8:37 am By Maegan La Mala · Culture|Justice|Puerto Rico · 29 Comments
1 Jun 2011I will confess that it has been years since I have attended the Puerto Rican Parade here in NYC. When I used to go, in the late 90′s and into the early part of the 2000s, it was to protest, collect petitions, and hand out flyers. But as a Puerto Rican woman, the NYC/National Puerto Rican Day Parade, with all it’s floats, musical artists and waving of our red white & blue, has never felt like an entirely safe space. Throw into the mix growing corporate sponsorship that disrespects and reflects some of the worse stereotypes of our communities and the parade’s focus on the cultural while ignoring the intersections of the political and you have an event whose value is suspect.
The latest advertising/sponsorship campaign, coming via Coors Light, an official sponsor, first encountered by me in the subway over the weekend, invites to “EmBoricuate” – a play on the words Boricua, (rooted in the Taino name for the island Boriquen) and Emborrachar , to get drunk. Because apparently nothing says being Puerto Rican like getting drunk, drunk to the point of forgetting.
Wait could Coors be onto something? Read more…
8:00 am By Maegan La Mala · Environment|New York City|Puerto Rico · 5 Comments
25 May 2011I have seen alot more coverage of the struggle against the dam in Aysen, Chile than I have about another potentially environmentally devastating project in the Latin America that is the U.S., Puerto Rico.
Via Verde or Via de la Muerte, depending on who you ask, is a gas pipeline being pushed by the government of Luis Fortuño in Puerto Rico. The Gasoducto project would run through delicate ecosystems as well as through sacred Indigenous Taino areas. On May 1st, thousands marched in Puerto Rico to protest the way the project is being pushed through without transparency or input from the people of Puerto Rico.
Here is Congressman Luis Gutierrez speaking on the issue:
9:10 am By Maegan La Mala · Puerto Rico · 2 Comments
24 May 2011Following the arrest earlier this month of nationalist Norberto Gonzalez Claudio for his alleged involvement in the 1983 Wells Fargo robbery of $7.2 million, Puerto Rican independence activists on the island are saying that the FBI is conducting a new wave of intimidation. Manifesting as searches in Cayay, where Gonzalez Claudio was taken into custody after living “underground” for 25 years, the FBI has been entering the homes in the area, often without showing search warrants.
According to RNV/ La Radio del Sur, the FBI prevented those returning from work from entering their homes and took items from homes as evidence including computer hard drives. The Puerto Rican liberation organization, EPB-Macheteros affirmed in a communiqué that the FBI had created a battalion of 22 intelligence agents in order to follow independence supporters and social activists.
Read more…
11:44 am By BiancaLaureano · Justice|Puerto Rico|sexuality|Uncategorized · Comments Off
16 May 2011I saw this posted on Facebook and wanted to share with VL readers. If you know of similar events occurring in our communities and abroad feel free to send them our way! From the Facebook page:
Tuesday May 17, 4pm-7pm
El Capitolio
Lado NorteSan Juan, Puerto RicoEl Comité contra la Homofobia y el Discrimen (CCHD) te invita a participar en la Marcha del Día Internacional contra la Homofobia y la Transfobia, que se llevará a cabo el martes 17 de mayo en el Viejo San Juan y que conmemora los 21 años de la eliminación de la homosexualidad de la lista de enfermedades de la Organización Mundial de la Salud.
La marcha iniciará en el Capitolio y culminará en la Plaza de Armas. En esta ocasión:
- denunciemos la transfobia y la homofobia en los medios de comunicación,
- exijamos verdadera separación entre Iglesia y Estado,
- denunciemos las agresiones y los asesinatos por orientación sexual y por identidad de género, y
- concienciemos sobre la violación de derechos a las personas lesbianas, gays, bisexuales, transgéneros, transexuales, intersexuales y queer (LGBTTI/Q).
Te invitan:
Amnistía Internacional (Puerto Rico)
Clínica de Asistencia Legal de la Universidad de Puerto Rico
Colectivo Queer Sin Nombre
Comité contra la Homofobia y el Discrimen
Federación Universitaria Pro Independencia
Feministas en Marcha
Fundación de Derechos Humanos
Guerrilla Sex Education
Homoerótica
Iglesia Comunitaria Metropolitana Cristo Sanador
La Acción Libertaria
Movimiento al Socialismo
Movimiento Amplio de Mujeres de Puerto Rico
Organización Socialista Internacional
Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño
Proyecto Matria
Puerto Rico Para Tod@s
Unión de Juventudes Socialistas
11:35 am By Maegan La Mala · Politics|Puerto Rico · Comments Off
5 May 2011Earlier this week a delegation from the American Civil Liberties Union, which included interestingly enough, actress Rosie Perez and baseball player Carlos Delgado, as well as the head of the ACLU, Anthony Romero, Angelo Falcon of the National Institute for Latino Policy, and Juan Cartegena of LatinoJustice PRLDEF, concluded that the civil rights violations against students and labor activists by the government was worse than originally imagined.
From El Nuevo Dia :
“The necessity of maintaining the university open and assuring access to students cannot justify the excessive use of force we saw in the videos,” pointed out the director of the ACLU, Anthony Romero, who also recognized that students violated laws and damaged state property.
“When the government unleashes the power of the police on students who were meeting peacefully in a public place, that is anti-American, contrary to Puerto Rican values, unconstitutional, and against the law,” he said.
8:18 am By Maegan La Mala · Arts|literature|Media|New York City|Puerto Rico · Comments Off
17 Apr 2011
I am honored and blessed to be a part of this event and those who come can be blessed to by a most divine power.
Saturday April 23, 2011 from 6 to Midnight,
Performances start at 8pm
$5.00 DONATION
CASH BAR
RESURRECTION will be an evening of multimedia performance poetry by New York City’s Latin@ avant-garde elite, incorporating spoken word, dance, music, visual effects and art exhibit.
Presented by The Organization of Puerto Rican Artists, inc. O.P.Art
in collaboration with The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center and HISPANIC PANIC!
At The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center
107 Suffolk Street, New York NY
Room #309 and Teatro Kabayito
Between Rivington and Delancey,
F, J or M train to Delancey/Essex.
PRESENTING: POETRY, PERFORMANCE
Aravind Adyanthaya
J Skye Cabrera
Lola von Miramar (Larry La Fountain-Stokes)
Maegan La Mala Ortiz
Carlos Manuel Rivera
Vanessa Martir
Charlie Vazquez/Steven Maldonado
***WARNING*** THIS SHOW WILL CONTAIN ADULT THEMES
VISUAL ART EXHIBIT AND SALE
Showing recent works:
Everardus Bogardus , Andricel Yanela Peña,
Giovanni Caravaggio, Pepe Villegas, Rafael Rosario-Laguna,
Luis Carle, and Peter Madero III
The Organization of Puerto Rican Artists, Inc. (O.P.Art). Is a non-profit organization sponsored by The New York Foundation for the Arts, and is a 501(c)(3) Tax-exempt organization.
www.op-art.org
7:24 am By Maegan La Mala · New York City|Puerto Rico · Comments Off
24 Mar 2011For those of you who have asked for images from last night’s NYC rally against Puerto Rican Governor Luis Fortuño, Shameel Arafin has a set of images taken last night here on Flickr (thanks Shameel!).
Gracias as well to David Galarza Santa who has a great set of images over on Facebook, Check them out here.
10:14 am By Maegan La Mala · Politics|Puerto Rico|U.S. House of Representatives · Comments Off
23 Mar 2011Last month, Puerto Rican Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi made the news for his criticisms against fellow Puerto Rican, Congressman Luis Gutierrez, and the Congressman’s comments about the situation on the ground in Puerto Rico. A Sunlight Foundation report shows that the Resident Commissioner’s mouth is matched by his spending habits.
According to the analysis, Pierluisi spent more than $2.1 million to run his congressional offices in Washington and Puerto Rico. Most of it — $1.2 million — went to personnel costs. He spent about $174,000 on printing and about $60,000 on travel, according to the reports on the Sunlight Foundation’s database.
Alot of this was explained by the travel that Pierluisi has to do between Puerto Rico and Washington D.C. and the large number of mailings to constituents. Pero the anti-colonialist in me wonders if all of this is worth the expense, especially given how Pierluisi has no vote in Congress. I also wonder how that money could be better used say to help with the decolonization process of the island or with the economic crisis there.
7:12 am By Maegan La Mala · New York City|Puerto Rico · 4 Comments
23 Mar 2011While students and others in Puerto Rico are being assaulted in Puerto Rico over $800 and really much more, Puerto Rico’s Gov. thought a feast in NYC would be a great idea. Except the large Rican population here has other plans.
This came in my various inboxes and via Facebook:
Time Wednesday, March 23 · 4:30pm – 7:00pm
——————————————————————
Location THE NEW YORK ATHLETIC CLUB
180 CENTRAL PARK SOUTH (59th St. & 7th Ave. – R train to 57th St)
——————————————————————Long before Wisconsin’s right-wing republican governor, Scott Walker,
there was Luis Fortuño, the right-wing, conservative, republican
governor of the U.S. colony of Puerto Rico where over 50% of its 4
million people live below the poverty line.
Under his reign of terror, Fortuño and his party-controlled
legislature and courts have/are:• Systematically eliminated collective bargaining rights for workers
• Fired up to 30,000 public sector workers
• Privatized or attempted to privatize numerous public agencies and
services
• Attempted to privatize public education including the University
of Puerto Rico and have outlawed the independent teacher’s union
• Imposed a financial hardship on thousands of students struggling
to gain a higher education
• Militarized public college campuses and have used police and shock
troops to violently end peaceful demonstrations while also sexually
assaulting female students
• Been condemned by the ACLU and amnesty international for
repeatedly violating the human, civil and constitutional rights of
thousands of workers, students and journalists and their supporters
• Privatized huge swaths of valuable and ecologically sensitive
public lands and sold them off to private developers
• In the wake of the Japanese nuclear disaster, are attempting to
build an expensive, unnecessary, and extremely hazardous gas pipeline
through the heart of the island which will destroy thousands of acres
of sensitive woodland and imperil the lives of untold numbers of
residents along the pipelineGov. Fortuño has the complete and unequivocal support of the tea
party, the conservative PAC (where he spoke recently) and the racist
John Birch society (where he also spoke). The Wall Street Journal in
an op-ed headlined “Puerto Rico’s governor channels Ronald Reagan:
Move Over, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. You’ve got a tax-cutting,
pro-growth competitor who may be even bolder than you. His name is
Luis Fortuño and he is the governor of Puerto Rico, a place that, if
you can believe it, is in worse shape than the garden state.”Let’s show Fortuño that we all condemn his administration’s attack on
the good people of Puerto Rico and we stand in solidarity with those
fighting for justice in all its forms!
VivirLatino is a daily publication published by Mamita Mala Media, dedicated to featuring all the latest politics, culture, entertainment of interest to the diverse Latin@ diaspora.
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