Archive for the ‘Chile’ 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?
Monday Musica : Rebel Diaz -”Libertad”
6:11 am By Maegan La Mala · Chile|Linking Latinos|Music · 1 Comment
20 Sep 2010During this Latino Heritage Month, we are marketed to, studied, talked about and analyzed. During this month many of our homelands, ancestral and actual celebrate their independence days but also within these countries we struggle onward seeking true freedom.
The following video comes from us gracias a Rebel Diaz. Filmed on the streets of Santiago de Chile and produced Chilean team, Artefacto Visual, the video features Villa Grimaldi, which was a concentration camp site during the Pinochet dictatorship ushered in by the United States and where two of the Rebel Diaz crew members, RodStarz and G1′s, parents were tortured.
For me, this video is what this month and every other month of the year is about.
Enjoy
Isabel Allende Receives Chilean Literature Award with Some Controversy
7:17 am By Maegan La Mala · Chile|literature|Women · 2 Comments
3 Sep 2010
Earlier today I received a text message letting me know that author Isabel Allende had been given this year’s National Chilean Literature Prize. She is only the fourth woman to be given the award since its creation in 1942.
And yet her recognition isn’t without controversy. Some critics have labeled her writing, ranging from memoirs to short stories to novels and even a cookbook, as being too commercial and not “literary” enough.
As we enter September and quickly move to what is known in the U.S. as “Hispanic Heritage Month”, many Latin American counties celebrate their independence days, especially countries in South America. As the mother of two ChileRicans, one of them a MapucheRican and having lived in Chile in one of my incarnations, this 45 minute documentary really struck me. The Spanish (as in from Spain and in Spanish- with no English subtitles) looks at the Mapuche in Chile, with a specific focus on recent political repression.
I was moved and angered by the film as it discussed how, paralleling the treatment of indigenous nations in the U.S., colonial treaties were broken, new treaties were made, and then those were broken as well. I was particularly struck with how the new land ownership decisions made under the Pinochet dictatorshop were being enforced with violence against Mapuche communities.
If you speak Spanish and have 45 minutes to spare, it really is worth watching, considering the context of the upcoming bicentennial of Chile.
“Los Olvidados”, El Pueblo Mapuche, Una Historia de Resistencia from Nuestro Canto on Vimeo.
Via / Oposición a Piñera
Monday Morning Movie : La Nana
30 Aug 2010This past weekend I finally got to sit down and watch via Netflix, Sebastian Silva’s award winning film, la Nana, about a maid in an upper middle class Chilean household and her relationship with the family she works for, her own family, others and herself. Before I get into the nitty gritty here’s a preview.
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.
Today’s World Cup Games : Colonizers vs Past Colonies
7:42 am By Maegan La Mala · Brazil|Chile|Spain|Sports · 1 Comment
25 Jun 2010My political mind can’t help but look at some today’s World Cup matches and think how sports intersects with issues of nationalism.
At 9:30 am EST Portugal vs. Brasil and at 2:00 pm Spain vs. Chile.
Chico Trujillo Brings Chilean Cumbia to NYC
15 Jun 2010
I’m fairly certain that I am the only Rican in NYC who on the day of the National Puerto Rican Day parade opted to dance to Chilean Cumbia.
On Sunday, June 13, 2010, Chico Trujillo held a party at the Oveja Negra in Astoria, Queens to celebrate the release of their latest album Chico de Oro on Barbès Records.
When I first heard the album, I knew little about Chilean cumbia save what I had heard from my Chilean familia and alot of that was based in a class analysis of the music, that this was the music that the lower classes listened to. Mexican and Colombian cumbia were more familiar to me. Pero put Chico de Oro on and you have an instant dance party, complete with familiar cumbia covers and original songs with lyrics that tease. See Chico Trujillo live and you have a dance parade.
A Lunes Look Ahead
9:28 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Allied Media Conference|Chile|Immigration|Music|Politics|VivirLatino · Comments Off
14 Jun 2010There will be much going on on VivirLatino this week so please stay tuned. Here is just a taste of some of the things yours truly is working on.
1: Copa Mundial/World Cup Fever and the race and class politics of global futbol.
2: Why movement building and non-profits don’t always mix.
3: VivirLatino goes to the Allied Media Conference in Detroit (3rd Year!!!)
4. Some Cumbia from Chile con Chico Trujillo
Love y Lucha
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.
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