Following the lede

Sign up for giveaway of advanced reading copy of Fat Girl in a Strange Land

2012-01-11T07:33:00.000-05:00

Crossed Genres Publications is offering three advanced reading copies of the anthology Fat Girl in a Strange Land, which has my story "La Gorda and the City of Silver" in it, to the winners of CGP's giveaway on Goodreads. But you have to be quick because the giveaway closes Jan. 14.

I've signed up for the giveaway, not so much because I'm cheap (though I have been known to exhibit those tendencies every so often) but because early reviews have excited my curiosity about many of other stories in the anthology. (For some idea of the range of stories take a peek at Lillian Cohen-Moore's review of the anthology, which you can read here. A much briefer Publishers Weekly review is here.)

If you are interested in the genesis of the anthology read Bart Leib's blog post about it here. (Along with Kay T. Holt, Leib is editor of the anthology and publisher of CGP). You can also chat with him tonight (Wed., Jan. 11) at the weekly Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Chat on twitter. Use the hashtag #sffwrtcht to participate.

If you are interested in how I came to be included in this anthology, check out my earlier blog post: Unabashed fat.

Archbishop Chaput's new column has resonances beyond Blue Ribbon Commission

2012-01-05T14:48:00.000-05:00

In advance of the release of a highly anticipated report from the Blue Ribbon Commission on Catholic Education tomorrow, Archbishop Charles Chaput has written the first in what will be a weekly column with which the Archbishop engages Catholics to think about the challenges and opportunities facing the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in the next few months and years.

"One of my favorite stories about my early predecessor in Philadelphia, Bishop John Neumann," says the Archbishop in this first column, "is that he owned a single worn out pair of boots that he used for his entire adult life as a priest. He was famously frugal with himself, and famously generous in his love for others. That’s the spirit we need to recover."

Read the full column at the CatholicPhilly.com web site: Education, the Church and the legacy of John Neumann

Dancing in the New Year

2011-12-31T22:49:00.001-05:00

El Año Viejo by CELIA CRUZ on Grooveshark

Auld Lang Syne by Dropkick Murphys on Grooveshark

Wordless Wednesday, Miercoles mudo: 'We must talk about poverty, because people insulated by their own comfort lose sight of it'

2011-12-21T10:51:00.000-05:00

"Christ on the bread-line" by Fritz Eichenberg. Eichenberg - a Quaker - often contributed his illustrations for publication in Dorothy Day's Catholic Worker newspaper. The title of this post is taken from a Dorothy Day essay in "By Little and By Little: Selected Writings from Dorothy Day," (Knopf).

Todos somos Guadalupanos

2011-12-12T17:08:00.000-05:00

Photos by Sarah Webb

LETTER OF THE HISPANIC/LATINO BISHOPS TO IMMIGRANTS - CARTA DE LOS OBISPOS HISPANOS/LATINOS A LOS INMIGRANTES

2011-12-12T03:23:00.001-05:00

Dear immigrant sisters and brothers,

May the peace and grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ be with all of you!

We the undersigned Hispanic/Latino Bishops of the United States wish to let those of you who lack proper authorization to live and work in our country know that you are not alone, or forgotten. We recognize that every human being, authorized or not, is an image of God and therefore possesses infinite value and dignity. We open our arms and hearts to you, and we receive you as members of our Catholic family. As pastors, we direct these words to you from the depths of our heart.

In a very special way we want to thank you for the Christian values you manifest to us with your lives—your sacrifice for the well-being of your families, your determination and perseverance, your joy of life, your profound faith and fidelity despite your insecurity and many difficulties. You contribute much to the welfare of our nation in the economic, cultural and spiritual arenas.

The economic crisis has had an impact on the entire U.S. community. Regretfully, some in reaction to this environment of uncertainty show disdain for immigrants and even blame them for the crisis. We will not find a solution to our problems by sowing hatred. We will find the solution by sowing a sense of solidarity among all workers and co-workers —immigrants and citizens—who live together in the United States.

In your suffering faces we see the true face of Jesus Christ. We are well aware of the great sacrifice you make for your families’ well-being. Many of you perform the most difficult jobs and receive miserable salaries and no health insurance or social security. Despite your contributions to the well-being of our country, instead of receiving our thanks, you are often treated as criminals because you have violated current immigration laws.

We are also very aware of the pain suffered by those families who have experienced the deportation of one of their members. We are conscious of the frustration of youth and young adults who have grown up in this country and whose dreams are shattered because they lack legal immigration status. We also know of the anxiety of those whose application process for permanent residency is close to completion and of the anguish of those who live daily under the threat of deportation. This situation cries out to God for a worthy and humane solution.

We acknowledge that, at times, actions taken in regard to immigrants have made you feel ignored or abandoned, especially when no objection is raised to the false impressions that are promoted within our society. Through the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops we have testified before the U.S. Congress for change in our immigration laws and for legislation that respects family unity and provides an orderly and reasonable process for unauthorized persons to attain citizenship. The new law should include a program for worker visas that respects the immigrants’ human rights, provides for their basic needs and ensures that they enter our country and work in a safe and orderly manner. We will also continue to advocate on behalf of global economic justice, so that our brothers and sisters can find employment opportunities in their countries of origin that offer a living wage, and allow them to live with dignity.

Immigrants are a revitalizing force for our country. The lack of a just, humane and effective reform of immigration laws negatively affects the common good of the entire United States.

It pains and saddens us that many of our Catholic brothers and sisters have not supported our petitions for changes in the immigration law that will protect your basic rights while you contribute your hard work to our country. We promise to keep working to bring about this change. We know how difficult the journey is to reach the border and to enter the United States. That is why we are committed to do all that we can to bring about a change in the immigration law, so that you can enter and remain here legally and not feel compelled to undertake a dangerous journey in order to support and provide for your families. As pastors concerned for your welfare, we ask you to consider seriously whether it is advisable to undertake the journey here until after just and humane changes occur in our immigration laws.

Nevertheless, we are not going to wait until the law changes to welcome you who are already here into our churches, for as St. Paul tells us, “You are no longer aliens or foreign visitors; you are fellow-citizens with the holy people of God and part of God’s household” (Eph 2:19).

As members of the Body of Christ which is the Church, we offer you spiritual nourishment. Feel welcome to Holy Mass, the Eucharist, which nourishes us with the word and the body and blood of Jesus. We offer you catechetical programs for your children and those religious education programs that our diocesan resources allow us to put at your disposal.

We who are citizens and permanent residents of this country cannot forget that almost all of us, we or our ancestors, have come from other lands and together with immigrants from various nations and cultures, have formed a new nation. Now we ought to open our hearts and arms to the recently arrived, just as Jesus asks us to do when he says, “I was hungry and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me to drink; I was an alien and you took me into your house” (Mt 25:35). These words of the Lord Jesus can be applied to the new immigrants among us. They were hungry in their land of origin; they were thirsty as they traveled through the deserts, and they find themselves among us as aliens. (See Daniel G. Groody, CSC, “Crossing the Line,” in The Way, Vol. 43,, No. 2, April 2004, p. 58-69). Their presence challenges us to be more courageous in denouncing the injustices they suffer. In imitation of Jesus and the great prophets we ought to denounce the forces that oppress them and announce the good news of the Kingdom with our works of charity. Let us pray and struggle to make it possible for these brothers and sisters of ours to have the same opportunities from which we have benefitted.

We see Jesus the pilgrim in you migrants. The Word of God migrated from heaven to earth in order to become man and save humanity. Jesus emigrated with Mary and Joseph to Egypt, as a refugee. He migrated from Galilee to Jerusalem for the sacrifice of the cross, and finally he emigrated from death to life in the resurrection and ascension to heaven. Today, he continues to journey and accompany all migrants on pilgrimage throughout the world in search of food, work, dignity, security and opportunities for the welfare of their families.

You reveal to us the supreme reality of life: we are all migrants. Your migration gives a strong and clear message that we are migrants on the way to eternal life. Jesus accompanies all Christians on our journey toward the house of our Father, God’s Kingdom in heaven. (See Pope John Paul II, Tertio Millennio Adveniente, No. 50.)

We urge you not to despair. Keep faith in Jesus the migrant who continues to walk beside you. Have faith in Our Lady of Guadalupe who constantly repeats to us the words she spoke to St. Juan Diego, “Am I, who am your mother, not here?” She never abandons us, nor does St. Joseph who protects us as he did the Holy Family during their emigration to Egypt.

As pastors we want to continue to do advocacy for all immigrants. With St. Paul we say to you: “Do not be mastered by evil; but master evil with good.” (Rm 12:21).

May Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, accompany you and bless you always.

Sincerely in Christ our Savior,

The Hispanic/Latino Bishops of the United States

Muy estimados hermanas y hermanos inmigrantes,

¡Que la paz y la gracia de Nuestro Señor Jesucristo estén con todos ustedes!

Nosotros los obispos hispanos/latinos de Estados Unidos abajo firmantes les hacemos saber a quienes se encuentran en nuestro país sin papeles que no están solos ni olvidados. Reconocemos que todo ser humano, documentado o no, es imagen de Dios y por lo tanto tiene un valor y dignidad infinitos. Les abrimos nuestros brazos y nuestro corazón y los recibimos como miembros de nuestra familia católica. Como pastores, les dirigimos estas palabras desde lo más profundo de nuestro corazón.

De una manera muy especial queremos agradecerles los valores cristianos que nos demuestran con su vida – el sacrificio por el bien de sus familias, la determinación y perseverancia, el gozo de vivir, su profunda fe y su fidelidad a pesar de la inseguridad y tantas dificultades. Ustedes contribuyen mucho al bienestar de nuestra nación en el ámbito económico, cultural y espiritual.

La crisis económica ha impactado a toda la comunidad estadounidense. Lamentablemente, algunos aprovechan este ambiente de incertidumbre para despreciar al migrante y aun culparlo por esta crisis. Sembrar el odio no nos lleva a remediar la crisis. Encontraremos el remedio en la solidaridad entre todos los trabajadores y colaboradores—inmigrantes y ciudadanos—que conviven en los Estados Unidos.

En sus rostros sufrientes vemos el rostro verdadero de Jesucristo. Sabemos muy bien el gran sacrificio que hacen por el bien de sus familias. Muchos de ustedes hacen los trabajos más difíciles, con sueldos miserables y sin seguro de salud o prestaciones salariales o sociales. A pesar de sus contribuciones al bienestar de nuestro país, en lugar de ofrecerles gratitud, se les trata como criminales porque han violado la ley de inmigración actual.

Estamos también muy conscientes del dolor de las familias que han sufrido la deportación de alguno de sus miembros; de la frustración de los jóvenes que han crecido en este país y cuyos sueños son truncados por su estatus migratorio; de la ansiedad de aquellos que están en espera de la aprobación de su petición de residencia permanente; y de la angustia de quienes viven cada día bajo la amenaza de ser deportados. Todas estas situaciones claman a Dios por una solución digna y humana.

Reconocemos que en ocasión las acciones tomadas con respecto a los inmigrantes les ha llevado a sentirse ignorados y abandonados, incluyendo cuando no se han escuchado voces que se levanten ante las falsedades que se promueven dentro de nuestra sociedad. Por medio de la Conferencia de Obispos Católicos de Estados Unidos (USCCB) hemos abogado ante el Congreso estadounidense por un cambio a la ley de inmigración que respete la unidad de la familia, e incluya pasos ordenados y razonables para que personas sin documentos puedan obtener la ciudadanía. La nueva ley deberá incluir un programa de visas para trabajadores que respete los derechos humanos de los inmigrantes, les provea las necesidades básicas para vivir y facilite su ingreso a nuestro país para trabajar en un ambiente seguro y ordenado. Así mismo, continuamos abogando por la justicia económica global que facilite el empleo de nuestros hermanos y hermanas en su tierra de origen y les provea lo suficiente para vivir con dignidad.

El pueblo inmigrante es una fuerza revitalizadora para el país. La falta de una reforma migratoria justa, humana y eficaz debilita el bien común de toda la unión americana.

Nos duele y nos apena que muchos de nuestros hermanos y hermanas católicos no hayan apoyado nuestras peticiones por un cambio a la ley de inmigración que proteja sus derechos, mientras ustedes contribuyen con su trabajo a nuestro país. Les prometemos que seguiremos trabajando para obtener este cambio. Conocemos lo difícil que es el camino para llegar y para entrar a Estados Unidos. Por eso estamos comprometidos a hacer lo que podamos para lograr un cambio de ley que les permita entrar y vivir en este país legalmente, y no se vean ustedes obligados a emprender un camino peligroso para proveer a sus familias. Como pastores que se preocupan por el bienestar de todos ustedes, les debemos decir que consideren seriamente si es aconsejable emprender su camino hacia acá antes de que se logre un cambio justo y humano en las leyes de inmigración.

Sin embargo, no vamos a esperar hasta que cambie la ley para darles la bienvenida en nuestras iglesias a los que ya están aquí, ya que San Pablo nos dice, “Ustedes ya no son extranjeros ni huéspedes, sino conciudadanos de los que forman el pueblo de Dios; son familia de Dios” (Ef. 2:19).

Como miembros del Cuerpo de Cristo que es la Iglesia, les ofrecemos alimento espiritual. Siéntanse bienvenidos a la Santa Misa, la Eucaristía que nos alimenta con la palabra y con el cuerpo y la sangre de Jesús. Les ofrecemos programas de catequesis para sus hijos, y los programas de formación que nuestros esfuerzos diocesanos nos permiten poner a su alcance.

Los ciudadanos y residentes permanentes de este país no podemos olvidar que casi todos, nosotros o nuestros antepasados, hemos venido de otras tierras, y juntos con inmigrantes de varias naciones y culturas hemos formado una nueva nación. Ahora debemos abrirles el corazón y los brazos a los recién llegados, como nos lo pide Jesús cuando nos dice, “Tuve hambre y ustedes me alimentaron; tuve sed y ustedes me dieron de beber; pasé como forastero y ustedes me recibieron en su casa” (Mt 25:35). Estas palabras del Señor Jesús se pueden aplicar a los inmigrantes entre nosotros. Tuvieron hambre en su tierra de origen, tuvieron sed al pasar por el desierto, y se encuentran entre nosotros como forasteros (ver Daniel G. Groody, CSC, “Crossing the Line,” The Way, Vol. 43, No.2, abril 2004, p.58-69). Su presencia nos invita a ser más valientes en la denuncia de las injusticias que sufren. A imitación de Jesús y de los grandes

profetas, debemos denunciar las fuerzas que los oprimen, y anunciar la buena nueva del Reino con nuestras obras de caridad. Oremos y luchemos para que estos hermanos y hermanas nuestras tengan las mismas oportunidades de las cuales nosotros nos hemos beneficiado.

Vemos en ustedes migrantes a Jesús peregrino. La Palabra de Dios migró del cielo a la tierra para hacerse hombre y salvar a la humanidad. Jesús emigró con María y José a Egipto, como refugiado. Migró de Galilea a Jerusalén para el sacrificio de la Cruz, y finalmente emigró de la muerte a la resurrección y ascendió al cielo. Hoy día, sigue caminando y acompañando a todos los migrantes que peregrinan por el mundo en búsqueda de alimento, trabajo, dignidad, seguridad y oportunidades para el bien de sus familias.

Ustedes nos revelan la realidad suprema de la vida: todos somos migrantes. Su migración es un fuerte y claro mensaje de que todos somos migrantes hacia la vida eterna. Jesús nos acompaña a todos los cristianos en nuestro peregrinar hacia la casa del Padre, el reino de Dios en el cielo (Ver Tertio Millennio Adveniente No. 50).

Les rogamos que no se desesperen. Mantengan su fe en Jesús migrante que sigue caminando con ustedes, y en la Santísima Virgen de Guadalupe que constantemente nos repite las palabras dichas a san Juan Diego, “¿No estoy yo aquí que soy tu Madre?” Ella nunca nos abandona, ni nos abandona san José quien nos protege como lo hizo con la Sagrada Familia durante su emigración a Egipto.

Como pastores queremos seguir abogando por todos los inmigrantes. Con san Pablo les repetimos: “No se dejen vencer por el mal; antes bien, venzan el mal con la fuerza del bien” (Rom. 12:21).

Que Dios todopoderoso, Padre, Hijo y Espíritu Santo los acompañe y los bendiga siempre.

Sinceramente en Cristo Salvador,

Los Obispos Hispanos/Latinos de Estados Unidos

Most Rev. José H. Gómez

Archbishop of Los Angeles

Most Rev. Gustavo García-Siller, MSpS

Archbishop of San Antonio

Most Rev. Gerald R. Barnes

Bishop of San Bernardino

Most Rev. Alvaro Corrada del Rio, SJ

Apostolic Administrator of Tyler

Bishop of Mayaguez, PR

Most Rev. Felipe de Jesús Estevez

Bishop of St. Augustine

Most Rev. Richard J. García

Bishop of Monterey

Most Rev. Armando X. Ochoa

Apostolic Administrator of El Paso

Bishop-designate of Fresno

Most Rev. Plácido Rodríguez, CMF

Bishop of Lubbock

Most Rev. James A. Tamayo

Bishop of Laredo

Most Rev. Raymundo J. Peña

Bishop Emeritus of Brownsville

Most Rev. Arthur Tafoya

Bishop Emeritus of Pueblo

Most Rev. Daniel E. Flores

Bishop of Brownsville

Most Rev. Fernando Isern, D.D.

Bishop of Pueblo

Most Rev. Ricardo Ramírez,

Bishop of Las Cruces

Most Rev. Jaime Soto

Bishop of Sacramento

Most Rev. Joe S. Vásquez

Bishop of Austin

Most Rev. Carlos A. Sevilla, SJ

Bishop Emeritus of Yakima

Most Rev. Oscar Cantú, S.T.D.

Auxiliary Bishop of San Antonio

Most Rev. Arturo Cepeda

Auxiliary Bishop of Detroit

Most Rev. Manuel A. Cruz

Auxiliary Bishop of Newark

Most Rev. Rutilio del Riego

Auxiliary Bishop of San Bernardino

Most Rev. Eusebio Elizondo, M.Sp.S

Auxiliary Bishop of Seattle

Most Rev. Francisco González , S.F.

Auxiliary Bishop of Washington, DC

Most Rev. Eduardo A. Nevares

Auxiliary Bishop of Phoenix

Most Rev. Alexander Salazar

Auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles

Most Rev. David Arias, OAR

Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus of Newark

Most Rev. Octavio Cisneros, DD

Auxiliary Bishop of Brooklyn

Most. Rev. Edgar M. da Cunha, SDV

Auxiliary Bishop of Newark

Most Rev. Cirilo B. Flores

Auxiliary Bishop of Orange

Most Rev. Josu Iriondo

Auxiliary Bishop of New York

Most Rev. Alberto Rojas

Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago

Most Rev. Luis Rafael Zarama

Auxiliary Bishop of Atlanta

Most Rev. Gabino Zavala

Auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

December 12, 2011

Parishes prepare to celebrate Our Lady of Guadalupe - and a legislative alert on pending anti-immigrant legislation

2011-12-10T07:45:00.004-05:00

Latinos throughout the Philadelphia Archdiocese are preparing for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe (Dec. 12).

A major celebration will take place at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul at 18th and the Parkway Sunday, Dec. 11. Processions will start out from St. Thomas Aquinas and Annunciation BVM in South Philadelphia, and from Visitation BVM, St. Michael and St. Peter the Apostle in North Philadelphia, at 7 p.m. As the processions arrive at the Cathedral at 8 p.m. when mariachis and those gathered will serenade Our Lady of Guadalupe with Las Mañanitas - the traditional way to mark the vigil of her feast day. Mass with mariachi music will begin at 9, followed by an indoor procession, a presentation of roses to Our Lady, and refreshments. Join us for this incredibly joyful and festive celebration!

Here's a video snippet from a past celebration of the feast day:

On Dec. 12 itself, at Our Lady of Fatima in Bensalem, the Mañanitas vigil takes place at 5 a.m. A procession takes starts at 6 p.m. and the feast day Mass begins at 8 p.m.

Non fecit taliter omni nationi. ¡Que viva la Morenita!

---
Voice your opposition to these two pieces of legislation:

SB 9: SB 9 passed the House State Government Committee on Tuesday and is scheduled for a vote on the House Floor on Monday, Dec. 12. SB 9 would require applicants for a wide range of public benefits to show government-issued ID. The bill's supporters claim that its purpose is to prevent undocumented immigrants from receiving benefits that they are ineligible for - even though there is no evidence that this is happening. Instead, the bill would prevent eligible Pennsylvanians who lack ID from accessing the benefits they need and cost millions in taxpayer dollars to implement. Project H.O.M.E. Philadelphia's tireless advocates for the homeless have opposed this bill precisely because of the anticipated impact on homeless citizens. Click here for an automated form to voice your opposition.

HB 439: On November 15, HB 439 became the first anti-immigrant bill to pass the PA House. HB 439 would require licensing boards and commissions to revoke the license of any business that knowingly hires an unauthorized worker. This could mean that an entire hospital's license could be revoked because of a single undocumented employee. This provision could make employers hesitant to hire foreign-born workers and create an atmosphere of fear and bigotry in the workplace. HB 439 has been committed to the Senate State Government committee. Click here for an automated form to voice your opposition.

Manu Chao, Two Americans and Arizona's SB 1070

2011-12-09T08:33:00.000-05:00

Manu Chao is a Spanish/French singer, who performed in Sept. at Penns Landing in Philadelphia. Later that month he gave a free concert in Arizona for altoarizona.com to draw attention to the harsh immigration laws in effect in that state.

Parts of the video are filmed in front of Arizona Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's tent city jail for undocumented immigrants. Yes, the sheriff makes them wear "jailbird" stripes, and a number of years ago, he paraded them down main street in shackles (this link will take you to the New York Times editorial that appeared after that degrading spectacle) and are part of a documentary titled "Two Americans" (www.twoamericans.com). Here's the trailer from their film:

Wordless Wednesday, Miercoles Mudo: The art of belief

2011-12-07T07:21:00.001-05:00

18th century, Central American school, oil on linen.

At long last - a finished quilt

2011-12-06T07:37:00.004-05:00

If you read my blog post of Nov. 15, 2009, "How to make an immigrant quilt," you know how very long I've been working (and not working) at finishing this crazy quilt. Sara Newswanger, a Mennonite quilter from Churchtown, Pa., did the binding and quilted through the yardage of vintage batik from Zaire I gave her for backing.

So ... now that I see it ... those three blocks on the third panel from the top should have all been oriented differently. The white bird's head should have pointed at the feet of Our Lady of Guadalupe in that medallion-shaped piece in the center; the trees in the block on the left would have echoed that "footing," and the writing on the square on the right (with the pieces of a drawn "story quilt" my daughter started when she was tiny) would have been legible. Oh well, live and learn.

I'll get it right in the next quilt. ;-)

Sara echoed the hearts I had appliqued on the verso in her quilting.

A subversion of stories

2011-12-04T16:13:00.005-05:00

I love collective nouns: a parliament of owls, a murder of crows, an exaltation of larks. The provenance of some collective nouns are easy to figure, others less so. With their mythic ties to Athena, the ancient Greek goddess of wisdom, I can guess how a group of owls became a parliament. But a murder of crows? They aren’t birds of prey -- those lethally efficient killers of the bird world -- just scavengers. Still, in spite of -- or maybe because of -- the horrific meaning of the word murder, this collective noun is one of the most memorable. Easy to remember. Evocative.

Which is all background for my intended use of this collective noun for stories: a subversion.

Yeah, the word means to overthrow, to ruin and destroy. Not nice words -- as dark, sometimes, as murder -- and not what most writers would choose to describe the painstaking product of their craft. But it fits. Stories supplant and turn things upside down -- even the gentlest and quietest stories. Stories change what we experience (or imagine experiencing) by replacing the felt, the seen, the smelled, the heard, the sensed, the remembered and the said, with a whole new governing system: the written word.

Is there anything more dangerous, more utterly transformative? Not for nothing has literacy (and access to the printed word) long been considered foundational to freedom and the best proof against repression.

Which brings me to the specific subversion of stories I want to write about today.

Crossed Genres Publications (which, I’ll disclose, published one of my short stories a year ago and is slated to publish another story and a novel in the future) is releasing an anthology of short stories tomorrow (Dec. 5). “Subversion - Science Fiction and Fantasy tales of subverting the norm,” and each of its 16 stories, subverts in multiple ways. First and foremost, of course, they are stories. But they are also stories in an already subversive genre (what could be more subversive than swapping our world for another?) and filled with acts of subversion, both large and small. One of the stories even subverts the notion of subversion.

Pretty interesting stuff.

A number of the people included in the anthology are writers whose work I already search out: Daniel José Older, Kelly Jennings, Cat Rambo. Others were discoveries.

Camille Alexa was one of those. Her “And All Its Truths” is a story about a nameless person given up for dead in a prison on another world; a compassionate religious sister; and an act of sabotage worthy (and reminiscent) of the partisans during WWII. Alexa’s story is more Roberto Rossellini than George Lucas, and its images and characters linger long after the story is done. I liked this piece so much I hesitated before reading the rest of the anthology. There have been anthologies that I remember only for one story, good or bad (such as the anthology that contained Geoff Ryman’s “Pol Pot’s Beautiful Daughter”), and I really didn’t want this anthology to be that way.

I shouldn’t have worried.

I’d already read one of Barbara Krasnoff’s smart and well-crafted stories before I started “The Red Dybbuk” in this anthology, so I was predisposed to like it. Like Alexa’s story, there are traditionally understood acts of subversion in Krasnoff’s story about four generations of Jewish women. But beneath the familiar forms of activism is a much more subtle upending of legend and family dynamic. Krasnoff’s writing reminds me just a tiny bit of Grace Paley’s, mostly because the characters are rich and complicated and I’m convinced they have lives off the page as well as on it.

I hadn’t read any of Natania Barron’s stories before I cracked “Pushing paper in Hartleigh,” but now I’m thinking I’ll have to search out the rest of her work. The story is a weird and delightful combination of Western and semi-Elizabethan, in plot, world and character. Though this story, too, has a recognizable act of subversion in the storyline, its real subversion may be that it dares to invite inimical tropes to the party and gets them to play perfectly together.

Kay Holt’s “Parent Hack” hides subversion within subversion within subversion. In best Sci Fi tradition it takes real world issues -- in this case, absent parents and the shortfalls of the foster care system -- and reimagines them in a future context. The protagonists are two children who want to be brothers, three bots (two of them parent substitutes and a hacker bot) as well as a flesh-and-blood hacker -- and they’re all clandestinely overturning systems, be those code, expectation or actual institution. What’s particularly noteworthy in Holt’s piece is that despite its economy, the characters feel fleshed out, and are intriguingly complex. Worthy of a novel, in fact.

Jean Johnson’s deeply cynical and seamlessly written “The Hero Identity” is, for me, the most distressing of the stories in Subversion. That’s quite a feat in a book whose stories don’t shy away from showing the cruelties we (and our human proxies) visit upon each other. “The Hero Identity” is the subvert-the-subversion story I referred to earlier, and its inclusion in the anthology is sheer brilliance on editor Bart Leib's part. I can’t call this story my favorite -- to borrow a Gollum-ism, it’s tricksy -- but, boy howdy, do I admire its smarts and its skill.

I didn’t want to write about Shanna Germain’s story, “Seed.” Really, I didn’t. This story has the most repugnant of the many cruelties that prompt protagonists to subversive action in this collection of stories. But the thing is, Germain’s a terrific writer. Food, eroticism, cultural disjuncture, something a hair shy of femicide, the promise of revenge -- it’s all in “Seed” and its all laid out with consummate skill. Like Alexa’s story but far more disturbing, this one stays with you long after you’ve come to its close.

Newspaper folks like me know all about shared bylines on articles. It’s easy to do separate interviews and research and pull it into a seamless news story. But how does it work in short fiction? I don’t know -- I’m really asking RJ Astruc and Deirdre Murphy, who together wrote “Scrapheap Angel” for Subversion. This is one of my favorite stories in the anthology, what with its tyranny of depersonalization so well and completely drawn. There’s a lovely irony in Astruc and Murphy’s subversive act, and a gentle goofiness to it. You can’t help but root for it to succeed.

I read Subversion in epub form, but I have to admit, I would have preferred a print copy because -- no matter what the Who song says -- when it comes to this, the new “boss” is definitely not the old “boss.” I miss the feel of paper, the skipping around and the revisits that, for me, are more likely on the page than on the screen.

I know, I know, it makes me a downright unsubversive reader. I can live with that. Now, if only I could come up with a collective noun ….

Subversion includes stories by: Jessica Reisman, Camille Alexa, Melissa S. Green, Daniel José Older, Kelly Jennings, Barbara Krasnoff, Natania Barron, Kay T. Holt, Jean Johnson, Cat Rambo, Shanna Germain, RJ Astruc and Deirdre Murphy, C.A. Young, Wendy N. Wagner, Timothy T. Murphy and Caleb Jordan Schulz. Click here for its Goodreads listing and here for its Amazon listing.

Wordless Wednesday: Which anchor babies?

2011-11-30T07:57:00.001-05:00

Unabashed fat

2011-11-19T19:34:00.011-05:00

Adipose, from Doctor Who

Early in 2011, the bloggers’ site Smartly.com published a screed about fat people.

It was shortly after I had been approved to blog for the site, but hadn’t written a post yet and I was hitting it often to gauge the type of writers with whom I’d be keeping company. To be fair, the anti-fat-person post wasn’t written by one of their bylined writers -- it was posted in a subsection of the site called “Smartly Anonymous” and the writer -- regular? administrator? guest? who knows? -- was uncredited.

It was a pretty awful post -- prejudiced, intolerant, offensive (want to read it? go here) -- but I understood exactly what it was: bait. Provocative posts drive web traffic, and I’m sure the Smartly folks anticipated an upswing from whatever buzz the post would create. It’s not called Smartly for nothing.

I held back from commenting when I originally read it because I anticipated a firestorm of comments calling out the anonymous writer for the nastiness. But the comments were subdued. Some even sort of agreed. While most took umbrage with the word hate to describe the blogger's sentiment toward fat people, the commenters voiced disgust with the physicality of fat; implied a certain moral turpitude; described laziness, lack of discipline and a whole host of pejoratives as the imagined failures of their fatter brothers and sisters.

After posting two very long-winded comments, I decided I didn’t want to be associated with a site that hosted this sort of content. I haven’t been back, even as a reader, until today when I went there to retrieve the link to the post.

In the ensuing year I’ve noticed stories about celebrities tossed off of airplanes because they were thought too fat to fit in one seat (read it here); parents who starved their infant because they didn’t want her to grow into an obese child (read it here); how fat trumps race, gender, social or academic skills as a reason kids get bullied (read it here).

What is it about obesity that unleashes the vicious in so many of us?

Images of beauty and ideas about worth are formed by families and peers, cultural norms and societal pressures. Centuries of fine art (and, indeed, ancient and folk art) tell us that the large, fleshy body can be both beautiful and powerful, but since the middle of the 20th century neither perception nor societal norm has favored the corpulent. (For this post I’m going to write only about body size, not the other tyrannies of image society imposes. Read my “You might be a cult member if…” post for an earlier take on some of those.) There are probably academic treatises tracing the whys and wherefores of the shift from fat being okay to anathema, but I’m more interested in noting how we -- consciously and unconsciously -- shore up and entrench this thinking. And how, by doing so, we enable blog posts like the one that drove me away from Smartly.

I should probably stop to disclose that I was a fat child, and a fat adolescent, and although I haven’t been really fat for nearly half of my life now, I’m no slip of a woman either. I inherited a compact, endomorphic solidity from grandmothers on both sides of my family and mostly I’m pretty happy with what that means. But then, I was lucky enough to grow up in Latin America at a time when it was okay, even desirable, to be gordita. I watched my mother and her middle-aged (or older) tías and primas-hermanas and friends out on the dance floor -- all curvy overweight and jiggly parts -- executing killer moves I still can’t quite replicate. They weren’t a bit abashed by their bodies. They were confident and sexy and having fun.

You have to have some hips to shake them, baby.

I’m not an heir to the deep puritanism that underpins the I-hate-fat blog post and hides in some of the comments. Both my Greek and Guatemalan-Mexican sides hold with joyful eating, joyful dancing, joyful celebration and connection to an earth that itself is fat, round and celebratory. Embrace, not renounce, is the motto my ancestral blood pulses.

Still, it wasn’t lost on me that the books I read so voraciously had precious few fat protagonists. In the magazines I leafed through, the movies I watched, the music I listened to -- most aspects of pop culture, in fact -- the fat people were invisible. Nice irony, huh? The embodiment of presence and nowhere to be seen.

Which is more or less the way we want it to be at this moment in history. Think not? Read that blog and its comments again. A surprising number find the sight of a fat person an offense worth excoriation. And underpinning the healthful intentions of our current efforts to eradicate “the epidemic of obesity?” The same desire to erase the obese from our sight.

Understand, I’m not denying the health toll of extreme obesity, only pointing out that we speak of this differently than we do other health trends we’ve obsessed about. I remember when it seemed anorexia and bulimia were on everyone’s lips -- but we spoke about anorexics and bulimics in a much different way than we do the obese. Overachievers as opposed to underachievers. Steely with control as opposed to mushy with lack of it. Intensely intellectual in the sense of choosing mind over body, rather than animalistic. Wouldn’t you rather be thought the first in all of those than the second? How about if someone were using those words to describe your daughter or son?

I can’t imagine, in those anorexia/bulimia “epidemic” years, that anyone could have written a blog post like the "I might hate you" one at Smartly Anonymous and thought to get away with it, much less elicit the "I hear you" embedded in some of the comments. And yet here we are -- the fat are fair game.

A number of months ago Kay Holt, one of the editor-publishers of Crossed Genres, asked me to submit a story for an anthology she was planning. The catch, if you want to call it that, was that the protagonist had to be a fat girl or woman. And the fact that she was fat couldn’t be just a passing mention, it had to be integral to -- or at least integrated into -- the story as a whole. I ran through all my banked and half-finished short stories (there are rather a lot of them) and realized I had never written a story with a fat protagonist. Not one.

And I remembered being a fat little girl who read and read and read and never once came across a protagonist who looked even remotely like me.

Invisibility. Even from those who have felt it en carne propria (in their own flesh).

So I sat down and wrote a story.

Fortunately Kay (and Bart Leib, the other editor-publisher of Crossed Genres) liked “La Gorda and the City of Silver” enough to include it in their anthology Fat Girl in a Strange Land, which will be released Feb. 17, 2012. I can’t wait to read all the other stories in the anthology. The little kid in me is pretty much dancing around impatiently, a bit petulant at having to wait.

Is it going to change the way we perceive fat people? Probably not. It is a single small step in a journey that’ll take steps beyond counting. But tell you what, if even one young overweight girl sits down with the book and sees herself represented by one of the protagonists of the 14 stories included in the anthology, it will be enough.

And then I’ll celebrate -- so very unpuritan of me, don’t you know-- by making all my real, round and uninvisible flesh jiggle in a dance of pure joy.

Update: Ebook advanced review copies of Fat Girl in a Strange Land are available for reviewers! Email publicity@crossedgenres.com if interested.

I want to see you dance again

2011-11-18T21:54:00.001-05:00

For Nancy --

Because I lost count of the times I played this on the jukebox at the Hourglass and we danced around to it.

I'm thinking of you, my friend.

Wordless Wednesdays: Signs for the times

2011-11-16T20:16:00.001-05:00

At the March for America, Washington D.C., March 2010.

Of Latinos, social media and talking about what matters

2011-11-12T17:23:00.005-05:00


Dolores Huerta at the Latism 11 awards gala.

Thanks to Ana Roca Castro (@AnaRC), Elianne Ramos (@ergeekgoddess), Reina Valenzuela (@SOYLAMAR) and Elma Placeres Dieppa (@mzelma) I had the opportunity and privilege to attend the Latinos in Social Media (Latism) conference in Chicago this past Wednesday through Friday.

In addition to the obvious but somehow startling revelation that, yes, there are real people behind those twitter avatars with which I’ve become familiar by attending Latism twitter parties on Thursday nights (9 p.m., use #latism to participate) what was most interesting to note was breadth and range of this group of digitally engaged Latino professionals.

One of the interesting sessions I attended was a White House town hall on educational excellence for Hispanics. The brainstorming session brought together Latino bloggers and online journalists to voice their views on which existing educational initiatives are working, which challenges are being addressed and which aren’t, and the role social media has in meeting some of these challenges.

One of the strongest voices in this conversation was Vince Leung, whose MentorMob.com uses crowdsourcing to form an information portal and streamlines the process of accessing authoritative research online. Another was Carlos Macias (@PorColombia) who spoke of the need to ease social media and access restrictions in schools in order to incorporate social media in enrichment of curricula. “Mommy” bloggers from Miami and Los Angeles approached the questions posed by José Rico (@HispanicEd) at the town hall event from deeply personal perspectives about parental engagement. The level of engagement during the two-hour session was remarkable, and the ideas flying around were both incisive and wide-ranging.

But in this conversation I missed the voices of those facing the educational challenges of neighborhoods such as Kensington in Philadelphia or parts of Coatesville in Pennsylvania -- those for whom digital access isn’t at all certain or regular, and for whom traditional forms of parental engagement in education are circumscribed by the actualities of multiple jobs, work shifts that proscribe participation and inability to pay for what would allow their children equal educational advantages.

While all of us participating in the town hall were cognizant of this sort of challenge to educational attainment for Latinos, we were all speaking from privilege. We were at a social media summit, after all, and most of us are deeply engaged in digital discourse in ways that many of the working poor members of the extended Latino community cannot even imagine, much less experience. In my opinion those are the voices the White House most needs to hear at town halls of this sort.

By their nature conferences attract those who have the means and ability to incur the costs to attend -- and that’s just the reality even the most high-minded organizers have to contend with. The Latism organizers, strongly focused as they are on social media’s ability to do social good, organized a number of panel presentations to try and address some of the realities born of income disparity, including one on the digital divide within the Latino community, which I imagine dovetailed with some of the educational excellence summit’s concerns (I could not attend it, so I can’t speak authoritatively on whether it did).

Predictably, for a conference informed and formed by social media, the days were rife with workshops and panels on optimizing use of Facebook, Google+, Linked-in, Twitter, Wordpress, and building traffic to web sites and blogs. Tony Vargas (@TonyTorero and www.TonyTorero.com), a self-described technology evangelist, earned rave reviews for his presentation at the conference and spoke of sharing some of his tips and insights on his web site.

I enjoyed a workshop on the use of Spanglish in marketing and blogging, led by Juan Alanis (@juanofwords) and with the participation of Spanglish Baby blog’s Ana Flores, Pamela Diaz of General Mills, and Manuel Delgado, the CEO of the Agua marketing group. I engaged in some intriguing discussions about the challenges of multiracial Latino experience with Kiki Lightbourn (@kiki_liki); the healing power of writing with Ezzy Guerrero-Languzzi (@ezzylanguzzi); whether unfocused sensitivity to discrimination leads to victim mentality with Jean Manuel Jimenez (@jeanmanolo) and Berenice Arzate-Marsh (@BereMar3); and touched on a number of newspaper/journalism questions with Hernán Guaracao (@ALDIACEO) and Vanessa Smith (@ImpactoLN).

One of the surprises of the conference, and consequent abiding sadness, is two-fold. While people like Julio Varela (@julito77) and ImmigrantArchive Project founder Tony Hernandez (@TonyHTonyH) tweet regularly about issues of concern to those of us deeply involved in advocacy for immigrants (and both of them were at the conference) there was only one panel that addressed the ways social media can counteract the worsening immigration debate and its impact on all Latinos, regardless of documentation status.

That panel (“Social Media for Social Change”) was slated for Friday afternoon, when many participants were already headed to the airport to catch flights back home (including me) so regrettably I can’t tell you much about it. Except that the moderator Cheryl Aguilar (@cheryl_aguilar) is, at a good 20-years my junior, the person I want to be when I grow up. The two panelists I had heard about, Tony Hernandez, and Pennsylvania Dream Activist María Marroquin (@MGM1987, read my earlier interview with her here) are strong voices for good in the immigration debate. I hope attendance for this panel was stellar, I hope more Latino/a bloggers came away from it with the commitment to shine a light in this dark place of our nation’s psyche.

That is certainly what the keynote speaker at the awards gala on Thursday night urged. Dolores Huerta (www.doloreshuerta.org), already a hero to some of us through her historic advocacy for farm workers along with the legendary César Chávez, devoted a good portion of her keynote to highlighting the importance of the fight for justice for immigrants.

The second part to the abiding sadness I mentioned is that I met precious few registrants from religious organizations whose work is tied to Latino communities. I was actually in the position to note this because I worked the registration desk almost all of the first day and a good bit of the second. I also realized in conversations with bloggers that though I’m aware of how involved churches are active both nationally and at the grassroots level in immigration advocacy, most people haven’t a clue about that heartfelt and sometimes heartbreaking commitment by people of faith.

Like any conference, much of the enjoyment comes from meeting and getting to know people you wouldn’t otherwise meet. For me, one of those people was María Castrejon. Like me she’s been involved in journalism for most of her adult life, though she was in broadcast rather than print journalism. She knows, from the inside, how lopsided media coverage of immigration issues and its depiction of immigrants has tended to be.

I -- uncharacterically enough -- took part in a “30-second pitch” event in which I spoke about immigration advocacy -- its urgency, its primacy in safeguarding human dignity -- and how it can permeate every aspect of our creative and intellectual lives. I spoke specifically in terms of my work with Catholic advocates, my blog and my novel, Ink, which Crossed Genres (www.crossedgenres.com) will be publishing and releasing Sept. 2012. Afterward María sought me out. She understood exactly what I was speaking of. She wants to begin to make documentaries about the lives of the undocumented immigrants she’s met over her many years as a journalist. She wants to tell the stories she never hears or sees in the mainstream media.

And she will, I’m sure of it. Because the one thing I can say with certainty about all the Latism 11 participants I met is that they are passionate. And devoted. And determined. Overall, a rather amazing bunch of people.

The other certainty? Boy, they can tweet fast and often and never once miss a beat.

Guatemala elects new president - a reflection on memory and forgetting

2011-11-07T02:57:00.002-05:00

Otto Perez Molina, a former general, won Guatemala's election Sunday. It is the first time since Vinizio Cerezo's election in 1986 that Guatemalan citizens have elected a member of the military to rule them. And there's a reason for that - the 30 years prior to the 1986 election had been years of repressive military rule in Guatemala - regimes with death squads, torturers and architects of genocide in their ranks.

Perez Molina was part of that military that waged undeclared war on its own people. And despite extensive documentation (see the Archdiocese of Guatemala's massive report with eyewitness accounts of massacres and government-led genocide of indigenous peoples here ) the new Guatemalan president denies that the massacres and genocide ever occurred.

An Associated Press report about the election (read it here) makes the point that most Guatemalans are young and don't remember the genocide years. What's more, the culturally rich but otherwise impoverished nation has been wracked by drug cartel and gang violence and, the report states, people voted in someone they hope can curb that violence.

And he probably can - after all, he's a representative of the most insidious gang that beleaguered nation has ever known, and the most pernicious and entrenched of cartels.

No one outside a country - no matter how much they remember and love it, or how many family ties they have to it - has the right to tell the people who live there how, or for whom, to vote. But I worry this outcome.

See, unlike those young Guatemalans the AP report mentions, I do remember just exactly what it was like to live in the Guatemala of brutal military dictatorship. I do remember how a word - critical or compassionate - had the power to drive you and yours into exile, or worse, had the power to disappear you. I do remember people who lived in some of those indigenous villages where only a handful survived the massacres. Those were the years when people tried to avoid rivers and creeks because so many of them carried the body parts of the tortured and dismembered downstream. Those were the years when journalists and editors who dared print the truth of what was happening died, or were tortured, or were so grievously injured they'd never walk or write again. Those were the years when the first peoples of the nation came close to being wiped from its future.

I remember.

I was going through some of my mother's most treasured things today, thinking about the strange ways of memory. My mother was Guatemalan, and she owned many indigenous huipiles she wore even after we moved to the U.S. Those photos at the top of this blog post are traditional huipiles from a village called Nebaj. During the worst of the genocide and undeclared war in Guatemala, wearing the traditional garb in Nebaj was tantamount to wearing a bullseye. Paramilitary groups and a government-led scorched earth campaign turned Nebaj into a village of widows and orphans. Many of the Guatemalans who fled to refugee camps Mexico in the early 1980s were from Nebaj - and although the village still exists (a better fate than other villages completely erased by the genocide) it is probably impossible to tally the real human cost of those years.

Not so long ago I was discussing the undeclared civil war and genocide on Facebook with some of my classmates from Guatemala. I mentioned some of the people we had known who were killed in the violence and some of the incidents that had taken place before our eyes, just beyond the schoolyard. Some of my classmates have forgotten, others have vague recollections, but none have memories near as vivid and present as I have.

And that makes me wonder - are some of us born to be memory-keepers? To worry the shreds of history? To want to remember even when it is painful to do so?

In the 1980s the GAM (Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo) marched through Guatemala with the photos of their loved ones who had been disappeared. They placed humanitarian calls - with photos and descriptions - in the newspapers. Most of them understood their loved ones had probably died in extrajudicial killings, in massacres, at the hands of torturers. But they kept their names and faces present and in doing so they took part, to use ~~poet~~ writer Milan Kundera's words, in the struggle of memory against forgetting.

That struggle is clearly still taking place. Genocide is an ugly thing to remember, but it cannot be denied and its memory must be kept. I pray Guatemalans do so - because their new president has made it clear he will not - and forgetting is a dangerous invitation.

I pray for Guatemala, really, because I cannot stop loving it. And remembering it.

--------------------

I wrote the following poem in the 1980s, shortly after hearing that one of the founders of GAM was killed under suspicious circumstances. She had long asked for an accounting of her husband's disappearance some years before and, by some odd quirk of fate, I had clipped and kept one of the humanitarian calls she had placed in the Guatemalan newspapers asking for his safe return. I suppose if I were to write it today it'd be a different poem, and perhaps I'd choose to make it less graphic. But the circumstance would be the same, and just as undeniable.

The poem first appeared in the Spring 1988 issue of Graham House Review.

Suite for Rosario Godoy de Cuevas

1.
For this disappearance:
25 cents per line - minimum
two by two inches. Last three pages
of the dailies; last five
of the weekly. Humanitarian Call
to those holding Carlos Ernesto Cuevas Molina
that they respect his physical integrity
and that they set him free, so that he
can join his young son and distressed wife
Maria del Rosario Godoy de Cuevas
5th Avenue 2-30 Zone 13
Telephone #62188, Guatemala City
June 27, 1982.

2.
One believes time alone kills them.
But for us, waiting real news
time breaks to bated breath of days,
hours, minutes. My child forgets
his father's face - only glimpses
offered by grainy black-and-white photographs
in El Grafico or Prensa Libre,
or marched with a dozen similar faces
on placards of the GAM. If any
of them reappeared my child would likely
avalanche himself on the returning dead
proclaiming him a parent. Know this:
he was tall, handsome, fond of plaid
flannel shirts, endlessly dancing
to the Alma Tuneca marimba.
I tire of marching, of leading
this band of gathered hopeless.
Each body that makes an appearance
dragging its weight through river
or sprouting from beneath undergrowth
in fields, precipitates
the rush of all these familiar faces.
We meet in morgues, trash dumps,
communal graves. It comes down to this:
they have stripped us of memories
and we are willing to claim all as our own.

3.
Xibalba is the underworld of Mayan legend -
a person and a place -
peopled with 20,000 unburied voices,
built on a ground threaded with bodies.
The mythology is as follows:
at night, cars with no headlights
crawl through the city searching
for the marks of the furies. The white
hand-print that indicates no house
should be passed over. Doors open,
families are rewritten. In DIT centers
men perform reconstructive surgery
without scalpels or anaesthesia.
In our myths, none of the heroes survive.
The truth is as follows:
Zipacna was a legendary villain.
He carried one hundred men and a mountain
on his back, for the pleasure
in feats of strength. We invoke
him through the years, to cover
our crust of fossils. Yes,
even we admit it is archaeology
when the farmer plows his field
and arranges the rows into ribs,
or a spine.

4.
Female, 29 years old.
Olive skin, brown hair and eyes.
Third degree burns over 50% of body.
Ribcage crushed. Mutiple
contusions. Human bitemarks
on breasts. Evidence of rape.
Victim was pulled from burning
wreckage of automobile:
Honda, 4-door, 1981, no license plates.

5.
A primer for children.
Set the table in the following way:
salad fork, then dinner fork, on the left.
Knife (blade inward) tablespoon, soup spoon
on right. Teaspoon, dessert fork
above, arranged.

Do not serve yourself too much food,
or more than once. Balance your
implements delicately: the knife
between the fingers on the breath
of a feather. No coarse grasping
to indicate desperation or lack
of understanding for cutting edges.

Contemplate the ironed table linen:
a rectangular patch of material swished
ceremoniously onto the lap.
Knotting the cloth in anxious substitution
for speech. Each knot a thought,
each thought a disappeared person.
When you finish, show me the results -
I'll teach you to count.

Ink, Fat and Inspiration

2011-10-25T00:21:00.004-04:00

Where I write.

Last October I found out my story "Flying with the Dead" would be appearing in Crossed Genres magazine and my story "Paper Trail" was accepted for publication in GUD magazine.

I think we hadn't yet crossed over into November when I learned "Flying with the Dead" would also be included in Cross Genres' Year Two anthology.

They are each stories touching upon immigration, growing up in Guatemala and a particularly Latino practice of Catholicism. They were also my first fiction sales after years and years of writing straight journalism.

Fast forward a year, to October again.

First, I learn that this blog is one of three nominees for a Latinos in Social Media (LATISM) award for "Most Inspirational Latin@ Blog."

Next, I find out my story "La Gorda and the City of Silver" will be appearing in Crossed Genres' Fat Girl in a Strange Land anthology, and then, that Crossed Genres Publications will be publishing my novel, "Ink."

And again, all of these bits of writing touch upon immigration, growing up in Guatemala and Latino Catholicism. (Okay, not "La Gorda" which has nothing to do with immigration or the Church and lots to do with lucha libre - but we won't go there. For now.)

It makes me wonder about resonances, about the Octobers in my life - those months that, while a gateway into a cold and bleak season, actually bring a harvest of gifts.

Details from my writing space.

Or the notice of gifts to come.

October is a month dedicated to Mary - to whom, as Our Lady of Guadalupe, I have a devotion. My writing has long been a manda (a promise and debt) to her, so perhaps I shouldn't be surprised at what manifests in my life during her month.

Life. Art. Faith. Who can tell where the boundaries are?

Celebrate National Education Week

2011-10-20T20:57:00.001-04:00

My mother was a successful sculptor. Some years she made a better living as a fulltime artist than I have as a newspaper editor, but she had an abiding regret – she didn’t have a college degree. This wasn’t unusual for women of her generation in Guatemala, but for my mother – a lifelong reader and learner – nothing was about the way things were but the way they might be.

She accrued credit hours from the UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México), from Silpakorn University in Bangkok and from la Universidad de San Carlos in Guatemala -- in courses from fine arts to physics -- but no degree. She regretted this most acutely the years when her art didn’t even sustain her material costs and my parents’ existence would have been eased by a second income. Those years, she found herself with no means to supplement income as her artist peers were doing – with teaching gigs secured by resumes no better than hers but for one thing: the degree.

I make the argument time and again that we as a society should better acknowledge and respect those who chose to go into trades and skilled labor that don’t require a college degree (my husband is a butcher, after all) and that we should recognize that not having a college degree is no indicator of intellectual and/or creative genius (Hello? Steve Jobs and Bill Gates anyone?).

But that argument doesn’t invalidate the reality – a college degree is a basic requirement for many jobs.

And yet not too many years ago, when I was interviewing a representative whose district includes portions of Reading, Pa. (a city that has seen substantial growth in Latino communities) I heard the elected official dismiss the low rates of college enrollment in his district this way: Not everyone should go to college. The reality is that the not everyone in his district translated to not Latinos in his district. His district is not an isolated instance. According to a New York Times piece from May, 2011 (http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/05/24/the-downsized-college-graduate/a-gap-for-latino-graduates) fewer than half of young Latinos expect to get a college degree.

Despite that, college enrollment rates for Latinos have spiked recently -- 24 percent from 2009 to 2010 according to the Pew Hispanic Center (http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=146) and there are a number of initiatives to strengthen educational success among young Latinos. One of those efforts is Univision’s “Es el Momento” campaign, which focuses on college readiness and high school and college completion. Others have been undertaken by Latinos in Social Media (LATISM), a non-profit organization whose mission includes improving educational opportunities for Latinos via social media.

Their efforts are a vital part of ensuring that Latino children -- nearly 1 in 4 children in America -- are able to envision a future for themselves that might, can, will include college.

Update on first day of voting on National Security Begins at Home anti-immigrant bills

2011-10-04T23:26:00.000-04:00

HB 439, one of the 14 National Security Begins at Home bills under consideration by the Pa. House State Government Committee, won approval from the committee today. It will now go to the full house for a vote. The other bills in the package will be considered tomorrow.

Read more about HB 439:
http://pennsylvanianews.info/pennsylvania-top-stories/pennsylvania-enters-immigration-debate-with-undoc-immigrant-bill.html

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11277/1179677-100.stm

'National Security Begins at Home' bills would exact economic, moral costs

2011-10-01T10:36:00.000-04:00

Tuesday and Wednesday of the coming week, the Pa. House State Government Committee will be voting on a package of 14 anti-immigrant bills known collectively as the "National Security Begins at Home" package (House Bills 41, 355, 439, 474, 738, 799, 801, 809, 810, 856, 857, 858, and 865 Senate Bill 9). The bills propose changes to existing commonwealth codes and the institution of laws that range from the ill-considered to the downright nefarious.

The House Committee heard testimony from organizations and businesses opposing "National Security Begins at Home" at the end of August. Among those testifying: the Anti-Defamation League, the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, the Lutheran Advocacy Ministry, the Service Employees International Union, Community Legal Services of Pennsylvania and business owners highlighting different aspects of the proposed bill package they oppose.

Mark Shea, the administrator of Immigration Services for Catholic Social Services in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia who spoke for the Catholic bishops of the Commonwealth, called out HB 738, section 9 (a & b): "We object to any law that treats the actions of men and women to sustain themselves and their families through employment as 'criminal.'" Of HB 738, section 5 (5): "We object to any law that encourages racial profiling by permitting warrantless arrests based on probable cause that an individual is 'removable from the United States.'" Of HB 738, Section 2(4): "We object to any policy of 'attrition through enforcement.'"

"Undocumented immigrants in Pennsylvania are not responsible for any generalized 'lawlessness' in our communities," Shea said, "and for the bill's drafters to make such unsubstantiated claims merely contributes to a poisonous rhetoric that stereotypes undocumented individuals as criminals.... Immigrants do not fail to become citizens because they are lazy or inclined to criminality. Poverty, war and desperation in their home countries drive them here. Then our federal government provides no way for the majority of them to attain legal status."

The Lutheran Advocacy Ministry called out HB 857 and HB 474 saying that, "denying U.S. citizenship to newborn babies - one of the most vulnerable groups among us - runs counter to our biblical mandate to care for sojourners in our midst and denies them their fundamental right of human dignity ... Changing our current policy would undermine American values of equality, unnecessarily hurt children and families, and leave our immigration system more broken than it was in the first place."

Further, the Lutheran Advocacy testimony states, HB 738, 355 and the other proposed enforcement measures "originate from assumptions about immigrants and immigrant communities that have little footing in reality, the notion that 'immigration leads to an increase in crime and violence' being a case in point."

Both the SEIU and Community Legal Services of Philadelphia called out bills in the package that require use of specific forms of government-issued identification for receipt of public benefits. According to the Community Legal Services testimony, the measure will "unintentionally block an estimated 500,000 low-income United States citizens in Pennsylvania from accessing critical public benefits which they are eligible to receive." What's more, according to Community Legal Services, "the proponents of these bills have failed to show documented evidence of a widespread problem of ineligible immigrants receiving benefits."Regarding House bills 355, 439, 738 (sections 6 & 9), 798, 856 and 865, Community Legal Services' testimony states (emphasis mine):

"These bills create an assortment of criminal and civil penalties for employers, municipalities, and individuals who work with undocumented immigrants. As in other states, these bills are likely to be found largely unconstitutional and will lead to costly legal challenges. While they are in effect, they will subject businesses to costly requirements and potentially harassing litigation. As well, they would punish entire municipalities and all individuals living in them if critical services such as soup kitchens and domestic violence shelters provide services without regard for immigration status. They would also create tens of millions of dollars in unfunded mandates to municipalities and state agencies without an increase in the health, safety, or welfare of the city. Finally, they would subject lawfully resident individuals to illegal racial profiling, creating a community of fear among immigrants."

Businessman John Rice, of the Rice Fruit Company, with operations in Adams County, Pa., gave testimony of the economic impact the package of bills would have. "We do not need laws that would punish honest fruit growers for hiring the only workers that are available to harvest their crops. We do not need laws that would treat these workers as criminals to be identified, jailed and deported. It doesn't make sense. We need laws that would create a guest worker program here so that these people could come here legally and do the jobs that no one else wants ... They should be brought out from the shadow economy and treated with respect."

In his testimony Rice also stated that though his company doesn't directly employ immigrant employees in his packing house, some of the farms that supply him with fruit do, and he is "very afraid that the legislative package that you (the House Committee) will be considering at these hearings could put my company out of business."

His fears are not unfounded, if Alabama and Georgia farmers' experiences with similar laws can be taken as example. (Click here and here and here to read about impact of Alabama's more recent laws; here and here and here to read about the impact of Georgia's law, enacted in June.)

Stating your opposition to the Pennsylvania "National Security Begins at Home" bill package is easy, the Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizen Coalition provides a page where you can contact your representatives and senators directly (click here to go to it).

DreamActivist.org calls for immediate action on two deportation cases

2011-09-25T00:12:00.000-04:00

Nadia Habib is currently a junior at Stony Brook University in New York, majoring in psychology. Her mother, Nazmin, is the wife of a green card holder and has three U.S citizen children to take care of. Nadia and her mother filed for asylum soon after they arrival from Bangladesh. At the age of 10 Nadia was ordered deported. They were denied motion to reopen their case after a mistake of the immigration judge. They are set to be deported on Sept. 29 at 11 a.m.

Please take action to stop their deportation: Call DHS – Janet Napolitano (202.282.8495) and ICE – John Morton (202.732.3000)

Sandra Lopez was brought to the United States when she was only 3 days old. She has been living in Tucson, Ariz. her whole life, but is currently fighting her deportation to Mexico, a country she does not recognize as her own. Currently Sandra is being detained in the Eloy Detention Center. She has been in detention two months.

Please make a call asking for her to be released from detention (if you get an answering machine, leave a message of support): DHS – Janet Napolitano (202.282.8495) and ICE – John Morton (202.732.3000)

Poem to appear in Sept. 6 edition of Floricanto at La Bloga

2011-09-03T04:40:00.005-04:00

The moderators of Poets Responding to SB 1070 (become a fan of their community page on facebook) have selected one of my poems, "Broken Ground," for the Sept. 6 online issue of the Floricanto at La Bloga (http://labloga.blogspot.com/).

~~I'll post a link when the poem is up.~~ The poem is up at: http://labloga.blogspot.com/2011/09/magu-memorial-on-line-floricanto.html . Tell me what you think.

Hearings on anti-immigrant bills to be held in Harrisburg

2011-07-29T09:19:00.002-04:00

From the Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Committee:

Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, Chair of the PA House State Government Committee and chief sponsor of the so-called "National Security Begins at Home" package of anti-immigrant bills, will be holding hearings on this legislation. We need to have a strong presence at these hearings in order to show widespread grassroots support for a more welcoming Pennsylvania and overwhelming opposition to the bills in question. Although he is holding two hearings, we are hoping to have an especially strong showing on August 30 at 1 p.m.

When: Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2011, 1 pm (and Aug. 31, 9:30 am)

Where: State Capitol, Room 104, Harrisburg

More info: rebeccahufstader@paimmigrant.org

A friendship in e-mail: How Msgr. Francis Meehan kept me sane, Catholic and writing

2011-07-23T10:57:00.005-04:00

When I first started at the Catholic Standard & Times newspaper I spent a lot of time wondering whether God was playing a joke on me or on the paper. I had been away from the faith a long time, and not more than four years after my first step of return -- here I was, working at the Philadelphia Archdiocese’s official newspaper. (In case you haven’t guessed it already, I was hired for my newspaper skills not my evangelical zeal or my profound grasp of theology.)

But in one of those twists that are never coincidence but providence, while I was still finding my footing, I struck up an unlikely friendship with one of the newspaper’s columnists -- Msgr. Francis Meehan, who died July 22. A moral theologian and beloved Seminary faculty member, I knew him only as a columnist I edited with a light touch because his pieces were always impeccable.

It might have remained a cordial but impersonal association if he hadn’t written a column about torture. It was at the beginning of the national debate about interrogation techniques but well before waterboarding became a familiar term. Msgr. Meehan’s column for the CS&T swept right past the parsing of words and straight into the moral heart of the issue. Now, having grown up in Guatemala during that nation’s undeclared civil war, torture has long been one of my bailiwicks.

I was so moved and impressed by the piece that I wrote him an e-mail telling him so. I never expected get more than a gracious acknowledgement. What I got, instead, was the first of many humble, encouraging and engaging emails I came to look forward to receiving for the next seven years.

Almost every post I wrote for my blog brought me a Msgr. Meehan e-mail.

After my 2009 memorial day post titled Band of Fathers: “Thanks, Sabrina -- it was a perfect reading for today. I had the thought myself -- that even though I basically am a peacenik -- though not as pure as Dorothy Day -- still I must recognize how the tremendous hardship and sacrifice of soldier -- even now of those around the world -- even in unjust wars -- still individually participate in the sufferings of Christ for the world and invite us all into that spirit of generosity -- even in those times when generosity seems to be forced upon us through sickness and any suffering.”

After another 2009 post, this one about immigration (another bailiwick of mine): “I enjoyed every bit of it -- the process and the substance. Two instances […] a daily communicant and friend approaches me: presumes that I would be on his side -- so anti-immigrant. I finally, in a hurry, have to just put my hand on his shoulder, and tell him we were on very different pages. I think he was truly surprised. It was a lesson for me. [...] I always kid Msgr Joe Shields […] He sends out note, sometime about 2006: ‘would love to be invited to parishes to speak about the Latino people.’ I, being an old friend and in empathy, say -- ‘Come, Joe!’ Joe speaks -- I thought, moderately and persuasively. Then, because people felt good toward me said nothing. I only find out for the next two years what rumblings and grumblings were in the air. Oh, my -- we have such work to do.”

First in 2009 and later in 2010 he floored me with some of his emails about my blog posts: “I preached along the lines of your Pentecost reflection. I should have read your words first” was one; “I so much was helped by this reflection on your own asking” another.

What? I remember thinking, completely abashed. How could someone so spiritually profound get anything from my heartfelt but basic reflections? And the truth is there was nothing extraordinary in my blog posts -- the extraordinary resided in the genuinely humble and unbelievably generous priest who was reading them.

I’ve buried the lede by waiting until now to tell you I never met Msgr. Meehan in person. It was a friendship built entirely on epistolary exchanges -- and virtual ones at that since it all took place via e-mail. We talked about meeting in real life -- the last time agreeing to get together for coffee and conversation about how to collect his columns and see them published in book form.

When I heard he had died, I went back through our emails.

“I really hope and pray that one day I get to meet you in person,” I wrote to him in November of 2009.

“I know we will meet someday!” he answered.

But I was always busy and he was struggling with illness and a slow, long decline in mobility that sent him first to a walker, and later further curtailed motion.

Such sadness to know I will now never get to meet this great priest, this valued friend. And yet, as ever during these years of our improbable friendship, Msgr. Meehan is still guiding and teaching me.

I run across an e-mail he sent me in 2009, days after his brother had died after a long illness” “We, as a family, are at peace. We had a long vigil. The vigil and his dying turn out to be -- as I sense it -- a blessing from the Lord,” and in reading it anew, I come to understand that the words are true of Monsignor’s death as well.

And then there is this response when, not knowing just how impaired his mobility was, I enjoined him to go with a bunch of us to Washington D.C. to march and advocate for justice for immigrants: “I wish I could walk with you. I promise a prayer as a spiritual step or two.”

The thing is, through his e-mails, he did walk with me. He took more than a spiritual step or two with me on my path. Others knew him longer and better, but I knew the priest who took seriously the edict to make welcome the stranger and through his kindness and generosity of spirit turned this stranger into a friend.

Once, after I wrote a piece about life in Guatemala, he wrote to me asking, “Does anyone reading the S & T have an idea of such a background?” So, I’m compelled to draw from my background in closing this reflection on the death of a friend. In Guatemala, it is customary at gatherings to toast those loved ones who have died by calling out their name followed by the word “presente” -- which means present. Still here. Remembered always.

Msgr. Francis Meehan ¡presente!

Calling it the 'harshest of the Arizona copycat' laws, coalition files motion to block Ala.'s HB 56

2011-07-22T16:07:00.005-04:00

“HB 56 seeks to drive all immigrants out of Alabama. The courts need to send a strong message that it is not permissible under the law.”
-- Sin Yen Ling, senior staff attorney with the Asian Law Caucus

“This law is not only anti-immigrant, it is anti-American. It will criminalize Alabamians for everyday interactions with people who are here without documents, such as driving someone to the grocery store or to church, and law enforcement officers will be required to violate the constitutional rights of citizens and non-citizens alike.”
-- Olivia Turner, executive director of the ACLU of Alabama

“By creating this law, which impacts not just undocumented immigrants but citizens and legal immigrants who might look ‘foreign’ or speak with an accent, Alabama makes all communities less safe.”
-- Erin Oshiro, senior staff attorney at the Asian American Justice Center

“Alabama has declared war on immigrants, primarily Latino immigrants. Every Latino in Alabama, regardless of status, is at risk.”
-- Juan Cartagena of LatinoJustice PRLDEF

“Not only is Alabama’s law blatantly unconstitutional, it flies in the face of American values by authorizing racial profiling, deterring children from going to school, and criminalizing those who lend a hand to individuals deemed by the state of Alabama to be ‘illegal.’”
-- Andre Segura, staff attorney with the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project

MONTGOMERY, ALA. ― The National Immigration Law Center and a coalition of other civil rights groups filed a motion July 21 asking a federal judge to block Alabama’s anti-immigrant law from taking effect Sept. 1.

The motion for preliminary injunction, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, follows a federal lawsuit the groups filed earlier this month that charged the law is unconstitutional on multiple grounds. Alabama’s law, which affects myriad aspects of daily life for countless Alabamians, is even more restrictive than Arizona’s infamous SB 1070, which has been blocked by the courts.

“This law flies in the face of the core rights and liberties our Constitution was designed to preserve,” said Linton Joaquin, general counsel of the National Immigration Law Center, “Alabamians, like all Americans, deserve better than to saddle local teachers, law enforcement officers, and business people with the additional responsibility of asking children, customers, and community members for their ‘papers.’ We are hopeful that the court will block this discriminatory and unconstitutional law before it takes effect and causes irreparable harms for countless Alabamians.”

The Alabama law was signed into law in June by Gov. Robert Bentley and is the harshest of the Arizona copycat state laws.

The lawsuit charges that HB 56:

Chills children’s access to public schools by requiring school officials to verify the immigration status of children and their parents.

Authorizes police to demand “papers” demonstrating citizenship or immigration status during traffic stops and criminalizes Alabamians for ordinary interactions with undocumented individuals.

Unconstitutionally interferes with federal authority over immigration matters ― a violation of the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution. It also subjects Alabamians ― including U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents ― to unlawful search and seizure, a violation of the Fourth Amendment.

Alabama is one of six states that have enacted a law emulating Arizona’s controversial SB 1070. Federal courts have been unanimous in blocking similar provisions in Arizona, Utah, Indiana and Georgia. The coalition has also vowed to challenge South Carolina’s anti-immigrant law.

“This law so undermines our core American values of fairness and equality that it is essential this be weighed before the law is allowed to go into effect,” said Mary Bauer, legal director for the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). “When the Speaker of the House, who championed this law and guided it to passage, is acknowledging it has problems, it is clear we have a serious issue.”

The motion for and memorandum in support of preliminary injunction is available at http://www.nilc.org/immlawpolicy/LocalLaw/HICA-v-Bentley-PImotion-2011-07-21.pdf

House Bill 934 heads to State Senate

2011-07-06T23:42:00.003-04:00

This just in from the Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition:

"After state House leaders used a procedural tactic to shut down debate, the House voted 108-88 in favor of House Bill 934, legislation that would force citizens to show valid state-issued photo ID every time they attempt to vote. Rep. Daryl Metcalfe has used the same rhetoric that characterizes his AZ copycat legislation to justify this bill, which would really impact the most vulnerable citizens of our Commonwealth. Pennsylvanians who don't hold a valid state-issued photo ID will be disenfranchised-- disproportionately senior citizens, people with disabilities, the poor, students & young adults, and mass transit users who don't need a drivers license."

The bill is expected to be considered by the State Senate this fall.

Take action NOW to oppose E-Verify

2011-06-15T22:10:00.004-04:00

From Justice for Immigrants:

Some in Congress are now calling for the mandatory expansion of E-Verify – a largely voluntary program which allows employers to electronically verify workers’ employment eligibility with Government databases. Only 250,000 some employers use the system today; some in Congress want to make its use mandatory by all 6 million U.S. employers.

The problem is that unless E-Verify's expansion is undertaken in the context of comprehensive immigration reform, it will hurt U.S. workers and our already weakened economy. Unless Congress legalizes unauthorized immigrants, mandatory E-Verify will begin with a handicap of 8 million unauthorized workers who will be driven further into the underground economy, hurting both the U.S. economy and workers by decreasing federal tax revenue by more than $17.3 billion over ten years, creating an unequal workplace, and lowering labor standards for all workers.

And, because of well-documented flaws in the government databases upon which it relies, E-Verify does not detect over half of the undocumented workers entered in the system, yet results in false positives for hundreds of thousands of American workers.

For these reasons, we urge you to let your senators and representatives know that unless and until the E-Verify program is improved and undertaken in the context of comprehensive immigration reform, you oppose its expansion and mandatory implementation.

Take Action NOW: Contact your Senators and Representative by e-mail, phone, FAX or U.S. Mail:

Call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121
Or go to the Justice for Immigrants web site here, and send an e-mail to your representatives automatically.

Parishioner of St. Katharine Drexel in Chester slated for deportation

2011-05-30T23:09:00.006-04:00

Zulma Villatoro was brought to the US from Guatemala in 1998 at the age of 14 by her mother and stepfather, who have obtained permanent residency. The St. Katharine Drexel parishioner is the mother of a 4-year-old Reina (from whom she'd be permanently separated by the deportation) and is expecting a second child.

Unfortunately, Zulma's lawyer made errors that caused her petition to be rejected. She has been engaged in a legal struggle for years and is facing deportation July 2.

Please sign this petition urging Senator Casey, Representative Brady, Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security, John Morton, and Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano to stop the deportation.

There will be a vigil for Zulma at 5 p.m. Tuesday, June 7 in front of the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul in Philadelphia. Please join us there to pray and petition that this young family not be split up, and that Zulma not be deported to Guatemala -- a country where violence against women and girls has become epidemic according to recent U.N. Human Rights Council reports.

Help new citizens register to vote in Philadelphia

2011-04-25T01:20:00.004-04:00

The Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition is launching its Get Out The Vote campaign for the 2011 Primary Election. On May 17, voters in Philadelphia will go to the polls to vote for City Council members as well as other municipal officials. With 5 open seats on City Council, this will be a historically competitive and important primary.

Through its ongoing effort to register new citizens to vote at their naturalization ceremonies, PICC has registered over 4,000 immigrant voters in the city of Philadelphia alone. In the next month, PICC volunteers will call these voters to encourage them to learn more about the candidates and to go to the polls on May 17.

Consider volunteering for one of the phonebanking sessions listed below. All phonebanks will take place at 2100 Arch Street, Philadelphia. Training and a script will be provided. To sign up please contact Rebecca Hufstader at rebeccahufstader@paimmigrant.org

Tuesday, May 10, 6-8 p.m.

Sunday, May 15, 3-5 p.m.

Monday, May 16, 6-8 p.m.

Immigrant youth leadership training offered

2011-04-25T01:08:00.003-04:00

The New Jersey Dream Act Coalition will be hosting its first immigrant youth leadership training workshop. In an effort to empower students throughout the state, NJDAC is actively working to connect with immigrant youth regardless of status. The workshop is intended to encourage and give participants the necessary tools to become more active in their communities, as well as at the state and federal level. Click here for online registration.

You better get born someplace else

2011-04-16T00:21:00.006-04:00

Pennsylvania's HB 474 was sent on to the State Government committee in March. It would authorize " the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to join the Interstate Compact on Birth Certificates Issued to Aliens Not Subject to United States Jurisdiction; providing for the form of the compact; and imposing additional powers and duties on the Governor, the Secretary of the Commonwealth and the Compact."

The Interstate Compact seeks to deny privileges of U.S. citizenship to the U.S.‐born children of unauthorized immigrants. Because citizenship is within the purview of the federal government, and not the states, the proponents hope that doing so will ultimately trigger a Supreme Court review of the 14th Amendment.

The U. S. conference of Catholic Bishops opposes the repeal of birthright citizenship.

They state, through their Justice for Immigrants campaign, that: "were birthright citizenship repealed, unauthorized immigration would not be significantly deterred. Instead, the numbers of unauthorized immigrants in the United States would increase dramatically – from the current 11 million to anywhere from 16 to 24 million or more – and there would be thousands of U.S.‐born children who would be rendered stateless – without citizenship – and unauthorized in the United States. These children – who have done nothing wrong by being born in the United States to unauthorized immigrant parents – would be punished by relegating them to second or third‐class members of U.S. society. And, it would place an undue burden on all Americans, eliminating easy proof of citizenship status through birth certificates, and replacing it with an onerous process of having to trace one’s family heritage and produce documentation of blood relations." (Emphasis is mine.)

Sponsors of HB 474 are: Reps. Scott Boyd, Paul Clymer, Jim Cox, Tom Creighton, Matt Gabler, Richard Geist, Adam Harris, Rob Kauffman, Jerry Knowles, Daryl Metcalfe, Ron Miller, Thomas Murt, Bernie O'Neill, Jeffrey Pyle, Kathy Rapp, Todd Rock, Curt Schroder and RoseMarie Swanger. (Cox, Gabler, Kauffman, Knowles and Metcalfe are all members of the State Government committee.)

Please contact them and oppose the Compact or any other measures to repeal birthright citizenship.
-----
I've been thinking a lot about the way we will accept a person's labor without valuing or accepting the person doing the work. It seems to me that this really the heart of the desire to repeal birthright citizenship -- now, and back when the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment reversed Dred Scott v. Sandford (the 1857 decision in which the Supreme Court held that U.S.‐born persons of African descent were not citizens, thereby denying citizenship to slaves and freemen).

And because I've been thinking about this, I've been running into all manner of art that speaks to some aspect of "you can till my fields (wash my laundry, tend my lawn, cook my food) but you can't be born here or think to belong."

So, here is one, "Moving On Song: Go, Move, Shift," performed by Chris Wood, Karine Polwart and the MacColl brothers (my thanks to Terri Windling's the Drawing Board blog for introducing me to it). Written to reflect the treatment of Roma (Gypsies) and Travellers in Great Britain and Europe, it's words are distressingly apt to our discussions of birthright citizenship: "The work’s all done, it’s time that you were moving on … now you better get born someplace else."

Send me your links to poems, stories, music, visual art, etc. that speak in a special way to the efforts to repeal birthright citizenship or other issues surrounding the current immigration debate -- if I like them, I'll post them.

Brave dreams: An interview with María Marroquín

2011-04-06T16:44:00.012-04:00

Update: According to the Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition, María and the six other undocumented students arrested in Georgia on April 5 have been released. "ICE agents interviewed the students, but ultimately declined to get involved," said the e-mail release PICC sent out April 8.

When María Marroquín first came to the United States at the age of 13, she thought she’d be seeing Mickey Mouse. She was excited and anticipating her first visit to Disneyworld.

That’s what she told the Transportation Security Officer at Miami International Airport who asked which tourist sites she and her family planned to visit during their visit from Lima, Peru. And, in fact, she stayed long enough in Miami to see palm trees for the first time, to swelter in the near tropical heat she had never experienced before and to notice “how clean and beautiful” the streets of this American city were.

Her family did eventually board a bus but it didn’t take them anywhere near the Orlando resort. Instead, it deposited them in New Jersey and into a life María didn’t expect.

That is — the life a regular American teenager. Except for one thing. They were undocumented.

María’s father had a job lined up already — doing laundry and cleaning at a hotel. It was very different than the work he had done in Lima. The family owned a restaurant there — a going venture for 10 years — and María’s father drove a taxicab at night to make ends meet. But he came to realize that without radically changing the family’s economic circumstances María and her two siblings wouldn’t graduate from high school.

The fact that work as a cabbie during the night shift was becoming increasingly dangerous helped to finalize the decision to come to the United States on visas — which the family overstayed. They moved to Pennsylvania not long after their initial foray north. María was enrolled in a high school in Cheltenham.

“I didn’t realize what being undocumented would mean,” María said. “None of my friends knew. I felt really isolated (and) like I couldn’t trust anyone. I thought they wouldn’t understand if I told them about my status. I felt embarrassed and ashamed.”

María’s parents took English as a Second Language classes, they paid taxes, they enrolled their three children in school, and took them with them to Spanish-language Masses — especially the ones at St. William Parish in Philadelphia, at which the community of Philadelphia-area Peruvian immigrants celebrate feast days together. María’s mother started working as a nanny, and the family settled into building their lives.

They consulted with lawyers early on to see if there was a way to legalize their status, but it proved a fruitless pursuit. After that, María and her siblings stopped talking to each other about their irregular status. They lived with it, in silence. Even so, she credits her family and her faith with getting her through .

She lived, María said, scared.

Her junior year in high school was marked by depression. She never knew what to answer when her friends asked her why she didn’t drive or have a driver’s license, or why she couldn’t participate in the many activities that seemed so normal to her peers. Nothing that required a social security number or government I.D. was open to her.

“It was so difficult,” she said. “And I knew I couldn’t build my life on lies. I don’t blame (my parents) for bringing me here. I don’t know what I’d be doing if I were in Peru. They wanted us to have a future.

"They are just regular people who work hard and want to take care of their children.”

In 2004 she graduated from high school and enrolled in Montgomery County Community College. She attended part-time, paying international student tuition rates — much higher than in-state or out-of-state ones — out of pocket. No financial aid was available to her. Then, like now, she earned money by babysitting and at odd jobs, and put it all toward her tuition.

It took María five years to get her associate’s degree while she worked and saved money and took what courses she could. She maintained a 3.98 GPA, and majored in social science. She’d like to continue on to get a four-year-degree — she’d be the first person in her family attain that — and to some day go to law school.

But no matter how hard she works and what she accomplishes academically, María knows the future she faces is limited by her undocumented status.

“I consider myself an American,” she said. “Everything I know — all my friends, my ideals — come from this country. I want to make my life here.”

María had hopes that the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act) — bipartisan legislation that would have made an estimated 65,000 young people eligible for permanent legal status upon completion of two years of college or two years of honorable service in the military — would pass in Congress. That dream was dashed in December of 2010, when the Senate rejected the bill.

The DREAM Act would have not only given María an eventual path to legalization, but would have made it possible for her to continue her education at an in-state tuition rate.

“My parents sacrificed everything for me to be able to continue with my education,” María said. “To know I couldn’t felt like I was letting them down.”

And, she had tired of hiding.

March 19th she and six other undocumented youths “came out of the shadows” and told their stories at a rally at of Philadelphia’s Independence Mall.

“We decided to share our stories,” she said. “All we want is to continue our education. We want to do the right thing, we want to contribute. This is the only country we know and we consider it home, and we wanted to put a face to the immigration issue.”

“I know that there were undocumented youth listening” in the crowd of 150 people that gathered, she said. “I wanted to talk to those (in the crowd) who feel as alone as I had.

"A state DREAM Act bill would be great — then (young people) could afford to go to college and not be dropping out of high school.”

The crowd at the rally, mostly high school and college age people, according to María, were receptive. “They give me hope,” she said.

Her advocacy for a pathway to legalization for immigrant youth (she is the co-founder of DreamActivist Pennsylvania and DreamActivist.org) has been supported by many people — the representatives from Catholic organizations who have stood by her at press conferences, her Filipino boyfriend (who is also undocumented) and her siblings.

María’s sister, 21, dreams of becoming a pediatrician; her brother, 20, a Navy SEAL. Both are experiencing the same frustrations María has, and the same thwarted desire to give back to the nation they love.

Her parents, though proud of their eldest daughter, are scared for her, she said.

And now they must be panicked.

Yesterday (April 5) María was one of seven young people who delivered a petition to the president of Georgia State University asking him to keep the institution's doors open to undocumented students — something GSU is slated to stop doing as of the fall semester.

The seven proceeded to engage in civil disobedience — including marching through the campus and disrupting traffic. An hour later, according to the Dream is Coming web site — which is tracking their tweets — all seven were arrested and placed in an Atlanta jail.

It is quite possible, maybe even likely given the jail's alleged working relationship with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, they will be turned over to ICE.

“(Deportation) is always in the back of your mind,” María said during our interview March 24. “But this is something that is much bigger than myself. Our cause is just and it is right. That’s enough for me.”

A Philadelphia vigil for María Marroquín and the other six undocumented youths who participated in the civil disobedience at GSU will be held tomorrow (April 7) at 5 p.m. at Senator Toomey’s office at 1628 JFK Blvd. in Philadelphia.

Photos of the March 19th rally courtesy of María Marroquín.

Guest blog: Proposed Pa. budget cuts would hurt services to Latinos

2011-04-02T05:32:00.005-04:00

My name is Theresa Conejo and I am president of the Latino Leadership Alliance of Bucks County.The Alliance is a non profit 501(c)3, community service agency located in Bristol Boro. It was established 1993 by a group of dedicated activists who recognized the language and cultural barriers encountered by Latinos when trying to obtain needed information, programs and educational services, as they struggled for advancement and empowerment.

Our mission is to is to provide culturally sensitive and bilingual services to the Latino families in Bucks County. Our services include the development and implementation of programs that address those of preventative health, education, and social issues identified by our Latino residents as critical to their future and the future of their children. All our activities promote responsible social behaviors, educational success, and self-sufficiency.

As you may have seen from the 2010 Census results, the Hispanic/Latino population is the fastest-growing minority group in the state.The Latino population grew by 82.6 percent between 2000 and 2010, an increase of 325,572 people. Latinos now account for 5.7 percent of the state’s population. Here in Bucks County, the population has doubled, with Bristol having the largest concentration of Latinos.

Our agency provides bilingual assistance to the growing Latino population, helps them with the necessary life skills they need to be self sufficient and to be able provide for themselves and their families. We offer a variety of programs: English classes, citizenship classes, computer classes, after school program and summer camp for working parents,bilingual health workshops and health fairs, courses on handling your finances, home ownership, starting your own business,obtaining employment and much more. We have a Mother's Club, Senior Citizen Bingo Club, teen dance and the Fit Kids Coalition that is addressing the problem of childhood obesity.

Our case managers are available daily to help clients with such things as information dissemination on affordable housing and shelter placement, help with filling out forms and paperwork for school,employment, medical forms, makes appointments for our non-English-speaking clients and seniors.We guide families to the proper agency that can assist them with their needs.We also are the sole, primary resource agency for all other agencies, government offices and businesses in Bucks County on issues concerning Latinos.

Our agency relies heavily on HSDF Funding to provide these services. Now with the proposed budget cuts and elimination of HSDF Funds, will will not be able to provide these services and may even have to close our doors. Last year we served 2,140 case management clients, the year prior we served 3,040.With the current economic climate we expect to see an even higher total this year. All the more reason why HSDF funding needs to be continued. Our families and children depend greatly on these services, their lives are at stake if this funding ceases.

Latino Alliance is also home to a Head Start program.The proposed spending plan preserves state resources for pre-K, Head Start and child care, but cuts the funding for full-day kindergarten through the elimination of the Accountability Block Grant.We are deeply concerned that many of our Head Start students will not be able to benefit from full-day kindergarten programs when they leave our pre-K. Like pre-K , full-day kindergarten is a proven investment. Pennsylvania school districts with full-day kindergarten demonstrate a greater rate of improvement in reading achievement than districts with part-day programs. Research also indicates that children who attend full-day kindergarten experience fewer grade retentions, require less remediation and make more successful transitions to first grade.

So ask you to help me by calling or writing our elected officials to find a way to provide funds to allow HSDF to continue to help agencies like mine and other similar agencies in Bucks County and Pa. to continue with their successful, proven programs.

Theresa Conejo is a registered nurse and resident of Bensalem, Pa.

Poets Responding to SB 1070

2011-03-23T23:48:00.005-04:00

A new poem of mine is up on Poets Responding to SB 1070 page on facebook: http://on.fb.me/gonkFM

Go read, comment (or not), "like" the page. And be aware that 1070 copycat legislation is proposed for Pennsylvania. (See one of my previous blog posts for a list of anti-immigrant legislation introduced to the Pa. legislature this session.)

Our stories connect us

2011-03-10T12:06:00.005-05:00

The New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia (NSM) is sponsoring an evening of storytelling and reflection"Our stories connect us: the Underground Railroad and the Sanctuary Movement" March 22, from 7 to 9 p.m., at Arch Street United Methodist Church in Philadelphia. NSM is a strong advocate for immigration justice and works to protect the human and civil rights of all people. A while back I interviewed Peter Pedemonti, who has since become one of the organization's leaders. Read that interview here.

Perhaps -- given the increasingly hate-filled and polarized views about immigration and the undocumented in the nation -- we will have to adopt the custom attributed to abolitionists and anti-slavery folk along the Railroad routes -- hanging a quilt on a porch railing to indicate a safe sanctuary for those fleeing oppressive laws. Or, as it was in the Great Depression, a pictogram alphabet will develop, helping wayfarers in need identify the "good-hearted" people willing to share a meal or shelter. In the meantime, let's make ourselves "signs." Help fight the drastic cuts to funding for refugees outlined in the House-passed Fiscal Year 2011 budget. Call your senator at 202-224-3121 and ask that the Senate restore all or some of the $827 million cut from refugee admissions and overseas refugee assistance and all or some of the $77 million for refugee resettlement, trafficking victim assistance, torture victim assistance, and the care of unaccompanied alien children. (For more information, visit the Justice for Immigrants web site here.)

The picture at the top of this post is a piece from the quilt I am making my daughter -- as it happens, an immigrant quilt. You can read about its making here.

Is this Pennsylvania ... or Arizona?

2011-03-02T14:17:00.010-05:00

It is increasingly hard to tell the difference between the two....
Below is a list of all the bills that have been introduced to the PA legislature this session relating to immigration:
HB 41: Requires applicants for a wide variety of public benefits to show government-issued ID to prove their legal status
HB 355: An omnibus bill including provisions prohibiting human trafficking, requiring local law enforcement and agencies distributing public benefits to confirm legal immigration status, and mandating participation in E-Verify for public employers
HB 361: Makes English the official language of Pennsylvania
HB 379: Mandates E-Verify for public works contractors
HB 380: Mandates E-Verify for construction industry employers
HB 439: Imposes sanctions on employers that employ unauthorized immigrants
HB 474: Creates a compact between states to issue a different birth certificate to children born here to undocumented immigrants, denying them birthright citizenship
HB 526: Imposes mandatory sentences for offenses committed by undocumented immigrants
HB 659: Amends the Public School Code to confirm that English is the sole language of Pennsylvania
HB 738: Requires local law enforcement to check immigration status and communicate its findings to ICE, requires agencies distributing public benefits to verify immigration status
HB 798: Requires law enforcement to check immigration status
HB 799: Provides for a memorandum of understanding between the Commonwealth and the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security to enforce immigration law
HB 801: Supports law enforcement authorities who detain people they believe to have questionable immigration status
HB 857: Defines citizens of Pennsylvania to exclude children born here to undocumented parents
HB 858: Mandates E-Verify for public contractors
HB 888: Makes English the official language of the Commonwealth
SB 9: Requires applicants for a wide variety of public benefits to show government-issued ID to prove their legal status
SB 515: Allows law enforcement officials to verify citizenship of arrestees
SB 637: Mandates E-Verify for public contractors

Opportunities for advocacy to block punitive and harmful anti-immigrant measures in our commonwealth: http://www.paimmigrant.org/programs/state-leg-advocacy-campaign

Comfort and joy

2011-02-27T16:41:00.008-05:00

It's been a tough number of weeks. Not only for us at the Catholic Standard & Times, but for all Catholics in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

And for Latinos in Arizona, who have seen one bill move through the Appropriations Committee that would make it possible for the children of the undocumented to be denied schooling of any kind (including private or home-schooling), medical care and housing; and another couple of bills denying U.S.-born babies citizenship.

And for workers in Wisconsin, who may no longer have collective bargaining rights. (Click here for the Catholic bishops' statements in support of workers' rights.)

And for people in Oman, Djibouti, Libya, Iraq. And Somalia, which has seen some of its worst violence in recent years, according to a family friend who knows what he's speaking about.

In the readings of the week (Sir. 5:1-8) I read:

Rely not on your wealth; say not: “I have the power.” Rely not on your strength in following the desires of your heart.

And it is -- somehow -- reflection, commentary and prophesy all rolled into one.
Authority is not right. Power over is not the same as power from. Repression and misdirection are not the refuge of the righteous, but of the terrified.

Amid all the huge (HUGE) issues of the day, I find comfort in the most plebian of tasks: cooking for my loved ones. Comfort food that speaks to us of warmth and love and days spent peacefully -- with eyes fixed to a calm horizon.

I am cooking cochinita pibil and Oaxacan-style pumpkin tamales: You are invited.

I'm a simple person, and I don't have much, but I understand what Russell Pearce and Scott Walker and Muammar Gaddafi and so many others with real power in the world don't: there is enough --and it is a joy to share.

Anti-immigrant legislation introduced in PA Senate

2011-02-10T15:18:00.002-05:00

This from the Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition:

There is no time to lose -- SB 9, a bill requiring government-issued ID in order to apply for a wide variety of public benefits, was approved by the Senate State Government Committee on Tuesday, and could come to a floor vote in the very near future. Several other dangerous bill have already been introduced this session, including provisions mandating the use of E-Verify and making English the official language of the Commonwealth.

Music for a Wednesday night

2011-02-09T20:20:00.004-05:00

(My intro to this was on artist/writer/editor Terri Windling's beautiful blog the Drawing Board. And, I admit, I stole her blog post title too. Now, where's that iPod confession app?)

Preview a segment from a film about Mexican community in Philadelphia

2011-02-07T06:14:00.003-05:00

This is an excerpt from the beginning of El Sol Sale Para Todos a 54 minute documentary about the growth of the Mexican community in South Philadelphia.
Directed by Leticia Roa Nixon, Carlos Pascual Sanchez and Laura Deutch.

By now the Mexican community of faithful at St. Thomas Aquinas is so large and devoted they not only celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe at that church (and overflow onto the streets) but at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul, which fits 1,000+ people and fills to the rafters during that celebration.

In addition, Antonio (one of the first people interviewed in the piece, was instrumental in the move to bring an image of la Morena to the Cathedral, as a permanent shrine. I will tell you -- her bank of candles is always, always lit.

PA cops implicated in immigrant's killing go on trial

2011-01-14T14:53:00.003-05:00

The must-read from the Southern Poverty Law Center blog is linked here.

Sigh. Pennsylvania isn't looking like much of a utopia these days, is it?

Dear Pennsylvania - Does Rep. Daryl Metcalfe represent?

2011-01-06T19:16:00.004-05:00

Listen to this report through the end. Isn't two kinds of citizenship - one with rights, one without - exactly what the 14th Amendment was put in place to prevent?

Is this really who we are?

Of Crossed Genres, SFF Portal and good reviews

2011-01-03T21:36:00.009-05:00

Dear blog reader:

You've stood with me through a lot of posts that outline the difficulties, the heartbreak, the stories of deportation and detention and immigrant lives shrouded in shadow. You've hung in there as I've railed and cried about the legislative failures surrounding the revision of existing, broken immigration laws and visa quotas. You've read about the DREAM Act and Arizona's anti-immigrant/anti-Hispanic law and efforts to repeal the 14th Amendment (more about that later). You've commented and sent me personal messages ranging from "now that's a downer - LOL - good post" to "Amen."

You deserve a happy post from me. So here it is -- my first in 2011 (and I hope that bodes well for the year).

If you're a regular reader of this blog you know that occasionally -- more occasionally than I'd like, anyway -- I ask you to follow a sort of Ariadne's thread of links, to sites deep in the labyrinth of web that have published my poetry or my speculative fiction. Tonight I'm sending you to a site that reviews just such work. If you click here, you'll get to read a review of the anthology that includes my story "Flying with the Dead."

Writers like me don't get a lot of chance to hear what readers think of their work. Not everyone who reads this blog comments on it, for example. It's tough sometimes to believe -- despite what Blogger and Lijit stats tell me -- that anyone's reading at all. Same thing with the poetry and fiction.

Except then somebody will comment on a post.

Or, in this case, someone will write a lovely review of my story and I'll sit at the computer reading -- with gratitude, and some wonder too, in my heart. Because just like all the immigration advocacy and stories I subject you to here -- the fiction too is really a conversation with whomever reads the story. And I love when it is reciprocal.

And, yes, even in fiction you don't get away from my focus on the lives of immigrants: "Flying with the Dead" has its fantastical elements, but its bones are real.

I'd love it if this blog post and the review I've linked would provide the impetus for you to purchase the Crossed Genres Year Two anthology (it's for sale at Createspace and Amazon) or to support online magazines like Crossed Genres and The Portal. Small, indie magazines like these are a lot like immigration advocates -- they work very hard to widen the variety of voices we get to hear -- and they deserve support.

Plus, they make me dance a jig.

Next post: Did you know 7 states are targeting birthright citizenship? (Click here to read.)

By the way, the great photo at the top of this post has nothing, whatever, to do with fiction or immigration. I just like it because it is so evocative. It comes straight out of CS&T photographer Sarah Webb's portfolio of images. Lovely, isn't it? Check out her photos at cst-phl.com.

5 things about 2010 to keep in mind for 2011

2010-12-31T19:41:00.003-05:00

1. Who put the diss in dystopia?

From codifying racial profiling laws to proposals to nullify the 14th amendment; from characterizing the DREAM Act as opening the door to ravening hordes to criminalizing all people of a given ethnicity or identity, this year was marked by the type of shameless xenophobia that seems a precursor to the establishment of a radically dystopian society.

To my horror, the dystopian novel I started writing a number of years ago is no longer so imaginative or far-fetched -- especially when it comes to our legislated treatment of “the other.”

But there’s this to carry into 2011: the architects of SB1070 in Arizona and copycat legislation in other states (including Rep. Metcalfe here in Pa.); the DREAM Act naysayers; those who propose to gut the 14th Amendment because they don’t like the color, class ethnicity and documentation status of those giving birth these days on U.S. soil … they only stay in office and retain power over the lives and well-being of our brothers and sisters if we let them.

So let’s not let them.

2. Party like it's 1984

2010 has been a banner year for what George Orwell termed doublespeak. Less than a month ago I was the recipient of a press release that claimed that museums were only for elitists and called for defunding them in the name of social justice.

Say what?

Guess only those who can afford to own a Fra Angelico or an Egyptian sarcophagus should get to ever see one. Guess us working class blokes don’t deserve access to art and history and cultural patrimony and education. Yup, that’s the definition of social justice. In some parallel universe.

I wish the doublespeak of the release were an isolated instance. But how many talk radio and TV commentators and legislators do you remember having twisted meaning that way in the past year? And how many times?

Even if you don’t want to think of it as doublespeak, think of it as savaged language. In the immigration debate alone, reform -- a word meaning the reorganization and improvement of something -- has been twisted into amnesty -- a pardon for a political crimes. Undocumented -- describing the state of being without documents, written information or reference -- is now illegal -- which doesn’t mean lawbreaker (the way many politicos use it) but forbidden by law.

There’s no way to stop the cynical and intentional degradation of meaning except to refuse to engage in it. The Society of Professional Journalists recently resolved to swap undocumented for illegal when referring to human beings -- and kudos to them for doing so, even if it took them f-o-r-e-v-e-r. Now, if we can convince the Associated Press to follow their lead in 2011.

And speaking of press….

3. No country for old men

2010 brought us rulings impacting net neutrality; a firestorm about information uncovered and released by Wikileaks -- along with allegations about governmental suppression and about the organization’s founder; and ongoing self-censorship by news media and other organizations averse to confrontation.

Sheesh.

When I was growing up in a Guatemala that permitted no story published except “the official story;” where genocide resulted from an exaggerated sense of threatened national security; where a cardinal was assassinated for fear of the reports of governmental malfeasance the Church was set to release, I looked on reporters like Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, and executive editors like Ben Bradlee, as my heroes. A free press afforded, I thought, a measure of protection against oppression.

Alas, just as I’ve become more cowardly as I’ve aged (earlier blog post and not getting into it again) so has the press.

I’ve always liked the following biblical passage for its neat turn of phrase: “[Y]our sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.” The last number of years, but particularly this past year, the “old men” of the press have been too caught up in nightmares of decline and demise of the traditional media to recognize how they’ve (we’ve) abandoned the real dreams -- of providing access and information to a wide swath of people; of exposing and holding governments and individuals accountable for their words and actions; of providing a place where, sometimes, voiceless would be heard.

A free press, without fear of overstatement, is one of the best tools for preventing repression and safeguarding civil liberties any society has. Unless, of course, it decides to eviscerate itself by caving to censorship and the trump card all governments eventually play -- national security.

With the twitter reporting and citizen journalism of June 2009 in Iran -- during the demonstrations that temporarily made an Iranian daughter, Neda Soltan, world renowned -- I held hope for the equalizing and globally unprecedented access to information offered by new media. The “prophesy” of our sons and daughters. Unoppressable information, if you will. And in many ways web-based media has started to live up to that. But the vision is only half-formed and will soon, it seems, be restricted according to economic advantage. Those who can pay for “the front page” will have it.

In the discourse about access, about the economy and politics of information, I fervently hope that in 2011 our “old men” start remembering the vision that undergirds a free press, and that our “sons and daughters” spend some time dreaming for it a future that isn’t determined by the highest bidder.

4. I'm talking to the man in mirror

I think God probably has a pretty terrific (in several meanings of the word) sense of humor and a most exacting sense of justice. So I have this completely undoctrinal belief that when we each come to our final judgment, God’s going to wear the face of the person(s) we were least able to see Him in during our life.

Sometimes I entertain myself by thinking what that face will be for public figures with big mouths and a demonizing bent. (Like, “OMG, He’s an ‘illegal!’” Or, “What the flip … God’s a ‘terror baby!’”)

But then I remember that for me -- if I die before midnight tonight, anyway -- God’s going to be wearing the face of that minister from Fla. who threatened, in the name of some perverse version of Christianity, to burn the Q’uran on 9/11. Or maybe it’ll be “Speak English” cheesesteak maven and anti-immigration Philly boy, Joey Vento. Or any of a number of public figures who don’t evince a bit of shame in working to make life harder for the poorer or the browner or the most vulnerable members of our human family.

2011 will no doubt bring other candidates to picture in this challenge. And I’m going to have to find my way through my disdain and my sense of righteous indignation to recognize Him in their features. Honestly, I don’t know that I’ll ever be successful at it. But that’s okay, I’ll keep trying anyway.

Because I kinda think that’s the point of faith.

5. Miracles happen

The Chilean miners get rescued,

Spain wins the World Cup.

My short stories get published.

They all seemed, at some point, absolutely impossible. (Someday I'll blog about this year's hard disc crash that ate my novel and all my poems and short stories -- including the ones that were published in 2010 and the ones slated, so far, for 2011).

Don’t despair. Keep breathing. Keep advocating (or agitating). Keep running (and kicking). Keep creating (or praying, or both at once).

Trust in the kindness of people, even those you don't know. Trust that, for some inexplicable reason, people will cheer you on, and go out of their way for you, or just hang on to what you need so when you need it, there it is.

Call it by whatever name you want, just give it thanks for the way the ups always (no matter how long it takes) follow the downs.

Because, hey, sometimes the wonderfully improbable just up and happens.

See you in 2011.

A traveller's Christmas

2010-12-23T14:34:00.004-05:00

I'm offering, in my last post until after Christmas, three versions of a traditional Spanish villancico navideño -- a Christmas carol titled "Los Peces en el Rio" (The Fish in the River). It's attributed to a Spanish 18th century monk and composer, Antonio Soler. The three versions I'm posting include a traditional flamenco rendition; the Gypsy Kings' fusion of pop and flamenco; and Lhasa de Sela's jazzier version.

What's interesting to me is that the first two sets of artists have gitano (the Romani people of Spain) roots, while Lhasa was a Mexican-American who grew up criss-crossing the United States and Mexico in a converted school bus with her family.

Such traveller's roots suit the villancico. And remind us that the Holy Family were travellers, too.

I write a lot about the undocumented immigrants in the United States, and draw the obvious parallels with the Holy Family (see my previous post, for instance) but we are far from the only nation to stigmatize those who cross borders for work, or to rejoin family, or whose mobility is part of a cultural tradition and patrimony. The Roma this year faced mass expulsions from France, and increasingly harsh treatment in other nations of the European Union. The International Catholic Migration Commission, based in Switzerland, writes about that situation this way: "[T]hese individuals are all too quickly linked to increasing national security debates, or are presented as a ‘risk’ to the local economy. While it may be argued that rejection is a basic human reflex, it is important to recall that such a reflex is predominantly inspired by fear, and the incapacity to manage differences."

Further, the commission states: "Even beyond questions of unacceptable discrimination and expulsion, current concerns regarding the treatment of the Roma and migrants call us all to consider whether existing structures and legal systems are adequate for addressing the number of people on the move, and the changing phenomena of human mobility. [...] Security can be much more effectively guaranteed when people are offered regular, reasonable and transparent paths of integration and community existence, rather than through targeting people in irregular situations."

Lots to reflect upon while you listen to these villancicos, and on the Sunday after Christmas -- the feast of the Holy Family.

An immigrant's Christmas

2010-12-23T02:15:00.009-05:00

A child born in mean circumstance, poor but full of promise and hope. He is carried in arms by a young woman in flight from one country to another. It is her bid for survival. The family is desperate, persecuted, and ultimately, condemned.

If the season makes you think it's a synopsis of Christ's life I'm referring to, think again.

Unless.

Unless you see Christ's story in the immigrant story I'm going to tell you.

Every year since I've had a blog I've reposted the same story - the story of Erica, who crossed over the border with her baby in arms, to settle eventually, in Philadelphia. The story of Erica's brother, Beto, who disappeared off a subway platform in the same city, only to be heard from again once authorities had put him on his way back to Mexico.

I retell this story every year for a personal reason: this is the story that made me want to write and keep a blog.

But I also retell this story every year for another reason: things haven't changed for Erica, or her brother, or any number of undocumented laborers who we might pass every day on the street without inkling of the road they've travelled - or are travelling.

"People hate the undocumented because they don't hear their stories." This is what immigration advocates tell me, and I believe them.

Well, then.

Here's Erica's story - why she crossed the border without proper documentation, and how. Here's her brother's story of deportation, as well. And the stories of how people are detained before deportation - while seeking work or even simply while sleeping in their homes.

Why?

-- Because nothing has changed since the original posts (I'll include their original posting dates). If anything, life has become more difficult for the undocumented in the ensuing years. Raids have increased, deportation numbers have skyrocketed, rhetoric has become more vitriolic.

-- Because Jesus, Erica's 5-year-old-son - who will most likely grow up thinking himself an American and remembering no home but this one - will be unable, after last Saturday's DREAM Act vote in Congress, to earn citizenship for himself. No matter if he is a stellar student with promise enough to change the world. No matter if he is willing to put his life on the line in defense of this country. No matter if he wants, with the same desperation his mother showed by carrying him over the border as an infant, to be part of something better and more promising than what he was born into.

I've decided this year, to also include reposts of raids - both at a local Home Depot and in an immigrant's home, so you experience the whole of the undocumented immigrant's experience: crossing over, seeking work, detention, deportation.

During this season when Christians celebrate the birth of a God who enjoined us to see Him in every face around around us, this is Christ's story.

Substitute His name for Erica's, for Beto's, for the others whose names you'll see in the repostings, and then tell me how you feel about their treatment. A

nd tell me who you will stand with - those condemning from some sense of righteous indignation about laws and proscriptions breached, or those who see beyond the immediate to the eternal,to divine law.

This is the radical nature of Christ's commandment to love your neighbor - if you wouldn't abide it happening to Him, you cannot abide it happening to any other.

So sit back and listen to the stories. Again

---

Crossing over
(Original post Oct. 28, 2008)

The 26-year-old who sits before me on the sofa of a Philadelphia parish rectory is small and slight. Her young face is framed by loose, dark curls, and she smiles a lot – mostly when she turns to look at the 5-year-old seated beside her on the sofa.

Though he fidgets, he’s been remarkably good during the two hours it’s taken me to interview his mother. He follows the volley of Spanish conversation with his eyes, answers my few questions to him in both Spanish and English. Dressed neatly in dark trousers and a light shirt, and carrying a child-sized backpack he won’t remove even when he sits down, Jesús reminds me of my nephew or of my older brother at that age. Same dark hair and eyes; same precocious gravity amid childish smiles.

“Do you like school?” I ask him.

He attends a bilingual Head Start program, and an afterschool program at one of the local Catholic churches.

He nods, a serious expression on his face.

His mother watches him answer the question with that look mothers get – admixed pride and wonder and concern.

He is the reason this quiet young woman crossed the border into the United States about four years ago. She carried him over in her arms.

“My motive [for coming here] was my son,” she says to me. “Para sacarlo adelante.”

So that he has a chance. A future.

I think of my own daughter, at that moment probably just getting home from school and sitting down at the computer to do her homework. When she was little I would tuck her into bed telling her I loved her more than the sun and the moon and stars. And I meant it. Still do.

And yet, I find myself thinking, could I have done for her as this young woman did for her son?

“I come from a humble town,” Erica says to me, describing a town in Mexico where most of the parents cannot afford to buy their children shoes.

Erica and her baby lived with her parents, and two of her brothers, 15 and 7 years old.
“There was no work there, no way to make money,” Erica continues. “My parents didn’t have enough for food.”

A few minutes later she adds: “No hay prestamo para comer.”

There’s no loan you can get for food.

Getting a visa to come into the U.S. to work is nearly impossible for someone like Erica. An unskilled laborer, she fits into the lowest priority category of applicants for a pool of only 40,000 visas granted annually.

Even to visit the U.S. with a tourist visa isn’t an option for someone like her, I learn.
It costs $100 to get an interview to see about a visa. And to qualify for the visa, you have to give proof of substantial savings, or hold title to real estate in Mexico.

Erica didn’t have a hope of savings or real estate. But she had hope.

Several of Erica’s brothers had already crossed the border and settled into restaurant jobs in the Philadelphia area. She knew they worked 12-hour days, making about $8 per hour -- enough, she thought, for her son to have something better in his future.

Erica came across the border the way so many of the poor do – by hiring a “coyote” to lead her through some of the toughest terrain in Mexico and the United States.

“No se si aguante,” she tells me the coyote told her when she first approached him. He doubted she could make it across with a child in tow.

Somehow, she convinced him.

She carried her son – and his powdered formula and diapers – through forests and steep gorges and cornfields. She slogged through mud when it rained, and through cold nights.
Others made the journey also, following the same coyote on his trek to, and through, Nogales – a town about 60 miles south of Tucson on the U.S.-Mexico border.

The border patrol caught them, and returned them to Nogales, where the coyote ditched them.

“No se va poder,” he said to them, shaking his head. “It’s not going to be possible.”

But Erica and the others did try to cross again. And got caught by the border patrol again.

It’s not clear to me what side of the border she and the others were on when they were assaulted by a gang of what Erica describes as “cholos” – young men in their 20s who stripped them of their rings, their jackets and shoes, and any money they had.

“They took the diaper off Jesús, and spilled out the powdered formula looking for money,” she tells me.

When they didn’t find any, they wrested the baby from her, beat her and tried to strip off her clothing.

She tells me she believes she might have been raped if a 16-year-old immigrant boy had not stood up to the gang. He claimed her as a sister, and was beaten by the gang in her stead.
Eventually they crossed the border into the United States, and after a 13-day ride in the back of a van, Erica and Jesús arrived in Philadelphia.

Detenton #1
(Jan. 11, 2010)

Immigration Customs and Enforcement broke down doors at numerous homes in South Philadelphia taking 30 suspected undocumented immigrants into detention, according to CS&T sources. More information as we receive it...

UPDATE:
Pre-school and school-age children were in many of the homes raided. Mothers were not taken into detention so they could stay with the children. According to our source, children were "traumatized" by the doors being broken down by agents.

UPDATE AT 1:30 P.M.:
Two of the addresses of houses in raid had been given to ICE several months ago as suspected hubs for human trafficking and/or a prostitution ring. Other homes in the area appear to have been targeted separately , and the undocumented immigrants picked up at those are not believed to be associated with the human trafficking/prostitution ring, according to our sources.

UPDATE AT 4:30 P.M.:
Inside one of the houses raided.

E., who is the second-trimester of her pregnancy, was asleep at 6:50 a.m. today. An insistent knocking at the door woke her. Her husband, and the nephews who share the house with them, had left at 6:30 a.m. for their jobs as cooks -- E. was alone with her 5-year-old son. She didn't answer the door. But in a matter of minutes, eight armed ICE agents where inside her house and then inside the room where she had been sleeping.

"They didn't break down the (front) door," she said, "so they must have done something to force the lock to get inside."

She was terrified, she told me during a brief interview we conducted over the phone, but was grateful that her son was asleep when the men entered the house. Otherwise, no doubt he would have been as frightened as she was, she said.

"Who lives here?" she said the agents asked her.

"My nephews, husband, my son and I," she said she answered.

They asked her whether her child was born here (he's a citizen) and then asked her for the names and birth dates of all of the members of her household, as well as their phone numbers. She wanted not to give them the information, but she complied.

"I was scared," she said. "Pretty much alone in the house with these men asking me questions, and never telling me what it was they were looking for."

The agents looked around her house, E. said, and found a passport that belonged to one of her nephews. They took that with them.

When they left they didn't tell her what is expected of her now (she is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, as is her husband) or whether they will be back when they anticipate her husband and nephews will be home from work -- but that is what E. guesses will happen.

Of course, she called her husband as soon as the ICE agents left.

E. is spending the night at a friend's house tonight; her nephews and husband will also be staying with friends. They don't know for how long, E. said. What's more, they have no idea what they can, should or are required to do now. None of the agents answered any of her questions.

"But I can't go back home," she said. "Not to wake up again like that -- to eight men with guns. In my house."

Detention #2
(Oct. 22, 2009)

On Oct. 13, 80 jornaleros (day workers) gathered early on the parking lot of Home Depot on Roosevelt Boulevard in Philadelphia. They were hoping for a day's work, a day's wage.

At 8:30 a.m., two police officers from the second district drove on to the lot and told them to disperse. Parts of what happened next cannot be verified. One of the day workers may have refused to leave the parking lot. Perhaps he became belligerent. Or perhaps he argued -- as other jornaleros would say later -- that the store's management had never before complained about them trying to get work on that parking lot .... In any case, the eyewitness who called the Office of Hispanic Catholics of the Archdiocese moments after the incident occurred alleged that the jornalero in question was beaten with a nightstick and taken into custody by the police, his face bloodied.

The eyewitness, also a jornalero rousted that morning from the parking lot, didn't want to talk about it to anyone other than the staff at the Office of Hispanic Catholics. He didn't trust anyone else. And that, as much as any other part of the story, is the story. Not all day workers who gather outside of stores to find work are undocumented, but many are. They don't know each other's names or documentation status but they know some things: 1) If they taken into custody and found to be undocumented they'll be whisked off to a detention center. They may end up being repatriated so fast their names never make it on to the lists of those held for deportation. Their families may not find out where they are or what has happened to them until weeks after they have disappeared. Or, conversely, they may languish in detention centers for months, even years.

2) They can't report crimes or even come forth as eyewitnesses for fear that any such action will precipitate their deportation, or an investigation of the documentation status of their families, coworkers and friends.

3) They can turn to the Catholic Church in whose priests, sisters and committed laity they have found advocates for humane and compassionate treatment -- no matter what their documentation status.

Within minutes of the call from the eyewitness, the director of the Office of Hispanic Catholics, Anna Vega, had called the second police district trying to ascertain whether the jornalero who had been picked up had been injured. She had called the office of Councilwoman Marion Tasco (in whose district the incident occurred) and Regan Cooper, executive director of the Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition to make sure they were aware of the incident. And she had called the archdiocesan Vicar for Hispanic Catholics, Msgr. Hugh Shields, to recount what the eyewitness had said.

By the time I found out about it, Msgr. Shields had already been to the second police district, where he had been able to confirm that an African American man was taken into custody that morning from the Home Depot parking lot. But without a name, the police officer he spoke to could not release any other information -- not whether the day worker was still in custody, what he was charged with, not even whether he was hurt.

Msgr. had also been to Home Depot, where a few day workers, at the edges of the parking lot, had re-gathered. Speaking to them in Spanish, he asked them if any of them had been there during the earlier incident.

A few nodded their heads. "We received a call that the man who was taken away was hurt," he said. "Did any of you see that?"

Again some nods.

"Do you know his name?" This time the jornaleros shook their heads. "And he was a Latino?" Msgr. asked.

"Haitian, Father," one of the jornaleros answered. After a beat he added, "It's the same island."

Deportation
(Oct. 23, 2008)

The story begins on Thursday, March 15, 2007.

Erica shares an apartment with her three sisters and two brothers. She is still asleep that morning when Beto gets up to go to work at the restaurant where he is a cook.

Usually he leaves for work in the early morning and doesn’t get home until 1 or 2 a.m. He speaks some English, and Erica describes him as “tranquilo” (even-tempered) and “muy cumplido” (reliable). On that day, he wears a jacket and carries a backpack. He has his cell phone on him, and his pay for the past week, some $500 in cash, by Erica’s accounting.

He calls from the subway platform on his way to work, speaks briefly to one of the family members and ends the call by saying he’ll call again later.

At 1 p.m., a co-worker at the restaurant calls the apartment. “What happened to Beto?” he asks. “He didn’t show up for work.”

The family tries to find him. They call the police, who ask for a description, what clothing and shoes he was wearing. One of the family members runs a photo of him down to the station. They worry that he might be hurt or dead – that his girlfriend’s ex has killed him in some fit of jealousy. The next day, they seek her out and she refuses to open the door or answer any of their questions. It seems to confirm their worst fears.

Still, they spend the rest of that day, and Saturday and Sunday also, posting flyers with his photo, and asking around whether anyone has seen him. They call hospitals and inquire about every John Doe. At 3 a.m. on Sunday, a friend of the family, utterly desperate, calls Sister Lorena.

“None of us thought about ‘la migra,’” Erica says to me, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement by its nickname. “It hadn’t even crossed our minds.”

But it crosses Sister Lorena’s mind. At 8:30 a.m. on Monday, March 19 she calls the York County Prison where most undocumented immigrants from the Philadelphia area are taken. By the time they ascertain he was taken there, he’s already gone.

What happened to Beto? Erica recounts the detention story Beto tells her when he is finally able to make a call to them: He’s on the platform at 15th and Market waiting for his usual train. He notices Philadelphia police on the platform checking people’s backpacks, but doesn’t think much about it. At some point, a policeman approaches him, asks him what time it is. When he hears Beto respond, the policeman asks him if he has documents proving he’s a legal immigrant.

Beto, Erica continues, tells the policeman he has papers, even though he really doesn’t. He is loaded into a van with 15 other young Latino men from the train platform, and taken to the local precinct. The police turn him over to immigration authorities in Philadelphia. There, the I.C.E. agents take his watch, his jacket, his wallet and his cell phone. Before Beto is shipped off to the detention center in York, his wallet is returned to him with approximately $100 of his original $500. He has to plead with them to get his cell phone back.

He’s not at York long. Within days he’s taken first to Texas, and then to Arizona, where he is finally able to contact Erica. He’s on his way to be dropped across the border -- Ciudad Juárez, Sister Lorena guesses – to find his way back to their hometown in Puebla. “

Another waitress where I work [as a busboy] knows someone who was picked up the same way, at the same station,” Erica tells me when she finishes recounting her brother’s story.

Then simply, with no drama: “I no longer take the trains."

---

Perhaps you do not think this is a Christmas story to be told a few days before Christmas.

And yet it is.

I open at random the new translation of the book of psalms one of the newspaper's columnists has given me today. It opens to the last lines of psalm 39: "For I am a sojourner with You, a new settler like all of my fathers...."

We are all sojourners.

All new settlers.

Just so.

You can't kill a dream

2010-12-19T23:42:00.007-05:00

On Dec. 4, 2000, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly proclaimed December 18 International Migrants Day. The day began as a commemoration of the 10-year anniversary of the adoption of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant workers and the Members of their Families.

On Dec. 18, 2010 the U.S. Senate voted no to cloture on the DREAM Act, which would have provided a path to citizenship for young persons who were brought to the United States by their parents as children or infants.

A terribly ironic coincidence of dates.

After the DREAM Act defeat, supporters of the bill said they would continue to push for it. Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, one of the sponsors, said Latinos would remember in the elections in 2012 how senators had voted.

In a letter to senators before the vote, Archbishop Jose H. Gomez, coadjutor archbishop of Los Angeles and chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Migration, said: "The DREAM Act would provide thousands of deserving young persons who desire to become Americans a fair opportunity to do so. This would not only benefit them, but our country as well. It is the right thing to do, for them and for our nation."

The U.S. Catholic Bishops have supported passage of the DREAM Act for years. The Church's National Migration Week -- which has as its theme Renewing Hope, Seeking Justice -- is slated to be held Jan. 2-8 in parishes and dioceses around the country. It seems like the ideal time for Catholics heeding Pope Benedict XVI's focus on migrant families in his 2011 World Day of Migrants and Refugees message to gather for prayer vigils and in solidarity with the young people whose dreams were delayed and deferred (but hopefully not destroyed) by Saturday's vote.

Many thanks, by the way, to both Senators Casey and Specter who voted yes to the DREAM Act.

***

Speaking of dreams that flower only after a long fallow season ....

In an appeal born of shameless self-promotion, and of support for a small but worthy Catholic literary magazine, I'd like to draw your attention to the latest issue of Dappled Things, which contains my "Poem with a line from the Desert Fathers." The issue includes fiction, essays, poetry and artwork with a Catholic focus and is quite handsomely produced. It is also -- perhaps fittingly -- a bit countercultural in that the issue cannot be ordered as an epub, only in print. The web site is www.dappledthings.org. Go, browse the back issues (some of those have online links, go figure) -- much of the material is engaging and speaks directly to the Catholic imagination. Hey, maybe you'll discover the next J.R.R. Tolkien among the pages ....

Guadalupe 2010

2010-12-13T09:53:00.003-05:00

Images from the 2010 celebration of the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul in Philadelphia - thanks to the remarkable camera of CS&T freelancer Kevin Cook (kevincookphoto.com).

Por ser dia de su santo ... N.S.D. Guadalupe in Filadelfia

2010-12-12T17:21:00.003-05:00

A nice video I found on YouTube of last year's festivities at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul in Philadelphia. This year's celebration (held at the cathedral last night) was even larger and better attended. Photos of that to follow.
¡Que viva la Morenita!

An editorial worth reading

2010-11-29T10:01:00.004-05:00

From today's Milford Daily News online:

"Contrary to the claims of opponents, the Dream Act would neither forgive illegal behavior nor open the floodgates to previously illegal immigrants. The "crimes" were committed by their parents. We don't deny citizenship to the children of murderers, rapists and white collar criminals. Why deny it to the children of border-crossers and people who overstay visas? Advocates estimate perhaps 800,000 immigrants could benefit from the Dream Act, but they couldn't, in turn, sponsor distant relatives, and even their parents would have to return to their native countries and wait 10 years before they could legally return.

Even critics of immigration reform agree the U.S. needs immigrants, both to support an aging population and to bring the energy, ambition and entrepreneurial spirit that have enriched America for centuries. The young people targeted by the Dream Act are the kind of immigrants Americans say they want: They speak our language, have demonstrated achievement, want to improve themselves and are already loyal to the country they think of as home.

The Dream Act isn't just about helping young people who, through no fault of their own, find themselves without a country and without a future. It's about opening the door of citizenship to young people America needs."

Also, look to the Dec. 2 issue of the CS&T for Mar Muñoz-Visoso's column, which is an open letter to Congress appealing for passage of the DREAM Act. Muñoz-Visoso is the assistant director of media relations at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The bishops have been very vocal in their support for passage of the DREAM Act. Click here to go to the bishops' Justice for Immigrants page.

In thanksgiving for the 14th Amendment (and no thanks to Rep. Steve King)

2010-11-24T10:32:00.008-05:00

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), likely chair of a House subcommittee on immigration in the next Congress, has vowed to take on the 14th Amendment's guarantee of citizenship by jus soli ("right of the soil") for the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants. In an interview with a columnist for Iowa's Cityview (http://dmcityview.com/2010/11/18/columns/mercury.html) King is quoted as saying:

“The framers did not consider the babies of illegals when they framed the 14th amendment because we didn’t have immigration law at the time so they could not have wanted to confer automatic citizenship on the babies of people who were unlawfully in the United States,” King said.

The 14th Amendment was adopted on July 9, 1868 (one of the "Reconstruction Amendments" adopted immediately after the Civil War) guaranteeing (male) former slaves and their descendants the same rights to birthright citizenship as white American men. Setting aside for a moment any other objections to King's comment, let's just consider that a percentage of the population of the undocumented in the U.S. are the victims (and children of the victims) of modern day slavery - human trafficking - and precisely the contemporary equivalent of who the framers of the 14th sought to guarantee citizenship for. The U.S. Department of State reports:

"The United States is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced labor, debt bondage, and forced prostitution ... Trafficking occurs primarily for labor and most commonly in domestic servitude, agriculture, manufacturing, janitorial services, hotel services, construction, health and elder care, hair and nail salons, and strip club dancing. Vulnerabilities remain even for legally documented temporary workers who typically fill labor needs in the hospitality, landscaping, construction, food service, and agricultural industries. In some human trafficking cases, workers are victims of fraudulent recruitment practices and have incurred large debts for promised employment in the United States, which makes them susceptible to debt bondage and involuntary servitude ... combined federal and state human trafficking information indicates that more investigations and prosecutions have taken place for sex trafficking offenses than for labor trafficking offenses, but law enforcement identified a comparatively higher number of labor trafficking victims as such cases often involve more victims." (http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2010/142761.htm)

Moreover, the report states that the primary countries of origin for victims of human trafficking are virtually indistinguishable from the primary countries of origin for non-trafficked undocumented immigrants who have crossed borders or overstayed visas:

"Primary countries of origin for foreign victims certified by the U.S. government were Thailand, Mexico, Philippines, Haiti, India, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic. Eighty-two percent of these foreign adult victims and 56 percent of foreign child trafficking victims were labor trafficking victims. " (http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2010/142761.htm)

Humantrafficking.org estimates that 17,000+ people are trafficked to the U.S. annually, but all sources of statistics agree trafficking is vastly under reported - and sometimes impossible to distinguish from non-trafficked undocumented immigration. Even in King's implied narrow interpretation of 14th Amendment, a determination of trafficked vs. non-trafficked immigration would have to be made before birthright citizenship was denied to a U.S.-born child of an undocumented person - a logistical and financial (and ethical) nightmare.

Also according to Cityview:

"King wants Congress to pass a ban on 'anchor babies,' place it in statute, and wait for the other side to challenge the prohibition in the courts. If King and his forces lose, they’ll move for a constitutional amendment to change the practice, he said."

I'm moved to think about this as the nation is about to celebrate Thanksgiving - a holiday that commemorates our nation's history of uninvited and undocumented immigration. I have no idea of King's heritage (nor do I care) but unless he is a registered member of one of the Native American/American Indian nations, he doesn't get to use the term "anchor baby" without acknowledging the irony and sheer hubris of it. The vast majority of us are the children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren of "anchor babies." Yes, even charter members of the Daughters of the American Revolution and those who trace antecedents to the Mayflower, the Nina, Pinta and Santa María or any of the European sailing vessels that landed on the shores of the "New World." Jus soli is the only reason many Americans can claim citizenship.

The photo at the top of this post is from one my family's Thanksgiving dinner prep several years ago. I wrote back then how significant it was to me that at that dinner, the family who sat around the table included Britons and Americans born in Mexico, Guatemala, Thailand and New York; the children of Bengali and Guatemalan immigrants; the grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren of Greek, German, Welsh and Spanish immigrants.

My own father was what King so disrespectfully calls an anchor baby. My grandparents were in transition from Greece to Cuba to Colombia when my father was born. Who knows what my grandparents' documentation status was - things were done differently then and what I've seen of the official correspondence between my grandfather and consulates leaves much in the dark. But my father was born in Chicago, Ill. - as we say in Spanish, a mucha honra - to his great pride. An American citizen. A veteran of World War II and the Korean War. A Northwestern U. graduate. The CEO of a multinational corporation. A lifelong Chicago Cubs fan. A man who contributed to building up the nation in countless ways.

I'd put my father's bona fides up there against King's any day. And yet, were my father to be born after King takes up the chairmanship of the House's immigration committee, the Iowa representative would propose to deny my father his right to citizenship.

I'm no constitutional scholar (nor even much of a historian) but it seems to me that King's desire to rescind birthright citizenship for a certain "kind" of person born on this soil directly contradicts the intent of Abraham Lincoln and others who sought, through the 14th Amendment, to prevent two types of existence in our nation - one free, the other enslaved.

This Thanksgiving when my immediate family gathers around the long, scarred farm table that holds our board, I will pray in memory of my forebears and in hope for my daughter and her children, that in years to come we come to recognize that not all gifts come wrapped in familiar paper.

And that some don't come with papers at all.

Life is a carnival

2010-11-20T21:43:00.010-05:00

As we race toward the end of the year, we're racing also toward the end of the decade.

What were you doing when the calendar rolled over to 2000? How much has your life changed in the ensuing 10 years? (I'm really asking, by the way.)

I rang in the year 2000 with my husband, daughter, parents and Wally Reinhardt, a good family friend, on beaches of the Mexican Riviera - dancing on the sand to live music and watching a "torito" of fireworks burn the first few minutes of the 21st century away. There seemed nothing, nothing at all, that would make a better beginning.

A week or so later, my family would troop to Mexico City for my daughter's belated baptism and the subsequent party - notable for its food and the canary who picked my daughter's fortune from a basket. "You will be happy," my daughter's fortune read. "And although destiny has made you pretty, do not be conceited. Work to keep a noble heart." We were all happy. I remember it on our faces. And around the table, some very noble hearts.

My husband, daughter and I returned from Mexico to our snowy cabin in the woods outside of Hamilton, N.Y. It was - and still is - the little corner of the world best loved by my heart. Coy-dogs and wild turkeys and deer were our closest neighbors. We awaited the yearly crop morel mushrooms, gem-studded puffballs, mayapples and trout lilies on the ground; the crayfish, little jeweled frogs and brown trout in the stream; and the tiny hummingbird nests hidden halfway to the sky.

We settled back into our routines, the day-to-day lives that now, in retrospect, stand as the best of times. Then, little more than a month into 2000, my mother died.

It was the opening salvo of a decade that when it comes to an end on Dec. 31, will have included more sorrows than joys, more destruction than creation, more heartache than heart's ease.

I miscarried a child. And then another and another. We moved away from our beloved woods. My father got sick, suffered, died. Friends I thought I'd never lose, I did. My husband was unemployed for half the decade. We went from poor but solvent to poor and insolvent and worried about just making it from week to week. Depression, PTSD-like effects of childhood sexual abuse, health concerns, surgeries. It seems like the litany of darkness might go on until the end of time.

And yet.

My brothers both married in this decade, as did one of my brothers in law. I have six nieces and nephews now - all amazing little beings as distinct from one another as the leaves I see changing outside the window today. My daughter has grown from an amazing 5-year-old to an amazing 15-year-old and guess what? She's survived my parenting just fine. My husband is employed at a job he loves. Friends I never thought to seek have made their way into my life. I've discovered social media in this decade, and rediscovered every kind of writing I ever loved and had set aside - from journalism to poetry.I also rediscovered the peculiar joy of seeing my words paid, and in print.

Rediscovery has, in fact, been the hallmark of this decade for me.

The social justice activism I set aside after college has re-emerged in advocacy for immigrants. The religion I also wholly set aside is now part of my everyday life. The assimilated Latina gave way to something just a little different - a woman in community. A mucha honra.

I don't think my ups and downs are unique to my decade. We need only look at the highs and lows of the economy; the ways both the best of the American Dream and the worst have taken center stage in our collective lives; the ways we have lived, in Dickens' words, the best and worst of times.

Not too many months ago my family attended the carnival at St. Joe's Parish in Downingtown. Yes, the ferris wheel photo at the top of this post is from that outing. I have always been an adrenaline junkie - no person in news business can be otherwise - and have done my share of facing down fears. Scared of snakes? Then, let me drape myself in them while on a trip to Thailand. Scared of heights? Let me jump out of a plane at 10,000 feet with nothing but a thin tissue of nylon to stop my fall. And still, at the parish carnival, I refused to go on the ferris wheel.(My husband went on it with my daughter.) I had to be coerced, in fact, to go on a horrid pirate ship ride that pitched me forward and backward, with my eyes firmly shut. I'm told the child in the seat in front of me laughed through the whole ride. So, the question is, has this decade birthed fear in me?

The answer is undeniably, yes.

And yet.

I was working on my novel a few days ago (I'll post some other time about how this decade also swallowed whole my last novel). One of the characters is like I was before the calendar page turned in 2000 - seemingly fearless. She climbs as high as she can to get close as she can to the stars. Her explanation? The stars cast their light on us without regard for whether we deserve the illumination or not. Without regard for our fears, or our small, brave stands. Without regard for whether we have become what we imagined, oh say, a decade ago.

This decade has also birthed a sort of awareness of the significant synchronicities in life. The way, if you want (and I do), God sheds light on us. The way, for example, as I'm writing this, my eyes fall on the words of one of columnists in our Catholic newspaper this week:

You know the number of the stars and call each of them by name.

It is a line from the psalms intoned in Morning Prayer - the Divine Office prayed across the globe, every day. I like the rest of the psalm, too. The way it speaks, the way it illuminates the step that bridges closure and beginning:

Heal hearts that are broken, gather together those who have been scattered....

No canary could pick a better wish for a new decade than this. No person could pray for better.

You may say that we're DREAMers

2010-11-12T11:50:00.005-05:00

But we're not the only ones ...

DREAM Act Panel Discussion
Wednesday, Nov. 17
7:30 - 8:30 p.m.
Barton Hall Classrooms, Room 109, at Temple University

The DREAM Act is bipartisan legislation that would legalize the status of thousands of undocumented youth in the United States. The bill would apply to students in both public and private schools, including Catholic schools. Young persons would become eligible for permanent legal status upon completion of two years of college or two years of honorable service in the military. Approximately 65,000 youth per year would benefit from the DREAM Act.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops supports the DREAM Act:

"On behalf of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), I write to express our support for S. 729, the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act). This legislation would make a difference in the lives of undocumented youth who were brought to the United States by their parents and now, because of their lack of legal status, face obstacles to their future. By removing such barriers, the DREAM Act permits immigrant students to pursue a promising future through college education or military service."
-- USCCB letter to legislators, April 6, 2009

Immigration magic

2010-11-03T22:59:00.004-04:00

"A woman. No I.D. Tracked down from the cell phone listing of another detainee."

from Flying with the Dead: http://bit.ly/bqTgfx

Full issue: http://crossedgenres.com/store/print/issue-24-print-createspace/

Flying with the Dead

2010-11-01T03:46:00.006-04:00

Guatemala. Mexico. The United States.

Immigrant. First generation citizen. Second gen.

What we carry from our parents and for our parents.

Across borders that separate nations and worlds and human hearts.

In communion with saints, in remembrance of souls, and in praise of what persists - beyond all odds.

My short fiction "Flying with the Dead" is on line at Crossed Genres magazine here.
Please read it and comment at that site. Good, bad, semi-indifferent - I welcome, appreciate and look forward to all of your comments.

And if you can see your way to it, please consider purchasing a print or ebook version of the magazine. Small, independent presses and magazines are vital to those of us who write fiction - and for those of us who love discovering new and emergent writers.

Or, purchase the Crossed Genres Year Two anthology, available in December, which also has my story - along with many other fine short stories.

Fr. Allan's Blog: CATHOLIC COMMUNITIES OF NON-EUROPEAN HERITAGE IN A HIGHLY POLARIZED AND DIVERSE UNITED STATES

2010-10-26T10:48:00.000-04:00

Fr. Allan's Blog: CATHOLIC COMMUNITIES OF NON-EUROPEAN HERITAGE IN A HIGHLY POLARIZED AND DIVERSE UNITED STATES

Pa. legislator heads efforts to repeal 14th amendment birthright

2010-10-20T12:12:00.002-04:00

Go to State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe's web site (http://www.statelegislatorsforlegalimmigration.com/) to read about his organization State Legislators for Legal Immigration (SLLI).

An excerpt:

"State Legislators for Legal Immigration has been formed to serve as a unifying force to bring all levels of government together to terminate America’s illegal alien invasion from the Keystone State of Pennsylvania ...."

According to USA today, GOP lawmakers have signed on to Metcalfe's efforts (http://ht.ly/2WwBB).

Rep. Metcalfe needs a history lesson - unless his forebears were in the New World before "invasion" by Europeans, he's an American thanks to an "anchor baby" ancestor.

Unbelievable hubris.

The experience of deportation

2010-10-17T02:18:00.000-04:00