adios, por ahora December 16, 2007

I’m taking time away from this blog, so there won’t be any new posts, at least for now.

Thanks to all who read it and to fellow bloggers who keep adding interesting things to the virtual conversations of the net!

Slide Show – Mixtecos in East Harlem December 7, 2007

In El Barrio in Manhattan, the Mexican immigrant population is growing, including a sizable presence of indigenous Mixtecos.

I put together an audio slide show on the subject which you can watch by clicking this link.

Rural Roots, Urban Appetites – Video Added

I originally posted this entry back in September. Now I have edited the video that goes along with it, so I’m reviving the post. Buen Provecho.

Martin Rodriguez arrived in New York two decades ago and by now his brow is permanently furrowed from his years of heavy work.

He’s done much physical labor, the kind that is abundant and underpaid, but has frequently moved to new jobs, always searching for a way to improve the situation for himself and his family, as each of his now five children were born.

Four years ago, shifted occupational gears once again. This time, he and his family traded city life for a return to their roots as farmers, on land a couple of hours north of New York City.

Rodriguez had a particular vision of what he wanted to do as a farmer: grow herbs and vegetables from his home country to bring the flavors of home to the Mexican population here.

Now RodriMex Farms sets up its booth six days a week, rotating among several farmers markets across the city. Rodriguez does his best business in the immigrant neighborhoods in Queens, Brooklyn, and the Bronx.

On Tuesdays, customers crowd around the RodriMex booth all morning. Martin and his wife, Gaudencia, hustle to attend to shoppers rushing to get to work or drop kids off at school. Strollers and shopping carts jostle for space as people stock up on cilantro, tomatillos, verdolagas and chilaca chilies.

Customers say the produce is much fresher that what they find in supermarkets (almost all of it is harvested the night before the market), and that the Rodriguez’s sell herbs that are impossible to find anywhere else.

Some of the shoppers say they left their towns in Puebla or Guerrero more than 15 years ago, while others have only recently arrived to New York. Either way, they are eager to prepare foods with the flavor of home.

Texas hospital may deny cancer treatment to undocumented immigrants December 5, 2007

Our commitment to humanity is only applicable when money isn’t an issue.

The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston is considering shutting out undocumented immigrants in need of cancer treatment because resources are limited, the Houston Chronicle reported.

The medical school, unable to meet the demand for cancer care by indigent patients with limited state funds, is considering a policy that would require patients to prove they’re here legally to qualify for financial assistance. That would save the hospital system money but contradict its mission of providing care for the poor.

Hospital officials are quoted saying it’s a “gut-wrenching” decision, that will be made in January.

Hostile Desert: Arizona cracks down on immigrants December 4, 2007

Communities in Arizona are taking drastic steps to attack immigrants from multiple angles. Here are three examples showing the use of three branches of government to augment hostility against immigrants.

First the executive.

Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon has reversed his position and now says police should act as federal agents and inquire about immigration status, as reported in the New York Times.

Mr. Gordon said the (federal) government had not done enough to patrol the border and to enact changes to immigration law to slow the pace.

He said he now advocated giving the police the authority to check the immigration status of anyone accused of breaking the law, though he recommended it be done in a way that did not lead to racial or ethnic profiling.

More evidence – immigrants more boon than burden November 30, 2007

Several studies have come out finding that immigrants give more than they take from the American economy when it comes to taxes and public benefits like health care.

At Immigration Law Daily, a new report found that per capita, immigrants use health care services far less than native-born Americans.

In 1998, per capita health care expenditures were 55 percent lower for immigrants than for natives. Although immigrants comprised 10 percent of the U.S. population, they accounted for only 8 percent of U.S. health care costs.

In 1998, immigrants received about $1,139 per capita in health care, compared to $2,546 for native-born residents.

Despite the fact that all immigrants are eligible for emergency medical services, they had lower expenditures for emergency room visits, as well as doctor’s office visits, outpatient hospital visits, inpatient hospital visits, and prescription drugs.

Gangs and Asylum November 28, 2007

The intersection between immigration, gangs, and refugee teens is brought into relief in an article in CityLimits.org about a Honduran boy who came to the U.S. to escape a violent gang induction in his home country.

The reporter, Gabriela Reardon, is a friend of mine and NYU graduate. She has long been deeply involved with the topic of underage immigrants and the legal limbo where they often are left floating.

Daniel is among a growing number of Salvadoran, Honduran and Guatemalan youth – many of them minors – running from gangs and seeking asylum in the United States, a noticeable trend that’s developed over the past three years, according to attorneys and researchers. Such claims pose new challenges for federal asylum law and are compelling judges to consider the petitioners’ official status as children.

After the immigration shakedown, quiet rebuilding November 26, 2007

When local police and immigration agents crashed into dozens of homes early in the morning in Long Island last September, dragging sleepy immigrants from their beds and depositing them in jail cells, the media coverage lasted an unusually long time.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were heavily criticized by Nassau County police officials (not to mention community members), who accused the agency of acting with a cowboy mentality and sweeping imprecision in their arrests, which picked up mostly peripheral figures unrelated to the gang sweep that allegedly motivated the raids.

The rarity of such open internecine feuding between law enforcement agencies kept the story in the news for a couple of weeks. But as with most news, the raids ceased to generate new material for the media to work with and therefore fell out of the public eye.

Pageant for Gay Latino Cowboys November 20, 2007

Gay cowboys have been strutting their stuff in Oakland, CA, since long before Brokeback Mountain made it cool.

This week, Mr. Gay Vaquero 2007 was crowned in a downtown Oakland club after a month-long pageant.

The Oakland Tribune wrote about the final stage of the contest, which has been organized for the last seven years by Bench and Bar, a popular gay Latino club that draws large numbers of immigrants, mainly Mexican.

Medicine and the Intersection of Cultures November 16, 2007

Immigrants are constantly juggling adaptation to American culture and traditions from home. Preserving their own culture is often partly an expression of identity and pride, but it is often also a response to feeling alienated and excluded by mainstream America.

Here’s a local story that captures that dual reality. The Queens Chronicle ran this story yesterday on the connection between the popularity of botanicas (folk medicine shops) and lack of health insurance.