El Otro Lado-San Francisco

SF Hunger Strike & Week of Actions

Check out this blog updating the Hunger Strike in San Francisco for Immigrant rights.

Puerto Rican Poetry Travels

I wrote this on the plane back home under the influence of flu medicine and exhaustion:

A solidarity baby travels

At the speed of yesterday
Encounters paradise and traffic jams
Hammocks for dreams and love-making
Pot holes and roads rarely travled
Heavily policed secondary sexualities
Sun-stroked economic hustlers beating down on imaginary countries
Associated states of yearning and just getting by
nationalistic flag waving
light blue for independence.

Don’t forget Puerto Rico,
where bilingualism
gives me hope of tropical utopia
Strangled in American dollars
Faulty freedoms comes at a price
blockading temporary travel for Cubans
stifling intellectual interchange
enduring temperamental transnational transgressors.
Legacies of Caribbean pirates dance on the sand to salsa backbeats
With rebellious dancehall reggaeton anthems from streetcorners
Grinding, slapping bodies
releasing tensions instead of dancing around the issues
From this pressure cooker of ownership
Air conditions, conditional flows
Get me stuck in random colonial moments

I revel in mixed conversations
Flirt with community and temporary latino-ness
Juggling my own schizophrenic bridge making
Ruptures in my centralamericanness
Forging traveled identity and generational self knowledge
Timeless transitions
Recognition in bicultural living
Seeking rican-struction to call my own.

Desi Power Online

I thought this article was very interesting. Do any of you feel like the internet is a place that helps reinforce or create connections for your identity? M

There are 2 million South Asians in America today. They read, date, party and, increasingly, organize for political change online.
More stories by Tanzila Ahmed
She asked me what Friendster was. I stuttered. She was a high school friend of mine, and we had met up for coffee when I went home this break. Our lives took drastically different paths since high school, and when we had gone shopping that day, I was excited to buy a braided belt and she a Dyson vacuum cleaner. She's a fourth-grade teacher now, goes to bible study every Thursday, and is a married homeowner. We are both 26. And, she asked me, "What is Friendster? What's a blog? How do you date online?"

I was floored. This alternative web world is so much a part of my daily life -- I connect with friends online, write stories online, found a place to live online and, yes, even date online. Most importantly, I have a sense of South Asian American identity because of online. In the past couple of years, I have witnessed an explosion of South Asian American youth subcultures on the web.

Immigrants Gain the Pulpit

Cardinal Mahony says he will ask priests to provide
aid without proof of documentation even if proposed
restrictions become law.
By Teresa Watanabe
Times Staff Writer

March 1 2006

Wading back into the growing debate over illegal
immigration, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony on Tuesday
denounced what he called "hysterical" anti-immigrant
sentiment sweeping California and the nation.

The complete article can be viewed HERE

International Latino Film Festival Screenings

International Latino Film Festival Screenings
March 10th and April 7th Events


ILFF in Collaboration with the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts Invites You!


Film Screenings:
Historias del Desencanto
In a limbo between centuries, the world is devastated by a spell known as Disenchantment. In this fantastic context, three characters meet in the labyrinth of their dreams: Diego, who tries to make a movie about the dreams of Ximena, an adolescent experiencing her first sexual awakening, and Ainda, a bat-winged conceptual artist. Striking art design and digital imagery from directors Alejandro Valle, Felipe Gomez are a delight.
Friday, March 10
7:00PM

Inventos
Through the pulsating voices of Cubano Hip Hop pioneers, Inventos provides a unique insight into the realities and political movements of contemporary Cuba as they perform on stage in Cuba and then abroad for the first time. Inventos embodies the true spirit of Hip Hop; the creation of something that is powerful and useful. Puerto Rican director Jacobs-Fantauzzi's film is inspirational and serves as a reminder to all generations of the political consciousness in which Hip Hop was created and flourishes.
Friday, April 7
7:00PM

Scribble's Creations
Teacher-turned-director Kathy Huang takes a rare look at an often ignored community of Americans: the residents of the colonias, unincorporated settlements along the U.S.-México border. Through the travails of her former student Fernando, a young urban artist, the world of the colonias is revealed to its fullest-from leaky ceilings and family squabbles to young love and unflagging optimism.
Friday, April 7
7:00PM

MCCLA Directions


Historias del Desencanto
Stories of Disenchantment

Dir. Alejandro Valle and Felipe Gomez 2005, Mexico. 120 min.
Feature Narrative. Spanish with English subtitles.
Historias
DATE: Friday, March, 10
TIME: 7:00pm
LOCATION: MCCLA Theatre
General Admission: $6.00


Inventos: Hip Hop Cubano

Dir. Eli Jacobs-Fantauzzi 2003. USA, Cuba. 50 min.
Feature Documentary. Spanish with English subtitles.
Inventos Poster
DATE: April 7
TIME: 7:00PM
LOCATION: MCCLA Theatre
General Admission: $6.00


Scribble's Creations

Dir. Kathy Huang 2004. USA. 45 min.
Feature Documentary. English
scribble's
DATE: Friday, April 7
TIME: 7:00PM
LOCATION: MCCLA Theatre
General Admission: $6.00



The Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts
email: publicity@missionculturalcenter.org
phone: 415-821-1155
web: http://www.missionculturalcenter.org