FrontPage Stories

2007 Year End Review

By Daniel Muñoz

With the new year here and as we prepare take on the challenges and greet the surprises that await us in the New Year, we take the time to look back at the year that was – 2007.

While 2007 was dominated by several major events during the year, the Iraq War, immigration, fires, mortgage melt down and the Presidential races, there were also exciting, fun, and monumental events that took place within the Hispanic community. We will go through the twelve months of the year and highlight, through word and picture, the good and the bad things that we talked about during the year in the pages of La Prensa San Diego. So let’s get started with January 2007.

Elva Salinas rallies with group, Si Se Puede, at the Federal Building downtown to protest inhumane deportation operations in April.

In January we started the New Year discussing the hanging of Saddam Hussein in December. Saddam, who was the face for all that was evil, finally paid the price for his cruel regime of Iraq. The hanging, though, was wrong on two counts. First as a Christian nation and people the hanging was a cruel and archaic way to end one’s life. This coupled with the fact that the hanging was then displayed over the internet was just wrong. Second the killing of Saddam did not resolve any of the problems or issues that Iraq presented, in fact it was anti-climatic.

In California, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villagairosa was being hailed as Man of the Year and pegged as one to watch, a possible future candidate for the governorship. Turns out Villagairosa was indeed one to watch as his personal life turned into a soap opera, with him having an affair with a television news anchor and with him leaving his wife.

Sports fans were excitedly awaiting the playoff games to start. The San Diego Charges had just completed a 14 win 2 loss season and the anticipation was that a Super Bowl appearance was within their grasp. That dream soon faded with the Chargers losing the first playoff game.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) started a new strategy of raids in major corporations starting with six meat packing plants belonging to Swift & Company. 1000 agents arrest 1282 workers deporting the workers. The first question asked was what about the children left behind? The issue of immigration would dominate our pages throughout the year.

In local news there were some interesting opportunities taking place:

In National City the residents were facing the prospect of the Paradise Valley Hospital a non-profit entity being sold to a for-profit corporation, Prime Healthcare. The overall fear was that Prime Healthcare would take over the hospital eliminate many of the services that this low income community depended upon or worse yet sell the property to a developer for future homes. The sale finally went through and to date seems as though nothing substantial has changed.

2007: Immigration Still Major Issue for Latinos
The massive but peaceful pro-immigrant marches that brought the plight of the country’s estimated 14 million undocumented immigrants into full public view in 2006 all but vanished in 2007, but that did not mean the issue disappeared. To the contrary, immigration remained a major national issue — in some polls, Americans listed it as one of their top three concerns — thanks to the presidential campaign, radio and television talk shows, and the inability in Congress to come up with a solution.

Drug War Militarization Advances into 2008
Concerned that violent drug traffickers had infiltrated the police force, Mexican soldiers disarmed 149 local policemen assigned to the municipality of Rosarito, Baja California, on December 28. Besides stripping local policemen of their weapons, the Baja California State Office of the Attorney General ordered all its Rosarito personnel reassigned to other posts including Tijuana and Ensenada.

México del Norte
Por Jorge Mújica Murias
El Award al más Brutish
Me cai que este año hay que inventar un premio al gringo anti inmigrante más bruto. Habrá que darle un nombre, y de recompensa al ganador sugiero mandarle un diccionario con el origen de las palabras.

LA COLUMNA VERTEBRAL
Por José López Zamorano
Cosa de derechos
Se dice que lo que nos distingue del resto de las especies animales es nuestra capacidad única de hablarnos a nosotros mismos, porque al hacerlo buscamos nuestra identidad.

“Muchas Culturas, Una Sola Familia De Dios” Tema de la Semana National de la Migración del 6 al 12 de enero
Muchas Culturas, Una Sola Familia de Dios es el tema de la Semana Nacional de la Migración de este año que se celebrará durante los días 6 al 12 de enero. A estas palabras les acompaña una imagen de Jesús, tomada del evangelio de Marcos, alimentando a la multitud tras la multiplicación los panes y los peces. El mensaje busca proporcionar confianza en la providencia divina así como recordar que la abundancia de los bienes de Dios es para compartirla con todos. Esta celebración anual, patrocinada por Migrant and Refugee Services de la Conferencia de Obispos Católicos de los Estados Unidos (MRS/USCCB), marca este año su 27º aniversario.

Women’s Health:
Escaping Domestic Violence
By Kenneth L. Noller, MD
Each year approximately 2 million women in the US are physically or sexually assaulted by an intimate partner. Intimate partner violence, or domestic violence, accounts for 22% of all violent crimes against women and affects women from all social, racial, ethnic, and economic backgrounds.

Editorial and Commentary

Editorial:
The Bad News and The Good News
First The Bad News
There is a saying we hear every now and then, that goes, ‘if it wasn’t for bad news, there wouldn’t be any news at all’. Lately there has been plenty of news and it has been all bad!

Comentario:
Recuento 2007
Por Dagoberto Márquez
Estimado lector, Fina lectora, hacer un balance de los acontecimientos en esta época tan dinámica y convulsa es muy difícil. Esto es así porque en un balance deben incorporarse todos los elementos pero resulta que los espacios periodísticos son limitados y los acontecimientos muchos lo cual imposibilita casi todo al respecto. Sin embargo y toda vez que las circunstancias obligan a un cierto recuento, intentaremos recopilar o citar los eventos más relevantes sean estos locales, nacionales o de otra parte del planeta aunque de antemano se diga que estos podrían ser asuntos en proceso. Aclarado lo anterior y si no tiene usted inconveniente, lo que consideramos como acontecimientos de suyo graves o muy importantes son los siguientes.

Commentary:
“Reinforcements are on the Way”
By Raoul Lowery Contreras
The State of Hispanic America plummeted in 2007.

Comentario:
El misterio de las cartas
Por Humberto Caspa, Ph.D
En un periodo de las computadoras, de los juegos electrónicos, de los teléfonos celulares; especialmente en una era avasallante del Internet, es sumamente difícil encontrar en el buzón postal una carta escrita a mano.

Commentary:
Xenophobe Tom Tancredo Quits GOP Race, But There’s Little Reason to Cheer
By Roberto Lovato
When I first met Tom Tancredo in 2004, he was a toupee’d David battling immigration policies backed by better groomed GOP Goliaths Arnold Schwarzenegger and George Bush. We were in New York, at the Republican Convention as the room we were in rattled with a great gnashing of his teeth after he read his party’s draft platform on immigration. The draft declared that “The Republican Party supports reforming the immigration system to make it more legal, safe, orderly and humane.” “They (Bush and Schwarzenegger) are using Clintonesque doublespeak” shrieked the then-little-know Tancredo, whose geniality, Old Glory tie and toupee combined with his acidic immigration rhetoric to give him that larger-than-life bizarro glow one finds in a Coen brothers movie.

An Open Letter to the Community of Chula Vista
An elected City Attorney for Chula Vista . . .
“To be, or not to be: that is the question.” This often cited quotation from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is fitting here. Soon the Chula Vista City Council will have another opportunity to grant the residents of Chula Vista the right to vote on a ballot initiative that seeks to change the city attorney to an elected post.

Etc. Etc. Etc.
Entertainment, Reviews, Sporting news, and other tid bits

First Person:
Guanabee Rocks
By Al Carlos Hernandez
If you are Latino, dated a Latino, worked with a Latino or wish you did, there is an ultra-hip Blog you need to add to your Favorites right now, or else you will be caught slipping and if you don’t know you need to ask somebody.

¡ASK A MEXICAN!
Por Gustavo Arellano
Dear Mexican: I feel that the more Mexicans who come to this country, the better. I am a Mormon, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. In our Book of Mormon, on page 54, it says on the left side of the page in verse 6 “There shall none come into this land save they shall be brought by the hand of the Lord.” I want as many Mexicans in this country as possible, and then I want to tell them about Joseph Smith and get them baptized and enjoy the blessings of the temple. Come on down—you are welcome by me.

Guillermo del Toro presenta El orfanato
Por Pablo Jaime Sáinz
El director mexicano Guillermo del Toro, quien el año pasado estuvo nominado a varios Oscar por El laberinto del fauno, quiere que usted comience el año con un buen susto.

Guillermo del Toro presents The Orphanage
By Pablo Jaime Sáinz
Mexican director Guillermo del Toro, who last year was nominated by his film Pan’s Labyrinth, wants you to start the year with a great scare.

Invierten en la Remodelación del Estacionamiento del Centro Cultural Tijuana
Por: Paco Zavala
Cuando había algún evento en el que la asistencia era muy numerosa, el estacionamiento que existía en el Centro Cultural Tijuana era insuficiente, pero ahora los directivos de este importante centro impulsor de la cultura del noroeste del país, tomaron la decisión de ampliarlo; así de esta forma resolverán este problema existente.

Reavivan la Creación de un Museo en la Risueña Vecina Ciudad de Tecate
Por: Paco Zavala
Si, es una idea brillante el desear crear un museo en la vecina ciudad de Tecate, B. C., pero para desarrollar esta idea, hay que contar con el deseo ferviente de querer hacerlo, incluyendo infinidad de razones que se fundamentan para crearlo, ¿Por qué?, porque al crearlo se llena un gran vacío existente en la cultura y en la historia, ésta es una gran necesidad de los pueblos, si no cuentan con una institución museográfica en su entorno, viven vacíos, porque ahí se sienta la historia, sus alcances, logros, herencia, testimonios, etc,etc, y los identifica.

Festival De La Canción Latinoamericana de California 28 Años de Canciones y Poemas
El 5 de Enero comienzan las inscripciones para el XXVIII Festival de la Canción Latinoamericana
Esta popular competencia, con sede central en la ciudad de San Francisco, cuenta con una sólida trayectoria de 28 años. El talento de los participantes, el entusiasmo del público y el apoyo de los medios internacionales de difusión han hecho que este festival sea uno de los preferidos por los compositores, autores, intérpretes y poetas de habla hispana.

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