6:49 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Dominicans|Events|Immigration|New York City|Violence · 1 Comment
27 Mar 2010
While the trial against those who are accused of murdering Ecuadorian immigrant Marcelo Lucero wages on in Long Island, the memory of Manny Mayi Jr. and the relentless search for justice by his mother, Altagracia, is a reminder to the Latino community, and all communities that there is no expiration date in the struggle for our children.
March in Memory of Manuel Mayi Killed Brutally by a Racist Group
108th Street and 36th Avenue
(7 train to 111th Street)
2pm
March 27th, 2010
Manny was an 18-year-old Queens College honor student, Manny Mayi, was murdered in a racist attack on March 29, 1991. The young Dominican man was walking home in, what was then, the Italian section of Corona Queens when a gang of white youth chased him down 108th street. Manny’s life ended 16 blocks later when he was beat with pipes and baseball bats. The medical report listed as the cause of death: fracture of skull, and contusions of the brain due to blunt force impact.A report released by the Justice Committee found that police refused to drive around witnesses who wanted to identify the gang members who allegedly committed the violent act. The report also says police failed to secure a key witness and allowed her to flee the country; in addition, the D.A. postponed the case 47 times and did not keep the family informed about any developments. Of the three arrested, Joseph Celso was the only one who stood trial, but was soon acquitted.
We want to put pressure on the city, state and federal government showing that someone killed in the hands of racism will not be tolerated!!! Please join this family’s fight for EQUAL PROTECTION UNDER THE LAW.
Rally at 2pm where Manny was killed and step off to march at 3pm.
Justice Committee, P.O. Box 1885 NY NY 10159-1885
(212) 614-5343
On a more personal note, this happened in a neighborhood I grew up in and the neighborhood where my children grew up in. Altragracia Mayi came to my older daughter’s first birthday party. This is history, this is the future of my children, this is familia.
10:21 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Dominican Republic|Dominicans|Movies · Comments Off
23 Feb 2010Today’s film clip comes to us via our friends at The Latin Americanist. It’s a trailer from a documentary called The Change Up about U.S. baseball dreams in the Dominican Republic.
7:34 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Books|Culture|Dominican Republic|Dominicans|literature · 1 Comment
27 Jul 2009
I don’t know why I didn’t come across this interview with my Dominican boyfriend, Pulitzer Prize winning Junot Diaz, before, pero it made me love him more. Hopefully we won’t have to wait 11 years for his next book.
Before I immigrated, I had no interest in books, no interest in newspapers, no interest in anything like that. There were plenty of little comics in the Dominican Republic, little pictorial books, penny dreadfuls: I had no interest in those whatsoever. But when I immigrated to the United States there was the crisis of being an immigrant who couldn’t speak the language very well, who didn’t understand the culture very well. I needed a way to express myself and a way to be engaged in the English language without it being a form of punishment. Speaking, during those early years, was a punishment. There was a lot of ridicule and a lot of cruelty, and instead of practicing aloud I could more safely read and practice language in my head.
9:34 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Dominican Republic|Dominicans|economy|Money · 1 Comment
18 May 2009
The current economy has had an impact on all communities, but especially Latinos, who were already feeling the pinch. This has caused a reduction in the amount of money that immigrant communities are sending to their home countries, and anti-immigrant scapegoating has a role to play as well. Pero here’s a very interesting development, as reported by Feet in 2 Worlds, remesas have started to change their usual traveling direction, with money coming from Latin America to the United States.
“We have seen a significant increase in the number of money transfers made from the D.R. to the U.S.,” confirmed Reny Pena, supervisor of customer services and transfers at the company’s office [La Nacional] in the Upper Manhattan neighborhood of Washington Heights.
Pena said that the volume of transfers from the Dominican Republic to the U.S. grew from between 80 and 120 monthly transfers in 2006 to the current rate of about 150 transfers a day. The increase has prompted the agency to expand the department that deals with U.S.-bound remittances from one to five employees.
8:22 pm By Maegan La Mala · Books|Dominicans|Movies · Comments Off
25 Nov 2008
Junot Diaz’s Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, will be adapted into a film and directed by Brazilian director of Central Station and The Motorcycle Diaries, Walter Salles.
I liked both Central Station and The Motorcycle Diaries, so hopefully the film adaptation of Oscar Wao will be as good as the actual book.
Via / Remolacha
11:19 am By Maegan La Mala · Dominicans|Music · Comments Off
18 Nov 200812:22 pm By Maegan La Mala · Dominican Republic|Dominicans|Women · Comments Off
13 Nov 2008The year is not quite over yet statistics coming out of the Dominican Republic show that so far this year (through to September), 102 women have been killed by their partners. 154 women in all have been recorded as being murdered in the Caribbean nation. The sad thing that is never recorded in statistics is the number of incidents of violence against mujeres that are never recorded, that are covered up yet reverberate through communities in silence.
In response, the state has set up 14 centers throughout the country to deal with familial violence. Yet the state also is taking an almost threatening approach to community movements inside DR who have taken their struggle to the streets in search of justice and a fundamental change in how women’s lives are valued.
R
adamés Jiménez, Procurador General…advirtió que todo aquel que altere el orden público será sometido a la justicia.
In other words, we’ll take care of the problem just don’t disturb public order, as if violence against women and the threat that hangs too often over the lives of women isn’t a disturbance enough.
Via / Panorama Diario, Remolacha
6:10 pm By Maegan La Mala · Dominicans|Haiti|Immigration|Latin America|World · Comments Off
11 Nov 2008
Nearly 3 years ago, I wrote about reports out of the Dominican Republic that Haitian workers and immigrants were being subjected to the most extreme forms of xenophobia and discrimination, and many were losing their lives. This post stirred up a lot of emotions, and it appears that now, 3 years later, things aren’t much better for Haitians in the D.R. The Inter Press Service reports on recent hate crimes and reprisals which are driving Haitians out of the Dominican Republic.
“A group of Dominicans armed with pistols, machetes and knives came to take revenge on us. I broke my leg trying to escape from my house, which was on fire. It’s not fair that all Haitians should have to pay for the crime of one,” Elena Piti, a Haitian mother of seven who lives in the Dominican Republic, told IPS.“I’m thinking of going back to Haiti, because I’m afraid that something might happen to me. Besides, I have nothing left here. I lost everything: my house, my money and my job,” said Franklin Jean, who IPS found hiding out in a precarious shelter in the surrounding fields.
The violence is reportedly a reprisal for a crime committed by a Haitian man against an elderly Dominican farmer. IPS reports that a mob burned down 25 houses in a Haitian settlement of El Cerro.
9:36 am By Maegan La Mala · Activism|crime|Dominicans|Family|Justice|New York City|Politics · 4 Comments
17 Sep 2008
Imagine you are walking your daughter to school. It’s a common scene. The last thing you expect is to be attacked. The last thing you expect is to be attacked by the New York City Police Department. Yet, that’s exactly what happened to Jesus Bracero.
In May 2007, 56-year-old Jesus Bracero was attacked in Washington Heights by NYPD officers while dropping his 15-year-old daughter off at school. The catalyst? Bracero not complying immediately when asked for id. This is where people will say to themselves, why did he not just follow the police order? The answer is simple. In the words of Bracero: “I had not done anything illegal.” This was enough to unleash the NYPD choking and beating him.
They dragged Bracero out of his car with a chokehold on his neck. Bracero says he was assaulted by many police, who handcuffed him and repeatedly banged his head on the ground.
4:25 pm By Maegan La Mala · Dominicans|Music|New York City · Comments Off
22 Aug 2008VivirLatino 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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