Homeless immigrant tasared, then shot
Gabriel Saldaña, in the Valley Morning Star, on the shooting death of Diego Rivas Soto. Rivas Sota apparently had no fixed address in the United States (he was living under a bridge) and the Mexican consulate in Brownsville (956-542-4431; Fax: 956-542-7167) is hoping to locate his relations in Mexico.
HARLINGEN- Officials on Wednesday refused to release the names of two officers involved in the Jan. 5 fatal police shooting of a 41-year-old Mexican national and other information in the case.
Officials would not release the names or dates of hire of two of the three officers involved in the shooting, a description of the knife police say the man brandished or whether a non-lethal Taser was used to try to subdue the man before he was shot.
City Attorney Brendan Hall said the names of the officers, a description of the knife taken from the scene and whether non-lethal force was attempted is not subject to public release because the investigation into the shooting is ongoing.
…
a preliminary autopsy report released Wednesday showed that the man, identified as Diego Rivas-Soto of Mexico, was shot in the left side of his chest with a shotgun. The shotgun blast entered Rivas-Soto’s left rib cage and severed the spinal cord.
The range from where Rivas-Soto was shot cannot be determined until his clothes, which were not provided at the time of the autopsy, have been examined, the report stated. Six buckshot pellets were recovered from the right side of his body, and the plastic wadding from inside the shotgun shell was found in the spine, according to the report.
Toxicology results and a review of hospital records and police reports are pending, the report said.
… one of the three officers involved in the incident, confronted Rivas-Soto in response to a call that a man was lighting a fire under the Expressway 77 overpass near the I-69 bar, police said.
The officers ordered Rivas-Soto in English and Spanish to take his hands out of his pockets, police spokesman David Osborne said shortly after the shooting. But he pulled a knife from his pocket and lunged at Palafox, police said.
Another officer …fired the shot that killed Rivas-Soto, according to a police report.
Rivas-Soto was taken to Valley Baptist Medical Center where he later died.
Ricardo Montalbán (25-Nov-1920 — 14-Ene-2009 D.E.P.)
Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán Merino played many roles in his long acting career… from a Yugoslavian peasant to the deracinated “Mr. Roarke” on Fantasy Island” to a cartoon ant to a Japanese detective to the “genetically engineered tyrant, Khan Noonien Singh,” in a Star Trek film… but what made him memorable was his elegant, unforgettable Chilango-inflected speech.
Montalbán was more than an actor with an unforgettable voice. Born and bred in Mexico City, the actor arrived in Hollywood (though he continued to act in Mexican films as well) during the 1940s, and managed to establish himself as the first Mexican actor since sound first came to the movies to neither anglicize his name (like Gilbert Roland or Anthony Quinn), nor to allow his accented English to limit him to “Latin” roles (as was the fate of his much older brother, the character actor, Carlos Montalbán, and Ramon Novarro).
Although he took an interest in Latin artists and performers (founding the Nosotros Foundation to support Latino artists in the United States), Montalbán never applied for, nor considered applying for, United States citizenship. Nor did he ever really “go Hollywood”: a practicing Catholic, Montalbán married Georgiana Young in 1944 and remained married to her until her death in November 2007.
Despite being confined to a wheelchair for the last several years, Montalbán’s unforgettable voice made him a popular choice for cartoon and commerical voice-overs. My personal favorite of his later years was an infomercial for “Inglés sin Barraras®”, a self-taught English language course widely advertised in Mexico. The infomercial takes the form of a telenovela: the deserving, but monolingual heroine is being cheated by the evil, blonde (of course!) gringa boss who takes advantage of the heroine’s inability to speak English. Using the course material, the plucky Mexicana gets her a better job, revenge on the evil gringa… and the hunky boyfriend. At the “commercial breaks” within the infomercial, there is Ricardo Montalbán reminding the viewer that, yes, he is a Mexican, but he owes his success to his ability to speak English.
Hard to argue with that. Ricardo Montalbán’s success was indeed due to his ability with English — English with that song-like Mexico City accent. And more importantly, that accent made it impossible for him to deny his Mexicanismo.
What he did with his voice was should be remembered. Ricardo Montalbán presented a a very different stereotype of Mexicans to American film-goers and television viewers. Where Mexican accented actors are usually down-trodden or comical, here was a very different image: suave, sophisticated, and capable of endowing the most ordinary of events with a poetic grandeur … even when the part he played was ripe for parody.
Christians messing with our heads
Oh ohh… another “gringo gone bad” story:
Twenty three Olmeca artifacts were “irretrivably damaged” this week by members of the “New Generation” church, who for some reason “annointed” the Olmeca objects — including the iconographic heads that are a symbol of Tabasco and the Olmec culture. Restoration and conservation costs (which will not completely restore the objects) is estimated at 300,000 Pesos.
Photo: EFE from El Universal
An oil-based mixure, including salt and grape juice, was smeared on the archeological objects, located at Parque Museo La Venta in Villahermosa. An un-named American citizen led the group, which the Mexican Pentacostal Church, Neuva Generacion Internacional (founded by a Colombian, and apparently headquarted in Miami claims has no connection with their church.
To appease the gods, the American woman was immediately sacrificed. OK, I made that up, but it’s not a bad idea. The gods are sad.
Sequester carbon, not people
Mexico went for the world record for the most trees planted in a single day (300,000) back in August of this year, beating out India’s 254,000 set in 2005. Looks like there’s a new kid on the block in the tree-planting Olympics.
Across the Atlantic, on the vast continent of America, one country is taking climate change seriously.
Unfortunately it’s not the US (not yet, anyway), but Peru.
Peru’s Ministry of Agriculture has decided to single handedly attempt to mitigate the effects of climate change using a nation-wide tree planting project.
The campaign began on 13th December, and aims to have 40 million trees planted by 20th February.
Forty million trees in three months. That’s the same as 512,820 trees per day. Which is a lot of tree planting.
A workforce of 130,000 people, in fact, with each person planting an average 4.5 trees per day.
Eucalyptus, pine, cypress and pepper trees will be planted in 18 Peruvian regions with suitable soil and rainfall.
Will all this work be worth it?
The Ministry of Agriculture estimates the trees will remove 570,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year.
Well worth it, I’d say.
The leader in the United Nations Billion Tree Campaign (with a goal now of planting 7,000,000,000 trees, not just one billion) is Ethiopia, having planted 700 million trees, but Mexico (470+ million) is in second place. Cuba (136 million) and Brazil (22.8 Million) are also among the top ten nations in new tree planting. Even if Peru falls way short of their goal, I’m … ahem… rooting for them.
Sinaloa’s finest herb… at Whole Foods!
We don’t only grow the type of herb you buy in the parking lot, you know. Ernesto Montoya in El Debate de Los Mochis (my translation):
Tucked in among the mountains a small army of workers runs Sinaloa’s largest organic grower, which exports aromatic and medicinal herbs to markets in Europe and the United States
Unlike other parts of Sinaloa, produce here is organically grown. To date, 100 of the 300 hectare plot is dedicated to herbs, like red basil, chive, parsley, mint, rosemary, thyme, tarragon, and sage, among others. Harvest is expected in the first trimester of this year.
Eventually, organic fruit grains, cereals and vegetables are also to be planted. Like the herbs, these products will also be sold both nationally and exported to Europe, the United States and Japan.
Cuauhtémoc Rangel, the Chinobampo Farm Number Two’s director, said the project had two goals: fostering ecological awareness and developing products for the important international organic product market.
“The bulk of the market is still in Europe and the United States, though sale of organic food has expanded to Asia and here in Mexico,” Rangel said.
The key to increasing productivity to commercially viable levels has been the use of zeolite, an naturally occurring mineral used as a fertilizer. Compost also plays an important role in preparing the soil for these products.
Rangel commented the project has generated about five hundred jobs directly, and another seven hundred indirectly. It is income producing, but requires constant attention, planning and investment. However, the organic market is growing world-wide as people become more health-conscious. .
The farm is expanding into other ecologically-sound projects, building ponds to raise 100% organic bass and crawfish, as well as organic honey. For the bees to produce organic honey, the farm will have to grown organic fruit. All are meant for commercial sale.
Technical assistance for the project is provided in part by the University of Havana in Cuba, which Rangel said, “has much experience with zeolite, and with which we constantly are exchanging information about our experience with the material.”
Convinced of which it is doing, Rangel it emphasized that it is receiving technological support on the part of the University of Havana in Cuba. “Between the University of Havana and we have experienced many things with zeolíta, in addition to a constant interchange of experience in the matter”.
Immigrants — fighting the war right-wingers won’t
Beth Wang (Chicago Reporter via New American Media) writes on the special problems of immigrant soldiers:
Though official figures aren’t collected, Lt. Col. Margaret Stock, an immigration attorney who helped establish the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s Military Assistance Program, says she gets at least one phone call a day from military personnel with immigration troubles.
Stock says it is a problem that not only interferes with the lives of soldiers and their families, but ultimately also hampers military readiness. “You would not believe the amount of resources that are being spent right now trying to deal with these problems,” says Stock, whose program provides military families with pro bono assistance. “We just have soldiers who are in tears—soldiers and sailors who just can’t deal with their family situation being unsettled.”
Most problems stem from the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, which established a strict set of changes in immigration laws, including a rule that does not provide waivers for any offenses—such as crossing the border illegally—for immigrants who are seeking permanent residence or other legal status.
Stock says the ’96 law is responsible for a large chunk of undocumented immigrants that the country has today. In testifying before Congress earlier this year, she referred to the “parole” policy for undocumented Cubans and said putting a similar policy in place for the military families could provide a solution.
In May, U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren introduced a bill, H.R. 6020, that would provide such relief—by allowing for discretion that currently lacks in immigration law in handling noncitizen military families members.
But Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based think-tank that advocates for controlled immigration, says making exceptions for the noncitizen spouses of soldiers is like giving a criminal a “get-out-of-jail-free card.” With 12 million undocumented immigrants, the country can’t afford to look at each case and keep making exceptions.
I wonder how old Krikorian is, and what his draft status was during the Vietnam War… is he still old enough to serve?
While 148 of the U.S. soldiers killed in the Afghganistan/Iraq War so far have been immigrants or resident aliens (48 of them Mexicans), Krikorian is safe to worry about the threat of Hispanic Pizza (no, really!)
Another undocumented alien
Normally, it’s not newsworthy when somebody leaves the south of Mexico and heads for Texas… driven out, perhaps, by agricultural changes and environmental degradation, or the simple need to find enough to eat. Or, maybe just a sense of adventure.
However, when the undocumented alien is Empidonax affinis, the Pine Flycatcher, at least the scientic press takes note:
It seems a small pine flycatcher bird has found its way to the United States from Mexico. This is the first time this little bird has ever been seen here. Bird watchers are descending on Texas from across the United States to get a glimpse of this 5-inch wonder.
Most observers have said that the bird is not extraordinary in terms of looks or stature. They have made their journey because the bird is so rare.
It seems the bird came here alone and according to an Associated Press on on Yahoo! News
The bird seems ‘very much out of whack,’ said John Arvin, research coordinator at the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory. ‘It moved over a lot of hostile-looking territory to get there. Why that happened is anybody’s guess.’
The Minutemen, no doubt, want to shoot the little guy…
Illegal alien flycatcher photo from Science Examiner (examiner.com)
Filling in the details: Alma Reed
When I originally started writing what was then “Mexican History For Gringos” and — despire all the “challenges” of getting it into print became Gods, Gachupines and Gringos — i was always haunted by the thought that “new” facts and documentation would turn up requiring visions and revisions (which a minute would reverse). I kept in mind the warning from my father about his buddy who sat down when he retired to write a short monograph on the history of the viniculture in western New York and died — twenty years later — with a garage full of three by five index cards, reams of handwritten notes… and no monograph. At some point, you realize you can’t include everything and everybody, whether you’re talking about a mere hundred and fifty years of grape-growing and fermenting, or a few millenia of a few hundred cultural groups.
Photo: Museo Nacional de Historia (INAH) reprinted from "The News"
One person I mentioned, but not in any detail, was Alma Reed (1889-1966). I only mentioned her in passing, as one of a number of left-wing writers who came to Mexico during the Revolution. Reed was particularly interesting for her romantic involvement with Felipe Carillo Puerto, who headed a Mayan-Feminist-Socialist movement in the Yucatan that freed the Mayans from debt bondage, gave women the vote (and brought them into the state government) and turned the henniquin plants into workers’ cooperatives. Which, of course, got Carillo Puerto shot by reactionaries.
(Gods, Gachupines and Gringos: A People’s History of Mexico, © 2008, Richard Grabman):
Alma Reed (no relation to John Reed) was a California free-lance writer, a friend of Jack London, and a radical feminist for her time. Fascinated by what was going on in the Yucatán, where Carrillo Puerto’s socialist administration was bringing in feminist leaders to change the culture of the tradition-bound state, Reed wrangled an assignment to interview the governor and the women’s leaders. She got the story and also a fiancé. She would have become Mrs. Carrillo Puerto if the governor had not been assassinated.
The state’s main industry was henequen production (henequen was the main source for fiber for cheap rope in the early 20th century). Beyond breaking up the grower’s estates, the Carrillo Puerto administration was determined to turn the processing plants over to the workers. The producers and manufacturers naturally turned to “hit men”. Reed was out of the country buying wedding clothes when Carrillo Puerto was murdered. Heartbroken, she returned to México, writing on women’s issues and politics for the rest of her life.
Theresa Margolis, in The (Mexico City) News, gives a little more of the story, in her article on the Alma Reed exhibit at Chapultepec Castle:
“Reed believed that the people of 20th century had a moral obligation to record history so as to provoke greater social justice for all,” Rueda said.
“Her ideology was an echo of that of Carrillo Puerto, a man of socialist leanings who followed in the ranks of Emiliano Zapata during the Mexican Revolution,” he said.
“Their love was so strong that it survived beyond the grave and ignited her passion for the indigenous people of Mexico.”
And the winner is….
IMSS… our wonderfully inefficient social security/national heath system’s bureacrats.
On Thursday, the federal government awarded a prize for the “Trámite más inútil,” or least useful bureaucratic procedure. Open to the public since September, the trámite competition was not only a humorous jab at the government´s own penchant for red tape, but a serious effort by the Calderón administration to allow the people to voice their complaints and, in the long-term, cut through Mexico´s miles of red tape.
Cecilia Deyanira Velázque, who won a 300,000 peso check for her winning entry, spends several days a month, and stands in endless lines, filling out endless forms to guarantee access to the gamma-globulin prescription her handicapped son requires.
The only thing possibly worse would have been if Ms. Deyanira lived north of the border, and had to work a second, or third, or fourth job to afford insurance for a handicapped child, which would give her the “privilige” of spending four or five days a month dealing with the insurance company.
Feet of lead, and without wings
While the 25-point plan Felipe Calderon proposed for confronting the economic “Bush-fire” from scorching Mexico too badly, has its merits, there is growing skepticism about the details.
Calderon’s plan — which calls for freezing gasoline and LP gas rates, some cut-backs in industrial electrical rates, tax credits for the purchase of new appliances and some social security and unemployment benefits (extending to six months from two the employer-madated IMSS payments for laid-off workers), and federal infrastructure development — is “insufficient” according to Cardinal Norberto Rivera.
The Cardinal, speaking for the Church, complains that the plan does nothing to protect agriculture and fisheries, nor does it sufficently protect labor rights, salaries or benefits.
José Ángel Gurría, the Secretary General of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), complains that the plan falls woefully short of the need for job creation.
In Congress, both the PRI and PRD are complaining that the salario minimo will not keep up with inflation. The two main parties of the left, also complain, as does influential financial writer Luis Miguel González in the right-of-center Milenio, that the plan fails to address long-term needs, or show any creativity when it comes to development. The President’s proposal, González complains, says nothing about investments in new technology, the green economy or “intelligent infrastructure”… in other words, it’s roads and bridges, not bridges to the 21st century. Unimaginative and only marginally effective, González called it a “monument with lead feet and no wings to soar”.
Personally, I’d hoped the billion-tree project might be included in the anti-crisis package… if nothing else, unemployed youth could be out working on reforestation projects. And, energy conservation (and expansion) — as well as the need for more electrical power — is a great opportunity for building more solar and wind generation plants. González , the left and the Church all note that just freezing gasoline prices is counter-productive (as I said it would be, just when Mexico has come to grips with the need to expand refinery production).
All do, however, see the irony in Calderon’s turn to populist solutions… the very “evil” he campaigned against when running for office.
mexfiles.net 