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Mangos With Chili Presents Beloved: A Requiem for Our Dead in the Bay Area Tonite & Nov. 15th

7 Nov 2009

MWC_Front_Vert2 Porque we remember our loved ones from our familias and community everyday and porque the mujeres that are involved in the creation of this project are beautiful and kick culo.

Mangos With Chili: the floating cabaret of QTPOC bliss, dreams, sweat, sweets & nightmares
proudly presents the premiere of:

BELOVED: A Requiem for Our Dead
because we refuse to forget you

Featuring:
Nalo Hopkinson
Charleston Chu
E. Rose Sims
SoliRose
Nico Dacumos
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Ms. Cherry Galette
and more

With video by Storm Florez, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Kortney Ryan Ziegler, and more

November 6th and 7th, 8PM
The Lab
2948 16th St
San Francisco, CA 94103
$12-16, no one turned away for lack of funds

November 15th, 8PM
Hechos en Califas Festival
La Pena
3105 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA
$12-16, no one turned away for lack of funds

In this highly anticipated premiere of the newest Mangos With Chili production, we invite you to join us at the crossroads for a night of conjuring, memory, mourning and celebration. Through elegies of story, song, dance, drag and more, the Bay Area’s noted and notorious queer and trans people of color performance crew will honor our erased, fallen and slain queer and trans people of color family lost to hate crimes, war, colonization, and genocide. We will celebrate our queer legacies and the ways we’ve found to survive through the beautiful resistance of memory, and whisper stories about grief, loss, healing, sweet darkness, and walking between worlds towards rebirth.

Beloved: A Requiem for Our Dead will feature the brilliance and blaze of renowned Caribbean speculative fiction storycrafter Nalo Hopkinson; multimedia invocation performance art heart wrench by playwright and poet Nico Dacumos; In Memoriam, a new collaborative dance theater work by Charlston Chu and Cherry Galette; ancestral prayer/spoken love letter by writer and theater artist Rose E. Sims; a mixed media jazz dance cabaret extravaganza by Charleston Chu, an autobiographical musical journey traversing the Middle East and African Diaspora by virtuoso trio SoliRose; the powerful truth renderings of queer Sri Lankan writer and performer Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha; and the premiere of Moorish Salt a burlesque-dance theater/ritual performance art piece by fusion dance artist and theater-maker Cherry Galette.

Mangos With Chili is a Bay Area based arts organization committed to showcasing high quality performance of life saving importance by queer and trans artists of color to audiences in the Bay Area and beyond. Founded in 2006 by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha and Ms Cherry Galette, Mangos With Chili has performed to sold out houses across North America, wowing audiences in world class theaters, underground performance spaces, bars, and campus halls, with their high intensity, breathtaking performance, politics, and storytelling craft, reflecting the lives and stories of queer and trans people of color, while making art that speaks out in resistance to the daily struggles around silence, isolation, homophobia, and violence that QTPOC face. Mangos With Chili is a fiscally sponsored project of the San Francisco based arts organization CounterPULSE, which provides space and resources for emerging artists and cultural innovators: www.counterpulse.org. Mangos With Chili is supported by the Horizons Foundation, the Astraea Foundation, and the generous support of our community of donors.

Both venues are wheelchair accessible. The show contains material of adult nature. Parental discretion advised. Please refrain from wearing scented products to ensure that audience members and performers with multiple chemical sensitivity can attend.

For more information:
mangos.with.chili@gmail.com
mangoswithchili.wordpress.com

Why Does Latino in America Equal Spanish Being Criminalized and Pushed Aside

28 Oct 2009

It’s not just immigration that is being criminalized as some people have commented. Any trace of Latinidad deems people as targets for varying forms of harassment ranging from traffic stops, to tickets, to jails, to beat downs, to deaths. While some think that skin color alone can “mark” someone as other, and in this case Latino, language and varying levels of accents also brand. Just look at how much time is spent in this discussion on Latino in America on the issue of assimilation, acculturation and the role of language.

The issue always is how can you speak Spanish and still assimilate/aculturate with the ultimate goal seemingly being not being labeled/identified/called out as “other”. If you are going to insist on speaking Spanish then for everyone’s sake do it at home, where no one else can see or hear you or else face the consequences:

Let us not forget that we started 2009 with someone getting physically attacked while having a cell phone conversation in Spanish.

Sometimes we don’t even need language. Just having a name that could remind someone that you are Latino is enough to get you fired.

What’s in a Name? New Mexico Hotel Owner Fires Workers Over Latino Names.

9:35 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Culture| New Mexico| history| language · 4 Comments

14 Oct 2009

According to my great-aunt Lucy (que en paz descanse), my last name, the name my daughters carry as well, means that I can be traced in Spanish language history books to Spanish language conquistadores. The last name my older daughter sometimes uses (legally she can’t because of her “bastard” status), reveals that she is Mapuche. Pero what if I had to be Maegan Ortz, as some people have pronounced my last name, or if my daughters’ Latina first and last names cost them their way of living? In Taos, New Mexico, which held a few languages before English, I’m sure, a hotel owner fired some of his employees because of their names.

What I find interesting about Whitten (shall we shorten his name to “White”), is how much this is about his comfort and his history. For example, he talks about him not being from the area and him not being of “Spanish” background and how he wanted English only spoken in his presence. So it becomes about everyone adapting to him and respecting what I perceive as his “fear” of being spoken about and about making sure that employees know their place, below and subservient to him. Whitten likens his employees to spoiled, ungrateful children and he the benevolent boss.

Via / Santa Fe New Mexican, Mi Blog es tu Blog

30 Days of Latino Heritage : An Introduction

15 Sep 2009

30 Days of Latino Heritage : Introduction from VivirLatino on Vimeo.

An introduction to the 30 Days of Latino Heritage Series on VivirLatino.com featured Maegan “la Mamita Mala” Ortiz.

Alteracion Del Orden Publico : Terraza 7 Train Cafe, Queens NYC Tonite

8:27 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Arts| Books| Colombia| New York City| language · Comments Off

2 Sep 2009

Amigo Nicolás Linares Sánchez is celebrating the release of his new book, Alteracion Del Orden Publico at Terraza 7 Train Cafe in Elmhurst, Queens NYC tonite.

I’ll be there with or without the children tonite, so support independent artists, and you can support single mamas by coming through and buying me a glass of vino or taking my kid around the block so I can drink said vino in paz.

For those that cannot deal with coming into Queens because it scares you or cuz you are too far, the release will be streamed live aqui.

Racist Right Doesn’t Know How to Spell

6:15 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Controversia| Funny| Politics| language| race · Comments Off

23 Jun 2009

…in English. From Think Progress, this is hilarious.

buchanan

These fools were at a “conferenece” (!) arguing for English Only, spelling the word “conference” como el culo and using Sonia Sotomayor as the central figure for their ignorant rhetoric:

PAT BUCHANAN: Judge Sotomayor is up there at school in New York, she gets a scholarship to Princeton, she’s graduated with all these big honors and awards they said she never won. What’s she doing there in the summer? They said her adviser told her to read children’s classics so she can learn English better. How do you graduate number one in Princeton if you’re in the summer and you’re reading Rumpelstiltskin and Snow White? [laughter] [...]

Yeah…”so she can learn English better”… What tense are we speaking in? Nice grammar on you, too, Pat!

That’s a segue into a delusional rant about how Obama is out to make everyone speak Spanish:

PETER BRIMELOW: I really do recommend the language issue because you know that polls better than immigration and affirmative action. Eighty-five percent of Americans say they would favor official language policy. The wonderful thing about this issue if you look at what’s going to actually happen here is you’re going to find that the Obama administration is going to gradually institute institutional bilingualism in the country. It’s going to be required to speak Spanish in key positions, the police force and so on. This is a direct attack on the American working class because they are not going to be bilingual.

Right. Because Obama himself speaks Spanish so well.

WHAT. THE. F***?!

This is what we call in Spanish patadas de ahogado. The Republicans are giving up the ghost.

Via / Think Progress and Hispanic Tips (Thanks Tomás)

Sotomayor Nomination : Identity Politics Games People Play

27 May 2009

sotomayorphotos-1048 My Puerto Rican corazon is bursting with mixed emotions today. The Sotomayor Supreme Court nomination is historic and important. My mother, who came to NY from Puerto Rico as a child, was beside herself with excitement and I can’t even imagine what my dad, who came to New York from la Trocha de Vega Baja with dreams of becoming a lawyer, must be feeling. Pero that pride that is usually reserved for Rican Weekend is tempered with being disturbed at how Sotomayor’s nomination is being used to play identity politic games while denying some of the real work that needs to be done in terms of Puerto Rico’s status, the role of Latinos in politics, and the move towards real change in the current immigration system.

Like I said yesterday, I still have to study Sotomayor’s record before I pull out the wepa welcome wagon, pero Latinos and many people of color are excited and rightfully so. Just as the Obama presidency is historic and is viewed as an example for young men of color, Sotomayor’s nomination and hopefully her getting on the bench, is an example for young women of color. Pero the question then is who gets to claim that example?

According to some, NOT immigrants. One of the things that shocked me the most and personally pissed me off, was how many Latinos, including Puerto Ricans, were adamant that Sonia Sotomayor’s experience wasn’t an immigrant experience and that linking her family history to an immigrant narrative was a disservice. This argument is based in the idea that Sotomayor’s parents, as Puerto Ricans, are U.S. citizens, and therefore even if they moved from a U.S. colony, with it’s own culture and history and claims to nationhood, they are not immigrants. That because Sotomayor’s parents hold a U.S. passport, they are not immigrants.

Pero what does Sotomayor say? From a lecture she gave in 2001 (thanks for the link Manny):

Who am I? I am a “Newyorkrican.” For those of you on the West Coast who do not know what that term means: I am a born and bred New Yorker of Puerto Rican-born parents who came to the states during World War II.

Like many other immigrants to this great land, my parents came because of poverty and to attempt to find and secure a better life for themselves and the family that they hoped to have. They largely succeeded. For that, my brother and I are very grateful. The story of that success is what made me and what makes me the Latina that I am. The Latina side of my identity was forged and closely nurtured by my family through our shared experiences and traditions.

For me, a very special part of my being Latina is the mucho platos de arroz, gandoles y pernir – rice, beans and pork – that I have eaten at countless family holidays and special events. My Latina identity also includes, because of my particularly adventurous taste buds, morcilla, — pig intestines, patitas de cerdo con garbanzo — pigs’ feet with beans, and la lengua y orejas de cuchifrito, pigs’ tongue and ears. I bet the Mexican-Americans in this room are thinking that Puerto Ricans have unusual food tastes. Some of us, like me, do. Part of my Latina identity is the sound of merengue at all our family parties and the heart wrenching Spanish love songs that we enjoy. It is the memory of Saturday afternoon at the movies with my aunt and cousins watching Cantinflas, who is not Puerto Rican, but who was an icon Spanish comedian on par with Abbot and Costello of my generation. My Latina soul was nourished as I visited and played at my grandmother’s house with my cousins and extended family. They were my friends as I grew up. Being a Latina child was watching the adults playing dominos on Saturday night and us kids playing loteria, bingo, with my grandmother calling out the numbers which we marked on our cards with chick peas.

Language, The Media, & Access to Power : Peruvian Congresswoman Hilaria Supa

4 May 2009

4370620090423082928 Via Global Voices comes the issue of language and power, specifically the criticism coming from a Peruvian newspaper that an indigenous congresswoman, Hilaria Supa, should not have her position because she doesn’t know proper Spanish.

El Correo de Lima wrote in a front page story:

Se trataba de Hilaria Supa, parlamentaria del Partido Nacionalista Peruano elegida por la región Cusco, y a decir de lo que descubrió una reveladora foto de Correo, sus limitaciones en cuanto a ortografía y sintaxis dejan mucho que desear. Las tomas obtenidas del cuaderno de notas de la mujer de 49 años hablan por sí solas.

My translation: This is about Hilaria Supa, Congresswoman form the Nationalist Peruvian Party chosen by the Cusco region, and based on a revealing photograph from el Correo, her limitations when it comes to her ability to spell and use of syntax, leave much to be desired. The images from a notebook of the writing of the 49 year old woman speak for themselves.

April is Poetry Month : Bonafide Rojas

9:47 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Culture| language| literature · 1 Comment

30 Apr 2009

This month long exercise has been fun. I have featured “classic” Latin American poets and modern poets, some whom I consider my personal sources of inspiration.

The last and final poet to close this month out is Bonafide Rojas. I actually read at a fundraiser with Bonafide the first night I ever was “Mamita Mala” and have shared poetic space with him a few times after.

April is Poetry Month : Cesar Vellejo

10:00 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Peru| language| literature · Comments Off

29 Apr 2009

250px-cesar_vallejo_1929_restauradabyjohnmanuel Today’s poet is Peruvian born César Vallejo.

XII
From Trilce

Pienso en tu sexo.
Simplificado el corazon. pienso en tu sexo,
ante el hijar maduro del dia.
Palpo el boton del dicha, esta en sazon.
Y muere un sentimiento antiguo
degenerado en seso.

Pienso en tu sexo, surco mas prolifico
y armonioso que el vientre de la Sombra,
aunque la Muerte concibe y pare
de Dios mismo.
Oh Conciencia,
pienso si, en el bruto libre
que goza donde quiere, donde puede.

Oh escandalo de miel de los crepusculos.
Oh estruendo mudo.

Odumodneutse!

English translation after the jump
Read more…

Older Entries

Link Cariño | Hissip: [...] Who’s your mama? [...] [...]

la Macha: I agree totally with you bubbles. [...]

Bubbles: Re: "Many women have mental, emotional instabilities which cause them to end up in abusive relations [...]

la Macha: and whaaaa? women who have mental health issues are suddenly to blame for getting beaten? [...]

la Macha: gabriel--i don't agree with you that women have a submissive nature--but that's ok, I guess. I agree [...]

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