Culture Shift: Looking at Identity in the Borderland Bubble

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In this episode of Our Border Life we talk about those moments when people realize they’re in a culture shift – that something fundamentally has changed about their identity. Specifically, the growing awareness of the multi-layered identities among people living in the U.S-Mexico borderland region of El Paso and Ciudad Juarez. https://soundcloud.com/borderzine-reporting-across-fronteras/looking-at-identity-through-the-borderland-bubble

We meet with Gustavo Reveles, who was born in El Paso and spent the first 15 years of his life living on both sides of the border. In a conversation with a friend, Martin Bartlett, Reveles talks about how he didn’t realize he lived in a culture bubble until he moved away for a job after college.  

 

“You grew up thinking you’re both Mexican and American.

Abraham Velázquez, el fundador de unos de los sitios web para latinos más importantes de Chicago. (Carolina Sánchez/Borderzine.com)

Qué cool es ser latino

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CHICAGO – Ese es el mensaje de Abrahan Velázquez Tello, creador de gozamos.com. “Ser latino está de moda, es diferente, es cool”. Su objetivo es representarlo en su sitio web, donde ofrece una variedad de informaciones enfocada a latinos de entre 18 y 35 años interesados en la cultura, las artes y en el ocio. “La misión de gozamos.com siempre ha sido crear una mezcla entre cultura, educación y entretenimiento”. Este website es la obra de Abraham, un joven emprendedor de 27 años nacido en México D.F. y criado en Estados Unidos.

"Machos enmascarados" are putting their wives' health in risk. (Christian Guerrero/Borderzine.com)

“Machos enmascarados” can infect their own wives with HIV/AIDS

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EL PASO – The number of Latina housewives infected with HIV is increasing in El Paso and the perpetrators are “machos enmascarados,” usually their own husbands. “I had never seen the increase in that type of vulnerable heterosexual family-oriented woman, as I am seeing it now,” said Jorge Salazar, health services administrator of the Centro de Salud Familiar La Fe. “La Fe is focusing on the very difficult topic of educating and empowering our women.”

Women are finding out to their dismay that their prince charming is experimenting with his sexuality in what is called MSM (men having sex with men), contracting HIV/AIDS and passing it on to them, according to Salazar. December 1 is World AIDS Day, and Salazar said that he hopes that a new awareness of this new face of HIV in the Latino community will erase the image of what a person with HIV/AIDS may look like and start affected people on a journey of hope, peace and help. Women in El Paso are becoming more vulnerable to this situation and the numbers have been rising.

Texas’ Hispanic population increases by 2.8 million (42%)

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By Patricia Guadalupe, NALEO Director of Communication

Texas experienced exceptional growth since 2000, with the Latino community playing a key role in the record number of new residents added to the Lone Star State, according to an analysis by the NALEO Educational Fund of newly released Census 2010 data. While the state’s overall population grew from 20.9 million to 25.1 million (21%) in the first decade of the 21st century, the Latino share of that population increased 42%, from 6.7 million to 9.5 million. LATINO YOUTH ZOOMED

Latino residents account for nearly two thirds (65%) of the population growth in Texas over the last ten years. “Now more than ever, all eyes are on Texas. Our state is gaining four new congressional seats, and that is largely due to the unprecedented growth of the Latino population,” says NALEO President Sylvia García, former Harris County Commissioner.

Proposed Texas education cuts imperil Latino students’ future

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Impending massive budget reductions in flat-broke Texas are about to slam education’s door on its Latino youth, who at 2.34 million now comprise about half of its public school students. Experts and community advocates across the state agree on the danger it portents to the state’s economic future as well. Once among the nation’s wealthiest, the Lone Star State has become the Loan Starved State. It is grappling with a budget shortfall somewhere between $15 billion and $27 billion. The proposed solution by Gov. Rick Perry, with traction offered by conservatives within the GOP-controlled legislature, targets the schools.

Media Report – February 11, 2011

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LATINO MEDIA REACTION

Response by the Latino media to President Obama’s Jan. 25 State of the Union speech was, for the most part, a positive one, with headlines such as “Obama pide esfuerzo bipartidista para ganar el futuro,” found in Univisión.com

Univisión and Galavisión offered voice-over translation of the live speech. As did other print and broadcast media, San Antonio’s weekly La Prensa highlighted a number of issues of greatest concern to the Spanish-speaking community. It stressed, “Immigration reform and the DREAM Act are still priorities of  President Barack Obama, according to statements from the White House,” and continued, “This is the third time that the President defends the need for immigration reform in a speech before Congress.”

With education being at the top of the list as the means to “win the future,” Obama took the opportunity to mention the “hundreds of thousands of students excelling in our schools who are not American citizens.”

He urged Congress to work in harmony in addressing once and for all the issues of illegal immigration and to “stop expelling talented and responsible young people who could be staffing our research labs or starting a new business, further enriching this nation.”

In a column syndicated by Hispanic Link News Service, José de la Isla, author of The Rise of Hispanic Political Power, saw the President’s comments as “an interesting juxtaposition of student situations.”

“Had the DREAM Act passed, the ‘best and brightest” U.S. resident students it covered already would have been home” de la Isla said. In Obama’s plan for innovation, research for cleaner energy technologies plays a big role to increase job opportunities and compete with other nations.

Mario Obledo leaves a heartfelt legacy of victories for Latinos

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EL PASO, Texas — Dr. Mario G. Obledo’s heart went out to those who had no voice. He fought for decades for the rights of Latinos through civil unrest and through the creation of powerful institutions. On August 18, his heart fought its last battle. The man known by many as the godfather of the Latino movement in the U.S. died at his home in Sacramento, California, of an apparent heart attack. He was 78.

Hispano o latino: ¿Cuál es el problema de una simple etiqueta?

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Traducido por Laura Castellón

Read this story in English

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. — Javier Martínez Vargas se sentó en una caseta un día el pasado otoño, contando el dinero que había ganado como mesero esa tarde en El Matador en Johnson City, TN. Un cliente le preguntó que si estaba planeando hacer algo para el Mes de la Herencia Hispana. Martínez Vargas, un ciudadano mexicano y residente permanente legal de los Estados Unidos, sacudió su cabeza. Luego, el cliente le preguntó qué pensaba sobre la palabra ‘hispano.’

“En verdad, no me importa lo que me llamen,” dijo Martínez Vargas.

DREAM Act: Hope for Undocumented Students

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Lea esta historia en español

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. — Irene Castellon, 19, is a bright, beautiful young woman studying Spanish at East Tennessee State University. She hopes to use her Spanish degree to help Latino Americans make a better life for themselves. Yet a year ago, college wasn’t an option for her because of her immigration status. Currently, undocumented immigrants in the U.S. cannot receive financial aid for college.

¡Andele! — the Latin Press Has 200 Years of History in the U.S.

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EL PASO, Texas — The Latin press in the United States, currently one of the bright spots in the changing world of media in the Internet age, has been around for 202 years. From the moment the first press in the Americas started printing in México City during Spanish colonial times to the newspapers of the Mexican revolution, to the papers helping ease the transition of immigrant life in the U.S., the Latin press has always given a voice to those who could not speak or would not be heard. Dr. Felix Gutierrez told an audience a the University of Texas at El Paso, April 8, that for more than 200 years the Latin press has been pumping out news important to the immigrant and to the first generation Latinos looking for a way to fit in an Anglo world without losing their culture. Gutierrez, a Visiting Professor of Journalism at the Annenberg School for Communication of the University of Southern California, has co-authored five books and more than 50 articles in academic journals professional publications and books mostly focusing on media diversity. Gutierrez, who holds a PhD from Stanford University, showed a demo reel of a movie he is helping research entitled, Voices for Justice, a documentary chronicling the role the Spanish and bilingual press has played in certain movements in the Latin community here and abroad.

Hispanic Link Founder Charles Ericksen Still Going Strong at 80

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As the sun rises over the nation’s capital, Charlie Ericksen takes the elevator down from his seventh floor apartment to his office on the first floor. In that office on N Street, Ericksen is touching the lives of aspiring journalists and changing the way mainstream media covers the Latino community. Ericksen, 80, is the managing editor and founder of Hispanic Link, a syndicated bilingual news column published by dozens of news outlets nationwide. He founded the Link in 1980 because he felt the Latino community was not getting adequate coverage and opportunities from other news outlets. In 1979, there were three Puerto Rican reporters nationwide, according to Ericksen. Many issues, he said, were seen from the perspective of “black and white,” and mainstream media rarely covered stories that affected Latino residents.