Saturday, Jan. 19 – at New York, NY (PPV)
Saturday, Jan. 26 – at Berlin, Germany (HBO)
Feb 2, 2008 – at MSG, New York
Saturday, Feb. 2 – at Kempton Park, South Africa
Feb 16, 2008 – at MGM Grand
Los Latin Rhythm Boys
The Oakland Museum of California will offer events about Black history from Jan. 8-Feb. 25, according to the museum’s website.
The programs include dance, music, films, and spoken word and storytelling performances, and are either free or included in the price of museum admis- sion ($8, $5 for seniors and students).
The first event is a showing of the fi lms Banished and The Apollos as well as a panel discussion, all on Jan. 8 from 6:30-9 p.m. In Banished, filmmaker Marco Williams visits three towns African-Americans fl ed from during the Civil War. The Apollos documents a group of students’ fight to make Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday a national holiday.
The museum is located at 1000 Oak Street in Oakland. To view a schedule visit http://www.museumca.org/press/press_bhm_2008.html. To learn more call 510-238-2200.
Music and food at Club Puertorriqueño
The Latin Rhythm Boys and Baile de Reyes y Octavia will perform at Club Puertorriqueño de San Francisco on Jan. 12 from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m.
Admission is $10 in advance and $15 at the door and Puerto Rican food will be for sale as well. Visit http://www.clubpuertorriquenosf.com for more info.
Ethnic dance festival public audition show
Dance groups from all traditions are performing at the Palace of Fine Arts for two weekends in January, and the public is welcome to watch.
Each day between 25 and 30 groups will perform. Groups represent traditional styles from India, Mexico, Spain, Brazil, Cambodia, Turkey, Polynesia, Tibet, Ireland, Egypt, Scotland, and more.
For $7 a day, anyone can see the contestants for the June 2008 Ethnic Dance Festival. The days are Jan. 12-13 and 19-20, and the Palace of Fine Arts is located at 3301 Lyon Street in San Francisco. To see a schedule, visit http://www.wordartswest.org. Call 415-752-2483 for more information.
Green Party presiden- tial debate
The four contestants on the Green Party ballot will debate on Jan. 13th at 2 p.m.
One speaker is Cynthia McKinney, a Democratic representative who has served six terms. Ralph Nader, a former presidential candidate and long time activist is also speaking. The other two debaters are Jared Ball, a university professor, and environmental engineer Kent Mesplay.
The debate will be held in the Herbst Theater at 401 Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco. Charge is $10-25 on a sliding scale. Visit http://www.acgreens.org/debate for more information, or call 510-914-8355.
Michael Stahl-David and Odette Yustman photo by Sam Emerson
This Friday, January 18 Paramount Pictures will release CLOVERFIELD. On the eve of his departure for Japan, Rob (Michael Stahl David) sees his going-away party as an opportunity to confess unresolved feelings and tie up loose ends. His agenda takes an unexpected turn when a jolt shakes the revelers. The crowd quiets down to watch news reports of an earthquake, then rushes to the roof to assess the damage. A fireball explodes on the distant horizon. A power failure follows. Confusion gives way to panic as the partygoers stumble through the blackout and into the streets.
Amid the human screams and one inhuman roar, Rob and his friends must traverse a landscape that has changed, overtaken by something otherworldly, terrifying, monstrous.
Paramount Pictures Presents A Bad Robot Production “Cloverfield” starring Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, T. J. Miller, Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel and Odette Yustman. The fi lm is directed by Matt Reeves and written by Drew Goddard. The producers are J.J. Abrams and Bryan Burk. The executive producers are Guy Riedel and Sherryl Clark. The director of photography is Michael Bonvillain, ASC. The production designer is Martin Whist. The editor is Kevin Stitt, A.C.E. The costume designer is Ellen Mirojnick. The visual effects are by Double Negative and Tippett Studio. This fi lm has been rated PG-13 for violence, terror and disturbing images.
Raph Nader-
Members of the U.S. Army who refuse to fight in the Iraq War should be protected from punishment, reads a Green Party of California resolution.
The resolution says that, since the war is unjust, army members who risk their safety and reputations by not fighting should be granted immunity from legal repercussions and dishonorable discharge.
To read the full press release, visit: http://gpuspeace.wordpress.com/category/iraq/.
In other green news, the four candidates who plan to run for president under the Green Party’s ballot are scheduled to debate at Herbst Theater on Jan. 13.
One of the candidates is Ralph Nader, who ran as the Green Party presidential candidate in the 2000 elections after years of environmental and consumer rights activism. Also speaking is Cynthia McKinney, a Democratic representative who has served six terms, according to party press release.
The Herbst Theater is located at 401 Van Ness Avenue, and the suggested donation is $10-25. For more information, visit: www.acgreens.org/debate.
Senator requests open investigation of EPA waiver denial
California Senator Diane Feinstein sent a letter to the Inspector General’s Office of the Environmental Protection Agency asking him to investigate the EPA’s denial of California’s Clean Air Act waiver.
The waiver, which the EPA first denied in 2001, would allow the state of California to regulate greenhouse gas emissions by total emissions instead of the federal regulation by carbon impact.
Feinstein’s letter requests information about EPA’s previous denial of waivers and research that the agency used in the lawsuit. To view her letter visit: http://yubanet.com/california/Feinstein_calls_on_EPA_
Inspector_General_to_open_investigation_into_denial_of_California_s_
-Clean_Air_Act_waiver.php.
Latin American restaurant chain to appear in Wal-Mart stores
Next year, Wal-Mart plans to lease space to Pollo Campero in its stores across the U.S., according to a press release.
Pollo Campero, a restaurant that serves dishes of Latin American and U.S. origin, has stamped its name on 226 restaurants across the world. Currently, there are 36 Pollo Camperos in the U.S., reads the press release.
Senate approves legislation for increased gas effiency
Dianne Feinstein
The senate passed the first standard for car and small truck fuel efficiency in over 25 years last month.
If properly implemented, the bill can change the average fuel economy of cars by 10 miles per gallon over 10 years. The press release said this would change the average from 25 miles per gallon to 35 miles per gallon.
Students march to support tribal college
UC Davis students marched from seven miles from Davis to Degan Widah Quetzacoatl University to support DQU, the nation’s only tribal college, according to organizer Christal West.
West, a UC Davis student and MEChA member, said that 60 people walked for over two hours to show their support for DQU on Dec. 15. UC Davis students are hoping to develop courses where students work on projects to help DQU, and supporting DQU’s The Longest Walk, which ends in Washington D.C. For more information, see: http://www.myspace.com/DQUniversity or-http://www.longestwalk.com.-
José de la Isla
RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – The town of Granjeno is two miles north from the Rio Grande, separating Mexico and the United States. It is just of two levies away and neighbors a bird and wild life refuge.
The historic town was founded a decade before the Declaration of Independence was signed. The cemetery bears testament to the town’s long history. People in the area with names like Anzaldua and de la Garza are living links to long-disappeared Spanish colonial landgrants. Their pedigrees are as consequential as those of the Mayflower descendents.
Granjeno is near the construction for the new Anzaldua border-crossing bridge to Reynosa, Mexico, scheduled to open in 2009. Also planned is The Wall, the barrier that has been sold to the nation as how “securing our borders” will take place.
The town, just 500 people strong, is part of the valley metroplex of Mission, McAllen, Edinburg and Pharr. They all arose at the beginning of the last century from irrigation agriculture and railroad transporation. Now the region is on top of a residential and commercial real-estate boom.
You would think Granjeno residents would seek the protection if illegal entries pose the danger the rest of the nation believes they do. Instead, a group calling itself No Border Wall submitted testimony two days after Christmas countering the Department of Homeland Security’s 23-page document arguing for it.
The Wall, some believe, will displace about a hundred area residents. But even a fraction of that number would probably mean the town’s demise. Ricardo Cardoza, who owns Granjeno Country Store, isn’t as sanguine. Construction workers for the bridge and maybe later those building The Wall provide him a brisk trade, along with that coming from Border Patrol agents. But even he isn’t happy about it.
Guadalupe Segura, a homeowner for the last 23 years, with two sons in college, sees it all like a charade that’s going to slice the town in half. Before, she explains, “There’s already an invisible wall. Now they want to make it visible. “They” are the officialdom of the federal government.
Not that people are insensitive to security. In fact, Mayor Alberto Magallán has worked with U.S. Customs. But he suggests there ought to be some correspondence between a threat and measures taken.
I meet him at the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s encouragement as part of looking into border issues,.
Like so many border matters, there’s a gulf here between public perception and lving actuality. Sometimes it’s like reading fiction — only it’s the rest of the U.S. that’s autistic about accepting reality.
The mayor and I drive out the two miles from town to the river, across the double-levy floodway built in the aftermath of Hurricane Beulah back in 1967.
Some property owners lost “two, three, four, fi ve, six acres” that time, according to Ricardo Cardoza. Now, others could lose more land, even their homes, should the government’s plan prevail. Two families, with their homes inside the no-man’s-land between the proposed wall and the river, will actully get walled out of the United States and in the buffer zone, creating border insecurity for them.
The buffer zone, the no-man’s-land, makes no sense to the mayor.
Why would the planners want an undeterred, two-mile intrusion area into the United States before placing the deterrent barrier?
To Guadalupe Segura, who understands sensors have an ability to detect up to one mile, why not just use them instead of building a wall that will displace her neighbors?
Yes, of course, people enter illegally, and Guadalup Segura points to a small wooded area through which they are guided by paid traffickers, the so-called coyotes.
But the transit can be like a non-vehicle, pedestrian corridor, where some travelers are local, others long distance voyagers. The Great Wall solution might play with national audiences as needed for their protection, but it seems silly and wasteful to many people living here.
“I don’t know why they are doing what they’re doing, says Mayor Magallán. He still hasn’t received a satisfactory explanation from Homeland Security.
“Why over here?” he asks. Hispanic Link.
[José de la Isla, author of “The Rise of Hispanic Political Power” (Archer Books, 2003) writes a weekly commentary for Hispanic Link News Service. E-mail joseisla3@yahoo.com]. ©2007
Marvin Ramirez
If you believe that the border fence currently being built along the U.S.- Mexico border is to stop undocumented workers or terrorists from coming in, it might not be so. It might be – for the first time in the history of the United States as a free nation – to control us completely, like ants.
-You probably haven’t heard much about the passing a couple of year ago of the Real ID act, by the U.S. Congress.
With the excuse of protecting national security, the Feds will know exactly who you are: what you eat (through Safeway card and your credit cards), how is your health (through hospital files and pharmacies), how much you make (social security), who you call and talk to (telephone, cell), how much money you spent (credit cards an banks accounts), how much money you make (through your expenditures), how much you owe the government (through your expenditures will tell how much you’re not reporting, and therefore determine whatever they say you owe to the private corporation called, IRS).
And the Real ID will provide all that about you, including deciding if you are an enemy of the state if you happen not to agree how the country is being taken. And the country is not being taken in the right direction.
The Real ID Act of 2005 requires people entering federal buildings, boarding airplanes or opening bank accounts to present. The Act is Division B of an act of the United States Congress titled Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Tsunami Relief, 2005.
It is exactly the same control the Soviet Union had over its citizens, and for any unknown suspicious, you can get arrested without the right bail, have a lawyer or be in front of a judge.
California was granted an extension to the implementation of the Real ID through 2009.
The minute you wished to leave the country, the feds will be able to deny you leaving, for whatever reason: maybe you will be behind in your property taxes, owe parking tickets, etc.
Say no to the Real ID, do not accept it, because the day you accept it, you would have lost your liberty that our Founding Fathers’s Constitution guaranteed.
Call your Congress representatives and tell them you won’t vote for them if they sell you out.
As Richard Forno and Bruce Schneier, from C-NET News, said in May 3, 2007: “In its own guidance document, the department has proposed branding citizens not possessing a Real ID card in a manner that lets all who see their official state-issued identification know that they’re “different,” and perhaps potentially dangerous, according to standards established by the federal government. They would become stigmatized, branded, marked, ostracized, segregated. All in the name of protecting the homeland; no wonder this provision appears at the very end of the document.
The Republican Party is losing the Hispanic support base it had built over the past few yeans, according to an analysis.
Released by the Pew Hispanic Center Dec. 6, it showed Democrats smothering Republicans by 34 percentage points in terms of Latino support, 57 percent to 23 percent. The gap is similar to that in 1999.
Latino Republican support was evinced during the 2004 election when President Bush received a record-high proportion of the Hispanic vote for a Republican with nearly 40 percent. Pew reported that as of July 2006, Democrats edged Republicans in Latino support by only 21 percentage points, 49 percent to 21 percent.
While the report states that Hispanics will represent only about 9 percent of the national electorate in 2008, it emphasizes they could play a significant swing vote role.
Latinos could play a decisive role, particularly in such swing states as New Mexico, Florida, Nevada and Colorado, according to the report.
For several observers, the GOP loss of Latino support can be largely attributed to their claim that Republicans have espoused anti-immigrant views during campaigns in 200B and now in the presidential race.
They charge GOP candidates with using immigration as “wedge” issue, targeting immigrants for political gain.
According to Reverend Cortés, 80 percent of the Latino evangelical electorate supported President Bush in 2004, but:, he warned the current GOP dialogue on immigration could end up hurting the party in 2008.
“The Republican Party will lose that vote,” he said. The Pew survey of 2,003 Hispanics (843 registered voters), found that 41 percent of Latino registered voters credited Democrats with doing a better job of addressing Undocumented immigration to 14 percent who said Republicans.
In addition, 44 percent Of Latino registered voters said Democrats have shown more concern for the community.
This compared to 8 percent who said Republicans have.
“(Immigration) is the most important family issue…We see it as the issue that will make or break our nation,” said Cortés.
“Whoever (presidential candidate) has the best immigration policy as we move forward is the individual who will get most support from the Hispanic community” in 2008, he added.
The survey found that 79 percent of Latino registered voters considered immigration either an “extremely” or “very important” issue.
Hessy Fernandez, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, said, “Latino voters judge candidates based on their positions, and the policies of the Republican Party are much closer to the priorities of Hispanics than those of the Democrats.”
Hillary Clinton is the most popular candidate among Latino Democrats with 59 percent support, and Rudy Giuliani among Latino Republicans with 35 percent.
Latino candidate Bill Richardson has 8 percent support among Hispanic Democrats, behind Barack Obama with 15 percent.
The Pew study is available at http://pewhispanic.org.
Hispanic Link.
Men’s Processión take over SF streets Spanish radio program, Aquí Nicaragua’s director Mario Palacios, walks holding the cross, symbol of Christianity, during the Procession of Men march, which went by 25th Street to Mission, while Monsignor Silvio Fonceca (lower photo) holds the Eucharistic chalice. photos by Edgar Martinez-Bermudez
While almost the whole world lived the first hours of a new year 2008, Catholic parishioners marched on the streets of the San Francisco Mission District, singing: Long Live, Christ King!
People of different ethnic backgrounds stopped while others stood out of their home doors and windows to watch the procession pass. Approximately 200 people followed Monsignor Silvio Fonseca, who, walking slowly, held the Eucharistic chalice.
Escorted by members of the San Francisco Police Department in two motorcycles and a patrol car, the Procession of Men, the only one of its kind in the United States, celebrated its 25th anniversary since its formation by a group of Nicaraguan Catholic men in San Francisco. During recent years, nevertheless, it has been joined by persons of other nationalities.
In 1946, members of the Jesuit order originally organized the Procession to Christ King. During Christmas of 1948, Father Jesuit Ignacio Fernandez de Pinedo, came to Nicaragua, and on the fi rst day of January, he created the first Procession of Men.
Begun in Nicaragua in the Christmas of 1948, the fi rst Procession of the Men was organized by Father Jesuit Rev. Ignacio Fernández de Pinedo, with the intention to integrate the men into the church, since mainly women participated in the church, while men did not. Originally the celebration was baptized as the Procession of Men, but its organizers in San Francisco changed it to Men’s Procession.
Between songs and praises to Christ King, every 1st of January of each year, followers intone the religious anthems, Singing of the Cantares, in which they affirm that “God Is Here;” and in You Will Reign, they allude to Jesus as the King.
Mons. Fonseca was assisted at the religious ceremony by the Nicaraguan deacon, Roger Hernández, one of the pioneering celebrants. Mons. Fonceca came from Nicaragua for a second year in a row for this special celebration of the beginning of the year.
During a mass ceremony held before the procession, Mons. Fonceca warned that Nicaragua is in danger of falling again into violence.
“The violence might return… ,” he said, stressing that Nicaragua is in a situation “ where the culprits are innocent and the innocent are culprits, where one buys justice with a few dollars… where unemployment is on the increase and this produces hunger, and hunger drives theft, and theft drives violence… the judicial power is corrupt, and the peace is felt to be threatened every day.”
The celebration took place at the traditional St. Peter’s Church; and the procession started out at Alabama Street, moved to 25th, and then followed up to Mission Street, the principal artery of the Hispanic quarter of San Francisco. As every year, the procession was organized by the Committee Christ King.
Evo Morales
On 1 January opposition prefects said that they would attend talks with the government despite the government’s refusal to accept their demands for autonomy.
The prefects are in such a weak political position that they have to accept the government’s terms for the negotiations on 7 January. The government has underlined its confidence in two ways. First, it started implementing its budget for 2008, ignoring the amendments made by the opposition-controlled senate.
Secondly, President Evo Morales attended a New Year’s Eve lunch with the military high command in which he said that if it was up to him he would not allow the current senior officers to move on to the retired list.
“But,” Morales went on, “military traditions have to be respected and the traditional changes have to be made.” The outgoing heads of all the armed services, headed by General Wilfredo Vargas, have been in command since Morales took office in January 2005.
Mexico to track migrations over border
MEXICO CITY – Mexico plans to use cards with electronic chips to better track the movements of Central Americans who regularly cross the southern border to work or visit.
Starting in March, the National Immigration Institute will distribute the cards to record the arrival and departure of so-called temporary workers and visitors. They will replace a non-electronic pass formerly given to foriegners who cross into Mexico, which has proven “easily alterable and subject to the discretion of migration agents,” the institute said Thursday.
The U.S. government has spent tens of millions of dollars issuing similar visa cards digitally embedded with the holder’s photo and fingerprints, but U.S. border inspectors almost never check them, and vehicle lanes are not equipped with the necessary scanners to read them, The Associated Press reported earlier this year.
Mexico detained more than 182,000 undocumented migrants in 2006, mostly from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador en route to the United States. But many others cross legally from Guatemala and Belize to work or visit, and the new cards are meant to guarantee their security, the institute said.
Nicaragua court probes Volz case
MANAGUA, Nicaragua – Nicaragua’s Supreme Court on Wednesday said it had begun investigating two judges who overturned the 30-year sentence and conviction of an American in the killing of his Nicaraguan girlfriend.
Appellate Judges Roberto Rodriguez and Alejandro Estrada were on a three-judge panel that freed Eric Volz, 28, of Nashville, Tenn., last week. The two cited “reasonable doubt” in overturning the conviction. The third judge voted to uphold the original verdict.
The decision sparked outrage among some Nicaraguans who allege the American received special treatment in the local justice system and should not have been released.
Rafael Solis, the Supreme Court’s vice president, said the two judges were scheduled to appear before investigators on January 8. The court will determine whether they acted inappropriately and turn its findings over to criminal investigators if any wrongdoing is found, Solistold a news conference.
Volz, a surfer-turned-real-estate-broker, and a Nicaraguan man, Julio Martín Chamorro, were sentenced in February for the death of 25-year-old Doris Ivania Jiménez, who was found raped and strangled in a clothing store she owned in Rivas, 55 miles south of the Nicaraguan capital of Managua. The court upheld Chamorro’s conviction in the murder.
(Associated Press contributed to this report.)
In spite of isolation and some tension among Hispanics, blacks and Asians’ the three groups have mutual concerns, common values and optimistic outlooks, according to a survey and report released Dec. 12 by New America Media in Washington, D.C.
Projecting that racial and ethnic relations will continue to grow stronger, NAM founder Sandy Close urged media leaders of the groups to take leading roles in tackling national nativism and racism issues.
An overwhelming majority of Hispanics (92 percent), blacks (89 percent) and Asians (88 percent), out of 1,105 respondents surveyed by Bendixen Asians—said there is some degree of racial tension among the groups.
“We cannot ignore the fact that this is a serious problem,” pollster Sergio Bendixen said during the capital press conference. “It keeps people and their common interests to work together.”
Author and commentator Richard Rodriguez said, “It’s important not to see this information as static…We are bumping against each other, but we are also getting to know one another.”
The majority of respondents from each of these groups felt their communities were discriminated against, and most Hispanics and Asians credited blacks for leading the battle for civil rights.
Bendixen said leadership from members of these groups will play an essential role to strengthen the ties among these groups.
Cristina López, deputy executive director of the Center for Community Change, said it is time to move beyond acknowledging tensions exist and focus on finding ways to work together more efficiently.
“Sometime the media hypes those tensions more than necessary,” she assessed.
“We should do more’” she added, but defended the work community-based: organizations like the CCC do, stating, “We tend to overlook some of the positive things that are going on.”
Respondents (Hispanics 78 percent, blacks 69 percent and Asians 73 percent) agreed that ethnic media have an important role to play to bring each of these communities closer.
According to observers, mistrust derives from stereotypes these groups hold of one another due to a lack of racial and ethnic interaction.
For example, half of blacks responded Latino immigrants ere taking jobs away from them. Nearly half of Hispanics~ 44 percent, and Asians, 47 percent are “generally afraid” of blacks as they relate them to crime. Nearly half of Hispanics, 46 percent, and 52 percent of blacks responded they felt disrespected by most Asian business owners.
At the same time, the poll found little interaction among the groups. The percentage of respondents who said they went to schools with people from their same race/ethnicity was 70 percent for Hispanics and 64 percent for blacks. Majorities of Hispanics (73 percent), blacks (67 percent) and Asians (58 percent) said most of their friends are of the same race or ethnicity.
In spite of this, the survey found the groups shared similarities in common values and visions of the future.
For example, the survey revealed 64 percent of Hispanics, 83 percent of blacks and 76 percent of Asians prioritize spending “quality time” with family over making “as much money as possible~ at work.
Overall, 61 percent of Hispanics, 66 percent of blacks and 62 percent of Asians predicted racial and ethnic relations will improve in the next 10 years. Hispanic Link.
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