DECEMBER 5, LOTERIA DE LA NAVIDAD WITH ARTIST JOSE LOZANO

 

This month’s small print studio demo will not only be fun but functional for the season. Under the guidance of artist Jose Lozano we will create 3 or 4 mono-prints with the theme of “Loteria de la Navidad”. Drawing from your own familiar holiday themes, we will enjoy creating a Christmas print  in the tradition of the Mexican Loteria (Bingo) playing cards such as El Arbolito de la Navidad, El Nacimiento, La Estella, or Maria y Jose---but in the Jose Lozano tradition, Spanglish cards will be valid too-- like El Tinsel, El Train Set, El Baby Jesus, or El Holiday Dinner.

 

“A longtime resident of Los Angeles, Lozano was born and raised in Juarez, Mexico, and the cross-cultural synergy of the border experience infuses [his work] with a dramatic charm.  At the outset, the entertaining painted drawings of Jose Lozano are reminiscent of R. Crumb’s infamous underground comix. [His] visuals are stunningly familiar, as if they are drawn from our own photographic memories, yet animated in a crude precision. The flair for confrontation is offset with decor and compositional saturation.  The net effect is [his] magical depiction of the ordinary night out inside the psychological space of multicultural experience.  . . . . . . allow [yourself] to relax and enjoy the festive atmosphere no matter your baggage or fashion sense.” -Mat Gleason, Publishing Editor of Coagula Art Journal

 

SHG STUDIO DEMONSTATIONS EACH 1ST SATURDAY OF THE MONTH!

If you are interested in using the Self Help Graphics Etching studio for printing, we would like to invite you on the first Saturday of each month from 10am to 2pm to learn how. (Check the SHG website to verify themes and exact dates.)  Please be on time, or you may be turned away.  There is a lot to squeeze into this these few hours.

You will see print demonstrations and learn what types of small prints are possible in this studio.  You will gain hands-on print experience, learn how to use the equipment, what studio etiquette is, how to select and prepare paper for printing, what type of inks work best for your preferred print method, where to purchase supplies, what tools to use, how to take care of your tools, how to set the presses, how to trouble shoot prints, eco friendly solvents and clean up methods, and about experimental printing. 

You will leave the studio with a few prints that you have created.  Dress appropriately for printing when you come to the demonstration—wear clothes that are not precious or too loose, with closed/sturdy shoes. 

A $15 per student materials fee will be collected at the beginning of each demonstration.  At the end of the demonstration you may sign up to use the studio on a monthly basis. 

 

If you have questions contact us by calling Self Help Graphics at 323 881 6444 or you can email us at info@selfhelpgraphics.com with “Etching Studio” in the subject line.  No need to rsvp---just show up!
 

Hosted By:
Victoria & Rigo

When:
Saturday, August 08, 2009

Where:
Self Help Graphics & Art
3802 Cesar Chavez Avenue
East Los Angeles
90063

Description:
Join us to re-purpose a protest banner carried at the Juarez/El Paso border in 2004. No experience necessary! Drop-in starting at 10:30am to 4pm. Stay for an evening protest performance starting at 7:30pm

Click Here To View Event

May 4, 2009

FNS Special Report

Thousands of miles and a continent away, it’s a long haul from Ciudad
Juarez, Mexico, to Santiago, Chile. But that’s where the road to justice
led Benita Monarrez, Irma Monreal and Josefina Gonzalez. Mothers of
murder victims, the three women from the Mexican border city pressed their
case last week against the Mexican government as the Inter-American Court
of Human Rights opened a milestone trial in Santiago, Chile.

Marking the first time the Organization of American States’ court has
heard a Mexican femicide case, the historic legal proceeding centers on
the slayings of three young women who were found with five other female
victims in a Ciudad Juarez cotton field in 2001. The three victims,
Esmeralda Herrera Monreal, 14, Laura Berenice Ramos Monarrez, 17, and
Claudia Ivette Gonzalez, 20, all went missing between September 25 and
October 29, 2001.

Counting only two months in Ciudad Juarez at the time of her
disappearance, Herrera was a domestic worker employed by Mitla Caballero.
A high school student, Ramos also worked for the Fogueiras restaurant. An
assembly-line worker for the US-owned Lear Corporation, Gonzalez was
turned away at the plant gate because she was a few minutes late and then
vanished. Relatives contend the disappearances and subsequent murders of
their loved ones were never truly investigated or punished by the Mexican
government.

For example, Benita Monarrez has stated that two investigators from the
Chihuahua state attorney general’s office (PGJE), Ramirez and Miramontes,
personally knew two young men, “El Gato” and “El Perico” who appeared in a
previous photo taken with Laura Berenice Ramos. When pressed to explain
their relationship to the mysterious pair, the law enforcement officials
clammed up, Monarrez has asserted.

“This is the case to show the many failings there have been by the Mexican
government,” said Maureen Meyer, program associate for the non-profit
Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), a group which supports victims’
relatives. Meyer told Frontera NorteSur that the Inter-American Court case
could set a precedent for other femicide cases, including sex-related
homicide cases from 1993 or 1994 that are now falling into legal oblivion
because of Mexican statutes of limitations.

Mexican, US and European human rights activists are throwing their support
behind the mothers involved in the Santiago trial. Together with other
organizations, Ciudad Juarez’s Citizens Network for Non-Violence and Human
Dignity called the Inter-American Court case a “historic opportunity” for
femicide victims not only in Ciudad Juarez but in the rest of Mexico and
the Americas as well.


The Long Road to Chile

Many irregularities marked the Mexican government’s response to the
disappearance of the three young women, who vanished along with numerous
others in both Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua City during 2001. The
disappearances followed a pattern of young, low-income women suddenly
disappearing in the northern Mexican state since at least the early 1990s.
Several suspects were investigated or arrested in the cotton field
slayings, but human rights activists and other observers widely criticized
government legal cases as lacking any shred of credibility.

The grisly discoveries of the eight cotton field victims on November 6 and
7, 2001, set in motion a chain of events that culminated in the
Inter-American Court trial. In 2002, the mothers of Herrera, Ramos and
Gonzalez filed a complaint with the Washington-based Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) that charged the Mexican government
with committing human rights violations and denying justice in the cases
of their daughters.

After finally determining that the Mexican government never provided an
adequate response to the petitioners, the IACHR pursued the next step in
the OAS human rights system and referred the case to the Inter-American
Court in late 2007. The international legal institution is considering the
cotton field case based on the Mexican government’s alleged violations of
the American Convention on Human Rights and the Inter-American Convention
on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women
(Convention of Belem Do Para), international agreements that uphold
popular access to the justice system and the right of women to live
without violence. Under the jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court,
Mexico is obliged to follow any rulings the legal body will issue.

Last year, Mexico filed a preliminary defense but did not submit all the
documents requested by the Inter-American Court, according to a statement
from the legal body.

The mothers seek reparations of damages from the Mexican government, the
launching of a serious murder investigation and the dismissal and
sanctioning of officials involved in allegedly botching their daughters’
cases, among other remedies.


Showdown in Santiago

On April 28 and 29, 2009, the mothers and Mexican government mustered
their respective forces in Santiago, Chile, for a legal battle that will
be heard around the world. Supported by Mexican and international lawyers
and human rights activists, the mothers from Ciudad Juarez spent several
hours retelling their stories to the judges.

In her testimony, Benita Monarrez accused Mexican government officials of
covering-up the murders for other officials involved in the crimes.

“This trial proves we are right. The state has never approached us, always
acting with a lot of hypocrisy and nothing has changed,” Josefina Gonzalez
testified. “I don’t believe anything is going to change if the court
doesn’t help us in the name of all the women of Mexico.”

For its defense, the Mexican government flew in a team from the Foreign
Relations Ministry and the PGJE, including Chihuahua State Attorney
General Patricia Gonzalez. Chihuahua’s top law enforcement official said
she was satisfied to represent the Mexican state and its “tireless work of
changing the logic of gender themes and the murder of women in my
country.”

Gonzalez admitted that numerous irregularities characterized the cotton
field investigations during 2001-2004, but insisted authorities cleaned up
their act afterward, reordered the investigation and moved forward with a
statewide legal reform- a project supported by the United States Agency
for International Development. The PGJE stands ready and willing to
provide additional reparations and assistance to the mothers, Gonzalez
said.

“There were omissions and irregularities before my service,” Gonzalez,
said, “not only in these cases but other ones too that have since been
resolved and the mothers left totally satisfied.”

Gonzalez’s comments were reminiscent of statements made by previous PGJE
personnel, including former Ciudad Juarez special prosecutor Suly Ponce
(1998-2001), who frequently accused predecessors for widespread disarray
in the femicide investigations only to be later blamed themselves by
successors.

Rodrigo Caballero, a special homicide investigator for the PGJE told the
Santiago courtroom that Chihuahua legal authorities know of two men
involved in the women’s murders.

Currently, the state’s prime suspect is Edgar Alvarez Cruz, who was
fingered by an old friend, Jose Francisco Granados de la Paz. The two
young men came to public light in 2006 when Tony Garza, then the US
ambassador in Mexico, made a sensational announcement that US authorities
were cooperating with Mexican officials in what could be a major break in
the cotton field case.

A former Ciudad Juarez resident who had been living in Denver, Colorado,
Cruz was deported to Mexico to face charges based on a “confession” made
by Granados to the Texas Rangers.

Alvarez has since been convicted of the murder of another cotton field
victim, Mayra Juliana Reyes Solis, whose slaying is not part of the
Inter-American Court case. Alvarez lost an appeal in a Mexican court last
month, and is serving a 26-year sentence.

Alvarez and his family vehemently deny the murder charges, pointing to
contradictions and irregularities in the state’s most recent cotton field
case.

In past statements to Ciudad Juarez media, members of Granados' own family
questioned the credibility of their relative. Reportedly prone to abusing
drugs and alcohol, Granados was emotionally disturbed and overcome with
hallucinatory flights of fancy, according to relatives.

Abraham Hinojos, defense attorney for Alvarez, said his client’s rejected
appeal was also a loss to society since “we continue in the same (legal)
practices.”

David Pena, attorney for Irma Monreal, ridiculed the Mexican state’s
defense in Chile as simulation designed to “make it appear they are doing
something.”

With oral testimony completed in Chile last week, the Inter-American Court
will review legal documents and deliberate the merits of the case. A
decision is expected later this year or early next year. Typically, the
OAS court conducts proceedings in countries not involved in a legal
complaint. Hence the trail setting of Santiago, Chile, another continent
and an entire season removed from Ciudad Juarez.

Local Fall-Out from the OAS Case

In Ciudad Juarez and the state of Chihuahua, the Inter-American Court case
reopened a huge can of worms. Purported PGJE documents leaked to El Diario
newspaper, contended the Mexican government had provided generous
compensation to the families of the three cotton field murder victims
involved in the OAS case.

In a detailed piece published on the second day of the Santiago trial, El
Diario said the mothers and other named relatives of Hererra, Ramos and
Gonzalez, received money for funeral expenses, educational grants, homes,
and businesses including a tortilla shop and small grocery store. The
state support surpassed more than one million dollars, according to El
Diario. State government assistance also consisted of providing medical
and psychological services for surviving family members, El Diario
reported.

Besides the very personal details reported in the El Diario story, the
newspaper account was unusual in that it included information that
reportedly will be used in the Inter-American Court proceedings. Mexican
officials routinely deny reporters access to sensitive legal documents
which are part of ongoing cases.

Whether the story is accurate or not, it could refuel disagreements
between different groups of victims’ mothers.

Before it was quickly yanked from El Diario’s website, the story drew
sharp comments from several readers. An individual identified as Tararecua
questioned when Guatemala (scene of thousands of femicides) and the US
would be tried internationally for murders of women, including the 11
bodies discovered in Albuquerque, New Mexico, last February. Another
writer identified as Esperanza applauded the Inter-American Court’s
action, but urged the OAS legal authorities to hold Mexican officials
accountable for allowing a violent criminal gang to run amok in the Juarez
Valley.

Two other documents related to the cotton field case also grabbed media
and public attention in recent days. Portions of a PGJE report submitted
to the Inter-American court were challenged by a separate report from the
Argentine Anthropological Forensic Team, a group of investigators
contracted several years ago by the PGJE under pressure from activists and
relatives of disappeared women to identify the remains of unknown female
murder victims in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua City.

The PGJE report contended the majority of 447 women’s murders in Ciudad
Juarez between 1993 and December 2008 have been duly prosecuted, with more
than 60 percent of the cases solved and scores of murderers brought to
justice. The Argentine forensic experts, however, questioned several
aspects of the report. Media reports indicate the true number of female
murder victims during the time covered by the PGJE report is more than
600.

Chilean Judge Cecilia Medina Quiroga, president of the Inter-American
Court, requested the Mexican government turn over an accounting of all the
women’s murder cases supposedly resolved in the 1993-2008 period.

Ticked off by the contradictory reports, Chihuahua state lawmaker Antonio
Sandoval proposed last week that the Chihuahua State Congress pass a
resolution demanding the PGJE provide a report on its femicide report and
explain how much money the state agency has spent publicizing the
information.

While new battles brew over old but unresolved issues, three mothers of
Ciudad Juarez murder victims await a verdict from the Inter-American
Court of Human Rights.

“There was no justice done in Mexico, and this the last opportunity the
mothers have,” said WOLA’s Maureen Meyer.

Additional sources: Norte, May 3, 2009. Article by Nohemi Barraza and
Guadalupe Salcido. Lapolaka.com, April 29 and May 1, 2009. El Paso Times,
May 1, 2009. Article by Diana Washington Valdez. El Universal, April 25
and 30, 2009. Articles by Silvia Otero and Notimex. El Diario de Juarez,
April 25 and 29, 2009. Articles by Sandra Rodriguez Nieto, Gabriela
Minjares and Alejandro Salmon. Cimacnoticias.com, April 28 and 29, 2009.
Articles by Sandra Torres Pastrana, Nancy Betan, and editorial staff.
Wola.org

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

For a free electronic subscription email
fnsnews@nmsu.edu

I think I decided in elementary school that marriage and children were not for me. I don't even recall liking baby dolls---too much work feeding and changing them. Not much of a surprise then, to know that the only doll I did like was Artist Barbie. She had a black portfolio, sketches, pink smock & beret---and (as I recall) was always diligently working to have an important career.

As a thinking person, I knew that the marriage contract was a social devise, shrouded as a religious rite-of-passage, designed for the sole purpose of providing men legal ownership of their wives and children. At the same time, it locked in generations of church donations----with the multitude of kids, church affiliated people were/are obligated to have. Furthermore, the injustices that the Christian Conquistadores enforced on all the indigenous peoples of the Americas--cued me to separate myself from their archaic rituals, which (in my eyes) erased freedom. A friend of mine (who was a Black Panther in the 1970's) summed it up perfectly for me, when she philosophized on marriage so: "I don't need THE WHITE MAN'S paper to tell me who my man is!" Words to live by, I think.

My heart has been softened these past few years with the debate on same-sex marriage. The hateful Christians freely comment in every newspaper or radio program that same sex couples are not entitled to being married---quoting various touchy-feely sectarian dogmas. Dogmas that if scrutinized more carefully, make you realize that the scriptures are as clear as one of Nostradamus' predictions---and probably why there are so many self-proclaimed prophets around to interpret them for you. The ability to create life and not the ability to love—seems to be the prerequisite to get married to the religiously organized.

I realized that for some, being committed to another is a way of becoming a greater human being. For same-sex couples there is not the stigmatism of following the same path that their parents led, but creating a new type of family life. Maybe this new type of relationship and family dynamic might have enticed me to get married, had I not been raised under the flag of the macho-manifesto.

On June 17, 2008---the official first day of same-sex marriage in California---I went down to city hall to document and be present for yet another injustice that had finally been set right. The people won. In West Hollywood I saw a long line of couples waiting patiently for hours to say "I Do". There they were, those two little words that (aha!) finally meant something to me, because they no longer represented exclusivity and the old ways.

Below are two pictures that I took that day. There are many more that I wanted to take, but did not want to be intrusive on such a special day. The senior citizens that had been a couple for 50 years registering for a marriage certificate, the dads taking turns rocking and feeding their babies throughout the long hot day, the toddler that raised his tiny hand to swear to the clerk (along with his parents) that the facts of the signed certificate were true, the Latina brides that brought their whole familia to witness their city hall marriage---are documented inside of me now.

Everyday since, I get yet another joyous "We Got Married!" email announcement or wedding invitation from same-sex couples that have been together 10, 15 and 20 years. My calendar is getting filled with upcoming festivities. Finally, now, once-and-(truly)-for-all, without hesitation or reservation, legally and whole-heartedly, in front of the whole world and out of the closet, with the blessings of the community and justice for all---everyone and anyone can proclaim their eternal love openly, freely and legally. Amen.

Join me in creating artwork and exhibits that support the Mothers and activists in Ciudad Juarez Mexico. Their strategy is to pursue every legal process in Mexico. If nothing is resolved, they will take it world wide. Your prayers, programs, written work, exhibits, discussions and outrage help support this campaign. Know that we are all connected, no matter how far we seem to be from each other.

The murders continue to this day and will continue in the Congo, Guatemala, and elsewhere, until the cartels/narco-traficantes that deal in worldwide sales of abducted women & children, drugs, and prostitution are brought down to their knees. In 2002, we knew of 320 cases in the El Paso border area---this year the murders in Ciudad Juarez are up to 520. There are countless more murders in the 3rd world countries with complete impunity to the murderers who are affiliates to these illicit organized networks. It is theorized that entry into these underground organizations is bound with the participation in these horrific murders. If these men, that live like kings on earth in Chihuahua can be paralyzed through the scrutiny of a human world-watch, then justice can be demanded for other parts of the world as well. Ni Una Mas!

For updates and more data go to my Juarez page http://arteabla.ning.com/profile/VictoriaDelgadillo

The forensic word "femicide" was brought into our recent world culture, through the written activism of Diana Washington Valdez, a veteran award-winning journalist for the El Paso Times in Texas. The first to report on the abductions and brutal murders of hundreds of young Mexican women in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Washington-Valdez' relentless exploration has officially awoken us to the fact that 3rd world women's lives are expendable. The international disgrace of Mexico's inability to resolve the murders and the associated extensive dialogues on governmental corruption have authorized women throughout the world to voice their outrage for the legal impunity towards femicides in their own countries. In 2002, less than 6 years ago, googling words such as "femicide", "women of Ciudad Juarez", "border murders", "NAFTA murders" or "abductions in Chihuahua", brought no results. The selection of related items, on the internet are now substantial, due to the visual, written and performance artists who have vowed to create work on Juarez, until the crimes are resolved. In 2006, Congresswoman Hilda L. Solis of California introduced a resolution into congress condemning the brutal murders in Ciudad Juarez and urging the United States and Mexico to discuss resolution steps as part of their bilateral agenda. The resolution was passed. This year, Congresswoman Solis introduced U.S. House Resolution 100, which expresses concern over the unsolved murders of more than 2,000 women in Guatemala since 2001 and encourages new efforts to address these crimes and prevent further killings. This resolution also passed. Grassroots Guatemalan/American activist Lucia Muñoz founded Mujeres Iniciando en las Americas (MIA) dedicated to exposing the femicides in Guatemala, which are a result of a 30-year civil war under the direction and training of the CIA. The national fear, mistrust, suppression of grief combined with a highly militaristic male population has had the consequence of extreme domestic violence and intolerance for the fragile. Each day, we listen to the news from another economically depressed, war torn or U.S. treaty-connected country whose warriors are poised to continue with the tradition of resolving their personal pain and 'lack of" through the brutalization of their women.