Urban/Global Politics

I’ve been considering the possibility that to show face in this world means your are in tacit complicity with what is being done in the name of the ruling class. That didn’t used to be true, or maybe claiming so is a convenient way to rationalize an earlier life of preaching to the Downtown choir […]

Update, 5/22 early afternoon: Here’s a nice video from El País. The Spaniards definitely get class struggle, or at least are normalizing the discourse. While way too much attention was given to the End of the World nonsense from the California bible numerologist, the Spanish have apparently taken it upon themselves to kick off “the […]

A week or so ago, on Cinco de Mayo, of course, the Tequila Party was officially launched, and this is its logo. I’m not entirely sure, but it looks like a lime, ripe for use as a chaser, with an American flag painted on it. On the home page, right there on its banner logo, next […]

This is the aerial view of a targeted assassination, one that took inexplicably long to carry out, and one apparently completely unconnected to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. After 10 years of death and suffering of mostly non-Americans in a clumsily prosecuted War on Terror, we get the death of a very high profile […]

I met Robi around ’94-’95 at the Mayflower Hotel near Columbus Circle; he was working with a prolific manager of Mexican rock bands who were also staying there, but he was a man apart, his mind and field of perception racing past me yet still allowing me to speak to him. Instead of the hotel […]

Podía ser que estuviera en La Fonda Boricua Lounge –el semi-famoso Latin jazz antro del Barrio de Nueva York– para olvidarme de algo. Pero no fue así. Cuando los hermanos Andy y Jerry González, el corazón del conjunto llamado Fort Apache, se botaron interpretando el “Nefertiti” de Miles, y quizás más importante, el “Evidence” de Monk, […]

A few weeks ago, Johnny Depp gave a press conference during a junket for his new film Rango, during which he announced that he was no longer in the running to play Pancho Villa in Serbian director Emir Kusturica’s upcoming film about the Mexican revolutionary. “I feel like [he] should be played by a Mexican and not some […]

UPR Chancellor Ana Guadalupe spoke for the first time today reacting to last week’s disturbance during which she was accosted by a group of student demonstrators. She said that there were times she felt her life was in danger, and she struggled with the idea of resigning. But she remains resolute in her position and […]

Unfortunately the clearest result of today’s spontaneous acts of violence and intimidation of University of Puerto Rico chancellor Ana Guadalupe is that, for the moment, the student strike movement has lost the moral high ground. They have also played into the hands of the university administration and the monopoly ruling party by providing a modicum […]

On Wednesday, Puerto Rico governor Luis Fortuño led a rally staged by his party, the New Progressive Party, celebrating the 94th anniversary of the Jones Act, which granted Puerto Ricans U.S. citizenship. “American citizenship is a determining factor in our lives, both individually and collectively,” he said in his message to the gathering. He also […]