revolutionary mujer

tato laviera is dead

Hispanic New York: Tato Laviera, Prominent Nuyorican Poet, Is Dead This makes me sad. When I was in college I discovered Tato Laviera's poetry and it played a big role in my thinking about what it means to be Afro-Latino. I even organized an event to bring him to campus and got to spend a chunk of time with him. He's apparently been sick for a while with diabetes and unconscious. Rest in Peace. Inna illahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un.

islamic poultry for latino tables

NYT: Islamic Poultry for Latino Tables (Yes, They Have Chilies, Too)

interview with abu sumayyah

The Deen Show: Interview with Abu Sumayyah (Wesley Lebron), President of Latino Muslims of Chicago

el zahir, borges and sufism

If you are interested in some of the intersections between Hispanic/Latin culture and Islam after the Reconquest, you might want to check out a recent entry at the Technology of the Heart blog: Sufi Themes in Jorge Luis Borges' Writing

more latinos choose a less travelled road to spirituality

More Latinos Choose a Less Travelled Road to Spirituality By Cristina Pinzon takes a peek at Latinos who are exploring Buddhism and Islam.

piri thomas (1928-2011)

Piri Thomas' Official Website
NPR: Piri Thomas, Poet And Novelist, Remembered
Democracy Now!: Author Piri Thomas Dies at 83
LA Times: Latino writer Piri Thomas dies at 83

god loves mexicans and kazakhs more

Elenamary shares an interesting intersection between Latin and Muslim culture in God loves Mexicans and Kazakhs more

adding islam to a latino identity

The NYT photoblog, Lens, recently published an interview with photographer Eirini Vourloumis along with her images from the life of Spanish-speaking New Jersey Muslims in the series Adding Islam to a Latino Identity

h/t to Seyfettin/Saifuddin

cnn on rick sanchez

Ok, I'm not going to blog on this for a while after this...Today on CNN's Sunday morning show Reliable Sources, (transcript) there was a "discussion" of the firing of Rick Sanchez. I put "discussion" in quotes because CNN basically used the show to justify their decision to get rid of Sanchez.

What I thought was ironic is that Sanchez got in trouble for saying that Jews were not really a persecuted minority in the news industry, while several of the pundits on the CNN show were essentially saying the same thing about Sanchez himself.

Carole Simpson said:

he thinks that he could have been better and bigger and all of these other things, and he wasn't because of his race, as being a Cuban-American. And then it tickles me, because he looks as white as any white man. I mean, without his name, you probably would not know he was Cuban.

While Jamie McIntyre was much more dismissive: "...to say that he was made uncomfortable at CNN because of his Hispanic heritage, I think it's close to delusional."

The most accurate comment on the show came from Paul Farhi:

Well, I mean, CNN is an employer, and in America, if you criticize your employer the way he did, you're going to lose your job. He went public. It's on satellite radio. Potentially now millions of people have heard Rick Sanchez' criticism of his own company. Not kosher.

Also see Matthew Yglesias: Rick Sanchez for a perspective from a Cuban-Jewish blogger.

rick sanchez, jon stewart, jews and the media

As you may know already, Rick Sanchez was fired from CNN, apparently because of a conversation he had on Sirius XM radio with Pete Dominick which included a passing implied mention of the role of Jews in the media.

This whole controversy is a bit surreal to me. The issue seems to have started off as just a personal conflict between Stewart and Sanchez. Over a period of time Jon Stewart repeatedly mocked Sanchez on various episodes of the Daily Show. (The Colbert Report has done similar things but to a lesser extent) For example, at one point Stewart calls Sanchez an over-caffeinated control freak (among other things) and Sanchez was featured several times on the Daily Show's "moment of zen" segment (for example in the wake of Sotomayor's nomination Stewart even did a bit including Sanchez' own mother.)

Then, this past Thursday, on the show with Pete Dominick, Rick Sanchez talked about a number of topics, his new book, his family, his faith, and his experiences of feeling marginalized in the news industry (including the mocking he's been getting from Stewart and Colbert).

Rightly or wrongly, Sanchez frames this marginalization in terms of race and class. He is Latino with a working-class upbringing in an industry where many of his colleagues are white and raised middle-to-upper-class. And if you listen to the entire interview Sanchez isn't fixated on Stewart or Jews but also mentions prejudice coming from Stephen Colbert, Glenn Beck, O'Reilly and some unnamed "top brass" at CNN as well:

Sanchez: I had a guy who works here at CNN who's a top brass come to me and say, ‘You know what, I don't want you to --

Dominick: ‘Will you wash this dish for me, Sanchez?’

Sanchez: No no, see that’s the thing; it’s more subtle. White folks usually don't see it. But we do - those of us who are minorities and women see it sometimes too from men in authority. Here, I’ll give you my example its this 'You know what, I don't want you anchoring anymore, I really don't see you as an anchor, I see you more as a reporter, I see you more as a John Quinones - you know the guy on ABC. That’s what he told me. He told me he saw me as John Quinones. Now, did he not realize that he was telling me, ‘When I see you I think of Hispanic reporters’? Cause in his mind I can’t be an anchor. An anchor is what you give the high-profile white guys, you know. So he knocks me down to that and compares me to that and it happens all the time i think. To a certain extent Jon Stewart and Colbert are the same way.

(I have to wonder if the same "top brass" Sanchez alludes to is still an executive at CNN.)

As a counter-balance, Dominick brings up Stewart's Jewishness to suggest that he is also a minority and has some understanding of Rick Sanchez's position. But based on Sanchez's childhood in Miami, Jews were just another flavor of white Anglo.

I grew up not speaking English, dealing with real prejudice every day as a kid; watching my dad work in a factory, wash dishes, drive a truck, get spit on. I’ve been told that I can’t do certain things in life simply because I was a Hispanic. My friends who are black, I’ve seen that with them; I’ve seen that with a lot of minorities. I can’t really think — although I understand the plight of Jews, and all the experiences, and the things that have happened historically for them — but I can’t say that my buddy Glen or my buddy Izzy who I grew up with in South Florida ever were prejudiced against directly simply because they were Jewish. There may have been jokes around them or about other things, but it’s kinda — you know what I’m saying, it’s kind of a different thing.

This is all context to the essential gaffe. When Dominick suggests that Stewart has minority status which should help him understand where Sanchez is coming from, Sanchez comes back with:

He’s such a minority, I mean, you know [sarcastically]… Please, what are you kidding? … I’m telling you that everybody who runs CNN is a lot like Stewart, and a lot of people who run all the other networks are a lot like Stewart, and to imply that somehow they — the people in this country who are Jewish — are an oppressed minority? Yeah.

Sanchez doesn't hold Jews in the media to any special scrutiny or suspicion. He just views them as part of the dominant establishment with all other white people. If anything, he is actually indifferent about the distinction. As he says to Dominick:

You brought the whole Jewish conversation into this. I don't think Jewish has anything to do with this. I don't think you are are less apt to be prejudiced or more apt to be prejudiced because you are or aren't Jewish.

Here is a partial Transcript of the Sanchez/Dominick interview but I would definitely recommend that you go to the very first link above and listen to the whole conversation. Sanchez does not go on a rant. He does not have a meltdown. He does not say "Jews are in control of all media". (Contrary to how some of the coverage is parsing the incident).

Some other thoughts:
If CNN is so racially sensitive then how was Lou Dobbs able to stay on CNN for such a long period of time before leaving? It's pretty clear that Mexicans don't run CNN. For that matter, even Dr. Laura is still on the air after her N-word rant. She announced her retirement after the incident, but she's still basically leaving on her own terms. Helen Thomas unceremoniously lost her job within a day or so.

At the same time, how is Patrick Buchanan able to stay on the air, on MSNBC no less? I would argue that comments about Jews are much more of a third rail than comments about other groups, but the whole picture is more complex than a question of who gets offended. To be honest, I suspect that Rick Sanchez's real mistake wasn't what he said about Jon Stewart, and implied about Jews, as much as what he said about "top brass" at CNN. Don't bite the hand that feeds you, regardless of ethnicity.

Grenada's Past
thoughts on helen thomas
more on helen thomas
why don't they talk about bennett the way they talk about farrakhan?
us deports lou dobbs

Phoenix New Times: CNN Fires Rick Sanchez, Hires Eliot Spitzer, World's Most Famous "John"

immortal technique on haiti

I just got turned on to the Russia Times YouTube channel which has a surprising about of hip-hop content, including a series of interviews with political Afro-Peruvian rapper/activist, Immortal Technique. This interview begins and ends with a discussion of Haiti in the wake of the earthquake but also touches on the role of the US in Latin America generally.

brazilian slave results as a form of jihad

The title of The Islamic Slave Revolts of Bahia, Brazil: A Continuity of the 19th Century Jihaad Movements of Western Sudan by Abu Alfa Muhammad Shareef bin Farid is pretty self-explanatory. The link is to a 73-page book on the subject.

hip-hop artistry knows no borders

I was listening to NPR the other day and caught part of an interview with Ana Tijoux. Tijoux is a Chilean rapper, born in France to parents who fled there to escape the Pinochet regime. The interview also mentions Detroit MC, Invincible who has appeared here before. NPR also posted a clip Ana Tijoux: Tiny Desk Concert of Tijoux performing her raps in a small intimate space accompanied only by a single percussionist.

Aside from liking the music and her delivery, the other thing I was struck by is the degree to which hip-hop has become "respectable" in recent times. This year Invincible (Ilana Weaver) was awarded a Kresge Foundation grant. NPR is doing stories on rappers. And PBS is televising hip-hop shows. The times, they are a changing.

Planet Grenada:
invincible / emergence
mos def and k'naan on austin city limits

alianza afro latina islamica / casa a.l.i., inc.

From their website

Our mission is to give men and women released from incarceration or treatment facilities a place where they can live, keep personal property, have access to phone calls, job searches, public assistance programs, parole, and basic needs till they get on their feet.

We give our residents not only a respectable living environment but also guidance on how to conduct themselves, and how to deal with adversity and/or rejection in order to avoid rearrest or denial of employment.

Men and women are given spacious living areas where they don’t feel as if they are in a shelter environment and have to be up at the crack of dawn to leave the facility in search of employment.

Our intake and residential program is six months long with the reserved option of extending that period for three months if necessary for a total maximum of nine months. We also provide them with transportation for them to go to and fro to the places they need to. We residence to ensure their success.

Our After Care Director sees to it that after our residents leave our homes they are not left without a support group to assist them if they encounter difficulties.

Residents successfully completing the program are eligible to return if they encounter difficulties or are unable to maintain gainful employment and stable residence, but only on a case by case basis.

As Afro-Latinos and African-Americans ourselves we have firsthand experience with the effects that lack of decent community assistance programs can have on our neighborhoods so we know our market.

We will be also taking the burden off of government by providing a valuable service and lifting part of the financial burden recidivism, homelessness, and unemployment create.

Our approach is more holistic in the sense that we also provide mentoring through our volunteers and staff, some of whom in the past were incarcerated or underwent treatment at a substance abuse facility but have successfully made the transition into responsible, gainfully employed adults and can now show our residents how they did it in order to have a positive impact on their lives.

I haven't researched them carefully but perhaps when it comes to zakat, or at least sadaqa we could consider organizations like these which have a local impact rather than sending money overseas.

the holiest night of the year for a nuyorican muslim

Killing the Buddha: Better than a Thousand Months by Ashley Makar

latino muslims in america: the rebirth of a community

IslamAmerica: Latino Muslims in America: the Rebirth of a Community by Aaron Siebert-Llera

This paper represents the beginning phases of research originally intended as part of the author's PhD thesis in Sociology at Northwestern University. Aarón/Haroun now attends Loyola Law School in Chicago. His mother is Mexican and his father is Jewish. He converted to Islam two years ago, and considers himself part of the growing community of Latino Muslims in America.

is there islam in latin america?

Muslim Voices: Is there Islam in Latin America? by Rosemary Pennington, Program Coordinator for Voices and Visions is a graduate student in the School of Journalism at Indiana University.


There has been a lot of research and reporting on Muslim populations living in the United States and Europe. That work often centers around issues of identity and integration. And these issues are often portrayed as being unique to the “West.”

What that scholarship and reporting, has often overlooked is that there are Muslim populations in other non-majority Muslim regions. That includes Latin America.

A Social Science Research Council funded project at Florida International University’s Latin American & Caribbean Center is working to educate English speaking scholars and reporters about the Muslim populations in the region.

Beyond The Middle East

“I think Latin America has been one of the forgotten regions because of the Spanish and the Portuguese,” says Project Director Maria Logrono. She says most scholars who study Islam learn Arabic or Persian or focus on a traditional region in which to study the religion. “Most scholars approach the Middle East in area studies, not thinking about the larger geographic borders of it.”

Logrono says English-speaking media often ignore the Muslim populations in Central and South America until something bad happens.

“I guess we can say journalists have approached Islam in Latin America,” Logrono says, “But I think they have approached it only when there’s conflict and tension.”

Logrono says there is certainly tension in some parts of Latin America, especially where Islam chafes against Catholicism, but that’s not true of every country in the region or every Muslim group, either.

“The Muslim populations that you have in Latin America are, and this is especially the case of South America, mainly migrants and converts,” Logrono says. “When it comes to integration … what we have noticed is that Muslim migrants have integrated very well.”

Creolization Of Islam

In fact, there’s some debate whether a kind of “Creole” Islam has begun to develop in places like Brazil and Cuba.

“Scholars working on Islam in Cuba will tell you, ‘Yes, there is actually an attempt at Creolization of Islam, or creating a Cuban Islam,’ in which something as unthinkable as eating pork may be something that Muslims in Cuba are considering.”

Logrono and her project staff have been working on a short documentary for the last year about Islam in the region. It’s limited in scope, focusing on Argentina and Brazil, but Logrono hopes it will give viewers a taste of what life is like for Latin American Muslims.

“We went and filmed communities and their gatherings and their practices and their histories to show the diversity of Muslim communities in Latin America,” she says. “Because we couldn’t accomplish all Latin America…what we tried to do is take two of the most representative places but obviously trying to open questions for debate and, hopefully, for future research.”

You can find more find more information about Logrono’s work as well as view photos and the documentary at the project’s website.

mami el negro (el africano) part two

Out of historical interest and a desire for completeness, here is THE ORIGINAL version of "El Africano" (which is the only one I've heard with a female vocalist)



And an interview with Calixto Ochoa about the story behind the song:



See also:
mami el negro esta rabioso (el africano)

sotomayor and the long march of puerto rican history

Of America: Justicia!: Sotomayor and the Long March of Puerto Rican History