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  1. In the waiting

    September 26, 2008 by elenamary

    An underground blogging video of the Democratic convention from the perspective of my favorite bloggers. Bloggers who focus on issues that directly effect POC, immigrants, women, the disenfranchised. I was late to work watching it and it was worth it. (Part three of the four part video left me with watery eyes).

    I think the people who will enjoy this video the most are those in blogtitlan. Included in the video are bloggers from Culture Kitchen, MamitaMala, Vivir Latino, The Unaplogetic Mexican, Zuky, and Awareness Blog. Enjoy!




    DNC08: Beer and Loathing (The Pollatix of Grain and Periphery) from nezua on Vimeo.

    Category Uncategorized | Tags: | No Comments

  2. Foreign Policy Experience

    September 23, 2008 by elenamary

    I was on a walk with my dear friend Miles Curtiss of Marvin the Robot fame and we were discussing local politics. I had mentioned that maybe some day I’d like to run for mayor of Columbus and that I do know a fair amount of people in the city.  Miles responded that I also had more experience than Sarah Palin. I begged to differ, I mean she has been mayor of a city of 9,000. To which Miles responded “You definitely have more foreign policy experience than she does. You ran for Mexican congress.”

    A few years ago I ran for what would be the equivalent of a congressional representative for the Instituo de Los Mexicanos en el Exterior to represent Mexicans living in the Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana region. My archives are still down from when I ran but you can read some of the great endorsements I got at the following links: Entrevista a Elena Mary, Elena Mexican Representative at Large, Elena Mary pa’ presidenta (well, representative), Candidate Elena, Elenamary en Planeta Grenada.

    Anyway, the point of all this was, OMG! I do have more foreign policy experience than Sarah Palin! That is not okay. I cannot tell you about the upheaval going on in South Africa right now, I cannot explain to you why Bolivia is…well Bolivia,  I cannot begin to understand the diplomacy needed for North Korea. And I should not be vice president of our Country.  Our country should be lead by our best, our brightest, like people that have been President of the Harvard Law Review not those that had to try half a dozen different colleges before they found one they could get through.

    Wow, I Elenamary, have more foreign policy experience than Sarah Palin, that is WRONG.

    Category Latinos, Politics | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments

  3. annoying

    September 21, 2008 by elenamary

    The kind of conversation that annoys me to no end:

    “Pues rellene un aplicacion para que puedo pagar el bil del dish, estoy esperando que me llamen para atras.”

    “Mi esposo parquea en el parqueo cuando trabaja de rufero.”

    “Lleve mis ninos al parqueo y a la libreria.”

    (more…)

    Category language, Latinos, Politics | Tags: , | 2 Comments

  4. Blogtitlan, elenamary seeks your advice

    September 17, 2008 by elenamary

    When I first started keeping track of blogtitlan it pretty much consisted of Cindylu, Julio Sueco, El Pocho Abogado and El Daily Texican. Cindylu was an undergrad El Pocho Abogado was getting ready to start law school. Now Cindylu is almost finished with her PhD, El Pocho Abgoado is a practicing Abogado, Daily Texican stopped blogging while he is in Law School and Julio Sueco is still as far as I am concerned the Godfather of Xicano blogging.

    In the early days it was easy to keep track of Blogtitlan, we were small, we all knew each other, we all read each others work. Now, there seem to be hundreds of Latinos bloggers and I have not updated Blogtitlan in years. I am wondering if it is even worth updating. We’ve got blog search engines now and we have technorati, those resources didn’t exist when I started keeping track of blogtitlan. So my question to those in blogtitlan, should I got ahead and update my blogtitlan list or should I just delete it? Does it really serve a purpose anymore? How do you filter the good from the bad?

    (I realized today how out of it I am in that only today did I discover Luis’ SerLatino…and this only more so drives home the feeling that there is too much information and too many blogs for me to keep up with.)

    Category Latinos, personal | Tags: , , | 4 Comments

  5. Speaking of white privilege

    September 16, 2008 by elenamary

    I need to check my check my self.  Seriously.



    My lovely friend Matt called me this afternoon to ask “Where can I buy ice?”  I was confused by his question  “What do you mean ice?”  Matt repeated “Ice.  You know, ice!”  I thought I was mishearing him, why would he be calling me to ask about ice and so I switched into Spanish thinking this would help clarify the word I was mishearing.  “¿Quieres comprar hielo?  ¡¡SI  HIELO!! ICE!!  This man is bright man, a genius really I couldn’t figure out why he was asking me.   “Have you tried a grocery store?”



    He started to laugh.  He was laughing at me!  “You know,” he continued “about half of the city is without electricity?”  I explained yeah I knew that.  I knew that electricity had gone out for most people on Sunday but I hadn’t been effected at all.  I had electricity, what did ice have to do with electricity?  Why did he need ice and why couldn’t he just go to a grocery store.



    “A lot of grocery stores are closed because they don’t have electricity and those that do have electricity keep selling out.  People need ice for their food that is going bad.”   I hadn’t really thought about grocery stores not being open…I had gone shopping before the storm hit and my electricity had only been out a few hours so everything was still good.



    I was a total Republican.  I was the white man with privilege. I hadn’t thought about anyone else actually suffering in anyway…what do you mean you don’t have electricity…I have electricity.   What do you mean you don’t have food I have food.  I finished by teasing Matt that if he were only slightly whiter like me that he could have white privilege and have had electricity too.



    In a very much related topic,  If you receive food stamps in Ohio, you can receive replacement food stamps covering up to the cost of one month of food stamps if you lost food due to it going bad during this continuting electric outage.   Expect a long line at the opportunity centers when you go into ask for your food stamp augmentation…I was at the North Opportunity Center today and the line was out the door.



    Additionally, the electric outage has effected food banks in that they have had to scramble to find storage for their food and have an increased amount of those seeking assistance.



    More info on Food Stamp augmentation here  and on the Ohio food banks here.



    On a note only related due to the fact there is no electricity, the Monster House is still having bands play tonight, guests are encouraged to bring flashlights as the venue as it is without electricity.

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

  6. Ohio State Students

    September 16, 2008 by elenamary

    Dear Ohio State University Students,

    Welcome to campus, you are, let’s be honest, kind of stupid right now.  Campus does usually have electricity but we got hit by a windstorm, this means that at all places where the street lights are down are now four-way-stops.  This means that when you get to a down light, you  do not race through the intersection hoping you make it through first and faster than everyone else—think of it like kindergarten, we each get to take a turn.

    I don’t know how it is that most of you having grown-up in Ohio, still don’t know how to drive in snow.  Allow me to offer you more advice since in a couple months some of you will be driving in snow.  When your car ges stuck in the snow DO NOT floor the gas, you are only going to cause your tires to spin and dig yourself further into the snow.  Instead of flooring it, move your wheels (via the steering wheel) back and forth rocking it, and repeat to yourself “Rock it!  Rock it!”.

    And if you are at all unsure about driving, just don’t bother doing it…remember you pay city bus fees as a student…take advantage of the COTA.

    Best of luck,

    Elenamary

    Category Ohio, personal | Tags: , | 1 Comment

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