Saturday, April 28, 2007

About Guatemala and it's political tragedies...

Well I recently finished reading a book by Rius (Mexican leftist cartoonist that has an excellent grasp on political history and explains it in the most simple ways) called "Osama Tio Sam" in which he tries to explain how the U.S. is the country with the best and most advanced communication systems but yet it's population is the worst informed in the world. "Media is controlled by the goverment serving the only purpose to entertain" he claims , adding that it "only complements the passionate world of sports and spectacle, which is the essence of life in North America" . Basically the U.S. population ignores what their governors do and it was a major surprise for everyone to watch the twin towers in the World Trade Center fall apart on the now long remembered 9/11 . And then everyone asks horrorized, why are they doing this to us? The American society also ignores what happens outside its borders and some still believe, just like the sons of Israel, that it's people are the ones chosen by God to guide the world. The book is also a great chronology on how the United States has committed "terrorism of state" , in its pure concept of the term , since the European immigrants founded the country about 4 centuries ago.
There is a small section of the book , which talks about Guatemala in the 1900's and it explains how back in the 1930's Jorge Ubico was literally elected to be president by the CIA (the most sinister agency that the U.S. could ever make) . My grandpa Mario Vargas(on my mom's side, R.I.P.) who used to work for the government owned railroad in Guatemala (shown in the picture) that went from Guatemala City to Puerto Barrios (Atlantic port to the Caribbean) was used by the United Fruit Co. (a North American company that owned great portions of peasant and indigenous population lands in Guatemala for about 70 or 80 something years) and was used to carry their main product, the banana. The United Fruit Co. was at its best profitable time during Ubico's era. When this dictator was in power, it was a horrific era for Guatemala, he shot hundreds of sindicate leaders including politicians and college students. The classified indigenous population of that time were forced to keep small booklets in which they had to count how many days they were working for the United Fruit Co., if the days weren't enough they had to work for free for 6 months. My grandpa who witnessed the way that society functioned back in the day used to tell me all these stories with a sad look on his face.
I wrote an article on "Straight Outta Guatemala" that I named "Another Victim of Imperialism" which tries to explain the political difficulties that Guatemala has confronted with the imperialistic intentions of the U.S.A. and it was inspired by the stories that my grandpa used to tell me about the United Fruit Co. and a little investigation over the internet. I find it very interesting that an author like Rius developed this topic in his book 2 years later. I would've never thought that somebody would talk about it in the same kind of criticism I did, well I guess it was just a mere coincidence.

Monday, April 23, 2007

WORKING FOR CORPORATE AMERICA (CHAPTER NO. 1)

My work experience with different U.S. corporations for the last 4 years has given me a deeper insight on how the monopolization of the economy and globalization is expanding its devastating horizons for humanity. Does this sound familiar to you? Capitalist economy reigning in the world. It's so cynical the way major corporations exploit millions of workers within and outside the country. A high percentage of the workforce for this corporations are immigrants from Latin America living in the United States (and the outside people would be the ones that actually live in Mexico, Central and South America) . That's nothing new nowadays, but I wonder what would happen if this workforce disappeared all of a sudden. To put in other words, isn't that the whole purpose of not allowing "illegal aliens" to have equal rights as every other "citizen" of the United States. I know is something very idealistic to envision and it could only be possible through the actual fact that unless there is a real revolutionary mindset in every single person that belongs to this workforce, there would be hundreds of thousands of available positions waiting to be filled up because the labor that is performed by this workforce is supposed to be an infraction to the immigration law of the country . I know a great amount of people that have the impression that living in the United States of America is all about earning lots of dollars, full of benefits and so on. But let me tell you, that the so called "American Dream" turns out to be a true nightmare. You come to realize that underneath all the actual citizens of the United States there is a working class , that even though it doesn't have the same rights as the rest of the population, are a key ingredient of the economic production of wealth for the country. The "American Dream" is translated in hard and heavy work, low wages and discrimination. Discrimination in the sense that immigrants don't have all the rights and benefits of U.S. citizens, but they take all the jobs that "Americans" don't want to take. Immigrants just want to be part of the system to make it work the way it should be. But obviously is not convenient for the government, because all the taxes that they can't keep if immigrants were part of the system is non profitable each year. This is were we see the focal point of the injustice that year after year I witnessed as being part of this working class that I mentioned earlier.
This is the sad reality of the "illegal aliens" that live in the U.S.A. There is not such a thing as an illegal human being. Illegal are all the violations of human rights, all the oppression and terrorizing activities that the governments exert on human beings worldwide. The abuse of power over people is more illegal than if we tried to be harmonious with each other in this alienating society.
I just basically want to share what my eyes perceive around me, and that there's got to be a solution or immigration reform that will help have a more balanced and stable lifestyle for millions of people that belong to this subsequently assumed inferior "working class" that runs across American society in current times.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

STRAIGHT OUTTA GUATEMALA ONLINE!

After 7 years I finally decided to come back with my original fanzine project called STRAIGHT OUTTA GUATEMALA. I can't believe how time flies, and how could I just not follow up with it. I have to mention there were many things that kept me busy like completing my bachelor's , trying to find a job that could sustain me, moving to the united states looking for better opportunities, etc. Now that i discovered this wonderful e-blogger i think i am going to post all the article ideas here. Maybe this can help me file enough articles to make a good collection worth to put on paper for a possible issue number 2.
Just to give a little background on STRAIGHT OUTTA GUATEMALA to whoever might take the time to read this, it was a project i started back in 2000 influenced by major fanzine publications like Heartattack (Goleta, California) , Maximun Rock n' Roll (San Francisco, California) Slug and Lettuce (somewhere in Virginia) and Simba (somewhere in England) in which their contents basically consist on articles that deal with topics such as the scene of underground d.i.y. music, politics, sex, enviroment and extreme sports just to mention a few of them.
This project i started was to spread out some information on my little country Guatemala. Who could ever imagine that finally in the 1990's there was a time when the youth in Guatemala would start to know about hardcore music and all its sub-branches that have influenced it and/or derived from it. It took about 20 years for that. It's funny to think that currents and let's say artistic or rebellious movements that start in a country like the United States are heard of in Guatemala about two decades later. It seems like Guatemala is far behind when it comes to "civilized culture"latest trends; I remember watching people wearing 70's clothes in the early 90's as if it was the latest fashion. It's almost like traveling in time.
Back then in 2000, there were a lot of topics that I felt had the need to be discussed or at least criticized in order to make a difference. After 7 years there's a lot more experience that can be added to these topics. It's viewing things with a whole new perspective. There's lots of ideas and beliefs that have changed as well, but the main focus of being critical about situations that disrupt this world is still standing strong.