Gonzo's Gone

By Amorosa

I wish I could vote for the story instead of the man.

Senator Ted Kennedy, voting against confirming Alberto Gonzales as U.S. Attorney General, after hearing the American Dream story of the nominee’s humble, immigrant origins.

There’s something insidious, maybe unconsciously so, about the Right’s appointment of minorities to august positions in their administrations. On the surface, it all looks good: we can commend their need to be seen as “includers,” folks who though they may not push minority-friendly legislation or multiculturalism, want to give lie to the generally held belief that conservatives are no friend to people of color. (Nor the poor. Nor women.) But, in essence, the choice of candidates so radical or so incompetent only serves to fan the resentment of too many already antipathetic Americans and buoy those die-hards who claim that minorities are “not yet ready” to play with the big guys. These appointees present such administrations a win-win situation and do a great disservice to the groups they represent as they leave them in the dust.

Soon to be former Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, “a cypher,” an “empty suit,” the man worse for the Department [of Justice] and its morale than anyone in recent history including the Watergate era" (The characterization is Daniel Metcalfe’s, recently retired career attorney in the DoJ, who served under both Republicans and Democrats for over 30 years.), seems to prove the point even more graphically than does Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

A man who summarily allows people of questionable guilt to be executed WITHOUT EVEN REVIEWING THE CASE is not fit to be the poster boy of the son of Mexican immigrants who makes it big in the land of dreams come true. Nor is a man who cheer leads for torture, the illegal wiretapping of U.S. citizens, fires competent (an operative word in any discussion relating to Gonzales) attorneys to make room for more sycophants at the DoJ, and unconscionably and repeatedly lies to Congress.

It’s not a ladder Alberto Gonzales climbed, but a pit he dug for himself.

If you’re like me, not yet tired of the story, here’s some solid stuff on why Gonzo is gone, including, if I may, a piece I wrote in equal indignation at the time when Bush was thought to be considering him for a Supreme Court seat.


The Spanish language side of the story from Univisión, growing cooler and cooler in their support over the years.

Salon.com’s story on the clemency refusals when he was Governer Bush’s Attorney General in Texas

Ana Simo's jeremiad in The Gully Online at the hypocrisy of Latino organizations for “blithely endorsing” him and a hypothetical “what if” he tried to pull that torture **** in Mexico.

US Washington watcher Michael Tomasky writing in the Guardian of London, Sinking Ship Leaves Rat

The Hispanic American Village's All the President’s Hombres by yours truly.

Tuesday--The morning after: While the press has done nothing but report and comment on the A.G.'s exit, there has not yet been one peep out of the mainstream Latino organizations: MALDEF, NALEO, LULAC, NAHJ (National Association of Hispanic Journalists), supporters of Gonzales' appointment. Maybe there's a lesson to be learned here from African Americans who do not categorically boost one of their own, but will, for the most part, examine a person's record, ethics and suitability for a post before tooting his horn. Thomas is a case in point, an admitted and much-criticized embarrassment to the NAACP and other orgs.

U.S. Attorney General Gonzales Resigns

U.S. Attorney General Gonzales Resigns:

"U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is resigning after a stormy tenure as head of the Justice Department. Bush administration officials say Gonzales submitted his resignation to President Bush on Friday. Read/hear VOA National correspondent Jim Malone reporting from Washington for VoA News."

This resignation follows others reported earlier this week, including the departure of Assistant Attorney General Wan J. Kim, the Justice Department's top civil rights enforcer, who resigned Thursday after more than a year of criticism that his office filled its ranks with conservative loyalists instead of experienced attorneys. Seoul-born Kim was the first immigrant and first Korean-American to head the department's civil rights division, his job for just over two years. More at the Asian American Village blog.

A Very Personal Appeal for Aid to Peru

amorosa's blog for the HAV

Readers of the Hispanic American Village will know of my recent trip to Peru and how lasting were my impressions of this land of contrasts and great physical beauty. And of its people, mostly reserved, always engaging and respectful, easy to travel and live amongst, proud of their heritage, just learning their history.

The news, last Tuesday night, of the massive earthquake undoubtedly affected me more strongly than those to whom Peru means Machu Pichu, Inca warriors and ceviche, but, of course, with a very different force than those with families and a long chain of memories there. When the quake's path became clear, it proved uncanny: the 40 kilometer deep fault of the quake followed on the surface my footsteps exactly as I made my way south from Lima, Peru's capital.

The news sources reporting on the disaster don't know what most Peruvians don't know as well: that this region is home to the largest concentration of the approximately 3% of the population that is of African extraction, left a legacy of a most shameful episode in the colonial annals of the country. Until recently, Afro-Peruvians and their history were allowed to be subsumed under that, also regrettable chronology, of their indigenous compatriots.

But, no matter the genealogy, nor the iniquity of the past, the Peruvian people have suffered tremendously in this disaster, and I'm asking you, as I'm asking all those around me, to give what they can.

Oxfam America, with a history of support for the world's peoples, through ongoing projects and disaster aid, is I feel one of, if not, the worthiest conduit of support funds.

Go to their web site for ongoing reports of the situation and their efforts in the region and to make a donation.
I've just discovered the site of another organization, new to me, specializing in providing medical assistance to developing countries and the impoverished of the US, that is appealing for donations: Direct Relief International

Once again:
Hispanic American Village
A Peruvian Journey -- And Quest
Oxfam America -- Earthquake updates
Direct Relief.org
I just came across the blog of a clearing house of charitable organizations, Network for Good. They've got a long, long list of organizations they say it's cool to donate to: http://networkforgood.blogspot.com/2007/08/help-peru-earthquake-victims.html

The U.S. Army: On the Beach

U.S. Army recruiters have landed on one of New York's most hallowed Latino landmarks, Orchard Beach. They turned up at the annual Sunday summer series of on-the-beach bashes on Bronx sand, not to boogie but to bag Latino recruits. The military has been going all out to replace with Latinos its dwindling stock of volunteers now that African-American enlistments have dipped, alarming the brass.

The New York Times, covering the story, noted the recruiters' mixed reception, those unhospitable being led by two Bronx elected officials, Assemblyman Jose Rivera and City Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito.

In addition to the obvious dangers faced by ground troops in Iraq, as well as the growing unpopularity of this and the war in Afghanistan, two articles, one a recent excellent read from In These Times, the other, ours of an earlier vintage, report on the lengths and less than honorable tactics recruiters are going to in order to lure Latinos into life, limb and sanity-menacing service. Of special note are nearly always empty promises to legitimize the undocumented.

Read and tell us what you think:
The Times:
At Bronx Latino Festival, the Army Sponsors the Music

In These Times (and we ask your indulgence to forgive the lapse of this excellent journal with the repeated use of "illegal immigrants" instead of a term, like "undocumented worker," that doesn't delegitimize one's whole being for committing but one-questionably illegal--act):
Illegal Immigrants: Uncle Sam Wants You

And ours, the Hispanic American Village's piece of a few years ago, when Latino casualties began to ring a bell nation-wide, examining some of the tricks and tactics used to get Latino kids to sign up and away:
The Military: What's in it for Latinos/as?

A Rising Voice: Afro-Latin Americans

The Miami Herald is running an informative and colorful series on African populations in countries throughout the Latin world. Some features dig beneath the surface of societies heavily informed by their African citizens, such as Brazil and the Dominican Republic, while others uncover smaller communities of former slaves in often unsuspected places, such as Honduras and Nicaragua.
Fetching video footage and slides add spice to the text.
Today's penultimate feature story is on Cuba, A Barrier for Cuba's Blacks.
While it does well in noting the failings of the Cuban Revolution to eradicate the island's long, sorry history of racism, having visited, I find the piece unnuanced. For a tad more balance, here are my links posted on the HAV some time back:

Cuban Impressions -- from my trip journal

My review of:
Afro-Cuban Voices on Race and Identity in Contemporary Cuba
Edited by Pedro Perez Sarduy and Jean Stubbs

Would I love to be this guy's biographer!

Mexican marathon swimmer, Sergio Valencia, was, at 17, primed to live long and well, the world his oyster. He'd swam down the Baja Coast, 24 hours in the water. But he was felled by an automobile accident that left him for dead with a severed spinal chord, on the road for 13 hours, never to walk again.
In 1985, after years as a recluse, el Tiburón Negro (the Black Shark) took to the water again, to "find peace in his soul" and reestablish his lost partnership with the sea. Eight years later, he became the first paralyzed person to swim the Strait of Gibraltar, from Spain to Morocco. Our problematic hero, bitter, arrogant, humbled, scrapes by today spearing fish and octopus in Ensenada, buoyed by the hope that, some day, his legs will live again.
Here's the full story from the LA Times.

April 30 deadline for Examples of Excelencia

From the organization Excelencia in Education at www.EdExcelencia.org:

This terrific organization featured recently highlighted on Hispanic American Village (see previous Navigating Higher Ed for Latinos post) is about to conclude its call for nominations for its 2007 Examples of Excelencia initiative, whose goal is to "identify, celebrate, and promote models, programs, and institutional departments that significantly contribute to improving educational achievement for Latino students in higher education."

The short version is: They are looking for recommendations of educational models and programs THAT WORK. They annually collect, spotlight, recognize, and support with awards examples of "programs and departments that are at the forefront in increasing academic opportunities and improving achievement for Latino students."

The longer version and a nomination form is here at the Call for Examples of Excelencia. If you know about a great teaching model or program, share it with them by April 30!

Navigating Higher Ed for Latinos: Part I

Navigating Higher Ed for Latinos: Part I
Added: Part 1 of a series focusing on Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) -- their history, issues and what role they play in the education options available to Hispanic students today

Ken Burns still can't get with the program

After nearly ignoring Latinos in his 14-hour PBS documentary on jazz--Machito, Tito Puente, and Eddie Palmieri were mere dust in the wind--and, in his baseball epic, spending 6 minutes on Roberto Clemente with but a nod to other Hispanic players who have, Hellooo, gained hegemony over the sport, Ken Burns, in his latest attempt to tell it like it is to the US public, completely blows off the 500,000 Latinos who served, and gave their lives, during World War II.
But this time, not so fast. PBS's golden boy is being beleaguered by an organized opposition that is threatening to boycott the Public Broadcasting system if edits aren't made to include the stories of soldiers who received more Congressional Medals of Honor, in proportion to their population, than any other ethnic group. Historian Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, who's been on the case of Latinos in W.W. II, has formed
Defend the Honor, a coalition attempting to exact apologies and change. The group is being supported by the Hispanic Caucus, and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists has weighed heavily in. So far, PBS and Burns are standing firm on: Sorry Charley, but Burns is a good guy whose artistic integrity shouldn't be messed with. The series is to be aired in November. Let's see if it's still status quo by then.
Meanwhile here's a brief survey of the righteous indignance of the media:
National Public Radio's LatinoUSA--great show. Podcast it.
Alternet
The Albuquerque Journal via HispanicBusiness.com
Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez on Democracy Now

ASNE Report Finds Percentage of Minorities in Newsrooms Declining

ASNE Report Finds Percentage of Minorities in Newsrooms Declining

According to the American Newspaper Editors Association 2007 survey on the representation of minorities in U.S. news media, the percentages of minority and women journalists working in America’s newsrooms both declined in the past year. According to ASNE, it is only the second time since the survey started in 1978 that the percentage of minorities has declined.

In a year marked by news organization layoffs that were headlines in themselves, ASNE’s annual “census” found that the percentage of minorities fell to 13.62 percent, down from 13.87 last year. The percentage of women also dropped from 37.70 to 37.56 percent.

The percentage of minorities in supervisory roles at daily newspapers dropped to 10.9 percent, equal to the percentage from two years ago. The downward trend holds true for student and entry-level employment as well. According to ASNE’s release, the percentage of minority interns stands at nearly 27 percent, “a number that has continued to fall as newspapers cut back” on internships.

The one silver lining in the report seemed to come from online media. ASNE’s census of daily newspapers for the first time counted full-time staffers who work entirely at online publishing activities by their companies. Among online media staffs, the percentage of minorities on staff was an estimated 16 percent, which helped make the drop in overall employment numbers seem less severe than they might have been.

See a fuller report at IMDiversity, ASNE Report Finds Percentage of Minorities in Newsrooms Declining, or view detailed data tables from the census at the ASNE website.

"Weekend Maintenance on IMDiversity

http://asianamericanvillage.blogspot.com/2007/03/weekend-maintenance-on-imdiversity.html: "Weekend Maintenance on IMDiversity
Our site servers will be undergoing maintenance this weekend, starting midnight Friday. During this period there may brief outages on our sites at IMDiversity.com and the Multicultural Villages, the IMDiversity Career Center and Job Bank, and THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Online Job Bank. We apologize for any inconvenience to our visitors and thank you for your patience."

Weekend Maintenance on IMDiversity

Weekend Maintenance on IMDiversity
Our site servers will be undergoing maintenance this weekend, starting midnight Friday. During this period there may brief outages on our sites at IMDiversity.com and the Multicultural Villages, the IMDiversity Career Center and Job Bank, and THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Online Job Bank. We apologize for any inconvenience to our visitors and thank you for your patience.

A.G., the AG is Behind "The Eight" Ball Again

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is in hot water again for his ethics (or lack of same). Now, his office has summarily dismissed 8 of their own-appointed US attorneys for not toeing the Administration’s sine qua non on loyalty above juris-prudence, and calls for his head are intensifying.

I’ve got a bit of a nit to pick with yesterday’s otherwise on-target L.A. Times editorial that points out, yet again, that the president’s Latino lawn jockey hasn’t understood that his job as Attorney General is to serve the justice system, and thus the American people, and not the every law-trashing whim of a president who at this point may have fallen into the abyss of Nixionian paranoia. My beefette: The Times blames Bush’s ego--so often the tail side of the paranoia coin--for elevating his own Pancho Gonzales (Cisco was so much more benign, and handsome, than G.W.: my apologies to the memory of Duncan Renaldo) to an august mount grander than the height and breadth of Gonzales’ capabilities, but I think we need to hold Gonzales, and not the president, accountable for his continuing history of spinelessness, human rights abuses (remember his blueprint for torture and calling the Geneva Conventions “quaint?”), and unethical politics.

The clamor for Gonzales’ resignation follows two recent disclosures of impropriety. First, the firings, which, while licit, were carried out as retribution for the prosecutors’ going too soft on the Democrats and too hard on fellow Republicans—many of them had led investigations into cases of political corruption and all had positive job reviews--and were part of an even more insidious 2-year plot hatched right under Gonzales’ nose to “push out,” as the administration put it, many, many more. And, breaking earlier this week, were still further charges of the misuse by the FBI, under Gonzales’ watch, of Patriot Act powers to secretly obtain private information about U.S. citizens.

Even Republicans are expressing outrage at the runaround Gonzales initially gave Congress over the circumstances of the firings, with a number of representatives either signing off on a call for Gonzales’ ouster or stating privately that he should be shown the door. (Gonzales petulantly and patently refused to step down: his only master is the president, he says. For sure.) Republican Senator John Sununu was the first in the upper house to break party ranks, to be followed by Senator Gordon H. Smith, but more are promised to follow.

I’ve been on an intensified Gonzales watch since he was being considered for a Supreme Court seat. I’ve been on the moral high road looking down on Latino organizations like La Raza, Lulac, and the National Association of Latino Journalists whose position was, “He’s not that bad, he’s Hispanic.” See All the President's Hombres here and read fast. By the time you’re done, Al may be finished too.

And, here's the latest from AP on the AG, 94 - 2 agin.

Change provokes anxiety, especially when race is involved

I found this recent feature in the LA Times honest and provocative and a fitting companion to the explorations we at the HAV have been doing on the thorny, at times lamentable, relations between our black and Hispanic communities. And so I pass along to you Erin Aubry Kaplan's More than just the Latinos next-door.

Your own reflections are more than welcomed.
Some of ours are here:
LA's Black-Brown Divisions Deepen
Explorations in Black and Tan (as we move East to NY)

Announcement: NEH Humanities Initiatives for Faculty Grants

Humanities Initiatives for Faculty are intended to strengthen and enrich humanities education and scholarship at Institutions with High Hispanic Enrollment. These grants may be used to enhance the humanities content of existing programs, develop new programs, or lay the foundation for more extensive endeavors in the future.

For 2007, NEH is particularly interested in proposals in the following categories: (1) American history; (2) world literatures; (3) languages; (4) humanities connections to science, medicine, and technology; and (5) humanities approaches to business, law, and economics. Applications for projects in all disciplines of the humanities, however, are eligible for funding and encouraged.

Preliminary proposals (optional): The staff recommends that preliminary proposals be sent so as to be received by May 31, 2007.

Applications must be received by Grants.gov by June 15, 2007.

More guidelines info here

Professional Women's Village @ Blogspot: Women's History Month 2007

http://womensvillage.blogspot.com/2007/03/womens-history-month.html

Bordertown or Boredertown?

It looks like Mexican Amereican filmmakers, Gregory Nava and Lourdes Portillo, are circling each other, with Nava on the inside, more traveled track and Portillo on the outer, less-traveled road. Both dedicated movies to the slain Tejana diva, Selena, an icon amongst Chicanos who was moving to that crossover superstardom shared by Jennifer Lopez, who plays Selena in the film, Lopez' husband, Marc Anthony, and a growing host of other mainstream Latino performers. Nava's Selena takes the typical tear-stained, slick Hollywood freeway--no real ruts, bumps or grit along this road--while Portillo's Corpus: A Home Movie for Selena acts as an antidote to the sugar overload, tackling the more nettlesome issues of Latina femininity and the need for cultural standard bearers.

Nava again shadows Portillo with the release, last Thursday at the Berlin Film Festival, of the feature, Bordertown, the story explored and nearly broken over 5 years ago by Portillo, of the hundreds, yes hundreds, of young Mexican girls come to the sin and maquiladora city of Juarez, Mexico, looking for work and finding fiendish, ritualized murder. Jennifer Lopez returns, this time as an intrepid reporter out to break the story. (Antonio Banderas adds his creds to the movie.) I suspect that the trailers flaunting an infinitely unconvincing Lopez beset by an incessant breeze and icy law enforcement officers, are a portend of even less satisfying fare to come. Senorita Extraviada, on the other hand, is, as a documentary immensely provocative and wide-ranging. It makes us all think deeply, again, about the image of women in Latina society, and of people's motivations for doing all the many noble and nefarious things we all do.

See my review of Senorita Extraviada on the Hispanic American Village
And let me know what you think of Bordertown.

Bill Richardson at "Meet the Candidates"

From the weekend's DNC Winter Meeting in Washington, DC, a video of Bill Richardson.

[We were having trouble with the display on the DNC blog tonight, but they also provide a link for direct download of the WMV format file (Right-click and "Save As").]

Other recent readings of interest at HAV: Richardson: Candidate (?) with portfolio
Though overshadowed by Hillary and Barack, Bill Richardson's chances at the Dem nod are not so slim

California Campus: Springboard or dumping ground?

I came across this provocative article this morning in the LA Times on the University of California at Riverside. (Read it here.) The school is part of the state's vast system of higher learning and attracts a majority of minority students, several of whom express gratitude for being there, enjoying both the diversity and ability to advance their education amongst folks from their own identity group. UC Riverside has the highest percentage of African Americans and, except for the new, much smaller Merced campus, largest enrollment of Latinos in the system.

UC Riverside offers success-supporting perks such as financial aid packages, race-based programs, and "bridge [remedial] classes" for incoming students in need of help in Math and English.

UC Riverside's chancellor is a Latina, France A. Cordova, the first in the California system.

Some claim, though, that with the prestigious UCLA and UC Berkeley white and Asian bloated, the system is merely using UC Riverside as a dumping ground.

Chomsky augurs a bright future for the Americas

MIT professor and the dean of critics of US foreign policy, Noam Chomsky, has apparently forgiven Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, for pronouncing him dead. Chavez promoted his book, Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance, a few months back, saying he regretted not having met the distinguished septuagenarian professor before he died. Not only did sales of the book skyrocket after the plug, but Chomsky has come out with a provocative and cogent op-ed in the International Herald Tribune, using the occasion of the death of US-backed former Chilean dictator, Agusto Pinochet, to grace a new era in Latin American development and integration led by Chavez and Latin America's emerging crop of leaders. Following Chavez and his neo-socialist Bolivarian reforms is the more measured (Luiz Iñacio) Lula (da Silva) in Brazil; Nestor Kirchner in Argentina; Evo Morales, first indigenous head of state in overwhelmingly indigenous Bolivia; Michelle Bachelet, detained under Pinochet and whose father was martyred by the regime; Tabaré Vasquez of Uruguay; Rafael Correa, just inaugurated in Ecuador; and the old thorn in the US's side, Daniel Ortega, recently reinstalled as president of Nicaragua after 16 years on the sidelines. And how can we forget President Fidel Castro and the failing leader's proxies in Havana, not merely a thorn, but the bane of many administrations' existence for over 40 years?
Chomsky writes eloquently and succinctly of his shared vision for an "alternative future [overcoming] a legacy of empire and terror."
Enjoy, reflect, react; let us know what you think:
South America: Toward an alternative future