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Charlotte Observer Looks at one Immigrant Family

25 Sep 2006

Understanding that Hispanic/Latino Heritage month is more than about food and dance and jumping off the interest in the Elvira Arellano case, today the Charlotte Observer is kicking off a 6-part immigration series with a look at how one family is torn apart by the mother’s legal status, and the agonizing decisions they must make once she’s deported to Guatemala.

It was March 26, a Sunday evening. Ten-year old Kayla was at her aunt’s house in Monroe, playing video games with her cousins. Her father, Ray, had just stepped in the front door. Her mother, Deysi, wasn’t with him.

Less than an hour before, Ray and Deysi — his partner of 10 years — were driving back from a soccer match in Monroe. A state trooper stopped them for an expired tag, and Deysi was jailed for being in the U.S. illegally. Eight years before, a warrant had been issued for her arrest after she failed to follow through on paperwork requesting asylum.

Once again it’s important that these stories be told to put a human dimension to the issue of immigration because if it were left to the right wing pundits and the politicians it’s easy to ignore that these are family values and issues we are dealing with.

Catch the whole series at The Charlotte Observer

Spain Hearts VivirLatino

2:55 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Newspapers|Spain|TV|VivirLatino · Comments Off

6 Sep 2006

VivirLatino’s first online poll has made waves across the ocean in Spain. 20 minutos (PDF – Page 22), a free daily paper, wrote up the online poll where you, our readers, voted Shakira as the most influential Latina in the U.S. Our poll also made the Informativos Telecinco afternoon newscast in Spain.

Hate Crimes Target Guatemalans

10:35 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Immigration|Newspapers · Comments Off

28 Aug 2006

What I love (really hate) about the report in yesterday’s New York Times about hate crimes against the Guatamalan community in West Palm Beach, Florida, is how right in the headline the fact that the crime victims are undocumented is highlighted (as “illegal”) as if their undocumented status makes it ok that they are being attacked. While the article attempts to make the point that the undocumented status of many Guatemalans makes them easy targets because of their distrust and fear of the criminal justice system, the fact that the NYT chooses to constantly use “illegal” as an adjective to describe the victims in an underhanded way lays the blame on the Guatemalans.

With such crimes on the rise — they are common enough to have a chilling street name, “Guat-bashing” — the Guatemalan-Maya Center in Lake Worth, Fla., and the Guatemalan Consulate in Miami, along with local law enforcement agencies, religious groups and banks, are working to help illegal immigrants from Guatemala protect themselves.

While the robberies, beatings, and even killings of immigrants are labeled as crimes, they are never called illegal. That label is saved for those being robbed, beaten, and killed. And nowhere are the real illegal activities being called hate crimes, which is exactly what they are since they target one specific population.

Via / The New York Times (Registration Required)

NY Latino Goths Featured in NY Times

11:26 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Culture|Lifestyle|New York City|Newspapers|race · 1 Comment

2 Aug 2006

Contrary to what the mainstream media reports, Latinos are not monolithic. Not only do we represent different countries, religions, races, and languages, we also have varied tastes in music, clothing and food. So I let out a big yawn when last Sunday’s New York Times ran a story on small group of Latino Goths from the Boogie Down Bronx. The tone of the story is expectant of shock from the reader.

In America, Goths are usually thought of as white, middle-class and suburban. But the young people who hang out at Fun World live not on Long Island or in Connecticut but in the Bronx, and many of them are newcomers. Korpse, whose real name is Alexis Molina, was born in Puerto Rico. He and his friends, who shift easily between English and Spanish and go by so-called scene names like Selene, Zombie and Dexx, represent a new breed of Goth: immigrants or the children of Spanish speakers and of immigrants from Latin America.

I guess I should be happy that the mainstream media is showing that not all Latino young people are into hip hop or reggaeton, but the overall tone of the article still seems like it’s trying to have a certain shock value. For Latinos like me , in their late 20′s who grew up in the U.S. , Latino goths, punks, and any other “subcultures” don’t surprise or shock. It’s just more proof that Latinos can’t fit nicely into one little box.

Need more proof: Check out this site I stumbled across – Ethnic Goth

Via / The New York Times (Registration Required)
Image Via / Wikipedia

Mexicans and Spaniards the best lovers?

1:02 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Magazines|mexico|Newspapers|sex|Spain · 5 Comments

30 May 2006

If you’re a regular VL reader you’ll know that we cite Spain’s 20 Minutos newspaper a lot. I think it’s funny how they tend to have the weirdest stories, yet position them as “hard news”. Today is no exception. The headline:

International Sex Study: Spaniards — the longest-lasting and most imaginative, but we do it less frequently.

Hee. Can you tell this is a newspaper they hand out for free at subway stations?

According to the “international study” (which is actually just a survey done by Men’s Health magazine — a PR tactic as it were — in which the data is based on respondents’ answers), Spaniards and Mexicans rank high in sexual prowess. Some highlights:

According to the study, we Spaniards are outstanding at prolonging the length of the sexual act, since our average is 22.3 minutes, the third best after Mexicans and the Dutch who last 22.5 minutes.

We are also third in the world in the variety of positions we put into practice in lovemaking, with 4.63, beaten only by the Hungarians, who confess that they change positions 8,27 times, and by Argentines, who try 5.76 positions.

Again, if you ask someone these questions, what are they going to say? I think all this shows is that it’s clear that Spain had a hand in the creation of the Mexican “macho”.

Via / 20 Minutos

Mexican Sex Dolls fight Machismo

8:00 am By Maegan La Mala · mexico|Newspapers|radio|TV|Women · 1 Comment

13 Mar 2006

mexicodolls_wideweb__470x216%2C0.jpg No, this isn’t the latest in Latino porn; it’s the latest “pro-woman” media campaign of the Mexican government. The television, print, and radio ads feature blow up sex dolls dressed as office execs in an office setting. The message of the ads is:

No woman should be treated like an object. Sexual harassment is degrading and it’s a crime,” says a voice-over at the end of a television ad, which shows a man walking past one of the dolls and casually stroking her shoulder.

The ads are meant to stir things up and meant to compare the objectification of women as sex dolls to the objectification of women in work spaces.

Latino techno? You’re kidding!

1:32 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Media|Music|Newspapers · 4 Comments

28 Feb 2006

As evidence of the fact that mainstream media continues to see Latinos as retrograde, this snippet from a very “surprised” article about the Latino techno movement:

Electronic and Latin music would seem to reside at polar ends of the music spectrum. One is precise, the other passionate. One is the brutalist Bauhaus beats of Kraftwerk, the other is the languid romanticism of the Buena Vista Social Club.

Why Buena Vista Social Club? Why is that the quintessential “Latin music”?

New York Times Rompiendo Barriers by Featuring Daddy Yankee

1:30 pm By Maegan La Mala · Celebrities|Media|Music|Newspapers · 2 Comments

7 Feb 2006

If you are a reggaeton fan or even a reggaeton hater amazed by its growing cross cultural influence then you need to get your hands on a copy of this past Sunday’s New York Times Magazine which features the rey of reggaeton, Daddy Yankee. The article tells the tale of a star growing up in the poverty stricken ghetto and making it out while struggling to keep it real amid the new found success and money and bling that comes with it. Whether you buy into the reggaeton culture as obviously so many have, it’s eye opening to see how “exotic” the musical phenomenon, those who make it, and those who consume it remain to white mainstream media. For example the writer observes:

In San Juan, club attire for women is normally high heels, bare legs and just enough spandex to cover the parts that need covering…And reggaetón lyrics, even when laced with social consciousness about race and class and life in the ghetto, are often a call, specifically addressed to female clubgoers, for more dancing and less clothing

Via / The New York Times

La Voz de Kentucky

4:01 pm By Maegan La Mala · Newspapers · 1 Comment

7 Dec 2005

Andres Cruz co-owns and operates La Voz de Kentucky, a free English/Spanish bilingual newspaper that publishes every two weeks from an office in the new Community Ventures building on Midland Avenue. The newspaper has been in publication since 2001, but Cruz and Juan Jose Galicia will celebrate three years of owner-operation in January.

As Latinos many times we complain that there is not enough coverage on issues that affect us, or we are stereotyped by the media and presented in an unfavorable light. What Mr. Cruz is doing is a step in the right direction for the Latino community throughout the country. Why not have our own media outlets at the local level. What better way to inform Latinos on issues that are of interest, than with a newspaper such as La Voz de Kentucky.

“We are always on the side of the people. We cannot make mistakes, because people trust us,” said Galicia about the responsibility he and Cruz feel about correctly informing their readers.
La Voz soon plans to distribute a radio version of the newspaper to area stations, and to start a Web site with the same content as the print version.

Via / Lexington Herald-Leader

Freddy Blames His Guayabera

8:00 am By Maegan La Mala · New York City|Newspapers|Politics · 1 Comment