The Wall Street Journal reports:

“Increasingly, big brands are deciding that people once thought too poor to buy their products may be their biggest growth market. Now McCann is launching a $2 million research project to seek clues to tapping demand among Latin America’s less-well-off.

Starting in March, staffers will spend a week to two weeks living with 100 low-income families in a half-dozen countries, including Colombia, Chile and Mexico, looking to understand how they are influenced by brands, what symbols and celebrities motivate them, and to find innovative ways to influence what they buy.”

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Get your tickets now for Mariachi USA. Veronica & I have gone to this concert twice now - it is really a mariachi lover’s dream. All the things you could want: a summer night, the Hollywood Bowl, live Mariachi music, and all of the gritas, “ahuas” and “ayaiyai”s that you could ask for.

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“I said a little prayer on that last drive,” Manning said. “I don’t know if you’re supposed to pray for stuff like that, but I said a little prayer.”

In sports fervor, I can appreciate both the prayer & the humility to designate the overall priority of his prayer as little. But what a great win for the Colts. I’m not saying God is on their side (should God chose sides in sports?) but I was certainly rooting for the Colts to finally get past the Patriots into the Super Bowl. And I hope they win it all. That’s what I’ll be praying for.

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(more…)

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When the police helicopter wakes up my daughter at 1am, will they come back to put her back to sleep? I’m guessing no, since its almost 3am and I’ve heard no knocks on the door. We heard what sounded like gunshots at just around midnight. Isabel didn’t wake up for that, probably since it sounded like it was a block or two away. So we called 911, and then went to sleep. Then around 1:15, the ghettobird started circling - again, probably a block or two away - but that did cause her to wake up. Not frightened or anything. Just awake. It was gone by about 1:45, but she still wasn’t.

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Every since my jury duty service last June, I’ve been thinking a lot about gangs in Los Angeles. Prevention. Intervention. Detention. Suppression. I’ve read some interesting articles in the last few weeks that have spurned my thinking.

This one from LA Weekly focused on the city’s council’s $100 million gang prevention/intervention program - LA Bridges. They mostly focus on some of the major failings & shortcomings of the program - some serious needs that need to be addressed.

There was an interesting response to that article in a later LA Weekly (read here). One thing I hadn’t thought about regarding gangs was this:

“Psychologists and professionals will tell you these days that the gang lifestyle is a learned antisocial behavior that our youth can quickly become obsessed with, especially when family and community members all too often turn a blind eye to it. This “behavior,” which has a whole different set of morals, can also in many ways parallel the disease concept of many popular addictions, such as alcohol, drugs and gambling.”

I had no idea about the parallels with chemical or behavioral addictions.

Then the LA Times has published several recent articles on gang-activity & law enforcement in Los Angles, including this one that cites a recent report calling for a new gang czar to coordinate a comprehensive plan to battle the gang issues in LA. “After a quarter century of a multibillion-dollar war on gangs, there are six times as many gangs and at least double the number of gang members in the region,” the report states. And this one that talk about the challenges facing that plan.

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Because according to new reports, by mid-2008 the majority of the world will live in the city. Worth noting:

Of the 3 billion people who live in cities today, about 1 billion are in slums without clean water, adequate toilet facilities, or durable housing. Some 1.6 million urban dwellers - many if not most of them children - die each year due to causes associated with the lack of clean water and sanitation.

“For a child living in a slum, disease and violence are daily threats, while education and healthcare are often a distant hope,” says Molly O’Meara Sheehan, project director of Worldwatch’s 2007 report, a collection of articles and graphics produced annually since 1984.

Read more here

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Thanks to Ensie - a new Boyle Heights resident - found out about a new place to check out here in East LA - a bakery/coffee shop called Cakewalk on 1st (between Mission & Boyle). Their open from 8am-2pm, so I’m going to check them out today.

What was disappointing was reading this review of Cakewalk from the Downtown LA News. The bulk of the review is average enough - describing the menu, highlighting the desserts, persuading the reader to check it out. What is frustrating is the subtle or not so subtle dig at life in East LA. Or life on the other side of the river, as the article’s intro points out.

As a rule, Downtowners are loathe to go east of the Los Angeles River. There are exceptions: the biannual trip to La Serenata de Garibaldi for example, the fine Mexican restaurant just over the First Street bridge. But the psychological barrier is strong.

For one, it has nothing to do with the review of Cakewalk. Besides this cheap jab, there is nothing else in the article related to the store being in East LA.  Especially remarkable because that section of East LA is on the up & up.

But mostly, it bothers me hearing comments like that about East LA.  Not because there aren’t things about this neighborhood to be concerned by, but because most of the people that I read or hear making the comments haven’t personally experienced any of the negative things of which they speak.

In that way, it really is just a psychological barrio, I mean, barrier.  Without any Polyanna naivete, I’ve lived here for over 7 years without any more problems than a foul-mouthed tirade of a drunken neighbor. Maybe it is just easier to separate life into “the good” and “the bad” - the right side of the tracks and the other side.  But the world that I see & live in & work & play in, the good & the bad usually live next door to each other, if not in the same house.

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Via Vivirlatino.com - Scholarship opportunities for Latino college students: documented & otherwise.

Printed copies will be distributed through the Sallie Mae Fund’s national “paying for college” bus tour, which launches its California tour today. Additional scholarship directories will be distributed by the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute, and by the Hispanic Scholarship Fund at their programs throughout Southern California.

Download a copy of the directory at LatinoCollegeDollars.org. FYI - looks like this is just for California Latinos. Don’t know if that means going to school in California, graduated from H.S. in California, or just California dreaming.

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My law-school friend Mark sent me this link to a CSM story on the 20 year anniversary of the 1986 congressional “amnesty” program that ultimately allowed 3 million immigrants to gain residency or citizenship.

“An amnesty cleans people who have broken the law,” says former US Rep. Romano Mazzoli (D) of Kentucky. He and former US Sen. Alan Simpson (R) of Wyoming were the primary architects and cosponsors of IRCA. “But in our bill, you had to prove that you were a law-abiding person who honored the institutions of our country…. So you can take your pick of euphemisms, but if you use the word ‘amnesty,’ people will get angry, throw their hands up in the air, and scream: ‘They’re rewarding people for misbehaving!’ “

While I respect an aspect of the “law-abiding society” argument of the anti-immigration rhetoric, it has always bothered me how willing those same folks are to either turn a blind eye or just raise their hands in ambivalence to the law-breaking employers that hire undocumented workers and often pay below a legal wage. (Not to mention the social benefit to prices from all of those products & services).

William King Jr., was the Western regional director of the US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and responsible for carrying out the amnesty program. He says that he had hope that the legislation would work at first. But IRCA was a three-legged stool, he says. One leg was employer sanctions, another was increased border security, and the third was the amnesty program. “In truth, only the amnesty program became a fact,” he says, and the effort failed.

I think that three-legged stool is the only legitimate means by which the current immigration dilemma can be tackled. To address the issue from only 1 or 2 legs means we’ll only end up on our a$&es.

P.S. Family experience does add to my view of the ‘86 amnesty. Some members of my family rightly & legally benefited from it, a few others wrongly & fraudulently benefited from it, and even others wrongly & inexplicably were tossed under the bus despite meeting all of the requirements and goals. I’m not sure how to interpret that - all systems have their holes. But whatever it says, the immigration debate is not mere theory or simple political machination (see here for “machination”).

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While I had hoped to spend some time during the holidays updating my blog & making some design changes… that didn’t happen.  But I’m back blogging again, so look for the changes in the next few weeks.  As I come to the end of my sabbatical and return to campus in February, look to see this blog continue to morph.  Not anything drastic, but you can expect a lot of the content to center around the following (but not always related) themes: following Jesus, the Bible, etc.; Los Angeles, life in Boyle Heights, ghetto birds, etc.; college students and campus life; sports; and my beautiful daughter, Isabel and the joys & sorrows of raising a daughter with cerebral palsy.  More on all of that to come….

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HT: Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council email

The Olvera Street Merchants
invite you to
Las Posadas
         A Candlelight Procession

December 16 -24, 2006, 7:30 pm nightly
Entertainment begins at 6:00 pm

     Champurrado  *  Pan Dulce  *  Piñata

For information call:
(213) 625-7074 or (213) 485-8372

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Check this out this weekend, if you can:

Josefina Lopez, author of Real Women Have Curves, and Courage Productions invite you to celebrate the voices and visions of Latina filmmakers in the second annual Boyle Heights Latina Independent Film Extravaganza (BHLIFE).

(more…)

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This is one of the frustrations of being a neighbor in the ‘hood - loud weekend parties.  One of our neighbors is starting to major in them.  Unfortunately, their back yard siets right underneath my daughter’s window.  To add to the tension, we’ve tried - unsuccessfully - to talk with them directly about being quieter.

So should I just make noise complaints to the police?  Are there any other options?

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…before becoming the parent of a child with special needs. But this is the kind of stuff I’ll be paying lots of attention to now.

The 6th annual week of celebration of and advocacy for inclusion in U.S. schools is scheduled for December 4-8, and materials are available now on the National Inclusive Schools Week site to help you mark the week in your area. Among the resources are a Celebration Kit, applications for a national Poster/Essay Contest with prizes donated by Scholastic, sample letters to the editor to customize and send to your local paper, and suggestions for making a donation of money or items needed.

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My friend & former student Luz Cardenas has been working as the Job Development Manager for Our Savior Center, a multi-service assistance agency in El Monte. She basically has started their job development program from scratch in just the last year and a half.

Anyway, I just got this email from her about a training program for domestic help:

“Holidays are great: Parties, time with family and friends, great tasting food and of course presents! This year instead of wearing yourself thin in preparation, save yourself time and energy by hiring a Rescate Su Casa housekeeper. Allow the days to feel like holidays and less like work
The Job center at Our Saviour Center in El Monte has just graduated a new group of hard working women ready to make your life easier this holiday season. The Rescate Su Casa program is a housecleaning service designed to train and employ women who are seeking domestic work.

After our workers complete a three-day training, we match their skills and experience with housecleaning assignments offered by individuals in the San Gabriel Valley area and beyond. They have been trained with the same training materials as Molly Maids, and have completed our very own hands-on training curriculum.

If you would like to consider giving the gift of a clean home to a friend or loved one, to yourself or would enjoy having an extra hand around the house for the set up, tear down and/or hosting of a party, please give Our Saviour Center a call. Happy Holidays!”

If you might be interested, give them a call - whether for the holidays or not.

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So, for the 3rd time this season - yes, a 3rd time - I get to go see the live taping of the show “Dancing with the Stars.” Only tonight is the finale!!!

There has been a lot of buzz about this show (read here, and here) for all of the ratings it is drawing in. Should be a lot of fun.

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Cine Sin Fin ~ 12th Annual East L.A. CHICANO Film Festival
Go to: www.alabrava. com <http://www.alabrava .com/> for more information. Presented by: A La Brava Producciones Revolucionarias, Inc and the following locations:

(more…)

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“I don’t think there’s any question we cheat our family and our kids,” said George Karl [coach for NBA Denver Nuggets], who will miss son Kobe’s senior night at Boise State this season because of a Nuggets scheduling conflict. “There’s no way you can give quantity to your kids.”

This quote came from an article about a former 2nd overall pick forgoing this season - and about $5 million - to, of all things, have more time with his family. Good thing that only professional athletes & coaches struggle to spend enough time with their family.

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