Escalones del Sagrado Corazon

There's something very nice about seeing family waiting on the church steps before and after a wedding. Here, my Mom (holding her nieta Pilli), my sister's father-in-law, my Dad and my brother Danny watch as my cousin Elvia, the bride, takes pictures on the steps of the Sagrado Corazon church in Lincoln Heights. I am glad Elvia chose to get married at the Sagrado Corazon. I still remember when we were all here more than 15 years ago, on the same steps, celebrating her First Communion.  

Taco Town & Beyond

Decades later, the Rivas family reunited with the Lopez family. During the early 1970s, the couple pictured in the center were my parents' landlords in historic Boyle Heights. Back then, my sister and I were the only children in our household, and the Lopez family treated us extremely well. My mom still recalls how La Senora Lopez arrived with a huge basket of gifts after I was born. Here, we are all celebrating my cousin Elvia's wedding on the front steps of the Sagrado Corazon church in Lincoln Heights.

The Lopez family owned a four-unit apartment building in Boyle Heights, near the corner of Cincinnati and Brooklyn Avenue (now Avenida Cesar Chavez). To this day, the Rivas family continues to have great memories of "La Cincinnati," remembering how great it was to live one block north of "La Brooklyn," the main artery in East LA.

The Lopez family also owned several Mexican restaurants, one of which was called "Taco Town" in Pico Rivera. Back in the 1970s, my father had several jobs trying to make ends meet. One of the jobs he had was the night shift cleaning the "Taco Town" restaurant. In those days, my mom, my sister and I would all go to the restaurant and help my dad mop, sweep and pick up after all the patrons had left. The nostalgic mexican music coming out of the juke box kept us going. The Lopez family still claim that my dad and his cleaning team are the best they have ever had!

El "Taco Town" in Pico Rivera was an important place for the young Rivas family during the 1970s. And in 2006 more than ever, the term "Taco Town" brings back memories of those unforgettable tacos in East LA!


 

Latino Youth Make History

Latino youth make history in the City of Los Angeles as thousands of brave and politically aware students walk out of their high schools in protest of the proposed legislation on immigration. It is beautiful to see so many young people taking an active interest on what is going around the country. In an age of apathy, one has to wonder, where is MTV? MTV was nowhere in sight as thousands of Latino youth took their opinions to the streets and made their statements in one of the largest civic gatherings in the history of the United States. Viva USA! Viva Mexico!

People are very quick to criticize the presence of Mexican flags in these protests, but they do not realize that Mexicans and Mexican-Americans have lived under decades of prejudice and discrimination, constantly targeted by laws that seem neutral on the surface, only to reveal a discriminatory tone in their underbelly. The Mexican flags simply point out the elephant in the room.
 

"Don't Panic, We're Hispanic"

Students March on Behalf of Immigrants for 5th Day
By Cynthia H. Cho and Anna Gorman, Times Staff Writers
12:31 PM PST, March 28, 2006

Thousands of teenagers braved heavy rains this morning to walk out of school and push pro-immigrant demonstrations into a fifth straight day in the Los Angeles area.

Some 7,075 students, mainly from middle schools, had walked out as of 11:15 a.m. A total of 45 schools were impacted.

"That's less compared to yesterday, a lot fewer than yesterday, but that's still a pretty large number of kids out of school," said Susan Cox, spokesperson for the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Cox said all secondary school campuses were locked down today, meaning no students who entered school grounds were allowed to leave.

Participation today paled in comparison to the nearly 24,000 students at LAUSD and a total of 40,000 students from across Southern California who staged walkouts to protest proposed immigration legislation Monday, blocking traffic on four freeways and leaving educators concerned about how much longer the issue will disrupt schools.

Districts lose payments of $28.13 per student per day. The state makes the payments to support local schools.

"Discipline is up to each individual school," Cox said. "Students will be held accountable for attendance and for missing work."

With steady rain falling this morning, a scattering of walkouts were reported, including one in Compton and another in Wilmington.

Television broadcast reports showed a small group of students, holding their hands over their heads, as they were detained and later escorted by police along one road in San Pedro.

Monday's protests are believed to eclipse in size the demonstrations that occurred during the anti-Proposition 187 campaign in 1994, and even a famous student walkout for Chicano rights in 1968.

Some principals put their schools on lockdown Monday to keep students from leaving campus, and Los Angeles Unified School District officials said all middle and high schools will be on lockdown today.

Monday's demonstrations appeared to start in Los Angeles but quickly spread to San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino, Orange and Ventura counties. Though the protests were mostly peaceful, there were a few clashes and several arrests.

Motorists were left in gridlock as youths marched down Sunset Boulevard, Melrose Avenue, Laurel Canyon Boulevard and other major thoroughfares.

At one point, protesters marched onto the Hollywood Freeway in downtown Los Angeles and two sections of the Harbor Freeway, downtown and in San Pedro, briefly halting traffic.

Students in Orange County briefly blocked the Riverside Freeway and Santa Ana Freeway in Fullerton, waving Mexican flags and tossing a rock that smashed the window of a CHP cruiser.

By noon, thousands of youths had gathered in front of Los Angeles City Hall, with student leaders meeting privately with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. The rally took on a festive tone, with many waving Mexican flags and yelling, "Latinos Stand Up!" and "Viva Mexico!"

"It was my dad's and grandfather's sweat and tears that built the city of Los Angeles," said Marshall High School senior Saul Corona, whose father came to the United States illegally before getting a green card. "People like them did things no one else wanted to do because they wanted me to have a better future."

The protests appeared to be loosely organized, with students learning about them through mass e-mails, fliers, instant messages, cellphone calls and postings on myspace.com Web pages. By contrast, the massive rally Saturday that drew 500,000 people to downtown Los Angeles was highly organized, with demonstrators urged to wear white and bring American flags.

Many students said they were marching in opposition to a bill sponsored by Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) that passed the House in December. The bill would give police more power to enforce immigration laws and would lead to 700 miles of additional fencing along the border.

Even as the students marched, a Senate committee approved an immigration package Monday that would enable some of the 12 million undocumented immigrants in the country to become U.S. citizens.

As immigrants or children of immigrants, several marchers said they would be personally affected by Sensenbrenner's pending bill.

"If this law passes, what will happen?" said Yadira Pech, 16. "There would be no more Los Angeles High School. Nearly all of us are immigrants."

Added Antonio Chavez, an eighth-grader at University Heights Middle School in Riverside: "Our parents, our families came here from Mexico. We want other families to be able to come here too."

Some students said they did not know exactly what the bill said but believed that it was part of an anti-immigrant movement taking hold nationwide.

"We just walked out because we didn't want to be at school," said Diana Hernandez, a senior at Dorsey High School in Los Angeles. "But we also believe [the legislation] is wrong."

The demonstrations became violent in some areas. In San Diego County, two dozen protesters were arrested in Escondido after refusing orders from police to disperse. Two patrol cars were reportedly vandalized.

In Riverside, a peaceful student protest unfolded downtown as six youths and one adult were arrested across town after scuffles with police clad in riot gear and carrying nightsticks, authorities said. After following students throughout the city and calling for them to disperse, officers confronted the group. Students responded by hurling rocks and bottles at police.

"They're pushing us around," said Pati Sanchez, a Norte Vista High School senior. "People should be able to say what they think."

In Santa Ana, officers used nightsticks and pepper spray to control students throwing bottles and rocks. They also set up barricades to prevent the protesters from disrupting traffic. One student was arrested and a few others suffered minor injuries, police said.

Four adults were arrested during a protest in Van Nuys, but no major violence occurred in Los Angeles County. The demonstrations prompted a tactical alert by Los Angeles police so the department could deploy officers to areas where they were needed.

"They're noisy but well-behaved," said LAPD Chief William J. Bratton as he walked through the downtown crowd. "Let them have their say."

In a district with about 358,000 middle and high school students, an estimated 26,000 walked out of more than 50 Los Angeles Unified campuses. Teachers, principals and school police urged students to demonstrate on campus, but students flooded through gates and onto city streets and sidewalks.

"It's very disruptive," said Ellen Morgan, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Unified School District. "We want them to express their opinions, but there are venues, there are forums for them to do so. We'd like them to stay in school and get an education."

Not only did the mostly high school students miss class time, administrators said, but the district could lose money if students did not show up. And with postings on myspace.com promoting more walkouts today, principals were doing whatever they could to encourage students to stay on school grounds.

Teachers are planning lessons on the immigration issue, and administrators are setting aside spots on campus for rallies and sit-ins. Some school officials plan to punish students who left campus with enforced attendance at Saturday school.

In Los Angeles, principals sent notes home that urged parents to tell their children to stay on campus and warned of disciplinary action for those who did not.

Lucy Delgadillo, whose children attend South East High School in South Gate, said she knows that lockdowns promote school safety.

"There are some kids who don't know what the protest is about," she said. "But there are kids who understand and feel strongly about this, and I think they should be allowed to protest."

At some campuses where students did walk out, staff members marched alongside the youths to ensure their safety, officials said. In addition, Los Angeles school administrators dispatched about 30 buses to City Hall and other locations to ferry students back to their campuses in the afternoon.

In a noontime speech outside City Hall, Villaraigosa told the students that he opposed the Sensenbrenner bill.

"I know that all of you are fearful about what's going on," Villaraigosa said, referring to the pending legislation. "I know it would criminalize 12 million people."

But later in the afternoon, when he came out to tell students to go home, he was met with chants of, "Hell no, we won't go."

Administrators expressed differing views on the protests, which took place on the Cesar Chavez holiday. Some complained about a wasted day, while others praised the youths' activism.

"What pleases me is that our kids are politically active," said Ventura Unified School District Supt. Trudy Arriaga. "Isn't that what we want for the future?"

But Oxnard Union High School District Supt. Joy Dunlap said she hoped that it was over and that students had fulfilled their need to express their opinions.

"They've had that opportunity and now they'll come back and get back to studies on a normal basis," she said.

Santa Ana Unified School District Supt. Al Mijares said the students should use the classroom to engage in the immigration debate.

"The students are generally interested in the subject," he said. "But our quest is to make sure they're safe. We don't want them to miss school."

For the most part, students were met with support from honking motorists and cheering observers. (The demonstrations occurred a week after HBO premiered a movie about the 1968 student walkouts in East Los Angeles to protest the treatment of Chicanos.)

"I'm so proud of these kids," said social worker Robin Sheiner, as she watched the crowd pass on Melrose. "They're showing what they believe in."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Times staff writers Hemmy So, Juliet Chung, Jennifer Delson, Gregory W. Griggs, Stephen Clark, H.G. Reza, Sara Lin, Kelly Anne Suarez, Michelle Keller, Tony Perry, Joel Rubin, Carla Rivera, Jessica Garrison, Mai Tran, Susannah Rosenblatt, Andrew Blankstein and Richard Winton contributed to this report.

A Sleeping Giant Awakens

500,000 Pack Streets to Protest Immigration Bills
The rally, part of a massive mobilization of immigrants and their supporters, may be the largest L.A. has seen.
By Teresa Watanabe and Hector Becerra, Times Staff Writers
March 26, 2006

A crowd estimated by police at more than 500,000 boisterously marched in Los Angeles on Saturday to protest federal legislation that would crack down on undocumented immigrants, penalize those who help them and build a security wall along the U.S.' southern border.

Spirited but peaceful marchers — ordinary immigrants alongside labor, religious and civil rights groups — stretched more than 20 blocks along Spring Street, Broadway and Main Street to City Hall, tooting kazoos, waving American flags and chanting, "Sí se puede!" (Yes we can!).

Attendance at the demonstration far surpassed the number of people who protested against the Vietnam War and Proposition 187, a 1994 state initiative that sought to deny public benefits to undocumented migrants but was struck down by the courts. Police said there were no arrests or injuries except for a few cases of exhaustion.

At a time when Congress prepares to crack down further on illegal immigration and self-appointed militias patrol the U.S. border to stem the flow, Saturday's rally represented a massive response, part of what immigration advocates are calling an unprecedented effort to mobilize immigrants and their supporters nationwide.

It coincides with an initiative on the part of the Roman Catholic Church, spearheaded by Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, archbishop of Los Angeles, to defy a House bill that would make aiding undocumented immigrants a felony. And it signals the burgeoning political clout of Latinos, especially in California.

"There has never been this kind of mobilization in the immigrant community ever," said Joshua Hoyt, executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. "They have kicked the sleeping giant. It's the beginning of a massive immigrant civil rights struggle."

The demonstrators, many wearing white shirts to symbolize peace, included both longtime residents and the newly arrived, bound by a desire for a better life.

Arbelica Lazo, 40, illegally emigrated from El Salvador two decades ago but said she now owns two businesses and pays $7,000 in income taxes each year.

Jose Alberto Salvador, 33, came here illegally four months ago to find work to support the wife and five children he left behind. In his native Guatemala, he said, what little work he could find paid $10 a day.

"As much as we need this country, we love this country," Salvador said, waving both the American and Guatemalan flags. "This country gives us opportunities we don't get at home."

On Monday, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to resume work on a comprehensive immigration reform proposal. The Senate committee's version includes elements of various bills, including a guest worker program and a path to legalization for the nation's 10 million to 12 million undocumented immigrants proposed by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.)

In addition, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has introduced a bill that would strengthen border security, crack down on employers of illegal immigrants and increase the number of visas for workers. Frist has said he would take his bill to the floor Tuesday if the committee does not finish its work Monday.

Ultimately, the House and Senate bills must be reconciled before a law can be passed.

President Bush has advocated a guest worker program and attracted significant Latino support for his views.

In his Saturday radio address, Bush urged all sides of the emotional debate to tone down their rhetoric, calling for a balanced approach between more secure borders and more temporary foreign workers.

Largely in response to the debate in Washington, hundreds of thousands of people in recent weeks have staged marches in more than a dozen cities calling for immigration reform.

In Denver, police said Saturday that more than 50,000 people gathered downtown at Civic Center Park next to the Capitol to urge the state Senate to reject a resolution supporting a ballot issue that would deny many government services to illegal immigrants in Colorado.

Hundreds rallied in Reno, the Associated Press reported.

On Friday, tens of thousands of people were estimated to have staged school walkouts, marches and work stoppages in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Atlanta and other cities.

In addition, several cities, including Los Angeles, have passed resolutions opposing the House legislation. At least one city, Maywood, declared itself a "sanctuary" for undocumented immigrants.

Despite the significant opposition to the crackdown on illegal immigrants shown by the turnout in recent rallies, a recent Zogby poll found 62% of Americans surveyed wanted more restrictive immigration policies, and a Field Poll last month found that the majority of California voters surveyed believed illegal immigration was hurting the state.

"Polling has consistently shown that Americans don't want guest workers or amnesty," said Caroline Espinosa, spokeswoman for NumbersUSA, a Washington-based immigration control group that says its e-mail list of 1 million and 140,000-member roster of activists have more than doubled in the last year.

Espinosa said current levels of both legal and illegal immigration would push the U.S. population to 420 million by 2050, "leading to a tremendously negative impact on the quality of life in the United States."

According to a U.S. Census Bureau survey a year ago, the nation's 35.2 million immigrants — legal and illegal — represent a record number. California led the country with nearly 10 million, constituting 28% of the state's population overall and one-third of its work force.

The swelling number of immigrants has clearly influenced the political calculus of those involved in the issue, including political and religious groups. The Republican Party, for instance, is split among those who want tougher restrictions, those who fear alienating the Latino vote and business owners who are pressing for more laborers — mostly Latin Americans — to fill blue-collar jobs in construction, cleaning, gardening and other industries.

Some Republicans fear that pushing too hard against illegal immigrants could backfire nationally, as with Proposition 187. Strong Republican support of that measure helped spur record numbers of California Latinos to become U.S. citizens and register to vote. Those voters subsequently helped the Democrats regain political control in the state.

"There is no doubt Proposition 187 had a devastating impact on the [California] Republican Party," said Allan Hoffenblum, a Republican political consultant. "Now the Republicans in Congress better beware: If they come across as too shrill, with a racist tone, all of a sudden you're going to see Republicans in cities with a high Latino population start losing their seats."

The effects of the nation's growing Latino presence also are evident in religious communities. This week, for instance, the president of the 30-million-member National Assn. of Evangelicals is scheduled to issue a statement supporting immigration reform, including a guest worker program. It will be in concert with the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, said the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, conference president.

Rodriguez, whose Sacramento-based group serves the nation's 18 million evangelical Christian Latinos, said it took "a lot of persuasion" to broker the joint statement with Ted Haggard, president of the evangelicals group. Rodriguez said he warned the group that failure to support comprehensive immigration reform would have long-term political repercussions.

Latino evangelical Christians voted for Bush at a 40% higher rate than Latinos overall, he said, but they would probably turn away from conservative candidates and causes without support on immigration.

"I had to do a lot of asking: Will Hispanics ever vote for conservative candidates again, or partner with white evangelicals if they were silent while our brothers and sisters and cousins were being sent out of the county on buses?" Rodriguez said.

Churches were just one force behind Saturday's rally.

Several immigrant advocates said that the ethnic media were a significant factor in drawing crowds. News outlets repeatedly publicized it and even exhorted marchers to wear white shirts. Churches announced the rally too. Although a police spokeswoman estimated the crowd at 500,000 based on helicopter surveillance, rally organizers said it was closer to 1 million.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa briefly addressed the rally.

"We cannot criminalize people who are working, people who are contributing to our economy and contributing to the nation," Villaraigosa said.

In contrast to demonstrations 12 years ago against Proposition 187, Saturday's rally featured more American flags than those from any other country. Flag vendors were soon overwhelmed by demonstrators holding out dollar bills.

Father Michael Kennedy, a longtime immigrant advocate and pastor of Dolores Mission Church in Boyle Heights, said that past demonstrations were more heavily Mexican or Mexican American, but the House bill had rallied protesters across religious, national and ethnic lines.

One was Korean immigrant Dae Joong Yoon, executive director of the Korean Resource Center in Los Angeles. Yoon said the Korean community was more inflamed over the House bill than Proposition 187 because it would penalize not only undocumented immigrants but also businesses that hired them and anyone who helped them.

He said the Korean-language media has intensified coverage of the House bill in recent weeks.

"The Korean community is shocked and outraged over this inhumane legislation," Yoon said. "Everybody would be affected by it."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Associated Press was used in compiling this report.







 

Esta foto fue tomada en mi depa durante el mes de Marzo del 2006. Me dio mucho gusto ver a mis amigos en mi nuevo departamento en South Pasadena.

Bruins - Ready for the Madness!

We are Bruins. Y que? Yes, they said we couldn't do it, but Gonzaga learned the hard way. When you challenge Bruins, you gotta be ready to go to the very end. Viva UCLA!! NCAA March Madness here we come!  

UCLA Victory - Blue Heaven

Courtesy of the Los Angeles Times
This UCLA Victory Is Blue Heaven
March 24 2006

OAKLAND — Wait one Wooden minute.

Why are those Bruin players running across the court? Cedric Bozeman screaming at the crowd? Ben Howland dancing in his wrinkled suit?

And why is Gonzaga's Adam Morrison stretched out on that court, heaving, crying, crumpled?

Wait one Walton second.

Gonzaga won, didn't it? The Bulldogs led by 17 points in the first half, by nine points with 3:27 left, by five points in the final minute, right?

They had bullied the Bruins, outsmarted the Bruins, shoved them into next season, it was over, finished, done.

What happened?

"We dug deep," said Jordan Farmar, pale, breathless.

And up came UCLA basketball.

That's what happened.

On this most amazing of nights in the NCAA regional semifinals at the Arena, tradition happened, history happened, the greatness that once was Bruin basketball happened.

"Once again, UCLA basketball has a belief that we are among the best in the nation," said Dan Guerrero, athletic director.

It was a belief in the unbelievable, a 73-71 victory over Gonzaga that even this courtside witness still has trouble fathoming, and I'm not alone.

"I can't explain it, I can't try to explain it, I don't know what happened or how it happened," said Ryan Hollins after waltzing around the court with Bozeman. "I just know it happened."

It was a game in which the Bruins led only once.

It was a game in which the Bruins had to stop the Zags from scoring on their last six possessions, and did.

It was a game in which the Bruins needed a last-second steal, and got one.

All of which set up a play that is symbolic of a burgeoning era, the Ben Howland era, a coach who has his team so disciplined, it can pull out a comeback win even though he blew his last timeout with 4:53 left.

Start with the Farmar steal of Gonzaga giant J.P. Batista on a full-court press in the last seconds with the Bruins trailing by one.

It came on a trademark Howland trap, Farmar and Bozeman harassing Batista into losing the ball.

"I don't know where we got it from," said Farmar, but everyone knows.

Now, look at Farmar's pass to Luc Richard Mbah a Moute after the steal, the guard finding his teammate under the basket even though some guards would have jacked the shot themselves.

"As soon as Jordan got the ball, he looked at me," said Mbah a Moute. "I knew it was coming. I couldn't wait."

Now, look at what happened after Mbah a Moute made the layup with a couple of seconds left to give the Bruins their only lead.

Did he celebrate? Did he wander around looking for someone to hug?

No, he ran back downcourt to defend, ran into Gonzaga guard Derek Raivio and forced a loose ball.

"We are always taught around here, the game is never over," Mbah a Moute said. "There is always more time."

And when the ball hit the ground, Mbah a Moute showed something else they are always taught.

"We always know about the possession arrow, and I knew we had it, so I knew if I could get a jump ball, it would be ours," he said.

So he dived, locked up Raivio, and the Bruins controlled the game, finalizing the score with an Afflalo free throw.

This same Afflalo who picked up his fourth foul with 15:24 remaining on Morrison's three-point basket, leading to a four-point play that gave the Zags a 10-point lead.

At that point, I'll admit it, I pronounced the game over.

With UCLA's deliberate offense missing its leading scorer, how could it come back fast enough?

With UCLA's defense missing its best defender, who was going to stop Morrison?

"It was desperation time," admitted Afflalo.

But with Howland shouting the plays on offense, and running up and down the sidelines as if trying to play defense, the Bruins slowly climbed back.

One minute, it was reserve Darren Collison going coast to coast with a runner and a shout.

"No quit anywhere, we just couldn't find any quit," Collison said.

The next minute, it was the slight Hollins fighting over the Gonzaga elbows.

"I think most of us are too young to understand the impact of what just happened," Hollins said. "We just know that it's pretty amazing."

In the end, a team that missed its first eight shots of the game couldn't miss.

In the end, a team that committed four consecutive turnovers at one point in the first half held tight.

In the end, it was Ben Howland waxing.

"It's really just a testament to the character, the toughness, the heart of our players," he said.

In the end, it was Adam Morrison weeping, with Afflalo and Hollins walking over to pick him up and hug him.

"That' s just a sign of obviously a great program," Morrison said, adding, "They had enough guts as a man to come over in their moment of victory, pick somebody up off the floor."

In the end, it was Bruin fans remaining in the stands long after their team had left the court, clapping, chanting, howling loud enough to be heard from Westwood to … Indianapolis?

"U-C-L-A."

Sound familiar?

*

Run to victory

After Adam Morrison made two free throws with 3:26 left, UCLA trailed Gonzaga, 71-62, but the Bruins closed with an 11-0 run to pull out an improbable win.

• 3:13 — Luc Richard Mbah a Moute makes two free throws. (71-64 Gonzaga).

• 2:09 — Mbah a Moute scores on a layup. (71-66 Gonzaga).

• 0:52 — Jordan Farmar makes a running one-hander. (71-68 Gonzaga).

• 0:20 — Ryan Hollins makes two free throws (71-70 Gonzaga).

• 0:10 — After Farmar steals the ball from J.P. Batista, he passes to Mbah a Moute for a layup (72-71 UCLA).

• 0:02 — UCLA regains possession after a held ball, Arron Affalo is fouled on the ensuing inbounds pass and makes one of two free throws. (73-71 UCLA).

• 0:00 — Batista misses a turnaround jumper from the wing and UCLA wins, 73-71.

Los Heroes del Coliseo

Esta foto fue tomada durante el mes de Febrero cuando jugo Korea contra Mexico en el partido del Coliseo de Los Angeles. Estos chamacos caminaban con un orgullo increible de su herencia mexicana, sabiendo muy bien que afuera de este coliseo existe una poblacion no-hispana que los quiere ver trabajando duro, pero sin dignidad ni respeto. Los heroes del coliseo - estos son los verdaderos angelinos.  

Pedestrians in Chitown

Esta es una foto de una pareja cruzando la calle en Millenium Park de la ciudad de Chicago, Illinois. La nieve cae como si fuera una adorno de la ciudad.  

Tornado en SF

There's nothing like enjoying some quality drinks with amigos in San Francisco's Haight-Asbury district. Here, we had spent Sunday morning feasting on amazing crepe omelettes, and decided to spend part of the later afternoon at the Tornado. Salud!  

Chilly Willy - Chicago Style

Millenium Park in Chicago shines brightly on this cold wintry night. I spent some time in the Windy City earlier last month, and was quite impressed with the Chi-Town attitude towards life. Chicagoans are go getters that embrace the frigid lake effect on their weather system. They are undeterred by the chilly climate that makes Californians want to run back to O'Hare International Airport in search for the next flight out!  

Silver Azul - Downtown Disney

The Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles continues to be a source of inspiration. I drive past this structure everyday on my way to work, and I always enjoy paying close attention to the use of lines, shapes and silver color. The blue California sky only crystallizes the beauty of the Disney Concert Hall.  

Big Red

I enjoyed taking this picture several weeks ago when I was driving north on Soto Street in Boyle Heights. I particularly enjoyed the idea of seeing this car without a driver cruising the so-called mean streets of East LA. The irony is that instead of being the low-rider, in this picture it was riding quite high, probably as high as it will ever go. This is why this carro rojo is the official high rider of East LA.  

Mexico's 21st Century Election - The Obrador Factor

In Mexico's New Politics, Wealth May Be a Liability
By Sam Enriquez, Times Staff Writer
March 2, 2006


MEXICO CITY — Mexico's leading presidential candidate, the leftist former mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, lives in a 1,500-square-foot apartment in the heart of the city's university village.

Conservative free-market candidate Felipe Calderon lives in a 2,900-square-foot home around the corner from Pizza Hut, Burger King and Blockbuster, neon-lighted landmarks in Mexico's new global economy.

Roberto Madrazo, candidate of the once-dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party, has a 14,000-square-foot home on a 3.6-acre estate overlooking the capital.

All three men have spent their lives in public service, moving between elected office and political party jobs. The annual income for each man barely cracks six figures.

But according to his financial statements, Madrazo has five houses, three 2,800-square-foot condominiums, a Porsche, a BMW, a Ford Expedition, $500,000 in gold and cash and has lent people $250,000 more.

He has a lease-option on a $1-million-plus Miami condo, but everything else is his — no mortgages, no monthly payments.

Many voters wonder: How the heck did Roberto Madrazo get so rich?

The answers shed little light on Madrazo's financial acumen. But even asking the question says a lot about changes in Mexican politics that threaten to strand Madrazo and the former ruling party he represents.

Polls show Madrazo in third place, with negative ratings double those of his opponents. His campaign appearances draw hecklers. On the street, people roll their eyes at the mention of Madrazo and money. Newspapers speculate on whether he'll be yanked before the July 2 election.

One longtime political historian thinks he knows why.

"Madrazo represents the traditional political class," said Lorenzo Meyer, professor at the Center for International Studies at the College of Mexico.

"In the Mexican traditional political class, most live off politics, not for politics. In that sense, I would say Calderon and Lopez Obrador live for politics," he said.

But, he added, Madrazo "never descended from the high ranks" in state or national politics. "Up there you live side by side with those who live off politics."

Madrazo's party — known by its Spanish initials, PRI — ruled the country for seven decades until its defeat in 2000 by President Vicente Fox and his National Action Party, or PAN. The PRI has more than $75 million in public campaign funds to spend trying to convince voters that it's no longer the sticky-fingered party that in past years would rig elections and drain public coffers.

Madrazo, meanwhile, is stuck campaigning as the face of Mexico's new leadership while saddled with many of the trappings of the old.

For example, here's how his campaign explains how Madrazo amassed his holdings on a public servant's pay: "His father had all the money in the world," a spokesman said.

The father, Carlos Madrazo, also led a life of public service. He was the former governor of the Gulf Coast state of Tabasco and a PRI party president, two posts later held by his son. He was killed along with his wife in a 1969 plane crash when Roberto Madrazo was a teenager.

A big inheritance could explain how Madrazo was able to attend law school and buy his south Mexico City estate — named Cave of the Turtles — before he had turned 30. He declined to be interviewed for this article.

But columnist and political analyst Jose Antonio Crespo, like many others, said Madrazo probably was helped by his wealthy friends.

Early in his career, Madrazo worked as an advisor to Carlos Hank Gonzalez, who before his death in 2001 was a millionaire businessman, PRI political operative and close family friend.

Gonzalez was mayor of Mexico City in 1981 when he appointed Madrazo to a post equivalent to borough president for the southern suburb of Magdalena Contreras. Madrazo bought his large property in nearby San Andres Totoltepec shortly after.

"The whole world knows that Hank Gonzalez protected and helped Madrazo," Crespo said.

It's impossible to find Madrazo's hillside residence from the address listed in his financial disclosures, Bugambilia 134. There's no such street in San Andres Totoltepec.

"The street name was changed," the campaign spokesman said.

So was the street number. The house is at 132 Xicalco. An official at a nearby school laughed when asked where Madrazo lived. "Everybody's looking for it," she said.

A wall with a steel gate hides all but a large grass parking lot. But it's possible to see Madrazo's property from satellite images on the Internet. The coordinates are 19 14' 22.79" N, 99 10' 16.50" W.

The home of Lopez Obrador, who was Mexico City's mayor until stepping down last summer to run for president, is easier to find. His apartment is in an aging concrete building at the edge of Mexico's sprawling National Autonomous University campus, behind the medical school, on Odontology Street.

In 2002, Lopez Obrador sold a nearby 968-square-foot apartment for $73,585 to move into his larger digs, explaining that he needed more room for his three sons, who are now 16, 20 and 24. He reported that his new apartment was worth about $103,000.

The widower drives a 2004 Nissan Platina sedan and owns three properties in Tabasco that he values at about $140,000. Random House last year paid him $45,000 in a book deal. He reported about $30,000 in savings and has no credit card debt.

Madrazo, 53, and Lopez Obrador, 52, took different paths as young men in the PRI, which analysts say partly accounts for their disparate financial holdings.

Lopez Obrador, whose father was a shopkeeper, spent much of the 1970s and '80s in the least profitable corners of the party organization, beginning as a director for indigenous affairs in Tabasco, his native state. He became the PRI's state party president in 1983, before Madrazo. Two years later, he moved to Mexico City to work as a lawyer for a federal consumer rights group.

Lopez Obrador split from the PRI in 1988 to join the Democratic Revolution Party, leading several high-profile protests against the government in the years that followed.

He lost to Madrazo in Tabasco's 1994 governor's race and later accused his rival of spending $72 million on his campaign, about 60 times the legal limit, a charge investigated and dismissed by the PRI-run government and denied by Madrazo.

Calderon, 43, is seen as having the best chance of moving past Lopez Obrador. The PAN standard-bearer comes across as a regular guy on the stump. In his TV ads too: In one, Calderon wears a sweater and sits in front of a bookcase. He owns a 1993 VW Golf and a 2000 Ford Windstar minivan, the sort of fleet that reflects the aspirations of the lower-middle-class voters who Mexico City-based pollster Daniel Lund believes will decide the election.

Calderon's house is worth about $380,000, he reported. It is one of six homes with a common yard on Condor Street, a tiny tract hidden behind a wall and gate. The neighborhood is affluent but not ostentatious, about what one might expect for a lawyer with a master's degree from Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

The PAN candidate's strategy is to share credit for his party's accomplishments under Fox — mainly economic stability — while keeping his distance from Fox's failure to get fiscal and energy reforms through the PRI-controlled Congress.

Unlike some presidents, Fox isn't likely to be accused of taking away millions of dollars when he leaves office in December. Fox reported acquiring $100,000 in savings and $500,000 in stocks since his election in 2000.

Mexican voters these days won't put up with the political plunder of the past, analysts say.

Lopez Obrador, the front-runner, "has great political force precisely because he doesn't have great material wealth," said Meyer, the political historian.

By contrast, Madrazo's long ties to PRI leaders of the past make him suspect among voters, Meyer suggested. "It's like having a tribe of cannibals," he said, "with one of them saying, 'I was always really a vegetarian.' "

At No Point is God Asking Us To Build Walls on Borders

Below is a very interesting article on the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the largest in the country, and its new position regarding humane immigration reform.

Immigrants Gain the Pulpit
Cardinal Mahony says he will ask priests to provide aid without proof of documentation even if proposed restrictions become law.
By Teresa Watanabe, Times Staff Writer
March 1, 2006


Wading back into the growing debate over illegal immigration, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony on Tuesday denounced what he called "hysterical" anti-immigrant sentiment sweeping California and the nation.

In an interview on the eve of Ash Wednesday, Mahony said he planned to use the first day of the Lenten season to call on all 288 parishes in the Los Angeles Archdiocese, the nation's largest, to fast, pray and press for humane immigration reform. U.S. Roman Catholic bishops support proposals for a guest-worker program, legalization of undocumented immigrants and more visas for migrants' families.

Mahony also criticized efforts by the Minuteman Project and other immigration control groups to police the border, saying that such efforts were a misguided reaction to national security concerns.

"The war on terror isn't going to be won through immigration restrictions," he said, adding that Al Qaeda operatives would not trek through miles of deadly desert to infiltrate the nation.

As spiritual leader of the 5 million-member archdiocese, Mahony adds a powerful voice to what has become an acrimonious debate over illegal immigration, coming as the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee takes up a series of proposed immigration controls this week.

In his most forceful comments to date, Mahony said he would instruct his priests to defy legislation — if approved by Congress — that would require churches and other social organizations to ask immigrants for legal documentation before providing assistance and penalize them if they refuse to do so. That provision was included in the immigration bill recently passed by the House of Representatives; a similar proposal is in the version that the Senate Judiciary Committee plans to begin debating this week.

Although some parishes engaged in civil disobedience during the sanctuary movement to harbor Salvadoran refugees during the 1980s, Mahony's call to all priests to defy the law would mark a first for the cardinal.

"The whole concept of punishing people who serve immigrants is un-American," Mahony said. "If you take this to its logical, ludicrous extreme, every single person who comes up to receive Holy Communion, you have to ask them to show papers. It becomes absurd and the church is not about to get into that. The church is here to serve people…. We're not about to become immigration agents. It just throws more gasoline on the discussion and inflames people."

Mahony has long been a strong advocate of immigrant rights, opposing efforts to deny public benefits to undocumented migrants through Proposition 187 in 1994. California voters approved the widely popular initiative, but it was later struck down by the federal courts as unconstitutional.

Immigration has once more risen to the top of Mahony's agenda because of what the church believes is a punitive House immigration bill that criminalizes aid to undocumented migrants and contradicts gospel values, said Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala of the archdiocese's San Gabriel Valley region.

"With the Minutemen, you roll your eyes and say these people are out on the fringe," Zavala said. "But when it starts getting to legislation, it is imperative to speak out."

Immigration control groups disagreed with Mahony's remarks.

Ira Mehlman, of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said the cardinal was failing to address the costs of illegal immigration on low-wage American workers, local governments, public schools and the healthcare system. Instead, he said, Mahony was asking others to give up their jobs and resources for undocumented immigrants.

"Charity is an important tenet of the Judeo-Christian faith, but there are limits," Mehlman said.

Chris Simcox, president of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, said its border patrol efforts were not mean-spirited but were meant to stop drug dealers, human traffickers, gang members and others who prey on U.S. citizens and immigrants alike.

Immigration expert Wayne Cornelius said Mahony's efforts to mobilize the archdiocese, while late, could help offset what he called the political advantage now held by immigration control forces.

"All of the momentum is on the restrictionist side of the debate," said Cornelius, director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at UC San Diego. "It's important that Congress hears there are groups opposed to drastic restrictionist measures. If there is any chance of getting constructive legislation out of Congress this year, it will take grass-roots efforts" such as the Catholic campaign.

Mahony plans to speak on immigration policy at two Ash Wednesday services today. He said it would be the first time he has asked the entire archdiocese, which covers Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, to mobilize on a social issue. Mahony has led the archdiocese since 1985.

In addition to calling for a Lenten fast to reflect on the contributions of immigrants, he said, he has sent informational packets to all parishes on how to preach, teach and lobby on the issue.

He said he also planned to step up his personal political advocacy, starting with a letter to California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Senate Judiciary Committee member and opponent of large-scale guest-worker programs outside agriculture.

"There is enormous ignorance out there," said Mahony, disputing as "myths" accusations that undocumented immigrants take jobs from Americans or don't pay taxes. "This is a teachable moment to help people understand that all of us are immigrant people."

The local efforts are part of a national campaign called Justice for Immigrants, recently launched by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and other church organizations.

Other Southern California dioceses also are mobilizing their flocks. In Orange County, parishes have started a postcard campaign to lobby their elected representatives on the issues, Auxiliary Bishop Jaime Soto said.

Mahony, a Los Angeles native of Italian and German descent, said his personal passion on the issue was sparked as a child, when he became close to the mostly Mexican immigrants who were hired to work at his father's poultry plant in the San Fernando Valley.

As an elementary school student, Mahony said, he personally witnessed what he called a "terrifying" immigration raid on his father's plant, leaving him with an indelible impression about the abuse of immigrant workers.

He said that both Hebrew and Christian Scriptures were consistent and clear about the moral imperative to care for strangers and aliens. The Jewish people were aliens in Egypt, he said, and Jesus was a refugee who was escaping from King Herod. God clearly instructed Moses to care for aliens, orphans and widows in his midst, Mahony said.

"This is part of our heritage of God's care and concern for all peoples," Mahony said. "At no point … is God asking us to build walls on borders."

He added that he would put the full weight of his office behind immigration reform "as strongly as I can."

"We need to bring a moral and ethical dimension to the debate, which has been far too politicized," Mahony said. "We need a wake-up call, and this is it."