May 16, 2008 at 5:46 am · Filed under RGV, el valle, explotation, our history, racism, texas
Seifert: Mandatory evacuations will be ignored if Border Patrol involved
Steve Taylor
EDINBURG, May 15 - Rio Grande Valley priests and civil rights attorneys say tens of thousands of residents will not show up for a mandatory hurricane evacuation if Border Patrol is involved in prescreening those getting on the buses.
As first revealed in the Guardian on Wednesday, Border Patrol plans to prescreen the 130,000 or so Valley residents who are expected to leave the region on school buses if a hurricane hits. Hurricane season starts June 1.
Border Patrol will be checking the legal status of the residents at hurricane shelters and anyone who is undocumented will not be allowed to board a bus. Instead, undocumented immigrants will be moved by Border Patrol to a detention facility in a safe area of the state.
checking shelters??? damn.
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May 16, 2008 at 3:43 am · Filed under CHICANOS, Hermana Resist, a day in the life, el valle, our history, sexism, them, unchecked shit, women of color, you only find allies in alleys
if it talks like sexism, sounds like sexism and smells like sexism, it’s not a duck, it’s sexism.
more of this news breaking discovery later.
oh and the thing about being an ally when someone calls you on something, that’s when you should be shutting the fuck up and stepping back and listening.
May 15, 2008 at 7:46 am · Filed under RGV, a day in the life, el valle, media, our history, racism, texas
in case of hurricane, stay where you are. sound familiar? Tell me this is not fucked up?
NM
**
http://www.riograndeguardian.com/rggnews_story.asp?story_no=22
McALLEN, May 14 - If a hurricane hits the Rio Grande Valley this season, residents evacuated via school buses will be prescreened for citizenship by Customs and Border Patrol.
Hurricane season starts June 1. In the event of a hurricane in the region, emergency officials predict more than 130,000 evacuees will leave the Valley by school bus. They will be checked for identification and citizenship before they can board.
Anyone who is not a citizen or is not a legal resident will be held in specially designed areas in the Valley that are “made to withstand hurricanes,” said Dan Doty, a Border Patrol spokesperson for the Valley sector.
Those specially designed areas include the Border Patrol facilities in Edinburg and Harlingen, Doty said.
By pre-screening evacuees before they board the buses, there will be less of a bottleneck at the Falfurrias checkpoint.
Doty confirmed the plan in a phone interview just hours after a mock hurricane evacuation exercise at the McAllen Convention Center on Tuesday.
Border Patrol agents could be seen checking the identification and citizenship of the mock evacuees, many of whom were senior citizens from the Las Palmas Community Center. After Guardian reporter started taking pictures of this part of the exercise, he was asked to stop and leave the area.
In the event of an emergency, Border Patrol will assist other federal, state, and local authorities in a safe evacuation but at the same time uphold its job of “border security, protecting the border, and establishing alienage,” Doty said.
“By no means do we want to stop somebody from safely evacuating but we do, and we will do our job while we assist,” Doty said. “We check for citizenship, (and) with our agents it does not take long. It’s a very quick process.”
Agents are very good at picking up on things that would lead them to believe somebody isn’t a U.S. citizen or does not have legal residence, Doty said.
“Here in Sector, we have a spot that is made to withstand hurricanes, and so is our station,” Doty said, referring to CBP’s sprawling headquarters in Edinburg. “We never compromise safety. Our job is not only to protect the border, but life and we take it very seriously.
“We would not put someone’s life in jeopardy, but at the same time we would do our job, we would take them into custody, and we do have safe places for processing and detention during times of a hurricane.”
Highway 281 is the designated hurricane evacuation route and the Border Patrol checkpoint for the highway is at Falfurrias, in Brooks County. Highway 77 is slated to be closed in the event of a hurricane headed for deep South Texas. Doty said all citizens leaving the Valley by bus would be prescreened as part of Border Patrol’s enforcement efforts in the region to prevent a backup of traffic at the checkpoint.
In the event of a hurricane evacuation from the Valley, emergency management officials will designate both sides of Hwy 281 for northbound traffic only, Doty said. In addition, more Border Patrol agents will be added at the Falfurrias checkpoint to help facilitate the free-flow traffic, he said.
Volunteers at the mock hurricane evacuation event included home health care agencies, adult daycare centers, and students. They simulated emergency preparedness procedures under the direction of Hidalgo County Health Department, military personnel, and border law enforcement agencies.
The Health Department determined whether evacuees could withstand a long bus ride to safety if a hurricane threatened. The military then followed through with the evacuation procedure.
Officials are shooting for a tentative 30-minute window from arrival at an emergency holding post, through processing, and to final evacuation by bus. Each bus would carry about 50 to 60 people, according to Health Department officials
“The initial questions are to determine whether the people can handle a five to 12 hour bus ride or vehicle ride of some type, and if they can handle that then the military will evacuate them on school buses to make sure they follow through with that,” said Hidalgo County Health Director Eddie Olivarez.
“If a person is not able to handle a five to 12 hour vehicle ride, then the military personnel will asses them medically, and then will assign ambulance or specially designed buses.”
CBP has always resisted answering media questions about whether the Falfurrias checkpoint would remain open in the event of a mass evacuation from the Valley. Asked if he knew what the answer is, Hidalgo County Emergency Management Coordinator Tony Peña said: “It is expected that they (CBP) have to do their job, but how they will accomplish that I don’t have an answer for that.”
Write Joey Gomez
May 14, 2008 at 6:07 pm · Filed under Hermana Resist, RGV, a day in the life, el valle, oo$$$oo, our history, poetry
waiting at clinic.
man snoring softly
next to me.
pay $35 upfront.
Can you make a payment
on your balance?
Sit, wait.
Man snores.
Check email on phone.
Check email on phone.
Read Terabithia
Read Norma Cantu.
Sit, wait.
Check email on phone.
Return email to Lina,
Re: location of panteon.
Sit, wait, clouds form.
Looks like rain.
Read Emmy’s poems.
Envious, lovely forms.
Man snores.
Check email on phone.
Quiet coughing spell
with cough drops
gifted by my mom
before she left us,
left the valley for
colder seasons.
Snow, trees.
Consider leaving.
Have already paid
$25 upfront.
Entered a payment plan
for enormous balance
of allergy tests
insurance didn’t cover.
Who knew?
Sit, Wait.
“¿Tiene cita, Señora?”
“¿Que doctor quiere ver?”
“¿Tiene seguro?”
Additional parking
in rear.
laugh at joke.
2 t.v.’s on.
one is english soap opera
with volume turned down.
other is spanish
morning today style show
turned up
we are glued.
Wait.
Man is called.
Lunch hour is over.
Doctors return.
Think twice
about being here.
I’ve already paid.
Finish chapbook.
Check email on phone.
Check email on phone.
Text sister,
babysit on Friday?
Will tell Dr.
of insurance change.
So MRI’s and cat scans
and sleep studies a go.
at affordable prices
with payment plans.
hope she doesn’t
get mad
i haven’t done
them yet.
wait,sit,wait.
Man with cane shuffles in.
A señora, with another señora
walk in.
“aquí traigo a mi comadre
Ya no ve”
Check email on phone.
think of music.
think of poems.
think of poems
in text form.
think of devils
and twenty dollar bills.
Check email on phone.
Sip water,
parched painful.
they call my name.
nurse says
“dr says she knows
whats wrong with you
again.”
so predictable, I am.
yes, on throat, yes
on sinuses.
Nurse hands me
allergy results,
he says
no more mangoes
no more bananas
he says
start eating meat again.
he doesn’t know
my heart is
allergic to eating blood
(yes, trauma dramatic
induced by 100.1 fever)
dr. meki walks in
touches my knee
sorry to be late.
i tell her of exams
she says its pap smear
time, save myself–
i’m bleeding.
RX for throat, nose, head.
I Think she likes me
maybe one day
I’ll tell her everything
May 14, 2008 at 12:32 pm · Filed under Hermana Resist, a day in the life, chicana, explotation, media, our history, racism, sexism, survivors, texas, them, women of color
More Guards Come Forward To Confirm Sexual Assault Claims
In at least one case, a guard reportedly got a female detainee pregnant. It’s all happening at the South Texas Detention Complex in Pearsall. News 4 Trouble Shooter Brian Collister brings you the fall out from his investigation.
Reported by: Brian Collister
Email: BrianCollister@woai.com
We’ve heard from several more former guards at the South Texas Detention Complex in Pearsall since we aired our investigation. They all say the sexual abuse of female immigrants there has been going on for years and the people running the facility are trying to cover it all up.
The agency that runs the facility is finally commenting, and so is a US Congressman.
The San Antonio Field Office Director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Marc J. Moore, sent us the following statement early Tuesday evening:
“The allegations raised in the news story have been referred to the Office of the Inspector General. Additionally, ICE is now sending a Detention Facilities Inspection Group (DFIG)* team to review compliance with ICE detention standards and will make recommendations based on the results of its review.” (Read full statement below.)
“This is shocking,” said Scott Medlock, attorney for the Texas Civil Rights Project in Austin. “This is outrageous that this is going on, and that nothing appears to being done about it.”
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May 14, 2008 at 12:28 pm · Filed under kids, media, texas
By Brian WestDeseret News
Published: May 10, 2008
Texas child welfare attorneys say children were removed from the YFZ Ranch and should not return there because its residents live as one big family and all have the same dangerous belief system.The agency that has taken legal custody of 464 children sent its response Thursday to a petition from dozens of Fundamentalist LDS Church mothers. The petition asks the Texas 3rd Court of Appeals to order Judge Barbara Walther to return the children to their mothers.
“The community has one common belief system that young girls are called on to be wives and no age is too young to be married,” wrote Texas Department of Family and Protective Services attorneys. Some adults and children at the ranch described it as “one large community,” even though there are several houses at the complex.
“All of the women are called mothers to all of the children in the home, and the children call each other brothers and sisters,” the response states.
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May 13, 2008 at 8:50 pm · Filed under RGV, a day in the life, el valle, inspiration, kids
it might be
Jonathan.
We’re going to make this into a zine!!
Temp today was like 100 degrees. and weirdly enough I smelled my mom’s fried chicken.
i have a fever and a sore throat and I think it’s strep. might have to go to the dr.
winter is getting over her own cold. and I cut her hair today. outside. and she said to leave the hair on the ground because the birds will use it for their nests.
May 13, 2008 at 8:08 am · Filed under AMC, Hermana Resist, a day in the life, chicana, el valle, explotation, food, inspiration, kids, oo$$$oo, our history, sexism, survivors, them, women of color, you only find allies in alleys, zines
I write all this (about Lorna and what Chicana poetry and why it’s important) to say that we (the Martinez collective) won’t be going to this year’s AMC. Vicki is till trying to make it. She will be doing the ‘Letter Writing as Activism for Kids and Young People’ I will be returning the donations that have come via paypal tonight. I just don’t feel it’s a very responsible thing to do. I can say more, about how would it benefit my community, how I wish we lived in a community that felt it was valuable to learn about alternative media, or to have kids be involved in zines and alternative media. but its fragmented, the activism is fragmented and boxed in, with everyone in their corner. I could also talk about how organizations (not only AMC, AMC offers childcare. This is mostly about other things I’ve been asked to be involved in or events I’ve wanted to go to/attend, be part of and have not been able to) might want my participation but don’t consider childcare to be an important issue. So I often say no I can’t attend, or have to pay someone to care for the kids while I’m doing something as part of Cafe Revolucion or to try to learn/bring something back to the community. Or simple things, like poetry events where I’ve tried taking the kids and they are bored out of their little bright minds. Alot of times people, entities, organizations(?) forget/don’t care/don’t stop to think/ don’t consider that there isn’t someone at home to care for the kids and make the tortillas. I guess they also figure it’s up to us to find the childcare, but really-it means paying someone an extra $20-30 for the night or if it’s an overnight stay, or taking them with me and paying or talking into someone else to go with me and having them take care/stay at the hotel w/ th kids…or taking them with me and getting dirty looks when they make noise, because children don’t belong in radical meetings, or in conferences, they should be elsewhere, being takin’ cared of, being silent, someone else looking after them… it’s more and then worrying about the kids –and the most important mind wrecking is actually finding someone you trust with your kids to stay overnight, that can handle 2 very very active kids who are known to have angry tantrums and expect all of their caretakers to be “lovers of nature” as J put it, since Vicki has set the bar so high, with her lovely crafts and no t.v. rule, which the kids love. J said “what if the new person lets us watch t.v. all day and doesn’t care about the plants?”
This was alot easier when my mom lived in the same town as I did, but she moved to another state. She was also the one who watched the kids while I was at work, when I went to meetings, when I went traveling with work, when I indulged in workshops and conferences. Now she’s not here, and last week I realized I’d have to pay someone to watch the kids during the day when school let’s out. Another big chunk of change I had not factored in. Plus the extra $ for food now that they’ll be at home and not eating lunch at school.
It’s also most importantly about money/class/privilege/
who can afford to go to such things? Who then goes to teach these things to communities? Why do we have outside folks coming into communities to teach us things, and we, always with this thought-how dare they come try to teach us x? but there are reasons why and no one trying to break the mold.
* no hard feelings, this is not a plea for money. Just that I put my priorities back where they belonged.
May 13, 2008 at 6:24 am · Filed under Hermana Resist, a day in the life, chicana, inspiration, poetry, women of color
Lorna Dee Cervantes - Poetry Foundation Blog Unplugged
This happened two years ago, but I wanted to post Lorna’s paper presented at “The Role of the Activist Chicano Poet” at the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference panel a few years back.
Back in the day, Lorna would put on these poetry workshops at Isla Mujeres in Mexico, Taller Ixchel: Poetry In Paradise. I never did get to go, first I had just had J and couldn’t afford it.Then I had Winter and had no one to leave her with. The workshops sounded amazing, and I was more than a little intimidated in going, me-there with real writers and poets, who were dedicated and understood they had to put time and money into their craft. those workshops might even still go on, I have no idea. I’d still be too intimidated to go though.
Lorna Dee Cervantes started Mango Publications in her kitchen table and went on to publish chapbooks and words by “Alberto Rios, Orlando Ramirez, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Ray Gonzalez (”I want to feel the rotting wood I walk upon…”), Wendy Rose, Bernice Zamora, Luis Omar Salinas, Ricardo Sanchez, Sandra Cisneros”-which inspired Anzaldua, Cherrie and others (me).
Lorna says of her Mango days:
How I loved my inky kitchen, my printing clothes with their split-fountain splotches and flowered fingerprints. How I loved the odor of chemicals, even the worst. The lilting momentos of Billie making the mockingbirds sing, the “no woman no cry” all night long to the train-chugging of that motor and cylinder proclaiming, proclaiming, world without end. Creating a mini chapbook sensation before there were even such things other than chapters from some scholarly tomes, before there were expensive contests to apply for or foetry foes to fight with, virtually. There was just a gal with her press who wasn’t afraid to get dirty or lose a finger. Who didn’t care how the house smelled in the morning or if the dishes were washed. Who only cared about getting it right, getting it inked up good, getting the lines straight because they were some of the best lines she had ever read. Lines that still hold up. Even if it wasn’t always inked up good or the paper feed jammed up. “We’re jammin’/ we’re jammin’/ we’re jammin’/ we’re jammin’/ And I hope you like jammin’ too” keeping us alert another hour, another cup of coffee, another ream, another poem. “Hard work!” declared the movement out my kitchen window. “Hard work” sang a man who wasn’t doing it, who was free at at last, on stage and gettin’ paid, “Hard work” kept the gauge going, the wheels on the gears throwing its luck to the pall; the ticking frets — evident. Another Chicano manifesto, another Chicana manifest, Xicanao music all night long in the weave of words and flight.
Towards the Mater of Chicana/o Poetry — Towards What Matters
“Words belong to the polis and the words return to the polis.”
“I am an activist in the classroom because I love them.”
~ Benjamín Sáinz, from his panel remarks
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May 13, 2008 at 5:33 am · Filed under a day in the life, chicana, el valle, food, our history, racism, sexism
I’m eating some duros, haven’t had these in along time. Not maderos, I need to make some of those. Is that a theme or what?
omg I have to make churros!
back in the day we would go to the corner store or the tiendita across from church and get some duritos or big huaraches with crema and chile con limon for what, $100 pesos? And at home we would get fancy and put beans, avocado and salsa on that, mm that was some good stuff. With some cokes from grandma’s, cuz she sold them for what, 50 pesos. I forget all the little things. At night we’d sneak to the fridge and get cokes when she was asleep. dad hasn’t wanted us to go visit. Says there’s been alot of rapes and kidnapping & families being murdered (have I mentioned this before?).
(this is one of those posts that people read and say that’s why I hate the internet and blogs. I don’t want to hear what you ate today.. jaja). But mostly I’m thinking and irritated how people say other people (me) aren’t “mexican” because I don’t eat meat, and what in the world could I eat if not meat? Grrr. I’m also pissed when people say we have to forget all else and focus on animals rights and stop causing divisions because of “petty” details such as racism, sexism, male privilege. Like Johanna said here, it reminds of the wipe your nose and get over it attitude when someone says something is fucked up, like when a well known press says “We admittedly do not publish enough women of color, but we never have. Seal was always seen as more of a lesbian press back in the day.” But hey, I heard that we engage best through negative discourse. Which leads to some folks girlcotting Seal Press.
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