Nomás nada

Se suponía que era un juego nada más. No sé por qué te lo tomaste en serio. ¿Sería porque estabas ebrio? Eso es lo que pasa cuando nos dan las tres de la mañana en medio de tanto frío y al fondo de dos botellas de ese aguardiente que tanto te (nos) gusta. Aunque a mí me gusta más el té, debo de confesarte. Especialmente después de todo lo que sé que pasa cuando te pones en ese plan que te pones. Así cuando agarras toda esa elocuencia y hablas en esa forma que tus palabras me van jalando hacia ti y después...

The New Me

So I'm rolling down the street blasting some salsa through the streets of South Philadelphia. The road, the people, the cars, and my thoughts are just staying behind as I hum to Hector Lavoe, the voice made passion, pain, and past. It's times like this that I use to keep me from thinking too much about stuff; part of my daily commitment to be a happier man. It's working. But it's funny noticing this self of mine correcting it's old ways. They say an old dog can't learn new tricks. I say let's see.

...

Sometimes I feel we're keeping to ourselves a moment that'll find a voice only when we least expect it.

La Tomi

Compré a La Tomi hace unos meses. Dejé atrás mi miedo y me volví a montar en una bici. Y es que hace como cinco años me atropelló un carro en Juárez cuando montaba de regreso a casa. Salí volando, estrellé el parabrisas y me traje el retrovisor del pasajero conmigo. Cuando caí azoté contra el pavimento me sangraba el brazo. Me levanté sin saber qué había pasado... No, si sabía que me habían atropellado pero no entendía cómo había pasado. Toqué mis brazos, mis piernas, mis costillas. No había nada roto. Levanté la manga de mi brazo izquiero para ver mi herida. Tenía una piedra incrustada; cuando la quité salió más sangre. Ya no pude poner la piedra de nuevo en donde se había alojado. Ya sólo pensé en levantar mi bicicleta y terminar mi camino a casa. Dos muchachos se pararon para ayudarme y me encaminaron a la casa. Dormí varias horas y cuando me desperté sólo tenía el susto. Pero Philadelphia se disfruta mucho en dos ruedas. Fue por eso que decidí dejar el pasado atrás, donde se debe quedar, y fui a comprarme una bicicleta. Fui a MexiBike. Ya la había visto antes, y después de mucho negociar la saqué del taller con todo y candado. La Tomi no tenía nombre, pero estaba destinada a tener uno. Hipster Ross me obligó a buscarle uno luego de que ella se hizo de su Lola, una fixed gear azul a la antigüita como las Vagabundo. No es que ella me amenazó o algo, al contrario. La presión fue moral. ¿Cómo iba a dejar a mi bici sin nombre si ella le había puesto nombre a la suya? Apenas la compré nuestros amigos en común comenzaron a preguntar por el nombre de mi nueva bicla. La Tomi me hizo ojitos desde que la vi. Es ligera, "puro aluminio", dijo Benigno, el del taller que la vendía. Se llama Tomasa, pero es La Tomi para la banda. Se llama Tomasa porque es negra y justo escuchaba esa canción cuando Adriana me preguntó su nombre. Me he aventado buenos viajes en ella y pues es más fácil moverse entre los carros. Cierto que cuando llueve acabas con el hocico y el trasero bañado y enlodado. Es mejor caminar o evitar salir en esas ocasiones. Aquí las calles son muy estrechas y seguido se saben de historias de terror (bike horror stories) porque alguien abrió una puerta y no se fijó que venía un ciclista, porque un carro no hizo el alto y pum!, porque no hay para donde hacerse cuando lo quieren rebasar o cualquier otro imprevisto. Yo me caí hace poco. Bajaba tranquilo por una calle en la que hay vías de tranvía en desuso. La llanta de mi bicicleta se atoró y fui a dar al suelo. Mientras iba hacia el pavimento sólo pude pensar en mi amiga Mónica. Ella se cayó igual hace unos meses y se rompió la muñeca y yo pensé que eso me iba a pasar a mí. Pero no fue así. Mi mano izquierda no detuvo el golpe y nomás se abrió una herida considerable.El resto de mí se seguió derecho hasta que mi cara (nariz, labios y dientes) se embarraron en la calle. Sangre. Había mucha sangre. Como mi muñeca no se rompió y como mis dientes hicieron clic, un clic muy fuerte, cuando chocaron con el pavimento pensé en el resto de mi vida como un chimuelo. Pero nel. Tengo buena dentadura y nomás me abrí un labio. Pero eso ya no importa. Sigo rolando por las calles. Esto de caerse es cosa de de vez en cuando. Y cuando uno anda agusto y sin bajarse a escupir no hay nada como escuchar unas rolitas mientras se recorren las calles de Philadelphia. Para pimpear o enchular mi ride prendo el ipod y lo dejo sonar por sus bocinas. Con la gafa puesta, rolo por la ciudad a ritmo de Willie Colón y Héctor Lavoe. Ahí nomá!

The Nooevo

I woke up this afternoon and tried to make a list of what I needed to do. I opened my notebook and started reading. It was funny and dramatic. It was me a few months ago as I went from top to bottom in just a matter of three weeks, months, or pages. I guess I couldn't betray my-of-late-self and just jotted down a few words on every entry. I'll type them down and have an update on those pieces of history. For the most part I'm ok. I owe a lot of money but I'm managing to save a little these days and have some fun at the same time. Winter is coming and I got to write something to pay a few bills and get me a warm snow-ice season at the pad. Don't think I'll be going anywhere soon. I miss y'all people. But I also miss myself.

Hace mucho que no te veo...

No sé por qué, pero la única relación mental que hago cuando pienso en México es contigo. Al menos así fue ayer que tomaba un par de cervezas en un restaurant etiope de West Philly. Como puedes ver mis pensamientos son así de errantes y aleatorios. Porque nunca hemos tomado cerveza—de hecho creo que ni te gusta—y no sé cuán etiope seas.

Shenandoah hate crime, an issue far from over

The beating death of Mexican immigrant Luis Eduardo Ramírez Zavala is an issue far from being over, despite a Pennsylvania state court acquitted them in early May the two teens charged in what has been catalogued as a hate crime.

Just this weekend Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder demanding the Department of Justice to file federal charges against Derrick Donchak and Brandon Piekarsky, the two teenagers who faced trial for the murder.

"This senseless and cowardly attack appears to have been a hate crime as racial slurs were hurled against Mr. Ramirez throughout the fatal assault," Rendell wrote in his letter. "I strongly recommend that your office bring civil rights charges against Piekarsky and Donchak. I believe that justice and fairness mandate such a prosecution."

After eyewitnesses' testimony linked both Piekarsky and Donchak to the fatal event of 12 July 2008, an all-white jury found them guilty only of simple assault and alcohol-related offenses, a verdict that irritated Latino rights organizations.

"Luis Ramírez was murdered. And yet no one is being held responsible for the loss of his life," said Gladys Limón a few minutes after an all-white jury acquitted the two teens charged with aggravated assault, ethnic intimidation and killing of this Mexican immigrant.

Ms. Limón, an attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, represented Ramirez's partner Crystal Dillman, with whom the deceased had two children.

"The justice system has failed to vindicate the death of Luis Ramírez, has failed to vindicate the communities and national interests. It's a complete outrage," Ms. Limón said.

And though the two teens were acquitted from the state charges pending against them, national and local organizations are putting pressure on the federal government to further its investigations into the death of Luis Eduardo Ramírez Zavala, a sign that this issue is far from being over.

"We're engaged in consultation with other agencies to see if we would take any actions and what those actions would be. Yet it's premature to say what's going to happen," said Barry Morrison, director of the Anti-Defamation League in Philadelphia.

MALDEF has already launched an online petition collecting signatures to make the Department of Justice classify Ramírez Zavala's death as a hate crime, which the Department of Justice defines as "offenses reported as a result of bias toward a particular race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity/national origin, or physical or mental disability."

There were 9,535 hate crime victims in the United States in 2007, a slight decrease from the 9,652 registered in 2006, according to Federal Bureau of Investigations' most recent figures.

FBI's numbers show also there were 1,347 victims attacked because of their ethnicity or national origin bias, with Hispanics being 61.6% of the victimized. And though the most common offense is intimidation—2,565 in 2007—, there were at least nine "murders and nonnegligent manslaughters", as the agency defines it.

12 July 2008

Ramírez was beaten to death by four white teenagers, all football players for their local high school, the night of 12 July 2008 in Shenandoah, a town in Pennsylvania's coal country some 80 miles north of Philadelphia. He died two days later due to his injuries at Geisinger Medical Center, in Danville, Pa.

He had been waiting for his girlfriend—and Crystal Dillman's sister—Roxanne Rector, 15, who had just gone to her mother's house to ask permission to sleep over at a friends house. When the group of kids met with the girl, one of them, Brian Scully, yelled "isn't it a little bit late for you to be out?"

That's where it all ensued. Ramírez yelled back at them in Spanish and after a brief exchange where Scully called him "Spic" and told him "to go back to Mexico", the pack, lead by Brandon Piekarski, charged.

Ramirez was beaten, kicked and stomped on. The authopsy showed Luis Ramirez's skull had a double fracture: one in the back of the head another on the left side. This latter injury was so serious that his brain oozed out and swelled up causing his basic functions to stop. He was dead.

Piekarski, 17, and Derrick Donchak, 19, were tried together last week at a Schuylkill County court for their role in what authorities labeled as a hate crime, what brought to light the racial tension Latinos and immigrants from Latinamerica experience in their diaspora through rural America, a destination immigrants much prefer nowadays.

The trial

Piekarski, charged with third-degree murder, was accused of delivering a fatal kick to Ramirez' head while he lied unconscious on the ground; he also faced aggravated assault, recklessly endangering another person, simple assault, ethnic intimidation, criminal solicitation/hindering apprehension or prosecution and purchase, consumption, possession or transportation of liquor.

“Brandon Piekarsky snapped. He rushed at Luis Ramírez, kicked him," Assistant District Attorney Robert Frantz said in his opening statement. "When Brandon Piekarsky is done, Derrick Donchak rushes at him.”

Donchak was charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, criminal solicitation/hindering apprehension or prosecution, ethnic intimidation, corruption of minors, purchase or consumption of alcohol by a minor and selling or furnishing alcohol to minors.

Colin Walsh, another teenager involved, punched Ramirez in the chin and knocked him down, causing his head to smash against the pavement.

"I saw Colin [Walsh] punch Mr. Ramirez in the face. Brandon Piekarsky kicked him in the head,” Benjamin Joseph Lawson, a friend of the defendants, testified.

Walsh pleaded guilty in a federal court to violating Ramírez's Fair Housing Rights, admitting that his actions prevented other Latinos from moving into the area and getting all state charges against him dropped. The deal would send him to spend between 4 to 9 years in a federal prison. Yet, it is still unclear what else this deal involves after a judge ordered all documents to be sealed.

Walsh testified in court that he saw Piekarski kick Ramírez in the head.

"He took one step and kicked him in the head. I was shocked,” Walsh said. "It wasn’t really right what he did, kick a man when he was down.”

A fourth teen, Brian Scully, who faces aggravated assault and ethnic intimidation charges in juvenile court, also testified that Piekarski had kicked Ramírez in the head.

The boys had two meetings, one at Donchak's garage shortly after the fight and another the following day at Pierkarski's house, where they put together a story to tell authorities, following Piekarski's mother's advice.

Frederick Fanelli and Jeffrey Markoski, attorneys for Piekarski and Donchack, respectively, presented an enraged Ramírez who wouldn't stop fighting. The kids, they argued, acted on self defense, a four-against-one self defense.

The prosecution also presented a photo of Derrick Donchak wearing a t-shirt with a United States Border Patrol logo on his chest at a Halloween party, meaning that he had already been charged and was awaiting trial when he wore it.

"You don't mock. You don't show up like that, not unless the intent is real," Frantz said.

But defense attorney Markosky discounted the photograph as evidence.

"A T-shirt is not an expression of what your inner beliefs are," he said. "T-shirts are not evidence."

While the prosecutors used three days to present and rest their case, it took defense attorneys only two hours to present and rest theirs. Donchak and Piekarski were not called to the stand.

By Thursday everybody was waiting for a verdict.

The Verdict

The all-white jury found Donchak and Piekarski not guilty of the most serious charges: criminal homicide, aggravated and ethnic intimidation.

The jury deliberated for almost 8 hours on Friday.

Shrotly before midnight they came out to a court room where mainly family and friends of the defendants were present. As the verdict was read, Donchak and Piekarski celebrated; their close ones jumped and shrieked in emotion. Donchak jumped off his chair and hugged Piekarski. Some members of the crowd were prevented from jumping the rope.

"Hey! This ain't over yet," the voice of a sheriff rushed as he approached them.

But it was over. The families enjoined in a series of embraces where tears and emotion won over the somber image of Gladys Limón darting out the room while some reporters went straight to her.

She disappeared behind a door for approximately 15 minutes. Joining her was a representative of the Mexican Consulate in Philadelphia who declined giving out comments as he walked out escorting Limón, who took questions stoically.

"I had to call Crystal Dillman and Luis' mother to let them know that the people who murdered their son and partner were going to continue their lives uninterrpted", she said. "They were shocked obviously. They're devastated."

But the two teens, their family and friends were not devastated. They left the court house cheering and applauding the jury's decision, which, according to one of the jurors, was pretty much agreed upon hours before it was finally made public.

"From 5 p.m. it was pretty much an 11 to 1. I was the one holding up and the rest had to convince," juror Eric Macklin said. "I believe all four boys are racist and I was pretty close to find them [Piekarski and Donchak] guilty, but due to the evidence presented I just couldn't do it."

Piekarski's attorney, declined giving out comments, while Markosky said the jury "saw the case as they should have... it's a great day for the Donchak family."

It is not over

The trial's outcome outraged Latino leaders, who since the beginning claimed there were serious mistakes being done in the prosecution of this crime.

"I'm completely disgusted and amazed at the jury's improper, imprudent and deviant attitude towards this case. These individuals, all of them white, didn't understand they had in their hands a civic and socially important case dealing with the life of a human being," said Reverend Miguel Rivera.

Rivera, president of the National Coalition Of Latino Clergy & Christian Leaders (CONLAMIC, in Spanish), said the trial should have been held somewhere else.

"The prosecution was totally inept, lacking professionalism, as the outcome of this trial showed us," he said. "They should've presented a motion to hold the trial somewhere else because the nature of this corrupt county [Schuylkill County] aids to breed white supremacy sentiments there."

The lack of justice, Rivera said, shows that even an animal has more rights than an immigrant.

"Had they killed a dog, these kids would be already emprioned. It's amazing that a dog has more rights than an undocummented immigrants," he said.

Agapito López, an activist from Hazleton, Pa., who has been very vocal in the quest for justice in this case, said the verdict sent an erroneous message and that now there Latinos in Shenandoah live with fear.

"Latinos don't dare to go out [in Shenandoah]. It is now understood that you can commit a crime and go unpunished if you have the connections, the money, and you are white," he said.

Rivera and López are asking now the federal government to push forward and present charges agaisnt Donchak and Piekarski, a step that might already be on the works, according to Morrison of the Anti Defamation League in Philadelphia.

"I wouldn't be hopeful that something is going to hapen soon, but we've been approach by the Department of Justice to work closely in this case," he said.

He declined to give specifics as to what kind of assistance ADL is providing the federal goverment with.

"I just would say this is not over yet. There are still more things to happen," he said.