Local, Regional and National Leaders Convene in San Antonio for Meeting

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS (August 14, 2007) – Mexicans & Americans Thinking Together Foundation Executive Director Lionel Sosa, announced at a press conference today that MATT.org will host its first immigration policy roundtable in San Antonio tomorrow, Thursday, August 16, 2007. Sosa was joined by Raul Yzaguirre, a MATT Board Member and the former President of the National Council of La Raza, and Tamar Jacoby, a MATT Advisory Board Member and Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

Posted ByCristina Noriegaat 10:29 AM| Leave a Comment

With a $100,000 grant from the U.S. Rockefeller Foundation, Mexican artist Alejandro Santiago has created an art installation of 1,500 life-sized clay figures. The Picasso-style abstract sculptures represent those who have left his small hometown of Teococuilco, Mexico- located in the southern state of Oaxaca- to look for a better life in the U.S.

As Santiago discovered first-hand after returning from several years in Paris, this trend has come to affect many parts of Mexico, expecial rural Southern states. As working adults migrate to the U.S. in search of work, the very young young and the elderly are often left behind.

Santiago and his crew of 35 workers plan to complete 2,501 sculptures in total by the end of August, which will then all be  exhibited in Monterrey, Mexico beginning in September.


Posted ByCristina Noriegaat 10:12 PM| Leave a Comment

Local, National and Regional Leaders Participate in MATT.org Foundation’s “Thinking Together Roundtable”


MAT
T.org Fo
undation, the leading middle-of-the-road convener dedicated to influencing policy to improve U.S./Mexico relations, held its first “Thinking Together Roundtable” on immigration in San Antonio, Texas on August 16. Nearly 30 local, national and regional heads of organizations, Democrats and Republicans alike, convened in San Antonio to participate in this unprecedented meeting.  


Posted ByCristina Noriegaat 02:25 PM| Leave a Comment

Art can often be found in the most unlikely places, a famous prison being one of them.

In the 1950s, a 20-something Mexican-American artist named Alfredo Santos created six large sepia-toned murals on the walls of San Quentin State Prison, near San Francisco. Each depicts a part of California’s history, and progress in style from conservative and textbook-like in appearance, to more bold, whimsical and playful in the later works.

Read more about the murals and Santos in the International Herald Tribune.

Or, explore the details of each mural in this interactive slideshow of the murals in the New York Times.


Posted ByCristina Noriegaat 10:20 PM| Leave a Comment

Monday, August 20, 2007
Mexico's Santa Muerte Gets A Makeover

An traditional saint just got a new face.

From National Graphic, a picture from a ceremony to change Mexico’s Santa Muerte (Saint of Death) from an image of a skeleton holding a globe and scythe to that of a woman wearing a crown. The new image appeared to a woman during a dream last December.


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Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Paulina Rubio U.S. Tour and Interview



Mexican pop sensation Paulina Rubio wrapped up the first leg of her U.S. summer tour "Amor, Luz Y Sonido" in July, and will start the second leg in September. Watch this video from IMF to hear her talk about her music, her inspirations, and her pride in being Mexican.

Posted ByCristina Noriegaat 12:29 PM| Leave a Comment

Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Hispanics Changing the Face of New Orleans

When Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, the city was left with the mountainous challenge of trying to repair itself. And after residents fled, Hispanics came, ready and willing to work.

Two years later, "more than 100,000 immigrants from Honduras, Mexico, El Salvador and Guatemala, among other Latin American countries, have transformed the city’s physical and cultural landscape by spawning a baby boom totaling in the hundreds with many more on the way."

And while many have horror stories of not getting paid and enduring difficult conditions, the majority have nothing but positive things to say, viewing the opportunity to work and support their families as a a true gift. Now, they have changed both the face and future of the city.

Read the People En Español article  on "The Hispanic Renaissance" in English or in Spanish.

Posted ByCristina Noriegaat 07:07 AM| Leave a Comment

Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Who Collects Art, Mexicans or Americans?


The current issue of Art News magazine features the world’s top 200 art collectors.

So who collects art? Americans and Europeans (French, German, Spanish and Swiss) dominate the list. Only two collectors in Mexico made the list— the world’s newly-crowned richest man Carlos Slim, and Eugenio López Alonso, the founder of Colleción Jumex, one of the largest private modern art collections in the Americas.

So what do the two major Mexican collectors fancy? Slim prefers old masters, pre-Columbian and colonial Mexican art, and modern artists such as Rodin.  López Alonso collects contemporary art.

Posted ByCristina Noriegaat 08:03 AM| Leave a Comment


MATT will be the sole sponsor of the 25th annual Border Governor’s conference, to be held this year in Sonora, Mexico on September 26 and 27. The 10 governors from border states (4 from the U.S.-- Texas, California, New Mexico and Arizona-- and 6 from Mexico-- Baja California, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Sonora and Tamaulipas) will discuss border issues.

This meeting has special significance because Mexicans and Americans represent the global multi-cultural future. Our region offers a unique combination of resources that makes a border boom very possible. At this meeting, these 10 governors will sow the seeds to make it happen. 

They will do this by addressing the border issues making today’s headlines: Immigration reform, more jobs, a cleaner environment, more efficient energy, better education, lower crime and more, setting in motion a prosperity plan for the next 25 years.

Matt.org is the exclusive sponsor of this historic meeting because we believe the border boom is within our reach.  And because we can help.

Check back on MATT.org for updates.

Posted ByCristina Noriegaat 09:01 AM| Leave a Comment

On Monday, the public TV network V-me-- pronounced "ve me" or "watch me" in Spanish-- launched  on Maryland Public Radio. The 24-hour Spanish language network, which has already hit 23 markets in the U.S., offers a little bit of everything, organized into four areas – kids, lifestyle, factual and movies, plus specials.

But while this is great news for some, a Washington Post article points out that V-me has some issues with reach:

"V-me is not available to Comcast cable subscribers in Montgomery and Prince George's counties -- home to the vast majority of Latinos in the state -- or to cable subscribers in the District or Northern Virginia."

The problem is that Comcast limits digital TV to one public station signal per area, and Montgomery and Prince George already have WETA, which decided not to carry the new channel. 

So as the article also points out, despite having its heart in the right place, "at the moment, in most of this market, V-me is difficult to see at all." 

Want to see if V-me is offered in your area? Check on their official web site.

Posted ByCristina Noriegaat 12:00 PM| Leave a Comment


 
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