Learn to speak English: 'Si cabron...just as soon as you lose your stupid twang'!

I am all for people learning to speak English. There is not much debate or discussion needed to prove why English is so important. Not just to reside in this country, but perhaps to be able to communicate in another country or continent where English seems to be the most popular language to learn and to have as a second or third language. English should be the primary language in the U.S. - I totally agree. BUT...
For beginners - let's take a closer look at southerners, especially the ones whose English is accompanied with a twang of any sort. It is not cute. It should not be normal or done to show off the part of the country from which you may have been born or grew up. You don't need to be proud of your twang, it is merely just an accent which you justify -unjustly- as a dialect. It is embarrassing to the rest of us who are trying hard to just speak proper English. No accents, no twangs. Just pure unadulterated English. I don't want to struggle to understand you each time you spew out your "y'alls", "gettin ready to", "fixin to", "shoulda", "woulda", "Missourah", "Amarillah". It is bad enough when you use words like that one at a time, but when you mix it up and use them all in a phrase or in a sentence, it really hurts my ears. I am an American, 4 or 5 generations prior to me having been born and raised here, and I am proud of my English. I practice it every single day as I not only speak it, but as I write it in numerous blogs I have or via social networks. I try not to muck it up or to misuse it in any way. If you speak with one of those awful twangs and you find yourself having to repeat what you are saying...don't fool yourself, it is not the 'other guy' who does not hear you right, it is indeed your awful twang keeping you from being able to properly express yourself. You are not using your language skills properly. You are misusing the English language which you are demanding that people from other countries/continents use. Why don't you try speaking English first. Speak it properly, sound out the vowels as you should have been taught to do in grade school, get rid of any cutesy-mootsey twang and speak proper English before you start making any demands.
Lets not forget those dear American folk to the north of us whose English is marred by an accent probably impeded by our Canadian neighbors. Please feel free to stop any need to overuse the word "yah". Please refrain from over-stating any vowel sounds especially and mostly the letter 'A'. You also speak certain words that I might not understand if it were not for my ability (my common sense) to decipher the meaning of the word by the way you are using it in a sentence. It is not really English you are speaking, it falls more in a category that I have now dubbed, Englidian. English+Canadian=Englidian. Please lose the northern accent.

Sarah Palin: To "club" or not to "club"

Voting: Why Latinos/Hispanics/Chicanos should vote: Reason #1, The Bracero Program!

Note from me before I begin with the actual lesson: It was the U.S. (again) who needed assistance from Mexico to do those jobs that Americans clearly will NOT perform, the U.S. brought over people from Mexico here first then decided they were "persona non grata". It was wrong for the U.S. to use Mexicans like they did and worse to rid the country of them as they did in such an inhumane manner. The U.S. started this present-day so-called immigration issue and now certain Americans want to further use cruel and unusual punishment to keep ridding our country of people (Mexicans) who have more of a right to exist here than most of them (Americans whose ancestors are from other continents) do.
The Bracero Program (from the Spanish word brazo, meaning "arm") was a series of laws and diplomatic agreements, initiated by an August 1942 exchange of diplomatic notes between the United States and Mexico, for the importation of temporary contract laborers from Mexico to the United States. U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt met with Mexican president Manuel Ávila Camacho, in Monterrey to discuss Mexico as part of the Allies in World War II and the Bracero Program. After the expiration of the initial agreement in 1947, the program was continued in agriculture under a variety of laws and administrative agreements until its formal end in 1964.
In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, over 500,000 Mexican Americans were deported or pressured to leave, during the Mexican Repatriation (***reviewed in another post below). There were thus fewer Mexican Americans available when labor demand returned with World War II.
The Bracero Program was initially prompted by a demand for manual labor during World War II, and begun with the U.S. government bringing in a few hundred experienced Mexican agricultural laborers to harvest sugar beets in the Stockton, California area. The program soon spread to cover most of the United States and provided workers for the agriculture labor market (with the notable exception was Texas, who initially opted out of the program in preference of an "open border" policy, and were denied braceros by the Mexican government until 1947 due to perceived mistreatment of Mexican laborers). As an important corollary, the railroad bracero program was independently negotiated to supply U.S. railroads initially with unskilled workers for track maintenance but eventually to cover other unskilled and skilled labor. By 1945, the quota for the agricultural program was more than 75,000 braceros working in the U.S. railroad system and 50,000 braceros working in U.S. agriculture at any one time.
The railroad program ended with the conclusion of World War II, in 1945.
At the behest of U.S. growers, who claimed ongoing labor shortages, the program was extended under a number of acts of congress until 1948. Between 1948 and 1951, the importation of Mexican agricultural laborers continued under negotiated administrative agreements between growers and the Mexican Government. On July 13, 1951, President Truman signed Public Law 78, a two-year program which embodied formalized protections for Mexican laborers. The program was renewed every two years until 1963, when, under heavy criticism, it was extended for a single year with the understanding it would not be renewed. After the formal end of the agricultural program lasted until 1964, there were agreements covering a much smaller number of contracts until 1967, after which no more braceros were granted.
The program in agriculture was justified in the U.S. largely as an alternative to undocumented immigration, and seen as a complement to efforts to deport undocumented immigrants such as Operation "Wetback" (***also reviewed in another post below), under which 1,075,168 Mexicans were deported in 1954. Scholars who have closely studied Mexican migration in this period have questioned this interpretation, emphasizing instead the complementary nature of legal and illegal migration. Scholars of this school suggest that the decision to hire Mexicans through the Bracero Program or via extra-legal contractors depended mostly on which seemed more suitable to needs of agribusiness employers, attributing the expansion of the Bracero Program in the late 50s to the relaxation of enforcement of regulations on Bracero wages, housing, and food charges.
The workers who participated in the Bracero Program have generated significant local and international struggles challenging the US government and Mexican government to identify and return deductions taken from their pay, from 1942 to 1948, for savings accounts which they were legally guaranteed to receive upon their return to Mexico at the conclusion of their contracts. Many never received their savings. Lawsuits presented in federal courts in California, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, highlighted the substandard conditions and documented the ultimate destiny of the savings accounts deductions, but the suit was thrown out because the Mexican banks in question never operated in the United States.
Even though the United States had made use of migrant Mexican labor in its agricultural sector since the early 1900s, such labor tended to be both migratory and seasonal with many workers returning back to Mexico in the winter. The situation changed with the involvement of the United States in WWII that created a massive labor shortage in all sectors of the economy with the withdrawal of much of the nation's active labor force into the various armed services. The extreme labor shortage forced a change in immigration policy for the United States that resulted in development of the Bracero Program in conjunction with Mexico. The Bracero Program was a guest worker program that ran between the years of 1942 and 1964. Over the twenty-two year period, The Mexican Farm Labor Program, informally known as the Bracero Program, sponsored some 4.5 million border crossings of guest workers from Mexico (some among these representing repeat visits by returned braceros).
The growing realization among businesses was that provisions within the program ensured an increase of costs for the imported labor. The program mandated a certain level of wages, housing, food and medical care for the workers (to be paid for by the employers) that kept the standard of living above what many had in Mexico. Not only did this enable many to send funds home to their families, but it also had the unintended effect of encouraging illegal immigration when the USA's workers quotas were met. These new illegal workers could not be employed "above the table" as part of the program leaving them open for exploitation. This resulted in the lowering of wages and not receiving the benefits that the Mexican government had negotiated to insure their legal workers well being under the bracero program. This in turn, had the effect of eroding support for the program in the agricultural sector for the legal importation of workers from Mexico in favor of hiring Illegal immigrants to reduce overhead costs. The advantages of hiring illegal workers were that they were willing to work for lower wages, without support, health coverage or in many cases legal means to address abuses by the employers for fear of deportation. Nevertheless, conditions for the poor and unemployed within Mexico were such that illegal employment was attractive enough to motivate many to leave in search of work within the United States illegally, even if that directly competed with the legal workers within the bracero program leading to its discontinuation.
Labor unions which tried to organize agricultural workers after WWII targeted the Bracero program as a key impediment to improving the wages of domestic farm workers. These unions included the National Farm Laborers Union (NFLU), later called the National Agricultural Workers Union (NAWU), headed by Ernesto Galarza, and the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC), AFL-CIO. During his tenure with the Community Service Organization, César Chávez was given a grant by the AWOC to organize in Oxnard, California which culminated in a protest of domestic U.S. agricultural workers of the U.S. Department of Labor's administration of the program. In January 1961, in an effort to publicize the effects of bracero labor on labor standards, the AWOC led a strike of lettuce workers at 18 farms in the Imperial Valley, an agricultural region on the California-Mexico border and a major destination for braceros.
The end of the Bracero program in 1964 was followed by the rise to prominence of the United Farm Workers, and the subsequent transformation of American migrant labor under the leadership of César Chávez. Dolores Huerta was also a leader and early organizer of the United Farm Workers. According to Manuel Garcia y Griego, a political scientist and author of The Importation of Mexican Contract Laborers to the United States 1942-1964, the Contract-Labor Program “left an important legacy for the economies, migration patterns, and politics of the United States and Mexico.”
Griego’s article discusses the bargaining position of both countries, arguing that the Mexican government lost all real bargaining power after 1950. The guest worker program continued until 1964.

Voting: Why Latinos/Hispanics/Chicanos should vote: Reason #2, Operation Wetback!

Operation Wetback was a 1954 operation by the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to remove about one million illegal immigrants from the southwestern United States, focusing on Mexican nationals.
Burgeoning numbers of illegal Mexican immigrants prompted President Dwight D. Eisenhower to appoint his longtime friends, John Cox and General Joseph Swing, as INS Commissioner. According to Attorney General Herbert Brownell, Jr., Eisenhower had a sense of urgency about illegal immigration upon taking office. In a letter to Sen. J. William Fulbright, Eisenhower quoted a report in The New York Times that said, "The rise in illegal border-crossing by Mexican "wetbacks" (rooted from the watery route taken by the Mexican immigrants across the Rio Grande) to a current rate of more than 1,000,000 cases a year has been accompanied by a curious relaxation in ethical standards extending all the way from the farmer-exploiters of this contraband labor to the highest levels of the Federal Government."
The operation was modeled after a program that came to be termed the Mexican Repatriation, which put pressure on citizens of Mexico to return home during the Great Depression, due to the economic crisis in the United States.
Operation Wetback in action: The effort began in California and Arizona, and coordinated 1075 Border Patrol agents, along with state and local police agencies, to mount an aggressive crackdown. Tactics employed included going as far as systematic police sweeps of Mexican-American neighborhoods, and random stops and ID checks of "Mexican-looking" people in a region with many Native Americans and native Hispanics. In some cases, illegal immigrants were deported along with their American-born minor dependent children. Some 750 agents targeted agricultural areas with a goal of 1,000 apprehensions per day. By the end of July, over 50,000 immigrants were caught in the two states. An estimated 488,000 illegal immigrants are claimed to have left voluntarily, for fear of being apprehended. By September, 80,000 had been taken into custody in Texas, and the INS estimated that 500,000 to 700,000 had left Texas of their own accord. To discourage illicit re-entry, buses and trains took many deportees deep within Mexican territory prior to releasing them. Tens of thousands more were deported by two chartered ships, the Emancipation and the Mercurio. The ships ferried them from Port Isabel, Texas, to Veracruz, Mexico, more than 500 miles (800 kilometers) to the south. Some were taken as far as 1,000 miles. Deportation by sea was ended after seven deportees jumped overboard from the Mercurio and drowned, provoking a mutiny that led to a public outcry in Mexico.

Voting: Why Latinos/Hispanics/Chicanos should vote: Reason #3, The Repatriation Movement!

The Mexican Repatriation refers to a forced migration that took place between 1929 and 1939, when as many as one million people of Mexican descent were forced or pressured to leave the US. (The term "Repatriation," though commonly used, is inaccurate, since approximately 60% of those driven out were U.S. citizens.) The event, carried out by American authorities, took place without due process. The Immigration and Naturalization Service targeted Mexicans because of "the proximity of the Mexican border, the physical distinctiveness of mestizos, and easily identifiable barrios.". The Repatriation is not widely discussed in American history textbooks; in a 2006 survey of the nine most commonly used American history textbooks in the United States, four did not mention the Repatriation, and only one devoted more than half a page to the topic. In total, they devoted four pages to the Repatriation, compared with eighteen pages for the Japanese American internment. These actions were authorized by President Herbert Hoover and targeted areas with large Hispanic populations, mostly in California, Texas, Colorado, Illinois and Michigan.

Voting: Why Latinos/Hispanics/Chicanos should vote: Reason #4, Operation Gatekeeper!

Operation Gatekeeper - was a Clinton-era measure aimed to halt immigration at the United States–Mexico border near San Diego, California. According to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the goal of Gatekeeper was "to restore integrity and safety to the nation's busiest border." Operation Gatekeeper was announced in Los Angeles on September 17, 1994 by U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, and was launched two weeks later on October 1. In the United States Congress, additional funds were allocated to the United States Border Patrol and other agencies. By 1997, the budget of the Immigration and Naturalization Service had doubled to 800 million dollars, the number of Border Patrol agents had nearly doubled, the amount of fencing or other barriers more than doubled, and the number of underground sensors nearly tripled. The merits of Operation Gatekeeper have been debated extensively, including during Congressional hearings. The Department of Justice, the INS and the Border Patrol have maintained that Operation Gatekeeper is a success. However, various Congressmen and newspaper articles have sharply criticized the program and declared it a failure.

Voting: Why Latinos/Hispanics/Chicanos should vote: Reason #5, SB1070!

Arizona's poisonous, disgusting senate bill SB 1070:

Everything about this bill should be bothersome and worrisome to all of us who want true,
just Immigration Reform. If you are not familiar with the bill, click on the title above to read about it. I am totally against it. For one - immigration issues are federal issues. The issues are NOT for each state to decide how to deal with it. I am AGAINST SB 1070 because it is demeaning and takes the meaning of the word "human" out of human being. Letting such a cruel and crude bill exist and worse yet to be implemented, to me, is like letting each state go back post 1964/1968 to decide how or if they will allow or disallow persons of color their civil rights.

The Dream Act:

This act is one I am in favor of for various reasons. We cannot and should not punish children of undocumented workers/immigrants who did not obtain their residency or citizenship here in the U.S. as they should have. The children have been in the U.S. for most of their lives and know life only here in their beloved United States. Denying them a right to attend college so that they may obtain their residency or citizenship to better their lives is a terrible thing to do. Giving them a "hand up" by financially assisting them to obtain a college education is a good thing provided they agree, immediately upon graduation, to: 1) obtain their legal status 2) give back to their community. But never, ever should it be okay to send these students back to the country which they were born in but do not know. They know the U.S. The U.S. has been their home. Give them a chance to stay in their home. Let them serve in a branch of the armed forces or to sign up with a civil service program. Don't make them suffer for being in the U.S. illegally because of their parents. Allowing the Dream Act to be inspires people who would otherwise have no dreams the ability to have dreams, to set goals, to help better our country. As I gave an analogy above for being against SB 1070, let me give an analogy for being FOR the Dream Act: It would be very much like enacting Affirmative Action all over again for minorities in this country to have an equal opportunity to attend college. The rich people have their legacy programs, voila, minorities have affirmative action...let the children of undocumented workers have their dream act.

SB 1070: Judge Intervenes Today: Blocks Parts of Bill:

Read the full story here:

Judge rules to block provisions of Ariz. law

She moves to hold requirement that officers check immigration

Against SB 1070: End the Fascism and Bigotry

...just saying...this ordeal we have going on in Arizona just stinks. I am not for illegal immigration. I do not condone the actions of anyone whether American or not to break laws and/or to partake of certain privileges if they have not paid into them somehow. But I am also not for the mistreatment of my fellow human beings and especially not of my Hispanic/Latino brothers or sisters when they are seeking a better life and hurting no one. Where does tolerance end thus allowing racism to just completely take over one's life then make us so bitter that we completely throw out compassion?!! (rhetorical). I work hard and have done so since I was 16 (I am 43). So for over 27 years, I have struggled to provide a better future for my loved ones because I firmly believe that each generation should better their own lives in order for the next one to go farther in all aspects of life. I do not believe in giving anyone a free ride; everyone should work hard for what they have as all my ancestors have done, and I could not have had better role models in that regard with my own parents and my older siblings, etc. I do believe that anyone who truly wants to succeed in this country and to live a good life should be given a chance. It should no longer be okay to only provide this opportunity for certain peoples around the world because of immunity/amnesty laws. I do agree with those exceptions, do not get me wrong. But those laws are so limiting; though they do understandably exist to allow certain people to escape certain persecution from certain countries to come over here, they continue to wrongfully exclude our neighbors to the south. Last time I checked, Mexico still sucked as a country for anyone to have to live in even if we (the United States) have no on-going embargos or such imposed upon them (Mexico). A litmus test should have long been set up to weed out the bad and to allow those with good intentions to remain in the USA as legalized citizens. I do not live in AZ and do not know the threats that certain citizens of that state have been through and why they want to kick out the so-called illegals, but living in Texas gives me a big idea. Studies do mostly show that illegals do not commit the majority of the crimes because they wish to remain hidden. Most of the crime in AZ comes from, well - from Arizonians. The lazy people there are most likely the Arizonians themselves who prefer life on the "dole" rather than working hard especially if it is a laborious job. Then to add salt to the wound, these very lackadaisical people have the audacity to blame the "Mexicans" for taking their jobs - you know, the jobs they would never take in a million years!!! As a citizen of this great country and being able to trace my American lineage by more than five generations, I reiterate that I am not for illegal immigration but when ignorant politicians come up with laws and strategies that are going to undermine the current Constitutional rights of law-abiding, American citizens like me, then I do tend to get a lot pissed off. In the near future, if I travel to AZ for vacation or to trace my roots (my father was born in AZ), I may be subject to racial profiling because of my skin color. That is utterly ridiculous. To my dear friends on the right (and the left) who agree with SB 1070, YOU GOT IT WRONG!!! Shame on YOU!!!
If you are not of Hispanic/Latino ethnicity, you may not understand how SB1070 negatively makes someone like me feel so I give you a "free pass" for now because I am tolerant and compassionate of others. But trust me, the mere thought of racial profiling sickens me; that is un-American!!!! There has to be a better solution. However, if you ARE of Hispanic/Latino ethnicity and feel somehow that you cannot see anything wrong with SB1070, you really should re-think your own self-esteem, worth and pride. If you are okay with racial profiling and are going to allow your rights to be impeded, that's your right to do so but you are in the minority (pardon the pun) I assure you. For sure you should stop playing sycophant to others especially if they happen to not share your same ethnic background and only see things in black and white. Hispanics/Latinos in favor of SB 1070, stop hating and start celebrating (your culture - that is - for it is truly awesome).
I am 100% in support of always protecting our rights as American citizens as so stated in our Constitution even when it places me in the "unpopular column”. With that said, it is time for Prez Obama and company on the Fed level to stop ignoring Immigration Reform so that individual states (i.e AZ maybe soon even TX) stop acting like fascist ones. So that states with so-called "good intentions" but with no real respect for ALL of their citizenry refrain from completely stomping on the rights of American citizens of one color/race for the betterment of some who are too bigoted to see the error in their ways. We will not go back to America pre-1964...SB1070 needs to go.

Pres. OBAMA: Hate Groups - Where Were Those Groups During the "W" Reign?!!

I posted the following data to my facebook wall tonight as a means to let people know how stupid, ignorant and dangerous ones actions and words can be. I am not sure how many of my FB friends will grasp the idea behind my posting, not sure I really care; but if they want to debate it, I welcome them with open arms. My goal really was to wake some people up - for them to see what their actions and words can lead to, that they should think twice about what they do and to be accountable for it. I also hope that maybe I can get some of my FB friends to delete their membership into any of these hate groups and to view things a little differently because things now really are no worse than when "W" reigned. Our economy started to collapse during his reign and got really bad by 2007, our freedom was attacked (9/11), our freedoms were truly dimished (Patriot Act). BUT immediately following a Republican reign over the White House and a Black, Democratic President having been overwhelmingly elected, it is only Pres. Obama whom gets treated like a commie, a thief, an illegal alien, a socialist. Please spare me, people. Anyway, below is what I posted, plus, I am including the web site (they speak of the groups who are wanting Pres. Obama to die) which I was referring to via a link (its URL): http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x272508

...i never, never, liked the previously 'selected' president "W", but i never wished for his death. bailouts occurred (started) during his reign, the 'patriot act' occurred under his reign, 9/11 occurred during his reign, big government was at its peak during his reign - not many good came out of his reign. hate groups, grassroots mov...ement groups were NOWHERE TO BE FOUND during his reign like now. even if a hate group existed during those grueling 8 years, no way would my consicence and morals allow me to join - they only incite hatred and violence. at most, i did join the "impeach g.w.bush group". i find groups like the one referred to via the link below and ppl who follow them quite sad and disappointing. we should be better than that. as if ppl like timothy mcveigh need anymore reason to do stupid things. BTW, Timmy did not bomb the Murrah bldg thus killing 168 innocent ppl for any cause, purpose or incident...he was just a scared, lonely, hate-filled narcissistic thug. besides, if part of his m.o. was that he was mad over the davidian incident at waco...well, timmy, let me remind you that david koresh was a child molester, a rapist and his group was stockpiling. militias like the armed forces still fall under fed law that the President is their Commander in Chief. (FYI...i fully support the right to bear arms). BTW, you seriously cannot hate the govt and love the military. the military is part of govt as are policemen, firemen, postal carriers. it is not the structure or our laws but some ppl (politicians, poli-pundits, and radicals) who make the govt bad, and we can make it good but not with violence. violence makes this a sad world to reside in, and if my post makes you indignant, don't read them anymore. it is my right to post, afterall, i am not inciting violence. be creative and post on your own wall - just don't throw stones - no one lives in glass houses, never did-never will.

What's the dilly, yo?: We Can't Trace Abuelita's roots But We Know About La Llorona!

Lack of Latino Documentation was a topic of mine last week. It was titled, "Genealogy Quagmire: The Lack of Family Documentation Through-out The Years". I posted it to this very blog, and Sara made a good point in her comments to my story. She said, and I quote (verbatim as I C and P it):

'As an undergrad and grad student, I learned about this lack of documentation our Raza is guilty of and it is most unfortunate. After all, the best way to keep a people submissive and oppressed is by denying them their history. In all fairness to our ancestors, most were uneducated and could barely read and write (if at all). So keeping a diary or journal was virtually impossible. And they didn't have much in terms of material possessions or money. In contrast, most anglos kept inventories of what they owned, i.e. furniture, china, silver, livestock, heirlooms, etc. So now, the research is up to us. We can do the best we can to research and uncover our roots. Then, going forward, we need to document anything and everything for future generations.'

Okay, let me gently and respectfully dissect what Sara wrote via her comment.

• They (Latinos) were uneducated: Yes, I totally agree. They could barely read and write (if at all). Keeping a diary would have been impossible, but as our raza was undergoing oppression equal to that of the blacks, why is it that blacks have so much history to review? Was it because officially blacks were counted as pieces of property by their respective slave owners thus they became part of the white-slave owners inventory roll? I would stand firm in saying that indeed, the inventory roll was indeed part of how blacks were able to trace their roots. By little or no credit to them (blacks), it was their dirty slave owners who ultimately proved to be the "keepers of the flame" for black history. Latinos were never officially referred to as slaves, not in the U.S. but they were subjected to the same awful treatment. Worse, yet, the only historical data we can investigate comes from limited sources out there who were mainly keeping track for economic reasons as well. Most often the labor farms/ranches. If one of us (Latinos) died, it was recorded for financial records so that the land owners could account for such a loss in order to retrieve monetary losses by our own government. A dead Latino was worth more dead than alive. Scarey thing is that little in that regard is much different now: we are worth more dead than alive. OR maybe not, and I do not mean it in a positive way either as currently - in death, Latinos more often than not leave little to no money behind, little to no insurance behind, and their surviving loved ones have to find the means with which to pay for funeral costs and such. It sets back each generation instead of helping us to progress.

• They (Latinos) didn't have much in terms of material possessions or money: Yes, I also agree completely with that statement of Sara's. Our ancestors had little back then and when in a class war, the poor suffer tremendously and die quickly. I am sure that they went into survival mode, and they did what they could to stay alive and to them, keeping historical documents was the least of their worries. They put family first and lived in the here and now and had no time to worry about tomorrow and future generations. Family was important and it was top priority. There was no room for formal education when loved ones were going hungry and such. I firmly believe that such a way of living and thinking for Latinos back in the old days is why present-day Latinos are still not too keen on their children attending college. Too many still stress the importance of working versus higher education. Latino elders still encourage their young to stay home as long as possible. There is none of that kicking young ones out of the nest, per se, in this our Latino culture.

My overall view of documentation going forward:

1) That Latinos get educated and that it becomes a priority versus working. Working is good and it does indeed build character and everyone should partake in it, but we must not allow our education to become impeded by it.

2) Latinos should encourage their young to be more independent and self-reliant. To be ready to leave the nest for a better future. To not be afraid to venture out into the world.

3) That Latinos, although having gotten better at it in recent decades, keep better-detailed records of geneaological facts. When someone is born, write it down with as much detail as possible. Do not just assume that a government agency will have it documented for you because, although they will (they have to as part of the Constitution via the Census Law), they more than likely will screw up some details. I am finding that out as I currently research my own genealogical data. Names are misspelled, left off and the same is for dates, addresses and such. Government records are a joke.

4) That we present day Latinos celebrate our heritage by finding out as much of our past as we can so that we leave more behind for our future than what was left for us. That we forgive the past grievances done onto our ancestors which lead to them keeping limited to nil historical data. That we do better going forward with so much data available to us (i.e. Internet, libraries, newspapers, etc.) so that we can leave more than just stories of folklore.

That brings me to my final thought. Folklore: why is it that our raza can easily recount stories of la llorna, the chupacabra, la Lechuza, and other folkloric legends but when it pertains to stories regarding their own family legend(s), they know very little. Blacks often sang songs and told stories in code so that the white man did not know that they were remembering and mentally recording their roots. They did this to protect their legacy so that future generations would know of their history. Why then did this sort of witty tactic elude the Latino population. I wish we could go back and do things differently, but that is never to be so all we (Latinos) can do is move forward with pride in tact and to research and to remember as much of our past so that we do not repeat it and thustly so that we can achieve so much more success than our ancestors. That we not allow the cruel, harsh treatment of our ancestors to have been in vain. The best thing we (Latinos) can do for certain going forward is to encourage one another to obtain a formal education. I do not just mean high school, we must progress further than that in these days and not just settle for an undegrad education either. We must go even further now and do so by demanding of ourselves a graduate education. The best way to beat oppression is by being educated. An educated man is a powerful man, and he can no longer be oppressed.

Genealogy Quagmire: The Lack of Family Documentation Through-out The Years.

I am pondering with the fact that through-out generations, Latinos seem to be the more lax people when it comes to documenting data and facts pertaining to family history. Lack of documentation in my own family is the reason why I wrote the post below. Finding where my family's roots began is the basis of my current geneaological project(s) and where my venture truly does begin.

I have recently begun a genealogical journey into finding out from where this Latina/Tejana’s roots stem. It is not easy starting the venture because I did not really know where to begin. I had no idea which web sites would provide the best data so I just gambled and started research via 3 different ones. Geni.com, My Heritage.com and the grand-daddy of ‘em all, Ancestry.com. Besides, since my start up data is so limited, it is basically like asking these 3 web sites...‘where does Dora’s history begin?’! Really, folks, I have almost nothing to start out with as far as family history goes. I realize that I am very fortunate in having the basic data which means I know whom my parents and grand-parents are, but the “history bus-ride” stops there. To add to the start up problems, I am not sure if my father’s name is what we always thought it was. His birth certificate shows a different name all together. Maybe it is not his b.c. - maybe it belongs to a sibling we never knew existed- maybe my father had a twin brother. That explanation would not be so difficult to grasp as my father and mother did give life to their own set of twins back in 1961. A boy and a girl. My baby brother did not survive very long and passed away from an illness just a couple of weeks later; however, my sister did survive that twin birth and I do thank God everyday for her because I could not imagine her not being part of the family – nor in my own life. I am thankful for each one of my other siblings as well. Each one special in his/her own right and serving a special purpose on this Earth.

Anyway, the quagmire which currently plagues my journey into getting our family history composed is further clogged by not knowing my father’s true birth date and birth place. I guess hiring an expert would be ideal right at this point of my research, but who can afford that during these bad financial times. I wish I had that kind of money, because let’s face it, folks, money can pretty much buy us anything. Being shy of being a millionaire myself by about $999,999.00, I must regress to doing things the old fashioned way…hard work + lots of time = sweat equity.

I do not know how much information I may be able to retrieve in the end nor what I will actually do with it all once I get it. Of course I will share it with my family - that's a given. I may find historical facts which will make me proud, and of course, I am prepping myself for any contrary data which might make me ashamed, mad or both. Whatever I find out is okay. I just want to know. It is already difficult having very limited knowledge of your family history dating back to more than one generation (beyond grandparents), but when there also exists questionable data beginning with one’s parent (i.e. my dad), well...that just wreaks. Unfortunately, that is the point where I find myself currently.

If I can just get past the initial data…information pertinent to my parents, especially my father, then I just know the rest will flow easily and steadily. I currently find myself unwilling to stop; I am unwaivering in my attempts to find out my family roots and such. Although there is much information out there on some family members and almost none on others, I am committed to bringing this genealogical project as close to fruition as possible even if it takes me months or years. It may be a never ending project, but at least I will have more data to pass onto future generations versus what limited data was left for me/us. It is indeed a challenge, but an interesting one – a true journey of life. Let the quagmire continue...

TRUE DEFINITIONS: Present day, so-called Grass-roots Movement Groups

The true meaning of certain groups who believe that they are the only true Patriots yet some prove too cowardly to say what they really mean!

BIRTHERS: Radicals who hate anyone not of Aryan descent. Deep down, these people truly admired Hitler (who was a so-called Christian himself) and secretly wish to become his followers of late. These birthers would also love to go back pre-1964 when they truly ruled the U.S. This group is the one I mostly have a problem with and refuse to take them serious or to justify their anger and violent behavior with a duplicated attack - verbal or otherwise. They are ignorant and we are supposed to disregard those types.

TRUTHERS: Honestly, they just want the truth behind the 9/11 attacks. They would like to see “W” and his cronies in the administration at the time be held accountable for questionable actions leading up to the attacks and then to the start of a needless war against a sovereign nation all in the name of “payback”. Yeah, right, “payback” – call it what it really was – control over oil and wealth for those who aided the admin! “W” and his cronies all need a good, old-fashioned “whoop ass”. To the likes of one ignorant Sarah Palin, “W”, Cheney, and their supporters…“how’s all that oil working out for ya?”!!!

TEA PARTY MOVEMENT: Pissed off Americans who are tired of huge government bail-outs of corporate America; the bail-outs which began during the “W” reign but have been more readily scrutinized under President Obama. Taxation without representation…sure I understand that. At least members of the TP Movement have their basic rights. Ask the LGBT community how they fair during these hard economic times? Ask the LGBT community how they pay exorbitant amount of taxes just so that people involved with the TP can vote to deny them their rights. Marriage is supposedly sacred. Yeah, right, hardly so. Most LGBT couples in a relationship stay together longer, are more committed to one another, more committed to the family and more likely to heed the meaning of the word fidelity. LGBT couples do not share the same rights and privileges as members of the TP Movement. If your spouse becomes ill, you have the right to make life-changing/life-saving decisions for him/her, but an LGBT couple is chastised and thrown out of the room. They pay taxes for such crude and neanderthal-like treatments. TP Movement, I see your point but do you have to be so ignorant, radical, loud and violent in trying to get your point across?!! (rhetorical). Bottom line, the TP Movement is as racist as the birthers are and worse. The TP blames too many taxes, bail-outs and health care as the reason behind their cause when in actuality they are like the birthers who are pissed off at the fact of a Black man in the White House. Surely they remember times being worse during the "W" reign. The TP Movement automatically reverts to screams of bloody-murder ala socialism. They don’t want to share their wealth with the less fortunate. I understand that. No one asked them to completely and totally finance and support the poor, they are just being asked to act like the Christians they claim to be and lend a hand. I hate involving Christianity (I firmly believe in a true separation of church and state) but since the TP Movement claims it to be part of their foundation, I too shall go to that "place". Oh, and providing health care for over 35 million Americans just pisses off the TP Movement. Are they scared that for once in this country that everyone will have equal treatment on the health care scale. That the minorities, the low class, the no class, the poor, the tired will be on the same level as them and that the elimination of such scum will be minimized because fewer have to die from lack of medical attention and affordability? (rhetorical). Jesus would be for health care and He is probably totally disappointed and pissed off at such negative actions by these people. Did they learn nothing from biblical teachings to treat others fair and equal? (r) I do not wear my limited Christian beliefs on my sleeve, but I d0 know right from wrong, and therefore I do not get irate at lending a hand to those less fortunate especially when my own home has been so greatly rewarded. Some of the TP Movement members go around all indignant of so-called socialism with one hand making a fist and the other hand guarding their money. Reminiscent of a three year-old as he goes around not wanting to play fair nor to share his toys while all the time reciting the words…“MINE, MINE, MINE!”

My friend said it best the other day…

~Tea (Party) is bitter these days, I will take Coffee (Party) - it's much sweeter!~

ARIZONA: LULAC Finds New Immigration Law Unconstitutional

April 15, 2010

Contact: Lizette Jenness Olmos, (202) 833-6130 ext. 16

The law will lead to more racial profiling and discrimination.

Washington, DC – The League of United Latin American Citizens, the nation's oldest and largest Hispanic civil rights organization, will sue to block an Arizona immigration bill as unconstitutional should Gov. Jan Brewer sign it into law.
“We are horrified," said LULAC National President Rosa Rosales. "This law opens the doors to racial profiling. It requires police officers, if they form a 'reasonable suspicion' that someone is an illegal immigrant, to determine the person’s immigration status.”
LULAC is opposed to an existing program known as 287(g) allows local police to enforce federal immigration laws, contending that it has been ineffective and subject to abuse. LULAC has always opposed involving local police in immigration matters because they do not have the resources or training to enforce immigration law.
First Lady Michelle Obama in a trip to Mexico today stressed that immigration reform is necessary and that more Democrats and Republicans should support its enactment.
“We're seeing children who are trying to cross the border just to reconnect with their parents, and their family members and their lives are at risk,” said Rosales. “A strong immigration reform policy would help alleviate some of those challenges.”
Until Congress passes an immigration reform bill, states will continue to take matters into their own hands and communities and families will remain separated.
LULAC is the largest and older Hispanic Organization in the United States. LULAC advances the economic condition, educational attainment, political influence, health and civil rights of Hispanic Americans through community-based programs operating at more than 700 LULAC councils nationwide. For more information on LULAC, visit www.lulac.org.

"Sleep Dealer" a sci-fi movie: Mexican's future bleakly portrayed.

In Director Alex Rivera's sci-fi thriller, "Sleep Dealer" (2008), he does a good job of showing us that Mexicans are still at the forefront of racism in American. The movie is at first a little quirky and the ideas and terminology are kind of funny until you find yourself getting the jist of it almost to the point of falling into reverie. I actually liked how he used the terms once the definitions and usage were clear. It happens soon enough into the movie that you are encaptured by the plot of events and characters. You may even find yourself agreeing with it even to the point of getting a little ticked off - I know I did.

The futuristic movie which is set in the rural village of Santa Ana del Rio (Mexico) quickly goes into the idea of a corporation-controlled and military enforced future where the United States has finally and successfully closed its borders. American technology has developed a digital network with a capacity that allows the United States to continue to have all their work done by Mexicans but in a controlled environment which surely makes America safer. To one’s chagrin, the technology is so advanced that there is no need for Mexicans to be physically in the U.S. to tend to the usual immigrant-type jobs which are the "norm" in present times and are still as such in Rivera's futuristic world. Plus, in America, there are no water shortages like in Santa Ana del Rio which is a small farming area and the only sign of technology is a dam which was built by an unknown militarized corporation. The corporation controls Santa Ana's water supply thus making things difficult for the farmers. Due to the issues plaguing Santa Ana, the lead character named Memo is forced to leave the village in hopes of finding work so he can send money back to his family. Memo is not as fond of Santa Ana as he is fascinated by technology, but the very technology which he loves quickly becomes the reason he must leave and ultimately makes him somewhat bitter and jaded.

As the movie progresses and Memo arrives in the city to find a job, he quickly discovers how the technology for which he yearned for might not be such a good thing. The technology forces Mexicans to get set up with "nodes". Nodes (hole plugs) are capacity points in certain points in a body which allow Mexicans to plug into a computer.

By doing this, they are then able to control robotic entities located in various but unknown places within the United States. Imagine that, migrant work still being done by Mexicans but the U.S. does not need to worry about the actual person physically being there; after all, it is only a robot that the Mexicans control from inside the country of Mexico. The real kicker is that by plugging into these computer sources, the Mexicans are still in danger as their internal health is compromised thus negatively impacting their overall physical health within time.

As is the case now, Mexicans in this movie are still disrespected and treated as ‘personas non grata’ in America. Immigration in present day America continues to take a back burner to other issues and in “Sleep Dealer”, Alex Rivera indirectly reminds us of what is likely to happen to immigrants and to the border if the status quo continues. Sure present day technology may not be so advanced as in this movie; however, it is not so unbelievable that technological advancements and simulations in lesser ways could indeed occur. What I mean by that is that in the U.S., American companies already have foreigners performing tasks without them having to be in the U.S. Where do you think all the telemarketers and bill collectors and such are calling us from anyway?

What I took away from the meaning of this most excellent movie is that it is time to wake up in America. Immigration reform cannot go ignored or Mexicans may really find themselves in a true version of “Sleep Dealer”. Many people such as the right-wing fundamentalists, and bigots would love to see such a world exist. So would the people who are part of the so-called grassroots movement radical groups known as “The Tea Party” and "Birthers”. I could not live in a country where those kind of people still exist with that kind of negative, backwards attitude or worse yet - that they could ever have that type of power and control over our own Latino/Hispanic/Chicano majority. Especially not after we become the majority!

As a fan and lover of the sci-fi genre, I give this movie 4 of out 5 stars and strongly encourage people to see it and to further recommend it.

Por supuesto, adelante porque si se puede!