Posts Tagged ‘Latina mothers’
Capitalizing on the Mamiverse : Preliminary Thoughts
9:04 am By Maegan La Mala · Media · 30 Comments
19 Jul 2011I came across the article from the Daily Beast as it made it’s way across my twitter stream. The article, titled, Meet the Fútbol Moms, focuses on the launch of a new website targeting mamis, that is Latina moms. The website, Mamiverse, which I have yet to explore in depth, promises to give Latina mamis, a huge demographic, “the Oprah treatment”.
Who said we wanted that?
According to the article, what the Mamiverse wants to do is to prove that all Latina mothers are not undocumented anchor baby makers. Well those words weren’t used. These were:
In a period when American-born Latinas have been caught in the national freakout about “border security,” Mamiverse offers them a new spokeswoman. She’s a particular kind of Latina mom—an English-speaking, all-American gal. “The young, acculturated, affluent, online Latina is speaking English, and is imbibing media in English,” says Rene Alegria, the site’s 36-year-old founder and CEO.
In other word a Latina who is happy to pass? All- American meaning anything but Latin American. The website wants us all to be Gabriela Solis apparently. Oh and Rene Alegria – not a mami.
From the article:
He was born in Tucson, Ariz., in 1975. His family is a case study in the acculturation process he now trumpets. Alegria’s grandparents immigrated from Sonora, Mexico, in 1955 and still don’t speak English. By the time he was 19, Alegria was living in New York and working at the publisher Simon & Schuster…At 25, as a young editor at HarperCollins, Alegria founded Rayo, the first major Hispanic imprint in New York publishing. He insisted that most of Rayo’s books, from authors like Ray Suarez and Jorge Ramos, should be in English…The imprint began producing mostly Spanish-language books. “It ended up being the Telemundo of book publishing,” Alegria moans. He left in 2009.
According to the article, Alegria was “horrified” at the calls for a boycott when Arizona’s SB1070 passed. The Mamiverse – again not started by a mami – is based in Arizona.
The Mamiverse has started with a star lineup of mamis including Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, Maria Hinojosa, Daisy Fuentes. It has also started with one exclusive retailer ready to sell to the new demographic- Target.
The end of the article tries to make the Mamiverse political – saying that it is the mamis who will determine the 2012 election.
Alegria thinks Mom will be the one brokering the conversation. “The next César Chávez,” he says grandly, “is going to be a Latina mom.”
Because apparently Latina moms have never done anything politically before this moment.
Based solely on the article (again I have not really analyzed the actual site) it seems the success of the Mamiverse is based on the notion of erasing the idea of otherness which means that any mami who does not fit into this upwardly mobile, English speaking, non-pork eating mold gets further pushed into the shadows.
Pass me the pernil because I am not sitting at that table.
Have you checked out the Mamiverse? Does it represent your mami’hood?
Fake ICE Agent Kidnaps Infant, “Misrepresenting how the Government Works or Behaves in this Country”
6:54 am By Maegan La Mala · children|crime|Family|Immigration|Nashville|Women · 7 Comments
3 Oct 2009
Four day old Yair Anthony Carrillo and his mother, Maria Gurrolla of Nashville, Tennessee were doubly victimized by the fear that is the current immigration system in the United States on Tuesday, when the infant was kidnapped by a woman claiming to be an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.
The fake official slashed Gurrolla after she initially refused to hand over the child though in the end Carillo was taken away from her.
As if having your newborn child violently taken from your arms weren’t traumatic enough, enter Yuri Cunza, president of Nashville Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and publisher of La Noticia, a Spanish language newspaper in Nashville who instead of connecting the long history of how immigration enforcement separates parents from their children, from Elvira Arellano to Cirila Baltazar Cruz, asks Latino immigrants communities to trust law enforcement and other state agencies who act as de facto ICE agents.
“I am really concerned about the possibility of newborn babies and Hispanic women can be targeted because of a level of vulnerability,” Cunza said…
Cunza said that the suspect posing as an immigration officer will create a chilling effect for Hispanics who regularly interact with immigration authorities. “It is misrepresenting how the government works or behaves in this country,” he said.
From Postville to Patchogue, the cries of immigrant mothers and children tell what is just another day on the job for those who continue to terrorize Latino immigrant communities and the carriers of hate who spread their racist gospel via the mainstream media. It is why children at a young age learn to stay close to their mothers in immigrant communities and maintain a low gaze in the presence of law enforcement. It doesn’t even matter if the ICE badge is real or not, just ask el espiritu de Brisenia Flores and her father. Yair Anthony Carrillo, with four days on this earth, is learning how to live in fear when he should be in his mother’s loving care and Latina motherhood is criminalized and victimized.
Updated: Late last night, after I wrote this post, Yair was found safe.
Via/ The Latin Americanist, Standing Firm, The Unapologetic Mexican
Fair Weather Latina Jessica Alba Gives Birth: Other Latina Moms Ignored
3:48 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Celebrities|Media|Women · Comments Off
9 Jun 2008
I’m telling you, the only time the media cares about Latinas having babies is when: 1. There is a fear of us having too many (especially if we are undocumented) and 2. If the Latina is famous.
Case in point fair weather Latina, Jessica Alba. Apparently she gave birth this weekend to a healthy baby girl, named Honor Marie Warren.
And here I was hoping the baby would be named Maria, Carmen, or Guadalupe.
Congrats to the familia.
But these are the mamis we need to be thinking about
Hola!
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