Elenamary

I applied for Hsipanic Business Magazine Woman of the Year Scholarship.

Last years winners were quite amazing. Then I realized I was in for some competition but I still couldn’t help but get excited about it. The scholarship was based on a essay with the following requirements:

“The focus of this essay should be your long-term goals and aspirations, as well as the challenges you face in meeting these goals. Judging will also assess creativity, motivation, and inspiration. Your essay may also include your family background, scholastic achievements, educational and career goals, commitment to the Hispanic community, financial need, and any other relevant information. The essay should be limited to 500 words.”

It is hard to get that all down in just 500 words. I did my best and unsuccessfully tried to not get my hopes up. In the end I was not selected for the honor. I am sure the women they did select are amazing Latinas and I tip my hat to them. Now if only, they had listened to Matt Ortega. Below is my essay.

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“While no terror incidents occurred anywhere in the United States on Election Day 2004, Ohio Emergency Management Agency incident reports, obtained last month by The Enquirer, show a “terrorism threat rumor’’ in Tuscarawas County and complaints about people of “Middle Eastern descent’’ in Allen and Lorain counties.

The Lorain County incident turned out to be an international monitoring group photographing a polling place in Grafton. The Allen County incident was reported to the Defense Department as suspicious people in a gold minivan with California plates. It turned out to be four Latino males doing a film project, according to state EMA records.”

Cincinnati Enquirer

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day.

While you are celebrating with your Irish-Ameircan friends, or your Mirish friends, remember to spill a little of your green beer for the undocumented Irish in the United States.

Today is a good day to remember that it is not just Mexicans or Latinos that are not legally in this country but Europeans, Asians and Africans, too. And a good day to remind people that it isn’t as simple as “getting in line” to come to the United States.

I want you to know and to spread the word that only “…147 new un-skilled workers without US citizen or legal resident family already here were allowed to enter the US last year [2006] legally and receive green cards.” -Migra Matters

And that there are undocumented Irish in this country who would like to be able to work legitimately, have drivers licenses and more importantly not live in fear. People sometimes see this as a race issue or an ethnicity issue and it isn’t.

“I was not very long there until, like water, I found my own level. ‘My people’ — the people who know about oppression, discrimination, prejudice, poverty and the frustration and despair that they produce — were not Irish Americans. They were black, Puerto Rican, Chicano. And those who were supposed to be ‘my people’, the Irish Americans who know about English misrule and the Famine and supported the civil-rights movement at home, and knew that Partition and England were the cause of the problem, looked and sounded to me like Orangemen. They said exactly the same things about blacks that the loyalists said about us at home. In New York, I was given the key to the city by the mayor, an honour not to be sneezed at. I gave it to the Black Panthers.” -Bernadette Devlin McAliskey

Next time some racist person makes the argument that the Irish were different than Mexicans, remind them that they aren’t different and send them to these links.

Voices from the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform/The Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform “The Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform (ILIR) is fighting for the voice of the estimated 50,000 undocumented Irish in the immigration debate.”

Far From Home: A chronicle of the undocumented Irish in the United States (images of undocumented Irish in the United States).

Undocumented Irish in the US (Irish politicians try to lobby for the Irish in the United States)

Irish Immigrants Visit Congress to Ask for Rights

Which one of these two makes you laugh more and which one of these two gets you the most excited to go vote for Obama?

¡Ándale mi gente! ¿Cual de los dos te hace reír más?

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I am a women.

I am a Latina.

I am a feminist.

I am working class.

I like Hilliary Clinton.

I am voting for Barack Obama in the primary.  Barack Obama is the best candidate for women, latinas, feminists and the working class.

I went to the grocery store in the suburb of Grandview, Ohio, tonight. I saw two things that left me somewhere between puzzled, slightly offended, and amused.

I was looking to buy some tea which was right next to the Hot Chocolate. I noticed, that Hershey’s has what they call their “Cacao Reserve” line that includes both the “Spiced Aztec Blend” and “Classic Mayan Blend”. Great, Abuelita got bought by Nestle a few years ago. And now everyone is getting in on this Mexican Hot Chocolate. I can’t articulate why I dislike it so much. It isn’t just that since Nestle bought Abuelita the tablets don’t taste as good and are smaller. Part of it is that with time we get further and further away from Xocolatl and more owned and re-appropriated by the white dominate culture where it becomes bastaredized and cheap and no longer smells or tastes like mornings before school. And even if it did still stimulated the same senses, it is no longer ours.

After looking for my tea, I went by the “bakery” and saw something that made me burst out laughing. There were bags of white rolls and above them a sign that read: Bolillos - a typical Hispanic bread.

Hilarious! A definition for the mainstream dominant white culture of Grandview of a bread that we use as a moniker to define them…bolillos.

WNCI/Columbus Apologizes for Airing Mexican Parody
Clear Channel’s WNCI-FM/Columbus, OH, has apologized for airing a parody song considered offensive by some Hispanic listeners….The song…is about a group of 14 Mexicans misunderstanding orders at a fast-food restaurant, working as landscapers, traveling in “packs” and evading immigration authorities reports the Columbus Dispatch.

Mexican Market Burglarized In Dayton
WHIOtv.com - Dayton,OH,USA
DAYTON, Ohio — Dayton police are investigating after the manager of La Michoacana called 911 to report a burglary.

Politicians woo central Ohio’s immigrant votes for next election
WDTN - Dayton,OH,USA
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Politicians are wooing votes from central Ohio’s large Somali and Latino immigrant communities

Human trafficking often below radar in Columbus
Columbus Dispatch - Columbus,OH,USA
For instance, researchers considered cases in both cities of Asian or Latino women working and living in brothels posing as massage parlors or spas but …

Ohio continues to fall short in number of minority teachers
Cincinnati Post - OH,USA
Ohio’s highest concentration of black and Hispanic teachers are in urban districts, but the numbers are not close to matching student enrollments. …

Southwest Ohio sheriff’s immigration remarks anger Hispanic group
Akron Beacon Journal - Akron,OH,USA
The Butler County sheriff is under fire again for remarks on illegal immigrants, this time for blaming them for importing marijuana and cocaine for Mexican dealers when they enter the U.S

Ohio after bilingual workers
Cincinnati Enquirer - Cincinnati,OH,USA
The language preference is being posted as vacancies come up, she said. The state also is looking to identify positions in areas “where we know we have a large population of multilingual people or for positions like a dispatcher” where it might be critical to speak foreign languages.

Children Services looking for a few good foster homes
Columbus Dispatch - Columbus,OH,USA
Franklin County also hopes to recruit more prospective foster parents from the growing Somali and Latino communities. “We’re trying to stay ahead of the curve there,” Cobb said.

Ohio leaders dealing with immigration issues visit border
KVOA.com - Tucson,AZ,USA
He says he’s seeing large amounts of drugs coming in from the Tucson sector of the border, along with an increase in illegal immigrants in his county. He says they hurt the local economy…. “My intent is to go back to Columbus, Ohio and say ‘I’ve been there, I know what it is. And until you see it, you don’t have a clue,’” says Ohio State Rep. Courtney Combs

Employers accused of not paying Latinos
Columbus Dispatch - Columbus,OH,USA
Complaints that bosses are cheating immigrants out of pay are undoubtedly increasing, state officials say.  Some companies refuse to pay workers, expecting that they won’t complain to authorities. One Latino advocate said some subcontractors hurt by the housing slump are underbidding jobs, leaving them without enough money to pay workers.

State Hispanic commission to launch Web database
Bizjournals.com - Charlotte,NC,USA
A new online database set to launch in November will give Ohio Hispanic groups a new avenue to stay connected.  It’s also giving the group creating the database, the Ohio Commission on Hispanic/Latino Affairs, a high-tech opportunity to fulfill its own key mission.

Investors startled by sudden demise of Centro Mexicano
Columbus Dispatch - Columbus,OH,USA
A center that was to have been a gathering place and source of help for the Mexican community has filed for bankruptcy even before it opened, leaving those who invested in it feeling burned.  Many blame Centro Mexicano promoter German Trejo-Caballero.

More minority students graduate in Ohio’s big cities, analysis finds
The Plain Dealer - cleveland.com - Cleveland,OH,USA
Columbus — Black and Latino students in Ohio’s big-city high schools have a better graduation rate than minority students elsewhere in the state, a new analysis shows.

MUNICIPAL COURT Illness, ethnicity issues in election
Columbus Dispatch - Columbus,OH,USA
Joseph Mas says his 28-year law career and Latino background make him more qualified for a seat on the Franklin County Municipal Court than Judge Amy Salerno, a former state representative who has been on the bench for 2½ years.

He is fluent in Spanish and said Ohio courts need more certified court interpreters and bilingual lawyers to protect the rights of foreign-speaking defendants.  “The vulgar fact is there is only one Hispanic judge in the state of Ohio, and yet, Columbus has become an immigration destination city,” he said.  He noted that, as a judge, he would not be interpreting for defendants, but he said, “I would bring a sensitivity to that community.”

GOP losing battle to win Latino loyalty
Columbus Dispatch - Columbus,OH,USA
“The fact of the matter is that Latino values — God, family and country — line up best with the Republican Party. But we’ve gotten a lot of black eyes from this administration and Congress, and the immigration issue has really hurt us.”  Ohio Latinos are largely concentrated in northern and central Ohio, with second-generation Puerto Ricans dominating in the Cleveland region and Mexican-Americans in the Toledo and Columbus areas. Historically, they have tended to vote Democratic.

Fairfield County contains the suburbs of the city of Columbus, including Pickerington and Canal Winchester.

School districts changing to accommodate increasing Hispanic Population
Lancaster Eagle Gazette - Lancaster,OH,USA
There were 136 Hispanic students in the district during the 2003-04 school year, according to statistics from the Ohio Department of Education…

Multi-cultural festival held at Springfield ( Ohio ) USA
PunjabNewsline.com - Mohali-Chandigarh,Punjab,India
At Culture Fest the choices included Mexican, Greek and Italian foods; bluegrass, jazz and Andean music; and African, Indian and Celtic dancers…

Ohio students get solid marks in ‘nation’s report card’
The Plain Dealer - cleveland.com - Cleveland,OH,USA
Ohio’s public school students were near the top of the class in national reading and math scores released Tuesday. In addition, black and Latino students posted the largest gains in the state and significantly narrowed the gap between their test scores and those of white students.

Good test scores not good as ‘gold’
Columbus Dispatch - Columbus,OH,USA
“In eighth-grade reading and math, Ohio is one of the highest-performing states for Latinos,” Hall said.
However, the average score for Latino eighth-graders still ranked below NAEP’s definition of “proficient.”

Hispanics still low in leadership roles
Youngstown Vindicator - Youngstown,OH,USA
YOUNGSTOWN — Hispanics have made great strides when it comes to graduating from high school, but more needs to be done to help reverse a 45-percent dropout rate among Ohio’s Hispanic students.

Bad News: Hispanic Teens Hurt Least by Parents’ Marital Woes
Newswise (press release) - USA
New research suggests that Hispanic teens aren’t as affected by their parents’ marital disruption – including divorce and separation — only because they already face a host of difficulties and disadvantages before the breakup.

Divorce affects Hispanic teens less
United Press International - USA
COLUMBUS, Ohio, 18 (UPI) — Many Hispanic adolescents in the United States aren’t as affected by the divorce of their parents, because their life situation is already poor, a study found.

Ohio: Inappropriate E-Mails Probed
Forbes - NY,USA
“Would he give a female or a Hispanic a fair shake in his current position?” Evans asked during a June 5 interview with ODOT investigators. “I don’t know and I think this is why it is an ODOT issue.”

I hate it when local Police think their job is to investigate and enforce federal immigration laws, and I hate it even more that they decided to do it because someone didn’t speak English.

Police Arrest Three Illegal Aliens in Wheeling
WTRF - Wheeling,WV,USA
WHEELING — Wheeling police said they picked up three illegal aliens Saturday night at Wheeling Island Racetrack and Gaming Center. Authorities were called to the track about 10:30 p.m. on a report of a woman who could not speak English.

I wish I could include this image here but I’ve got to respect the photographer and blogger for which it originally appeared.

Go take a look at that image and then explain to me why it is that the GOP didn’t go to the debate hosted by the NAACP, the debate hosted by Univsion, the debate hosted by historical black college Morgan State University. The GOP blew off blacks and Latinos, just completely rejected to debate in forums that would reach these communities. Where were you GOP presidential candidates?

Sure you can’t make some events but for you to miss a debate by a big organization like the NAACP or Univision? And for all of you but one to fail to show up the the NAACP debate tells me that as a group you really just don’t care. My question to you, GOP, is where are you?

To the Democratic party I ask the same thing, Where are you? Why aren’t you screaming the truth from the hills? Why aren’t you letting voters know that they should look at the actions of the GOP? To take note that not one of those white men bothered to show up to a debate that would reach black or Latino voters! The GOP isn’t the party of the minorities, and you should be reminding the nation of that.