FEATURING the Netroots Nation 2010 Immigration Checkpoint mock ICE action.

A group of friends and myself staged a mock immigration checkpoint where we racially profiled European immigrants and their descendants, and required them to show papers that proved they had a right to trespass on native land. Some were puzzled, many laughed, and a couple were furious. What made the difference in these reactions?

THE NATIONAL MOOD AROUND IMMIGRATION grows darker, as the government neglects to champion the vulnerable undocumented population. Racists and White Supremacists show no such hesitance to engage the issue, and the ground is defaulted to them by a lack of legislative action as politicians worry about elections and polls and have forgotten their own humanity. Highlighted this week: The Utah Hit-list.

As an age of nationalized narcissism comes to an end in the USA, the illusion of hyper-abundance meets the limits of physical reality. To protect the illusion, those in power gird their stance, the government grows more fearful, and the police state more powerful. Actions that benefit the people, weaken our dependence upon the state and/or strengthen communal bonds are made illegal. Given this trend, will all righteous acts one day be illegal ones?

Obama’s Big Speech on Immigration is long on rhetoric—tho much of it truth—and long on hypocrisy, too.

FOR THOSE WHO CRY OVER ‘LOSING THEIR COUNTRY,’ here is a simple way to take it back!

SEMANTIC GAMES DO NOT MAKE CHANGE. What a person stands for, acts for, works toward, and feeds is what and who they are. Given the dodging games and general misunderstanding of the terms Racism and Racist, are there clearer ways to assess and describe what harm someone is aiding, or what justice they are fighting for? Yes.

The Long War. The Longest War the USA has been engaged in is not with Afghanistan. It is with Truth. It is against Truth. It is the war for White Supremacy, and it takes many shapes over time and yet never owns up to its own name: War. Waged by other means.

THE WORLD GROWS CHAOTIC, humankind too often not heeding lessons, and all around is the feeling we must do something about everything. Walls spring up, oil spills out, violence creeps in and how is an engaged activist to keep centered in the face of all of it?

ARIZONA GOVERNOR JAN BREWER is desperately swinging back at the national boycotts and global condemnation demanding a repeal of Arizona’s SB 1070 (“Pro-Racial Profiling Law”). Last week, she commissioned a snarky frog-puppet video skit that promotes the widely condemned law by responding to all critics with an admonition to read the bill or shut up [...]

WITH THE REPUBLICANS OPPOSING EVERYTHING except war, torture, and the upward redistribution of wealth; the Democrats addicted to capitulation and impotence, and the immigration advocacy groups in disarray, it is the children who shall lead the way.

That’s how much I love my remote control helicopter.

THE PASSING OF ARIZONA’S SB 1070 stirs up an already simmering pot of cultural conflict, just as a steady beat of enforcement rhetoric and punitive fearful talk about Mexicans lends itself to increased tension and eventually, violence. Democratic politicians and advocacy groups don’t help matters, even as they pose as champions. It’s you and me and community. We simply cannot depend on anything or anyone else.

WE OWE ARIZONA OUR THANKS for passing a series of persecutory laws over time that finally culminate in today’s cultural crisis. Boycotts, civil disobedience, and righteous outrage are sweeping the country as this self-proclaimed nation of immigrants is engaged in a fight over its heart and soul.

LA MARCHA on May Day in Salem, Oregon, where we showed up and made joyous noise to call for the repeal of SB 1070, protest racial profiling, and show support for immigration reform.

A LOTERIA STYLED TRIBUTE to the man who spearheaded the hostile and persecutory racist vibe spreading further and deeper over the state of Arizona every day: Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

YOUR EVER-EXUBERANT HOST discusses the headlines this week in Latino-Centric and Immigration headlines: Supposed advocates scamming immigrants; the SCOTUS decides immigrants deserve justice; talk on the ICE quota leak; the fragile fate of El Museo Alameda, and más, más, más.

FEATURING the immigration march and rally in Washington DC on Sunday, March 21, 2010.

IT’S ABOUT RHYTHM. It’s about flow. It’s about an inner-guided and inspired voice, communication. Expression. Connection. But what is left out when we plug into a current that demands non lull?

A montage of webcam photos me and my two youngest girls, set to music.

…and amidst all the hostility and fakery, four brave undocumented students are walking over a thousand miles to make their case to Washington.

The War on Poverty. The War on Drugs. The War on Terrorism. Is it safe to say the USA loves war? Is it more accurate to say the USA is war? Could the nation exist as we know it were we not maintaining a War on Truth every day? How do we find justice in [...]

In this week’s episode, musing on Joseph Stack, IRS Bomber. Breaking down SB1070 and the drastic developments in Arizona’s latest ultra-aggressive immigration laws, and finally…Nezua’s Vancouver, Canada trip!
News With Nezua vids first appear Monday mornings at La Frontera Times. Wednesdays they show up at UMX, as well as in a dim setting at The XOLAGRAFIK [...]

WE GRANT THE STAGE ENTIRELY TO THE INFAMOUS Sheriff Joe of Maricopa County, Arizona! Covering the latest headlines and happenings involving Mister Arpaio, this vid was crafted mostly before my trip the Canadian border…which will be chronicled in next week’s episode! The fun never ends here, but you know this. Check the video above for some [...]

Immigration and Latino-centric news for the week of February 7, 2010. Featuring the case of President Obama’s Aunt, Zeituni Onyango; Immigrants; Hypocrisy; Obama and the Tightwire; Cuéntame; To Be Young…And Exploited; and let’s not forget ICE ICE baby!
Also at La Frontera Times, UMX, and YouTube [Part One, and Part Two to be linked tomorrow].
To show [...]

IN HIS STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS, President Obama speaks but “Thirty Eight Words” on Immigration Reform and judging from more than one source in the blogosphere, they weren’t extremely inspiring. Others were happy to hear immigration reform mentioned at all in the SOTU. But combined with the inaction so far on immigration reform, many [...]

The march and rally on January 16, 2010 in Maricopa County Arizona to protest the criminal Sheriff Joe Arpaio, reviled for his racial profiling tactics, his gratuitously cruel and humiliating conditions for detention, and his embarrassing anachronistic and race-based antagonism against entire communities.
Also at La Frontera Times, UMX, and YouTube.
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Haiti, Pundits, Presidents, Revolution, Earthquake, and ghosts in the machine.
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Meditations on hue, shape, purpose…being an artist. And featuring the work of Chicano artist Luis Gutierrez, of Arizona, USA.
Also viewable at UMX and La Frontera Times.
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Supporting community, gearing up for immigration reform, and a national day of action in Arizona.

Seeing the year out with tradition, art, hope, and a connection across time and space. Happy New Year, Feliz Año! Thanks to all my amig@s and compas out here, to La Frontera Times, to my current readers and friends, and to the ones I’ll soon meet and make. Peace be with you and yours.
To show [...]

In this new era of shifting cultural demographics and a shrinking white population, some heroes are gettin’ paid to be the Enlightened Whites. Unfortunately, too often this means repeating oppressive power structures but under the guise of altruism.
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Topics: The Avenida Almasol Christmas Special; a season to think of others…and quilts; the Reign of Terror that renegade lawman Joe Arpaio is ruling over; a response to the University of Denver’s “Architecture for Immigration Reform; and finally, a path forward through the heart.
Playing every Wednesday morning at The Unapologetic Mexican and appearing first on [...]

INTRODUCING Naco and Nico! And a new cartoon called Avenida Almasol, which takes place in a ‘hood where magical thoughts, connections, and adventures are always around the bend. We will meet a few other characters soon, maybe even the notorious Figga Five. For now, it’s just us and these two ponderous cats kickin’ down la [...]

The criminalization of poverty spreads. Half a million cannot afford water in Mexico, and Felipe Calderón shuts off their power for being delinquent. Lou Dobbs offers us some more entertainment by telling the world he is “Latinos’ Greatest Friends.” Nezua laughs and invites you to join him. Finally, four skinheads attempt to start a race [...]

AS THE UNITED STATES prepares to send tens of thousands more young men and women into the “Grave of Empires,” as Afghanistan has long been called, the violence wrought by war begins to infect the human and global state. Can we file the tragic and violent rampage that Major Nadal Malik Hasan exploded into under [...]

Sending Lou Dobbs off with every ounce of respect he deserves.
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THE UNITED STATES IS SHAMEFULLY the last nation to keep laws in place that deny the possibility of parole from juveniles sentended to life in prison. Today, the Supreme Court begins hearing argument on two cases that could change our laws and bring them into accord with the rest of the modern world.
[Transcript available at [...]

Lou Dobbs tells us that hate and vitriol has become his way of life. He manifests a negativity that haunts his own mind. He wants sympathy. This is a story about energy.
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Something short and simple this week from your friendly neighborhood Nezua!
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This week’s News With Nezua looks back on the history of Marijuana, the racism involved with its prohibition, and how that prohibition still plays out as oppression on people of color. Also highlighted is the hypocrisy of alcohol and tobacco being so accepted while the benefits of Marijuana are ignored or simply coopted under Capitalism’s [...]

This week we take an in-depth look at our new Post-Racial Paradise, and the paradoxes that present in the punditocracy when handling race. In the second half of our 12-minute manifest-mess, we also examine the shape of thought when it comes to racism and who, exactly, is a racist. Where does Racism exist? And what [...]

Immigration and Latino-centric News with Nezua for the week of October 5. Covered: Yair Anthony Carillo, ICE, 287(g), Sheriff Arpaio, Chicago Museums, Jorge-Alonso Chehade, a shoutout to Mercedes Sosa and a funkalicious moment of celebration.
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Here’s an early short film I made in school (1998), while in my first year of production. We still weren’t doing sync sound or color film (or neg film), but shooting 16mm silent film and overdubbing it with (non-sync) dialogue and sound effects. These early films were really to teach us the fundamentals of filmmaking, [...]

Your News With Nezua for September 27, 2009. A satirical look at what is doing the damage when we talk about “Racism” in the US: those who raise the discussion in the first place…right?
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THIS WEEK’S VLOG might best be called the “Crazy Old White Guys Edition,” and while it’s not a topic I’d want to visit too often, these cats be jumpin’ the rails and thrusting themselves into the news cycle with all the grace of a cry for psychiatric help on broken rollerskates. So let’s focus our [...]

IN THIS “SECOND GOLD RUSH,” where it seems every store, site, and organization is moving forward quickly to access “The Latino Market,” and with the awareness of the arrival of Latino/Hispanic Heritage Month, it seems a good time to consider the question: What does it mean to be “Latino” today?
Another chapter in the News With [...]

News With Nezua this week is a special commentary on the 287g provision of immigration law that deputizes local police with powers of border enforcement.
“A powerful presentation. Frankly, it’s the most persuasive and clear explanation of 287(g) I have seen. We post this with a great sense of doing something good and important for our [...]

A wrap up of immigration/latino-centric news for the week ending September 03, 2009.
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First of all, sorry about the “Autumn” title card! There’s a damn christmas tree and ice skating in this video! What more do I need to cue me into the season?? Rainsong and me in the Seaport district. This was a video that I created to show her mother that it was okay. Her mother had [...]

Two minutes with Luna at the park.
This was shot for the purpose of getting some footage from a 16:9 camera (not my primary camera, which is a 24p DVX100B) to see if I could get through the arduous, insanity-inducing process of figuring out those kinds of things that arise out of using a camera [...]

The Full Length XOLAGRAFIK Documentary covering the Democratic National Convention of 2008 in Denver, Colorado. The trip was sponsored by Kenneth Cole Productions, but this is a video untouched by corporate hands or censorship.
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the second installment in the new vlog series, The XOLAGRAFIK Diaries. a continuation and further explanation of the first introductory show’s message.
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the end of 2008 sees a change in style for nezua
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THE CONCLUSION of the series featuring Obama’s supercharged stop at McArthur Court On March 21st of 2008—a day when the town of Eugene, Oregon roared to life as almost 13,000 people showed up at “The Pit” to hear Senator Obama speak.
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The Oregon Democratic Primary comes to an end and now places Barack Obama with the majority of pledged delegates! A view into Oregon’s Vote-by-Mail methods, and the convention center floor as the results come in.
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THE CONCLUSION of my four part series featuring Hillary Clinton’s rally at Lane County’s South Eugene High School. The answer to an attendee’s question posed in Part 3. And all with that sweet grating buzzy hum on the audio track that gives all the animals in the room bad dreams! Woo! (The audio feed the [...]

For a while, before the 2008 elections came and drove the prices down, the gasoline situation was getting pretty scary in Eugene.
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Part 3 [of 4] in Nezua’s series that showcases Hillary Clinton’s rally in Eugene, Oregon. In part 3, we see a young audience member confront the Senator and suggest that her campaign’s attacks and negative slant are harming the Democratic party and appear to be “self-serving.” In the conclusion (Part 4), we will hear Clinton’s [...]

Hillary Clinton in Eugene Pt. 2 continues the HRC four-part series, which features the Senator’s rally/town-hall appearance at Oregon’s South Eugene High School Gymnasium.
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In her 2008 Presidential Campaign, Senator Hillary Clinton toured the nation. This is her stop at Eugene, Oregon, at the High School Gymnasium. Part 1 of 4.
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just some cat i bumped into at the RNC convention. he was itching for a fight with bill o’reilly, which i found refreshing.
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found luna playing keys to tracy chapman. she must be about 1.5 here.
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a spare piece on the police brutality and protestor action in denver. this video was shot and edited on location, which tells you why it is so sparse and without even titles. it was a real on the run outfit, i was staying in a hotel room in st. paul for the democratic national convention, [...]

one of a few interviews i did in st. paul, at the republican national convention.
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the first leg of the audition is here. this is the second. i’m not sure how many legs that audition process had! winning the gig was as much fun as anything else.
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made for readers of The Unapologetic Mexican blog.
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Teddy Roosevelt comes back from the grave to support John McCain and meets resistance in the public square. Shot for Kenneth Cole Productions in St. Paul, at the Republican National Convention.
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a piece i made to audition for MTV’s Street Team 2008. (i won a spot, after a more in depth auditioning process, but this was the first step. the next video audition is here.)
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a fun little piece inspired by a fun old lady at the hillary rally in eugene oregon.
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BRUTAL QUESTIONS addresses the fifth incident of the Eugene Police using the department’s newly adopted Taser gun. Was it police brutality, as at least ten people stated, or are the police being more truthful when they claim they needed multiple shocks to force compliance from a dangerous protestor? Shot for MTV’s Street Team on location.
To [...]

a comment on the shifting weather patterns over time. shot for MTV’s Street Team 08.
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shot for MTV’s Street Team, this was my coverage of when candidate for president barack obama came to eugene, oregon.
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shot for MTV’s street team, this was a Move On vigil in eugene, oregon commemorating the five year iraq occupation’s anniversary.
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when obama came to the pit in eugene, oregon. the response was massive. i shot this for MTV’s 2008 street team. part 1 of 3.
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the short piece i did for MTVs street team on eugene oregon’s first use of the taser gun in 2008.
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The first video I created for MTV’s Street Team, 2008. This is a video shot on Martin Luther King day in Eugene, Oregon. It was featured on the Brian Lehrer show in NYC.
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Luna Watches President Elect Obama’s First Press Conference. On history, timing, parenting, and stars.
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a montage jobbie i did on iMovie one day and put up on youtube. now it has almost 52,000 views.
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a short performance by the not-yet-renowned Luna Sohalia Herrera, reprising a duet she performed with the Virtual Tracy Chapman in 2006. For the 2008 version she chooses a recorder instead of keys and experiments with many finger positions and a few very funky  notes.
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Stories on the Weekly Immigration Wire this week include marches and actions that took place all over the country the day after Inauguration Day and in the days following. Mass letter campaigns, lawsuits from children of the deported, a 100 Day Countdown Clock, and marches. In this week’s vlog I introduce these stories as well [...]

This week’s TMC Weekly Immigration Wire (con Nezua!) brings us stories about the Immigrant March on ICE headquarters, Latino hopes for Obama, Violence in the borderlands, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and their love of fences in strange places, and George W Bush’s sympathies with those who shoot others from behind. News  from Air [...]

This is episode 1 of the videos I will be making to complement the Weekly Immigration Wire posts I do for The Media Consortium. I will be test driving two different formats. One of myself vlogging, speaking to the camera, with some B roll, of course. And one like this, where the maker/blogger [...]