Rights, Not Raids

By Bill Ong Hing & David Bacon
This article with original date on April 29, 2009, appeared in the May 18, 2009 edition of The Nation.


For more than two decades, the authors say, undocumented workers have been accused and hunted like criminals, just for the simple reason of trying to hold a job in the United States.

Would President Obama carry on the campaign promises of Immigration Reform? Read on how these "enforcement" policies have destroyed the lives of many workers and their families, and how international leaders see the situation from another perspective.

Obama Flinches on Immigration

This editorial published on the New York Times on March 24th reports the withdrawal of the Obama's administration offer to Thomas Saenz, "a highly regarded civil-rights lawyer and counsel to the mayor of Los Angeles, to run the Justice Department’s civil rights division."

Although it might have been a missed opportunity to set some record about the Obama's administration intentions regarding immigration, it seems that a more moderate route was preferred by nominating Thomas Perez, Labor Secretary from Maryland. The decision, according to the article, was caused by pressure from the right-wing anti-immigrant groups. However, I wonder how much the decision was influenced by the Mexican border situation and Thomas relationship with controversial Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. And the main question: Does Obama need to start yet another fire?

Murió la grabadora, pintora y muralista Fanny Rabel

La grabadora, pintora y muralista Fanny Rabel, una de las discípulas de Frida Kahlo y Diego Rivera y la única mujer que formó parte del Grupo de los Fridos, falleció la noche de ayer a los 86 años de edad en su domicilio de la ciudad de México.

"A Forgotten Injustice" A film by Vicente Serrano

“A Forgotten Injustice” is Vicente Serrano’s opera prima, and the first documentary that tells the story of almost two million Mexican Americans and U.S. citizens, who were forced out of the Unites States during the Great Depression in the 1930s. The documentary premieres Wednesday October 1 at 6:30 P.M, at the Instituto Cervantes of Chicago located at 31 W Ohio between State and Dearborn in Downtown Chicago. Additional screenings are scheduled for Thursday October 2 until Wednesday October 8 at 6:30 P.M..

Every Woman Is a World
Interviews with Women of Chiapas

By Gayle Walker and Kiki Suárez
Edited by Carol Karasik
Prologue/preface by Elena Poniatowska

Older Chiapas women telling their stories and reflecting on major historical events as far as the Mexican Revolution and the 1918 Spanish influenza epidemic. In the personal dramas of daily life, these women tell tragic stories of deprivation, hunger, and family violence, and their view of marriage, work, religion, and their own mortality.

Fear follows largest workplace raid in U.S. history

Outrageous! At the Mississippi immigration raids, government officers are quickly turning into SS best practices, signaling undocumented immigrants in the Jewish persecution’s fashion.

"...she was fitted with a bracelet and told to appear in federal court next month."

What else is coming? Read about the consequences the raids are having on immigrant working families, their children, their towns and their employers.

22a. Feria Internacional del Libro en Guadalajara - FIL 2008

La mayor reunión del mundo editorial en español le espera en Guadalajara, del 29 de noviembre al 7 de diciembre de 2008. Autores, agentes literarios, bibliotecarios, libreros y más de 1600 casas editoriales de 40 países, nos visitan año con año. Junto a ellos, más de medio millón de visitantes se deleitará sumergiéndose en el mundo de los libros y disfrutará con la muestra de lo mejor de la producción literaria y artística de Italia, nuestro Invitado de Honor 2008.

22nd Guadalajara International Book Fair - FIL 2008
The most outstanding meeting of the Spanish publishing world awaits for you at Guadalajara. From November 29th to December 7th, 2008, authors, literary agents, librarians, booksellers and more than 1,600 publishing houses from 39 countries will be visiting us. With them, half a million visitors will enjoy the world of books and share the very best of the culture and arts of Italy, our 2008 Guest of Honor.

Hundreds of Workers Held in Immigration Raid

Great concern in the Latino community is caused by the repeated raids that ICE, the immigration enforcement branch, is conducting in different states. It seems that President Bush's government not only wants to leave a legacy of a senseless war, a devastated economy and a declining international role of the United States but also is willing to attack the core values of this country by separating families, generating internal terror and hurting means of employment of thousands of hard working immigrants. Read on this chilling article about late procedures in Laurel, Miss. where hundreds of families were left without their bread winners.

Cuarenta años para no olvidar y no repetir

El Universal de México, en su edición digital, conmemora el 40º aniversario de la masacre estudiantil conocida como la Matanza de Tlatelolco. Fotos, testimonios y artículos para no olvidar y no repetir. El Universal solicita a los lectores que vivieron el hecho que compartan sus experiencias.