At the end of the 1970s California farm workers were the highest-paid in the U.S., with the possible exception of Hawaii’s long-unionized sugar and pineapple workers. Today people are trapped in jobs that pay the minimum wage and often less, and mostly unable to find permanent year-around work.

In 1979 the United Farm Workers negotiated a contract with Sun World, a large citrus and grape grower. The contract’s bottom wage rate was $5.25 per hour. At the time, the minimum wage was $2.90. If the same ratio existed today, with a state minimum of $10.50, farm workers would be earning the equivalent of $19.00 per hour.

Today farm workers don’t make anywhere near $19.00 an hour. In 2008 demographer Rick Mines conducted a survey of 120,000 migrant farm workers in California from indigenous communities in Mexico – Mixtecos, Triquis, Purepechas and others — counting the 45,000 children living with them, a total of 165,000 people. “One third of the workers earned above the minimum wage, one third reported earning exactly the minimum and one third reported earning below the minimum,” he found.

In other words, growers were paying an illegal wage to tens of thousands of farm workers. The case log of California Rural Legal Assistance is an extensive history of battles to help workers reclaim illegal, and even unpaid, wages. Indigenous workers are the most recent immigrants in the state’s farm labor workforce, and the poorest, but the situation isn’t drastically different for others. The median income is $13,000 for an indigenous family, the median for most farm workers is about $19,000 – more, but still far from a liveable wage.

Low wages in the fields have brutal consequences. When the grape harvest starts in the eastern Coachella Valley, the parking lots of small markets in farm worker towns like Mecca are filled with workers sleeping in their cars. For Rafael Lopez, a farm worker from San Luis, Arizona, living in his van with his grandson, “the owners should provide a place to live since they depend on us to pick their crops. They should provide living quarters, at least something more comfortable than this.”

In northern San Diego County, many strawberry pickers sleep out of doors on hillsides and in ravines. Each year the county sheriff clears out some of their encampments, but by next season workers have found others. As Romulo Muñoz Vasquez, living on a San Diego hillside, explains: “There isn’t enough money to pay rent, food, transportation and still have money left to send to Mexico. I figured any spot under a tree would do.”

Compounding the problem of low wages is the lack of work during the winter months. Workers have to save what they can while they have a job, to tide them over. In the strawberry towns of the Salinas Valley, the normal 10 percent unemployment rate doubles after the harvest ends in November. While some can collect unemployment, the estimated 53 percent who have no legal immigration status are barred from receiving benefits.

Yet people have strong community ties because of shared culture and language. Farm workers in California speak twenty-three languages, come from thirteen different Mexican states, and have rich cultures of music, dance, and food that bind their communities together. Migrant indigenous farmworkers participate in immigrant rights marches, and organize unions.

Indigenous migrants have created communities all along the northern road from Mexico to the U.S. and Canada. Migration is a complex economic and social process in which whole communities participate. Migration creates communities, which today pose challenging questions about the nature of citizenship in a globalized world. The function of these photographs, therefore, is to help break the mold that keeps us from seeing this reality.

The right to travel to seek work is a matter of survival for millions of people, and a new generation of photographers today documents the migrant-rights movements in both Mexico and the United States (with its parallels to the civil rights movement of past generations). Like many others in this movement, I use the combination of photographs and oral histories to connect words and voices to images – together they help capture a complex social reality as well as people’s ideas for changing it.

Today racism is alive and well, and economic inequality is greater now than it has been for half a century. People are fighting for their survival. And it’s happening here, not just in safely distant countries half a world away. As a union organizer, I helped people fight for their rights as immigrants and workers. I’m still doing that as a journalist and photographer. I believe documentary photographers stand on the side of social justice – we should be involved in the world and unafraid to try to change it. (Due to lack of space this article was cut).
To read the complete article, please visit: https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/the-true-conditions-of-farm-workers-today/

Canada engaged in widespread surveilance of its indigenous communities

December 17, 2017

Ecuador Sarayaku Government Apology — Sarayaku women attend a ceremony where the Ecuadorian Government offered a public apology to the Sarayaku community in Sarayaku, Ecuador, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2014. The apology from the Ecuadorian state came as part of a ruling by the Inter-American Human Rights Court which found that the government allowed for oil exploration in Sarayaku lands without their consent. (AP Photos/Dolores Ochoa)

Indigenous nations have emerged as vocal defenders of land and water, but state surveillance of these groups is disproportionate, and speaks of the broad criminalization of Indigenous peoples

by Lex Gill and Cara Zwibel

Researchers and journalists have begun to reveal the extent to which Indigenous activists and organisations in Canada are subject to surveillance by police, military, national security intelligence agencies and other government bodies. While security agencies have long looked beyond ‘traditional’ national security threats and set their sights on activists – even in the absence of evidence linking these individuals or organisations to any violent criminal activity – this reality is increasingly the subject of media and public scrutiny. As Jeffrey Monaghan and Kevin Walby have written, the language of “aboriginal and multi-issue extremists” in security discourse blurs the line between threats to national security, matters of ordinary law enforcement, and lawful, democratic advocacy.

In this piece, we summarize some of what is known about the surveillance practices employed to keep tabs on Indigenous leaders and activists, and describe their impact on Charter-protected and internationally recognised human rights and freedoms.

Indigenous nations and peoples have emerged, worldwide, as vocal defenders of land and water, organising to protect ancestral territories and ways of life. In Canada, while aboriginal and treaty rights are constitutionally recognised and affirmed, the interpretation of those rights is highly contested and a matter frequently before the country’s highest court. Indigenous activists and organisations in Canada have led popular resistance to the development of new oil and gas pipelines, hydroelectric dams, mining operations, and other extractive industries that have significant environmental impact and which frequently encroach on Indigenous territories.

This resistance – with tactics ranging from peaceful protest and strategic litigation to the establishment of creative action camps and blockades – has frequently been met with a forceful police response. Through diligent research and investigative reporting, a pattern of extensive surveillance of these activities has also emerged – implicating law enforcement, intelligence agencies and numerous other government bodies.

The pattern of surveillance against Indigenous activists and organisations… can be characterised as disproportionate and alienating.

Both freedom of expression and assembly are guaranteed under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which forms part of the Canadian constitution. The freedom from unreasonable search and seizure – which provides constitutional protection for privacy – is also guaranteed. The law recognises certain limits to these rights, provided they further a compelling government objective and are proportionate to that objective. However, the pattern of surveillance against Indigenous activists and organisations that has emerged in Canada is one that can clearly be characterised as disproportionate and alienating, with no evidence that it is necessary. Though these operations are inherently covert, Indigenous activists, researchers and human rights advocates have begun – largely through access-to-information requests – to piece together a clearer picture of the ways in which this surveillance takes place. Below, we discuss surveillance of individual leaders, surveillance of communities and movements, and how the agencies and departments that gather information use and share it.

Surveillance of Indigenous leaders

Government agencies have engaged in surveillance and information-gathering activities focused on Indigenous leaders and activists. Take for example the case of Dr. Cindy Blackstock, who is a Gitksan activist for child welfare, the Executive Director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada, and a Professor of Social Work at McGill University. Dr. Blackstock’s organisation (along with the Assembly of First Nations) had sought justice at Canada’s Human Rights Tribunal regarding the federal government’s failure to provide equal funding for services for First Nations children, youth and families living on First Nations reserves. Access to information requests revealed that between 2009 and 2011, Dr. Blackstock was subject to extensive monitoring by Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) – the government department responsible for Indigenous issues — and the Department of Justice. Officials monitored her personal and professional activities on Facebook and attended between 75 and 100 of her public speaking engagements, taking detailed notes and widely distributing reports on her activities. In 2013, Canada’s Privacy Commissioner found that by engaging in this personal monitoring – which was unrelated to her professional activities or her organisation’s case against the government – the Department of Justice and INAC had violated Dr. Blackstock’s privacy rights.

Clayton Thomas-Muller’s case provides another example. Mr. Thomas-Muller is a member of the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation and a former Idle No More organiser. The Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) National News obtained documents from criminology professor Dr. Jeffrey Monaghan demonstrating that in 2010 and 2011, information about Thomas-Muller (who was at the time a member of the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN)) had made its way into the RCMP’s Suspicious Incidents Report (SIR) despite acknowledgement that there was no specific criminal threat at issue: Thomas-Muller was simply planning a trip to the Wet’suwet’en action camp against the Northern Gateway pipeline. The report was referred for inclusion in the SIR on the basis that IEN was an ‘extremist’ group, although the basis for this characterisation, or how the group was designated as such, is not known.

Uncertainty and institutional crisis prevail in Honduras

December 17, 2017

by the El Reportero’s wire services

Uncertainty prevails in Honduras today, after the presidential candidate from the Opposition Alliance against the Dictatorship, Salvador Nasralla, repeated that he did not recognize the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE, in Spanish) as a valid arbiter.

Nasralla pointed out that the TSE is not an independent body and new illegal actions by that institution are being unveiled, so there is an institutional crisis in the country.

According to the opposition candidate, who assured that he won the November 26 election, the TSE is at the service of the president and candidate for reelection, Juan Orlando Hernandez. He accused them of orchestrating an electoral fraud against him.

In the light of the situation, Nasralla proposed that ‘an international court’ reviews all minutes without the presence of the TSE, which should provide all the materials to compare the data, he noted.

Venezuela bucks petrodollar, announces cryptocurrency backed by oil

Venezuela’s new digital currency will allow the South American nation to circumvent U.S. sanctions by taking advantage of the global demand for oil

by Adam Garrie

Months after Russia became the first country to announce the creation of a state-backed Cryptorouble, Venezuela has followed suit, announcing the creation of El Petro, a state-sanctioned cryptocurrency to be backed by Venezuela’s extensive reserves of crude oil.

Venezuela has already broken free of Dollar dependence months ago when Caracas announced it would be trading its oil using China’s Petroyuan. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro also stated that he would like to begin trade with Russia in the Rouble.

With Venezuela heavily sanctioned by the United States, El Petro looks to be another tool which Venezuela can use to continue and conduct international commerce without relying on Dollar based financial institution.

Crucially, while existing Cryptocurrencies tend to create their initial value through an arithmetic process called “mining”, leaving them heavily subject to market fluctuation, El Petro will be backed by a known commodity, oil, thus giving it a clear advantage for risk-averse investors.

While the world’s most popular cryptocurrency Bitcoin, has seen its value skyrocket against the Dollar, some remain unconvinced of its long-term prospects for stability. A currency, backed by oil would, by contrast, ostensibly fluctuate in accordance with the well established global price of Brent Crude.

Maduro announced the creation of El Petro in his weekly-televised address to the people, Sundays with Maduro. The Venezuelan President stated that the goal of El Petro is “to advance the country’s monetary sovereignty, to carry out financial transactions and to defeat the financial blockade against the country.”

He further said that El Petro,
…will allow us to innovate towards new forms of international finance for the economic and social development of the country.”

An official oil-backed cryptocurrency could work in tandem with Russia’s soon to be launched Cryptorouble, a digital currency which will ostensibly be backed by the vast resources of the Russian state.

With western governments ambivalent about how to treat existing cryptocurrencies, Russia and Venezuela have taken the lead to both normalize cryptos while backing them by well-known assets. (MintPressNews).

This day will be fun at Cafe Revolution in the Mission

December 15, 2017

by the El Reportero’s news services

Cuban bassist Marcus Lopez’s Cuartet Casique, will be presenting music from Cuba and Puerto Rico, and rumba flamenca. At Café Revolution, at 22nd and Bartlett streets, Dec. 14, from 6 to 8 p.m. Spread the word!

And the great Adrian Areas is back with his Jazz Ensemble

Adrian Aréas, the son of great Santana Band co-funder, Chepito Aréas, is back to the delight of his audience with his Adrian Areas Latin Jazz Ensemble. At the Art House Gallery & Cultural Center, 2905 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, California. Friday, Dec. 15, at the Art House Gallery & Cultural Center, 2905 Shuttuck Ave, Berkeley.

Free Salsa for the Holiday Season

We want to wish you a great Holiday Season, and invite you to come and dance and celebrate the end of 2017 and the beginning of a New Year filled with new possibilities and prosperity for all.

Friday December 15th, LaTiDo 5tet at Cascal Restaurant, 400 Castro St. Mountain View, California. Band: 9 p.m. to 12 a.m.
No Cover. All Ages. Info and reservations call 650-940-9500.

Major exhibition of artifacts from the Ancient City of Teotihuacan

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF) are pleased to premiere Teotihuacan: City of Water, City of Fire, the first major U.S. exhibition on Teotihuacan in over twenty years. The ancient metropolis of Teotihuacan is one of the largest and most important archaeological sites in the world, and the most-visited archaeological site in Mexico.

At its peak in 400 CE, Teotihuacan was the cultural, political, economic, and religious center of Mesoamerica and inhabited by a multiethnic population of more than 100,000 people. This historic exhibition will feature more than 200 artifacts and artworks from the site and is a rare opportunity to view objects drawn from major collections in Mexico, some recently excavated – many on view in the U.S. for the first time – together in one spectacular exhibition.

Now through Feb. 11, 2018, at the, at the de Young Museum, SF.

Holiday Party w/ Tortilla Soup & Hip Spanic Allstars

Do not miss the Old School New Year’s Eve Party 2018 featuring Tierra, with Tortilla Soup, Cisco Kid, and special guest Tony Lindsey, former Santana main vocalist.

On Sunday, Dec 31. Cover charge $60-$800. Doors open at 7 p.m., show starts at 8 p.m. At the Holiday Inn, San Jose – 1350 N. First Street, San Jose CA
Special Hotel rates when you ask for Tortilla Soup as 408-453-6200. Call by Tortilla Soup Music Inc 408-828-3229 for more information.

Major exhibition of artifacts from the Ancient City of Teotihuacan

December 13, 2017

Compiled by the El Reportero’s staff

Now through Feb. 11, 2018, at the, at the de Young Museum, SF.

Holiday Party w/ Tortilla Soup & Hip Spanic Allstars

Do not miss the Old School New Year’s Eve Party 2018 featuring Tierra, with Tortilla Soup, Cisco Kid, and special guest Tony Lindsey, former Santana main vocalist.

Menopause The Musical in San José

Menopause The Musical® is a groundbreaking celebration of women who are on the brink of, in the middle of, or have survived “The Change.” Now celebrating 14 years of female empowerment through hilarious musical comedy, Menopause The Musical® has evolved as a “grassroots” movement of women who deal with life adjustments after 40 by embracing each other and the road ahead.

Set in a department store, four women meet while shopping for a black lace bra at a lingerie sale. After noticing unmistakable similarities among one another, the cast jokes about their woeful hot flashes, mood swings, wrinkles, weight gain and much more. These women form a sisterhood and unique bond with the entire audience as they rejoice in celebrating that menopause is no longer “The Silent Passage.”

Inspired by a hot flash and a bottle of wine, Menopause The Musical® is a celebration of women who find themselves at any stage of “The Change.” The laughter-filled 90-minute production gets audience members out of their seats and singing along to parodies from classic pop songs of the 60s, 70s and 80s.

Menopause The Musical®, now in its sixteenth year of production, is recognized as the longest-running scripted production in Las Vegas and continues to entertain nightly at Harrah’s Las Vegas. The hilarious musical has entertained audiences across the country in more than 450 U.S. cities, nearly 300 international cities and a total of 15 countries. For more information, visit www.MenopauseTheMusical.com.

Sixteen performances January 9-21, 2018 at the Hammer Theatre Center in San Jose, California. Tickets on sale now at $72. Additional fees may apply. Greater discounts for groups of 10+ available by calling 409-924-8501.

Guillermo del Toro’s La Forma del Agua leads Golden Globe nominees

December 13, 2017

by the El Reportero’s news service

The movie La Forma del Agua (The Shape of Water) by Guillermo del Toro from Mexico, leads with seven nominations the list of Golden Globe nominees, issued today in Beverly Hills, California.

The film, included in the nomination for the Golden Globe awards to be granted on January 7th, is nominee as best dramatic film, script, director and best original music, as well as best actress for Sally Hawkins’ performance, and supporting actor and actress for Richard Jenkins and Octavia Spencer.

The film by awarded Mexican director Del Toro, is followed by ‘The post’ and ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,’ by directors Steven Spielberg and Martin McDonagh, respectively with six nominations each.

Nominees as best actors are Tom Hanks for The Post, Denzel Washington for Roman J. Israel, Esq., Daniel Day-Lewis for Phantom Thread, Gary Oldman for Darkest hour and young actor Timothee Chalamet for Call me by your name.

Nominees as best actresses are Jessica Chastain, Sally Hawkins, Frances MacDormand, Meryl Streep and Michelle Williams, for their performances in ‘Molly’s game, The shape of water,Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, The post, and All the Money in the World, in that order.

The nominees for best drama series in television are The Crown, Game of Thrones, The handmaids tale, Stranger things, and This is us, while nominees for best animated films are Coco, Baby boss, Ferdinand, Loving Vicent, and The breadwinner.

Nominees for best motion picture in foreign language are A Fantastic Woman form Chile, First They Killed My Father from Cambodia, In the Fade from Germany, Loveless from Russia and The Square from Sweden.

Nominees for comedies and musicals are The disaster artist, Get out, The greatest showman, Lady bird, I, Tonya.

Bolivia to host several international events in 2018

Bolivia will host in 2018 several international events related to ancient civilizations and cultures, migration policies, fundamental issues today in the policies of the South American country.

According to the foreign minister Fernando Huanacuni, the Andean-Amazonic country will have an intense international agenda as it will host the Second Forum of Ancient Civilizations in May, 2018, in the city of La Paz.

In that event, the participation of countries as China, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Greece, Peru and Mexico to exchange antique knowledges and face problems and challenges of those cultures in present times, he said.

Also for September it is scheduled the forum of the Global Pact on Migration, event in which several topics will be discussed such as the handling and management of the transborder waters and the diplomacy of the vital resource, both proposed by Bolivia.

Huanacuni also remarked that the South American nation will asume in March next year, the presidency pro-tempore of the South American Council on Infrastructure and Planning (Cosiplan) of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur).

Such instance has the objective to discuss policy and strategy to plan and implement integration of infrastructure in the region, in commitment with social, economic and environmental development.

Recently, the viceminister of Transport, Galo Bonifaz, informed that Cosiplan is the operative arm of Unasur and among the prioritary projects proposed by Bolivia, is the Bioceanic Railway Corridor of Integration.

The megawork, whose extension will be of 3,755 kilometers and will require an investment estimated at over 10 billion dollars.
The train already has the support of several European nations such as Germany and Switzerland, besides other South American nations as Argentina, Peru, Paraguay, Brazil and Uruguay.

Considered the 21st Century Panama Canal, the train will join the Brazilian port of Santos with Peruvian Ilo, passing through Bolivia and will benefit six of the 12 countries of the region.

Lenin won because he was bold and daring in a sea of degeneracy

December 13, 2017

by Eric King

“Take action, whatever the conditions are, because action itself can create new possibilities. Do not shy away from action or from speaking the truth.”
“Lenin believed that he had lost out on the possibility for a revolution for the next hundred years. He was wrong. Events rarely play out how we expect them too.”

Last month was the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Partially because of that fact, I have been reading a great deal about the Russian Revolution and the rise of the Bolshevik party. What I have learned has surprised me.

I am someone who studies revolutions. I thought that I understood the Russian Revolution but I had, in fact, missed two central elements of the revolutionary period: uncertainty and fear.

To begin with, during the early stages of the Russian Revolution it was uncertain as to who actually held power. The Bolsheviks seized control of many of the governmental buildings in Petrograd, including the Winter Palace, the former home of the Romanov Dynasty, but it wasn’t clear that this gave them the right or ability to rule Russia.

There were still several other institutions of power within Russia, including the Duma (or legislature), which later became the Constituent Assembly (the Bolsheviks never held a majority of seats in either of them), the workers councils (called Soviets) which the Bolsheviks were also a minority in, and the soldiers councils, where the Bolsheviks had majority support, but most of the soldiers were still hundreds of miles away fighting at the front.

Who actually had power in this chaotic political situation was determined by who was willing to assert it.

When the Bolsheviks claimed power on November 8th, 1917, they were bluffing. If any organized force had opposed them, they would have been immediately toppled. But, because the political situation in Petrograd and Russia as a whole was so disorganized, the Bolsheviks used that to their advantage and claimed power.

This seizure of power was able to succeed for two reasons. Firstly, the common enemy of the Monarchists and their White Army. Secondly, the promise, made by the Bolsheviks, of democratic participation for non-Bolshevik political parties. The Bolsheviks were able to pick up the mantle of fighting for the revolution against the White armies who wanted to restore the Romanov monarchy to power, which would topple the political dreams of everyone on the Left from the Social Liberals to the most stringent Bolsheviks.

The non-Bolshevik Left had a good sense of Russian history and they knew what happened to failed revolutionaries. They understood that if the White armies took power, it wouldn’t matter to the Whites if they had allied with the Bolsheviks or not. The entirety of the Left would be branded as traitors and be subject to execution. This is the way of Russia. If your coup or revolution fails, your entire political faction or ethnic group is subject to being brutally murdered. Plus, they thought that they would be able to take part in the new revolutionary government, but as the civil war dragged on, every non-Bolshevik party was eventually banned.

There are a number of lessons that we can learn from this understanding of the rise of Bolshevism and the Russian Revolution.

Lesson number one is that being bold, confident, and self-assured in an age of confusion and fear is a type of power in itself. We have already seen this in our time. The rise of the Alt-Right and identitarian movements has largely been due to the fact that they have been a certain and confident voice in a time of delusion and degeneracy. The Bolsheviks had a bold and inspiring ideology, and the writings and speeches of Richard Spencer come close to that level of inspiration. As the current Western form of government and society collapses, people will look for new ideas that are not only clear and confident but also inspiring. When people are living in filth and degeneracy, they don’t want someone to only remind them of how filthy and degenerate their society is. They want someone to show them a way out.

The second lesson that we can learn from the rise of Bolshevism is that events rarely meet our expectations. When the Bolshevik committee did not support his call for an immediate revolt after the Kerensky government took power, Lenin believed that he had lost out on the possibility for a revolution for the next hundred years. He was wrong. Events rarely play out how we expect them too.

Take action, whatever the conditions are, because action itself can create new possibilities. Do not shy away from action or from speaking the truth. T.S. Elliot said, “There is no such thing as a Lost Cause, because there is no such thing as a Gained Cause.” The fight for our ideas and for our people is eternal.

Let no one convince you that the future is written. There is no future outside of that which we make. All political orders fall. There has not been one yet that hasn’t. And unless you believe that degenerate bug men have cracked the code and figured out how to make an eternally lasting political order, we know at least one thing for certain: The political order that we currently live under will fall.

When it does, people will need, as the slogan says, a guiding light in a sea of degeneracy. (Russia Insider).

AMLO lays out plan for 3rd run for presidency

December 3, 2017

Morena party chief presents platform for next year’s presidential election

Compiled by Mexico News Daily

Two-time leftist presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador has presented the political platform he hopes will pave the way to make his tilt at the top job in next year’s election a case of third time lucky.

The Morena party — which he founded and leads — held its fourth annual congress in Mexico City yesterday where the repeat aspirant, better known by his initials AMLO, set out his vision for the country in a policy manifesto entitled “National Project 2018-2024.”

The minimum wage, education, earthquake reconstruction, security, corruption, the economy and personal rights and freedoms all form part of the party’s agenda, part of which is intended to dispel concerns that the party is anti-business.

The daily minimum wage will rise by 15.6 percent per year under Morena’s proposal, ensuring that it will reach 171 pesos (US $9) by the end of 2024 and maintain pace with the minimum threshold set by the social development agency Coneval for well-being.

On education, López Obrador announced a scholarship scheme which aims to ensure that 150,000 young Mexicans — that he says are currently excluded from pursuing further studies — are able to access tertiary education. Under the proposal every student would receive 29,000 pesos (US $1,542) annually and entrance examinations would become optional to avoid students being “rejected” from educational institutions.

López Obrador also proposed that new funds for earthquake reconstruction be allocated directly to victims. Further resources would also be allocated for the reconstruction of infrastructure and the repair of culturally and historically significant heritage sites, buildings and monuments, he said.

In total, he pledged 45 billion pesos (US $2.4 billion) towards the efforts.

On security, López Obrador put forward an initiative similar to one already presented by current President Enrique Peña Nieto, who proposes creating a “Mando Único” or single command for the country’s state police forces. The proposal would effectively put an end to the independence of municipal police and is designed to create more standardized and professional forces across the country.

He also said he would withdraw the military from the nation’s streets, although he stressed it would only be done when it was safe to do so.

On corruption López Obrador proposed reforming Article 19 of the constitution to enforce mandatory preventative custody for people who commit crimes related to corruption.

“To transform this country, it’s no longer enough to complain that we have a dishonest government. We have in our hands the chance to put an end to corruption,” he said.

He also sought to allay fears that have seen him compared to the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, with some critics fearing that he will implement wide reaching and radical social and economic reforms that could endanger the country’s economy.

López Obrador defended the right to private property, assuaging fears that he may seek to nationalize some assets or industries, adding that the nation’s public accounts would be managed responsibly under a government he leads.

He also said he would carry out reforms on fiscal policy without raising taxes and would reassign more than 412 billion pesos (US $21.9 billion) to invest in infrastructure projects and social programs. In total, 4.1 percent of gross domestic product would be redirected for the purpose, he said.

The candidate’s chief strategist, who also spoke at the congress, stressed that the party is not seeking to follow any precedent established by governments in other countries.

“We know very well what we want and what we don’t want. We are inspired by Mexico. Not by France, or Spain, China, the United States, Venezuela or any other country,” said Alfonso Romo, a successful businessman and agro-industrialist from Nuevo León.

López Obrador reiterated the point, attempting to dispel notions that he is anti-business.

“Let’s be clear, we’re not against business people, on the contrary, the business sector is necessary. We are against corrupt politicians, influence peddlers, things like that . . . We’re not inspired by any foreign government, not Maduro, or Donald Trump . . .” he said.

Some of the other proposals López Obrador announced yesterday were to:

• Ensure strict supervision of private companies carrying out projects with public money.

• Monitor every peso of public money online in real time.

• Abolish immunity against prosecution, known as the fuero, for the president.

• Create a national tourist police force.

• Give greater autonomy and sanction powers to the Federal Auditor’s Office (ASF).

• Reduce the size of the federal government without sacrificing quality.

• Create a special economic zone in the northern border region to stimulate economic activity.

• Build two new Pemex refineries.

• Widen broadband internet coverage to marginalized areas at accessible prices.

• Build a tourist railway on the Yucatán peninsula.

López Obrador previously contended the 2006 and 2012 presidential elections and came particularly close to victory in 2006, when he won just half a percentage point fewer votes than Felipe Calderón. He is currently the frontrunner in most polls to be Mexico’s next president.

However, neither the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) nor the left wing-right wing coalition known as the Citizens’ Front for Mexico have yet decided who their candidates for the July 1 election will be.

Source: Reforma (sp), La Razón (sp), Animal Político (sp).

Exhibition of Mechanical Sculptures returns to the Exploratorium

December 2, 2017

Compiled by the El Reportero’s staff

This year’s show features nearly 30 automata, 3 artists in residence, and workshops teaching visitors to build their own automata
On November 16, the Exploratorium’s returning winter exhibition, Curious Contraptions, will open to the public. The collection of automata features the work of eleven artists from around the world and gives visitors a chance to interact firsthand with charming and often hilarious mechanical objects brought to life by intricate arrangements of handmade cams, cranks, and other simple mechanisms.

“I’m so excited about this year’s show,” says Nicole Minor, who curates the seasonal Curious Contraptions exhibition.

The Exploratorium is open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Every Thursday, the museum reopens from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. for adults only. For more about how to get here, visit exploratorium.edu/directions. For tickets and pricing information, visit exploratorium.edu/tickets.

Annual fundraising event honoring excellence in the art of film

SFFILM has announced the date and venue for SFFILM Awards Night (formerly the Film Society Awards Night), its annual fund-raising celebration that pays tribute to filmmaking achievement. The historic 60th anniversary edition of this glamorous event and awards presentation will take place on Tuesday night December 5 at the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts, 39 Mesa Street, Suite 110, The Presidio, San Francisco.

JUNTOS Collective joins the Global #GivingTuesday Movement

JUNTOS Collective will participate in it’s second annual #GivingTuesday, hosting Voices: An Evening of Untold Stories. This event, open to the general public, will honor JUNTOS supporters, and invite new faces to hear stories and share dances from past program participants. The event will include drinks and small bites, performance shorts, guest speakers and unique raffle prizes.

JUNTOS Collective, a non-profit organization enabling free contemporary dance workshops and performances in underserved communities of Guatemala, Mexico and Nicaragua, joined #GivingTuesday last year, inspired by the generosity, collaboration and philanthropy that the movement encouraged. The organization was able to successfully raise the funds to sponsor 3 trips abroad during this global day of giving.

One of the many stories supported by this fundraiser, involves the journey of Megan Stricker, a JUNTOS Alumni who had the opportunity to live and teach dance in Santa Maria Tlahuitoltepec, Oaxaca this past summer. Megan taught dance to a community of Mixe people for four weeks, one of Mexico’s oldest indigenous cultures.

On Dec. 2 at The Golden Stateroom. Tickets to Voices: An Evening of Untold Stories can be purchased in advance at http://bit.ly/JUNTOSvoices.

They are things in life

November 30, 2017

They are things in life

By Marvin Ramírez
First person

When we have them, we do not think, and we think when they left.

I just happened to find this picture of a past of my life. The lady is Lisa Gutiérrez.

This photo was taken on September 10, 2008 during the homage at the San Francisco Stadium to Puerto Rican Orlando Cepeda, the star of the San Francisco Giants baseball, one of the most significant baseball events in the history of baseball. SF.

I rarely share anecdotes of my life, but occasionally I do when I feel the nostalgia that I get when I find a photo of the past.

That day I invited her to this event, as I used to do when they invited me to cover an event of importance. We saw pay tribute to the greats of baseball. I invited her after the ceremony to the restaurant in front of the stadium, and that’s when I asked her to marry me. She was about to leave for several years to study at the University of Santa Barbara, California, to obtain her Ph.D. in clinical psychology.

When I met her during an event at the Centro del Pueblo in the Mission, I saw her pass quickly through a corridor, and it caught my attention. I looked for a way to follow her without her seeing me … and I saw her talking to other people. I then approached her.

Our eyes met, and I told her (all in English):

“Hi, and who are you?”
She extended her hand and told me with similar enthusiasm:
“Hello, I’m Lisa Gutierrez, and you”?
“I’m Marvin Ramírez, nice to meet you,” I said, “what are you doing here?”
She told me that she was the Director of a children and youth program.
And I told him that I was the editor of El Reportero, a bilingual newspaper. And so began a conversation that lasted several years.

In an interview I did on her that day about her job as a program director, she said her goal was to get her PhD. in psychology. I thought that she had very big dreams, and I did not say any more about it again.

It was a great pride to go out with her, but even so I did not show special interest to have a deep relationship, because I recognize that I was also and I have been shy when someone really likes me – and that was always my problem: I never had the courage to express my inner feelings when I liked a woman. And then they married, and they invited me to their weddings. And I went, pretending that it did not hurt, and yes, it hurt me and it angered me to have lost her. But they filled me with illusions pretending that Iwas one who was getting married – some day.

Time passed. We continued dating. She participated every year in the parade of SF Carnival elegantly dressed as a samba dancer, which revealed her unparalleled figure. – and I took pictures of her. A woman of great beauty and talent – and prestige within the San Francisco community. But I still never declared my love to her. I would have wished that she had guided me to it.

Later I learned that she had a Chinese boyfriend, but even so she never told me no when I invited her to go out.

That day in the stadium restaurant, she told me that she was getting married … She left me speechless and told her no, don’t do it, marry me instead…She said: “I can not, Marvin,” and she showed me the ring of commitment … I looked at her, I saw her face and I begged her to give me the opportunity. I even reminded her that she was going to break with the lineage of our Hispanic race if she married a Chinese man. But it did not work. She told me: “I know Marvin, but I’ve already committed myself and I can not do that …”

Time flew.

“I have to go,” she said, and I took her home.

Lisa was always a woman of firm character, and she was not going to break her commitment.

She is now Director of Clinical Programs. She is responsible for administering a multidisciplinary team in the treatment of children / youth, referred by pediatricians at the Bayview Child Health Center of SF who exhibit signs and symptoms of toxic stress related to exposure to the adversity of early life.

A child was born from her marriage.

Wow! This photo did bring me many memories!

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