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Monday Morning Musica for Mercedes Sosa

6:21 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Argentina|Chile|Latin America|Music|Women · 1 Comment

5 Oct 2009

Mala is in family court this morning (oh the joy), so I leave you the joy of Mercedes Sosa’s beautiful voice singing Violeta Parra’s beautiful song, that has served as a lullaby to my children and to some of my lovers.

9-11-09 : Random Pensamientos

11 Sep 2009

I almost feel like I’m obligated to write something today about 9-11 and frankly, I’m tired of the date. It’s exhausting on so many levels since the combination of numbers can be multiplied, added, subtracted and divided in so many ways. It’s a date that carries real physical weight and reaction in my muscles and bones. I can feel it settling, heavy in my gut.

I survived 9-11-01. Not in some abstract way but in a real sitting in a subway car underground in downtown Manhattan for houra as smoke and fire rose above. My mother survived 9-11-01, feeling the World Trade Center reverberate from the impact of a plane, she managed to lead all of her employees to safety. It was the second time she survived an attack on the WTC.

Pero I also have to sit down with my hijas, half Chilenas, and talk about their relatives that did not survive 9-11-73 or the 17 years of U.S. sponsored military dictatorship that followed. It is why the family of my younger daughter came to the United States. It is why the family of my older daughter remain active in Chilean politics in the southern part of that country.

Lunes Labor Day Musica : Victor Jara Te Recuerdo Amanda

7:40 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Chile|Labor|Music · Comments Off

7 Sep 2009

I woke up this morning thinking about the history of Labor Day in the United States. How is it that in the U.S. we don’t celebrate May Day and instead have taken this weekend in September and made it about bbq’s and last trips to the beach? Don’t get me wrong, I love some grilled carne and playa, but it seems like this U.S. holiday was rushed into existence in an effort to distract from real issues for the working/laboring class and purposely separated from May Day which reminds workers of the violence often unleashed upon them when they stand up with one voice.

Already the mainstream news media is turning the end of summer, the start of fall into a holiday of fear, recalling the horrors of 9-11-01 while denying other, earlier September horrors that are related thanks to the the politics of imperialism. Maybe that’s why when I woke up this morning I was thinking of Victor Jara and his musical legacy, how his art composed with the labor struggles of workers in Chile led to his murder. I am thinking of Amanda and Manuel in the song Te Recuerdo Amanda recognizing the Amandas and Manuels I see everyday in my family, on my block, in my community.

NYC : Tell I.C.E. Hands off Victor Toro Today

6:40 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Activism|Chile|Immigration|Justice|New York City · 1 Comment

26 Aug 2009

victor_toro Victor Toro is like familia to me. Whenever I am at a rally/event, I see him and he kisses me and my children warmly. His life exemplifies the ways in which U.S. foreign policy in Latin America is connected with current immigration policy, and how the two work together at attempting to destroy community.

Victor Toro is a citizen and national of Chile who was jailed and tortured there because of his opposition to the illegitimate Pinochet government (1973-1990). For more than 23 years, Victor and his wife Nieves Ayress (also a survivor of torture by the Pinochet regime) have been living in New York City and engaging in activism in the South Bronx, where they founded Vamos a La Peña, a nonprofit community organization that has served as a space for free expression and people’s power for undocumented workers and other disenfranchised community members. On July 6, 2007,Victor Toro was arrested by US Border Patrol, an agency of the US Department of Homeland Security, while on board an Amtrak train in Rochester, New York. He was released on bond on July 9 and is now seeking political asylum with the help of his legal team. His wife Nieves is a US citizen; their daughter, Rosita Toro, is a legal permanent resident.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2009

12PM-3PM

26 Federal Plaza

Corner of Worth & Lafayette

U.S. Not Sorry for Role in 1973 Chile Coup

1 Jul 2009

aleqm5j-ehjhewkth0fxha2om7xpoznxpq This story is from a few days ago, but given the current situation in Honduras, I thought it was relevant.

U.S. President Obama met with Chilean President Michelle Bachelet and was asked about the U.S.’s role in the 1973 coup that ousted democratically elected Salvador Allende and led to 17 years of military dictatorship.

Obama was asked about CIA involvement in Latin America such as the coup that brought Augusto Pinochet into power. Despite admitting that errors have been made in the past, Obama emphasized the need to move ahead in U.S.-Latin America relations:

“I’m interested in going forward, not looking backward,” said Obama, who has pledged to reinvigorate ties with Latin America, after what his advisors believe was neglect during the previous Bush administration.

“I think that the United States has been an enormous force for good in the world. I think there have been times where we’ve made mistakes,” Obama said in the Oval Office.

“But I think that what is important is looking at what our policies are today, and what my administration intends to do in cooperating with the region.

Chile Launches Abortion Hotline

11:15 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Activism|Chile|Health|Women · Comments Off

1 Jun 2009

hotline While extremists were planning how to kill legal abortion providers here in the U.S, In Chile, where abortion is illegal in all cases, a network of feminist organizations launched a hotline that will give women information about Misoprostol, a drug available in Chile by prescription to treat gastric ulcers, to safely and effectively induce abortion.

Supporters at the hotline’s launching, chanted “Contraception – so we don’t need abortions. Safe abortions – so we don’t die,” reported the Valparaiso Times. Spokesperson Gloria Maira of the Women’s Health Network of Chile said “We consider the right to a safe abortion a health issue.”

Abortion has been illegal in Chile since 1989. There are no exceptions in the law to account for rape, incest, or the life and health of the woman. Despite this, Chile has one of the highest abortion rates in Latin America, with about a third of pregnancies ending in abortion. Hundreds of women die each year from botched abortions in the country.

When I lived in Chile, I learned of the vast underground abortion networks that exist, from documentaries and my college roommates at the pension where I lived. It’s scary to me that young women in any circumstances must resort to these unregulated networks in order to take care of themselves.

Via / The Feminist Majority Daily News

Chavez’s Daughter + Allende’s Grandson = LOVE

10:45 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Celebrities|Chile|Chismes|Latin America|Venezuela · 2 Comments

7 May 2009

It’s not often that we hear about Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s personal life or family, but this latest bit of chisme about Huguito’s daughter is quite interesting. It seems that María Gabriela Chávez is dating the grandson of slain Chilean president Salvador Allende, Pablo Sepúlveda Allende. Chavez introduced the couple this week on his weekly TV show, Aló Presidente. Spain’s El País reports:

“Pablo!”, exclaimed the Venezuelan leader, embracing [him] told said that [he] was “a Chilean doctor, María’s partner and the grandson of Salvador Allende”, who he regularly says he admires and calls “the martyr president.”

The Venezuelan press had recently reported that the journalist, second daughter from Chavez’s first marriage, had managed to convince Sepúlveda Allende that he leave the medical center where he worked in the Chilean city of Coquimbo, opened by his grandfather who was also a doctor, to reside in Venezuela.

Might this be the making of a Latin American left political superfamily?

Via / El País

April is Poetry Month : Gabriela Mistral

8:00 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Chile|literature|Women · Comments Off

13 Apr 2009

mistral I’m a bad poet for not jumping on this earlier pero April is National Poetry Month here in the U.S. So for what remains of the month I will post a poem from a Latino/Latin American author.

Hoy I chose Gabriela Mistral, porque I used to live in Chile where she was born and my second daughter is named after her. Pero also because Mistral, born Lucila Godoy y Alcayaga was the first Latin American mujer to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Besos
Hay besos que pronuncian por sí solos
la sentencia de amor condenatoria,
hay besos que se dan con la mirada
hay besos que se dan con la memoria.

Hay besos silenciosos, besos nobles
hay besos enigmáticos, sinceros
hay besos que se dan sólo las almas
hay besos por prohibidos, verdaderos.

Hay besos que calcinan y que hieren,
hay besos que arrebatan los sentidos,
hay besos misteriosos que han dejado
mil sueños errantes y perdidos.

Hay besos problemáticos que encierran
una clave que nadie ha descifrado,
hay besos que engendran la tragedia
cuantas rosas en broche han deshojado.

Hay besos perfumados, besos tibios
que palpitan en íntimos anhelos,
hay besos que en los labios dejan huellas
como un campo de sol entre dos hielos.

Hay besos que parecen azucenas
por sublimes, ingenuos y por puros,
hay besos traicioneros y cobardes,
hay besos maldecidos y perjuros.

Judas besa a Jesús y deja impresa
en su rostro de Dios, la felonía,
mientras la Magdalena con sus besos
fortifica piadosa su agonía.

Desde entonces en los besos palpita
el amor, la traición y los dolores,
en las bodas humanas se parecen
a la brisa que juega con las flores.

Hay besos que producen desvaríos
de amorosa pasión ardiente y loca,
tú los conoces bien son besos míos
inventados por mí, para tu boca.

Besos de llama que en rastro impreso
llevan los surcos de un amor vedado,
besos de tempestad, salvajes besos
que solo nuestros labios han probado.

¿Te acuerdas del primero…? Indefinible;
cubrió tu faz de cárdenos sonrojos
y en los espasmos de emoción terrible,
llenaron sé de lágrimas tus ojos.

¿Te acuerdas que una tarde en loco exceso
te vi celoso imaginando agravios,
te suspendí en mis brazos… vibró un beso,
y qué viste después…? Sangre en mis labios.

Yo te enseñe a besar: los besos fríos
son de impasible corazón de roca,
yo te enseñé a besar con besos míos
inventados por mí, para tu boca.

For the English translation, learn Spanish. Ay pues claro I’m kidding. I think in translation the poem sounds a little cheesy pero hey.

How Latin American Women Celebrated International Women’s Day

8:26 am By Blogs Media · Chile|Cuba|Latin America|Peru · 1 Comment

9 Mar 2009

A Russian neighbor last night asked me in the street, “What are you? Are you Spanish?”
I shook my head and said, “No, my family is Puerto Rican.”
“So not European?”
“No, Caribbean”
” So you don’t celebrate International Women’s Day?”
“Of course I do”
and we proceeded to congratulate each other on being women.

Yesterday was International Women’s Day and Latin American Women celebrated all we do and continue to do around the world.

The Chilean Planning Ministry is venturing online for their Women’s Day Campaign, and for today, they bring us a poem read by several women. The poem is Ode to the Washerwoman by Pablo Neruda, which paints us the image of a woman washing laundry for a living at night, with a lit candle and the moon as company:

La nocturna
lavandera
a veces
levantaba
la cabeza
y ardían en su pelo
las estrellas
porque
la sombra
confundía
su cabeza
y era la noche, el cielo
de la noche
la cabellera
de la lavandera,
y su vela
un astro
diminuto
que encendía
sus manos
que alzaban
y movían
la ropa,
subiendo
descendiendo,
enarbolando
el aire, el agua,
el jabón vivo,
la magnética espuma.

I’m curious as to why a poem by Gabriela Mistral, the first mujer Latin American Nobel Prize winner, wasn’t used.

In Peru, women members of the Colective Canto a la Vida marched in Lima, demanding the respect of women’s rights as well as sexual and reproductive rights: the right to therapeutic abortions, against forced sterilizations and for access to the Day After Pill.

In Cuba, the 8th Congress of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) is held a discussion on the organization”s daily and international work and female presence in the country”s economic life.

Latina Lista featured the words of Latin American women confronting violence in their lives.

How did you celebrate International Women’s Day yesterday?

Via / Global Voices Online, Inteligentaindigena Novajoservo/The Intelligent Aboriginal News Service

A Dictator Gets a Museum

7:55 am By Maegan La Mala · Chile|history · Comments Off

21 Dec 2008

There is no museum yet for the thousands that were disappeared or killed under his 17 year dictatorship, yet Augusto Pinochet has a museum in his honor in Santiago de Chile.

2244 O’Brien Street is one of the Chilean capital’s most controversial addresses: the former home of one of South America’s most notorious dictators, General Augusto Pinochet.

Today, two years after the death of the notorious dictator, the house is opening as a visitor attraction.

Displays include an extensive collection of model soldiers, a throne-like chair used for afternoon breaks, treasured statues of Napoleon, and the uniform Pinochet wore when leading the 1973 coup that overthrew the Marxist president Salvador Allende.

The centrepiece of the museum, in the affluent neighbourhood of Vitacura, will be the general’s fully restored office. The rest of the exhibit comprises display cabinets filled with military awards and gifts received from around the world, including a samurai sword from Japan and – oddly, given famously tense relations – a medal from Cuba.

The permanent exhibition has been is funded by the Pinochet Foundation, which was established in 1995 to promote the former president’s legacy and is now based at the house. Their target markets are, according to the foundation director, Major General Luis Cortes Villa, foreigners and young people.

Young people, meaning those who didn’t grow up under a dictatorship or know what it was like know someone who was disappeared. Seems like the idea is to rewrite history and make Pinochet, just another Chilean President.

Via / The Guardian

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