Category Archives: immigration

Performance Afterglow y High School Dragas

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Over the last month two things have been sucking my time in wonderful ways (in addition to the usual mami’hood/work biznuss).

I had four amazing opportunities/gifts in the form of different type of performances. I will recount each of them in different posts pero I have to give a shout out to Charlie Vazquez y his Hispanic Panic magic, El Museo del Barrio y Make/shift recLAmations. Each and every single one of these events was a reawakening and reminder of the power of poetry, performance and the community that can by built/grow from that space.

I am also in the middle of assisting my 13 year old, la MapucheRican, in the high school application process, which in NYC is a trip and a half that is stressing us the fuck out, exhausting us, eating up our weekends but also bringing us together. Some peeps have asked that I write about the process a little more in depth given how the media and other “sources of info” seem to be looking alot more at the education system now and given how many other parents will have to navigate the locura.

I also have video, audio and pictures to share….so let’s go.

Abrazos y besos

Boricua en la Luna : Why Citizenship and Identity Don’t Always Intersect

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Reposted from VivirLatino

Apparently Citizenship Day came and went. The entire I pondered my citizenship: how I was born into it, how my parents were born into it, and how my abuelos, when they were toddlers, woke up with it one morning. My U.S. citizenship, with all it’s rights, privileges, and associations is held somewhat heavily along with my passport and other “proofs” that I “belong” here. When I level criticisms against the U.S. and it’s policies, I am told to go back where I came from. Leave. As a Puerto Rican U.S. Citizen living within the 50 states, I can vote. If I were to reside in Puerto Rico, I could fight wars in the name of the United States but suddenly would have no say in who the Commander in Chief of the U.S. armed forces should be. I have considered going Juan Mari Bras style: moving to Puerto Rico and renouncing my U.S. Citizenship, after all, to quote the poeta Mariposa, Yo no naci en Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico nacio en mi. Pero when people ask “what are you”, I stumble a bit. Sometimes I say Nuyorican, placing myself firmly in the city I love while holding on to who my family is. Sometimes I say straight up, Rican. Sometimes I say Latina. Pero I never, ever say “American”, at least not the way people want me to say it.
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Netroots Nation : Invisibility and Identity in Progressive Spaces Part 2 (Immigration)

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Si Se Puede 2.0 Panel

Si Se Puede 2.0 Panel



Here’s a little more context so some of what went down at Netroots Nation and my feelings about in relation to larger blogging/community issues.

I can’t believe that even after writing this, there is still stuff that is churning inside my gut. I just need to find the way to process it.

La Mala is an Immigration Scholar and is Going to Netroots Nation to Prove It

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scholarship image
National blogger conferences are always funny things to me.
I’ve been blogging for many years and not to give myself too many props, pero I was one of the earlier radical women of color blogging on personal issues as political issues and then branched out.
I have been fortunate enough to link my blogging to my history of activism and even to my poetic artistry.
And yet, for multiple reasons, I am not funded and most of what I do is a hustle inside of a hustle out of love for justice.
This means that national conferences that talk about how to talk about the issues and strategies and probably most importantly,
are places to network and share info, even conference held by orgs claiming to rep my interests, are out of my reach. I’m a single mami who makes justice centered media in various forms.

Pero this week I will be attending Netroots Nation this week gracias to a scholarship from America’s Voice that is bringing me and other pro-migrant bloggers to Pittsburgh.

I’m grateful and looking forward to this opportunity to share ideas, experiences and strategies.

PS: The scholarship covers my travel and my hotel. If you would like to donate to feed the Rican blogger click below. Gracias!





The Luis Ramirez Murder: A Logical Step in the Process of Establishing a Subhuman Class

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Cross-Posted at VL

banner165newSeems live every org and their mother want to take the recent injustice in the Luis Ramirez murder case and use it for toned down cries for justice separated from the multiple places that breed the kind of hate and disrespect that led to the crossroads we as a community find ourselves at now. This is why The Sanctuary (of which I am a proud member) hoy draws a line in the sand.

The process of defining a subhuman class and institutionalizing discrimination and violence against that group is not new. How quickly and conveniently some of us allow our collective memory to cover its own tracks. Parasite, diseased, leeching, dangerous, over-breeding, vermin. These terms and this imagery have been deployed for ages, on various groups of people, on various pieces of land, in the service of various endeavors; and always to bring about the same ends. To demonize and dehumanize a group of people so that other people come to understand that the social compact with the demonized group is broken; that discrimination and violence against the dehumanized class now carries no moral consequence. That is the meaning of this latest ruling by an all-white jury in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. Racial murder of a Mexican carries the same consequence as walking up to a white person and punching them in the belly: simple assault.

Are you down to make the commitment to radical cambio for our lives? Then read the entire post here.

Luis Ramirez and Every Mother’s Sons and Daughters : Seeking Justice by All Means Necessary

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Cross-Posted from VivirLatino

Writing this post left me shaking and crying. I have been writing and working on these issues for almost 15 years and it is angering, sad and scary the way it keeps happening over and over again.

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in 1991, in the rapidly changing immigrant community of Corona, Queens, NYC 19 year old son of Dominican immigrants, Manny Mayi Jr. was beaten to death.

Last year, Marcelo Lucero was killed.

At the start of the new year Wilter Sanchez was nearly killed.

In February of this year Jose Sucuzhañay, an Ecuadorian immigrant was beaten to death.

Speaking Spanish can get you beaten.

And most recently, Luis Ramirez was beaten and killed and those accused got away with murder.

I could go through recent and not so recent history and clearly see a pattern and practice of hate that has been growing. A pattern and practice of racism, nativism, fueled by the media and government, eaten up by the mainstream public.

People in Shenandoah celebrated, went out into the streets and rejoiced after an all-white jury found Brandon J. Piekarsky, 17, and Derrick M. Donchak, 19, guilty of lesser charges and acquitted them of criminal homicide and aggravated assault.

And then people have the nerve to ask why are more Latinos not more active in the fight for immigration change?

This is not just about laws, this about lives.

So what do we as a community do?

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May Day Immigrant Rally and March 2009, NYC

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On Friday, after taking la Mapu to her ortho appointment (she doesn’t need a brace- woo hoo), the chicas and I headed to Union Square to participate in the rally and march for immigrants.

There were less people than last year. Quizas it was the rain or swine flu that kept some away. Pero the energy was strong and powerful.

Here are some images I made a little slide show cosita of the dia featuring Kai and mis chicas.

Enjoy!