You are here: Home / Archives for Julito

LatinoRebels.Com Celebrates Its 2-Year Anniversary: The Best Is Yet to Come

May 5, 2013 by 3 Comments

It has already (or only?) been two years since LatinoRebels.com officially launched on May 5, 2011.

In those two years, the site has gone from a blogger collective to one of the top independent Latino media sites in the world. Like we said two years ago (next to an historic image of a Mexican general whose life and words have always resonated with us): “The Latino Rebels are a group of committed Latino activists, authors, bloggers, comedians, artists, filmmakers, and social media influentials who use satire, comedy, analysis, video interviews, writings, films, and just plain trouble-making to educate people about the life of the US Latino in the 21st century. Through our content, we will expose those so-called patriots who are quick to use ignorance and hate to spread lies about Latinos living in the United States. We will kill stereotypes with humor, insight, compassion and maybe a loud GRITO DE QUESO.” We still think our mission has stayed the same, as our appeal has grown, even though the GRITO DE QUESO has evolved into #NoMames.

emiliano-zapata-3

So two years in, and where do we go next? Before sharing more about what we plan to achieve the rest of 2013, here are just some of LatinoRebels.com’s two-year web accomplishments and analytics:

  • From May 5, 2011–May 5, 2013, LatinoRebels.com has received 1,492,762 pageviews, 1,089,712 visits, and 847,304 unique visitors. Spread across 730 days (two full years), that would average to 2,044 pageviews, 1,492 visits, 1,160 unique visitors per day.
  • If you take into account our current 2013 year-to-date traffic alone, LatinoRebels.com has gotten 549,953 pageviews, 412,294 visits, 325,995 unique visitors from January 1, 2013–May 5, 2013. This represents 38% of all our total 2-year traffic, which signifies a very positive uptick in readers and visits. The 2013 per day average is at 4,330 pageviews, 3,246 visits, 2,566 unique visits. In other words, our current 2013 traffic per day is double our total traffic since we launched in 2011.
  • Our 2013 traffic right now is 200% greater than our 2012 traffic. Our total 2012 traffic was 200% greater than our 2011 traffic, so these stats only confirm what we have believed all along: that there is a readership out there for content that reflects the U.S. Latino world.
  • Furthermore, the site didn’t eclipse the 500,000 yearly pageview mark last year until September 15, 2012. This year we passed that mark on April 20, 2013. We have no reason to believe that we won’t reach 1 million total pageviews in 2013. We are already more than halfway there.
  • While 83% of our readers are U.S.-based, while 17% of our readers are international. Interestingly, our Facebook community is 37% international and Mexico City is now our top city with the most likes, followed by Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York.
  • Our most visited post is this one: “The Declaration of Independence: The Full Text in English… and Spanish” Our most popular 2013 post is this one: “Is Uncredited Voice Behind “Con Los Terroristas” Sample in “Harlem Shake” Song Suing DJ Baauer?”
  • The list of national and global publications that have covered us or picked up our stories continues to grow.


logohibox

Yes, we always knew that there were many bilingual and bicultural people like us who wanted to beyond the typical independent Latino sites that barely scratch the surface with issues, and wanted content that was edgy but respected its readers. It was a big risk to take, but we took it, and it was all worth it: from the thousands and thousands of hours we have logged in, to the words of support and encouragement we have gotten from our community. We are here to stay.

And this year, to paraphrase the great Sinatra, the best is yet to come.

First, we have successfully launched Latino Rebels Foundation, our non-profit organization committed to funding scholarships for Latino journalism and film majors. With Andrés W. López as the Foundation’s Chairman and Charles P. García as its President, LRF is attracting one of the most impressive boards ever assembled in the Latino media space. We have already received contributors and volunteers who share in the same vision. It is early days for LRF, but I am immensely proud of the reception we have already received and the unprecedented potential of this organization. Our first two videos (one with Esai Morales and the other a “TED Talk” presentation Charlie gave in Miami on April 12) have already gone viral. That is a great start.

In addition to our non-profit efforts, the Rebeldes will also be hosting and producing its own one-hour radio show for IHeart, launching later this month. Basically we plan to take our online world into a radio format.


LRPromo1

Finally, there will be an even bigger surprise for the Rebeldes around May 17. I won’t share too many details now, just to say that it will be another venture with another global media outlet.

The best is yet to come, indeed, but in the meantime, I want to thank ALL the Rebeldes who have been there from Day 1 especially @tonytorero, @rscspokenword, @Efrain_Nieves, @charlievazquez, @bellavidaletty, @bezotes, @mr__christian, @LucyMFel, as well as those who have come and gone on to other exciting ventures, especially the fabulous @kiki416, @dominizuelan, and @rj_c . You are all part of the Original Rebeldes, and your belief in this site and what we could accomplish with it has made Latino Rebels what it is today. We have seen growing pains, we have had our critics, but in the end, “we be Rebels,” and those who have been on this journey since the beginning to those who have joined us recently (there are way too many amazing people to list, but I have to thank @salmendoza for his behind-the-scenes awesomeness), should feel incredible pride for helping us form a site and community that has redefined the Latino media space.

And of course, we would be nothing without our AMAZING readers, supporters, and followers. You make us better each and every day, and we truly love you all for that.

***

Julio (Julito) Ricardo Varela (@julito77 on Twitter) founded LatinoRebels.com (part of Latino Rebels, LLC) in May, 2011 and proceeded to open it up to about 20 like-minded Rebeldes. His personal blog, juliorvarela.com, has been active since 2008 and is widely read in Puerto Rico and beyond. He pens columns on LR regularly. In the last 12 months, Julito represented the Rebeldes on CBS’ Face the Nation, NPR,  Univision, Forbes, and The New York Times.

Filed Under: Media Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Yes, Gabriel Gómez’s GOP Primary Win in Massachusetts Senate Race Is a Big Deal

May 1, 2013 by 4 Comments

Last night in Massachusetts, Gabriel Gómez made history, becoming the first Latino to win a U.S. senate primary in a state that has rarely been known for its strong Latino population. In fact, Gómez is the first Latino to win any statewide primary. While some criticized Gómez for launching his campaign by speaking Spanish, in the end Gómez took 51% of the state’s GOP primary vote to easily defeat opponents Michael J. Sullivan (36%) and Dan Winslow (13%).

Granted, in a state as blue as Massachusetts, Gómez only garnered 88,928 votes, compared to Democratic primary winner Rep. Ed Markey, who took 294,602 votes, and Democratic runner-up Rep. Stephen Lynch (218,387 votes). Voter turnout was very low, since the state is still in a post-Marathon haze. But the rules are the rules, and Gómez won. He is now the state’s Republican candidate for the Senate. And like the Globe said today, even though Democrats outnumber Republicans by a 3:1 margin, close to 53% of all the state’s voters are unenrolled.

Gómez’s story is that he is not a politician, having been a Navy Seal and a successful private equity businessman. So in a lot of ways Gómez is like former senator Scott Brown, the good-looking anti-politician. Gómez also grew up in Los Angeles, the son of Colombian immigrants. As his bio states, “With his mother only knowing a few words of English, Gabriel grew up speaking Spanish before learning English. Like so many other new American families, his parents overcame hardships to create a better life for their children. Gabriel’s upbringing in a grateful, first generation American family instilled in him a duty to give back to his country and led him to successfully seek appointment to the United States Naval Academy. Graduating from Annapolis with merit, Gabriel began his Navy service by earning an invitation to flight school and quickly earned his wings. Gabriel served the country flying E2-C Hawkeyes and C2-A Greyhounds off aircraft carriers.” Damn. You can’t make this up.

0403_gabriel-gomez01

So, the narrative is set. Latino Republican candidate who made Massachusetts history against a career Democratic congressman who has served his constituents since 1977. While many are already saying that Markey will win easily, it is pretty clear that of all the candidates Markey’s campaign wanted to run against, Gómez was the last choice. All of a sudden, the Latino GOP candidate will get national attention. It will be really hard to peg Gómez as a member of the “extreme right,” and as the Globe writes, GOP strategists know that they have a good thing with Gómez.

“He’s a Republican, Hispanic, who comes across as moderate,” said James Innocenzi, a Virginia-based Republican strategist. “And right now the party is going after every Hispanic they can, realizing what happened in the presidential. He could emerge as a sort of marquee Hispanic candidate.”

Innocenzi added: “If it’s competitive, money will show up out of nowhere. If the general election is competitive, ­Republicans see a chance to steal a seat, and you could see a lot of money coming into ­Boston.”

Republicans wasted no time positioning Gomez as a natural heir to Brown’s upset legacy.

“You’re hitting all sevens in the slot machine once again,” said Ron Bonjean, a Republican public affairs specialist in Washington, D.C. “This time you have a Hispanic Republican who has the potential for staying power in Massachusetts. Brown won, and lost his election. [Gomez] would have the potential to stick around for longer.”

So who knows where this will go, but yeah, it is still a big deal in Massachusetts, and it will become a big deal for the GOP as well. Better Latino outreach has to start somewhere. Who knows if Gómez is the answer, but he will get noticed.

***

Julio (Julito) Ricardo Varela (@julito77 on Twitter) founded LatinoRebels.com (part of Latino Rebels, LLC) in May, 2011 and proceeded to open it up to about 20 like-minded Rebeldes. His personal blog, juliorvarela.com, has been active since 2008 and is widely read in Puerto Rico and beyond. He pens columns on LR regularly. In the last 12 months, Julito represented the Rebeldes on CBS’ Face the Nation, NPR,  Univision, Forbes, and The New York Times.

Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: , , ,

To Succeed in Political Status Objective, Puerto Ricans Must Focus First on the Forest

April 20, 2013 by Leave a Comment

One of the most overused yet effective sayings ever has always been, “Focus on the forest, and not just one the tree,” in other words, don’t focus on the one small detail when there is a bigger problem that needs attention.

That type of detail obsessive thinking has basically dominated decades of Puerto Rican politics, and it is one of the reasons why I think the island has never progressed. You see, the “tree” (or “trees”) has always referred to the creation of three political parties who spend too much time on the specific status questions surrounding Puerto Rico: status quo commonwealth, statehood, and independence. The larger “forest,” which refers to the critical push to make Puerto Rico a legislative priority on the floor Congress, has always been ignored and brushed aside, because the three political parties have spent too much time and money bickering against each other than speaking as one united voice for all Puerto Ricans.

Puerto-rico-culture

It looks like the “forest” is starting to get noticed. Case in point, this week New York Rep. José Serrano (D) said some very important things at a committee hearing in Congress, when Attorney General of the United States Eric Holder was talking about the Department of Justice’s budget and how $2.5 million is being considered for another plebiscite on the island.

Serrano gets it. The most important thing right now is to focus on the bigger issue: that Puerto Ricans no longer favor the current status quo commonwealth, and that the political limbo needs to stop. Now.

Like Serrano said, “After 115 years, it is time to resolve the political status of Puerto Rico. As I said it is of great interest to the 4 million who live on the island and to the 4+ plus million who live throughout the 50 states.”

I am wondering who else will join Serrano to push for that instead of pushing for specific status options. I am still waiting for New York’s Nydia Velázquez (D), Illinois’ Luis Gutiérrez (D), and Idaho’s Rául Labrador (R) to join forces with Serrano and create a “Gran Combo del Congreso” (which would sound so more cooler than “Gang of Eight”). These four elected officials of Puerto Rican descent can actually vote, unlike Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi. There is no reason that these voices in Congress cannot take the lead and speak for 8+ million Puerto Ricans living on the island and the mainland combined.

Right now, all 8+ million Puerto Ricans should be working in getting a binding “one-time and that’s it” plebiscite that gives voters two options: statehood or independence. The time for fuzzy status options that play to the political interests of different parties is over. I truly believe that if we as Puerto Ricans do not put Puerto Rico first, we will be failing ourselves.

So to the status quo—the island’s pro-commonwealth party—it is time to change, and change now. The current system no longer works in the 21st century. It is colonial in nature. Stop defending it, I am sure Muñoz won’t mind.

To the pro-statehood advocates, don’t focus on statehood until you focus on a binding two-option vote. You are more than welcome to campaign for statehood AFTER this very vote is formalized and ready to be enacted. Then you can campaign all you want, but right now, pushing for statehood is only old-school short-sighted politics.

To the independence supporters, wake up. Transform your narrative, and quickly, before you vanish from the dialogue. This is no longer the 60s, there are many who still believe in an independent Puerto Rico but want to see it placed within a modern and democratic system. Imagine if you took the lead to make this vote binding and portray a united Puerto Rico. Imagine if you were proactive instead of reactive. That would get attention.

This is not complicated. It has only gotten complicated because the island’s political parties have generated a status-driven atmosphere that continues to chop away at the trees. If that is the path we choose, soon enough, there will be no forest because all the trees would disappear.

There is still a chance to save the forest. Call your elected officials right now, and demand that Puerto Rico become a priority. 115 years is enough.

***

Julio (Julito) Ricardo Varela (@julito77 on Twitter) founded LatinoRebels.com (part of Latino Rebels, LLC) in May, 2011 and proceeded to open it up to about 20 like-minded Rebeldes. His personal blog, juliorvarela.com, has been active since 2008 and is widely read in Puerto Rico and beyond. He pens columns on LR regularly. In the last 12 months, Julito represented the Rebeldes on CBS’ Face the Nation, NPR,  Univision, Forbes, and The New York Times.

Filed Under: News, Politics, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , ,

The Troubling Study on U.S. Latinos CNN Didn’t Want You to See

April 11, 2013 by 10 Comments

EXCLUSIVE: Download findings here.

It is a study that CNN declined to broadcast to the public: a 2012 Hill+Knowlton (H+K) Strategies online survey for the Latino Donor Collaborative (LDC), which concluded that a vast majority of non-Latino Americans have highly skewed and racist perceptions of U.S. Latinos.

The numbers are startling.

For example, one-third think that more than half of the country’s Latinos are undocumented and nearly 80% of non-Latino Americans think Latinos are involved in crime and gang activity.

Udocumented9

The report —prepared by Research+Data Insights, H+K’s research division— produced such extremely negative findings about U.S. Latinos, that both H+K and the LDC worked to get CNN to exclusively broadcast the data in May 2012. After two weeks passed, CNN declined to run the data because at the time CNN had policies against publishing results from online surveys, regardless of methodological rigor.

In response to several questions submitted to CNN about why the news network decided to not share the study with the public, a CNN spokesperson said:

We are offered opportunities to participate in things like this with some regularity.  Some we move forward with, some we do not.  It’s unfortunate they [the LDC] have chosen this tactic to get publicity for a poll that clearly they couldn’t find a home for anywhere.

The report was shared with only one other national outlet in early June 2012, but the findings were never broadcast because that outlet was planning to conduct a similar initiative during the 2012 election cycle.

Undocumented11

H+K and the LDC decided to create a synopsis of the findings and sent it, including the full report, to Latino Rebels. Charles P. García, a CNN contributor and LDC founding member, also released the synopsis (download here) this week at Hispanicize 2013, with the hope that the study can be discussed and shared with print and broadcast journalists attending the event.

“It’s actually real news that CNN didn’t consider it news that most Americans believe Latinos are criminals,” said García. “Perhaps some executives there are so desensitized with the likes of Lou Dobbs on CNN’s airwaves for so long, with his well-documented hate speech and conspiracy theories against Latinos, that they didn’t consider it news.”

The H+K study consisted of “an online survey among a representative sample of 1,500 non-Hispanic registered voters in the United States between March 15 – 21, 2012.” The company also conducted “two focus groups in each of four U.S. cities” (Phoenix, Houston, Charlotte, and Chicago). According to H+K, “one group in each of the four cities was conducted among lower-to-middle socio-economic status Anglo-Americans and the other group in each of the four cities was conducted among middle-to-upper socio-economic status Anglo-Americans.”

Online surveys are starting to become more standard procedure than the exception. After the presidential election last year, Steven Shepard of The National Journal addressed the issue. Superstar presidential pollster Nate Silver also concluded that online surveys were more accurate during the presidential election than traditional polling.

Nonetheless, many media outlets still question the methodology of online polls. As Shepard wrote:

Despite Silver’s findings, The New York Times‘ polling standards do not permit reporting of online polls because participants for these surveys are not randomly selected, and roughly one-in-five Americans lack Internet access. “In order to be worthy of publication in The Times, a survey must be representative, that is, based on a random sample of respondents,” according with the Times‘ policy, which was shared with National Journal. “Any survey that relies on the ability and/or availability of respondents to access the Web and choose whether to participate is not representative and therefore not reliable,” the policy reads.

David V. Iannelli, President-Global for Research+Data Insights, said his company’s decision to go with an online approach for the LDC survey aligned well with studies that focus on sensitive topics.

“There are benefits to online public opinion research methodologies,” Iannelli said, “particularly when it comes to sensitive issues such as race, ethnicity and sex about which respondents may be less comfortable revealing their true opinions to a live interviewer.

134750977-Hill-and-Knowlton-Strategies-Key-Findings-of-Hispanic-Issues-Research

The H+K/LDC synopsis presented three major conclusions:

  1. The majority of non-Hispanics overestimate the proportion of Hispanics in the US who are illegal immigrants.
  2. Misperceptions about illegal immigration amplify anxieties around negative issues.
  3. Non-Hispanic Americans do admire Hispanic traits, but positive messages are rarely captured in media coverage.

The initial findings that most non-Latino Americans have greatly exaggerated views about the number of undocumented Latinos living in the U.S. and associate Latinos with crime and gang-related activity are only two alarming findings from the research. Here are other examples:

  • 75% overestimate the proportion of Latinos who are in the US unauthorized.
  • More than 80% of non-Latino respondents associate Latinos with NOT having learned to speak English.
  • Nearly 80% think Latinos are a burden on the health care system.
  • 70% think Latinos are a burden on the education system.

In addition, the study also focused on how the media covers Latino issues. It concluded the following:

  • Among Latino issues covered by the media, the issue of immigration and the U.S.-Mexican border has he highest volume of negative coverage, with nearly twice the volume of the leading positive issue.
  • Even though the vast majority of non-Latinos associate Latinos with strong family structure, religious values, and being “hard-working,” these positive messages are rarely captured in the media.

It will be hard to dismiss what one of the world’s most respected global brands found in a study that is extremely relevant to the U.S. Latino population and the gross misperceptions it still has to overcome.

“Latinos are not criminals,” said García. “We are an integral part of America, making up the millions of teachers, soldiers, nurses, doctors, firemen and police officers who serve and protect us every day. It’s time for our community, which has the power to tip an election, to aggressively protect our brand.”

***

Julio (Julito) Ricardo Varela (@julito77 on Twitter) founded LatinoRebels.com (part of Latino Rebels, LLC) in May, 2011 and proceeded to open it up to about 20 like-minded Rebeldes. His personal blog, juliorvarela.com, has been active since 2008 and is widely read in Puerto Rico and beyond. He pens columns on LR regularly. In the last 12 months, Julito represented the Rebeldes on CBS’ Face the Nation, NPR,  Univision, Forbes, and The New York Times.

Filed Under: Media Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Felix Arroyo Makes History in Boston Mayoral Race and No One Can Kill My Buzz

April 10, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Originally published at juliorvarela.com

There are so many feelings going through my head after news that Boston City Councilor Felix G. Arroyo announced his candidacy for mayor, making him the first Latino in the city’s history to run for this post.

The strongest feeling, of course, is one of pride and joy. Arroyo is a Boston boricua, the son-in-law of Hector Luis Acevedo, a former mayor of San Juan. Having lived and worked in my adopted home city since 1986, yesterday’s announcement marked another turning point that Boston is indeed a changing city, one that is changing for the better.

0409_arroyo-headshot

Felix Arroyo

I have rarely felt like this during my time in the self-proclaimed Hub of the Universe, since to me, Boston has always been a city of separate neighborhoods that rarely get connected. The city’s ugly racial past of the 1970s, based on a failed social experiment, lingered for a while—yes, even on the Harvard campus in the mid-1980s. There was this unspoken rule in Boston that the city’s neighborhoods should never mix. The city was segregated: Bostonians would converge in the city’s downtown center for work each day, but when it was time to go home, different groups of people when to their different neighborhoods. Don’t cause any problems. Just know your place.

That image of Boston, of course, has changed, especially with the city’s perceptions of Latinos. I have always credited this to the Red Sox. I have been going to Fenway Park since 1986, and as much as I have always loved it, I truly fell madly in love with it when Pedro Martínez started pitching for the team in the late 1990s. The atmosphere whenever Pedro pitched was magical, but it also brought out so many fans who would have never gone to a Red Sox game before Pedro pitched. Spanish conversations became more common in the stands, Dominican flags flew, and when I heard 440′s “Guavaberry” over the stadium’s speakers for the first time, I knew that a another real part of the city, one that was rarely seen inside one of the city’s most beloved gathering places, was starting to show up.

Then, David Ortiz became a legend in 2004, and all of a sudden it was cool to be Latino in Boston. The Big Papi Effect did more for Boston Latinos than almost anything else. We had arrived.

Arroyo’s news is just the latest example. Boston’s Latino population continues to grow rapidly, and it is part of the reason that Boston is now a “majority-minority city,” which means that “53 percent of residents are of a non-white race/ethnicity.” I do believe that Arroyo will attract new Latino voters, no doubt. But don’t take my word for it, I will let my good friend and fellow WGBH Radio contributor Marcela García explain. Last night, Marcela talked Arroyo on WGBH’s “Greater Boston” show.

Arroyo’s bid matters. Is it on the same level as when the city’s Irish population earned their political stripes at the turn of the century, culminating in the mayoral reign of James Michael Curley? I would argue yes. Granted, Arroyo might not win this year (it is going to be a tough race), but if Boston Latinos want to be part of the city’s political structure, they need to start somewhere. Arroyo could be that.

Yes, Marcela is right that Arroyo would be the first person to shun the “first Latino candidate” label, but he will still energize people. And the other guest who disagreed with her, Jarrett Berrios (coincidentally a Harvard classmate of mine), misses the point. The city now had its first Latino candidate for mayor and Latino voters should just worry about the issues and think beyond ethnicity politics? Sorry, Jarrett, that argument doesn’t work. You seriously don’t think that ethnicity politics no longer occurs in Boston? Do I need to bring you to a South Boston union hall to show you that it still does?

Sure, Arroyo still has to prove himself, but let’s put this all into perspective. This is history.

“I am a son of Boston. I love my city. I love Boston. I believe in ­Boston because I know that by working together we can and we will move Boston forward.”

Spoken like a true Bostonian. Who also happens to be Puerto Rican and Latino. To me, that is a winning combination, and no one can kill my buzz this morning.

***

Julio (Julito) Ricardo Varela (@julito77 on Twitter) founded LatinoRebels.com (part of Latino Rebels, LLC) in May, 2011 and proceeded to open it up to about 20 like-minded Rebeldes. His personal blog, juliorvarela.com, has been active since 2008 and is widely read in Puerto Rico and beyond. He pens columns on LR regularly. In the last 12 months, Julito represented the Rebeldes on CBS’ Face the Nation, NPR,  Univision, Forbes, and The New York Times.

Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: , , , , ,

Why Did Deportation Case of German Homeschooling Family Get Santorum’s Attention and Make ABC News?

April 5, 2013 by 4 Comments

I will be honest with you: I did a major double-take when the Facebook page of Rick Santorum posted the following plea this afternoon:

Santorum

Yes, the same Rick Santorum who said this at a Republican presidential debate:

Q: [to Santorum]:We heard from Gov. Romney, that self-deportation, or illegal immigrants leaving the country voluntarily, is a possible solution.

SANTORUM: I actually agree with Governor Romney. The bottom line is that we need to enforce the laws in this country. We are a country of laws. My grandfather came to this country because he wanted to come to a country that respected him. And a country that respects you is a country that lives by the laws that they have. And the first act when they come to this country, is to disobey a law, it’s not a particularly welcome way to enter this country. We have to have a country that not only do you respect the law when you come here, but you respect the law when you stay here. And people who have come to this country illegally have broken the law repeatedly. If you’re here, unless you’re here on a trust fund, you’ve been working illegally.

Source: CNN 2012 GOP primary debate on the eve of Florida primary , Jan 26, 2012

Santorum’s Facebook post led to a link from a national homeschooling association that is petitioning the White House to save the Romeike family from deportation. There is also a plea from an executive for Focus on the Family:

Focus on the Family Executive: Homeschool Asylum Case “Critical”
Thursday, April 4, 2013

Focus on the Family spokesman and Truth Project founder Dr. Del Tackett yesterday declared his support for HSLDA’s efforts to defend the Romeike family. Tackett believes that the U.S. government is siding with the restrictive homeschooling laws in Germany and that this could have serious implications for American homeschoolers.

“[The U.S. government] doesn’t believe that parents have a right to educate their children,” Tackett said. “It is more in line with the National Education Association that homeschooling shouldn’t be allowed. It believes that the government can best educate ‘America’s children.’ It doesn’t want another worldview taught in this country. It wants America’s children to have one worldview and one worldview only.”

In 2008, the Romeikes fled their home in Germany after facing fines and jail time and came to the U.S. seeking asylum, but now, the Obama Administration is opposing their quest for asylum by saying homeschooling is too vague and amorphous to be protected under asylum law. Their case is now set to be argued in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals on April 23 by HSLDA Chairman Mike Farris.

In addition to representing the family in court, HSLDA has also launched a petition on WhiteHouse.gov calling on the Obama Administration “grant full and permanent legal status to Uwe and Hannelore Romeike and their children.”

Now, when I saw the word “asylum,” I thought that the Romeikes were fleeing from serious political and religious persecution in Germany. Were they lives and beliefs being threatened? Then I read the letter again. I also checked out an ABC News story that ran on March 31:

A German family that fled to the United States in 2008 to be free to homeschool their children is fighting deportation after a decision granting them asylum was overturned.

Uwe and Hannelore Romeike, devout Christians from the southwest of Germany who now have six children, initially took their three oldest children out of school in their native country in 2006. Shortly after, the German government started fining the family and threatening them with legal action.

Home schooling has been illegal in Germany since 1918, when school attendance was made compulsory, and parents who choose to homeschool anyway face financial penalties and legal consequences, including the potential loss of custody of their children.

To escape such legal action, the family fled to the United States in 2008 and was granted political asylum in 2010, eventually making their home in Tennessee. U.S. law states that individuals can qualify for asylum if they can prove they are being persecuted because of their religion or because they are members of a particular “social group.”

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement challenged the decision to grant the Romeikes asylum to the Board of Immigration Appeals in 2012, claiming that Germany’s stringent policy against homeschooling did not constitute persecution.

The Romeikes were doing what they believed is right, as any parent would. They were doing this for their children, and they would be willing to break the law and risk the consequences of entering a country illegally to give them the freedom to teach and raise their children they way that they want to.

It is an admirable and inspiring narrative, one that plays every day in this country. Yet the Romeikes make ABC News. What about these names: Montaño, Arreola, Arma, and so many others who aren’t named Romeike? Where were the major news cameras during those cases? Where was Rick Santorum? Or all those people who keep saying “illegal is illegal,” calling those who enter this country illegally “criminals,” but are now signing a “Don’t Deport the Romeikes” White House petition? Why the outrage now?

CREDIT: Hispanically Speaking News

CREDIT: Hispanically Speaking News

The Romeikes are not threatening anyone, there are yet another low-priority case that has been tossed into the crucible of deportation proceedings. Their case speaks to how broken our immigration system truly is. Yet does anyone else see the irony that the people supporting the Romeikes have no problem asking the White House to ask for “permanent and legal status,” but are ready to send those who don’t come from Germany back home? You know, the “criminals” who crossed border “illegally”, instead of fleeing to the United States? (Did you notice that the ABC News piece doesn’t even mention the word “illegal” in this specific case or that it doesn’t even say that the Romeikes committed an “illegal act?” They just “fled.” I wonder why.) When one of the Latino Rebels admins addressed this very same double standard on Twitter tonight, a few of the profiles who were telling the Rebels earlier today that we supported amnesty for the “illegals,” had to pause for a second. You want to deport the Romeikes, too? The Twitter-jerk reaction wasn’t as swift.

The Romeike case is just one of thousands of similar stories of real people with real faces. People like Rody Alvarado Peña:

[She] came to the United States from Guatemala in 1995 after suffering vicious abuse at the hands of her husband for more than a decade. At age 16, Alvarado Peña had married a career soldier who raped and beat her, broke mirrors over her head, caused her to miscarry, and beat her unconsciousness. Divorce was impossible without her abusive husband’s consent, and with no shelters or other supports available, Alvarado Peña fled to the United States. She was granted asylum in 1996, but in the years since immigration courts have made conflicting rulings that left her in limbo.

Or these undocumented individuals from Mexico that CNN reported about in 2011:

The man was a Mexican immigrant who had been living in the United States illegally for several years. He was also deaf.

He abandoned Mexico to flee what he called persecution. He said he was socially ostracized, targeted by police. The abuse was too much to bear.

So now he was in California, and had already been ripped off once as he tried to seek asylum in the United States.

“He just stole my heart,” Bajramovic said of the immigrant.

It only took that initial short conversation to realize that “the situation in Mexico is very severe. I realized that there was persecution.”

Bajramovic took his case.

Then the next week, there were more phone calls to her office from deaf immigrants who had entered the country illegally looking for asylum.

As of this week, Bajramovic has had 30 deaf immigrants complete asylum interviews with the pertinent authorities, and has another 30 such clients awaiting their turn. They come from several countries, though the majority are from Mexico.

According to Bajramovic, these are the first petitions for asylum by deaf people on the grounds that they are persecuted for their disability. No rulings have been made in any of the novel cases, but critics say that they represent a perversion of the original intent of asylum law. While these types of cases are new, immigrants have long tested the boundaries of what merits persecution for the purposes of remaining legally in the United States.

So these are the “illegal invaders” the nativists fear?

Maybe, just maybe, the Romeike case will help to change a few people’s perceptions about the myths surrounding the undocumented. Maybe Santorum will start posting other pictures of other families who are facing deporting right now. Ok, I seriously doubt that, since it is clear to me that certain immigration narratives will never play well in certain circles, even when those circles decided to look away from their own anti-immigrant rhetoric towards those undocumented they selectively chose to exhibit compassionate for. Imagine if we did this for every undocumented family out there, those just like the Romeikes, who are just trying to do the best for their families, even if it means breaking an unjust law. Then change would certainly occur.

PS to Senator Santorum: whenever you need more pictures of families facing the tragedy of deportation every day, just like the Romeikes, let me know and I will send you them to you? A move like that would get my attention. In the meantime, stay hypocritical.

***

Julio (Julito) Ricardo Varela (@julito77 on Twitter) founded LatinoRebels.com (part of Latino Rebels, LLC) in May, 2011 and proceeded to open it up to about 20 like-minded Rebeldes. His personal blog, juliorvarela.com, has been active since 2008 and is widely read in Puerto Rico and beyond. He pens columns on LR regularly. In the last 12 months, Julito represented the Rebeldes on CBS’ Face the Nation, NPR,  Univision, Forbes, and The New York Times.

 

Filed Under: Immigration Nuttiness, Injustice, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , ,

Will Yoani Sánchez’s “Rainbow Tour” Bring Cuba Into the Social Media Age?

April 3, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Of all the stories and accounts that I have read the last few weeks about the U.S. tour of Cuban dissident blogger and Twitter rockstar Yoani Sánchez, this tidbit from The Florida Center for Investigative Reporting (FCIR) says it all for me:

Cubans must pay as much as $6 to $12 per hour to access the Internet, which [Sánchez] regards as “an act of censorship in itself.”

Even tweeting is expensive — $1.10 per tweet, meaning that Sanchez’s nearly 16,000 tweets have cost more than $17,000.

I don’t even want to think how much my Twitter bill would be if I were tweeting from Cuba, but the fact that Sánchez has to pay that much for tweets does raise questions about her transparency as a blogger and social media titan. A 2009 piece for Monthly Review titled “The Contradictions of Cuban Blogger Yoani Sanchez” by Salim Lamrani is pretty scathing and well-sourced, and I am surprised that the many unanswered questions and accusations listed in that piece still linger in 2013, while very little is being mentioned in the mainstream U.S. press about it: just read the latest from The Miami Herald, The New York Times, or catch today’s Live Tweet event with Sánchez and Univision’s Pamela Conde.

yoani-sanchez

Sánchez’s critics clearly underestimate the power of social media and Sánchez’s rise to international fame. However, even with an active and engaged social media community, I still wonder how a page like Sánchez’s gets over 15 million hits a months and is translated in over 20 languages. There is that much organic global interest in toppling the Cuban government?

You would think that Sánchez would just write a definitive STFU blog post silencing her critics for good, and not just say that it is all part of the Cuba government’s efforts to discredit her. The critics are still out there and they aren’t going away. Nevertheless, what we see are others coming to her defense, as this HuffPost opinion piece by Coco Fusco, Co-organizer of The Revolution Recodified: Digital Culture and the Public Sphere in Cuba, states, describing Sánchez’s encounter with a small group of  protesters in New York:

To [Sánchez's] credit, she also responded calmly to many of her opponents’ questions, explaining that she recognizes the limits as well as the benefits of the internet-based movement that she leads; that she visits the U.S. Interests Section to obtain visas just as Cuban officials seeking to travel do; that the translations of her writings into multiple languages are produced by volunteers; that she makes a living from her publications and does not receive funding from the U.S. government; and that she understands her role as an independent journalist to be that of a critical conscience, rather than a promoter of official Cuban policy. Even though the conference organizers explained that Sánchez’s trip to New York was paid for by The New School and NYU, and even though her English translator MJ Porter detailed how the international team of translators had been formed, the protestors continued to accuse her of being a mercenary financed by the CIA, as if repeating unsubstantiated accusations would somehow make them true.

While it is not possible to prove that Sánchez’s protestors in New York took orders from Havana, it does appear that they do not perceive the contradiction involved in exercising their right to express alternative views in order to discredit Sánchez’s attempts to do the same in her own country. The protestors’ raucous behavior was somewhat comic, but sadly, their questions bespeak commonly held assumptions among American progressives about Cuba, Cuban dissidents and Cuban exiles. All too often, progressive Americans maintain their unflinching support of Cuba as an expression of their critical views of U.S. policy, not because of their understanding of Cuban society. Rather than renouncing their political ideals, they seek to silence the messengers who deliver a very different picture of life in Cuba as it is lived, not prescribed by a political apparatus. Unfortunately, the Cuban government makes matters worse through its hegemonic control over academic organizations that support Cuban studies abroad, and by instilling fear in Cuban studies scholars outside Cuba that public criticism of the Revolution will result in their being denied entry to the island. Recent posts from Cuba on government-sponsored blogs raised the issue of whether the presence of Sanchez and fellow blogger Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo on American campuses might have an adverse effect on academic exchange projects between Cuban and U.S. institutions; the very act of releasing such questions can have a chilling effect on public debate about Cuba beyond its borders.

Ardent Cuba-supporters’ tirades against Cubans who publicly expresses criticism of the Cuban Revolution not only mirror the repressive tactics the Cuban government uses to discredit its internal opposition, but also deny Cubans agency as thinking subjects. As Sanchez herself put it, how could it be possible for Cuba to be the only country in the world with a citizenry that agrees with everything that its government does? Might it not be reasonable for Cuban exiles, who send billions of dollars to their island relatives and who function as de facto wholesale suppliers for Cuban small businesses, to have their views be treated with respect too? Don’t Americans deserve access to the diversity of views that exist among Cubans inside and outside Cuba? As a Cuban-American who has conducted research on Cuban culture for three decades, I have had to contend with intimidation from extreme right Cuban exiles, pro-Cuba leftists in the U.S. and Cuban state security because I refuse to stay inside the ideological sandbox created by the Cold War. I find it quite heartening now to witness how Cubans from across the political spectrum are beginning to open themselves to peaceful dialogue with each other thanks largely to the work of writers such as Yoani Sánchez who are creating virtual forums for a plurality of views about Cuba to be shared with the world.

And once in while you will see Sánchez answer her critics, but the response seems lukewarm at best. If you are going to go after your detractors, then do it. Sánchez’s biggest point —that she wants the U.S. embargo on Cuba to be lifted— contradicts the views of those who want to maintain current U.S. policy forever. That is her biggest chip. If she were a puppet of the right-wing extreme, why say that the embargo has to be lifted?

There is also the theory is that Sánchez’s visit is being encouraged by the Cuban government.

Political calculations aside, experts say that the decision to let Ms. Sánchez and other critics travel is a sign of opening on the part of the regime. Ms. Sánchez’s trip “is the biggest sign of the change in Cuban policy so far,” said Philip Peters, a Cuba expert at the Lexington Institute in Virginia. “She’s the person with the most notoriety who has benefited” from the relaxed rules, he added.

That is why this is all complex. You have many issues going back and forth, with people insisting that this is all part of a CIA master plan to overthrow the Cuban government, while others believing that Sánchez has just taken advantage of a powerful digital arena that has been known to topple governments.

Yet this week’s current Miami lovefest for Sánchez reminds me a bit about a “Rainbow Tour.” Something feels too perfect here. No one is asking her the tough questions, outside of protesters who get scolded for being raucous. At least, so far.

You see, social media is all about transparency and honesty. Those who use it for any other reason will eventually be exposed. Sánchez would benefit a lot right now from being more transparent about what she does and why she does it. Show more proof about her independence. The same can be said about the Cuban government. Social media can actually bring more diverse voices into the fold. That should be the goal of that. Why is everyone so afraid of that?

***

Julio (Julito) Ricardo Varela (@julito77 on Twitter) founded LatinoRebels.com (part of Latino Rebels, LLC) in May, 2011 and proceeded to open it up to about 20 like-minded Rebeldes. His personal blog, juliorvarela.com, has been active since 2008 and is widely read in Puerto Rico and beyond. He pens columns on LR regularly. In the last 12 months, Julito represented the Rebeldes on CBS’ Face the Nation, NPR,  Univision, Forbes, and The New York Times.

Filed Under: Media, News, Politics Tagged With: , , , ,

Google Honors César Chávez on March 31 Doodle and Christians Think World Has Ended

March 31, 2013 by 4 Comments

The craziness continues.

UPDATE: Some people thought that this entire fuss was about the late Hugo Chávez. Seriously.

UPDATE: Google has responded.

We enjoy celebrating holidays at Google but, as you may imagine, it’s difficult for us to choose which events to highlight on our site. Sometimes for a given date we feature an historical event or influential figure that we haven’t in the past.

Of all the absolute truths that pertain to social media and the online world, there is one maxim that can never be disputed: you will never ever please everyone, and if you are not pissing some people off sometimes, you aren’t doing your job.

Such is the case of Google, which today dedicated its doodle to César Chávez. March 31 is César Chávez Day, a local state holiday that is recognized in California, where Google HQ is based. Yet this year March 31 is also Easter Sunday, so the doodle, as you can imagine, is pissing off Christians and generating stories about Google’s blasphemy.

google

As expected Twitchy has turned it into a story (initially saying that it was Hugo Chávez and not César) and The Blaze also reported this:

Google frequently honors important figures or dates with its popular “doodles,” but the decision to honor Chávez while many around the world were marking Easter sparked an intense reaction from some on social media. The search engine Bing decorated its homepage with Easter eggs.

Still, a search of Google’s past doodles shows they have never honored Easter in the United States, and tend not to recognize specific religious holidays. While they regularly post special logos for Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving, Earth Day and other dates, certain doodles tend to bemore esoteric.

Google did not immediately return a request for comment from TheBlaze Sunday morning about the decision to pick Chávez over Easter for its logo.

Ok, so Bing is cool for posting Easter eggs (because Easter eggs are so religious) but Google is not for honoring Chávez? In the meantime, Chicago Now’s @whiterhinoray provides a different perspective:

It’s seems foolish that a search engine’s doodle should receive so much attention. For Chicanos, however, this decision affirms what we’ve always believed—Cesar Chavez merits national recognition.

My father came to this country as a farmworker, a bracero, in 1957. He heard Chavez speak once. Suprisingly, it was my father’s work in the fields that opened the doors for me on National Public Radio over ten years ago. An essay about my father’s work and my decision to become a writer aired on All Things Considered in August 2002.

When I started my teaching career, my mother who worked in a warehouse, told me, “You always join the union.” I did. And while I’ve questioned many times the logic of my union’s leaders and its members, I still see the value, the power, the need for a organized labor—especially for teachers. We just need to be better about communicating what we’re fighting for.

I hope that on this day of rest, those of us who belong to and lead labor unions can devote a moment to self-reflection and search within ourselves for an answer to this question: “What would Cesar Chavez say today about our labor efforts?”

And before Christians want to toss up their chocolate bunnies and Peeps, maybe reading some of Chávez’s actual words about Christian principles is in order here:

What do we want the church to do? We ask for its presence with us, beside us, as Christ among us. We ask the church to sacrifice with the people for social change, for justice and for love of brother and sister. We don’t ask for words. We ask for deeds. We don’t ask for paternalism. We ask for servanthood.

I have met many, many farmworkers and friends who love justice and who are willing to sacrifice for what is right. They have a quality about them that reminds me of the beatitudes. They are living examples that Jesus’ promise is true: they have been hungry and thirsty for righteousness and they have been satisfied. They are determined, patient people who believe in life and who give strength to others. They have given me more love and hope and strength than they will ever know.

Jesus’ life and words are a challenge at the same time that they are Good News. They are a challenge to those of us who are poor and oppressed. By His life He is calling us to give ourselves to other, to sacrifice for those who suffer, to share our lives with our brothers and sisters who are also oppressed. He is calling us to ‘hunger and thirst after justice’ in the same way that we hunger and thirst after food and water: that is, by putting our yearning into practice.’

As for the injustice of it all, Christians can go ahead and boycott Google today. They can also do their search through Bing, with its pagan Easter eggs. In the meantime, we applaud Google for taking such a bold step today. That is the Rebelde way.

Filed Under: News, NoMames, Politics Tagged With: , , ,

Did McCain’s “Live Tweets” About Woman Scaling Nogales Border Fence Occur One Hour After Incident?

March 29, 2013 by Leave a Comment

On March 27, the national news media confirmed that Arizona senator John McCain (R) was live-tweeting the news of a woman who had scaled an 18-foot border fence in Nogales, AZ in the middle of the day, just yards away from four U.S. senators and a U.S. Border Patrol station. FOX News reported the following: ”It may or may not have been the first time an attempted illegal border crossing was live-tweeted.”

Other outlets, such as POLITICO, ABC News, and The Associated Press all covered the border crossing incident and credited McCain’s Twitter profile for sharing the news, but no one asked very basic questions: Was Sen. McCain sharing the information in real-time or was it information that was shared later, after the fact? And was that really McCain who was tweeting the information? Who was the woman who scaled the fence, and what happened to her?

Latino Rebels has already raised several questions about @SenJohnMcain’s tweets and reasons why we think the entire event was a staged “bag job.” After exchanging emails with the U.S. Border Patrol about the March 27 events, we still think that these very basic questions have yet to be answered.

Crystal Amarillas, the Border Patrol’s Public Information Office for the Tucson Sector Communications Division, confirmed that the apprehension of a woman who had illegally entered “the U.S. at the border east of Nelson Street in Nogales, Arizona” occurred at “approximately 10:55 am” local time.

Yet a simple check of McCain’s profile and tweets from March 27 about the woman’s fence-climbing success confirm that the Senator’s profile did not share the news of the crossing until after the fact. If you examine the @SenJohnMcain tweets and check the time when the tweets were published using the local Arizona time option on Twitter, the tweets indicate that they were published at least an hour after the woman was picked up by Border Patrol agents. They were not live-tweeted.

According to the U.S. Border Patrol, the woman was apprehended at 10:55 am local Nogales time. McCain’s Twitter profile tweeted the following tweet at 11:51 am local Arizona time.

mcain10

Two minutes later after the first McCain tweet, the following tweet was posted at 11:53 am Arizona time:

mccain9

Such a sequence suggests that the event that McCain’s Twitter profile advertised as a being real-time occurrence (“just witnessed”) was actually not, and the tweets that were published happened way after the incident.

Amarillas also emailed us the following information when we made our initial request:

I can confirm a female Mexican citizen was apprehended Wednesday for illegally entering the U.S. at the border east of Nelson Street in Nogales, Arizona. The apprehension was witnessed by Senators McCain, Flake, Schumer and Bennet as they were getting briefings and tours of CBP operations in Arizona.

The woman is no longer in our custody and was repatriated back to her country of origin.

A similar response was given to POLITICO when Brent Cagan of the Tucson sector of the Border Patrol said: “A female Mexican citizen was apprehended today for illegally entering the U.S.. The apprehension was witnessed by Senators McCain, Flake, Schumer and Bennet as they were getting briefings and tours of [Customs and Border Protection] operations in Arizona.”

When we followed up for details about the woman’s name and what actually happened, Amarillas emailed us this reply:

The female was apprehended a short time after she jumped the fence on the eastside of Nogales, Arizona. Due to the Privacy Act I cannot disclose the name of any detainee who is or was in our custody.

It was at this point when we asked at what time was the woman apprehended, and only then did Amarillas share the time of the apprehension. Since that last exchange, the U.S. Border Patrol has not shared any additional information about this incident, even though we have additional questions. Our next step is to file a Freedom of Information request on Monday for the apprehension report and to also contact Sen. McCain’s office to ask about when the tweets were actually posted and who posted them.

Meanwhile, we still believe that McCain did not post any of the March 27 tweets himself. How could he, unless he had a very good smart phone that could take such amazing panoramic pictures of himself? Here are two more examples from that day (time stamps are GMT):

So our questions remain about this border tour and about what was shared. We still think that the narrative presented was all about additional funding for more border security and technology. And we are still waiting for that visual proof of the unnamed Mexican woman who scaled an 18-foot fence in the middle of the day in downtown Nogales. In front of four U.S. senators who were being escorted by several Border Patrol agents.

Filed Under: Immigration Nuttiness, News, Politics Tagged With: , , ,

HoustonPress Story on Puerto Rico’s Crime Culture Simplifies the Issue and Offers Nothing

March 25, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Originally published at JulioRVarela.com

I am tired.

I am tired of how the US mainland media continues to portray the island-territory of Puerto Rico with one broad brushstroke—that it is a new hotbed of violence and chaos. Recently, Fortune’s Cyrus Sanati told U.S. billionaires to “beware” of Puerto Rico, saying that the island “has a bevy of social and economic problems that appear to be getting worse by the day, making it an inhospitable place for a wealthy individual seeking safety and stability.” Sanati’s piece was criticized by many of the island, not because part of it was true, but because his conclusion was way too simplistic. Does Puerto Rico have problems? Yes? Is it a modern-day crime and murder war zone? Not even close. But if that is what the U.S. media wants you to believe, why not?

Sanati even admitted via Twitter that his knowledge of Puerto Rico is only cursory when he tweeted the following response to the Latino Rebels Twitter account:

Now a new story from HoustonPress called “Bloody Tide: How Puerto Rico Affects the U.S.” is painting too much of a similar picture that quite frankly does more harm to Puerto Rico’s perception. Written by Michael E. Miller and Casey Michel, the in-depth piece (it spans over seven digital pages) depicts Puerto Rico in such a negative light, you wonder why anyone would want to live there. As the piece states: “The “Isle of Enchantment” has become bewitched by violence. A crackdown on drugs coming across the Mexican border has only pushed contraband through the Caribbean, transforming the American commonwealth into the newest nexus for narcotraffickers.” (NOTE: Miami New Times also ran the piece.)

PuertoRicanParadey

Later on, the story continues:

Economic hardship begets drug-running, which begets violence, which begets a murder rate normally reserved for postcolonial power struggles.

Yet Americans who ignore the island do so at their own peril. As Puerto Rican politicians make an unprecedented push to become the 51st state, the commonwealth has become more central than ever to the United States’s drug and crime problems. [Police chief Hector Pesquera] estimates that 80 percent of the narcotics entering Puerto Rico end up in East Coast cities, particularly Miami and New York. Guns and money move in the opposite direction, and fugitives flow freely back and forth, frustrating officials. Meanwhile, Puerto Ricans are pouring into Florida, New York and Texas to escape the gunfire gripping their homeland.

The writers also want you to make sure that the violence in Puerto Rico was always Puerto Rico’s fault and never anyone else’s:

This isn’t the first time waves of violence have broken over Puerto Rico. Perched at the strategic entrance to the Caribbean, the Connecticut-size island has a long and bloody history. Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León slaughtered Taíno natives beginning in 1508. Over the centuries, slave uprisings and independence movements were put down with deadly force. By 1898, the colony had won a degree of autonomy, only for the Spanish-American War to transfer control to the United States.

When Puerto Rican politicians voted for independence in 1914, the United States responded by granting boricuas (anyone living on the island) U.S. citizenship — just in time to be drafted for World War I. Another 30 years passed before Puerto Ricans were allowed to elect their own governor.

Under U.S. rule, the island became a popular vacation spot. But by the 1980s, with Colombian cocaine flowing through Puerto Rico to south Florida, violence became endemic. Murders decreased in the 1990s as drug routes shifted to Central America and Mexico, but in 2006, newly elected Mexican President Felipe Calderón declared an assault on cartels. Two years later, the United States launched its own $1.6 billion Merida Initiative to combat gangs.

“That is why in the past three years, Puerto Rico has become increasingly visible in regard to drug scandals,” Bagley says. “This is an unintended consequence of the pressure being brought in Mexico and Central America.”

Today drugs from Haiti, Colombia, Vene­zuela and the Dominican Republic stream in on Jet Skis and go-fast boats. “Because Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory, illegal contraband that makes it to the island is unlikely to be subjected to further U.S. Customs inspections,” U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, head of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said during a hearing last year.

Let’s step back for a minute: Are the writers actually connecting Puerto Rico’s current crime problems to Ponce de León, as if violence has always been embedded in Puerto Ricans? In addition, I am still trying to figure out what the connection is between 1508 to 1898 to 1914 to 2013.

flag4

The real and only reason why Puerto Rico has a problem with murders and drugs is simple. The territory is part of the largest drug market in the world: the United States of America. Without demand for drugs from the mainland, the current activity on the island would be non-existent. Yet the Houston writers say nothing about that very simple fact. The colonizers need their pot and cocaine, and the colony is more than happy to deliver it to them, while shooting up people in the process.

The piece’s paternalistic tone continues, especially when it made reference to the recent boycott of La Comay, suggesting that the events surrounding the boycott “seemed to expose a newfound heartlessness, as if boricuas had become numb to the violence.” Instead of focusing on the positive that such an event produced, the Houston piece almost treated the boycott as an exception, while making sure to keep including words such as “bloody tide” and “carnage” central to its narrative. When you want to manufacture the perception of “chaos,” you need to give the readers what they want, right?

Nonetheless, the real issue about Puerto Rico is hidden deep in the piece, when the writers say the following:

Truth is, there’s little willpower in DC to spend heavily on an island of 3.6 million people whose ballots don’t count. Perhaps that’s why Puerto Ricans are debating louder than ever their identity as a U.S. commonwealth. Whenboricuas went to the polls last November, 54 percent rejected the status quo. But the vote was split among those who favored independence, statehood or remaining a commonwealth. [Luis] Fortuño — the governor who appointed Pesquera — was dumped out of office.

Yes, there is very “little willpower in DC” right now, and that is why many Puerto Ricans —both on the island and on the mainland— are working together to change that. There is no mention of that movement at all the Houston piece, because why try to present a full picture when your goal is to just promote fearful perceptions of Puerto Rico? Why would you want to include more information about the Comay boycott movement and what it did to connect boricuas even more? Why would you mention Parranda PR or new other organizations that are working hard to change the perception that the Houston story perpetuates? Because that would mean sharing more of the truth about what is positive about Puerto Rico and the truth sells less stories that the sensational ones.

I just visited the island last week, my third visit this year. Does Puerto Rico have serious problems? Yes. Is it a war zone riddled by “carnage” and a “bloody tide?” That is a bit too much, and it is unfortunate, since all the Houston story does is scare people away from the island and helps to promote a negative cycle of criticism that offers very little solution to the problem. If the writers of the Houston piece were truly sincere in helping to change the dialogue about Puerto Rico, they should be ready to follow up with stories that reflect that change. They had a great story to cover last week with what the Puerto Rican baseball team did during the World Baseball Classic, for example.

Puerto-rico-culture

But I doubt that will happen because in the end, the colonizer needs to keep the colony in check, and it will use all possible means to accomplish that.

***

Julio (Julito) Ricardo Varela (@julito77 on Twitter) founded LatinoRebels.com (part of Latino Rebels, LLC) in May, 2011 and proceeded to open it up to about 20 like-minded Rebeldes. His personal blog, juliorvarela.com, has been active since 2008 and is widely read in Puerto Rico and beyond. He pens columns on LR regularly. In the last 12 months, Julito represented the Rebeldes on CBS’ Face the Nation, NPR,  Univision, Forbes, and The New York Times.

Filed Under: Injustice, Latinidad, News, Politics Tagged With: , , , , ,
«Older Posts