Latinos in New Media Interview on Latino USA

  By Maegan La Mala | January 25, 2013 - 7:00 am |
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A few weeks ago, I was honored to be interviewed by Maria Hinojosa for her radio show Latino USA. Specifically, we spoke about the article I wrote for last September’s Extra! magazine on the state of Latinos in new media, specifically in the blogosphere. In that article, I was able to draw upon my own experience as a blogger for over ten years, as well as interviewing three media makers who have also been at it for a while and whose work I respect immensely.

Maria really did a great job asking questions about the role of corporatization, competition, and microblogging. I love doing media appearances but don’t like revisiting them personally after they are done (something I need to get over). But I would like to invite you to listen to the interview, read the article, and tell me what you think about the direction Latinos in new media are going.

Listen to the interview here

Read the original article here.

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On the Myth of Choice

  By Maegan La Mala | January 23, 2013 - 3:34 pm | ,
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Art by Favianna - http://www.favianna.com/

Art by Favianna – http://www.favianna.com/

Yesterday marked the 40th anniversary of the Roe v Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the United States. I only was reminded of this during the day thanks to emails from various individuals and organizations. It’s not that I’m a malagredecida. I personally have benefited from safe, legal abortions. I was just really busy.

Ironically one of the tasks on my never ending to do list yesterday was calling the local Planned Parenthood to reschedule a regular gynecological check up. For the first time in six years I have access to medical professionals that can check all my parts out. As my dear friend Bi often says, the only way most working class/poor women of color (especially in NYC) can get health insurance or get themselves checked out is when they are pregnant or have HIV/AIDS. This is not an exaggeration. 6 years ago, the last time I had a medical professional check out any part of my body was when I was pregnant. Since then, I have had no luck accessing medical insurance. Thankfully my children were taken care of medically, but not their mama. Until I moved to LA. I don’t know if I should thank California or health care reform.

The whole point of this little story is based in the idea of choice. I read something in the Nation yesterday as I was doing laundry that pro-choice advocates are now using the language of “choice” less and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. The struggles for reproductive justice often have been narrowed to the “choice” to have an abortion or the “choice” to take birth control. But for most women of color in the United States (and dare I say globally) it’s a little more complicated than that. Access to money  and/or insurance to cover reproductive health services remains a huge barrier and I’m not just talking abortions. Birth control, prenatal care, and postnatal care for parents are expensive and not just in terms of the actual medical services. Transportation to and from, child care, and time off from work are often factors not taken into consideration when choice and access are discussed.

In honor of the 40th anniversary of the landmark decision of Roe v. Wade, the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health (NLIRH) launched a campaign yesterday called  “Yo Te Apoyo,” (“I support you”) to correct outdated assumptions about Latino/as and reproductive care. The bottom line is that our community has compassionate views on abortion ” said Jessica González-Rojas, executive director of NLIRH.  “Six out of 10 Latinos support a woman’s ability to make her own personal, private decisions about abortion. Our community is declaring, ‘Yo Te Apoyo’ — I support you with out judgment.”

Lingering stereotypes about Latino/a attitudes about abortion remain. The truth is that Latino/as have compassionate views on abortion and support access to reproductive care for Latinas. NLIRH’s ground-breaking poll found that nearly three in four registered Latino voters agree that a woman has the right to make her own personal, private decisions about abortion with out politicians interfering and that Latino/as agree we shouldn’t judge someone who doesn’t feel ready to be a parent.Still, far too often, Latino/as are characterized as “anti-abortion,” even though research has consistently shown that outdated labels like “pro-life” and “anti-abortion” don’t accurately reflect Latino/a sentiment.

To bring attention to the changing attitudes about reproductive health, NLIRH is collecting stories of support from Latino/as across the country. Several of those stories have been collected in NLIRH’s original video — a unique collection of Latino/as speaking openly about their support for women’s ability to make decisions.

“Our families are stronger and healthier when Latinas can plan the timing and spacing of their children,” González-Rojas said. “By standing together, we can fight back against outdated myths about Latino/a views and advance policies that eliminate the structural barriers that prevent Latinas from accessing abortion care.”

I think sharing this information is important to release us all from some of the stigma and guilt that often surrounds not just abortion in our communities but all decisions relating to our sexual health and well being. Clearly many have moved beyond the virgin/whore dualism but we have a long way to go. Included in that is looking beyond the buzzword of choice and getting down into some of the core reasons why Latin@s make (or don’t make) the decisions we do. We often lack the means to choose where and how we live because of structural poverty. Unless organizers and politicians are willing to talk about the choices that are made in terms of policies that pollute our communities disproportionately and limit economic access, and then change the way business is done,  all the talk about support for “choices” we make about what happens to our bodies is just that that.

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The Next Four Years : Setting a Low Bar for Latino Expectations

  By Maegan La Mala | January 22, 2013 - 7:55 pm |
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Remember how much Obama and well, everyone wanted our vote, the Latino vote? We, the sleeping giant, the next not so new big thing, the harbingers of shifting racial and ethnic politics were courted and talked about, a lot. But as I recently wrote in a piece for Extra!, on how mainstream media covered the Latino vote immediately after election day, being the subject of conversation is nice, being part of the conversation is more important.

On the eve of the next four years, the second presidential term of Barack Obama, all signs showed that there is much confusion about what political power actually means and looks like. Hell, there seems to be confusion as to what actually being at the table means.
While I, in a column for the Progressive, lamented, along with many,  the loss the Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, I was not and am not under the impression that Latino presence is the same as representation and/or power. I do think it’s a shame that with the departure of the Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, there are now no Latinos in the cabinet. It certainly does not reflect our numbers in the United States. But make no mistake, having a Rodriguez or a Munoz in the White House is no guarantee of policies that bring our communities closer to justice.

Maybe it’s about who is throwing the parties? Based on the tweets, facebook posts, and news headlines I have seen from inauguration day, many people seem to think so. I actually have a press release in my inbox celebrating Mana’s performance at the Inaugural Ball as a point of pride for Latinos. Now, I will admit, it has been a minute since I have danced to Mana (ok really a few years, at least), but if Mariposa Traicionera wasn’t sung in reference to Obama’s record deportation policies, then while nice, it shouldn’t be made out to be more than what it was. Headlines celebrating the bigger role Latinos played in the inauguration from Poet Richard Blanco to hostess housewife Eva Longoria blur where the real work has to be done. Want better schools? Nope we’ll give you more standardized testing, charter schools, and police in schools but you can read, perform, plan a party for us right?

Color me underwhelmed by our huge “new” role.

If we want to talk about cultural shifts in the United States, then yes the markers of that were all over the inauguration festivities. But we cannot accept that brown faces saying “Presidente” mean our communities are being listened to. That happens through policy and practices.  History has shown us and so many that real transformative change doesn’t come from us singing our songs, reading our words, dancing our dances, feeding our foods to those and for those in power. That type of change comes through different action. The willingness to make people uncomfortable. The privilege to protest.

But first I have to get through about 100 different mass email blasts clogging up my inbox telling me what comprehensive immigration reform looks like according to 100 different organizations.

Four More Years.

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New Fact Sheet Shows Rising Immigration Enforcement

  By Maegan La Mala | January 8, 2013 - 11:07 pm | ,
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Yesterday, the Immigration Policy Center released a new fact sheet pointing to a rise in immigration enforcement in the United States over the last decade. The fact sheet comes at a pivotal point. The start of this new year has brought with it renewed speculation about comprehensive immigration reform including if, when, and how it will happen. With little beyond talk at this point though, what advocates, activists and immigrant communities are left with are numbers reflecting a harsh reality.

Contrary to what many Republicans and so-called “common sense” Democrats claim, the fact sheet reveals that immigration laws are enforced more strictly now than ever before. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has reported record numbers of removals during the Obama administration, especially of non-citizens with criminal convictions. Meanwhile, fewer non-citizens are trying to enter the country, most likely due to the U.S.’s poor economy. Together, these trends reflect a sweeping and punitive transformation in U.S. immigration enforcement. Some troubling trends from the fact sheet:

  • The number of annual removals has more than doubled over the past decade. In total, there have been more removals during the last ten years than during the previous 110 years combined.

 

  • The number of annual removals now exceeds the number of border apprehensions, suggesting that more noncitizens are being deported from the country than are caught trying to enter in the first place.

 

  • In fiscal 2011, nearly 70% of removals involved noncitizens who were given no opportunity to appear before an immigration judge.

 

  • The number of apprehensions along the border has fallen to levels not seen since the early 1970s, and authorities now regularly prosecute noncitizens for illegally entering and re-entering the country.

 

  • The Secure Communities program is now resulting in more than 40,000 fingerprint matches per month.

The fact sheet implicates deportation focused policy like Secure Communities and its expansion for the record number of removals. Also implicated is the lack of due process afforded to non- citizens. Changes to U.S. immigration laws enacted in 1996 permit DHS to “remove” many noncitizens without holding a hearing before an immigration judge. Under certain circumstances, for example, noncitizens may receive “expedited removal orders” and “reinstatements of removal” without having to appear in court. Indeed, the rise in “removals” over the past decade is largely due to an increase in removal orders issued by DHS officers rather than immigration judges. And while the fact sheet does show that more “criminals” are being deported, the Immigration Policy Center points out that the Department of Homeland Security calls anyone who has been convicted of even the most minor crime. Since fiscal 2009, the most frequent types of criminal convictions for noncitizens removed from the United States involved drug, traffic, and immigration offenses. . In 2011, the government removed 43,022 noncitizens convicted of traffic offenses and 37,458 noncitizens convicted of immigration offenses. Many of those charged with immigration offenses might just as easily have been prosecuted civilly, rendering increases in “criminal” prosecutions in this category somewhat misleading.

This fact sheet comes after another recently released report by the Migration Policy Institute showing record spending on immigration enforcement.

This not so surprising evidence needs to be remembered by advocates and activists as the year moves forward. We can expect a rehashing of the same old “secure the borders first” and “enforcement first” rhetoric when and if the conversation on comprehensive immigration reform evolves beyond wishful thinking. The numbers do not lie and represent a continuing wave of attacks on immigrant families across the United States. Let’s see if the next four years of Obama bring even an inkling of the change voters were promised.

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VL at the Cine : Django Unchained

  By Maegan La Mala | January 7, 2013 - 3:13 pm |
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Living in Los Angeles means living in a city where almost everyone is a Quentin Tarantino fan. People either want to make movies like him or be in a movie directed by him. This is a phenomenon I experience in my home and in one of the places where I work. Myself, I can take him or leave him. I think his films usually are very visually interesting but I’m not a fan of gratuitous violence, especially violence against women, even though Tarantino has had strong female leads, including women of color (I’m thinking of Kill Bill for example). And while anyone who knows me knows I’m a big fan of curse words, liberal use of the N word in a white directed film makes me go hmmm. And yes, I entered into the New York City theater having read a number of pro and anti-Django Unchained critiques and looking up a little bit of info about Spaghetti Westerns. I also entered with trepidation and suspicion.

Movies about slavery in the United States aren’t supposed to be easy to watch, and I’m pretty sure they are not meant to be “enjoyed. Tarantino certainly didn’t hold back when it came to portraying some of the brutality of slavery from the physical whippings, use of a hot box, men being torn apart limb by limb by dogs, to fights between slaves for white entertainment. This was hard to watch and I think it should be, but when combined with typical Tarantino  cartoonish blood splattering everywhere, it created a sort of cognitive dissonance. I was grateful however that Tarantino didn’t choose to graphically show the much of the horrible sexual violence against black women that was common.

What Tarantino did do however is show gendered slavery’s violence was, from the separation of families to the literal stripping down of women of color at will for the pleasure of white men and  for punishment by white men. As a woman of color, while these scenes were less bloody and less “graphic”, these scenes were harder to sit through. However, I felt that Tarantino’s characters were extremely one dimensional, especially the women. While Django gets to fight, for the white man, for his freedom and then for his woman, Broomhilda, I didn’t see one example of any of the women having an ounce of agency.

And then there is Samuel Jackson as Stephan. Now I have enjoyed some of Samuel Jackson’s work and I had heard about the “Uncle Tom”ish character. Some have argued that he really was the “bad guy “ of the film which really is troubling when you think about it about it. This skewed frame continued up until the end of the film when (SPOILER) Django blows up Candyland along with Stephan. The fact that the last violent act in the film involved one black man killing another didn’t sit well with me.

Overall the film felt too long and I feel like many scenes could have been cut or made shorter. While I appreciated the comic relief that Don Johnson  offered as the Kentucky Fried Chicken Colonel Sanders/ head klansmen of the most inept branch of that racist org, it was unnecessary and in the end a lynching scene (albeit a failed one). I don’t think that’s supposed to funny. I can almost hear Tarantino saying, “You people are so serious about everything,”. Ah hipster racism at its best/worst.

Did I enjoy Django? I did and kind of guiltily.I’m glad I saw it with my 15 year old. Not because I think she needs to be exposed to more violence but I think it presented a good space for us to talk about movies and race. Will I watch it again? No but I’m curious about what you all thought. I want to host a conference call or google hangout talking about the film. Of course you can just leave comments and tweet/facebook about it too.


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Viernes Vallenato Con Very Be Careful

  By Maegan La Mala | January 4, 2013 - 4:31 pm |
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vbc-rememberme-cover-largeBecause it’s Friday, I wanted to post something fun for this first weekend of the new year. Enter Very Be Careful and a single from their latest album, ¿Remember Me From The Party?       released on October 9th of last year.  VBC’s 6th studio album features the Los Angeles-based quintet exploring the roots of authentic vallenato music in their characteristic style that’s at the same time respectful of the Afro-Colombian traditions while adding high-octane doses of punk unpredictability to the mix.

Inspired by their parents record collection, brothers Arturo and Ricardo Guzmán, Dante Ruiz, Craig Martin, and Richi Panta founded Very Be Careful and set out to play exclusively accordion-driven Colombian vallenato back in 1997, ages before cumbia crossed over to the cosmopolitan crowds of the northern hemisphere. Keeping true to the original mission 15 years later with the same five original members of the band they have toured the US and the world as the undisputable ambassadors of the genre.

On their newest album they include five covers of classic Colombian vallenatos and seven original compositions with topics such as  “a mosquito that bites you at night and needs to be killed”. Today though we want to share with you the new MP3 of “El Millonario” which is also being released on 7 inch vinyl on January 8th on Steady Beat Recordings.

Happy booty shaking!

 

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The Immigration Reform Waiting Game

  By Maegan La Mala | January 3, 2013 - 6:36 pm | ,
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Three days into the new years and already here come the headlines about what President Obama MAY do in terms of immigration reform. But first we wait for the fiscal cliff issue to be really settled and other bills as well. The more we talk about what could happen means the less attention we are paying to what is happening in immigrant communities across the country. More of the same.

For example, on December 21, ICE announced another record breaking deportation year with  410,000 immigrants deported. Almost half of those deported had no criminal records. This blow was supposed to be buffered by another announcement the same day, revealing “changes” to detainer guidelines. The guidance  limits the use of detainers to individuals who meet the department’s enforcement priorities and restricts the use of detainers against individuals arrested for minor misdemeanor offenses such as traffic offenses and other petty crimes, helping to ensure that available resources are focused on apprehending felons, repeat offenders and other ICE priorities. It is applicable to all ICE enforcement programs, including Secure Communities. Of course the public has seen similar announcements and memos before with little actual change in practices.

Just like with the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, there is news that could help some immigrant families. Again it is not an Executive Order, as I have seen some news outlets describe it (seriously can we have a review course on what makes an executive order an executive order – for example a presidential signature). The Department of Homeland Security issued a new rule which states that beginning March 4, undocumented immigrants who demonstrate that time apart from a U.S. citizen spouse, child or parent would create “extreme hardship,” can start the application process for a legal visa without leaving the U.S.

National Coalition for Immigrant Women’s Rights (NCIWR) estimated in a release today that the policy could potentially impact nearly one million immigrants, especially women. According to NCIWR , over half of all immigrants are women, and women are the drivers of naturalization in their families. In 2010, women represented 55% of all green card recipients and 53% of all naturalized citizens.

It’s important to note that just like with DACA, this is something that needs to be proven and approved and still would require applicants to leave the U.S. briefly in order to return to their native country and pick up their visa. And just like with DACA, it remains to be seen what will be the proportion of approvals to applications before we start praising the Obama administration.

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Not Comforted by So-Called Fiscal Cliff Net

  By Maegan La Mala | January 2, 2013 - 7:00 pm |
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Late last night word that a Fiscal Cliff Compromise was passed in the House of Representatives earned sighs of relief from much of the mainstream media I flipped through. I’m no financial expert by any stretch of the imagination but while it seems that there definitely some good things, like keeping unemployment insurance for another year and preventing milk prices from doubling, there is still a lot that troubles me.

There are huge corporate subsidies that pretty much ensure that many corporations benefit and don’t have the tighten their belts the way most people in the U.S. have had to do. What really bothers me though is the fact that immediately the checks that workers, including myself, bring home, will be written out for less because of the end of a payroll tax holiday. That is something that people who are already living paycheck to paycheck will feel. Just because NCLR says the deal is good for Latin@s, who have been disproportionately hurt by the poor economic situation, doesn’t mean that it is.  Latinos inside Congress from both sides of the aisle, voted against the deal, for very different reasons.

Are you comforted by last night’s vote?

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2013 New Year’s Resolutions – I’ll Show You Mine If You Show Me Yours

  By Maegan La Mala | January 1, 2013 - 11:22 pm |
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2013Last year, I had big plans for this site but they didn’t really go as planned. Moving from one coast to another and adjusting to a new version of my life really took it’s toll on me and by extension this space. And that’s not something that makes me feel good.  So what do you do when something doesn’t make you feel good? You try and change it.

Everyone makes New Year’s resolutions and almost as many people break them. So I’m not going to front like I will be any different. Plus life is complicated and things will always happen to get in the way. But This space has been critically important to my development professionally and personally and everyday I see and read the latest “new” and “hot” Latin@ blogger/social media presence and not to sound snotty – ok well maybe a little – but I’m not impressed.

So my 2013 resolution is to everyday do something here. I cannot promise that everyday will be a long, deep, heartfelt analysis of what’s wrong with the immigration system, politics, non-profits and cultur@ but I can say it will be what it always has been – real.

Do you do the resolution thing? Why or why not?

What are you resolved to do this year?

xoxox

Mala

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Breaking News NYC : Members of Progressive Hip Hop Group Welfare Poets and Crew Arrested

  By Maegan La Mala | December 17, 2012 - 4:46 pm | , , ,
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Last night at around 5pm in East Harlem (El Barrio), two members of my group The Welfare Poets (Michael Pacheco - The Legendary M.I.C. andKeith Hughes - Dahu Alah), along with their film crew Ricky Turner andWander Acosta (who are also members of the Hip Hop group Lower Class Citizens) were arrested while filming a music video at the NYCHA’s James Weldon Jefferson Houses by NYPD for criminal trespassing a misdemeanor.  Additionally Iz The Truth (Isreal Balleto) of Guerrilla Republik (a progressive Hip Hop clothing company and organization in which the Welfare Poets are directly a part of) and Boom Box were also arrested.  The Welfare Poets were filming footage for an upcoming music video.

 

In a case like this, anyone arrested is booked at the NYPD Service Area #5 and sent downtown to Manhattan Central Booking to be processed, and for a misdemeanor a normal person would be out in less than 24 hours.  Although this might be the case for The two Welfare Poets and the others who were with them, what makes what happened here diiferent is when they were all initially stopped by the cops, the police officers said they would probably be given a summons and released without going to the precinct.   Once the cops found out that the collective were part of The Welfare Poets, the officers started claiming that the group was connected to Los Macheteros and how they knew about them (The Welfare Poets) — how they have been surveilling the collective.  The officers called their sergeant and it was decided to arrest the six and take them to the precinct to be booked and eventually downtown to be processed thru central booking and face an arraignment judge.

 

Los Macheteros (Machete-Wielders) are a clandestine militant organization based on the island of Puerto Rico. They campaign for, and support, the decolonization and independence of Puerto Rico from the United States. In 1983, Los Macheteros were accused of stealing approximately $7 million from a Wells Fargo depot in West Hartford, Connecticut. The money obtained from this operation was allegedly used to help fund the Puerto Rican independence movement. On September 23rd 2005, the FBI assassinated its leader, Filiberto Ojeda Rios claiming it was an attempt to serve an arrest warrant on him, who the surrounded his house in Hormigueros, Puerto Rico.

The Welfare Poets are long time community activist and educators in addition to being artists committed to addressing and improving the conditions of oppressed people everywhere.  Their unwavering commitment has made them targets over the years to units like the Hip Hop Police and the NYPD in general.  Whether at a rally, on death row, in a school or the community in general, The Welfare Poets have been there for all without compromise.

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