flor y canto en el ley

my travels have continued this year. it’s been a week since we got back from LA, or how monica so cleverly writes, el ley. I’m still waiting for jetblue to refund my delayed flight, I won’t hold my breath. Anyways, the trip was super fun, adventures always are. We went to the west coast for Flor y canto, a conference for chicano writers of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. The first one was held in 1973, 37 years later they’re still kickin’.

For three nights in a row we put out grown men to recliners, floors, and couches. We walked around Long Beach and rode the mythical public transportation system of the greater LA area. I sat in the sun at USC watching the sparse students. We celebrated El Grito w/ the baby brown students and one-man collectives. Big ups to La Santa Cecilia, they were dope. The reps from Voto Latino swore if we all voted, si se puede! eh.. I just wanted to listen to the music and absorb the moment.

At the conference, I heard tons of chic-ano writers and their flight about going back to Aztlan. I’m not sure where this place is, but I hope they stop looking for it. One woman tried to get the room to pray to her, I walked out. Another cried in screams in Castile’s spanish. Some gave us their whole life’s story starting from birth. Spanglish was well heard throughout the joteria. All of the speakers live in the two world concept. Some of their poems reflected the problems faced by Latin@s today, while others still talked about eating flour tortillas. Asses were kissed for future publications. Someone even asked if i was a ‘poet’, hah. It was interesting observing the brown artists.

The speaker who, in my opinion, did the best job was my rockstar hermanita Monica Teresa Ortiz. If only I would have remembered to push the record button, we all could have seen it. She spoke with clarity and pride, one of her poems was even dedicated to the trabajadores. I’m thankful to have accompained her. We also hung out w/ her friend, Javier Huerta, a fellow writer from the bay who tells great good/bad jokes. I think he’s going to use some of my creative declarations, it’s okay thoughts are not my own. At the end, an older renowned chicano poet, Alurista, told us that Texans have an enchanting stare, also deadly. He emphasized the latter. Short and sweet, we left on Saturday. I’d like to sincerely thank the three J’s for catering to us, they made our trip great.
Yay for Flor y canto 2010.

Baby Boys Killing Baby Boys

Today in my Surveillance and Social Control class, CCTV (closed captioning television) came up. Apparently, the UK has the most cameras per person than any other country in the world. Interesting? Kinda, I mean the issue of watchers and watching is a whole other thing. However in 1992, a mall camera caught the shot of two young boys holding the hand of an even younger boy, leaving the shopping centre.This shot was later used as evidence in the murder trial of James Bulger.

On February 14, 1993, a two year old’s body was found ripped apart by train tracks a few miles from the mall. His body had been run over, however he was killed before his body was left there to seem like an accident.
Two ten year old boys, committed this ‘accident’ of James Bulger’s abduction, torture, and murder.
Again, two TEN year old baby boys killed a TWO year old baby boy.

I know I’m all late on this, because obviously I wasn’t paying attention to the news when I myself was a baby. However, how in the fuck did that happen?! How did the world forget about such a fucked up thing?
I always like to advocate the fault of environment, but I can’t explain this one.
They were babies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

‘Child Monsters’ is what the British media deemed them… the public was outraged. The families had to immediately go into witness protection plans. The kiddos, because they were kiddos, fell under doli incapax, to argue as kiddos they had no idea what the fuck they were doing. Thus, they couldn’t be held accountable. But because justice only works half ass, the kiddos were sentenced to 8 years, then the Brits complained again about the baby monsters and they got 15 years, only to be released as fucked up adults so tormented by their mistake and murder guilt and psychological disorders that killers have, only to be free to to the world to watch child porn. Some pretty heavy shit, right?

I still can’t believe it. Let’s see how you react.

In Observance of American Labor

Why the post office was closed, the banks were closed, the schools were closed….
however, your yard was still worked on.

Let’s not forget, the labor movement is still alive.
Not all of us have cushy office jobs.

A Recycling of Forces

Can you take a guess at which sector of armed forces he belongs to? The soldier in the photo, of course.
Is the marines? the army? national guard? the security guard at the library? the parking lot officer? a police person? the texas rangers? maybe, even al queda?

We don’t know, because it doesn’t matter which group he belongs to. They all perform the same duties.
A soldier is a soldier is a soldier whether the United States commissions them or not. My point is in regards to the news of last week, a “New” era of Iraq

Apparently, Obama pulled the plug on U.S. troops in this Middle East hot spot, “The Iraqi people will have a strong partner in the United States. Our combat mission is ending, but our commitment to Iraq’s future is not”. Of course this is 7 years later after it never should have even started, but hey! the we love to invade and take. Operation Iraqi Freedom looks just about the same as all the other countries, most notably in Latin America, where we take out your leader and mess up your government, kill your people, and instill ‘democracy’ <- what a great concept.

However, what is really happening is not the fact that 50,000 troops are still there. But, that there is “a transferring of military duties from U.S. military into the hands of corporate paramilitary forces”- says Camilo Meija.
Privatization of Military Occupation- Democracy Now

Well… I’m not sure what is going to happen, but what I do know is that soldiers love Lady Gaga.

“America’s men and women in uniform have served with courage and resolve. As Commander-in-Chief, I am proud of their service. Like all Americans, I am awed by their sacrifice, and by the sacrifices of their families.”