Intersections

The rains

Well, it started raining again in Mexico City, meaning this meme on the drought is officially done. (Thankgod.) One of the most interesting facts I learned while reporting that post is that the famous D.F. rain is famous because the altitude, topography, and pollution of this city are uniquely intertwined to make rainy season here more existentially rainy, if you will.

I'm looking out the window now and the clouds are gathering up, just in time for rush hour. Where's my umbrella? Now, check back here in a couple months when we start our seasonal complaining about the too-much rain.

Reading: 'The Voting Booth After Dark,' or, remember 2008?

It's 2011 and the only memory I have left from the 2008 Democratic presidential primary -- in which Barack Obama was fighting a political death-match against the Clinton machine -- is Bill Clinton saying something mildly demeaning about Obama's campaign while in South Carolina.

As far as I was concerned, Obama was a darling, semi-naive pipe-dream until the very last minute.

So I was surprised when I opened a note from a writer who said she'd like me to read a book she wrote about a young gay Latina in East L.A. with a drinking problem, and set during the 2008 Democratic primary between Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Huh?

The following is an excerpt from that book, "The Voting Booth After Dark: Despicable, Embarrassing, Repulsive," by Vanessa Libertad Garcia. This is from a section called "Lament," while the speaker is on the beach drinking 40s and watching a homeless man collect trash:

I've given others money: Friends, Acquaintances, Churches, Family, Causes, Co-workers, and Other homeless people. I drink the second bottle and catch him to my left not too far away.

I call him over. "Hey you!"

He walks over. It takes him a couple of minutes. Each small step he makes, I take a long swig. I finish it. He opens his bag. I drop it in. We both hear it clank.

I ask him to sit. I ask him his name. I open the third 40.

We're both liberal. Eugene is a lot more hopeful than I. I ask him why he's homeless, of course. He responds and then I reply with a monologue about why I want to die.

Busting up. Throughout, in a series of loosely interconnected sections of prose and poetry (and even a long transcribed IM chat), the book is this wonderful mix of coy and cutting, open-hearted and bleak. It is a short book and ends without a looping resolution, yet it is an enjoyable, satisfying read. The prose sections in first-person have some real gems. Here's another:

Look at me in this mirror, my tits, breasts look great, my face is doing its job and this forty tastes so gooooooooooooooooooooooooooood. I wonder if that bi chick, with the ex-boyfriend, is going to be there tonight. Why can't we just get drunk and then I fingerfuck her and then she falls asleep in my arms all lusty and needy like Kathleen Turner in all those early films before the fun went to her face and turned her into Chandler's dad and then I leave at 6am and then I get a mcgriddle.

See what I mean?

A real voice. "The Voting Booth After Dark" also did something only good books can do: It reminds you --- or tricks you into being reminded -- of places you've been, people and crews you know, even situations that feel familiar or thought-trains you've had.

The thing also made me miss L.A. a little. The billboards. The stucco-choked windows poking out from behind sound walls on the freeways. The unpretentious yet sophisticated L.A. kids who are usually, deep down, from East of East L.A. The bars.

A different way to die in the drug war

This one stuck with me. From the daily story in Friday's La Jornada rounding up the drug-war deaths of the day:

En Tepic, Nayarit, hombres armados irrumpieron en el hotel Colonial en busca de un grupo de personas que se hospedaba ahí; la mayoría alcanzó a huir mientras una corrió a la azotea y al verse cercada se lanzó al vacío y falleció.

Translation:

In Tepic, Nayarit, gunmen burst into the Colonial Hotel in search of a group of people staying there; the majority of them managed to escape while one ran to the roof, and upon realizing he was surrounded, he threw himself into the void and died.

A local news source identifies the victim as a young man, and has photos. What image could this guy have had of his death had he been caught up by the assassins who were hunting him? What was going through his head?

In all, 46 people died in suspected drug-related violence in Mexico in 10 states on Friday, La Jornada reported. Just on Friday. And that's more or less a daily tally. Day after day, day after day, if you can make it through the daily carnage story back in the 12th or 13th page of the paper or whatever.

This leaves me ... nodding in agreement with Debra Saunders?

* Previously, "In Mexico, more deaths than we can imagine."

** IMAGE: 'More than numbers,' a pic via Yfrog from the Sicilia caravan.

Taller de periodismo digital

¿Que es el periodismo digital? ¿Como se practica? De cierta manera, si, es lo que piensas: blogging es la plataforma principal. Pero el periodismo digital es algo más, es un tipo de blogging que requiere ciertas técnicas, metodologías, y ciertas éticas por parte de el que la maneja.

En este taller, que dare empezando el próximo martes, 14 de junio, en el nuevo espacio cultural .357mx en Ciudad Satélite, examineramos las características del periodismo digital, veremos unos blogs y páginas de noticias que lo hacen bien, y pondremos en práctica lo que vemos un la formación de su blog particular.

¡Inscríbense! Cualquier duda o pregunta, por favor contactenme directamente a mi correo. El link para un video de introducción se encuentra aquí.

* Imagen: Google Images

American guns

A highly recommended read: "An American Gun in Mexico," Wall Street Journal, May 21, 2011. The pieces demonstrates the extraordinarily thin line that exists between gun smugglers, gun dealers, and federal gun agents, in the war in Mexico that has left an estimated 40,000 dead. More this week at La Plaza.

A beer to-go from Jenni Rivera

You know I'm down this girl, but this just takes it to another level.

During a recent concert in Puerto Vallarta, Jenni Rivera apparently had a beer thrown at her on stage. The rancherita asked that the girl who threw the beer brought up to confront her face-to-face. Next is a humiliation-fest that only a royal bad-ass like Jenni Rivera could come up with.

"Who do you think has more balls," the singer asks the girl standing meekly before her, "You or me?"

Jenni then dumps a beer on the girl's head, yanks at her hair, and dispatches the unfortunate fan off-stage and presumably to the curb. After asking for respect from the audience -- "I could be in the hotel, making a baby" -- Jenni gets in one last shot, shaking her fingers and going: "Ayy, I caught some lice!"

From her "Let's talk" interview on mun2: "I was taught to defend myself when girls messed with me. I was a straight A student and a great fighter when I had to defend myself."

Yeah, that's pretty clear by now, homegirl, thanks. * Via DListed. ** Thanks, Octavia!

La Plaza: Protests over black man's death in Mexico

** Originally published at La Plaza:

Shortly after midnight on May 11 in central Mexico City, Isaac Chinedu, an immigrant from Nigeria, became involved in some kind of confrontation with a group of police officers on a dark side street. The encounter escalated, and Chinedu was severely beaten. Some minutes later, he was dead, the victim of a hit-and-run driver, authorities say.

The case of Isaac Chinedu has led to demonstrations among Mexico City's African and Afro-Mexican communities, which are laying blame on the police officers who allegedly beat the 29-year-old before he apparently ran into traffic on a busy highway. Chinedu's Mexican widow, Liduvina Castillo, claims that racial prejudice resulted in her husband's death, a charge activists here are rallying around.

"This was an act of discrimination," Castillo told a newscast. "Why? Because they detained him simply because he was black. He wasn't doing anything. Isaac was waiting for a taxi to return to his home in peace."

Prosecutors and forensic investigators said they've determined that Chinedu died of injuries suffered after he was struck by a vehicle on Calzada de Tlalpan, but said his body showed trauma from blows delivered by at least two auxiliary police officers, whose actions were captured by surveillance video. Four officers have been questioned in the incident, but there have been no arrests or charges filed.

Two other officers who may have been involved in the incident have not been identified, authorities said. The hit-and-run driver, meanwhile, remains at-large.

Supporters have held two protests this month seeking justice for Chinedu and bringing attention to a small but growing community of black foreigners in Mexico (links in Spanish). Hundreds of refugees arrived from Haiti after the January 2010 earthquake, as La Plaza has reported. Chinedu had come to Mexico as a refugee from Nigeria, reports said.

A civil organization, the Citizen's Committee in Defense of the Naturalized and Afro-Mexicans, staged the demonstrations and plans to initiate a fast Thursday morning on the doorstep of City Hall. The group's president, Wilner Metelus, a native of Haiti and long-term resident of Mexico, said group members seek a meeting with Mayor Marcelo Ebrard about the death of Chinedu.

"We no longer believe what the attorney general says about the case. There are many contradictions," Metelus said in an interview with La Plaza. "We want a direct dialogue with Marcelo Ebrard on the matter. How could any human being receive such treatment?"

Chinedu had lived in Mexico City for about 10 years. He was a legal resident and the father of two Mexican-born children. As the incident was reported by the local press, revelations surfaced that Chinedu had spent two years behind bars on minor narcotics infractions, which were later dismissed. (In Mexico's deeply troubled justice system, such long prison terms for minor or even nonexistent offenses are quite common.)

On May 11, his widow says, Chinedu was leaving a Mother's Day party and waiting for a cab. The grainy video shows Chinedu rushing toward a passing police cruiser to flag it down. He then appears to try to force his way inside. Standing police officers drag and then violently yank Chinedu back to the sidewalk, where he is struck repeatedly, the video shows.

Neighbors came to Chinedu's aid and the officers left the scene, officials said. "What I did was hug him and separate him from the police so they would stop beating him," a witness told ForoTV.

A top official in the Mexico City attorney general's office said Sunday in a news conference that as paramedics arrived and began tending to Chinedu, he regained consciousness, kicking and struggling. Without explanation, he got up, ran into traffic, and was hit by a fast-moving passenger car.

Toxicology tests showed Chinedu was not under the influence or alcohol or drugs on the night he died, officials said. The investigation is ongoing.

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Image: Screen-grab showing surveillance video of the incident in which Isaac Chinedu died May 11, 2011. Credit: ForoTV