About Secret History

Commentary on Latin America.
Mostly about Mexico - but not always.
Designed to encourage readers to learn about
the apparently "secret history" of 500 million people
spread across two continents
- but not always.
You can always count on a little snark.

Showing posts with label Arizona. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arizona. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Back in the USSAr - izona: No Papers For You!

Gestapo-zona, um, Arizona has passed a new law that stops the state from accepting identity cards from foreign consulates. No longer can you use consular IDs to get a drivers license, or even a library card. The Matricula Consular is attacked by supporters of the new law as a sham because the consulate is often not meticulous in verifying the identity of the person that applies for the card. Critics of the law point out that this will leave migrants to Arizona with no ID whatsoever and have the net effect of removing migrants from the legal social system - in other words, they will stop reporting crimes or supporting local law enforcement of anhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gify kind.

Interestingly, private businesses are allowed to accept the IDs. So much for the conservative idea of following the lead of business (mostly because business generally only sees the color green).

Boycott Arizona, folks. I've steered my student trip away from Arizona this summer, and I refuse to attend academic conferences in the state. See the hilarious take on the boycott in the Gawker.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Northern Arizona is Hiring

So, I see that Northern Arizona University is hiring a new Latin America scholar this year. I suppose the power of the desperation of the job market will overwhelm the ethics of Latin Americanists in their initial call to boycott Arizona. I simply can't imagine in this job climate that the job will go un-applied for. I think that is a shame.

Recent shootings aside, the New York Times just ran an article on shutting down Latino literature courses in Tucson. I think this is one of the horrific controls on speech that has gotten far too little press. As the article in the Times states of Curtis Acosta's class:
Mr. Acosta’s class and others in the Tucson Unified School District’s Mexican-American program have been declared illegal by the State of Arizona — even while similar programs for black, Asian and American Indian students have been left untouched.
Arizona, you are right, we do need to build a wall on a border in this country - around Arizona.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Domes of Evil: Arizona and Luz Del Mundo

A Phoenix area Luz del Mundo (LDM) church is under attack - for being a mosque. The evangelical christian group based in Guadalajara, Mexico, is essentially a neo-pentecostal movement (founded in 1926 they were neo-pentecostal before it was cool) that embraces biblical literalism, Jesus Christ as savior from sin through his grace and baptism in his name alone, and with a modern apostle on the earth today. In short, there is enough doctrinal similarity between Arizona's evangelicals and Mormons to make them fit in quite nicely in that religiously conservative state. Unfortunately, they have a dome on their church.
Since the distinctive dome shape went up, church leaders said they have received phone calls from concerned neighbors who’ve mistaken the building for an Islamic mosque. READ MORE HERE
The group has placed a banner up on the dome stating that they are "building a christian house of prayer." I'm not sure what disturbs me more - that a dome suddenly becomes an evil structure or the implication that if the group building the dome wasn't LDM it would be ok to be concerned.

See a related (but different) Phoenix News Times article here.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Brewer Sampling Sinaloa's Best?

Arizona governor Jan Brewer claims most migrants crossing the border are drug mules. Hmmm. Kudos to U of A prof. Oscar Martinez, famed author of Border People, for stepping up and calling Brewer's bluff in public.
"If she has no data and is just mouthing off for political reasons, as I believe she is doing, then she must apologize to the people of Arizona for lying to them so blatantly."
Similar thumbs up to Mexico for stepping up immediately to reject Brewer.
Sen. Jesus Ramon Valdes, a member of the Mexican Senate's northern border affairs commission, called Brewer's comments racist and irresponsible.

Monday, June 21, 2010

I Am Better Than You (Said the Lady to the Tramp)

Lady selling meatballs and tortillas at the puesto in Teplacingo, Morelos (Lady).
Friend and Chofer de Cuernavaca (Amigo)
Me (Me)

Lady: Where are you two from?
Amigo: I'm from Cuernavaca. This guy is a historian from Texas.
Lady: Wow... so far away. Well, you are welcome here, even if you don't want us there. You are always welcom here.
Me: ***slightly choking on a really good chorizo meatball and turning red out of shame for a lack of hospitality on the part of my patria.***

Sub-text: Yeah, we're not all that wealthy, but we have hospitality. It must suck to have so much and still have so little. Caray.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Arizona... At It Again

Arizona lawmakers are going after children, now. The children of illegal aliens born in the United States are set to be denied birth certificates in Arizona if a bill going into the Arizona fall session makes it through. Republicans are calling these children "anchor babies" - way to stay classy and professional, GOP.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Transforming Arizona

While I am pretty happy to be enjoying my World Cup by day and NBA playoffs by night (go team USA, go Celtics), a friend sent me a link to the latest Latino Comedy Project video to add some laughs to my day (well, almost as many laughs as Green from England and his handling of the Dempsey goal and the look on Beckham's face).

Monday, May 17, 2010

Another Boycott of Arizona

This just in from the Rocky Mountain Council of Latin American Studies:
FYI: In Boulder, the RMCLAS Executive Committee decided that the 2012 meeting (remember the the 2011 meeting will be in Santa Fe) would be held in Tucson, Arizona, but last week the Executive Committee voted unanimously to revoke that decision according to the following motion:
That the Rocky Mountain Council of Latin American Studies (RMCLAS) Executive Committee revoke its previous decision to hold the RMCLAS 2012 meeting in Tucscon, AZ. RMCLAS strongly opposes Arizona legislation SB 1070. We support our Arizona univeristy colleagues who protest this as an unjust law and we agree to boycott Arizona venues until the law is repealed.
The Executive Committee is investigating alternative sites and we look forward to successful meetings in 2011 and 2012.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Publicidad: Lessons From Eight

Whether you are a fan of Prop Eight in California or not, argues La Opinion this week, what Latinos need to learn from that California Vote on same-sex marriage is that a minority using publicity can get what it wants done. A publicity fight, they argue, which needs to be taken to "white" TV:
De nada sirve hacerlo en nuestros canales latinos, son poquísimas las personas de nuestra raza que no nos apoyan. Unos cuantos rezagados Minutemen con rostros latinos que salen de vez en cuando diciéndonos que nos vayamos.
Face time is what a good PR push needs, and perhaps if anything positive can come out of the Arizona debacle, it will be to find a solution to a situation where the border of two neighbors is increasingly militarized, often by private parties (though I doubt that is what Milton Friedman has in mind regarding a free market).

On a side note, the La Opinion piece highlights another of the great ironies of this debate: much of the support for 8 in California came from religiously conservative Latinos. I'd be curious as to where various individuals that worked against 8 come down on the Arizona laws.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Immigration, Arizona....and The Hunt for Red October


My wife reminded me of this exchange from The Hunt for Red October between the captain and the sub's doctor.

Do you think they will let me live in Montana?
I would think they'll let you live wherever
you want.
Good.  
Then I will live in Montana, and I will marry a
round American woman and raise rabbits,and she
will cook them for me, and I will have a pickup
truck...or a... possibly even a recreational
vehicle and drive from state to state.
Do they let you do that?
Yes.  
No papers?  
No papers.
Except, of course, for Arizona.

Religion and Arizona - Into the Wilderness for Christianity?

USA Today had reactions from religious leaders to the new Arizona law that will check papers, stop vehicles, impound vehicles, and arrest those associated with illegal migrants. The clergy cited by USA today called the law a ""sin."

The largest single church in Arizona is the Catholic Church (28%) and there has been some rumbling. The biggest grumble from Catholics, however, has come out of Los Angeles from Cardinal Mahony who, on his blog, called the law "dreadful" and called for reform of the laws to remove the conflict between the "Help Wanted" sign and the "No Trespassing" signs on the US border. Mahony also condemned the aspects of the law that require US citizens to inform on each other.

On another religious note, much of the early settlement of Arizona was done by Mormons - themselves seeking a refuge when the kind people of the mid-west and New England found them to be less-than-acceptable participants in the American Dream. Missouri's "extermination order" was one fun example of US Americans sharing the love. Mormons in Arizona are now only 6% of the population, 17% of the AZ legislature. At any rate, conservative Mormons see no lovely irony in the use of state power to oust a group THEY don't like. I would also note, as I have before, that though you are not allowed to be baptized a Mormon if you are currently breaking the law, the LDS church does not stop baptism if you are an illegal alien. (Arizona Republic, April 2, 2009) I assume, as in many churches, there is something of a gap between the church leadership which tends toward compassion on immigration and the conservative rank and file which tends toward... well, see the samples below to see what they tend toward. (From LDS Freedom Forum). (And of course, these nut-jobs below do not reflect the views of all Mormons... even in Arizona.)
From an acquaintance who works in the AZ Capitol:
"I haven't had any discussions with any of the senators yet, but it sounds to me like Obama is rumbling about trying to stop it. And I was told by someone in my Ward tonight that Janet Napolitano said in an interview today, "Oh, Governor Brewer signed the bill ...? Oh, that's too bad -- now we won't be able to give Arizona any federal funding." I hope that's true because it would save a lot of time and effort if they would just cut us off altogether. We want to get out from under the feds, and this would do it!! I hope it's true! :-) So, to answer your question, "What do I expect?" I guess I won't be surprised if Obama tries to stop us -- either through cutting off federal funding or something else. I'm sure it won't take him long to try to bully us back into submission."
or
To understand the illegal immigration and amnesty issues in depth, I believe it is necessary to understand the bigger picture. We are being assaulted not only by mass immigration of people who place tremendous burdens on our society and public services, but also by the global warming hoax, the terrorism hoax carried out by false flag Ops and media hype, undeclared wars that hurt our economy, and other actions that are leading to the destruction of the American economy and culture.
I have concluded that the purpose of this destruction is to make Americans more willing to accept a socialist or fascist dictatorship to replace what is left of our constitutional republic. All this is intended by people who have been and are still the puppetmasters of recent US Presidents and many in Congress, to eventually enable them to make this country subject to a single world government.
Good times with religion and law in Arizona.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Historians, Stay Out of Arizona

One of the largest history conferences for Latin Americanists in the United States is the Rocky Mountain Conference of Latin American Studies (RMCLAS) held anywhere in the Mountain West between Montana and Arizona. Last year Santa Fe, this year Boulder, next year, Park City. But in years past Flagstaff and Tucson have been very popular locations for the conference (the Bill Beezley folks out of Tucson do a great job of organizing, same with the NAU folks). However, if Arizona signs and maintains the racial profiling law, RMCLAS needs to follow the example of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) and resort to the boycott. Since 2006 (or somewhere in there) LASA has boycotted the United States for regressive policies regarding visas for scholars from outside the US.

Perhaps it is time for the hundreds of members of RMCLAS to vote with their feet and wallets regarding Arizona.