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A Favorite Latina on the Web Needs Our Support

4 Nov 2009

I’m really honored that Guanabee named yours truly one of their favorite Latinas on the web.

Some deal explicitly with Latino issues, some don’t. Some are funny, some are creative, some are activists, all are uniquely amazing, inspiring women who, we think, are some of the best at what they do.

I am especially honored by some of my company on the list, including dear mami amiga, Noemi Martinez of Hermana Resist. As a single mami media maker, I appreciate what Noemi does and understand the struggle it is to express yourself in a given medium with no source of funding and with kids yelling, learning, laughing and getting sick as your background soundtrack. Which is why I am asking you to help my mami hermana.

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.

Lou Dobbs Invites BastaDobbs to His Show

9:06 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Controversia| Immigration| Media| TV| media justice · 9 Comments

22 Oct 2009

loudobbs After a successful day of events across the country yesterday that coincided with the airing of Latino in America, seems like CNN’s Lou Dobbs realizes that it’s gonna take more than calling Latinos who call him out “fleas” to get rid of us. The producers of Lou Dobbs’ show emailed Roberto Lovato of BastaDobbs to be on the show. Roberto, never one to shy away from a good opportunity, said claro pero on one condition…

Latino in America: the Boot Strap story

8:00 pm By la Macha · Media| media justice · 6 Comments

21 Oct 2009

As you watch the Latino in America tonight, I thought you might enjoy this preview/critique of the show from Color Lines.

Take the story of Cindy Garcia. Having once ditched high school classes, Cindy is now trying to avoid becoming one of the 70 percent of students who don’t graduate from her Los Angeles high school. Although the school board president admits that a school meant to handle 1,500 students actually serves 4,800 students, CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien focuses on Cindy’s real challenge: her family responsibilities. She has a mom who needs her to translate and help at the family store and a young niece and baby brother to take care of. When she ends up pregnant, we know now presumably what Cindy’s real hardship will be.

What’s going to help Cindy finish high school?

O’Brien could have suggested an overhaul of the education system. She could have analyzed the impact of the more recent and severe budget cuts for students. She could have examined why Cindy’s stepfather is in jail (prison industrial complex anyone?) or what the state of reproductive health education is at Cindy’s school, where a number of Latina girls are facing unplanned pregnancies.

But O’Brien skipped these questions and the real world solutions.

We’re told instead is that what Cindy needs to make it is grit, focus, and hard work. In short: her own bootstraps.

CNN: BASTA DOBBS!

1:56 pm By la Macha · media justice · 16 Comments

21 Oct 2009

via the Basta Dobbs campaign comes news of nationwide protest events that will be taking place on October 21rst! See below and at the link for further information–and if you can make it to an event, let us know how it goes!

On the eve of the broadcast of CNN’s “Latino in America,” we’re holding events across the country to call on CNN to cut ties with Lou Dobbs. On Wednesday, October 21st, 18 cities will be holding events, including yours! The event near you will be at the following location. Please join us, and bring your friends and family.

ALBUQUERQUE, NM
12 PM NOON @ National Hispanic Cultural Center
1701 4th St SW, Albuquerque, NM 87102

ATLANTA, GA
10 AM @ CNN Building Downtown
190 Marietta St. Atlanta, GA 30303

BOSTON, MA
11 AM @ Massachusetts State House
24 Beacon St. Boston, MA 02133

CHICAGO, IL
12 PM NOON @ Casa Michoacan
1638 S. Blue Island Ave. Chicago, IL 60608

DENVER, CO
12 PM NOON @ Colorado State Capital
200 E Colfax Ave. Denver, CO 80203

GREENVILLE, NC
12 PM NOON @NCCE Lenoir County Center
1791 Hwy 11/55, Kinston, NC 28504

HOUSTON, TX
11:30 AM @Houston City Council
900 Bagby St. Houston, TX 77002

LAS VEGAS, NV
5 PM @ Hermandad Mexicana Transnacional
740 N. Eastern Ave.- Suite 110, Las Vegas, NV 89101

LOS ANGELES, CA
10 AM @ Carecen
2845 West 7th St. Los Angeles, CA 90005

MIAMI, FL
12 PM NOON @ Center for Immigrant Orientation
2610 SW 8th St. Miami, FL 33135

NEW YORK, NY
4 PM @ CNN Building Downtown
10 Columbus Cir. New York, NY 10023

PHOENIX, AZ
12 PM NOON @ 802 N. 7th St. Phoenix, AZ 85004

SACRAMENTO, CA
12 PM NOON @ Cesar Chavez Plaza Park
J St & 10th St, Sacramento CA 95814

SAN ANTONIO, TX
12 PM NOON @ Esperanza Peace & Justice Center
922 San Pedro, San Antonio, TX 78212

SAN DIEGO, CA
American Friends Service Committee
Available for Interviews- 619-233-4114, Pedro Ríos

SAN FRANCISCO, CA
12 PM NOON @ Sun Rise Restaurant
3126 24th St. San Francisco, CA 94110

TUCSON, AZ
12 PM NOON @ El Tiradito in Old Barrio
on South Main St. between W. Cushing St. & W. Simpson St. Downtown Tucson, AZ 85701

WASHINGTON, DC-TBD

Congratulations Are In Order: Alexis Pauline Gumbs: Media Activist , Utne Visionary Changing the World

12:20 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Activism| Media| Women| media justice · 3 Comments

18 Oct 2009

Radical women media activist don’t do what they do for the props, that’s for sure. Pero it’s always nice when they get some and it’s always nice when the peeps getting props are close to my heart. Utne Reader has done it again, releasing their annual 50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World list. I am happy to see the name of Alexis Pauline Gumbs aka just Lex, for her work on the Mobile Homecoming Project and the million and one other projects she always seems to be working on.

Felicidades.

MobileHomeComing: Here We Go! from Alexis Gumbs on Vimeo.

Award Winning Cuban Blogger Banned from Leaving to Recieve Award

11:21 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Blogs| Cuba| Media| media justice · 2 Comments

18 Oct 2009

Cubana blogger Yoani Sánchez was awarded the oldest prize in journalism, the Maria Moors Cabot Prize. Problem is, she wasn’t allowed the leave Cuba to accept the award. The awards were announced in the middle of the summer but according to her, she somehow held out a tiny bit of hope that she would be allowed to leave. She posted a video of her visit to the Cuban immigration office where she was told she couldn’t leave the country but not why. Could it be because she has been an unapologetic critic of the Cuban government whose voice, via the internet, has global reach?

CNN Wants Latino Viewers and $ But Not When They Criticize

12:13 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Media| TV| media justice · 2 Comments

16 Oct 2009

America’s Voice successfully raised enough money to produce and purchase on-air time for their Drop Dobbs television ad.

The plan was to pay the $16,000 it cost to place the ad during CNN’s Latino in America Series next week. Claro the show will be surrounded by Spanglish ads urging you to buy from Walmart with it’s horrible treatment of workers and eat McDonald’s with it’s horrible treatment of animals and your body. But air an ad that has something to say and is trying to sell a message of truth? Not CNN. They rejected America’s Voice money and ad.

I don’t have cable so I don’t watch CNN and I had no intention of watching the series, Latino in America. Given the criticisms I heard and read about the CNN series Black in America, I already had made up my mind that the show likely wouldn’t represent with any accuracy what the Latino experience was for me, my familia, my friends, and vecinos. The hypocrisy of a network that poses itself as a fair and balanced news leader,airing a series on Latinidad while paying the salary of a the hateful Dobbs, whose rhetoric gives both the government and individuals justification for hate crimes against Latinos, especially Latino immigrants, grows. As Nezua wrote, CNN doesn’t really care about what it really means to be Latino in America. Maybe it’s time not just to drop Dobbs but to drop CNN.

Those Crazy Gringos Videos

23 Sep 2009

Seems like racist white people in the media are getting alot of attention this week from various organizations and websites and some of that negative attention is well deserved. But negative, reactive pressure against some of these crazy gringos is only as effective as the values and goals behind them.

Our first video link is the latest edition of News with Nezua : Crazy Old White Guys.

News With Nezua | Crazy Old White Guys from nezua on Vimeo.

I already told you about the Basta Dobbs campaign. America’s Voice launched their own campaign aimed against Lou Dobbs. They are seeking donations to help buy ad space countering Lou Dobbs and his hate speech. (full disclosure: they have purchased ad space on VL).

Every weeknight, CNN airs one full hour of Hate TV — it’s called, “Lou Dobb’s Tonight.”

Voices Against Violence Zine

9:07 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Justice| Media| Women| media justice · Comments Off

19 Sep 2009

Call out for Submissions

Voices Against Violence Zine is accepting submissions for our next issue. Please send in your essays, poetry, letters, personal accounts, artwork & photography to be included.

What is the Voices Against Violence Zine? A small zine-diy style, with work from people of color, indigenous folks, trans people & queer survivors of domestic violence, sexual violence and sexual assault. Included topics can be: healing from trauma, transformative words used as a healing mechanism, enabling healing, life after trauma, self-help guides/resources, self-healing, dancing as means to healing, healing through narration, forgiveness (do we need it?), & collective trauma.

Voices Against Violence zine is to be used as a community teaching tool, as a jump off for discussion and creative outlet and for conversations that need to happen.

Voices Against Violence is part of Café Revolución.

Send submissions in English, Spanish, tex-mex, spanglish or any combination* via email, either in text in the body of the email or attached in .txt format to noemi.mtz (at) gmail dot com.

In the subject enter voices against violence submission. Include a brief bio, your mailing address, website if any. Mention your zine or any upcoming projects you’d like. If you prefer to remain anonymous, let me know or include a pen name. Email any photos, artwork as an attachment.

deadline: Oct. 31st *translations would be cool but not necessary.

forward and repost! thx

Via / Hermana Resist

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