NO THANKS, NO GIVING!

LEAVING THE NEST

YOU LEFT
NEST'S BEREFT
ROOMS UNOCCUPIED
RHYTHMS
HOLD
SCENTS
BELONGING
TO YOU
STICKS AND
STONES
BONES OF
OLD LYRICS
LONG AGO
ALTARS
PROMISING
THE MAN
YOU ARE
TODAY

Copyright © 2007 Odilia Galván Rodríguez.  All Rights Reserved.

FRIDA

FRIDA

freedom

from farces

straight talkin'

bleeding heart

lived in a war

but opened doors

for other women

images of your reality

a surreal shadow

dreams of children

while raising a man

standing for principles of

libertad without a trace

of it ever coming home

where did you go

your heart an open trench

wrenched in the pain of loss

a cross to bear and wear 

in fists closed 

around a paintbrush

you fragrant flower of Mexico

too overpowering for some

for others not strong enough

to leave the frog in his big pond

your kiss made him a crown prince

Copyright © 2007 Odilia Galván Rodríguez.  All Rights Reserved.

SUPPORT ELVIRA ARELLANO!!!

AFP Photo


A CALL TO SUPPORT THE CASE OF ELVIRA ARELLANO
Stand in solidarity with all immigrants, documented and undocumented

The IAC urges you to support the case of Elvira Arellano. Elvira is an undocumented worker who is taking a heroic stand against deportations and fighting for her rights. She is a native of Michoacán, Mexico who came to the U.S. like many of the other 12 million undocumented in this country, in search of work and a better life.

In 2002, Elvira was detained by Homeland Security agents in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sweep at O’Hare Airport in Chicago under the guise of allegedly looking for “terrorists”. She was detained by the Department of Homeland Security for using a false social security number on her job at O’Hare.

On August 18, 2006 Elvira Arellano and her seven year old son, Saul who is a US citizen, took sanctuary in Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago instead of reporting for deportation, primarily because Saul has health problems. She has pledged to live indefinitely in the church until granted a reprieve.

Elvira is a well known activist, representing many families in Congressional hearings and speaking on behalf of immigrant rights. She worked to organize in July 2005 a march of 50,000 for immigrant rights in Chicago, and went on a hunger strike to support workers who were picked up by ICE prior to the historic May 1st boycott in 2006. Arellano was a founder of both La Familia Latina Unida and the Coalition of African Arab Asian European and Latino Immigrants of Illinois (CAAAELII).

The case of Elvira Arellano is a just case

Elvira Arellano has become the symbol of resistance to the heartless and callous deportations that are sweeping the country. Despite a legislative standstill in Congress, not only are deportations escalating, local officials around the nation are implementing de facto immigration policy that amount to a witch-hunt against immigrants. A case in point is the anti-immigrant ordinance that passed in July in Hazelton, PA.

Due to her heroic stand, a group of Black ministers spoke last week at Adalberto Methodist of the comparisons of Arellano to Rosa Parks. Reverend Albert Tyson said he hopes “their support would increase the bonds between Latinos and African-Americans.” At the meeting Arellano said, “I don’t only speak for me and my son, but for millions of families like mine.” Supporters from the predominantly Puerto Rican neighborhood chanted, “Luchando mano y mano, Boriqua y Mexicano!” (“Fighting hand in hand, Puerto Rican and Mexican!”)

Elvira Arellano is the perfect example that the anti-immigrant hysteria sweeping the country is an inhumane situation that has become intolerable. The human rights of immigrants are being cruelly violated under the guise of fighting terrorism or stopping “illegal” immigration. In fact, no human being is illegal and whether in the U.S. documented or undocumented, immigrants have a right to live in peace, without fear of evictions from their homes or the country.

How you can help Elvira:

1. Write letters to Illinois Senators Richard Durbin and Barack Obama as well as your own legislator urging them to prevent her deportation.

For Senator Durbin visit: http://durbin.senate.gov/contact.cfm#contact
For Senator Obama: http://obama.senate.gov/contact/index.php

2. Send Letters to the Chicago Sun Times and the Chicago Tribune asking them to stop demonizing Elvira as well as all immigrants. Their emails are letters@suntimes.com and ctc-tribletter@tribune.com.

3. Send letters of support directly to Elvira at the organization she works with and who has been spearheading her support, Sin Fronteras at Centro Sin Fronteras 2300 S. Blue Island Ave., Chicago IL 60608 or visit the website: www.legalizationyes.com. For Spanish speakers visit:
www.legalizacionsi.com

WE WANT PEACE, WAR NO MORE

PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST

I can not get it through my head why we as a nation would prefer war to peace.

Can anyone explain this to me in any real way so that I can wrap my head around it and agree.

I do not think any mother in this country wants her child dead, can't want her child killing other peoples children either.

This is a call for all mothers of the United States of America, for all the mothers of the world to stand up and say, "Basta Ya! Peace in the Middle East, Peace in the World!"

Ase, Ase, Ase O!

HUNAB KU

gateway

door

portal

more

galaxies

exist

beyond

moon

y olorun

hunab ku

la puerta

siempre

abierta es

incierta solo

por nuestra

ignorancia

insaciable y

materialista

sky serpents

fly freely while

deluges spew

from their mouths

washing away

doubts and

worlds

end in

frozen rain

not fire

© Odilia Galvan Rodriguez, 2006

Cross At Your Own Risk

there are many
iron curtains
being built every day to
keep out scapegoats
wannabe workers or
people whose ancestor's
hearts are buried in
the [red] brown earth
on the other side
walls displace souls
undocumented in a
new apartheid world
[white] only right but
a [blues] beat blasts 
and might those lines be drawn
as militarized zones 
while zombies do the bidding
of same masters and their
banners of irrelevance
some cold wars are deadlier and
cowards hide behind
masks of all kinds

Copyright © 2006 Odilia Galván Rodríguez.  All Rights Reserved.

 

Margarita's Letter to George Bush

Twelve year old Margarita Rodriguez has a campaign to collect one-million signatures on a letter to George W. Bush, because she's heard that thousands of immigrants could be arrested, charged with felonies and deported along with their children, who incidentally were born here, if they are caught living undocumented here in the US. I think this is a noble effort by one so young and deserves all of our attention. It makes me sick to think that children have to be worried about being rounded up, humiliated and treated lord knows how -- all because their parents chose to come here looking for a better life.

Then there is the whole issue about why come here looking for a better life? What is so bad about Mexico, Central and South America or other immigrant's countries of origin, that makes people risk their lives to come here under very scary conditions? Most of the time people trying to reach our land paved with gold have to deal with some very unscrupulous or unsavory characters like the so-called coyotes (people who illegally smuggle folks across borders for a living) who have not only been known to take peoples money and then leave them stranded in the desert, or in some abandoned truck with no water, food or ventilation, or even worse, have outright murdered them. This business is a sad state of affairs with all kinds of crooks involved and so it makes one wonder why anyone would take such risks. However, if you visit these countries you start to get a sense of what is really going on. Globalization has not only brought more poverty and suffering there but also the propaganda about supposedly just how great it is to live in the US of A, shown via cable TV, has reached almost every corner of this globe. One can experience the promise of bling bling right in their own homes!

Laws like NAFTA (the North American Fair Trade Agreement) which was touted as the answer, to bring jobs and other opportunities to Mexico, has done nothing of the sort, rather it has only made the rich richer and the poor, well you know. The gutting of resources of "third world" countries by the super powers has gone on for too long and it is going to take leaders like Chavez, Morales, Bachelet and Da Silva to start to make a difference in their own countries. This will not be easy at all as there has been over 500 years of pillaging and plunder. Hopefully we will also be seeing a regime change in Mexico, the presidential elections are coming up in July, which will start to make a difference there. In the meantime we need some immigration laws that work. Making families felons or putting up bigger and uglier fences is not the answer at all.

If you want to help little Margarita Rodriguez get her message across to Bush please go to the page given above, click on the title of this post, and sign it. While I think much more has to be done, it's great that this child decided to take action to protect herself and her family and/or friends and community and it is important to support young people who are trying to make a difference in our world. It is also important to support the people who were brought here on false pretenses and promises because their was little or no hope of a job in their own countries due in large part to our economic systems that feed off of theirs!