Continuing their campaign to raise pedestrian awareness, Metro is going to have ambassadors all week at different spots in East Los dishing out information about rail safety. I would have posted this earlier, but I got caught up with “things.” For more information about all the other stuff happening with the gold line extension, you can go to metro’s web site for the Eastside extension. Â They also have this interesting map called “Eastside Flavors.” It’s kinda outdated because they still have the Homegirl Cafe listed and they’ve been gone since they relocated to Chinatown. They mention all the local spots near by around every station so it’s an ok map I guess. The gold line is almost here and the anticipation is KILLING me. Â Â Â
This afternoon, during 4th period, self-organized and self-motivated students walked-out. Now kids ditching or skipping out on school is nothing new. And definitely nothing new at Lincoln HS, let me tell you. But I could see the conviction of why the kids were doing it.
from Rolling Stone:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/26793903/the_big_takeover/print
“It’s over — we’re officially, royally fucked. no empire can survive being rendered a permanent laughingstock, which is what happened as of a few weeks ago, when the buffoons who have been running things in this country finally went one step too far.”
That’s right he said royally fucked, the article is in Rolling Stone so they let him get away with a lot. This article really clearly, and passionately explains how and who was involved in a lot of the horrible transactions that led to taxpayers having to bailout the super rich. It is a call to arms. We should be pissed off and taking these guys down, taking their assets and locking them up. We shouldn’t be paying a dime for their money making schemes that made them even richer but bankrupted the economy.
Here is a video of the author talking about his article. I hope more people read and see this and we start doing more than paying for rich guys gambling.
I know that many of us eastsiders have an embedded belief that using marijuana connects us to our ancient sacred roots, much like the spiritual use of cannabis to the Rastafari. A sprig in rubbing alcohol or as a tea, has been a part of our grandmothers’ homeopathic medicine cabinet for many generations. As an artist, I have questioned the culturally profound and the political correct. [Note: Above image is a self-portrait connecting me to MarÃa Sabina and Bob Marley through marijuana.]
I feel that my obligation as a human and artist is to speak out on matters that I find unjust, using whatever power I have. Being a Chicana artist, I have used my body of work as a platform for creating exhibits and art that have a social message. I have worked with many other artists around the world to keep the sadistic murdering of young women in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico current and on our minds through various artistic campaigns. One of the reasons we have come together as a community in LA to demand righteousness for the people of Juarez is because of our history of resistance to injustice. That’s just the way we have been, since California became part of the United States. It was not by chance that in 2001 Raul Baltazar, Rigo Maldonado, Azul Luna, Erika Elizondo and I were invited by the victim mothers of Juarez to strategize on finding a resolution to these crimes—we were a small group of representatives of the greater Los Angeles consciousness. Continue reading →
Working Class Historian Gifford Hartman (a white guy that grew up in East Los by the way) sent me this link to a fascinating piece about the Jewish influence on radical politics and multiculturalism in Boyle Heights during the 1950’s. For those interested in the history of the Eastside, it’s a must read. There’s lots of good quotes I could pull but this has to be my favorite:
Frumkin already saw the distinction between his community of Boyle Heights and the growing Jewish community on the Westside in 1945. There was “an unspoken solidarity among all the neighbors†on the Eastside, including the 60 percent of his neighbors who were Mexican. “We never had a lock on our door, never had a key. You just didn’t do it. I don’t know if it was unspoken, but as poor as we were, nobody stole from anybody else.†In this working-class solidarity, a certain level of contempt was reserved for the more middle-class surroundings on the Westside.
“When we would smoke, for instance, we would keep the cigarettes in the car. We would never dump them out in East L.A. When we used to go to West L.A. to the Jewish Community Center to dances, we’d dump all our ashtrays out, because we knew the streets were going to be cleaned there. But we never did it here.”
Wow, even in the 50’s people were complaining about the disparity of service in our communities. Some things never change. Is ashtray micro-resistance an action we can learn from our Eastside ancestors? It couldn’t hurt!
The full title of the article is “What’s Good for Boyle Heights Is Good for the Jews”: Creating Multiculturalism on the Eastside during the 1950s by George J. Sanchez
With pedestrian traffic accidents increasing in Boyle Heights, the Union de Vecinos wants to make sure that the streets are safe for everyone. Community members staged a protest on Cesar Chavez Ave. and Forest holding up signs and chanting in rhythm for safer streets for pedestrians in Boyle Heights around 6 p.m. today. Elizabeth Blaney is one of those community members who want the cities Department of transportation to place traffic signals in two high traffic areas, Wabash and Fickett and on the corner where they were protesting. Some of the residents, who wanted to remain anonymous, said that they’re tired of having to worry if they’re kids will get home safely from school because drivers don’t adhere to the residential speed limit, which is 35 mph.
As of late I’ve been hunting down scholarships that I qualify for and have a chance of getting. Paying for school and the cost of living adds up rather quick when your in school. So I’ve been asking people for letters of recommendations left and right and so far people are willing to help me out, thanks Victoria. But I realized that scholarships can only go so far for me and I’m extremely limited in the scholarships available to me because I’m special. At the same time there are other students applying to those same limited scholarships and well they blow me outta the water in terms of academics. Sure I have a 3.0 gpa, I’m an active community member, blogger and journalist at two news papers blah, blah, blah. Point is the pipe line gets thinner and thinner especially now with La Crisis and everyone trying to get as much financial aid as they can. That’s another thing too I DON’T QUALIFY FOR FINANCIAL AID. Everything comes outta my pocket, which at the jr. college level isn’t too hard. I have a job, but I’m a full time student. I work weekends and when I’m not in school I work as much as I can to save up for the following semester. Continue reading →
Last weekend we chanced upon this small collection of protest signs against Stater Bros Market in Whittier, so we stopped to find out some details. Basically, if you look poor or “different”, then you might get harassed. Something many of us already know but I think it’s worth some attention.
A new and scary low for humanity, Sheriff Joe marches shackled immigrants through selective neighborhoods of Phoenix to heighten the impact and gain some publicity for himself.
Does the right wing want Mexicans to be tattooed with an ID number and have to wear a symbol of their ethnicity? Maybe a star of Davidlike the Nazis had the Jews wear on their clothing in Europe?
Last year in Maricopa county Arizona during Easter Sunday Sheriff Joe set up roadblocks in Chicano neighborhoodssurrounding churches and stopped and questioned every “Mexican looking†family on their way to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.
Could this happen here? If Walter Moore gets elected Mayor he already has his “Jamiel’s Lawâ€, written upto “legally†profile Mexican Americans. It seems the failed right wing is looking to scapegoat the Mexican American population and use the issue of immigration as a wedge issue since they have nothing else to whip up enthusiasm for their “causeâ€
Sheriff Joe Arpaio Marches Immigrants Through Public Square
New America Media, Commentary, Douglas Rivlin, Posted: Feb 05, 2009
Editor’s Note: On Wednesday, Maricopa County, Ariz. Sheriff Joe Arpaio marched shackled immigrants through the streets of Phoenix as a show of force and to promote his Fox Reality Channel television program. Meanwhile, former Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, the new Secretary of Homeland Security, has called for a review of Homeland Security immigration enforcement measures, including 287g, which allows local police to enforce federal civil immigration law. Maricopa County has entered into a 287g agreement with the federal government that gives Sheriff Arpaio greater latitude to go after immigrants, whether or not they are accused of committing criminal offenses. Douglas Rivlin is communications director of the National Immigration Forum, a non-partisan pro-immigrant advocacy group in Washington, D.C.
While some people may not get in regards to unemployment numbers how bad it is out there. We have other indicators that are in my opinion better indicators. And to me unemployment numbers are not a good statiscal visual for the average person (at least not in the beginning,)  jobs have been going away since 2007 and some people have just stopped looking, so how do we see how bad it truly is? Continue reading →
Looks like the Eastside debate is heating up once again. Not to add fuel to the fire, but this morning I happened to come across Patt Morrison’s piece on where the Eastside really is and how haters need to stop frontin’, “What lights my fuse is the attempted rebranding of Silver Lake as the “Eastside,” mostly, I think, by people who stand to make a buck by appropriating the name of one part of L.A. and slapping it on another.” What lights my fuse are those sexy hats she likes to wear hahahaha.
Ed also gets into it and talks about the The L.A. Times trying to map the city, but as he points out, the arts district got the shaft. I also noticed that there’s a South Los Angeles and a Historic South Central Los Angeles. I don’t know exactly what they’re smoking over there at the Times, but in my mind there’s only ONE South Central Los Angeles and that’s the one I lived in on and off as a kid. For anyone who feels inclined to voice their two cents about the map, they also allow you to correct them by submitting a geocomment, which lets you define your hood in the little map they provide.
With pedestrian traffic accidents increasing in Boyle Heights, the 
