When you create a list of "latino bloggers" and leave out the most of the longest running Latino bloggers in the United States, instead of getting a simple thanks from La Negra for including culturekitchen, you will get a a bit of smackdown.

Let's take a look at the sources they claimed to have used over at BlogWorldExpo for their homework. The Latino Blogosphere:

Feel free to pay a visit and connect with the bloggers on Twitter.   You can also find directories of more Latino bloggers listed here: Blogadera, Blogs by Latinas, Latina Bloggers Facebook Group, AARP Segunda Juventud, Twiteros, and Blogged’s List of Latino Bloggers.

Am not complaining only about the gross omission of Mamitamala, VivirLatino and The Unapologetic Mexican. Where in the world are Babalú blog and Hispanic Pundit!

This is outrageous.


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As we noted before, 64 Democrats voted against women's right to health insurance funded abortion procedures. Many of these Democrats have claimed the ultimate fallacy: That proponents of forced pregnancy shouldn't "pay with their tax money" for abortions because it infringes on their civil liberties. As if anti-war activists and pacifists could claim the same when it comes to funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and any other wars they oppose.

Yet I'd like to focus on the "hispanics" that voted against women's rights. Long-time readers now that even though I am a proud  Puerto Rican and blatina, I've never been one to shy away from writing about the ugliness and even atrocities perpetrated by Latin Americans. It should come as no surprise my willingness to call out these so-called Hispanics and Latinos of dubiosity. Particularly since in Latin America and the US Latino community we have to still wrangle with the social and political consequences of the machismo and marianismo myths that permeate the cultures of Latin America.

Am listing all seven members of the Congressional Hispanics Caucus for a variety of reasons: If you are not looking closely, some of these votes do not make sense given the previous voting record of people like Costa ad Rodriguez. After all, wasn't Ciro Rodriguez a darling of the netroots? And yet when you look closely at their lists of donors, their votes actually become not just sinister but cynical as well (as in the case of John Salazar). So we can't just blame it on the fact that all of these guys happen to be Roman Catholics or members of the Blue Dog Coalition. It's those donors lists for 2008 and 2010 that really paint a clearer picture of their "conservatism".

Last but not least, compared to the Congressional Black Caucus, the CHC delegation voted atrociously : Artur Davis was the lone member of the CBC who voted for Stupak. Why couldn't the CHC conjure such discipline when voting a measure that would basically kill women's right to an abortion? Or are their votes exactly correlated to the 2007 "whore" scandal that rocked the CHC thanks to John Baca's leadership in disrespecting the women of the caucus?

Let's take a quick look at the faces of Los Siete Infames (the infamous 7) :
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So I received another press release that made me do a double take. MALDEF or the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund is having an OMFGGIVEUSMONEYNOWLOL! awards gala sometime in November and there were two "celebratees" (yes, i know am making that one up) that caught my eye.

First up, Eva Longoria, Desperate Housewives' own Chicana Warrior Princess. She seems to not only plunk a lot of money for a variety of Latino causes, but also does the walk by raising awareness about the plight of immigrant farm workers:
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A couple of weeks ago I was invited to be part of a panel that would preview and comment Soledad Bravo's effort, "Latino In America" #LIA. What you see here in the product of my appearance.

As I was sitting in an empty camera room, watching the video, I actually was amused, outraged, annoyed and moved to tears by what I was watching. To me that means that Soledad and her team did an awfully good job at trying to stir people's emotions and minds about the subject in question.

No, I wouldn't give them an A or even A- for their work. Even though their effort is certainly extraordinary --like the very quiet shout out they give to afroLatinos with the Garcia family with the 2 teenage boys-- CNN needed to give the topic at least 8 if not 12 hours in order to just cover the basics. I find it a failure on their part to dedicate less than a couple of minutes to Puerto Rico's colonial/commonwealth status.

That said, I think it is a good start.
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This is not just Willie and Héctor. You won't recognize Lavoe at all: a fresh-faced twenty something with short hair, a cute smile and no glasses.

Enjoy!

Please help me get The Wise Latina Digital Club panel in the SXSW2010 conference. Go vote for it NOW!

The South by Southwest Music, Film and Interactive Conference and Festival is one of the most prestigious tech and media conferences in the United States. I think it was Tara Hunt ( @missrogue ) who described it as "the geek prom" and that's as close to the heart of this event as anybody can get.

SXSW has been historically one of the most inclusive tech and media conferences as well. Under the direction of Hugh Forrest, the conference has has had for 4 years, if not more, a Black Bloggers panel (which I never get invited to be in, by the way) and they've always gone out of their way to create a gender balance in the number of experts that is unprecedented when compared to other big media and tech conferences.

That said, panels in which Latinos and other specific digital ethnorati are showcased are still non-existent. Part of the reason is interest: SXSW panels get selected through a combination of staff, advisory board and general public voting.

Yet part of it really has to do with perception: Although there's been a number of extremely prominent Latinas in tech and media (am looking at you Mena Trott); when it comes to actual naming actual thought leaders, the average tech and media conference goer would be hard pressed to think outside of the mainstream faces of Latinahood like JLo or Eva Longoria.

We really haven't had in this country anything like the selection and confirmation of US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor to really put nerdas and geekas on the thought leader map. Even after all these year, I still have to battle a whole spectrum of stereotypes that go from the "brimbo" (brown-skinned bimbo) and "high-end puta" on one end to the "welfare MILF" and "illiterate spik" on the other.

Hence the need to not only "panel" but to bring together and celebrate a lot of The Wise Latinas that we have in the media and tech worlds. Hence The Wise Latina Digital Club:

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