Telling our own story. Mexican American Digital History project

The Mexican American Digital History project is a new online effort  to collect and assemble a digital record  of the  Chicano/Mexican American history in the Sacramento region from 1940- present.  Directors are Dr. Duane Campbell and Prof. Dolores Delgado Campbell.

Our next event is -  “Telling our own story,”  Sat.  May 4, 2013.   1:30- 3:30  PM  at the  Sol Collective.  2574 21^st. Street, Sacramento, Ca. 95818.  The  directors of the Mexican American Digital History Project will exhibit our current work  and discuss this effort.  www.MexicanAmericanDigitalHistory.org   We will assist volunteers to scan and upload their materials.

We encourage contributions of news articles, written documents, and photos.

For further information contact us at campd22702@gmail.com
Photo. Safeway boycott. 1973. 

Recession and Austerity are Good for the Rich

SACRAMENTO PROGRESSIVE ALLIANCE: Recession and Austerity are Good for the Rich

Guestworkers in the high-skill U.S. labor market: An analysis of supply, employment, and wage trends | Economic Policy Institute

Guestworkers in the high-skill U.S. labor market: An analysis of supply, employment, and wage trends | Economic Policy Institute

Mexican journalist threatened for reporting on corruption

For some conservatives, Its all about Race

For Conservatives, It's All About Race

http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/columns/maxwell-for-conservatives-its-all-about-race/2116264

Author:    Bill Maxwell

Date of Source: 

Friday, April 19, 2013

Tampa Bay Times

When I was a journalism professor in 2005 at Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, a white student from the University of Alabama came to my campus and handed me a bullet-ridden sheet of standard copy paper.

It was a target that had been used at a local shooting range.
The image on the target was an enlargement of my photograph published in the Tuscaloosa News with my weekly column. Most of my forehead was shot out, and my eyes and nose were gone. The student said many whites in Tuscaloosa hated me and advised me to be "extra careful."
I was reminded of that experience after reading about Sgt. Ron King, the white firearms instructor recently fired from the Port Canaveral Police Department. He allegedly offered fellow officers shooting targets with a silhouette resembling Trayvon Martin, the unarmed black 17-year-old shot and killed last year in nearby Sanford by neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman.

The CUBA TODAY SHOW!

http://youtu.be/7HJbxVaVnDc
Video of a photography exhibit.

The U.S. Shows its Contempt for Venezuelan elections

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/22/united-states-contempt-venezuelan-democracy

Author: 

Mark Weisbrot

    Date of Source:

 

Monday, April 22, 2013

The Guardian

While most of the news on Venezuela in the week since the 14 April presidential election focused on the efforts of losing candidate Henrique Capriles to challenge the results, another campaign, based in Washington, was quite revealing – and the two were most definitely related. Without Washington's strong support – the first time it had refused to recognise a Venezuelan election result – it is unlikely that Capriles would have joined the hardcore elements of his camp in pretending that the election was stolen.
Washington's efforts to de-legitimise the election mark a significant escalation of US efforts at regime change in Venezuela. Not since its involvement in the 2002 military coup has the US government done this much to promote open conflict in Venezuela. When the White House first announced on Monday that a 100% audit of the votes was "an important, prudent and necessary step", this was not a genuine effort to promote a recount.
It amounted to telling the government of Venezuela what was necessary to make their elections legitimate. They also had to know that it would not make such a recount more likely. And this was also their quick reply to Nicolás Maduro's efforts, according to the New York Times of 15 April, to reach out to the Obama administration for better relations through former Clinton energy secretary, Bill Richardson.

Forum paper - Challenging the criminalization of immigrants

 Top-down Comprehensive Immigration Reform Proposals and Compromises Lack Intelligence, Justice, and Democracy (April 16 2013) Manuel Barajas The Gang of 8 in the Senate proposed a comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) that emphasized border security, guest worker program aligned with US economic interests, and an earned and restricted legalization path (Janurary 28, 2013). Soon after, President Obama in his State of the Union articulated a similar position, and asked congress to compromise on something he could sign (February 13, 2013). An illusion of hope was projected to the 11 million living in the shadows and their relatives/friends also living in fear of being separated from loved ones. Also exciting the public (March 29, 2013), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO/other conformists compromised on a lobbying platform that advances both of their interests. Their compromise also prioritized border security (e.g., e-verify) and permited another form of guestworkers—i.e., W visas—satisfying corporate interests and promising prevailing wages for labor. Past programs have made similar formal promises but failed in enforcing them. The Gang of 8, after listening to their powerful constituencies, now present a largely unchanged but more punitive CIR proposal that secures the border above all, permits guest workers, and lastly restricts and complicates legalization, where a great a majority will be disenfranchised and without guarantee to legalize even after 10 years of waiting.

Luis Magaña in the NYT. - Immigration

Luis Magana,  is the subject of a long interview in the New York Times today.  You can read the interview below.

By EDUARDO PORTER NYT. 

Published: April 16, 2013

Luis Magaña has been an advocate of the rights of immigrant farm workers for his entire adult life.

Economic Scene

The son and grandson of migrants from the Mexican state of Michoacán who came to California as guest workers in 1917 and 1943, Mr. Magaña is a longtime friend. He has taken on every cause, from improving dismal working conditions in the sprawling farms of the San Joaquin Valley to extracting past-due compensation for aging migrants from the Mexican government.

He has a better grasp than most people of the most ardent wish of millions of immigrants working “without papers” across the American economy.

Last week I asked Mr. Magaña, who came to the United States as a child, about the renewed enthusiasm on Capitol Hill for a reform of the nation’s immigration laws. What did migrants think, I asked, about the sudden good luck that might give them a shot at American citizenship?

His simple, straightforward response contrasts with the complex set of finely balanced, interlocking provisions in the proposal for immigration reform unveiled on Tuesday by a group of eight Republican and Democratic senators. What the migrants want most, he told me, “is to fix their papers,” gaining an opportunity to move freely and work legally in the United States.

Demands on Congress to protect immigrant rights

DEMANDS RISE ON CONGRESS TO GUARANTEE IMMIGRANT RIGHTS

By David Bacon

TruthOut  (4/15/13)

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/15788-demands-rise-on-congress-to-guarantee-immigrant-rights

        
        In San Diego, California, nine activists completed six days of a hunger strike outside the Mission Valley Hilton Hotel on April 10 -- the day demonstrations took place across the U.S. demanding immigration reform.  Hunger strikers were protesting the firing of 14 of the hotel's workers, after Evolution Hospitality, the company operating the Hilton franchise, told them that it had used the government's E-Verify database to determine that they didn't have legal immigration status.
     "The company says that E-Verify is making them do this, even though many of the workers have been working here for years," said Sara Garcia, a supporter and hunger striker from House of Organized Neighbors, a local community organization.  "But they started firing them when the workers were organizing a union."
        "I clean 16 to 18 rooms a day, and they pay me $8.65 an hour.  No one can live on that," explained Leticia Nava, a fired worker.  " I'm a widow with three children who depend on me.  What is happening is not just.  We are immigrant workers, and the only thing we're asking is to work.  That's not hurting anyone."
       Garcia and Nava accuse the company of using the government system for immigration enforcement in the workplace, a database called E-Verify, in order to retaliate against 14 women for their union support.  But they also say that the E-Verify system is used much more extensively, to fire workers even where no union organizing is taking place.

Chavez Legacy in Venezuela to continue

Nicolas Maduro

April 12, 2013

The Guardian (UK)

Venezuela has lost an extraordinary leader, but his democratic and socialist project of transformation is more alive than ever

A month ago Venezuela lost a historic leader who spearheaded the transformation of his country, and spurred a wave of change throughout Latin America. In Sunday's election Venezuelans will choose whether to pursue the revolution initiated under Hugo Chavez – or return to the past. I worked closely with President Chavez for many years, and am now running to succeed him. Polls indicate that most Venezuelans support our peaceful revolution.

Chavez's legacy is so profound that opposition leaders, who vilified him only months ago, now insist they will defend his achievements. But Venezuelans remember how many of these same figures supported an ill-fated coup against Chavez in 2002 and sought to reverse policies that have dramatically reduced poverty and inequality.

To grasp the scale of what has been achieved, it's necessary to recall the state of my country when Chavez took office in 1999. In the previous 20 years Venezuela had suffered one of the sharpest economic declines in the world. As a result of neoliberal policies that favoured transnational capital at the expense of people's basic needs, poverty soared. A draconian market-oriented agenda was imposed through massive repression, including the 1989 massacre of thousands in what is known as the Caracazo.

This disastrous trend was reversed under Chavez. Once the government was able to assert effective control over the state oil company in 2003, we began investing oil revenue in social programmes that now provide free healthcare and education throughout the country. The economic situation vastly improved. Poverty and extreme poverty have been reduced dramatically. Today Venezuela has the lowest rate of income inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean.

As a result our government has won almost every election or referendum since 1998 – 16 in all – in a democratic process the former US president Jimmy Carter called "the best in the world". If you haven't heard much about these accomplishments, it may have something to do with the influence of Washington and its allies on the international media. They have been trying to de-legitimise and get rid of our government for more than a decade, ever since they supported the 2002 coup.

Challenging the Criminalization of Immigrants

Challenging the Criminalization of

Immigrants in the Comprehensive

Immigration Reform Proposals:

A Human Rights Perspective.

Tues. April 16, 2013

11:00 Am. – 2 PM.

Redwood Room. University Union

CSU-Sacramento.

Free.

Sponsored by the Serna Center, DSA, The Progressive Alliance, LACLAA, Union Civica Primero de Mayo, Chican@Latin@ Faculty and Staff,  and others.

I do not know why this announcement has been showing up as blocked.

Immigration Forum

photo. D. Bacon.

You are invited.

Campus/ Community Forum on Immigration. Friday, April 12^th.  5:30 – 8 :30 PM. Hind auditorium.  CSU Sacramento.

Be a witness to the powerful migration stories that will frame the discussion on immigration reform.

Testimony by high school students, community college, CSU and U.C. students and community members.

 Sponsors.  Immigration Working Group, Sacramento Central Labor Council, CFA,  Campus Progressive Alliance,  Sacramento Progressive Alliance Democratic Socialists of America, Sacramento Activist School, W.O.R.D.   and more.  No cost.

Information.  http://progressiveforum07.blogspot.com

Tens of thousands of immigrants and their allies marched Wednesday in a coordinated series of protest demanding that Congress approve new, comprehensive immigration reform for the 11 million immigrants currently living in the U.S.

Support rallies were held in cities and towns across the nation- including Sacramento. 
Hoy Marchamos.  Mañana Votamos!

"Guest Worker" programs fail

By way of an introduction to the posted article on this MAPA eNewsletter, the most recent national news on President Obama's version of comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) is that Big Labor and Big Corporate Business have reached an agreement on including a guest-worker/bracero program in any future immigration reform legislation. The number of such new "braceros" could reach 200,000 annually, according to the news reports. Ernesto Galarza, Cesar Chavez, Congressman Edward Roybal, and Bert Corona are all turning over in their graves. Each in their own rite and on their own terms and at their own time fought vehemently against the old Bracero Program (1942-1964) and any form of indentured servitude represented by such programs and the inherent abuses associated with the same. MAPA was associated with each of these great leaders and historically fought alongside them to oppose bracero-type programs, and continues to do the so today. We will have much more to say in this respect in succeeding articles and post. SI SE PUEDE PERO DE VERAS! U.S. farmers, guest workers pay a price to stay legal   Employers say guest visa rules are complex and costly. Labor groups say they fail to protect workers. Fixing things won't be easy.

Chicano Education. Rudy Acuña.

Los de Abajo: The Future 

Rodolfo F. Acuña

When I told my father that we were going to call ourselves “Chicanos”, he responded “Chicano, Chicano, those are the people that hang around the parks on Sundays.” I thought to myself, “that is exactly why we want the name.” My generation did not have dreams of returning to Mexico and buying a small ranchito, we weren’t going back. So if I did not want to change my name from Acuña to Acne, I better do something about discrimination and a lack of progress for Mexican Americans here. 

In the 1950s and 1960s it was evident to most Mexican American educators that the major barrier to the betterment of Mexican Americans was the high dropout problem. The community lost billions of dollars in GI Bill benefits because Chicana/o veterans did not have the necessary educational skills to qualify for college or employment opportunities.

In 1963 Dr. Paul Sheldon’s College's Laboratory in Urban Culture at Occidental College sponsored a conference attended by 150 Southwestern leaders in Mexican American affairs. The conference reported that "The (education) level of the Spanish-speaking has increased only about one grade in the past 10 years, while other populations have increased in relatively the same proportions, the level of the Spanish-speaking is so much lower that they remain terribly disadvantaged and the gap between them and even the non-whites is fairly large. A large proportion of the population, then, is really functionally illiterate."

Creating a Viable Black Left: Sixteen Lessons Learned In Building The Black Radical Congress By Bill Fletcher, Jr. and Jamala Rogers, BC Editorial Board

Cover Story - Creating a Viable Black Left: Sixteen Lessons Learned In Building The Black Radical Congress By Bill Fletcher, Jr. and Jamala Rogers, BC Editorial Board

Excellent analytic essay. Has important lessons for us all.

March - April 6

Estudiantes locales planearon una marcha de unión cívica el primero de mayo para impulsar la reforma migratoria.
Marcha mantiene viva la memoria de César Chávez

Pardon the ad, but the video is good.  

Immigration and the Death of the Chicana/o Left - Rudy Acuña

Rodolfo F. Acuña

Prior to 1986 a clear Left voice could be heard on immigration reform. Among its priorities was that there would be no guest worker program, there would be no employer sanctions, there would be a more humane border enforcement policy, and there would be a clear path to citizenship with an absence of penalties and fees. For the most part we lost, and the only real victory was that proposals for a guest worker program died.

The truth be told, immigration reform has never been a high priority among American progressives; as a consequence, no clear vision of what immigration reform was developed outside the Mexican American community. This lack of understanding and consensus has led to the probability of compromise -- that invariably leads to a negation of meaningful and just reform.

The question has become so muddled that not even the so-called Latino leadership knows what it wants. Having been invited and having sat at the Democratic Party table as guests of honor, they don’t want to rock the boat –or like my mother used to say quieren quedar bien con todo mundo.  

As it is shaping up liberals seem committed to a path to citizenship for the undocumented, but they also seem willing to ignore the abuses of ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement), and are going along with the increased enforcement of immigration laws -- a grotesque and massive immigration apparatus that spent $18 billion on immigration enforcement last year.