tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75009598300519569072024-03-13T09:03:19.797-07:00MEChA de Yale Blog<center>MEChA de Yale is a student organization that seeks to promote Chicano unity and empowerment through education and political action. We hope this blog will foster solidarity within our group and allow us to make connections with our alumni.</center>MEChA de Yalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08006573194872303087noreply@blogger.comBlogger75125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7500959830051956907.post-59301384151456398282013-10-29T15:14:00.000-07:002013-10-31T14:14:57.693-07:00She was just like family.<br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">Domestic workers in the U.S. are increasingly immigrant women who fill low-wage jobs providing care work and household duties for middle-class working families. These women come to the U.S. from all over the world—the Philippines, Mexico, and the Caribbean to make a better life for themselves and their children.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">As a potential double-major in Political Science and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Yale, I am interested in the narratives of these women, who often undergo physical and verbal abuse from their employers and have little political rights.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">To speak frankly, I did not grow up in an affluent family. I was born and raised in Oakland, Calif. to immigrant working-class parents. I never had a nanny. Rather, mom and dad would work alternate shifts to look after us while making sure there was food on the table. I am one of three children at the time (I am a twin) - looking back at it now, it was a miracle for a small family struggling to survive. My mother relied on aunts and relatives to care for us when dad was at work and couldn’t, but she could never afford to pay for consistent day care.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">Women in the immigrant neighborhood around me readily participated in the informal sector; they sold food on the weekends, cared for other people’s children, and were seamstresses in an effort to make ends meet. I grew up seeing these women struggling, facing an unequal burden men often did not face - they had to simultaneously care for and provide for their families. It didn’t matter if they had a part-time or full-time job. At the end of the day, they were still expected to put food on the table and care for the children.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">For that reason, I was shocked to discover many of my classmates had nannies growing up. Sitting in seminar, I heard most people speak about the domestic workers their families employed; the immigrant woman who cared for them as children, the house servant who did the errands. Who could forget the Mexican gardener who got deported? Not to fret; he came back!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;"> I was speechless. These were smart people advocating for women’s rights in seminar, yet they perpetuated the same racist stereotypes they criticized. It was different, they insisted. They were like family. Family who didn’t deserve a fair pay, political rights, and lived in constant fear of deportation. Family who worked around the clock, who beckoned to your every call, who could not stand up to injustices because they relied on you and your family to survive. Just like any other family member.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;"> The truth is that domestic workers are a vulnerable population, the creation of middle- and upper-class families who depend on the labor of poor migrants to climb up the social ladder themselves. Domestic workers have filled the domestic sphere many working American women have long abandoned. That is to say, as we American women have become liberated, it has often happened at the expense of others - women who must care for other people’s children to provide for their own.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;"> I will not defend that it is inherently women’s natural responsibility to care for their children and family. I believe both parents should equally share the burden of the welfare for the family. But this idea is difficult to make function in the real world. We simply live in a world embedded with gender binaries that feminizes care for the family.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">I was very hopeful when this past September, when California passed Domestic Worker Bill of Rights (AB241). This bill provides overtime protection for domestic workers, which </span><a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/176377/california-governor-signs-domestic-worker-bill-rights#" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">The Nation</span></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;"> estimates will benefit 200,000 workers in the state. AB241 is a groundbreaking bill that makes California the third state in nation to give domestic workers such protection. This triumph was years in the making, only made possible through lobbying and various community efforts. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sometimes it’s easier to speak about an idealized world, to sit in a class and read articles on various injustices around the world. It’s easy when you can gloss over your involvement in the systems that perpetuate these inequalities and normalize the racial and class hierarchies that grant you the privileges you do not acknowledge. I hope other states will join California in providing legislation like AB241 to finally acknowledge this problem.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 20px; text-indent: 0px;">-Gloria "Jack" Mejia-Cuellar</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 20px; text-indent: 0px;">East Coast Chicano Student Forum Representative, MEChA de Yale </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 20px; text-indent: 0px;">Yale '16</span></span></div>
MEChA de Yalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08006573194872303087noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7500959830051956907.post-3686354148166760442013-05-01T17:05:00.000-07:002013-05-01T17:08:08.683-07:00Animal Kingdom Responds to Immigration Reform<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS-
Following yesterday’s press conference about the Border Security, Economic
Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act, the Animal Kingdom expressed mixed
reactions to the proposed immigration bill. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Some animals said that
the immigration reform proposal would benefit the country; others said that the
border security measures stipulated by the proposal would harm recent animal immigrants.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“The immigration reform
makes it harder for me,” stated a Mexican Spiny-tailed iguana. “I cross the
border every day to pick edible fruit in the United States. If they build a
wall between the United States and Mexico, I won’t be able to cross like
normal. I will have to climb the stupid wall.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">But other members of
the lizard community expressed satisfaction with the bill’s border security
measures, saying that they would prevent further illegal immigration into the
United States.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“I think it is a good
idea,” declared a Gila Monster labor leader. “We have to patrol the border with
drones and build an electric wall so that no Mexican Spiny-tailed iguanas will
come in to take our American Gila Monster jobs.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The Gila Monster
community was more adamant about the bill’s citizenship clause, which states
that “some animals are more equal than others”. Many Gila Monsters demanded
more stringent citizenship policies to punish the Mexican Spiny-tailed iguanas for
having entered the United States illegally.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“They’re Mexican, not
American!” exclaimed one Gila Monster, ignoring the fact that his Gila Monster ancestors
emigrated from northern Mexico ten years ago. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Despite some vocal opposition to the
citizenship clause, most members of the Animal Kingdom agreed that the bill
would fix the sluggish and broken immigration system. The new bill would
eliminate the backlog of immigration applications and strengthen the E-Verify
employment system, penalizing employers who hire undocumented animals.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“Hey! We’re not like
the system!” shouted an unhappy garden snail. “We came here to work and to earn
a living for our slug families. We’re not criminals.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Like the snail, millions of other animals hope
that the immigration reform bill will pass the House and Senate, which are
dominated by the Elephants and the Donkeys, respectively. Except for a few Elephants,
both groups have publicly endorsed the bill.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“To the people who
think that immigration reform is unnecessary, I say: you’re fucking crazy,”
stated Senator Dumbo the Elephant in another press conference. “Immigration
reform will put some money in our government’s pocket, create new jobs, and put
our unemployed drones to work.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">But comments like these
were not well received by the monarch butterfly community, which is known to
ignore international immigration laws. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“I don’t like the idea
that the government will use drones to shoot down our people,” said a worried
monarch butterfly. “I know that everyone is happy about legalization and stuff,
but you know what? We were here before any Elephants were brought to the continent.
We were here before the Donkeys ferried white settlers across the Great Plains
and took our nesting places away. We were here before the lizards drove us into
nets, ate our children, and destroyed our sacred habitat. We’re the only legal
ones! We were here first! We were here first!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The Border Security,
Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act is expected to affect
at least 56 million monarch butterflies, 11 million spiny-tailed iguanas, 78
million garden snails, and an unspecified number of Mexican coyotes. The House
of Representatives will vote on the bill next week. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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MEChA de Yalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08006573194872303087noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7500959830051956907.post-56330487699576183382013-04-16T23:26:00.002-07:002013-04-16T23:28:33.878-07:00Under Review<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I
am not a typical immigrant. Seventeen years ago, my parents brought me to the
United States on an 18-wheeler tire that they pushed across the Rio Grande. I
hardly remember it, but my parents tell me that we reached the shores of El
Paso, only to be detained and deported by US Customs and Border Protection. End
of story? We crossed the border again 24 hours later, under cover of darkness. <i>La migra</i> didn’t arrive to round us up
like pigs this time. My parents hid me and my brother Misael among prickly
shrubs until a van came to pick us up. A <i>coyote</i>
gave us plane tickets to Dallas (airport security was lax in the 1990s), and we
flew away from El Paso, <i>de volada</i>, as
quickly as we could; I suppose <i>la migra </i>didn’t
understand our aversion to waiting. <i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">That was not my
last experience with the US immigration system. I sat in the back of an SUV at
the age of seven, fidgety and frustrated as our vehicle chugged along the
Laredo Bridge System’s monstrous traffic. The two people in the front of the
SUV pretended to by my parents; my mother and brother, who sat beside me,
passed off as my aunt and my cousin, respectively. I was petulant during the
six hour journey from Monterrey to Nuevo Laredo, and I was also annoyed when
the <i>coyote</i> in the driver’s seat would
ask me what my name was. I knew what I had to say: <i>My name is Robert. This is my aunt. This is my cousin. These are my
parents</i>. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t use my real name. I didn’t
comprehend that crossing the Laredo Bridge with a fake identity was the only
way to get into the United States safely, and that crossing the bridge was
better than wading neck-deep through the Rio Grande. But I did think that it
was better to lie about my name than to be left behind like my youngest brother
Paul, whom we left under my grandparents’ care back in San Luis Potosi. Paul
was an American citizen and could easily get into the United States. <i>He didn’t have to lie about his name</i>. As
I thought about these things, the SUV painstakingly moved a few more meters,
like an ant amidst a swarming colony. I felt like screaming. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Our
SUV finally reached the immigration checkpoint. A Customs officer in a Ranger
Smith green uniform gestured for us to stop. <i>El coyote</i> pulled down the window and greeted the officer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“Immigration
papers, please,” the officer instructed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“Certainly,”
<i>el coyote</i> calmly answered, handing
over his prepared documents. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“What’s
the purpose of your visit, sir?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“Vacationing,”
<i>el coyote </i>said. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“Very
well. Move along.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> I held my breath the entire time, avoiding the
ranger’s gaze. He didn’t notice tiny me fidgeting nervously next to my mother. <i>El</i> <i>coyote</i>
rolled up the window, and the gates opened. As the SUV accelerated forward, I stopped
twitching. At least until we arrived at the next checkpoint. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> I wasn’t as fidgety during the next twelve
years, but I was as tired and as trapped as a parakeet in a golden cage. I never
left the United States. Not because I didn’t want to, but because I couldn’t. I
couldn’t go to Mexico to see my grandparents and my relatives. I couldn’t go
abroad without having to pay more than four hundred dollars in advance parole
application fees. I couldn’t become an American citizen after more than twelve
years of undocumented residence in this country. I took extraordinary measures
to take care of myself. When I was admitted to Yale, I skipped class to get a
passport from the Mexican Consulate, so I could fly to Connecticut. When my
Academic Decathlon team won the regional championship, I couldn’t go with my
teammates to El Paso for the State Finals; I never would have gotten past the
checkpoints outside of the city. I
waited for some legislation to come along and make traveling and working easier,
but nothing productive came out of Congress or the Oval Office. Trust me: I <i>tried</i> to get permanent residence. I
swear. But the immigration filing process is the equivalent of a bloated slug,
which means to say, the whole process is not worth the money and the time. My
mother, for example, requested a visa in 2001; it has been twelve years, and
her case is <i>still </i>“Under Review”. Her
visa had to be requested by a close relative- her brother- who is a US citizen.
My brother Paul wasn’t yet old enough to request one for me. So I had the
following options:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Have
a company petition the United States Customs and Immigration Services for my
visa. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Leave
the country and apply for reentry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">3.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Marry
a US citizen. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">A company would not
have hired me, unless I were a Canadian singing prodigy, which, sadly, I was
not. Leaving the United States and applying for re-entry was out of the
question; I would have had to abandon my Texan home, forsake my American
education, and wait a decade in Mexico for permission to return. Given the odds
of ever hearing back from USCIS, (I was more likely to be killed by a Zeta
hit-man than to be granted immigration to the US) I decided to stay in Dallas.
And as for marrying a US citizen, I convinced my girlfriend to grant me that
special favor; it was too bad she broke up with me a year after she promised to
make me an American citizen…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> I didn’t like waiting for things to happen. I needed to
work after my freshman year of college, and the only way I could do that was to
get a fake Social Security number. My mother dialed up a document forger, and
within a day I had in my hands a gray-blue Social Security card and a green
Permanent Resident card, faster than USCIS could have ever supplied. But they were
only temporary solutions; E-Verify ensured that I was rejected by most
companies, and I was only able to get employment within an immigrant-dependent
industry: electrical wiring. So I worked as a residential wireman during the
summer and hoped for my legal status to change, bidding my time until the
suited men and women on Capitol Hill and the White House would notice that the
immigration slug needed some speed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> I was keeping my balance on a ladder, vigorously screwing
in a light fixture in the upper bedroom of a Preston Hollow house in northern
Dallas, when I heard my father shout something from downstairs. I went down to
see what the fuss was about. My father stood near the stairway, phone in hand,
a smile on his face.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> “Your uncle called me. There’s good news.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> What he told me wasn’t exactly the greatest news ever,
but it was a start. President Obama had announced the Deferred Action for
Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which would grant me asylum in the United
States. When my father finished telling me the good news, he smiled. A
tentative smile. He knew that this program did not address his legal status; because
the White House thought that legalizing undocumented minors would be earn it
some votes from Latinos, only my brother Misael and I directly benefitted from
DACA. My father had lived in the United States far longer than I had, and yet
he was excluded from DACA. It was unfair. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> “At least there is hope,” he said, his smile unfading.
For my dad, there was hope that immigration reform would not stop at DACA. I earnestly
hoped so. I smiled back, and then I walked up the stairs to the bedroom I was
working in, climbed the ladder, and recommenced screwing in the unfinished
fixture. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Three
months later, I was in Hartford on a wet and windy workday. Thick drops dripped
from my umbrella and moistened my sweater, my shoes sloshing through gray
puddles as I trudged along Main Street. I had an appointment with USCIS at 1
PM. I arrived 4 hours early because the New Haven-Hartford Express Bus did not
offer service after 8:21 AM, and I didn’t want to risk missing my appointment. So
I was stranded in the city until one o’clock. I took refuge from the rain in a
café at One Constitution Plaza, where I ordered some hot tea and I sat down to
do some homework. CNN news anchors burbled political opinions from the TV in
front of me. People monotonously chattered in the background. I grew restless. Here
I was, a nineteen-year-old immigrant who had skipped class and woken up at
seven in the morning and travelled 39 miles to Hartford just to get his fingerprints
scanned. I was tired, soaked, and sleepy. <i>Why
did the process have to be so hard?</i> I tried to contain my frustration and
concentrate on my reading assignments. After an hour at the café, I went out
into the rain. Everything moved slowly in the blanketing spray from the
traffic, umbrellas bumping into each other like leaves in a choked stream. More
rain. I walked around downtown for two hours, and then I returned to One
Constitution Plaza to wait for a bus to East Hartford. I stood in the rain for
another half hour. At last, the bus arrived. I clung to the inner railings as
people crammed into it, the bus slicked with mud and water. <i>This is the immigration system</i>, I
thought. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Twenty
minutes later, I got off the bus and trekked half a mile to the USCIS field
office. An attendant instructed me to disinfect my hands and gave me a form to
fill out. I was given a number and told to sit in a waiting area. A plasma TV
blurted American history facts and immigration oddities. The Mayflower. The
Statue of Liberty. The good old Red, White, and Blue. <i>I wonder
how long the people on Ellis Island had to wait. Did they remain undocumented?
How did they become citizens?</i> Someone called my number. A young bespectacled
USCIS officer stood at a booth next to a scanner, expecting me. I went. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“Place
your hand on the scanner,” he ordered. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The
officer pressed my hand onto the scanner, a little more forcefully than I
expected. The machine beeped and displayed the word “Failed”. <i>So the scanner can’t read my fingerprints.
Great. Just great. </i>The officer sprayed disinfectant on my hand, rubbed it
with a Kleenex, and pressed my fingers onto the scanner’s cold, smooth surface.
The machine beeped again. <i>Damn it</i>. The
officer tried the procedure once more. <i>Spray.
Rub. Press. Repeat</i>. Ten minutes passed before the machine clicked and
displayed the word “Passed”. I sighed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“Sir,
please look at the camera,” the officer said. A flash. My eyes glazed over for
a second.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“Okay,
you’re all set. Fill out this Customer Service evaluation, and you can be on
your way.” <i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I
filled it out. And as I left the field office, I felt relieved, as if I had
crawled out of those prickly shrubs, or as if I had squirmed my way out of that
SUV. I was free to go home, and I would receive my documents in a month. . I
headed toward the exit and went out once more into the fountain pouring from
the sky. I opened my umbrella. How freely did it open!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">No,
I am not a typical immigrant. I am, as of April 2013, a legal temporary
immigrant worker. My parents are still undocumented. My brother still awaits
legalization. DACA remains in place and an immigration reform bill is in the
making, but the immigration slug remains as slow as ever. I feel optimistic,
but I suspect that the next immigration program will have flaws. After all,
don’t we hate to see our friends and family in limbo? Don’t we hate to stand in
line to get our passports and our permits? Don’t we hate to wait days and
months and years for things to happen? When immigration reform arrives-if
indeed it ever arrives-will the wait be worth it? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
MEChA de Yalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08006573194872303087noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7500959830051956907.post-37498978298819400642013-03-11T22:35:00.001-07:002013-03-11T22:42:18.666-07:00A community unafraid<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVC5GYCHarEH0AH3n0BEWaPddcL1FilssV50wZSjYkYvUgMCBMJDNE_X1WZWieE14txc3helAA-1j4j02sQzTbe3Hhb34XVpiPpAsm5Uhp4GC11WbthQo12zHILm80SK0E2vHM3mNMKenU/s1600/SAM_0598-ed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVC5GYCHarEH0AH3n0BEWaPddcL1FilssV50wZSjYkYvUgMCBMJDNE_X1WZWieE14txc3helAA-1j4j02sQzTbe3Hhb34XVpiPpAsm5Uhp4GC11WbthQo12zHILm80SK0E2vHM3mNMKenU/s640/SAM_0598-ed.jpg" width="452" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
</div>
<h3>
<b id="internal-source-marker_0.7876193437259644"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One community speaking out against unjust laws.</span></span></b></h3>
<div>
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
<b id="internal-source-marker_0.7876193437259644" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That’s what I saw when I was part of the Keeping Families Together Bus tour on March 3rd. The tour, which took immigrant families around the country to share their stories of struggle, was making its last round of appearances on the East Coast before going to Washington D.C.</span><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of the stories that touched me the most was one by Sandra, a young woman from Honduras who spoke about her hope for education. Her family immigrated to the U.S. when she was a child. She was an average student who found her joy in school. But when senior year came, Sandra was scared of life after high school--without papers she didn’t qualify for federal aid and faced paying triple the tuition at in-state universities than other students had to pay. Dropping out of high school and getting a job was becoming an increasingly likely option. But with the passage of </span><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Sandra was able to obtain a work permit and received a scholarship to attend college.</span><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Although Sandra’s story was amazing, it was an exception. Sandra’s story reminded me of my high school classmates, many of which were brought to the US in their youth who were not eligible for DACA. Their situation remains unaddressed by the government, their needs and aspirations for a better life through education unmet. Being ineligible for federal aid made going to college a nearly impossible burden to bear for their families. It was enough to dissuade them to put their dreams on hold. </span><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Current mainstream rhetoric puts the blame on the immigrant parents for bringing their children illegally to the states, but they refuse to acknowledge the external factors that force people to immigrate in the first place. They overlook the civil wars, the poverty, the corruption of their own governments that force families to migrate to the U.S. in hopes giving their children a better life. Although DACA is a step forward for our country, it’s scope is very limited. Our country is need of comprehensive immigration reform for all members of the family.</span></span></b><br />
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></b>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB00LzxhWfyIq5vOAPH1CGCeRd3XqWm3TtKu6Kno2oQVtOdeNzrafa8MZEiYlvQCx_fmjp6zH623drTY9w_gOyQvpbN9F_mt00mbMfs6tWbFoJ_a2rtBRgy7WbBF8Lbe5rzn7Otl8C9ePZ/s1600/SAM_0605-ed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="443" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB00LzxhWfyIq5vOAPH1CGCeRd3XqWm3TtKu6Kno2oQVtOdeNzrafa8MZEiYlvQCx_fmjp6zH623drTY9w_gOyQvpbN9F_mt00mbMfs6tWbFoJ_a2rtBRgy7WbBF8Lbe5rzn7Otl8C9ePZ/s640/SAM_0605-ed.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The second woman to speak was an undocumented mother who spoke of a broken system that made her life as a mother and as an immigrant impossible. She awoke one morning and realized that her toddler was sick. Scared, the mother realized could not drive her child to the doctor because she was did not have a license. If she drove to the hospital without a license, she risked being arrested and possibly deported. “<i>Tenia un carro, pero no lo podia usar</i>,” she said in Spanish. (</span></span></b><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I had a car but could not use it.) </span></span></b><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She had to rush to the bus stop, sick child in arms and two-year old baby in tow, to go to the hospital.</span></span></b><br />
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What if it had been a serious illness? What if she had not made it to the hospital in time all because of her immigration status did not allow her to drive? No parent should experience this helplessness in an emergency. </span><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“</span></span></b><b id="internal-source-marker_0.7876193437259644" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></b><i><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 107%;">¿</span></i><i><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Qué </span></span></i><i><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">pasara con mis hijos si me fuera, si me deportaran?"</span></span></i><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the mother asked in Spanish. "</span></span></b><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What would happen to my children if I left?”</span></span></b><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Her question was haunting. This rally brought to light many questions that are not addressed in mainstream discourse on immigration legislation. The silence on this issue is astounding. According to a </span><a href="http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/11/shocking_data_on_parents_deported_with_citizen_children.html"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ColorLines news report </span></a><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">from 2011, 46,000 immigrant parents were deported under the Obama administration from January to June 2011.</span></span></b><br />
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We have created a system that is quick to overlook the contradictions of enforcing harsh anti-immigrant legislation all the while depending on an underground economy and the exploitation of undocumented labor. </span><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Despite being a lawful member of society, despite contributing to the economy, as an immigrant one always runs the risk of being deported. One always lived in fear. Fear of asking for help, fear of challenging authority who violated basic rights. The fear of knowing everything they worked so hard to build in this new country could all be lost with single phone call, left in the dust behind a white ICE van. Fear. Destabilizing, debilitating fear they face everyday, a fear that must be overcome to continue living, to continue dreaming.</span><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What was most inspiring for me was that these women and their families were essentially </span><span style="font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">fearless</span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. They stood before a supportive community, before organization-heads, before pesky and clueless reporters and cameras who could never understand their experiences, to tell their stories. They were unafraid.</span><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Keeping Families Together tour showed that immigration is multifaceted. Immigration is not the face of only one individual. It isn’t a student, it isn’t a mother, it isn’t a child or a farm worker. It is a community and when they speak we must listen, legislators and communities alike.</span></span></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">-Gloria "Jack" Mejia-Cuellar</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">East Coast Chicano Student Forum Representative, MEChA de Yale </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Yale '16</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Photos by Kim Mejia-Cuellar</span></i>Jack Mejia-Cuellarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09035386566228302031noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7500959830051956907.post-79482366678169963252013-02-21T18:19:00.000-08:002013-02-21T18:19:59.980-08:00Becoming Latina/o<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpFirst" style="line-height: 200%; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in;">
The acceptance of my ethnic
heritage is a personal triumph that is paradoxically linked to the racial
marginalization MEChA counteracts on a regular basis. Growing up, I deliberately
chose not to identify as Latino, fearing negative associations and wanting the
social ease I linked with being “white”. Having a fair complexion, in the
context of majoritarian skin-based racial constructions, gave me the freedom to
project my preferred racial identity. The customs of my people were archaic
remnants of a culture rendered inadequate by those around me. When people assumed
I was white, I never corrected them. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in;">
Coming to Yale radically altered my stagnant perceptions
of race and ethnicity. I came to understand the multiple ways in which people
expressed their Latina/o identity beyond my internalized white-brown-black
paradigm. My classes taught me the dynamics of skin-based privilege and the Latinas/os
I met gave me the courage to define my own identity and not allow inaccurate
and pervasive racial categories to dictate my actions. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in;">
Another aspect of coming to New Haven that propelled me
to dismantle my previous conceptions of Latinidad came from the scarcity of
students and professors who identified as Hispanic, and on a larger scale, the
vast inequalities prevalent in the local community. Being at Yale provided me
with ample opportunity to engage in acts that worked to dispel racial
adversity. I began to see my Latina/o identity as not only something to be
proud of, but also as a constant reminder of why the fight against oppression
needs to continue. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpLast" style="line-height: 200%; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in;">
I have come to see academia as my place in ameliorating
the racial inequalities that exist in society. By becoming a professor, I hope
to utilize my formative experiences with race and ethnicity in ways that give
agency to communities that continue to receive harsh regulation. The
opportunity to study and conduct research on subjects like the social phenomena
that engendered my sense of Latinidad would be incredible. As daunting as the
task may be, I aspire to add my voice to the collective knowledge of esteemed
trailblazers and look for new ways to interpret racial identity. <o:p></o:p><br />
-Christofer Rodelo</div>
<!--EndFragment-->MEChA de Yalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08006573194872303087noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7500959830051956907.post-73576159496523667082013-02-13T20:16:00.001-08:002013-02-13T20:16:48.283-08:00To Astronaut, or not to Astronaut?<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">
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</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">Growing up I wanted to be a plethora of things. I wanted to
become a news anchor and be just like Diane Sawyer or Robin Roberts… until I
learned that meant traveling to war torn areas or disaster zones. Being a true
Californian, I thought I would want to be come a seismologist… but then I
decided I would much rather not spend my time thinking about our impending doom
and the nightmare of “The Big One”. I thought maybe an astronaut would suit me
well… until I learned that there was no oxygen in space. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
have always been fascinated by science and arithmetic, I was the kid who would
toss dolls aside and instead spend my time on “crystal growing kits” and
watching ZOOM on PBS. Even now, my friends know my as the one who has watched
every NOVA and BBC Horizon documentary and shares the juicy details of what I
learned in genetics with them (whether they want to hear about mutated flies
with eyes all over their bodies or not). It wasn’t until 5<sup>th</sup> grade
that I started to honestly consider a career in the medical field. Most of my
life, I’ve spent a lot of time going in and out of hospitals because many of my
family members suffer from various illnesses. I’ve always looked up to those in
the medical field with awe; they were magical beings dedicated to trying to help
and cure those around them! I could think of no other career that I would enjoy
more. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In
2006 I unfortunately lost an uncle to brain cancer, but I never forgot the
courage and strength which with he kept fighting. He had a dream of opening a
clinic in my family’s town in Mexico for all those who did not have the
financial means to afford medication and treatments. Although he is no longer
with us, I remember his love of life, pure heart, and his dream; it is he who
inspired me to follow a career as a neurosurgical oncologist. When it came time
to apply to colleges, I proudly wrote neurosurgical oncologist on all my
applications. It seemed so easy then! “In a little over a decade, I will be a
surgeon,” I thought, “I’ll just take the classes I need to take and that’s all,
it’ll be easy!”</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
….And then I got to college. It suddenly wasn’t as easy as
it once seemed, the amount of work and readings were slowly starting to get to
me. For a bit I even wondered if this path was for me. My grades weren’t as
good as in high school and the material didn’t come to me as easily either.
“What are you doing Cynthia??” I would tell myself as I struggled over my
p-sets. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Then I started volunteering as a Spanish interpreter at
Haven Free Clinic, a clinic that offers free consultations and low-cost
medications to a predominantly working-class Latino community on Saturday
mornings. During the appointments many would begin to tell me a bit of their
life stories, the struggles they had to endure to get to the United States to
experience El Sueño Americano. However, once they arrived here, the US wasn’t
as wonderful as they had imagined. They were working dangerous, minimum wage
jobs while trying to support a family, and their bodies had to suffer the
consequences. At the clinic, I was able to see first hand, the consequences of
a difficult and often unjust country. </div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As
they leave the consultation room, I’ve had a few people give me hugs and tell
me not give up on my dream because I was an inspiration for their children. It
seemed kind of weird that 17 year old me could be an inspiration for anyone
because I’ve done nothing, and what I have done has been with the help and
support of dozens of others. The family, friends, teachers, counselors and many
more who have had their own struggles to overcome in this country.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
think part of the reason why I love working at the clinic so much is because no
matter how hard my week has been, how bad my quiz grades were, or how little
sleep I’ve had, I know that in the long run all of my efforts will pay off and
I will finally be able to give back to all those who have made it possible for
me to be where I am today. So regardless of how difficult college “seems” at
times, I know I’ll get there because no matter how bad things are, there are
others who have it much, much worse. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
am proud to say that I am the product of several generations of hardworking
people who with blood, sweat, and tears have been able to build a better life
for themselves. My family’s efforts are finally paying off, and I hope that one
day, I will be able to help cure and treat those who have not been so lucky by
lightening the load of their worries so that one day their kids can have the
luxury of choosing whether they want to be an astronaut, or seismologist, or
news anchor. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Now, back to studying! </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Wingdings;">:)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
Con MEChA amor,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
Cynthia Campos</div>
<!--EndFragment--></span>MEChA de Yalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08006573194872303087noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7500959830051956907.post-66765080239807728192013-02-12T10:12:00.002-08:002013-02-12T10:57:19.038-08:00In Support of Josemaria Islas: A Letter to the Public Advocate for ICE<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.5pt;">Andrew Lorenzen-Strait</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.5pt;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">Office of the Public Advocate</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Enforcement and Removal Operations</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">500 12th St. SW, Suite 5255</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Washington, D.C. 20024</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">February 11, 2013</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">RE: Mr. Josemaria Islas, A#205-497-397</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Dear Andrew Lorenzen-Strait:</span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.5pt;">On behalf of MEChA de Yale, I urge you to
review and close the deportation case of Mr. Islas before his removal hearing
on February 21, 2013. He is a valued member of the New Haven, Connecticut
community, and his detention has caused widespread outcry in our state.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.5pt;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">MEChA, or Movimiento Estudiantíl Chicano de
Aztlán (Chicano Student Movement) is a social justice organization focused
primarily on issues affecting Hispanic communities both locally and nationally.
Nationally, there are upwards of 300 MEChA chapters, from the East Coast to
Texas to California and Colorado. In the Yale University chapter alone we have more
than 40 members, and our mailing list reaches over 150 Yale undergraduates,
professors, and administrators each week. Here in New Haven, MEChA de Yale has
focused on racial profiling, education reform, wage theft and immigration
reform, by participating in meetings at Mayor DeStefano’s office, organizing
large rallies, writing for the Yale Daily News and regularly hosting panels
with other Yale groups such as the Yale College Democrats and the Black Student
Alliance at Yale to raise campus awareness. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.5pt;">We have met Mr. Islas (he is also scheduled to
speak at a panel on immigration reform being held at Yale in two weeks) and we are
shocked and angered that he is still in the deportation process. Mr. Islas is
innocent of committing any crime, and he is the last person we should be
spending taxpayer’s dollars on to deport. This is why we will all be out in
full force at his hearing next Thursday in Hartford to support him and his
family in this difficult, frightening and upsetting time.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.5pt;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Mr. Islas exemplifies the hard-working immigrant
who has put down roots in our community. He has lived with his family in New
Haven for eight years. He has worked steadily for the last four years at a
factory, while financially supporting his sister, nephews and niece, with whom
he lives.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">We are deeply troubled that Mr. Islas is in
deportation proceedings because he was racially profiled, arrested and jailed
for a crime that he did not commit. The stated goal of Secure Communities is to
deport criminals, not innocent people wrongly accused like Mr. Islas. He and
his family have suffered enough.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Furthermore, Mr. Islas’s removal would make it
clear that Connecticut immigrants cannot feel safe interacting with the police.
We want the public to feel safe contacting police, especially to report crimes.
His removal would be disastrous for this state, not to mention for his family
and his large community of supporters.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">President Obama is now advocating for a path to
citizenship for the millions of people just like Mr. Islas who may have entered
or stayed in the United States without permission but otherwise have
contributed to society and abided by the law. We believe that Mr. Islas’s
significant contributions to our community, his ties to family in Connecticut,
and his non-existent criminal record outweigh any civil immigration infractions
he may have committed.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">We urge you again to grant Prosecutorial
Discretion in Mr. Islas’s case.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Sincerely,</span><br />
<br />
<i><span style="background: white;">Katherine
Aragón, </span></i><span style="background: white;">President, MEChA de Yale<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Katherine Aragónhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05623559560633339557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7500959830051956907.post-78695631578552106872013-02-09T19:29:00.000-08:002013-02-09T19:29:12.291-08:00What Does Activism Mean to Me?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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A short 5’2’’ girl towed along a pink, two-inch binder that was bursting with worksheets that detailed the chemical pathways of glycolysis, the
Kreb’s cycle, and the Calvin cycle. Everyday after class, she spent hours
memorizing the enzymes that would catalyze these reactions and memorized the
different functions of ribosomes, the endoplasmic reticulum, and microtubules.
These long hours of grueling work earned her a purple T-shirt with the words, “I
want your myosin head to power stroke my actin filament” emblazoned on the
back. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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A long picket line formed outside the Congress Hotel in
downtown Chicago. There were always people stationed outside the hotel, but this
particular day was especially important because it marked the nine-year anniversary
of the day when hotel workers began their strike. Organizations from across the
city gathered on this one strip of Michigan Avenue to protest the hotel’s poor
labor practices. With such a long picket line, it was hard to keep the entire
group shouting along to the slogans and small pockets of silence inevitably
formed. One girl found this unacceptable and began leading the chants.<o:p></o:p></div>
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“WHAT DO WE WANT?”<o:p></o:p></div>
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“CONTRACTS!”<o:p></o:p></div>
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“WHEN DO WE WANT THEM?”<br />
“NOW!!”<o:p></o:p></div>
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She didn’t need a bullhorn. She was the bullhorn.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Can you guess which girl I am?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Both. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I began my studies at Yale with the heart of a science nerd
set on being a Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology major following a
pre-med track. Then I got more involved with MEChA and my perspective
dramatically changed. I had always been very passionate about issues revolving
around human rights, immigrant rights, and women’s rights, but I had never
formed a part of an organization that actively tried to change these issues. I
was very shy in high school and not very outspoken. I shied away from
situations that put me in the spotlight because I was afraid of doing or saying
something that was wrong. However, that began to change when I met the Mechistas
here at Yale. I saw that same passion I possessed in the members of the
organization. The difference was that they voiced their passion. There wasn’t a
day that passed that I didn’t hear Diana speak about the grave consequences of
the drug wars in Mexico or Alejandro rant about the system of oppressions that
are built into our society. I slowly began losing my fear and became more
actively involved in projects. I helped put together a panel, I canvassed
during this past election, and now I am attempting to put on a large-scale
project that will bring to light the issue of wage theft in New Haven. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Activism helped me find the voice that I had been trying to
find for a very long time. I thought I had found it in the research programs I
had participated in during high school. However, I realized that wasn’t it at
all. My internship this past summer at a worker’s rights organization showed me
what it was that I had loved about those experiences. I loved talking to people,
learning from people. While doing clinical research at the University of
Chicago, my favorite part of the day was talking to patients. The highlight of
that summer was listening to Mr. Biggs’ story of surviving cancer not learning
to use STATA statistical software. My favorite part of this summer was being
able to talk to workers, community leaders, and faith leaders. All of these
conversations and joint collaborations would lead to a change that actually
mattered. I’ve always been a listener and these experiences gave me the
opportunity to listen to the community’s real needs. Now it is time to act.
What good is it if I can listen but do nothing to enact change? <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I will continue listening to empower not only myself but
also those others around me. My mission is to effectively foster change.
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and equality is expected. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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As us Mechistas love to say,<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
La lucha sigue</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
-Evelyn Núñez <o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment-->MEChA de Yalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08006573194872303087noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7500959830051956907.post-17679209716583429442013-01-30T19:32:00.002-08:002013-01-30T19:35:31.795-08:00Diversity<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
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Rural Western Nebraska is not a
diverse community. Sure there are towns every so often in which Hispanic
communities grow, but these communities are generally transient and migrate
back to their homelands once the harvest has ended. My family was one among
several migratory bands that moved with the seasons from Nebraska to Texas and
back again annually. Like every other Mexican migrant, I’ve spent my share of time
working in the fields. Sweltering summer months spent weeding fields were my
inspiration for furthering my education. I knew ever since I was 12 that a life
filled with weary limbs and low expectations was not for me. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Regardless of my dislike for fieldwork,
it was never something I was ashamed of, like I realize now, most people my age
were. It’s hard, honest labor and unfortunately, it carries a stigma. “If I
hadn’t met you, I would think all Mexicans were the same,” someone once told me
in school. “What’s that supposed to mean?” Silence. Stereotypes. A provincial
upbringing. Every other person in my graduating class was white. I had never
paid much attention to it until I received that comment my senior year. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
“My Mexican works for less than
yours.” “Excuse me?” Slurs tossed out casually, because, hey, who cares? “You
shouldn’t be offended so easily.” “But I’m not racist.” “What do you mean you
don’t like Taco Bell?” “People write songs in Spanish!” That’s news to me. For
the most part, I took these comments for granted. But now, I’m realizing just
how ignorant they are. Before coming to Yale all the Hispanics I knew were from
one place. We shared slang, we danced to huapangos, and I had most certainly
not heard of Mexican vegetarians. Before MEChA, I never had a place to talk
about these things. In a predominantly white community, the issues affecting
minorities weren’t a concern. Coming to Yale and joining MEChA really opened my
eyes to all the injustice around me and, more importantly, to what I can do to
fight it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
-Sandra Mendiola </div>
MEChA de Yalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08006573194872303087noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7500959830051956907.post-71859707922403745312013-01-22T22:17:00.001-08:002013-01-22T22:17:57.448-08:00<br />
<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<i>Papeles</i></h2>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One fine November afternoon, I became legal. There were no
celebrations, no congratulations, no proclamations. I did not shout to the
world that I was once-and-for-all and forevermore a documented young man. There
was only a blanched piece of paper, hastily ripped out of an elegantly stamped
envelope, bearing the bold, bureaucratic inscriptions “The United States of
America” and “Notice of Deferred Action”. I skimmed the letter’s contents, and
then stuffed the paper back into its envelope. I smiled, but only a little. I
neatly slipped the envelope into my backpack and then I went about my business. That’s how I became legal. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Years of uncertainty had not prepared me for that moment. I
had been rejected from too many jobs, too many scholarships, too many opportunities
to have been ready for the day when my legal status changed. It’s not that I
was not happy or that I didn’t comprehend the significance of my deferred
action letter. I was simply numb. For most of my short life, I had expected
crumbs from the table of the American Dream. Yes, I worked hard to earn what I
got, including admission to Yale, but I always seasoned my success with a dash
of modesty, if not outright pessimism, because I knew that my effort would be
worthless without <i>papeles</i>. Without
<i>papeles</i>, I was just another “illegal”, another shadow that wasted space. Throughout
my freshman year of college, the futility of my predicament weighed on me like
a stone. And so when I finally did receive deferred action last November, I did
not leap out of the shadows; I crept out. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I admit that I have been more fortunate than other
undocumented people. I was able to pay the deferred action fee because I worked
the entire summer with a fake social security card, and I quickly cleared my
(nonexistent) criminal background record. I had few doubts about getting
approved. But other <i>indocumentados</i>
have not been so fortunate. I have a friend who must wait to apply for deferred
action until she can assess her foggy immigration record and raise enough money
to pay for a lawyer. She still stands in the shadow of uncertainty, unable to
step out. My brother also has a similar problem. And many other <i>indocumentados </i>simply do not qualify for
DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) because they happened to be in
the United States at the wrong time. Journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, my
friends, my cousins, my parents… <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes, I am quite lucky, I tell myself. Every so often I reach
into my wallet and pull out my <i>papeles</i>.
I look at them. My glossy red, white, and blue work permit glistens in my
dorm’s pale yellow light. My social security card poses a grayish-blue text
marked with my careful signature. “NOT VALID FOR REENTRY TO THE UNITED STATES”,
they proclaim. I stare at them for a while. And I still wonder whether this is what it feels like to be
out of the shadows.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Juan Carlos Cerda</div>
MEChA de Yalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08006573194872303087noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7500959830051956907.post-58730003627912265962012-12-08T21:49:00.002-08:002012-12-08T21:49:55.367-08:00You Cant Ignore Us - Latino Vote<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<header class="entry-header" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 20px;"><h1 class="entry-title" style="color: #00446b; font-family: inherit; font-size: 30px; line-height: 36px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
ENRIQUEZ: You can’t ignore us</h1>
<div class="entry-columntype" style="color: #777777; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; padding-bottom: 0.5em;">
</div>
<div class="entry-meta" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(235, 235, 235); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(235, 235, 235); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; clear: both; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 10px 0px;">
<div class="entry-authors" style="color: #777777; font-weight: bold; text-transform: uppercase;">
BY <a href="http://yaledailynews.com/blog/author/dianaenriquez/" style="color: #777777; text-decoration: initial;" title="Posts by Diana Enriquez">DIANA ENRIQUEZ</a><br />GUEST COLUMNIST</div>
<div class="entry-pubdate" style="color: #959595;">
Friday, December 7, 2012</div>
</div>
</header><div class="entry-content" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
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</ul>
<div style="margin-bottom: 9px;">
Election results do not lie. As statisticians break us down, Latino voters went 75 percent for President Obama this November. I saw campaign ads in Spanish whenever I turned on the TV. Linda McMahon’s ads sat on the sidebar of my computer whenever I logged on to Facebook, but translated into Spanish. Now, the immigration debate is creeping into political coverage across the board. America must keep paying attention.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 9px;">
This election we voted against those who tried to suppress our votes. On Yale’s campus, we responded to voter suppression and sent canvassers of all kinds to Fair Haven. On several doors that we knocked that week, we met registered voters in Fair Haven who were told by the others that their votes didn’t count or that they could not vote because their driver’s license had recently expired. What began as voter outreach turned into a full-blown campaign, as Americans alongside Latin Americans and undocumented students reminded residents across the city where they could go to vote.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 9px;">
Now, it will be our students who make lawmakers keep paying attention. The DREAM Act — a piece of federal legislation offering undocumented students a pathway to citizenship, provided that they serve for two years in our military or completed high school — grabbed everyone’s attention when it reached national headlines. While it did not pass, states across the country have considered their own versions of the bill, and Massachusetts became the 13th state to pass its own version of the DREAM Act this month. “Groups like Connecticut Students for a DREAM,” a local immigration activist group, are pushing Connecticut’s legislature to improve access to colleges and universities for undocumented but very well-qualified students. This was the first time that undocumented students held such a symbolic voice in politics, and politicians like President Obama and Sen. Marco Rubio reached out to them with variations on the bill.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 9px;">
This past week, local activist Lorella Praeli, who stared the Connecticut Students for a DREAM and now works for the national umbrella organization United We Dream, was featured in a New York Times article discussing immigration reform. On the same weekend I heard Gabby Pacheo, the other woman featured in the article, speak for senior partners at Morgan Stanley, startup gurus and nonprofit heroes at TEDxWomen. She shared her story with the crowd, about growing up as a very successful student whose options were limited by her immigration status. Every face in the room was deeply moved. The stories of our students are everywhere and permeating different levels of society than they could before.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 9px;">
We’re still a mixed bag: As the recent report from the Pew Hispanic Center reminds us, Latino voters were not solely concerned about immigration. More often, our immediate concerns were focused on economic, education or health care issues. I’m a Massachusetts liberal, but I still work in communities that aren’t familiar with what homosexuality and gay marriage entail. While I support decriminalization of marijuana for numerous reasons, I have never and will never smoke in my lifetime. I still cringe whenever I smell marijuana smoke because statistics from the drug wars flood through my mind, and all I can see are images of violence.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 9px;">
Our views are more nuanced than politicians often give us credit for in campaign ads and targeted speeches. We are not a one-issue community, and we never will be.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 9px;">
One of my professors made a joke at an election panel we held this year about how the “Latino vote gets rediscovered every four years.” After this election, we are no longer in the shadows, waiting to be “rediscovered.” Our activists are in the streets, spreading information and dispelling myths. Politicians are reaching out to our communities, even in states like Connecticut where the Latino presence is quieter than it is in states like North Carolina and Texas. We’re here, and we’ve been here for a long time. I’m looking forward to seeing what comes to the table for immigration reform in these next few months.</div>
</div>
</div>
DESCHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05371462817694946622noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7500959830051956907.post-50746698002706088302012-11-26T18:51:00.000-08:002012-11-26T18:52:31.842-08:00MEChA Eboard 2013!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; text-indent: -0.25in;">Please welcome our new eboard! Congratulations to all of our candidates, we are so excited to have you!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">o<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Menlo Bold";">The Moderator</span>: Katie Aragon</div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">o<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Menlo Bold Italic";">Treasurer: </span>Juan Carlos<span style="font-family: "Menlo Bold Italic";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">o<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Menlo Italic";">Secretary: </span>Cristina Moreno<span style="font-family: "Menlo Italic";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">o<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">ECCSF Representative<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;">§<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Juan Diaz</div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;">§<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Jack Mejia-Cuellar</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">o<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Historian:
</span></b>Kim Mejia-Cuellar<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">o<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><b><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Freshperson Liason: </span></i></b>Cyndi
Campos<b><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">o<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Political
Action Chair: </span></i>Chris Rodelo <b><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">o<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Herculanum;">Community Action Chair: </span>Evelyn Nuñez<span style="font-family: Herculanum;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">o<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter";">Social Activities Chair: Karen Lazcano<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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DESCHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05371462817694946622noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7500959830051956907.post-63451944857048175602012-11-25T22:30:00.001-08:002012-11-25T22:30:19.891-08:00Op-ed- Don't ban ethnic studies<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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This is belated but it was sitting in the drafts so thought I'd publish it anyway. An op-ed from last spring, 2012, when Mecha staged a protest in Commons concerning the Ethnic Studies Ban in Arizona.</div>
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Yale Daily News</h2>
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ARAGÓN AND ZEPEDA: Don’t ban ethnic studies</h2>
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By <a href="http://www.yaledailynews.com/staff/katie-aragon/">Katherine Aragon</a>, <a href="http://www.yaledailynews.com/staff/raquel-zepeda/">Raquel Zepeda</a></div>
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Wednesday, February 22, 2012</div>
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On Jan. 1, 2011, Arizona House Bill 2281 took effect, having
passed the previous year on a wave of popular political rhetoric of
racial tension and distrust. Republican Tom Horne, the author of the
bill, accused ethnic studies curricula of “promoting resentment” and
encouraging the overthrow of the U.S. government, a charge school
officials in the state have decried as unfounded.<br />
<br />
Last month, the Tucson Unified School District voted to enact HB
2281, buckling under threats of $15 million in annual fines if it did
not comply. In the words of TUSD superintendent John Pedicone, the
penalty “would have been impossible … to absorb.” During an
administrative meeting conducted in early January, administrators
advised teachers to avoid books that address themes of race, ethnicity
and oppression, including Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.”<br />
<br />
The bill is based on the misguided belief that ethnic studies promote
a radical and hateful discourse. In fact, an ethnic studies curriculum
does the opposite. It intends to shed light on the often ignored and
dismissed experiences of millions of Americans, including the
persecution minority communities have often faced throughout the course
of history. <br />
<br />
Although HB 2281 includes the caveat that it does not intend to
censor instances of oppression, that is effectively what it has done. It
has forced the TUSD — 75 percent of whose students are not white — to
eliminate curricula that included over 50 books dealing with issues of
ethnicity and social movements. Now, there will be no more “Ten Little
Indians” by Sherman Alexie and no more accounts of American minorities’
histories by historians like Ronald Takaki and Howard Zinn. <br />
<br />
Now, students in Arizona cannot count on public education to discuss
Cesar Chavez and his leadership in the nonviolent American Labor
Movement. Three-quarters of TUSD students will be taught that their
place in history is limited to servitude and violence and will not be
able to read narratives of their ancestors’ creative successes.<br />
<br />
High school retention rates show the positive impact of ethnic
studies. Studies have found that minority students enrolled in ethnic
studies courses are more likely to perform better in all of their
academic classes and are more likely to graduate high school and enroll
in college.<br />
<br />
However, ethnic studies classes do not solely empower minority
students: In their investigation into the value of the courses, the
National Educational Association concluded that “both students of color
and white students have been found to benefit academically as well as
socially from ethnic studies” and that “the overwhelming dominance of
Euro-American perspectives leads many students to disengage from
academic learning.” A curriculum with demonstrated success including
lessons on diverse cultures should be expanded, not eliminated.<br />
<br />
HB 2281’s proponents have thus far relied on paranoid rhetoric,
making unfounded speculations without ever setting foot inside an ethnic
studies classroom. Though the bill attempts to couch its racist motives
in legal terms as an effort to outlaw “treatment of pupils as anything
but individuals,” they ignore the fact that history has rarely acted in
accordance with this tenet. History has instead, time and again, grouped
people in broad and generalized terms, often on the basis of race.<br />
<br />
Though HB 2281 doesn’t explicitly ban books, books have nonetheless
been taken from students, boxed up and sent to gather dust in a
warehouse. Administrators claim these books are still available to the
approximately 63,000 students in the district through the public school
library system, but the system only holds a few copies of select texts.
Teachers were also told they would be increasingly monitored to ensure
they don’t violate the bill, thus turning classroom instruction into a
fearful process in which threatened teachers shy away from any curricula
that provides more than a slim view of another side of American
history. This climate of censorship is unacceptable.<br />
<br />
The elimination of these programs in Arizona is not just an affront
to ethnic studies across the nation. It is also an affront to the entire
purpose of educators: to teach students to think critically, creatively
and deeply by endowing them with the tools to understand perspectives
that differ from their own. The narratives found in ethnic studies texts
and courses make up the many faces of American identity. States should
not be allowed to edit our cultural history.<br />
<br />
We urge Yale students, faculty and administrators to vehemently
reject this bill and its implicit anti-intellectual crackdown. No
history is illegal. As students and scholars, we cannot stand by as our
nation’s history is rewritten. Rather than fear them, we must recognize
the histories of ethnic minorities as crucial components to truly
understanding both this nation’s history and its current state of
affairs. Only then can we be said to fully promote liberty and justice
for all.<br />
<em>KATHERINE ARAGÓN is a sophomore in in Timothy Dwight College. RAQUEL ZEPEDA is a sophomore in Jonathan Edwards College.</em></div>
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Katherine Aragónhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05623559560633339557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7500959830051956907.post-618087295660745142012-11-25T22:25:00.001-08:002012-11-25T23:06:58.844-08:00GET OUT THE VOTE! Fair Haven edition<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For the past 4 weeks, members of Mecha de Yale and the larger Spanish-speaking community at Yale have gotten to know our neighbors in Fair Haven a little bit better. That's because for the past 4 weekends (and all of Monday and Tuesday last week) Mecha organized groups to canvass for President Barack Obama and Chris Murphy for Senate. In its earliest stages, canvassing includes speaking to people (regardless of their political orientation) about the candidates, their issues, and why voting is relevant to the individual, as well as registering new voters. However, Mecha entered the scene closer to the election, when efforts were redirected towards Getting Out The Vote and making sure registered Democrat and undecided voters in Fair Haven (a low-income area with a large number of people of color) knew the basics of each candidate. GOTV includes helping people make plans to get to the polls, letting people know where their local polling place is (especially important this cycle, after recent redistricting and polling place changes in the city), and in some cases physically driving voters to the polling stations.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These efforts were doubly important this cycle for several reasons. First of all, the Republican senate candidate Linda McMahon, a millionaire who spent over 49 million dollars out of her own pocket to finance her campaign, consistently attempted (and sometimes succeeded) to mislead voters. For example, Linda McMahon paid unemployed people to hand out "Sample Ballots" that contained two candidates, Obama and McMahon, with checks in the boxes right next to their names and photos, suggesting a "Party Ballot" including both Obama and McMahon, when in fact Obama would be on the Democratic voting line and McMahon listed as an Independent (though her politics and endorsements are Republican). Paid canvassers also distributed door hangers telling people to vote for Barack Obama and Linda McMahon because apparently that duo will "fight for us", again despite the fact that McMahon endorsed Mitt Romney and does not support Obama's most notable legislation, including the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Affordable Care Act. She would also vote to defund Planned Parenthood and enact tax cuts for the rich, as well as favor<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;">the Blunt Amendment that would deny women access to affordable <strong style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold;">reproductive care</strong></span>. McMahon used the same tactic in her video campaign ads. The deceitful advertisements and literature were part of a carefully thought-out and employed election strategy used throughout the McMahon campaign to try to trick minority voters, especially those living in low-income neighborhoods such as Fair Haven (many of whom are not fluent English-speakers) into voting for her. Mechistas even encountered instances of voter suppression- one Latino man, a registered voter, told a Mecha canvasser that he had been informed by McMahon canvassers that he was ineligible to vote because his driver's license had expired. Such blatant attempts at voter suppression are one reason why the urgent necessity of canvassing in Fair Haven was apparent to Mechistas- to disseminate accurate information on candidates and voting practices in both English and Spanish.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 14px;">It was also crucial to mobilize Latinos to ensure that as many of us as possible made it to the voting booths on Tuesday to exercise our right to vote, making our voices heard around the country. That is why in addition to canvassing for many hours in Fair Haven, we spent an evening calling Spanish-speaking volunteers across the country in Colorado to urge them to canvass for Obama in their own neighborhoods as well. Thus we were doubly exhilarated to watch on Election Night as Colorado swung for President Obama.</span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 14px;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 14px;">We did not work alone this election season. For our Fair Haven canvassing, we were joined by members of the Yale Dems, Yale ACLU, and Amnesty International as well as many Yale students usually unaffiliated with Mecha. I felt incredibly proud of both the Mecha and the Yale community the day of the election, when we turned out almost 40 student volunteers to canvass in frigid weather. Mecha cannot operate successfully as a solitary agent. Our community is our power, and to all of our friends from around Yale and Fair Haven who were out there with us these past few weeks (and for those who worked for months canvassing before this such as Kenneth Reveisz and the Fair Haven Democrats and Labor Unions), the results of the election should prove thanks and proof enough that organizing and community activism is invaluable in the pursuit of change.</span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 14px;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 14px;">Of course, nothing ends at the moment of election other than the current election cycle. We must continue to look forward, working for immigration reform, education reform, prison reform- well, the list goes on. It is important to vote, and yes, to mobilize otherwise disregarded communities to take a stand with their vote during an election. But voting is simply one action among many that we must take in order to make change happen. </span></span></span><br />
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Katherine Aragónhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05623559560633339557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7500959830051956907.post-43634745153079077222012-11-19T19:56:00.003-08:002012-11-19T19:56:34.223-08:00Major Promotion (The Yale Herald, covering ERM as a new stand alone major)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Could we make Yale declare a major in comic books if we spent enough time marching in front of President Levin’s house?” So wonders Alex Zubatov, PC ‘97, in a Feb. 14, 1997, column for the <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Herald</em>. Entitled “Creation of an all-about-me-major,” the piece was a response to Yale’s creation of the Ethnicity, Race, and Migration (ER&M) major. Later in the article, Zubatov refers to an “ethnic studies gestapo,” and calls those protesting for an ethnic studies program “spoiled kids.”</div>
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Such an article now seems offensive—indeed, the language is so over-the-top, one might even assume that it’s a parody. (It’s not.) But what about ER&M’s creation spurred such a reaction? And do these hostile feelings persist today?</div>
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ER&M was created as a “secondary” major, meaning that students could only major in the program if they paired it with another—in other words, if they double-majored. But on Feb. 2, 2012, Yale College’s Committee on Majors unanimously voted to make ER&M a permanent, stand-alone major. Although many of Yale’s more established departments, such as history or political science, may consider race in their courses, ER&M, the University’s closest analog to the ethnic studies departments found at other schools, puts race at the core of its studies. The major is by definition interdisciplinary, working through a variety of departments to gain a better understanding of race and ethnicity, and serving as a hub for these studies at Yale, both inside and outside the classroom.</div>
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Both students and faculty feel that ER&M’s promotion to stand-alone status is a recognition of its legitimacy, and that this will secure an institutional place for the study of traditionally underrepresented populations. ”For me, [ER&M] is part of that larger history of people struggling to get representation in the academy,” Eb Saldaña, ES ‘14, an ER&M major, explained. That fight, according to students and professors around for the program’s founding, was remarkably un-dramatic. But the question of whether its status as a primary major is the be-all-end-all in the quest for representation remains. I checked in on ER&M in the first semester after its conversion to see what tangible developments have been made, and what steps still lie ahead for this course of study at Yale. Today’s students and faculty who are passionate about ethnic studies are picking up where the founders of the major left off, and it seems fair to say the quest to broaden the diversity of voices in the classroom, though long-term, is as crucial at this moment as ever.</div>
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Established in 1998, ER&M came long after the establishment of ethnic studies departments in peer institutions across the country. The field of ethnic studies traces its history to California’s Bay Area in the year 1969. In that place, at that time, a group of students was increasingly frustrated by the lack of institutional representation of people of color at San Francisco State University and the University of California at Berkeley. Their growing anger and outrage led to the formation of the Third World Liberation Front, a protest movement that demanded classes focusing on the previously unheard struggles and stories of people of color. In response to their calls, UC Berkeley founded the nation’s first ethnic studies department. The success at Berkeley sparked a trend of student groups across the country protesting for similar programs.</div>
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But Yale’s own formation of an ethnic studies program, as well as those of many other East Coast schools, wouldn’t take shape for nearly 30 years. Yale students in the ’90s were given few opportunities to pursue this field. Although the University offered some courses that covered topics like Mexican-American or Native American studies, these were all staffed by part-time, untenured faculty, who taught the courses on an ad hoc basis. There was no institutional framework in place for students interested in pursuing research in ethnic studies, professor Alicia Schmidt-Camacho, current DUS of ER&M, said. “If you were a student wanting to look at the electoral politics of Latinos in political science, where would you find the expertise to supervise such a research project?” Such a student would have been faced with a lack of resources and relevant courses and faculty—and would most likely have been unable to complete the project.</div>
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Yale was not alone in its lack of an ethnic studies program; indeed, this field had never taken hold among Ivy League schools in the way it had at West Coast universities. However, the ’90s saw East Coast students grow increasingly dismayed over the lack of ethnic studies at their universities. In turn, students began to call upon their schools to add courses and professors in fields such as Asian-American and Native American studies. Often times, these protests could be dramatic. In 1995, a group of 17 Princeton students organized a 35-hour sit-in at the university president’s office; at Columbia, students organized a hunger strike.</div>
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Around this same time, Yale students also began to organize and advocate for expanded offerings in the field of ethnic studies, though their protests never reached quite the same intensity as protests elsewhere. According to professor Michael Denning, GRD ’84, the first chair of the ER&M program, calls for ethnic studies-type offerings came in two waves. The first, at the beginning of the ’90s, were demands for more specific majors, like Asian-American or Latino studies departments. It wasn’t until the latter part of the decade that the disparate groups came together under a group they called Coalition for Diversity, and called for a singular ethnic studies program—what Denning refers to as the “second wave” of student interest. These students campaigned heavily, distributing journals and political magazines, and organized a conference of solidarity for their protesting peers at other universities.</div>
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Denning recalls this student organizing as a unique moment in Yale’s history. “In my experience, it’s not that often that Yale undergraduates take an initiative in reshaping their collective education,” Denning said. “As individuals, people shape their own majors. But for the most part, people come here and accept the education that has been shaped for them….And I would say this was the one moment where there was a group of students who really wanted to think seriously about what the shape of their undergraduate education would be, how that might get changed, and how a different kind of curriculum would get set up. That was very exciting.”</div>
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Denning was one of a number of professors who were instrumental in the creation of the ER&M program. In response to student advocates, then-Dean of Yale College Richard Broadhead, BR ’68, GRD ’72, put together a faculty advisory committee to look into creating an ER&M major, on which Denning sat. In turn, the faculty advisory committee began a collaborative effort with the students to make an ethnic studies program a reality. But this effort took time—a lack of full-time staff meant the major couldn’t yet be created, and so the first goal was to turn previous part-time positions into full-time faculty positions.</div>
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Denning chalks up the time it took to create the ER&M program less to administrative opposition than to the “general inertia of an institution.” “Yale is one of those giant ocean liners—it doesn’t turn very quickly,” Denning said.</div>
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Then there was the matter of what the curriculum of the program should look like. Araceli Campos, MC ‘99, who was one of the first four ER&M majors and played a key part in the formation of the program, explained that both students and faculty wanted ER&M to be more than just an ethnic studies program, which is what led to the “migration” component. “Studies of migration, as a substantive study, were considered new,” Campos said. “That’s why the major became ER&M—because at the time, this was an almost revolutionary, innovative way of looking at the field of study.”</div>
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After years of discussion, once it was clear there were sufficient faculty and resources to support a course of study, ER&M became a major program—albeit a secondary one. It was unclear whether the program would be sustainable. But ER&M’s status was not unique: Yale’s former international studies major, which would later become the stand-alone Global Affairs major, could similarly only be taken as a second major.</div>
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Part of the formation of the major was the creation of a new course, “Introduction to Ethnicity, Race, and Migration,” which is still taught today. Denning co-taught the class with Patricia Pessar during ER&M’s first year, and he can still recall the energy surrounding the class, which, he adds, was probably the only time one of his classes made the <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Yale Daily</em> <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">News</em>.</div>
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“It still feels like a different course than any other course that I’ve taught here,” Denning said. “So often you feel like you’re offering a certain syllabus and a certain course and people come essentially as customers or spectators. That was a group of students who came in saying, ‘This is the course that we’ve fought for.’ They may not have liked every bit of it, but they came in as participants, in a way that was really quite remarkable.”</div>
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Today’s ER&M program is quite a bit different from its early days in the late ’90s. Its growth took time. Though students had been requesting to make ER&M a stand-alone major since the beginning, Stephen Pitti, ES ‘91, current director of the ER&M program, was wary of changing the program too hastily. “We were concerned about our own ability to service the major with so few people who were tenured and stable, without a lot of staff support, without space,” Pitti said. “We were concerned not to promise something that we couldn’t actually offer.”</div>
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But by the time ER&M became a stand-alone program, what was once a fledgling program had become a full-grown major, replete with resources and course offerings. A variety of changes over the past decade had led to the program’s growth and development. The granting of tenure to several key faculty members, like Schmidt-Camacho, as well as the arrival of new faculty, like professors Ned Blackhawk and Birgit Rassmussen, meant that a stand-alone ER&M program was finally conceivable. In addition, the major was now housed in its own offices at 35 Broadway, and had also acquired a full-time administrative assistant.</div>
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Because of these gains in resources, ER&M faculty like Pitti felt the major was prepared for the challenges of being a stand-alone program. A proposal was submitted to the Committee on Majors for ER&M to change its status from that of a secondary to a stand-alone major, and the committee granted the request. ER&M’s conversion means that ethnic studies had now become a stable, permanent part of Yale. Indeed, this year marks ER&M’s first two professor hires, Albert Laguna and Dixa Ramirez, both of whom will be jointly-seated in the American Studies and ER&M departments.</div>
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Over the years, ER&M has served as a home for ethnic studies at Yale. Crucial to the development of this community has been ER&M’s postdoctoral program. The program, supported by the provost’s office, brings recent Ph.D.’s to campus to allow them to develop their scholarship. “The goal here is that we will also be contributing to development of faculty, both for hires at Yale, but also for larger fields in the larger institutions of higher education,” Camacho said. Indeed, ER&M’s postdoctoral program has already directly affected Yale’s community of professors: current assistant professor Zareena Grewal was hired after her time as an ER&M postdoc.</div>
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Although students may focus their studies on a particular region or ethnic group, a key aspect of the major is that students are constantly encouraged to think globally and comparatively. “Serious engagement with any of these fields or any of these populations takes you into a global frame of analysis very quickly,” Schmidt-Camacho said. Indeed, students’ studies may include immigrant migrations, diasporas, or the effects of global capitalism.</div>
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Most all of the majors interviewed explained that they especially enjoy ER&M because of its focus on peoples whose stories, they found, had otherwise been missing from the classroom. Heidi Guzman, SY ’14, explained that ER&M offered a sort of alternate timeline to the one she had been taught in her high school classes. “Learning about minorities in high school was not a thing that happened,” Guzman said. “Being able to take [Intro ER&M] and learn that perspective was really important for me.” Courses in Yale’s more traditional departments might not fully address the experiences of minorities. “ER&M classes are designed to make [race and ethnicity] the center of the discussion, rather than a single lecture in a series of lectures,” Saldaña said. Often, too, ER&M provides students with a framework and vocabulary for making sense of racism in ways that they may not have previously been able to. As Saldaña put it, “ER&M turned on a switch for me that I have trouble turning off.”</div>
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In keeping with its origins, ER&M remains a very student-oriented major—something that majors cite as an advantage to the program. This is due in part to the way it’s structured. Unlike other major in which students may choose a concentration out of a fixed set of four or five tracks, students in ER&M have to design their own unique programs of study. These customized concentrations are extremely diverse in nature; in the past, they have ranged from “Comparative Refugee Studies” to “Commercial Globalization and Linguistic Adaptation.” Schmidt-Camacho notes that the ER&M major often changes and develops in response to these student projects and concentrations, with their diversity and range leading to new areas of study previously untouched by the ER&M curriculum.</div>
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Perhaps most importantly, what students really love about ER&M is its tight-knit community. Katie Aragon, TD ’14, felt that when she looked at other majors, she was brushed aside by the professors. But in ER&M, she found professors who she felt were supportive and would take care of her and her peers. Amaris Ogulin, DC ’15, agreed, noting that her relationship with her professors extends beyond the classroom: “I see my professors being activists and going into the community. I see them seeking the students that want to major in ER&M and creating strong relationships [with them].”</div>
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For many students, the study of ER&M also happens extracurricularly. Both Pitti and Schmidt-Camacho cite students’ involvement in the community, whether at Yale or in New Haven, as a strength of the program. There are official paths for facilitating this kind of engagement in the major: “Intro to ER&M” is one of several Yale courses which includes a Community-Based Learning (CBL) option, in which students, in lieu of doing a paper, complete a project with a local New Haven organization. Guzman, for instance, worked with New Haven group Junta for Progressive Action, helping them to develop, and ultimately implement, an English as a Second Language curriculum in New Haven schools.</div>
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ER&M courses often lead students to pursue other forms of activism beyond the CBL option, too. Alfonso Toro, TC ’15, found himself inspired to enact change in the community after taking an ER&M course titled “Latino/a Sexualities.” According to Toro, the class opened his mind to how the intersections of being Latino, identifying as LGBT, and coming from different socioeconomic backgrounds shape peoples’ perspectives. He had previously noticed a bit of a gap between Yale’s Latino and LGBT communities, and so he formed a student discussion group, De Colores, where students can discuss the intersection of these identities. Toro said he sees the recent LGBT Co-Op dance, which was co-sponsored by De Colores, as symbolic of two different Yale communities coming closer together. For Toro, the academic approach to a personal intersectionality was the motivator that pushed him to address the problems he saw in his actual social world.</div>
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ER&M’s conversion to being a stand-alone major did not mean an end to criticism. In a column titled “ER&M’s Got Problems,” published on Feb. 6, 2012 in the<em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Yale Daily News</em>, Nathaniel Zelinsky, DC ’13, who did not respond to an interview request for this article, offered a critique of the new major on a variety of fronts: that it attracts a certain student with a preconceived worldview; that it is simply the latest in an overabundance of majors; that it is part of a troubling trend of hyper-specializiation; and that students in the major would find a lack of ideological diversity among their classmates. Zelinsky’s chief criticism, however, was that he believes ER&M, like certain other departments—namely Judaic studies and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies—conflates politics and academics: “Taught by liberal faculty who do not always separate their views from their teaching, these majors cheapen our community’s commitment to academic neutrality.”</div>
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Many ER&M students in the major recall columns like Zelinsky’s with frustration. “That was such a bad day for me,” Saldaña recalled. “Because I was just like, ‘Yay, I get to finally do what I want to do, academically.’ I was really excited to have that freedom, and people were bashing the major.”</div>
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Pitti strongly rejects that idea that ER&M encourages a singular political view, saying that his students represent the entirety of the political spectrum. “[ER&M] is a program that fosters disagreement and argument, and does what all programs and departments do, which is to provide a space for discussion and debate,” Pitti said. But some students say that they feel conceptions of ER&M as having a political slant extend throughout Yale’s student body. “Even my close friends who know what I study and do in the major are like, ‘Oh, but it’s super leftist,’” said Diana Enriquez, SY ’13, a former double major in ER&M who recently dropped it.</div>
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Many of the students interviewed felt that, if it’s true that ER&M is political, then that’s only because all academia is necessarily political. “I think people are very quick to assume that anything that’s related to identity-based groups is political,” Enriquez said. “And in some ways it will always be political. But I think ignoring the fact that majors like<br />Classics or economics are also pretty politically-loaded is just not correct.”</div>
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Guzman, meanwhile, feels that when dealing with the lives of historically oppressed peoples, certain viewpoints can be harmful. “I think you can’t be conservative when you’re talking about the lives of oppressed people,” Guzman said. “A conservative perspective is important to add to the discussion, but let’s not kid ourselves here, that’s not necessarily the kind of ideas you want to espouse when dealing with real people.”</div>
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Often times, too, students may perceive ethnic studies courses as being exclusively of interest to people of color. Katie Aragon, TD ’14, feels strongly that this is not the case, and that ER&M courses should be taken by all types of students. “It’s not one of those things where it’s, ‘Oh, all the ethnic minorities go to ER&M.’ It’s not meant to be exclusive,” Aragon said. Professor Ned Blackhawk, who specializes in Native American Studies, said that while the major does help serve a variety of traditionally under-represented social communities, it also attracts and fulfills the interests of all kinds of students, not simply Native American ones, or other students of color. And this, he said, is a “healthy sign of a vibrant academic program.”</div>
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More broadly, some take issue with the interdisciplinary mix of traditional departments—like literature, history, and anthropology—that constitutes the ER&M program. Indeed, a 2007 report by the Committee on Majors seemed to express this concern, noting that while a benefit of interdisciplinary majors is that they can offer intellectual breadth, “the basic training afforded by the specialized departmental disciplines can be skimped on.” Both professors and students in the ER&M major, however, feel that its interdisciplinary nature is a boon. Professor Albert Laguna, for instance, believes that the study of Latino peoples specifically is best done through an multidisciplinary lens. One can’t understand things like migration or the global flow of people simply through a historical perspective, he feels, but must take into account social and cultural factors as well. As such, ER&M courses, in order to answer questions like why Latinos are coming to the United States—which is a focus of Laguna’s class—might have to draw upon fields like anthropology, gender and sexuality studies, and literature. A single discipline, Laguna argues, will<br />not suffice.</div>
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Guzman, too, sees the interdisciplinary quality of the major as critical. The junior’s research for the Mellon Mays fellowship looks at how migration influences Dominican immigrants’ articulations of feminism. As such, her research draws on a variety of disparate fields. ER&M brings together professors from a variety of fields that Guzman can then consult. For Guzman, the program is a convenient synthesis of the otherwise disparate and hard-to-find academic resources necessary to enfranchise the people of her chosen interest. But for others in the major, the low volume of faculty and courses taught at Yale remains an issue—and one they believe ER&M is capable of solving.</div>
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Even its most vehement supporters admit that ER&M is still not perfect, and much growth in the program is still necessary. Professor Schmidt-Camacho explained that she is “constantly conscious that students are trying to find ways to meet intellectual interests that they can’t meet here yet.” Students and professors focus especially on the Asian-American and Native American offerings in their goals for improvement. As it stands, the growth of the ER&M major is a numbers game—sources expressed the need for more faculty, more courses, and more students to allow for a larger, more extensive program.</div>
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Especially with regards to Asian-American studies, class offerings are notably slim. Cathy Huang, MC ’15, a prospective double-major in the ER&M program, became interested last year in doing a research project on Asian-American history. Huang was disappointed by the lack of classes dealing with the Asian-American experience. “For me and some other students, the concern was that nobody who wanted to study Asian-American studies specifically would be able to formulate a list of classes which would give them something as comprehensive as African-American studies or Latino-American studies,” Huang said.</div>
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As far as course offerings go, Huang points to a single, regularly occurring class exclusively focused on Asian-American studies: Professor Mary Lui’s lecture, “Asian American History, 1800-Present.” Though the Bluebook has occasionally offered a seminar on Asian-American studies, students are otherwise left with survey courses that merely make mention of Asian-American culture and history. A search on Yale Bluebook returns zero undergraduate courses offered this semester that list Asian-American studies as their focus. By comparison, Latino studies boasts at least three fall 2012 courses, and African-American studies has an entire department’s worth of offerings (19).</div>
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Indeed, the uneven availability of courses on differing ethnicities reveals that ER&M still has much work to be done. Regardless of this room to grow, however, both students and professors still feel a great deal of pride and passion for the program. Ultimately, in the push for greater resources, it remains to be seen where ER&M stands on Yale’s list of priorities.</div>
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Editor’s note: A previous version of this article quoted professor Howard Stern, whose comments have been removed because he felt misrepresented. We apologize to this source.</div>
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You can find the original article <a href="http://yaleherald.com/news-and-features/major-promotion/">here</a></div>
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DESCHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05371462817694946622noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7500959830051956907.post-12913172241431360012012-11-16T08:08:00.002-08:002012-11-16T08:08:56.453-08:00Latino Vote: After the Election Edition<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Alienated by GOP, Latinos vote blue</h1>
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BY <a href="http://yaledailynews.com/blog/author/nicolenarea/" style="color: #777777; text-decoration: initial;" title="Posts by Nicole Narea">NICOLE NAREA</a><br />CONTRIBUTING REPORTER</div>
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Friday, November 16, 2012</div>
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All was quiet inside Church Street’s Ecuadorian consulate Wednesday, but for New Haven County’s estimated 265,000 Hispanics, it was far from business as usual. Latino newspapers piled high next to the consulate’s information desk told the story of a movement under way on New Haven streets: “7.500 latinos votaron por primera vez en Connecticut” — read the front page of La Voz Hispana in striking yellow typeface — “7,500 Latinos vote for the first time in Connecticut.”</div>
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New Haven Latinos comprise a demographic that has increased by 35 percent in the past decade, according to New Haven nonprofit DataHaven. The explosive growth in the local Latino electorate reflects a countrywide phenomenon that has dominated national headlines since the presidential election, when Hispanics, 10 percent of the electorate for the first time, voted for President Barack Obama over Republican Mitt Romney by a 71–29 margin, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.</div>
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In the wake of last week’s election — which saw Obama re-elected and Democrats riding to larger numbers in the Senate and House — several prominent Republicans, including Speaker of the House John Boehner and FOX News host Sean Hannity, called for the party to support comprehensive immigration reform. But on Wednesday, Romney reportedly told top donors that the reason he lost against Obama was due to Obama giving “gifts” to constituencies like Hispanics, leading to renewed concerns that Latino voters would continue to flock to Democrats.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 9px;">
But Republicans responded to the flash fire of media criticism following Election Day by claiming that the electoral process is about “fighting for 100 percent of the votes,” Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal told the Los Angeles Times.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 9px;">
“Our policies benefit every American who wants to pursue the American dream, period,” Jindal said.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 9px;">
Buoying the president into his second term, Latinos rated immigration reform a top priority next to the economy, sparking a national conversation about a comprehensive overhaul of current immigration policies and forcing Republicans to re-evaluate their stance, according to a report last week by Latino Vote 2012. Because the Obama administration has presided over a record number of deportations in spite of his pro-amnesty image, Latinos are “frustrated” and “expecting more this time,” said John Lugo, organizer for Unidad Latina en Acción, a local immigrant rights advocacy group.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 9px;">
“Tensions are heating up,” said Diana Enriquez ’13, moderator of MEChA de Yale, a student organization that promotes Latino political activism on campus. “It isn’t new that our votes are important and that politicians need to court our interests.”</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 9px;">
Based on turnout at local voter registration events, New Haven Latinos overwhelmingly identify as Democrats because local party officials seek to represent their interests, said Ana Maria Rivera of Junta for Progressive Action, a New Haven-based nonprofit that serves the local Latino community. City Hall spokeswoman Elizabeth Benton ’04 said New Haven is indeed welcoming to all residents and “proud of its position on the forefront of municipal immigration policies.” She cited the Elm City Resident Card, which provides all residents with a tool to access basic public amenities regardless of immigration status, as an example of the city’s inclusiveness.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 9px;">
State Democrats also claim to support legislation that represents their Latino constituency. Roy Occhiogrosso, senior advisor to Gov. Dannel Malloy, said Malloy has been an outspoken critic of the Secure Communities program — under which nonviolent undocumented immigrants have been detained and deported — and proposed Connecticut’s version of the DREAM Act, which provides a path to legalization for undocumented minors who seek college education or military service.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 9px;">
Rep. Rosa DeLaura of Connecticut’s 3rd District said she hopes to give each member of her Hispanic constituency good jobs, health care and education. She has voted in favor of extending immigrant residency rules and was rated 0 percent by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, indicating a record of voting to loosen immigration regulations.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 9px;">
“Throwing up a wall and being exclusive [to Latino immigrants] undermines the basic principles on which this country is founded,” Occhiogrosso said.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 9px;">
In contrast to the policies of state Democrats, Republican rhetoric alienates Latinos, projecting a hostile image on undocumented immigrants and appearing to ignore the “economically disadvantaged,” Lugo said. Latino conservatives recommend that Republicans amend their platform to support pro-family immigration reform and engage Latinos “consistently,” said executive director of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles Alfonso Aguilar, instead of only paying attention to Latinos around Election Day.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 9px;">
Hispanics nevertheless recognize Obama’s failure to address immigration reform. A 2011 Pew Hispanic Center poll found that Latinos disapproved of the president’s handling of deportations by a 2-to-1 margin, which undocumented activist Juan Escalante said left “a very sour taste for Hispanics heading to the polls.”</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 9px;">
But the president has taken steps toward comprehensive reform. Enriquez lauded Obama’s 2010 support of the Latino community in the face of Arizona’s SB 1070, which allowed law enforcement officials to request documentation of citizenship from anyone they deemed suspicious of residing in the country illegally.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 9px;">
Juan Gomez — who garnered national media attention in 2010 as a Georgetown University undergraduate and undocumented Colombian immigrant — said he has benefited from Obama’s Deferred Action program introduced earlier this year, which granted him a two-year work permit and saved him temporarily from the fate of deportation. He now works for a financial consulting firm in Manhattan, but he cannot leave and then return to the country — not even to visit Colombia to see his parents, who were deported when he was 18. Escalante calls Deferred Action a “small olive branch” that could lead to comprehensive reform.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 9px;">
But the Latino community cannot arrive at a consensus regarding immigration reform legislation. Enriquez said that immigration reform is not supported by a “Latino-wide solidarity movement” because voters who are distanced from the issue may be worried about issues that affect their daily lives, such as the economy. Yet Rivera said even third-generation Hispanic immigrants still view immigration reform as a priority.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 9px;">
“We are all affected by it, whether or not you’re documented,” Rivera said. “Everyone has a friend or relative impacted by the issue.”</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 9px;">
Junta for Progressive Action estimates between 10,000 and 15,000 undocumented Latino immigrants reside in New Haven.</div>
</div>
</div>
DESCHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05371462817694946622noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7500959830051956907.post-88581548615531946202012-11-12T17:48:00.001-08:002012-11-12T17:48:38.906-08:00Notes from Meeting 11/12: Guest -- Aura Bogado
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Voter Suppression Discussion with <b>Aura Bogado</b>: </div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->was working in Colorado, near counties she was
watching ahead of the election</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->there were specific issues with latino voter
disenfranchisement – Arapajo county – a swing county in a swing state</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->1/3 dem, 1/3 republican and 1/3 independent</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->this county would decide how Colorado voted</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->she secretly recorded a poll worker who was
complaining about the number of people of color voting, then she talked to him</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Aurora (where people were killed in the movie
theater) is more than ½ people of color, used to be 80% white</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->The poll watcher was uncomfortable with the
shift, she visited where the poll watcher lived to get a better idea of his
area (this wasn’t particularly white either)</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->People were laughing at the guy, he was very
angry but it didn’t seem to affect their voting patterns</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
Talked about SB1070 (Arizona) and
HB56 (Alabama) – inspired by Kris Kobach (KS) was the immigration advisor for
Romney, went to YLS</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->after 9/11 he shifts a lot of immigration work</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->he has also written and suggested a lot of voter
suppression work we’ve seen</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->there is some value to checking whether or not
voters are alive (do they respond to calls/letters etc.), we have much lower
numbers of voting fraud</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->terms relating to voter fraud are thrown around,
but it is extremely rare</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->he has helped 15 secretaries of state cut down
on early voting and voters </div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->2004: Arizona passed anti-immigrant laws to
crack down on “alien voters” </div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->including voter IDs – this mostly
disenfranchises native voters (Navajo don’t have access to any kinds of IDs
which are necessary to vote)</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->shares a case study of a Navajo woman working to
get an ID so that she can vote – lacking birth certificate, doesn’t have an
address (postal service doesn’t deliver there), needs a lawyer, is eventually
given her driver’s license with the help of 12 people over an entire day so
that she can go vote</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->using voter fraud as a scare tactic to create
laws that make it difficult for certain groups to vote</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Supreme Court is hearing a case challenging the Voting
Rights Act</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->people are really excited about Obama, but the
current Supreme Court may very well strike down the Voting Rights Act</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->voter suppression efforts we see will be a lot
easier to pass locally</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->if this act is taken apart, states can decide to
do whatever it wants </div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->the Department of Justice has oversight over
counties or states that have a history of voter suppression, can intervene on
legislation in these areas over significant changes in procedure, like voter ID
laws</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->some of these areas are calmer, some of them are
the same, and there are other areas that are worse</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What can we do to protect our right to vote?</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->there are places for us to contribute</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->writers, activists and organizers should pay
attention and contribute to the discussion</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What are some of the arguments against the Voting Rights
Act?</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Shelby, AL says they don’t discriminate anymore,
don’t want to be on the list that is overseen</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->They see this as discrimination against a few
states, don’t have the ability to decide their voter ID laws etc for themselves</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Their argument has teeth because CA is not
controlled by the law, but there are strange laws there too</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She was pleased to see that people fought against voter
suppression in this election. People said It is very important to vote. This time
around, whereas this wasn’t true earlier</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->she was surprised – 6 months ago, expected lower
turn out</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->people had changed their minds – now that the
right to voting was being challenged, they were more actively supporting this</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->undocumented people were organizing around this
election: people were speaking out about their status, they went out to
register voters, asked for people to vote certain ways, and made sure that they
got there </div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->largely Latinos are leading this: undocumented
immigrants are working on this, but </div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->50,000 Latinos turn 18 every month, 600,000
people a year</div>
<!--EndFragment-->DESCHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05371462817694946622noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7500959830051956907.post-28571877390584582592012-11-09T12:41:00.003-08:002012-11-09T12:41:23.114-08:00Cultural Houses at Yale<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<h1>
<div class="content_title">
<h2 class="header">
Yale Daily News 11/9/12 </h2>
<h2 class="header">
ARAGON: Understanding cultural centers</h2>
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</h1>
<div class="content_info">
<div class="byline">
By <a href="http://www.yaledailynews.com/staff/katie-aragon/">Katherine Aragon</a></div>
<div class="datetime">
Friday, November 9, 2012</div>
</div>
<div class="story_body">
</div>
<div class="story_body">
I wasn’t sure what to expect the first time I set foot in La Casa
Cultural, Yale’s Latino cultural house. It was the spring of 2010 and I
was a disoriented prefrosh trying too hard to make friends. I had
decided to make my way over to La Casa because I am half-Mexican and was
curious to see what exactly this “casa” at the predominantly white and
Northeastern Yale was, but also because I had heard rumors of delicious
food being served (the number one attraction). What is a cultural house?
What types of people go there, and what do they do? These were the
questions that floated through my head as I walked down Crown Street
with my gaggle of pre-friends.<br />
<br />
As soon as I stepped through the door, I was greeted warmly and
whisked into the gallery (more like a living room, really). I spent a
long time talking to current Yale students as well as other prefrosh (I
remember particularly a red-haired girl from Kansas and a suave young
Hawaiian man) about the anxiety and excitement surrounding moving across
the coast, from California to Connecticut, for college. La Casa put me
at ease, but it wasn’t the only cultural center I visited that day. I
felt similarly welcomed on trips later to both the Asian American
Cultural House (for more socializing over food) and the Afro-American
Cultural House (for their dance party). At each place, I was greeted
with smiles and friendly questions.<br />
<br />
Over the past two years spent working with La Casa and more
intimately with several of over 30 organizations housed under its
umbrella, I have met an incredibly diverse set of people. Though La Casa
is a “Latino” cultural house, within that house there are numerous
distinct countries and cultures represented, as well as a myriad of
personal and political viewpoints, from enthusiastically liberal to
emphatically conservative to earnestly religious and everything in
between. I have met Colombians, Cubans, Guatemalans and Peruvians. I
have met Catholics and non-believers, queer and straight people. I have
met, most importantly, a loving and accepting community that learns from
our collective differences to become something better. <br />
<br />
However, these interactions are not limited to Hispanics. La Casa and
other cultural houses such as the AACC, the Af-Am House and the Native
American Cultural House host a constant stream of campus-wide events,
many co-sponsored with groups from around Yale. Cultural houses host
dinners with the Slifka Center, dances with the LGBTQ Co-op and panels
with the Yale Law School to both unify and provoke thought in Yale’s
large student body. My freshman year, freshmen liaisons from La Casa and
the AACC organized an event that drew together over 100 students for a
discussion on race at Yale. None of these heavily advertised events are
restricted to members of the cultural houses and they encompass a
plethora of topics (many unrelated to ethnicity) applicable to students
regardless of their race or “ethnic affiliation.” Incredibly,
individuals who choose to be involved with cultural centers also
continue to exist in social, political and academic spheres outside of
those houses, as members of the YPU, dance teams, social justice
movements, academic departments and even sororities! It’s true that
friend groups grow out of La Casa, which some see as exclusive, but how
is that any different from a cappella or fraternity friends? We need to
ask ourselves why these groups, which essentially present the same
issue, aren't scrutinized the same way that cultural centers are. <br />
<br />
Importantly, as my friend Cathy Huang ’15, a leader at the AACC,
noted, groups at Yale are not automatically granted their own space. The
current cultural houses only exist because enough students at one point
in time expressed interest that realized a critical mass. Students
fought hard and long for these centers and they are deeply valued today
as community centers and resource hubs, imbuing students with a sense of
“hosting” others and being the educators in a system that is
traditionally not inclusive of non-Western histories, cultures and
peoples. That is incredibly impactful and empowering for the students
involved. <br />
<br />
Our time at Yale is experienced through countless groupings and
affiliations. Cultural houses are one of these optional associations and
are arguably some of the most diverse places on campus. They provide a
safe space for students who want additional support outside of
dean-appointed froco groups. They provide funding for hundreds of
organizations and events. They welcome people of all backgrounds to come
together in a common space, and they provide a community for any
student willing to step out of their everyday sphere of assumptions and
experience something new, while also kindling something familiar.<br />
<br />
<em>Katherine Aragon is a junior in Timothy Dwight College. Contact her at katherine.aragon@yale.edu </em><br />
</div>
</div>
Katherine Aragónhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05623559560633339557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7500959830051956907.post-59464842576978237602012-11-07T07:25:00.002-08:002012-11-07T07:25:59.516-08:00Election Efforts -- Canvassing in Fair Haven<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Political groups tense around election</h2>
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Wednesday, November 7, 2012</div>
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Yesterday, members of the Yale College Democrats and Yale College Republicans donned T-shirts, buttons and, in some cases, war paint, as they prepared for the culmination of more than a year and a half of work. It was Election Day.</div>
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More than 18 hours later, the Dems raucously celebrated President Barack Obama’s victory over Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. It was a “truly joyous occasion,” said Brinton Williams ’16, who added that the Dems members around him were yelling and hugging one another. Gathered in the AEPi house on Crown Street, the young liberals cheered as states turned from undecided grey to Democratic blue, filling in their own hand-drawn version of the United States electoral map with red and blue Sharpies. Gathered in the Silliflicks theater on the other side of campus, members of the Yale College Republicans said they were supportive of Obama as American citizens, but that they were not optimistic about his second term. The atmosphere among YCR members throughout the night was initially “tense, but hopeful,” according to Austin Schaefer ’15, vice chairman of the Yale College Republicans, but members grew increasingly anxious as more results were announced, booing television reports on Fox News, their outlet of choice, as more states fell to the Democratic incumbent.</div>
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Members of both organizations spent the morning and afternoon of Election Day urging registered voters to go to the polls and canvassing neighborhoods throughout Connecticut, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, said the two organizations’ presidents. Each added that the campus groups were very concerned with the Connecticut Senate race, which had the potential to swing in favor of either Democrat Chris Murphy or Republican Linda McMahon.</div>
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“Most of the [Dems] volunteers are working on Connecticut and the Murphy campaign,” said Zak Newman ’13, the president of the Dems.</div>
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Schaefer said being able to support a Republican candidate in a traditionally blue state enabled his group to “be actively involved and make a difference.”</div>
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Yale College Republicans chairwoman Elizabeth Henry ’14 said Election Day found her more excited than ever to be a young Republican.</div>
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Both groups took steps to transmit that enthusiasm to Yale’s student body. Beginning at 5:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, Newman said, the Dems divided their resources and volunteers among the 12 residential colleges to ensure high student turnout. Volunteers spent the first hour of Election Day posting cards on student doors encouraging all registered Connecticut voters to “Vote Obama, Vote Murphy, Vote Today.”</div>
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Two and a half hours later, a group of Dems went to cast their ballots. Ben Healy ’16, a Dems member, said he and other volunteers spent the rest of the day reminding students to vote by going door-to-door throughout the Yale campus and calling registered students on the phone to offer them rides to the polls.</div>
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“The best part of today [was that] the response I heard most frequently was ‘I already voted,’ ” Newman said.</div>
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The Dems were not alone in their efforts. MeCHA de Yale worked throughout the course of the campaign to combat voter suppression among Hispanic voters in Fair Haven, Conn., said group leader Diana Enriquez ’13. She added that groups like hers enabled students who did not necessarily have a direct interest in working with either of the major parties on campus to still get involved in the political process by helping to educate voters in the Latino community.</div>
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Meanwhile, activist organization Students Unite Now also joined with the Dems in efforts to get out the vote, Williams said.</div>
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By midnight on Tuesday night, the Dems were in high spirits, while the Republicans looked pessimistically on the next four years.</div>
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“I think it’s a really regrettable thing that Obama has won a second term,” said Alex Crutchfield ’15, a Republican student. “Over the past four years, he has not made policies that are good for America.”</div>
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Rafi Bildner ’16, who spent the past year working in the finance department of the Obama campaign, disagreed. He said he flew to Chicago Monday night to help out at Obama HQ on Election Day.</div>
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Bildner said he sees students as having an even larger impact on this election than they did in 2008. Newman said he agreed, adding that the large turnout among Yale students — which was higher than in 2008 — indicates the success of on-campus organizations like the Yale College Republicans and the Dems.</div>
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“At the end of the day,” he added, “I think we know we did our job well.”</div>
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Obama received 60.4 percent of the vote in New Haven county as of press time.</div>
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DESCHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05371462817694946622noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7500959830051956907.post-88438246757323314232012-10-17T07:52:00.002-07:002012-10-17T19:54:47.438-07:00Semana Chicana: Art and Memory with Liliana Wilson<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Wilson details immigrant experience</h2>
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<a href="http://www.yaledailynews.com/photos/2012/oct/17/31745/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="Chilean artist Liliana Wilson presented her artwork at the Yale Women’s Center Tuesday." height="640" src="http://yaledailynews.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/img/photos/2012/10/17/MariaZepeda_ChileanArt-63_t630.jpg?30004eeab9fb5f824ff65e51d525728c55cf3980" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; display: block; margin: 0px auto; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="425" /></a></div>
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Chilean artist Liliana Wilson presented her artwork at the Yale Women’s Center Tuesday. Photo by <a href="http://www.yaledailynews.com/staff/maria-zepeda/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Maria Zepeda</a>.</div>
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BY <a href="http://www.yaledailynews.com/staff/hayley-byrnes/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">HAYLEY BYRNES</a></div>
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CONTRIBUTING REPORTER</div>
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Wednesday, October 17, 2012</div>
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Chilean artist Liliana Wilson is able to explain her life’s events through her paintings.</div>
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On Tuesday, Wilson presented a sample of her artwork — about 50 paintings and explanations of the events surrounding them — at the Yale Women’s Center to a group of roughly twenty-five people. Inspired by her childhood in Chile and eventual move to the United States, she incorporates the struggles of Latin Americans and immigrants throughout her work.</div>
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MeChA, a La Casa student group that advocates for Chicano unity, hosted the event as part of a week-long series on education. The organization, part of a larger national movement, has mentored high school students and worked with New Haven-based unions to advocate for the local Latino community.</div>
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MeChA President Diana Enriquez said the group has placed more emphasis on cultural events in recent years. Wilson’s art, she said, conveys the immigration experience in a more powerful way than words alone.</div>
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“The rhetoric around the immigration experience is dehumanizing right now,” said Natalia Thompson ’13, the event’s organizer.</div>
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Thompson added that Wilson puts immigrants’ stories in perspective, “and reminds us that they’re families and they’re lovers.”</div>
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But Wilson said she does not consider herself an activist.</div>
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“I’m trying to connect and communicate on a very deep level with people,” Wilson said. “More than education, I want people to communicate with each other.”</div>
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In her lecture, she referenced a chronological PowerPoint presentation to explain her thinking behind each piece of art. One piece, “El Estadio Nacional,” depicts a mass of people in a stadium waiting for their death at the hands of the Chilean government. Her final piece, “I belong here,” showed a girl sitting and holding a flag that reads “inmigrante,” a testament to the universality of the human experience.</div>
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At eight years old, Wilson began to draw while bed-ridden after a car accident. Since then, she has identified as an artist. In 1973, when Wilson was a law school student, a military junta overthrew the government and began a 17-year dictatorship. She said she began drawing everything she saw, not shying away from the horrors of death and torture.</div>
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“Suddenly habeus corpus didn’t mean anything anymore,” she said.</div>
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When she immigrated to Texas in 1977, she burned all of her work for fear of government persecution. Though Wilson still depicts subjects from her life in Chile, the paintings she created while living there are largely inaccessible.</div>
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Since arriving to the United States, Wilson has focused on the immigrant experience, though she said that none of her work has explicit political motivations. Enriquez, the MeChA president, said that many Latin American artists use surreal elements to depict the violence and trauma around them.</div>
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Despite these darker themes, Wilson still emphasizes the aesthetic of each piece and hopes to make it beautiful in its own way. She said that while she depicts the hard lives of forgotten immigrants, “in the end I think that most people are good. And if you just show them the problem, they’ll probably want to help.”</div>
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Katie Aragon ’14, who attended the event, said that Wilson’s work is especially powerful because of her emphasis on both a storytelling narrative and a pleasing aesthetic.</div>
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“Her paintings tell a human story that is so important to hear and to see,” she said.</div>
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While much of Wilson’s work was inspired by particular historical events, Deena Tumeh ’13 said she still finds it to be relevant today. Tumeh said that Wilson’s individual explanation of each piece made the experience more powerful than a traditional exhibit setting.</div>
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A compilation of Wilson’s work will be published by Texas A&M University press, accompanied by essays about her art, in the next year.</div>
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DESCHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05371462817694946622noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7500959830051956907.post-60361585678721617292012-10-17T07:49:00.002-07:002012-10-17T19:54:25.693-07:00Semana Chicana 2012: The National Education Crisis<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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DESCHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05371462817694946622noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7500959830051956907.post-39742160052352506192012-10-10T17:13:00.002-07:002012-10-10T17:13:48.649-07:00The Myth of the Latino Vote<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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ENRIQUEZ: The Myth of the Latino Vote</h2>
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BY <a href="http://www.yaledailynews.com/staff/diana-enriquez/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">DIANA ENRIQUEZ</a></div>
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Wednesday, October 10, 2012</div>
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I genuinely look forward to the debates, the speeches at the DNC and the RNC and voter outreach programs that generate mountains of press. But nothing makes me grimace more than the discussion of the “Latino vote.” Because I wish it was that simple. Really, it’s a myth.</div>
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Even at Yale — in La Casa Cultural, Yale’s Latino cultural house — we are splintered into numerous cultural groups: all sensitive to our countries of origin and our traditions. The Latino population includes at least 19 different cultural groups; uniting groups across these disparate interests is a serious challenge to organizers within La Casa.</div>
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There isn’t a solid voting bloc here that can be won in its entirety through a speech by Julian Castro, the mayor of San Antonio, at the Democratic National Convention. Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio cannot win every Latino vote through his own version of the DREAM Act, a bill to provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented students.</div>
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I’ve watched socially conservative preachers turn out their congregations for Democratic candidates because the party made targeted outreach efforts to these communities and addressed their concerns. Senator Rubio and other political figures appeal to voters’ social concerns and immigration interest groups in Florida. Campaigns translate their ads into Spanish and hire volunteers to answer calls in Spanish and Portuguese. The election cycle is working hard to gain our attention in every venue they can.</div>
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For some of us, immigration is the main issue on the political table. Many of the students I work alongside at Yale feel a little safer because over the summer the Obama administration offered them the deferred action program, protecting them from immediate deportation. A few of them are now protected by this status and are now reaching out to other students at Yale and in New Haven who can benefit from this government program.</div>
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This bill only applies to a very small subsection of the population. For many of us, this means our families are still concerned about our uncles, neighbors or friends whose fates are less certain. We feel there is still a lot to be done.</div>
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We live under the knowledge that the Obama administration has deported more people in the last four years than the Bush administration in eight. We watch Obama speak in carefully selected sites, like Miami Dade County, a site with a well-known majority Latino population.</div>
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For years, immigration activists have demanded that President Obama follow through on his promises to our community. Through this election cycle, he has simply repeated these unfulfilled promises and his wish to keep families together.</div>
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Many of my friends in La Casa are second- or third-generation immigrants. They primarily focus on aiding their own communities here in the United States. They see disparities in education and affordable healthcare as the most pressing issues in this election. They see their taxes increasing locally, and they have a hard time saving enough money to support their families. All of these issues come up in different spaces, at different times in our communities, and we don’t always agree on the solutions.</div>
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I am a first-generation immigrant and for every day I’ve been at Yale, immigration has been the issue at the front of my mind. My time and my focus has been torn between my community in Mexico and everything I left behind there, and my community here in the United States.</div>
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But ultimately all of us are voting for candidates who address our concerns — all we ask for is follow-through.</div>
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In the same way that some members of my community will vote for the Republican ticket because they identify with the social principles they stand for, others will vote for Democrats because they hope Obama will increase access to jobs for minority communities. For the Latino community to continue turning out at the polls, our politicians can no longer throw out empty buzzwords and unrealized policies.</div>
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<em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Diana Enriquez is a senior in Saybrook College. Contact her at diana.enriquez@yale.edu .</em></div>
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DESCHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05371462817694946622noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7500959830051956907.post-29575565650056669672012-10-06T15:34:00.005-07:002012-10-06T15:34:57.976-07:00From Sao Paulo, with love.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Hi MEChA!<br />
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I'm writing to you from Florianópolis, Brazil where I am finishing up some research for a project I'm doing on informal economies. It was an exciting adventure that I've been planning and working on for a few weeks now, and well... here I am!<br />
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Being Mexican means I really spend a lot of time comparing this and every other Latin American country to the one that I know best. To be honest, though, Brazil is entirely unlike any other Latin American country I've been to. Besides the obvious -- everyone here speaks Portuguese first, and then more likely English than Spanish -- there are a number of differences I see in the cities here that we dont have in Mexico. Maybe in a good way!<br />
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I ended up understanding Portuguese even better than I expect to. Awesome, considering I have virtually no experience in this language. I found that speaking slowly and clearing in Spanish and having the other person do the same in Portuguese has made this experience possible. It's funny though -- I look like most of the people here. Particularly in this region of Brazil because there are so many tiny German towns in the mountains. And when I say German town, I really mean German Town.<br />
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I'm trying to see if I can get to Blumenau tomorrow, which is a small village in the mountains on this coast settled by the German immigrants who came to Brazil in the 19th and 20th centuries. It is one of a few German towns in this region. Best known for its knitting products and Oktoberfest... Strange, since we always think of immigrant villages in the US as being people of color. Here, it means they are very European.<br />
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And really... they blend in pretty well.<br />
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Something that has surprised me about southern Brazil is how European everyone looks. Today was the first time I had seen villages full of people with different racial backgrounds... and trust me, I've been looking...<br />
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When I asked a local professor why Mexico has such a mixed population compared to Brazil, he answered me very plainly: The indigenous people of Mexico had jungles, mountains and other areas of the country to hide in. Most of Brazil's indigenous people did not. Save some of the still isolated tribes in the Amazon. Many of our indigenous people died during colonization (at least, compared to Mexico).<br />
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An appropriate conversation for me to have, since Monday is Columbus day. Or really, as we've come to respect it through MEChA, it is indigenous people's day. It's a chance for us to celebrate the original cultures of this hemisphere -- or really, learn more about them. Since the US does a pretty good job pretending that they dont really exist. Ok maybe that is unfair. I do remember my 5th grade class spending the year researching different tribal groups in the US, including some who lived very close to me in Massachusetts. Still, we could and should all learn more. A lot of this rich cultural history of the United States is lost and overlooked in the regular curriculum.<br />
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More reason for Ethnic Studies! (We all know that was coming...)<br />
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So Happy Indigenous People's Day! I hope you take this chance to learn a little more about the ancient history of the United States.<br />
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Tchau e tenha uma bao noite!<br />
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DESCHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05371462817694946622noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7500959830051956907.post-87939292609257950602012-09-09T21:03:00.000-07:002012-09-10T06:27:44.282-07:00Creating an Activist Network at Yale<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>by Alejandro Gutierrez '13</i></span></b><br />
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<b id="internal-source-marker_0.09273601183667779" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Two weeks ago I met with an old acquaintance, one of the first people I met at Yale, and we found that over the past three years we had developed many similar concerns over student life, the University’s relationship with New Haven, and society at-large. It felt a little serendipitous, a little astonishing, since we hadn’t really spoken much in those 3 years, but in the middle of discussing our views and identifying as activists, I had another thought – how many more of us are out there? And where are they? I know students at Yale certainly care about their own specific issues, but why hadn’t we met like this? </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I had been to the extracurricular bazaar, the Dwight Hall bazaar, and read flyers on the bulletin boards, but it always felt as if each group was fighting for its own niche – why weren’t we communicating and collaborating? And maybe a year ago, that would have been it. We wouldn’t have answered that question, or if we had, we wouldn’t have acted on it. But all of a sudden, things seem a little more dire – on Yale’s timeline for us, we only have one year left, one year to begin building something that we wished had always existed here: an activist network. So now we’re acting. We’re issuing a rallying call for all activists and all those interested in activism to come to the first-ever Activist Bazaar at Yale.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Isn't there already an Activist Bazaar? The truth is, no. There is a service bazaar through Dwight Hall, but activism is different from service in that it works to change social or political institutions, whereas community service (while extremely important) does not. We must differentiate the two and encourage students and community members to think critically about how to engage in activism in a way that creates positive structural change in their respective communities, be it on campus, in New Haven, or in the world.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It seems there’s been a rise of administrative clamp-down on university regulations at wide-ranging scales, from the founding of Yale-NUS to the forced registration of off-campus parties to the extremely limited student input in choosing Yale’s next President. Yet judging from the activism, or lack thereof, within the student body one would think that Yale students are not aware that their voices are being further and further suppressed. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That’s because Yale students are not, in fact, often encouraged to challenge the status quo, and instead are repeatedly told how lucky they should feel to attend Yale. To belong at a school that grants you $2,000 to bike across the country and write about it and call it “research.” To participate in community service via Dwight Hall’s Day of Service (after which you can call yourself an involved member of New Haven, I suppose). The name of the game here is compliance, it’s community service. But over the years I always wanted to hear more about organizing and more about activism. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Don’t get me wrong, I’m so grateful to be a student here. Trust me, as a first-generation college student, a child of former undocumented immigrants living paycheck to paycheck on Section 8 housing, I more than understand the privilege that comes with being a Yale student. But that’s exactly why I get so angry; I think this place has so much more potential than funneling students into corporate finance jobs or machine politics. At Yale we’re asked to critically analyze everything except ourselves. Why don’t we ask more self-critical questions?</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Repeatedly, progressive reforms such as Yale’s approval of a new jobs-pipeline, the creation of CCE after Title IX investigations, and financial aid reform, have all made something quite obvious -- changes, and discussions of changes, do not come from the traditional channels that those in power have so graciously offered. It is activism, student-led platforms, that have created the most meaningful changes.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In an attempt to further empower students on campus, an Activist Bazaar will be held for the first time on </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Monday, September 10th at 6:30 PM</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">next to the Women’s Table</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. The event will allow students to take a look at what other activist groups are doing on and off campus, as well as encourage these groups to start a conversation amongst themselves and ask one another difficult questions. Most importantly, the Activist Bazaar creates a much-needed alliance among activists at Yale.</span></b><br />
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>edited by Carl Chen '13 and Marc DeWitt '15</i></span></b>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17421570063042631713noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7500959830051956907.post-30098498553213865392012-07-08T21:12:00.000-07:002012-07-08T21:13:22.916-07:00Si Hay Imposición, Habrá Revolución<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Chanting "<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;">México sin PRI," "si hay imposición habrá revolución," and "</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;">Peña entiende, no eres presidente" -- among several more colorful chants -- some 200,000 protestors marched yesterday in Mexico City from El Angel to El Z</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;">ócalo, decrying another round of fraudulent elections masquerading as "democracy." </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;">A few protesters marched with signs in English, including "Tell everyone around the world that democracy in Mexico is a fraud!"</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;">More photos from la "Mega-Marcha"...</span></div>
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