Family | VivirLatino

Archive for the ‘Family’ Category

Girl questions Michelle Obama about immigration

9:19 am By la Macha · children|Family|Immigration|Obama · 14 Comments

20 May 2010

Michelle Obama went to an elementary school classroom yesterday, and a girl in the classroom posed some heartbreaking questions:

The student shyly raised her hand and said, “My mom … she says that Barack Obama is taking everybody away that doesn’t have papers.”

Mrs. Obama replied: “Yeah, well that’s something that we have to work on, right? To make sure that people can be here with the right kind of papers, right? That’s exactly right.”

The girl then said quietly, “But my mom doesn’t have any …” and trailed off.

Mrs. Obama replied: “Well, we have to work on that. We have to fix that, and everybody’s got to work together in Congress to make sure that happens. That’s right.”

Here is video of the exchange:

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go lay down and sob my brains out.

Announcing the Arrival of Don’t Leave Your Friends Behind #3

3:55 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · children|Family|Media|Zines · Comments Off

22 Apr 2010

I love zines and secretly would love to have someone sit me down and walk me through making one (cuz I’m afraid of effing it up). In the meantime I’m happy to promote the zines of others especially if some of my favorite mamis and rwoc on the planet are a part of them, and yes I include myself.

“Don’t Leave Your Friends Behind” #3 is the third issue of a zine geared toward the non-parent radical community about how to be an ally to the parent(s) and children in their midst.

We made a PDF to better share it, so you can print, and distribute as you like: ithttp://issuu.com/strongwindsahead/docs/don_tleaveyourfriendsbehindzine3.bw.final

You can download the PDF for free pero you can also get a hard copy for $3. Click on the Don’t Leave Your Friends Behind Blog.

Update on the New Mythos Tour

7 Apr 2010

A few weeks ago I shared an exciting project with you, one that gets to the very heart of why I do what I do and how I live. Consider this your update and call for support.

I am writing because I’d like to tell you about a new project I am working on called The New Mythos Project. This project is building a network of phenomenal sistaz who are engaged in social justice work through spiritual and creative ways, in their everyday lives.

I’ve been working with a phenomenal crew of mamaz to identify the variety of communities and movements we are participating in and leading, and what ways we can more fully support ourselves as mamaz, social change agents, artists and truth-tellers.

We come from a variety of different backgrounds, share a variety of lived-experiences and are all interested in learning from each other and growing with each other. We are invested in radical movements AND we believe that there is a radical platform- a new articulation of our age- that we engage in from a holistic, spirit-based place; informed by our ancestors and our visions of our futures. In our lives, work, community care-giving and mama-ing we are manifesting feminist prophecies.

We are invested in building a network to share with other radical m/others, mamis and community caregivers to fortify our collective lives and work. We are excited to continue to learn and grow with you!

To this effect we are all participating, supporting and collaborating in The New Mythos Project— an ongoing national collaboration that began over the past few months and that we are designing to support ongoing participation, networking, visibility raising, resource-sharing and truth-telling between radical m/others, mamis and community caregivers. We are investing in this project to support our communities and ourselves and we are asking for your support to do this!

Canadian Border Patrol Invades Women’s Shelter

23 Mar 2010

I’ve been really interested to read Mala’s critique of the March for America (can we pause for just a minute and really think about what that means? Marching for America?) as she and I have talked offline a bit about how the march was largely symbolic–carrying very little meaning for most US citizens and doing not-so-much for those who desperately need action, protection, and help–undocumented peoples. That the march was a mixed bag; symbolism can be really good and necessary–but it can’t be all that there is (these are largely my critiques, you’ll have to wait for mala to post her own critiques!).

Then I read the following:

The Shelter | Sanctuary | Status Campaign invites shelter workers, residents, managers, counselors and anti-violence against women advocates and activists to attend an urgent community meeting on March 8th.

It has come to our attention, that the Canada Border Services Agency invaded a shelter for women – on February 27, looking to track down Jane, a single mom and survivor of violence from Ghana.

“It’s so scary,” Jane says, who wishes to keep her real name anonymous but is willing to speak to the media. “I thought the shelter was supposed to be a safe space for me and my baby. I’m scared not just for myself, but for non-status women in shelters everywhere who are facing the same fear,” she continued.

“We have heard of the CBSA waiting outside of shelters, looking to apprehend women without status, but I have never heard of officers actually walking into a shelter to look for women,” says Eileen Morrow, Coordinator of the Ontario Association for Interval and Transition Homes, the largest shelter association in Canada. “This is an unprecedented attack on women in our communities and we demand it end immediately!”

“The women in our shelters are survivors of violence. They are healing from trauma. The last thing we need is the bullies from CBSA barging in her to re-traumatize them,” says Bernadette Dondo, a counsellor at Nellies.

“The women’s movement fought long and hard for access to shelter and safety. This is a fundamental right for all women, regardless of immigration status. The CBSA violated this right and the women’s movement is going to hold them accountable,” asserts Fariah Chowdhury, an organizer with the Shelter | Sanctuary | Status Campaign.

Shelter workers, residents and anti-violence against women advocates will be joined by women from Toronto Rape Crisis Centre, Sistering, METRAC –Metropolitan Action Committee Against Violence Against Women and Children and many other women’s organizations demand that Canada Borders Service Agency immediately stop visiting or waiting outside shelters or organizations that provide services to women; that women fleeing domestic abuse and violence be given status immediately and a full and inclusive regularization program be implemented.

For more info phone: 647.836.8781
or email shelter.sanctuary.status@gmail.com

Organized by the Shelter|Sanctuary|Status Coalition, a growing movement of over 120 anti-Violence Against Women organizations that are working to create safe spaces for all women, regardless of immigration status – http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/sss

The follow up to this post is here.

Outside of the fact that these actions of the Canadian Patrol are extraordinarily frightening and misogynistic (I’ve written before about how women are often controlled by abusive spouses through the theft of their green cards or even outright refusal to renew papers), I think that the response to the Canadian Patrol by women’s groups in Canada points an especially bright light on what the pro-immigration groups in the US are not achieving: a national response to gross abuse and negligence against immigrants by the government.

What I mean specifically: the major pro-immigration organizations in the US are so policy driven–so reform minded and “get new legislation enacted” centered–that they forget that the fight over immigration starts first and foremost, in the streets. In our hood, among our friends, with our familia. It starts with having no place to go, nothing to eat, no friends. And being reached out to by the local women’s shelter. Or the local church. The various Border Patrols throughout the world are not looking for undocumented people in Congress or Legislature. They are looking for them at bars, at churches, at shelters.

The government, too, knows where the fight is.

So what does it mean then, that immigrants, their families, their communities, and the Border Patrol know exactly where the fight is–but all those who are supposedly standing up for immigrant rights are sitting a world away advocating for something that may or may not have any sort of effect on the battle going on in the community?

In short: what in the hell do we do about this major disconnect between most pro-immigration organizations and the lived experiences of immigrants? How do we get to the point that there is a organization or coalition that will be strong enough and hold enough clout to put out a succinct analysis and forceful response about local issues on a national level?

I know that there are several problems in the US that Canada and other nations do not have to deal with–for starters, the corporate owned media that has a central interest in maintaining immigrant (women) as the “other.”

But from where I’m sitting, the pro-immigration community in the US can’t even agree that “family” is a highly contested concept to organize around–specifically because of incidences of abuse and violence that go unreported and undealt with in an effort to maintain the “we’re good people who love our families” immigrant narrative intact.

The US only likes Good Immigrants, right?

Are we ever going to be brave enough to have the tough conversations?

Mamis Are the Movements : The New Mythos Tour

16 Mar 2010

Mami is a core part of my identity, my life. It seeps into every letter, every post, everything I breath out and take back in. I am proud to announce that we are a part of The New Mythos Tour that is jumping off next week and ask all VL readers and supporters to extend their love and support as well.

Gloria Anzaldua says: “By creating a new mythos – that is, a change in the way we perceive reality, the way we see ourselves, and the ways we behave – la mestiza creates a new consciousness. The work of mestiza consciousness is to break down the subject/object duality that keeps her prisoner and to show in the flesh and through the images in her work how duality is transcended. The answer to the problem between the white race and the colored, between males and females, lies in healing the split that originates in the very foundation of our lives, our culture, our languages, our thoughts. A massive uprooting of dualistic thinking in the individual and collective consciousness is the beginning of a long struggle, but one that could, in our best hopes, bring us to the end of rape, of violence, of war.”

FIRM Calls for Immigration Reform to Include ALL Families

2:14 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Family|GLBT|Immigration|Justice · 5 Comments

8 Mar 2010

A few days after the #LGBTCIR summit, The Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM), an organization inside the RI4A Coalition, stepped up publicly to ask that all families be included in Comprehensive Immigration Reform, including gay, lesbians, bisexual, and transgender families. Specifically, FIRM, a project of the Center for Community Change, came out in favor of including Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) language, language that was specifically excluded from Congressman’s Gutierrez’s CIR ASAP proposal.

Including UAFA language isn’t the only way to ensure that all familias are included in immigration reform but its one way and FIRM’s endorsement of this language should serve as a model to other organizations within the RI4A umbrella, especially as eyes focus on Senator Schumer and his CIR proposal and the March 21st march in D.C.

I really hope that all the organizations and that are demanding immigration reform follow FIRM’s lead and make inclusion part of their official mission. Justicia can’t leave anyone behind.

Read FIRM’s entire statement after the jump.

Women Workers Organizing Against Sexual Harassment

8:35 pm By la Macha · children|Family|Immigration|Violence|Women · 1 Comment

2 Mar 2010

I watched this video about women farm workers with a lot of pride and interest. They have been organizing against the sexual harassment a seventeen year old girl was subjected to and the retaliation experienced by those organizing against the abuse. The video is of these organizers turning in a petition signed by over 16,000 people showing support for the workers.

It made me especially think of my co-blogger Mala’s many writings about the subject of the mamihood and organizing. Mami’s are organizing against the same violence and horror that Feminists With A Big F are organizing against–sexual violence, gender discrimination, etc–but we are doing it with a baby asleep on our shoulder and in Spanish. And without all the resources that Feminists With A Big F have.

These women are a tremendous inspiration–and deserve our continued support!

Milk of Sorrow

11:58 am By la Macha · children|Family|Violence · 17 Comments

8 Feb 2010

From Larry La Fountain, comes news of this absolutely amazing looking film.

Trailer for the Peruvian film MILK OF SORROW, about a young woman who suffers from “frightened tit”, an illness transmitted through the maternal milk of women who were raped or abused during the terrorist war in Perú. Nominated for best foreign film Oscar. In Quechua and Spanish.

My limited Spanish is not near good enough to put a translation up of the clip, but if any of you out there have the time to post a translation in comments, we’ll post it up in the post and give you credit!

A State of Emergency on Pine Ridge Lakota “Sioux” Indian Reservation

5:19 pm By la Macha · children|Family|Violence · 6 Comments

2 Feb 2010

Living in Michigan (which in many areas is actually warmer than this reservation) and experiencing the bitter cold–reading this news completely distressed me. Please help if you can.

A State of Emergency has been declared on the Pine Ridge Lakota “Sioux” Indian Reservation. People have died. Many more people are at risk of freezing to death. Another cold front is coming in, yet where is the national media coverage?

Does the ‘Lacreek Electric Company’ – a non-Indian utility often thought
to be prejudice, care that people are suffering, since they are pulling
meters every day? (which is illegal throughout the rest of the u.s. during
the winter months).

What will Obama and the federal government do about this? While they dig
out Haitians, indigenous people right here may freeze to death. What are
we going to do about it?

Help put this message out for help. The children and families of the Pine
Ridge Indian Reservation need our help now. It is urgent that all 40,000
residents of the Oglala Nation have electricity and propane.

Call LaCreek toll free at 800-655-9324 or (605)685-6581 to see how you can
help pay into a customer’s account, example $5 into ten customers would
require a $50 donation by you. Tell LaCreek to make sure tanks are full
for ALL area residents between the months of November to March – and to
collect any delinquent payments between April and October.

Also, check out this non-profit to see if it is appropriate for you:
Arlene Catches The Enemy 605-867-5771 Ext 13.
Tax Deductable, Non-Profit (501-c-3). She can take credit cards over the
phone: Pine Ridge Emergency Fund, C/O Economic Development Administration
PO Box 669, Pine Ridge, SD 57770-0669

And call Lakota Plains Propane at 605-867-5199 and find out what homes have
elderly or children and if they need money put down on their account to be
able to have a warm home tonight.

*……………………..*……………………..*……………………..***************

List to assist Elders at Pine RidgeShare

Below are several Elders in the Kyle Community of Pine Ridge that are in
immediate need of assistance. The contact information has been confirmed
and permission has been granted to share their information with you.

There are several ways I will mention where assistance is needed and I’ll
share here before I begin the information for where you can assist in
paying for Propane for those who need it or to contact a local grocery
store to pay for food for families who need this. Other ways of assisting
the individual families will be listed with their contact information
below.

To pay for propane for any individuals listed below use the information
here and be sure to make your payment to the account of the individual(s)
you choose to help. The propane company requires a minimum order of $120
of fuel before they will make a delivery to the individual. You can also
pay for a persons propane and they will credit the individuals account so
that when they do run out of any fuel they may have at the moment they can

simply call and the company will deliver more.

Lakota Plains Propane (will take credit card)
Highway 407
Pine Ridge, SD 57770
605-867-5199
Be sure to request a receipt and use the contact for the person you are
helping to call and followup to be certain they received the help you paid

for.

Kyle Grocery (will take credit card)
Owner: Liz May
605-455-2824
Again be sure to follow up with the person you make a donation for to be
sure they received the appropriate credit for purchasing food.

Elders in need are as follows:

Adolph Bull Bear
605-454-2190
He remains in need of continued assistance for propane, his son who is
disabled lives with him and he is in need of food assistance which you can

contact Kyle grocery (above) to make a donation for food. He will also
need help with his electric bill.

Arlene Talks (age 72)
605-407-8243
She has a daughter and a granddaughter (age 7) who lives with her and is
in need of propane and food assistance and you can contact the propane and

grocery above to assist. You could also contact her for mailing address to

send items for her granddaughter such as clothes, etc.

Janice One Feather (age 61)
605-455-2889
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 44, Kyle SD 57752
For Propane Delivery give House # 307
She has two grandsons living with her. Asa Steele age 7 and Dillon
Westover age 9. You can mail donations for the two boys to the mailing
address above for her and if you mail by fedex, UPS, etc use the house
#307 Kyle SD 57752. She is in desperate need of food assistance and
propane and you can use the info for propane and grocery companies above
to pay for those items.

Donna Garnette
605-455-2527
605-441-7541
She has two grandchildren (Boy and girl), you can contact her for an
address to offer assistance in clothes, etc for the children. She is in
need of Propane and food assistance and you can use the info above for
both companies to assist them with that.

Lilly Mae Red Eagle (age 88)
605-455-2612
Mailing address: P.O. Box 2, Kyle SD 57752
For propane delivery give House #HC2
She is in need of Propane and food assistance. You can use the info above
for both companies to assist them with that. For deliveries by fedex, ups,

etc use the house #HC2 Kyle SD 57752

Perlene Yellow Wolf (age 65 approx)
605-455-1458
She is in need of propane and food assistance. She lives with her daughter

Crystal and three children. You can use the info above for both companies
to assist them with that. They have a lot of problems with pipes freezing
so if anyone in the immediate area could help with this that would be
greatly appreciated.

May you be richly blessed for sharing your blessings with these elders and

ensuring some relief to their suffering. Please help now as the need is
immediate but please remember to help again in the future if you are able
to as their needs are continual. Thank you in advance for sharing your
love and helping these elders.

Woman with Nine Children Sterilized Against Her Will

3:39 pm By la Macha · Family|Health|Violence|Women · 15 Comments

7 Jan 2010

This story of a woman who was sterilized against her will is absolutely heartbreaking. It bears the typical issues with the medical field: Tessa Savicki has had 9 children, she asked to get an implant device that could be removed if she changed her mind, doctors “can’t find” any record of her operation–but then they *can* and the release form patients undergoing sterilization are required to sign is not there.

But the saddest part of it all is that this story also has all the earmarks of becoming a question of “did this woman deserve it or not” argument (rather than a what criminal charges will be brought up against the doctors who committed this heinous act) as influenced by the knowledge that the woman in question is not a ‘steller’ woman. That is: she’s no Suzy Homemaker.

From the article:

In 2001, the newspaper reports, Savicki reached an out-of-court settlement with CVS pharmacy and a spermacide company after she claimed she was sold an expired spermacide.

The Herald reports Savicki’s nine children have several fathers. She reportedly is unemployed and relies on public assistance for two of the four children who live with her.

She receives supplemental security income for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, she tells the paper. Her mother has custody of three of her children, according to the Herald. Two of her children are grown.

I’m not really sure why any of these details are necessary to the story–A doctor performed a surgery on a human being that she gave no consent to perform. That is an act of violence. A direct challenge to the idea of human rights and autonomy.

Unfortunately, Savicki’s illegal surgery is not unusual. Women of color, disabled women, addicted women, sex workers, indigenous women, trans women, “illegal” women and so many others are all groups of women whose basic bodily integrity is only rarely respected.

My question: why is this doctor, and all the doctors that committed these crimes against women, not in jail? What would happen if there was a history of men getting their testicles removed in the U.S.? Would we force the men to sue (rather that imprisoning the doctors)? Would we debate whether or not the men deserved to get their testicles removed?

Would we argue that it may not have been “right” to do remove the man’s testicles, but in the end, he deserved it and it did our country a favor?

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