ON EXHIBIT AT 1205 FOR FRIDAY MAY 3RD AND SAT MAY 4TH–BY BAD BOY DESIGNS/MOE MADRID

Grand Avenue is the place to be this Friday and Saturday during the art walk as we enjoy this Cinco de Mayo celebrations.

Join the Grand Avenue Get Down to see Phoenix Custom slammers, Lowriders, Rat Rods and Choppers. There will be live art demonstrations as artists from California, New Mexico, and all your favorite local artists participate in the Grand Avenue Get Down on First Friday and/or Cinco de Mayo weekend!  Enjoy live music, food and art!

BRING YOUR RIDE!

California Artists:  D.A. Garcia, El Chikle, Jowee Mr. Rhythm Ramirez, Lucky Hellcat
Johnathan Mercado, Ricardo Islas

New Mexico Artists: Nani Chacon, Toby Morfin

Arizona Artists: Sam Gomez, Jason Rudolph Pena, El Moises, John Garza, Angelica Johnson, El Podrido, Moe Madrid, El Whyner, Pablo Luna, Albert Rodriguez, Buggs, Leland Chapin, Mike Royal Sage Rock, Ron Hernandez, Luis Miranda and many many more!

LOCATION: 1205 W. Pierce Street, Phoenix, Arizona 85007

DATE/TIME:   May 3rd, 2013, 6 p.m. – 10 p.m. & May 4th, 2013, 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.

BRING YOUR RIDE!

California Artists:  D.A. Garcia, El Chikle, Jowee Mr. Rhythm Ramirez, Lucky Hellcat
Johnathan Mercado, Ricardo Islas

New Mexico Artists: Nani Chacon, Toby Morfin

Arizona Artists: Sam Gomez, Jason Rudolph Pena, El Moises, John Garza, Angelica Johnson, El Podrido, Moe Madrid, El Whyner, Pablo Luna, Albert Rodriguez, Buggs, Leland Chapin, Mike Royal Sage Rock, Ron Hernandez, Luis Miranda and many many more!

LOCATION: 1205 W. Pierce Street, Phoenix, Arizona 85007

DATE/TIME:   May 3rd, 2013, 6 p.m. – 10 p.m. & May 4th, 2013, 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.

La Bota (Loteria series) Painting by El Moises

Just about everyone in his family wears cowboy boots, and it is no wonder the fine artist El Moises has been painting them for quite some time.  After all, cowboy boots are a working man’s shoe in the fields or on the farm in Arizona and Mexico.

Moises did not have to go to Italy to create Western American art that made Sergio Leone’s famous spaghetti western movies a smashing success at the box office, because he lived a bit of that growing up in the southwest.  One of Moises’ favorite memories as a kid was watching his grandmother make homemade tortillas and candy outside on a wood fire stove near the border in Algodones, Mexico, located near Yuma, Arizona.

Fine Artist El Moises Display His Guitar Piece

Moises is no stranger to painting fine art that gives his enthusiasts a flare for Chicano urban art from a Wild Wild West standpoint. Most of his life has been spent in Arizona, and he later lived and exhibited his contemporary fine art at the prestigious Legends Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, before returning to Phoenix again. In addition to painting cowboy boots, guitars, agave and cacti, Moises was inspired to paint Native American Chiefs.  He began painting Native Chiefs because he believed the history of the indigenous peoples needed to be brought back to the forefront in contemporary art form in light of draconian laws Arizona was implementing.  He is known for his cross hatching technique that seems to glisten with each stroke of the brush – and

Sitting Bull Chief by El Moises (Photo by Taz Loomans)

it seems you can literally see each brush stroke that indicates the time and intricate precision he invokes onto the canvas.

Indeed Arizonans appreciate the romantic version of the American West during dark moments.  And the Caballeros at heart will never forget how we taught cowboys how to cowboy the ranchera way.   We  currently see Moises bringing strong Native American art to Arizona and we fully support his collaborating with his Native American renowned artists friends like Nani Chacon, Ryan Singer, and Jason Rudolph Pena as he continues to bring their talent here to Arizona from New Mexico.  And speaking of New Mexico — if you are ever in the Taos neighborhood, feel free to visit El Camino Cantina where you will see more of his art exhibited in this modern rustic-style  Mexican Restaurant.

Native American Fine Art by El Moises (photo by Sam Gomez)

Now we see Space X in the new millennium participating with a new type of Manifest Destiny and it’s rearing it’s ugly ahead again with the attempt to take land away from the indigenous, David Ruiz (part of the Cisneros family) and others.

Why can’t Space X pick land that is for sale?

Why do they want land that is owned and protected by treaties?

The initial purpose of the Adams-Onis Treaty had much to do with stopping raids of the Native Americans and/or the indigenous.  According to the Library of Congress, “The Adams-Onís Treaty was negotiated in response to Andrew Jackson’s incursion into Florida to stop the raids of the Seminole Indians on U.S. settlements along the border. Signed on February 22, 1819, and ratified by the United States in 1821, the treaty granted to the United States Florida and former Spanish territory west of the Sabine River, along a new boundary line north of Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, and California.”

The Adams-Onis Treaty isn’t the only treaty we have our eyes on ….we want to ensure the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is maintained, followed and respected, too.  According to the Library of U.S. Congress, “The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed by the United States and Mexico on February 2, 1848, ending the Mexican War and extending the boundaries of the United States by over 525,000 square miles. In addition to establishing the Rio Grande as the border between the two countries, the territory acquired by the U.S. included what will become the states of Texas, California, Nevada, Utah, most of New Mexico and Arizona, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. In exchange Mexico received fifteen million dollars in compensation for the territory and the U.S. agreed to assume claims from private citizens of these areas against the Mexican government.”

From the Rio Grand Valley News:

SpaceX, the privately owned company out of California could be launching off in the future from property near Boca Chica beach. Brownsville, Florida, and Puerto Rico are in the running for the launch site.

“What we don’t want is private industries and private corporations to come in and run our lands.” said Cameron County resident David Ruiz.

David Ruiz is part of the Cisneros family, and he claims the proposed SpaceX launch site is on that family’s property.

“We we born and raised here and we love this area this is our own.”

Ruiz says the land is protected by a 19th century treaty.

“Protected by the federal government through the Adams Onis treaty, it goes back to 1819 and my purpose here is we are trying to tell county government, the state, and city of Brownsville, that these lands are privately owned by the Cisneros family.”

Dr. Anthony Knopp is a history professor at the University of Texas at Brownsville who is familiar with the Adams Onis treaty.

 

FULL STORY >>>

He writes:

 

“I speak tonight for the dignity of man and the destiny of democracy,” the President Lyndon Johnson began.

It was March 15, 1965, a week after the nation saw on television Alabama state troopers violently attack peaceful black marchers protesting voting rights discrimination. The bloody images shocked the nation. They also horrified Johnson, the former Senate majority leader who had been lukewarm on civil rights at best.

The violence sparked Johnson into addressing Congress about the immediate need for a new Voting Rights bill. It what would later be called the best speech of a his presidency and one that brought Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to tears.

It was also the first speech to Congress in U.S. history that mentioned Latinos and their struggle against poverty and discrimination—something Johnson saw firsthand as a young teacher in a Mexican American school. And it also brought a number Mexican-American civil rights leaders to tears.

But those historic words are often overlooked. 

Johnson’s long conversion began when his father, a former state lawmaker, was hit hard financial times and his family was forced into near poverty in Johnson City, Texas. To help the family, Johnson worked in the cotton fields along side African Americans and Mexican Americans. 

When it was time for Johnson to attend college, the University of Texas just wasn’t an option. It was too expensive. So, Johnson enrolled at Southwest Texas State Teachers College in San Marcos, Texas (today called Texas State). But Johnson still struggled with the tuition.

After his freshman year, a 19-year-old Johnson took a teaching job in Cotulla, a small South Texas town where the majority of students were poor and Mexican American.

But the young, idealistic Johnson was appalled by what he saw among his 5th, 6th, and 7th graders at the Welhausen School. Not only were his students dirt poor, he quickly saw how the town’s whites treated them like second-class citizens. Whites encourage the Latino students to stay home and become laborers like their parents. Other whites educators complained that the students did nothing but carry dirt, lice and disease.

“I am not going to stand here and tell you that they are the best people on the face of the earth,” one congressman said of Mexican Americans at the time Johnson was in Cotulla.

They treated Mexicans “just worse than you’d treat a dog,” Johnson would say later in life. Her remembered “the Mexican children going through a garbage pile, shaking the coffee ground from the grapefruit rinds and sucking the rinds for the juice that was left.”

But an energetic Johnson decided that he could still convert his students into believers of the American Dream. He organized athletic teams, pushed literary clubs and repeatedly told them all they could all reach high school, a rarity for Mexican Americans at the time.

When he got his first paycheck, he didn’t spend it on himself. He bought playground equipment.

Johnson told one student, Felipe Gonzalez, that one day he would be an attorney. Meanwhile, he tutored English to the school janitor.

“He used to tell us that this country was so free that anyone could become President who was willing to work hard enough,” his former student Dan Garcia recalled.

But deep down, Johnson knew his students had a difficult road ahead. In nearby towns, the Ku Klux Klan ruled by terror. In addition, segregation prevented Mexican Americans from good schools, college and everyday life.

Johnson later become a congressional aid, a congressman himself and later a U.S. senator. On his road to become the country’s most powerful Senate majority leader in its history, however, Johnson sought to appease Southern segregationists with speeches and his actions. He quietly helped a family of Mexican American soldier Felix Longoria, who was killed in action in WWII but refused burial service by a white-owner funeral home, get a spot in Arlington National Cemetery

……

As President Obama prepares next week to address Congress and to urge lawmakers to pass comprehensive immigration reform, it’s important to remember that whatever he says, it was Johnson who spoke from the soul, even when he knew it would hurt him politically later. But for Johnson  it didn’t matter in 1965. That’s because 1928 and those students were with him, and always would be.

READ FULL STORY HERE>>>

Too often folks have been making the mistake of seeking leadership of the politicians who live in states that do not border Mexico, and everyone knows the bleeding needs to stop in the southwestern part of our Nation — particularly when Arizona’s Governor Jan Brewer tried to trump the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution via SB 1070.   It’s common sense to listen to the community that has been impacted the most — particularly when most of the deportations have been Mexican nationals.

We will be keeping an eye on the Mexican-American leadership — particularly in the states that border Mexico.  After all, the burden typically lies on the counties that border Mexico.   States bordering Mexico have a better idea on the problems and solutions to a reasonable legal immigration plan.

A quick snapshot of the bordering states:

Texas: 1,255 miles/64% of border length and has 24 ports of entry

Arizona: 354 miles/18% of border length and has 8 ports of entry

New Mexico: 180 miles/9% and has 3 ports of entry

California: 165 miles/8% of border length and 6 ports of entry

As you can see, Texas has the most coverage and this is why we are happy to see freshman Democrat Joaquin Castro take the bull by the horns when he recently laid out immigration plans he is taking to Washington D.C.  We hope the quartet states bordering Mexico will fully get behind the Texas Castro.

Instead of wasting millions of dollars and increasing the war budget, I believe we should invest those dollars and give small business owners in our Homeland tax incentives to create more jobs here in the states.

Americans are tired of war.

It doesn’t make sense to blow up other countries only to rebuild their infrastructures abroad.  President Obama gets credit for Osama Bin Laden getting taken out under his watch, and he wants to pull back sending more troops abroad.  The last thing we need is a Republican war monger like Mitt Romney because we simply cannot afford more wars.  We need to focus on what is going on here in our country moving forward.

Here is a Ross Perot flashback from 1992 with regard to the infamous ‘sucking sound’ speech he gave in the debates.

Do you believe there is truth to what Ross Perot said about 20 years ago?

Kansans protest Kris Kobach voter ID laws

Talk about a revolutionary way to overcome Kris Kobach’s voter ID and voter suppression laws!  Evotee is the answer to help overcome suppression in a secure and reliable way!  Technology overcomes the mundane “paper” way of registering voter and Evotee has some answers in light of our ‘silicon valley’ Information Age era.  *Speaking of Kris Kobach — Latinos will never forget how Mitt Romney received Kobach’s endorsement and political advise during his 2012 GOP primary campaign.

Huffington Post sheds light with regard to the iPad revolutionary way to Rock the Latino Vote.  The Tequila Party has been using the paper method as well as the Rock the Vote method, but here is another way to register eligible Latino voters in a secure manner.

We cannot wait for Evotee to enter key swing Presidential states.  The ground is fertile in high Hispanic populated states, and our organizers are ready to execute the iPad app in these states.

From the HuffPo:

This month, Libersky and his app will team up with the Tequila Party, an organization founded by Latinas concerned about the tenor and content of the nation’s immigration debate.

Since 2008 — a year in which then-candidate Barack Obama’s campaign organization registered and mobilized millions of new voters — nearly 30 states have enacted laws restricting the activities of groups and individuals that work to put voters on the rolls, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

In 2011 alone, legislators in 34 states considered so-called voter ID laws. Voter ID policies require voters to present specific types of identification in order to cast a ballot. To date, 10 states have put voter ID laws in place. New Mexico does not have a voter ID law but has restricted the activities of groups that have worked to register voters for most of the last six years.

May Day March in New Mexico in Support of Immigrants and Occupy

Today New Mexico held a MAY DAY Rally in Albuquerque, New Mexico in support of the

New Mexico Leader Marches with Immigrant Activists at the MAY DAY March

immigrants and OCCUPY New Mexico.  Our Tequila Party leader, Julio Dominguez, showed his support and marched for the immigrants alongside a broad coalition of groups. In addition to launching our partnership with Evotee, the Tequila Party is committed to attending events in an effort to motivate and increase eligible Latino voters.

Music and Art will held at the Peace & Justice Center from 10AM-4PM  There was live art, sign making, an open mic, DJ’s-Feelin’ Up Jetti, Zia Zombie, and the Community Projektz as well as live performances by Felix y Los Gatos, L@s Otr@s, members of Albuquerque’s national Slam poetry team and mucho mas!

May Day March in New Mexico Mobilizes Latinos - 2012

The march began at 4:30 pm that started at at University & Central to rally to Robinson Park.

El Centro did a magnificent job with their presence at the march.  El CENTRO is a grassroots, Latino immigrant led organization located in Central New Mexico which works with Latino immigrants and allies to defend, enforce, and advance our communities’  collective rights.  They have been working closely with Faith Leaders to take action and Sign-On to a Letter Against the Current Anti-Immigrant Climate and in Favor of Drivers’ Licenses for Immigrants

Driver’s License Fact Sheet

Fraud Fact Sheet

From El Centro:

Marcha pacífica y manifestación para la justicia de los trabajadores, la unión familiar, y contra el uso de los inmigrantes como blancos politicos en Nuevo México.

Música en vivo, juegos, danzantes Aztecas/Matachines, Diversión para niños, información sobre derechos laborales.

International Workers Day Peaceful March and Rally
For Worker Justice, and the Unification of Families. Against the scapegoating of our immigrant communities for political gain in New Mexico.

Live music, games, Aztec Dancers/Matachines, fun for kids, information about your workers rights.

Info: 505-246-1627 www.elcentronm.org

I’m  in UNIVISION news regarding President Obama and the Arizona vote, but let me be clear on what was not clarified….

It wasn’t clarified on what it MIGHT take for me (as an individual) to vote for Obama, and I MIGHT be enthused IF Obama takes a stronger lead on the DREAM Act/Immigration issues BEFORE November 2012 (who knows I just may write in Ronald Reagan or JFK), that said, I realize that Latinos need to get out and vote in droves and offer political covering and political courage to immigrant-friendly politicians in places like Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, California, Texas, Illinois, New York, Florida and the like.

I cannot just hand my vote too easily….these politicians need to work HARD for the Independent vote.   Somos is currently led by registered Republican voters who can still handle the hostility within the GOP, and I feel liberated as an Independent voter.  I know Democrats will vote Democratic, and I know Republicans will primarily vote Republican; however, I am hearing from Hispanic Evangelical leaders and reverends that they will vote for Obama if Newt Gingrich is not the Republican nominee.

From Univision, below and entire story can be read here:

Obama’s team eyes Arizona’s Latino voters

President Obama, seen here speaking in Arizona, is looking to turn the state into a battleground with the help of Latino voters, a group that has traditionally punched below its weight at the voting booth in the Grand Canyon State. (Flickr: Intel Photos)

By URIEL J. GARCIA
Channel: Politics

<snip>

And even though Latino registrations spiked by 200,000 between 2009 and 2010, Democrats saw an overall 6.2 percent dip in voter registrations between 2008 and 2012, only to be surpassed by independents as the second-largest voter group in the state.

…..

During an Arizona Republican primary debate last month, Romney … endorsed by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who helped author Arizona’s SB 1070 immigration crackdown law.

DeeDee Blase Garcia, founder of the Hispanic group Somos Republicans [now with Tequila Party Movement], an Arizona-based group Latino GOP group, stepped down as the organization’s president because she got tired of the party’s tough immigration views. In an interview she said she might vote for Obama in 2012.  FULL STORY.