Elenamary

The election I most clearly remember of my youth was that of when I was 11-12. I remember Bill Clinton’s dream team. I had a crush on both George Stephanopoulos and James Carville. And I liked the slogan I often heard “Two for the price of one” referring to Bill and Hillary. Now, as I get excited about Barack, I wonder why no one ever says that with Barack we get Michelle, two for the price of one, no?

Michelle Obama is an independent strong woman. Her education is solid with her bachelors from Princeton her JD from Harvard. She has worked in politics, in non-profits and in higher education. If Michelle has worked hard along side of Barack as she continued to raise two daughters and maintain her own career why do we not applaud her as we did Hillary Clinton? Why aren’t people screaming “Two for the price of one!”?

We applaud barrack Obama for his accomplishments. Who would have ever thought a black man had a realistic chance of becoming president? Who would have ever thought that a black man could win the Iowa caucuses? Iowa, a state with a 2% African-American population where 27% of those incarcerated in the state are African-American. He won Iowa?!

Who would’ve thought Hillary could show her self to be a strong force to be reckoned with in the ol’ boys club? Who would’ve thought she could still stand strong as a politician on her own two feet after being knocked down so many times?

Michelle has demonstrated her ability as a lawyer, as an advocate, as a community organizer, as a mother, as a black woman who went through the aristocratic hoops of an education, political, and social system that has fought so long to keep both women and minorities out. She is someone who has fought through the glass ceiling in ways that Barack never did as a man, and Hillary never did as white. If Michelle is diplomatic and strong enough to successfully weave in and out so many places why aren’t we saying, “two for the price of one” ?

Why aren’t we screaming “TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE!”?

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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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.

Thanks goes to Williac who pointed me in the direction of this hilarious comic.  Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

I am tired of hearing “He is a [insert adjective–handsome, wealthy] man, he could have any woman he wants.  It makes you wonder why someone would accuse them of rape.”  MSNBC just had someone on saying that about David Copperfield.  We heard the same thing about Kobe Bryant.  I believe innocent until proven guilty but what I do not believe is that a man is less like to be a rapist based on his attractiveness to women.  Rape isn’t about haveing sex with someone you are attracted to, it is about power.

Get with it mainstream media.

Dear Ohio Democratic Party,


Wsup ya’ll old fogies? I am about to let you in on some secrets on reaching Latino voters in Ohio.


Let’s look at some background information first.


According to the 2000 census there were an estimated 217,123 Latinos in Ohio. Of those Latinos there were an estimated 93,622 Latinos under the age of 20. That is approximately 43% of Latinos in Ohio were 20 or under.


I do not know how many Latinos in the state of Ohio are eligible to vote in state or federal elections (for that matter local elections—we can get to that issue another day). What I do believe is that most Latino voters are potential voters. That is to say they, potential voters, are U.S. Citizens born to undocumented parents who are for the most part still too young to vote.


In 2004 I worked on and for Get Out the Vote Campaigns (GOTV). While I am a big fan of GOTV campaigns, I am not sure they work in the short term, and in the long term they don’t work at all. The same goes for registering voters. We can register Latinos who historically have voted democratic but unless Latinos are informed about the issues, that does not mean they will continue to vote, and more importantly vote informed.


Let me quote one of my favorite columnists Gustavo Arellano from his book “¡Ask A Mexican!” (can be purchased online at Tianguis)

Week in and week out, ¡Ask A Mexican! portrays Mexicans as perfect Republicans: homo-hating, Jew-baiting, Negro-bashing, chino-trashing religious fanatics who believe in free markets and self-determination and want to wipe Guatemalans off the map. Various polls identify this Mexican GOP gene. The most comprehensive, a 2003 survey by the Pew Hispanic Center, found 80 percent of Latinos disapprove of abortion, 40 percent think divorce is unacceptable, and 72 percent hate gays (by comparison, 60, 24, and 59 percent of gabachos felt the same regarding each respective topic).-pg 39

The National Council of La Raza found that:

Latinos remain highly discerning voters; they are much more likely to vote for a candidate based on issue positions than on simple party affiliation. This suggests that much of the Hispanic vote remains “up for grabs” in future election, and that, while outreach counts, policy matters more. Policy makers and party officials would be well-advised to keep this in mind in future policy debates.

The deal is then that we need to not just register Latino voters, and not just get out the vote expecting they will vote democratic. We have to inform the voter. Isn’t that what an ideal democracy has, informed voters?


And here is the thing, Ohio’s Latino population is still young and growing rapidly. Now is the time to reach our potential voters, if we reach our potential voters we can create a strong foundation for the democratic party.


We need to think progressively on reaching young Latino voters and potential voters, if we don’t think progressively we are going to end up having to figure out how to get people to change their minds or view the democratic party differently, rather than starting with the fresh slate of potential we have now.


Here is how we create informed democratic voters in the Latino community:


1. Reach out to young children with summer camps on democracy. The Ohio Center for Law Related Education offers awesome summer camps on law and citizenship. Why can’t Ohio Democrats offer a summer camp on government? Learn about your right to vote, about the role of the state legislature, local city governments? Teach youngsters about their civil rights when they get pulled over by the police while driving (and what the rights of their parents are!)


2. Support the DREAM Act. Advertise your support of it, on the local Spanish radio station.


3. Offer scholarships. The scholarships can be an exchange for volunteering to work on a democratic campaign. Volunteer for your local democratic candidate and get a $500 scholarship to an in-state university institution. When people volunteer on a campaign they have a feeling of making a difference and of being part of the difference, of being part of the institution. We want people to feel that the Democratic party is THEIR party. I bet odds are too that once you’ve worked on a campaign your more likely to work on another and stay politically active.


4. Show that the ODP is a party for women. While Latino society may have its dose of machismo it does not mean that women don’t have the final say-so. It is women who get men to work, the kids to school, and the family to church, it is women who have the final say-so. Make sure that women understand that democrats support them and their decisions. Find ways to reach women in grocery stores, doctors offices, and banks.


While Latinos may disapprove of abortion, divorce, and gays, the truth is they actually don’t. Huh? You see ask a Latina women if she disapproves of abortion and she may say yes, but you may find out she has had one. If it weren’t for Latina’s getting abortions I wouldn’t have a job. And I can only imagine that as these young Latinas become of voting age more will be pro-choice, especially when it comes to themselves. Latinas need and want good sexual health care and prenatal care. If we can let them know the democratic party supports safe sex based education, affordable health care (that means abortions too), and prenatal care we can win them over. Right now these women depend on organizations such as Planned Parenthood, the Columbus Health Department and Columbus Neighborhood Clinics. We’ve got to support health care and let it be known we support womens health more than republicans.


5. Work with banks. Offer classes with banks and workshops with banks on opening a bank account. Make sure you know why it is important to have a bank account. It is important for when buying airplane tickets back to your home country, it is required at the border when trying to bring a car into Mexico, it accrues interest, is safe, and you can deposit/cash your check without a huge fee as normally occurs with check-exchange stores and the Mexican groceries. Make sure that people know that the ODP supports them.


6. Open cultural centers in urban-Latino neighborhoods of Toledo, Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland and Dayton. These centers should have historical information and current resources. It should be a place where you can learn about People of Color who have been and are active in the Democratic Party. Their should be books on the Chicano movement, on the womyns movement. Their should be information about current races, candidates and issues. Their should be free talks from the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, League of Pissed off Voters.


I hope ODP, that you start recruiting potential voters now. Now! Not in a few years when the Republican party has won them over because Latinos were registered to be voters but never registered to be informed voters.


Here is looking to the future and growth of turning the Potential Latino Voter into the Informed Latino Voter!

-Elenamary

Maury Povich can host a show “who is the baby’s daddy” where they test multiple men all having unprotected sex to see if they are the daddy.  This airs  at 4pm in the afternoon when kids are getting home from school BUT God forbid they air condom advertisements at night. From the NY Times:

In a written response to Trojan, though, Fox said that it had rejected the spot because, “Contraceptive advertising must stress health-related uses rather than the prevention of pregnancy.”

That is right Fox & CBS refused to air condom adds because condoms should only be used for health related uses. What pregnancy isn’t a health-related issue? This wreaks, stinks, of patriarchy bullshit.  Do we really believe Sexuality is for procreation, condoms should only be used for prevention of STDs, and that women and sex can be used to sell alcohol but not contraceptives?

Guess what I got this little bit of reality for you CBS & Fox; pregnancy is an STD and that is why I volunteer at an abortion clinic.

I think about this quote often.  I’ve shared it here before but it is good enough to be shared multiple times.   I hope my sisters enjoy this!

“Once , watching a porn film, I saw a sight that terrified me. It was the film star’s panocha—a tidy, elliptical opening, pink and shiny like rabbit’s ear. To make matters worse, it was shaved.

I think what startled me most was the realization that my own sex has no resemblance to this woman’s. My sex, dark as an orchid, rubbery and blue purple as a pulpo, an octopus, does not look nice and tidy, but otherworldly.

When I see La Virgen de Guadalupe I want to lift her dress as I did my dolls’ and look to see if she comes with chones, and does her panocha look like mine, and does she have dark nipples too? Yes, I am certain she does.”

Sandra Cisneros

I’ve never understood the obsession with La Malinche until now, and only because I am using her as an icon in with whom I can identify with, who can help me define my behavior, my sexual relationships, my personal identity—yes ladies and gentlemen, I have become Xicana.Who is La Malinche? She is a women known by many names; Mother of Mestizos, La Primera Madre de nuestra nacionalidad (the first mother of our nationality), La Madre Violada (the raped mother), Malintzin, La Chingada (the fucked/raped one), Doña Marina, the traitor, the womb, the tongue…

Malinche was a translator for Hernan Cortez. Some texts will argue that she was an Aztec princess sold to Hernan Cortez, she was neither Aztec nor a princess. A description of her as princesses was not used until she had a child by Cortez, and was needed to be described as “noble” by Spanish historians after the conquest. Also, most texts of that time make note that she was not Aztec but Chicanos have made her Aztec, they pretty much have made almost all Mexicans Aztec—which we are not—but that is another story.

So, La Malinche is this women who has been sold as a slave since childhood between many tribes. She learns not only their languages but the ethos of their languages. She is sold to the Spanish where she learns Spanish and is then given to Hernan Cortez with another 20 or so women. It is here that it is noticed that she can be valuable as a translator for Cortez. She warns Cortez of an uprising against him. Cortez using this knowledge goes out and slaughters a whole town where the uprising is supposed to be coming from, and this is argued, is what leads him to take full control of México. La Malinche gives birth to what is argued is the first Mestizo child (Cortez being the father) and this child is taken away from her and to Spain where he can be raised correctly. All of this is oversimplified but you all get the jist.

So, Xicana feminists love reclaiming La Malinche because she is the virgin/whore dichotomy in one. She is super intelligent and yet portrayed as a whore. She is thought of as a traitor to her race (the indigenous people of Mexico) and yet as the mother of La Mestizaje. She is referred to in text as only body parts, tongue and womb. Her tongue a tool used to bring down the people and equated with evil, her womb equated with goodness and the carrier of the Mestizo people. She is a whore and a mother. She is referred to as La Chingada (the fucked one), Cortez as El Chingon (the fucker) and her children as the hijos of la chingada (children of the fucked–the byproducts of rape).

I like la Malinche because she is really misunderstood (not that i think she will ever be understood). But for christs sake, my people, the Purepecha, like others could be blamed for the fall of the Aztecs. The Aztecs sent messengers to the Purepecha for assistance, and the Aztec messengers were sacrificed. It wasn’t one person like La Malinche, or one group of people like the Purepecha that brought the fall of multiple nations, but many factors.

Sometimes, Mexican or Chicana women who date or marry outside of Latino are referred to as Malinchistas. I like this in that it gives me something I can grab a hold of reconstruct and return to the world. Go ahead, I want to be a MALINCHISTA! I am hija de una chingada. But I will not be a chingada nor will I be a virgin, nor am I Eve your temptress. I am smart and quick tongued, and all the goodness and sexuality of the womb.