mexico | VivirLatino

Archive for the ‘mexico’ Category

Monday Morning Movie : Preview of Los Invisibles

7:06 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|Media|mexico · 1 Comment

15 Nov 2010

Last week Amnesty International, in conjunction with Mexican actor/director/producer Gael Garcia Bernal released Los Invisibles, The Invisible Ones, a series of four short documentaries about the trip thousands of Central Americans make traveling across Mexico in an attempt to reach the U.S.

I really wanted to highlight this series because of how accessible it is to many. I can imagine people in my neighborhood accessing the four films via their cell phones. In light of the anti-immigrant rhetoric in the U.S. combined with the revealed horrors Latinos from Central and South America face when traveling through Mexico al rumbo a los E.U., this film coming in part from a Mexican seems really important. There seems to be a new market for reality tv focusing on the border. Using buzzwords like “war”, outlets like National Geographic Channel and Current TV each have their own series about those who cross the frontera for a better life. But those series feel like exploitation films to me, with an U.S. gaze framing the crisis not so much in terms of the inherent human rights of the migrants, but rather the fear of invasion.

Tomorrow we will feature part I of the film.

VL At The Cine: Ilegales

7:33 pm By BiancaLaureano · Arts|Immigration|mexico|Movies · 3 Comments

17 Oct 2010

I have a love/hate relationship with the New York International Latino Film Festival. It’s a long deep love/hate where the hate is active and more recent then I’d care to admit. Perhaps it had to do with the corporatization of the Festival, perhaps knowing past (and maybe still present) organizers ripped ideas from other media makers I know and claimed them as their own. Or maybe it’s because the caliber of the films, the opportunity to host and represent Latin@ film and media makers seems lost at times. I often struggle each year with attending. This year was no different.

Due to a family emergency that took me out of the country during the Festival, I was not able to attend. So I was very happy when the VL team got a note to review the film Ilegales. We were sent a screener, so I could enjoy the film in my own home and watch as often as I’d like. The film in Spanish, with English subtitles, reminds me of a modernized El Norte (sans the indigenous storyline), or at least it is in the same spirit of sharing the narrative of people who seek to migrate from Central America to the US and the struggles and reality of that journey.

Increase of Border Patrol Agents = Increase in Border Violence

1:55 pm By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|mexico|U.S.-Mexico Border|Violence · 1 Comment

9 Sep 2010

Even before the recent increase of border patrol agents along the U.S. Mexico border, la frontera was not a safe place for those living, working and playing nearby.

An article in the L.A. Times published this week, the paper reports that in the last 18 months five Border Patrol agents have been accused or convicted of sex crimes or assaults including one agent who pleaded guilty in January to raping a woman while off duty, and another who is accused of sexually assaulting a migrant while her young children were nearby in a car. These are only the cases that we know of. Think about how many assaults go unreported or unprosecuted and like many of the recent alleged police brutality cases, some of the officials involved are Latinos.

So when DHS Secretary Napolitano crows about how the numbers that are supposed to be going up are going up, one has to wonder if she feels that the increase in sexual assaults and physical assaults are numbers that also are supposed to go up, as inevitable trade offs for the idea of safety for some.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano : “All the Statistics that are Going Up Are Supposed to be Going Up”

8:45 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|Labor|mexico|Politics|U.S.-Mexico Border · 2 Comments

31 Aug 2010

If nothing else, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano is a woman of her word. During a telephonic press briefing yesterday, Napolitano proudly crowed the start of unmanned predator drone flights out of Corpus Christi, Texas, beginning on Wednesday, Sept.1.

The rest of the telephonic conference was more of the same with an emphasis on more. I think the Secretary of Homeland Security said the word “more” so many times creating a dramatic crescendo effect that drove home just how militarized the U.S. border with Mexico was becoming and just how far we are from comprehensive immigration reform.

The drones, which beginning tomorrow will be able to monitor the entire U.S. Mexico border, are meant to track the “illegal movement of drugs, money and people”. While I know many will say the “illegal movement” of people refers to the disgusting crime of human trafficking, I picture families and individuals crossing the frontera and wonder how is movement declared illegal and only the movement of certain people.
Read more…

To Mexico City! : Supreme Court Declares Gay Married Couples Can Adopt

8:14 am By Maegan La Mala · Family|GLBT|mexico · 4 Comments

18 Aug 2010

On Monday, with a 9 to 2 vote, the Mexican Supreme Court decided that married gay couple have the right to adopt children in el D.F. This follows an earlier court decision in Mexico City upholding the legality of same-sex marriages.

The issue of same-sex marriage and adoption was raised to the Supreme Court by the Attorney General under Mexican President Felipe Calderon. The lawsuit alleged that gay marriages and adoption went against the idea of family and put children at risk.

California to Gay Couples : You Can’t Get Married.Ok You can. Um..Never Mind

10:23 am By Maegan La Mala · California|GLBT|mexico · 6 Comments

17 Aug 2010

The narrative feels a little like a novela, with California’s courts playing fickle lover to the devoted, fight till the end marriage equity crowd.

Earlier this month, Proposition 8, which barred same sex marriage in California, was shot down by a Federal Judge. Not surprisingly, the appeal was immediate which halted marriages first until tomorrow. Then yesterday, a federal court in San Francisco blocked the stay from being overturned until a hearing, expected in early December.

In the meantime, everyone can move to Mexico City.

Copa Mundial Update : Mexico v. Argentina

8:47 am By Maegan La Mala · Argentina|mexico|Sports · 1 Comment

28 Jun 2010

I have been chastised by some readers for not doing better coverage of the World Cup compared to the last World Cup.

Mala indeed has been watching and tweeting when I have access to wifi where I am watching the game, which has included in Casa Mala, at a local bakery and yesterday I took it to a huge beer garden in Queens to watch Mexico vs. Argentina. It was packed and it was hot and not just in terms of temperature. There were at least three physical altercations that I witnessed not to mention all the trash talking which often was based on notions of which Latin American country was superior. Alot of the trash talk twisted pro-migrant chants and there was tons of homofobia while the pride parade marched right across the East River.

While you could hear the “no se puedes”, you couldn’t hear the chants of “culero” which depending on who you ask means “asshole” or is a homophobic slur.

In case you didn’t watch the game, Argentina beat Mexico 3-1, eliminating Mexico from the World Cup.

Today is Chile v. Brasil at 2 pm EST.

Border Patrol Plays Target Practice with Teenager

9:02 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · children|Immigration|mexico|U.S.-Mexico Border|Violence · 9 Comments

9 Jun 2010

Yesterday I wrote how the homicide of Antonio Hernandez Rojas at the hands of U.S. Border Patrol agents was just the beginning based on how the Obama administration has chosen to go about immigration reform, that is by further militarizing the border with Mexico. I didn’t expect for my prediction to come true so quickly, especially not with the life of a teenager.

Yesterday U.S. Border Patrol shot and killed Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca (some reports say he was 14, some say 15) in Texas. U.S. Border Patrol is defending it’s actions, saying that the boy was part of a group that was trying to cross the border into the U.S. without papers. Border Patrol is also saying the group that the boy was with was throwing rocks at their men. Naturally, the proper response to someone throwing rocks at you is to shoot and kill them, especially if they are Mexican.

There have been reports that Sergio was just playing near the border when he was shot, another report I read said that he was visiting a relative who lived in el Norte. Regardless of why Sergio was on the border, regardless of if he had rocks in his hands or not, there is not justification for this. Where is Obama now? Now that he has ordered sending National Guard troops to the border when already this year, which is not even half way over, the number of injuries and deaths on the border at the hands of Border Patrol is higher than it has been in the previous two years. Where are his promises of reform and change? Seems like they are being buried along with the bodies of our children.

Anastasio Hernandez Rojas Death on the Border a Taste of What More Militarization Brings

12:04 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration|mexico|U.S.-Mexico Border|Violence · 80 Comments

8 Jun 2010

Immigration reform, or the lack thereof, has many faces now. One is the faces of the students starving in front of Senator Charles Schumer’s office . Another face is that of Anastasio Hernandez Rojas, a Mexican who was killed by U.S. Border Patrol using a baton and a Taser, last week.

Hernandez Roja was killed while being deported. Officers claim that he had become combative and were required to use force against him (hmmmm where have we heard that claim before). The San Diego Medical Examiner’s report listed the cause of death as heart attack, with methamphetamine abuse and high blood pressure listed as contributing factors. Border Patrol abuse is not apparently a contributing factor.

Mexican Futboleros Say No to SB1070 and Arizona

6:47 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · arizona|Immigration|mexico|Sports · 3 Comments

17 May 2010

As we get closer to the World Cup in South Africa, Mala’s gonna need a special VivirLatino soccer jersey pero two Mexican futbol teams will not be sporting their uniforms in Arizona in protest against SB1070.

Club America and Pachuca were supposed to face off in a friendly match on July 7 at the University of Phoenix. Pero, Club America pulled out of the game citing “the new immigration bill”.

Que viva el boicott!

PS : Who watched the amistoso entre Mexico & Chile yesterday?

Older Entries

Newer Entries

Scrying Nicki Minaj, Stupid Hoe, and #Afrofutures | Nuñez Daughter: [...] forest of things that seem to matter a lot–like fingers waving in presidential faces� [...]

Karen: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/01/09/120109fa_fact_auletta [...]

Karen: I just read this about Rubio. Let's see the GOP make him a VP nominee. LOL http://www.democraticu [...]

Martes Media Minute : Roe v. Wade Anniversary, Medicaid Mama y Midwife Victory, Cervical Cancer Awareness month, & Mala’s Mami Closeup, | VivirLatino: [...] last week’s liveblog of a conversation on cervical cancer and Latin@s, Bianca Laureano s [...]

Emiliano: thanks for your reviews. i feel like you tell it like you really feel. [...]

VivirLatino