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October, 2005

  1. Latinos in Ohio IV

    October 31, 2005 by elenamary

    Working the problem: It’s not as simple as immigrants vs. natives
    Inland Valley Daily Bulletin – Ontario,CA,USA
    … migrant workers traveled freely between the United States and Mexico, performing seasonal work … in North Carolina, scrubbing Wal-Mart floors in Ohio or cleaning …

    Food-production labor could be happening in your backyard
    The Post Online – Athens,OH,USA
    … they hosted a presentation on migrant workers in southeastern Ohio and what … Many Americans lament the permeability of the Mexican border while they acknowledge …

    Stop profiling, area sheriff told
    Toledo Blade – Toledo,OH,USA
    Lima, Ohio – The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio has called on the Allen County sheriff to stop practices that it says constitute racial profiling of Mexican residents.

    GOP legislator slimes undocumented workers
    HAMILTON, Ohio:
    Racism raised its ugly head Oct. 21 when Republican state Rep. Courtney Combs of Fairfield teamed up with Butler County Commissioner Mike Fox to announce the introduction of a bill in the state Legislature that would subject undocumented workers to deportation if they are arrested or pulled over for a traffic violation.

    ACLU accuses Beck of racial profiling
    LimaOhio.com – OH
    LIMA — After the head of the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio accused Sheriff Dan Beck of racial profiling Tuesday, he fired back saying she had no …

    Ohio legislator takes on illegal immigration
    “Those people,” identified by Combs as illegal immigrants, could be charged with trespassing in the United States if the Republican’s bill becomes law.

    Ohio court closes door on City Council hopeful
    “To deny Lisa Canales-Flores a place on the ballot, assuming her second nominating petition is complete, is to do worse than elevate form over substance: it is to elevate bureaucracy over democracy. “My job for the next two weeks will be to help the other Latino candidates get elected,” she said, referring to council at-large candidate Robert Vasquez, Lourdes Santiago, who is running for Toledo Municipal Court judge, and Toledo school board hopeful Robert Torres.

    Category Latinos, Ohio | Tags: , | No Comments

  2. You have the option

    October 31, 2005 by elenamary

    “You have the option” he said to me as I held back the tears. It felt like he was saying that having an option is a good thing. I don’t know if I agree. Sometimes having an option is nice, and sometimes it isn’t and I am not sure if the good outweighs the bad. He was talking about the option I have “to pass”.

    Some people make a conscience decision to pass, and work at passing. I don’t work at passing; I do pass, because I am white. I however, can’t imagine denying a big part of who I am. How could I deny the women who raised me and the culture in which I was raised? And as Chicanos struggle never being Mexican enough for Mexicans, or “American” enough for “USians”, I struggle with that too, but also don’t fit in with Chicanos. I am not a light skinned Mexican; I am a white Mexican, really white.

    Yet, last night, either before or after telling me that I “have the option” he also told me that saw me as a white girl. And not just in skin tone but in culture. This wouldn’t bother me so much if it weren’t for two things, one he is my friend and should know me better than that, and two he isn’t white. If he sees me as white that means that he doesn’t see me as his raza, doesn’t see me as an active participant in the struggle.

    White people say things in front of that they never would if they knew. People of Color say things to me that they never would if they knew. It isn’t the duty of the colonized to explain why their oppression is wrong to the colonizer. Last night, at a concert, I went up to a man with white privilege who was close to getting his ass kicked and he had no idea what he was doing wrong. I went up to him and explained to him that we had both come into this space with white privilege and needed to be aware of it. I felt like I had to talk to him being one of the few white people in the room and one of the few who weren’t going to kick his ass. I choose to put myself in that situation. And I know it isn’t my job to explain privilege to every jackass. However, I felt like I needed to because I do have white privilege. I also have the privilege of getting him to listen to me the way only a white woman could, and it disgusts me.

    It was after this that my friend said to me “you have the option”. I do have the option but ignoring a part of who I am is just as painful as being forced to choose one or the other.

    Category Latinos, Ohio, personal | Tags: , | No Comments

  3. Old and Chicano too boot

    October 28, 2005 by elenamary

    “Where are you from?” The Colombian woman I was interpreting for asked. I told her my mother was Mexican. “You were born in Mexico?” I explained that no, I was born and raised in Ohio.

    She leaned in and asked me in Spanish “Oh, ¿entonces tu eres Chhh-iiii-canooo?” (“Oh, so you are Chicano?”) As I answered ‘yes’ she leaned back, brought her hand up to her forehead and slightly covered her face the way you do when someone says something terrible and you feel embarrassed for them.

    She managed to insult me multiple times in the twenty minutes I was with her. I was there to help her and she wanted to know how much I was getting paid, and when I wouldn’t tell her she insisted that I must be getting paid too much and that it is horrible that interpreters get paid so highly. She also criticized my Spanish doing it the way I’ve heard some other Latinos do “My Spanish isn’t like your Mexican Spanish. Our country speaks Spanish more like the Spanish do, not like the Mexicans.”

    Oddly enough at the end of our session she asked me my full name saying she was going to request me again as her interperter because she had never had as good and nice as an interperter as me. Crazy people…make my days interesting.

    Tonight there is a Halloween Party at The Legion of Doom and I am too tired and too cold to want to get dressed and go…does this mean I am old?

    Category Latinos, Ohio | Tags: , | No Comments

  4. liar! liar! pants on fire!

    October 27, 2005 by elenamary

    I hate my science classes. Not so much because they are poorly structured, or poorly set up to enable learning and comprehension, but because of my classmates. They are constantly competing, frequently mentioning that they are “pre-med” a major that doesn’t even exist at this university.

    Yesterday in bio lab I overheard two students talking about all the work required to become a doctor, and one student said two the other “Why don’t you become a physicians assistant it is two years instead of four for the MD?” The response was one I’ve frequently heard “The money!” And they began to talk about how much money they expected to make as doctors. It pisses me off. Why would you go into a nurturing, caring, healing career if you are doing it for the money? Go be an engineer where you don’t have to deal with real people (sorry Carlos).

    I also really dislike the students who volunteer for their resume. They go and volunteer at free clinics only to beef up their resumes and network. I’d rather they not come at all, how deceitful to be taking advantage of someone’s illness for your own benefit, and really long term monetary benefit?

    Everyone gets asked the same question when applying to medical school “Why do you want to be a doctor” and of course most will answer “because I want to help people” but I don’t believe most of them.
    I really do want to help people. I want to help raza, I want to help the underprivileged. I want to improve lives and the world.

    I wish I could brand all the deceivers put big glittery stencil on their forehead with the word “FAKE”.
    These greedy, deceitful fakers will become terrible doctors. They will become the doctors that never listen, that insult, that fail to understand the patient and misdiagnose because they cannot connect on a humanistic level. They don’t need to be in this profession. I’d give up my dream of being a doctor if I could dedicate myself to eliminating obtuse medical practitioners.

    Category personal | Tags: | No Comments

  5. Vote Yes Issue #2

    October 27, 2005 by elenamary

    (You should actually vote YES on issues #2, #3, #4 and #5)

    Issue #2 Allows voters to vote early by mail. That is it makes it easier to vote by allowing all Ohioans to vote by mail. For example the state of Oregon already does all their voting by mail.

    When you go to the polls on Tuesday, November 8th, Vote YES. The ballot will look like this:

    To adopt Section 6 of Article XVII of the Constitution of the State of Ohio.
    In order to expand to all electors the choice to vote by absentee ballot in all elections, this amendment would:
    • Provide that any person qualified to vote in an election is entitled during the thirty-five days prior to the election to receive and to cast a ballot by mail or in person at the county board of elections or additional location designated by the board. No reason for casting such a ballot shall be required. When a ballot is mailed to an elector, the county board of elections shall also provide a pre-addressed, postage pre-paid envelope for returning the ballot to that county board of elections.
    • An elector to whom a ballot has been mailed, but which has not been received by the issuing county board of elections prior to the election, may cast a provisional ballot on election day. If the elector’s first ballot is received by the tenth day following the election, the provisional ballot shall not be counted. A ballot which is received by the issuing board by mail no later than the tenth day following the election shall be treated as timely cast if it contains a postmark not later than the day of the election.
    IF PASSED THIS AMENDMENT WILL BE EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY.
    SHALL THE PROPOSED AMENDMENT BE ADOPTED?
    Yes
    No

    For more information visit Reform Ohio Now and Columbus Indy Voter.

    For FAQ about voting visit the League of Women Voters of Ohio.

    Category Latinos, Ohio | Tags: ,, | No Comments

  6. Ohio’s Malinche

    October 26, 2005 by elenamary

    I was 16 years old the first time I recall talking to a Chicano.
    I was 16 years old the first time I can remember hearing Spanglish.
    I was 19 the first time I meet someone who identified as Chicano.
    I was 21 the first time I thought about identifying as Chicana.

    My sister moved to Texas and every so often will mention to me how Chicanos think she is bien Mexicana. A friend often teases me about how I don’t have any Chicano friends.
    Someone left a comment noting that I say I identify more as Mexican but then use the label Xicana to describe myself. This is true. I was raised Mexican, I wasn’t raised around Chicanos. I spent every holiday and all summers in Mexico. That is Winter break, Spring Break, and summer in Mexico and occasionally my parents would take me to Mexico during the school year. Other than my immediate family, I don’t have any family in the United States.

    Central Ohio doesn’t have many Chicanos. We have Mexicans straight from Southern Mexico, most of them from Oaxaca. Central Ohio is still in its first generation of Mexicans, so we haven’t yet seen the creation of the Chicano, let alone Chicano identity in Columbus. I feel like I am alone on that front. While I don’t have Chicano friends, I do have gringo friends, and Mexican friends. The Chicano friends will come soon enough.

    I have an easier time identifying as a Malinche than I do as a Xicana. Identifying as a Xicana is something I feel I must do. My sister told me that she only identifies as a Xicana because she wants Mexicans to know there are good Xicanos, who won’t take advantage of them, speak the language, and understand the culture. I choose to identify as Xicana because I want to be part of a movement that recognizes the struggle of the indigenous and the brown. I want to be part of a movement that fights for justice in USA and Mexico. I want to be part of a movement that says “soy de aquí y también soy de allá“. (A phrase often used in Mexico when refering to Chicanos is “from neither here nor there” however this version I like to use is “from here and there too”.)

    Yes, I am Malinche, I am Mexicana, and I am Xicana but please don’t question what term I use to describe myself. My terms are just as evolving as me.

    Category Latinos, Ohio | Tags: , | No Comments

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