Politics | VivirLatino

Immigrant Narratives : Choose Your Mother or Your Child

22 Jun 2009

Quick. Choose. The house is burning and you have to choose. Your mother or your child? Who do you save?

The current framing of the immigration reform movement and the immigrants it claims to represents takes place against a backdrop of human lives. And in our house, the United States of America, is aflame. The framing of the current immigration reform movement however, the good vs. bad immigrant narrative that we have written about and discussed extensively, forces advocates and the media into a corner. Choose. The idea is that we can’t have it all when it comes to immigration reform. That we need to make compromises, find workable solutions to borrow an often heard phrase from the Reform Immigration for America Summit. That means choosing between your mother or your child.

Cry Me a Reverse Racism River : Sonia Sotomayor Scares the White People

9:17 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Politics| Women · 3 Comments

29 May 2009

Want to scare some white people? Put a Latina on the cusp of history and watch the “media” who have made their career on using stereotypes against people of color, lately immigrants, suddenly cry oppression.

Yes , yes as much as we all know that race is an artificial construct, suddenly those who have benefited the most from that construct are acting as if the fact they are white men has nothing to do with their position.

Quote of the Day: Obama on Immigration Reform

5:29 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · California| Immigration · 20 Comments

19 Mar 2009

President Obama was in Costa Mesa, California, yesterday to hold a “town hall” meeting and he finally brought up the hot-button topic of immigration, and more specifically, immigration reform. The speech was vague and lacking content, as was to be expected, but here’s the most salient part:

“You’ve got to say to the undocumented workers… ‘Look, you’ve broken the law. You didn’t come here the way you were supposed to. So this is not going to be a free ride … What’s going to happen is you’re going to pay a significant fine.’

“‘You are going to learn english. You are going to… go to the back of the line so you don’t get ahead of somebody who was in Mexico City applying legally.’”

“‘But after you’ve done these things over a certain period of time, you can earn your citizenship. So that it’s not — it’s not something that is guaranteed or automatic. You’ve got to earn it.’ But over time, you get people an opportunity.”

How do you interpret this? How will this rhetoric translate into real policy?

Via / SGGP

But But But…what’s wrong with making a movie about Mexican Chihuahuas??

2:07 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Movies · 3 Comments

17 Oct 2008

Of course, in writing about the complex feelings and confusions that the movie Beverly Hills Chihuahua brings up in me, I must be challenged by local lovers of chihuahuas. How on earth could I possibly write such hateful and horrible rhetoric onto the purely innocent puppy dog–especially when said puppy dog has no greater ambition than to make innocent school children as happy as can be?

How could I?

Maybe this is how?
Maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t hyper sensitive Latinos that created Latino=dog imagery, but politicians that are hell bent on playing on fear and difference to get elected?

“They are distorting the facts and ridiculing the Hispanic community,” said Brent Wilkes, executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens. “It’s a shameful piece. It really is gutter politics.”

Carrie Cantrell, a spokeswoman for The Republican State Leadership Committee, an Alexandria, Va.-based political organization that works to elect down-ticket Republicans in state races, said she appreciates the groups’ opinion, but that the ad was simply a parody of a well-known popular culture reference, a Chihuahua once used in Taco Bell advertising.

She did not apologize.

Oh, look at that–popular culture used and manipulated to make a racist point? How unuuuuusual.

Mamita Mala on Bluegrass Roots

7:31 pm By Maegan La Mala · DNC08| Politics| denver · 1 Comment

26 Aug 2008

Photo%202.jpg My lovely and talented co-editor, Maegan (a.k.a. Mamita Mala) was interviewed yesterday at the DNC for the BlueGrassRoots blog about the Latino vote.

Check out the video!

BlueGrass Roots, a political blog out of Kentucky, has a lot of other interviews with bloggers of all stripes, so have a look at the other videos as well.

Via / BlueGrassRoots

U.S. Embargo costs Cuba 4 billion

4:53 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Controversia| Cuba| Money| Politics · 1 Comment

2 Oct 2006

According to AP, Cuba is recognizing that the U.S. embargo of the island has cost the nation over 4 billion dollars over the last year.

Cuba’s losses increased from July 2005 to July of this year because the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush has steadily tightened the embargo at the same time Cuba’s economy is growing and spending more money abroad, Vice Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez told a news conference.

He cited tougher U.S. scrutiny of Cuban nickel exports and of Cuban use of dollars in international transactions. The government claimed a loss of US$2.8 billion for the mid-2004-2005 period.

The Cuban foreign minister calls the embargo “a policy which causes suffering”.

In addition to lost trade revenue, Cuba is also missing out on the potential boon of U.S. tourism to the island. Visits made by Cuban-Americans also fell this year by half, from 200,000 to roughly 100,000.

According to the Cuban government, the island has lost over 86 billion dollars in trade revenue since the embargo was first imposed in 1960.

Via / International Herald Tribune

Mexican Elections : Court to Rule Today

12:52 pm By Maegan La Mala · Controversia| Politics| mexico · Comments Off

28 Aug 2006

Mexico’s federal election court (TEPJF) announced that they would decide most of the continuing inquiries to the July 2 presidential race today.

In a statement Sunday, the Federal Electoral Tribunal said it will hold a public session beginning at 8 a.m. during which it will rule on all 375 complaints contesting the official voting results.

It was unclear how long such a session would take, but at its conclusion, the court’s seven judges will likely be in a position to determine the election’s definitive outcome. The court’s statement, however, did not say if it would announce a president-elect at the session’s end.

Once the court’s seven judges have decided, they will make release the official results of the court-ordered partial recount. By law, the electoral court has until Sept. 6 to declare a president-elect or to annul the election.

Meanwhile, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) have came out and firmly stated that a court ruling in favor of Calderon would merely complete the fraud. AMLO has called on his supporters to hold a National Democratic Convention (NDC) on September 16 (Mexico’s Independence Day) at the encampment site. The purpose of the NDC is to discuss their options if Felipe Calderón were to be declared the winner by TEPJF. On Sunday, López Obrador told his supporters that during the convention they could determine if they should either lead a civil resistance movement against his rival or establish some type of parallel government.

Via / El Universal – Mexico News
Image Via / Columbus Dispatch

The White House has trouble with “English”

8:40 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Politics| language · 2 Comments

19 May 2006

story.gonzalez.pool.jpg Lots of buzz around the topic of the English as the official language of the U.S. On the Reuters news website, Alberto Gonzales’s explaining away of the issue is classified under the heading “World Crises”:

President George W. Bush has long opposed making English the country’s national language, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said on Friday, a day after the Senate voted to do so, but the White House said later Gonzales had got caught in a “linguistic snare.”

The Senate vote came in an amendment to proposed legislation overhauling U.S. immigration law and directed the government to “preserve and enhance” the role of English. Opponents said it could affect the status of some multilingual services offered by government organizations.

Adding to the confusion, the Senate also adopted a softer amendment calling English the “unifying language” of the United States. Senators take both versions into negotiations over a final bill with the U.S. House of Representatives.

Gonzales is quick to defend Dubya by saying:

“The president has never supported making English the national language,” Gonzales said after meeting with state and local officials in Texas to discuss cooperation on enforcement of immigration laws.
He said Bush has instead long supported a concept called “English-Plus,” believing that it was good to be proficient in more than one language.

Later on Friday, the White House weighed in to clarify Gonzales’ remarks, saying the president does not believe in English as an “official” language.

Apparently the “little mix up” stemmed from confusion around the terms “national language” and “official language”, according to Reuters.

El Mundo article: “El Senado de EE UU aprueba una enmienda que otorga al inglés la condición de idioma nacional” (ESP)

Via / Reuters

Latino population booms, more born in U.S.

2:37 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Culture| Politics| society · Comments Off

11 May 2006

The census bureau has just released some data that shows a rise in the U.S. Latino population and points to the fact that this surge is more due to the number of children — American-born U.S. citizens of Latino descent — than to the influx of immigrant workers. From CNN.com:

Bureau figures released Wednesday show the U.S. population grew by 2.8 million between July 1, 2004, and July 1, 2005. Hispanics accounted for 1.3 million of that increase, with 800,000 attributable to natural causes — births minus deaths — rather than immigration.

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