News (Noticias) for October 30th, 2006

I found it funny that US Rep Loretta Sanchez found herself on the TSA’s watch list. Especially since she is on the committee that oversees their budget.

In immigration news, I would recommend: Tired of life in Limbo, immigrants risk it all - Florida about an illegal Brazilian couple in Florida purposefully turning themselves in to ask for leniency and two stories about the anti-immigration law’s effect in Hazleton, Penn(1 & 2)

In other news, an article out of Las Vegas about how the story of a politician’s sex scandal got completely different coverage (if any) from Spanish media, was something new for me. Plus check out Latina Lista’s post from today and the story of how non-profits are losing bilingual workers

In my picks, I would recommend listening to Sizing Up Utah’s Hispanic Vote

I lament the fact that only 24% of the 28,000 Latinos graduating in Florida next year will get a college education.

And finally, I was going to try and go to the Latin Grammys as I was granted Media Creds but I have decided not to go as they only gave me 2 business days to get there and arrange all that I would have to. Maybe next year, but I am slightly bummed.

Tomás —» Check out all of Monday’s news

“My job as a planner is not to defend Spanish. Instead I seek to understand intimately the Latino consumer’s psyche and build strategies to connect them with my clients. A recent event in a New York court of law typified this line of thinking. A translator of the court system told one of my planners at Winglatino that during a recent trial he realized that language is but one of many components of equal importance for connecting with Latinos living in U.S. We were all ears. After all, this is one of the premises for the Latino Identity Project recently presented by the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies (AHAA), a project I have been a part of for the past year. “

“Officials estimate there are up to 10,000 hard-core members of the gang operating in 33 states, the largest clusters living in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and the Mid-Atlantic region. But Texas is one of the fastest-growing states for MS-13, simply by virtue of geography.

“From Honduras and El Salvador, the quickest routes in the U.S. are the smuggling pipelines that run from Mexico directly into the Valley,” said Border Patrol Supervisory Agent Roy Cervantes. “From here, they quickly move on to Dallas or Houston and blend in with the immigrant communities there. They want out of the border area as quickly as possible.”"

“Among the strategic steps taken over the past two weeks, Mexican President-elect Felipe Calderón has shown a need to legitimize his election victory with the hope for economic and social change. This as Mexico’s future president seeks to take office on December 1 with a credibility margin gained from expectations generated during this stage of the transition.

At the same time, Calderón is trying to consolidate support from the economic sectors, support that will come as long as he takes clear steps to keep his campaign promises. This while he also endeavors to sell his social message to the general public.”

“A month ago we invited readers to submit their works to our first La Bloga Dí de los Muertos Amoxcalli-Descansos Contest. You responded. We read. The judging is now over. Starting tomorrow we begin posting the three contest winners, in ascending order, with first prizewinner posted on Thursday.

We want to encourage everyone who submitted to keep writing, even if yours didn’t receive one of the awards. There’s no accounting for taste, as we at La Bloga found out in the last week of slewing Emails at each other back and forth across Aztlán. Of course, you, our readers, are the final judges of how well we did in our selections.”

“A podcast interview with Antonio Otalvaro, chief creative officer and producer, and Noah Otalvaro, who leads business development, information technology and marketing strategies of Barrio 305, is available on the Podcast Section of Hispanic Marketing & Public Relations, HispanicMPR.com. During the podcast, they discuss reaching Latino youth online and with multimedia tools and Barrio 305 with Elena del Valle, host of the HispanicMPR.com podcast. “

“This past Friday, Puerto Rican poeta Julia de Burgos left her mark on the streets of El Barrio, NYC, where her words have already impacted the minds and hearts of many. Iris Burgos unveiled an historic mosaic by artist Manny Vega honoring her sister, Julia. The ceremony took place in the heart of East Harlem’s “Cultural Corridor” on the northeast corner of Lexington Avenue and East 106th Street. “

“They identify by full name those who responded to the question if they arrived legally or illegally. Reading the story, one gets the impression that maybe these people didn’t realize that what they were saying was going to appear in print, distributed to thousands of people, or maybe they didn’t know that where they lived was now going to be on ICE’s radar, as well as, every fanatic who feels it’s their patriotic duty to rid the country of undocumented immigrants.

As a story, it was well-written and balanced.

But the question needs to be asked: Was the trust of those interviewed violated?”

“One of the highlights of my visit to Mexico City – besides taking part in the growing dialogue about Mexicans in the US and their vital relationship to Mexicans in Mexico – was a special invitation to attend Lila Downs’ concert at the National Auditorium.

Secretary of State Raquel Sosa and UC Irvine professor Mariana Botey accompanied me. Because of Ms. Sosa’s connections to Mexico City’s Mayor’s office, I was able to get a skybox seat – something I have never done before.”

“Voters on Nov. 7 will decide whether businesses that hire undocumented workers should be penalized.

Referendum H is one of a three-pronged, state-level crackdown on undocumented workers waged by Gov. Bill Owens and anti-immigration supporters.

If Referendum H passes, businesses could no longer deduct expenses associated with payment of undocumented workers on their state income-tax forms.”

“How English news outlets and Hispanic media played the story underlines significant cultural differences.

“As a general principle in Latin America, politics and personal life are two different things,” said Lisa Garcia Bedolla, associate professor of Chicano/Latino Studies at the University of California, Irvine.

“The inability to separate a person’s professional behavior from his personal behavior - especially with relation to sex … (is) a strictly American phenomenon,” Garcia Bedolla said.”

“Manuel G. Muñoz, 71, who spearheaded a marathon legal fight for equality for Hispanic workers at Kelly AFB, died Friday at Brackenridge Hospital in Austin of a stroke.

Muñoz, a 41-year civilian employee at Kelly, was a lead plaintiff in a suit filed in 1985 by more than 2,700 Hispanic workers who claimed they were denied promotions because of race.”

“Hispanic families are steeped in culture and tradition, and no where is that more evident than in the kitchen. For many Hispanics, cooking is a craft that is learned by watching and doing. For some, it starts in childhood; for others, it begins when they marry. While recipes, cookbooks and ruled measuring are used for baking, they are not always followed for preparing meals. From measuring to mixing, the Hispanic’s key kitchen tool is one’s hand. Cooking is all about having a “feel” for it, understanding what it takes to make the meal honor its heritage and come out right every time.”

“We turn now to Oaxaca where Mexican President Vicente Fox has sent in thousands of federal police to crush the popular uprising.

Last night police stormed the city with armored vehicles, helicopters and water cannons. The police seized control of the city square.

Over the past four months, the residents of Oaxaca - sparked by a teachers strike - had turned the city into an autonomous zone. The police and official government had been kicked out - in its place the protesters formed the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca or APPO.”

“Mexican federal police advanced into the center of Oaxaca City on Sunday, firing tear gas and water cannons at protesters who have been camping there for months. The demonstrators, from the People’s Popular Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO), are calling — among other things — for the resignation of Gov. Ulises Ruiz, and their protest, which started out in May as an annual teachers’ strike, has grown increasingly violent and widespread of late. By late Sunday, police were advancing on a group in the central plaza who were slowing their advance by burning tires and trash and, occasionally, throwing rocks.”

“Victor Smith grows vegetables on both sides of the border, and the fields look pretty much the same: long rows of green onions, romaine lettuce and organic celery destined for salad bowls across the United States, Canada and England.

Victor Smith said his Mexican crop would be hit hard if the All-American Canal is lined. Such crops have been sustained by seepage from the canal.
Now, a U.S. water conservation plan threatens to wither his Mexican crop, which is sustained by cross-border seepage. And Smith, a U.S. citizen who lives in Yuma, Ariz., and speaks halting Spanish, is as adamant as his Mexican neighbors when he says the lining of the All-American Canal must be stopped.”

“Condista, the premier Spanish-language cable TV programming aggregator in the U.S., today announced affiliate marketing campaigns involving three Spanish-language cable networks and two different cable operators in four different markets. TeleFormula and Comcast have launched a campaign in Albuquerque; HTV and Comcast have launched an acquisition promotion in South Florida; and Video Rola and Charter have announced campaigns for Ft. Worth and Central California.”

“Federal forces stormed Oaxaca and pushed protesters and striking teachers out of the city center they had occupied for five months, leaving the colonial city resembling a battleground, with riot police and burned vehicles lining the streets.

Police controlled the main square but leftist supporters roamed the streets with sticks and gasoline bombs. Protesters determined to keep up their fight to oust Oaxaca state Gov. Ulises Ruiz announced plans for new marches Monday. Graffiti-smeared storefronts, cafes and hotels were shuttered in what was once a favorite of tourists.”

“A U.S. company that makes touch-screen voting machines said it requested a federal investigation to dispel what it called baseless rumors of ties to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Sequoia Voting Systems Inc. said it asked the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, to investigate it and its parent software company, the Smartmatic Corp. The request comes after news articles suggested improper ties.”

“Grim television images from Nicaragua’s 1980s civil war are being used by conservatives to scare people who would vote for left-wing former rebel and president Daniel Ortega in the Nov. 5 election.

TV ads by center-right candidate Eduardo Montealegre and the Liberal Party’s Jose Rizo show presidential front-runner Ortega in military garb and, in a separate shot, corpses being loaded onto a truck during the war between Ortega’s Sandinista government and U.S.-backed Contra rebels.”

“Many are bound to follow.

Still, the first one is bound to attract attention ”” especially because its primary language is Spanish.

The Collier County School Board has approved a kindergarten-to-fifth-grade charter school that would immerse students in Spanish, even when the subject at hand is math.”

“Jeff Reed offers outdoor dining on the Rio Grande at his restaurant, Pepe’s on the River. But with the U.S. government planning to build 700 miles of fence along the Mexican border, he has to wonder: Will his restaurant soon be “Pepe’s on the Fence”?

Downriver in Brownsville, where the jalapeno and lima bean fields run down to the water’s edge, farmer Fermin Leal is wondering whether the government intends to cut through his crops, run irrigation pipes under the fence, or buy him out.

“Most of our land goes up to what’s supposed to be the border, and yes, we need access to river water,” Leal said.”

“”I know a lot of people think that it must be a trick that she stays married to me, but this is a real marriage,” John Bastin said. “She’s the love of my life. If they take her away, it’s going to be hard on me, on my family.”

Luz, who sneaked through the desert in Mexico and into California in 1998, applied to become a legal resident shortly after their wedding. While they waited –more than two years– for word from immigration officials, she became stepmother to John’s two children from a previous marriage, and gave birth to his son.”

“At a White House ceremony on Thursday, President Bush put his signature to a bill authorizing 700 miles of additional fencing along the U.S.-Mexican border. The bill supposedly demonstrates the determination of Congress to stop illegal immigration, but like much of its other efforts, the fence legislation is more symbolism than substance.

The 15-foot-high fencing with barbed wire and stadium lighting will cost at least $1.2 billion and may not be completed for years, if ever. And even if built, America’s recent history of pouring more and more resources into enforcing current immigration laws offers little hope that the fence will stem the inflow of undocumented workers.

The federal government has tried for two decades now to curb illegal immigration, with spending and border-patrol personnel up dramatically since the late 1980s. In the 1990s, the government erected miles of fencing through major urban corridors such as San Diego and El Paso. The fences only diverted the flow of humanity into more remote desert regions while the actual number of illegal immigrants entering the country each year and total number here has just kept growing.”

“U.S. Rep. John Salazar has a reputation as a conservative Democrat who doesn’t always toe the party line. That certainly doesn’t prevent him from criticizing President Bush.

When the president signed legislation Thursday that will add 700 miles of fencing along the U.S. border with Mexico, and he proudly displayed it as an example that the administration is tough on illegal immigration, Salazar dismissed the move.”