CHICANO RADIO NETWORK U.S.A. Blog

Storyline
Chronicling the birth of a modern American movement, Cesar Chavez tells the story of the famed civil rights leader and labor organizer torn between his duties as a husband and father and his commitment to securing a living wage for farm workers. Passionate but soft-spoken, Chavez embraced non-violence as he battled greed and prejudice in his struggle to bring dignity to people. Chavez inspired millions of Americans from all walks of life who never worked on a farm to fight for social justice. His triumphant journey is a remarkable testament to the power of one individual’s ability to change the world. Written by Pantelion Films
Cesar Chavez Trailer
Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)
Rated PG-13 for some violence and language

Rita Moreno, fresh off winning a lifetime achievement award at the SAG Awards, has been tapped to co-star opposite Natasha Lyonne in NBC‘s single-camera comedy pilot Old Soul. Co-created/exec produced by Amy Poehler, Josh Bycel and Jonathan Fener and directed by David Wain, Old Soul centers on a reformed wild child Nadia (Lyonne) who has a business caring for the elderly and feels she has more in common with her colorful old clients than she does with people her age. Moreno will play one of the clients, a character that appears tailored for her down to the name, Rita. A sexy old gal and a ball of joy, Old Soul‘s Rita (Moreno) is a flamboyant, larger-than-life Broadway vet who has been happily married to her writing partner/husband for over 50 years. Moreno, repped by Innovative Artists, was the first and one of the very few performers to win an Oscar, an Emmy, a Tony, and a Grammy. She has earned two Emmys for her guest appearances on The Rockford Files and the Muppet Show and most recently co-starred on the TV Land comedy series Happily Divorced.

Source: http://www.deadline.com/2014/02/rita-moreno-star-nbc-pilot-old-soul/

The Theatre @ Boston Court presents Se Llama Cristina, by Octavio Solis, directed by Robert Castro. This production is the final stop on the National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere, which included productions at The Magic Theater in San Francisco and Kitchen Dog in Dallas. Opening night is Saturday, January 25, 2014 on the Main Stage at Boston Court Performing Arts Center, 70 North Mentor Avenue.

Se Llama Cristina description: A man and woman wake up in a strange apartment surrounded by drug paraphernalia and an empty crib. They must piece together who they are, and were, and where that baby might be, all while trying to create a new future for themselves. A gritty, poetic look at the uncertainty of life and our desperate need for belonging, Se Llama Cristina asks if it’s possible to rise above your circumstances to make a better life.

Se Llama Cristina features Amielynn Abellera, Paula Christensen, Justin Huen and Christian Rummel.

Production staff includes Robert Castro, Director; Gronk, Set Designer; Ben Zamora, Lighting Designer; John Zalewski & Veronika Vorel, Sound Designer; Victoria Petrovich, Costume Designer; Jenny Smith, Prop Designer; Aaron Henne, Dramaturg; Dave Mancini, Assistant Director; Julia Flores, Casting Director; Alyssa Escalante, Production Stage Manager.

Octavio Solis is a playwright and director living in San Francisco. His works John Steinbeck’s The Pastures of Heaven, Ghosts of the River, Quixote, Lydia, June in a Box, Lethe, Marfa Lights, Gibraltar, The Ballad of Pancho and Lucy, The 7 Visions of Encarnación, Bethlehem, Dreamlandia, El Otro, Man of the Flesh, Prospect, El Paso Blue, Santos & Santos, and La Posada Mágica have been mounted at the California Shakespeare Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, Yale Repertory Theatre, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, the Dallas Theater Center, the Magic Theatre, Intersection for the Arts, South Coast Repertory Theatre, the San Diego Repertory Theatre, the San Jose Repertory Theatre, Shadowlight Productions, the Venture Theatre in Philadelphia, Latino Chicago Theatre Company, the New York Summer Play Festival, Teatro Vista in Chicago, El Teatro Campesino, the Undermain Theatre in Dallas, Thick Description, Campo Santo, the Imua Theatre Company in New York, and Cornerstone Theatre. His collaborative works include Cloudlands, with Music by Adam Gwon, Burning Dreams, co-written with Julie Hebert and Gina Leishman and Shiner, written with Erik Ehn.

Solis has received an NEA 1995-97 Playwriting Fellowship, the Roger L. Stevens award from the Kennedy Center, the Will Glickman Playwright Award, a production grant from the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays, the 1998 TCG/NEA Theatre Artists in Residence Grant, the 1998 McKnight Fellowship grant from the Playwrights Center in Minneapolis, and the National Latino Playwriting Award for 2003. He is the recipient of the 2000-2001 National Theatre Artists ResidenCy Grant from TCG and the Pew Charitable Trust. He has also just been awarded a United States Artists Fellowship for 2012. Solis is a Thornton Wilder Fellow for the MacDowell Colony, New Dramatists alum and member of the Dramatists Guild. His new anthology, The River Plays, has been published by NoPassPort Publishing. He is working on commissions for the Magic Theatre SF and Yale Repertory Theatre.

Source: http://www.broadwayworld.com/los-angeles/article/Theatre-Boston-Court-to-Present-SE-LLAMA-CRISTINA-116-223-20140102

February 7, 2014

Contact: Luis Torres, latorres at LULAC.org, (202) 833-6130

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, 10.2 million uninsured Latinos will have an opportunity to receive affordable health insurance coverage. Health reform is already making a difference in our community. It has created new coverage options for Latinos, particularly for those with pre-existing conditions. However, there is more to be done! The Affordable Care Act provides states with additional federal funding to expand their Medicaid program, thus increasing health insurance coverage for millions of hardworking Latino families. Yet, 24 states have not yet expanded Medicaid leaving many Latinos uninsured.

STATES THAT HAVE NOT EXPANDED MEDICAID
Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming

ACTION ALERT: If your state is on the list, please contact your governor today and urge them not leave Latinos uninsured and expand Medicaid today! Click here.

If your state is not on the list, please contact your Governor today and thank them for not leaving Latinos uninsured and expanding Medicaid. Click here.

Source: http://lulac.org/news/pr/action_alert_dont_leave_latinos_uninsured/

By: Sara Goldenberg
PHOENIX – A new state bill would make it against the law for an illegal immigrant to use public resources including driving on public roads.
State Representative Carl Seel (R-District 20) said House Bill 2192 would only affect undocumented immigrants who have committed a crime.
Seel said it would be an additional violation law enforcement could tack on in addition to the crime that led to the initial arrest.
The bill would make it a misdemeanor for an illegal immigrant who has been to court for a crime to use public benefits, including attending a public school or using the services of any public entity in the state of Arizona.
“I think that we deserve to put some teeth in there so law enforcement can hold people who have come here illegally and committed a crime– we need more teeth to hold them accountable,” Seel said.
The ACLU thinks it’s unconstitutional.
“It’s extremely broad, and it’s clearly unconstitutional if it would lead to harassment of people of color,” said Alessandra Soler, executive director of the ACLU of Arizona.
“This bill would create even more problems of racial profiling then we’re currently seeing,” she said.
Seel said the bill does not call for targeting undocumented immigrants.
The bill has not been introduced yet at the state capitol.

Read more: http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/region_phoenix_metro/central_phoenix/state-bill-calls-for-restrictions-on-public-resources-for-illegal-immigrants#ixzz2sfAwih8b

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — A Brazilian senator has nominated National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize.

Sen. Vanessa Grazziotin heads the Senate panel investigating U.S. espionage in Brazil. She says in a Tuesday statement that Snowden’s revelations contribute to a more “stable and peaceful world.”

Grazziotin says when governments “work secretly against citizens and states, global peace and stability are more difficult to achieve.”

Two Norwegian politicians have also jointly nominated Snowden for the prize. Anyone can be nominated for the prestigious honor.

Snowden’s revelations showed that Brazil was the top NSA target in Latin America, with spying that included the monitoring of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s cellphone and hacking into the internal network of the state-run oil company Petrobras.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/brazilian-nominates-snowden-nobel-peace-prize-194649939.html

RECALL?

Tucson, Arizona – The Higher Learning Commission (HCL) placed PCC on probation. Their reasons and findings included:

• Sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviors by the college’s Former Chancellor and failure of the Board to institute an appropriate investigation into these claims.

• Created an unhealthy college culture was established through the use of intimidation, fear and an abuse of executive power.

• Violating their own Board procurement policy in regard to sole sourcing and that it lacked transparency on fiduciary matters.
• Failure to uphold its responsibility to conduct its work ethically, honestly, and in the best interests of the college, its employees and its students.

I was a member of the Board of Trustees at Centralia Community College in Washington from 1986 to 2000. There, new trustees attend workshops to learn their responsibilities, and the issues at Pima Community College could be a case study in a future workshop.

In 2002 I was named chairman of a presidential search committee at Centralia and Lee Lambert, recently appointed chancellor at PCC, provided legal counsel to the committee.

During the years I was on the board at Centralia we occasionally heard reports of issues at other community colleges. None, however, were as egregious as those at Pima. Lee Lambert can solve the problems at PCC, but the endeavor can be facilitated with a new board, free of controversy and hubris.

If the current Governing Board truly wants to serve the public, it will promptly resign, save the expenses of a recall and end this mess.

Arland Lyons
Retired educator, Sahuarita

Replacing Failed Leadership Necessary For Pima Community College’s Future

Most in our community are familiar with news in the past year about Pima Community College’s unprofessional administrative and Governing Board behavior, including ignoring reports of eight employees who said they were sexually harassed.

Over the last six months, several meetings with Governing Board members have occurred, yet despite pleas from educators, students and community leaders for them to resign, the board chooses to continue governing in the same shortsighted fashion that has created the crisis.

Crisis is not too harsh a word for the current situation. In April 2013, the Higher Learning Commission (HLC), the accrediting organization for Pima Community College, placed the college on probation. The scathing report highlights many egregious actions and places responsibility squarely on the shoulders of the Governing Board.

In its conclusion HLC stated that “the Board has essentially abdicated appropriate oversight of college operations in personnel policies and action … (and) serious breaches of acting with integrity have been demonstrated by PCCD’s Board of Governors.”

What would the loss of accreditation mean? For starters, it would undermine the worth of the PCC degree, making it harder for graduates to compete in the job marketplace or transfer to a four- year college. It would hinder our community’s ability to address our stagnant economic development situation, creating a strong disincentive for new companies to move to Southern Arizona. And it surely would make it very difficult to retain good teachers and administrators, let alone attract new, qualified individuals.

Yet our numerous and passionate calls for resignation have been ignored. In fact, the response from some board members has been defiance and a total failure to take responsibility.

For that reason, we have formed Citizens for PCC Integrity. Our mission: Change the board.

We are the offspring of a loosely formed coalition that came together after the probationary status was announced. We are the voices of staff, faculty, students, alumni, business leaders and appalled residents who know how important PCC is to our continuum of education and workforce development in Pima County.

How Will We Go About Changing The Board?

Regretfully, recall. Our New Year’s resolution is to recall board members of the former Chancellor Roy Flores era. It will require many people and considerable financial resources. However, the risk of continuing with this failed leadership is too great.

Recalling an elected official should never be frivolous or just because you disagree with a position on an issue. It should be reserved for those times when the elected official’s behavior is indisputably damaging. This is indeed the case with board members Brenda Even, Scott Stewart, David Longoria and Marty Cortez. They have failed to protect the very people they were elected to serve. They have caused serious damage to PCC’s reputation, but with new leadership we can repair PCC’s image.

Source: http://fixpimacollege.com/

ZACATECAS.- Las Ventanas, south of Zacatecas, an archaeological site where the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) has undertaken new release and consolidation works have resulted in the finding of Caxcan remains. The Caxcans were one of the nahuatl speaking groups with more will to fight against the advances of the Spaniards. In some of the structures around the Two Altar Plaza and on the surface level of the site, they have found seven burials that could have belonged to the last inhabitants of the site, between 1200 AD and the first decades of the XVI century, Caxcan settlements according to historical sources. “Five of the burials belong to children approximately between one and five years of age”, added the archeologist Marco Antonio Santos Ramirez. The interesting part, added the director of the Archeological Project Las Ventanas, is that the chronicles indicate that women, infants and elder Caxcans were the settlers of these sites while the young men participated in the Mixton War in 1541 and 1542. Since 2012, the INAH has begun systematic labors in Las Ventanas. The archaeological zone comprises 150 acres acquired by INAH, the biggest structures of this site distributed in 48 acres that make up the civic ceremonial center. The plaza is constituted by two altars and flanked by constructions that were destined for the elite. One of them has a main flight of stairs that gives access to a gateway divided into two entrances leading to a series of pillars in the back part of the structure. The investigator at the INAH Center in Zacatecas added that the main staircase is oriented towards the equinox, which creates different displays of lights and shadows according to the layout marked out for important moments by the position of the two altars in the ritual year. Marco Antonio Santos said that Las Ventanas is the biggest site of cultural development known as Cañon de Juchipila, and it alludes to a series of settlements distributed throughout the site, the central point being the river with the same name (Juchipila) that extended to the Valley of Atemajac, known today as Guadalajara, Jalisco. In the next few years some structures that constitute the ceremonial area of the site will be liberated, among these the Great Pyramid and the Central Garden.

More Information: http://artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=67741#.UvSAYvkweGS[/url]
Copyright © artdaily.org

Directed by Diego Luna, Chávez chronicles the birth of a modern American movement led by famed civil rights leader and labor organizer, Cesar Chavez. Torn between his duties as a husband and father and his commitment to bringing dignity and justice to others, Chavez embraced non-violence as he battled greed and prejudice in his struggle for the rights of farm workers. His triumphant journey is a remarkable testament to the power of one individual’s ability to change the system.

Starring Michael Pena
America Ferrara
Rosario Dawson
John Malkovich

Phoenix, AZ — Republicans are warning President Obama that if he halts immigrant deportations then the GOP will halt immigration reform. But the Republican Party has already halted immigration reform as Mexican-Americans / Latinos, Women and Independent voters have noted it has been over 7 months since the Democratic-controlled Senate passed a historic comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) bill in 2013 while the Republican-led House of Representatives have not submitted a bill that will fix the clearly broken immigration system.

Since Republicans are making political threats, SOMOS INDEPENDENTS — a Mexican-American / Latina and Independent women-led voter group are making it clear to the Republican Party the following:

1) Women represent 50.8% of the U.S. voter and matriarchs within the Mexican-American / Latino voters are tired of hearing stories where mothers are pulled away from their U.S. born children who are left behind while parents get deported. Women know the Republican-led House of Representatives are already halting progress and we will continue to inform our base and women voters to this regard. We believe the Tea Party Republicans need to be voted out come November 2014 elections so that we can work on a better deal after they are ousted.

2) According to the Tax Lawyer, a paper published by Section of Taxation, American bar Association with the assistance of Georgetown University Law Center:

“…each year undocumented immigrants add billions of dollars in sales, excise, property, income, and payroll taxes—including Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment taxes—to federal, state, and local coffers. 15 Hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants file annual federal and state income tax returns…”

Yet, some of those taxes paid by undocumented immigrants help the U.S. pay $30 billion is being given to foreign aid while our Republican-led House of Representatives drag their feet on Homeland Security issues with regard to fixing the broken immigration system. Fixing the broken immigration system here in our Homeland strengthens our National security and our relationships with our neighboring countries. Too much emphasis abroad rather than Homeland will drive the 2014 elections.

3) Our growing independent voter group does not not support any “taxation without representation” ideas that are suggested in the Republican Immigration Preamble. Taxation without representation is a dangerous slippery slope and is un-American.

4) According to IVN: “The current Congress has an average 9.2 percent approval rating and 84.2 percent disapproval rating. … These numbers point to a grave problem: the House of Representatives is utterly unrepresentative.

5) We disapprove of the Republican Party using Rep. Luis Gutierrez as the go-to person on matters relating to immigration when in fact it was Rep. Gutierrez who told media Latinos would not vote during the 2012 elections. Gutierrez was proven wrong when Latino voters did vote in 2012 in rising numbers. As a get-out-the-vote effort we encourage Mexican-American / Latino / Chicano to become registered to vote and we do not appreciate it when Gutierrez (who is Puerto Rican) does not consult with Mexican-American Get Out The Vote leaders. Indeed those of Mexican descent account for almost 70% of the entire Latino population pie. National Radio Show Host via Carlos Galindo also believes Rep. Luis Gutierrez does not represent us.

Women, Mexican-Americans We are committed to voting out the Tea Party Republicans. As a get out the vote organization (where we put emphasis on Mexican-Americans, Latinos, women while organizing the growing independent registered voters) we have been successful in creating stronger coalitions with but not limited to the African-American community, the Asian community and Native Americans. We anticipate the Republican Party submitting an immigration bill that is reasonable and will not create an underclass or taxation without representation before the November 2014 elections. The more the GOP puts off a CIR bill, the more it will drive us to the polls out of righteous political anger reminiscent of the 2012 elections that cost the Republican Party the White House.

Somos Independents is a national group of key swing independent registered Independent voters led by Mexican-American women voters who support bipartisanship in our government that will help solve tough issues. We know the immigration issue is a federal matter and we rely on our Congress to fix the broken immigration system soon with legal immigration reform. We are organizing the growing independent registered voter group, and we realize college-aged students prefer registering themselves as independents rather than choosing a major political party. We believe in putting people before Party politics. Co-founders include a former Republican and a former Democratic voter.