Nezua Joins The Media Consortium

I HINTED YESTERDAY at some news in my own life, a shift in blogular activity. The only shift is that one day a week most of my energies will be going toward a post that I get paid to make, and I get paid to create it by The Media Consortium. My position there is serving as one “arm” of a three-armed project they have going on, the “Mediawires.” In this gig, I’ll be combing their Immigration Newsladder, which aggregates all the writers (on immigration) who are part of this TMC project and then I’ll be putting together posts something like this. Those will then be picked up by a number of other sites (e.g., Huffington Post, FDL, Dailykos, MyDD, OpenLeft, Racewire, and so on not to mention Facebook, Twitter, etc) and blasted out to their readerships. (Stay tuned, immigration blogmig@s, I have a word later for you.)

This is cool in a few ways (none of which are that now I’ll be spending mad loot).

Longterm readers know that I created The Unapologetic Mexican as a response to a lot of the hateful “dialogue” that was going on about immigration (and Mexicans, specifically). I began it in May of 2006 and I spent a whole lot of hours and heart on it and it was all for free. And because I couldn’t be stopped at that point. And that’s why El Grito and the UMX vibe in general is and has been from the start, very often confrontational. Because I had it. I was full up sick of hearing ugly things about Mexicans and internalizing that. I’d been doing it all my life, and often without realizing it. And the noise rose loud enough in my own situation finally that I had to talk back. I was all about getting in people’s faces. And it was clear that my feelings, even when about “immigration” or politics, were not dry academica exercises, declawed ideas, or political biscuits, but of a very personal and often family matter.

As time went on, UMX has grown bigger and is read by more people than I’d ever imagined at the start. It’s still not a huge blog, maybe not even a “big” blog, I don’t know. I know some pretty hip people read it. And I remember when I began blogging in this way and how I simply wanted to be able to get my side of the conversation out “there.” I just wanted to be able to affect the dialogue. I couldn’t bear being bombarded by all the hate and ignorance and aggression and obvious lies and everything else—even simple spin—and feeling so passive in the face of it. Simply a receptor of all the static and harm. So the reach UMX has gathered all by itself is enough. That goal has been met. I just wanted to be part of Google Search Results! I only wanted people coming to the internet and curious to be able to find another (my) side of it. That was 2006 and in the beginning I remember the number “12″ on my feed subscription badge.

I think the fact that I know the blog has more reach now is part of the reason that the blog is less “loud” these days (though again, only part of the reason). When you feel you are just a lone voice raging against a hurricane, you scream. Since the blog began, I’ve met a huge network of people, I’ve helped form The Sanctuary, I’m part of other groups and factions fighting the good fight; I’m not alone in this. Reach? My words are read in a number of places, and my thoughts and input are definitely part of the dialogue. Hell, I’ve been flown to places just to give my input. Life, eh? So, yeah, I don’t feel I need to shout as much. Of course, I’ll still speak any way I feel is effective or warranted here in mi casa. (And that’s why you show up!)

But this TMC job is another step in this path. Don’t get me wrong: It won’t last forever, nor do I expect to stepladder somewhere massive and glittery with it. And to be honest, my best writing will be right here and so will my most open readers. My role in doing roundups is limited, of course. My editorial input is a core of the blog post and my view is right there. Pero, por supuesto, in my paid capacity (so far) my function is not really to center myself, but to craft a good framework and thread in which to weave many other writers. That’s cool, because I spend time here and there, and both functinos interweave. (Plus, I’m normally a center stage cat, and I do enjoy exercises that place me in other, esp. contrary, roles.) Cuz I’m also down with TMC’s mission. And in both places I’m enjoining la lucha, and that’s why I came out here.

I should note that I am in an interesting situation because my network of writers and information flow is sometimes wider and at times even more current than what I’m getting off of the ladder. After all, as I said, this is one of the main things I’m into over here, and I’ve come to know a lot of peeps out here! And news can fly fast (especially through twitter/twitter). So this is my note to my blogmig@s who write good stuff on immigration to please investigate so you can get your articles on this newsladder. Because I’d love to enlist your passion and knowledge and know-how and push your voice out there too, but for this purpose, I can’t go to your sites to link. If nothing else, put all your good immigration blogging on the Sanctuary (it’s easy to sign up for an account) because at the least, I know Alternet picks up the Sanctuary, and I know alternet.org is one of the sources used for the Immigration Newsladder.

Support this new project if you like, not for Nez (because I’m not sure it would do much more for me). But definitely for la causa, because increased clicks and readers and support will show that progressive dialogue on immigration is desired and in demand. More sites will post these roundups if they (or the trackable links within) get increasingly groovy traffic, and that will spread these articles further and that will have more effects, as we know how these things work….

Anyway! Here is the page for the Newsladder Widget, if you want one (scroll down for Immigration Widget). Here is the Facebook group so please join if you wanna. And below is my first roundup, reposted in full from here.

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Weekly Immigration Wire: Connecting People and Policies—From Mumbai to Arizona

It was immediately obvious this week that the Mumbai attacks would be the source of much loss and pain in India. As the US is a land of immigrants, it is always worth remembering how connected to any world event some segment of our population will be in these moments. So is the case now, and Rupa Dev of New America Media presents us with insights gleaned from interviews with a collection of young South Asian Americans in Mumbai Attacks Hit Home For Young South Asian Americans.

Living here in the United States, do you feel detached from violence in India?

Urvi Nagrani, 21, Student, UCSB, Santa Barbara, CA

Maybe I’d be able to feel detached if I lacked personal ties to the situation, but I’ve been to all of the sites that were attacked, I have family members who live very close to all the sites. I was unable to enjoy the luxury of apathy.

For those who have immigrated to the United States, this makes for a powerful overlap in causes and a unified struggle for rights here in the land we now share, as is touched upon in Asian Americans Reluctant to Stand Up for Immigration Issues.

According to The World Journal, a survey of 412 Asian Americans [showed that] 80 percent of [those polled] were “very concerned” or “concerned” about immigration. The study shows that 58 percent of Asians are sympathetic to undocumented immigrants and 52 percent of them are supportive of the idea of legalizing undocumented immigrants. About 33 percent of the Asian Americans surveyed said they would become involved in collecting signatures on petitions for immigration issues, but only nine percent said they were willing to do anything further, such as participating in public protests.

The headine positions the data as revealing a failure among Asian Americans to “stand up” for Immigration Issues, but why? Thirty-three percent of a community willing to collect signatures seems not a bad amount to this writer! Do you agree that the only way to “stand up” for rights is to “protest”?

Regardless, there is a tension in the national dialogue, there is no denying that. And if this conflict is represented in the Asian American community, that is not surprising. We see the dichotomy in many places, also represented in the discussion taking place around Barack Obama’s choice of Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano as the President-elect’s choice of Homeland Security Secretary. Roberto Lovato explores this in Immigration Reform Trapped in Political Dualism.

[N]ews of Obama’s likely appointment of Arizona Governor and former Clinton-U.S. Attorney appointee, Janet Napolitano, to lead the Department of Homeland Security only reinforced the belief that political dualism may define the Obama legacy on immigration; Napolitano has enthusiastically supported “emergency measures” like militarizing the border to “fight” the “threat” posed by immigrant gardeners, meatpackers and maids like my cousin, Maria; But she has also vetoed at least a few of the more than 75 anti-immigrant measures introduced in Arizona home to the infamous Sheriff, Joe Arpaio.

And so the political football game of immigration reform goes on, and has yet to coalesce into action which solves problems like this:

A report published recently by the Mexican Congress indicates that 90,000 children were deported from the United States to Mexico during the first seven months of 2008. Of these, 15 percent, or about 13,500 children, were abandoned on the Mexican side of the border without any governmental protection.

As noted, these are not abstract events to the communities from which these children (and others) belong. They are very real and very painful and dire. In In These Times’ The Crisis of Wage Theft, by Kim Bobo, we learn that “[b]illions dollars in wages are being illegally stolen from millions of workers each and every year.” And New America Media reminds us that adolescent Latinas have the highest rate of “attempted suicides among groups of teenagers in the nation,” and also tells of a new program aimed at helping.

Also aiming for a positive solution to much of the Latina/o community’s current needs is an article by Jessica Gonzales-Rojas called The Power of the Latina Vote. Gonzales-Rojas talks about organizing around issues important to the community because “[i]t is undeniable that the Latino vote had a tremendous impact on the election.” She goes on to inform us how much of that impact was brought about by mujeres (women), and what should be next.

Now that we have new leadership in place, we advocates, activists and organizers must rise to the occasion. We must take the momentum of this election to our everyday organizing and activism, placing women’s ability to care and provide for their families at the center of our platform. [...] What does this new era mean? What do we want for our families and communities? What does a Latina agenda for reproductive justice and immigrant rights look like?

Because the fact is, “[t]he great transformational politics of ‘hope’ and ‘change’ do not translate to tangible benefits for new immigrants. In fact, many health and career services for immigrants are cut back or all together shut down due to lack of federal and state funds.” So Diana Jou writes in the personal and fun essay Coming to America. And as David Bacon makes clear in a post on The Nationcalled Change Immigrants and Labor Can Believe In, “[a] new administration that has raised such high expectations should look for new ideas in the areas of immigration reform and trade policy, not recycle the bad ones of the last few years. The constituency that won the election will support a change in direction, and in fact is demanding it.”

But there is tension in the dialogue. John Riley of The Dallas Morning News covers the same groundbut muses that “Mr. Obama is focused on the economic crisis and may not make immigration legislation a priority early in his administration.” However, Riley begins his article with the recognition that “huge increases in Latino voter turnout” are coupled with “credit for helping to propel Barack Obama into the White House” in the minds of Immigrant Rights groups.

Let’s hope for the nation’s sake that some of the recently-trumpeted change makes its way to the communities now in dire need of it.

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This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about immigration. VisitImmigration.NewsLadder.net for a complete list of articles on immigration. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy and health issues, check out Economy.NewsLadder.net andHealthcare.NewsLadder.net. This is a project of The Media Consortium , a network of 50 leading independent media outlets, and created by NewsLadder.