wow, nice work defaming the memory of sandino,

ortega.

on the anniversary of augusto sandino's death, daniel ortega, sinverguenza former revolutionary leader and current president of nicaragua, mentioned he has been talking a lot these days to his murderous lunatic friend, muammar gaddafi:

Daniel Ortega says he has telephoned Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to express his solidarity. Ortega says he has called several times this week because Gadhafi "is again waging a great battle" to defend the unity of his nation.

: washington post

**

i actually didn't think it was possible for ortega to be any more of an asshole than he was already. i suppose i was wrong. i mean, he sold out the people of nicaragua a long time ago and hasn't looked back since, but still. how are you going to express solidarity with a dictator's massacre of democracy demonstrators? vete al infierno, señor ortega and take your friend with you.

since ortega decided to utter this mierda in a sandino commemoration, let me also take this moment to reclaim a bit of sandino's honorable legacy, which certainly belongs to the incredibly heroic popular forces in libya trying to bring down a tyrant, and not to that tyrant and his friends...

**

nosotros iremos hacia el sol de la libertad o hacia la muerte

y si morimos, nuestra causa seguirá viviendo, otros nos seguirán

we will go towards the sun of freedom or until death

and if we die, our cause continues living, because others after us will follow

: augusto césar sandino

all power to the people! abajo gadafi!! ¡¡¡que viva que viva que viva libia!!!

wyclef ridiculousness

looks like wyclef might be disqualified from the haitian presidential elections after all. i had been wanting to post about what utter mierda his candidacy is...

but lenin's tomb already did it for me:

... Promising to be the country's Obama, he claims to represent the "voice of the youth". Well, we'll see about that. The election process is sufficiently corrupt that, while the most popular party (Famni Lavalas) is banned from participating, a non-resident may well be allowed to participate against election rules. Wyclef Jean is an ideal candidate for the Obama administration, because his record is one of outright support for American imperialism in Haiti. He attacked the elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and supported the death squad 'rebels' that overthrew him. He has continued to support the brutal MINUSTAH occupation, on the grounds that it must contain the 'gangs' (there are gangs, but his associates are involved in them - he's referring to Lavalas). He has schmoozed with Bill Clinton and Ban Ki moon, and the usual array of corporate philanthropists and entrepreneurs. His charity, Yele Haiti, is crooked, though it has made him a small fortune in charges for services rendered.

The only election in Haiti that could possibly be legitimate would be one in which Famni Lavalas was a fully legal participant, and Jean-Bertrand Aristide their presidential candidate.

**

and mykel archie already drew it for me (thanks to kiilu for passing it along):



**

nothing much else to say really, except that more than 6 months after the earthquake haiti is still under military occupation, and democratic popular forces there still need our solidarity! so let's give some please!!

defender lo nuestro

;( jesus christ. what the hell is wrong with people?

well, this is what you get when you reside in a "nation"-state founded as a white settler colony. apparently colonization, theft, murder, enslavement, and lies have not been enough. more lies are now needed. the texas state board of education is set to vote tomorrow on revisions to state standards for k-12 social studies. on the table for a preliminary vote is putting more christianity in and taking the mexicans out.

you know what though, cabrones, it doesn't matter, we are winning the demographics war (just like the palestinans)! right now over half of texas schoolchildren are latinos & that proportion is growing all the time so chíngense. or to put it in a language you can understand: go to hell!!!

**

i remember once at university, during the fight over (i think) ethnic studies, j. luna was agitating at a protest and she yelled "they are trying to invisibilize us! we won't let them!" well, time again not to let them. you can see more about this at the united farm workers (cesar chavez is on the list for proposed invisibilizing), and write a letter to the texas board of education telling them not to be so stupid.




my father, when he was a kid, used to work the summers picking fruit with his family in the orchards of southern & central california. a few years ago we ran into dolores huerta (pictured above), and my dad went up to her for a big abrazo & to tell her how much the efforts of the ufw meant to him. current issues with the ufw aside, the early movement for farm worker rights will always be our history, in our blood & in our hearts. let's defend what's ours.

here are some old ufw songs to play while you compose your letter to the texas state board of education:

el picket sign : teatro campesino



niños campesinos (farm worker children) : teatro campesino



yo no le tengo miedo a nada (i'm not afraid of anything) : ufw meeting, 1966

nazi-pope tackle

25-year-old susanna miaolo's christmas present to the pope has provided a more or less endeless supply of entertainment around here these days. of all the many times we've seen this replayed, my family has decided we like this version best:



;)

las noticias de hoy ;)

you know (yes, i know you know), lots of "journalism" is such garbage. and local tv news is at the top of that list, right above most (increasingly de-skilled & concentrated / centralized) "local" city newspapers.

it is, however, good for a laugh once in awhile! gotta love youtube for this kind of thing...






oh my gosh did you catch the expression on the co-anchor's face on the second one? hilarious.

**

as for avoiding the vast array of media basura, may i suggest the following for generally high-quality writing (i mean, god, is it really so difficult?), relevant content, & useful analysis...

la jornada

página 12

electronic intifada (& sister intifadas)

the guardian

telesur

al-jazeera (english)


**

and may i also suggest you console yourself about the current state of journalism with a little silvio?

resúmen de noticias : silvio rodriguez



yo he preferido hablar de cosas imposibles
porque de lo posible se sabe demasiado...

ps: gracias to gg & j for informing me of the above excellent clips, jejeje.

walkout!

the sinverguenzas uc regents + sinverguenza arnold schwarzenegger are trying to push through a 32% tuition & fee increase in the university of california for next year. undergraduate tuition & fees would hit more than $10,000 (obscene!), with fewer & more crowded classes and of course cut hours for libraries, etc. the cal state schools have been seeing similar mierda. the regents are pretty hell bent on taking the last bit of "public" out of public higher education in california, gutting even further an already significantly privatized state university system (which used to be entirely subsidized!).

but ok! there's a massive walkout scheduled for today. students as well as professors & lecturers will walk out at all 10 uc schools throughout california. union workers from cue & upte will strike, and will set up picket lines at the entrances starting at 7:15am.



sure, (academia in general and) the uc schools in particular are institutions in the service of captialism & imperialism, actively cultivating the next generation of corporate technocrats and thugs, and housing some main components of the imperial war machine.

they're also where lots of us first came across gramsci or fanon or lenin. where we busted through our first police lines, took our first arrests, learned what proper political agitation is and how to defend ourselves against batons & pepper spray. and have been sites of proud & militant movements for students' rights & educational equity throughout the decades. and though it's currently quite far from where we would want it to be, the battle for public education is essential and the fight it deserves is a valiant one.

**

ok! ¡ya vámanos! here are a couple songs to play while you paint your picket signs and ready your bullhorn:

ain't gonna let nobody turn me round : u.s. civil rights movement activists



corrido de los combates de zacatenco : judith reyes



[wow, i just listened again to this judith reyes song, which comes from a collection of music from the student strike at unam in mexico city in 1968. it actually recalls the date september 24th (!) which was the date of an uprising at a technical school in df. students occupied the school and set up barricades in the neighborhood, even commandeering an oil truck from a nearby refinery from which to throw molotov cocktails at police cars. i think that's an auspicious sign.]

ok, last thing. a bit of agitation from the design students at the university of buenos aires from their fight against budget cuts...



and from anti-war & free speech activist mario savio at uc berkeley in 1964...



no fee increases & no layoffs or furloughs!!!! ¡¡¡no a las recortes!!! ¡¡¡no a la privatización!!!

see you soon at ucb & in the streets.

mexico builds u.s. border wall

jajajaja jajajaja jajajaja


Mexico Builds Border Wall To Keep Out US Assholes

courtesy the onion (via james, of course:) ¡¡¡¡¡¡que viva méxico lindo y querido!!!!!

tax the rich!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i am so sick of the arnold schwarzeneggers of the world (jeje, well gracias a dios there is only actually one in the world but you know what i mean) talking about it's difficult but we are called upon to make some tough decisions because sorry we are out of money and oh, sorry that means we have decided to cut the following (already very restricted & underfunded) entirely from the state budget: free healthcare for children, aid to poor families, subsidized care for viejitos. oh and also we will be drastically cutting funds from public education & state parks.

you pinches ladrones, hijos de ___ ! soooooooooo tired of your mierda. why don't you take a pay cut or force your families to go without healthcare??!! pinches ruling class sinverguenzas de mierda. scandalous.


(dibujito : mafalda)

so, we were talking about the need for the u.s. left to get its act together and articulate a clear policy demand right now, and to start trying to popularize the hell out of it. yes, we know ultimately we are fighting for the burial of this vile capitalist system. but in the meantime we need to exact some concessions from the bosses. especially right now, this is a mess entirely created by them and they should pay. progressive taxation doesn't have quite the ring to it. so we think we should just say what we mean. eric thought of a slogan:

tax the rich!!
you break it ... you buy it!

i like it! ¡¡¡¡¡¡¡que pague el patrón!!!!!!!

**

ellos dicen mierda : la polla records

boycott!!!!!!!!

come on, joan manuel serrat! get it together. BOYCOTT-divestment-sanctions. te toca a ti.

¡viva palestina libre y soberana!




foto: maysa al-louh, 16, sitting on the rubble of her home with a bombed school in the background. (sarah malian/christian aid, posted in ei)


an open letter to joan manuel serrat posted in the electronic intifada:

The Palestinian community of artists and intellectuals was shocked by the news of your plans to organize a musical tour of Israel in May, despite its continued grave oppression of the Palestinian people and only a few months after its heinous war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) is writing to urge you to cancel this tour. A brave defender of freedom throughout your life, you were exiled from your own country for courageously speaking out against the repression of Franco's regime; but by touring Israel, a colonial and apartheid state, you will be participating in legitimating and supporting a system of colonial subjugation.

...

You are a person of conscience and you have sacrificed a great deal in your own life for the brave pursuit of freedom and justice. In 1968, you defiantly chose to sing in the Eurovision Song Contest in your own native Catalan language and faced, with bravery, the consequences imposed by the dictator Franco. We would expect no less from you than to accept this call for solidarity, and we sincerely hope that you will stand with us in our struggle against colonial oppression. We urge you to cancel your musical tour to Israel and hope that you will convey to Israel that you will not participate in events there so long as it continues to suppress the Palestinian people and deny them their freedom and their inalienable rights in their homeland.

pinche u.s. government, stealing from us again

mierda. mierda. mierda. this makes my stomach turn...

...the Border Patrol now has migracorridos that sing of the danger immigrants face when crossing the border illegally...What Mexican listeners don't know is that the migracorridos are the U.S. government's latest effort to convince migrants to stay home.

: san antonio express-news

foto : sf chronicle

it's not enough apparently to steal our land and our labor. also now our music.

not enough to build a 3-tiered fence, extend it all the way into the ocean, put floodlights and barbed wire on it, and set armed men and dogs to guard it. not enough to enact policies that separate families, that force transnational workers to cross further into the desert where they are more likely to die. no, the migra has to try to disguise state propaganda as popular music and infiltrate the mexican radio airwaves as well. but a song cannot go up against the desire to feed a family... a todos los inmigrantes: que dios los proteja en el camino...

culture is a weapon (thank you, amilcar cabral). time for us to use it against them. ¡la tierra es para quien la trabaja!


**

and now for some corridos de verdad (as opposed to the fake migra-sponsored variety)...

here is amparo ochoa's version of a famous corrido which dates from the days of the mexican revolution:

adelita : amparo ochoa



victor jara (chileno) had such an affection for the corrido that he recorded a mexican revolution one too:

el corrido de pancho villa : victor jara



also here is the obligatory narco-corrido, perfected by los tucanes:

niño de oro : los tucanas de tijuana



and, of course, any proper discussion of these songs should include the beloved corridos of los tigres del norte. and since it's awhile since i posted any rock en español, here are 3 corridos from the tributo a los tigres del norte album, a great compilation of roqueros covering tigres songs.

la tumba falsa : ely guerra



el circo : maldita vecindad



contrabando y traición : la lupita



these lines are from el circo, about political corruption in mexico & the pri party/salinas family despotism. i think they also work for the above-mentioned migra scheme. que se vayan a la chingada esos running dogs.


pura tranza. puro circo. pura farsa.
la misma tranza, la misma farsa, es pura tranza, la misma farsa
pura pura tranza, puro puro circo, pura pura pura pura farsa!

los lunáticos

inspired by sarah palin's recent insights regarding iran & israel and really just everything that comes out of her mouth, i dedicate this song to the republican candidates for president & vice president de los eeuu:




los lunáticos (el manicomio está en las manos de los locos) : los de abajo [original, the lunatics (have taken over the asylum) : fun boy three]

lunáticos really seems an understatement though...

yanqui go home!

you know, i never did like daddy yankee (and let's be honest, he's no don omar). and not that i expected any better...

but christ, what the hell?! last week he allowed himself to be trotted out as "a great american success story" and endorsed john mccain. god, so embarrassing. que sinvergüenza. one funny thing though: mccain introduced el dy to a crowd of phoenix high school students with a reference to his song gasolina.

the l.a. times puts it like this:

Though McCain has sometimes shown surprising familiarity with rap stars and pop culture references because of the musical tastes of his daughters, it is unlikely that the conservative Republican would have made a point of mentioning the song had he known that the "Gasolina" lyrics are loaded with sexual references. Although there's some debate about what the word "gasolina" means in this context, one thing is certain: It's not a petroleum product. Asked whether McCain knew about the sexual allusions, a campaign spokesman said he had no comment.

jejejejeje.

¡arriba, abajo, los yanquis al carajo!

¡no seas así, mercedes sosa!

ugh. for anyone who hasn't heard, mercedes sosa has scheduled several performances in israel for the end of october. this ignores the palestinian call for boycott, divestment, & sanctions. it also lends her legitimacy to the apartheid israeli state, and rejects an important opportunity for explicit solidarity with the palestinian people.

mercedes sosa is legendary. in the early years of the argentine dictatorship she was defiant, singing songs that celebrated the struggles of workers and students, songs that bravely called out the regime for what it was. the people loved her ardently; the dictatorship banned her from radio & tv. in 1978 she was arrested by soldiers during a performance in la plata, singing about agrarian reform. eventually she was forced out of argentina like many others, only able to return years later when the dictatorship was just about to fall.

i saw her perform in 1995 at zellerbach. i cried when i heard her voice. she was so striking, this round little woman on an almost empty stage, singing about political repression and exile to a room full of exiles. the hall was filled with people from argentina and chile, older than me, who had listened to her music during the dirty war years. longing for their lands and people, they had taken refuge in her singing. the years had passed and now she was singing for them again:

quién dijo que todo está perdido
yo vengo a ofrecer mi corazón
tanta sangre que se llevó el río
yo vengo a ofrecer mi corazón

**

who says all is lost
i come to offer my heart
so much blood carried away by the river
i come to offer my heart

it was beautiful, the camaraderie & cariño in the hall that evening among exiles; and the echo of collective sorrow was like nothing i had ever seen.

now occupied palestine is full of soldiers and checkpoints, mass arrests and political assassination, detention centers and torture. ¿te suena familiar, mercedes? how then not to take the side of the palestinians? how not to loudly oppose the israeli state, the bulldozing of homes, the destruction of families, the blatant theft of land and resources?

i can't listen to her singing now. and i'm reminded of this song, si se calla el cantor (if the singer keeps quiet). it's a song she performs often, written by her compatriota, horacio guarany.

qué ha de ser de la vida si el que canta
no levanta su voz en las tribunas
por el que sufre, por el que no hay
ninguna razón que lo condene a andar sin manta
...
que no calle el cantor porque el silencio
cobarde apaña la maldad que oprime

**

what must life be if he who sings
does not raise his voice on the stand
for the one that suffers, for the one
condemned for no reason to go without
...
may the singer not keep quiet because cowardly silence
provides cover for the evil that oppresses


si se calla el cantor, versión horacio guarany & soledad pastorutti: