Tuesday, March 11, 2025
Home Blog Page 585

Deported man reunited with wife and child on Christmas

by Juliet Blalack

Juan and Tanya Cruz: photo by Marvin J. RamirezJuan and Tanya Cruz (photo by Marvin J. Ramirez)

­Deported man reunited with wife and child on Christmas

After four months of forced separation from his wife and newborn child, Juan Cruz returned home on Christmas Day.

Since he had to leave the country when his wife was eight months pregnant, Christmas was the first time Cruz met his child.

Although his wife is a citizen, Cruz’s citizenship applications failed, partly due to faulty legal advice. Cruz was brought to the United States by his parents when he was four.

Finally, this month, the US Consulate in Ciudad Juarez granted Cruz a green card.

Awards presented to 14 San Francisco schools

The state department of education awarded the Title I Academic Achievement Award to 14 public San Francisco schools.

To qualify, schools must receive Title I fundingfunding to serve students from low-income homes, and meet twice the state’s targeted academic improvement for two years in a row. To see a complete Christmaslist of California schools that received the award go to http://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/ne/yr07/yr07rel163.asp.

Activists boycott Western Union nationwide

San Francisco immigrant and community organizations, along with the Transnational Institute for Grassroots Research and Action, are boycotting Western Union money transfer company.

Activists are pressuring Western Union to reinvest in the community, lower its fees, and make their exchange rates fair.

“They only reinvest $0.41 for every $100 of profit, even Wal-Mart does better with $2.30,” said Miguel Robles from Alianza Latinoamericana por los Derechos de los Inmigrantes.

In 2007, Western Union transfered $300 billion, a significant portion of it from immigrants. Many immigrants need money transfers to sponsor their families abroad. For more information, visit www.boycottwesternunion.net.

Berkeley police department drug thefts still under investigation

Berkeley police are likely shielding officers who stole confiscated drugs, according to a report from Berkeley’s Police Review Commission.

The department only investigated one of the fi ve offi cers who had access to a drug vault where 286 drug envelopes were tampered with last year. Senior offi cers did not enforce policies designed to keep the drugs secure, according to the report. Chief Hambleton still has not revealed exactly what is missing from the locker, according to Berkeley Copwatch.

Furthermore, the report said offi cers who suspected one of their colleagues was on drugs while on the job and armed did not take any action.

­The nation takes inspiration from San Francisco homeless program

Project Homeless Connect, a program started in San Francisco by Mayor Newsom, has spawned similar programs in 130 American cities and a national Project Homeless Connect week.

“Project Homeless Connect offers us the opportunity to look our homeless neighbors in the eye and engage them,” said Philip Mangano, Executive Director of the federal United States Interagency Council on Homelessness.

According to PHC, the program has distributed about 152,000 lbs of food and provided shelter to 1,997 clients. At one of the recent PHC events in the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, 217 people were seen for medical treatment, 68 for dental treatments, 380 people received vision care, and 253 clients were screened for employment.

­

spot_img

Assimilation – what happened in the colonies?

by Cecilio Morales

Cecilio MoralesCecilio Morales

With the new year arrives a perfect moment to reconsider the anti-immigrant demand that newcomers assimilate.

In linguistics, it refers to altering a sound, as happens when a language adopts foreign words (for example, the Spanish lazo, which became the English lasso).The fifth meaning, also figurative, is what people have in mind in the immigration debate: to absorb immigrants, or any culturally distinct group, into the prevailing culture. Yet in all the meanings of “assimilate,” something is consumed, absorbed, incorporated (literally, to become part of a body) after some process of digestion and alteration.All of this means that “B” becomes somehow enmeshed in “A.”

In the case of the United States, what is that “A” and why does it deserve pre-eminence?

The answer is more complicated than it sounds.History tells us that the first so-called New World inhabitants were the Indians. The European colonists did not assimilate into Indian society.

Are anti-immigrant advocates suggesting that we at last show some respect for the native inhabitants?

Somehow, I think not.What is today the United States, history also tells us became the colonial territory of three European powers: England, France and Spain. Which one of their cultures deserves to be first? On what grounds?Let’s try history again.In 13 of the North American English colonies, a civil war broke out in the 1770s. The population was so divided that an estimated 100,000 loyalists fled abroad at the end of the conflict. At that time, cultural roots among whites were about evenly divided between England and Germany to the point that choosing a national language for the new nation was deferred as too divisive.We might be singing “O, sagt, könnt ihr sehen” on the Fourth of July had the Deutsch, or “Dutch” prevailed, but then we’re forgetting the “other Persons” of the Constitution, who were African and spoke multiple languages.

Then there’s the purchase of land from France (the Louisiana territory) and Spain (Florida).

By the 1840s and ‘50s, what was to become the third major European group of the early United States arrived: the Irish.

They were certainly not English.So remind me, again, in this mix of Africans, English, French, Germans, Irish and Spanish, by what reason was the culture and language of the English to be accorded legal supremacy, when even the English dared not debate it for fear they would lose a vote?But wait. There’s the entire Southwest and West, stolen outright by war and conquest. Its predominant language and culture was not English.

Why should the territory from Texas to California have to assimilate the culture and language of the last and most unlawful newcomers, the Anglos?

Much the same question could be raised about almost any corner of the Earth.

People have the inalienable right to their own language and culture. Asserting that right is in the best tradition of the United States (even though in many chapters of the nation’s history it was not observed), as it is of the United Nations and of Lady Liberty, whose powerful gaze watches over both from her island.

(Cecilio Morales is executive editor of the weekly Employment & Training Reporter in Washington, D.C. Reach him at ­Cecilio@miipublications.com).­ ©2007

spot_img

What to say about 2007 vs. 2008

­by Marvin J Ramirez

Marvin RamirezMarvin Ramirez

What can I say about 2007 vs. 2008?

The year 2007 left, without a doubt, left pain and uncertainty to many of us Latinos.

The Hispanic community received heavy punching like never before. Entire Latino families in many cities were devastated, as ICE (Immigration and Citizenship Enforcement) indiscriminately conducted raids, terrorizing and arresting thousands who lacked proper documentation to live and work in the U.S. to support their families. And it happened despite that most of those deported were honest and hardworking people. Thousands of children and spouses were painfully separated.

This wave of terror against undocumented people will probably continue in the year 2008, while the country is in shambles – regardless of what the biased, owned-by-a few media shows in its controlled networks that things are panacea or not so bad, “that the worse has passed.” The fraud committed against North Americans, regardless of their ethnic background, by the banks, in all this sub-prime lending, and artificially inflated real estate, will be felt even worse for years to come.

“Just over half of all Hispanic adults in the U.S. worry that they, a family member or a close friend could be deported,” a new nationwide survey of Latinos by the Pew Hispanic Center has found. Nearly two-thirds say the failure of Congress to enact an immigration reform bill has made life more difficult for Latinos.

Some are returning to their country of origin, as life is becoming more difficult in the U.S, for many, not just for undocumented immigrants but for permanent residents and U.S. citizens as well.

Low salaries and overwhelming taxes every way we turn, just don’t let people succeed, turning them into commercial chattels or slaves.

The fiat dollar is in decadence worldwide, losing its value day by day, making those who save their ‘blessed’ fiat dollar (not backed by gold or silver) see their saving disappear slowly , thanks to the banks-created inflation. You see, if people were paid in solid, backed by gold dollars, there wouldn’t be inflation or lost of your money you earned with blood and sweat.

The year 2008 could be much more promising if you start buying – not jewelry – but 24k gold or silver as saving. Because, there won’t be an announcement about it. When the fi nancial crash hits the economy, it will be right at your doorsteps: knocking at your do. Your salary or savings won’t buy you the essentials to live, because the dollar won’t have value, or the value you expected.

­All I can say is that we should start thinking about the land that we upon a time left in search of better opportunities. Perhaps, just as we have enriched and continue enriching this nation with our hard work and brains, we could, in the same way, help develop our motherlands and make them greater so never to have to migrate. Happy New Year to all of you!

spot_img

Lawsuit against ‘No Match’ rule put on hold until March 2008

­by Alex Meneses Miyashita

A lawsuit against a federal rule that would hold employers accountable for hiring undocumented workers will be on hold until March 2008 following a request from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The DHS made the request in order to revise its “No Match” regulation, that has been challenged by labor’ immigrant and civil rights groups and blocked from being implemented through a preliminary injunction issued by a federal judge in October.

The proposal would have required employers receiving No Match letters about employees whose Social Security numbers did not match those of the Social.­

spot_img

Coro Hispano brings celestial music to the Bay Area

by María Siraguen Martínez

A concert with Latino blood and spirit: Coro Hispano of San Francisco playing at Mission Basilica Dolores, will offer a series of performances around the Bay Area in January. (photo by Mark Kitaoka)A concert with Latino blood and spirit ­Coro Hispano of San Francisco playing at Mission Basilica Dolores, will offer a series of performances around the Bay Area in January. (photo by Mark Kitaoka)

When we say chorus, we hardly think that this word would be part of the Latino world. But think again.

­A group of very professional singers and musicians, some of them voice and music professors, continuously have kept Coro Hispano and Grupo Nuevo Mundo resounding like a heaven’s fell celestial musical ensemble.

Founded in 1975, under the direction of Juan Pedro Gaffney, the Coro Hispano de San Francisco is a chorus of the Spanish-speaking communities of the San Francisco Bay Area dedicated to exploring and performing the choral literature of the peoples of Latin America, Spain and Portugal. Ranging from the 12th through the 20th century, this repertory embraces both classical and folk music from all parts of the Hispanic world, as well as ethnic music in Amerindian tongues.

Conjunto Nuevo Mundo is an ensemble of professional vocalists and instrumentalists dedicated to the parallel repertory of vocal chamber music and solo literature of Iberian and Latin American composers.

Medieval chants, Renaissance motets, Baroque villancicos, and lively aguinaldos from Latin American folk traditions is part of the Coro Hispano.

This Spanish speaking chorus fi lls the hearts and souls of whoever presences it’s lively music. With the New Year hitting in the corner, this upcoming year won’t be the exception, as the Coro Hispano prepares it’s 21st annual concert celebration of Día de los Reyes.

Every January since 1987, Coro Hispano has brought the Bay Area spectacular concerts from the children’s concert at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts in San Francisco’s Mission District to its mass concerts at the Basilica of Mission Dolores. Coro transports its listeners a magical sound and love through their music, an instrument that is universal around the world. If your interested in joining the celebration of Día de los Reyes, please visit ­http://corohispano.org/tickets.

Cds of their music will be sold and signed onsite. Don’t miss it! (For more schedule details, read our calendar of event on page 4.) ­

spot_img

Chávez alleges multifaceted U.S. plot to destabilize Venezuela and its allies

by the El Reportero news services

César ChávezCésar Chávez

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez claimed this week that the US is plotting to destabilise his government and ostracise it within Latin America. It is not the first time that Chávez has made such claims but both of the alleged plots this time involve firm developments rather than idle speculation. The first involves a case being heard by the US judiciary against four men arrested in Miami last week accused of involvement in a conspiracy to conceal an illegal campaign payment meant for Argentina’s President Cristina Fernández. The second was a long investigative report by the Spanish daily El País portraying Venezuela as a narcosanctuary for the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc).

Hugo Chávez in Havana Petrocaribe Summit: “Free Trade Doesn’t exist”

Raúl Castro: “At a time when the oil prices have broken every record, creating an extremely complex situation to most of the oil importing third world nations, the member countries of Petrocaribe are in a privileged position,” he said.

Hugo Chavez said Petrocaribe members’ collective debt for Venezuelan crude is currently near $1.2 billion and is expected to grow to $4.5 billion by 2010. He is promoting Petrocaribe as part of a larger  effort to create a regional confederation from Argentina to Cuba that will help the region counter U.S. influence.

Presidents Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, Rene Preval of Haiti and Leonel Fernandez of the Dominican Republic, Belize’s Prime Minister Said Musa, Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer, Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, Guyana’s Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, Jamaica’s Prime Minister Bruce Golding and St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, were attending the summit.

Other Leaders attending, Honduras’ Defense Minister Aristides Mejia, St. Kitts and Nevis’ Energy Minister Earl Asim Martin, Grenada’s Energy Minister Gregory Bowen, St. Lucia’s Industry Minister Guy Mayers, Suriname’s Oil Companies Managing Director Mark Waaldijk, Len Ishmael, Director General of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean, and representative from Trinidad and Tobago, and Barbados.

CIENFUEGOS, Cuba – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez presided Friday at a regional petroleum summit in Cuba, pressing his efforts to counter U.S. infl uence in Latin America and the Caribbean by suggesting more of his neighbors could pay for cheap oil with goods or services in lieu of cash.

In his opening speech to the Petrocaribe summit in Cienfuegos, a southern coastal city about 155 miles from Havana, Chavez said his plan to provide low-cost oil to the region should go beyond financing mechanisms. He offered other countries the option of following the model of Cuba, which repays by sending doctors who offer free services to the poor in Venezuela.

Providing fuel in return for locally produced goods or services has been an option for some time under Venezuela’s current Petrocaribe pact, which supplies oil to the region through long-term, low interest financing. But it is unclear how many countries other than Cuba have taken up the offer.

Chavez also called for creating an international fund to promote solar, wind, geothermal and other alternative energy sources.­

spot_img

Boxing

Saturday, Dec. 8 – at Las Vegas, NV (HBO-PPV)

  • Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Ricky Hatton Jeff Lacy vs Peter Manfredo.­

Saturday, Dec. 8 – at Basel, Switzerland

  • Arthur Abraham vs. Wayne Elcock.

Saturday, Dec. 8 – at Bolton, United Kingdom

  • Amir Khan vs. Graham Earl.
spot_img

City College offers adult education, community wellness and more

by Juliet Blalack

City College is now accepting new student applications for Spring 2008 semester and has added programs for high school students and working adults.­

The Mission campus has added 150 credit courses, ranging from Gay and Lesbian Issues in the Workforce to Music of Latin America and the Carribean.

The Weekend College is geared toward 11th and 12th grade students who want to earn college credit as well as working adults. The college offers distance learning and a program to help working adults earn their AA degree faster.

A new community wellness will open this semester at 50 Phelan Ave. to encourage all to exercise. Credit students pay $20 per unit and a health fee of $16 for the entire semester. Noncredit courses are free of tuition. Financial aid is available for eligible credit and noncredit students. For  more information, contact the Admissions Office is 415-239-3285 or visit www.ccsf.edu.

Monterey Bay Aquarium children’s explorer contest

Children between ages 10-13 can apply to be a Monterey Bay Aquarium explorer until Dec. 28. Explorers get a free year membership, exclusive behind-the-scenes tours of the aquarium, free tickets for their entire class, a chance to shadow an aquarium employee, and other benefi ts. Bilingual children are strongly encouraged to apply. To apply, children must submit an application with a letter of recommendation from a teacher and a 250 essay showing their commitment to conservation. The application is online at http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/vi/vi_events/vi_events_officialexplorer.asp.

­Roccapulco New Year’s Party

Roccapulco will host a New Year’s Party with dinner, a champagne toast, party favors, and music.

Two live bands are scheduled to play salsa, cumbia, merenge, and bachata. The upstairs room will feature a DJ playing club hits, disco, and reggaeton. Dinner includes an appetizer, a choice of three entrees, and an ice cream dessert. The tickets are $35 for just the party, $50 with dinner, and $95 for couples. To make a reservation call 415-821-3563.

Peace and justice New Year’s party

Global Exchange and CodePink are hosting a peace-themed New Year’s party at the Wax Museum at Fisherman’s Wharf. San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano, State Assemblyperson Mark Leno, San Francisco School Board President Mark Sanchez, and Medea Benjamin, cofounder of CODEPINK plan on attending. HYIM and the Fat Foakland Orchestra, The Average Dyke Band, and Tony Mayfi eld are scheduled to play music. To fi nd out more contact Nancy Mancias, 415-342.6409 or nancy@globalexchange.org.

Arithmetickles arrives at schools Arithmetickles is a show that uses puppets, stand-up comedy, and audience participation to teach elementary and middle school children math. Shows are scheduled throughout January in San Jose, Pacifi ca, Burlingame, Milpitas, and Berkeley. To view a schedule visit http://www.arithmetickles.com/calendar/USA_Ctc.php#CA or call 800-341-3585.

spot_img

Golden Globe nominees likely contenders for next year’s Academy Awards

by Antonio Mejías-Rentas

Javier BardemJavier Bardem

OSCAR BOUND: Three Latino filmmakers nominated last week for a Golden Globe award are likely contender’s for next year’s Academy Awards.

Nominees in the acting categories include Spanish actor Javier Bardem, who is up for a possible Golden Globe for his supporting role in No Country For Old Men. Bardem is a past Oscar nominee who is considered a frontrunner in the same category for the industry’s major award, whose nominees are to be announced Jan, 22. Bardem has already picked up acting awards from the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Board of Review.

The other two Latino fi lm nominees are in musical categories. Last year’s Academy Award-nominated composer Alberto Iglesias is up for the score of The Kite Runner and Colombian singer Shakira grabbed a nomination for Despedida, a song she composed for the fi lm Love in the Time of Cholera.

Last week, Shakira’s song was included in a list released by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, with songs that qualify for the Oscar nomination. It is the only Spanish-language song to qualify this year; Jorge Drexler’s Al otro lado del río, from Diarios de motocicleta, won the Oscar in 2005.

A fourth Latino nominee was listed among Tv categories. América Ferrera is again nominated for best actress in a comedy, the award she won earlier this year for Ugly 13etty.

Given by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the Golden Globes will be handed out in Los Angeles on Jan. 13 in a ceremony to be broadcast by NBC.

ShakiraShakira

LABEL SUED: Last week’s announcement of nominations for the Premios lo Nuestro, organized by the Univisi6n network, coincided with published reports that its affiliated record label was facing three lawsuits, including two related to payola.

The Miami Herald reported that the president of Univision Music Group has sued Untvist­n Communications, claiming the parent company hurt the label’s revenues to lessen the value of his equity stake in the company.

The suit was filed by José Behar last month in Los Angeles Superior Court.

His company, Diara, owns 10 percent of Univision Music. It claims damages of $33 million.

Univision is in the fi nal stages of an auction of the music division, which it put up for sale in July.

The other two lawsuits allege Univision Music bribed radio stations to play its songs and retaliated against executives who complained about the practice.

Hispanic Link.

spot_img

Latina named first woman president of Chabot College

by Juliet Blalack

Dra. Cecilia BarberenaDra. Cecilia Barberena

Dr. Cecilia Barberena was appointed president of Chabot College after a unanimous vote by the Chabot-Las Positas Community College District Board of Trustees on Dec.11th.

“Dr. Barberena has a wealth of e­xperience in the California Community College ­system. She is passionate about our mission and the students we serve,” said Dr. Joel Kinnamon, District Chancellor.

At her previous jobs, Barberena established grants for college preparation in public schools, increased bilingual options, chaired a committee that founded a campus childcare center, and helped create a GED program. She also taught Spanish and lectured on Latin American social issues.

Bush signs education bill that will benefit Latino children

President Bush renewed the Head Start program and added more teacher training and parental communication to it.

Almost a third of the children in the Head Start pre-school program are Latino.

Under the new program, The Department of Health and Human Services will evaluate how effective current services for children with limited English are. Also, teachers will be trained for working with these children.

Mayor Newsom proposes rigorous green building requirements Newsom proposed a city ordinance that would make new San Francisco buildings the most environmentally-friendly in the nation.

About 50 percent of San Francisco’s greenhouse gas emissions are from energy used in buildings and homes, according to research by the city’s Climate Action Plan.

According to legislators, if the ordinance is properly enforced, by 2012 San Franciscans will stop 60,000 tons of carbon emissions, save 220,000 megawatt hours of power, reduce waste and storm water by 90 million gallons, and increase alternative energy generation by 37,000 megawatt hours.

City Signs a location for new Community Justice Center

In the next step for creating a center to address quality-of-life crimes, Mayor Newsom announced a location for the Community Justice Center.

The court will provide services that address substance abuse, homelessness, and mental illness, according to the mayor’s office. Offenders will meet with a public offender, a judge will review their cases, and then the court will quickly assign services and sentencing.

The Board of Supervisors set aside $500,000 for the new court, and Newsom said he plans to use it for building two holding cells and improving the new site. The city signed a letter of intent with the landlord at 555 Polk Street, and the mayor’s office said the city will sign the lease in spring 2008.

­Bay view-Hunter’s Point art and social justice high school approved

The school board sanctioned the creation of an alternative public high school in Bayview-Hunter’s Point last week.

Bayview Essential School of Music, Art, and Social Justice (BES) will be the first school created under the city’s Small Schools by Design policy.

Faculty and Administrators will teach students filmmaking and graphic arts while emphasizing scholarship and social justice, according to a school district press release.

The Small Schools by Design Program was passed in February, and gives small public schools more power to tailor their curriculums to community needs, reads the press release.

spot_img
1...584585586...621Page 585 of 621

SELECTIONS

POPULAR TICKETS

POPULAR CATEGORY

ABOUT US

Welcome to our Marvin J. Ramirez website! We are an innovative newspaper located in the heart of San Francisco. With a relentless passion for telling powerful stories, we inform our community with truthful news, insightful analysis, and compelling reporting.

Contacto: lreportero@aol.com

FOLLOW US

© Copyright 2023. AMAYCOM.NET. All rights reserved.