indigenous.xicano

Imagine having no marketable skills to navigate through life with. The only tool you have to earn money is your unskilled labor. You end up in the traditional low-paying jobs as a janitor, restaurant worker, warehouse person, landscaper laborer, or any other job where your physical labor and work ethic are basically the only skills you need for the job. The pay is so low that your spouse is forced to join you to to make the meager ends almost meet. But at least your kids are safe at school during the day when you and your spouse are out toiling at your low-paying jobs. At the end of the shift there is an apartment to go to- home, sweet, home. Dinner is cooked, conversation is shared. Every evening there is a shared semblance of family life together. Now, imagine that you have no apartment to go to. You have to live in the parking lot of the factory with the families of the other workers. The "camp" has no hot water. The walls are not insulated from the extremes of the weather. Bugs and rodents thrive in the over-flowing dumpster located outside the living quarters. Mark Heller, managing attorney for the migrant farm worker and immigration program with the Ohio-based Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, said his organization regularly files complaints against and sometimes even sues farm operations for failing to keep their camps up to code. "We see a lot of problems there because a lot of the units are really old," Heller said. "It's all pretty primitive -- especially considering how hard people have to work all day." Across the state, migrant farm workers are forced to live in camps that lack hot water, fail to properly empty toilet facilities and let trash dumpsters overflow with garbage that attracts disease-spreading pests. (Sandusky Register On-Line) Your kids are not in school. Either you leave them at the squalid camp in the parking lot or you bring them to work.  Wages are so low and tied into piece-meal reimbursements, that you end up with your o

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In a no brainer, the top elected political figures called for the resignation of justice of the peace, Keith Bardwell, who refuses to perform civil marriage ceremonies for couples of mixed races. Gov. Bobby Jindal joined civil rights groups and others in calling for the resignation of the white justice of the peace who has served 34 years in the southeastern parish in Louisiana. Bardwell refused to marry Beth Humphrey, who is white, and Terence McKay, who is black. Bardwell stated that he was concerned about the couple's offspring. Senator Mary L. Landrieu in a statement said Mr. Bardwell’s practices and comments were deeply disturbing. She also called for his removal from his elected position. "I am deeply disturbed by Justice Bardwell's practices and comments concerning interracial marriages," she said. "Not only does his decision directly contradict Supreme Court rulings, it is an example of the ugly bigotry that divided our country for too long. I call upon the Louisiana Judiciary Committee to use its authority to have Justice Bardwell dismissed from his position. He clearly has no intention of administering the law or upholding justice for interracial couples." The leaders of the American Civil Liberties Union in Louisiana and the Center for Constitutional Rights and Justice in New York joined in the call for the immediate resignation of Bardwell. Marjorie Esman of the ACLU said the group urged for Bardwell to resign "before he infringes on the constitutional rights of another person." Sadly, Bardwell does not believe that he is infringing on any constitutional rights. Bardwell states that only couple he denies can always go elsewhere to get married. Tangipahoa Parish President Gordon Burgess said Bardwell's views were not consistent with his or those of the local government. But as an elected official, Bardwell was not under the supervision of the parish government. "However, I am certainly very disappointed that anyone representing the people

I was wondering what all this buzz was about "Balloon Boy." I quickly learned the details. I am glad that he was found safe. Here is a video of the boy with his brothers. Boy found at home after runaway balloon chase

(REPOST) I am reposting one of my earlier blogs that applies to this holiday season. "Illegals are destroying the American culture." How often have I heard that rallying cry of the nativists? I hear it every day. I cannot go on-line and avoid it. Talking Heads of Hate are singing this mantra as another cheap trick to grab ratings. It is everywhere. It is an emotional rallying cry, that along with the other redundant chants, elicits fear among the criers that the unwanted from South of the border are determined to destroy the American culture. But what is this American culture that is on the verge of extinction? Is it a concrete and sacred thing that can never be changed? Or is it an ever evolving thing that has always been changing with the newest influences adding and bettering the accumulated body of work? I argue that it is the latter of the two. A perfect example for my argument is a recent column in the Tucson Star written by Maria Elena Salinas. Salinas shared with the readers her family's bi-cultural Thanksgiving. My mother was the best cook ever. (Unfortunately, that's one trait I didn't inherit from her.) The menu for Thanksgiving was pretty traditional. Turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes with gravy, sweet potatoes, cornbread and pumpkin pie. My mother did give it a twist when it came to preparing the turkey stuffing, mixing it with a Mexican flair. All across the country on the night of Thanksgiving, there are immigrant families who give their meal a taste of their home country — after all, nostalgia and nationalism usually start with the palate. But whether they are adding hot sauce, rice and beans, yucca or mofongo, at the end it all means the same thing. It is part of the assimilation process. Whether one mixes their holiday celebration with Mexican flair or any other flair is not a threat to "American Culture." People bring to the table what they have to bring to the table. In a nut shell, that is what American culture is all

The Lou Dobbs Tonight shows alarming record of violating journalistic standards: * Lou Dobbs has erroneously conflated illegal immigration with a violent crime wave * Lou Dobbs has wrongly ...

The latest in the Adventures of a Loud Mouth Emotionally Unbalanced Jerk courtesy of Media Matters in America. You do not have to make sense when your listeners are the type of people who believe Sarah Palin is presidential material.