VivirLatino

Living & Luchando la Vida Latin@

Check Out Some VivirLatino Editor Made Media

September 21st, 2012

The hustle for survival doesn’t allow Bianca and I to update this site as often as we would like but that doesn’t mean we aren’t making media.

Bianca has been updating her site, Latino Sexuality, daily. She’s been taking the 30 Day Latin@ Blog Challenge very seriously, sharing important perspective on culture, politics including immigration, and of course media!.

Meanwhile I have new posts up at The Nation and Colorlines, where I have been writing as a community journalist as part of their joint Voting Rights Watch 2012 project, about efforts to push back against voter suppression.

This week I also have something up at Politic365 about the possible fate of California’s TRUST Act and who may be influencing Governor Brown. That post could probably use something beyond hateful comments that reflect a narrow understanding of current immigration policy.

Check out the links above, share them, and comment as independent Latin@ media makers keep writing loudly.

Changes to VivirLatino

July 17th, 2012

About a year ago, I began to wonder if VivirLatino should continue at all. The stress of running the blog solo in changing media world where Latino is turning into a synonym for consumer instead of so much more was feeling overwhelming. A number of experiences in the fast year have served to affirm the importance of keeping this space but also allowing it, like everything else, to evolve and grow.

A Change in Geography

After a lifetime in New York City, I am relocating to the Los Angeles area. While this is not the cause of the changes I want to roll out for the website, it certainly will have an impact. In NYC I am one of many Ricans among so many other Latin@s. In Los Angeles, Ricans are far and few between so it will be an interesting space for me personally, politically, and culturally. I will be writing about some of the nuances about that experience in a new blog I will be launching apart from this. What this means for this site is clearly more LA centric cultural reviews.

An Expansion of Content

Political analysis will remain the heart of this site. So no one need worry (or breath too easily). It’s what I love and I think I bring a unique, brutally honest perspective that I’m kind of proud of. But I also need to make this space sustainable. This site was never meant to be a moneymaker but when I’m putting more into the site than my already broke ass is getting, well Houston we have a problem. So I will be diversifying content.

One way I will be doing this is by expanding the type of media found here. The Allied Media Conference this year really inspired and empowered me to be less fearful of playing with new (to me) types of media. I will be including more audio, video, and photographs. I have long wanted to have a newsletter and will launch that as well as keeping up the social media presence (twiiterput@ por vida).

I will also be including more lifestyle pieces. This is nothing new to the site. We have always had film, music, and food reviews they will just be a little more regular. and probably a little LA centric as I explore my new city. I am also planning on having regular columns on spirituality, education, and parenting. To help with this I am planning on inviting guest posters which will be a nice change from reading my voice all the time. Maybe you will be a guest poster here?

I have also made the tough decision to have more sponsored posts. This was not something I take lightly but I’m also not going to front. Blog advertising is not the business if you want to eat and you want to maintain your individual voice. If I can earn some cash to keep the site afloat so I can write about the things I am passionate about – love driven justice and community building – so be it. Don’t get it twisted, I’m not going to be selling or promoting things that go against my values and I still will throw in my critical perspective where appropriate. These posts will be clearly marked.

These changes will be rolled out slowly but surely and I really am looking forward to your feedback, comments, criticisms and concerns. VivirLatino couldn’t exist without you reading this, commenting, engaging, sharing. I continue to be humbled and full of gratitude.

Abrazos
Maegan aka Mala

VivirLatino’s Maegan E. Ortiz named a Top Latino Voice to Follow on Twitter

June 21st, 2012

Yesterday, Pablo Manriquez over at The Huffington Post’s Latino Voices was kind enough to include me and my personal twitter account among his picks for The 50 Top Latino Voices to Follow on Twitter. Others on the list include seasoned journalists like Univision’s Jorge Ramos and fellow Latina bloggers like Adriana Maestas and Viviana Hurtado.

I struggle with tooting my own horn. As an independent media maker whose work is part of my life, part of my experience as a single Rican mami, my use of words on twitter, here, and everywhere is a deliberate act of love and passion, rooted in my values and vision. It’s hard to put yourself out there, especially when truth and love are seen as controversial and hard to market. This is work but it’s emotionally charged work so I am always grateful and humbled by pedacitos of recognition.

These types of lists are always subjective. I generally don’t link to huge sites like Huffington Post as a matter of principal (because seriously they don’t need my traffic) and there are some people on the list that I have zero interest in and in fact have significant differences with. The internet, as a digital arm of society, at times can replicate and worse, reinforce the structural injustices of the “real world” but that is one of the main reasons I started writing online. Which is why it’s nice to have a moment of recognition.

Recognition should not lead to complacency nor co-option. Too many other Latin@s have been silenced or are at risk of being silenced because of the way that blogging is shifting. Our numbers are linked to our potential as voters for one candidate over another or as consumers, It needs to move back to representing and giving voice to real experiences and people. That has always been my intention and I plan on keeping at it. This site and I are both personally in a state of transition that I hope will lead to more truth, more love and yes even more work.

Thank you for your support and all you do to make this possible.

Expressing Mil Gracias for Revolucionario Awards Nomination

February 28th, 2012

I was very surprised and humbled upon waking up to the news that I was nominated for a Revolucionario Award in the New Americano category.

I honestly don’t know who nominated me and I don’t even know much about the Social Revoluticion who is leading the effort and the award process. Apparently the outcome will be decided at SWSX Interactive on March 12. More information on the awards are below and como dicen por alli, it’s an honor just to be nominate.

So how do you define an award-winning Revolucionario?

They can be an individual, group, organization, or brand with the ganas to inspire change online and off. They seamlessly represent dos mundos and are constantly redefining what it means to be Latino as trendsetters and innovators. They utilize the newest online tools to engage la gente in their networks and mobilize them to take action. Whether they have 10 followers or 10,000 fans, The Revolucionario ignites change and, with that, embodies the cry of the The Social Revolución!

Nominations for the Revolucionario Awards fall under three categories:

The New Americano

These individuals, groups, organizations, or brand are trendsetters, impacting the Hispanic market online and off. By utilizing social media strategies they are recognizing the cultural shifts happening within the Latino community, are redefining what it means to be Latino, and are influencing their online community from their multicultural perspective.

The Innovator

Whether it’s a new app or website, this movement is redefining how we reach Latinos now and in the future. El Innovator can be an individuals, groups, organizations, or brand who has developed a new online tool to connect with the Latino comunidad. They’ve engaged their network with revolutionary ideas and technology that is authentic to the different facets of the Latino market.

The Mobilizer

Through social media tools and platforms, these individuals, groups, organizations, or brand mobilize their international and local causes online and off. Uniquely, they foster communities and spread positive change by connecting and educating an audience who they may have never met. Their social mission is to inspire people to take acción and spread change.

Explaining the Sudden Hiatus

February 8th, 2012

Before I start jumping right into posting analysis and commentary, I wanted to take a moment to explain the sudden extended silence on the site.

My dear aunt, who was fighting cancer for over three years, took a turn for the worse and transitioned from this world last week. She is the second of my mother’s sisters to pass away from breast cancer and the fifth death in our family within the last three years, making the loss more devastating to the family.

I felt the need to make the personal public since this occurred around the same time the Komen controversy broke (there will be a separate post on that mess) and because my Titi Migdalia was a fan and regular reader of VivirLatino.

In her honor and memory, I’m ready to jump back in.

Thank you for your understanding.

M. la Mala

VivirLatino 2012 : Resolutions, To Dos and To Cover

January 2nd, 2012

Trying to get back into a regular posting groove here is one of my personal resolutions for 2012. I’m starting with a relatively manageable goal of three posts per week.

I would like to get back into regular book blogging – writing reviews and what I’m reading.

I may drop music blogging and film blogging unless something particularly moves me.

With the new year comes more attention on the upcoming presidential elections and the campaigning to get there. So I would like to have one post a week on that.

For what my third weekly post will be, well that I am still up in the air about. Maybe I should leave it open for my personal editorial/rants/reporting things of interests.

One of the things that has been in the plan for a while, even before we were down to one captain, is a reader poll to get an idea of what you, the readers, would like to see more and less of (and you cannot say you want less of me – sorry haters).

So consider this an informal polling of sorts : What would you like to see more of/less of here at VivirLatino?

2011 – El Año Que se Va/ The Year that is leaving

December 28th, 2011

Back in October, when VivirLatino had its 5th birthday, I wrote about how much the blogging landscape had changed, especially for independent, political, Latino blogs. In the five years since the site’s birth, we have contracted, not expanded and this has been the tightest year yet. This year, VivirLatino had one of its founding editors move on, leaving one person in charge of the entire operation and as that one person; it was and remains the biggest challenge. The changing nature of ethnic political blogging is one side of the coin. The other side is more personal.

I could go on and talk about how hard it has been financially to keep this space alive. I could go on and talk about how the need to do other various jobs, some within the publishing/writing world, some not, has felt so exhausting that it has left me with more moments of hopelessness than I would like to own. Throw in single mami’hood and having to leave my apartment and you have a drop in motivation.

But it is not all negative. How else to explain why, despite wanting to throw in the towel many times and watching my close circle of fellow bloggers get smaller as they stop producing, move to new spaces, or (let’s be real) are co-opted, I still find value in this space. I have been blessed by opportunities because this space exists – visibility has expanded to local and national media – ethnic and with a broader audience. This space gives me voice and in turn gives the world I am a part of voice, and does so unapologetically, even if that ruffles some feathers or makes people uncomfortable. Scratch that, especially if it ruffles some feathers and makes people uncomfortable. More than anything however, I am truly humbled by the people I have met and continue to meet through the work of having this space. Our communities are filled with amazing, beautiful people with rich lives, not just stories for consumption. What I have been blessed to witness and be a part of because of this space has given me so much love which I am compelled to return in whatever small way I am capable. All the hate mail, attack press releases from orgs, and under the table moves I have experienced pale in comparison to the amount of support I have felt. I am still here because you are still here – whoever that you that has placed your granite de arena is.
So, I close this year at VivirLatino, acknowledging the struggle that 2011 has been professionally and personally. But I also close the year open to possibilities, (real) change, and so much hope. My modest desire for the new year is to make media that reflects my values and voice honestly.

Maegan Ortiz

Always the Mamita Mala

Publisher

6 Years of VivirLatino – Still Causing Trouble as Latin@ Blogging Shifts

October 12th, 2011

I started today thinking about how difficult it has become to maintain VivirLatino and keep it up and running the way I want to. 6 years ago today, this site went live and it has three editors (of which I was one) and owners who had the best of intentions but who also wanted to capitalize on what was to become the “Latino internet boom”.

That was never my interest and it still isn’t. I, having already been personally blogging about my experiences as a single Rican activist mami in nyc, was and still am interested in the way life/struggle was (is) a reflection of larger social and political issues. This means that I rarely look at page stats, am a bad hustler/marketer, and have sacrificed a certain level of “success” because of my refusal to sell out to trends and/or organizations, because I don’t mind being confrontational if that means keeping it real.

6 years later, there are two editors (including me) and I own the site. My intentions, my integrity, my politics, and my passions have no changed but the face of Latino blogging has. I have witnessed a shift away from critical analysis and a move towards marketing our experiences. In the post Obama election period, I have seen the beltway (Washington d.c.) shift in terms of the level of engagement they (represented by both politicians and non-profit orgs) are willing to have with spaces like VivirLatino. We are not the “traditional” media and thus can be shut out in a way that mainstream media cannot. I have also seen a steep decline in revenue, mostly because as the recession get deeper and deeper orgs didn’t have the money so many of us independent bloggers struggled to get. As a result the field of independent (meaning not tied to an organization) Latino political/activist bloggers has gotten smaller and smaller. Dear and talented voices have gone silent (online- their work continues in other spaces) and trust me – when you are a space like VivirLatino – you need all the allies you can get.

On the Slow Down of Updates to the Site

October 1st, 2011

Good Morning! As VivirLatino approaches it’s 6th anniversary – this Hispanic/Latino Heritage month has been marked by a sharp decline in posting. What used to be a site updated up to four times a day, now sometimes gets updated once a week.
It is not a situation I am happy about but it is a situation.

I am working on a post detailing, how from my point of view, as a mujer who has been online for many years, the landscape of blogging, particularly activist Latino blogging has changed.

Some of it for the better, some of it for the worse.

I remain grateful to all who continue to see this space as valuable and I hope that you will continue to support the sharing of news, ideas, and actions towards building communities we want to live in as whole people.

Com amor y en lucha,

Mala

Temporal Temporal : Hurricane Irene Hits VivirLatino HQ

August 28th, 2011

As I write this, Hurricane Irene has been downgraded to a tropical storm, leaving a path of destruction behind her. Here at VivirLatino headquarters, in lovely Queens, NYC, there has been lots of wind, lots of rain, and lots of leaking but we have power and are grateful for our safety. We are hoping that all of you readers who have dealt with, are dealing with, or will be dealing with the storm, are also safe and have what you need.