Happy National Latina Day!

The first Latina I ever personally met was back in fourth grade when Audrey Huerta was one of my Frost Elementary classmates.   Over the rest of my school days and in my 20's I got to meet and even date a few while reading about the exploits of amazing Latina civil rights icons like Dolores Huerta.

I also came in contact with more Latinas at my mom's school, since she spent her teaching career working at two East End elementary schools.  I also got the message early that Latinas come in all shapes, sizes and skin tones when I met Nereida Hooker, Lydia Andrade and Cindy Lopez while I was working my job at the Astrodome and a few years later at my airline job.

So what's National Latina Day?   It's one that was started back on August 20, 2015 for Latina women here and around the globe to show pride in their heritage and who they are as Latinx women.  They are urged to wear red on that day 

Latinas are the intersectional trailblazing backbone of our various human rights movements not only in our nation but across Latin America.  I have great examples of that locally in Ana Andrea Molina, Ali Lozano, Kayla Lozano, Maria Gonzalez, Januari Leo, Melissa Vivanco, Sen. (and future congresswoman) Sylvia Garcia,. Elizabeth Santos, Christina Gorczynski and Alice Serna McDougald just to name a few. 

In the trans community, in addition to Ana Andrea, we also are blessed to have Latina trans leaders like Joanna Cifredo, Bamby Salcedo, Ruby Corado, Alexis Martinez, Arianna Lint, Jada Mercedes Cardona, Marie Angel Hernandez, Brooke Cerda Guzman, Catalina Velasquez and Jennicet Gutierrez who are unapologetically trans Latinas, proud of their heritage and do the work to make our trans community better for all of us.

Latinas grace our lives in all fields from the business world to education, politics and media, and some are blazing historic trails while doing so.

It has also been interesting to watch over the last few years as people like La La Anthony, Soledad O'Brien, Tatyana Ali, Gina Torres, Rosario Dawson, Reagan Gomez- Preston and Amara La Negra name and claim their Afro Latinx roots like my friend Nereida unapologetically did back in 1981.   

Afro Latinas are driving home the point that they exist and deserve to be in the conversation when the conversation turns to talking about who Latinas are and what they look like, the issues they face like anti-Blackness, and let you know they will be unapologetically Black while participating in the needed and necessary discussion. .   

So to all the Latinas, cis and trans who I am blessed to currently have in my life, call my friends, and who make my life infinitely better, Happy National Latina Day!

Race and Gender Discrimination Sidelines Nebraska Soccer Player And Her Team

Not happy to hear about the situation that took place in Nebraska in which a soccer team was disqualified from a tournament before they were to play in the finals of it because in the president of the Springfield Soccer Club's words, for "looking like a boy."

Meet 8 year old Milagros 'Mili' Hernandez.   Mili loves soccer, has been playing for three years and currently plays for the Azzuri Cachorros Chicas club team in Omaha, NE.  Mili is so skilled at the game that she plays with the 11 year old squad, and she and her teammates were playing in a tournament organized by the Springfield Soccer Club.

After playing three games on Friday and Saturday and advancing to the semifinals of the tournament that were to be played on Sunday, they were shocked to find out they had been shadily disqualified from the tournament.

The reprehensible chain of events started when an anonymous complaint was made by someone telling tournament officials that a boy was playing on a girls team.

Hmm, I suspect the anonymous complainer must have been a supporter of a suburban based melanin free team, but back to the story.

Mili's coach Mario Torres got a phone call early Sunday morning informing him that Mili had been listed as a boy on the roster, but instead of resolving the issue, disqualified the team.

Torres called Mili's family, and despite them bringing and presenting multiple forms of identification proving that Mili was female, the tournament director refused to reverse the incorrect decision.

Torres suspects that the twin evils of racism and gender discrimination are at play here.

"We had already paid to play.  We'd played three games.  Why was this not resolved before the semifinals?" asked Torres. "Even if this was a mistake, they did not need to humiliate her or kick the entire team off the field."

The president of the tournament hounded me all throughout the tournament.  He disqualified three of my four teams for bogus reasons. He caused a lot of problems and for that reason, we feel this had to do with race."

Torres 'club has already filed a complaint with the Nebraska State Soccer Association, and as you can expect, the bigots at the Springfield Soccer Club have no comment for the media.  The Nebraska State Soccer Association put out a statement concerning the ugly incident yesterday.

The story has gotten the attention of US women's soccer legends Mia Hamm and Abby Wambach and tennis legend Billie Jean King, who have sent messages of support to Mili via Twitter.  Hamm has invited Mili to come to one of her soccer camps.

And Mili is thankful for the support she has received.  She's also going to continue to wear her hair short.

But it still doesn't bring back the opportunity for Mimi and her team to prove on the field that they were the best team at that tournament.

Selena's Madame Tussaud's Wax Figure Unveiled

It's still hard to believe that my fellow Texan Selena Quintanilla-Perez has been gone now 21 years.  I still remember the shock and horror I felt the March 31, 1995 day I head she'd been murdered by her assistant and head of her fan club Yolanda Saldivar in Corpus Christi, just two weeks shy of her 24th birthday.

It was even more tragic because at the time the undisputed Queen of Tejano music had just recently broken the Houston Rodeo attendance record she set two years previously, was about to release a crossover album Dreaming of You that debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 after her death, and was already talking to Hollywood about doing movies.



Despite being on the planet for only 23 years, her influence on pop culture is massive.   The 1997 Selena biopic was Jennifer Lopez's breakout movie role.  Selena brought Tejano music into mainstream attention.   She was nominated for three Grammy's, won one and probably would have won more based on her dominance in other awards she was nominated for and won.

Latina pop star and Disney alum Selena Gomez is named for the Queen of Tejano.  Here parents were huge fans of Selena.

She will be posthumously getting her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame next year as part of the Class of 2017 that includes Eva Longoria.

Next month MAC Cosmetic will release a makeup line

I've even argued the point with friends that if Selena was still around, been able to do more crossover English language albums and movies in addition to maintaining her fan base in the Latinx community, she would be as huge a pop culture icon as another favorite Texan of mine in Beyonce

Two decades level she is still a beloved figure in the Latinx community.   The reason the new Madame Tussaud's wax figure of her exists is because Selena fans put together a petition that 10,000 people signed to request it happen.

Madame Tussaud's traveled to The Selena Museum in Corpus Christi to ensure that everything about the wax figure of her that recreates her look from a 1993 Corpus Christi concert was on point

Many of those devoted Selena fans have flown to her hometown of Corpus Christi to visit the museum, the statue of her overlooking Corpus Christi Bay, her resting place, the home she lived in with her husband Chris Perez, and her fashion boutiques.

They also started lining up at sundown Tuesday to get the $30 wristbands to see the reveal of the long awaited wax figure at Madame Tussaud's yesterday.

They weren't disappointed.  It's another fitting tribute to a music legend that was taken away from all of us far too soon.

Congrats HPD Chief Montalvo!

Some H-town history was made today when Martha Montalvo was named bu Mayor Sylvester Turner as the interim HPD chief in the wake of the sudden retirement that takes effect February 26 of former HPD chief Charles McClellan.

She was born in Ecuador, immigrated her with her family in the 60's, and grew up in Houston's predominately Latinx East End.   After earning a bachelors of science from UHD and a masters from Sam Houston State, she started as a HPD beat cop in May 1980 and rose through the ranks as a sergeant, lieutenant, captain, and assistant chief of police in her now 35 year career.

She was serving on former Chief McClellan's command staff, supervising five departments, 60 civilians and 128 officers before her elevation to interim chief.  

Chief Montalvo becomes the first Latina to be named to the top job in the Houston Police Department and the second female (first was Elizabeth Watson 1990-1992) to hold the position.

'I'm very invested in ensuring that as long as I'm interim, that we continue to ensure that the officers continue their exemplary professionalism, and that we continue to be transparent and accountable to the community we serve," said Chief Montalvo.

She will serve as the interim chief until a permanent one is found to fill the job.  Hey, why not her?

We'll see how that plays out.   Congratulations Chief Montalvo on making Houston and HPD history.  

Leticia Van de Putte Convention Videos

As I keep pointing out, Wendy Davis isn't the only woman running at the top of the Texas Democratic party ticket this fall.   Longtime state senator Leticia San Miguel Van De Putte from the San Antonio area is running for lieutenant governor.

And yeah, she can also use some fundraising love, too

In Texas, the lieutenant governor's chair is a far more powerful one that controls the Senate's agenda, its committee structure, its rules, as well as playing a major role in crafting the state budget.

The Texas senate has historically been an institution where compromise and consensus are the norm and legislation is often passed by a center-right Democratic-Republican alliance.

That governing consensus is in danger if the hyperpartisan teabagger Dan Patrick gets the lieutenant governor's chair.   You know the Texas Repugs as exhibited by the junior senator from Alberta and their jacked up party platforms need to have a Jerrydome level of seats, and that off the charts Texas right wing lunacy is starting to go national.  

Patrick also made some racist, anti-Latino comments in his GOP lieutenant governor primary that will probably cost him in November.   With the opportunity to elect this wise Latina and longtime senator to become the state's lieutenant governor., the state's Latin@ is excited and motivated to make it happen.  

Senator Van de Putte has not only outraised Teapublican nominee Dan Patrick, she has the quiet support of many moderate Republicans (yeah, they still exist) who can't stand Patrick.  

Here's a double dip of LVP video.   First one is the humorous one of her intro to the recent Texas Democratic party convention in Dallas, and the next one is the speech she gave to the TDP convention.




The TDP Convention speech

Texas Is Not Just For Conservative White People

They'll say that little old Leticia Rosa San Miguel Van de Putte from the barrio will never become Lieutenant Governor. And they'll say that even though they're going after the Hispanic vote. Well, take my word for it, since I'm an actual Hispanic: you can't successfully fight for the Hispanic vote unless you're willing to fight for Hispanic families.
--Sen. Leticia Van de Putte 

Well, it's official.  After that Saturday announcement speech in San Antonio which Sen. Leticia Van de Putte blistered the Republicans who have had a stranglehold on this state's politics for 20 years too long, she traveled up I-35 to Austin yesterday to file the paperwork to officially run for lieutenant governor of Texas!

For the first time in my birth state in a long time, we have some terrific candidates with name recognition at the top of the Democratic ticket that literally scare the crap out of Texas Teapublicans.  Sen Wendy Davis and Sen. Leticia Van de Putte are a glaring contrast to the same old same old failed GOP white male neo-fascist leadership.    In the GOP primaries for governor and lieutenant governor there are multiple candidates jockeying to see who can do the best job of pandering to the most extreme elements of their GOP base while ignoring the fact that Texas is not of, by and for conservative White people. 

There's 26.1 million people in the Lone Star State, and those of us on the liberal-progressive side also love the 268,581 sq. miles of territory and the diverse cities we call home.  Some of those 26.1 million Texans happen to be trans, bi, lesbian and gay and love this state as much as you cisgender straight people do. 

Contrary to the charge du jour being flung around in Texas conservafool circles that we liberal-progressive Texans want this state to be California, that is categorically false.   

We want Texas to be BETTER than California.  

We like to brag that our state is the biggest and best at everything we do, but with you Republicans running it into the ground for the last 20 years we definitely can't make that claim anymore.

We're tired of seeing our roads and infrastructure crumbling, the billions being taken out of public schools, the GOP Culture Wars on women, the poor, the middle class, non-white Texans, immigrants and the TBLG community. We're tired of seeing the 'bidness' friendly policies and pay-to-play politics that lead to lax regulation, workers dying in plant explosions and our air getting more polluted by the day in GOP Texas.

We BTLG Texans are also tired of being your Teapublican political punching bags so you can keep your grip on power.  We're punching back 

You're fearful of the bitter political backlash your conservafool policies that attack anyone that is non-white or not a rich white male in this state have engendered amongst all liberal-progressive Texans.  You GOP peeps know your failed conservative policies aren't working and no amount of FOX Noise and conservative talk radio chatter or spin can cover that up.

While you Republican pols make it harder for non-white people and perceived liberal voters to cast ballots to kick you out of office, all you do is piss us off and make us more determined to do so.

LVP was right in her speech.  This is about what type of Texas we are going to leave to our kids, grandkids, nieces and nephews.  And I'm all about at this point making sure that my nieces and nephews have a progressive Texas to grow up, live and work in like I did until 1994..

And yeah, you conservafools need to be scared because I'm not happy either with how things have transpired in my home state since that date. 

I'm also one of the African-American Texans you Republicans pissed off because of that voter suppression law.  I'm pissed because it not only has taken me over 5 months to get my TDL, because of that bull feces I missed the 2013 mayoral election in my hometown. 

That's okay, my political revenge will be served up at the voting booth next November.  I also know time and demographics are on my side. It's past time for Texas to go back to its progressive political roots and I'm looking forward to being part of the voting coalition that will make that a reality.  

Texas has been a majority-minority population state since 2009, and despite your political machinations, corporate money, gerrymandering and obfuscations, Texas will eventually turn purple and back to blue.

And as people wake up to the reality that 'proven conservative leadership' is code for 'let's screw stuff up and blame it on the Democrats', and those scare tactics don't work on anybody but your bamboozled sheeple, reality based Texans who want our government to solve problems and efficiently run the Lone Star State will put people in charge of our state government who don't hate government like you Teapublicans do.  

It's past time the Lone Star State's politics and governmental policy priorities reflected that.

Texas is not just of, by and for conservative White people.  But you'll find that out soon enough. 

Run Leticia Run!

If I had an inkling at the time I booked my trip to San Antonio for their TDOR I could have stayed through the weekend and this next historical event was going to happen, I probably would have eagerly done so.

Texas state Senator Wendy Davis is already running for the governors chair of the Lone Star State and if the political chatter I heard while I was in San Antonio is accurate, there is going to be an announcement made that will make me,  Wendy Davis and liberal-progressive Texans very happy.

State Senator Leticia Van De Putte is having an event this morning at San Antonio College starting at 10 AM CST to announce her what many people suspect (myself included) decision to run for Lt. Governor of Texas and set up the all female Dream Team at the top of the Democratic party ticket.

Senator Van De Putte has served in the Texas legisalture since 1990  and first elected to the Texas Senate in a special election in 1999 to State Senate District 26 based in downtown San Antonio.  

During the recently concluded 83rd regular session of the Texas Legislature, she was elected President Pro Tem of the Texas Senate by her colleagues and had the privilege of serving as Governor for a Day (on my birthday).  The other cool thing about her is that she has been a enthusiastic ally for the trans community and one of her representatives was at the San Antonio TDOR Thursday night.   

The best part of this no lose scenario is unlike Sen. Davis, because Sen. Van De Putte wasn't scheduled to run for her Senate District 26 seat until 2016, she would not have to leave the Texas Senate if she chose to run for a statewide office. 

So if she's going to take her first shot at a statewide office and attempt to become the first ever Latina Lt Governor, this is the best opportunity to do so. 

We'll know for sure after 10 AM and I'll have the link to the webcast on this post, but all I have to say about it is Run Leticia Run!..



TransGriot Update: Yes, Leticia's running for Lt. Governor!

Historic Day For Texas Legislature

The 83rd session of the Texas Legislature gets started today and runs for 140 days until late May.  For the first time since Glen Maxey left office in 2003 there will be a rainbow community legislator on the floor of our state capitol in Austin. .

She's 29 year old Mary Gonzalez (D) from El Paso, who was the first out woman of color to run for the Texas state legislature.   She beat two opponents in the May primary to win her District 75 seat..  She had no Republican opponent in the general election. 

Representative Gonzalez is also a trailblazer in another respect in terms of being the first legislator in the nation to declare publicly that she is a pansexual..

Gonzalez said in an exclusive Dallas Voice interview she identifies as “pansexual,” an orientation many would call bisexual, except pansexuals don’t believe in a gender binary and can be attracted to all gender identities. Gonzalez said she doesn’t believe in a gender binary because “gender identity isn’t the defining part of my attraction.”

Gonzalez originally ran for the legislature to gain access to clean drinking water and better educational opportunities for her district, but her sexuality quickly became something she had to repeatedly address on the campaign trail.  Mainstream media called her the Latina lesbian lawmaker and the coverage led to negative comments about her dating men in the past, accusations she was not a “true lesbian,” Gonzalez said.

But since her sexual orientation was made a campaign issue, she decided to wait until after the election to clarify it.   The bottom line is that she'll be the one representing District 75 and hopefully that will be for a long and distinguished legislative career.

2012 Olympic Watch-Marlen Esparza Starts Boxing For Gold Today

I'm keeping up with my Houston area homeboys and homegirls who are involved in the London Games, and one of the people I'm most interested in seeing is 23 year old boxer Marlen Esparza from Pasadena.

She a trailblazer in her own right in terms of not only being part of the first ever USA women's Olympic boxing team, but being the first Latina athlete to have a Cover Girl endorsement.   She's also appearing in commercials for McDonald's, Coca-Cola and other brands.

She was not only interviewed for a recent Vogue magazine article, but was also one of the people featured in CNN's most recent episode of Latino In America. 

And yeah, did I mention that Marlen is all that in the boxing ring as well?   She's a five time national champion with a 69–2 record and has been ranked number one in her weight class since she was 16.  The 97% of her fights she has won is higher than the 93% winning percentage of Muhammad Ali (88-9) and Floyd Mayweather, Jr.(84–6) and the 89% Mike Tyson compiled with his 48–6 amateur record.

The birthday girl (July 29) is ready for the first ever women's Olympic boxing tournament to start.  She will compete in the 51kg flyweight classification and had to gain six pounds to do so. 

She did secure one of the tournament byes and went straight to the quarterfinal round.  She will await the winner of the match between Brazil's Erica Matos and Venezuela's Karlha Maglioccio and hopefully being a historic run to the first ever women's flyweight Olympic gold medal.

 

Black And Latino Are Not Mutually Exclusive

I loved La La Vazquez's essay she wrote for Latina magazine that pointed out the fact that not all Latinas are blancas.  Loving this video that continues to drive home the point that being Black and Latino are not mutually exclusive identities and there are more people who are stepping up to proclaim they are both and not running away from their African heritage.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez Sworn In For Second Term

Political history was made not only in Argentina but in Latin America as well yesterday as Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner was sworn in for her second term in a ceremony attended by female Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; the presidents of Bolivia, Chile, Guatemala, Honduras, Paraguay and Uruguay.

The Unted States was represented by Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, Ambassador to Argentina Vilma S. Martinez and President Barack Obama's senior adviser on Latin America, Daniel Restrepo.
.

She is the first female leader to be reelected in Latin America and blew out her nearest challenger, Hermes Binner by a 37 percentage point margin.   It was the largest margin of victory in an Argentine  presidential election since Juan Peron won with 62% of the vote in 1973.

It wasn't an easy day for her as she remembered her late husband, former Argentine president Nestor Kirchner after accepting the wooden presidential baton decorated with a gold-and-silver version of Argentina's national shield.

Fernandez remarked, "This is not an easy day. ... Despite the joy, there is something and someone missing."

Her second term expires in 2015 and she has pursued economic policies that have largely isolated Argentina from the economic woes other nations are experiencing. 

We've also witnessed social progress in Argentina as evidenced by the Gender Identity Law now winding its way through the Argentine Congress and the resumptions of prosecutions of officials responsible for human rights violations during the Argentine military dictatorship that lasted from 1976-1983.

Here's hoping that she has continued success in leading Argentina and being a role model for future leaders, male and female in her nation and beyond its borders to follow.

Latina Teen Wins Fight For Miss San Antonio Crown

In Lone Star State culture, there are two things that Texans revere: King Football and beauty pageants.

In the eight years I lived in Kentucky I never saw either the Miss Kentucky USA or Miss Kentucky Pageants televised live on local television,  but have always had the ability to flip the television set on here in the Lone Star State and watch both the Miss Texas USA and Miss Texas pageants on my local TV station.

The Miss Texas USA pageant and the Miss Texas pageant for the Miss America system has more contestants in it in some years than either the Miss USA, Miss America or Miss Universe one.

There was a court battle that took place recently to decide who was the Miss San Antonio titleholder.   17 year old Domonique Ramirez was stripped of her title in January by pageant officials.  Her first runner up, Ashley Dixon wore the pageant crown for a few weeks while this issue was being litigated.


The 5' 8" Ramirez  and her mother sued the Miss San Antonio officials for breach of contract and alleged some pageant officials said she needed to 'lay off the tacos'.   The Miss San Antonio pageant officials countersued citing alleged insubordination and weight gain from a size 2 to a size 6.

The battle went to court, and yesterday a jury awarded Ramirez the Miss San Antonio title back but no monetary damages. 

Ramirez is thrilled with the legal win, is more than ready to get prepared to win the Miss Texas pageant and said in a subsequent interview that she'd like to share the Miss San Antonio crown with Ashley Dixon. 

The Miss Texas pageant will take place in Fort Worth this July, and it'll be interesting to see if Domonique does place in the Top Ten, much less even wins Miss Texas and moves on to the Miss America one..

Black And Latina

We all know Black women are beautiful in all their shades from vanilla creme to darkest ebony.

That also applies to Latinas as well.   Contrary to the conventional beauty stereotype, Latinas also come in a wide variety of skin tones, shades and body builds as well.  

There are sistahs in our midst who we are increasingly becoming aware of who proudly claim both their African and Latina heritages.  

Former MTV VJ Alani 'La La' Vazquez and CNN reporter Soledad O'Brien have been vocal about claiming both.   Vazquez even kicked it up another level by writing an essay for Latina magazine that pointed out that being Black and Latina are not exclusive identities.

“A lot of people don’t realize that I’m Latina, which is fine. One thing about being Latina is that there isn’t one look that comes with the territory. I don’t expect people to know my cultural background just by glancing at me.  I do, however, expect that when I tell people my family is from Puerto Rico, that I will be believed and not accused of trying to be something that I’m not. It usually goes something like this: a person having a conversation with me discovers one way or another that I’m Puerto Rican and fluent in Spanish. That person then expresses their shock over these realizations for any number of reasons–common responses are, “You don’t look Latina” and “I thought you were black!” I never said I wasn’t black. And since when does being black and being Latina have to be mutually exclusive? 
Choreographer and actress Rosie Perez didn't surprise me either.   She's been associated with African American culture ever since her initial stint as the choreographer for the Fly Girls dance troupe on In Living Color and her role in Spike Lee's movie Do The Right Thing.  

Actress Zoe Saldana, Gina Torres, Lauren Velez from the 90's TV series New York Undercover, Tatyana M. Ali, singer Christina Milian and the late Cuban born Queen of Salsa Celia Cruz are some of the names that also appeared on the Latina magazine list as well. 


But some of the ladies who are on this Latina magazine list who have Afro Latina heritage did surprise me like journalist Gwendolyn Ifill, who is from Panama, Oprah Winfrey Network president Christina Norman, and the singer Kelis.

But it's past time for us to acknowledge that some of our beautiful sistahs are just as proud of their Latina heritage as they are of their African roots and not trip about it..

And I'm just as proud to claim them as well.