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March 30, 2006

Cinco puntos

My tummy hurts!

I got an interview today for a half-time counselor position on campus. I’m nervous. Although I’ve had three “real” jobs in my life, I only interviewed for one position. That position was almost guaranteed and the selection committee was a bunch of people I knew well.
My roommate, Isa returned from her four day trip in Philadelphia with another good friend, Gabby. She brought me personalized stickers from Hershey, PA and chocolate covered pretzels from Intercourse, PA. She also added a new magnet to our refrigerator. It reads “I *heart* intercourse.” Um… yeah.
I picked up my diploma today. The man who handed it to me said, “congratulations.” I earned my MA in June and walked in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies ceremony for the fun of it. I still find it weird that I have a graduate degree, but it’s definitely nice.
I talked to Papá Chepe today about the protests marches and his immigration history. I’ve asked him questions before and even wrote a paper on the subject. Chepe was a bracero in the 1940s and then came to work in the ’50s before slowly immigrating the rest of his immediate family. I had my staff share their stories of how they got “here” when I was working with MEChA Calmecac. I find immigration stories fascinating and a good way to get to know people. I’ll be posting about my family’s immigration story within the next few days. It’s be cool to read others’ stories as well.
Only 13 people have taken the survey. What’s the matter?

Filed under: Randomness, Familia, Amigos | POSTED BY cindylu AT 10:18 am | 11 Comments

March 28, 2006

Mil palabras: short cut

I think it’s time for a break of the heavy stuff. Plus, I’m tired of having to answer HP’s “brief” comments.

Exactly one year ago, I decided I was tired enough of all the gray hair I had (I’m not exaggerating, I have a lot for someone who is just 25 years old). I went to visit my Tía Luisa so she could dye my hair. While at my Tía Luisa and Tío Chuy’s house in Ontario, I started flipping through her hairstyle magazines and became enamored with all the cute styles. Suddenly I no longer wanted to let my hair grow long. I went for a bob and a dye job.

A year later, my hair is the longest it’s been in a few years and I’m getting that urge to chop it all off again. Let’s see if my desire for the looooong hair I had back in 2003 will overcome my desire to change something.

Filed under: Randomness, Fotos | POSTED BY cindylu AT 9:00 pm | 17 Comments

Will the marches and Mexican flags spur a backlash?

gran marcha

Ralph had more to say on the issue I referenced below. The following was copied with minor edits from his MySpace blog.

Many are worried over the use of Latin American flags in marches and of the walk-outs around the Southwest to combat HR 4437. But we must ask ourselves is there not already a backlash against Latinos?

While I understand the use of the Stars and Stripes as a precautionary measure to calm the xenophobic tendencies of Anglos, especially in the wake of a 500,000 march of Latinos that filled the megatropolis core of Los Angeles, has it come to this point in the political tactics of Latinos that we must receive approval from Anglos for everything? We seek to make them understand that we are humans and deserve rights, as in the case of contesting HR 4437, but must we also seek approval from them for the manner in which we demonstrate our anger at their vindictive immigration policies… such as what type of shirts we wear and what we can or can’t wave at a march?

As we get rid of the flags of Latin-American countries, why not be even more cautions and also hold a march in which we only speak English, better yet… how about we ask that all the dark-skinned Latinos stay home during that march so that they see many of “us” look just like them? For the naysayer, I challenge you to realize that the GOP is like 7UP, it does not like Latinos, “never has and never will.”

In fact, Americans, widely known for their “linguistic tolerance” of Spanish do not understand Latino protest language either. Within the Latino community we understand the use of flags is to demonstrate the representation of protesters by national origin. Although paranoid Anglos take every act Latinos do as either anti-American or an act of un-Americanism. In the eyes of Anglo-Saxon America, Latinos will never be “Americans”… this is demonstrated in the widespread fear of Latinos stoked by AM radio and Lou Dobbs on CNN. Many say that flags of Latin American countries will create a “nativist backlash.” Even with out the marches, the high school walk-outs, and the Latino politicians in office, Anglo-American have already created a backlash against Latinos. Not because of the flags at a march or the message of the pro-humane treatment to migrants, but in reality the Anti-Immigrant hysteria created by the GOP, AM radio, and the Minutemen from the DNC to the RNC, from Sen. Fienstien to Tancredo, from the soccer moms to the NASCAR dads, the new anti-immigrant movement is a distraction by America of its own failures.

The truth is that Anglo-America failed to protect its own democracy from the Republican Neocons and Corporatists. This deadly duo dragged the Evangelicals (Abortion Clinic Bombers) and fringe neo-nazi militia men (Minutemen type) voting blocs around by three golden words come election day: “Gods, Gays, and Guns.” These 3 words have allowed the Republican Neocons and Corporatists to plunder the coffers of the United States with a war on the world that has cost the American people plenty in terms of jobs, government services, and international prestige…. instead of blaming themselves for voting Bush & Co. into office TWICE, they do what every generation of Americans have done before them… they blame immigrants!

The issues around the Latino response to HR 4437 and the Anti-immigrant movement need not go the way of the convoluted responses generated by the Latino political elite during Prop-187. We need not prove that Latino immigrants love America, or that they enrich America economically, or even that they are law abiding citizens, the issue here is that for the last three presidential administration: Bush Sr., Clinton, and Bush Jr, Americans have allowed its leaders to embark upon a path of neoliberal corporate exploitation of the U.S. and the world. Policies such as NAFTA, CAFTA, and FTAA have decimated the agricultural-base of Mexico and Central-American, thus creating a push-pull immigration factor for those affected by neoliberal economic policies of Bush/Clinton/Bush through out the Western Hemisphere, forcing them to find refuge within the epicenter of that economic disaster called global capital… the United States of America.

Some may tell Latino youth to stay in school and learn about America and study English before they walk out to protest for the rights of the Undocumented. I scoff at those racists remarks and I challenge everyone Latino, Anglo, Asian, African-American alike to learn about the world of Neoliberal corporate globalization that you allowed to be ushered in on your watch. Look to the actions and teachings of the Zapatistas that clearly define what must be done to combat neoliberalism in la Sexta Declaración de la Selva Lacandona . We need not divisions or attempts to placate the beast, rather we need “a world in which many fit.”

“Para todos todo, y para nosotros nada!”

- Ollinkoatl (words and photo)

Filed under: Política, Los Angeles | POSTED BY cindylu AT 5:31 pm | 16 Comments

A march and a funeral

A snippet of last night’s conversation with Ralph about la Gran Marcha (and the student walkouts):

Me: you know, a lot of the commentators say that the huge turnout and waving of Mexican and other non-American flags is going to fuel nativist sentiments and an even greater backlash against immigrants.

Ralph: [laughs] like those things don’t already exist…
(Ok, I took some liberty with writing out this conversation, but it went something like that.)

The way this is playing out in the mainstream media and blogs is disgusting yet fascinating for someone who finds language and symbolism both interesting and meaningful. Just think of the metaphors used (floods, invasions, aliens, etc). Speaking of the media, Alisa Valdez-Rodriguez has a great open letter to the US newsmedia and the way they’re talking about the marches, Latinos and immigration.

There are so many voices and yet few actually make sense.

On a somewhat related note, I decided not to sleep on my first official day of spring break. While kids were walking out of high schools around LA against HR 4437, I was sitting in mass with hundreds of other people celebrating the life of Marco Antonio Firebaugh at the Cathedral of our Lady of the Angels. Firebaugh wasn’t even 40 years old yet, but liver disease cut his life short. If in just 6 short years as a politician in Sacramento he was able to leave a profound mark by authoring AB 540, imagine what he could have done with a longer political career? I wrote about the mass at blogging.la and there’s video here (NBC story). Marco’s “gift to the community” was AB 540, a bill that permits California high school students to permit a higher education regardless of their immigrant status. Marco’s legacy will live on with the students who are able to go on to college because of AB 540.

Filed under: Política, Los Angeles | POSTED BY cindylu AT 1:28 am | 11 Comments

March 27, 2006

Getting the ball rolling

Last September I whined that Blogotitlán was too big, geographically speaking.

Several of the commenters agreed with my original suggestion that we should find a time and place to meet up. EMC suggested South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin. As you may know, SXSW came and went yet we still haven’t gotten together. Several of us Cali folks still haven’t met each other. Gustavo and Nebur live only a few hours away, but I still haven’t had a chance to kick it with either one.

Last week, Oso tried to get the ball rolling again after checking out Gustavo’s latest post and the ensuing comments. So far, some of the Cali blogeros (me, Oso, HP, and Nebur) plus EMC are down. We want to see this happen, but we also want to see a lot of the other blogeros and blogeras whose words we’ve read for months/years come out to a meetup.

We’ve put together a survey to get more information on what would or would not work in terms of location and time. We hope that there will be a good number of people who will be able to make it and have people from different regions and host city involved in the planning.

Take the survey!

Filed under: Blog/tech | POSTED BY cindylu AT 1:04 pm | 11 Comments

March 26, 2006

La gran marcha

Gran Marcha

Over 500,000 marched in Downtown LA today in support of immigrants’ rights and in opposition to HR 4437 (pdf). It is the biggest march in LA history and the biggest of a series of marches around the country against the Sensenbrenner bill.

I didn’t go because I wasn’t feeling well and because I hadn’t made plans to go with anyone. I’m not the kind of person who just shows up at a huge march without planning beforehand.

People are saying that the Sleeping Giant has awoken, but I’m not convinced. There are tons of Latinos who are eligible to become citizens, but do not. There are many more who don’t vote for whatever reason. Going back to that post and the article by Sam Quiñones, I find it astounding that there are half a million Latinos in Los Angeles who are eligible to become citizens but do not.

Are our voices part of the dominant debate about immigration? I’m not sure. I know mine is absent, except for when it comes to access for undocumented students to higher education. Primary and secondary public education is protected under Plyler v. Doe (1982), but my colleagues in education are concerned that with the current anti-immigrant fervor, the decision could be overturned.

I stay away from discussions about undocumented immigration, especially online. My face gets flushed, I’m overcome with emotion and I can’t think straight even though I’ve been seriously studying all sorts of things related to immigration since I started college. The racism, hate and misunderstanding is just too much for me. I don’t think about undocumented immigration in soundbites, but that’s how it is argued in the comments section of blogs.

I don’t know if the Sleeping Giant will awaken until we improve in our educational attainment. It’s a shame that of 100 Chicanas and Chicanos who start elementary school, so many fall through the cracks in the educational pipeline (pdf). There needs to be more than 46 graduating from high school, 26 enrolling in college (17 at a community college and 9 at a 4-year college), 8 earning a BA, and only 2 earning a graduate or professional degree. Perhaps, when these figures improve, we’ll really flex our power.

(Photo credit: Ollinkoatl. For links to more photos from the march, check here.)

Filed under: Política, Los Angeles | POSTED BY cindylu AT 1:10 am | 10 Comments

March 23, 2006

Breathing a HUGE sigh of relief

Jordan Farmar I’m not a nail biter, but if I was, I wouldn’t have fingers.

I’ve spent the last few hours watching basketball. I didn’t care much about Duke losing to LSU, but was glad to see Texas win over West Virginia. Neither one of those games made me feel like I did during UCLA’s game. They started off bad. Not, it was beyond bad. I found it hard to watch as Gonzaga’s lead went from 5 to 10 to 17. But that was the first half, and as I saw on Saturday UCLA plays with more fire in the second half.

My Bruins didn’t fail me this time.

Adam Morrison might still be crying in a locker room in Oakland. Perhaps he should blame Joel (see his comment to this post).

Luc Richard Mbah a Moute provided a shocking ending to Adam Morrison’s amazing season. Mbah a Moute scored underneath with 10 seconds left and the second-seeded Bruins scored the final 11 points of the game to knock out Morrison and third-seeded Gonzaga 73-71 Thursday night to advance to the regional final.

Morrison, Gonzaga’s shaggy-haired star, made two free throws with 3:26 to go, giving him 24 on the night and the Bulldogs (29-4) a 71-62 lead. But the Bruins (30-6) didn’t wilt.

Mbah a Moute scored six of the final 11 points and got a key steal in the final seconds to seal the win and send UCLA to its first regional final since 1997. The Bruins will play Saturday against Memphis (33-3), which beat Bradley 80-64 in the first semifinal of the Oakland regional. The Tigers beat the Bruins 88-80 in November.

Morrison put his hands on his head and leaned over, overcome with emotion, Mbah a Moute stole the ball from Derek Raivio with 2.6 seconds left, fighting tears in what was probably his final game in a Zags uniform. He is expected to turn pro.

J.P. Batista missed a desperation 15-footer at the buzzer and fell into the Zags’ bench, where coach Mark Few helped him up.

When the buzzer sounded, UCLA senior Cedric Bozeman ran around the court with the ball in his hands — Ryan Hollins right with him.

Hollins and Afflalo went to help up Morrison, who was spread on the floor at midcourt. Few then came to hug the crying Morrison. (Yahoo! Sports)

Filed under: Escuela, Deportes | POSTED BY cindylu AT 9:58 pm | 7 Comments

March 22, 2006

Mil palabras: Alfred

Alfred in his Coffee Bean(er) days (June, 2005)

Normally, Alfred is a part-time Starbucks barista and a full time Cal State LA student. He’s always up for Dodger games, costume parties, hip hop shows and good meals. Alfred is like my little brother, he just lives closer and is more helpful.

Yesterday, Alfred became my personal assistant. It started when I realized that I wouldn’t have time to make or buy lunch. I was working against a rapidly approaching deadline. I had several pages to write for my preliminary findings report and was hungry.

I IM’ed Alfred. I explained my situation. I told him I’d buy him lunch too. He was down.

He came over to pick up the money, took my order and went out to get food. While he was gone, I quietly mourned the death of Marco Antonio Firebaugh and kept on working. He returned with lunch.

Between bites and paragraphs, I got another idea.

Me: Do you have anywhere you need to be later?
Alfred: I have work. I think at 6, but I’m not sure.
Me: Hmmm. Can you help me out?
Alfred: What do you mean?

I explained my predicament. I had a final exam and a report due by 5 pm. I had completed the final exam for the Latinos and the Law course Sunday evening. All I needed to do was print it and drop it off between 4 and 5 at the professor’s office in Bunche Hall. Bunche is up in North Campus, not exactly close to where I needed to turn in the preliminary findings report for my Naturalistic Observation methods course. Plus, driving to campus would make me lose some valuable time I could use writing the findings section on my seven week study of a Danza Azteca group.

Alfred, eternally helpful and good natured, agreed to help me out. He printed and stapled the law final. Then he went and got my car. He drove to campus while I worked on my laptop in the passenger seat. Once on campus, I gave him directions to Bunche and he dropped off the final. We headed back toward my office. A few minutes later, he joined me there and I had him start printing out and labeling appendices A through G. He put my binder together while I worked some more.

I wasn’t even done when he had to leave to get ready for work. I came up with another plan. He’d take my car home, leave the keys with my roommate (or, more likely, hide them) and I’d take the bus home.

Once again, he was down, and even told me I should stop by the Starbucks where he works to grab a chai latté.

You know that Beatles song, “I get by with a little help from my friends”? Well, it fits perfectly well here.

Thanks, Alfred.

Filed under: Amigos, Fotos | POSTED BY cindylu AT 5:29 pm | 10 Comments

March 20, 2006

Cold toes, finals and basketball

My toes are cold despite wearing toe socks and fuzzy slippers. Nothing new there.

I have two papers due tomorrow. One is a preliminary report for my naturalistic observations course. I’m still working off the draft I wrote a few weeks ago (because I had to).

Wish me luck.

The second is the final exam for my Latinos and the Law course. I picked that one up on Saturday from a friend (I skipped the last class when he handed out the exam). I finished it last night.

Go me.

In other news, I’m leading the HERI NCAA Tournament pool.

Go me.

We all pitched in $5 to play and made up nicknames for the tournament. I’m Cinderella at the Big Dance. At the end of the tournament, the winner will only get bragging rights. We’ll use the money to pay for a pizza party.

I put more effort into filling out my bracket this year, and so far it’s paid off. I’m really rooting for UCLA, and not just because I have them winning the entire tournament.

Go Bruins.

Filed under: Randomness | POSTED BY cindylu AT 9:10 pm | 14 Comments

March 17, 2006

Aquí se habla béisbol

I told Adrian that we would have to leave around 3:30 from Hacienda Heights in order to make it to Anaheim in time for the 4:30 start time of the Mexico vs. US game in round 2 of the World Baseball Classic.

Adrian and I have been to many games together. He’s my brother. He knows I’m not on time.

“Ay, si tú. Showing up on time? What kind of Mexican are you?” he wrote over instant messenger.

I responded, “We need to show up on time. Who is going to stand up when they play the Mexican national anthem? You know all the Mexicans are going to be late.”

My plan didn’t work so well. We were late. Gabby, Adrian, Steve (Adrian’s friend) and I arrived at Angel Stadium around 5 p.m. I think it was one of those things you see because that’s what you expect to see, but I only noticed raza walking toward the parking lot inside the gates of Angel Stadium.

We made our way to the will call window. On the way there we saw dozens of people crowding around to get into the gates. The Mexican fans wore the green caps with a red M, Mexican baseball jerseys, ponchos, huge straw hats, and tied Mexican flags around their necks so it would flow like a cape. Some people had their faces painted in red, white and green.

On the way to our seats, we passed a couple of concession stands. The TV screens showed a replay of what looked like a go-ahead home run off the right field pole. Rather than call it a homerun, the umpires said it was a ground rule double. By the time we got to our seats, Jorge Cantú had hit in Mario Valenzuela for the first of Mexico’s two runs.

In the next inning, the US anwered back with a run of its own when Vernon Wells hit a sacrifice fly and allowed Chipper Jones to score.

Mexico didn’t let the empate (tie) last too long and in the bottom of the fifth inning, they scored once again. Cantú hit another RBI and brought in Valenzuela a second time. The US took out Roger “the Rocket” Clemens soon after. Gabby and I yelled out “didn’t you retire?” as most other fans gave him a standing ovation. It might be Clemens’ last start. I don’t care, I’ve never been a fan.

The next three innings went by kind of quickly. Mexico’s pitchers made it look easy and would get out the US batters out one-two-three.

Meanwhile, fans chanted. Me-xi-co! U-S-A! Culeeeeroooooos! Gabby and I even counted how many times the culeros chant would come up.

By the top of the ninth, Team USA fans were hoping for something to keep their hopes in the tournament alive, and it got close.

With a the pro-Mexico portion of the crowd trying in vain to drown out chants of “USA,” lefty Jorge De La Rosa took over for the ninth and struck out Ken Griffey Jr. before walking Jones and being replaced by righty Luis Ayala, who walked Alex Rodriguez to move the tying run into scoring position. [Johnny Damon pinch ran for Alex Rodriguez after he was walked.]

That brought righty David Cortes out of the bullpen to face Wells, who grounded into a 6-4-3 double play on the first pitch he saw, setting off a wild celebration that featured Team Mexico saying good-bye to its fans with a flag-waving victory lap.

Gabby and I chanted “double play!” and we got it.

It was cool to see Mexico win, even if they only had a tiny chance of advancing in the tournament. The US pretty much needed to win in order to advance over Japan. South Korea was a definite because they won three games.

Mexico eliminated the US from contention in the WBC. I think it’s pretty cool that Mexico eliminated the team from the country that invented the sport. Maybe baseball is no longer “America’s pastime.” Perhaps, it has become “the Americas’ (plus Asia) pastime.” The LA Times writes, “in six games, the U.S. of Jeter, Junior and A-Rod, of Clemens, Damon and Chipper, lost to Canada, Korea and Mexico.”

Filed under: Mexico, Deportes | POSTED BY cindylu AT 3:16 am | 9 Comments

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