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Archive for the ‘youth’ Category

The “DREAM Now Series: Letters to Barack Obama” is a social media campaign that launched Monday, July 19, to underscore the urgent need to pass the DREAM Act.

Dear Mr. President,

My name is Carlos and I’m a 23 year old undocumented immigrant from Caracas, Venezuela. I want to legalize my immigration status in this country through the passage of DREAM Act this year. For too long have I lived in the U.S. without papers. It has been over 20 years, now. I want to legalize my immigration status in order to fulfill my dreams of becoming a young professional in architecture.

There are obstacles in my daily life that make it extraordinarily difficult to pursue a career in architecture. Fortunately, because of my determination to continue my studies after graduating high school in 2005, I’m currently a student in Miami Dade College. It has not been without great difficulty. For many years it felt as if all the potential I developed in high school was for nothing.

I am the perfect example of other students in similar situations whose voices have been silenced by the fact that we are not truly accounted for. We are afraid of speaking up because doing so might affect our immigration status in this country and possibly even lead to deportation. I myself felt this way for several years, but after dealing with my status for so long, I now consider it a duty to speak up for myself and for other youth in my shoes.

I remember that dark and cold feeling of shame, fear and hopelessness.

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Some good news for DREAMer Yves Gomes. The recent high school graduate who was facing deportation because he was brought to the United States as a 14 month old infant, has had his deportation order canceled.

“I’m really happy. I’m really excited,” said Gomes. “I no longer have to look towards that deportation. Now I feel like this is the first step for me to move on with my life and realize my goals.” Gomes hopes to become a doctor and make a direct impact in the people’s lives

Meanwhile other DREAMers still face deportation orders. VivirLatino is proud to be one of 32 signers onto a letter asking the the Department of Homeland Security reconsider the deportation of Ivan Nikolov.

You can support Ivan’s struggle by calling DHS today.
Pick up the phone and call now:

Number: 202.282.8495 if voice-mail is full call live line at: 202.732.3000

Call-in Script: “I am calling to leave a message of support for Ivan (A#078-251-095) who is going to be deported any day now. I ask that John Morton please step in to defer his deportation.

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Selvin has been in detention since April of this year following a traffic accident.

The “DREAM Now Series: Letters to Barack Obama” is a social media campaign that launched Monday, July 19, to underscore the urgent need to pass the DREAM Act. The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, S. 729, would help tens of thousands of young people, American in all but paperwork, to earn legal status, provided they graduate from U.S. high schools, have good moral character, and complete either two years of college or military service. With broader comprehensive immigration reform stuck in partisan gridlock, the time is now for the White House and Congress to step up and pass the DREAM Act!

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Dora The Explorer Cuts A Rug!

11:11 am By BiancaLaureano · youth · 1 Comment

18 Aug 2010

It’s been a good morning so far with great news for us to celebrate. What better way to celebrate than to cut a rug with Dora the Explorer?! I really do love this video and when I got approval from our in-house youth editor, I knew I could bring it to you all. Not only is Dora an explorer but she is a slayer of mice on the dance floor! Enjoy! (but turn the volume down on your computers because the volume on the video is loud).

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Graduation picture of African American Nicolas Heyward Jr., aged 14The Nicholas Naquan Heyward Jr. Memorial Foundation Inc.Invites you to our 16 Annual Day of Remembrance for Nicholas Heyward, Jr.

Nicholas was a 13 year old honor student from Boerum Hill Gowanus Houses, Killed by housing police, while playing cops & robbers. I met Nicolas Sr., in the late 1990′s when I was a teenager just getting politicized and working against police brutality in NYC during the “Giuliani Time”. Nicholas Sr., was one of the few fathers, among mothers who held marches, rallies, and followed then Mayor Giuliani, making sure that wherever he and his police chief was, so were we, with pictures of the dead. When Nicholas was killed all he was doing was playing, the way children should. When Nicholas was killed, the Housing Police were separate from the NYPD. So many years later, Nicholas’ father struggles on against a police force that has consolidated power and now runs the projects, the subways, and the schools (as well as the streets). So many years later, Nicholas and I see each other at rallies, now I have a child who will be the same age Nicholas was when he was shot and killed, and we hug, as parents, as fighters.

Please support if you are in the area.

Date: Saturday, August 28, 2010

Place: Nicholas Naquan Heyward Jr. Park
Wyckoff Street between Hoyt and Bond Streets

Time: 1:00pm – 7:00pm

All are invited! Fun, food and actives

Ø Basketball Game

Ø Arts & crafts

Ø Music

Ø Face-painting

Ø Jay-Jay the Clown

Ø Exchange toy guns for gifts

Ø Special guests,

Ø Voter Registration ext,

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I watched this video and remembered Mamita’s post about how the experience of immigrant women is so hidden, so unknown. And yet, here they are, on the front lines, being attacked and horribly brutalized by the police in the name of “immigration enforcement.” (trigger warning for violence in video)

Are the protection of borders worth this? And please don’t tell me that this was the mother’s fault. I know that all the anti-immigrant people will be here soon to tell me that it’s their fault, and I can handle that. But if any supposed “ally” says “what were they thinking?” I have a few suggestions. First, sit for a moment and open yourself up to the humanity of these women and the humanity of their children. Know what it feels like to feel terror and confusion and a fear you can’t breathe through. Then take a moment to consider that even when the government offers you something, you, a black immigrant mother that may or may not be legal, may actually have considerable reason to not trust that government.

And then go back and remember the humanity of these women. And the humanity of their children. And then remember that sometimes immigration plays out in the streets in a much different way than they do in the cloistered halls of Netroots Nation. The start considering how we can change tactics to meet the needs of those in the streets, instead of the pocket books of all the 501c3s.

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Oscar Grant

9:32 am By la Macha · Family|Violence|youth · 5 Comments

9 Jul 2010

As I’m sure most of you have heard by now, the man who killed Oscar Grant was convicted of involuntary manslaughter last night. Yeah, you read that correctly: involuntary manslaughter.

During the trial, prosecutors said the 28-year-old Mehserle became angry at the 22-year-old Grant for resisting arrest. He was shot in the back while he lay face-down. Mehserle claims he mistakenly drew his gun instead of his Taser.
The jury had a choice between second-degree murder and lesser charges of voluntary and involuntary manslaughter. The jury found that Mehserle didn’t mean to kill Grant, but that his behavior was still so negligent that it was criminal. Involuntary manslaughter convictions carry a sentence of two to four years.

I don’t have any eloquent words to say right now. People everywhere have their opinion on the verdict and on the subsequent protests that have sprung up throughout California. But after the several police shootings in Detroit, the constant ICE raids in Michigan–I’m worn down to the bone. There’s nothing left to say. They have to right to kill us, they have the right to disappear us, and we have no right at all to be outraged or even protest how we are treated.

That is that.
I pray for Oscar’s family–and for Aiyana Jones and Luqman Ameen Abdullah and Chonburi Xiong’s families. I pray for all those disappeared in the last week.
I pray that someday hope will return for us all.

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I’ve decided that this summer I will take time out to interview media makers over at my Media Justice column. The site focuses on youth and often we don’t always embrace the media they create and find it valuable and worthy. Last week Vivir Latino was invited to attend the Human Rights Watch Film Festival’s youth track: Youth Producing Change. One of the films featured was by a young media maker named Espie Hernandez.

Espie’s film is about her experiences being a 15 year-old out Latina lesbian and planning her Quinceañera. Her short film MARIPOSA is below. I’m planning to use her film in my human sexuality class I’m teaching this summer and am very excited to hear what others think of her film (it was the only film that discussed aspects of sexuality and sexual orientation).

Espie’s interview was done on video and I’ve transcribed the interview as well. You may read and hear the interview at my Media Justice column.

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Man weeping over white coffin I’m still waiting for the day when all the “obey every single law at any cost” people demand that the as yet unnamed agent be handed over to the Mexican police so that he may receive his just punishment. It doesn’t matter how angry it makes him that he can’t shoot people on the other side of the border (even if they are drug smugglers!) it is the law. And he apparently broke it.

An official story soon came out. The Border Patrol claimed that reports of the incident indicated U.S. officers on bicycle patrol “were assaulted with rocks by an unknown number of people.” Border Patrol and other government officials claimed that their agent was surrounded by a rock-throwing mob and that the agent was attacked and stoned before he fired his weapon.

A video taken with a cell phone proved this account to be full of lies. CNN reported on its web-site that “a video obtained by CNN casts doubt on the Border Patrol agent’s claim that he was surrounded by rock-throwing suspected illegal immigrants when he fatally shot the boy on the border at Ciudad Juarez. … The video contradicts [FBI spokeswoman Andrea] Simmons’ account. She had said: ‘This agent, who had the second subject detained on the ground, gave verbal commands to the remaining subjects to stop and retreat. However, the subjects surrounded the agent and continued to throw rocks at him. The agent then fired his service weapon several times, striking one subject who later died.’”

The video clearly shows that no one is “surrounding” the cop. He is clearly seen pointing his weapon at a group of people who are on the Mexican side of the river, which at this time of year in Juarez/El Paso is mainly dry, and 10 feet wide. Three cracks from his gun are heard.

Several vendors on a bridge overlooking the carnage also disputed the official story. Estelle Gonzalez, who sells hats on the Paso del Norte Bridge, said, “The kid wasn’t throwing rocks. He was only watching.” Another vendor, Luis Rodriguez, said, “The kid wasn’t throwing anything. Then he [the Border Patrol agent] started shooting like crazy. He fired three shots.”

All laws enforced all the time folks. Right? This man broke the law. He should be in jail awaiting justice.

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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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