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Happy? Veteran’s Day

11:00 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration| history| holidays| military · 4 Comments

11 Nov 2009

Today is the day set aside by the U.S. government to recognize those who lived and died in military service for the U.S. Despite my strong opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the countless smaller undeclared wars all over the world, that doesn’t mean there is no love from me for those who have chosen the military life. They include members of my own familia, primas and tios who have fought for the United States and they represent a growing number of young men and women of color who look to the armed forces as a way to survive and move forward with their lives. Pero as today’s editorial from el Diario/la Prensa points out, the role of Latinos in the U.S. military is nothing new, it’s just that people have failed to recognize it.

As many as 750,000 Latinos and Latinas served in the armed forces during World War II, according to the U.S. Latino & Latina WWII Oral History Project. During the Korean War, the 65th Infantry of Puerto Rico won the praise of legendary military commanders such as General Douglas MacArthur. Yet, in the telling of U.S. history, Latino soldiers have received little mention.

Y porque? Is it because that if the history books were to acknowledge the role of Latinos then the U.S. would have to start acknowledging Latinos as humans as part of its’ policy including passing or hell even getting started on comprehensive immigration reform?

Feliz Halloween

6:27 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · holidays · No Comments

31 Oct 2009

lachicaboom

la Chica Boom via Flip Flopping Joy

From Hispanic Heritage Month to Hateful Halloween

9:00 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Culture| Shopping| history| holidays · 7 Comments

18 Oct 2009

As a Latina mami, I think I hate September through November more than any other time of the year. Hispanic Heritage Month, Columbus Day, Halloween, and Thanksgiving provide way more damn teaching moments than I care to experience and the worst part of it is that I’m not teaching my children, but rather those charged with educating them, why certain things are just plain old fucked up.

So far, with la Mapu, my older daughter, in a new school, I haven’t had to send notes to her teacher or make copies of articles, as I have done in the past, about why it’s wrong to teach what a great guy Columbus was. For Latino Heritage Month, she wrote about Chile and it’s U.S. sponsored 9-11-73 military coup and was praised. I was pleased to hear that there was an actual discussion of how the conquistadors contributed to what amounted to Native American genocide. There was discussion not of the contributions the Europeans brought to the not so new world but rather of the diseases they brought.

Now comes Halloween. Now I love Halloween. It’s always been one of my favorite holidays. With a long family history of good relationships with muertos, it was more about dressing up in fanciful costumes, begging for candy, and decorating the house with carved pumpkins. I don’t ever remember thinking that it was ok for me to dress up as an “Indian Princess”, a stereotypical Mexican (or a Puerto Rican for that matter), and sure it sure as hell wasn’t ok for me to dress up as an “illegal alien”. I was a smurf, a vampire, a poodle skirted 1950’s girl, and a devil. I even wanted to be he-man one year because I was obsessed with He-Man pero that’s another post. My kids have been cats, hot dogs, turtles, pirates, dead punk zombies, mimes, dinosaurs, skeletons and ghosts. As if the racist costumes that have me pretty much boycotting most Halloween shops wasn’t enough, there’s a lack of appropriate tween girl costumes. My 12 year and I, thanks to my mom, have put together a pretty awesome costume but that came after hours of being disgusted by having to treat my daughter like a baby or a slut.

And then it’s only a hop, skip and a jump to thanks for nothing day or as I always used to hear Tiokasin Ghosthorse on WBAI say, “There goes the neighborhood day”.

Contribute to Our 30 Days of Latino Heritage Tumblr

16 Sep 2009

As part of the 30 Days of Latino Heritage Series that I announced yesterday, I started a tumblr site of the same name.

There I will collect images, quotes, audio, video etc related to Latinidad and I invite you to do that same! If you would like to submit something, please visit the submission page or email latinoheritagemonth@tumblr.com to submit posts. All submissions are subject to my approval.

Gracias!!!

30 Days of Latino Heritage : An Introduction

15 Sep 2009

30 Days of Latino Heritage : Introduction from VivirLatino on Vimeo.

An introduction to the 30 Days of Latino Heritage Series on VivirLatino.com featured Maegan “la Mamita Mala” Ortiz.

This Memorial Day, Don’t Pee (or Poo) in the Pool

2:33 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Bizarro| Health| holidays · Comments Off

24 May 2009

191206078_6fadcf524a As many of you are out are probably out in the sun, enjoying the weather this Memorial Day weekend, you might be anticipating taking a dip in your neighborhood pool. That’s great, but just try not to pee in it. I know, I know, most of us — if we are honest — would admit that we’ve had the occasion to relieve ourselves of a little chis in a swimming pool once or twice in our lives. I mean, what’s the harm, right? What fellow swimmers don’t know won’t hurt them, correct? That’s not what the CDC says:

When swimmers sweat or urinate in the pool water, the bodily fluids combine with the chlorine. It creates chloramines, which causes the strange odor and the eye and respiratory irritations for swimmers, according to the CDC.

No matter how discreet the act may be, “you’re contaminating the pool. Let’s face it,” said Linda Golodner, the vice chairwoman of the Water Quality and Health Council.

The survey released by Golodner’s group, which advises the American Chemistry Council, found that 11 percent of the surveyed adults said they have swum with a runny nose, 7 percent with an exposed rash or cut and 1 percent when ill with diarrhea. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

But if you think pee in your pool is bad enough, think again. When it comes to people very getting sick from swimming, the real culprit is that last thing they mentioned: diarrhea. Yes, diarrhea in the pool.

The most common recreational water illness is spread through diarrhea. One of the most persistent problems is Cryptosporidium, a parasite that causes diarrhea and can be found in infected stools.

“With Crypto, if you have diarrhea, it’s very watery,” Hlavsa said. “It’s not a formed stool sitting in the pool or floating on top. It could be very watery, and no one [in a pool] would know.”

So this Memorial Day weekend, eat, drink, be merry and swim! But don’t count on me joining you.

Via / CNN

Image via t_a_i_s on Flickr

Visiting the Mami’Hood : Various Reflections on Mothering While Brown

11 May 2009

A belated Happy Mother’s Day to all who observed yesterday. The VL team has lots of mami power and yesterday as I spent the day cleaning, working, and yes visiting my own Mami and Titi, I was thinking about Latina mami’hood, the trabajo of raising our children and the lessons in love, struggle, and justice that we learn and impart on our young ones.

In Chile, for example, three Mexican mothers recently testified about the deaths of their daughters. These deaths represent just a tiny fraction of the hundreds of deaths and disappearances of mujeres in Ciudad Juarez.

Between 1993 and 2008 there were 447 registered cases of femicides in and around Juárez that are marked by signs of rape and extreme torture. Apart from the 447 registered cases, there are an estimated 70 young women still missing.

The State of México is accused for failing to confront the femicide phenomenon and in so doing, violating the right to life of its victims. Although only three mothers of the victims came to testify in Santiago, the court signaled that the three cases represent all of the femicides that have taken place in México to date.

The three mothers of the murdered women who testified were Irma Monreal, mother of Esmeralda Herrera, 14, Josefina González, mother of Claudia Ivette Conzález Banda, 20, and Benita Monárrez, mother of Laura Berenice Remos Monárrez, 17. On Tuesday, April 28, the mother’s gave their stories.

Their daughters were found dead in October 2001 along with the bodies of five other women and girls in a zone known as “Campo Algondonero” in Juarez.

The women had been tortured, raped and mutilated.
“I have faith and trust in the judges of this court,” said Monárrez. “I have faith that we will find justice.”

Instead of receiving flowers on Mother’s Day, these mothers are putting flowers on their daughter’s graves.

Speaking of flowers…….
Read more…

No, I Don’t Hate Mexicans on Cinco de Mayo.

5 May 2009

cinco-de-mayo Earlier today, a gringo ex of mine sent me a text message wishing me a happy cinco de Mayo. Hmmm ok. I thanked him and then reminded him that I wasn’t really celebrating because:
A: I’m not Mexican and
B: I’m not a Mexican from Puebla.

See Cinco de Mayo is not Mexico’s Independence Day and not even all of Mexico celebrates it, because the holiday commemorates the Mexican army’s unlikely defeat of French forces at the Battle of Puebla.

Let’s make this comparison: most people in the U.S. celebrate 4th of July not the battle of Saratoga.

Pero an article making it’s way around suggests that Cinco de Mayo makes other Latinos hate Mexicans. Porque? Because it’s more proof that the Mexicans are taking over sillies! Cue the reconquista music please:

But for Dagoberto Reyes, a Salvadorian immigrant living in Los Angeles, May 5 is more a reminder of the dominance Mexican culture has in a country that is home to immigrants from many Latin American countries. His prime example: Los Angeles-area public schools.

“Our kids go to this school system, and the school system is more preoccupied with Mexico’s history, and not the rest of Latin America’s, much less El Salvador’s,” said Reyes, director of Casa de la Cultura, a Salvadorian community center. “They came back celebrating Cinco De Mayo. That holiday means nothing to us.”

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