Archive for the ‘Labor’ Category
Miners, Media, and the Privilege of Voyeurism
2:50 pm By Maegan La Mala · Chile|Labor|Media|Politics · 4 Comments
18 Oct 2010
It’s been almost a week since the 33 miners trapped for 70 days in the San Jose mine in Copiapo, Northern Chile, were rescued. While the whole world watched the miraculous rescue, choreographed and controlled by the Chilean government, led by right-wing billionaire President Sebastián Piñera, now the world outside Chile continues their gaze on the miners, with an emphasis on their personal lives, poking for information on what films will be made, what books will be written, are they having nightmares, where did they use the bathroom, if they wanted to eat each other and which miner’s infidelities were exposed.
Also we see the miner’s experience, the result of weak government enforcement of safety standards and the failure of the company that owned the San Jose mine, San Esteban, to invest in worker safety, being commodified. The Phoenix 2, the capsule that brought rescue workers down and the trapped miners up, has already been slapped with a value, just in case it’s sold and every rescued miner has been given an iPod.
What isn’t be respected is the space needed to the miners to heal from this trauma. Their families also need to heal. And all this focus on the personal also lets the company that ran the San Jose Mine off the hook, the Chilean government off the hook, and fails to look critically at the dangers facing all laborers in Chile, Latin America, and globally.
Watching the Chilean Miner Rescue
9:27 am By Maegan La Mala · Chile|Labor · 3 Comments
13 Oct 2010If you follow us on twitter (more than 3,000 peeps already do, why not you?), you know that I was up till past 3 am EST along with millions of others, watching, live tweeting, and adding some context and perspective to the milagro that is the the rescue of the 33 Chilean miners who had been been trapped inside the Mina San Jose in Copiapo, Northern Chile for about 70 days.
As a non-Chilena, as a Latina who lived in Chile, studied it’s history and politics, and as a mother to two ChileRicans, my entire family and I were glued to the television watching, one by one as the first 5 miners emerged from the tiny rescue capsule named Fenix 2, like the Phoenix bird that rises from the ashes, this Phoenix rose from what felt like the center of the earth, reuniting husbands, sons, and fathers into the arms of their familia. In fact, walking to Casa Mala, every restaurant, every laundromat, every bar in the Mala’hood was tuned into the rescue. How could you not cry, scream, and cheer after witnessing the first first miner, Florencio Avales emerge to the sobs of his son?
Why Colbert Testifying on Behalf of AgJOBS Was Not Disrespectful
10:09 am By Maegan La Mala · AgJOBS|Immigration|Labor|Politics|U.S. House of Representatives · 8 Comments
27 Sep 2010And we’re back. A few days filled with tech difficulties that put us offline didn’t stop us from paying attention and informing you on what’s going down. On Friday, the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security held a hearing on AgJOBS, a bill that would offer a pathway to legalization for the many undocumented farmworkers who probably had something to do with what you ate for breakfast this morning.
VivirLatino livetweeted almost the whole thing (we may have missed some stuff in the beginning). The hearing put the words, “immigration reform” back in the minds of many. It also, unfortunately, put the word “amnesty” into the twisted minds of others. The hearing featured testimony from Carol Swain, a law professor and race “expert” at Vanderbilt University, apple grower Phil Glaize, United Farm Workers of America head, Arturo Rodriguez, and Stephen Colbert. Yes, that Stephen Colbert.
Read more…
Take Our (Farm) Jobs Campaign Update
9:48 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|Labor · 1 Comment
23 Sep 2010There has been much attention on the push for the DREAM Act as a downpayment on the promised Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) but not as much attention to another piece of legislation that would also potentially pave a path towards justice for undocumented workers, AgJobs.
In June, the United Farm Workers announced a campaign to draw attention to the plight of undocumented farm workers who help bring food to tables across the United States. The campaign invited documented residents of the U.S. and citizens to take farmworker jobs. Stephen Colbert took the call.
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Fallback Position – Migrant Worker – Zoe Lofgren | ||||
|
||||
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano : “All the Statistics that are Going Up Are Supposed to be Going Up”
8:45 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|Labor|mexico|Politics|U.S.-Mexico Border · 2 Comments
31 Aug 2010
If nothing else, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano is a woman of her word. During a telephonic press briefing yesterday, Napolitano proudly crowed the start of unmanned predator drone flights out of Corpus Christi, Texas, beginning on Wednesday, Sept.1.
The rest of the telephonic conference was more of the same with an emphasis on more. I think the Secretary of Homeland Security said the word “more” so many times creating a dramatic crescendo effect that drove home just how militarized the U.S. border with Mexico was becoming and just how far we are from comprehensive immigration reform.
The drones, which beginning tomorrow will be able to monitor the entire U.S. Mexico border, are meant to track the “illegal movement of drugs, money and people”. While I know many will say the “illegal movement” of people refers to the disgusting crime of human trafficking, I picture families and individuals crossing the frontera and wonder how is movement declared illegal and only the movement of certain people.
Read more…
Monday Morning Musica : For Los Mineros Chilenos
6:00 am By Maegan La Mala · Chile|Labor · 2 Comments
23 Aug 2010Yesterday there was miraculous news from northern Chile. 33 miners that have been trapped for 17 days after a cave-in are all alive. Proof of life came in the form of a piece of paper tied to a drill. On that paper a message from the miners to those above ground praying and attempting to rescue them. The paper read :
The 33 of us in the shelter are well.
The President Pinera of Chile said that it could take months to rescue the miners but that they would be rescued. In the meantime, rescuers are planning to send food, hydration gels and communications equipment down to the trapped miners.
Israel Takes a Page from U.S. Immigration Policy
10:21 am By Maegan La Mala · children|Immigration|israel|Labor|language · 1 Comment
4 Aug 2010The relationship between the U.S. and Israel is now extending to immigrant policy. Last weekend, Israel moved to deport the children of migrant workers, children born and Israel and children who do not know their parents’ country of origin. Peep the rhetoric coming from the Prime Minister and see if you can make the connection.
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the move was made because the country faced increasing illegal migration, which was a threat to its Jewish character,” the BBC reported. Netanyahu also implied that the children were a drain on state-funded education and health care benefits, according to the Los Angeles Times. For years, the country encouraged foreign workers to cross its borders and take the low-paying jobs that Israelis wouldn’t do. Now that the government is looking to reduce its dependence on foreign labor, Israel is kicking out those workers who came to the country legally—and the families they’ve been raising. “It’s unfair and unjust,” said one parent of the deportation plan. “These children are born here and speak the language. Israel should recognize their birthright.”
There is Nothing Silent, Kinder or Gentler About Workplace Raids
7:58 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|Labor|Media · Comments Off
11 Jul 2010I saw this New York Times article being passed around via various social networks. The article talks about a “new” immigration enforcement strategy being used by the Obama administration: the so-called “silent raid”.
Silent because the mainstream media generally doesn’t trouble itself with following up with the undocumented workers who, yes, may be allowed to stay in the country, but are left without work in an already troubled economy. The premise that the media and the Obama administration is trying to sell, is that it’s enforcement is kinder and gentler also doesn’t line up with the statistics coming from the Federal Government. From the article by Julia Preston:
“Instead of hundreds of agents going after one company, now one agent can go after hundreds of companies,” said Mark K. Reed, president of Border Management Strategies, a consulting firm in Tucson that advises companies across the country on immigration law. “And there is no drama, no trauma, no families being torn apart, no handcuffs.”
Si Se Puedewich : Take Our Jobs UFW Campaign on Colbert
8:53 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|Labor|TV · 3 Comments
10 Jul 2010Last month, I shared with you the United Farmworkers of America’s Take Our Jobs campaign.
So far only 3 people have signed on to work in the fields that provide us food. The campaign is an effort to reflect the reality of what it is to work in farm labor and humanize that experience for so many who have come to believe the fallacy of the immigrant worker as a threat.
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Arturo Rodriguez | ||||
|
||||
Calling All U.S. Citizens : Let’s Work on the Farm
2:04 pm By Maegan La Mala · Food|Health|Immigration|Labor · 11 Comments
24 Jun 2010Today the United Farm Workers launched their Take Our Jobs campaign which calls on documented workers in the United States to apply for agricultural jobs across the country.
In a telephonic press conference today, UFW President Arturo Rodriguez, said that the campaign was a response to the misinformation and fear of undocumented taking jobs in the U.S.. “The current economic crisis has people blaming the undocumented as much as farmworkers, ” Rodriguez said.
Clearly this is more than just about labor, it is about the growing anti-immigrant rhetoric that by default places many farmworkers in the position of targets since the majority of them are undocumented.
This campaign, which seeks to place wannabe workers in farm work, is also a push for AgJobs, one of the so-called “piecemeal” bills that have more bi-partisan support than Comprehensive Immigration Reform (the other one being the DREAM Act). AgJobs would create a path to legalization for undocumented farm workers currently working in the U.S.
But on a wider level, the campaign seeks to connect the security of farmworkers to the security of the nation’s food supply. Rodriguez said that the U.S. is in denial about where our food comes from and who is responsible for getting it to the tables of U.S. families.
Read more…
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.
About | Advertise with us | Contact | Twitter
blog advertising is good for you
blog advertising is good for you
- Scrying Nicki Minaj, Stupid Hoe, and #Afrofutures | Nuñez Daughter: [...] forest of things that seem to matter a lot–like fingers waving in presidential faces [...]
- Karen: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/01/09/120109fa_fact_auletta [...]
- Karen: I just read this about Rubio. Let's see the GOP make him a VP nominee. LOL http://www.democraticu [...]
- Martes Media Minute : Roe v. Wade Anniversary, Medicaid Mama y Midwife Victory, Cervical Cancer Awareness month, & Mala’s Mami Closeup, | VivirLatino: [...] last week’s liveblog of a conversation on cervical cancer and Latin@s, Bianca Laureano s [...]
- Emiliano: thanks for your reviews. i feel like you tell it like you really feel. [...]
- Sexy Singing and Scary Primetime TV Latino Stereotypes : Glee & The River
- Explaining the Sudden Hiatus
- Eye on the Florida Primary : Mirror on the Wall, Who is the Most Anti-Immigrant of All?
- Live Blog/Tweet of Obama’s SOTU Address Tonight 8:45 EST
- Martes Media Minute : Roe v. Wade Anniversary, Medicaid Mama y Midwife Victory, Cervical Cancer Awareness month, & Mala’s Mami Closeup,
- VL Pelicula Giveaway!
- Today at 1 pm EST : Conversation on Latinas and Cervical Cancer
- Today in Latin@ History : Birthday of Martha P. Cotera
- Mistaking Immigration Proposals for Policy in an Election Year
- Casa Blanca Camino 2012: DREAMing of Hypocrisy in Iowa
