GABRIELA ORTIZ

[pochocholo]

@santinojrivera with Los Angeles Poet laureate Luis J. Rodriguez discussing #Lowriting at UCLA. (at UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center)

[amerikkkan-stories-deactivated2]

El Mero Mero and L.A. Poet Laureate, Luis J. Rodriguez, and myself at UCLA’s Chicana/o Studies Resource LIbrary discussing Lowriting. BOOM!  

[gabriielaortiiz]

This is badass. Wish I could have attended this event at UCLA's Chican@ Studies Research Center!

[amerikkkan-stories-deactivated2]

Latino & Hispanic: Dangerous Propositions

[gabriielaortiiz]

“We are the schizophrenics of this society. We have guys walking around like John Wayne and singing like James Brown. They don’t know who in the hell they are…The fact is they are not identifying with their historical roots.” Rodolfo “Corky” González part of a speech given at Arizona State University [October, 1970]

A recent Pew Research Center “8 facts” about so-called “U.S. Hispanics” posted to Twitteron August 19, 2014 indicates that of the so-called 54 million “Latinos” in the United States, only 20% identify as such. In fact, most so-called “Latinos” (54%) prefer to identify with their specific nationality: Mexican, Salvadoran, Peruvian, Boricua, etc.

It is puzzling, then, that a mere 1,080,000 identify as “Latinos” yet the pseudo pan-Latinist identity is pushed as an accepted label onto the Chicana/o-Mexicana/o people by organizations, government, media, corporations, politicians and educational institutions from coast to coast.

It is for this reason that the very term “Latino” can be viewed as a dangerous proposition. As a term of both colonization and so-called pan-Latinist identification, “Latino” (and its cousin “Hispanic”) is a direct threat to the Chicana/o-Mexicana/o people.

For Chicanas/os-Mexicans/os, to identify with pseudo-identities and/or to have them violently imposed on us, is to lose our national sovereignty and autonomy as stipulated in several international agreements, including the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848), which ended the U.S. War on México.

Despite “establishing patterns of inequality” and a “lopsided relationship” between Americans and Mexicans, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo clearly protects the rights of the Chicana/o-Mexicana/o people and not any of the pseudo-identities, such as Latino and Hispanic “peoples.”

This fact is important yet is knowingly ignored by those pushing false identities onto us.

[ronimarz]

Visit Original Link

Rage Against The Machine - Killing In The Name

Those who died are justified, for wearing the badge, they’re the chosen whites You justify those that died by wearing the badge, they’re the chosen whites

[amerikkkan-stories-deactivated2]

Good morning. 

Don’t lose sight of what’s at stake. 

Don’t fall victim to the state playing good cop Vs/ bad cop.

Ain’t nothing changed. 

Black and Brown bodies fall victim to the state every day

killed in the name of white supremacy

Don’t forget that. 

Ever. 

[amerikkkan-stories-deactivated2]

Racism is White America’s HIV

For white America, confronting its own racism is a lot like attitudes surrounding HIV.

"Racism has often been referred to as a “cancer” on and in society. But that has never struck me as terribly apt or helpful, despite its obviously negative connotation. So I began wondering what a more helpful metaphor might be for racism and its on-going effect on many of our citizens. And for some reason, it occurred to me that many of the things we say about being infected with HIV, the virus that can lead to AIDS, are true of racism:

Many people who are infected don’t know it. Those infected by racism are largely oblivious to it. It operates behind the scenes and barely shows itself in the early stages. It can be an important part of who we are and how we operate without our knowledge. And because the system is set up to benefit us, we can easily believe that racism is something that other people get. Understanding our being white in a racist society is akin to getting a fish in an aquarium to understand the concept of water – it is simply the medium in which we swim, the reality that supports us and in which we thrive without so much as a passing thought.

It would never occur to me that I would be stopped for no reason by the police. Yet it is a reality that every parent of color prepares their children for: what to say and not say, what to do or not do, how to avoid an escalation of the situation even if you’ve done nothing wrong. It never occurs to me when I go shopping that I will be followed around the store by those paid to make sure I don’t shoplift, yet it is an everyday experience for many people of color. It would never occur to me that I would be given a higher interest rate on a loan or a higher price on a used car, simply because of the color of my skin. It happens to people of color all the time.”

—

This was another great read. The comments, of course, are volatile but they illustrate the author’s point beautifully: Many people who are infected don’t know it.

[gabriielaortiiz]

"Those infected by racism are largely oblivious to it."

[hikergirl]

Here is the link to the City Lab article and the link to the actual website, Turn On Detroit’s Water.

h/t to amomenttothink for retweeting this.

[dynastylnoire]

boooooooooooooooooost

[titotito]

Women of color in the pornography industry are paid half to three quarters of what white actresses tend to make.

Porn Stars of Color Face Racial Inequality and Wage Gap Too (via titotito)

Are we really surprised at this fact in a society that placates white pussy as the ultimate prize and puts anybody else into niches and fetish categories?

ARE WE REALLY?

(via sourcedumal)

interesting.

(via blackfeminism)

No surprises

(via cleophatrajones)

[gabriielaortiiz]

It's a Mexican tradition for the birthday boy or girl to bite a corner of their birthday cake. Sometimes the bite is accompanied by a nice shove into the cake face first. #mexicanproblems #QueLeMuerda

[thelandofmaps]

Loss of Palestinian land from 1946 to present day. [1149×695] CLICK HERE FOR MORE MAPS! thelandofmaps.tumblr.com

[alohaarabia-deactivated20201228]

A couple of weeks ago, the Algeria soccer team became a legend by becoming the first African and Arab country to score four goals in one game and qualify for round 16. Even though they lost to Germany, the Algerian game against Germany left thousands speechless. The Algerian team finished the game...

[gabriielaortiiz]

1,2,3...

Viva Algerie!

[thinkmexican]

My Stole Will Say I’m Proud of My Cultura

A few weeks ago, my younger sister became the first in our family to graduate from college. Months prior to her graduation, she was invited by the Chican@ organization at her university to partake in a commencement ceremony, where students would be acknowledged for their scholarship.

She, however, respectfully declined participation.

Declining the invitation also meant declining to wear what is commonly referred to as a “serape sash” or a Mexican graduation stole. When I asked her why she declined, she stated she did not want to be recognized solely due to her Mexican heritage. Rather, she wanted to accept her diploma as most were doing — without the serape sash.

It broke my heart because to me, wearing the serape sash is a way of letting my family and peers know that I am not ashamed of my cultura. I don’t view the sash as a marker of “otherness” or representative of a statistic. To me, the sash places an emphasis on the positive. It is colorful, bright and beautiful, and more importantly, a salient part of the American multicultural mosaic.

My cultura will not be left behind and it will not end with my parents, which is why I will proudly don the serape sash when my time to walk across the stage, and claim my diploma, comes.

I hope many other chose to do the same.

Submitted by Gabriela Ivonne, an anthropology student and former intern at Al Jazeera English.

Submit your story here

Photo credit: Dr. Raquel Núñez

[gabriielaortiiz]

Thank you Think Mexican!

[thinkmexican]

Global Call for Freedom or Slackerism 2.0?

Several Mexican organizations have teamed up to stop a proposed telecom bill that may make Mexico once again a society ruled by the autocratic PRI. Lawyers, civil and human rights activists are not taking that chance, and are turning to the Internet for help. But the campaign may be too light on details and specifics for it to be effective.

Borrowing a page from similar movements in Brazil and Venezuela, this video uses an attractive young woman who in perfect English appeals to Internet users across the world with often shocking words and images.

“Do you know what is happening in Mexico?, asks the young lady followed by a series of alarming photos and words like “SLAVERY” and “MASS DISAPPEARANCE” flashed before the screen. But the video and accompanying websites don’t provide much information on the telecom bill, nor exactly what can be done to help stop this proposed legislation. Rather, it simply asks for people to help make the #EPNVSINTERNET hashtag a worldwide Trending Topic on Twitter.

Global hashtag activism? Without being too critical, that appears to be the only thing this campaign is proposing. The strategy: Make #EPNvsInternet and related hashtags a Trending Topic on Twitter, garner likes and shares on Facebook, earn media attention in the English-speaking world — specifically the United States — that will apply enough pressure on Peña Nieto for him to give up his efforts to censor the Internet in Mexico. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.

Most information coming from Mexico goes through Univision which is partly owned by Televisa. Yes, the same Televisa mentioned in this video. Do you really think that aside from a few minutes (if that!) of coverage, Jorge Ramos and the crew in Miami will give the same sympathetic treatment that they gave the right-wing #SOSVenezuela campaign and the elitist protesters attempting to overthrow a democratically elected president in Venezuela earlier this year? If you do, you’re sadly mistaken.

The reality is that most in the English-speaking are not going care very much about Mexican Internet freedom because they do not have direct familial ties in Mexico. So to make #EPNvsInternet an effective global campaign, those in Mexico City need to link up with students and organizations who care about Mexico, specifically Internet freedom there. Who fits that bill? The millions of Mexicans living in the United States, of course. But what we’ve learned over the years is that most of the members of civil and student groups (132, etc.) based in Mexico have little regard for their Mexican brethren in the States. They seem more concerned with appealing to those in the Occupied movement, which is not surprising considering the fact that most of their members are from middle to upper middle-class Mexico City families with hardly any connection to Chicanos and migrant Mexican communities in the States. Copying the #SOSVenezuela campaign is not going to reach this target audience, and that’s where this campaign fails.

Pretty girls may get clicks but they don’t win real and substantive change. To do that, 132, Contingente MX and others need to link up with their paisanos in California, Illinois, New York, Texas, Washington, and elsewhere. If we do that, we can win.

[thinkmexican]

Oaxaqueño Youth Encuentro

The Oaxaqueño Youth Encuentro’s goal is to create a network of oaxaqueño youth in order to build support for each other. We want to open a space to exchange our culture, talent, success, challenges, and the changes we are building in our regions. OYE attempts to bring youth from different regions of California.

Visit FIOB to Register

[gabriielaortiiz]

Goodbye #Detroit #b&w

[gabriielaortiiz]

Michigan Science Center #Detroit

[gabriielaortiiz]

#Egyptian canopic jars #Detroit Institute of Arts (at Detroit Institute of Arts)

[lolmythesis]

Rocks that are next to each other in Massachusetts now were also next to each other 400 million years ago.

Geology, Amherst College

[gabriielaortiiz]

Genius

[gabriielaortiiz]

Mi lindo Michoacán: "Danza de los viejitos" or "Dance of the little old men" originated in Michoacán and was used to mock the Spanish ruling class. Hence the pale/pink face and white hair.