undocumented

Tamaleros on every corner are a good idea, too (videos)

by


See the guy with the tamales in the hot box on wheels? He’s well-known in San Pedro, home of the Port of Los Angeles, on the south side of the City of Angels. This vato — The Tamale Guy — even has his own reviews (good ones!) on Yelp:

tamaleguyreview

Legalizing street vendors like the Tamale Guy is one of the key elements of the Manifesto of The Taco Truck Party, announced on POCHO last week by our Associate Naranjero Gustavo ¡Ask a Mexican! Arellano.

Via our friends at LatinoLA.com, here’s an academic analysis of the issues involved:

Why the City of Los Angeles Should Legalize Street Vending

Street entrepreneurs should not be criminalized

By Vanessa Alcantar and Robert D. Flores Jr.

“¡Tamales! ¡Tamales! ¡Tamales!”

Growing up in the East L.A. and Pico Union neighborhoods of Los Angeles, this shouting is something everybody in the neighborhood is accustomed to because it provides a sense of home. To everyone in our households, this is the cue to scour through the house for cash and hurry outside to catch the tamale lady in time before she takes off.

Mas…Tamaleros on every corner are a good idea, too (videos)

Let’s get one thing straight: No human being is ‘illegal’

by

immigrationmarch600“Could the president grant deferred removal to every unlawfully present alien in the United States right now?”

That’s how Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts referred to individuals lacking the proper documents to be in the country during a recent hearing on DAPA (Deferred Action for parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents).

“Alien” is the legal term to describe these individuals, but Justice Sonia Sotomayor also referred to them as “undocumented immigrants.” She objected to the phrase “illegal immigrants”, which she considers too harsh. Justice Sonia Sotomayor even explained that “illegal immigrants” associates them with “drug addicts, thieves, and murderers.”

Mas…Let’s get one thing straight: No human being is ‘illegal’

Three poems from Mexington, KY by Profe. Steven Alvarez (audio)

by

alvarezfacebookSteven Alvarez, POCHO amigo and Assistant Professor (Writing Rhetoric and Digital Media, Latin America Studies, English) at the University of Kentucky, teaches a course called Mexington, about the growing community of Mexican Americans in UKY’s hometown, Lexington. He’s a poet, too.

CON PAPELES / CON DIGNIDAD

0:03to my left is Appalachicano see & down the canyon just six miles in
0:07a thousand people oh it’s citizenship—
0:09one senses the isolation of citizenship in Appalachicano seen the twin mining
0:13communities nestled in the corner mountains—
0:15the history this area has been a history of struggle—
0:18labor struggle—
0:21do—
0:25do—
0:28since the turn of the century—when the club dinner in A district was the first
0:31major coal producer in Kentucky—

Mas…Three poems from Mexington, KY by Profe. Steven Alvarez (audio)

Pages: 1 2

A young family, divided by the border, lives ‘Through the Wall’ (video)

by


Undocumented immigrants Abril, brought to the U.S. as a child, and her 2-year-old boy Julián live near San Diego. Julián’s father Uriel was stopped by police for a minor traffic ticket and deported to Tijuana. In order to see each other, Uriel, Abril and Julián must cross difficult terrain to reach the border to spend time together the only way they can — Through the Wall. [Video by Tim Nackashi.]

‘Meet an (orange is the new black) Immigrant’ (video)

by


Thought experiment? Guerrilla theater? A prank?

When Sergio Mieja (he’s @SMieja95 on the Twitter) got the idea for this video, he didn’t know exactly what the message was. He just wanted to see who supported Donald Trump.

“But as I was filming it,” he explains, “many of the people I met expressed their feeling and emotions towards this subject and it was then I knew what the purpose of this video was and realized it had a much more significant meaning. Please share this message with your friends and family.”

A professor visits migrants at the border near Nogales, Mexico

by

border_immersion_morenoBy the time the two young women walked into the shelter, the other migrants were mostly finished with their meals. They stood out as two women among dozens of recently deported men enjoying a meal before continuing on their way. I did what I had been doing all that January morning: I served them each a glass of hot chocolate and a plate of food.

We were volunteering at the Kino Border Initiative (KBI) in Nogales, Mexico, as part of the Center for Social Concerns’ Border Immersion Faculty Seminar. For several years, Notre Dame students have participated in this seminar, but this was the first time it was being offered to faculty and staff as well. As a professor of U.S. Latino literature who studies and teaches about the border, this was an opportunity for me to experience the border in a different way.

Mas…A professor visits migrants at the border near Nogales, Mexico

Pages: 1 2

Marilynn Montaño is embedded in her migrant father’s rough hands

by

marilynn
Orange County poet and activist Marilynn Montaño’s poem His Machucada Hands is a “testament to the ways that being undocumented has taken a physical toll on her father’s body. The title, she said, came from noticing his hands on the steering wheel every morning as he drove her to middle and high school,” according to the PBS News Hour.

Mas…Marilynn Montaño is embedded in her migrant father’s rough hands

What happens when young deportees get sent back? (PBS video)

by


Even before the recent MIGRA raids targeting families denied asylum, hundreds of thousands of undocumented Mexican immigrants have been deported annually. Many were kids when their parents brought them over the border.

And those who grew up in the U.S. have found themselves living in what feels like a foreign country — Mexico. It’s like a dream Los Otros Dreamers never imagined.

PBS News Hour Special Correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro talked with some young people who are dealing with culture shock as they try to start over — strangers in a strange land.

What the past can teach immigrant advocates of today

by

[POCHO amiga Nancy Landa aka Mundo Citizen was a DREAMer before it was cool. Brought to the U.S. as an undocumented child, she was elected student body president at Cal State Northridge. And then she got deported.]

In paying my respects to those who came before me and their struggle due to their legal status, I share an excerpt of this 1995 L.A. Times article featuring the first undocumented student body president of California State University, Northridge, Vladimir Cerna (1996-1997), about his life and advocacy efforts to fight the Donald Trumps of his time.

Mas…What the past can teach immigrant advocates of today

+ Load More Posts