ONLY ONE DAY AFTER breaking the world record for largest public Thriller dance, Mexico breaks another world record. The Largest Mariachi Band world record—with a total of 549 musicians—goes to Guadalajara, Jalisco, México! Órale!
GOOD MORNING AND GOOD MONDAY to ya, gente! Let’s begin this week with a sight that will make you smile…or perhaps make you scream. Almost fourteen thousand people in the streets of México but they aren’t marching for once. They are dancing! It’s a thing of beauty.
NEWS WITH NEZUA is a new feature, where I will wrap up the past week’s Latino-centric and Immigration-related news. I can’t promise it will be a consistent feature, though I will try my best. In this week’s news: Kennedy’s passing, White House stalling, 287(g) growing, MAPA marching, and Whirlpool Border-Hopping.
UN DIA ESPECIAL, a very special day! A day to commemorate la comunidad, people power, and El Chicano Movimiento—which surely has grown out of its 60s roots but lives on in this blog, in this bloguero, in my many compas, in all the hearts that beat and the brass that sounds and the streets that still fill with feet from Chi-town to Michoacán!
WELCOME ONCE AGAIN to your Friday Vinyl Reminda! Let’s kick off our Viernes with a short splash of sweet, sweet music as it can only be experienced on vinyl. First one to name this song in the comments wins a chocolate coffee bean that I will eat in your honor.
SENATOR TED KENNEDY’S DEATH yesterday was a blow to the immigrant community. For over 40 years, Kennedy was a fighter for immigrant rights and is remembered for many valuable contributions that moved the nation closer toward humane treatment of new Americans. His loss is made all the more stark by current White House capitulations toward enforcement and abdication of a similar fighting spirit.
TED KENNEDY has died, at 77. He was a staunch fighter for progressive issues, and you know this by how much and how easily he infuriated the GOP. For never having worked a real job a day in his life, he spent a lot of time fighting for the rights of those who do. He is remembered well.
SOME FEEL that the US legacy is stained now that revelations of torture have come to light. Sadly, I think the only people who possess an image of a previously-untarnished US legacy are those who do not possess the facts or a sense of history.
INADVERTENTLY OR PURPOSEFULLY, intention matters not: On the matter of immigration in this land of immigrants, the “Left” and the “Right” perversely both adopt (to differing degrees) a conservative scarcity-model frame punctuated with the barbs of xenophobia and/or racism.
I DO NOT FIGHT PIGMENT! I spread it over and through my brushes, or across my cheekbones, or I crush it in my palms, drag it across the cement, spray it on a canvas, splash it over a wall. But my beef is not with color, and certainly not the color of skin. An introduction, and the long-awaited second edition of the Nez-Patented Wite-Magik Attax.
TODAY WE PERUSE THE NEWS, from the War on Indians to the Games Nations Play. As usual, your host Nezua is glad to have you here and promises to dally, dither, and ruminate with great unabashed passion and hella brown pride. GO!
ONE MINUTE AND THIRTY SECONDS of vinyl and video to bring a little excellence and positive energy into your day. In fact, I think Vinyl Reminders will be a regular feature going forward. There is just something so soothing about a turntable, about a record needle. Takes me back to the earliest days I can remember.
GUESTPOST: Newsday highlighted yesterday New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s recent announcement of a crackdown on three NYC-area businesses charged with defrauding clients looking to resolve their immigration status.
PRESIDENT OBAMA cites the Healthcare debate as a reason for postponing immigration reform until 2010. In the interim, the White House is laying the groundwork for an enforcement agenda by expanding programs such as 287(g), Secure Communities and e-Verify, amidst a growing matrix of detention centers.
LIKE A FAVORITE CHESS GAME, the White House plays with its constituency, with it’s Latin@ constituency, with its pro-migrant constituency. Their actions show not a preference for humanitarian or People-centric legislation, but one for prison profits.
House of Nezua
the XOLAGRAFIK theater!
