed a sharp counterpoint to Hendrycks’ shrieked claims from the podium that MINN-SIR “patriots” had “respect” while the young protesters were rude.

The transcript of the speech is below the fold. Read more…

Official VivirLatino Statement on Lou Dobbs Leaving CNN

3:37 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration| media justice · 4 Comments

17 Nov 2009

Because everyone else is doing it.

Correction, because everyone else doing it and I want to do it too but a little differently.

Because VivirLatino was reached out by various organizations spearheading the Basta Dobbs and Drop Dobbs campaign to endorse the added pressure on CNN, its advertisers, and Lou Dobbs.

Because Lou Dobbs is no longer on CNN.

Because we’re pretty damn sure that while one platform has closed for Dobbs, the number of hate comments/mail that VivirLatino has received for our coverage of Dobbs and our support for his leaving CNN proves that there is still a public who accepts his distortion of reality when it comes to undocumented immigrants and Latinos as factual news. Dobbs still has daily radio show
broadcast by more than 160 stations as part of the United Stations Radio Networks Inc. He has his lifetime membership to the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, which put out their own statement welcoming Dobbs’ leaving the news network. Some of the latest political bochinche has Dobbs possibly running for Senate in New Jersey (information gleaned from the NY Post which we will not link to). We should also add that reports have Dobbs leaving CNN with $8 million in severance pay.

Don’t get us wrong. Struggles and movements need victories and this is one and we should celebrate it pero not for too long. Dobbs is already doing the show circuit and he will continue to spew his racist nonsense. The real problem is that his nonsense talks comes at a time when the U.S. Government makes statement after statement about the need for immigration reform, while separating families first and writing legislation later. Pero that’s a whole different post or a dozen.

Sexual Violence Against Women in Immigrant Detention

12:17 pm By la Macha · GLBT| Health| Immigration| Women · 1 Comment

17 Nov 2009

As horrified as I was to watch this video of Esmeralda speaking about her experiences in immigration detention prisons, I am so glad that she is speaking out. For so long, sexual violence against women in detention prisons has been the secret people don’t talk about. Or if they do, it’s (justifiably so) with pseudonyms or only found out about after a newspaper reporter manages to dig around enough.

This horror–the horror that specifically targets immigrant women in detention, is not new, it’s not unusual, it happens all the time. Women locked in little cells, many times with their children, and then forced to submit to the will of guards who promise extra blankets or play time for the kids, or most times, nothing at all.

Please watch Esmeralda’s testimonio (but be forewarned, there is lots of triggering stories!!!)

Esmeralda: A Transgender Detainee Speaks Out from Breakthrough on Vimeo.

It’s important to also point out that Esmeralda faced sexual violence that other women did not specifically because she is transgendered. So, even though she is a woman, she was put in prison with men. The U.S. government (not sure about Mexico), recognizes only the gender that is legally given to a person upon their birth, and as such when there are no transgendered facilities (which are bad enough because they segregate trans people from general populations as if they have a disease or something, talk about stigma!!!), trans women and men are often forced to stay in facilities meant for the opposite sex. Which makes already vulnerable women without citizenship papers or other legal representation even more vulnerable. If it’s nearly impossible to report guards, how on earth can women report fellow detainees who hurt her? Not to mention what happens if she has a period or needs other reproductive services while in a prison that functions for men’s needs?

These prisons (AND, please be aware, the U.S. prison system in general! These abuses are not particular to detention prisons!!!!) are a violation of human rights and dignity–and are one of the main reasons why I support calls for immigration reform (even as I work towards something more radical). The abuse is so horrific and so violent, we can not wait until there is something more radical in place to stop the violence. And doing nothing is an even worse idea. Please see restorefairness.org for how you can help!

Video found via Facebook

Chicana in the Midwest

12:56 pm By la Macha · Detriot| Immigration · 1 Comment

16 Nov 2009

One thing I love about writing on the Vivir Latino blog is that for probably the first time in my life, I have instant access to a wide range of Latino opinions and perspectives. Living in the U.S. Midwest is an often an isolating and solitary experience.

But one of the things I noticed about Vivir Latino is that it often focuses on the NYC experiences of Latin@s. Which is essential and vitally important! But I’ve been thinking that since I am from the Midwest, it’d be really great to use the platform that VL provides to start highlighting what’s happening with those of us who live in the Midwest!

One of the first things to note about politicized Latin@s in the Midwest is that very often there simply isn’t enough of us to do much “Latin@” based organizing. That is, we can’t organize huge parades (for example) like the folks out in California can–there simply isn’t enough of us.

So very often, we spend a lot of time organizing with other groups that are either dealing with the same sense of isolation or who are bigger and have more resources. For Latin@s in my area, this usually means hooking up with Arab and/or black communities.

Which means we spend a lot of time listening and learning. Not that we’ll ever know what it’s like to be Arab and/or black–but more that there are similarities and differences between communities that may lead to productive ways of allying together.

And one of the ways we “speak” when working together is through art. We may not understand each others languages, but how our art speaks volumes:

Dar Films Production © presents the first Palestinian Animation film. Inspired from a true story, Fatenah، a Palestinian woman who lives in Gaza Strip. Her simple wishes were her consolation in the absurd living situation around her. But when she discovers a lump near her breast, she will start a journey to save her dreams.

Directed and Animated by: Ahmad Habash
Executive Producer: Saed Andoni
Music: Said Murad
Editing: Saed Andoni
D.O.P: Ahmad Habash

Again, although the experience of Palestinians and Chican@s is not the same, it doesn’t have to be. And it actually makes us stronger that it’s not. In what ways can we in the Midwest be a part of creating an even stronger and more nuanced critical analysis of immigration–simply by sharing our stories with each other?

Are you a Latin@ from the Midwest? Or with a group that has organized with Latin@s in the Midwest? I’d love to hear your experiences in comments!

Latinas and Vaginal Douching

9:52 am By la Macha · Health| Immigration · 2 Comments

13 Nov 2009

Douche I was reading this article about douching and how it’s not good for you (probably not safe for work–multiple uses of p* word, no pictures.), and I started wondering. I’ve always thought of douching as a white girl thing. All the commercials (mom and daughter on a beach, etc) highlight white women–and all the articles that talk about why douching is bad for you are written by white women and highlight the experience of douching white women.

Do Latinas douche? And if they do, why are they doing it? And why do only white girls get access to the knowledge that douching is actually quite horrible for you?

Turns out, I’m not the only one who had these questions. Researchers conducted studies and found that douching is a regular part of a big population of Latina’s lives. Specifically, immigrant Latinas.

Of course, I can’t read the results of the entire essay without paying for it (damn you academic websites!), so some of my questions are going unanswered. Like: How did the researchers define “Latina” (were blatinas a part of the make up?)? And is there a certain era that saw an increasing in douching Latinas? What was it? And what mitigated the increase? And how many generations does the practice linger once women have immigrated? Does the move to the U.S. increase usage or does the practice gradually die away?

But for now, it’s just good to know that a harmful practice that Latinas participate in can be confronted. Latinas, if you’re douching, please be aware that douching can often cause problems with your system (yeast infections, etc). It also *does not* stop pregnancy. You’ll need a condoms or birth control for that. And finally, douching actually increases your chances of catching an STD.

Remember: The truth, simply, is that the vagina is the original self-cleaning oven. It needs no help. Then get yourself some condoms and/or birth control. Love your body before all else.

Rape and Im/Migrant Women

11:56 am By la Macha · Immigration · No Comments

12 Nov 2009

slide_immigration_family_400x308 Most anti-violence organizers agree that the best way to stop sexual violence is to have stable community structures that are capable of both holding abusers accountable and keeping survivors and potential victims safe.

So when you belong to a community that is not stable in any sense of the word and you are a marginalized person (i.e. a woman, a child, queer, transgendered, etc), your chances of being raped sky rocket. And furthermore, your ability to “recover” from the trauma in healing and multiple ways are almost nonexistent. Which means that across the world, ‘home communities’ are being left to deal with the results of sexual abuse–even as the survivor continues to get no relief from the conditions that led to his/her sexual abuse to begin with.

From Time:

In many cases, Normawati explains, female migrant workers are raped and then dumped on the streets by their employers, who refuse to give them their passports after discovering that the women are pregnant. The women are then arrested by police and placed in jail. Sometimes they are deported before the child is born. Herlina [a care taker of babies conceived through rape and then abandoned by mothers] claims that airport officials have called her to ask what to do with the babies who are left behind by mothers.

Normawati says there are dozens of children who were abandoned by migrant workers in homes throughout Jakarta and surrounding areas.

The unsaid truth of the linked essay is that not only are women being sexual abused, assaulted and raped in countries that aren’t their own, not only are they being jailed and deported *because they were raped*, but there also seems to be very little access to safe and reliable reproductive health choices as well (i.e. abortions, birth control, pap smears, rape kits, etc). Which means that physical trauma to a woman’s genitals and pregnancy are potentially not the only consequences to the rapes–how many women got STD’s from rapists? Or never healed properly from rapes or pregnancies?

Sexual violence against immigrant communities is not new or unusual–and it is one of the main reasons why radical that I might be, I am very anxious for immigration reform to get pushed back on the table in the U.S.. These same rapes, these same traumas are happening here in the U.S., and if it takes “reform” to bring attention to the violence and *stop it*–than so be it.

From Marriage, to Health, to Immigration : Where are the Transgender Latinas?

10:06 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration · 1 Comment

12 Nov 2009

When looking at all the push for reform in various areas of social justice (as if there is no overlap), the transgender community is often overlooked or mentioned as an aside. As if gender identity doesn’t intersect with sexual orientation, or health care access, or immigration status. You would think that no transgendered identified person wants to get married, or have access to affordable health care, or want to come out of the immigration shadows.

For example earlier this year I looked critically at the groundbreaking NAM study on Latina immigrants that seemed to look at cisgendered, partnered, straight Latinas, making invisible any Latinas that fell outside of those margins. It seems that the only time the media deals with the everyday issues in transwomen’s lives is when those lives are gone. And yes the critique is aimed at myself and this site as well.

It is within the accepted narrative for Latin America to be transphobic but in the U.S. the abuse and denial of basic rights is rarely even on the radar especially when it comes to immigration. In fact in a conversation i had just last week on the issue of who are Latina immigrants, there was an attempt, I felt by the other to paint transgender Latinas as outsiders or “one-offs” in the Latina immigrant community rather than an essential and regular part of it. It is attitudes such as this that create an atmosphere that is ripe for further abuse especially within the already unjust immigrant detention system.

Esmeralda: A Transgender Detainee Speaks Out from Breakthrough on Vimeo.

For those Latinas working inside Latin America trying to get their message to U.S. audiences, they have found their own barriers and all signs point to transphobia:

On November 3, just a week before she was supposed to speak before audiences in the US about her work for sexual rights in Nicaragua, activist Silvia Martinez of the Trans Network of Nicaragua (REDTRANS) was denied a travel visa by the US embassy.

This decision came as a shock for several reasons:

- Silvia has been issued visas by other countries in the past. In 2007, she traveled to Panama to present recommendations of the LBTTTGI community to government representatives attending a session of the Organization of American States.

- She has an invitation through MADRE, a leading 26-year-old women’s human rights organization. MADRE has brought activists from around the world to speak in the US on previous occasions without a problem.

- She is firmly rooted in her community in Nicaragua and holds an important position in an organization (REDTRANS) that depends on her work in Nicaragua. There is no reason for her to give this up in order to live in a far less desirable situation in this country, away from her network of friends and allies.

Yet no member of the consulate even bothered to call MADRE to verify these facts.

Silvia clearly meets the above criteria that the US Department of State commonly uses to determine visa eligibility. The denial of this visa fits a broader pattern of the US embassy systematically rejecting visa applications from transgender people.

This discrimination constitutes a violation of internationally recognized human rights, which the US is obligated to uphold.

Support Silvia and transgender rights by sending this letter to the Consular Section of the US Embassy in Nicaragua.

Happy? Veteran’s Day

11:00 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration| history| holidays| military · 4 Comments

11 Nov 2009

Today is the day set aside by the U.S. government to recognize those who lived and died in military service for the U.S. Despite my strong opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the countless smaller undeclared wars all over the world, that doesn’t mean there is no love from me for those who have chosen the military life. They include members of my own familia, primas and tios who have fought for the United States and they represent a growing number of young men and women of color who look to the armed forces as a way to survive and move forward with their lives. Pero as today’s editorial from el Diario/la Prensa points out, the role of Latinos in the U.S. military is nothing new, it’s just that people have failed to recognize it.

As many as 750,000 Latinos and Latinas served in the armed forces during World War II, according to the U.S. Latino & Latina WWII Oral History Project. During the Korean War, the 65th Infantry of Puerto Rico won the praise of legendary military commanders such as General Douglas MacArthur. Yet, in the telling of U.S. history, Latino soldiers have received little mention.

Y porque? Is it because that if the history books were to acknowledge the role of Latinos then the U.S. would have to start acknowledging Latinos as humans as part of its’ policy including passing or hell even getting started on comprehensive immigration reform?

The House Health Care Reform Bill and Immigrants

7:00 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Health| Immigration| Politics · 1 Comment

11 Nov 2009

As promised, I’m spending the next few days slowly but surely exploring different aspects of the Affordable Health Care for America Act which passed in the House of Representatives this weekend. I wrote a little yesterday on the Stupak Amendment which pretty much bans access to abortion services for women. Of major concern ever since health care reform was presented was how immigrant access to healthcare would be impacted.

My reading of H.R. 3962 says that undocumented immigrants can buy into the health exchange out of their own pockets but that they are not eligible for any subsidies or affordability credits. Documented immigrants would be subject to a 5 year ban on access to subsidized public health services including Medicaid.

Liza over at Culture Kitchen writes about the impact that the Stupak Amendment has on Latina abortion access.

It is a fact of the heinous access to reproductive health education and services in this country that 67% of non-white women in this country have abortions. 22% of those women are Latinas. Why make it even more difficult for our sisters to get the kind of health care services they need to survive?

How can the infamous pro-Stupak men of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus be considered “courageous” for throwing lower-income and poorer Latinas under the bus with their? This amendment actually extends the Hyde Amendment in Medicaid legislation and goes further since it the ban would extend to any federally funded health insurance, not just Medicaid. This would mean that many more than the 2 Million Latinas who rely on Medicaid would be affected by Stupak. And it would mean many more Latinas relying even more on the “do-it-yourself” abortions that kill at least 5,000 of us yearly.

Is that what Janet Murguia and the National Council de la Raza really want for Latinas, needless to say all women in the United States? What would it have taken for NCLR to stand right next to Planned Parenthood or the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health and denounce this Health Care Reform bill as bad for all women and all immigrants? Why do we still have to debate the important of not just intersectionality in politics but in coalition building as well?

The (Real) Growing Acceptance of (Real) Nazism in the U.S.

2:30 pm By la Macha · Immigration · 3 Comments

9 Nov 2009

We’ve heard a lot post-Obama about how Nazism just gained a foothold in the U.S.. Nary a tea-bag protest can occur without a least a few hundred pictures of Obama with the famous Hilter mustache, and every time the health care debate comes up, non-teabaggers all have to sit through long rants about how “government controlled health care” is really secretly Nazi Germany all over again.

I’ve rolled my eyes to most of this stuff. It’s infuriating, yes, but everybody has their rhetoric.

Until I saw the following video about how Neo-Nazi parties are holding their own protests–only this time the protests are against immigrants:

As if these protests weren’t bad enough–word has it that the leader of the Nazi organization is getting support from various media organizations–and even more specifically, a media organization that many in the Republican party find respectable enough to contribute to:

Otherwise, they need to own the fact that a sitting Republican congresswoman is a contributor to a website that promoted a neo-Nazi hate rally, promotion that included sharing Sam Johnson’s email address with those looking to get involved.

When politicians aren’t calling in to major media sites that endorse neo-Nazism and demanding that their essay’s be removed from the sites and promising that all future campaigning/essay writing has ended–it is little more than tacit approval of the message on the site’s message.

Considering how easily the Minutemen Project was accepted into the mainstream (due to the embracing of the organization by corporate news sources like Lou Dobbs and Pat Buchanan on MSNBC), this is a truly frightening development. The Minutemen have always been a violence based group, but actually attempted to distance itself from it’s own violence once the mainstream began to embrace it (causing several major splinters in the org). At the time, the organization knew that to be linked to open violence against immigrants would be to spell its doom.

Things have changed in the U.S., huh? When have the neo-Nazi’s *ever* been anything but a hate group? An openly violent hate group that has embraced violence as a core tenet since its inception? It’s worth noting as well, that original Nazism also began because of mainstream acceptance of what would’ve normally been recognized as nativist and extremest organizations.

And finally, the resurgence of neo-Nazism was predicted by those who work on anti-immigrant violence as late back as 2006.

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