Monday, October 27, 2008

Follow up to Rule 2 of Blog Rules


So, in order to follow up on Rule 2 of my blog Rules, here is an image of a preview of the next post in regards to Day of the Dead.  I will discuss the tradition and history that has been celebrated in Latin America for centuries. 

Blog Rules

Since the La Voz is dedicated to bringing about awareness of the Chicano/Latino community, I will use the following guidelines:

1.  The post must relate to political, social, cultural or educational issues that affect the Chicano/Latino community.

2.  The must be at least one piece of media along with the post, whether it is a photograph, YouTube video, flash, etc.

3.  Following up on Rule 2, since digital media will be presented, the post must also analyze and critique how the piece of digital media is utilized and its effectiveness to the topic presented.

4.  The post must in some way not necessarily be controversial, but rather ignite conversation among individuals that may have opposite opinions.  In doing so, the goal of the conversation is to reach an understanding of why someone may have a different opinion and comprehend the backgrounds that affect why an individual has a certain opinion.  I strongly believe that the more you analyze the opposite opinion, the more you will be able to analyze your own opinion and know its pros and cons.

5.  The blog will also provide links to sites that offer more information on the topic and quite possibly events in Orange County that are related to the posts.







Friday, October 24, 2008

Fast for Immigration Rights


The immigration struggle gain momentum in 2006 with the marches held in April and May to defeat HR4437, which was a proposed legislation to make undocumented immigrants and those "assisting" undocumented immigrants felons. Typically, when anti-immigration laws are proposed, the public is informed and activist react. However, what made this movement different is that millions of individuals became activist as they took the streets to protest in the marches. It is estimated that about 750,000 protestors took to the streets of Los Angeles on March 25, 2006. The legislation was defeated, and many considered the marches a great success to spark social, political and economic awareness of immigration. However, the momentum has seem to have been subdued over the past two years.

With the upcoming elections, the candidate that gets elected will have a detrimental decision to make in regards to immigration policies. A new movement has arisen, a tactic that was utilized to promote awareness in the 1960s movements: hunger strikes. A pledge has been made to fast for immigrant rights, and 100 individuals will fast for 21 days to promote awareness for immigrant rights and also to promote Latinos to register to vote. While the movement has been announced primarily on Latino media, it seems that YouTube has been utilized as a medium to promote the movement. The YouTube video below has been strategically composed to not only convoke the audience through images and speech, but also words and phrases. The voice over and the words are presented so as to reinforce certain ideas of the movement and elaborate on the history of immigrant rights. At the end, the propaganda uses the “Are you ready...” slogan to encourage individuals to fast and promote awareness of the movement.

The fast for immigrant rights will be in vain if awareness does not arise from the movement. Utilizing YouTube is a strategic manner of outreaching to the youth, who have the most potential of spreading the word faster online. Now activism will utilize the powerful tool internet to bring about issues.