No Green Card, no toys 09/15/2009

Apparently some children in the Houston area will not receive toys this year from some local charities because they are investigating immigration and legal issues before. What do children have to do with this? How do you explain to a 5-year-old or even a 9-year-old that he or she can have 0 gifts because “you’re not legal in the U.S. honey.” What is wrong with people? It is Christmas time, the one season of the year where people should put aside their political views, be it related to immigration or war.

According to the Houston Chronicle:

The Salvation Army and a charity affiliated with the Houston Fire Department are among those that consider immigration status, asking for birth certificates or Social Security cards for the children.
Laura Martinez’s  blog says something funny, yet somewhat cruel.

Want to give your child some true joy this Christmas? Just get him or her a freakin’ Social Security Number!

I hope this is just a rumor because we have a lot to work on if legal status of children is being considered for them to receive a toy.

Rent a Rican 09/15/2009

Yesterday, my friend was surfing youtube when she came across a video named Rent-a-Rican.  Yeah, a Puerto Rican. It was such an offensive video.  It steretoypes Puerto Ricans as being the life of the party and tells how “renting a rican” can spice up any party because he or she can teach people how to drink rum shots, exotic dancemoves and also had a sexual meaning attached to it.  You can see it for yourself.  I am mad! This ruins our reputation, which honestly does not need more stirring.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybhUvzdQyBE

Lou Dobbs 09/15/2009

October 23, 2009 was another day of battle among Latinos as they accused Mr. Dobbs, anchor of the 7pm hour on CNN, of being hypocritical. Mr. Dobbs has always had well-known views on immigration and disgust for his ideas flow in the Latino community.  CNN launched a four-hour documentary called “Latino in America” which led to an outcry of criticisms.  There were protests in New York and other cities the first day the documentary was seen.

It has spurred even more hatred towards Dobbs and the network for permitting Dobb to spill out his nonsense on the air.

Feel free to read the article that was written in The New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/24/business/media/24cnn.html?em

What do you think?

I believe Lou Dobbs should definitely work for FOX, where his ideas will clearly be appreciated.

Remembering… 09/15/2009

So I just remember this whole story my friend and I invented while we were in Georgetown during the summer of 2005.

This guy rudely implied that it was impossible for us to be from Puerto Rico and actually have money to attend a leadership conference in Washington D.C. My friend, always so rude back, developed a ficticious story about us being the daughters of Native American Chiefs and having traded goods for money in order to participate of this experience abroad.  Believe it or not, the guy believed the story. After listening closely to it, decided he would “google” Puerto Rico and see how that possible.  We never heard from him again.  And maybe that’s a good thing.

Getting started 09/15/2009

I started noticing peoples’ ignorance toward Latin Americans, or Puerto Ricans to be more exact, when I attended a leadership program in Georgetown University the summer I was in tenth grade.  It was my first dorm experience and my first real and close experience with Americans.  I don’t know every little detail about the U.S. history, but I do know basic facts and dates.  What surprised me the most was that many students had no clue where Puerto Rico was. Come on, we’re a tiny island in the Caribbean, but we’ve been a territory of the United States for quite some time now…since 1898 to be exact.  During the Spanish-American War, Puerto Rico was invaded by the United States and under the Treaty of Paris, Spain ceded Puerto Rico to the U.S. along with Cuba, the Philippines and Guam. Because of this it is obvious that we don’t have an Independencee Day.

I met this guy from Florida..yeah, Florida, which is closest to Puerto Rico than to Boston and he thought Puerto Rico was in Africa.  I was shocked, but kindly explained where we were and who we were.  He had a completely different vision than the one I could even being to imagine. His vision: Native Americans, without clothes, living in huts, getting to places in canoes and hunting to get our food.  How could that be? There were Native Americans settled in our island before the Spanish came, but that was centuries ago. So I explained that we were as everybody else, lived in houses, drove cars and ate hamburger with fries.  He felt ashamed, but I was not mad or frustrated. I was happy I was able to erase that awful idea he had about Puerto Rico.

We are all ignorant to some extent, myself included.  I don’t know many countries are there until I hear them and look them up.  But it surprises me that many people don’t know anything about Puerto Rico, even with it being an unincorporated territory of the U.S.. When Americans study American History, the Spanish-American War is a real important historical event. People need to know it. It changed everything about us: food, advertisements, TV programs, stores, etc.

Everyone that is born in Puerto Rico is automatically a U.S. citizen. One of the most important things about being a U.S. citizen is having the right to vote if you’re 18 years or older. I don’t have that. I can work anywhere I want without needing a visa, I canno be called an international student and I’m 20 years old and I couldn’t vote for Obama.

Also, being a U.S. citizen does not mean we all speak English. Actually a very small percentage of people in Puerto Rico are bilingual.  Spanish is our primary language and English is taught as a second language in public and private schools.

There is a vast majority of things that makes us different from the United States, from culture to food to music, but we have many similarities. Answering a question that was asked to me three years ago: Yes, we do have HBO.