Monday, October 22, 2012

Chaneques en la Baja California


“Yo iba manejando por la carretera en el Estado de Puebla, de noche, cuando hice parada debajo de un puente. De repente aparecieron decenas de seres pequeños; salieron de las sombras. Yo los vi claramente a través del parabrisas. Comenzaron a brincar sobre mi coche, riéndose como locos. Al otro día vimos que el vehículo todavía traía las marcas de sus pies diminutos…”

* * * *
“Crecí en un pueblo pequeño, por la Costa Chica de Oaxaca. De niña, vi los chaneques en varias ocasiones. Una vez iba caminando al lado del río con mi hermana menor y oímos unas voces extrañas; estaban hablando en una lengua desconocida para nosotras. Miramos hacia la orilla del río y vimos dos chaneques—una hembra y un varón—sentados en el suelo, platicando entre sí. Me dio mucho miedo, pues sabía que esos animales hacen maldad. Entonces agarré una piedra, la bendije en el nombre de la Virgen, y se la aventé a los chaneques para espantarlos…”


Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Really, Oliver Stone?? A movie review of "Savages"

“I have seen much of the rest of the world. It is brutal and cruel and dark. Rome is the light.”

-Maximus Aurelius, Gladiator




North American drug dealers are noble, altruistic men with chiseled abs and beautiful hair. They develop personal relationships with the ill people who need their medical marijuana. They spend their free time setting up water purification systems in sub-Saharan Africa. They are sensitive souls, pained by the violence implicit in their trade.

Mexican drug dealers are brutal sadists who torture people, rape women, set men on fire, and chop civilians’ heads off.

At least, this is what Oliver Stone’s film Savages would have us believe. 


Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Cannibals and Savages: Racism and images of Haiti




A link to one of my latest articles published, in a Canadian magazine titled "Canadian Dimension". A discussion of racism in perceptions of Haiti, framed through my personal encounter with a dickhole missionary.

http://canadiandimension.com/articles/4879/

Cannibals and Savages: Racism and images of Haiti

“…the black man in his own home is a barbarian and a beast…when emancipated and removed from the crushing competition of a superior race he…descends step by step down to the original depths of his ignorant and savage instincts…” - The New Orleans Bee, 1861.[1]

A Dark Country

The passengers in the Miami airport terminal had self-segregated, the Haitians occupying one end of the room while various groups of foreign volunteers and church workers congregated at the opposite end. The largest group of missionaries, apparently from the Midwestern United States, wore matching powder-blue t-shirts which fit snugly across the flabby breasts of the men and women in the group...

CLICK HERE TO READ ENTIRE ARTICLE