Archive for the ‘Activism’ Category
Today NYC : Rally to Stop the Deportation of Julio Hernandez
8:24 am By Maegan La Mala · Activism|Immigration|New York City · 4 Comments
26 Jul 2011
From our inbox. Also I just want to note, that I don’t necessarily agree with the framing of the call to protest/support. I don’t necessarily think that Julio will be safer in the U.S. – as if the U.S. has shown itself to protect and take care of young, queer youth. Pero, the point is that if Julio wants to stay he should be able to, especially if it is true, as the Obama administration keeps telling us, that they are not deporting young people like Julio. If that was true then why is this protest even needed?
Students, community leaders and elected officials will hold a rally and march in the Bronx to demand the halt of the deportation of Julio Hernandez.
We are calling on to ICE director John Morton to stop Julio’s deportation, and we are urging Senator Schumer and Senator Gillibrand to advocate for deferred action for undocumented youth.Julio Hernandez, a 24-year-old New York student, faces an imminent deportation order after being detained on a Greyhound bus during his spring break in April.
Julio was enrolled in Bronx Community College, and during his return trip from Chicago to New York, he was detained by Border Patrol in a Greyhound bus in Erie, PA.
Julio is set to be deported back to El Salvador where he faces gang violence due to his sexual orientation. Julio came to the United States in 2007, fleeing threats on his life from gang members. After arrival, he quickly learned English and decided to pursue his dream of becoming a radiologist. Julio is a bright, hard-working student, who has aspirations to contribute and serve his community. He wants to be a role model to younger kids.The New York State Youth Leadership Council is leading a campaign to stop Julio’s deportation. With a record number of deportations, the Obama administration continues to place hard-working immigrant youth in deportation proceedings. In an effort to keep Julio in the nation he now calls home, we have collected numerous petitions from the community and contacted ICE Director John Morton to urge him to defer Julio’s deportation. In addition, we are also urging Senator Schumer and Senator Gillibrand to advocate for deferred action for undocumented immigrant youth, and stop wasting valuable talent and brainpower due to a broken immigration law system.
What: Press conference, rally and march
Who: Julio, immigrant youth, Bronx college students, community leaders and elected officials
Where: Bronx Community College – 2155 University Ave, Bronx NY 10453
When: Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at 12:30pm
Why: Julio is a deserving and hard-working undocumented young American who is facing deportation. If deported to El Salvador, Julio’s life is at risk because of his sexual orientation. We need to stop his deportation!
Pelican Bay Prison Hunger Strike Only Kind of Over. Support Still Needed!
9:57 am By Maegan La Mala · Activism|California|Justice|Prisons|Violence · 4 Comments
23 Jul 2011
There has been some confusion over the last few days as to if the weeks old hunger strike which began at Pelican Bay California State Prison is over. The hunger strike was started specifically to protest the conditions inside the entire prison system but also very specifically the treatment in so-called Security Housing Units. You can read the entire list of demands of the strikers here.
It has been confirmed that inside Pelican Bay, the strike leaders have accepted an offer from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
The leaders confirmed CDCR’s announcement that immediate changes in SHU policy are the opportunity for some educational programs, provision of all-weather caps (beanies) and wall calendars. More substantially, the leaders explained the CDCR has agreed to investigate changes to other policies including the gang validation and debriefing processes, and it is now up to supporters outside prison to make sure the CDCR upholds their promise.
US Officials Seize Seven Computers as Caravan to Cuba Crosses US-Mexico Border
9:11 am By Maegan La Mala · Activism|Cuba|Health|Justice|Politics · 1 Comment
21 Jul 2011Note: Some beloved mentors of mine are participating in the caravan this year so, like just about everything, this is more than political, it is also personal. – Mala
Dear Friends and Supporters,
At 12:20 PM on Wednesday, the 22nd Pastors for Peace Caravan to Cuba arrived at the US/Mexico border to break the US blockade against Cuba. The US border officials have again decided to interfere with our mission of breaking the US blockade, and have seized seven computers. More information is in the press release below. Although we are continuing on the caravan and taking the remaining 100 tons of aid to Cuba, our protest against the seizure continues! Your support is vital! We are asking you, our emergency response network, to spread the word:
Call your senators and congressional representatives, the White House, call your local media, and organize in your communities to demand that the US government:
- Return the 7 computers immediately!
- End the blockade and travel ban of Cuba now!
- Find your Congressional Representative here:
https://writerep.house.gov/
writerep/welcome.shtml Find your Senator here:
http://www.senate.gov/general/
contact_information/senators_ cfm.cfm Contact the Whitehouse here: http://www.whitehouse.
gov/contact Now is the time for action against this criminal blockade and in support of the Pastors for Peace Friendshipment Caravan to Cuba!
You can support our work by making a donation here:
https://npo.networkforgood.
org/Donate/Donate.aspx? npoSubscriptionId=4382 Let us work together to end the blockade!
In solidarity,
IFCO-Pastors for Peace
US Officials Seize Seven Computers as Pastors for Peace Cuba Caravan Crosses into Mexico
US Customs and Border Patrol officers seized seven computers intended for Cuban hospitals, schools, and a veterinary clinic at the Pharr (TX) International Bridge on Wednesday.
The computers are part of the 100 tons humanitarian aid carried by the 22nd IFCO/Pastors for Peace Friendshipment Caravan to Cuba. Caravan participants observed officers X-raying and searching the vehicles. Customs officers then said that they were ‘detaining,’ not ‘seizing’ the computers, in order to determine whether the caravan needed to have a license to take them to Cuba. Three of the computers seized were the same ones that were taken from last year’s caravan in 2010, and were later returned to IFCO/Pastors for Peace.
While the brightly painted trucks and school buses were being searched, caravanistas chanted “Cuba is no threat to you; let our computers through!” and “Love is our license! Free the computers!” and held banners and signs reading “Cuba is not our enemy” and other slogans. Caravanistas then prayed and chanted together as they gathered around the pickup truck holding the seized computers.
Although IFCO/Pastors is protesting the computer seizure, we are continuing through the border to deliver to Cuba the 100 tons of aid that have crossed successfully through the border.
This year more than 100 North Americans and Europeans have joined the Caravan.
For updates check www.pastorsforpeace.org
and www.facebook.com/ pastorsforpeace
Lunes Libro : The Revolution Starts at Home
9:46 am By Maegan La Mala · Activism|Books|Family|Health|Justice|qtpoc|Violence · 2 Comments
18 Jul 2011
The Revolution Starts at Home, edited by Ching-In Cheng, Jai Dulani, & Leah Piepzna-Samarasinha and published by South End Press, is an anthology/handbook/reference based on a zine that breaks the dangerous silence surrounding the “open secret” of intimate violence—by and toward caretakers, in romantic partnerships, and in friendships—within social justice movements.
As an activist, a member of multiple communities, a survivor of violence, and as a mami, I was excited to sit and read this book after hearing and nodding along to excerpts at the packed NYC release at Bluestockings. My pareja and I also wanted to read it as a shared exercise in working through how some of the violence in our previous relationships (movement-wise and personal) impacted how we treated each other. Divided into four sections, the stories, strategies, interviews and poetry seek to confront what usually is spoken about in whispers – how we as people in social justice movements, especially women, transgender, genderqueer people of color deal and are dealt with when there is an issue of violence within our circles. There has been so much talk about safety, accountability and justice when we struggle against institutions and individuals outside of our movement(s) but not enough talk/action about what those same concepts look like, feel like, and how they play out inside. The Revolution Starts at Home seeks to change that.
Makeshift RecLAmation in Southern California Featuring Many VivirLatino Friends and Mala!
7:33 am By Maegan La Mala · Activism|Arts|Culture|Health|history|Justice|Los Angeles|Media|media justice · 1 Comment
19 Apr 2011
I am so excited to write about this because the Southern Cali portion of the tour includes so many people I love…yes myself included. So blessed that this will be my West Coast debut in such an amazingly well curated space.
For those that don’t know:
Makeshift Reclamation: New Feminist Art and Activism
A multimedia event showcasing how contemporary feminists are resisting and creating alternatives to not only gender-based oppression but also a collapsing economic system, climate crisis, and more. Featuring live readings, performances, and video works by artists and activists including Jessica Hoffmann, coeditor/copublisher of the independent, transnational, antiracist feminist magazine make/shift; Hilary Goldberg, whose new project, recLAmation, is a Super 8 experimental documentary/narrative film in which queer superheroes navigate a future beyond capitalism; and others.Upcoming Southern California Tour Dates 2011
Friday, 4/22, 8 p.m.: Echo Park Film Center
1200 N Alvarado St. (@ Sunset Blvd.) Los Angeles, CA
Feminist Media Night with imMEDIAte Justice
Live performances by Hilary Goldberg, Jessica Hoffmann, tk karakashian tunchez; Film/Video/Audio works by Alexis Pauline Gumbs, imMEDIAte Justice, POOR MagazineSaturday, 4/23, Time TBD: Cal State Long Beach
Chicana Feminisms Conference, USU Beach Auditorium,
1250 Bellflower Blvd., Long Beach, CA
Live performances by Irina Contreras, Fabiola Sandoval, tk karakashian tunchez, Hilary Goldberg, Jessica Hoffmann; Film/Video/Audio works by Alexis Pauline Gumbs, imMEDIAte justice, POOR MagazineMonday, 4/25, 3:15 pm, Cal State Los Angeles
U-SU Theater, Student Union, 5151 State University Drive, LA, CA
Live performances by Hilary Goldberg, Jessica Hoffmann, Maegan “la Mala” Ortiz, Fabiola Sandoval, tk karakashian tunchez; Film/Video/Audio: Alexis Pauline Gumbs, imMEDIAte Justice, POOR MagazineTuesday, 4/26, 7:30 pm, UC Santa Barbara
Multicultural Center Theater, 1504 Santa Barbara, CA
Live performances by Irina Contreras, Hilary Goldberg, Jessica Hoffmann, tk karakashian tunchez; Film/Video/Audio: Alexis Pauline Gumbs, imMEDIAte Justice, POOR Magazine
Bolivia’s “Law of Mother Earth”
2:54 pm By BiancaLaureano · Activism|Bolivia|Environment|history|Religion · 11 Comments
12 Apr 2011There’s been a lot of buzz surrounding Bolivia’s new law that, when passed, will grant Nature all and equal rights granted to humans. This news is not new as Bolivia’s President Evo Morales, the first indeginous President of Latin America, announced December 2009 at the U.N. Climate Summit they were creating a Mother Earth Ministry. Days prior to the summit President Morales hosted the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Bolivia.
During President Morales’ speech in 2009 he stated: “The budget for the United States is $687 billion for defense. And for climate change, to save life, to save humanity. They only put up $10 billion. This is shameful.” Yeah, I don’t even want to go back and look up the numbers for education and healthcare.
The law is said to establish 11 new laws for Nature which include:
- the right to life and to exist;
- the right to continue vital cycles and processes free from human alteration;
- the right to pure water and clean air;
- the right to balance;
- the right not to be polluted;
- the right to not be affected by mega-infrastructure and development projects that affect the balance of ecosystems and the local inhabitant communities;
- the right to not have cellular structure modified or genetically altered
(I know that’s not all 11, pero I’m having a hard time finding them in English or Spanish, if you know of a link with all of them please share and I’ll update the post!)
Undocumented Youth in Georgia Arrested for DREAMing
10:12 am By Maegan La Mala · Activism|DREAM Act|Education|Georgia|Immigration · 2 Comments
6 Apr 2011Yesterday, undocumented youth in Georgia amped up the action by committing an act of civil disobedience, risking deportation. The arrests of Georgina Perez, Viridiana Martinez, Jose Rico, Dayanna Rebolledo, Andrea Rosales, David Ramirez and Maria Marroquin near Georgia State University, were preceded by the state’s first “coming out” event, where the young people first publicly declared their undocumented status. The young people also delivered
a letter to the Georgia State University President asking him to not comply with the recent Georgia Board of Regents ban of undocumented youth from the top 5 public universities.
With no DREAM Act currently in play in the U.S. Congress (although that may change soon), DREAMers across the country have been working locally to make sure that all young people have access to education regardless of their immigration status.
CNN has the following video of the protest and arrests.
Read more…
DREAMs Come Out of the Shadows in Chicago
8:00 am By Maegan La Mala · Activism|chicago|DREAM Act|Education|Immigration|Justice|Media|Politics|Videos|youth · Comments Off
4 Apr 2011This past, March 10th, young people, many whom would be eligible for the DREAM Act (if politicians would just get it passed already), came out of the shadows and declared their immigration status, without fear and without apologies.
The following is a video from the “Coming Out of the Shadows” rally in Chicago, organized by the Youth Justice League.
The film moved me to tears, and I was really appreciative of how it showed the diversity of the young people involved in the struggle for the DREAM Act.
If you want to support these youth or want to learn how to get involved. Visit the Youth Justice League online or email them at info@iyjl.org.
20 Years of Injustice for Family in NYC Anti-Latino Hate Crime
10:55 am By Maegan La Mala · Activism|Immigration|Justice|New York City|race · Comments Off
27 Mar 2011
On the night of March 29, 1991, Manny Mayi, an 19 year-old Dominican college student was chased and beaten to death by upon crossing over to the Italian-American section of Corona, Queens.
Following his murder, the Queen’s District Attorney’s Office [DA] struggled to produce an effective case against the alleged defendants as the Italian-American community became reclusive and shielded by police investigators. A young Italian-American woman admitted to police investigators that she heard one of the defendants confess to the crime. Nevertheless, her family relocated her to Italy one week prior to the start of the trial in 1993. She was never subpoenaed, thus her testimony was never heard.
The trial jury was selected from a pool of residents from Northern Queens and yielded a sole person of color. And while the crime was committed on a populous street during a warm spring evening, the DA’s office and the NYPD produced only two material witnesses. Compounded by the absence of hate crime legislation at the State or Federal levels, the criminal proceedings resulted in the swift acquittal of a lone defendant.
For years, rumors and accusations of police negligence lingered over the verdict. Most recently an investigation by the NYPD Cold Case Squad, —the results of which have not been shared with the family nor, to their knowledge, the Queens DA—have yielded no movement in the case.
It has been 20 years and this family continues to call for justice for the brutal murder of Manny Mayi. Join them to demand justice.
COME OUT TO THIS EVENT AS YOUR PRESENCE IS NEEDED AND SHARE THE INFO WITH OTHERS!
Today, Sunday March 27
1 pm to 4 pm
One Police Plaza (NYPD Headquarters)
Park Row (entrance is near the corner of Chambers and Centre Street)
New York City
U.S. Helped Create Toro’s Situation, Now They Want to Rid Themselves of It via Deportation
9:45 am By Maegan La Mala · Activism|Chile|Immigration · 5 Comments
15 Mar 2011Local NYC and international Chilean activist Victor Toro lost his bid for asylum. He is set to be deported to Chile, a country he left during the U.S. sponsored dictatorship of Pinochet, a country where he is legally dead.
From the NY Daily News :
ICE took Toro to court after he was arrested on an Amtrak train near Buffalo in 2007 for not having immigration papers.
Toro, a longtime advocate for immigrant rights who waded across the Rio Grande in 1984 to enter the U.S., claims he was afraid to turn himself in and request asylum, citing U.S. support for Pinochet’s brutal regime.
A democracy replaced the regime in 1990, but some of the leaders who had Toro tortured remain powerful, his lawyer says. They expelled Toro from Chile in 1977, declaring him dead.
Judge Sarah Burr said in a written ruling that Chile is a changed country and a safe place for Toro.
The Pinochet regime imprisoned Toro because he co-founded the Revolutionary Left Movement, known as the MIR, an anti-Pinochet group briefly labeled a terrorist organization by the U.S.
He was blindfolded for months at a time and had electric shocks applied to his genitals. He twice faced firing squads that shot blanks to scare him.
With President Obama set to visit the capital of Santiago later this month, Toro and Moreno are begging the White House to intervene. They argue the U.S. owes Toro because it tacitly backed Pinochet for years.
Hola!
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