Que viva Puerto Rico in the Bronx

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. today issues a proclamation commemorating Puerto Rican heritage. The Bronx celebrates its 21st annual Puerto Rican Day Parade along the Grand Concourse this Sunday. Diaz is the parade's Grand Marshal.

For photos of today's events at the Bronx County Building as well as images taken at the parade's festival on Mother's Day, go to my photo site at www.flickr.com/photos/clarisel. Click on my Bronx Puerto Rican Day Parade photo set.

(photos by Clarisel Gonzalez)

Resistance in El Barrio

Community calendar

Resistance in El Barrio: Preserving and Building Community' on East Harlem Preservation!

Historic event sponsored by Picture the Homeless this Friday featuring presentation of "Palante, Siempre Palante" by Iris Morales and performance by the Welfare Poets! Check it out!

Time: May 15, 7 to 10 p.m.
Location: Taino Towers, NYC's East Harlem
Organized By: Picture the Homeless/The Welfare Poets

Event Description:
Picture the Homeless and the Welfare Poets will sponsor an evening of documentary film, music, discussion and celebration about the history and current possibilities of resistance to economic and social injustice in El Barrio.

¡PALANTE, SIEMPRE PALANTE! is a documetary film by Iris Morales, about the activities of the Young Lords Party in New York City. In the midst of the African American civil rights struggle, protests to end the Vietnam War and the women’s movement for equality, Puerto Rican and Latino communities fought for the empowerment of their communities. From Chicago streets to the barrios of New York City and other urban centers, young Latinos and Latinas organized the Young Lords in the 1960s and 70s as a militant voice demanding social, economic and political justice for Puerto Ricans, Latino/as and all poor people. This phenomenal film shows the power of grassroots organizing to mobilize an entire community, and provides an inspiring example for future resistance.

This historic cultural event at Taino Towers on the night of May 15 will celebrate community activism in El Barrio past, present, and future. With a screening of Iris Morales’ amazing film about the Young Lords, the Welfare Poets bringing their music and wisdom, and Picture the Homeless leaders sharing the latest about our Housing Not Warehousing Campaign, this promises to be an unforgettable evening.

FREE! A historic cultural event to celebrate community activism in El Barrio -- past, present, and future featuring....

* screening of "Palante, Siempre Palante!" and discussion with the director Iris Morales and veteran Young Lords in-person

* The Welfare Poets: bringing their words & music!

* The Schomburg Collective: speaking about their initiative to unite Puerto Ricans and African Americans to combat the displacement of both communities

* Picture the Homeless leaders sharing the latest about their Housing Not Warehousing Campaign and actions....

source: East Harlem Preservation

MADRE

Poetry of Antonio Camacho Jr.

Touching the sea essence with their noses
old men by the seashore
sails up ... Flags waving good-bye
gulls laughing
Don Coto's face brown and wrinkled
smiles from here to ear,prepares for the voyage
To gather bounty...From the land the sea to see
The coconut trees...leaves rubbing against each other
Waiting for their daily drinks to arrive
The sun plays peek-a-boo with the rolling clouds
of white and blue

Men loading their cargo
Their wives saddened ,tears flowing,nearby laughter
Joselito, Negrita and Tony...chasing down fiddlers by the Mangrooves,oblivious they are...life is just fun and games
Atop the hill...the river flows endlessly
Mi Madre Maria Tomasa...is at the river bed
Washing clothes under the Firey Flamboyan
She's beautiful radiant, black hair, green eyes, strong yet ...
Loving she was... i miss her
My family, Mi familia, My people, me gente,
My culture, mi cultura, mi india Borincana with your music
of...
love,life,and lore
I will never forget you dreams never die...altough years
may pass I shall return ...
just like my
FATHER

Reprinted with permission from Antonio Camacho Jr.

Happy Mother's Day/Feliz dia de las madres

A special greeting to PRSUN readers and visitors on this Mother's Day. Felicidades.

A shout-out to mi mama Milagros


My biggest fan and critic

I love you mami.

(photo by Clarisel Gonzalez)

NEW: PRSUN RADIO is now half hour show

By popular demand, PRSUN Radio is now a half hour show, beginning with our May 13 segment.

Our upcoming guest is writer, producer, entrepreneur Linda Nieves-Powell. To read her bio, go to my blog at www.blogtalkradio.com/prsunradio.

SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES ARE NOW AVAILABLE AT PRSUN RADIO:

For more information on how you can become a sponsor on PRSUN Radio, e-mail me at clarisel (at) puertoricosun.com.

PRSUN Radio is an online show that focuses on themes related to Puerto Ricans and the diaspora. Our mission continues to be to inform, empower and build community. I am the host.

If you missed my interview last night with Victor Vazquez of the National Congress for Puerto Rights, it is now available at www.blogtalkradio.com/prsunradio.

PRSUN Radio is another project of Puerto Rico Sun Communications, an independent community-minded multimedia social entrepreneurship.

UPDATE:

To listen to my interview with Linda:

From Conflict to Discovery

On the reading corner

A poetry reading with Javier Campos, Martin Espada and Jessica Treat
7 p.m. TONIGHT
Americas Society
680 Park Avenue, Manhattan

Celebrated poets, respectively of Chilean, Puerto Rican, and Mexican heritage, will recite their poems in this dynamic program.
Javier Campos is the author of three books of poetry, including Las cartas olvidadas del astronauta (recipient of the 1990 Letras de Oro prize) as well as works of prose—most recently, The Woman Who Looks Like Sharon Stone.
Martín Espada is an acclaimed poet whose recent collections include Alabanza: New and Selected Poems 1982-2002 (Paterson Award for Sustained Literary Achievement; ALA Notable Book of the Year) and The Republic of Poetry, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He has also received a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. Demetria Martínez’s award-winning books include the poetry collections Breathing Between the Lines and The Devil’s Workshop, the novel Mother Tongue, and the essay collection Confessions of a Berlitz-Tape Chicana.
Jessica Treat will read her translations of Campos’ work.
This event, which is free and open to the public, is in collaboration with ACENTOS Bronx Poetry Showcase, Center for Puerto Rican Studies, the Consulate General of Chile and the Mexican Cultural Institute.

Meanwhile, Espada will lead a free ACENTOS poetry workshop at Hostos Community College in the Bronx on Friday night. For more information on the Bronx event, fish@louderarts.com. RSVP is required and there are only a few seats left.

source: ACENTOS Bronx Poetry Showcase

'Reggaeton' book party

On the reading corner



Meet the Author: Book Party

"Reggaeton"
An Anthology by Raquel Z. Rivera, Wayne Marshall and Deborah Pacini Hernández

Featured Speaker: Juan Flores, NYU
Presenters: Miguel Luciano, Visual Artist, Alexandra T. Vazquez, Princeton University and Frances Negrón Muntaner, Columbia University.
Music by DJ Mellow G.

6:30 p.m., Thursday, May 7

Faculty Dining Room 8th Floor West Bldg.
Hunter College
68th & Lexington Avenue, Manhattan

For more information, http://www.centropr.org

NOTE: "Reggaeton" is now available at the PRSUN aStore:

Bernie Williams - Take Me Out To The Ball Game

Williams is 'Moving Forward' with his new CD

Critically acclaimed guitarist/songwriter and famed NY Yankees star Bernie Williams released his second CD titled "Moving Forward" in mid April. Williams kicks off his CD with "Moving Forward," a song inspired by his transition from baseball to music.
The Puerto Rico native and five-time All Star is a classically-trained musician who developed his love for playing guitar alongside baseball, while listening to salsa, merengue and 80’s rock. "Moving Forward" embraces those early influences, while also reflecting a unique mixture of classical and jazz guitar with a touch of Latin rhythms.
I felt at peace as I listened to the sounds of Williams' guitar.
The CD consists of 14 songs, many of them that Williams wrote. You get a sense of things that are important to Williams. These include "Lullabye for Beatriz," a song he wrote for his daughter and "Songo," a song inspired by his love of fusion, so he "mixed a little salsa with some jazz, rock and Christian (the Puerto Rican cuatro player Christian Nieves) took it home with some 'sazon criollo.'
"Moving Forward" also features performances by David Koz (Ritmo de Otoño), Jon Secada ("Just Another Day" and "Otro Dia Mas Sin Verte"), and a live performance with Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa ("Glory Days").
The Latin flavor could be felt in this CD with Bernie Williams' jazz touch on the classic "Que Rico El Mambo." It is still very much a song you can dance.
And, you know Williams couldn't forget baseball, offering his version of the baseball classic "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." The song is a tribute to his love for baseball, a game he's played since he was eight years old. Williams played his entire 16-year baseball career with the New York Yankees where he was a four time World Series champion and a five-time All Star and including this song in his CD has a special place in his heart.
If you are into guitars, Jazz, a touch of rock, pop and Latin rhythms, I recommend you add "Moving Forward" to your music collection. -- Clarisel Gonzalez


For more information, www.berniewilliams.com.

(video courtesy of Reform Records at YouTube)

NOTE: "Moving Forward" is available at the PRSUN aStore:

NCPRR's Victor Vazquez to chat with PRSUN Radio

Victor Vazquez is president of the National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights (NCPRR), and he will chat with PRSUN Radio at 9 p.m. Wednesday at www.blogtalkradio.com/prsunradio. Vazquez will talk about the NCPRR's goals and plans, including its upcoming convention in Philadelphia.

For more information, visit my blog at www.blogtalkradio.com/prsunradio.

UPDATE

To listen to my interview with Vazquez:

Making Census?

Commentary

by Angelo Falcón

The campaign to unveil plans for Census 2010 has produced the first official sign that it is now serious: the Census 2010 mug. Once the mug is out it is clear that it is show time for the crew out in Suitland, Maryland. It is, the mug announces, "in our hands" (whether this means that it is the Census or the mug that is in our hands is not all that clear, however).

Planning for Census 2010 has been plagued by more drama than a reality TV show. There were the management problems last year with the handheld computers' contract, there were the untimely withdrawals of Governor Richardson and then Senator Gregg from the Commerce Secretary nomination process, then there was the pullout of Ken Prewitt from his nomination as Census Director (he's now, however, a consultant with the Bureau), and, well, it just goes on and on. With all this going on, it made making sure that Latino community concerns were being addressed somewhat of a challenge.

As the Census Bureau continues to forge ahead with their plans for Census 2010 --- getting thousands out in the field to verify addresses, hiring hundreds of partnership specialists, finalizing its communications plan, and so on --- the fact that Census Day, April 1, 2010, is less than a year away is beginning to sink in hard. On March 30th, the Bureau held its National Partnership Briefing in Washington that pulled together its various stakeholders, with the highlight being the presence of the spanking new Commerce Secretary, former governor Gary Locke. And now that there is a Commerce Secretary, the expectation that the confirmation of the new Census Director, Robert Grove, will soon follow.

Now the news is filled with stories of mayors and governors announcing Census 2010 initiatives, especially the organizing of Complete Count Committees, throughout the country. In the process, the country is being educated about the importance of the Census in terms of the local distribution of over $300 billion in federal funding and the central role it plays in the redistricting process that determines political representation at the local, state and federal levels of government. There is also much speculation about which states will be gaining and losing seats in the House of Representatives as a result of Census 2010. There is, in other words, a Census 2010 buzz throughout the land.

But the challenges to a successful 2010 Census continue to pop up. As we report below, the Census Bureau's massive communications contract looks like it is in trouble. But even closer to home, some influential Latino evangelical leaders are calling on the undocumented to boycott the 2010 Census to put pressure on the Obama Administration to press for comprehensive immigration reform this year. And the Census Bureau keeps trying to avoid seriously addressing the problem of their having one of the worse records of Latino hiring in the federal government. These are all issues we will be addressing in detail in future issues of the Latino Census eNewsletter. Unless, of course, they decide to cancel Census 2010 after all of this drama.

Angelo Falcón is President of the National Institute for Latino Policy (NiLP) and is Chair and Founder of the Latino Census Network. He also serves as a member of the Census Advisory Committee on the Hispanic Population and of the National Steering Committee of the Census Information Centers (CIC) Program. He can be reached at afalcon@latinopolicy.org.

Article reprinted with permission from the National Institute for Latino Policy.

The launching of a Nuyorican time capsule

Community calendar



Here is an excerpt from an entry at www.lostidentities.vox.com:

"Blueprints for a Nation is an installation of artifacts created by Adál for El Puerto Rican Embassy Project and its parent state El Spirit Republic de Puerto Rico.

El Spirit Republic de Puerto Rico is a mythological nation/state or mundus imaginales founded by Eduardo Figueroa in 1976 and established in 1994 by Adál Maldonado and Rev. Pedro Pietri in the world of hard objects as a space of cultural resistance and political and social affirmation.

In Adál’s installation, Blueprints for a Nation, it is also an artistic expression rooted on linguistic traditions as well as photographic and interdisciplinary practices, and a spiritual sanctuary where its citizens are empowered through their own creative intentions."

To read more about the installation and to learn about the Nuyorican time capsule that will be remained sealed for 100 years and opened on May 14, 2109, go to www.lostidentities.vox.com or www.centropr.org.

(Click on image to see larger text.)

"LA BORINQUEÑA" festival is tomorrow in the Bronx

Community calendar

The Bronx Puerto Rican Day Parade, Inc.
"LA BORINQUEÑA" festival
2-6 p.m. TOMORROW
Lafayette Avenue
Between Pugsley Avenue and White Plains Road
Rain Date: May 10

(The parade is May 17 along the Grand Concourse. See April 18 entry.)

A boricua is being considered for U.S. Supreme Court Justice

Activism

I just joined a Facebook group in support of Sonia Sotomayor for U.S. Supreme Court Justice. Sotomayor is reportedly on the Obama Administration's short-list for U.S. Supreme Court Justice. If nominated and confirmed, she will become the first Hispanic and third woman to ever serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Sotomayor hails from the Bronx and is of boricua roots. It is about time to bring in a younger and more diverse group of judges to the U.S. Supreme Court y porque no bring in some change with a boricua with South Bronx roots.

Obama was elected to office on a ticket of change. Many Latinos and women voted for him. I hope and believe he has the same vision of change for the U.S. Supreme Court. Supposedly, this seat is going to be filled by a woman. I do hope it is a Latina.


Biography:

Sonia Sotomayor was born on June 25, 1954 in New York City. She was raised in the South Bronx by working class parents of Puerto Rican descent. She attended college at Princeton University. She also attended Yale Law School, where she distinguished herself as editor of the Yale Law journal. Following law school, Judge Sotomayor served as Assistant District Attorney under the prominent New York County District Attorney Robert Morgenthau. After leaving the District Attorney's office and working in private practice for several years she was soon thereafter nominated to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. In 1992, after being confirmed by the Senate, she became the first Hispanic federal level judge in New York. Then, under the Clinton Administration, Judge Sotomayor was nominated for the seat she currently holds, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.


To join the Facebook group and support this Bronx boricua, go to
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=74491867940&ref=mf