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As DACA’s end is announced, advocacy groups stand in defense of Dreamers

As DACA’s end is announced, advocacy groups stand in defense of Dreamers

by Dylan Gascon

New America Media held a national press call on Thursday Sept. 7 addressing not only the future of the Dreamers, but a study on Dreamers’ contribution to the economy, as well as a personal story from a DACA recipient. This is in response to Tuesday’s announcement from attorney general Jeff Sessions, who stated the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) would come to an end. DACA was created in 2012 by president Obama, and has protected 800,000 people from deportation by giving work benefits that can be renewed every two years.

Many who use these benefits have been renewing for their second or third times. But this may all drastically change in six months, when the program is set to expire.

Currently anyone who is already approved by DACA is protected. However, the deadline to renew benefits ends on Oct. 5, giving those recipients a very slim window to ensure their legal status. No new applicants will be processed, except for those who applied on Sept 5, with it costing $495 for a renewal.

None of the current cases will be revoked or terminated, but will naturally expire. DACA benefits may be lost if the individual in question is guilty of certain crimes, including fraud. Any claims for advanced parole – which allow them to travel abroad and come back – have been eliminated, including any that are currently pending. Anyone currently approved will still receive benefits.

Since the DACA announcement, National Immigration Law Center (NILC) has filed a letter stating that the government provided no “reasoned explanation” to rescind the DACA policy, which is in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act. The letter also claims the president violated the equal protection component of the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment.

Fifteen states as well as the District of Columbia have also filed lawsuits against the federal government.

Many Dreamers were brought into this country when they were very young, and are now in their 20s or 30s. One such Dreamer is 27-year- old Luis, a student in San Francisco, who gave his personal story at the New America Media press call. On hearing the attorney general’s announcement, Luis said “I don’t think anyone was emotionally prepared, I was surprised myself when just tears started gushing out my eyes on the bus.”

Luis came to this country when he was 6 months old, and doesn’t know any other home. He grew up in San Diego and has since gone to San Francisco to attend college and has since found employment in a good paying job.

But things haven’t been so great for Luis. When in his early teens, Luis’s brother was deported back to Mexico. Two years after moving to college at 17, his father was also deported.

By the end of 2015 his mother would be taken back to the other side of the border, leaving Luis on his own. Now nine months away from graduation, he is uncertain of what the future may bring.

Luis isn’t alone in being a productive Dreamer in society. According to a survey conducted by Tom Wong, a political science associate professor at UC San Diego, of those surveyed, 94 percent report being in school because of DACA, with 72 percent receiving a bachelor’s degreeor higher. Many of those who receive DACA benefits are also currently employed. Sixty-nine percent of those surveyed have reported they have moved on to better employment, with 56 percent reporting better working conditions. Eight percent of those surveyed have also started their own business, which is a higher percentage than the American public. Achievements made by Dreamers are not only being noticed on a national level, but an international one as well.

Seventy two percent of the top Fortune 500 companies, including JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Apple are also known to hire Dreamers into their workforce. These Dreams have given back to the economy in sales and property taxes as 65 percent of Dreamers have purchased their first car and over 10 percent purchasing their first home. The survey was conducted on 3,063 respondents, with 92 percent reporting being employed with a variance of 1 percent.

Despite these statistics, attorney general Jeff Sessions position remains unmoved.

All is not lost however, as staff attorney Allison Davenport at the Immigration Legal Resource Center (ILRC) has stated that there are some benefits that people may not be aware of.

This includes legal consultation as well as family petitions from DACA recipients who are American citizens.

There are also options for people who are in or have family in the military or who have been honorably discharged. U visas are also available to those who have suffered serious crimes and who have helped law enforcement. But until congress decides what to do, everyone is left in limbo, wondering what tomorrow will bring.

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Billions were diverted with shell companies

Investigation reveals massive fraud by federal agencies

Compiled by Mexico News Daily

Eleven federal agencies diverted over 3.4 billion pesos (US $192 million) of government funds through shell and illegal companies between 2013 and 2014 in a massive fraud that totaled more than 7.6 billion pesos (US $426 million), according to a joint investigation by a digital newspaper and an anti-graft group.

Published under the title, The Master Fraud, the investigation by Animal Político and Mexicanos Contra la Corrupción y la Impunidad (Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity) found that illegal contracts worth more than 7.6 billion pesos were issued during the period and the final destination of over 3.4 billion pesos of the amount is unknown, although government officials pockets’ are the prime suspects.

More than 50 officials are implicated in the swindle.

Contracts were issued to 186 companies but only 58 of them actually exist or had been established in accordance with the law, the investigation found, the remainder appearing to be shell companies or with irregularities that included not having an address, never having been registered or simply not existing at all.

In effect, 128 companies that either didn’t exist or didn’t have the capacity to undertake the work they were supposedly contracted for received public funds. One example was a company that supposedly sold shoes receiving a multi-million-peso contract to redesign the social security customer service system for government workers.
Another element of the fraud was the use of universities for channeling the funds.

The investigation charges that rather than giving the money directly to the phantom companies it was siphoned through eightpublic universities that were allegedly contracted to provide services. Under Mexican law, universities are exempt from the competitive tendering process usually required for government contracts.

However, while in theory it is legal to contract universities to provide services, in the cases investigated they didn’t actually do anything apart from passing the money on after taking their cut or “commission.”

The universities involved in the scam included the Autonomous University of México state, the Autonomous University of the state of Morelos and five universities in Tabasco. Together they skimmed just over 1 billion pesos in commissions from the 73 agreements they signed with federal agencies.

The remainder of the more than 7.6 billion pesos were used to contract services at inflated prices.

The Secretariat of Social Development (Sedesol), the development bank Banobras and state oil company Pemex were the worst offenders.

The CEO of Pemex at the time, Emilio Lozoya, is already embroiled in a corruption scandal involving the Brazilian firm Odebrecht. The former head of Banobras, Alfredo del Mazo, is set to take over as governor of the state of México after winning election in June.

Sedesol — headed at the time by current Agrarian Development Secretary Rosario Robles — has come under particular scrutiny because the diverted funds would otherwise have been used for social programs to help the country’s most impoverished and vulnerable people.

Other agencies implicated include the Secretariat of Communications and Transport (SCT), the Secretariat of Public Education (SEP) and the Secretariat of Economy (SE), among others.

The extensive investigation led the two organizations to six states where the shell companies were supposedly based. To establish their allegations, they made over 500 requests for information, reviewed thousands of documents, conducted more than 100 interviews and visited more than 100 addresses of supposed companies and shareholders.

Their findings are supported by the Federal Auditor’s Office (ASF), which in fact has warned since 2013 that government agencies were breaking the law by contracting universities for services they were not capable of providing.

Chief Auditor Juan Manuel Portal said that, “It’s a clear act of corruption” and “It’s a mechanism not just for the diversion of [funds] but for the disappearance of public resources.”

He said that the heads of the guilty agencies are responsible even if they didn’t sign off on the agreements that allowed the diversion of funds to occur. Portal urged agency heads to not allow other officials to sign off on such large quantities of public money as they are the ones who are ultimately responsible for it.

He said penalties must be imposed on the agencies responsible and they must comply with established requirements.   He also said there was no justification for the complicity of the universities and that authorities must also take legal action against them.

The ASF has already filed 15 allegations with the federal Attorney General’s office (PGR) related to the diversion of funds but federal agencies have continued with the scheme.

Animal Político and MCCI claim that the fraud amount could actually be much higher. The federal government has signed 2,061 agreements totaling over 31.6 billion pesos with universities since 2010 when Felipe Calderón, who introduced the scheme, was president.

Authorities say they are investigating the fraud claims.

Source: Animal Político (sp)

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Aid for storm victims from Mexico en route to Texas

Shipment may arrive Wednesday although US has not accepted the offer

by the El Reportero’s wire services

Mexican aid for victims of Hurricane Harvey will arrive in Texas this week although the United States government has not made an official announcement to accept it.

Mexican authorities said assistance could reach the Lone Star State as early as Wednesday after the first shipment travels by land through Nuevo Laredo on the Tamaulipas-Texas border.

“This morning we gave the green light to start concentrating the goods that will be sent to the United States,” undersecretary for North American relations Carlos Manuel Sada told CNN.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott stated publicly that he welcomes Mexico’s help and is working to coordinate the efforts.

Twenty-five trailers filled with basic goods including rice, beans, coffee and chocolate as well as 300 beds, nine electrical generators, water treatment equipment, three mobile kitchens and radio and satellite equipment are being prepared to be sent along with more personnel.

Mexican Red Cross volunteers and firefighters were deployed to the state in the aftermath of the disaster.

“We are very pleased to be able to support our brothers in need on the other side of the border,” Sada said.

The federal government first offered the aid to the U.S. in a statement August 27 that also addressed President Donald Trump’s tweets from the same day about Mexico in relation to NAFTA renegotiations and who will pay for his border wall.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson thanked his Mexican counterpart, Luis Videgaray, for the offer but he did not publicly accept it.

Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Secretariat said Mexico offered the aid “as good neighbors should always do in difficult times.”

Sada said “if it were the other way around I think they would help us, too.”

However, government officials told CNN that the U.S. government had not made any offer of assistance as the cleanup begins of the trail of destruction left by tropical storm Lidia in Baja California Sur. Lidia caused widespread damage and was responsible for at least seven deaths.

It’s not the first time that Mexico has sent aid and assistance to its northern neighbor after a natural disaster.

Mexican armed forces contributed to recovery efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina that devastated New Orleans, Louisiana, in August 2005. That deployment was the first time Mexican troops had set foot in the U.S. on active duty since the Mexican-American war in 1846.


Hurricane Irma forces evacuation of 5,247 in Dominican Republic

The number of people evacuated in the Dominican Republic by Hurricane Irma is increasing to 5,247, when the rains and winds associated with the phenomenon continue, said the Emergency Operations Center (COE).

Of that number of affected, 2,721 are in official shelters and 2,526 in homes of relatives and friends, according to the relief authorities.

The last report of that entity pointed out that 12 localities in San Pedro de Macorís, El Seibo and La Altagracia, were cut off by the flooding of rivers or sea penetrations, especially in the north of the nation and 1,106 houses were affected so far.

They maintain the red alert (maximum) in 17 provinces, 12 in yellow (intermediate) and three in green (information phase).

The director of the COE, Juan Manuel Méndez, called on the population not to prepare and said that the worst has not happened yet, referring to the rains that will leave the hurricane that can exceed 200 millimeters.

The US National Hurricane Center said Hurricane Irma was the most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean, just north of the Caribbean Sea and east of the Gulf of Mexico.

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The San Francisco Latino Film Festival 2017 is here

Compiled by the El Reportero’s staff

This year SFLFF presents the film, Ruta Madre at Opening Night Film. A great film with love and music.

After his first love breaks his heart, a young American singer reluctantly leaves his home in San Diego, California and embarks on an epic road trip through Baja with his uncle in order to reconnect with his Mexican roots and find himself.

At the Opening Night Party, gather with other film lovers and filmmakers for an evening of music and culture. Music by Latin Soul Brothers (Wonway Posibul & Joe Quixx) and live painting by Danny Ayala.

Friday, Sept. 15 at 7 p.m. – 8:37 p.m., at the Alamo Drafthouse San Francisco, 2550 Mission St, San Francisco. Get tickets at: sfiff.gala-engine.com.

Two local Latina actresses create a new production company

Two enterprising women are pleased to invite you to the grand opening of their company, “THE HOUSE Entertainment”. The premier of the short films of ANADFE Productions, Vanessa (black cinema), and the Price of Life (color) will be presented, where both entrepreneur and actresses act.

In the Peruvian restaurant Furia Chalaca, at 310 Broadway, Oakland California, on Sept. 15, at 6 p.m. Free for the Red Carpet and Strip Cut with Luz Cabrera and Karla Carvajal.
Then comes the super reventon, enlivening with a night of Cumbia Sonidera, two master DJs console at 9 p.m. $10 cover. Bottle wine raffle and a tequila with your ticket entrance.

Art Exhibition MONTARlaBestia (“Riding the Beast”) at UC Berkeley

MONTARlaBestia (“Riding the Beast”), art exhibition is on display at the Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) at the University of California, Berkeley, 2334 Bowditch St., in Berkeley, CA. The exhibition is open to the public through September 29, Tuesdays through Fridays from 1 p.m.- 5 p.m., MONTARlaBestia/Riding the Beast will be part of a larger CLAS program in Fall 2017 focusing on important themes involving the U.S. and Mexico.  

 Presented by the Colectivo de Artistas Contra la Discriminación (Artist Collective Against Discrimination), MONTARlaBestia/Riding the Beast is a moving, visually stunning exhibition that uses art and poetry to describe “La Bestia” – a train that carries up to 500,000 Central American migrants each year on a dangerous journey across Mexico towards the hope of a new life in the U.S. Walls and deportations, often presented in a context of xenophobic rhetoric, have focused national and international attention on the southern border of the U.S. CLAS feels this is a critical moment to engage in dialogue with people from both sides of the border.
 MONTARlaBestia/Riding the Beast is underwritten by Andrew M. Kluger, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Mexican Museum, in collaboration with the museum, Richard A. Levy, M.D., the Mexican Consulate General of San Francisco, and the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation.

Artists explore Italy

 Beryl Landau and Anthony Holdsworth have been traveling and painting in Italy for thirty years.

This exhibition features watercolors and small oil paintings created onsite from Lake Como and Venice in the north to Palermo and Catania in the south.
It also includes larger works created in their studios after their return from these journeys.  

From Sept. 14 – Oct. 13, at Istituto Italiano di Cultura

601 Van Ness Avenue, Opera Plaza. Opening Reception, Thurs., Sept.14, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Video Screening and Talk  on Thursday, Sept. 28, 6:30
The artists will screen a 38 minute video about their last journey from Sicily to Emilia-Romagna. Afterwards they will talk with the audience.

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Boxing Schedule – The sports of Gentlemen

SEPTEMBER 8, 2017
2300 Arena, Philadelphia, PA, USA (CSN)
Avery Sparrow vs. Joey Laviolette
Isaiah Wise vs. Fred Jenkins Jr
Elijah Vines vs. Roque Zapata
SEPTEMBER 9, 2017
StubHub, Carson, CA, USA (HBO)
Wisaksil Wangek vs. Roman Gonzalez
Juan Francisco Estrada vs. Carlos Cuadras
Naoya Inoue vs. Antonio Nieves
TBA, USA (Bounce)
“Premier Boxing Champions”
SEPTEMBER 13, 2017
EDION Arena Osaka, Osaka, Japan
Yukinori Oguni vs. Ryosuke Iwasa
Kosei Tanaka vs. Rangsan Chayanram
SEPTEMBER 15, 2017
TBA (ESPN Deportes)
“Golden Boy Boxing”
SEPTEMBER 16, 2017
T-Mobile, Las Vegas, NV, USA (HBO PPV / BoxNation)
Gennady Golovkin vs. Saul Alvarez
Diego De La Hoya vs. Randy Caballero

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The San Francisco Latino Film Festival 2017 is here

Compiled by the El Reportero’s staff

This year SFLFF presents the film, Ruta Madre at Opening Night Film. A great film with love and music.

After his first love breaks his heart, a young American singer reluctantly leaves his home in San Diego, California and embarks on an epic road trip through Baja with his uncle in order to reconnect with his Mexican roots and find himself.

At the Opening Night Party, gather with other film lovers and filmmakers for an evening of music and culture. Music by Latin Soul Brothers (Wonway Posibul & Joe Quixx) and live painting by Danny Ayala.

Friday, Sept. 15 at 7 p.m. – 8:37 p.m., at the Alamo Drafthouse San Francisco, 2550 Mission St, San Francisco. Get tickets at: sfiff.gala-engine.com.

Two local actresses create a new production company

Two enterprising women are pleased to invite you to the grand opening of their company, “THE HOUSE Entertainment”. The premier of the short films of ANADFE Productions, Vanessa (black cinema), and the Price of Life (color) will be presented, where both entrepreneur and actresses act.

In the Peruvian restaurant Furia Chalaca, at 310 Broadway, Oakland California, at 6 p.m. Free for the Red Carpet and Strip Cut with Luz Cabrera and Karla Carvajal.

Then comes the super reventon, enlivening with a night of Cumbia Sonidera, two master DJs console at 9 p.m. $10 cover. Bottle wine raffle and a tequila with your ticket entrance.

Art Exhibition MONTARlaBestia (“Riding the Beast”) at UC Berkeley

MONTARlaBestia (“Riding the Beast”), art exhibition is on display at the Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) at the University of California, Berkeley, 2334 Bowditch St., in Berkeley, CA. The exhibition is open to the public through September 29, Tuesdays through Fridays from 1 p.m.- 5 p.m., MONTARlaBestia/Riding the Beast will be part of a larger CLAS program in Fall 2017 focusing on important themes involving the U.S. and Mexico.  

 Presented by the Colectivo de Artistas Contra la Discriminación (Artist Collective Against Discrimination), MONTARlaBestia/Riding the Beast is a moving, visually stunning exhibition that uses art and poetry to describe “La Bestia” – a train that carries up to 500,000 Central American migrants each year on a dangerous journey across Mexico towards the hope of a new life in the U.S. Walls and deportations, often presented in a context of xenophobic rhetoric, have focused national and international attention on the southern border of the U.S. CLAS feels this is a critical moment to engage in dialogue with people from both sides of the border.

MONTARlaBestia/Riding the Beast is underwritten by Andrew M. Kluger, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Mexican Museum, in collaboration with the museum, Richard A. Levy, M.D., the Mexican Consulate General of San Francisco, and the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation.

Artists explore Italy

 Beryl Landau and Anthony Holdsworth have been traveling and painting in Italy for thirty years.

This exhibition features watercolors and small oil paintings created onsite from Lake Como and Venice in the north to Palermo and Catania in the south.
It also includes larger works created in their studios after their return from these journeys.  

From Sept. 14 – Oct. 13, at Istituto Italiano di Cultura

601 Van Ness Avenue, Opera Plaza. Opening Reception, Thurs., Sept.14, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Video Screening and Talk  on Thursday, Sept. 28, 6:30
The artists will screen a 38 minute video about their last journey from Sicily to Emilia-Romagna. Afterwards they will talk with the audience.

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Nicaraguan writer Ulises Juárez Polanco, a jewel of letters, died

by the news services of El Reportero

Writer Ulises Juárez Polanco, considered among the “25 best-kept secrets in Latin America”, died on Aug. 28 of this year for unknown causes, his relatives said.
Juárez, 33, and author of four story collections, was found dead in his home in Managua.

Friends and family said he apparently died of heart problems but this was not confirmed by the authorities of the Institute of Forensic Medicine.

In 2011 the Guadalajara International Book Fair named him among the 25 best-kept secrets of Latin America, thanks to his project of drawing a route of letters through 25 voices and languages ​​to decipher the current situation of the region.

Author of Happiness left us scars, Juárez had been awarded a scholarship in Mexico by the Program of Artistic Residencies for Creators of Ibero-America and Haiti in Mexico.

He also received the Valle-Inclán Scholarship from the Art, Education and Culture program for a stay at the Royal Spanish Academy in Rome.

Juárez founded and directed the Central American Cultural Magazine Carátula, the literary magazine of the Nicaraguan Writers Center, El Hilo Azul, and the editorial Leteo Ediciones.

Writers, actors and other artistic world guilds of Hispano-America expressed their grief at Juárez’s death. (Efe)

Mexico wants to exclude cultural industries from NAFTA renegotiation

The cinematographic and artistic Mexican community demanded the government to exclude the cultural industries from the renegotiation of the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
This decision was already adopted by Canada in the first round of the treaty, held in Washington at the beginning of this month.

Famous Mexican creators joined the proposal made by the Alliance of Cinema, Televisiom and Radio Artists of Canada, who say the cultural exemption must be maintained and strengthened. The document was signed by over 470 artists.

The demand, presented to the secretaries of Culture, Economy and Foreign Relations, requires that in the discussion the obligations assumed by Mexico in diverse forums, like those of protection and promotion of cultural expressions of the United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization (Unesco).

Mexican actress Dolores Heredia, when reading the notification, invited to withdraw from the negotiation table of NAFTA all the aspects related to the cultural, cinematographic and audiovisual of Mexico.

She also urged to distinguish between the two systems relating to Author Copyrights, like the humanist contrary to the Anglosaxon conception of seeing the work as simple merchandise.

She also asked that a designated Commission of Authors and Interpreters be present as permanent adviser of the Mexican negotiating group to safeguard the concerned cultural interests.

Cuban singer-songwriter Concha Valdes Miranda dies

The renowned Cuban composer and interpreter, Concha Valdes Miranda, died at Mercy Hospital in Miami this morning after suffering a cardiac arrest at the age of 89.

She was considered the most daring composer of the contemporary bolero. Her most successful song was The One Who Loved You the Most” in Dyango’s voice which was nominated for a Grammy and took first place in the United States. In addition, she is the author of numerous songs that were popular in the voices of performers such as Toña la Negra, Celia Cruz, Lucía Méndez, Blanca Rosa Gil, Olga Guillot, Imelda Miller, Sandro, Tito Rodríguez, Felipe Pirela, Los Panchos, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Santos Colón, Alberto Vázquez, María Marta Serra Lima, Sophy, Floria Márquez, Elena Burke, Ismael Miranda, Tito Nieves, Tito Puente, John Secada, Sergio Vargas, José Alberto “El Canario”, Johnny Ventura, Cheo Feliciano, Lucho Gatica, Moncho and Dyango among others.

Many of her compositions have been used as subjects in Spain and Mexico’s cinema. She was also exalted to the Hall of Fame of Latin Composers, presided by musicians and producers Rudy Pérez and Desmond Child in 2013. During the gala, many performers honored the artistic career of Concha Valdés Miranda, singing some of her most successful songs.

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Art exhibition Montar la Bestia at U.C. Berkeley

Compiled by the El Reportero’s staff

MONTAR la Bestia (Riding the Beast), art exhibition is on display at the Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) at the University of California, Berkeley, 2334 Bowditch St., in Berkeley, CA. The exhibition is open to the public through September 29, Tuesdays through Fridays from 1 p.m.- 5 p.m., MONTARlaBestia/Riding the Beast will be part of a larger CLAS program in Fall 2017 focusing on important themes involving the U.S. and Mexico.  

 Presented by the Colectivo de Artistas Contra la Discriminación (Artist Collective Against Discrimination), MONTARlaBestia/Riding the Beast is a moving, visually stunning exhibition that uses art and poetry to describe “La Bestia” – a train that carries up to 500,000 Central American migrants each year on a dangerous journey across Mexico towards the hope of a new life in the U.S. Walls and deportations, often presented in a context of xenophobic rhetoric, have focused national and international attention on the southern border of the U.S. CLAS feels this is a critical moment to engage in dialogue with people from both sides of the border.

 MONTARlaBestia/Riding the Beast is underwritten by Andrew M. Kluger, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Mexican Museum, in collaboration with the museum, Richard A. Levy, M.D., the Mexican Consulate General of San Francisco, and the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation.

The California Museum announces new partnerships for the Unity Center

The California Museum announced new partnerships with corporate leaders in diversity for the Unity Center today. The Museum will open the all-new long-term exhibition inspiring community activism to the public.

On Sat., Aug. 26, 2017, the Museum will open the Unity Center to the public at the Unity Center Block Party from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Featuring free admission to the all-new installation plus all current exhibitions, the event features a civil rights panel discussion from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. with Dolores Huerta of the Dolores Huerta among other leaders. 

Additional festivities include hands-on activities for all ages; music and dance performances by regional cultural organizations; food trucks, beer garden and more.

 
Artists explore Italy

Beryl Landau and Anthony Holdsworth have been traveling and painting in Italy for thirty years.

This exhibition features watercolors and small oil paintings created onsite from Lake Como and Venice in the north to Palermo and Catania in the south.
It also includes larger works created in their studios after their return from these journeys.  

From Sept. 14 – Oct. 13, at Istituto Italiano di Cultura

601 Van Ness Avenue, Opera Plaza. Opening Reception, Thurs., Sept.14, 6:30-8:30 p.m.

Video Screening and Talk  on Thursday, Sept. 28, 6:30

The artists will screen a 38 minute video about their last journey from Sicily to Emilia-Romagna. Afterwards they will talk with the audience.

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I went to Charlottesville during the protests and this is what I saw

by Jarrett Stepman

I picked quite a time to go on a weekend trip to Charlottesville.

What was supposed to be a nice getaway with my wife turned into a journey through the eye of a national media storm.

On Saturday, clashes between “Unite the Right” protestors and “anti-fascist” counterprotesters at the foot of a Gen. Robert E. Lee statue—which the City Council had voted to remove from a local park—turned violent.

One woman was killed when an Ohio man allegedly associated with the white nationalist marchers rammed his car through a wave of people. He has been charged with second-degree murder.

The clash between Nazis and leftists in the streets was an ugly and surreal scene one would associate with 1930s Germany, not a sleepy American town in the heart of central Virginia.

A city, and country, in shock

The attitude of people around Charlottesville—the silent majority—deserves to be noted. They were almost universally upset, blindsided, and resentful that these groups showed up in their community to drag down its reputation and fight their ideological proxy wars.

Albemarle County, which includes Charlottesville and a few other small towns, is deeply blue in its most populated centers around the University of Virginia and dark red on the outskirts. It’s politically purple. Yet everywhere I went, the attitude toward the protests was similar.

As a thunderstorm rolled in on Saturday evening, a waitress at a restaurant I ate at said, “Let’s hope this washes the day away.”

A local gas station attendant told my wife: “These people from out of town, Nazis, [Black Lives Matter], they’re all hate groups to me.”

In the aftermath of the events, most townsfolk walking in the Charlottesville downtown area appeared stunned and shaken. The overall feeling in the area was resentment—certainly not sympathy for any of the groups involved.

It would be a mistake to blow the events in Charlottesville too far out of proportion by linking either side to a mainstream political movement. In the grand scheme of things, it was a small-scale clash between groups who clearly represent an extreme minority in this country.

Even calling the gathering of a couple hundred people a “movement” would be a stretch. The overwhelming media attention given to these fascist, racist groups even before violence took place served as a conduit for the views of this handful of people.

The media’s role in blowing this event out of proportion is lamentable and predictable, but it doesn’t excuse what took place.

What the event does demonstrate is the looming danger of identity politics run amok. This is what is in store if we are consumed by the tribal politics that have destroyed so many other countries.

In June, I wrote about why I think politically incorrect historical monuments—even Confederate ones like the Lee statue in Charlottesville—should stay.

At the time I wrote:

“In our iconoclastic efforts to erase the past, we rob ourselves of knowing the men who forged our national identity, and the events that made us who we are. This nation, of almost incomprehensible wealth, power, and prosperity, was created by the decisions of men like Lincoln—and Lee, too.”

The zealous march to obliterate America’s past, even parts we dislike, will leave us a diminished civilization.

Though many have now jumped to conclude that the events in Charlottesville show the need to give in to the desire of people to tear down statues, this will only serve to strengthen and embolden the radicals—on both sides—to step up their efforts to plunge the nation into constant social unrest and civil war.

Identity over individuals

In a sense, the “alt-right” and leftist agitators want the same thing. They both seek to redefine the battle over American history in racial and tribal terms in direct opposition to the most basic ideas of our national existence.

Such was the case in the unsightly scene in front of Charlottesville’s Lee statue.

The real individuals whom these statues represent simply ceased to matter.

It was telling that a counterprotest erupted in Washington, D.C., in front of the Albert Pike memorial. Pike had been a Confederate general, but the memorial itself was simply dedicated to his work as a freemason and not his military career.

That fact was irrelevant.

Only the war over identity mattered. Pike must be plucked out and purged.

In a country of 320 million people of stunningly diverse ethnic backgrounds and philosophies, this is a fire bell in the night for complete cultural disintegration. The end result will be uglier than the already sickening events that took place this past weekend.

The Federalist’s publisher, Ben Domenech, rightly noted what this means for the direction of the country: “[I]t is the open conflict of a nation at war with itself over its own character. This war will end badly, no matter how it plays out. And the way this story ends is in demolishing [Thomas Jefferson’s] Monticello brick by brick.”

There is no arc of history bending perpetually on its own toward justice. History is instead a series of twists and turns, influenced by cultural and social forces as well as individuals and communities.

America has never been a perfect nation. It has benefitted from great ideas advanced by imperfect men, and almost miraculously formed a great and good national community out of widely disparate elements.

This history is worth remembering and even celebrating. It shouldn’t be buried because a few evil men have twisted it to serve their causes. Nor should it be used to attack and haunt the living.

As the late 19th-century poet Henry Van Dyke wrote:

“I know that Europe’s wonderful, yet something seems to lack:

The Past is too much with her, and the people looking back.

But the glory of the present is to make our future free —

We love our land for what she is and what she is to be.”

This is the spirit of our country, and it won’t change because a few thugs wish to turn our most fundamental principles on their heads.
We have a duty to repudiate them through a stronger dedication to the founding principles that have made this country great. (The Daily Signal).

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Nikki Haley, the US ambassador at the UN is not correct

Let me tell you something:

UN Ambassador Nikki Haley said on Sunday July 30 – after the election to elect the Venezuelan Constituent Assembly, that “Maduro’s false election is another step towards dictatorship. We will not accept an illegitimate government. The Venezuelan people and democracy will prevail. “ President Trump then imposed economic sanctions against Maduro and his administration.

With a new constituent assembly, the government will have the power to rewrite the Venezuelan constitution, and that is what concerns the opposition allied to Washington.

One does not have to be a socialist to express an opinion on a system that calls itself socialist. I am not a socialist, I do not sympathize with socialism, because I know that it is a system of control over the people and the economy by a materialistic state corporation that suppresses civil liberties.

However, the case of Venezuela, and after sharing so many postings on Facebook in favor of the Venezuelan opposition, I find that there is another reality that perhaps many ignore: what is really at stake in this Bolivarian homeland is its sovereignty of oil, and not the beautiful faces of its Miss Universes.

What can it matter to Washington if democracy is not perfect or if there is no democracy in Venezuela or in another country?
Is it not from the White House that orders are given to bomb sovereign nations and assassinate their leaders when they do not obey Pentagon orders – on behalf of the oil cartels?

Just look at some Arab countries that the US. supports, where state crimes leave much to say. Where the rights of women or the beheadings of their critics matter don’t matter.

However, the US, instead of seeking a change of government in those countries, it give them more weapons, because US companies control the market of their oil.

There are rumors that the heat is intensifying towards an intervention and that a coup d’stat could be ahead in that Caribbean nation.
And it is not that Maduro is a saint, but I am coming to the conclusion that if he releases the reins of power, Venezuela will suffer like Mexico, where oil is no longer Mexican and now they have to buy gas from the US. I think that should not happen to Venezuela.

The best thing would be for both sides to sit down to negotiate – without foreign intervention – and to begin with Maduro’s government freeing the dollar market for the economy to return to its previous course. But they also must endorse a constitutional agreement that Venezuela’s oil will NEVER STOP BEING VENEZUELAN PATRIMONY – no matter what happens, whoever governs, and that no constitution be able to accept in its paper something that allows the oil to be controlled by foreign interests , including Wall Street, of course.

But I am sure that US oil interests do not want negotiation, but a civil war to breaks out and the economy to collapse so to make the country ungovernable – and then call the Marines to “protect American interests.” However, the latter is less likely, as the Venezuelan armed forces have not abandoned Maduro, yet.

The large Venezuelan oil fields are now the target of Washington, as in February 2003 PDVSA (Petróleos de Venezuela, SA) was was turned into a state-owned company. And it pains them that Venezuelan oil has gone out of their hands and that Venezuela (not long ago) has paid its debt. Or is it not true?

According to some calculations, Venezuelan reserves should last between 100 and 150 years under conditions of intense exploitation.
It is said that the payment of the debt of $ 2.5 billion and the oil downturn have been the cause of scarcity, as the government has been forced to maintain a cut in imports of basic goods despite the country’s sharp three years recession.

And I do not doubt that the violence and its cause have been mostly ingenious. And if you doubt it, do some investigative work on the internet about how and what governments the CIA has overthrown worldwide. I have done it, and that is why I have no doubt that this is what is happening in Venezuela.

There has been repression, but what government does not use force when the protests reach such a point of wanting to collapse the government? Is not there in the US, or in Nicaragua or in Mexico while the traditional press is silent?

There have also been many errors and outrages on the part of the government, especially in the lack of mercantile freedom that has triggered inflation and scarcity, but behind it, I do not doubt that it is the petro-bankers who want chaos.

It does not make these special interests happy that an ‘underdeveloped’ country to have so much economic power and that it cannot be controlled- by them.

Therefore, don’t go to fast into believing the traditional media, because they are following a script so that there is a war.
Do you remember William Randolph Hearst’s cryptic phrase?

Among Hearst’s employees was the famous illustrator Frederic Remington.

In 1897, Remington was very bored by the lack of something newsworthy in Cuba and telegraphed to Hearst, “Everything is quiet, there are no problems here, there will be no war, I want to return.”

In response to Remington’s message, Hearst replied, “Please stay. Provide the photos and I will provide the war.“

Less than three weeks later, the American ship USS Maine exploded in the port of Havana. The cause of the explosion that claimed 274 lives remains a mystery.

Whatever its real cause, Hearst determined that the sinking of Maine was the result of Spanish betrayal and his newspaper vigorously published stories that helped create and nurture American anti-Spanish sentiment.

Within three months, the United States was at war with Spain in what became known as the US-Spanish war.

Never before has the media been shown to have such immediate and far-reaching effects.

I leave this link with an article (in English) well analyzed about the Venezuelan controversy.

Venezuela: Reactionary Coup in the Making, Media Disinformation, The Attitude of the Left

– Vale, Marvin Ramírez

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