This Year Halloween Fell On A Weekend

LatiNegras I ADORE: La Lupe!

If you don't know about La Lupe please watch these videos! If you adore her like I do, please watch these videos!

From La Lupe: The Queen Of The Latin Soul from E! Entertainment Television Latin America (sorry only in Spanish!). My only complaint is that besides Celia Cruz, only men were interviewed to talk about her impact and musica.













Learn more about the PBS Independent Lens Documentary about La Lupe



Know which Almodovar film this song was on the soundtrack?






foto credit [un]common sense y soundcrank

Updating LatinoSexuality.com

I've got a free week coming up the first week of November and I will be spending time updating the site I host LatinoSexuality.com

If there are organizations, people, place, events, books, or any other space/object/cosita that you think must be included please leave the information in the comments section, or email me bianca@nyc.com.

Also, if your organization has information in Spanish online send that too!

xo
Bianca

Remember Angie Zapata y Gwen Araujo

Angie Martinez foto credit to GLAAD Blog









Gwen Araujo foto from Washington Blade




As some folks watch CNNs Latino In America and keep those of us without cable (or desire) to watch updated on twitter or facebook, I know that Angie Zapata and Gwen Araujo will not be included.

Just because CNN forgets our women doesn't mean we should to. Here is a list of the HANDFUL of Latino organizations/spaces that actually covered Angie y Gwen's murder and the trial that convicted the individuals who killed them (several mainstream and national media outlets like these and these, did not cover their murders or trial at all). If you know of other LATINO spaces that covered their murders and trial please leave a link in the comments!

Multiple media on VivirLatino about Angie Zapata

Gwen Arajuo, Rest In Peace from Blabbeando


A Candle For Angie from Nezua at The Unapologetic Mexican

Support Justice for Angie Zapata from bfp at FlipFloppingJoy

Young & Out: Anything But Safe by Daisey Hernandez posted on FIERCE!

Light A Candle for Angie Zapata from the ColorLines Blog RaceWire

Transgender Teen Angie Zapata Murdered In Colorado from Guanabee

Doulas! Not Just For The Wealthy!

My homegirl Sparkle posted this video and I think it must be shared!

Taye Diggs on Jimmy Kimmel this week discussed how he and his wife chose to have a doula for the birth of their son. He also speaks about placenta encapsulation. As you may already know, I'm an abortion doula in NYC and Sparkle is a birth doula.

One of Sparkle's statements when she posted this was that doulas are not just for the wealthy! If you are planning to have a baby, or if you find yourself needing an abortion, look into the benefits of having a doula to assist you.

Sunday Night Common Sense (On Monday)

I'd had a hectic and fabulous weekend, so the Sunday Night Common Sense is a bit late. But one of the reasons I was late with this was because I enjoyed myself so much at my new book club: Caribbean Literature Book Club which I read about from the Literanista.

Our reading selection was Frantz Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks. It was just the founder Marcia and I but we had a fabulous time together!

So, today we have one of my favorite quotes from Fanon:

Yes to life. Yes to love. Yes to generosity.
p. 222
emphasis in original

Anatomically Correct Slow Jam

My homegirl Tamika of Tamika & Friends, Inc. posted this video and I think it's great! I'm going to use it the next time I teach!

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Feminist Cuban Hip Hop

Links I'm Loving: The Sexuality of Our Communities

Here are some links that I find fascinating today. Not all of them are directly connected to sexuality or Latinos, pero they are all important for us to be "in the know." If you follow me on Twitter you already know about these stories.

First some shameless plugs:

My book reviews are up of the following books (site NSFW):
The Slow Fix by Ivan Coyote.

Sexual Fluidity: Understanding Women’s Love and Desire By Lisa M. Diamond


Vodou Love Magic: A Practical Guide to Love, Sex, and Relationships By Kenaz Filan
UPDATE 11/23/2019
Unfortunately this author has believed the lies of white supremacy and has promoted dehumanization of various community members. This post and others will include this update for accountability and archival purposes.

Do you know of the Zoot Suit Riots? Did you know that women also wore/wear Zoot Suits? If not read on! Zoot Suits Make the Man --And The Woman! The author of Women In The Zoot Suit gives an overview.

Protest are going on in Puerto Rico regarding the economy, unemployment, and general unrest. Read more about the demonstrations here and see a fotogalaria here.

A young man asked President of the United States (POTUS) Obama "Why do people hate you? They supposed to love you. God is love." Watch the video and hear Obama's response.

A lesbian high school student was banned from being in her school yearbook. Why was she banned? For not conforming to the gender expectations for how she *should* express her gender identity.

If you are in the DC metro area check out the DC Latin American Film Showcase!

Jamaican performer Buju Banton meet with gay activistsprior to his San Francisco show.

An interview with author/artist Sapphire (Push) on Charlie Rose.

Today a lot of people were saying "Happy Birthday" to Fela Kuti. It's important to know more than one story, here's a video of author/artist Chimamanda Adichie (Purple Hibiscus) speaking on The danger of a single story:

Riding The Fence?

If for some reason you do not read VivirLatino you didn't see this video, so here it is:



As one of my favorite rappers says "you can't change nothin by ridin the fence"

Suggested Online Readings

which can also be called "Shameless Plugs."

I didn't advertise my last Media Justice piece which is my review of the film Jennifer's Body which I saw with my homegirl Erika Lopez. Go read it and leave me a comment!

My friend Tami tweeted this link of all of Rush Limbaugh's "color-blind" history of racially charged comments. Now, I'm not a fan of the term "color-blind" I'd much rather use "race neutral" as "color-blind" is an ableist term that places people with disabilities at the same level/space as people who are perpetuating "race neutral" racism.

Also, go check out my latest VivirLatino review of the new Brownout album!

Sunday Night Common Sense (On Monday)

I was playing with my homegirls Sparkle and Mamita Mala and we had a sleepover at Casa Mala which is why the Sunday Night Common Sense is coming to you this Monday.

For some this is a holiday, for others it's a farce, and for some it's a reminder of painful rememories. Let's get the story right and not forget about the indigenous communities of which so many of us from the Caribbean are a part.

My Love Shrine

When I went to Arizona the first time this year in February to see my homegirl Elena, we went to the Heard Museum's exhibit of Cathy "The Crafty Chica" Murillo's installation. It was one of the highlights of my trip. While we were at the Heard Museum we went to the gift shop and both purchased a Love Shrine.

It's taken me all this time to kinda finish my Love Shrine. I think I've included a lot of the things I want to represent, but I don't feel as if it is complete just yet. I'm not sure what else is missing, but I know something is. So, here's what the steps were and the somewhat final project:

Here's what the box looks like! You can purchase your own online.



This is what comes in the box. I added some ribbon and extra fun things that I had in my apartment to play around.



Here's what my Love Shrine currently looks like.



Here's some detail I'm especially excited and proud of, a Lion carrying a flag of Amor.



Here's the center which has a 3-D burning heart and the mermaid at the corner.





Here's the inside of the right hand corner with a mermaid holding a sign that says "you've got love."

Did You Miss Her Performance?

Erika Lopez was a part of BAAD! BlakTino Series that began at the end of September. If you missed her on the panel of Queer BlakTino cartoon/graphic artists/illustrators or if you missed her performance of "Nothing Left But The Smell" which focuses on experiences getting on Welfare, and how she became a Welfare Queen, here's a few minutes of the beginning of her show!

She performed this for GRITtv and the staff was amazing!

Shameless Plugs

I'm a little late to getting to my shameless plugs, and that's because it's midterm week for myself and the students I work with.

Usually every Thursday I have a new post on my Media Justice column on the Amplify Your Voice website. Last Thursday I had a new article on the representations of transgender women of Color on television over the past few years called "Do Ya'll See What I See?" Please read it and share if you've noticed the same things I have.

My homeboy Nezua at The Unapologetic Mexican has published his latest video of Latinocentric news and the last minute is genius! Nezua has created the Joe Arapio Smackdown Dance and shares why we have reason to cut a rug! Check out his weekly videos and his latest one is below. The reason to bust a move is at the 5 minute mark!

News With Nezua | "The Checkpoint" | Oct 5 2009 from nezua on Vimeo.

Mark your calenders!
Iris López author of the book Matters of Choice Puerto Rican Women's Struggle for Reproductive Freedom will be presenting her book Thursday October 22, 2009 at 6pm at Hunter College, Centro Library East Bldg., 3rd floor, Main Library entrance, 68th and Lexington Ave.

I'm planning to attend as are several of my colleagues. This is an important part of Latino, Puerto Rico, and Caribbean history! A description of the book is below:

In Matters of Choice, Iris Lopez presents a comprehensive analysis of the dichotomous views that have portrayed sterilization either as part of a coercive program of population control or as a means of voluntary, even liberating, fertility control by indi-vidual women. Drawing upon her twenty-five years of research on sterilized Puerto Rican women from five different families in Brooklyn, Lopez untangles the interplay between how women make fertility decisions and their social, economic, cultural, and historical constraints. Weaving together the voices of these women, she covers the history of sterilization and eugenics, societal pressures to have fewer children, a lack of adequate health care, patterns of gender inequality, and misinformation provided by doctors and family members.

Queering The Lines With Cartoons

If you missed the panel with artists, cartoonists, graphic novelists, and illustrators Erika Lopez, Ivan Velez, Jr., Jennifer Camper, and Carlo Quispe check out this video from GRITtv where Erika, Jennifer and Carlo speak on their work.

Sunday Night Common Sense

In honor of my homegirl Erika Lopez being in town for 3 days and us being almost inseparable for that time; I want to quote from her show: Nothing Left But The Smell:

The state would make her pee into cups, admit failed dreams, then bring in utility bills from 1937, BUT they wouldn't notice the missing corner of paper, and the lumpy, tired food stamp workers wouldn't ever know what it meant, and so they couldn't take that from her. She'd found love. A French-blue love. The kind of whoosh-wooshing love that would make her feel real pretty and create those old warm and moist environments that might not prove to be so dangerous this time.