Story Archives 2012

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Nota del Editor: Supuestamente, la redistribución de distritos es el proceso de redibujar los límites de los distritos electorales en una ciudad para que sean del mismo número de personas en cada uno de ellos. Redistribución de Distritos sucede una vez cada diez años. Lo que realmente sucede en la redistribución de distritos es que las líneas se dibujan de nuevo por los políticos y culebras de bienes raíces para incluir / excluir a ciertos grupos de personas. Redistribución de Distritos se utiliza a menudo para asegurarse de que ciertos políticos será reelegido. Esto se llama “gerrymandering”. redistribución de los privilegiados de las voces y los votos de los ricos y los desarrolladores de bienes raíces, al mismo tiempo marginar aún más a los pueblos pobres y los pueblos de color en una ciudad de aburguesamiento.

Se dice que es una ciudad santuaria. Yo pienso que San francisco es la ciudad mas hermosa de Estados Unidos no por sus edificios, sino por ser una ciudad con muchas oportunidades. Yo me siento feliz de que Dios me permitio llegar a esta ciudad donde las puertas se abren para cualquier oportunidad. Ya sea para estudiar o ir al medico o para muchas otras cosas. Digo esto porque conosco gente de otras ciudades que les an negado el medical y otras cosas mas. Pero apesar de todas estas oportunidades esta ciudad me parese que siempre esta dibidida por distritos o como desimos en mi pais por sonas residensiales, les llamamos asi por que alli viven las personas que tienen mas dinero, y donde viven los mas pobres  se le llaman barrios haci esta compuesta la ciudad.

Yo pensaba que aqui era diferente pero no, porque la ciudad de San Fransisco esta compuesta de 11 distritos y cada distrito tiene su propio supervisor para poder controlar major a la ciudad y a la gente. Por eso hacen censos cada año. Para saber si hay mas gente o si se han ido. Se supone que cada distrito debe tener la misma cantidad de habitantes, pero algunos tienen mas que otros por ejemplo, el distrito 6, 10, 11 y 3  tienen como veinte mil mas que los otros condados o distritos el sexto tiene mil habitantes, mas de lo que deberia tener . El districto 11 tiene mas gente Filipina Americana y apesar de esto no a habido ningun supervisor de esa raza, pero puede ocurrir y alomejor seria bueno pues seria su misma gente a quien supervisa. Si esto pasara vivirian mas personas blancas alli porque la verdad la gente blanca no se mescla con gente morena, pero con chinos y con Filipinos me parese que si. Esto es porque lamentablemente en este pais hoy hay mucho racismo todabia y es por eso que no se mesclan apesar que los que cambian los distritos y mesclan a la gente  muchas veces son los que venden las casas. Pero no solo ellos, sino tambien la carencia pues por ejemplo antes en el barrio de la mission vivia mucha gente Latina, hoy dia se an alejado de alli porque la renta es demaciada cara y en otros barrios es mas barato y ultimamente se a mesclado los morenos y otras razas.

Pero con Estadonidenses Americanos no, porque no tenemos sufisiente dinero para vibir alli  al nibel de ellos.

Por eso es que si quedara un supervisor latino en el barrio donde hay  mas morenos que latinos alo mejor no funcionaria o si ubiera  un supervisor Moreno en el barrio de los Filipinos talves funsionaria o talves no, pues no se sabe porque no a abido  ninguno. Como en barrio de la Mission que ya hay un superbisor latino y creo que muchos saven que es David Campos  pero el apenas esta enpesando. No savemos vien como funsionara pero esperemos que todo lo aga bien.

Pero el caso es que seamos Latinos o Morenos o Blancos todos somos humanos y Americanos, centro o sur todo es America.

English follows

Editor's Note:  Allegedly, redistricting is the process of redrawing the boundaries of election districts in a city so there are the same number of people in each one. Redistricting happens once every ten years.  What really happens in redistricting is that the lines are redrawn by politicians and real estate snakkkes to include/exclude certain groups of people.  Redistricting is often used to ensure certain politicians will be reelected. This is called gerrymandering.  Redistricting privileges the voices and votes of rich people and real estate developers, while further marginalizing poor peoples and peoples of color in a gentrifying city.

It is said that this is a sanctuary city. I think that San Francisco is the most beautiful city in all Unites States not for its buildings, but for being a city with many opportunities. I feel happy that God allowed me to arrive in this city where doors open every day. Whether it be to study or to get medical care and many other things. I say this because I know many people outside the city who have been denied medical help among other things. Even with these opportunities this city is divided by districts, or as we say in my country by residential zones. We call them this because this is were the rich people live, and where the poor live they are called hoods or barrios, this is how the city is composed.

I thought things were different here but no, because the city of San Francisco is composed of 11 districts and each one has its own supervisor to better control its city and its people. That’s why each year they do a census. To know if there are more people or if people are leaving. It supposed be that each district has around the same amount of people, but some have more than others.  For example, districts 6, 10, 11 and 3 have about twenty thousand more people than the other districts. District 6 has a thousand more that what is should have. District 11 has more Filipino Americans and even so there has not yet been one supervisor of this same race, but it could happen and this might even be a good thing since he would be supervising his own people. If this would happen more white people would live there because the truth is white people don’t like to live next to people of color, but with Chinese and Filipinos I feel like they do. This is because sadly in this country today there is still a lot of racism and that’s why they don’t mix even though the people who are in charge of drawing the lines in the districts and try to mix races are the ones who are selling the homes. Not just them but also the lack of people because for example before in the Mission neighborhood a lot of Latina/os lived there, today they have left the neighborhood due to drastic rent increases and moved into cheaper homes and lately you have more of a mix of African Americans and all other races.

But with White U.S. Americans this does not happen, because we don’t have enough money to live there on their level.

But if there was a Latina/o supervisor in that district where there are more African Americans than Latina/os then maybe it wont work to well or if you had a African American supervisor in the barrio of Filipinos it might work it might not, but we do not know because there has not been one yet. Like in the Mission district there is a Latino supervisor and I would think many already know him as David Campos, but he is just starting. We don't know how this will work out but lets hope he does a good job.  But the main thing here is whether you're Brown or Black or White we are all humans and Americans, central or south it is all America.

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Las cosas que tenemos que pasar.

Todas las personas que no tenemos papeles

y no sabemos el idioma de este pais.

A la hora de estar en un hospital

en San Fransisco la policia dice que toda persona tiene derecho de ir al hospital y que puede pedir un interpetre.

Eso esta perfecto pero lo malo es que aveces la gente que habla español se pasa de amrgo con uno lo hacen de menos porque nos ven humildes. Piensan que estamos tontos,

digo esto porque  un dia yo me sentia mal y fui a ver si me atendian en la clinica donde voy  siempre cuando  tengo sita. Pero esta ves  no tenia cita  y la resepsionista me dijo que me iban atender y que esperara un momento. Me fui  a sentar , abian pasado aproximadamente  veinte minutos cuando una de las enfermeras me atendio le dije las molestias que yo sentia y ella me respondio disiendo que lo lamentava que tenia que esperar un rato mas, como podia ser media hora o tres horas mas  pero me ivan a atender. Despues de dos aburridas horas de espera ella me dijo  “!hay Dios mio! Señora, se me olvido que estava aqui, espere un rato mas” dijo la enfermera asustada. Yo segui esperando por un rato mas porque el dolor era demasiado fuerte y tenia una bola en la rodilla. Tambien  estava desesperada despues de cuarentaisinco minutos me llamo  para desirme que no me podian atender, que regresara a las cuatro de la tarde. Y yo llege alli a las nueve de la mañana. Nunca me avian dicho eso yo llore y llore pues era mas fuerte el dolor. Le suplique que me atendieran despues de tantas horas de espera, me atendio una doctora, por  lo menos lla me abia atendido

lo malo fue que me dijo que me hiba dar una receta y que regresaria para darmela

incredible mente pasaron 2 horas y nada sali del cuarto y pregunte que habia pasado y una enfermera me dijo “la doctora ya se fue, y no dijo nada, lo siento” dijo ella.

A la siguiente semana regrese por el dolor de mi rodilla y me dijeron en la emerjencia que quizas una araña me pico o cualquier otro animal, pero el caso es que ya tenia demaciada infeccion y como no agarre el nombre de la doctora ya no dije nada por eso me doy cuenta que  los inmigrantes  pasamos por muchas cosas. Por ejemplo lo que paso con los mas de 200 trabajadores un poco antes de la navidad del 2011, que fueron despedidos de sus trabajos solo por el simple echo de ser indocumentados y uno de ellos habia trabajado ahi mas de 14 años y no les importa nada. No se dan cuenta que estas personas son humanas como cualquier otra persona y viven estresados por esta situascion que la compañia Pacific Steel Casting fue que los corrio y lamentablemente este año mas de 2 mil empresas an llebado a cabo el prosesso de verificacion y estan dejando a muchisimos inmigrantes sin trabajo.

Nosotros no somos criminales sino estamos aqui trabajando dignamente y porque alo mejor estamos ullendo de la violencia en nuestro pais. Con trabajar, no le hacemos daño a nadie.

Engles Sigue

The things we must go through.

All us people without documents

And we don’t know thins countrys  language.

When the hour comes that we are hospitalized

In San Francisaco they say that all people have a right to go to the hospital and request an interpreters

This is is perfect but the bad thing is sometimes the translators are more than bitter toward us and they treat you like less because we are humble. They think that we are dumb, I say this because one day I did not feel well and I went to see if they could treat me at the clinic where I always go in the days I have an appointment. This time I did not have an appointment and the receptionist told me they would see me to just wait a while. I went to sit down, twenty minutes passed when one of the nurses saw me waiting I told her about the pain I was having and her response was that she was sorry but I had to wait longer, it could be another half hour or three hours but they were going to see me. After two boring hour of waiting she says “ oh dear god! Mam, I forgot that you were here please wait another moment” said the worried nurse. I kept waiting there  for another while because the pain was so strong I could not move and I had a clot on my knee. I was also stressed after waiting fourty five more minutes then she finally called me to tell me that they could not see me, to come back at four in the evening. I had arrived there at nine in the morning. They had never done this to me before, I cried and cried for the pain that was only getting stronger. I begged that they treat me after waiting so many hours, a doctor finally saw me, I was finally getting some care but the bad thing was that when she went out to get my prescription and said she would be back, incredibly two hours went by and nothing so I went out to find her I asked what had happened and one nurse responded, “ the doctor already left, and didn’t say anything, im sorry”.

 The following week I returned for the pain in my knee and they told me at the Emergency that maybe I was bitten by a spider or another animal, but the fact is that already had too much infection and I did not get the name of the doctor so I said nothing,

This experience made me think about what happened to the more than 200 workers just before Christmas 2011, these workers were dismissed from their jobs only for the simple fact of being undocumented and one worker had worked there for over 14 years, they do not care about anything. They do not realize that these people are human like everyone else and we live in this stressful situation that the Pacific Steel Casting Company kicked them out unfortunately this year more than 2,000 companies have pulled through with the process of verification and are leaving many immigrants without jobs.

We are not criminals rather we are here to work with dignity or we are here because maybe we are leaving behind the violence of our homeland. While working we do not bring harm to anyone.

Yesterday, a group of indigenous elders and tribal citizens stopped bulldozers from further damaging their sacred site, Tom-Kav. The San Luis Rey Band of Mission Indians also filed a lawsuit and a temporary restraining order on Friday against Palomar College in San Diego County Superior Court in Vista.  With these two important events a caravan left from the San Francisco Bay Area and Santa Cruz to Tom-Kav to support and defend this sacred site.

I left with this caravan to do what POOR Magazine does best… observe, report, and support. In 2008, I walked on the Longest Walk 2 for sacred sites and for the healing of our Earth.  I decided that I would do this again, to go and support indigenous peoples protecting their sacred sites.

With less than 30 minutes notice, I hopped in a very crowded car with 4 guys and off on our 10 hour road trip we went.  The end of the road trip was worth it, we came to Tom-Kav, where Wounded Knee asked permission from the Native American Monitors watching the site if we could perform a ceremony. Prayers and songs were exchanged. I even sang a song for the ancestral spirits of this land.

I interviewed PJ, one of the Native American Monitors and Merri Lopez-Keifer, an attorney for her tribe.  I asked Merri to explained the cultural significance of this scared site, “"Tom-Kav is a sacred site Luiseno people, its part of our creation story, where we learned that we are mortal and that death is a part of who are. A Village site that have been occupied by Native Americans, pre and post european contact, we lived here died here and practiced our spiritual cultural beliefs. There are approximately 14 burials here."

This land is filled with lemon, avocado, grapefruit, and orange trees. I noticed in the background how there was a house built on Tom-Kav, I asked different tribal citizens whose house it was. They all responded it was the house where all the farm workers live.  I asked PJ to further explain the history of the fruit and the farm workers upon Tom-Kav.

PJ explained that he has been a Native American Monitor for Tom-Kav for over a year, and how he found out the oranges are Sunkist owned. He told me how this sacred site is known as the avocado belt in the farming industry. He stated, “The two most destructive forces to (sacred) sites in Southern California are any type of produce groves and golf courses.” I then thought of how often I think of if fruit is organic but how little I wonder if it grows on a sacred site and is destroying that site by being a foreign plant in that area.

Lastly, Wounded Knee asked one of the farm workers to build a sacred fire. The sacred fire was lit and the sharing stories started to happen. I spoke with the farm workers after they built a fire for the people in our caravan. I asked Ric, from Santa Cruz who knew Spanish to help me with translation. We explained what was going on with the site and why we came down, and how they felt about sacred sites. I quickly learned the word for sacred site in Spanish is campo santo. They talked about the Campo Santos in Mexico and how they said in Mexico respecting burial grounds is very common. They thought they the land their house is on should not be bothered. We also talked about that if this road that Palomar College is going to put in goes through the orchards will be gone and so will their house. I looked into one of the farmworker’s shiny eyes that looked like it was holding back tears, and he said, “Well, then I won’t have a job and will have to move.” He also marked with distaste for his job and house but marked how he need this for his economic survival.

Tom-Kav is a place that is filled with so many layers, of the farm workers living and working there to a College desecrating it, to Sunkist making profit off foreign trees to that land and to of course the first peoples of this land protecting a place where their story starts. I wonder what I’ll learn tomorrow?

To sign the petition, go to http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/protect-tomkav/

Today, as I sit in front of that sacred fire, I hear stories being exchanged, songs being sung, and silence being spoken. I started to think about why did I come here to Tom-Kav. I then remembered my ancestors and remembered my grandma who is many ways is a second mom to me, I came here to pray and put my body on the line. During this time of sitting around the fire at Tom-Kav, I have had the honor of sitting at the feet of Uncle Wounded Knee. He talks story about sacred sites all around this country. He told me that “We (Indigenous peoples) have been compromising for 520 years. Took our land, killed our people. How much more do we have to have to take as Indian people?” With that see him speak for himself on why we came to this land, all 11 people from different parts of California.

Tom-Kav has layers of how this land has been desecrated. First, the land was stolen away from the caretaking of the Luiseno people and sold to the highest bidder. The land has had foreign produce groves built upon it that suck up the water from the indigenous plants that need it the most. The business getting the fruit upon this sacred site is bought and sold while migrante farm workers with long migration journeys come here and are exploited for their labor. Now Palomar college decided to desecrated the land by bulldozing on the same day they knew the San Luis Rey Band of Mission Indians were filing a temporary restraining order in court. They bulldozed at 6:30 that morning with tribal citizens running in front of bulldozers to protect their ancestors. They called for supporters to come, and within 24 hours a delegation of 11 people came including myself came to support human rights.

This site was also very important to other tribes’ trade routes. When I spoke with PJ he gave me a run down of the trade history of this land sharing with me that possible stones from down south in Mexico could be here, and remnants have been found as far north from Bishop, CA. He went into the history of Interstate 15, and discussing how many Native Americans traveled this route before the stone cold concrete pavement. PJ has been a Native American Monitor for Sacred Sites and Cultural protection for over ten years.

Palomar College is knowingly desecrating a sacred site, while it feeds its lies of a road that must be built to “educate” this county. In the past two days, Tom-Kav has lived up to its name of being a gathering place. People are educating each other right here about Tom-Kav, Sogorea Te, relationships, life, and plants. This isn’t Palomar College; this is the Indigenous Peoples College, where I have had many teachers, with some of the teachers not even being visible.  Best part its Tuition free, no heavy books, and open enrollment. Feel free to step up to the sacred fire and pull up a chair to learn.

About 5 minutes ago, About a dozen of these signs were hung up on Tom-Kav, Sacred Luiseño site... an anonymous Indian wrote this on the signs, the previous owner who sold the land off to developers is hanging up, but whats funny he doesnt even hold the "paper rights" anymore... but SILLY RABBITS... we know whos land it is... LUISENO LAND!!!

“Let me tell how the world works”, one of the opening lies (lines) of the new film Act of Valor (which I am re-naming Act of Propaganda), is said by a square jawed man who we are told is a “real” Navy Seal and therefore somehow should be revered and respected solely because he is in fact a “real” Navy Seal, which of course means to me and anybody slightly awake, that he is a “real” murderer who has perpetrated acts of genocide against innocent wombyn, children and elders across the globe in indigenous communities with impunity.

There are so many reasons why this movie is not only an insult to our collective intelligence but an act of violence to our logic, our spirits, our children and our minds.

From Top Gun to The Green Berets, the US military Industrial Complex has been pumping millions of dollars into the hands of “Hollywood” producers to ensure the depiction and/or inclusion  of military characters, scenes, story-lines, artillery, or plots for purely propaganda purposes. And similarly it has been common knowledge for years that if you show even a glimpse of some part of the military industrial complex in your film you will receive a phat pay-off to the tune of several hundred thousands of blood stained Amerikkkan dollaz.

What is truly frightening especially for conscious parents and teachers of young people is the blatant lie of this movie. This is a Navy Seals training film, complete with “black-ops” and other murderous tactics used by the hegemony filled soldiers known as Army, Navy and Marines. And we are led to believe that this narrative-less movie is an actual movie. So now I’m not sure what’s worse, the fact that so many people are asleep and can be so easily duped by this flagrant act of propaganda or that thousands more young people will be sucked into the myth that Navy Seals are “courageous”  and exciting and relevant rather than dangerous murderers who are agents of the deadly empire known as Amerikkka!

Full disclosure, I did not pay one cent of my meager blood-stained amerikkkan dollaz to see this horrible movie. I will not. But that doesn’t mean I stay silent. Especially if you work with/be wit young peoples like I do everyday, they get commercials of this movie drilled to them on Xfinity, Cartoon Network and the internet through games, so tell them what you think about the lies of the military industrial complex and how it preys on poor peoples of color, how this “movie” is a tool of that machine and how they can resist it. And then if you feeling your ovaries, stand up as I did, in a corporate movie theatre which my ghetto self is prone to be found at, inhaling corporate and non-corporate movies as a form of relaxation whenever we can scrape together the over-priced ticket fee, and call out to all in attendance-something to the tune of, “this is a lie, this is racist propaganda, this should be called Act of Genocide!

Making Herstory: Decolonizing Land One Piece of Concrete/Asphalt at a Time for HOMEFULNESS
By Lisa Tiny Gray-Garcia, Daughter of Dee

On February 26th in the gregorian calendar year of 2012, the landless, indigenous revolutionaries at POOR Magazine made Herstory.  In collaboration with our families and companeros at Decolonize Oakland, with medicine and prayer brought/shared  by indigenous leaders Corrina Gould and Fuifuilupe Niumeitolu and many more communities and folks herstory was made on a small piece of Ohlone land in the city known as East Oakland, CalifasAztlan, Turtle Island, by removing chunks of asphalt and concrete which covered the earth to build the Pachamama Community Garden @ Homefulness

Homefulness is a dream and a vision brought by the poverty, migrante, indigenous, elder and disability scholars at POOR Magazine, worked on for the last 15 years and guided by elders and ancestors and realized when we were blessed with a donation to purchase this humble space.

POOR Magazine believes, like most indigenous, decolonized peoples that no-one owns any land, and our sole intent is to liberate this land, to grow food for the community, create a school for our children guided by our elders and indigenous values and housing created on a sweat-equity model, not tied to how much blood-stained amerikkkan dollaz you have access to.

We faced heated and threatening opposition from the "landlord" next door who has claimed for the last year to have an implied easement to use our space as a parking lot, who we attempted for the last seven months to negotiate with to no avail, and who eventually called the Po'Lice on us to try to stop us from pulling up the asphalt. But we moved foreward as directed by our many spiritaul leaders and brought up the concrete and asphalt, clearing the land for healing and eventual planting of the garden, by Any Means Necessary!

It will take awhile for our colonized brothers and sisters to understand. We are moving with consciousness, prayer,humility, respect and revolution. The Story continues - stay tuned for the video.