desapariciones

this video was taken on the 30th anniversary of the 1976 coup d'etat in argentina. in buenos aires the day was commemorated by an enormous march under the banner: memory, truth & justice.

the music is desapariciones (disappearances) by los fabulosos cadillacs (original by rubén blades. gracias, eepdlryed ;) some lyrics & translation below...




que alguien me diga
si ha visto a mi esposo
preguntaba la doña
se llama ernesto y tiene cuarenta años
trabajaba de peón
en un negocio de autos
llevaba camisa oscura
y pantalón claro
salió de noche y no ha regresado
y yo no sé ya que pensar
pues esto ante
no me había pasado

someone tell me
if you've seen my husband,
the lady was asking
he's called ernesto & he's 40 years old
he's a worker at a car dealership
he was wearing a dark shirt
and light pants
he went out at night and hasn't returned
and i don't know what to think
this has never happened to me before

llevo tres días
buscando a mi hermana
se llama altagracia
igual que la abuela
salió del trabajo para la escuela
llevaba puestos jeans
y una camisa blanca
no ha sido el novio...
el tipo está en su casa
no saben de ella en la policía
ni en el hospital

i've spent 3 days
looking for my sister
she's called altagracia
just like our grandmother
she left from work to go to school
she was wearing jeans
and a white shirt
it wasn't her boyfriend...
that guy is at his house
they don't know anything about her
at the police station
or at the hospital

que alguien me diga
si ha visto a mi hijo
es estudiante de medicina
se llama agustín
y es un buen muchacho
es a veces terco cuando opina
lo han detenido...
no se que fuerza
pantalón blanco camisa a rayas
paso ante ayer

someone tell me
if you've seen my son
he's a medical student
he's called augustín
he's a good boy
sometimes stubborn about his opinions
they've detained him
i don't know which force
white pants, a striped shirt
it happened the day before yesterday

...

anoche escuche
varias explosiones
tiros de escopeta y de revólver
autos acelerados, frenos, gritos
ecos de botas en la calle
toques de puerta,
quejas, por dioses, platos rotos
estaban dando la telenovela
por eso nadie miró pa'fuera
avestruz

last night i heard
various explosions
shots from rifles & revolvers
engines accelerating, breaks, shouts
the echos of boots on the streets
knocks on the door
cries of "for god's sake", broken dishes
they had on the soap opera
so no one looked outside
ostrich

en negro y blanco

recently i've come across some photo & film documentation from the dictadura years in argentina, before the restoration of democratic elections in 1983...

the following film was released in 1979 by raymundo gleyzer's cine de base (cinema from below). gleyzer was an argentine filmmaker & journalist and leader in the third cinema movement, and had already been disappeared by the time this film was made.

the narration comes from the text of a famous open letter to the dictatorship by rodolfo walsh, a journalist and militant, written on the first anniversary of the 1976 military coup d'etat. the letter is a scathing indictment of the dictatorship, its repression of dissent and pursuit of neo-colonial economic policies. walsh was shot in an ambush and disappeared the day after writing the letter.

the film is called las aaa son las tres armas / the armed forces are the aaa. the aaa, the argentine anti-communist alliance, began operations as a right wing clandestine death squad in 1973. with the escalation of the dirty war the lines between this paramilitary organization and the official armed forces in control of the executive branch of the state were increasingly blurred.

of course all this had the blessing and assistance of the u.s. government. kissenger in 1976, a couple months after the coup: we have followed events in argentina closely. we wish the new government well. we wish it will succeed. we will do what we can to help it succeed... it is a curious time, when political, criminal, and terrorist activities tend to merge without any clear separation. we understand you must establish authority."


las aaa son las tres armas : cine de la base





**

the following are images from en negro y blanco : fotografías del cordobazo al juicio a las juntas, an excellent archive of photos which trace the development of state terrorism in argentina from 1969 to 1985 (in black & white : photographs from the uprising in córdoba to the trials of the military junta)...



foto: gerardo horowitz, 1975. the military occupies tucumán province.



foto: archivo clarín, 1976. prisoners in the month following the coup, under federal juristiction.



foto: archivo clarín, 1979. military police break the floor of a house, looking for a guerrilla hideout.



foto: jorge durán, 1981. raids in the villas miserias (shantytowns) around buenos aires are commonplace.



foto: jorge rilo, 1982. during a violently repressed public demonstration against the dictatorship some demonstrators reach the door of the casa rosada.



foto : adriana lestido, 1982. various generations participate in demonstrations to demand justice for the disappeared.

la misma porquería iii

tomorrow the obama administration is to name alan bersin as border czar. ¡pero que carajo es eso! i don't approve of czars of any kind, and especially not a czar to police the perimeters of this land that's stolen anyway. the expansion of the drug wars, the taking of more lives, the diverting of more weapons to the corrupt & murderous mexican army & police. ugh. also alan bersin, during his time at the u.s. attorney office, is responsible for operation gatekeeper, which is responsible for the militarization of the us-mexico border and an ever-multiplying number of immigrant deaths. vete al carajo, alan bersin.



foto : 3 mil corazones. between 1994 & 2004, the first 10 years of operation gatekeeper, more than 3 thousand immigrants died or were killed trying to cross the border between mexico & the united states.

**

los de abajo : la fuga



buscando el chivo expiatorio
te van a buscar en el directorio
si no copartes sus ideas
te has metido en un gran problema
encuentra la forma de correr
no importa si eres inocente van a proceder
en plan chingativo
llegan provocando buscando un motivo

Aterciopelados en el Independent de San Francisco, 4.10.09

Las Rockeras Sin Fronteras y compas fuimos a ver Aterciopelados ayer en San Panchito. Aquí están unas fotos y video del show. Aterciopelados son como un buen vino o amor...se pone mejor con el tiempo.



Tocaron como parte de una campaña de Amnistía Internacional que se enfoca en Contra de la Violencia contra la mujer. También tocaron canciones de su nuevo álbum, Rio, cual está disponible para conseguir de cualquier manera cada uno de nosotros consigue música.



Antes de tocar “Bandera” Andrea hablo acerca de las injusticias contra la comunidad inmigrante, y de poner un paro a las redadas de la pinche migra. También hablo acerca de uno de los miembros de su banda que fue forzado a esperar una semana más que los demás para una visa para entrar a los Estados Unidos, cual lo hizo perder la mitad de la gira hasta ahora.

"Banderas"


Nos divertimos muchísimo con los compas de Aterciopelados y esperamos que no sea mucho tiempo antes que regresan a San Panchito.
No se olviden de visitar y comentar en nuestro blog Rockeras Sin Fronteras, www.rockeras-sin-fronteras.blogspot.com. ¡Gracias!

Traveling Songs... Canciones acerca de Viajar

Recientemente estuve en Nueva York para visitar a unas comadres y en Baltimore, Maryland para participar en la conferencia "Ciudad Desde Abajo" cual se enfocó en la lucha contra el desplazamiento y contra el aburguesamiento de nuestras comunidades. Durante ese tiempo estuve viajando mucho, y me hizo pensar mucho en canciones que he escuchado en mi cabeza o en el radio durante mis diferentes viajes sobre los años. Cada viaje que he tomado en mi vida ha tenido su propio tema musical cual siempre me transporta de nuevo a ese lugar con los mismos colores, olores y recuerdos. Aquí les mando algunas de mis canciones favoritas acerca de viajar, ya sea físicamente o mentalmente. ¡Espero que les guste!

Recently I was in New York visiting some good friends and in Baltimore, Maryland to participate in the conference “City from Below”, which focused on the struggle against displacement and against the gentrification in our communities. During that time I was traveling around a lot, and it made me think a lot about music I have heard either in my head or on the radio during my different travel over the years. Each big trip I have taken in my life has had its own musical soundtrack which always transports me back to that specific place with the same colors, smells, and memories. Here are some of my favorite songs about traveling, either physically or mentally. I hope you like them!

Julieta Venegas: Me Voy


El Barrio: Me Voy al Mundo



La Ley: Fuera de Mi


Los Prisioneros: Tren al Sur


Heroes del Silencio: Entre dos Tierras


Panteon Rococo y Julieta Venegas: Skapate Conmigo

bds milan

hurray!! look at this!!! it's one of many boycott-divestment-sanctions actions taking place in supermarkets all over the world in solidarity with palestine and in opposition to israeli apartheid. specifically it is a coordinated call to consumers to boycott israeli goods.

appropriately, the video is set to the ramones beat on the brat. i love it! ¡bravo milán! ¡que viva palestina libre!





i wish more video footage from protests would be set to punk rock and posted on youtube.

beat on the brat
beat on the brat
beat on the brat with a baseball bat
oh yeah, oh yeah, uh-oh.

what can you do?
what can you do?
with a brat like that always on your back
what can you do?
...
with a brat like that always on your back
what can you lose?


gracias, otra vez, mv.

souad massi

liiiiindísima.


raoui : souad massi




hayati : souad massi




khalouni : souad massi



and this very sweet tribute... a cover of le bien et le mal captured on cell phone for the el país movilfilmfest convocatoria.