Volume XXX Number 03 January 20, 2006

FrontPage Stories

Globalization: A reality show pilot about surviving two weeks as a maquiladora worker

By Luis Alonso Pérez

Do you imagine watching a big time corporate lawyer on television working an exhausting eight hour shift at a foreign-owned maquiladora plant for 60 dollars a week, and living in a wooden shack in one of the poorest shantytowns in Tijuana?

You might not have to wait for hell to freeze over, because the California Western School of Law’s Acceso Project has produced a pilot program called “Globalization: The Reality Show”, which consists in choosing a group of law school students to work in a manufacturing plant south of the border and living on a 60 dollar a week salary.

Student Roxana Castañeda working in a maquiladora.

This project is about letting people know that globalization has its own rules, according to James Cooper, assistant dean at CWSL and director of Proyecto Acceso, an innovative training program designed to promote the rule of law, strengthen the administration of justice, and empower communities through legal education in Latin American countries.

“Why do networks produce a reality show with people trying to survive in Guatemala, when you have Guatemalans trying to survive on the border?” Said Cooper.

The pilot show was produced last summer as a part of the NAFTA summer course at CWSL. Students were invited to take part in this two week video project, the two future lawyers who joined in had to work and live like a regular maquiladora worker, which meant they had to do backbreaking work, live in a wooden hut on the poorest part of town and make ends meet on miserable salaries.

“When they told me what I would be doing I didn’t know if it was an offer or a challenge” said Matt Holt, one of the law school students involved in the project. “I took the job because wanted to see what our neighbors go through so I could understand why people will risk their lives to get here”.

On their first day at the maquiladora Holt was eager to get to work “I’ve never worked in a plastics company before, but from a law office to here it can’t be that hard.”

For the full story please follow this link:



Globalización: Un “reality show” piloto de cómo sobrevivir dos semanas como trabajador de maquiladora
Por Luis Alonso Pérez
¿Se imagina ver en televisión a un importante abogado corporativo trabajando una exhaustiva jornada de ocho horas en una planta maquiladora por 60 dólares a la semana, viviendo en una choza de madera en una de las colonias más pobres de Tijuana?


As Baby Boomers Turn 60, SDSU Struggles to Define Its Gerontology Program
By Michael Klam
In 1946, 3.4 million Americans were born into a country preparing for nuclear Armageddon.


New Watch Group is created in Chula Vista
Northwest Civic Association to focus on development issues
By José A. Álvarez
For the past two years, two Chula Vista groups have been actively monitoring and voicing their concerns on the City’s plans for new developments and redevelopments. They will soon be getting help from a third watch group. The Northwest Civic Association is being created to keep an eye on the City’s new General Plan, which calls for an increase in housing units in the Northwest, Chula Vista’s oldest and most historic area.


Stories

2005: The Year Hatred Went Mainstream Along U.S.-Mexico Border
EDITOR’S NOTE: Christian Ramirez is the director of the American Friends Service Commitee in San Diego, a human rights organization offering job placement, legal advice and housing leads to undocumented people crossing into the U.S.
By Cliff Parker And Carolyn Goosen
Question: Describe growing up three miles north of the U.S./Mexico Border.


Women Migrants on the Move
(Editor’s Note: Part Two of a two-part series about a new report by Mexican researchers Blanca Villaseñor and Jose Moreno Mena. Today’s story reports on the migration of women)
For a long time, Mexican women took care of the home and even tended the farm while the men traveled across the border to labor in El Norte. Today the migration pattern is changing, as Mexican researchers Blanca Villaseñor and Jose Moreno Mena point out in their report “Women Migrants on the Northern Border.” Villaseñor and Mena utilized data from Mexico’s National Migration Institute (INM) about repatriated and deported women in Mexicali to report their findings. “Female migration has increased significantly in recent years,” conclude the two authors. “More and more adult women and minors are actively joining the migration process.”


Análisis
¡Se terminó el encanto…!
por: Dagoberto Márquez
Estimado lector, fina lectora, resulta difícil el concentrarse en el análisis o en la disección de algún asunto, por importante que sea, habiendo tantos y tan variados a tal grado que uno ya no sabe ni para donde atisbar, sobre todo cuando inicia un nuevo ciclo, un año nuevo o un nuevo ejercicio.


All it took: Two Vagabonds and a Van
By Katia Lopez-Hodoyan
They left it all in search for the intangible. They sold their belongings, quit their jobs and said farewell to their family members. Traveling the world was their goal, yet uncertainty lingered. They had no tour guides, hotel reservations or bus schedules but somehow it all felt right.


LA COLUMNA VERTEBRAL
Por Luisa Fernanda Montero
A palabras sabias oídos sordos
Violatoria de los derechos humanos, estúpida, loca, desafortunada, draconiana, improcedente y por supuesto antiinmigrante. Así ha sido calificada la impopular propuesta de ley del republicano por Wisconsin, James Sesembrenner, que pretende criminalizar el concepto de la inmigración ilegal y castigar, no sólo a los infractores, si no a sus familias y a todo el que ose tenderles una mano.


You Worked Hard For Your Money…Congressman Bob Filner and Our Certified Tax Preparers Can Help You Get It Back!
MAAC Project’s Family Asset Building Program, Casa Familiar, and Community HousingWorks, in partnership with the San Diego Family Asset Building Coalition, the County of San Diego Health & Human Services, and IRS launched its 2006 Volunteer Income Tax Assistance campaign.


IRS Investiga Injustamente A Los Trabajadores Pobres De La Comunidad Latina
El pasado martes, los principales medios de comunicación del país anunciaron que el Departamento de Delincuencia del Internal Revenue Services (IRS pos sus siglas en inglés) puso en su punto de mira injustamente a 1,6 millones de contribuyentes que se definen como trabajadores pobres. El IRS bloqueó la devolución de impuestos a estas familias trabajadoras, lo que causó un retraso promedio de al menos ocho meses para recibir lo que podría llegar a ser el 25% del total de sus ingresos.


IRS Unfairly Targets The Working Poor In Latino Community
Major media outlets throughout the country recently revealed that the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) criminal division unfairly targeted 1.6 million working poor taxpayers. The IRS froze these hardworking families’ refunds, causing an average delay of at least eight months of what could be up to 25% of their total income.


Make your bids!
By Pablo Jaime Sainz
“Who gives me five dollars for this television?” asks Enrique Ezparza to the group of people around him.


¿Quién da más?
Por Pablo Jaime Sainz
“¿Quién me da cinco dólares por esta televisión?” pregunta Enrique Esparza al grupo de personas a su alrededor.


Editorials

Editorial:
Mayor Sanders State of the City Speech Mostly Disappoints
It has been a week since Mayor Jerry Sanders’ State of the City speech. There were no real surprises in his speech. After years of bad news, this was a speech that had already been written by circumstances and it was just a matter of delivery. In that sense, Sanders delivered the speech with aplomb.


National City Spotlight:
The Politico Flu Season hits National City
By Ted Godshalk
A computer’s spell check is not always to be trusted. For example, “tired for the offense,” may be allowed when “tried for the offense” was truly meant. Sometimes you must dictionaire the words in a piece of writing. One of my recent articles was run through a spell check and out popped “influenza” for “Inzunza.” No, I told the computer, the man’s name is spelled correctly. This computer spell check misinterpretation, however, did make me think for a moment about the flu. The Bird Flu, in particular. This extremely dangerous illness has been in the news lately; it is poised to run rampant across the Earth. As epidemics go, this one appears to be a very serious one. Less serious to the global population but of concern here at home, is the epidemic in the National City Mayor’s office. Nick Inzunza is certainly having a reaction to the news about his derelict properties. Inzunza has the Politico Flu.


Commentary:
Is This The Congress We Want?
By Lee Hamilton
Imagine that you pick up a newspaper story about one of the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe. Reading it, you can’t help but chuckle over how much of the old regime lingers in the supposedly “democratic” national legislature.


Comentario:
Violación a los derechos civiles
Por Humberto Caspa, Ph.D
Existe una amplia contradicción entre lo que el presidente George W. Bush dice de la democracia en nuestro país y lo realmente ocurre en él. Mientras Bush se jacta de que tenemos un sistema político ecuánime, él es el primero en quebrantar nuestras libertades ciudadanas y derechos civiles.


Commentary:
Finally, a Latina anchor on network news
By Ed Morales
On Jan. 2, ABC made history.


Comentario:
Deteniendo el Sueño
Por Meizhu Lui
Hace cincuenta años, Rosa Parks se negó a ceder su asiento en un autobús en Montgomery, Alabama. Este gesto fue el catalizador de eventos históricos.

Commentary:
Cuyamaca College Stands on Its Performance
By Jan Ford
We, the faculty at Cuyamaca College, understand the frustration of our colleagues at Grossmont College at the loss of their president, Ted Martinez. We feel compelled, however, to correct the serious misinformation presented about our college in the recent “Commentary on the Firing of Ted Martinez” (January 6, 2006) by Grossmont College Academic Senate President Beth Smith. Consider the achievements of Cuyamaca College in recent years. (All of the following is a matter of public record.)

The Public Forum . . . El Foro Público
Why wait ten months?
Why is it that National City Mayor Inzunza needs to wait ten months to end his political career? He is already finished and should resign immediately. The mayor has hurt the poorest of the poor for his financial gain. People of National City do not want this type of individual representing our city and families. I cannot believe that for one minute he did not know the conditions of his properties.


Etc. Etc. Etc.
Entertainment, Reviews, Sporting news, and other tid bits

Retail Hell #5: Hell is the Kids’ Department
Seeking books for a girl about six years old that featured generic heroines with dark skin
By Kat Avila
The children’s section at the bookstore where I work is the “black hole” in the universe of my co-workers. It’s where old people go to die, judging from the general age of those scheduled to work there, including myself.


El Premio Nacional “Sol de Oro” fue Otorgado a Angelita Capetillo Cantante de Ranchero Tijuanense
Por: Paco Zavala
Tijuana, para muchos es la ciudad increíble, ¿Por qué?, por su fisonomía, porque detrás de cada colina de que se compone se encuentra un asentamiento humano indistinto, porque está compuesta por inmigrantes del propio país azteca y de diversos contornos del mundo actual, porque es una ciudad inquieta, hace mucho tiempo de vida nocturna muy activa y también porque es una fábrica permanente de talentos en todas las actividades que se puedan concebir.


Presentarán Regio Primer Concierto del Festival Mainly Mozart Internacional 2006
Por: Paco Zavala
Programan presentar el Primer Concierto de Gala de la Temporada del año 2006 del Festival Mainly Mozart Internacional, el que será acompañado musicalmente por la Orquesta de Cámara Mainly Mozart, dirigida por David Atherton, con Ida Levin y Martín Califlour, (violines) y que están promoviendo la Promotora de Bellas Artes y el Centro Cultural Tijuana, y que llevarán a efecto en la Sala de Espectáculos, el próximo jueves 26 de enero a las 8:00 pm.


Macuilxochitl's Kiva
CD Reviews.....
By Francisco H. Ciriza
Fernando Osorio
Debe Ser
Respek/Universal


Arte y Pureza, flamenco in San Diego
Arte y Pureza, a critically acclaimed flamenco company direct from Seville, Spain will open its 2006 season and U.S. tour with a one-night-only performance at Mandeville Auditorium at the University of California, San Diego campus, Sunday, January 29, at 7 p.m.


VAMOS AL CINE
El fin de la mitología
Underworld: Evolution llega a su segunda y evidente ultima parte.
Por Jose Daniel Bort
Lo dicen los creadores en Hollywood: si eres capaz de inventar una mitología y que sea aceptada por el público, eres millonario. Sino, pregúntenle a George Lucas o los hermanos Wachoski, creadores de “The Matrix”. Esto es exactamente lo que tenían en mente Len Wiseman y su equipo de colaboradores cuando crearon el mundo de Underworld.


Sweetwater’s Jimenez on a Goal Scoring Rampage
By John Philip Wyllie
Despite the fact that the high school soccer season is just beginning league play, Sweetwater High School’s Jenny Jimenez has already scored an amazing 24 goals. That makes her the second most prolific goal scorer in the entire county. Not bad considering that Jimenez is still attending Granger Junior High as the lone ninth grader on the Red Devils rapidly improving 8-4-1 team.

El dinero recaudado se utiliza para la renovación de canchas de básquetbol en México
NBA y Spalding renuevan una cancha de básquetbol en México como parte de la iniciativa ‘Es Tu Cancha’
NBA Latin América anunció en días pasados que reveló una cancha de básquetbol completamente renovada en la zona de Cuauhtemoc en el Distrito Federal el pasado 13 de enero del 2006 como parte del programa ‘Es Tu Cancha’, un programa comunitario que se enfoca en la renovación de canchas de básquetbol en vecindarios de escasos recursos alrededor del país. La renovación en Cuauhtemoc es la segunda que la NBA realiza en México con la idea de entregar un lugar seguro y atractivo para la práctica de este deporte. La primera cancha renovada se entregó el 23 de julio del 2005 en el Módulo Deportivo Cañitas, parte de la Delegación Miguel Hidalgo en Ciudad de México.

Bullfight World
By Lyn Sherwood
Showdown at the Insurgentes Corral
The sun was setting as the two gangs of gunslingers rode into town, one group from the south, the other from the north. They eyed each other, suspiciously, as they tethered their horses to the hitching post, threw open the swinging doors, and entered the bar.


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