DEAR READERS: All together, now: ¡A LA CHINGADA WITH ARIZONA’S SB 1070!
For those of ustedes too occupied with your Drinko por Cinco hangover, the initiative I mentioned (signed into law a couple of weeks ago by Arizona’s governor) gives immigration powers to the state’s police officers and sheriff’s deputies, allowing them to stop and question anyone they think looks like an illegal immigrant. Besides being the most blatant invitation to racially profile Mexicans since the sombrero, it’s also a civil liberties disgrace that is making the Grand Canyon State’s greatest son, libertarian icon Barry Goldwater, no doubt wishing he were born in Utah.
A movement is under way to boycott the state as well as such national companies based in Arizona as U-Haul and US Airways. A boycott of the state worked back in the 1990s, when Arizonans refused to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday as a state holiday, and it should work now; visit arizona-boycott.org for other companies to shun (and if you’re a baseball fan, don’t root for your team when they play the reprehensible Arizona Diamondbacks, whose owners shower millions on Arizona’s retrograde politicians). But I also want to urge a buycott—there are good people who’ve been fighting the Know Nothings in the state for decades and constantly get threatened and need our support. Below is a partial list of groups and organizations that deserve your attention, whether a monetary contribution, a kind note or physical support.
Now, some of the good people of Arizona:
• Phoenix New Times: Sure, they carry my column from time to time; they’re the sister paper of the Mexican’s hometown OC Weekly; and they’re the base for the two drunk micks who own our parent company, Village Voice Media. But the New Times, more than any other news organization in the country, has exposed best and longest the terrifying reign of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the intellectual godfather of Senate Bill 1070. Their reporters past and present—especially John Dougherty, Paul Rubin and Stephen Lemons—have been the subject of intimidation, stonewalling and harassment by Arpayaso and his goons solely because they’ve exposed Arpayaso for the corrupt taxpayer-waste of a pendejo he is. Arpayaso knows how dangerous the New Times is: He once had my patrones Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin arrested on charges so spurious he had to release them within a day. Click on phoenixnewtimes.com a million times each day to spur their readership numbers, which allows them to bring in more advertising and gives them more fuel against that pinche Arpayaso.
• Flagstaff Live! and the Tucson Weekly: They carry my column—enough said. Visit flaglive.com and tucsonweekly.com.
• Puente Movement: Not to be confused with the fine Puente Project, which helps California students advance to universities, the Puente Movement has been the primary organizer of protests in Phoenix against Arpayaso and frequently suffers bona-fide Nazis hurling invectives at kiddies and peaceful people. Visit puenteaz.org.
• Somos America: A coalition of Arizona groups united for immigration reform, now understandably focusing on dismantling SB 1070. Visit somosamerica.org.
• Derechos Humanos: Fighting the same fights as the other groups, but from Tucson. Know Nothings despise the group’s head, Isabel Garcia, which means we should anoint her the next Dolores Huerta. Visit derechoshumanosaz.net.
• Border Action Network: Exactly what it sounds like. Visit borderaction.org.
Hopefully, I can return to this column’s usual obsession with little people and big-breasted women, but let’s help the good who fight evil in the belly of el Diablo. Again, people: ¡A LA CHINGADA WITH SB 1070!
Ask the Mexican at th********@as*********.net, youtube.com/askamexicano or myspace.com/ocwab. Or write to him at: Gustavo Arellano, P.O. Box 1433, Anaheim, CA 92815-1433. Find him on Facebook and Twitter!
