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Maine Voters Said Yes on 1 and Yes to Marriage Inequity

3:32 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Family| GLBT| Immigration| Maine| Politics · 5 Comments

4 Nov 2009

5450_109742748525_105762473525_2307856_7278867_n In more bad election news, yesterday voters in Maine said yes to Question 1, overturning the state’s marriage equality law.

Prerna Lal at Dream Activistreminds us how this ties into the immigration issue:

Why should an average non-gay DREAM Act student care about my queer rants? Because like your families, like the Mejia-Perez family, our non-straight families are also scrutinized, separated and pulled apart since the law refuses to recognize them and grant them full and equal rights. Quite like President Obama delivered change for your families and has yet to deliver, he is also largely ignoring LGBT families.

When you do eventually gain the right to vote on other types of families at the polls, just remember what your own family, especially those who lived in mixed-status families, have had to endure. After that, question your ‘faith-based leaders.’ Ask them why they exclude same-sex families when they talk about ‘family unity?’ The Catholic Church, on one hand, stands up strong for the rights of undocumented workers. On the same page, it denounces civil rights for gay couples. Ask your pastors and priests, your clergy and pundits whether ‘God’ would deport a gay immigrant over a straight immigrant. Ask them whether some rights are more important than others. Ask them to support all families.

New York City Wakes Up to Four More Years of Bloomberg

12:17 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · New York City| Politics · 1 Comment

4 Nov 2009

It was a close one, 51% to 46%— a difference of less than 51,000 votes. For a moment I thought that New York City would have a new mayor but instead it looks like NYC’s billionaire mayor has won a historic and controversial third term. Certainly the fact that he reportedly spent $100 million, $15,000 an hour to Thompson’s $7 million over all, had nothing to do with it.

I was thinking about what bothered me so much about Bloomberg’s third term. Wasn’t the issue of third terms at the center of so many problems in Latin America, from Honduras to Venezuela to Colombia? Claro the fact that my politics differ is part of it but reality is a bigger part. In Latin America, at least the leaders in question attempted to have some sort of vote or referendum on the issue of additional terms, something Bloomberg did not do. Instead he went over the heads of the NYC people and went ahead and changed the term limits law. His justification, saying the city needed his help because of the economic crisis, makes no sense looking at how the economic conditions for Latinos in NYC has worsened. And it’s not just the economics that bother me. While Bloomberg doesn’t have the rabid personality of his predecessor, Giuliani, Latinos and other people of color have experienced some of the same “community policing” tactics but with a nicer facade.

Maybe I really do need to move out of NYC.

Via / The Daily Mail

NY’ers and Others : Don’t Forget to Vote Today

12:51 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · New York City| Politics · No Comments

3 Nov 2009

It’s election day in New York City (and in many other places I’m sure). If you can vote, please do with everything I said before last year’s presidential election holding true.

The biggest race here in my hood is for mayor, with wannabe third term Bloomberg and Bill Thompson as the top contenders and making sure they pander, er campaign to the Latino community. I have seen many more Bloomberg operatives in my immigrant ‘hood and much more of his trash lining the streets of my hood but he does have what, a few billion in his wallet? My mom’s phone has been ringing off the hook though with Spanish language robo-calls featuring former Bronx borough pres Fernando Ferrer telling us to support Thompson.

I won’t tell you who to vote for pero if going by any of the Spanish language campaign ads is any indication, I may have to vote for the Rent is Too Damn High Party (ok, ok I do like the Basta Bloomberg ad).

Queens, NYC State Senator : Once a Community Defender, Now an Attacker?

11:00 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Justice| New York City| Politics| Violence| Women · 2 Comments

30 Oct 2009

How do we deal with men in our communities who hurt the women in our community? And I’m not just talking about our physical communities like our neighbors or relatives. What of those who claim to represent us in public office.

I wrote about my discomfort surrounding the NYC State Senator Hiram Monserrate case when charges first surfaced against him, accusing him of attacking his girlfriend. It feels complicated for me on multiple levels. Monserratte was my local council person and he is my local state senator. That never has stopped me before. That wasn’t it. I had dealings with Monserrate before he was involved in electoral politics, when he worked with the Latino Police Officers Association here in NYC and he and his organization stood with the Latino families of those killed by police brutality and us organizers. As a Latina who has dealt with domestic violence both personally, politically, and professionally, how did this man whom I identified as a defender of the community suddenly become an attacker?
Read more…

Fortuño Es Un Hijo de PU

8:17 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Music| Politics| Puerto Rico · No Comments

28 Oct 2009

I wasn’t a huge fan of the original song pero with these lyrics…..

…ok I could do without the chipmunk voice too and I feel bad for las putas cuz really even a puta wouldn’t want an hijo como el gov. de Puerto Rico.

Via / Cargas y Descargas

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.

Health Reform for Latinas Should Include Not Being Shackled While Birthing

27 Oct 2009

shackles Yesterday, la Macha told us how today is the National Call in Day for Women of Color to Demand Health Care Reform (have you called yet?). And while immigrants have been used as scapegoats, not much attention has been paid to the access for immigrants, especially immigrant women who find themselves detained while pregnant, women like Juana Villegas DeLaPaz who we wrote about last year.

Seems like Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who revels in terrorizing Latino communities, wants to make sure that even infants entering into this world know their place in his eyes. From Latino Politico:

During her second night behind bars, the bleeding started. On the morning of October 14, she felt contractions. Her hands and feet shackled, she was in labor and ushered into a paramedic’s van by a detention officer who restrained her to the stretcher.

“That’s not necessary,” the paramedic told the officer.

“It’s my job,” the officer responded. The guard was a Latina.

She thought she would be released from the shackles once she arrived at the hospital, but she wasn’t.

The officer chained her ankle to one leg of the hospital bed.

A nurse requested that she be freed to get a urine sample. But the officer suggested instead that her bed be dragged over to the bathroom.

Later she was changed from her jail uniform into a hospital gown.

“The officer chained me by the feet and the hands to the bed,” she said. “And that’s how my daughter was born.”

It is the lives of women above that make me keep repeating why the issues of immigration reform, health care reform, and prison reform all work together. It is why I am not a reformer because the reform movements tends to separate the issues into neat little blocks. I think of those who cried victory when Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s 287(g) contract was modified to only include checking the status of those in jail, those in jail like the woman forced to give birth in chains.

Really Great Report on Latino USA on Puerto Rican Crisis

9:01 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration| Media| Politics| Puerto Rico| economy · No Comments

26 Oct 2009

I just finished listening to a really great report on Latino USA featuring two Puerto Rican experts, Juan Manuel García Passalacqua and Angelo Falcon. The two do a really good job, I thought, at explaining how migration from Puerto Rico has always been driven by economic crisis exacerbated by its colonial status. Given how badly things are going in Puerto Rico, Angelo Falcon and Juan Manuel García Passalacqua agree that a new wave of Rican immigration is happening and what exactly does that mean in a United States that has shown it’s anti-immigrant side especially when the haters, in the words of Angelo Falcon, don’t make distinctions among different Latin Americans and they certainly don’t ask to see papers when they unleash violence on our communities.

NYC Street Vendor Protest Tomorrow

9:28 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Activism| Justice| Labor| New York City · No Comments

25 Oct 2009

311430_height370_width560 In my hood street vendors are part of the landscape. I love that I can buy and eat elotes, tacos, ice cream, tamales, puerco, tacos and buy socks and flowers all on the same block. Pero the harassment of these vendors is also part of the landscape. I know when there are undercover police nearby when the mujer that sells water and the mujer that sells churros all cover their wares under garbage bags in an effort to make themselves look like normal shoppers and avoid being ticketed. I don’t have statistics but most of the street vendors I know and see are immigrants trying to survive. Tomorrow there will be a protest in the Bronx in support of street vendors, demanding that the city finally move on increasing the current caps and to temporarily stop the outrageous fines.

Date & Time: Monday, October 26, 2009 at 11:30 am

Location: Supreme Court House, 851 Grand Concourse, Bronx, NY (Corner of 161st Street and Grand Concourse on the steps of the Court House)

Street Vendors From Across NYC Demand an Increase of the Caps and a Temporary Stop to Cruel Fines

Bronx, New York – Hundreds of Street Vendors will be gathering in the Steps of the Supreme Court House in the Bronx to demand that the city finally move on increasing the current caps and to temporarily stop the outrageous fines. Street vendors in the Fordham Road area in the Bronx have almost disappeared temporarily as the 46th and the 52 precinct increased their raids and fines. Relationships with both precinct deteriorated this summer as constant raids and absurdly high fines began being imposed on the street vendor community in the recent months.

The lack of permits has forced many vendors to sell without cart licenses which in turn causes arrests and summons of up to $3,000.00. With the upsurge of job losses in the past year, an increasing number of people have turned to street vending as a means of work. The result has been an intensified crackdown of street vendors that cannot access the cart permits by police and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Street vendors have had to face an upsurge of arrests, fines, and confiscations of merchandise.

“Street vendors are working families, we have been asking the Bloomberg administration to increase the current caps and to decrease the current fines for the past 3 years to no avail,” states Rafael Samanez, Director of VAMOS Unidos. “Their enforcement only solutions further criminalize working families trying to survive,” he added.

Street vendors organizations have began meeting with the offices of Melissa Mark Viveritto, Senator Serrano, Assemblyman Nelson Castro, Senator Squadron, and other high profile political figures in New York to begin addressing the current dire situation that street vendors have to face in a daily manner.

VAMOS Unidos, Street Vendor Project and Esperanza del Barrio, three street vendor organizations in New York City will be holding a succession of events to bring attention to this grave situation street vendors face.

Image Via/ MetroMix

Latino Events in NYC Today: Por la Justicia. Maximo Pueguero Presente.

7:09 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Activism| Justice| New York City| Violence · No Comments

24 Oct 2009

Maximo Pueguero Is Gunned Down by NYPD! Family, Friends and Community Demand Justice!

Family and friends have worked in conjunction with lawyers and eyewitnesses to gather information that points to the unjust fatal shooting of a non-documented young man in Washington Heights.

What: On July 22nd 2009, Maximo Peguero was killed by members of the NYPD.

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There was never a robbery, as the NYPD has stated
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He never stepped out of the car
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There were no weapons found in the car
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There were no illegal substances present in the car
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There were no charges made
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The other car passengers are all free of charges We are going to have a vigil and a march on 3rd month of his death

Who: Alianza Dominicana Inc., Democratic council member nominee Ydanis Rodriguez, Family and Friends of Maximo Peguero Movement, witnesses of the murder, outraged coummunity.

When: Saturday, October 24th, 2009 at 188th street between Amsterdam and Audubon at 3pm. In front of the altar where his life was taken away.

Press confrence to be held after march at the 34th Pct. @ 4pm.
If you have any information that could help our cases please call:

Ambrose Wotorson, PC Attorney at Law at 718-797-4861

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