News (Noticias) Tagged ‘Oaxaca’

Raymundo Pacheco, 28, is a Mexican citizen deserving of government help. In June Pacheco, originally from Santa Cruz Nexila, a small indigenous village in central Oaxaca, was deported from California to Tijuana. Since 2002 Pacheco had been working as a farmworker in the fields of Salinas Valley in California. His father, Primo Pacheco, and other members of his extended family continue working there, unable to visit Raymundo for fear that they would be unable to cross again into the United States.

Deposited across the border with no money, no local family ties, and no job, Pacheco had nowhere to go. So he joined the rising population of homeless immigrant men, women, and children in Tijuana.”*

Contemporary Oaxacan cuisine has roots deep in the past. Pre-Hispanic ingredients such as corn, tomatoes, beans, and chocolate plus a variety of chilies along with foods and spices brought over during the Spanish colonial era, are essential to Oaxacan cooking. The famous “seven moles,” tlayudas, tamales, and other antojitos (corn-based snacks) are some of the best-known items on a Oaxacan menu. Fish and seafood from the coast, pork and turkey, insects such as chapulines (crisp-fried grasshoppers) and gusanos (grubs), and unusual herbs such as hoja santa and epazote (known for their strong flavors), form the basis of a traditional diet. An insistence on fresh, seasonal ingredients and a sparing use of lard and cooking oil give Oaxacan dishes a welcome light touch. “*

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Escondido tries to rid itself of undocumented immigrants - California

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The Global Impact of Local Events: Civil Unrest and Migration in Oaxaca, Mexico

Immigration officials handle church sanctuary delicately

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An Interpreter Speaking Up for Migrants (from the Postville, Iowa raid) - Erik Camayd-Freixas - Professor of Spanish at Florida International University

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The Great Migration of the Hispanic Vote

Tex[t]-Mex Versus the Sleeping Mexican

The essence of cool - ‘Aguas frescas’ cool a hot summer thirst.

Hispanics seek voter bloc too big to ignore

Nicaraguans Demand Justice From World Bank-Financed Sugar Cane Company

Financial folly leads to boot - Hispanic parade board president removed for asking about records - New Jersey

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Studies find Irving’s at-large City Council system hurts Hispanic voters - Texas

A Nation of Everybody: A Chicago art exhibit stirs dialogue on immigration reform

Immigrants Find Solace After Storm of Arrests - Postville, Iowa

Thousands Of Students In Texas Classified “Limited English Learners”

We think: Businesses are having to bear brunt of immigration mess

Number of Mexicans gaining citizenship soars in 2007 - nearly 50% from the year before

The Global Impact of Local Events: Civil Unrest and Migration in Oaxaca, Mexico

National Council of La Raza Challenges McCain and Obama to Rein in Party Rhetoric on Immmigration

Hispanics seek McCain’s reassurance

Analysis: Obama winning the Hispanic vote

The Great Migration of the Hispanic Vote

The Sleeping Giant: Latino Voters

L.A.’s Latino mayor praises Obama at La Raza conference

Latinos expected to play key role in presidential election - Population segment now experiencing close inspection

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McCain and Obama Speak Off the Cuff, and Trouble Quickly Follows - Obama said “you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish” - (video included)

Number of Mexicans gaining citizenship soars in 2007 - nearly 50% from the year before

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Immigration reform a hot topic again

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On counters of neighborhood “taquerias” and Oaxacan restaurants, at Salvadoran farmers market stands and East Los Angeles backyard parties, even at swank Hollywood restaurants, you can see the huge glass “vitroleros,” beehive-shaped jars filled with “aguas frescas” in a spectrum of stunning colors. Each flavor is like a point of reference on a color wheel: the deep magenta of “jamaica” (a variety of hibiscus flower), the pale green of honeydew melon or cucumber-lime, the scarlet of just-made “sandia” (watermelon), rice-based “horchata’s” milky white.”*

recipes:

Watermelon-Lime Agua Fresca

Strawberry-Jamaica Agua Fresca

Horchata

Cucumber-Lime Agua Fresca

In May of 2007, I interviewed the presidente municipal of Los Arboles, Oaxaca.1 We were sitting in the municipal palace at the center of the community. The town’s plaza was immediately in front of us as was the village church, other community buildings, a small gazebo where the town’s band plays, and a few businesses. The plaza in Los Arboles shows the signs of success that the community has seen over the last few years. It is green and cool, full of flowers and plantings, and even has a working fountain.

These are not improvements funded solely through the success of migrants living in the United States (a story typical in rural communities throughout Mexico); rather, these improvements come from money invested in the town by successful artisans as well as those migrants who feel an obligation to their town. “*

No one has been brought to justice for the murders of two young indigenous reporters in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca in April, a case that has mobilised social activists and drawn condemnation from UNESCO.

Local indigenous authorities told IPS that two months after the murders, their communities have returned to “normality,” which for them means the presence of paramilitary groups, clashes between rival clans, and the absence of state security forces.

On Apr. 7, 22-year-old Felicitas Martínez and 24-year-old Teresa Bautista were ambushed and shot to death on a rural road in their municipality. The two young women were reporters for Radio Copala, “The Voice that Breaks the Silence”, a low power, small range community radio station that has been on the air since January.”*

A new report, “Controlling Unauthorized Immigration from Mexico: The Failure of ‘Prevention through Deterrence’ and the Need for Comprehensive Reform,” was released today by academic researchers at the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies (CCIS) at the University of California—San Diego.

Researchers targeted four specific states in Mexico who lead the country as sources of origin for US migrants. One area, Oaxaca, was the field site of the most recent and extensive research where the report’s authors found that the desire of coming to the United States was not diminished by stricter enforcement at the border.”*

Direct link to report PDF

Just down the dirt road from several small adobe houses, past a cat keeping silent watch under a street lamp, past two lounging dogs, 16 students line up outside their one-room concrete school.

The tiniest kid holds the Mexican flag. It’s early March, and during a weekly patriotic ceremony the teacher tells her students about Mexico’s beloved former president, Benito Juarez, whose birthday is later in the month.

“He was an Indian from Oaxaca and a sheepherder just like you,” Maria Gloria Martínez says. “Imagine that, one of you could be president.”"*

When Pablo Jacinto, the executive chef and co-owner of Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen, arrived in Napa Valley in 1986, there were no chiles, no tortillas, no cilantro, no taco trucks and little else remotely Mexican. It was a long way from San Miguel Noxistlan, the Oaxacan village where he was born.

Jacinto got his first job washing dishes at Mustards Grill, and then briefly moved to Tra Vigne in St. Helena, eventually graduating to salad maker.

Jacinto’s way has not been a fast track, but a steady pursuit always pushed by his love of cooking. He married and had two daughters, giving him extra motivation to find where he was meant to be. He moved around, trying catering and then commuted from Napa to Mill Valley for a year to work at the Buckeye Roadhouse. “*

Satellite imagery obtained from NASA will help archeologist Bill Middleton peer into the ancient Mexican past. In a novel archeological application, multi- and hyperspectral data will help build the most accurate and most detailed landscape map that exists of the southern state of Oaxaca, where the Zapotec people formed the first state-level and urban society in Mexico.

If you ask someone off the street about Mexican archeology, they’ll say Aztec, Maya. Sometimes they’ll also say Inca, which is the wrong continent, but you’ll almost never hear anyone talk about the Zapotecs,” says Middleton, acting chair of the Department of Material Culture Sciences and professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Rochester Institute of Technology. “They had the first writing system, the first state society, the first cities. And they controlled a fairly large territory at their Zenith—250 B.C. to 750 A.D.””*

Under conventional economic logic, Mr. León is uncompetitive. His yields are just a fraction of what mechanized agriculture churns out from the vast expanses of the Great Plains.

But to him, that is beside the point.

The Mixteca highlands here in the state of Oaxaca are burdened with some of the most barren earth in Mexico, the work of more than five centuries of erosion that began even before the arrival of the Spanish colonizers, their goats and their cattle. The scuffed hillsides look as though some ancient giant had hacked at them, opening gashes in the white and yellow rock.

Over the past two decades, Mr. León and other farmers have worked to reforest and reclaim this parched land, hoping to find a way for people to stay and work their farms instead of leaving for jobs in cities and in the United States.”*

The curandera is weary from work. Three, four, five times a day, the immigrant farm workers knock on her apartment door, begging her to cure their ailments.

They complain of indigestion, of rashes, of post-traumatic panic attacks. Then there are the house calls that compel her to crate up her potions and herbs and drive across town, often after midnight, to escape the notice of immigration police.

“I’ve done so many cures that I’m exhausted; it gives me no time to rest,” said Herminia L. Arenas, 55, the curandera, or traditional healer, who has practiced in this Central Valley town since migrating 14 years ago from Oaxaca, in southern Mexico. “I want to retire, but I feel like I was sent here to help these people.” “*

The leader of protesters who seized the southern Mexico city of Oaxaca for months in 2006 vowed Thursday to hold more demonstrations in coming months.

Flavio Sosa was freed over the weekend after spending almost a year and a half in prison. He said his movement, known as the APPO, will continue to seek the ouster of Oaxaca Gov. Ulises Ruiz.

Sosa told reporters that “the strength of the APPO will be felt in coming months.”"*

Despite the creation of a special federal prosecutor and protests from virtually all international press organizations, new attacks against journalists in Mexico continue to mount while old ones go unpunished. Two young radio announcers from the southern state of Oaxaca are the latest journalists to suffer violent deaths. Felicitas Martinez, 22, and Teresa Bautista, 24, were shot to death in an ambush April 7 while on their way to cover a state meeting of indigenous peoples. Four other persons were wounded in the attack, including two young children aged 2 and 3. As of April 19, no suspects had been arrested for the crimes.

Indigenous Triquis, Martinez and Bautista were announcers for the “The Voice that Breaks the Silence” community radio station in San Juan Copala, a town which has enjoyed autonomous status since early 2007. Outspoken commentators in a region riddled with social conflicts, Martinez and Bautista allegedly suffered threats before their murders. “Some people think we are very young to know, but they should know we are very young to die,” Martinez and Bautista reportedly said on the air shortly before their deaths.”*

*From: http://www.newspapertree.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

New archaeological discoveries in Mexico that are increasing understanding about the pre-Hispanic residents of the southern Isthmus region of Oaxaca will be discussed in a public lecture at the University of Colorado at Boulder on Saturday, March 8.

Marcus Winter of Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History will discuss recent excavations at several sites that shed light on the Mixes, Zapotecs, Huaves and other peoples. The southern Isthmus region of Oaxaca has received relatively little attention from archaeologists until the past five years.”*

*From: http://www.colorado.edu
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

The last time I was in Oaxaca, Mexico, I was frantically trying to improvise a gas mask. The city was a war zone: anti-government protesters packing spray paint, rocks and Molotov cocktails; police in riot gear tossing canisters of black tear gas into the crowd.

My eyes stinging, I raced past the burned-out shell of a bus. Thick smoke filled the air, but there was just enough of a clearing to allow me a glimpse of El Catedral restaurant. It looked so enticing: a serene courtyard, white tablecloths and glass wine goblets with the distinctive Mexican blue rim. But the door was locked.

I kept running.

Fast-forward one year, and I’m finally inside El Catedral, and in a city that feels much different.”*

*From: http://www.dallasnews.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

Women in this native village high in the pine-clad mountains of Oaxaca rise each morning at 4 a.m. to gather firewood, grind corn, prepare the day’s food, care for the children and clean the house.

But they aren’t allowed to vote in local elections, because - the men say - they don’t do enough work.

It was here, in a village that has struggled for centuries to preserve its Zapotec traditions, that Eufrosina Cruz, 27, decided to become the first woman to run for mayor - despite the fact that women aren’t allowed to attend town assemblies, much less run for office.”*

*From: http://canadianpress.google.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

Today, significant African-Mexican populations live in Mexico’s Southern Pacific coast states Oaxaca and Guerrero and the gulf state of Veracruz.

Wilkins says although Mexicans of African descent have been “invisible-ized, blacks in Mexico have made profound contributions over time.”

Wilkins points out that Mexico refused to sign extradition treaties for many years with the United States for runaway slaves and many Mexicans and Tejanos were active in helping them escape.”*

*From: http://www.presstelegram.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

Recently a compañero of mine who was living in Oaxaca, Mexico sent me a lovely hard copy of the Spanish language journal - La Barrikada, issue number three. According to the cover, La Barrikada is a place where dreams are born and rebels blossom, and the path to liberation is through autonomy and self-determination. This is the magazine that was created from the love, rage, and desire of living alongside the barricades of Oaxaca, Mexico during the summer and fall of 2006. So far four issues have been published, and I’ve only had the chance to check out issues #3 and #4, but it seems like a pretty interesting collective project with latest issue being done largely in color.”*

*From: http://www.infoshop.org
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

Andrés Henestrosa Morales, a prolific poet, essayist and journalist whose lyrical writings helped raise the cultural profile of Mexico’s indigenous people, particularly the Zapotec Indians of southern Oaxaca state, and whose wide circle of friendships and intellectual partnerships included Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo and Langston Hughes, died Thursday at his Mexico City home after a months-long battle with pneumonia.

He was 101, the same age attained by his Zapotec mother, who was the subject of one of Henestrosa’s two best-known writings, “Retrato de mi madre” (Portrait of My Mother), published in 1940.”*

*From: http://www.latimes.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

Heber Rasgado died last week in Mexico City. Probably few El Pasoans or Juarenses knew him, but Heber was one of the finest musicians in southern Mexico. He was about 45 years old and still in his musical prime. I believe he died from health problems related to chronic smoking. Perhaps he smoked excessively to cope with the pressures of his constant performances.

Heber was a dear friend of mine. He was also a close friend of Juan Sandoval, El Paso’s great art collector and Mexico-phile. Heber performed traditional Zapotec music at a cultural event at the UTEP Centennial Museum in the early 1990s. He also played “Neguepe,” a Zapotec translation of Lennon’s Yesterday. Heber was a gifted cosmopolitan performer who interpreted folk tunes and modern styles with equal verve and polish. His soulful voice was known throughout the restaurants, cantinas and musical venues of Juchitán, Oaxaca City, and other concert sites in southern Mexico, Germany, Japan and the U.S. In July 2007 Heber headlined a musical program I organized for the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute in Mexico, a group of 25 U.S. professors learning about Mexican culture.”*