200 Cartas, a film about the Nuyorican/Puerto Rican experience, is coming this September! You’ve probably already read this feature about the clever way the producers raised money to make the film through “product placement and brand partnerships.” Let’s not kid ourselves–bringing in corporate partners to support “the arts” is an essential strategy in today’s globalized […]
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Puerto Rico: Statehood or Enhanced Partiarchy?
The above is a sequence of Puerto Rico governor Alejandro García Padilla answering questions during last week’s hearing at the Senate Committee of Energy and Natural Resources dedicated to resolving the territorial status of Puerto Rico. (Why that committee? Well Puerto Rico is not a state, nor a sovereign nation. It’s a “natural resource” of […]
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Edward Snowden and the Chilling Effect
Edward Snowden is now safely ensconced somewhere in Russia as the result of his one-year asylum deal, something that will probably afford him the opportunity to collect himself after weeks in an airport holding lounge. Most likely in a room somewhere that isn’t under some kind of surveillance, or, according to conspiracy theorists, back in […]
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My Name Is Carlos
The farcical furor over Anthony Weiner’s candidacy for the mayor of New York has opened up another Pandora’s box containing the tortured narrative of American sexuality, as well as the problematic world of machismo and Latino masculinity, my tenuous relation to them, and the way sexism and racism keep vying to remain at the top […]
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The Circular Logic of a Puerto Rican Juror
The Good Morning America interview of juror B-29, a/k/a Maddy, has revealed an even more tangled web that symbolizes America’s complex racial landscape. While Maddy’s stunning assertion that George Zimmerman “got away” with murder in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, ambiguous nature of Latino’s racial identity was thrust into the spotlight. At various points during the […]
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New Wave Conservative Labrador Gets Good PR
I’m not sure if you’ve wasted your time reading this press release about Tea Party bobo Raúl Labrador (R-Idaho) in the Huffington Post, but if you did you might have wondered whether you were reading the arch-right Daily Caller instead. After all, it quotes word for word the same passage about el bravo Raúl fighting back against MSNBC’s effete […]
Read moreGeorge Zimmerman: Creepy Ass Molester?
Listening to Randi Rhodes earlier today I was reminded of this particular story, which was extremely disturbing when I read it, but, because of the modern miracle of disallowed testimony, it seems most of us have forgotten about it. The story reported by Trymaine Lee, who was on staff at the New York Times before […]
Read moreNo Justice?
The strangely contradictory world of Eric Holder and the US Department of Justice continues to get stranger and more contradictory by the minute. Just today, for example, he is being lauded as a hope for bringing civil rights charges against the acquitted George Zimmerman (something that may prove difficult, if not impossible), while also speaking […]
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Wedding Reality Show Bombs Vieques
We spent all that time protesting all over the country and in Vieques itself to force the Navy to stop using it as target practice for this? Tomorrow, July 17th, the TLC channel will be premiering a “reality” show called Wedding Island, which is set on la Isla Nena. The show, which is basically a vehicle […]
Read moreStanding Our Ground: The Concealed Truth of the Zimmerman Verdict
It’s easy to think that this is the look of a man who just got away with murder, but rather than get carried away with the negative emotions associated with that, there are many larger issues surrounding George Zimmerman’s acquittal that are troublesome for what is left of America’s fraying social fabric. While there was […]
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ED MORALES 