Chadwick Boseman personifica a Jackie Robinson en la película ’42′ que narra el primer año como profesional del primer pelotero negro en jugar en Ligas Mayores. Foto cortesía Warner Brothers.

Antes de las protestas y los viajes por los derechos de la comunidad negra, hubo un hombre que se enfrentó al odio vistiendo un uniforme de béisbol: Jack Roosevelt Robinson.

Conocido simplemente como ‘Jackie’, su vida es de esas que merecen ser contadas una y otra vez porque nos enseñan esa historia no oficial, nos dan valor y humanizan a las figuras que el tiempo nos ha alejado.

Sólo por eso es que vale la pena ver la película ’42′ que hoy se estrena en las salas de cine. Dado que el 15 de abril se festeja el arribo de Robinson a las Mayores, el lanzamiento del filme adquiere mayor relevancia.

Para la segunda parte de la serie sobre el legado de Jackie Robinson, el actor Chadwick Boseman, que personifca al legendario pelotero en la cinta, charló con EL DIARIO/LA PRENSA.

— La película expone el racismo que Jackie Robinson enfrentó ¿Cuán difícil fue para ti enfrentar eso?

“Fue algo muy incómodo. Pero como actor, quieres experimentar esto al máximo y que los otros actores sean tan crueles como puedan serlo. Así, en el proceso, comienzas a sentir cuan incómodo y horrible eso era. Es un lugar oscuro que necesitas dejar atrás para olvidarlo al final del día. A veces, hasta entre las escenas o las tomas, necesitas desconectarte del personaje para olvidarte un poco de todo eso”.

— ¿Qué quieres que la película le transmita a la gente?

“Espero que la gente salga del cine con una idea visceral de cómo eran las cosas, que tengan una idea de lo que era ser un hombre o mujer negra en ese periodo. Pero también me gustaría que se celebre lo que hemos logrado como sociedad. Esto no quiere decir que ya erradicamos el racismo por completo, pero hemos avanzado”.

— ¿Qué significa para ti actuar el papel de Jackie Robinson?

“Es un honor darle vida al personaje de Jackie Robinson. En verdad que no puedo pensar de muchos papeles que esten a ese nivel. Es una gran responsabilidad por la figura que él representa en la historia. Si hay historias que deben contarse, la de Jackie Robinson es una de ellas”.

— ¿Eres tú el que realiza las escenas de juego de pelota?

“Si, soy yo el que está jugando en todas las escenas.

— ¿Habías jugado béisbol antes de este papel?

“Jugué béisbol cuando era niño y me gusta ver juegos de béisbol. Así que sé atrapar y batear, pero no sabía hacerlo como lo hacía Jackie Robinson”.

— ¿Y qué haciste para que tu juego se pareciera al de él?

“Para mí era muy importante no sólo mostrar que puedo jugar, sino batear y correr como él. Por eso trabajé con entrenadores que me ayudaron a encontrar su postura de bateo y su estilo de atrapar la pelota. Vimos grabaciones de sus partidos. Los entrenadores me grabaron y me comparaban con él. Trabajamos hasta que llegué al punto de verme como Jackie”.

— Harrison Ford interpreta al gerente general de los Dodgers, Branch Rickey, ¿Cómo fue trabajarcon él?

“Fue muy divertido trabajar con él. Nuestro primer encuentro fue un día que yo estaba en práctica de béisbol y él vino. Fue algo que Branch Rickey haría. Eso ayudó a que yo me sobrepusiera a esa emoción de pensar que estaba trabajando con un actor como Harrison Ford. También ayudó a establecer a nuestros personajes. El como el dueño del equipo y yo como jugador, ambos tratando de lograr algo juntos y ambos nos necesitábamos para lograrlo”.

Immigration reform and celebrities mixed yesterday. I am not talking about the nannies and other service workers making easier la vida de los famosos, at least not directly.

Ayer, some famosos came out publicly in support of immigration reform.

The most exciting news, at least for me and some of my friends, was the appearance of Junot Díaz on The Colbert Report to talk about Georgia’s Freedom University.

If you’re not familiar with this school, here’s something from the MJ archive:

UGA professor Lorgia García Peña told me in an interview for MundoHispánico that apart from fighting for the Georgia laws to end, the idea propelling this initiative is to give as many undocumented youth the opportunity to get what currently is close to impossible in this state: a college education.

“The idea is that those who enroll in this free class can be exposed to the kind of course they would be taking in their freshman year,” she said.

The author of Drown, The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and This is How You Lose Her, explained to Colbert that Georgia higher education officials banned undocumented students from the top five college and universities in the state.

Colbert, in his usual way, asked why should undocumented students get an American education.

From the show:

Why should they get this education? That’s our education. That’s American education. They’re taking American thoughts and ideas. That’s American knowledge”, Stephen Colbert asked.

“Here is what it is. This is the situation. Every single immigrant we have, undocumented or documented, is a future American. That’s just the truth of it”, Junot Díaz replied.

Díaz then went on to address what he called the Superman question.

“Superman comes, lands in America. He is illegal (sic). He is one of these kids. He’s wrapped up in a red bullfighter’s cape. And you’ve got to decide what we’re going to do with Superman. We’re going to give him the boot and say, ‘You know what, you’re an illegal; you’re not an American.’ Or we’re going to have compassion and say, ‘Listen, this kid was brought here before he knew and he didn’t have a say.’ But he’s living in this country, this Superman. And I think he’s an American.”

Junot Díaz also said that the term illegal immigrant is an oxymoron and that it is used to attack people rather than to serve any other purpose.

Beyond that, he said, Americans must decide what to do with what he called “the reality on the ground.”

“We have a whole bunch of young people and whole bunch of families. Are we going to disrupt these families and tear them apart? Or we’re going to think… …we’ve got to extend the franchise. And we’ve got to start thinking about this country of how do we pull folks together not how do we attack them and afflict them”, he said.

The writer also tried to make Colbert to commit to visit Freedom U in the future, but the host instead pulled out a sweatshirt with the school initials: F-U.

Pura hilaridad.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/424718/march-25-2013/junot-diaz?xrs=share_copy

Other famosos

Earlier, el día comenzó con la noticia de que la cantante Olga Tañón will join the March 19 march for immigration reform.

From the story on El Diario de Nueva York:

“The time is now…porque los indocumentados están haciendo su lucha para sobrevivir en Estados Unidos de América y cada día se les complica más”, comentó la intérprete de “Basta ya”.

Más tarde comenzó a circular una nota en la que el magnate y creador de Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, está formando un grupo de cabildeo en Silicon Valley para impulsar una reforma migratoria.

Uno podría pensar que su esfuerzo would focus on pushing for high-tech visas, but the San Francisco Chronicle reports that the Facebook guy is thinking in a more comprehensive approach.

From the AP:

Zuckerberg will be joining with other high-tech executives and has already signed up several high-profile consultants, including Joe Lockhart, former Clinton White House press secretary now at the Glover Park Group, and Rob Jesmer, formerly executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

High-tech companies have stepped-up their lobbying on immigration to get more visas for high-tech workers, but the people involved say Zuckerberg’s interest is broader and includes citizenship for those here illegally.

Creo que estos esfuerzos, apuntalados en diferentes frentes, se deben recibir con beneplácito. Yet, in the case of Zuckerberg and his Silicon Valley fellow millionaires, it is important that they understand lo que la gente quiere y necesita. De lo contrario, the hype they could build would only push la misma carreta que en vez de ayudar is a great obstacle para nuestra comunidad.

El Papa Francisco a través de la transmisión televisiva de su nombramiento.

Por todos lados se huele el jolgorio, la alegría, el fanatismo y el entusiasmo ante el nombramiento de Jorge Mario Bergoglio como el nuevo Papa Francisco.

En la redacción del periódico para el que trabajo, la gente se congregó frente a las televisiones que transmitían diferentes señales que trajeron hasta Nueva York las noticias del Vaticano.

Ya desde la renuncia de Benedicto XVI el 28 de febrero pasado, tuve que aguantar las transmisiones de los colombianos de Caracol TV, para quienes parecen no existir los crímenes de la iglesia católica.

Todo eran preparativos para la gran fiesta que se celebraría con la elección del nuevo pontífice.

Hoy, 13 de marzo de 2013, los canales estaban fijos en la chimenea de la cual debería salir el humo que indica si hay o no Papa. De pronto me acordé que hace ocho años, cuando Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger fue nombrado, yo trabajaba en El Diario de El Paso. Creo que vimos el nombramiento en la televisión del comedor. Seguro que fue la noticia del día.

Poco después de que llegué a la redacción  la chimenea escupió el humo blanco. Hubo conmoción. Se comenzaron a preguntar quién sería el nuevo Papa: el romano, el brasileño, el este, el otro. No pasó mucho para que la conmoción se volviera ansiedad y suspenso.

Al cabo de más de media hora se dio a conocer que el argentino Jorge Mario Bergoglio era el nuevo Papa. Univision, Caracol RCN y Telemundo estaban vueltos locos. ¡UN PAPA LATINO!

Esto era lo más cercano que muchos países del continente estaban de haber ganado la Copa Mundial. Festejaban como si hubieran metido gol de último minuto en la final del torneo. Las banderas en El Vaticano ondeaban: la de México, la de Colombia, la de Argentina, la de todos los demás…

En los medios mencionados (Univision, Caracol RCN y Telemundo) las lágrimas estaban a punto de brotar; los gritos apenas podían contenerse; la algarabía era lo único obvio.

Luciendo una objetividad periodística bastante cuestionable, se comenzó a celebrar y la narrativa comenzó a crearse. El Papa Francisco usa el transporte público. El Papa Francisco cocina su comida. El Papa Francisco es hincha del club San Lorenzo de Almagro. El Papa Francisco habla español. El Papa Francisco es el Papa de los pobres.

Pero al analizar su historia uno se da cuenta que al menos en su país, Argentina, no es tan amigo de los pobres, especialmente si son gays que se quieren casar o fueron rojos en la década de los 70′s u 80′s.

El entonces obispo de Buenos Aires ayudó a la junta militar de Rafael Videla a desaparecer personas durante la Guerra Sucia entre 1976 y 1983, de acuerdo a investigaciones periodísticas.

Tras su nombramiento, y mientras los medios mencionados (Univision, Caracol RCN y Telemundo) aplaudían y casi lloraban, comenzaron a aflorar imágenes de Bergoglio dándole la comunión a Videla.

También salieron a la luz los reportes y las entrevistas en las que el religioso niega haber apoyado de cualquier manera a la dictadura.

Muy poco se habló sobre su oposición a los matrimonios entre personas del mismo sexo, a los que llegó a calificar de una “movida del diablo”. Por esto entró en una pugna fiera con la actual mandataria argentina Cristina Elisabet Fernández de Kirchner.

La relación entre ambos está podrida y eso fue obvio cuando mandatarios de todo el mundo, inlcuído Barack Obama de Estados Unidos, enviaron sus felicitaciones mientras que Kirchner tardó bastante en hacerlo.

Muchos ven en la elección del Papa un buen augurio para Latinoamérica, ya que se supone que los jerarcas de la iglesia finalmente reconocen el peso de la región, que alberga a casi la mitad de todos los católicos en el mundo.

Sin embargo, la elección de un Papa como Francisco puede ser el intento de revivir una fe decadente y buscar un contrapeso en una América Latina que va hacia la izquierda y quiere dejar atrás el pasado de las dictaduras de derecha.

Youth from the community group Juntos demonstrate inside the School District of Philadelphia during the session of the School Reform Commission./Erika Almirón

Even though they’re distant, both struggles aim to keep education a basic right for everybody.

The fight to keep education a human right in the United States continued this week when people in Philadelphia and Georgia rallied behind their respective causes.

In an unprecedented move, unions, activists, and community members joined forces in Philadelphia to fight the school closings proposed by the School Reform Commission, a 12-year-old body that was supposed to fix the schools in poverty-stricken Philly.

The Philadelphia Public School Notebook reported that at least 18 people were arrested after trying to impede the SRC from starting the session where the closings would be voted.

From The Notebook:

Many hundreds of protesters assembled at the District’s headquarters on North Broad Street on Thursday, rallying to spare the city’s public school system from the biggest downsizing in its history.

According to reports, 18 protesters were arrested and escorted away by police. They were removed after an organized attempt to block School Reform Commission members from entering the auditorium to start the proceedings.

Among them was Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers and one of the meeting’s scheduled speakers. As she was being escorted down the hall and out of the building, she was heard to say, “It’s a virtuous fight.”

After Weingarten was led away by the police, Jerry Jordan, head of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, said:

“The schools belong to the community, and the community should have a say as to what happens to them. The community’s voices have been ignored by the School Reform Commission, which is why so many people are here today, to say that they do not want their schools closed. So, the protesters were blocking the doors because neither the SRC nor the mayor were willing to listen to the voices of the community. They haven’t listened to the students as well, who’ve given valid reasons for why the schools should not be closed.”

Despite hours of testimony, pleads for mercy, and presentation of alternative solutions, the commission voted to close 23 of the 27 schools proposed to close.

After over a decade of failure, the SRC decided that it’d be better to shut down the schools despite community efforts to keep them afloat.

This latest move provoked outrage in the people that see this as another step towards the privatization of public schools.

Organizers have vowed to continue fighting this with more actions announced to take place in the upcoming week.

The Southern Front

Manifestantes en el Arco de la Universidad de Georgia protestan en contra de la prohibición contra estudiantes indocumentados. /Yovany Díaz Tolentino

In Georgia, some 70 protesters held a demonstration at the University of Georgia campus to demand an end to the ban that impedes undocumented students from enrolling in the top five state colleges and universities.

This ban dates from 2010, when a study by the Georgia Board of Regents found that only 501 of the 31,000 students in the state’s higher education system were undocumented immigrants paying out-of-state tuition.

Pushed by a legislature that for several years had been after the undocumented community, the Board of Regents adopted the ban.

But resistance and awesomeness grew out of such crap. Started one year later by a group of college teachers and community members, Freedom University began offering university-level courses to Georgia undocumented students.

Freedom University, teachers and students, has been very instrumental in the fight against the ban, and this latest protest is one more action toward bringing it down.

As Mojado Citizen’s friend and new collaborator Rolando Zenteno reports from there, a group of students showed up at UGA’s admission office to tell officials there to end the ban on undocumented students.

This is Rolando’s report:

About 70 people protested Wednesday at the University of Georgia Arch, a campus landmark, to demand an end to the ban against undocumented students int the state’s colleges and universities.

At least three of the protesters made their way into the admissions office to deliver the message that the ban is unjust and should come to an end.

“We just wanted some answers about the admissions process … which I think isn’t something outrageous to ask to an admissions counselor. I would think that they would be the most knowledgeable of that,” Melissa Padilla said.

Padilla, 22, went into the building with fellow undocumented students Miriam Zumiga, 21, and Mitzy Calderon, 21.

Outside, the group staged a demonstration to make sure their voices were heard.

“We rallied. We marched. And we shared a couple of stories,” Yovany Diaz, a member of the Georgia Undocumented Youth Alliance, said.

Policy 4.1.6 restricts undocumented students from Georgia’s top five universities, which include the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, Georgia State University, Medical College of Georgia, and Georgia College & State University.

The ban remains in place despite the Deferred Action Childhood Arrivals program that gives undocumented youth legal immigration status.

“The Board of Regents went above and beyond and said that it wasn’t enough, regardless of federal law and state law. They sent out a memo to all the administrations and admission offices and said that it [wouldn’t] be enough,” Padilla said.

The Board has failed to address the issue despite the high number of DACA beneficiaries in the state of Georgia. The Migration Policy Center estimates that there are some 38,500 deferred action possible beneficiaries in Georgia alone.

“I would say I’m Georgia-raised. I learned the same ethics and history and math and all the subjects that we got taught in school. I like to think that I’ve grown up American,” Padilla said.

Rolando Zenteno is freelance journalist and an undocumented college student in Georgia.

Along with him, immigrants rights activist Raúl Alcaraz Ochoa was also arrested after he put himself under a Border Patrol vehicle in an attempt to prevent the immigration agents from detaining Meza Huerta in front of five of his six children.

“We are demanding that René is released,” Alcaraz Ochoa said Tuesday night in a brief phone conversation.

This incident exposes how Arizona’s draconian antiimmigrant law SB1070 impacts working communities of color in that state, as Sean Arce said.

“This is an everyday occurrence here in Tucson. They happened before 1070 went into effect. And now this type of detentions, apprehensions, are commonplace. It has just heightened since 1070 went into effect,” he said.

Arce, who witnessed the arrest, took several photographs of Ochoa Alcaraz getting arrested after he was pepper-sprayed and taken from underneath the immigration truck.

The activist was released the following day and was present at a rally held outside the Tucson Police Department, as Cindy Carcamo reported for Los Angeles Times.

Ochoa Alcaraz demanded the release of Meza Huerta and explained to Tucson News Now why he threw himself under the truck.

“I felt it was necessary to do this to bring spotlight to detentions and family deportations,” said Ochoa.

René Meza Huerta’s arrest is also a very telling evidence of who immigration officials under President Barack Obama era are going after: the working people.

A bigger picture of this can be seen in the data Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) released today.

Over 75 percent of those for whom Immigration and Customs Enforcement placed a hold at local jails, through programs like Secure Communities or laws like SB1070, were never convicted of any crime.

During last week’s State of the Union Address, President Obama lauded his enforcement and deportation program and called it the foundation of real immigration reform.

“Real reform means strong border security, and we can build on the progress my administration has already made — putting more boots on the Southern border than at any time in our history and reducing illegal crossings to their lowest levels in 40 years.”, he said.

Yet, this so-called ‘progress’ is far from what the community needs, and the communities are getting ready to fight back. One of their battles will focus on freeing René Meza Huerta.

A  Border Patrol agent handcuffs Raúl Alcaraz Ochoa after he tried to prevent the detention of an alleged undocumented immigrant nearby the workers center where he organizes in the South Side of Tucson. Courtesy of Sean Arce

UPDATE (7 p.m. EST):

Border Patrol confirmed that Raúl Alcaraz Ochoa was released with no charges pressed against him, but gave no information on René Huerta, the father of six that was arrested with the Tucson activist.

“The Office of the United States Attorneys declined to prosecute Mr. Alcaraz,” Border Patrol Andy Adame said. “At this moment, there is no information on Mr. Meza Huerta.”

A rally and press event were scheduled for 4 p.m. outside the Tucson Police Department.

More information to come.

UPDATE (3 p.m. EST): 

Border Patrol just confirmed that Raúl Alcaraz Ochoa will be released shortly. The conditions of his released are still unknown.

There is no word yet on whether René Huerta will be released too.

A messager in the Facebook page for today’s rally and press conference says that Alcaraz Ochoa will be present during the rally.

From the Facebook Page:

We just received a call from Raúl Al-qaraz Ochoa he will be present at the rally today!!!!!! Come out and let Tucson and the country know what kind of world we want to live in. Freedom for René and all political prisoners!!! We don’t know if Raul’s charges have been dropped and to our knowledge René remains in custody. Come out! We will not be silenced!!! We will continue with the updates.

UPDATE (1 p.m. EST):

Corazón de Tucson y el Centro de Trabajadores de Southside will hold a press conference during the rally planned for today at 4 p.m. outside the Tucson Police Department to protest the arrest of an activist that tried to prevent the detention of an alleged undocumented immigrant.

Border Patrol agents in Tucson arrested Raúl Alcaraz Ochoa after he put his body underneath a vehicle to prevent the detention of  René Meza Huerta, who these organizations identified as a father of six children.

“[We] are calling for the release of both Raul Alcaraz Ochoa and Rene Meza Huertha without charges. Furthermore, they call for an end to all deportations and to stop the assault on families by police and Border Patrol. They call for an immediate hault of the cooperation between Tucson Police Department with Border Patrol,” reads a statement posted on Facebook.

Here’s Corazón de Tucson’s press release with details of what happened:

February 17, 2013

South Tucson — At approximately 2:30 pm this afternoon, Raúl Alcaráz Ochoa, a community organizer with the Southside Worker Center and Corazón de Tucson, placed himself under a Border Patrol (BP) vehicle to prevent officials from detaining and deporting Tucsonan Rene Meza Huerta.

He was subsequently detained by BP officials. At approximately 1:30pm the Tucson Police Department (TPD) pulled over Meza Huertha, along with his expectant wife and six children.

TPD, in direct contradiction of previous statements promising to be more “immigrant welcoming,” called Border Patrol to take Mr. Huertha into custody.

Mr. Alcaráz Ochoa, a long time advocate against massive deportations in our community and country, placed himself underneath the vehicle in which Mr. Huerta was detained.

At the time of his detainment, there were at least six Border Patrol Agents and four TPD officers on the scene. Border Patrol officials proceeded to repeatedly pepper spray Mr. Alcaráz Ochoa, who suffers from asthma, before dragging him out, handcuffing him, and taking him into custody.

Corazón de Tucson and the Southside Worker Center are calling for a protest and press conference tomorrow, Monday, February 18 at 4:00pm outside the Tucson Police Department at 270 S. Stone Ave.

They are demanding the immediate release without charges, of both Raúl Alcaráz Ochoa and Rene Meza Huertha. Furthermore, they demand an end to all deportations and to stop the assault on families by police and Border Patrol.

They call for an immediate halt of the cooperation between Tucson Police Department and Border Patrol. As Alma Hernandez of Corazón de Tucson, who herself has experienced detention and separation from her three young children shared, “We must end this attack on families. Deportations and detentions are destroying our community.”

For further information regarding the protest and press conference please contact: Alma Hernandez of Corazón de Tucson at (520)304-8332; Stephanie Quintana of Southside Worker’s Center at (939)579-3534

Andy Adame, a spokesperson for the Border Patrol, replied to our questions with only the following statement:

“On Feb. 17, Tucson Sector Border Patrol agents responded to a request for assistance by the Tucson Police Department. At the scene, a Mexican male, who is a Lawfully Admitted Permanent Resident, interfered by lying beneath a Border Patrol vehicle after agents took several subjects into custody for being illegally present in the United States. The man that interfere was subsequently arrested by Border Patrol agents after failing to respond to repeated warnings and refusing to move from beneath the vehicle.”

This is original blog post.

A rally outside the Tucson Police Department is set to take place at 4 p.m. this afternoon to protest the detention of Raúl Alcaraz Ochoa, a well-known local activist that tried to prevent the arrest of an alleged undocumented immigrant.

A witness told this blog that Alcaraz Ochoa, an organizer with Tucson’s South Side Workers Center, had been pepper-sprayed and handcuffed after he put his body underneath a Border Patrol vehicle.

“Raúl got under the truck after Tucson police detained a father of five children and later called the Border Patrol,” Sean Arce said. “At least a 12 Border Patrol agents and 12 Tucson Police officers were there this afternoon.”

Arce, who used to be the director of the Mexican-American Studies Program at the Tucson School District, said the agents later poured water on Ochoa’s face and handcuffed him.

“They sprayed him very well, that’s why they were pouring water on him. They later walked him into a border patrol truck and took off,” he said. “Children and other activists saw what happened there. It was a very traumatizing experience.”

Arce snapped several photos that started to circulate online Sunday afternoon, calling the attention of activists and allies of the undocumented immigrants rights movement.

The National Immigrant Youth Alliance (NIYA) and DREAMActivist set up an online petition to gather support for Alcaraz Ochoa.

In their message, these organizations identify the other man arrested as René.

From NIYA’s Facebook page:

Immigrant rights activist, Raul Ochoa, was arrested on Feb 17, in Tucson AZ, when he tried to stop Border Patrol from detaining Rene, a father of five, who had been pulled over by Tucson Police. Raul and Rene were both detained and remain in custody of Border Patrol. Rene is the father of five children, who miss him and want nothing more than to have their dad back. Raul is a long time activist, and was one of the young people who sat inside Sen. McCain’s office in 2010, during the fist civil disobedience action led by undocumented youth to demand the immediate passage of the DREAM Act.

Other organizations are also urging people to call the Border Patrol directly. On its Facebook page, the DRM Dream Action Coalition posted the following message:

Friend and organizer was detained in Tucson by the border patrol. We really need you all again. He has been working for families to stay together for such a long time, and now it’s time to help HIM out. Can you call Border Patrol and tell him to let Raul Alcaraz go: (520)514-4700 (520)748-3041 (520)748-3113.

Pastor Allison Harrington of the Southside Presbyterian Church, where the workers center is located, gave Tucson Weekly’s The Range details of what happened.

From Tucson Weekly:

The incident occurred near Ninth Avenue and 23rd Street. As we reported earlier, Ochoa was trying to intervene on behalf of a father of five who was stopped by TPD and Border Patrol was called to the scene.

Reportedly Ochoa laid under a Border Patrol vehicle. Border Patrol responded by pepper spraying Ochoa before he was taken into custody. Currently, attorney Isabel Garcia is still trying to locate Ochoa.

The news outlet also says that although the Tucson Police Department has said in the past that it doesn’t cooperate with the Border Patrol, the TPD officers in fact called the federal agency.

This kind of collaboration is a regular practice, according to Arce.

“This is an everyday occurrence here in Tucson,” he said. “Since SB1070 went into effect, this type detentions, these apprehensions are commonplace.”

The Border Patrol in Tucson hadn’t replied to our email as this blog post was being published.

Carlos García, from Puente Arizona, holds the scarf with the stencil Dreamer Yovany Díaz made the night before. This image was taken from the video filmmaker Barni Axmed Qaasim shot during the hearing.

Once more I am really emocionado y agradecido that Yovany Díaz Tolentino, a great y valiente luchador who has been fighting for the rights of the undocumented in Georgia and across the country, has taken the time to once more share lo más reciente de su lucha por una reforma migratoria justa que incluya all 11 million of undocumented immigrants.

Just earlier this week I wrote about the action con la que miembros de la comunidad interrumpieron the Senate Judiciary hearing on immigration reform. Yovany was one of the people Capitol police arrested and charged with disruption of Congress.

Los dejo con las palabras de Yovany:

I left home late in the evening of February 10. It was a Sunday and leaving at such a time would mean that I’d be missing the 3^rd season premiere of the Walking Dead. You know, I was looking forward to Glenn and Michonne’s infiltrating Woodbury and making a big move against the Governor, but I had to be somewhere more important that night.

I had to meet with the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR) GLAHRdiadores. Together, we would be joining about 300 defenders of justice at a gathering organized by the United Workers Congress at the Hilton in Washington DC.

We went there to discuss the various issues affecting our communities and also to come up with our own demands to stop deportations and achieve just and inclusive citizenship with strong labor protections for all of our families and friends.

This meeting was no coincidence. President Barack Obama had promised to address immigration reform during his State of the Union Address before Congress.

We sat at a private screening only to see the poor speech Obama gave about immigration reform. I could only hear little applause, if any, after the president’s more-enforcement approach to solve the immigration mess.

We were very disappointed at what he said. He is just giving us more of the same rhetoric that wants to push more enforcement on the border without stopping the massive deportations taking place under his administration.

After hearing this, I was ready for Wednesday. I didn’t get any sleep working on a stencil with my friend Alejandro Guizar who is currently in deportation proceedings, even though he is a low priority case and DACA eligible.

Our design read “NO MORE DEPORTATIONS” and it was later painted on a scarf Carlos Garcia, from Puente Arizona, would take with him during our action.

Just before we headed to the Senate Judiciary Hearing on immigration reform I received  bad news from home. It was about my friend and classmate Jordan from Freedom University.

Jordan’s dad, Francisco Martinez, had been deported even though he lived in the United States for 15 years, has four children who need him, and has no criminal history. Why was he deported? Because he had a minor traffic accident and that was enough to land him in deportations proceedings.

This has always been a personal fight, but that morning it pierced even deeper after learning about what had just happened to Jordan. This time the senators needed to hear from us, needed to hear from our own voices what they’re doing to our families and to our communities.

But I was tired. During the hearing I was nearly falling asleep since I had been up all night. Yet, I knew I could connect closer to my spirit and speak out against what our families are facing: Deportations.

I was waiting for Carlos to stand up. I would follow his lead. When he got up, I got up too. Interrupting Janet Napolitano was fantastic because we really needed to underline our message. We needed to make her understand.

 Soon, Capitol police surrounded us. We were escorted out of the room, lead to a hallway were seven of us would be arrested. Three other people were arrested later for refusing to sit down.

We all shared the same jail cell. The cops were really frustrated with our presence, especially a Latino cop who aggressively handcuffed the women and would later call us ‘illegal’. They charged us with disruption of Congress.

Some eight hours later we all were out, but are expected to show up for court on March 7. That’s fine. We are not worried. When that day comes, just like on the day we were arrested, we will continue to fight for our three simple demands:

• Stop militarizing America by adding more boots and drones on the border

• Stop the deportations

• Document all 11 million undocumente including workers

These are the principles that would really shape a just immigration reform.

Policía arrestó por lo menos a 12 manifestantes luego de que interrumpieron una audiencia del Senado para exigir una reforma migratoria justa.

Las voces de la raza fighting for a families-first immigration reform went to Washington D.C. to let politicians know that their more-enforcement-first approach is not going to fly con la comunidad.

Just a day after a State of the Union Address in which President Barack Obama basically endorsed the principles for immigration reform the so-called ‘Gang of Eight’ presented on January 28, miembros de varias comunidades afectadas por la persecución de inmigrantes interrupted Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano as she gave testimony at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Comprehensive Immigration Reform.

An online video by MyCuétame.org shows Carlos García, from Puente Arizona, and UndocuBus riders María Huerta and Yovany Díaz Tolentino, among others, yelling in the middle of the DHS seceretary remarks before the Senators.

“Napolitano, that’s the problem. You’re destroying our communities. Stop the deportations!” García said as he held a banner that read “No More Deportations”.

The group yelled “No more deportations! Include all 11 million!” mientras que la policía del Capitolio lo sacó de la sala en que se realizaba la audiencia. Reports indicate that Capitol police arrested at least 12 of the protesters, most of them undocumented immigrants.

Esta acción is a clear indication de que las comunidades no están de acuerdo with what’s being proposed and celebrated as the bipartisan harmony on immigration reform. Porque mientras los políticos siguen con sus discursos, deportations continue to break up families and communities.

*Update: All of the people arrested were released. Yovany Díaz told Mojado Citizen that they were charged with disruption of Congress. Díaz, a young DREAM Leader from Georgia, spent eight hours in jail.

Publicado en El Diario

NUEVA YORK — Los reflectores del estadio Caracas iluminaban el campo en una noche que haría historia. Era una “fiesta de bateadores” donde el equipo Bushwicks de Nueva York sudó, y no por el calor caribeño, sino por el juego de los All Cubans, un rival que se paraba a enfrentarlo como los grandes.

Tras nueve entradas muy apretadas, los neoyorquinos derrotaron a los cubanos con un marcador de 7-6. Fue el partido más memorable de un torneo que en 1946 se llamaba Serie Interamericana, y que dio paso a lo que hoy se conoce como Serie del Caribe.

Los Bushwicks

En una esquina de Jamaica Avenue en Queens vive un poco de la historia del béisbol caribeño de antaño.

Ahí, en donde hoy abundan los comercios y los rostros hispanos, estuvo un día el estadio Dexter Park, que entre 1918 y 1951 fue casa de los Bushwicks de Brooklyn, propiedad del inmigrante judío Max Rosner.

En Dexter Park los Bushwicks se enfrentaron a muchos de los jugadores más populares de la época. Allí forjaron una reputación que los llevó hasta Venezuela para sembrar la semilla de lo que hoy se conoce como la Serie del Caribe.

Pero ahora no queda mucho de aquel parque de pelota y la historia de los Bushwicks está un poco enterrada en el olvido que sopla el tiempo.

Aquellos años

En Dexter Park los Bushwicks jugaron contra leyendas de la talla de Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Lou Gehrig, Satchel Paige o Joe DiMaggio.

Eran los tiempos en que aún existía la línea racial en el béisbol estadounidense y en que la pelota se jugaba diferente.

Los Bushwicks eran una gran atracción al enfrentarse en juegos de exhbición a equipos de la liga negra o a combinados de estrellas retiradas, ofreciendo gran espectáculo a un módico precio, explica Thomas Barthel en su libro Los Incomparables Semiprofesionales del Béisbol: Los Bushwicks de Dexter Park.

“Rosner entendió que si ponía un producto de calidad en el terreno, muchos de los aficionados al béisbol en la zona preferirían pagar un boleto barato en Dexter Park que hacer el viaje a Yankee Stadium o Polo Grounds, que estaban a 75 minutos de Bushwick”, detalla el autor.

Pero el éxito de los Bushwicks iría más allá de Nueva York y tendría un toque latino.

De Brooklyn para América Latina

El vínculo entre este equipo semiprofesional y la pelota latinoamericana es directo.

Entre 1946 y 1949, los Bushwicks jugaron — y ganaron — en Venezuela la Serie Interamericana.

Ideada por Jesús Corao, fundador del equipo venezolano Cervecería Caracas (Leones del Caracas en la actualidad), el torneo fue un éxito en todas sus ediciones, según relata en una de sus columnas el historiador del béisbol Juan Vené (excolumnista de El Diario/ La Prensa).

“El estadio, también denominado Cervecería de Caracas, estuvo lleno durante todos los juegos de todas las series”, indica Vené.

El nacimiento de este torneo se dio a la par de tiempos turbulentos en la política venezolana, que alternaba presidentes gracias a golpes de estado y elecciones democráticas.

Esto no detuvo la organización de la justa. Los clubes invitados a esa primera serie fueron los Bushwicks de Estados Unidos, los All Cubans de Cuba, los Sultanes de México y la Cervecería Caracas de Venezuela.

Reportes de 1946 publicados en La Prensa, archivados en el Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños de City University of New York, detallan el dominio de los Bushwicks en aquella primera serie.

Durante un mes de actividades, la novena neoyorquina ganó nueve partidos y sólo perdió tres, para así traer a casa el campeonato, como precisan reseñas de noviembre de 1946.

Pero ganar el torneo no fue una tarea del todo fácil.

All Cubans y se hizo la luz

Tanto Vené como los periódicos de la época destacan el encuentro entre los Bushwicks y los All Cubans, que se realizó el 22 de octubre de 1946. La Prensa describe que en “una fiesta de bateadores” en la que se empató el partido en tres ocasiones, los de Nueva York batallaron para derrotar a los cubanos por marcador de 7-6.

Vené añade que ese juego tuvo, además, otro valor histórico, porque se trató del primer partido nocturno fuera de Estados Unidos.

“Esa fecha quedó en la historia del béisbol latinoamericano, porque fue el primer juego bajo luz artificial en Venezuela”, escribe el historiador.

Pero esa no era la primera vez que los Bushwicks jugaban bajo los reflectores. En 1930, cinco años antes de que las Ligas Mayores realizaran su primer juego nocturno, el equipo de Rosner se convirtió en el primero en contar con un parque con luz artificial, dato que confirmó Bennet Rosner, nieto del dueño del equipo.

“Mi padre fue un ingeniero eléctrico y él instaló el alumbrado en Dexter Park”, dijo Rosner, quien heredó los recuerdos de la organización.

Mueren los Bushwicks, nace la serie

La semilla que la Serie Interamericana plantó dio otros frutos, ya que su éxito no pasó desapercibido.

En 1948, los empresarios Oscar Prieto y Pablo Morales presentaron en la convención del béisbol caribeño celebrada en Miami, la idea de efectuar un torneo entre equipos de la región.

Cuba se ofreció como sede y para 1950, a la par de la última Serie Interamericana en la que Caracas fue campeón, se realizó una muy anticipada primera Serie Mundial del Caribe, en la que el equipo anfitrión se fue invicto.

Y mientras esa serie comenzaba su ascenso, la novena de Rosner declinaba.

Los Bushwicks obtuvieron los títulos de las primeras tres ediciones de la Serie Interamericana al final de su existencia. Al concluir la temporada de 1951, apenas dos años después de haber ganado su último cetro interamericano, la organización desapareció.

Junto con ellos, se desmoronaba la Liga Negra, fuente de rivales de calidad para los clubes semiprofesionales.

Eran las últimas bocanadas de una era que estaba llegando a su fin, en parte por la integración racial que abría puertas a beisbolistas negros en las Ligas Mayores; pero también debido al nuevo invento de la televisión, que enfocaba su lente principalmente en las novenas profesionales.

Hoy sólo una placa instalada en el estacionamiento de un supermercado le informa al que es suficientemente curioso, que allí alguna vez jugó un equipo que se llamaba Bushwicks.

Wednesday’s NY Post Cover

The criminalization of children, and more specifically children of color, reached a new low with the news of a 7-year-old kid from the Bronx that was handcuffed, detained, and questioned for hours for supposedly stealing five bucks from another boy.

The mother of the child, Frances Mendez, told the New York Post, that on December 4, NYPD held her son for 10 hours before releasing him.

Mendez went to the police station to see her son, Wilson Reyes, and claims she wasn’t allowed to see him at first, but when she finally was let in she found her son handcuffed and scared.

From the Post:

“My son was crying, ‘Mommy, it wasn’t me! Mommy, it wasn’t me!’ I never imagined the cops could do that to a child. We’re traumatized,” Wilson Reyes’ distraught mom, Frances Mendez (above, with Wilson, at home yesterday) told The Post last night.

“Imagine how I felt seeing my son in handcuffs!’’ she said. “It was horrible. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.”

The mother snapped a photo of her son handcuffed to a metal bar inside the precinct.

But a police source told the newspaper Reyes was only arrested for a bit over four hours, “just like any other juvenile suspect”.

From the Post:

But law-enforcement sources insisted that Wilson was treated like any other young suspect.

“We responded to a 911 call of a robbery and assault . . . Eventually, [Wilson] was taken back to the precinct and placed in the juvenile room,” a source said.

“He was charged with robbery. The allegation was that he punched the kid and took his money. He took the money forcibly.

“The kid came into the precinct a little bit after 3 p.m., and he was out by 7:45 p.m. . . . That’s standard for a juvenile arrest.”

In the end, the city’s law department dropped the charges but now the family is suing for $250 million.

Reactions started to come up. NYC’s public advocate Bill Blasio, issued a statement saying that “7-year-olds don’t belong in handcuffs”.

“Our school system’s overreliance on the NYPD as a disciplinary tool traumatizes our young people, sows distrust in our communities and drains vital City resources away from responding to genuine crimes. This has to stop,” he said in the statement.

But this is far from an isolated case, as Jaime Koppel from the Children’s Defense Fund told El Diario in a story on today’s paper.

“In the city, these cases are more common that one would think” among minorities, Koppel said.

In a recent Vice article, Dan Denvir wrote that the criminalization of childhood misbehavior is becoming a norm in schools across the country, and specially in New York City, where the police department has some 5,000 agents assigned to the school safety division.

“That’s a lot of cops to keep high-schoolers in line,” he writes.

Denvir also says that New York is one of the fronts where the fiercest fights for students’ rights is being fought because crimes in schools don’t seem to happen as often as people think.

From Denvir:

In New York, 95 percent of the 882 arrests made by the NYPD School Safety Division in 2012 were of black or Latino students. Meanwhile, sixty-three percent of summonses were for “disorderly conduct,” a catchall charge in both the street and classroom.

Mixing cops and schools is only working against minorities, and the case of Wilson Reyes is an expensive reminder of that.