by Jackie Guzmán
United States Senators Robert Menéndez (DN.J.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) introduced a bill, S3594, Sept. 25 requiring the Department of Homeland Security to follow due process standards when executing immigration raids. They charged that DHS’s enforcement actions have been so sweeping and untargeted that they have ensnared numerous U.S. citizens and other legal residents.
The American Civil Liberty Union sued DHS Feb. 27 for illegally detaining and deporting legal U.S. residents, citing the case of California-born Pedro Guzmán last year. Guzmán, 29, who is mentally retarded, lived on the streets of Tijuana, eating out of trash cans for several months before he was found and reunited with his mother in Los Angeles.
ACLU legal director Mark Rosenbaum said Guzmán was deported “based on appearance, prejudice and reckless failure to apply fair legal procedures.”
Hunger strike launched over fed. raids, immigrant rights
Compiled by Hispanic Link
Described by its organizers as the largest hunger strike in U.S. history, a 21-day demonstration begin ning Oct. 15 intends to draw attention to voter mobilization and immigrant rights.
The fast, to be launched in a ceremony at Los Angeles’ historic La Placita Olvera, will continue until Nov. 4. It calls on a million participants to recruit fi ve family members each to sign a pledge and take action to hold the incoming administration accountable “for our votes.”
A website, www.therisemovement.org, provides details to prospective participants.
The fast is initiated by Rise, a group made up of immigration rights leaders who focus on non-violent action. They include United Farm Workers union cofounder Dolores Huerta, Maria Elena Durazo of Los Angeles County AFL-CIO; the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights; Hermandad Mexicana Transnacional; Clergy; Laity United for Economic Justice; the Institute of Popular Education of Southern California; and the Korean Resource Center.
The coalition has been activated by persistent government-led immigration raids causing family dislocations amid expectation of a record Latino vote Nov. 4, says coordinator Rosalio Muñoz.
Stamp pays tribute to Latin jazz music
by Aaron Sheperd
As part of the 2008 commemorative stamp series by the U.S. Postal Service, “Latin Jazz Music” celebrates creative minds, heroes, places, institutions and values which “have made us who we are,” Postmaster General John Potter says.
The stamp was released Sept. 8 during a National Postal Museum ceremony hosted by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute as part of National Hispanic Heritage Month. Renown Cuban percussionist Candido Camero performed at the event.
The stamp was designed by San Francisco-based artist Michael Bartalos. It is an abstract depiction of a tropical evening, with three musicians playing bass, piano, and conga drums. The design express the percussive and improvisational nature of the music, and its rhythmic complexity.
The nation’s first Latino commemorative stamp, the Landing of Columbus, circulated in 1869. Since then 52 Latin-themed stamps preceded Latin Jazz Music.
Bartalos says his design was inspired by album jazz covers of the 1950s and 60s, especially those by Stuart Davis. Bartalos told Weekly Report he was also influenced by Mexican iDustrator and artist Miguel Covarrubias (1904-1957), and Guatemalan artist Carlos Merida (1891-1984) for their line and abstract work. The stamp represents Bartalos’ signature shapes and colors style.
He found, he said, “packing a graphic punch into a very tiny space” as the most challenging part of doing the stamp’s illustration.
