Saturday, September 25, 2010

New story, new SW art & new Mexican revolution?

La Bloga's Dan Olivas has a new story in the online litmag, Pinstripe Fedora, entitled, Things We Do Not Talk About. The issue is in PDF format with a nice design. Check it out here.

Museo de las Americas presents...

From the Earth
October 14, 2010 6:00 p.m.

at the Museo, 861 Santa Fe Dr., Denver

Free admission


The Museo de las Americas presents From the Earth, an exhibit featuring the work of ten artists from the Southwest whose materials, processes and disciplines come directly from the land where they live. Every day of their respective lives, they honor ancient American connectedness to the Earth.

They carry the understanding that all the Earth is a gift, nothing is truly owned and all is to be honored. Artists include, Eppie Archuleta and her daughter, Norma Medina, Lorena Banyacya, Lorraine Herder, Sharlyn Sanchez, Gloria Lopez Cordova, Manuel Chavarria Denet, Juan Quezada, Lawrence Namoki, Vern Nieto, and Walking Thunder. Curators Rogelio Briones and Maruca Salazar.


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The revolution might not be televised, but it might start in . . .


Excerpted from Frontera NorteSur:

An attempted kidnapping Sept. 21 in the northern Mexican state of
Chihuahua touched off a burst of mass outrage that left two suspected young kidnappers dead and a small town in open rebellion. While details are sketchy, the events began with the abduction of a 17-year-old female worker of a seafood restaurant in the town of Ascension by a group of young men. Located south of the New Mexico border, Ascension is a rural area has suffered numerous kidnappings and killings the last two years.

Alerted to the kidnapping, townspeople and soldiers mobilized, freed the victim and detained five alleged kidnappers. Hundreds of angry residents beat two of the detainees and blocked police from rescuing the suspects, who were later pronounced dead.


In a stand-off that lasted throughout the day, residents prevented two federal police helicopters from landing and blockaded roads to prevent military reinforcements from arriving. Armed with picks, shovels and machetes, enraged residents shouted at “corrupt” soldiers and police to leave. Some locals accused government security forces of colluding with delinquent bands.


“La Chona Lights the Fuse,” headlined Ciudad Juarez’s Lapolaka newsite, whose director was just granted political asylum in the United States. The news organization couched the report in historical and contemporary terms:
The new Mexican Revolution
could have begun this Tuesday in Ascencion…

While mass lynchings are not uncommon in certain parts of Mexico, such lynchings have been rare in Chihuahua.
Since the July elections, the murders of several relatives of Governor-elect Cesar Duarte and other politicians, frequent public displays of narco-banners warning of new attacks and round-the-clock executions have added constant doses of mass anxiety to an already-tense political and social environment characterized by the ongoing confrontation between heavily armed organized crime groups.

“Thousands of executions, murders of women, robberies, extortions, taxes on businesses for turf rights, deaths of human rights defenders and journalists, hundreds of thousands of displaced people, complaints of human rights violations that are not investigated or sanctioned, and tears and blood that run through the desert in total impunity.”


Nationally, anticipation and angst hangs in the air as Mexico commemorates the 200th anniversary of the War of Independence and 100th anniversary of the 1910 Revolution.


Additionally, September 23 marks the 45th anniversary of the attack on the Madera army barracks not far from Ascension. Led by school teacher Arturo Gamiz and Dr. Pablo Gomez, the guerrilla assault inspired a generation of revolutionaries whose ideological descendants are resurfacing in other parts of the country today.


Last week, as Mexico celebrated its bicentennial, yet another

self-proclaimed rebel band issued a declaration in the southern state of Guerrero. In a communiqué delivered to the Guerrero daily El Sur, the Armed People’s Army called for a popular boycott of the upcoming gubernatorial election, an end to the political parties and unity of all the various revolutionary forces. Containing 11 political points, the message was accompanied by a video that portrayed a guerrilla column in the mountains

"Quoted in the Mexican press, residents of Ascension vowed to arm

themselves and protect their town from its enemies."

September 22, 2010
© Frontera NorteSur (FNS): on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University Las Cruces, NM


To tead the entire article, go here.


Es todo, hoy

RudyG