Latino Blogs

ON JULY FIFTEEN OF 2008, Rhode Island Republican Governor Donald L. Carcieri signed an executive "Illegal Immigration Control Order" [pdf] into law. It begins with some storytelling.

WHEREAS, most Rhode Islanders and most Americans are descendants of immigrants from all regions of the world

Stop. Most are, true. And you know who aren't "descendants of immigrants from all regions of the world"?

Mexicans, for one. We are not "immigrants" on this land. We are Indians who have been invaded and occupied (just as Iraq has) by Imperialist Euro-forces, and who eventually blended with our greedy, self-justifying, resource-thirsting overlords by means of rape, occupation, an eventual perverse desire to blend and be like the rulers, and in time simply because we've all been living on the same land since then.

Not immigrants. Indians. People indigenous to the continent long before map lines were drawn by invading forces.

Farmers. Workers. Campesinos. For the longest time, we (this is how my nanita and abuelo made their living with my father) have been migrating farmers on this land, for thousands of years we have been quien lo trabajo esta tierra. And for all this time, we have been moving about with the seasons and the flow, just like rivers, just like pollen, just like water through the soil.

It was los perfumados with their WHEREAS clauses who blew in here with butchery and deception and greed and now want to tell stories about opportunity and ownership.

Ricardo Lovato is the go-to-guy for anything having to do with the current trends towards militarization of all immigration and migrant workers issues in the United States. He is also a very good friend of mine; which is why you should read his blog on a daily basis.

This has got to be one of the weirdest blog outreach maneuvers coming from the current crop of Presidential candidates. Juan Tornoe, of Hispanic Trending, a marketing site, has published an "interview" with the junior senator of New York and presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton.

Let's just start by clearing out the air here. Even though I loathe the word Hispanic I don't necessarily loathe the people that use it. I believe though that the use of the word contextualizes the politics of the person using it. So within the context of my previous post, make what you will of my view on the "hispanic" demographics.

That said, even though I read from time to time Tornoe's blog, I wouldn't consider it as Ms. Clinton has allegedly said in the interview, a very popular site --especially within the latino blogosphere.

I'd just as well think that honor would fall on blogs like Vivir Latino, Latina Lista, Xicano Power, Unapologetic Mexican, LatinoPundit or Latino Politico. Last place I would go for all things latino would be a marketing site, if you know what I mean.

From BrownFemiPower's blog : "i am currently a graduate student in creative writing at Eastern Michigan University--holy crap, it's a chicana who writes! my mission in life is to make lots of money (as demonstrated by my women's studies undergraduate degree and my creative writing masters degree) and to end violence in all its forms against women of color and their communities. i respect resistance but get turned on by those who create power."

Some of the most interesting discussions about how mainstream feminism can be a tool of imperialism have happened in BFPs. They take me back to my days in college and my years of rebelliousness. I love her site for that. If you want feminist infotainment, go elsewhere. If you want to have real questioning discussions about the matter, run over to BFPs blog and tell her I sent you.

My English is always gonna run laps around my ability to speak Spanish, tho it's gettin better, and honestly, that's a huge part of why this blog is English-dominant. However, I also quiero demostrar that spanglish es más que una amenaza contra el español. It's a means of resistencia, or, in sunshiney terms, an opportunity for cultural contact, mutual understanding, and peaceable mingling. In short, I ain't gonna sit idly by and see only Spanish altered por el espanglish.

El mundo from el punto de vista de una Nuyorican mami soltera livin la vida from the borderline while writing, spitting activist poesia and entertaining her daughter la MapucheRican

From a blog, it's gone on to be a full-fledge magazine about Chicano culture : "We are Xispas Magazine, an online journal of Xicano culture, art, and politics from Aztlan - Anahuac. We present books, opinions, social critiques, history, and indigenous traditions."

Wandering anthropologist from Mexico