Saturday, May 31, 2008

Politics

Featured story

Presidential primary brings attention, frustration to Puerto Rico

Tomorrow's presidential primary is bringing Puerto Ricans just the attention the struggling island has been clamoring for: visits by the candidates and a former president, and media attention that people hope will help their fellow US citizens on the mainland to understand their plight.

But Puerto Ricans have too much experience of being taken for granted to believe it will make a difference.

US politicians promise to help Puerto Rico every four years, then seem to forget about the island once the elections are over, residents here complain.
To read more, go to:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/05/31/presidential_primary_brings_attention_frustration_to_puerto_rico/

Boricua Pride



From the archives of PRSUN TV

Footage of the 2006 National Puerto Rican Day Parade in NYC

This year's national parade is Sunday, June 8, on Fifth Avenue.

Friday, May 30, 2008

Community Calendar

Sunday, June 15, 7:30-10 p.m.
"In the Heights" Dinner
Hispaniola Restaurant, 839 W. 181st St. at Cabrini Blvd., Manhattan
Watch the Tony Awards live and count how many trophies the musical wins. "In the Heights" has been nominated for 13 Tony awards.
Call NoMAA at 212-568-4396 to order tickets.

This is part of the Uptown Arts Stroll activities. For more info., visit www.manhattantimesnews.com or www.artstroll.com.

source: The Manhattan Times

Editor's Note: See related "In the Heights" entry posted May 14 in this blog.
Reminder

Support Latino Theater




Community Calendar

Cemi Underground Turns One

Cemi Underground in NYC's El Barrio celebrates its first anniversary as a small bookstore and cultural spot in East Harlem. In the last year, Cemi Undergound has had a parade of who's who in the Puerto Rican arts, cultural, literary and activist community. The fiesta kicks off at 5:30 p.m. June 5.

Among its lineup of events this year was "Un Caribe en NY," a photo exhibit featuring the work of photographers Eliud Martinez, Chris Lopez and yours truly.

Congratulations to Cemi Underground.

For more information on the festivities, go to
www.cemiunderground.com. Admission is free.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Fact Sheet on PR Voters


Politics

Pew Hispanic Center Releases a Fact Sheet on the Puerto Rican Electorate

The Pew Hispanic Center today released a fact sheet on the demographics of eligible voters in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The fact sheet contains information on elections in Puerto Rico and data on the size and social and economic characteristics of the Puerto Rican eligible voter population. This fact sheet is based on the Center's tabulations of the Census Bureau's 2006 Puerto Rico Community Survey.

All Hispanics in the 2008 Election fact sheets are available on the Center's website at www.pewhispanic.org.

The Pew Hispanic Center, an initiative of the Pew Research Center, is a non-partisan, non-advocacy research organization based in Washington, D.C. and is funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts.


To go to the fact sheet,
http://pewhispanic.org/files/factsheets/vote2008/PuertoRico.pdf

source: release from the Pew Hispanic Center

that magical time


that magical time
Originally uploaded by davelightseer.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008


IMG_8096
Originally uploaded by clarisel.
@ Plaza Cultural

Puerto Rico Sun recently visited NYC's Loisaida. This shot was taken at Plaza Cultural, a community garden.

For more photos of my day at Loisaida, visit my site at www.flickr.com/photos/clarisel.


By the way, La Plaza Cultural Armando Perez is among 10 "places that matter" that will be honored by Place Matters in June for enhancing community life. La Plaza and the other places will be honored as part of Place Matters' 10th anniversary celebration. City Lore and the Municipal Art Society founded the Place Matters project in 1998, and Place Matters' mission is to foster the conservation of New York City's historically and culturally significant places.

According to Place Matters: "CHARAS and other community members and activists cleared and reclaimed La Plaza from a rubble-strewn lot in 1976. This is a storied place, known for its large and lovely garden (26,000 s.f.), and as a performance space for amateurs and professionals."

For more information, go to www.placematters.net.



Boricua Juan Gonzalez to be Inducted into Hispanic Journalists' Hall of Fame



New York Daily News columnist and former Young Lord Juan Gonzalez will be inducted into the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ Hall of Fame during this summer’s UNITY ‘08 convention in Chicago. UNITY is the nation’s largest gathering of journalists of color.

Throughout the years, Puerto Ricans have played an important role in the story of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) and Gonzalez is one of those instrumental people.

Gonzalez, co-host of Democracy Now!, is a former NAHJ president, co-founder of UNITY: Journalists of Color, Inc. and an advocate against media consolidation, which NAHJ believes hurts minority media ownership and the quality of journalism.

"There were definitely some Puerto Ricans involved in the founding of NAHJ, Juan Gonzalez being the most active, involved and prominent at the time," Ivan Roman, NAHJ executive director, told Puerto Rico Sun. "There were others too. But there were Mexicans and Cubans in the mix as well and Mexicans were the largest group. The impetus for creating NAHJ came from some of the folks who had already created the California Chicano News Media Association some 20 years earlier than NAHJ's founding."

Established in April 1984, NAHJ is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the recognition and professional advancement of Hispanics in the news industry.

This year the NAHJ is also inducting University of Texas at Austin Professor Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, Ph.D. and the late Francisco P. Ramirez, editor of El Clamor Público, Los Angeles’ first Spanish-language newspaper, into its Hall of Fame. This year’s NAHJ Hall of Fame Gala will be on Friday, July 25th in the Chicago Ballroom of the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers during the UNITY convention.

Rivas-Rodriguez, also an NAHJ founder, created student training programs 20 years ago emulated by other journalism associations. She strongly advocates for improved coverage and inclusion of Latinos in media. She is founder and director of the U.S. Latino & Latina WWII Oral History Project. Rivas-Rodriguez gained national prominence after leading protests in 2007 against the PBS documentary about World War II. The film, which originally had excluded the stories of Hispanic veterans, was eventually modified.

Ramírez founded El Clamor Público in the mid 19th century when he was 17 years old, shortly after California became part of the United States , giving a voice to long-established Mexicans faced with a new reality of becoming strangers in their own land. His newspaper, whose title in English means The Public Outcry, was a forceful advocate for equal rights for people of all races at a turbulent time.

Created in 2000, NAHJ’s Hall of Fame is reserved for journalists and industry pioneers whose national or local efforts have resulted in a greater number of Latinos entering the journalism profession or have helped to improve news coverage of the nation’s Latino community.

With the induction of González, Ramírez and Rivas-Rodriguez, there are now 22 NAHJ Hall of Famers.

For more information about the NAHJ, visit www.nahj.org.-- Clarisel Gonzalez

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

PSA

The Center for Puerto Rican Studies invites the
Hunter College community and the community at large to a
series of open presentations by candidates for the Research Associate Position


***

Raquel Z. Rivera, Ph.D.
“ New York Bomba: Puerto Ricans, Dominicans and a Bridge Called Haiti ”

Wednesday, May 28, 2008
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Hunter College- Solarium East Bldg 1413



****


Dr. Carlo A. Cubero
“Puerto Rican Studies and Ethnographic Film in a Global World”

Monday, June 2, 2008
11:00 pm – 12:00 pm
Hunter College- Solarium East Bldg 1413



****

Mr. Hugo Viera
"Singing Masculinities: Popular Music and Manhood in Puerto Rico, 1914-1915"

Thursday, June 5, 2008
11:00 pm – 12:00 pm
Hunter College- Solarium East Bldg 1413
Politics

Featured story

Who Is Puerto Rico? A Pre-Primary Tour

Politics are a fundamental part of life for America's unofficial 51st state. But as one island-based reporter says, Puerto Ricans are growing weary of a situation in which they can vote in the presidential primary but have no official role in the actual election.
For more on this report, go to
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90840218

Monday, May 26, 2008

In the Mailbox

Dear Friend,

Enclosed is the invitation to my exhibition " Free Registry: Encounter, Mythology and Reality," which will open on June 5th through September 7th at the Museum of Art of Puerto Rico (Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico). I am also including the following addresses:

http://www.diogenes-ballester.com/

http://freeregistry.blogspot.com/

A flat monitor embedded on the installation "Spirit of Slaves" 2007-2008 will display the "Free Registry Blog web page" with your comments and pictures, and an interactive web page showing the transcriptions and translations of fragments of the Registry of Slaves of The Village of Ponce of 1852 will be display next to it.

Please take a few minutes to reflect on this topic and write some comments for this blog.

Thank You,

Diógenes Ballester




Editor's Note: See related May 19 entry posted right here in the PRSUN blog.

La Batalla de Cotto



(From left, Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito pose for a shot.)


Boricua champ Miguel Cotto hopes to add another win to his record of 32-0 with 26 KOs when he faces el mejicano champ Antonio Margarito on the boxing ring. Margarito has a record of 36-5 with 26 KOs.
Cotto is the WBA champion in the welterweight division and Margarito is the WBO/IBF champion in the same weight, said promoter Bob Arum at a recent press conference in Manhattan. The boxing match will be on July 26 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, live on pay-per-view.
“What you see here are two of the best welterweights in boxing today,” Arum said.
No welterweight championship fight has created so much excitement since the welterweight title fight between Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns in September 1981. – Ismael Nunez

Photo by Ismael Nunez