Advertisement

Archive for the ‘Family’ Category

Remember Maria Gurrolla of Nashville, Tennessee? The woman whose son was kidnapped by a woman posing as an ICE agent? Well, in what has to be described as the most inane bullshit that could only happen in the good ol’ U.S.A., William Bennet let’s us know in comments that Gurrolla got her son back, only to lose him AND HER THREE OTHER CHILDREN in the same day.

A kidnapped newborn is safe in foster care and an Alabama woman suspected of taking him is in custody, but investigators say the case of 4-day-old Yair Anthony Carillo is far from closed.

Among the questions still unanswered are whether a woman who posed as an immigration agent and stabbed the baby’s mother was working alone and why state child welfare workers took the baby and three siblings into custody shortly after the family was reunited.

Child welfare officials would say only that Maria Gurrolla’s children were placed in foster care for “safety” reasons. The department said in a statement Monday that a juvenile court hearing is expected in Nashville Tuesday.

He said the caseworkers saw something in this situation that made them concerned enough that they felt the safest thing to do was find a foster home for the children. He declined to say what caseworkers were concerned about or whether complaints had been filed against the family.

He said most of the time when DCS takes children, they are eventually returned and the agency always explains to the family what they can do to regain custody.

I wonder what it was that made the caseworkers feel “concern” about. Was it, as was the case with Cirila Baltazar Cruz, that the mother couldn’t speak English? Or, did a family member, as the AP is reporting, attempt to sell the baby?

Sources familiar with the case of a kidnapped Tennessee newborn tell The Associated Press that the boy and three siblings are in foster care after allegations that a family member tried to sell the infant.

The thing about cases like this, is that you never can know for sure. ICE *has* stolen babies from their birth parents for no other reason than English not being a first language in the home. Ex-partners *have* hired people to pose as ICE agents to scare and intimidate women they think still “belong” to them. There is no singular-agreed-upon-written-out-in-multiple-languages method for the government taking children from parents who are in the country without proper documentation.

Terror fuels the government led war against immigrants, and it’s tearing families apart, leaving women stabbed and without their children, and immigrant families criminalized when they are the legitimate victims. I am not a big fan of reform, but if reform at least gets a set singular process in place for ICE agents who are removing children to do so–sweet Jesus, let’s get moving.

No mother, no child, no human being should have to live with this terror hanging over their heads.

Post to Twitter

ALeqM5jmKc6IsGwelpJZpUA6AiJRxvKq2gFour day old Yair Anthony Carrillo and his mother, Maria Gurrolla of Nashville, Tennessee were doubly victimized by the fear that is the current immigration system in the United States on Tuesday, when the infant was kidnapped by a woman claiming to be an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.

The fake official slashed Gurrolla after she initially refused to hand over the child though in the end Carillo was taken away from her.

As if having your newborn child violently taken from your arms weren’t traumatic enough, enter Yuri Cunza, president of Nashville Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and publisher of La Noticia, a Spanish language newspaper in Nashville who instead of connecting the long history of how immigration enforcement separates parents from their children, from Elvira Arellano to Cirila Baltazar Cruz, asks Latino immigrants communities to trust law enforcement and other state agencies who act as de facto ICE agents.

“I am really concerned about the possibility of newborn babies and Hispanic women can be targeted because of a level of vulnerability,” Cunza said…

Cunza said that the suspect posing as an immigration officer will create a chilling effect for Hispanics who regularly interact with immigration authorities. “It is misrepresenting how the government works or behaves in this country,” he said.

From Postville to Patchogue, the cries of immigrant mothers and children tell what is just another day on the job for those who continue to terrorize Latino immigrant communities and the carriers of hate who spread their racist gospel via the mainstream media. It is why children at a young age learn to stay close to their mothers in immigrant communities and maintain a low gaze in the presence of law enforcement. It doesn’t even matter if the ICE badge is real or not, just ask el espiritu de Brisenia Flores and her father. Yair Anthony Carrillo, with four days on this earth, is learning how to live in fear when he should be in his mother’s loving care and Latina motherhood is criminalized and victimized.

Updated: Late last night, after I wrote this post, Yair was found safe.

Via/ The Latin Americanist, Standing Firm, The Unapologetic Mexican

Post to Twitter

Angeline’s story isn’t new to us here at VivirLatino. Her struggle to assert her mami rights and her struggle against violence perpetuated first by her partner than by the family court system here in NYC is something I’ve posted on before.

Here’s Angeline, in her own words, with her own voice speaking about domestic violence and not from a place of theory but from her own personal experience. Angeline goes back to court here in Queens, NYC on October 19th.

Post to Twitter

dsc_03711-300x199Packing the court room and the streets outside the court house shows that their is an entire community behind Angeline and her child.

Are you going to be in the NY city area Monday, August 24th? Come to Aniysah’s court date and show the judge and the law guardian you care! Even if you can’t make it, invite your friends who can! there’s an attachment below that you can copy and send to your folks!

The next court date is August 24th, 2009 at 11AM and the address is :

IDV Part

Courtroom E-123, Annex Building

Justice Fernando M. Camacho

Queens County IDV Court,

Queens County Supreme Court

Criminal Term 125-01 Queens Blvd

Kew Gardens, New York 1141
If using public transportation such as the train or bus:
Subway: E, F to Kew Gardens
Bus: Q60
If they are driving or carpooling:

The courthouse is located at the intersection on 82nd Ave. and Queens Blvd. which is one block south of Union Turnpike. They can mapquest the directions. www.mapquest.com.

There is also parking: A municipal parking lot is located behind the building at the intersection of 126th St. and 82nd Ave. Which is directly situated behind the courthouse.

Post to Twitter

PLEASE FOREWARD WIDELY.

On March 3rd, 2009, Aniysah was taken from her mother’s arms by New York’s Family Court System and placed in the care of Aniysah’s father who has a history of domestic violence offenses. Furthermore, there were no records verifying that she would be taken to a safe living environment or that she was enrolled in school. Questions about her health and well-being went unanswered. That was over 150 days ago. To date, Aniysah remains lost in the family court system. A system where black and brown children go missing every day. A system where black mothers like Aniysah’s are often left to fend for themselves in a brutal, dogged battle just to make sure their children are safe. On the surface, this case appears to be a simple custody dispute, however, if one digs deeper it is a story about the injustices of New York’s Family Court System and how it fails brown women and children daily and how it can be used to further terrorize and re-victimize survivors of domestic violence.

Read more…

Post to Twitter

dsc_0362
Earlier this month I wrote about how one mami is being kept from her daughter by a justice system that claims to think of the best interest of the child. As the next court date approaches and a mother and her supportive family struggle to garner support and attention from the community and media, many have asked for some background on the story of Anyisah.

Many people have emailed us asking, “How did Anyisah end up in family court system?”

Answer:

* Angeline separated from Aniysah’s father because he was physically, verbally, and emotionally abusive. Angeline has documentation of his abuse and the court orders forcing him to take anti-battering classes. Judge Fernando Camacho issued an Order of Protection for the father to stay away from Angeline and Aniysah, May of 2005.

* Even though Angeline separated from Aniysah’s father, he continued to harass and terrorize Angeline and Aniysah by fabricating lies to Child Protective Services (CPS) and filing for full custody of Aniysah. June 2005 — October 2006 Judge Morgenstern issued several Orders of Protection for the father to stay from Angeline.

* Judge Morgenstern granted the father unsupervised visits on the weekend with Aniysah at the father’s mother’s house. However, just as the unsupervised weekend visits begin, Aniysah begins to display unusual behaviors. She told the social worker that someone named “grandpa” touched her inappropriately. Aniysah developed a rash between her legs and Angeline takes her daughter to the doctor and the doctor reports the rash to CPS as a possible issue of child abuse. At this point, the doctor at the emergency room reported on the possibility of Aniysah being abused while in her father’s care.

Read more…

Post to Twitter

No Room at the Inn for Detained Immigrant Families

7:53 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · children|Family|Immigration · Comments Off

10 Aug 2009

Article_6326405Seems like there are problems with the closing of T. Don Hutto as an immigrant family detention center. Under the announced restructuring of oversight of immigrant detention centers, the controversial Hutto center will no longer be used for families with children and will only be used to house women immigrants. Families were to be transferred to another immigrant detention center, Berks Family Shelter Care Facility in Leesburg, Pennsylvania. Except no one checked with Berks, which apparently has no room for more immigrant families.

County Commissioner Kevin S. Barnhardt, who is chairman of the county prison board, said he was unaware of the move by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Kenneth A. Borkey Jr., executive director of the Bern Township facility, which houses families awaiting immigration hearings, said the center is at capacity.

Read more…

Post to Twitter

Where’s Aniysah?

5:56 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · children|Family|Women · 11 Comments

2 Aug 2009

dsc_03711
Women of color are not paranoid when we say that we fear our children being taken away. It happens all too often.

It happens again and again:

On March 3rd, 2009 six year old Aniysah was taken from her mother’s arms and thrown into a legal shuffle of unaccountability, instability and discrimination. There were no records verifying that she would be taken to a safe living environment or that she was enrolled in school. Questions about her health and well-being went unanswered. That was 150 days ago. To date, Aniysah remains lost in the legal system. A system where black and brown children go missing everyday. A system where black mothers like Aniysah’s are often left to fend for themselves in a brutal, dogged battle just to make sure their children are safe.

Read more…

Post to Twitter

Crossposted from la Mamita Mala

100_0133

This is a continuation of this post, based on conversations had at the Women’s Equity Media Summit with Noemi and BFP.

In all honesty, I don’t even quite remember the questions we were answering pero I know that BFP primarily came up with this:

Multiple Media tools politicized for transformative justice

Are those our resources? Our goals? Part of our vision? Sounds like a plan of attack to me, a way to use our weapons of media, media as defined as how we communicate ourselves to others.

And how are mamis of color movements resourced?

501c3′s are not the only way we seek/need resources or want to be resourced as. We are more than charity cases, communities to be served.

BFP gave an excellent example about how in her hood the only way families, especially Latino families could get services like coats for the winter, was if they fit a certain mold, that is cleaned up and made themselves more presentable, looked deserving of services.

We should not be resourced based on our education but rather on our history of work

Education is a privilege. I personally have two years of college under my belt pero most people won’t even consider me for jobs or my opinion because I had to drop out to take care of my child. Forget the years of experience or how I have personally have helped others get their degrees. Without letters after my name on a piece of paper, I don’t fit in.

We should be resourced in terms of the role we play as part of larger struggles, as part of a continuation of historical lines of struggle.

We should not be tokenized

We should not be expected to compromise our values

We should not feel the need to compartmentalize ourselves

Resourced doesn’t just mean money, it means, especially within the context of online work, linking, citing

we should be resourced by the community, as we are part of the community

How are you resourced vs how you would like to be resourced?

Post to Twitter

What Do Mami Movements Need?

2:15 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Activism|children|Detriot|Family|media justice|Women · Comments Off

25 Jul 2009

Cross Posted from la Mamita Mala

100_0149One of the first spaces I wa in in Detroit was at the Women’s Equity Media Summit. To say that it was an uncomfortable space would be too simple. There was a sense among many of the women of color I was with that we HAD to be there, since many of has had been given some money to help defray our travel costs. We would have been in Detroit anyway for the Allied Media Conference and truth be told we weren’t sure why we had been invited into the WEMS space? What was the mission and what was expected of us radical women of color media makers.

We all conglomerated in one corner of the room, close to the door, forming a protective circle of love and support around each other as other women spilled their female creds on the table, leaving many of us feeling marginalized. What of us who didn’t claim the word woman or the word feminist? What made one a “woman” in that space? Was it being born with a white vagina? Did bringing up these issues make us automatic enemies of the space of chairs and tables that wound around the conference room? What of us who had no interest or desire to be part of a non-profit structure? What of us who didn’t want their money?

What did come out of that space however and many other spaces in the days that followed at the AMC and after, were the gathering of mamis. That’s right, mamis not mommies. I even had to correct the spelling as it was written on butcher paper at the front of the room because for the last almost 12 years (carajo I feel vieja) it has been made clear to me that my experiences are not the ones being blogged about or written about in books. After all it was my mami’hood, with all the sex/gender/race/class/language issues you can pull from that word, that started me seeking others like me through blogging and organizing on the ground.

One of the first exercises I did in my small caucus of three, that included bfp and Noemi, was what do we need in order to do our work, which we translated as what do mami movement’s need. Here is a list of what I came up with:

mami’hood
justicia
not speaking for people
comunidad
multi-lengua’ed
access
accountibility
amor
apoyo
collective
seguridad
multiple points/ways of entry
poesia
arte
sexo
child-inclusive
childcare
sustainability
flexibility

What does your list look like?

Post to Twitter


Hola!

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.

About | Advertise with us | Contact | Twitter

VivirLatino on Facebook


blog advertising is good for you

blog advertising is good for you
  • Karen: Have you see the census figures for 2010? Latinos are not all that diverse. Most" Latinos" are Mexic [...]
  • Maegan La Mala: Hi Karen, I agree but only in part. I think that people do get up in cults of personality but th [...]
  • Maegan La Mala: I haven't heard anything about a rally being held Jose Luis. i know Presente.org is organizing a pet [...]
  • Karen: Also, Al Sharpton, now a host on MSNBC, brought attention to the Trayvon Martin case because he knew [...]
  • jose luis: when the rally is going to be held in SAn Diego..if there is on??? [...]

Get our RSS Feed!