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
4:09 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Bilingualism|California|Justice · Comments Off
24 Nov 2005
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
9:01 am By Maegan La Mala · Uncategorized · Comments Off
9 Nov 20054:42 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · California|Media|Politics · Comments Off
8 Nov 2005
What local Latino, indy and mainstream media is saying
San Francisco
Univision online reports from San Francisco:
…un voluntario en uno de los centros de votación le dijo al Chronicle que habÃan unas seis personas en las afueras del centro esperando que se abrieran las meses. “Esto me sorprendió. No me lo esperaba. San Francisco es una ciudad que no apoya al Gobernador”, señaló.
El Reportero of San Francisco says:
El Reportero urges you to vote to protect our rights, which are about to be eroded if any of Mr. Schwarzenegger’s state propositions win.
3:07 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · California|Politics|San Francisco · Comments Off
8 Nov 2005
Looking over my ballot book this morning, I found a lot of Latino names for the various local political seats here in San Francisco:
Gerardo Sandoval (Assessor)
Jose Cisneros (Treasurer)
Manuel Valle (Treasurer)
Dennis Herrera (City Attorney, first Latino to hold office in San Francisco)
I’ve said before (as has my colleague la Mala) that I won’t vote for a Latino just because he’s Latino, or any other “minority” for that matter. I was happy to see, however, that the majority of the people on this list seem to stand for same things that I do, so yeah, in a way, I am voting Latino. But it’s just a fluke.
Are there Latinos running for office where you live? Use our contact form or the comment area to tell us about it.
2:00 pm By Maegan La Mala · New York City|Politics · Comments Off
8 Nov 2005
With a Latino running for office today in the NYC Mayoral election I expected to see more um, Latinos at the polls. Not that I want every Latino to vote for Ferrer. I think I’ve made that point clear but it’s not as if the mayoral race is the only issue to vote on today. Mind you I don’t live in a ‘hood with a huge Latino population but I was still surprised when I went to vote at 10 a.m. to see the polling place relatively empty with only one other Latino face in sight. Maybe we all voted on our way to work this morning?
1:32 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · California|Politics · Comments Off
31 Oct 2005
As a follow-up to some recent posts on California gubernatorial candidates’ courting of the Latino vote via Spanish-language ad campaigns and town hall meetings, I offer you some excerpts from a piece from today’s edition of the LA Daily News:
The governor taped a town-hall forum on Spanish-language Univision that aired statewide over the weekend, even as opponents launched their first Spanish-language TV ads featuring Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa attacking the governor’s proposals.The high-profile events are just the latest campaign efforts aimed at courting the 2 million Latinos registered to vote in California, accounting for 14 percent of the statewide electorate.
8:47 am By Maegan La Mala · Fashion|New York City|Politics|Shopping · Comments Off
31 Oct 2005
Political t-shirts are so old school. Forget wearing your vote on a button on your sleeve. Put your favorite candidate on your underwear! That’s where it’s at. The Daily Gotham, that hearts NYC Democratic candidate for Mayor, Freddy Ferrer, is offering up tangitas urging peeps to “Vote por Fernando”. No word if the Ferrer camp has endorsed the pantaletas or if Bloomberg is launching a counter campaign. Bloomers for Bloomberg anyone?
Via / The Daily Gotham
10:10 am By Maegan La Mala · Events|New York City|Politics · Comments Off
27 Oct 2005
It seems like yesterday that I was complaining about not seeing Freddy Ferrer in the hood. Oh wait, maybe because it was yesterday. Bueno you too can caminar con NYC Democratic mayoral hopeful Freddy Ferrer. According to the Daily Gotham Freddy will be stumping in the ‘hood of Sunset Park, Brooklyn on Sabado. He won’t be alone, Rican Congresista Nydia Velasquez and even the Governor of Puerto Rico, Anibal Acevedo-Vila (who just threw Ferrer a fancy fundraiser on the isla del encanto).
Such events are a good opportunity for peeps to get up close and personal with the candidate or at the very least get your pic taken with him.
Via/ The Daily Gotham
7:02 pm By Maegan La Mala · New York City|Politics · Comments Off
26 Oct 2005
It seems I’m not the only Latina in NYC not jumping on NYC mayoral hopeful Freddy Ferrer’s bandwagon. The latest Quinnipiac University poll has Ferrer leading current NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg among Latinos polled by a measly five points, 48 percent to 43 percent. 61 percent of likely voters overall support Bloomberg, while Ferrer hangs on to 30 percent.
I haven’t seen that much outreach to the Latino community specifically by Ferrer. Whereas Bloomberg has been filling my mailbox with bilingual flyers and speaking to me in choppy Spanish between novelas. No doubt some of this is because the incumbent mayor is a billionaire who could air ads in pig Latin if he wanted to because money is no object. Pero what about old fashioned pressing of the flesh? Yeah we’ve seen Ferrer waving at parades but when was the last time he was in your hood? Sources have placed Ferrer at an event last week in the highly Latino concentrated Jackson Heights, Queens but it wasn’t publicized. I’m sure many members of the immigrant would have had plenty of questions and concerns that Freddy could have played up.
Of course Freddy’s camp says that polls don’t mean anything and that
Quinnipiac pollsters have always underestimated the NY Rican.
We will certainly be able to decide for ourselves in just two more weeks when election day comes.
Via / New York Post
VivirLatino is a daily publication published by Mamita Mala Media, dedicated to featuring all the latest politics, culture, entertainment of interest to the diverse Latin@ diaspora.
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