La Gente Fall 2014

Fall 2014 LA GENTE 1

LA GENTE VOL. 45 ISSUE 1

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Madelinn Ornelas

MANAGING EDITOR Michelle Salinas

EDITORS

Mayra Godinez Miguel Angel Martinez Maria Perez Michael Reyes Roberto Reyna Michelle Salinas

SPANISH EDITORS Maria Perez Roberto Reyna

DESIGN EDITOR Michelle Martinez

PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Erika Ramírez

WEB EDITOR

Letter from the Editor As creative artists and members of our communities, we have reflected on the recent tragedies and injustices that are occurring in our neighborhoods and throughout the world.

These injustices done to our communities are harrowing and disheartening, and one more death or disappearance might be the one to break our spirits. But we must continue to be resilient in the face of oppression. We must remember to heal and love as a community, because nothing is more stronger and more beautiful than having each other’s back.

We have done our best in writing stories that relate to and empower our communities and we will continue to share your stories, because your voice matters.

Much gratitude to those who put in their hard work in making this newsmagazine what is it today. I’m greatly pleased in presenting our Fall 2014 issue.

With much love,

Kimberly Soriano

STAFF

Fernando Antunez Erika Barbero Bertha Calderon Magdalena Ceja Elena Diebel Miranda Edmonds Eduardo Garfias Hector Guevera Janeth Lopez Alma Maldonado Jocelyn Martinez Miguel Angel Martinez Roxana Martinez María Perez Mayra Perez Lam Hy Phung Michael Reyes Monica Rodriguez Juan Torres Yadira Sesmas

About the Cover The reality of state sponsored violence influences La Gente's fall cover, titled "Ursa Major." A piece by Oscar Magallanes, it represents UCLA students in solidarity with places who suffer from violent oppressions, including México where 43 students are missing. Read more on page 4, to understand the situation occuring in Ayotzinapa. This issue is dedicated to those who suffer from institualized violence due to race or political identity.

DESIGN

Michelle Martinez Madelinn Ornelas

PHOTOGRAPHERS Olivia Ramos Arrizon Robert Penna Erika Ramírez María Varela Yicela Yuera

ILLUSTRATORS Bertha Calderon Oscar Magallanes Yadira Sesmas

CONTRIBUTORS Leonso Martinez

STUDENT MEDIA DIRECTOR Arvli Ward

STUDENT MEDIA ADVISER Abigail Goldman

118 Kerckhoff Hall 308 Westwood Plaza Los Angeles, CA 90024 lagente@media.ucla.edu 310.825.9836 This magazine was made possible with the support of Generation Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress, online at: GenProgress.org 2 LA GENTE Fall 2014

Join Us! We’re always looking for bright and talented students to join our staff.

Positions are open in writing, editing, design, photography, illustration, video, business, and marketing.

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10 CONTENTS latinoamérica 4 | Ayotzinapa 101 5 | El Bordo and the Deported Ghosts of Tijuana 6 | A Terrifying Alternative to Social Media 7 | A Never-Ending Run 7 | Mexico's Recurring Violence Against Students

arte y cultura 8-9 | Latinas in Love, Japanese Style 10 | Redefining Wonder Woman

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11 | Latino Boom: The Evolution of Latino Music in L.A. 12-13 | 8 Preguntas con Lalo Alcaraz 14 | Commemorate, Do Not Appropriate 15 | Dia de los Muertos Photos

comunidad 16 | Recuperando Mi Lenguaje 17 | Not One More!: Immigrant Right For All 18 | A Movement for Reproductive Justice

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universidad

Start a conversation!

La Gente accepts outside submissions of all sorts for review and possible publication. Email lagente@media.ucla.edu with “Submission” in the subject line.

20 | Students Without Numbers

OUR MISSION:

19 | Kuruvungna Springs

21 | Diversity Referendum Fails to Pass Again 21 | Unavailable Resources for Undocumented Students

expresiones 22 | Charlatans y Curandera/os 22 | Sin deseo a una reforma 23 | I Love Lucía

La Gente Newsmagazine is for el estudiante--the student--interested in Latina/o issues. We represent the diversity of our culture and cultivate pride within our community. We’re a forum for conversation, hoping to inspire readers to get involved and get their voices heard.

Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of the La Gente editorial board.

All other columns, cartoons, and letters represent the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editorial board. The UCLA communications board has a media grievance procedure for resolving grievances against any of its media. For a copy of the complete procedure contact student media at 310.825.2787.

Copyright 2014 ASUCLA Communications Board

Fall 2014 LA GENTE 3

AYOTZINAPA 101

43 students missing because of Mexico’s corruption

PHOTO BY MICHELLE SALINAS

latinoámerica

Monica Rodriguez mrodriguez@media.ucla.edu

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olicemen and other armed men from Iguala, Guerrero stopped busloads of young student activist men leaving the city and opened fire on the unarmed bus, killing three students and three civilians. Policemen captured 43 students, still missing for more than two months. One 19-yearold student, Julio Cesar Mondragon, in terror, ran to escape the gunfire only to be found dead the next morning on the street with his eyes gouged out and the skin from his face peeled back, exposing his skull.

The young men were from the Raul Isidro Burgos Rural Teachers College of Ayotzinapa.

They were in Iguala to collect donations for school supplies and went to the Plaza de Tlatelolco near Mexico City to commemorate the killing of students at a protest that happened October 2, 1968.

On September 26, six days before the commemoration was to be held, the police force silenced the students of Ayotzinapa.

Two local policemen from Cocula, a town near Iguala, confessed to taking the students and turning them over to a criminal organization known as Guerreros Unidos. The local policemen also led the police force to nine mass grave sites outside the city that contained 30 charred bodies, which DNA testing has concluded were none of the 43 missing students. Including the two police officers who confessed, 14 Cocula policemen, 22 Iguala policemen, and 17 members of Guerreros Unidos have been arrested.

Guerreros Unidos is a drug cartel in Mexico with deep local authority connections in Iguala.

The mayor, Jose Luis Abarca, and his wife Maria de Los Angeles Pineda, head of the social welfare agency in Iguala, are connected with Guerreros Unidos. According to Mexico’s Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam, the buses of students were attacked because Mayor Abarca feared the students would interrupt a speech held by his wife Pineda. The recently arrested leader of Guerreros Unidos, Sidronio Casarrubias Salgado, funneled money to the 4 LA GENTE Fall 2014

mayor to keep the police force quiet about their drug trafficking. Four days after the attack on September 26th, Mayor Abarca and Pineda had disappeared as well as Felipe Flores Velasquez, the chief of security. On November 4th officials found and arrested Abarca and Pineda, who were hiding in Mexico City.

After news broke out about the shootings and missing students, movements across Mexico brought thousands in solidarity to protest on behalf of the students. Most notably, the march on October 8th to Chilpancingo, the capital of Guerrero, had an outcome of tens of thousands of protesters that ended with the municipal building in flames. Protesters rallied under the hopeful slogan, “Vivos se los llevaron, vivos los queremos.”

November 7th, Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam announced that the 43 students were confirmed dead according to three Guerreros Unidos members’ confessions. The three members confessed to burning the students, some dead but most of them alive at a dump site. The students were stacked on top of each other “like a grill” according to one of the members. The fire was kept going for more than 14 hours. The remains of the students were put into bags and dumped into the San Juan River where scuba divers found a trash bag with human remains. According to Murillo Karam there is no conclusion yet as to whether the remains belong to the students because of the difficulty to extract DNA from ashes.

In response to Murillo Karam’s confirmation, protesters stormed the Mexican National Palace in Mexico City, setting the front doors on fire.

Families of the 43 students still hope that

their children are alive.

Adjunct assistant professor of Latin American History at UCLA, Maria Vazquez Semadeni was informing her students of the atrocities occurring in Mexico which led students to perform a demonstration on November 12th. These student movements in the U.S.and Mexico is what will force the government to provide answers, Dr. Semadeni hopes.

“Those answers may not be the truth. Twenty and 30 years after Tlatelolco, we finally received the information of what really happened,” Dr. Semadeni said. The student killings at Tlatelolco in 1968 and the true story behind it had been hidden to the public until decades later.

On November 20th, UCLA students took a stand against the corruption and terror in Mexico.

A protest and a vigil were held on campus where participants spoke out against the violence in Mexico.

The students of Ayotzinapa were hoping to do good work, to help and protect their community from corruption through education. The students of Ayotzinapa were young men in their early 20s stopped by the corruption and greed of the cartels and the local government. The cartel has tried to erase the remains of the students, burnt to ashes and dumped into the river, but the cartel has not been able to erase the effects the 43 students had on people.

“This is not a Mexican issue. This is a humanitarian issue. I know, I understand, that the students are not the first to go missing but I demand that they will be the last,” said Dr. Semadeni.

latinoámerica PHOTO BY JUAN TORRES

EL

A N A U IJ T F O S T S O H G D E T R O P E D E H T D N A O D R O B

What happens to undocumented immigrants after their deportation Juan torres jtorres@media.ucla.edu

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fter meticulously asking questions regarding the intentions of my interview, Felipe Espinoza, an indigent deportee from the United States, refuses to respond further questions. He says he is too busy in el jale or his job, consisting of asking for money from pedestrians going through a bridge. He begs in Spanish and English to appeal to pedestrians' compassion. But they ignore him. He is a ghost to them; someone they can walk right through without giving him a sign of acknowledgment and someone who they would rather not stumble upon at night. He is one of the thousands of deportees who live in el Bordo.

El Bordo, a water channel that runs along the border of Tijuana, is also a purgatory where undocumented deportees are unable to cross back to the United States or go back to their hometown in southern Mexico. It is almost impossible for them to obtain a formal job in Tijuana because they lack Mexican or American documents, therefore becoming undocumented in their own homeland.

Before Operation Gatekeeper in 1994, a measure implemented to halt undocumented immigration through the Tijuana-San Diego border, migration was fairly easy. Now, immigrants and deportees are stuck in Tijuana with a small chance of crossing over a highly militarized border.

Espinoza's red eyes, dirty clothes, and dark brown skin give the impression that he is not only a ghost to the pedestrians on the bridge. He is also a ghost to the American and Mexican government, a social security number that does not exist, a name that was never printed on a birth certificate. I distance myself from Felipe and look around el Bordo to see other indigents having ca-

sual conversations, walking aimlessly, or injecting themselves with heroin.

Most of them work in informal jobs that pay with few packets of cigarettes, food, or doses of heroin. Some clean windshields, some beg for money, and some are lucky enough to find a consistent job in the street markets. Walking through the bridge you can hear them scream from below, "Hey! Muchacho! Hey! Tira algo pa’ comer!"

In el Bordo, I met a man with two tattooed horns in his forehead that he got in prison. He graduated from college as a computer technician, but gangs and drugs got him incarcerated. It did not take long before he was deported to Tijuana once out of prison. In Tijuana, he was arrested by the municipal police and forced into a rehabilitation center, which was basically a prison, where they were beaten if they tried to escape. They were not allowed to contact their families and the money families sent disappeared in the administrative bureaucracy of the center. I gave him my cell phone, because he wanted to call his family in Los Angeles. While I interviewed other indigents, he slowly drifts from my sights. When I look for him, he disappears with my cell phone in the burgeoning darkness of dusk.

Gloria Caballero, a pregnant indigent, tried to help me find him, but she does not hesitate to wane my hopes of finding him.

Standing at ease while smoking a cigarette I ask if its not dangerous for the child. "Yes, that is why I smoke just a little bit," said Caballero while letting me know of her plans to go to the public hospital since she was diagnosed with anemia and asthma. As I sat down, she told me how the municipal police arrested her for no reason.

“The police lifted me and left me on the floor even though I was pregnant,” Caballero said. She was taken to jail where she witnessed the police torture another indigent. “They torture them

with jumper cables.”

Other indigents recount how the police violently harass vagrants if they do not have money to give to the officers.

Efrain Gomez, a deportee, witnessed the police burning down a tent of an indigent couple.

The man managed to escape the fire but the woman was stuck in the burning fallout of the tent and was burned to death.

The night has fallen upon the city of Tijuana and a police car rushes through the bottom part of the channel. The indigents swiftly stand up.

Everyone is talking and whispering to each other.

One of the indigents says the police came because someone was assassinated in the northern part of the bridge. Minutes later, a police pickup drives near the tunnel where many indigents are hanging out. The indigents ran like a flock of birds flying away from predatory danger, crossing the dangerous freeway next to the channel to be farther away from the police. When Caballero sees the police pickup approaching, she tells me to run with her.

The next day, the stench of the sewage smells delightful, the ducks share their songs, and used syringes and trash decorate the sidewalks. A group of Christians are giving out food to indigents on the sidewalk of the channel. After the food is gone, they try to congregate the indigents into a circle to pray for Jesus Christ but only a few stay. These Christians are not the only ones trying to help people living in el Bordo.

Just across the freeway from el Bordo, you can see a bright yellow three story building called Desayunador Salesiano Padre Chava. It was founded 15 years ago by the Salesian priest Sal­ va­dor Ro­mo Gu­tié­rrez and other collaborators to feed the poor. The institution receives and feeds at least 1,200 deportees and indigents every morning. In addition to food, they also receive showers, haircuts, medical attention, clothes and phone communication with their families in the United States.

Margarita Andonaegui, a coordinator for el desayunadero explains that el Bordo is “the deep floor of the negligence of immigration.” Even though she wants to help all immigrants, drugs addiction has destroyed the ability of the institution to help many of them.

Roberto Marquez, a deportee from Los Angeles, is eating by himself in el desayudadero as he tells me about his plans to cross back to the United States.

“Toda mi familia esta alla” Roberto says.

Roberto, like many other deportees, await for the moment they have another shot in going back to their families. Nothing in Tijuana, not even the rush of heroin, can replace the memories of home.

Fall 2014 LA GENTE 5

latinoámerica

A TERRIFYING ALTERNATIVE TO SOCIAL MEDIA

Death reminds us of negative implications social media has in corrupt state BERTHA CALDERON BCALDERON@MEDIA.UCLA.EDU

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in reclaiming power over their communities.

They inform about organized crime and when and where cartels are present. Pictures of missing people are shared to aid in searches and bring community awareness to abductions. Corrupt police and individuals, often linked to cartels, are revealed and identified as a method of seeking their arrest and detention. Yet, it is nearly impossible to successfully enforce a justice system

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ocial media is ideally thought as a liberating tool for communication through news and other forms of expression. An oppressive mechanism for instilling fear in order to fuel extortion and absolute control over a population is not something that comes to mind. October 16th, unveiled a tragic and terrifying alternative to the freedom social media had represented for society.

Maria del Rosario Fuentes Rubio, a doctor in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico, had her death tweeted on her undercover page “Muit 3.” Fuentes Rubio worked in her local hospital, where she witnessed the foul crimes against humanity in the patients she treated, frequently at the brink of death due to local organized crime. Her profession gave her a tunnel into organized crime.

She was an activist, and a citizen journalist, or narco-blogger, secretly tracking and sharing organized crime in Reynosa, Tamaulipas with her 41+ thousand followers.

She administered the account “Muit 3” in disguise to protect her identity from any harm that could come her way until she was identified, kidnapped, and killed by a cartel who had previously threatened her to stop publicizing criminal information.

What happened to Maria Del Rosario Fuentes Rubio intimidated people across the country. Pictures of Fuentes Rubio before and after her execution were posted on her twitter page along with what appeared to be a personal apology to her friends and family. The apology implied regret for her humanitarian work as a narco-blogger, though it is important to keep in mind that her kidnappers most likely cunningly distorted any message to their linking in order to intimidate her followers and discourage activism.

Similar pages were quickly deactivated by their administrators, and other bloggers and undercover pages refrained from posting for a while out of fear.

Reynosa, Tamaulipas is a high crime and corruption city lacking a legitimate form of journalism. Cartels have either bought off media outlets or the media simply down plays coverage out of fear. With corrupt police and an absent justice system, there is a tremendous lack of trust among residents. Citizens are increasingly turning to social media to protect and represent themselves.

Despite hiding behind anonymous social media accounts, this has become a huge risk for people.

Anonymous accounts are crucial for the people

It is incredibly hard to explain the situation that is taking place in Mexico to anyone who is not already informed; it’s hard to make sense of the circumstances. The endless violence that continues to infiltrate a government with such a vibrant reputation for tourism and which neighbors the U.S., is disheartening. There is a lack of safety in free speech and insolent entanglement between the government and organized crime. Social media, which is meant to be useful and liberating weapon of the masses, is used against the people speaking truth and encouraging accountability in a dysfunctional government that is unable to provide tired citizens.

A professional and alumni from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Ricardo Calderon was a student that endured the institutional attacks on students of 1968. His exasperation for what is occurring in the entire country is blatant and what has taken place is yet to be resolved.

“La situación en México no ha mejorado desde que yo era un estudiante. Los medios sociales han ayudado a crear más posibilidades de contar y enterarse de los abusos del gobierno o delincuentes. Pero el temor de la población sigue existiendo porque la policía sigue siendo represora, sigue extorsionando a los individuos y nada de esto permite que se haga justicial,” he says.

When I asked him if fear or vigilance ever crossed his mind when dealing with social media, he said it had begun to.

It is terrifying to think of social media as something that can lead to death. It is impossible to live in peace with such unrest, wondering who is an ally and who is an enemy working with organized crime. It is also necessary to keep the current explosive movement towards accountability in Mexico alive to prevent another 40 years of injustice and a distant revolution free of today’s culpability. It is necessary to collaborate on ways to keep the movement and the people alive and strong. One must be strategic in reclaiming the freedom to organize and use the power that social media provides.

The story of Maria del Rosario Fuentes Rubio is one of tragedy, but it is also one of resistance. It is a story of defiance, and rejection towards unjustified atrocities against humanity. There has yet to be justice for her disappearance. Her body has not been found, like those of the 43 normalistas from Iguala, Guerrero, like those of students from the attacks in 1968, like the thousands who were prey to greed and corruption; they are all open wounds reminding the community that there is eternal unrest and starvation for integrity.

with corrupt public officials. Lately, activists are not the only ones creating anonymous accounts.

Crooked police, civilians, and cartels also hide behind anonymity. Accounts managed by such unscrupulous individuals are used to divert the community from reality. They serve as a form of control and threaten anyone who exposes crime or does not accept the oppressive system.

With the use of technology and social media as a weapon, as well as the continual absurdity of the government, enough political activism has potential to spark change. But with threats and attacks meant to silence good, innocent people, it takes pronounced unity to empower individuals enough to recover and revolutionize in order to overcome and re-institutionalize a nation in their favor.

latinoámerica

A NEVER-ENDING RUN

Salvadoran citizens continue to experience turmoil

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HECTOR guevara Hguevara@MEDIA.UCLA.EDU

n 1980, El Salvador experienced a civil war that resulted in a plethora of immigrants migrating to the United States and other countries such as Italy and Australia. In 2000, the U.S. census reported an increase of migrating Salvadorans from 45,000 between 1970 and 1974 to 334,000 from 1985 to 1990. In total the 12-year civil war resulted in the death of 75,000 people. The war between the Salvadoran government and the left-wing group was predominantly composed of guerillas, which included inexperienced civilians who developed resentment and took up arms against their own government. El Salvador is one of the most densely populated countries in Central America. It accounts for a total of 6.1 million constituents, who are confronted with deplorable conditions such as lowemployment, low-literacy rates, and most notoriously-- a high crime rate by local gangs -- which has escalated through past years.

After more than a decade of warfare, an agreement between the government and the left-wing group named the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) came to accordance with the Chapultepec Peace accords, which ceased fire between both opposing parties. Despite the peace accords and agreements between the FMLN and the Salvadoran government, there is still a significant amount of Salvadorans migrating to the U.S. In fact, about one-fifth of all Salvadorans reside in the U.S. Post-civil war for El Salvador continued to encompass some of the char-

acteristics that they endured during the decade-long war. Today, there is a new cause for the civil unrest in El Salvador, which incorporates the high level of gang violence. At least 60,000 civilians are interconnected with gangs--most of the individuals under their 20s, accounting for almost 1% of El Salvador’s population.

The two predominant gangs that gravitate in El Salvador are the Mara Salvatrucha 13 and Barrio 18, which are the head-rivals in the country. The fight between the two gangs and other small gangs led to a fear among Salvadorans that caused many to flee, like they did during the civil war.

Since 2013, Salvadoran police have classified 2,100 people as missing.

An article published by the Los Angeles Times accounted the narrative of Salvadoran immigrants, such as Arminda and Yesenia, who explain the fear they undergo in El Salvador. Salvadoran parents fear for their children being victims of gangs’ brutal death among young adults.

“This is something that no parent wants their kid to go through,” Arminda explains.

Yesenia is another Salvadoran who shares similar fears for her children and how her migration to the United States is to “get away from the place where gangs kill people and chop them up.”

In a recent report the U.N. Refugee Agency declared that in 2012, about 130,000 Salvadorans relocated on terms of insecurity. In the beginning of 2014, there were constant reports of homicides that average out to about 11 people per day. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report, the “homicide rate in El Salvador last year reached 41.2 per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the highest in the world.” The LPG (Survey Institute in El Salvador) reported that 30% of their civilians wish to flee from El Salvador due to insecurity reasons, making it one of the leading causes following the desire for economic improvement.

El Salvador continues to experience a vast amount of their citizens migrating to other countries because of the unsustainable social environment.

The continual increase in gang violence and increasing homicide rates left Salvadoran civilians in uncomfortable positions, which ultimately led them to flee El Salvador in pursuit of safety.

MÉXICO’S RECURRING VIOLENCE AGAINST STUDENTS FROM TLATELOLCO TO AYOTZINAPA Eduardo Garfias egarfias@media.ucla.edu

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eptember 26th is not a far cry from October 2nd, the anniversary of the Tlatelolco massacre. A horrid event, which occurred over 40 years ago, can make anyone believe progress was needed more than ever. Progress that is justice, equality and the good of humanity.

The killing of more than 100 students and civilians in October of 1968 is anything but a fading memory in the minds of the people. Corruption and fear has swarmed Mexico, into a run down destination for selfish politicians and power hungry drug lords. The high price of political imperialism is clearer now than ever before, the well being of, not only students, but of the community.

Students and parents around the neighboring communities in the state of Guerrero have taken to streets in protest of the State of Guerrero’s failure to keep the public up to date and their limited efforts in solving this crime.

These recent events are repetitive in that people of the country are beginning to take more

notice and more action against the injustices. This wrongdoing is establishing a precedent for further action against crimes that any government commits or attempts to cover up. The chants of the demonstrations in 1968, “We don’t want Olympic games, we want a revolution!” gave hope of a student uprising, or a political awakening for the bureaucrats and their biased method of hiring teachers and limiting education. This is the center point for the latest protests, aside from the missing students. They were studying to be teachers hired on merit and not relying on the growing bureaucracy in Mexico that affects the education of millions of children.

The general public has declared the country unfit to keep the social contract promised to the people. Calls for Enrique Peña Nieto’s resignation from the Presidential Office of México fill the streets. Especially after his administration failed to recognize the ongoing revolution.

Just like in 1968, other countries are standing with the general public in México in their fight against the corruption. In Los Angeles, support was seen in a march to the Mexican Consulate to show dissatisfaction with the Mexican govern-

ment. As students lead the beginning of this movement for Ayotzinapa, there clear connections between the beginnings of the movement back in the 1960’s, in an effort to hold leaders accountable.

To a certain extent, there is an ambience of fear. In an interview with a third year business administration student attending National Autonomous University of México, she spoke about fear of protesting because of the nation’s history of violence.

“If we allow our government to get away with this, the killing will never end. History repeats itself. We have seen that there is always on going violence against students taking a stance. In the 1960’s, there was Tlatelolco. It hurts me as a Mexican that our leaders will get away with this,” she says.

The ongoing movement in México has support from all over the globe. Universities all over the U. S. have taken into account that the safety of students need to be a priority and that education, justice, and equality cannot be compromised. Tlatelolco, continues to haunt many in México, yet the massacre does not deter the students from standing against an oppressive government.

Fall 2014 LA GENTE 7

arte y cultura

LATINAS IN LOVE, JAPANESE STYLE

Japanese dating simulation games are the interactive versions of Latino telenovelas MARIA PEREZ MPEREZ@MEDIA.UCLA.EDU

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assionate love affairs are things of telenovelas. Such things rarely happen in actual day-to-day life. Nevertheless, Latinas are drawn to them like moths to a light, finding the inner romantic enraptured in the images of ardent love, unreciprocated feelings, familial miscomprehension, and straggling loyalties. These images may not be real, but they provide entertainment and a form of escape from daily life.

Telenovelas are so deeply ingrained within Latino culture that they achieved pop culture status all around the world. This does not mean that they are completely unique in their own right, as there are variations of the same telenovela plot depending on the country that produces it; it may come from Mexico, Colombia, or Argentina. There are also American, Australian, and Korean soap operas, so telenovelas are not specific to just any one place.

It should come as no wonder, then, that as technology has advanced, so has the concept of the telenovela further developed.

In the last year and a half or so, Japanese dating simulation games called otome (Japanese for “maiden”), are in the process of translation and making their way into the American market through platforms such as the Apple's App Store and Android’s Play Store. Some of the most known companies that produce these games are Voltage Inc., Solmare, and Koyonplete, Inc. They primarily target a female market, as the goal of these games is for the female player to pursue one of the several bachelors of the game through a story that depicts how they fall in love.

If you ever been one of those women who desired to escape into the world of a telenovela, this is as close as it gets. For the price of $3.99 (sometimes even less), you may take on the role of the main character in an otome game and make your own decisions within a virtual romance novel. The games are structured to be interactive, with several situations where the player is given multiple options to choose from. Each of these options develops the love story in a different way and thus requires diligence in deciphering which answer will deliver the best result and cosequently the happiest ending with the man of their choice. A majority of otome players enjoy the feeling of being in control of how the story develops.

Even though otome games draw from many of the same tropes from telenovelas (such as over-dramatic plot techniques and love triangles), their format also provides more flexibility than a telenovela ever possibly can.

Telenovelas are limited by the fact that they do not have as big enough budget for special effects and by their reliance on homogenous “European-looking” actors, but otomes games are not held back by this. This allows them to have a variety of settings, from slice-of-life stories to more action based and fantasy-inclined plots. Drawn in the typically Japanese anime style, settings range from the open sea when you are captured by pirates, a PD office where you are a detective in Tokyo’s 2nd unit, a castle where you are swept off your feet by a prince, or an editorial office where you are continuously placed in charge of celebrities’ profiles. Furthermore, even when one believes these games focus on characters with Japanese physical characteristics, as they gain more popularity internationally, companies are introducing more racially diverse characters, the most recent being an Egyptian prince. The success this 8 LA GENTE Fall 2014

character achieved has prompted surveys asking players if they are interested in a wider variety of racially diverse characters. Players who admit that they were initially drawn by the art style of the games, also show excitement in the upcoming developments the companies are considering in providing broader options to their growing audiences.

Regardless of the flexibility they are afforded, otome games do tend to overuse the same character tropes.

“Lately I have noticed that they tend to use the same kind of guy. You’re always going to find the tsundere (mean/teasing character), you’re always going to find the sadist, you’re always going to find the shota (younger, cuter character),” says Amy Lozano, leading figure in the Tumblr otome fandom.

“Why would I play this character again? But some of the newer stories have intriguing set-ups. And even though some of the characters share the same traits, they also have very interesting storylines.”

Players realize that the same elements are being used repeatedly, but small tweaks in the stories and the characters themselves as well as strong character development are enough to keep a player’s interest piqued.

Even though these games deal with romance and attractive leads, how do Latina players get over the cultural barrier? Lozano is quick to point out that Latino and Japanese cultures are not as dissimilar as many may believe.

arte y cultura “There’s a certain spiritual aspect in both cultures. Specially in Mexican culture, there’s the whole santeria and Indian kind of spirituality that goes along with Catholicism. There’s a sort of spiritualism that is not part of the structured environment. And Japanese religion does that,” says Lozano.

She relates this to one of the games, Enchanted in the Moonlight, which focuses on supernatural beings.

“Ayakashi (Japanese for “demon”) are that. There’s this overall Buddhism, but ayakashi are specific spirits for specific things. I see that little parallel where we have our little saints and they have their little spirits,” she says. “We have Día de los Muertos and Japanese also value their ancestors.

Both value their families. Both cultures are very traditional.”

She turns to both cultures’ tendency for gender-defined roles, where “the man takes care of the woman,” she adds. It turns out that underneath it all, there is an exceptional amount of similarities between the two cultures that many failed to see before. Indeed, many of these elements are frequently present in telenovelas and otome games.

For those who have played, otome games go beyond a simple love story.

They provide a player with the opportunity to live out a different adventure each time, one that promises the vestiges of love to blossom and inspire the romantic within them.

“Imagine your favorite romance novel or movie, but you actually get to be in it. You see a movie and you see Bradley Cooper romancing Sandra Bullock. Guess what? In this game, you get to be Sandra Bullock. Bradley Cooper will call you by your name and he will fall in love with you,” says Lozano. “He will send you dorky emails, dorky texts, and as you’re playing this game, guess what? Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, and all the other guys in the game also like you and you get to be with them. It’s a different interactive experience than your normal romance novel written about someone else. You actually get to be the protagonist, the star, and you get to make the choices that affect the outcomes.”

Will a telenovela ever be able to offer you all this? Probably not.

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Fall 2014 LA GENTE 9

REDEFINING WONDER WOMAN

Latina Artist Universalizes and Deconstructs a U.S. Icon

Elena diebel EDIEBEL@MEDIA.UCLA.EDU

W

onder Woman is considered to be one of the most badass ladies in pop culture, representing women in the comic’s world since 1941.

Decked out with her bulletproof bracelets, a boomerang acting tiara, earrings that allow her to breathe in outer space, and her famous Lasso of Truth, she is considered one of the first feminist icons in pop culture. Yet, despite all her philanthropic deeds and feminist ideals, Wonder Woman is by no means a universal woman.

“It’s fabulous because she was working for justice and she had her Lasso of Truth and in a feminism way, an iconic figure, but I still cannot identify as her,” says Awilda Rodríguez Lora, a performance artist whose most current work called, Proyecto: La Mujer Maravilla, aims to challenge the ingrained generic image of Wonder Woman and in turn celebrate women in a more universal view.

The title of the project is not called Wonder Woman because she says, “It’s La Mujer Maravilla, it’s in Español, it’s Latino. Where is La Mujer Maravilla for us?”

Much of Rodríguez Lora’s work revolves around her womanhood and sexuality as a queer Latina. But even the words, queer and Latina, are labels that are limiting.

“I can call myself a queer Latina performance artist but that’s in context U.S.A., you know, United States. In context of other parts of the world, in Puerto Rico, in Spanish, makes you really shift those things and [how] you define yourself,” she says. “In the United States you might say queer Latina performance artist… but in Puerto Rico, in Spanish, it would just be ‘artista,’ ‘performera.’ Creo que mi, my nationality becomes important so saying I’m Puerto Rican… so say I’m Puerto Rican,” she laughs.

Identity is a complex topic for Rodríguez Lora and it manifests itself in different and intriguing ways in all her pieces. Whether addressing the ideals of beauty through a beauty pageant with physical fights or claiming sexuality through female masturbation, Rodríguez Lora is constantly exploring what it means to be a woman.

“How do we create a solidarity network of women artists that can share a passion in deconstructing what is to be or not to be a woman? And what does that mean?” Rodríguez Lora asks herself in regards to La Mujer Maravilla.

The project consists of multiple sites that the artist will go to and create a space in which she will interact with the women who enter it. To prepare for these interactions Rodríguez Lora is holding workshops.

“Women come into the space—men are coming into the space too—and learning the vocabulary of the movement that I’m generating from this piece because my background is from dance, so I use a lot of dance and the bodywork is very, very important. Those workshops are starting to be these things we’re sharing and having conversations about.”

For La Mujer Maravilla, Rodríguez Lora conducts exploraciónes where she creates an intervention with the site she visits, exploring the space with her body. Her fifth exploración for the project was in Puerto Rico in La Plaza en Honor de la Mujer Puertorriqueña.

She describes the plaza as being an empty space, without any defining monuments or structures.

“I’m inviting women to come into the space and do whatever they want pretty much. Just create their own monuments,” she said. “You want to read a book or read a poem, you want to lay down and sunbathe, you want to 10 LA GENTE Fall 2014

Photo by Dr. Kortney Ryan Ziegler

arte y cultura

Rodríguez Lora performing La Tortillera

lactate your son or daughter or you want to have a conversation or ask questions or put a beautiful gown on, it doesn’t matter. I just want the visibility of these contemporary women in the space.”

Although she is conducting these exploraciónes, she says “I don’t want to be the director. I want the things to really happen organically. Even though it’s my project…I’m trying not to make it my own and I’m having that difficulty.”

The work simultaneously comments on exploring the nature of performance.

“I sometimes feel this very powerful role the performer has. Sometimes the performer gets on stage and everybody has to look. Nobody comes in unless the performer gives you permission. It becomes this weird thing, you have this superpower of ‘the performer’… Maybe there’s some real fears happening there and there’s some real pain that I don’t want them [the audience] to go through. How do you humanize the performer?”

For La Mujer Maravilla Rodríguez Lora must contend with this situation in a different way than the rest of her pieces. This is first time she is collaborating with other women. It is not so much about the audience watching her, but rather the interaction that she will be having with these women who will come into this space.

“I pretty much just follow my gut and I have to be in the studio a lot by myself…it’s really movement based,” she says.

Although La Mujer Maravilla revolves around intuitive actions, it took research as well.

“I read a lot. I like to research, I like to soak myself into the words and letters of people that I’ve thought about, themes that I’m working on. Right now with La Mujer Maravilla, I’m reading a lot about feminism with differing points of view: from Bell Hooks, Gloria Steinem, Mujeres que con los Lobos, Latin American literature. But now I’m actually at a point that I’m going to stop reading and I want to be back into my body.”

Through all these exploraciones and interventions and interactions that make up La Mujer Maravilla, Rodríguez Lora attempts to break down the conventions of womanhood and femininity in hopes that one day, when one Googles La Mujer Maravilla “all kinds of women are going to show up.”

Try it in a year. Maybe Lynda Carter will not be the only Wonder Woman popping up in Google images anymore.

LATINO BOOM: THE EVOLUTION OF LATINO MUSIC IN L.A.

arte y cultura

Interview with José Cano of Las Cafeteras

Erika Barbero ebarbero@media.ucla.edu

L

What were the demographics like? Were they mostly older folks?

Younger?

José:“It depends on the place. From the audiences that have heard us before, there are Latino folks, but it’s not just Latino folks. It ranges pretty widely in age. There are some festivals where we played and there were a lot of white folks. It always ranges.”

What was the music scene like for you personally or for you all when you were starting out?

José:“I don’t know. It’s kind of hard for me to gauge how much it’s grown. The only area I know of is here in LA. When I came [to LA] in 2001, there were really good bands that would play on a regular basis, like Quetzal, Ozomatli, Aztlán Underground, and there was a lot of hip-hop.

There were like, twenty bands playing on a regular basis. I think the music scene is always changing.”

By

Pi

ero

G

iu

nt

i

What do you think of the expansion of Latino Music? Obviously it’s not just your band. It’s more like a group of you. It’s Las Cafeteras, La Santa Cecilia, Chicano Batman.

José:“I guess we have expanded. We are going to Canada again in February. Yeah, it’s an international audience but definitely national. It’s funny, I was just talking to someone about this yesterday, about how there’s a certain branch of Latino Music that is definitely growing. Nacionál Records, they are the biggest label for Latino-Indie bands. They have Manu Chao, Anita

P

Tijoux, Callé 13, I think they have Café Tacvba. They have a lot of bands so they are interested in the scene. Universal Music has their own music label and they opened up Universal Latino, and Universal Latino is the label for a lot of the bands we are talking about. There are expanding audiences not in México, but it is here, it is Brown Folks. Kind of like almost a Chicano [sic] scene. It is definitely growing and becoming more present.”

h ot os

os Angeles has become the mecca of all things Latino. Not only do we have the largest population of Latino people, we also have one of the best music scenes. Los Angeles is the place to be to celebrate the work of both local groups and Latin American musicians. As a result, many companies are catching on to the latest trend. There is a spike of Latino companies that vend products that represent Chicana/o and Latina/o identity. Golden Voice’s recent music festival Supersonico was the latest success to reflect the popularity of Latino artists in Los Angeles. Dubbed the ‘Latino Coachella’ after the event, the company who sponsors the event already began the planning process for the next two years. Local bands like Grammy-winner La Santa Cecilia, Chicano Batman and Las Cafeteras are also reaping the benefits of fame that allowed them to become nationally and internationally recognized for their work. They are considered the voice for L.A.’s activist and Chicana/o identity with songs that speak to the souls of their many fans.

I had the opportunity to catch up with Las Cafeteras’ percussionist, José Cano, to discuss the latest music movement. He and the band recently returned from the two month Gone ‘til November Tour, in the East Coast and the South. I asked him a series of questions regarding the latest popularity of the Latino music scene.

Would you say it’s something to be welcomed or to be cautious about?

I know some folks are very protective of what’s coming up and they don’t want it to be exploited. What do you personally think it is?

José:“Is it good? Is it bad? I don’t know what you would call it. I think Latino art, or whenever art is promoted and reaches more people, I think that’s always a good thing. There is definitely not enough art in the lives of young people. There are not enough artistic outlets.”

The evolution of Los Angeles’ music scene remains unique. Combinations of traditional instruments, modern sounds, and lyrics allow audiences to vocalize what they are thinking and feeling. Social media also contributes greatly to the expansion of Latino music because of its accessibility and ability to share music quickly. With that, the scene is constantly changing to bring awareness to the arts in urban areas and inspire others.

Fall 2014 LA GENTE 11

12 LA GENTE Fall 2014

Fall 2014 LA GENTE 13

arte y cultura

COMMEMORATE, DO NOT APPROPRIATE Significance behind Dia de los Muertos and importance of being aware Magdalena Ceja mceja@media.ucla.edu

set up in homes or communities in honor of those who have died. The altars are filled with sweets, flowers, photos, and anything else those being remembered enjoyed in their life on Earth. Sugar skulls are decorated in multiple bright colors and placed on the altars to signify the sweetness of life even through death. The colorful skulls and skeletons found in decorations or painted on the faces of people are also more than a fad. They represent the mortality of people while acknowledging the

P

eople from all around Latinoamérica adorn their homes and neighborhoods with beautiful colors, flowers, sweets, and altars when October comes to an end. On November 1st and 2nd friends, families, and the community gather to commemorate the lives of their loved ones who have passed on from this world. Día de los Muertos focuses on honoring the dead and recognizing death as a beautiful yet inevitable part of life.

While the celebration has gained a lot of recognition in recent years from many people of other backgrounds and cultures, it is important for folks to learn at least some of the history as well as the significance of the holiday before trying to appropriate it.

Born of a mestizaje or cultural mixing of indigenous and Catholic rituals, Día de los Muertos was originally about a month long ceremony held by the Aztecs that took place during the corn harvest season to honor Mictecacihuatl, the goddess of death, as well as all the children and adults who have gone with her.

Rather than fear death, the Aztecs saw death as a continuance of life, but on another level of existence. When the Spaniards conquered the Aztecs in 1521, they brought with them Catholicism and the holidays and practices that come with it.

While the Catholic priests believed the ceremony was sacrilegious and tried to fully convert the people of the land, the indigenous people fought back to hold onto their culture and traditions, resulting in a kind of compromise.

When the time came to celebrate the dead, rather than have it during the month of the corn harvest in August, the festivities were now to take place on Catholic holidays focused on prayer for saints and souls: All Saints Day on November 1st and All Souls Day on November 2nd. On November 1st it is said that the spirits of all the children who passed away return to the world of the living to join in the celebration and are then joined by all the other dead on November 2nd.

For a holiday full of skulls, skeletons, and death, the traditions of Día de los Muertos are meant to provide a positive look on the cycle of life. Although the holiday is a day dedicated to the dead, the celebrations are anything but somber or melancholy. Beautiful, colorful altars are 14 LA GENTE Fall 2014

ILLUSTRATION BY YADIRA SESMAS

beauty of it. Some communities gather in their neighborhoods with music and food and invite everyone to honor the dead together.

Delia Aguirra, a Los Angeles resident, says she celebrates Día de los Muertos by attending a community event like the one that took place this past Día de los Muertos, hosted by Self Help Graphics & Art in Boyle Heights, and by setting up altars in her home for her deceased family members and friends.

When asked if she felt Día de los Muertos was an important holiday, Aguirra responded, “Yes, because it keeps our culture alive. I think it is important for this generation and generations to come to embrace it.”

Although the holiday originated in Mexico, it is celebrated all across Latinoamérica as well as by the Catholic faith, including regions in Guatemala, Brazil, Spain, Italy, and in Mexican and Chicano communities in the U.S. But recently,

Día de los Muertos has caught the attention of commercial media and entertainment.

Last year, there was uproar from the U.S. Latino community over an attempt from Disney to trademark the phrase “Día de los Muertos” for its own commercial purposes. Since the pushback from Latinos, Disney has not made any more attempts to trademark the phrase. However, it has not stopped other businesses from using the holiday’s name for its own purposes. The popular rave, HARD Day of the Dead, has used the name for the past four years while never sharing on their site any information on the significance of the holiday. The closest thing they have in relation to the holiday besides the name is an Aztec pyramid used as their promoting symbol.

Knowledge is power, and to educate oneself on another culture’s traditions before practicing them is important in creating multicultural connections. Without these connections, it becomes easier for any culture to be appropriated to fit preconceived ideas or to be used for commercial purposes.

Although the film The Book of Life, released earlier this year, tried to provide some insight on the holiday, while I was watching the film I felt like the film was not intended for Latinos or people who knew of the tradition, but for those of other cultures curious about the painted calavera faces on people. While the film did have a few moments targeted at the Latino audience, such as phrases in Spanish and Latino voice actors, it was mostly an idealization of the Mexican culture that supported a lot of the stereotypes the Latino culture has tried to combat in the hegemonic society of the U.S. While Día de los Muertos is a holiday meant to be celebrated with music, happiness, and loved ones, it is more than a party. Día de los Muertos is a significant holiday for any who have lost someone they want to remember, and therefore it should be treated as those who have passed are treated: with respect, dignity, and love.

Día de Los Muertos Photos

By Olivia Ramos Arrizon, Robert Penna, Erika Ramírez, and Yicela Yuera

For this issue, the photographers covered different Día de Los Muertos celebrations held in Los Angeles. Visit LaGente.org for the full galleries of each event!

arte y cultura

Fall 2014 LA GENTE 15

RECUPERANDO MI LENGUAJE

Embracing language, Embracing Culture

ILLUSTRATION BY YADIRA SESMAS

comunidad

Jocelyn Martinez jmartinez@media.ucla.edu

I

nitially banned from engaging in Spanish conversation in her first grade classroom, second year English and Environmental Studies double major Jazmin Perez believes “No Spanish” rules prompt cultural shame and assimilation.

At the age of 10, during a Spanish conversation with a classmate, Perez was reprimanded by her teacher. Perez recounts that her teacher became irrationally angry, accusing her of "belittling" her classmate. "She said I was a part of the problem," Perez says. "She blamed me for looking down on [my classmates] because I spoke Spanish to them. She assumed I believed they couldn't understand English.”

This is linguistic terrorism.

Linguistic terrorism is the act of shaming individuals for the languages they speak. As discussed in Gloria Anzaldua's Borderlands/ La Frontera: The New Mestiza, linguistic terrorism creates an irrational social hierarchy, ultimately placing greater value on some languages over others. This proves to be an arbitrary act because to assign value to language is to assign value to culture, identity, history, and struggle.

During a class discussion, a Chicana student sorrowfully expressed that “English grants people credibility” in the United States. Unfortunately, this is the experience of most minority, nonEnglish speaking communities. Although the U. S. does not have a national language at the federal level, too often are minority communities terrorized with the phrase, “This is America! Speak English!” or even “Speak English or get out!” Too often are these micro aggressions internalized by immigrant communities as they begin to realize that their native tongues, and therefore their

shame someone “To because they don’t

speak English, or because they speak it with an accent, is an act of violence that works to silence.”

16 LA GENTE Fall 2014

cultures and identities, are deemed inferior.

This, too, is linguistic imperialism.

Officially defined as “the transfer of a dominant language to other people,” the transfer characteristic of linguistic imperialism “is essentially a demonstration of power.” Within the Latino community, this colonialist practice is embedded via oppressive policies within ESL classrooms.

“No Spanish” rules are often ever present constants in elementary school classrooms. As an ESL student through third grade, linguistic imperialism made me feel ashamed of my Latino heritage.

After being reprimanded for speaking my native language, my teacher continued to explain to me in front of my classmates that I had a very limited grasp of the English language. Embarrassed, I ceased speaking Spanish at school and, eventually, within my home and among my family. Now, I feel as though I can barely communicate with my abuelita, tíos, y tías, most of whom solely speak Spanish.

Language is beautiful because it allows individuals to express their ideas, to communicate and connect with one another. To shame someone because they don’t speak English, or because they speak it with an accent, is an act of violence that works to silence.

Such is the experience of Anakaren Andrade, a second year life science student. Unlike Perez, Andrade's experiences involve family. After being constantly scrutinized by her uncle for the way she spoke Spanish, Andrade felt silenced. "Whenever I'm around my relatives, I try not to speak if I'm unsure of my words. Now I'm more cautious when I speak Spanish," said Andrade.

Andrade’s experience works to remind us that linguistic terrorism is a two-way street. Tragically, people who speak the same languages terrorize each other as well. Spanglish is deemed inferior to the proper castellano and other lenguas españolas.

However, both are of little value because English is supreme.

So, what should I, a second generation Latina, speak? Si hablo español, corro el riesgo de sonar agringada. If I unwaveringly speak English, I’ve lost a major part of my culture. This is the hyper consciousness of language.

Hyper consciousness is a burden much too familiar to the Latino community: scrutinized for Spanish accents and improper English, scrutinized for lacking the Spanish accent and for speaking too gringo. ¿Entonces, cuál es la solución?

End linguistic terrorism. Embrace language.

Embrace difference.

Catalina Rico, originally from Bolivia and now principal of the bilingual Cesar Chavez Elementary School in the city of San Francisco, believes in nurturing native languages while working to build English skills.

Emigrating from Bolivia at the age of three, Rico learned to speak English in the United States. “As I started to learn English, it was like I began to hear. Before that, it was almost like I was deaf,” said Rico. Acknowledging the power of language, Rico believes native languages and English should work together to build communication skills rather than working in opposition. This will help foster skills and cultural pride because, ultimately, language is the power of culture.

NOT ONE MORE!: IMMIGRANT RIGHTS FOR ALL

Connecting with the L.A. community to advocate for all immigrants safety janeth lopez jlopez@media.ucle.edu

D

etention Centers are institutional facilities that hold undocumented immigrants or foreign refugees for unknown periods of time, to wait for their court date. But many with undocumented family members, friends or many who themselves are undocumented, Detention Centers are a place that destroys and separates communities.

Under Obama’s administration, 2 million undocumented immigrants have been deported and the number is increasing, these are more deportations than all past presidents combined. This has won him the title of Deporter in Chief by many people in the immigrant community. Despite tremendous hardships due to criminalization of immigrants, immigrant rights advocates have created spaces of solidarity and resistance. A recent series of concerts organized by National Day Labor Organizing Network and Immigrant Youth Coalition called Chant Down the Walls now turns detention centers into a place of hope and support to let the detainees know they are not forgotten and the community is there to support them and other detainees. The concert series happens outside Metropolitan Detention Center at 5pm every Monday until further notice from the organizers.

With recent events like Obama’s announcement to expand deferred action program to parents of US Citizens, it is easy to fall in the trap that immigration issues in the U.S. are progressing, but sadly that is not the reality. The executive order is known as Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA). It allows undocumented immigrant parents of children who are U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents to apply for temporary permission to reside and work in the country and be free of the fear of deportations.

Because DAPA is an executive order, it can be revoked by whoever assumes the US Presidency in 2016 or by President Obama himself.

Although this executive order is relieving to parents who held the fear of family deportation for too long, the root of the problem is that our communities are constantly criminalized simply for having an ‘illegal’ status over having documentations to this country, DAPA is a band aid solution.

Citizenship for every undocumented immigrant in the U.S. does not mean immigrant rights will be granted because as long as quotas for detention centers and prisons exist, people will continue migrating and continue getting

deported. For as long as any migrant is vulnerable to deportation, they will worry about their safety.

Trust Act violations are occurring and DACA eligible youth continue to get deported. A number of organizations and grassroots collectives are working hard to connect criminalization of people of color, detention centers and deportations of millions of people as an intersectional issue that needs to be challenged.

“Organizations that are not working to stop all deportations are disconnected from the community,” Jonathan Perez, from LA Immigrant Youth Coalition, said when asked about other organizations that advocate exclusivly for certain immigrants.

Unfortunately, some immigrant rights organizations do not make the connections of criminalization of working class and people of color to deportations due to the ‘good vs bad’ immigrant binary. The word Dreamer was coined by legislators who wanted to sympathize over college eligible youth and deem them as the ‘deserving’ immigrants over immigrants who are not college eligible. This creates the division on why some organizations continue to only advocate for some immigrants over all immigrants. This immigrant binary is pleasing to people because it seems like only the “good” immigrant has realistic demands for citizenship. Policy makers and legislators equate dreamers to willful members of a capitalist society that will go to college and build up the economy and look at those who don’t make it into the university institutions as undeserving members of society.

“It's a little worrisome when organizations use rhetoric like good immigrant versus bad immigrant… Issues are affecting people on all grounds and we need to move forward together.” says Edna Monroy from California Immigrant Youth Justice Alliance.

Events like Chant Down the Walls allows people to be on the ground meeting with organizers and community members who constantly help stop deportations and humanize the issue of deportations. When we think of people who are locked up, we are socialized to believe that they are incarcerated and taken away because they are bad people, in particular this concert series provides a space for community members to sing and dance for the detained immigrants as they wave from inside their small windows in the cells.

“They (the detainees) are the ones we need

PHOTO BY LA IMMIGRANT YOUTH COALITION

comunidad

to organize with most because they are directly impacted,” says Perez.

UCLA students should be very concerned with the detention center to deportation track that many immigrants fall in because it is one that criminalizes a lot of Black and Brown immigrants. As UCLA students we need to recognize the impact we can commit by returning to our communities. “People at UCLA... need to spent time outside with the community because institutions are where research is conducted, and policy is informed by that research, and I think that unless you actually see or experience it, then your research means nothing to us,” says Perez. “There’s that disconnection and the need to check your privilege. Not all of us make it this far and even those that make it, theres a role that can be played to support grassroots organizers and advocate for real change not just band aid solutions.”

Currently immigrant organizations in Los Angeles have formed a coalition called ICE out of L.A. with the goals to end local affiliations with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement and stop deportations. UCLA’s student organization, IDEAS (Improving Dreams, Equality, Access, and Success) is an affiliate of the ICE out of L.A. Coalition and are working to get students to become more active in immigrant community issues. #Not1More, a national campaign to end ALL deportations, really means NOT ONE MORE. Fall 2014 LA GENTE 17

A MOVEMENT FOR REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE O YADIRA SESMAS YSESMAS@MEDIA.UCLA.EDU

ver the past decade the U.S government has made a strong and continuous attack on women’s reproductive rights as 200 statewide restrictions on access to abortion and contraception have passed in only three years.

These are 200 restrictions that remind women that their experiences and decisions over her own body are not valued. That reminds us that the war on women is very much alive.

Dozens of clinics have closed such as in the state of Texas where only seven clinics remain open. Women who perform self-abortions or have miscarriages can be sent to prison as states like Colorado attempt to pass personhood laws. Women face stigma and humiliation as the anti-abortion side harasses doctors and pressures women into forced pregnancy. And when it comes to women of color, the attack on reproductive health hits home.

Restrictions in reproductive health affect our hermanas at disproportionate levels since Latinas and Black women have a higher amount of undesired and teenage pregnancies. A large majority of them also come from low income backgrounds that make access to affordable treatments extremely difficult. This means that for our women it is a matter of life and death when treatment cannot be found in a case where her health is at risk because of her pregnancy. Women are basically being told that they are not trusted to make decisions about their own body and that the government will take over the right to choose what happens in her life - that we must be silent.

Ella Barrett, a field organizer at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center’s Leadership LAB, organizes around social justice issues and voices her concerns on these continuous restrictions: “On a basic level, continuous restrictions to reproductive health care means that women, especially in the middle of the country, do not have access to safe, legal and non-judgmental abortion. This means that in order to access abortion some women have to travel out of their state, which will disproportionately impact low income women who may not have access to cars and cannot take days off work.”

Luckily, many activists and community members battled to insure these reproductive rights. However, many voices have been still silenced as this movement is led by white middle-class women that often skirt issues affecting women of color by keeping the pro-choice label at the forefront of the movement. But our brown women have put up a strong fight by speaking about the limitations of the pro-choice label, as they push for a movement that encompasses much more than abortion.

Virginia Escobar, another field organizer at the Leadership LAB talks about her experience organizing for reproductive rights. She says, “Before this past year, I strayed away from the reproductive rights movement. I thought it was too hetero, too cis, too white for my brown genderfuckKapwa cute-queer Katipunera ass. But in March 2014, when I helped organize an abortion doula training for the LA-based collective Autonomous Communities for Reproductive and Abortion Support (ACRAS), I learned from strong, intelligent mujeres that women of color have been for decades connecting reproductive access to other inequalities such as environment, globalization, genocide, racism, and class. This inspirational, WOC-focused movement is called ’reproductive justice’ and is completely different than what has been rendered ‘reproductive rights.’”

This reproductive justice movement is gaining momentum as all women grow tired of the bullshit and refuse to stay silent.

The Reproductive Justice movement supports women of color and their different experiences as it provides a place for them to feel validated within 18 LA GENTE Fall 2014

ILLUSTRATION BY YAJAIRA SESMAS

comunidad

a society where speaking about abortion is often taboo and stigmatized.

Escobar, like many other women, had an abortion in November 2013. She described how she did not feel connected to her body in the same way a cisgender person would. “To be pregnant was a traumatizing experience. I hated myself, my actions, and my body in a way that I never felt and I didn't want to talk to anyone’’.

However, when she learned about reproductive justice she found a framework for healing.

“It felt good to come into a space where people of color were the focus, where we are prioritized and valued, where our realities are seen,” she says. “I spoke about my abortion for the first time because of the work done by these strong women of color. I am forever grateful for them for helping me heal and love myself again.”

Along with a movement to include more women of color in reproductive health, students and activists in college campuses are also fighting against most recent attacks on women’s body autonomy. Clubs like Act for Equality on the UCLA campus, who are partly run by Barrett and Escobar, are actively becoming involved in defending these rights with direct action by fighting anti-LGBT and anti-abortion laws across the country through conversations with voters in canvasses and phone banks.

Barrett believes that restrictions to abortion often lie in misogyny and that it can be reduced “by telling real stories of women and making this issue personal for voters” as she has personally experienced this change in her own conversations with voters about abortion.

She also recommends for students to be active by talking about the injustice and misogyny that they see every day. “Every conversation, every comment, every story, every person matters in this movement,” she says.

The war on women is real and we are here to take a stand!

A place where we are in the sun Roxana Martinez rmartinez@media.ucla.edu

T

he native Tongva people have inhabited the Los Angeles Basin and the Southern Channel Islands prior to Spanish colonization in southern California. By attempting to assimilate the Tongva people, the Spanish called this tribe ‘Gabrielinos’ based off their close association with the Mission of San Gabriel. A village name Kuruvungna meaning, ‘a place where we are in the sun’ in Tongva, existed where University High School is found today. The Tongva people bathed, drank and replenished in the springs that still exist in this same place. These Kuruvungna Springs are preserved as a sacred space in which traditional events are held and people are informed about Tongva history.

Angie Behrns, a Tongva activist woman, fought to keep the space open to native peoples, community members and students. She is in charge of maintaining the space, while also giving tours and telling the history of her people to others. Many Tongva people like Angie still reside in Los Angeles, but this is often overlooked through the logic of genocide, the belief that native peoples no longer exist. This is reinforced through the government who refuses to federally recognized the tribe and for this same reason, it is difficult for the Tongva people to attain resources.

On my tour of the Springs, Angie stated “I want to make that really clear, we are not federally recognized as a tribe. So many indians have made the policies and indian programs for us because the government will listen to them, because they are federally recognized and we’re not. I used to get really angry at that because I was a commissioner for the city and county of Los angeles and I saw all those grants going to other Indians while we were just sitting there.”

Unfortunately, the history of native peoples is never truly told. People

PHOTOS BY ROXANA MARTINEZ

KURUVUNGNA SPRINGS

comunidad

are unaware of sacred places like this because of the lack of recognition. For this reason, the Springs are poorly funded and operated purely through volunteer services.

The Springs are located in University High School on Los Angeles Unified School District property. As you walk in, one of the first items displayed are Ki’s, which are brush shelters constructed of stakes in which the Tongva slept in. On the location there is a room that holds many of the historic articles and archives that are kept in sight for the public to access. Artifacts and skeletal fragments continue to be found. The artifacts are put on display and skeleton parts are traditionally buried on the site. The space is inhabited by flowers and native plants, like sage.

When commenting on the garden space, Angie stated “You have to understand we don't want it to be a Japanese or a very well manicured garden.

People say, 'Oh why don’t you do this and why don’t you edge the lawn?' No we want it to look natural.”

The Gabrielino Tongva Springs Foundation hosts two events every year called Life Before Columbus and the Four Corners Spirit Run. The first takes place just before Columbus Day every year and celebrates the history of the land and of the Tongva people. The event involves dance, storytelling, music and craft making by the Tongva people. This represents the traditions the Tongva people carried in their everyday life before colonization and which they continue to preserve. The Spirit Run is an event that anyone can participate in by running through traditional communities and sacred sites of West Los Angeles while carrying their vision and prayers.

Angie quoted a boy who ran and said, “This year I ran from the heart, I didn't have to compete. I was running to keep my culture alive and to be friendly and to befriend my brothers and sisters.”

The Spirit Run is done with the intentions to promote the awareness of locally Indigenous Sacred Sites, and the nurturing of healthy mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional states of being.

The history of settler colonialism involved the erasure and elimination of peoples histories. This is why it is crucial to preserve spaces like the Kuruvungna Springs that are fragments of the past important to the present. It is also persevering the cultural and historical resources of the area. Additionally, it can serve as a healing space for the Tongva people to heal from historical trauma and also bring back a part of the past that was taken away.

When asked what she would like the future of the Springs to be, Angie said “I would like it to continue, I would like it to be more educational, historical and maybe even have theatre.”

Fall 2014 LA GENTE 19

universidad

STUDENTS WITHOUT NUMBERS

Besides money, undocumented students and immigrants in many cases may still fear deportation when their status comes to light. Leaving the United States, Dario faced obstacles not against his education rights, but against crossing international borders. Currently, southern checkpoints stationed from San Diego to Texas strictly enforce border control with police force. Immigrants wishing to cross undetected face dangers of belowfreezing temperatures, predators like coyotes, starvation, and violence at the worst.

But what choice do they have when even students at prestigious universities cannot successfully receive documentation for entrance?

After months of waiting and rejection, Dario finally obtained Humanitarian Parole late October from the Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Like the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, Humanitarian Parole allows Dario a renewable entrance of two years for college study. But for immigrants and undocumented students who wish to simultaneously apply for citizenship and education in the U.S., a situation like Dario’s poses a complicated risk and a subsequent question of prejudice.

Challenges undocumented students face when applying to colleges in the United States lam phung lphung@media.ucla.edu

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ugust 2014, Dario Meneses left Harvard University to visit his dying mother in Guanajuato, Mexico. Wanting to return in October, Dario’s legal status blocked his re-entry into the States.

Like Dario, who came to the United States at age two, children who immigrate to the States without records of citizenship face challenges when applying to higher education. In Dario’s case, his undocumented status caused no problems in high school until he applied for community college courses at age 17. Requiring a social security number, Dario secretly used that of his younger brother, who was born in the United States. But does that number really separate an undocumented student from a formal citizen when applying to college?

For students like Dario who cannot attend full-time without funding from jobs, scholarships, and loans, legal status does present an issue, but not too much in the application process. From the student’s perspective, documentation, or lack thereof, becomes visible when information about social security and citizenship comes up in required financial aid forms.

Luckily for Dario, Harvard has the largest endowment, more than $32 billion, of any school in the world. As a private institution, Harvard can choose to spend on students in any respect. Ironically the elite and rich universities, like Harvard, seem to better promote education for undocumented students by making legal status less of an issue for financial aid than universities dependent on federal funding. On the other hand, few students regardless of legal status will attend colleges with nearly the same funding as private colleges.

students and immi“Although grants without proper paperwork

will face scrutiny anywhere... they should not face unwarranted social and educational stigma..”

GRAPHIC BY CALIFORNIA STUDENT AID COMMISSION

20 LA GENTE Fall 2014

But aside from fear and prejudice, to what extent must students actually worry about immediate deportation or academic suspension? According to Diana Fuentes-Michel, Executive Director of the California Student Aid Commission, many undocumented students come from communities with poverty, gang affiliations, or poor college counseling and awareness resources.

One of the most harmful influences on the students’ decision to apply for college and financial aid is the fear caused by prejudice and self-doubt.

In her experience, Fuentes did not encounter any situation where the discovery of an undocumented student’s legal status prompted the college to prohibit or terminate the student’s education. Despite threats of deportation, students implicitly have some protection under their institutions. College outreach programs further open educational doors for undocumented students through college awareness fairs like Cash for College and financial aid programs like the Dream Act, a similar application format to the FAFSA but with a different set of criteria specifically for undocumented students.

Since 2001, Assembly Bill 540 allowed certain undocumented students to pay in-state tuition, essentially lessening financial burden. Through such actions in the U.S., more undocumented students continue to reach college and succeed. Evidently, such students face disadvantages when applying to college, but resources exist to assure that no undocumented student should feel victimized or excluded by legal status. Students are students regardless of their legal status, and they already have enough academic worries without having to fear for their security and residence.

Although students and immigrants without proper paperwork will face scrutiny anywhere, not only in the U.S., they should not face unwarranted social and educational stigma. Against any amount of fear and suspicion, we must recognize that all people have personal reasons for reaching their destinations. Unless we allow them the chance to explain their individual reasons, immediate exclusion or educational separation will lead to unjustified punishments based on missing paperwork, not their actions and credibility.

Legal status may remain a significant piece of information, but it should not and does not need to limit any student’s education.

DIVERSITY REFERENDUM FAILS TO PASS AGAIN Alma Maldonado amaldonado@media.ucla.edu

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he Bruin Diversity Referendum (BDR), a ballot item during the special elections held 3rd week, sought to help increase the diversity on campus failed to pass. BDR was on the agenda before but has never acquired the necessary votes to pass.

BDR sought to extend funds for departments that work to address the diversity crisis on campus.The departments that were listed to benefitted from BDR include: USAC Academic Affairs Commission, Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Campus Resource Center, Center for Community College Partnerships (CCCP), Community Service Mini Fund, Cultural Spiritual Wellness Program Fund, Campus Retention Committee, and Student Initiated Outreach Committee. A student fee increase of $9.45 covers the expenses for the departments with the passing of the BDR. Jazz Kiang, Director of the Asian Pacific Coalitions, participated in the previous campaigns for the BDR. During the Spring 2014 elections, Kiang remembers that BDR failed to pass by

universidad a “very small margin” and “there were people campaigning directly against BDR then without realizing the weight of the consequences.”

“I don’t think students really knew what the money was going towards,” said Araceli “Cheli” Gonzalez, the Hispanic Service Institution Coordinator for CCCP. “CCCP helps diversify UCLA, … the community colleges are highly diverse, so the community colleges are great pockets to pick into.”

Two major programs of CCCP were cut, Classic SITE and STEM SITE, but, according to Gonzalez, with the passing of the BDR these programs could have been reinstalled and new jobs for undergraduates and increased salaries for existing staff.

Unfortunately, BDR did not receive much recognition throughout campus. The Daily Bruin had an article in the opinion section about how the presentation of BDR was vague when addressing how the numbers were brought about.

Although the student leaders from several organizations on campus assured USAC that the numbers calculated for the referendum were adjusted for “inflation and any rise in the cost of living” (according to handout passed at the meeting), the article insisted that they were being unclear.

Kiang, who served as manager for the BDR fall campaign, said “As students of color, there could’ve been prejudgment and mistrust when we handle money.”

Unavailable Resources for Undocumented Students Karina carbajal kcarbajal@media.ucla.edu

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nfortunately for undocumented Bruins, the UCLA Circle Project was temporarily unavialable for Fall Quarter after the previous coordinator suddenly left and no supervisor in the Dream Resource Center was available to continue Circle Project Meetings.

Circle Project, mostly run by volunteers and a non-profit partner of the UCLA Dream Resource Center, was created as an attempt to reach out to undocumented Bruins who are uninsured. The project consists of weekly meetings where undocumented and uninsured students gather to share their personal experiences. Last year, there were meetings being held at UCLA, Pomona, and Los Angeles Fremont High School, with a new site underway in Long Beach for an undocumented LGBTQ community. Although Circle Project is currently unavailable at UCLA, there are sessions still available in Pomona. Fremont High School, on the other hand, developed their Circle Project community into a club.

Undocumented students of California who are eligible for Deferred Action are able to get health care coverage through Medi-Cal. Although students have the opportunity to apply for emergency Medi-Cal, this insurance does not cover medical bills for long term illness or constant treatments.

Fortunately, Bruins can seek help from both the Dream and Bruin Resource Centers.

The students in charge of organizing the campaign only had two weeks to prepare and inform the entire student body that BDR was on the ballot and explain its purpose.

“We did as much as we could’ve done with the time we had,” said Kiang, who also said that the USAC Election Board, which overlooks the matters of school elections and markets the election events, did not do its part to endorse the midterm elections. “The election board knew that there were two things on the ballot that needed 20% of the vote.”

Yet the election board’s efforts failed to reach the 20% goal. The Facebook events the USAC Election Board posted for the elections, for example, had about 200 people invited to the Endorsement Hearings and about 15 people showed up.

“If it wasn’t for us campaigning, the voter turn would not have reached 13%” said Kiang.

Although most student organization were in favor of the BDR, they were not present at the presentation of BDR at the USAC meeting during week one. The absence and low support from other student orgs was a major factor in BDR’s lack of success, but BDR will have another chance to pass in the Spring quarter elections. Nevertheless, Kiang remains proud of the work that was accomplished since BDR received the most in-favor votes compared to all other items on the ballot.

“We didn’t lose, we won,” he said.

Documented students and professors cannot participate in Circle Project sessions because the project aims to create a trusting environment amongst undocumented students who share similar backgrounds.

Lilian Saldana, who runs the Pomona Circle Project says, “My rules are that if you’re undocumented or if you recently got your paperwork done and you know you are going through something you want to share, you are more than welcome... Just because you got your green card I’m not going to tell you to stop coming.”

Documented students or professors who wish to learn more about being undocumented and uninsured can ask for more information from Saldana or one of three other founders of Circle Project, who are all available at the UCLA Dream Resource Center.

Saldana says, “[Sessions are] open for anyone. I’m currently outreaching to local high schools and if the parents want to come, too, they are more than welcome.” The open sessions are only applicable to the Pomona site.

Last year, UCLA was the only UC offering this program to students, but this Fall quarter Circle Project was not available. Fortunately, Claudia Vargas was hired this quarter by the Bruin Resource Center to be the new Circle Project coordinator.

Imelda Plascencia says, “[Vargas] is organizing different workshops to address immigrant wellness on campus and so currently she is working on developing workshops for the following year.”

Although the Circle Project sessions are still unavailable, Vargas has held various workshops on meditation, eating on a budget, and even yoga for undocumented students of UCLA. But, Circle Project still remained unavailable for students who may need an outlet to share their similar experiences with other students this Fall Quarter.

Fall 2014 LA GENTE 21

expresiones

CHARLATANS Y CURANDERA/OS Donny chago M

y mom sits me down in the living room and as I feel my body weigh me down from the fatigue, that distinctly powerful odor of ruda hits me and in that brief moment, I feel reinvigorated.

Already there is this energy coursing through my body as I close my eyes and sit still, as a smooth surface runs across my entire body while my mom’s prayer for my health and well-being floats throughout the house. This was a limpia.

A lot of us know what happens afterwards: you take the egg and crack it into a glass of water.

Luego, you analyze it and look for air bubbles or discoloration, signaling the egg’s absorption of el mal. After deciding on the proper prognosis, you safely dispose of this negative energy by pouring it into the drain so that it is gone from the immediate environment.

Our generation has grown to appreciate the nostalgia in home remedies. There was something about that egg on your head, that smoke blown into your eye, that cebolla tied to your stomach that cured the illness or at least assuaged the pain.

Sin embargo, the significance of this custom never sunk in because the stomach pain goes away, same for the rest of the illness. It wasn’t until we confronted something modern medicine cannot fix that traditional remedies became so important.

The past couple of years, the Chago family has gone through some difficult times, to say the least, due to my mom having dementia. Les tuvimos paciencia a los doctores de clinica (which many of you know is difficult) but at the same time, my dad went out on the search for anyone promising us a solution. The first person we found, we learned through word-of-mouth (which is true of

every healer). This man with a silver tongue and a shiny suit sold us components of the cure that was just a couple of months away. After a few visits, some frascos de ‘cleansing’ powder, and a ceremony where he ‘extracted’ maggots from my mom through a cloth, my mom wasn’t getting all that better. We simply stopped returning.

After that, my dad found a lady in our city who had the ‘don de curar’. Her office was in her house; it was a small room with all sorts of saints and candles and not much else. The experience with this woman was the most heartbreaking because it seemed so blatantly obvious that this would end in disappointment. She said she was the real deal because she didn’t charge for her services, only the materials. We bought it. She said we would notice a drastic change after 6 months.

We bought it. She said there was this candle in a city in Mexico that burned for three days and in those three days, if we all prayed hard enough (because she was praying nightly for us), mom would get better. We bought that candle. We were told special folks were praying for us, and ceremonies were being held in the middle of the night at

SIN DESEO A UNA REFORMA

panteones, where people spoke to angels for us.

It was after these ceremonies, that candle, these charms and these readings that my dad realized he had spent over $3,000. We sobered up from our optimistic denial to confront the odious deception staring back at us. We simply stopped returning.

The latest person we placed our trust in was someone originally from Morelos but living in San Diego. He was kind enough to actually perform the ceremonies with us present and consistently followed up. My dad insisted on paying him, even for the materials. He begrudgingly accepted after he started driving from San Diego to our home to save us the travel. The most memorable experience was when we all went to a creek in the San Bernardino forest to perform another ceremony.

Despite the dissonance in my head from past experiences, it was beautiful seeing this spirituality come full circle. Despite the charlatans and the exploitation, I’ve learned to look past the embittering fracasos and revel in the spirit that transcends that isolating depression. That spirit is hope. It’s beautiful, it’s simple, and it can be found anywhere, even inside an egg.

económica y no salir más de su lugar de origen. Tiempo después se mudó a Los Ángeles y comenzó a trabajar de lavaplatos en restaurantes. Estuvo por muchos años engañado por su empleador quien prometió darle papeles por Leonso Martinez cuando estaba vigente la amnistía la cual había firmado entonces el presista es la historia de un hombre a quien llamaremos “Juanito” a quien dente de los EE.UU en 1986, la cual benefició a más de tres millones de toda la gente lo conoce por el área donde él algún día llego a vivir. inmigrantes.

Inmigrante como muchos miles de nosotros los latinos y cansado de la Pasó el tiempo y a Juanito no le interesó más aplicar para obtener docupobreza en su natal Oaxaca, hijo de padres campesinos con siete hermanos y mentación alguna. Su suerte fue cambiando: dejo el trabajo de lavaplatos dos hermanas comenzó a trabajar de jornalero con sus vecinos para ayudar a para aventurarse en el sector de la construcción y ha trabajado en cualquier sus padres a que hubiera el sustento en casa. Fue muy poco a la escuela por oficio que permita para pagar sus gastos. difíciles circunstancias. Entonces dispuesto a progresar económicamente Con el paso de los años comenzó a tener problemas para pagar su tuvo que abandonar con gran tristeza la tierra que un día lo vio nacer con un vivienda, fue deportado y volvió a entrar pero no con mucha suerte. Ya no solo objetivo: llegar a la tierra prometida y así poder lograr el tan anhelado conseguía trabajo, perdió su apartamento y sus pocas pertenencias. Hoy en “sueño” americano. día Juanito duerme en la calle. No tiene trabajo y hace mandados para que Lleno de ilusiones llegó a EE.UU en el año de 1989 a la edad de 18 le regalen comida y un trago para no acordarse de la promesa de algún día años, comenzó a trabajar en los campos agrícolas en la ciudad de Fresno, regresar, formar una familia y ser feliz. Todo eso quedo atrás. Después de 24 CA, en la pizca de uva y cebolla. Aunque ganaba poco le alcanzaba para años terminó su juventud en este país y no le interesa ni quiere saber nada cubrir sus gastos y mandarle a sus padres además de mandar dinero para de la tan soñada reforma migratoria. Su sueño se convirtió en pesadilla. que le construyeran una casa y así algún día regresar, tener una solvencia

E

22 LA GENTE Fall 2014

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a piel de una mujer dice mucho de lo que ha vivido, entre más pálido sea su color menos la ha tocado el sol, lo menos la han tocado los rayos, más viva está su carne. Los hombres prefieren sus carnes más rojas que quemadas. Entre menos quemado el bistec, más se retiene el sabor tierno y rojo que ofrece la carne fresca.

Un amigo de las islas asiáticas lo cuenta mejor que yo, mucho más poético y menos misógino. Seré sincero al decirte que no recuerdo una vez que yo haya preferido una carne a otra porque para mí, carne es carne, lo que cuenta es llenarse.

Lucía es una chica con ideas políticas muy radicales, muy de la izquierda, muy feminista, su modo de comunicarse, su vestir, y su cabello perfectamente brillado era maravilloso. Me encantaba observar su coco pálido entre la partida que se hace en la esquina, la raíz de su cabello se quiebra con su color artificial es toda una cascada de brillo que deleita cualquier ojo que se le acerca. Platiqué por casualidad con ella un día al verla salir de su departamento y me hice el tonto al no hablarle en inglés porque quería que nuestras conversaciones fueran únicas para su memoria. Siempre me parecía extraña porque se vestía con unas ganas de impresionar a cualquier tarado que se le parára de frente con sus escotes y shorts de mezclilla muy apretados y cortos.

What are you doing?, me preguntó con lástima.

Te estaba esperando para invitarte a un concierto que viene este fin de semana, te gusta el rock en español?

Well, un poco, I like Maná, y unas bandas que my mom listens to. ¿Maná?, pobrecita. ¡Perfecto! Va venir una banda que toca puras canciones del Tri, tengo un par de boletos por si quieres ir.

Al decirle mi mentira vi el gesto de desesperación de sus ojos, casi con la pura mirada supe que ya me estaba mandando a la chingada.

Maybe. Yo te aviso, ok? me aseguró.

Sale, pues ya sabes donde vivo pa’ ponernos de acuerdo y todo eso.

Aún no tenía la cita con ella pero no sé porque mi cerebro ya se llenaba de imágenes de nosotros disfrutando de nuestro dulce hogar en algún terreno remoto de rosas rositas, dos carros Cadillac estacionados en las afueras con las placas que leen “His” y “Hers”. Los gritos de nuestros bebés hizo que me despertara de aquel sueño ya que la ceniza de mi cigarro había llegado a mis dedos. Me ardió y aún se puede ver la mendiga marca que se me

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quedó de aquel día.

Me gustaba lo necia que era con sus piernas, siempre al sentarse tenía una incertitud tremenda para colocarse en posición de yoga. Con las piernas cruzadas se le brotaban las venas que corrían desde su cuello blanco, hasta llegar a la base perfecta de sus pies. ¡Tun, Tun! La puerta gritaba desesperadamente. Alcancé a ver que era temprano en la madrugada y rápido fuí a abrir la puerta.

Tony, soy yo, Lucía, su vecina, ábreme please.

Pensé que ya quería fuertemente los boletos para el concierto.

Vooooy, le alcancé a contestar con una voz de mañana muy ronca. Al abrir la puerta no pude creer lo que había enfrente de mí. ¿Lucía, qué te pasó, estás bien?

Las manchas de color café-rojo maquillaban toda la cara de mi hermosa Lucía. Tenía la cara destrozada, la nariz rota, le faltaba un cuadro de cabello por la oreja izquierda. Estaba desfigurada.

Tony, perdón pero ocupo quedarme aquí. I need to stay safe tonight, please, pleea…

Su voz se quebraba al llorar, con todo cariño y placer la abracé. Ella olía muy fuerte a sangre, pero muy fuerte a ese olor metálico. El perfume de la noche era empalagoso, agrio y sin vida.

No te preocupes Lucía, le decía al abrazarla. Ven, entra, te hago un café, un té, ¿quieres algo, un médico?

No, no, I’ll be fine, gracias, sólo quiero descansar.

No entendía muy bien, la muchacha estaba machucada, muy dañada y con toda confianza la dejé entrar. Yo creía hacer lo correcto.

Con demasiada confianza ella entró descalza con los pies raspados dejando la huella de sangre en el piso de madera hasta llegar a mi sofá-cama que tenía en el centro de mi sala. Al acostarse empezó a actuar de manera muy extraña, como si hubiera estado sufriendo de una convulsión.

No sabía. Su belleza hizo que no pensaba mucho de ello. La vi bien, ya mejor quise verla perfectamente saludable.

Acostada, solita se empezó a desnudar. Solita, se, empezó, a, desnudar. No supe cómo reaccionar. ¿Cómo que se empezó a desnudar, es una chica que apenas conoces carajo, Cómo que la vas a dejar a desnudarse? Ahí pude apreciar cada una de sus cicatrices que tenía en su espalda, parecían mapas de ríos sin

agua, entrelazados que conectaban hasta la boca de su culo. ¿No te quieres acostar aquí conmigo? Fue la primera vez que le oí un español perfecto.

Pues, este, si quieres, no sé, ¿quieres? Le dije patéticamente intentando ocultar mis nervios. No la pensé dos veces, tenía las piernas entumecidas, forcé mi cuerpo ir hacia ella para poder apreciar más cerca. Cuidadosamente me acosté con su hombro izquierdo pegado a mi hombro derecho sin moverme muy bruscamente. ¿No me vas a besar? Me preguntó con aún el español perfecto. Sus labios húmedos, suaves y tiernos empezaron a tocar los míos.

Se levantó, sin parpadear, de inmediato sentí como ella se había subido arriba de mi ya lista para lo que ella quería y lo que yo tanto había esperado. Con su fuerza me empezó a excitar la sangre que escurría de su rostro, la textura de su carne brotada fría se la calentaba mis manos, le apretaba los pechos aunque no había mucho que apachurrar. Le chupaba el cuello blanco cubierto por un mantle de sangre y mis labios se maquillaron rojos. Entre más fuerte la jalaba hacia mi, más salpicaba su plasma en cada rincón de mi sábanas amarillas. Su desfiguración me excitaba y me erizaba el cuerpo, lo frío de su torso pálido me seguía coqueteando y el calor por la fricción se había aumentado.Al insertarle mi carne palpitante, yo pensaba en detener el tiempo. La realización de tenerla en carne y hueso, al penetrar ese bistec jugoso y rosita fue interrumpido por un ardor que me cargaba en la espalda. Me había ardido el chorro orgasmal que le había inyectado a ella.

Muy tarde me había dado cuenta que su sangre ya no era su sangre sino la mía. Mi orgasmo no había sido un orgasmo sino el último suspiro que tuve de vida.

I used a Santoku knife. The big pointy one. He was harassing me, telling me things, following me. That night I remember, he didn’t stop touching me, I ran away from him and in the kitchen he cornered me. He put my pants down and… He raped me. That’s when I used the knife to stop him, I never thought I had to kill him.

Fall 2014 LA GENTE 23

VIVOS SE LOS LLEVARON, VIVOS LOS QUEREMOS

ALUMNOS

DESAPARECIDOS 24 LA GENTE Fall 2014

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