Maria: Viva Carolina's Latino of the Week

Maria es la latina de la semana!

Maria is Latino of Week at Viva Carolina, a publication and website serving Carolina del Norte Latinos.

Love that smile!

Viva Carolina is a publication featuring local news and information of interest to the Latino community, including interviews with local business, political and community leaders; job listings; and information on community events. It's published by The Latin Focus LLC, a marketing and media company headquarted in Charlotte.

10,000 free copies of Viva Carolina's Charlotte Edition is being distributed across Mecklenburg, Union, Gaston, York and Lancaster counties. The web version will be organized by major metro areas (Charlotte, Triad, Triangle, East Carolina, Wilmington, Columbia, Greenville SC, etc).

Viva Carolina! Viva La Comunidad Latina de Carolina del Norte!

New Face of Nashville: Jaci Velasquez

You know the South is changing when the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau chooses a Latina, Jaci Velasquez, for its Music Calls Us Home campaign to attract visitors and business to the area.

Jaci's 13th studio album, entitled Love Out Loud, was released in March. A recent interview with Jaci and her husband Nic is here.

Credit: Hispanic Nashville

Jaci Velasquez' MySpace

Obama Nation Map: +North Carolina

Obama has won the North Carolina Democratic Party Primary by double digits (56% to 42% w/83% of the vote). In addition to losing this critical battleground state, the Clintons "game changing" results failed to materialize.

The Drudge Report has just posted that the Clintons will huddle with undecided super-delegates tomorrow to gauge if they can continue their campaign. Actually, the fact they these folks are still undecided about Hillary says it all. Great news!

Hispanic Nashville's "Si Se Puede" by John Lamb

"Yes we can" and also "si se puede" are the main feature of this awesome video.

And this is a good post about the Latino vote in TN politics.

And this is the Hispanic Nashville (my site's) show of support for Obama.

John Lamb
Editor
Hispanic Nashville Notebook

Tara Plantation II: The Clinton Attacks Obama Wiki

While Republican Bobby Jindal, the nation's first East Indian-American governor, was sworn in Monday in Louisiana, Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her associates have been deploying a despicable "racialized" Southern strategy.

Of course, the Clinton's are denying that they're using racist tactics to peel away white white Southern votes from Obama. But to those of us paying attention, it's exactly what they're doing. Daily Kos'rikyrah is onto the Clintons--as are many African American bloggers, including Prometheus 6, who observed:

I believe they are trying to bury the email forwarding, Bill Shaheening, Bob Kerreying, 'Pig' Penning that Hillary approved. They're trying to make the controversy about the MLK comment (which was ambiguous) instead the the Southern Strategy she's been implementing.

The Clintons are banking on the press rolling over and/or failing to see the obvious. So rikyrah has taken it upon herself to create The Clinton Attacks Obama Wiki, an incident tracker of the racial insults hurled at Obama by the Clintons and their surrogates. As a wiki people are free to add to the list as new incidents occur.

Here's the list as it stands:

#1 Barack Obama May Have Been a Drug Dealer!
#2 Actually, LBJ Did it
#3 I can't make her...
#4 Imaginary Hip Black Friend
#5 Mandela
#6 Shuck and Jive
#7 BET Founder Bob Johnson Attacks
#8- Three Volunteers Resign for Spreading MADRASSA EMAIL
#9-Bob Kerrey and his Dog Whistle
#10- ' Beautiful Symbol'
#11- 'Fairy Tale' & 'Kid'
#12- ' False Hopes'
#13- The Charlie Rose Interview
#14- "I just don't want to see us fall backwards"
#15 - Andrew Young Says Bill is "every bit as black" as Obama
#16 Clinton Team Quietly Raise Obama's Cocaine Use
May
#17-Geraldine Ferraro
#18- Charlie Rangel
#19-Rangel: Obama put drug use in book to sell books
#20- The 'Spadework' Comment:The Today Show
#21- The ' Spadework' Comment : JULY 2007

Related:

Hillary & Tara Plantation Politics

Hillary & Tara Plantation Politics

The Clinton Campaign has caused a brush fire of sorts when an operative, and then the candidate herself, seemed to be saying that 1) Obama is no MLK, and 2) that LBJ--and not MLK--deserves credit for the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Isn't this "plantation" politics?

In other words, some blacks--MLK included--may be inspiring preacher-types, but it takes the people in the big house--such as LBJ and HRC--to get things done.

Oh my goodness!

Recognizing that they were in a pitch battle with Barack Obama, the Clinton strategy seems to be to build a "racially-tinged" firewall for the next round of primaries. Their point? That a smooth-talking black man offering dramatic change can't be trusted. It's a strategy that could work given the compressed primary schedule, the power of special interests and the racial fissures of the body politic.

It's despicable politics (and Nixonian/Wallace in its attempt to scare voters into cleaving to the status quo.)--and I hope that voters don't fall for it.

But remember that Bill Clinton built his own "racially-tinged" firewall when he lost in both Iowa and New Hampshire in 1992. He did two things to galvanize the Southern "bubba" vote: 1) he made a show of not stopping the execution of a mentally ill black man in Arkansas; and 2) he did a much publicized photo-op in front of a Georgia State prison with a background filled with black prisoners in prison stripes. Those two horrific stunts sealed the bubba vote for Clinton, isolated Jesse Jackson and his efforts to engage white blue-collar workers, and positioned him to neutralize the Republican's white male advantage.

It's worked in the past--and no doubt Republican operatives, right wing media and allied groups are designing their own race-based attacks. So, may be it's a good thing that the Obama campaign deals with this garbage now. Thus far, Obama and his people have handled the assaults really well. Most missles have been deftly swatted or have backfired. Unfortunately, the volleys are likely to increase over the next few months.

Warning to the Clintons: At the end, Tara was scorched--and the slaves escaped!

Related:
Racial tensions roil Democratic race
Clinton’s Civil Rights Lesson
Desperate Clinton: LBJ, not Martin Luther King, is real civil rights hero
Hillary: You Negroes Better Thank The White Man For Your Rights
Hillary Clinton And An Attack Vs. Martin Luther King

It's Bobby Jindal!!!! Son of Indian Immigrants Wins Louisiana Governorship

Awesome!

Proving that America's future truly is being shaped in its Southern tier, voters in Louisiana elected Bobby Jindal as the state's first nonwhite governor since Reconstruction.

Representing the almost forgotten promise of America to today's immigrants, Jindal is the Oxford-educated son of Indian immigrants.

My mom and dad came to this country in pursuit of the American dream. And guess what happened. They found the American dream to be alive and well right here in Louisiana.

At 36 years of age, Jindal is also the youngest serving governor of an American state.

Jindal's election is also a dramatic break from Louisiana's past of corrupt, incompetent and single party rule--a legacy fully on displayed for the nation and the world in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Congratulations to Bobby Jindal and the Jindal family. But more importantly, congratulations to the courageous people of Louisiana who voted for change, and in so doing put down a clear marker in the emergence of the New America.

Related:

Indian immigrants' son new La. governor
Go, Bobby, Go! II
Go, Bobby, Go!
Latinos & African Americans Gain in the New America
Obama Rises: Is A New America Close Behind?

New Latino Immigrants on the Gulf Coast

According to New Latino Immigrants on the Gulf Coast, a photo essay by Peter Holderness, half of New Orleans's workforce is now Latino.

However, these newest residents helping raise a post-Katrina New Orleans work under difficult circumstances. They are subject to abuse by unscrupulous employers, work under extremely dangerous conditions and denied basic health services. Now a growing number suffer from respiratory ailments from Katrina-related contamination.

Worst perhaps is the unwillingness of NO leaders to stand up for an essential workforce. Here's how Dr. Betsy Sells, a sociologist doing work with Tulane's School of Public Health, sees the situation:

I think the leaders of New Orleans recognize that we wouldn't be anywhere as far along with the recovery if it weren't immigrants. But they don't want to step into the quagmire of the immigration debate, so they just keep quite.

Sadly, it appears that real leaders are rare in American politics today.

Click here for more of Peter Holderness's wonderful work.

New Orleans' Latino Boom

In case you missed it, PEOPLE published an interesting article (A Hispanic Renaissance in New Orleans) on the Latino transformation of New Orleans in its August 2007 issue.

In the aftermath of Katrina thousands of Hispanics arrived in this devastated city to pick up the pieces and help rebuild it. Two years later, their newborn babies–and many more to come–are changing the city to its core.

Here are the numbers:

According to the 2005 U.S. Census, before the storm there were 50,099 Hispanics in Orleans and Jefferson Parishes.

Martín Gutiérrez, executive director of the Archdiocese of New Orlean’s Hispanic Apostolate, estimates that the number of Hispanics now living in the area is between 120,000 and 150,000.

Marbella (in the photo) is just one of New Orleans' newest residents. Appropriately, her name means Beautiful Sea in Spanish.

Beautiful!

Southern States -- Immigration's New Battlefield

New America Media interviewed over a dozen immigrant rights advocates in grassroots organizations across the South to learn what's been happening since the defeat of federal immigration reform. The following are excerpts:

ALABAMA

[W]e’ve seen...militia members arrested because they were hoarding weapons and were planning to attack Latinos. A radio host on 1070 AM was telling people...that what we can do to undocumented persons is to go and shoot all of them.

Fernando Martinez
Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama
Birmingham

FLORIDA

ICE has conducted early morning...raids on Haitians...in which parents have been arrested and detained for deportation without warning and in the space of five minutes removed from their U.S.-born children and spouses.

Steven David Forester
Haitian Women of Miami, Inc.
Miami

[I]t's creating a lot of stress on our kids. One mother went to reissue her work permit and she was deported. She left three children at home.

Reginale Durandisse
Haitian Citizen United
Lakeworth

Since the Senate vote, people are so disappointed. There are so many people receiving deportation orders and they were hoping that this would have bought them some time. The fear is palpable.

Gepsie Metlellus
Sant La-Haitian Neighborhood Center
Miami

GEORGIA

The current immigration debate has created an openly hostile environment against immigrants in Georgia. There is confusion about the implementation of [anti-immigrant] state law that went into effect July 1, 2007.

Jerry Gonzalez
Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials
Atlanta

[A] new 1000-plus detention facility...opened up in Lumpkin, Ga. last year. Immigrants...detained from raids in other states...are transported to Stewart Detention Center even though their...families do not reside anywhere close to the detention facility.

Monica Modi Khant
Georgia Asylum and Immigration Network
Atlanta

Gwinnett County passed an anti-immigrant ordinance. We’re afraid that it may cause extreme discrimination, and it may be unconstitutional.

Judy Yi
The Center for Pan Asian Community Services, Inc.
Atlanta

We are concerned that it is going to be devastating to the community as the immigrant community is increasingly targeted. In one county, two white people wearing swastikas attacked a Latino man at his house.

Adelina Nicholls
Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights
Atlanta

KENTUCKY

Kentucky Attorney General...released a statement...in which he said that it is okay for police officers to check for citizenship status in the course of an arrest. There are...questions on what "in the course of arrest" means. People are concerned at this point.

Aaron Hutson
Kentucky Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
Lexington

NORTH CAROLINA

There are over 20 bills on immigration waiting to be voted on in the North Carolina General Assembly that are all anti-immigrant.

Marisol Jimenez McGee
El Pueblo, Inc.
Raleigh

Charlotte is fairly conservative when it comes to immigration issues, and the debate has given a platform for angry rhetoric. As a result, pro-immigrant voices are intimidated and people are keeping a low profile.

David Stewart
International House of Metrolina
Charlotte

SOUTH CAROLINA

We have an ordinance that went into effect July 1...after... Hazleton...and Beaufort County, S.C. The ordinance was passed by one vote.

Diana Salazar
Latino Association of Charleston
Charleston

TENNESSEE

The anti-immigrant sentiment is not just directed at Latinos; it’s affecting the Asian and Muslim communities, anyone who doesn’t look like they are from here.

Jessica Kimiko Baba
Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition
Nashville

The environment on the state level...is quite hostile. The state legislature considered 44 anti-immigrant bills this year, three of which passed.

Monica Hernandez
Highlander Research and Education Center
New Market

VIRGINIA

They may know the issue and want to do something about it, but the language barrier means that only a few young professionals or people who grew up here get involved.

Khanh T. Tran
Boat People S.O.S., Inc.
Falls Church

The ‘New South’ -- an Immigrant-Friendly Place

The ‘New South’ -- an Immigrant-Friendly Place (by Patricia Thomas, New America Media, 7.15.07)

Patricia Thomas opened the joint New America Media and University of Georgia Immigration Summit...The day brought Southern immigrant rights organizations together with ethnic media. Thomas is a professor at the University of Georgia. The following are excerpts from her address to the summit:

The answer is that my family made the same journey that your families, and all the other families in your communities, made. They just made the trip a couple of generations earlier.

And, as you know, timing is everything.

People who made the trip more recently–like your readers and listeners–cannot forget for a minute where they came from and how they got here. Not in Georgia, not in the South, not in 2007.

But I do know there’s been a tremendous influx of immigrants into the Southeast over the past 20 years.

• In 2000, the most recent immigrants to the Atlanta area came from Mexico, India, Vietnam, Korea and Jamaica. Further down the list were Colombia and China, along
with several European nations.
• If you look at places where the Latino population soared by more than 300 percent between 1980 and 2000, 11 of 18 of these so-called “hypergrowth” areas are in the South.

Atlanta will probably never have Hispanic or Asian communities the size of those in Los Angeles or New York, or even a black community as big as New York’s. But in terms of trends, all three of these populations are increasing rapidly in Southern metropolitan areas.

According to a Brookings Institution report, Diversity Spreads Out,
• Hispanic communities are growing fastest in Atlanta, Georgia, Charlotte and
Raleigh, in North Carolina, Nashville, Tennessee, and four metro areas in Florida.
• Southern cities where Asian populations are soaring include
Atlanta, Orlando and the Tampa-St. Petersburg area.
• Black populations are also increasing in many parts of the South.

Diversity Spreads Out emphasized a phenomenon you no doubt already know about: immigrant communities are shifting away from inner cities and coastal port cities and toward suburbs and inland areas, where the cost of living is lower.

Cultural diversity is coming to small towns and rural counties: University of Georgia researchers found that during the 1990s, Hispanic populations soared by nearly 300 percent in 62 Georgia counties.