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This message will soon dissolve. Seeya at the new place!


The Unapologetic Mexican has been known to scribble a few things besides meandering, verbose, self-congratulatory blog posts. However, they are rarely as fun. Finally, let it be known that Nezua first dared bust out this Habanero of Truth at exactly 4:37 PM.
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AND SO IT IS that this version of The Unapologetic Mexican comes to an end. Pow, just like that. Not a joke! No es un juego! Here is one of your big announcements that I promised.

This page will remain online as archives, but will no longer be updated. The new UMX blog is here. Por favor, change your bookmarks and your sidebar links so I can still make millions of dollars from all the ad revenue that they bring me every day.

Those who have subscriptions to the RSS Feed need do nada. I have switched it over and you will not even feel a bump.

The move is explained here, and you just know we'll be chilling and waiting for you to pull up in that banana-yellow ranfla you cruise, eh? The one with the fuzzy dice and dash, baby. I hope you all show up and help rock the party out. We're on la calle and moving con fuego.

Please note there is (potentially but probably) a new format for the release of UMX: elmachete. Every week, a full "issue" of UMX will be released, containing seven(ish) posts. That will be explained here. It's not a sure thing yet, and I do want your input.

Gracias mil for comin' round these last two years and enriching the shag. You are one solid posse.

¡Saludos! Adios, todos!


The Unapologetic Mexican has been known to scribble a few things besides meandering, verbose, self-congratulatory blog posts. However, they are rarely as fun. Finally, let it be known that Nezua first dared bust out this Habanero of Truth at exactly 9:16 AM.
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MEET THE PRODIGY people are calling "the Next Mozart." This five year old girl has what is called "perfect pitch." She can hear a song once and find her way to playing it back, even complex pieces. Her name is Yoo Ye-eun and she can also sing as she plays. She was adopted by her parents, she is Korean, and she has also been blind since birth.

This absolutely blew my mind and left me in tears. The looks on the judges faces spoke my feelings, too. When she sings this song at the end, you almost feel she is channeling the cosmic awareness itself, looking out at us and reminding us of all that is good.


The Unapologetic Mexican has been known to scribble a few things besides meandering, verbose, self-congratulatory blog posts. However, they are rarely as fun. Finally, let it be known that Nezua first dared bust out this Habanero of Truth at exactly 1:05 PM.
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THERE'S MORE THAN ONE Jose Padilla out there, though probably most of them are brown folk. While not even close to being an Al Qaeda suspect, this particular Jose Padilla is a Judge. That doesn't stop him, apparently, from remaining suspicious enough to some types.

When Jose Padilla hears about the latest local police “sweep” against brown people from south-of-the-border, he flashes back to his hometown of Brownsville, Texas, and the government program dubbed “Operation Wetback.”

"I can remember the people running from the police yelling `Migra! Migra!” says Padilla, referring to the Spanish term for federal immigration authorities.

“The terror was real for all these people who had come over here to work hard for their families. It was a very dangerous time to be a person with brown skin. Like now.”
These days, Padilla is a Superior Court judge, serving in the Family Court in the courthouse complex out in Surprise, almost within shouting distance of where he once picked cotton with his parents.

He chuckles briefly when asked if he believes that local law enforcement engages in racial profiling.

“Believe it, no,” he says. “Know it? Yes, sir.”

—Cops target Latino judge who drives funky old car

WHILE I'M NOT SURPRISED that the Honorable Mister Padilla gets stopped for things like "extraordinarily bright lights" and told to repair what are perfectly working elements of his car, my favorite part is that a Latino judge plays gigs with his ovation guitar, and drives a vehicle that has "wide tires on it" that "make it look a little like a low-rider deal."

Órale, Your Honor! Órale!


The Unapologetic Mexican has been known to scribble a few things besides meandering, verbose, self-congratulatory blog posts. However, they are rarely as fun. Finally, let it be known that Nezua first dared bust out this Habanero of Truth at exactly 9:24 AM.
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MMMM! DO YOU SMELL WHAT NEZUA'S COOKIN'? It's the flava of the voting week, and that flava is currently simmering and spiceh!!! It may fade in a few, but for now, that flavor is Obama and McCain's Concern for Latin@ Issues. It also means that the "Left Blogosphere" or the "Liberal Blogosphere" is alight with talk of Immigration! Of course too much of this talk is related to electoral possibilities bereft of a moral context, and on the part of the candidates is frankly quite vague or rearrangeable from moment to moment.

Leer más de "Latinos [and Allies] Want Specifics, Not Soundbytes" »


The Unapologetic Mexican has been known to scribble a few things besides meandering, verbose, self-congratulatory blog posts. However, they are rarely as fun. Finally, let it be known that Nezua first dared bust out this Habanero of Truth at exactly 12:21 PM.
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THE FIFTH INCIDENT of Police using Tasers on citizens in Eugene, Oregon is not going away quietly.

If you recall, even the first incident of the Eugene Police Department using Tasers was met with some controversy, though only if you searched outside the quotes provided by the local papers.

My video on the tazing of Ian Van Ornum references a YouTube video (one I was made to edit out of my video due to Viacom's lawsuit against YouTube/Google).

That YouTube video is now being subpoenaed by a grand jury.

Leer más de "Shocking Police Behavior" »


The Unapologetic Mexican has been known to scribble a few things besides meandering, verbose, self-congratulatory blog posts. However, they are rarely as fun. Finally, let it be known that Nezua first dared bust out this Habanero of Truth at exactly 11:05 AM.
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THE SPIRIT OF BRAD WILL shall not be forgotten so easily. The fight for the telling and finding of truth and the placing of oneself into harm's way to do so will go on. Bradley Roland Will is a spiritual guide for this fight, and his name and cause must live on. And so it is.

Brad Will, the American independent journalist-activist shot dead more than two years ago while covering the social disturbances in Oaxaca, Mexico, for Indymedia, is to be honored as part of an exhibition in New York's Bellwether Gallery.

"If Love Could Have Saved You, You Would Have Lived Forever" opens next week, and will feature "art and objects that reference the aesthetics, material culture and traditional gestures surrounding death and remembrance." A video by Tanyth Berkeley and Todd Chandler will remember Will, who was shot and killed during a teachers' strike in Oaxaca. The depiction of his own fatal shooting was partially captured on his camera.

Will's death remains a source of controversy on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. No one has ever been prosecuted for his death. Brad's parents, Kathy and Hardy Will, who have campaigned tirelessly for justice since the death of their son, rejected an investigation into his death earlier this year which alleged that the journalist had been shot at close range.

The Wills believe that their son was shot by plainclothes government agents and have launched an independent investigation into the matter.

—U.S journalist-activist killed in Oaxaca to be honored in art

Leer más de "¡Brad Will Resurrected!" »


The Unapologetic Mexican has been known to scribble a few things besides meandering, verbose, self-congratulatory blog posts. However, they are rarely as fun. Finally, let it be known that Nezua first dared bust out this Habanero of Truth at exactly 7:39 AM.
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HERE'S A SOOTHING and sweet and short piece by un buen amigo, made possible for us to view and disseminate easily by YouTube.


The Unapologetic Mexican has been known to scribble a few things besides meandering, verbose, self-congratulatory blog posts. However, they are rarely as fun. Finally, let it be known that Nezua first dared bust out this Habanero of Truth at exactly 6:21 AM.
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YOU MAY RECALL a vlog I did recently in the service of my Citizen Journalism gig with MTV called Brutal Questions (Tazing Ian), on the recent brutal (multiple) tazing of a 19 year old student who was participating in some street-theater type activism. It was a follow up to Tazing Eugene, where I documented some of the local reaction to the first use of a Taser gun on a citizen here in Eugene, Oregon.

Viacom will not allow me to make YouTube references in these videos as they have a lawsuit against YouTube. This is a lawsuit I do NOT agree with. Nonetheless, I was bound by contract to follow the instructions, and more important than that bind, I see better ways to further the information dissemination for truth agenda and fight for these principles than making a specific stand on those edits.

Stick a tack in this thought, I'll come back to it in a day or so.

Here is the new edit. There are now blurred out images and a URL, and I did an ADR (audio overdub of dialogue) over one line, which may not fool lip-readers, but satisfied the request to edit out my aural reference to YouTube.

You can find my reasons for disapproving of the edit in the first graf of this post.


The Unapologetic Mexican has been known to scribble a few things besides meandering, verbose, self-congratulatory blog posts. However, they are rarely as fun. Finally, let it be known that Nezua first dared bust out this Habanero of Truth at exactly 10:34 AM.
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The Unapologetic Mexican has been known to scribble a few things besides meandering, verbose, self-congratulatory blog posts. However, they are rarely as fun. Finally, let it be known that Nezua first dared bust out this Habanero of Truth at exactly 7:36 AM.
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I'VE WRITTEN BEFORE OF JESSICA ALBA and I've been annoyed by her statements, and sorry for them, and at the same time, completely understanding of them. And of her feelings here in this culture, being of "mixed race" and struggling with xican@ identity.

I'm so happy to hear where she is now on this journey. And anyone who has read here for a few months, and especially since we began, knows just what I mean:

When it comes to her Latin roots, Jessica Alba has clearly had a change of heart.

Though she appeared to have distanced herself from her Mexican ancestry, the new mom is now desperate to keep her heritage alive through her daughter, Honor Marie, born June 7.

"Jessica wants to try to brush up on her language skills so that she can start speaking Spanish at home in front of Honor,” a friend of the 27-year-old tells OK!.

Having not spoken the language in years, the actress' Spanish is little bit rusty, but she knows she needs to buckle down and re-learn it for her little girl.

—Jessica Alba's Bilingual Baby

Felicidades, mamá! Big love to you and your bebe and welcome back to the Brown™. It ain't easy all the time, but it's where the best get down. You provide un buen ejemplo for not only your child, but so many of us who know how hard it is to take pride in something so many try to degrade every day. Gracias.


The Unapologetic Mexican has been known to scribble a few things besides meandering, verbose, self-congratulatory blog posts. However, they are rarely as fun. Finally, let it be known that Nezua first dared bust out this Habanero of Truth at exactly 10:28 AM.
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WHAT HAPPENS when the Aryan finally meets the Unapologetic Mexican?

That's my Mexico shirt in the reflection, or one of them. The red one. The white of his bandanna is not a sign that he belongs to the Latin Kings. It means something else here in the Pacific Northwest.

The moment! The symbols! It's almost like a storybook.

You see, I was shooting some fotos over at the Olympic Trials here in Eugene, Oregon. At one point, I was capturing some waterfall sculpture...working out a slow shutter speed so I could blur the water, and trying to compensate properly so that I didn't lose all the highlights in the brighest areas nor the details in the darker areas of the foto and someone comes up behind me and starts talking to me about my tattoos. I didn't pay much attention, I normally am sort of in my own world when I go out to shoot fotos, and "nice ink" is something that someone can say and keep walking. And I'd sort of expect them to.

But he didn't, of course.

Leer más de "UMX: Stronger Than Aryan Pride" »


The Unapologetic Mexican has been known to scribble a few things besides meandering, verbose, self-congratulatory blog posts. However, they are rarely as fun. Finally, let it be known that Nezua first dared bust out this Habanero of Truth at exactly 7:24 AM.
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A GLIMPSE AT THE MONSTROUS Demagogue Awash in Oil Hugo Chavez through eyes not immediately vilifying (an important journalist, Greg Palast):

Some relaxed Setting Strafe the Record Sunday viewing for all my homies.


The Unapologetic Mexican has been known to scribble a few things besides meandering, verbose, self-congratulatory blog posts. However, they are rarely as fun. Finally, let it be known that Nezua first dared bust out this Habanero of Truth at exactly 7:08 AM.
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A PIONEER IN CHICANO LITERATURE dies, leaves beauty in the hands and hearts of many. My father tells me "Omar was a true poet, great friend."

There were quiet times when Tío Luis fell silent, deep in thought beyond what most would understand, including his only niece, Lamar Saenz.

The thoughts racing through Luis Omar Salinas' mind were constant and profound, haunted by the specter of a lifelong loneliness and a longing for the most fundamental love of all, Saenz said.

It was from this dark place and from the memories of his childhood growing up in Robstown and Mexico that Salinas drew the inspiration to put words to his sadness. It was a gift that would make him a pioneer in Chicano poetry.

Salinas, 70, died last month in California after a lengthy illness, but it was his hope and now the mission of his family to promote the poetry that became his outlet for grief.

"He never wanted to be rich," Saenz said. "He just wanted his poetry to be known."

—Poet was an inspiration to his niece, many others

Leer más de "Luis Omar Salinas" »


The Unapologetic Mexican has been known to scribble a few things besides meandering, verbose, self-congratulatory blog posts. However, they are rarely as fun. Finally, let it be known that Nezua first dared bust out this Habanero of Truth at exactly 6:48 PM.
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NEW YORK - A police officer who body-slammed an unarmed woman and broke her jaw during a medical call to a suburban restaurant last year was arrested Friday and charged with civil rights violations.

Federal prosecutors said Yonkers officer Wayne Simoes used excessive force when he grabbed the woman by the waist, hoisted her in the air and slammed her, face first, into a tile floor.

The takedown [isn't this rich, sounds like a football conversation --Nezua] recorded March 3, 2007, by security cameras, knocked Irma Marquez unconscious [remember, it was the takedown that knocked her out, not the police officer] and put her in the hospital for four days. At the time, authorities said the officer was trying to keep her from interfering with emergency medical technicians summoned to the restaurant to assist her niece, who had been hit in the head with a bottle.

It's rather surreal if you try to play it out in your mind. No matter how you try to frame pulling a WWF move on a woman that leaves her without a working face, it's hard to make it sound sane, absent a detonator in her hand or something.

Leer más de "the operation of wayne simoes' mind" »


The Unapologetic Mexican has been known to scribble a few things besides meandering, verbose, self-congratulatory blog posts. However, they are rarely as fun. Finally, let it be known that Nezua first dared bust out this Habanero of Truth at exactly 5:33 PM.
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BAJOFONDO, a group of Argentine and Uruguayan musicians that I've pointed you to before, remains a Nez-Favorito. In fact, I was flattered that their people just got in touch with me and asked if I was interested in reviewing the new album, Mar Dulce, so they are sending it out now and that will appear here at UMX before too long.

Enjoy their flavorful, mestizolicious genre/ungenre of mixed instruments, moods, and imagery again today with this sometimes soothing and sometimes spooky track. I really love the cinematography and editing, too. (Don't know the name, though, unfortunately.)

Enjoy your evening and weekend, amig@s!


The Unapologetic Mexican has been known to scribble a few things besides meandering, verbose, self-congratulatory blog posts. However, they are rarely as fun. Finally, let it be known that Nezua first dared bust out this Habanero of Truth at exactly 10:10 AM.
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AS THE AMIGO who sent this link wrote: "Lou must be having a bad day." And just knowing that brings some sun to these gray skies.

June 25 (Bloomberg) -- More than a century and a half after Mexico lost Texas to the U.S., Virgilio Garza wants a piece of it back.

A ``Texas for Sale'' sign and cowgirls in boots and white hats greeted Garza at the Convex center in Monterrey, Mexico, earlier this month. A Monterrey developer and investor, Garza was in search of foreclosed U.S. property to buy.

``Texas is like our home,'' said Garza, 45, who joined hundreds of Mexicans poring over lists of Texas properties at the four-day event. Garza, who owns manufacturing sites and other land in Mexico, said he and five partners may invest as much as $8 million in Texas. ``We believe there can be some opportunities.''

A rising peso and an economy growing faster than the U.S. have given some Mexicans the buying power to take advantage of the housing slump in Texas, which the U.S. annexed in 1845 after Texans gained independence from Mexico nine years earlier. A three-year war followed and ended with Mexico ceding about half its territory, including Arizona, Nevada and California, to the U.S. under an 1848 treaty .

—Texas Real Estate Slump Lets Mexicans Take It Back (Update1)

Leer más de "The Realestateconquista" »


The Unapologetic Mexican has been known to scribble a few things besides meandering, verbose, self-congratulatory blog posts. However, they are rarely as fun. Finally, let it be known that Nezua first dared bust out this Habanero of Truth at exactly 7:47 AM.
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AMIGA CARMEN talks about how some pissed off Hillary supporters are stewing and planning on disrupting the Democratic National Convention and of understanding their anger...but not their cause.

George Carlin talks about how most of Feminism's concerns don't involve women of color.

Nezua is remembering when he was pissed off that Bush Supporters and Republicans were breezing into NYC to rally around the gravesite of the WTC as if it meant good things for their party and he marched with many others to block up the streets with anger and joy. And was promptly arrested and kept in the Tombs and Pier 57 for days. He is then laughing about how so many in the HillaryMania threads are framing their anger in the language of feminism and anti-misogyny...and threatening to vote for McCain.

With no mention at all of Cynthia McKinney.

And Nezua is, still, missing George Carlin.

Leer más de "The Aroma of Justice" »


The Unapologetic Mexican has been known to scribble a few things besides meandering, verbose, self-congratulatory blog posts. However, they are rarely as fun. Finally, let it be known that Nezua first dared bust out this Habanero of Truth at exactly 8:31 AM.
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