Happy Labor Day Weekend!
Sing along with the music that celebrates the ordinary working people who keep this country — and the world — in business: Look for the Union Label, Workin’ in a Coal Mine,9 to 5, This Land Is Your Land, I’m Stickin’ to the Union and Solidarity Forever.
Mas…Always look for the union label: Music videos for Labor Day weekend
You say tomato, I say tomahto, and when a migrant farmworker visits the produce aisle at a local supermarket he sees an entirely different picture.
PRI’s Monica Campbell reports:
In the produce aisle of a supermarket in Madera, in California’s rural Central Valley, Francisco surveys the fruits and vegetables on display in the produce aisle. He’s 40 years old and stocky. He’s also undocumented, and he asks to use his first name only.
Our amigo artist Ramiro Gomez writes:
For the many who were not thanked Sunday night, for those that help keep the Hollywood engine running steadily, behind the scenes: Congratulations!
[10 x 12 in. Acrylic on magazine advertisement. 2015.]
[Editor’s Note: Ramiro names all his subjects. For best performance using a leafblower…*drum roll*….AURELIO!]
(PNS reporting from LOS ANGELES) Newly-uncovered video confirms allegations that the U.S. Government stole and perverted POCHO Jefe-in-Chief Lalo Alcaraz’s 1998 plan to use remote-controlled robots (now called drones) for peaceful purposes.
The short informational piece, which Alcaraz made for the United States Department of Labor, aired only once — on local access cable TV program Illegal Interns. It was lost to the public until a VHS version was discovered in a storage locker in Boyle Heights last week.
Alcaraz’ documentary illustrates how remotely-controlled farm workers/braceros (called “cyber-braceros” or “cybraceros” for short in the quaint lingo of the 20th Century) could pick American crops without crossing America’s border.
Sadly, Alcaraz’ prophetic vision of remotely-controlled robots was perverted by Tio Sam and used for killing foreigners overseas and snooping on Americans at home.
The Labor Department video starts at 1:05 into the program:
We first met West Hollywood artist Ramiro Gomez when he began placing his hand-painted cardboard figures of immigrant laborers in prominent public spaces in Bel Air, Beverly Hills and Hollywood.
Even as his audience has expanded via out-of-town art exhibits and a documentary film, he still plants cutout cardboard workers in places where their real-life counterparts have been before. Gomez’ aim? To make workers who are normally INVISIBLE become visible to passersby who look away or look but never see.
This gardener with a hose popped up Wednesday just before sunset in Beverly Hills near that famous hotel. Like all Gomez’ creations, he has a name. Meet Sergio.
Mas…In Beverly Hills, a cardboard gardener ‘represents’ (photos, video)
[Image via UE Local 222.]
PREVIOUSLY ON UNIONS:
This is not an American tale. This is a tale of ordinary people around the world over who have to cross manmade borders to secure a future for themselves and their families. Panamanian-American Aloe Blacc sings their story in Wake Me Up!
Happy Labor Day! Sing along with the music videos that celebrate the ordinary working people who keep this country — and the world — in business: Look for the Union Label, Workin’ in a Coal Mine, Machines, This Land Is Your Land, I’m Stickin’ to the Union and Solidarity Forever.
He’s just a mild-mannered, hard-working immigrant Mexican janitor, until his soapy sense detects a mess that needs cleaning. Then you better watch out for Los Angeles superhero Soap Man!
Installation artist Ramiro Gomez — who makes invisible immigrant laborers visible by installing cardboard cutout painted figures around Los Angeles neighborhoods — emailed Tuesday evening:
My newest piece is in front of a home in Bel-Air. I drove around for a while looking for a place that felt right. At first I placed them in front of the Hotel Bel-Air (see below) but the sun was setting fast and it didn’t feel right, so I continued driving down the street and found this house. As I approached this home on Strada Corta Rd. near the Bel-Air Country Club, I was immediately drawn to the colorful spring flowers, the sun shining at the right spot and my instinct was to place them here.
If you could mention that my UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center show “Luxury, Interrupted” closes April 8th I would really appreciate it.
Mas…Flowers that bloom in Bel-Air, tra la, need immigrant gardeners (fotos)
Johnny Mp, who comes from Peru, made this documentary to show the hard life of an immigrant — living, working and loving. Can you relate? (NSFW language.)
Grumpy old man with a heart of gold Ed Asner doesn’t say “eat the rich” – wouldn’t be right. But Tax the Rich? Ed’s totally OK with that!
Don’t worry, gringos, Mexican nationals won’t steal your job since all these “nationals” do is “stoop labor.” Also, explains the friendly Mexican Consul, they are “braceros” and not “wetbacks.”
The 19-minute film Why Braceros? was produced around 1959 on behalf of the Council of California Growers.
The Journal of Murketing explains:
It aims to tell viewers about “the benefits of the bracero program,” The Field Guide to Sponsored Films explains, “originally initiated by the United States in 1942 to alleviate the World War II labor shortage.” This was a “guest worker” program that made it okay for Mexican labor to be brought in seasonally to work on cotton farms and other manual jobs (“stoop labor,” it’s called in the films).
Mas…‘Why Braceros?’ 1959 PR film says don’t be scared, it’s OK
When bringing a strange woman into your home to help raise your children, many things need to be considered. In this episode of Momfidential, mommy bloggers Byrdie and Linden discuss the pros and cons of Latina and Eastern European nannies.
Who is that woman washing dishes or doing laundry in the Romney family home?
Before Mitt Romney was introduced at the Republican National Convention on a Thursday night viewers saw a 10-minute video created to humanize Romney. The video featured the Romney family inside their home several times but in one of the scenes a women who appears to be working for the family in the background was simply ignored.
Is she one of the four housekeepers the reports have alleged Romney is underpaying? It could be, but more importantly some say the video made her invisible.
“As I’m watching Romney’s RNC video spotlighting his family, I find it interesting there is no mention of the woman in the red shirt in the background, who is obviously there helping,” said artist Ramiro Gomez, who’s art looks to start conversations about the labor force that takes care of families and homes.
Colorlines has the whole story and the video.
RELATED: Ramiro Gomez’s latest creation, Antonio, sells Maps to the Stars Homes
Video screen capture courtesy Colorlines via Ramiro Gomez.
Installation artist and painter Ramiro “Jay” Gomez continues to populate the streets of Southern California with immigrant laborers painted on cardboard. His quest? To make visible the invisible people who keep L.A. — and Beverly Hills — running.
Here, in the artist’s photographs, is the life story of Ramiro’s newest creation, the guy who sells tourists Maps to the Stars Homes. Ramiro says his name is Antonio. He works his trade at the eastern edge of Beverly Hills, at Santa Monica Boulevard and Doheny, on the border with West Hollywood. Will he be there Thursday morning?
Does the woman with the stroller and the smartphone even know he’s there?
Mas…Ramiro says his name is Antonio – here is his life so far (photos)
A seemingly-friendly contractor hires a migrant laborer for a house painting job but their relationship soon gets complicated. Will their man crush outlast the law?
(PNS reporting from WASHINGTON, D.C.) The Mexican-American Chamber of Commerce and the U.S. Labor Department are launching a campaign to promote Hispanic workers.
The Mexicans Work Better campaign encourages American business owners to hire Latino workers for whatever jobs are open and at whatever salary.
“Since the Spanish arrival in the Americas, Latinos have been great workers. We want to encourage U.S. business owners to continue to hire them, at whatever cost,” Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Adrian García told a Monday morning press conference in the Watergate Hotel.
“By hiring Latino workers, business owners get people with a good work ethic, and Latinos get the chance to buy themselves a pack of tortillas — maybe even two. It’s a fair trade.”
Mas…Mexican-American Chamber of Commerce: ‘Mexicans work better’
San Diego students used dominos to create a huge Cesar Chavez mural and installed it over the weekend in Chicano Park. NBC San Diego’s Gitzel Puente reports:
It took 5,500 domino pieces, 40 students and six weeks to create this piece of art. Students and staff from O’Farrell Community School started this mural using blueprints, and then they glued them to vinyl tiles [and]…dedicated this 10-foot mural to farm labor leader Cesar Chavez.
“About two months ago, we decided to do something for the community and what better thing to do than dedicate this to Cesar Chavez. We started telling the kids about it, letting them know what he did, his legacy and how he brought people together for a good cause,” says O’Farell’s Spanish instructor Jose Islas.
Puente uploaded a nice photo of the portrait to her Twitter account. We have it below:
Mas…Students create gigantic portrait of Cesar Chavez from 5500 dominos
FoxCon’s Factory #42, a joint venture by Fox News and the GOP Conservative Action Committee, produces faux factoids, snotty snippets and misrepresentations of the Democrats’ policy positions for increasingly-desperate right-wing organizations.
Plant managers are apparently struggling to come up with sufficient quantities of the bullshit antagonists needed keep the Republican primary candidates from sinking into a morass of obvious lies, silly solipsisms and cesspools of hate.
Mas…Factory workers strike in China as GOP and Fox demand more
Immigrant Mexican labor has all but disappeared from the Alabama landscape and the state has lost $10.8 billion in rotting crops and revenue.
Lawmakers desperate for solutions hope the Canuck Program will resuscitate the Yellowhammer State’s ignorant and bigoted economy.
Mas…Alabama legislators to ‘import’ Canadian workers to fill jobs
