Archive for the ‘Texas’ Category
Chupcabra Chilling in Cuero , Texas
14 Aug 2008Where’s my chupacabra tee shirt when I need it? The town of Cuero, Texas says they are the current home of the legendary goat sucker. No se. I think it looks like a dog. A friend of mine says it looks like a guy she once kissed. What does it look like to you?
Texas Executes Jose Ernesto Medellin Against International Law and Protests
11:38 am By Maegan La Mala · children|Controversia|crime|Justice|mexico|Texas|Women|World · 2 Comments
6 Aug 2008
The U.S. Supreme Court did not grant a reprieve to Jose Ernesto Medellin and executed him last night based on a 1993 conviction for raping and killing two Texas teens.
“I’m sorry my actions caused you pain. I hope this brings you the closure that you seek. Never harbor hate,” Medellin, 33, told those gathered to watch him die. He was pronounced dead at 9:57 p.m. local time.
The Mexican national’s case has drawn international attention from all sides of the political spectrum. Some have taken his case as an example of all that is wrong with U.S. immigration policy and used Medellin as a scapegoat in their anti-immigrant (and let’s be real, anti-Latino) campaign.
Pro-human rights activists globally protested the impending execution, saying it was a violation of international law. Even the Bush administration, State Department, and Attorney General intervened, asking for a delay in the execution.
Texas Thumbs Nose to International Community, Set to Execute Mexican National
11:33 am By Maegan La Mala · Controversia|Justice|mexico|States|Texas · Comments Off
4 Aug 2008Last we told you about a plea from the Mexican courts to the U.N. for intervention in the impending executions of 5 Mexican nationals in the state of Texas. Today, at least one of them is a mere 24 hours away from death. The State of Texas has chosen to ignore international clamor and discard allegations that the suspect was never allowed the right to speak to his consulate while under arrest. The Houston Chronicle reports:
At issue is Texas’ refusal to hold a hearing to determine whether Medellin’s defense was harmed by his inability to confer with Mexican consular officials at the time of his arrest. A suspect’s right to talk with his consulate is guaranteed by the United Nations’ Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, to which the United States is a party.Medellin insists he told both Houston police and Harris County officers that he is a Mexican citizen. Prosecutors say the killer never informed authorities of his nationality.
In a sworn statement, Medellin said he learned that the Mexican Consulate could possibly help him in 1997, four years after his arrest. He unsuccessfully petitioned the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on the issue in 1998.
Hurricane Dolly : Those Left Behind
11:33 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Blogs|Immigration|mexico|race|Texas|Weather · Comments Off
23 Jul 2008Yesterday la Macha brought up some unresolved issues in terms of Hurricane Dolly, currently hitting the Mexico/Texas border.
One of the questions that many people asked in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was why did people not evacuate. For many, the answer was simple: there was no place to go. Noemi over at Hermana Resist reminds us:
Who was left behind? Who couldn’t afford to evacuate? Let’s see you need money, car, transportation. And coming from a person who lives in a place where 3-4 months out of the year is hurricane season, I could not afford to leave. I could not afford to drive off (if my car made it more than 50 miles), I could not afford hotel stays, I could not afford buying gas and food for the family of 3-5 that I support. I could not afford to leave my job everytime there was a hurricane heading to the valley, that would be 3-4 days without pay and that is half a bill, 1/8 of the rent. I never have been able to cough up the money to board up the windows, tape the windows down, go on a spending spree buying canned food, bottled water, butane, batteries. I know all the precautions of a hurricane and all the things I should buy and should. Do you know how expensive that is? People blame the parents who stayed behind in NOLA, who put their kids at risk. And I’ll tell you, they don’t know what the fuck they are talking about.
Hurricane Brings Out Fears at Texas Border
2:56 pm By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|mexico|Texas · Comments Off
22 Jul 2008With the latest round of Hurricane season starting up, many Latin@s on the Texas/Mexican border are especially nervous and it’s only partially to do with the weather.
With all this activity, there is still “an elephant in the room” that no one has openly addressed yet — if evacuation becomes necessary, will the border patrol follow through on their threat of separating the undocumented from the general population?
Yes, that’s right, ICE may or may not be planning on checking the ID of people who are evacuating from a life threatening storm. In the past, ICE has stated that they will remove those with no ID from evacuation centers and put them in “secure” facilities to ride out the storm and wait for deportation proceedings. Which, of course, leaves many wondering, is it morally ethical to use life threatening situations to monitor human beings for potential wrong doing?
And are we creating conditions for a Texas version of New Orleans?
It’s All the Jalapeños Fault
9:31 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Food|Health|Texas · Comments Off
22 Jul 2008
The world is now safe from and for tomatoes. It’s those spicy Tex-Mex jalapeños that are not taking the heat for a nationwide salmonella outbreak.
Federal officials investigating a three-month-old salmonella outbreak have isolated the bacteria in a jalapeño pepper from a small distribution facility in McAllen, Tex., and yesterday warned consumers nationwide to avoid eating raw jalapeños or products that contain them until more is known.
So baby, if you like it raw and spicy, too damn bad.
Via / The Washington Post
Netroots Nation Blogger Panel Online!
11:58 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Blogs|Events|Internet|Politics|Texas · Comments Off
21 Jul 2008For many of us independent Latino bloggers, going to Netroots Nation wasn’t an option for financial reasons. While I take issue with a conference that claims to be changing the face of progressive politics while pricing independent political bloggers out, the fact remains that conversations happen in these spaces that we need to be a part of.
XicanoPwr, via Matt Ortega, posted a video recording of the “Our ‘Dos Centavos’: Strategies For Latino Bloggers.” panel. The panel tackled issues of importance to the Latino blogomundo including why we blog, the issues we blog about, and our (in)visibility.
Long Hair, Religion and Rules Clash at Texas School
10:28 am By Maegan La Mala · children|Controversia|society|Texas · Comments Off
16 Jul 2008
5- year old Adriel Arocha shouldn’t be at the center of a firestorm right now. He should be in school learning alongside his classmates in his hometown on the outskirts of Houston, Texas. But a controversy around his physical appearance is holding him back:
Michelle Betenbaugh says her 5-year-old son, Adriel Arocha, wears his hair long because of religious beliefs tied to his Native American heritage.But the leaders of the Needville school district have strict rules about long hair on boys and don’t see any reason to make an exception in his case.
The dispute illustrates a problem American schools have faced for decades: how to balance individual student rights against rules designed to maintain order and discipline in the classroom.
The case also shows that some rural Texas school districts often have stricter grooming codes that reflect the traditional or old-fashioned values of small-town America when compared to those in big-city school districts such as Houston’s.
Nuestro Señor del Perico
10:30 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Bizarro|crime|Texas · 1 Comment
4 Jun 2008
Jesus, as in the son of God, not my primo in the Bronx, was caught wearing cocaine in Laredo, Texas. Allow me to clarify, a statue of Jesus was confiscated in Laredo, Texas, after it was discovered that the statue was made of cocaine. I couldn’t make this up if I tried.
Drug traffickers mixed as much as six pounds of the illicit white powder into a paste and used it to make a regal statue of the Christian savior, complete with painted-on flowing hair and a gold cape.
Smugglers were likely hoping the statue, which could be worth as much as $30,000 on the streets, would be dismissed by border guards as just another of the hundreds of plaster representations hawked to borderland tourists.
That santo would have brought a whole new meaning to communion with God.
Via / Mun 2 Daily Dos, Neatorama
Trying To Escape a Hurricane? Make Sure You Bring Your Papers
10:36 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Controversia|Immigration|Politics|Texas · Comments Off
16 May 2008
If you’re in Texas and planning to escape a hurricane, you better bring your residency papers.
Hurricane season starts June 1. In the event of a hurricane in the region, emergency officials predict more than 130,000 evacuees will leave the Valley by school bus. They will be checked for identification and citizenship before they can board.
Anyone who is not a citizen or is not a legal resident will be held in specially designed areas in the Valley that are “made to withstand hurricanes,” said Dan Doty, a Border Patrol spokesperson for the Valley sector.
So will legal residents be allowed to evacuate because it says anyone who is not a citizen? And does anyone else really think that the “designated areas” won’t just be centers for deportation or that they really will withstand a hurricane? Remember the Astrodome?
Hola!
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