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From the textmex obsessed imagination of William A. Nericcio

One of the hardest chapters to write in Tex[t]-Mex was the one on Lupe Vélez (you may need to be logged into a gmail account to have the Lupe-link work)–there, late in the game, I try, a tad unsuccessfully, I fear, to fast-forward my study into the present, with lurid, 21st-century meditations on the ecstatic sanctity of movie and television Latina celebrities; in that chapter, Salma Hayek, Penelope Cruz, and Eva Longoria make cameo appearances, with Salma doing yeoman’s work womaning selections from a complex Premiere magazine interview, an exchange wherein Hayek eloquently and diligently articulates the limbolandia of being a Latina sexpot and only being a Latina sexpot. Which brings me to this clip from The David Letterman show on CBS wherein we gather the difficulty of her conundrum/situation (watch also for her anecdote that blends Catholicism with tales of the miraculous, a combo that echoes Santa Lupe Velez’s situation as described in Tex[t]-Mex):

I love this photo of Salma–cigar smoking, strong, dynamic, and fierce, with eyes that confront the would-be watching subject with a post-Mulvey gaze that might paralyze. More food for thought as we consume our Tex[t]-Mex cuisine.

A page from the chapter on Lupe Velez in Tex[t]-Mex appears below–note the remarkable design/typography work by Lisa Tremaine:

This post first appeared in the textmex galleryblog.

William Anthony Nericcio, aka “Memo,” is the Director of San Diego State University’s ever-evolving MALAS program (The Master of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences)–a dynamic, interdisciplinary, cultural studies graduate program located near the U.S./Mexico border. Nericcio also serves on the faculties of the Chicana/o Studies Department, the Center for Latin American Studies and the Department of English and Comparative Literature at SDSU.

By Adriana Villavicencio, Being Latino

Latinas: Are you good at finding the best deals? Do you wait until you can buy something on sale? Do you research promotions and coupons online to save money? If you answered yes, turns out you’re part of a trend.

Based on a nationally representative survey, a recent reportshowed that Hispanic women are more likely to engage in savvy shopping practices than other demographic groups. Some of these included actively using mobile devices and conducting online searches to save money. The report called them early adopters of the future of shopping, turning to the internet and technological devices in addition to in person retail.

This isn’t new to many of us who saw our mothers and grandmothers stretch their centavos to support their families. But, consider some of these numbers: The survey found that 75 percent of Hispanic women are using coupons to get the lowest sale price, that 54 percent only buy items that are on sale, and that 63 percent travel further to shop at a store where they can save money.

And in 2012, women are strategically using technology to save a buck as well. Nearly 60 percent of Hispanic women use apps to search for the lowest price, 53 percent search online before going shopping, and 53 percent are using their mobile devices in the store to find electronic coupons, sales, and discount codes.

When compared to other ethnic demographic groups – Caucasian and African American women – Hispanic women ranked higher on these shopping behaviors by about 10 percentage points.

These patterns could have significant implications for how advertisers target Latino shoppers, particularly women, and the role of technology in the future of retail.

This article first appeared in Being Latino.

Adriana Villavicencio has contributed to several publications including the Daily News and Space.com, and is a managing editor for the Journal of Equity in Education.  To learn more about Adriana’s education consulting company, please visit www.theradicalideas.com.

[Photo by LotusHead]

By Griselda Nevárez, Voxxi

In 1994, America Ferrera was 9 years old living in Los Angeles when California voters overwhelmingly passed Proposition 187. The law, which was later ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge, prohibited undocumented immigrants from accessing basic public benefits and social services.

That year, Ferrera’s mother took her aside before heading out to school one day and told her, “You are an American, and don’t let anyone scare you. You belong here.”

“This moment has never left me,” the 28-year-old actress said Thursday in Washington.

That moment is what motivated her to join the non-partisan organization Voto Latino in launching the America4America campaign, which aims to mobilize and encourage all Americans, especially young Latinos, to vote in November.

“Nearly 20 years later, in 2012, on the eve of this important election, we’re announcing this campaign because that moment of intimidation and fear that I experienced is still too real for so many Americans, and I can’t sit on the sidelines and watch it happen,” she told a room packed with elected officials, Latino leaders and activists.

Ferrera, who gained popularity playing the leading role in the series “Ugly Betty,” said the same intimidation and fear she felt in 1994 is now felt among immigrants living in states that are passing tough immigration laws and voter suppression laws.

Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said he has seen first-hand some of the nation’s toughest immigration laws pass. From laws that aim to give police the authority to question someone’s immigration status to laws that eliminate ethnic studies in public schools.

He said he hopes such laws will inspire more Latinos to head to the polls in November.

“We also have a wonderful opportunity in Arizona and across the country to change the tone,” he said. “Our community could … make substantial change in our political process.”

It is no secret that the Latino population has been rapidly increasing in the last decade and is expected to grow by 63 percent in the next 18 years.

Currently, there are 50.5 million Latinos in the United States. Census data indicates that 50,000 of them are turning 18 every month, which means more Latinos are becoming eligible to vote.

“People are overlooking some of these numbers,” said Rep. Charlie González (D-Texas), chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Though Latinos are the nation’s fastest growing population, they are registered to vote at rates far lower than those of other ethnicities.

González noted that only 43 percent of Latinos are registered to vote, compared to 78 percent of non-Hispanic whites, 67 percent of African Americans and 53 percent of Asian Americans.

He said Latinos have potential to increase its political power, but “that will not happen if we don’t do more to mobilize, educate and engage voters.”

Maria Teresa Kumar, co-founder and president of Voto Latino, said America4America hopes to do just that. She said the campaign’s website, America4America.com, will engage in conversations with young voters on various issues and motivate them to vote through videos, social media sites and forums.

It also intends to unite various groups who are already working to increase voter turnout among Latinos. These groups include: Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, a union representing 2 million Latino workers; the New Organizing Institute, which trains political organizers; and the League of Women Voters of the United States, a nonpartisan voter engagement organization.

Kumar said the campaign is a collaborative effort to “go back into our communities, knock on those doors, mobilize our individual friends, family and have those conversations that we need to not only get them excited to go to the polls but to remind politicians that they work for us.”

Kumar’s Voto Latino is among the hundreds of organizations that will participate in the National Voter Registration Day on September 25, a day dedicated to registering thousands of voters across the country.

This article first apeared in Voxxi.

Griselda Nevárez is a reporter with Hispanic Link News Service in Washington D.C.

By Carlos Sanchez, Voxxi

Although she lived with fear, this 42-year old mother took the final step in an abusive relationship by calling police. She had arrived in the U.S. ten years ago from her native Colombia and it’s been more than three years since she has last seen the man who broke several bones in her face during a heated argument.

She declined to give her name for her safety.

As the years progressed, fights with her boyfriend escalated from verbal to physical — and it took an emotional toll on her because she was in the United States without immigration papers. She increasingly relied on her abusive partner — a U.S. citizen who could have helped her gain legal permanent status but didn’t — and wasn’t sure she could survive on her own.

“There were people who told me, ‘Don’t worry,’ that domestic violence isn’t silent. Here, nothing happens to women for [reporting] domestic violence…on the contrary they protect you, you won’t get hurt. So, after hearing that, I said I don’t have anything to fear,”’ she told VOXXI.

And she learned about another option — an 18-year-old federal law called the Violence Against Women Act, which allowed her to apply for a visa and set her on the path to residency, so long as she cooperated with police.

But now her life is in limbo because of partisan Congressional deadlock over renewing the law that helped her.

Politicizing the Violence Against Women Act

Under the provisions of the Violence Against Women Act, applicants can obtain what is called a U Visa, which provides an incentive for undocumented women to report their abuse: a path to citizenship.

Congress is currently debating whether to renew this act, which first passed in 1994, and has been renewed with bipartisan support every six years since.

The law was originally drafted by Vice President Joe Biden when he was in Congress. It not only provides undocumented women with permanent residency after showing evidence of abuse, but it also provides funds for protecting them and prosecuting abusers.

A House version of VAWA, introduced by Rep. Sandy Adams (R-FL.), was passed last week. Critics contend it rolls back protections for undocumented women, particularly with the U Visa, because it denies victims legal residency thus eliminating the incentive.

Adams’ version also has a provision that informs the Department of Homeland Security whether the victim is seeking immigration relief. Critics claim that provision provides the abuser with information about the victim’s case when they’re interviewed by DHS. That could perpetuate the violence.

But supporters say that without the restrictions, there’s a potential for fraud, even though no evidence of widespread fraud has been cited yet.

A Democratic version of the bill was passed in the Senate last month; it upholds the U Visa requirements and raises the number of U visas to 5,000 more per year.

“It is disappointing that the Senate has instead chosen to score political points on the backs of victims by inserting provisions that pit one group against another,” said Adams on the House floor last week.

Now with both versions in Congress, the debate has stalemated in a House-Senate conference committee.

Maria Jose Fletcher, a Miami-based attorney who deals with domestic violence and trafficking cases, is rallying against the House version. She says that fraudulent claims are a misconception.

“Based on my experience and the experience of my colleagues and the hundreds of cases that we have filed throughout the years, we know how the checks and balances are already in place during the process,” said Fletcher. “It’s not easy to get these cases approved. A third of the applications that we file get denied.”

Among immigrant women married or formerly married to abusive U.S. citizens or legal residents, 72.3 percent never filed immigration papers. Among those who did file, in most cases, the process was delayed for an average of almost four years because of the abuser, according to a 2000 study cited by the International Journal of Criminology.

In 1996, Congress created special confidentiality protections for undocumented crime victims to try to prevent stalking or unnecessarily allowing immigration enforcement officials from having the victim removed from the United States.

The National Immigrant Women’s Advocacy Project presented seven cases in which the organization claims Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had used information and collaborated with perpetrators in an attempt to deport domestic abuse victims between 2003 and 2006.

In Denver, for example, an abuser received a victim’s file from an ICE agent. He called the victim and began to harass her, acknowledging that he knew she had filed for a U visa because he obtained the document from ICE. The case opened an internal investigation, but up to this date, ICE has not said what happened, according to the document.

ICE spokesperson Nicole Navas said these cases occurred before the confidentiality provisions were enacted in 2006 by Congress’ re-authorization of the law.

Ira Mehlmen, media director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, doesn’t think the House provision discourages undocumented women from reporting their abusers. He said that informing people that they are suspects is standard procedure in law enforcement cases.

“You don’t need any sort of provision or special visas to foster that kind of cooperation; this is what police deal with every single day,” Mehlmen said. “In the past people did feel comfortable coming forward and providing information without any expectation that they were going to get some kind of immigration reward.”

He explained that, under the current law, the victim would only be likely to help law enforcement, while the House version makes it the standard for victims to provide more help.

The mother who left her partner didn’t think twice when she called the police the day of her attack. Yet, she was concerned about her situation given her legal status. Before she made the call, a friend told her that she couldn’t stay silent any longer.

She told police what happened and he was arrested. While she was comforted at a domestic violence shelter that she would not get deported, she also knew he posted bail the next day and was freed from jail, she said.

“Obviously, I’m better. I have tranquility with my son. I live fine. I don’t have to cry to ask for food to anyone. My son now has toys, clothes that he didn’t get from his father. He wouldn’t give us anything, now we’re fine. We live in peace,” she said.

“Without the U Visa, it would be like cutting our wings, practically, because it’s the only hope we have of realizing our lives in this country,” she said. “It would be big hit…could you imagine confronting face-to-–face your own aggressor in a court? We have all to lose, it’s not just.”

Carlos Sanchez is National Political Editor of Voxxi. He’s a 30-year newspaper industry veteran, most recently Executive Editor of the Waco Tribune-Herald, State Editor for the Austin American-Statesman and before that he was a reporter for the Fort Worth Star Telegram and the Washington Post.

This article first appeared in Voxxi.

[Photo by ophelia]

By Marc Morial, Other Words

As graduation season swings into high gear, a new economic crisis confronts thousands of this year’s high school and college grads — crushing college student loan debt.

America’s student loan debt recently reached the $1-trillion mark. That’s more than our total credit card and other consumer debt.

Ninety-four percent of the students who get a college degree take out these loans, up from 45 percent in 1993, according to The New York Times. The average college grad is saddled with more than $20,000 in debt by the time she dons her cap and gown. This is a tremendous burden for young graduates, many of whom are having trouble landing that first job.

Faced with the prospect of even more debt, many delay plans to attend graduate school. And for those lucky enough to find work, high monthly student loan bills may mean working two jobs or moving back in with mom and dad. While everyone agrees that a college education is the pathway to greater success in America, student loan debt is leaving too many graduates stalled at the starting gate.

“Higher education can’t be a luxury,” says President Barack Obama. “It is an economic imperative that every family should be able to afford.”

Recognizing the relationship between education and economic growth, Obama has made boosting America’s lagging college graduation rates one of his top priorities. It’s no secret that rising tuition costs are a major cause of stagnant or declining graduation rates, especially in communities of color. Currently, Obama is urging Congress to renew a 2007 bill that lowered the federal student loan interest rate from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent. If Congress fails to act, the current rate will double by July 1, increasing the average student debt burden by $1,000 over the life of the loan.

The irony of this debate is that both sides in Congress support an extension of the 3.4-percent rate. But like earlier fights over raising the debt ceiling and extending the payroll tax cut, lawmakers are arguing over how to pay for it. Senate Democrats would cover the $6-billion cost of the bill by closing some tax loopholes on high earners. Republicans continue to balk at any perceived tax hikes on the richest Americans and have made a counter-proposal to cut funding for a preventive health initiative that is part of Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

On the very day that student loan debt reached the $1-trillion mark, Senate Republicans blocked a vote to extend the 3.4-percent interest rate on student loans for another year. It reminded me of an old African proverb: “When elephants fight, the grass suffers.” Thousands of low-income students and their families are suffering while the two sides in Congress engage in ideological warfare.

College graduation is as important to our national security as a strong military. But when it comes to funding, education seems to always take a back seat to war. How much would graduation rates for African Americans and Latinos rise if they did not have to overcome the added economic barrier of high student loan debt?

By Martha Saenz

Dear Martha,

I’m 16 years old and 10 months ago I moved in with my 20 year old boyfriend. My parents are very angry for what I did, but they’ve accepted it because I first went to Las Vegas with him without their permission. They called the police and they detained him. My mom paid money to get him out of jail and now I’m on probation.

I write to you because I don’t know what to do. My mom is afraid because he threatened to take me with him to Mexico if he is deported, so she no longer speaks to me. Now I have doubts. I came to live with him to a very poor place and I don’t have the things I used to have in my house. I want to go back but I think everyone will make fun of me and will say that he left me. What should I do?

- I don’t know what to do

Dear I don’t know what to do,

I think you’re a very young person, but you’ve known the hard life of people who commit crimes. The first thing you need to do is to think how long you plan to fight with your parents until you come to accept their help.

They want the best for you and have demonstrated that fact by spending money for you to stay in the United States.

You need to regain your self esteem and decide what is best for you. What people think of you should not matter, only your future and what you’re doing with your life are important.

Talk to your parents and tell them the truth; tell them you want to go home. I’m sure they’ll take you back, as they have done things that show you they care and don’t want to lose you.

You are very young, you have your whole life ahead of you and can do many good things for your self.

Martha Sáenz is a life coach and hyponotherapist who lives in Los Angeles. If you have a question for Martha email her at marthalifecoach@gmail.com. Follow her on Twitter at @marthalifecoach.

[Photo by jerin]

By Susna G. Baumann, Voxxi

In a male-dominated occupation, Maestra Sonia Marie De Léon de Vega not only has achieved distinction and admiration as a female symphony conductor and music director, but also for combining her two passions, her love for music and for her Latino community.

Based in Los Angeles, Mexican-American De León de Vega formed the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in 1992. It is the only orchestra in the country with the specific mission to attract and educate Latinos into classical music. Santa Cecilia Orchestra includes 12 Latino musicians in its 80-piece ensemble.

In 1998, she also launched “Discovering Music,” a two-year music education program that introduces classical music and orchestra instruments to Latino children in underserved districts.

The program is offered in 18 elementary schools in Los Angeles and has reached over 40,000 students since its inception. “Discovering Music,” has been so well received by children and educators that it has expanded to include a free-lesson program for elementary students to learn play the violin and a mentorship program in middle schools.

“Music is a beautiful tool to open communication with children in Los Angeles, and by putting instruments in their hands we take them away from the streets,” she said.

De Léon de Vega’s idea is to defeat stereotypes among the Latino community that only educated people enjoy classical music. Through their children, she engages parents to come to her concerts and get acquainted with classical music.

“The problem is not lack of interest but lack of access,” she said. “Usually these concerts are very expensive for the general public. We handle our concerts with reasonably priced subscriptions, donations and sponsorships.”

By means of her programs and concerts, De Léon de Vega hopes to open paths of communication, artistic expression and community understanding.

 “Our mission is to help bridge ethnic, social and cultural gaps to create stronger and intertwined communities, not only bringing music to Latinos, but also bringing Latino music to all audiences.”

With that purpose, she has included in Santa Cecilia Orchestra’s repertoire “Latinos Clásicos,” a selection of best classical Latino composers of our time, including Argentine musicians Astor Piazzolla and Alberto Ginastera, Mexican composers Carlos Chávez Ramírez and Arturo Márquez, and Cuban Yalil Guerra. “These composers and musicians have incorporated native and folkloric music or genres to their compositions so that Latino audiences can recognize passages of their beloved authors and popular music,” she said.

The mission of Santa Cecilia Orchestra and the Discovering Music program has captivated the attention of audiences as well as the sponsorship of several foundations and corporations. On the national level they are sponsored by the Annenberg Foundation, the Weingart Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts; and on a local level, by the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and the Department of Cultural Affairs of the City of Los Angeles, among others. “I’m grateful to County Supervisor Gloria Molina for her continuous support to our programs and activities,” De León de Vega said.

Born in San Antonio, Texas, she is the daughter of actress and producer Sonia De León and singer and guitarist Reynaldo Sanchez. A precocious child who started playing piano at 5 years old, De Léon de Vega was soon enchanted by classical music. She pursued her music career and specialized in conducting studies with Dr. David Buck, trained at the Herbert Blomstedt International Institute for Instrumental Conductors and with Otto Werner Mueller, Maurice Abravanel, Pierre Boulez, Andre Previn, Zubin Metha and Ricardo Muti.

She has received numerous distinctions and awards including being the first woman in history to conduct a symphony orchestra during a Papal Mass at the Vatican. She was named as one of “Mujeres Destacadas Award in Art & Culture,” in 2011 by La Opinión, “Inspirational Leader of the Year Award,” in 2010 by the National Latina Business Women Association, and was among the “100 Most Influential Hispanics in the U.S.,” in 2005 by Hispanic Business Magazine.

“I found obstacles being a woman, being Latina, and being dark-skinned in this profession. For many years and in many orchestras, it was not common to find Latinos as musicians or conductors in the United States. However, you find them in Latin American countries. I have offered myself to conduct for free and even then I was not accepted. There are still barriers, which makes our mission even more important, to help our children become classical music lovers.”

Susana G. Baumann writes for Voxxi.

[Photo by sorchestra]

By Kristian Ramos, Latinovations

My tia received an I-Pad last Christmas which, of course, led to my abuela and 7 year old prima fighting over the toy. My abuela has never turned on a desktop computer and has a fuzzy understanding of what the internet actually is, but when she gets going on Fruit Ninja the expression of bliss on her face must be seen to be believed. My prima, on the other hand, learned to type on a touch screen, is far better at Angry Birds then I ever will be, and interacts with the internet more on her mobile device then she ever will via a desktop computer. This experience is a microcosm of the changes facing the country and telecom industry in response to the profound shifts in technology and demography.

Technology adoption rates among Hispanics are, for the first time, not only keeping pace with the general population, but the annual Nielson Report on Hispanic Consumers reveals that they are actually leading the growth in mobile media adoption. 60 percent of Hispanic households own at least one video and Internet enabled cell phone compared with 43 percent of general households. Hispanics are 28 percent more likely to own a Smartphone than non-Hispanic Whites. Hispanics outpace all ethnic groups in mobile data service consumption including music and picture downloads. The growing Hispanic population, along with its relative youth and expanding buying-power, will have significant implications for the telecom industry.

The U.S. Hispanic Buying power amounted to $1.1 billion in 2011 this number is only going to grow as this population is expected to grow 167 percent over the next 50 years. More importantly, though, this population is incredibly young. 23 percent of children under 17 in the country are Hispanic. The facts are clear: Hispanics will be huge consumers of mobile media technologies in the near future and their share of the market will only increase with time.

While Hispanics have generally lagged behind the general population in home broadband usage, their current consumption of mobile media is actually falling in line with overall internet consumption trends. The national average for home-based broadband consumption is 76 percent, while Hispanic usage is only 62 percent. Yet overall home broadband usage is in decline, with penetration and desktop sales both falling. Many analysts note that mobile media devices are supplementing desktops or replacing them all together.

These surging mobile adoption rates converge with rising Hispanic Per-Capita income, making US Hispanics now wealthier than any of the highly coveted BRIC Countries. With that much disposable income and the fact that Hispanics utilize mobile media usage more than any other group, producers of content must start paying closer attention. Compared to the general population, Hispanics spend 68 percent more time watching video on the Internet and 20 percent more time watching video on their mobile phones.

By next Christmas I will have finally gotten rid of my underperforming Blackberry, which means that for five minutes I will be at the same level of technological proficiency as my prima. For the holiday she will get the next generation version of whatever I get, leading to much teasing. As for abuela, there is sure to be good news as well. My tia already has her order in for the Ipad 3 which will give my Abuela all the time in the world to play Fruit Ninja on her brand new/old first gen Ipad. As goes the Ramos household, so goes the country. Who would have thought?

Kristian Ramos is a Policy Advisor at NDN who covers immigration, the border and Hispanic Demographics. Before working at NDN, Kristian worked in the United States Senate for Majority Leader Harry Reid in the Senate Democratic Communications Center. He is proud to say that he grew up in a South West Border City, and reports that it is not a war zone.

[Photo By Phil Roeder]

By Paloma Corredor, Voxxi

Being Latina is cool and trendy. Just look at Jennifer Lopez, Penélope Cruz and María Elena Salinas. Latinas are creative, powerful and strong, right?

Not exactly, if we pay attention to the stereotypes that divide Latinas into two categories. On one side we have the sexy, frivolous, striking type, such as Sofia Vergara in Modern Family.

Then, we have the Latina maid. Actress Eva Longoria is producing a series called “Devious Maids,” about four Latina employees that serve rich families in Beverly Hills. Critical voices on the Internet say that these kinds of roles are typecasting Latinas as domestic servants. According to Longoria, that role is a reality. So, why not listen to their stories?

Well, we could ask Lupe Ontiveros, who´s played the role of the maid … over 150 times! She confesses she´d love to play a judge or a lesbian, but Hollywood doesn´t let her do it.

This reminds me that Spanish actors often complain that in the U.S. they only get cast as “Latinos.” Which is funny because, although this sounds politically incorrect, Spaniards living in Spain don´t feel “Latino.”

In the last 15 or 20 years, millions of Latin Americans have migrated to Spain in search of work and quality of life. In 2010, 30% of the nearly 5 million immigrants came from South America, especially Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. Now, many are leaving Spain because of the disastrous economy.

You would think that, by now, Spaniards and Latin Americans in Spain would have become friends, right? Well, they haven’t.

Spaniards and Latinos don´t mix. There is a lot of prejudice and racism in Spain, where Latinos are often referred to as “sudacas” or, even more offensively, “panchitos.” We listen to different music, watch different movies, eat different things. Yes, Latino restaurants are everywhere and there are almost entirely Latino neighborhoods, but they are “for them,” not “for us.”

We appreciate that they clean our houses (Oops, here comes the stereotype again!) and take care of our elders. But that´s it. In my opinion, the prejudice is mutual (Spain is that arrogant nation that devastated their cultures centuries ago) and neither party takes the trouble to get to know the other.

I speak from experience, because Jenny, my sister-in-law, is Peruvian. Therefore, my two nieces, whom I adore, have Latin roots. Jenny´s mother, sisters and cousins also live in Madrid. Her family and mine get along, but we live in different worlds. Our cultures, social background and even food are not the same.

When I was living in London, they considered me “Latina.”

British lump together paella and dancing salsa. My U.K. friends were amazed when I revealed that in Spain salsa is not a popular dance. Salsa is for South Americans! “But it’s the same thing, right? You both speak Spanish!” they would retort.

No. It´s not the same, just as a farmer from Wisconsin and a professor from Oxford are not the same.

In any case, I think it’s a shame that prejudice on both sides has prevented us from joining forces.

Since I began writing for Voxxi I´ve discovered some great Latinas. Neither sex bombs nor maids. Strong, inspiring, entrepreneurs, beautiful women with boundless energy. For instance, Mariela Dabbah, author of  ‘Poder de Mujer’, who encourages us to join her Red Shoes movement. Or Sharon Koenig, who wrote Los ciclos del alma to help us live our true purpose.

For me, getting to know these fabulous Latinas has been a revelation. I still find it difficult to define myself as “Latina” because my background is European, although I speak Spanish. When I share a post on Facebook which I wrote for VOXXI, my Spanish friends skip it because they aren´t used to reading in English. And most of my English-speaking friends are Londoners who are not interested in Latino issues. So, where do I stand in terms of defining myself one way or another?

I have discovered that there is something much more powerful than labels: the power of women. Latina, Hispanic, Spanish… Who cares, as long as we’re fabulous?

Paloma Corredor writes for Voxxi, you may follow Paloma her on Twitter

[Photo by pixelperu]

By Tony Castro, Voxxi

When Eva Longoria was unveiled as one of co-chairs of President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign, the reaction among the national press corps was the usual rolling of the eyes and chuckles that always accompany celebrities called into service as political surrogates.

“People go, ‘Who cares about your opinion, you’re just pretty,”’ says the “Desperate Housewives” star who perhaps is known more as one of Hollywood’s beautiful people. “And it’s like, ‘Why can’t I have an intellectual argument about immigration or health care reform just because I’m pretty?”’

But Longoria has now suddenly begun to rival Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as the president’s leading Latino spokesperson — using her farewell tour for the “Desperate Housewives” finale as well as her platform pitching the new Pepsi Next and her perfume line to also sell Obama.

According to people who know the 37-year-old Corpus Christi, Texas native, becoming a national presidential campaign representative is a role she has taken to heart as seriously as any part that has made her a star.

To accomplish that, Longoria did what many politicians do — she hired experts who coach and advise celebrities specifically on how to sound like a public policy specialist. Since last year, she has been working with Trevor and Maggie Nelson, whose Santa Monica-based Global Philanthropy Group developed Latino issues talking points for the Mexican-American actress.

Early in the campaign, Longoria took to Twitter to challenge Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich on his characterization of low-income Latino households, among them that children in poor neighborhoods “have nobody around them who works.”

“@newtgingrich you clearly know little about the Latina community,” Longoria tweeted. “Latina entrepreneurs start businesses at 6 times the national average.”

New Yorker writer John Colapinto says those are the same points repeated, “almost word for word” that he overheard a Global Philanthropy Group staff analyst work up for an unnamed Latina spokeswoman the company never identified, though Longoria is a client of the company.

On ABC’s “Good Morning America” last week, Longoria repeated what she has previously revealed — that she has gone back to school to get a master’s degree in Chicano Studies. That school is Cal State Northridge, where she has done work online and met with some professors privately.

“Eva Longoria is smart and a beautiful actress but her interest in promoting Latinos and believing President Obama is the best person who can best achieve the goals of a Latino achievement is no act,” said a Cal State professor familiar with Longoria who was not authorized to speak publicly about the school’s students.

“I really wanted a better, more authentic understanding of what my community has gone through so I can help create change,” Longoria said in an interview last year when she first confirmed that she was pursuing a graduate degree in Chicano Studies.

Last week, explaining further, she told Good Morning America’s special guest host Katie Couric: “I find that I needed for myself to be literate in the topics I’m talking about. If you’re only superficially commenting on the topics you’re talking about, it’s dangerous. So I don’t want to contribute to that dialog.”

As talk of the Latino vote in the election has heated up, Longoria has also taken issue with likely GOP nominee Mitt Romney’s claim that his primary victory in Puerto Rico means he would get the Latino vote in the fall.

“Of all the candidates,” she told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell in an interview on women’s rights, “Mitt Romney is probably the one on the wrong side of every issue pertaining to Latinos: education, the economy, health-care access.”

But Longoria has also been smart in acknowledging the Obama administration’s disappointing progress on immigration reform.

“He’s done what he can do without having his hands tied by Congress,” she says.

“(I’m) doing my civic engagement by mobilizing voters and making sure they’re educated on the issues and operating from the belief that if you want to change something in this country you have the power to do that as a citizen. So those are probably the things I’m most proud of.”

Los Angeles-based writer Tony Castro is the author of the critically-acclaimed “Chicano Power: The Emergence of Mexican America” (E. P. Dutton, 1974) and the best-selling “Mickey Mantle: America’s Prodigal Son” (Brassey’s, 2002). His rite of passage memoir, “The Prince of South Waco: Images and Illusions of a Youth,” will be published in 2013.

This article was first published in Voxxi.

[Photo By Imagine Cup]

Friday, April 20, 2012

Obama camp launches Latino push, hits Romney: With both sides eying one of the fastest-growing blocs in the American electorate, President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign on Wednesday announced an aggressive outreach to Latino voters, pushing Democrats’ reform proposals and casting Mitt Romney as “extreme” on immigration issues.

Mitt Romney: Not Winning Latino Vote “Spells Doom for Us”: Predicting that immigration would become a much larger issue in the fall campaign, Romney told his audience, “We have to get Hispanic voters to vote for our party,” warning that recent polling showing Hispanics breaking in huge percentages for President Obama “spells doom for us.”

Mitt Romney May Not Get Boost Among Hispanic Voters With Latino Vice President Pick: Picking a Latino running mate would not help Mitt Romney much with Hispanic voters, according to a poll released on Thursday.

First Thoughts: Romney’s own hot-mic moment: ”The Department of Education: I will either consolidate with another agency, or perhaps make it a heck of a lot smaller. I’m not going to get rid of it entirely.”

Corporations Donate to Groups on Both Sides of Voter-ID: Companies giving at least $2 million to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation also backed an organization championing voter identification laws that caucus members say “suppress” minorities’ right to vote.

The Real Face of Stay-At-Home Mothers: Those Who Have No Other Financial Option: A study in 2010 conducted by the Census, looking at its own data on stay-at-home mothers, showed that as compared to the make-up in 1979, today’s moms in the home are younger, less educated, and much more likely to be Hispanic – and in particular, foreign born.

Elderly Americans struggle with economic insecurity: Most elderly retired Hispanic, African American and Asians living in the United States have difficulty covering basic daily expenses and have no economic security, new research shows.

Where Latinos Go to College: Latinos are seeking out for-profit colleges, because state schools aren’t a viable option for many of them anymore. The 25 percent completion rate isn’t actually all that low for proprietary colleges, but it’s probably too low for Latinos in general.

Undocumented Latina makes Time 100 list: Dulce Matuz has become a public face of undocumented students. She organizes protests and has been arrested. CNN.com profiled Matuz last year as part of its coverage leading up to the documentary “Don’t Fail Me: Education In America.”

Mexico’s Popocatepetl Volcano Continues to Spew Rock and Ash: National Disaster Prevention Center says in a report Wednesday that that some glowing rock fragments rolled about a quarter mile (half kilometer) down the slopes.

By Victor Landa

It turns out pro-immigrant trumps anti-abortion in Nebraska after all. This has been a topsy-turvy issue for a few weeks so I’ll give you the need-to-know version of the details, NewsTaco has reported on the story:

The Nebraska legislature passed a law, LB599,  that restored funding for prenatal care for the unborn children of undocumented immigrants. That didn’t sit well with Nebraska’s Governor, Republican Dave Heineman, who took out his veto pen and nullified the law, saying that spending public funds on the undocumented was money ill spent.  And although the law had to do with health care and prenatal attention, there were obvious underlying issues at hand – immigration being the most obvious, abortion being more inferred.  The link to abortion has to do with two things: a recourse or option for women who lack support for the care of their unborn child; and the debate about the beginning of life – does life begin at the moment of conception?

The drawn-out drama over the issue came as a consequence of Nebraska’s rule where three votes were needed to pass the law. When the three hurdles were cleared, the law made it’s way to the Governor’s desk where it hit the veto wall. As it stood, the unborn children of undocumented mothers were denied prenatal care because the Governor of Nebraska didn’t consider them citizens, yet – and that was a large enough loophole for him to slip through and pitch a tent.

The ideological problem for Heineman, which he chose to ignore, was that  his anti-abortionist stance infers a belief that life begins at the moment of conception, so that the unborn are already persons, and if they’re persons they must have citizenship, presumably U.S. citizenship, regardless of the citizenship of the mother. So under that logic there’s no reason to deny them care.

The Nebraska legislature tossed aside all such thought and speculation, saw a need for prenatal care in their state and voted to over-ride the Governor’s veto. And that’s where it stands.

A group of Republican activists who call themselves Cafe Con Leche Republicans have been very active on this issue, petitioning and rallying in favor of the law. In defending the law they quoted the Nebraska Republican Party platform:

We believe that the concept of equal rights and equal responsibilities under the law is basic to a free society. There should be no discrimination against anyone because he/she is physically or mentally challenged, or because of race, religion, color, creed, ethnicity, gender, age, marital status or national origin.

The last word from the Cafe Con Leche Republicans is that they’re in the process of evaluating endorsements for candidates and that LB599 will weigh heavily in their decisions.

[Photo by Achim Raschka]

Once upon a time, I believed what my first grade teacher told me.  I thought I was the descendant of a pilgrim. I took her word for it. I thought I had more in common with the guys with the belt buckle hats rather than the guys with with feather in theirs. They even received the lion’s share of the lines during the Thanksgiving play.

My teacher at the time told us that pilgrims were people from another country who came to this land in order to make a better life for themselves and their families. There I was in my Le Tigre shirt and Payless shoes, looking at a globe wondering what ocean my mom and dad crossed with their turkeys and belt buckle hats. My basic knowledge of geography told me they crossed the Rio Grande, but that was only because my dad told me that he crossed across a big river with his shoes around his neck – and the Mississippi River did not seem right.

I remember bringing my cornucopia project home, and my mom looking at it like it needed to be put out of its misery. She did not know whether to make heads or tails out of it. She was further puzzled by my assumptions that she used to make cornucopias when she was my age at her presumed pilgrim school. I was so ignorant about her experience as a “pilgrim”, I actually thought she grew up baking pumpkin pies with Native Americans.

My mom then told me the story of how she first came to the United States. There was a Niña, and a Pinta, as well as a Maria, but she was no Santa – and instead of a Mayflower, they had a Dodge Challenger. My mom and her friend met with a coyote who was supposed to get them across the line and into the currently occupied Mexican Metropolis known as Los Angeles. Unfortunately, my mother’s weakest suit was always sarcasm. So when she asked the coyote how they would get past immigration officials, he said they would be traveling by plane – my mother failed to read said sarcasm in his travel plans. Thinking she would be flying, she wanted her first flight to be memorable. She bought a whole new outfit: white pants and white high heels to match. Needless to say it was memorable; she ruined her new outfit as she fought off the seedy underbelly of nature.

When she finally got to this side of America she didn’t like anything. She didn’t like the food or the fact that everyone was free to do nothing. Back in Michoacán, she was free to roam the town to her heart’s content, but here she had to be indoors before the sun came down or risk becoming a victim. She wanted nothing more than to find a thousand dollar bill so she could return to Michoacán. She didn’t care too much for San Diego which was her twisted Plymouth Rock – denoting that she had made it. She was finally on the winning side and the only side that mattered. At the same time, she could not turn back. She already had a job waiting for her as a caretaker for an elderly lady battling cancer. She would end up staying in that job until the lady final succumbed to her illness, and then she returned back home disillusioned with the fact that she never found that fabled thousand dollar bill.  However that does not mean she never stopped looking.

[Photo by Bird Brian]

By  Hector Luis Alamo, Being Latino

In the time it takes you to read this article, alien parents will be torn away from their children by armed men (possibly in black). These aliens – some of whom may not even speak the language and therefore cannot defend themselves – will be shuffled away as they watch tears cascade down sweet, adolescent faces whose innocence will be lost forever.

This isn’t happening in a galaxy far, far away, several light-years from the unseeing eye of the American public. This heart-wrenching scene takes place right here at home – not only your home, but the children’s home as well.

The children are American citizens, native sons and daughters of the soil, as American as Lady Liberty and George Washington (actually, I believe the statue’s French and the founding hero was born a Brit). Their parents, however, were born somewhere else. And because their parents are here illegally – for whatever reason – they’ll have to live without their mothers and fathers.

On March 26, ICE director John Morton was “pleased to present” his report that showed his agency had deported nearly 47,000 “aliens who claimed to have at least 1 [U.S. citizen] child” during only the first half of 2011 (apparently, Mr. Morton thinks the 47,000 aren’t even Earthlings).

The report – released to the public in April – reveals that over 1500 parents were deported in Chicago, 1800 in San Antonio, nearly 1500 in Los Angeles, and a stunning 2200 in Atlanta. In case you think it was all tears and shouting in the courtroom, don’t worry. ICE notes that these numbers include immigrant parents who voluntarily left the country – and their kids.

According to the director, the first half of 2011 was an overall success, as “ICE was able to meet all the requirements set forth” by Congress in 2010.

But the parents aren’t from a distant star. They’re human beings. They came for a shot at the fabled American Dream. They left countries, family members, friends, favorite places to eat and relax. They saved up large sums of money, usually over months or years, just for the off-chance that they might be able to arrange a trip to the States. People told them that jobs were to be found anywhere they settled, that there were too many jobs, and that if they worked hard enough, they could provide themselves and their families with everything they would ever need.

Only the cowardly wouldn’t take that chance.

Fine. Let’s say the American government doesn’t owe anything to the undocumented. It at least owes something to its own citizens. I used to think that being a citizen of this great-ish country came with special rights and privileges, but members of our society have no rights whatsoever if their parents can be shipped away at will.

So finally, after decades of denial and explaining away sightings, the U.S. government admits aliens do exist. In fact, officials warn that there are aliens living within our own families!

And while I’m sure we’re anxious to see the new Men in Black movie next month, the government won’t be laughing. They’re taking the alien threat very serious.

[Image Courtesy ICE]