Election | VivirLatino

Posts Tagged ‘election’

Afro- Latinos : Reflections on Obama Win and Expectations

1:03 pm By Maegan La Mala · Blogs|Colombia|Politics|race|US Presidential Race 2008 · 1 Comment

12 Nov 2008

Earlier this week, VivirLatino published a letter from an Indigenous community in Colombia to President Elect Obama.

One point that we, and other blogfriends have been trying to make ever since the start of the very long road to the White House, was that the way race and racial politics are talked about and analyzed needs to change. There was a clear reason why being Black and Latino was viewed as two mutually exclusive realms of being. One Afro Colombiano writes about his own hopes, expectations and thoughts post the Obama win.

Aiden Salgado writes:

I believe that the triumph of this African American man needs to be looked at very carefully because there is a risk of falling into Obama-itis and into thinking that Obama is superman and that he can solve all of our problems overnight. Ladies and Gentlemen, if Obama has any urgent task, it is to sweep up the mess that Bush has left throughout the world. In order to do so, he can start with the war in Iraq, with supporting a peace process in the Middle East that doesn’t involve backing the aggressions of Israel against their neighbors, and he should pull the U.S. government’s unconditional support for policies of the Colombian government and President Álvaro Uribe Vélez which have been violating human rights.

Related is a series of posts up at The Unapologetic Mexican, featuring the words of African-Americans, specifically their perspectives on Obama. Today’s featured post is from an Afro-Latino educator and blogger Jose Vilson. Jose writes:

My biggest reason for voting came in the form of 30 or so students in a classroom in Washington Heights of New York City. All of them are considered English language learners, all of Latin@ descent, and all from immigrant populations. Their engagement in this political race has surprised and inspired me. Their worst and best ideas about politics comes to the fore, and while some of the ideas are certainly prejudice (”White people vote for McCain” won’t stand the test of time), I also see a great opportunity to help develop better-informed citizens and participants in a still-exclusive fraternity.

You can Jose’s entire post over at UMX.

You can read the entire letter from Aiden Salgado after the jump.

Post Election Dreaming

11:40 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · US Presidential Race 2008 · 6 Comments

6 Nov 2008

So, now that the election is over, it’s time to remember what got the world excited about Obama to begin with. As somebody who supports third party candidates, I personally do not think Obama will change the world, but I do have a few hopes for his administration. Namely:

1. I hope he will have a change of heart and confront immigration issues with an eye on human rights and respect.

2. I hope he really will end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and withdraw troops.

3. I hope he commits to the U.N. Millennium Goals.

4. I hope he changes his mind and embraces full marriage equality across the board.

What about you? What hopes do you have for this new administration?

Live Blogging Election Results!

7:34 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · US Presidential Race 2008 · 2 Comments

4 Nov 2008

This is where you’ll need to be tonight to get all your up-to-date election coverage!

Come join us, all the cool kids will be here!

I voted, did you?

3:01 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · US Presidential Race 2008 · Comments Off

4 Nov 2008

Well, somehow I made it up and out to the polls before eight AM today. I actually finished voting before the Obama campaign knocked on my door asking me if I needed a ride to the polls.

I am currently crossing my fingers with much exhaustion–Oh, MAN do we need things to be different, no? Cross your fingers in exhaustion with me, VLatin@s.

And if you haven’t voted, take a gander at this interview with VP candidate Rosa Clemente. I encourage you to consider her words as you go into the voting booth, but I am in no way attempting to sway your vote!

Cuz I know you’re going to vote, right?
And then when you’re done you’re coming back here to help us bring in the new administration?

I know you don’t have any other plans at all. I have that kind of faith in you!

Fast For Our Future: Stand Up For Immigrant Rights

2:03 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Immigration · Comments Off

31 Oct 2008

Something to think about through the weekend:

Hi.

My name is Adriana.

I’m writing to you from the Fast for Our Future encampment at Placita Olvera in Los Angeles. I’ve been fasting on water for 14 days. I want to tell you a little bit about myself and urge you to do everything you can to make sure that everyone you know signs the Pledge to vote for immigrant rights at www.fastforourfuture.com.

I’m a 19-year-old photojournalism major at Santa Monica College. I have 2 jobs, as a waitress and as a photo assistant. One of my favorite things to do in the whole world is eat homemade nachos while watching the original Planet of the Apes. One of the greatest movies ever made…

I decided to join the Fast as soon as I heard about it because of people like my parents. They came here from Mexico in the 70s without papers and started over from scratch. I never had a birthday party because they were always working to give my brother and I a better life. Somehow, after another long, hard day at work, my dad usually still had the energy to read me a bedtime story. I’m fasting because no child should have to grow up without their parents, and the enforcement of our unjust immigration laws is tearing mothers and fathers away from so many children. This can’t go on… please help us by signing the Pledge and sending it to everyone you know right now.

I’ll be fasting until 1 million people like you sign the Pledge and commit to uphold the promise we made in 2006: Today we march, tomorrow we vote. Today is just 7 days away.

Thanks for everything you do – it means so much to every one of us.

Adriana

PS

Every person counts. Please forward this email to all your friends, asking them to sign the pledge.

© 2008 THERISEMOVEMENT.ORG

Real Scary Stories : Poll finds 23% of Texans think Obama is Muslim.

11:21 am By Maegan La Mala · Religion|Texas|US Presidential Race 2008 · 6 Comments

31 Oct 2008

A University of Texas poll to be released today shows Republican presidential candidate John McCain and GOP Sen. John Cornyn leading by comfortable margins in Texas, as expected. But the statewide survey of 550 registered voters has one very surprising finding: 23 percent of Texans are convinced that Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is a Muslim.

Obama is a Christian who was embroiled in a controversy earlier this year about his two-decade membership in Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ. Yet just 45 percent of those polled identified the Illinois senator as a Protestant.

The Obama-is-a-Muslim confusion is caused by fallacious Internet rumors and radio talk-show gossip. McCain went so far at one of his town hall meetings to grab a microphone from a woman who claimed that Obama was an Arab.

Via / Pam’s House Blend

Repercussions of Rape become Part of Presidential Race

4:54 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Women · Comments Off

2 Oct 2008

It’s pretty stunning to me to see how women’s issues are making their way into this presidential election. And not just “women’s issues” like the Parental Leave Act (which gave both mothers and fathers and all caregivers the right to six weeks off after the birth/adoption of a baby) which obviously was extremely important to a mother, but was meant to appeal to *parents* and *caregivers*. But solid women’s issues, like do I (or any woman/girl) have the right to abort a pregnancy after I’ve been raped?

The biggest problem I see with this ad is that I really think it only “works” because the person talking is blond and white. Consider what mainstream reaction might be to a dark skinned Latina with an accent talking about the same situation. Would hate groups organize to get her fired? Would the government inject her with drugs? Or maybe pay her to be sterilized so if she is raped again she won’t have the little problem of pregnancy?

But in spite of the problems, I do think it’s really important that this stuff is finally being brought out into the mainstream view. What do you think? Is there a place for ads like these during the election season? Do you find them compelling? Would they change your vote one way or another?

via/culture kitchen

San Salvador gets an “alcaldesa” after much drama

6:06 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Blogs|El Salvador|Politics|Women · 3 Comments

17 Mar 2006

History was made today in El Salvador as the capital city of San Salvador elected its first female mayor, Violeta Menjivar, who claimed victory by a margin of just 61 votes. Menjivar belongs to the FMLN party.

Tim’s El Salvador Blog offers coverage and interesting comments from people who were present on election day and witness to the violence that broke out before Menjivar’s victory was declared. It seems that the recount people were taking too long, and many began to suspect fraud.

According to another blogger in El Salvador (in Spanish) the newly elected mayor claimed that members of her party had marched on the hotel Radisson, where the recount was taking place, in a pacific manner. The blogger himself disagrees and describes what sounds like an angry mob situation. Elsalvador.com describes a similar scene.

La alcadesa herself says “get over it!”:

The FMLN organizers set up a march to the Hotel Radisson. Did you like the outcome of that march?

What I didn’t like was that the police hurt seven people. Because in all parts of the world there are marches when institutions don’t work. What’s wrong with a group of people being worried about dragging out the recognition of victory? I think the police went too far. Maybe the march wasn’t necessary, I don’t know, but I don’t think we need to make drama out of it.

A Latin American election without drama just wouldn’t be a Latin American election.

Via / Sources listed above

Court: “English Only” unfair

4:09 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Bilingualism|California|Justice · Comments Off

24 Nov 2005

ballot box 4.jpg A landmark ruling has come down in a Southern California case challenging the state’s “English only” instruction rule for ballots, in which voters say they were misled by signature gatherers and were unable to know that because they didn’t speak English. A win for voter’s rights advocates:

The trustee, Nativio V. Lopez, had come under fire for seeking exemptions to the state’s English-only instruction requirements and was partly blamed for the district’s lack of new school construction. He was recalled by 71 percent of voters.

The decision Wednesday by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals could be used to force election officials throughout the state to require multiple-language petitions for ballot issues, voting-rights advocates said.

It means “non-English-speaking voters have the opportunity to participate in the entire electoral process, from beginning – which often means deciding whether to sign a petition – to end, in the voting booth,” said former Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund attorney Thomas Saenz, who represented the plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Orange County Registrar of Voters.

Via / San Jose Mercury News

Arnie realizes he needs Latinos

1:13 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · California|Politics · Comments Off

26 Oct 2005

And tries to appease them via a community meeting attended by “hand-selected” Latinos. San Jose’s Mercury News reports:

Schwarzenegger began the meeting where he’d left off in a televised debate Monday night, touting his Nov. 8 slate of ballot initiatives as the remedy for a “broken system” of governing in Sacramento.

But a barrage of questions from the Spanish-language audience sent the governor into territory he’d worked to avoid since the campaign began: immigrant driver’s licenses, the state’s relationship with Mexico, his record of judicial appointments and social services for immigrants.

He and his advisors must be pretty naive if they think they cold put him in a room with nothing but Latinos (however hand-selected) and not get hit with Latino-related issue questions. And he’s still trying to live down that “close the border” comment he made — the one he attributes to a problem with the English language (which admittedly after over 30 years in this country, he seems to struggle with). Unfortunately for him, conservatives have taken it upon themselves to never let anyone forget this comment. They are emblazoning it on bumper stickers that say “Join Arnold. Close the Border”.

And he’s still trying to live down that “close the border” comment he made — the one he attributes to a problem with the English language…

The new bumper stickers and lawn signs were made by the California Republican Assembly, a conservative group headed by Mike Spence.

He said the signs and bumper stickers went over well at the recent Republican Party convention in Anaheim. “One of the Minutemen took them to the border.”

Oops. It’s going to take a lot more than community meetings and some broken Spanish added to his broken English to win the Latino vote. His own supporters are doing him a disservice via a grass roots campaign that seems designed to destroy him.

Via / San Jose Mercury News

Photo: Michael Maloney, San Francisco Chronicle

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