My mother immigrated to this country shortly before I was born. She has told me many times that she feels an immediate connection with immigrants. That there is a common bond.
I think that my mother being an immigrant has greatly affected the way I interact with others and view the world.
I love learning about languages, cultures, and foreign events. I like meeting immigrants and asking them how to correctly pronounce their names, what languages they speak, knowing about their religious practices.
When people ask how Barack Obama will do with foreign policy, I wonder why it is even a question. I believe in his foreign policy abilities the same way I believed in Bill Richardson’s. Obama, Richardson and I have something in common. We all have one parent who was a white American and one who was not. All of us have lived outside of the United States and all of us have a non-white, non-USian parent. We learned to fit into different cultures, to grow up within them and make them ours. We come to the table with a perspective that is unique in that we know we have to listen and be open in order to understand the ethos of a foreign language, culture, and perspective.
The world wants to connect with us, the United States. They want to admire us and it is hard to admire us if we come in with an arrogance and without a desire to understand.
I told my friend recently who has been grappeling with the idea of himself as a foreigner or Gringo “…you’ll never fit in and yet you’ll belong to all…colonization does that to us.”
Barack Obama grew-up as all POC in the US do, never quite fitting in and yet he belongs and makes room for himself in all groups. He is a product of colonization as many of us are and because of that he can connect with foreign policy in a way no past US president could have.
Years ago I got some criticism that I blogged very little about my family and when I did blog about them, the compliments were wonderfully sweet and made me proud of my family;
Elena Mary’s blog is one of the very first I started reading - nearly two years ago - and never once had I remembered her blogging about her sister … until Monday when her sister showed up in the NY Times. Pretty interesting. She’s even written a chapter of a book. Talk about a proactive family. –El Oso
I feel proud of my brother too. He is currently in Japan helping out a friend and blogging about his life there. He is a Freegan and speaks Japanese fluently so I think it makes for interesting life. His blog is here and here is an excerpt:
When we got to the station we dumpstered some cardboard to make the bed that i sleep on thicker, because only one piece of cardboard was kinda hard.
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 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.”
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.
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.)
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 youdon’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.
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.
I am ill with the flu so for now I share with you the most amazing thing I’ve read in a very long time. Thank El Pocho Abogado who let me know about the link; below are a few excerpts:
…White privilege is when you can call yourself a “fuckin’ redneck,” like Bristol Palin’s boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you’ll “kick their fuckin’ ass,” and talk about how you like to “shoot shit” for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug…
…White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action…
…White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it a “light” burden…
I went looking for some music by Chuy Negrete who I first saw preform in 1997 at the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) convention. That lead me to watching a lot of you tube videos. It was through FLOC that I first became active in mobile medical clinics, it was through FLOC that I began to learn about community organizing, it was FLOC that I began to understand the importance of actively fighting for labor rights. It was also through FLOC that I learned of and admired the work by the National Farm Workers Ministry who always seemed able to get volunteers to wherever they were most needed.
My difficulties here in Ohio is that people tend to think that migrant farm working is something isolated to California. And, I am not sure how many understand the working and living conditions of migrant farm workers. The National Farm Workers Ministry put together a two part youtube video called Harvest of Justice (I and II), I think it is well done and offers a good summary of activism, labor and living conditions and organizing within migrant farm working communities.
I leave you with an emo and not very infromational, but yet touching, NFWM video of FLOC organizing in 2007 in North Carolina…for you non-emos it gets good at about 1minute 20 seconds into it…
September 29th, 2008 by 
elenamary
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