The DosCentavos 7th Anniversary Tour is going well. This weekend, we’re at the Youth of the Union Conference at UH where the sis and I will be speaking on the effects of Voter ID on young voters. Registration is now closed, but a limited number can still enter on-site tomorrow.

The Kingwood Area Dems needed a last minute replacement speaker, and it looks like they enjoyed my remarks on minority, especially Hispanic, voting, outreach, and redistricting. We can’t win without the suburbs, and population trends tell us that those opportunities are growing every day. Did you know that Texas House District 127 has a 31% voting age minority population? The 2020 census will be interesting.

Kingwood Area Democrats Brunch

If you have not yet purchased your tickets for the Kingwood Area Democrats Brunch and Candidate Round-Up, click on the link and do so.   Here’s your chance to support Dem efforts in Northeast Harris County, as well as meet your 2012 candidates. And, if you’re a candidate, you can sponsor, too.

Speaking of Famous…

Thanks to the folks at the site that invited me to do some guest blogging/writing. I’m on the verge of saying YES, but I just need to get through this weekend. I will be in touch!

More later…I think. Enjoy the weekend!

Now, nothing against Cubanos. Those who have received automatic amnesty upon arrival give other Latino immigrants something for which to hope. But they tend to vote Republican, anyway. The reality is that, even with some growth in activity, Hispanics made up 15% of the Republican Primary in La Florida, according to some exit polling. Chalk it up to their continued self-loathing love affair with Marco Rubio, perhaps millions spent on TV ads, and “Meat’s” sudden change of heart with his “blood for papers” DREAM Act revelation.

Romney seems to have come out of Florida with some cockiness, senselessly attacking President Obama, yet already calling out the Obama Campaign for “vitriol” that hasn’t even been scripted, much less made it to the the video editor. I guess that’s his strategy to become the “nice guy” by default.

But as Newt told us last night, there are 46 states to go. The media will play Romney (or is that overplay?) as the guy to beat, and Mitt will get himself a lot of free advertising. Let’s not even state the obvious–that Mitt could not even manage 50% last night among “conservatives.” He may become the chosen among GOPers, but surely not by default.

By the end of February, the GOPers will have gone through Nevada, Colorado, and Arizona, where Republicans aren’t Latino-friendly and where there are plenty of Latinos. And, no Cuban GOPers–or, at least, not as many. Either the GOPers will move on toward Super Tuesday badly damaged in the eyes of Hispanic voters, or quite flawed in the eyes of their own GOP voters for pandering to Hispanics in one way or another.

So, let Romney talk. Let him think that his anti-immigrant, anti-opportunity agenda is well-loved by Latinos. Either way, what comes out of his mouth will make for good ads and YouTubes.

Let’s just make sure progressives have a strong response.

I also remember how he would always write. Yes, I knew he was a poet, but I especially remember how he would write notions, ideas, who knows, maybe even a stanza, on any piece of paper he could find. I had never known someone so committed to his writing. So, when I saw the press release from Texas State University-San Marcos announcing Tomas Morin had won the American Poetry Review prize, I wasn’t surprised, but I’m definitely beaming with pride to see a fellow South Texan accomplish so much. Here’s the story:

By Ann Friou
University News Service
January 31, 2012

Tomás Q. Morín, senior lecturer in English at Texas State University-San Marcos, has been awarded the 2012 American Poetry Review/Honickman First Book Prize for Poetry, for his manuscript A Larger Country.

His book was chosen by this year’s guest judge, poet Tom Sleigh, who will also write an introduction for the book.

The annual American Poetry Review/Honickman First Book Prize in Poetry offers publication of a book of poems, a $3,000 award, and distribution by Copper Canyon Press through Consortium. The purpose of the prize is to encourage excellence in poetry and to provide a wide readership for a deserving first book of poems.

Morín is a Texas native. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish and a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing from Texas State, and a Master of Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University. He is the recipient of scholarships from the Fine Arts Work Center, Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference and the New York State Summer Writers Institute, and he was a fellow at the Idyllwild Summer Arts Program.

His poems have appeared in New England Review, Narrative, Boulevard, Slate, Threepenny Review, Best New Poets and elsewhere.

The American Poetry Review is considered the nation’s preeminent poetry publication, and it is the most highly circulated poetry magazine in the world.

The Honickman Foundation and its affiliate, the Honickman Charitable Trust, are dedicated to supporting projects that promote the arts, education, health, social change and heritage.

I still have a Tomas Q. Morin-autographed Persona from TXST where a couple of his poems were published. I cannot wait for the book to be published. Here’s one of my favorite pics (circa ’97?) of us when we had lunch with Arizona-banned author Dagoberto Gilb.

Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, has depicted Stearns’ probe as politically motivated and said she was dismayed that it had contributed to Komen’s decision to halt the grants to PPFA affiliates.

“It’s hard to understand how an organization with whom we share a mission of saving women’s lives could have bowed to this kind of bullying,” Richards told The Associated Press. “It’s really hurtful.”

Planned Parenthood has been a perennial target of protests, boycotts and funding cutoffs because of its role as the largest provider of abortions in the United States. Its nearly 800 health centers nationwide provide an array of other services, including birth control, testing for sexually transmitted diseases, and cancer screening.

According to Planned Parenthood, its centers performed more than 4 million breast exams over the past five years, including nearly 170,000 as a result of Komen grants.

As a Latino, I’m appalled that the right wing would attack an organization whose purpose is to provide access to health care screenings to those without access; and this especially includes Latinas. Unfortunately, I’m not surprised.

For Latinos, the 2012 elections are about a lot more than just immigration reform. Access to health care, jobs, the economy, education–everything the Republicans are seeking to destroy–are what 2012 is about.

When the great Muhammad Ali was asked how many sit-ups he did, he responded, “I don’t count my sit-ups. I only start counting when it starts hurting. That is when I start counting, because then it really counts. That’s what makes you a champion.”

These words resonate in Tucson, where Latina/o students are fighting for an education by sitting-in in the office of Tucson Unified School District Superintendent of Schools John Pedicone, walking out of classes, demonstrating, and taking to the streets.

Students are dispelling the myth that Mexican Americans do not care about education; they have started counting because it hurts. They know the difference between having subject matter that is relevant and having those books warehoused, between having teachers who believe in what they are teaching and sitting through classes where teachers go through the motions.

Read the rest here.

I agree with Professor Acuña when he says that the purpose of this is to intimidate other groups who may want to fight back against injustice. And as he says, this is about keeping Mexicans in their place–without a sense of history, without a sense of self. When liberals begin to realize what this is all about, then we can have a conversation about “Latino outreach” in politics. Otherwise, we’re just grasping at whatever is left.

Mike Kelley, LGBT Activist and Historian, Programmer, Quilter, beloved brother, son and friend, died peacefully Friday morning, January 20th, at Odyssey Hospice in The Heights.  Mike was born October 11, 1951 in Lawrence, Massachusetts.  He studied theatre at Emerson College (Class of 1975) and studied dancing throughout his adolescence.  After college,  Mike worked in theatre, directing and acting in many plays.

After moving to Houston, Mike worked with the Main Street Theatre, directing children’s plays, then worked as a Programmer until he retired.  He embraced his retirement, using his time and talent to the benefit of the Harris County Democratic Party, Pride Houston, the Quilt Guild of Greater Houston (QGGH), the Houston Area Rainbow Collective History (ARCH), and The Botts Collection of LGBT History.  Many ill and terminally ill children and their parents found comfort in quilts created by Mike for the Guild’s charity quilt program, Comforters.  His quilts were also auctioned as fundraisers for Ovarian and Breast Cancer research.  Mike’s commemorative T-shirt quilts were displayed annually at the Pride Festival and World AIDS Day Houston. Mike also enjoyed many showings of his work at the GLBT Community Center.  Mike logged over 3000 volunteer hours at The Botts Collection, identifying, collecting, organizing, recording, and preserving materials that are of historical value to the LGBT community.  His contributions to the community are too many to list.

Mike was preceded in death by his husband, Bill Brunson.  Left to mourn his passing and celebrate his life are his many friends, coworkers from his varied volunteer endeavors, the members of The Cotton Pickin’ Bee and QGGH, and his adopted family.

A memorial service is planned for Saturday, February 11th from 4 to 6:30 p.m. at the GLBT Cultural Center, 401 Branard St., Room 106, Houston, TX.  The Memorial will begin promptly at 4 p.m. with a reception following from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.

In lieu of customary remembrances, memorial contributions in Mike’s honor may be sent to:

Yes, that’s what Mike Kelley called himself when introducing me and my sisters to his friends and associates. Mike was a Democratic and GLBT activist, an artisan-quilter, and just the best brother I could have had.

Some of you might be saying, “a brother?” Well, our family had known Mike for years and we sort of adopted him. Or, he may have adopted us. When he first called us his “Mexican family,” I just thought it was funny. But when he traveled with us to my nephew’s performances, graduation, spent holidays with us, and introduced us as his brother and sisters, well, he was family. He was my big brother.

Yes, my family is better for having known and loved Mike, but this community is better because of Mike, too. It was long conversations with him about GLBT history, issues, and activism that made me first want to meld Latino and GLBT activism as a means of bringing together communities for a common goal–civil rights. And I will definitely continue that in his memory.

A memorial service honoring Mike will be held on Saturday, Feb. 11.

LaTeaNut Group Steals Trademarks “Republatino”

I can’t say I invented the word, but I’ve been using “republatino” since DosCentavos got started (2005). I received a comment from someone stating that the term was copyrighted. A quick search found that they just did it in December 2011 and seems to have first used it on some teabagger website targeted at Latinos. When I did a search on the e-mail, I traced it back to some North Texas teabagger group. Well, I coined the term in 2005, but I obviously do not use it for business purposes like the LaTeaNut group does. I just use it for fun. So, who infringed upon whom?

Anyway, any free copyright lawyers who can give me an opinion, please let me know. I don’t live off the “republatinos,” so I can always use RepubLatiNuts, RePendejos, etc. I can go on, but they just might steal trademark them all!

If the writing is honest it cannot be separated from the man who wrote it.— Tennessee Williams

A Solution Hoping For A Problem?

Much like Voter ID is a solution in search of a problem, I’m of the opinion that the new Republican-created requirement that college admissions offices serve a “migra” office to remind Texas DREAM students to fix their immigration status is just a solution hoping for a problem–like self-deportation or worse, a student inadvertently turning themselves in to authorities. The only saving grace is this:

The Mexican American Legal and Educational Fund worked with state officials in tweaking the in-state tuition policy, said Luis Figueroa, a staff attorney at MALDEF.

An informal agreement will ensure “that a student who is not eligible for adjustment status would not be sent to a federal agency,” Figueroa said.

Ultimately, though, the THECB stated that they only did this because of the Republican debate, not taxpayer input. So, there you go. It’s a political decision that costs taxpayers more, in the end.

Many of you have heard that along with banning Latinos, generally, Arizona is doing away with ethnic studies programs, thus, banning Latino-created literary works, including works by highly renowned authors like Sandra Cisneros and Guggenheim Fellow Dagoberto Gilb.

Nuestra Palabra is organizing The Librotraficantes Banned Book Caravan to Arizona. March 12 – 17.

The caravan will be filled with authors and activists who will be taking banned books back into Arizona, to give away. The bus will be filled with authors who were banned, new authors, as well as other advocates concerned with preserving First Amendment rights of Equal Protection and Freedom of Speech.

The Caravan will be making stops in Texas, New Mexico, and, of course, Arizona. More stops will be listed as they are finalized. More will be added as funding permits.

It’s time for Texas to support this effort. You may make your contribution at Librotraficante.

And the Texas Democratic Party has their pre-debate response to the whole hypocrisy, which I will add below. Bottom line:  ”Mewt” is not interested in serving any group of people. In fact, they are interested in corporate interests.

Even their Latino-esque-slash-immigration pronouncements will be about how best to exploit cheap labor under the guise of being “Latino-friendly,” as their republatino self-loathers club (including Marco Rubio) have attempted to spin this Florida episode.

Here’s what will happen tonight:  They’ll attempt being friendly with DREAMs of IED Fodder Act; they will say that Latinos are conservatives just like them; they will push the corporate charter school/school choice line; and I’m sure we’ll hear something about boot straps somewhere along the way. They will avoid words and phrases like equality, family unity, education funding, etc. Of course, I’m sure there will be attempts at lecturing Latinos, too.

I agree with the TDP that once they are done with the Latino niceties in Florida, it’s back to their normal–especially those other southern states.

Here’s the TDPs take:

Austin—Tonight the Republican presidential contenders will be taking part in a CNN/Hispanic Leadership Network debate. TDP spokeswoman Rebecca Acuña released the following statement:

“This momentary desire to appeal to Latinos will pass the second the polls close in Florida and the vehemently anti-Latino policies and attitudes that have dominated this presidential primary will return. The President has pushed for comprehensive immigration reform and passage of the DREAM Act while Republicans continue to view Latinos as little more than a political piñata.

As the GOP contenders tout their ‘moral values’ they won’t mention they are the party that punishes immigrant children because their parents dreamt of a better life for them.

Mitt Romney will probably not brag about the endorsement he received from Kris Kobach, the architect of the draconian Arizona and Alabama immigration laws. He won’t mention that as Governor, he vetoed the Massachusetts DREAM Act, and will likely try to gloss over the fact that he’s promised to veto the federal DREAM Act. He’ll have to defend his claim that ‘self-deportation’ is an immigration policy, which drew laughs at the last Florida debate.

Newt Gingrich is unlikely to repeat his comments that Spanish is the ‘language of the ghetto’ and will try to not dwell on the fact that he only supports the military provision in the DREAM Act.

It’s insulting that Newt Gingrich thinks it’s ok for immigrant students to risk their lives for this country, but not ok for them to practice their professions. Republicans are on the wrong side of every issue that’s important to Latinos. Before they got to Florida they were practically beating us off with a stick.”

According to a recent Latino Decisions poll, registered Hispanic voters in Florida support President Obama 67 to 25 over Mitt Romney and 70 to 22 over Newt Gingrich.

I like our chances with either of these, but if the self-loathers want Newt because he’s so “Latino-friendly,” bring it on!

Teddy Wilson at the American Independent reports that the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board is about to give colleges and universities added tasks regarding the Texas DREAM Act. I’ll call them “migra” tasks.

Currently, the Texas DREAM Act calls for a student to sign an affidavit committing to seeking a positive change to their immigration status. The policy change calls for higher education institutions to now manage the affidavits, as well as “remind” students of their obligations to fix their status.

According to the new policy, which has been placed on the consent agenda for the meeting, institutions will be required to “retain the signed affidavits permanently, and to instruct students when they are admitted, annually while they are enrolled, and upon graduation of their obligation to apply for permanent resident status.” The new rules also call for the institutions to “refer students to the proper federal agency” for instructions on how to apply for legalized status.

So, why the change? Well, they blame Mitt and Newt and the rest of the Republicans who have used Latinos and immigrants as their favorite political piñata.

“During the presidential election, when the dialog became so white hot, our board decided that there could be changes to the way the law is implemented,” said Chavez.

So, bigoted remarks by candidates are cause for policy changes, now? And wasteful policy changes, at that, according to a student Wilson quotes in the article.

“Higher education institutions are not knowledgeable in immigration law and would not know how to approach a federal agency about a student’s situation without putting in peril their privacy. For institutions of higher education to handle this without prior training is in fact, an unfunded mandate.”

We’ll be keeping an eye on this. Great article by Teddy Wilson!

And it looks like Mitt Romney’s immigration plan is pretty simple:  Self-deport, just like his family did–from the US and from Mexico.

On language:  They all reserve the right to campaign in Spanish, but don’t you dare try to conduct gum’mint business in your language. According to Mitt, bilingual education has caused “American” kids to learn less English (if I caught his drift).

So, as the Somos Self-Deporters group tries to spin Romney’s supposed flip-flop, I hope they develop a similar policy pronouncement as Mewt (I can’t tell them apart anymore) so we can tell which Latinos are actually for CIR and DREAM.

Thirty-nine percent of Americans call illegal immigration an important issue, down from 55 percent in 2007.

That’s a bigger drop than crime (14 percentage points), the environment and global warming (both 13 point declines).

On the flip side, the economy has rocketed up 18 percentage points in importance since the beginning of the Great Recession. The budget deficit (plus 16 percentage points).

Terrorism has slipped from the top spot on the priority list five years ago to third now, behind the economy and jobs.

Overall, illegal immigration ties for 17th on a list of top priorities, tied with strengthening the U.S. military. The only issues less important to voters are global trade, transportation, cutting military spending, campaign finance and global warming.

Well, this doesn’t mean Republicans will stop using Latinos and immigrants as their political piñata. Whether there are threats of a DREAM Act veto (Romney) or the creation of an all-new Bracero (labor exploitation) program (Gingrich), it is all about making the base and the big corporate check-writers happy. Either of these short-sighted ideas can make Latinos the political cucuy of 2012.

What it does provide us is a window at how voters are feeling nowadays, and if the economy and jobs are the issue, then it will be a battle of ideas. I like our chances in this type of battle, as long as we can clearly outline our ideas and defend them.

And I hope someone reminds some of our blue-dogs that immigration is not a top issue, too.

In this second phase of Promesa, Texas Democrats will launch a Fellowship Program and place fellows in at least eleven campuses across Texas, including: UTEP, UT-Pan Am, UTSA, UT, U of H, A&M-International, UT-Brownsville, UT-Arlington, UNT-Dallas, UH-Downtown, and A&M CC.

“These universities were selected because they have a large Latino enrollment and is perfectly located to provide the opportunity to affect several local competitive races,” said TDP Deputy Executive Director Anthony Gutierrez.

The Promesa Fellowship program will include a training program conducted by experienced campaign professionals. Fellows will then work to register voters, recruit Latinos to the campaign, organize campus events, get out the vote and much more. All the work done by Fellows will be geared towards turning out young Latinos in the Democratic Primary who would likely not participate otherwise.

“Several races across Texas are decided by a small number of votes every cycle,” said State Representative Rafael Anchia (D-Dallas). “We believe this project has the potential to have far-reaching electoral ramifications, including potentially at the statewide level.”

It is great to see this coming about. Let’s hope that this smacks to hell the notion by a republatino group that they are going to tell Latinos to vote for Newt in open primary states because he’s the “Latino-friendly” candidate. Democrats are going the extra mile with a diverse ballot that includes Latin@s who are actually Latino-friendly, unlike the republinuts’ Rubio and Ted Cruz, among others. Why the republatinos would want to support Newt of the Ghetto  is beyond me.

Anyway, Promesa is one of those projects that is giving me some hope regarding the young Latin@ vote in 2012.

Oh just one thing:  Maybe include Texas State University, too.

These kind of articles as “top stories” make me sick. Attempting to give relevance to Rick Perry as he destroys this state just to keep a media job does little justice to the political process. Why not have a continued conversation about how Republicans are intent on destroying this state? Instead, a single-digit presidential candidate is given credence just because he’s from Texas? Embarrassing.

Primaries Will Be Held in December

Well, maybe not, but Republicans are intent on destroying democracy. Not only are they trying to destroy voting rights, they’re trying to destroy voting. There’s different spins to the whole “Supremes reject the maps” story. TDPs is probably the most coherent one.

“The Supreme Court did not strike down the interim maps. The issues they had pertained to the process by which the court arrived at new maps, not necessarily the maps themselves.

While it is not clear what the final districts will look like at this point, what is clear is that the state’s original maps have been found to be discriminatory in some way by every court which has examined them.

The state’s maps completely ignored the demographic realities of Texas. The Supreme Court did not approve the state’s maps and we don’t expect they ever will.”

Republicans Intent on Destroying Latino Voting

That’s right. Emails by Republican legislators found they were indeed attempting to dilute Latino voting strength.

No shame!

I’d wish you all a good weekend, but it’s time to turn these fun weekends into working weekends if we really expect to win in 2012. And you better think outside the box if you really want to win.

Filed under: Chicano Politics, Houston Dems '12, Houston Politica, LatinoVote '12, TDP Convention 2012, Texas Dems 2012 ]]> http://doscentavos.net/2012/01/20/thoughts-on-viernes-01202012/feed/ 1 DosCentavos Republican Scoundrels