Category: Uncategorized

Email from Irma Muniz

Dear Friends:

Citizens of Mexico fought the French, who had occupied their land, and drove them away by force. These citizens consisted of approximately 5000 Mestizo and Zapotec Indians who were at a disadvantage, as they lacked adequate resources for battle. In spite of their limitations, however, their perseverance defeated the French against all odds.

On Cinco de Mayo — May 5, 1862, General Ignacio Zaragoza defeated the French in Puebla, Mexico and this came to be known as the “Batalla de Puebla.” The French were eventually expelled in 1867.

On Cinco de Mayo people throughout the world acknowledge the spirit and
courage of those who sacrifice with moral conviction. They remember the
spirit of those who move forward and defend the highest ideals for the
sake of humanity.

Feliz Cinco de Mayo

Legally Ramsey Muniz is completely innocent — and morally too.

www.freereamsey.com

Activist Discusses the Violence Against Women Act

By Nick Braune
Mid-Valley Town Crier
by permission

One of the people at this week’s May Day labor vigil at McAllen’s Archer Park was Sister Moira Kenny. She seldom misses a labor rights rally, a peace march or an anti-capital punishment vigil. She is a member of the Sisters of Mercy and is a respected Valley activist.

Because Sister Moira also has an interesting job, I asked her if she could spend a little time explaining her work to me, and she obliged. She is a legal manager/paralegal for the South Texas Civil Rights Project and has worked there for sixteen years.

Nick Braune: I have seen your office behind the Farmworker Hall on Cesar Chavez Road in Alamo, and there does always seem to be an energetic group there. Could you tell my readers a little about the type of work you do?

Sister Moira Kenny: Yes, and we are an energetic group, and busy. As our name implies, our focus is on civil rights.

The Rio Grande Valley has so many problems that can combine to cause discrimination and civil rights abuses. There’s a long list of such problems: excruciating poverty, abysmal health care, severe lack of public services, inadequate educational opportunities, official oppression, a history of exploitation, unfair terms and conditions of employment, denial of the dignity of the farm worker, and the iron grip of powerlessness affecting the heavily Mexican-American population.

We currently have a broad caseload including some First Amendment freedom of speech issues and some cases on behalf of persons with disabilities not given access to public facilities or access to sign language interpreters by health care providers. We also deal with colonia and property rights issues, employment discrimination matters, the border wall issue, and protection of women from domestic violence.

Nick: In connection with the domestic violence issue, I was checking on the Texas Civil Rights Project website, and I noticed a reference to women sometimes being afraid to come forward about VAWA issues (Violence Against Women Act) because they fear deportation. Is that a frequent problem?

Sr. Moira: There are many undocumented women in the Rio Grande Valley who suffer from physical, sexual and/or psychological abuse by their Legal Permanent Resident or U.S. citizen spouses. And yes, these women suffer doubly — from the abuse itself and the fear of deportation. Undocumented wives who marry legal residents hope that their husbands will petition for them; but when the abuse begins, that hope is shattered. Abusive spouses threaten to call Immigration if the wife would dare report the abuse to the police. (The saying is: “You report me, I deport you.”)

Abused women have a remedy under the VAWA: The Self-Petition Project lets undocumented women petition for themselves and escape their abusive situations by enabling them to obtain working papers and to begin the process of obtaining legal resident status.
1The women are freed from the nightmare of abuse and the threat of deportation, and they are empowered to live free and independent lives. They also can seek work outside their home and become financially capable of caring for themselves and their children without being dependent on their abusive spouses or the social service agencies.

Nick: Is there someone you have interviewed whose story you could share a little with our readers.

Sr. Moira: Elvira is one of our many success stories. Her story of abuse is pretty typical of so many of our clients, in that her husband, Jose (not his real name) would become extremely abusive when drunk. She stayed in the relationship for the sake of the children. Elvira had two children from a previous marriage, and Jose was quite abusive to them also. Often he threatened to kill Elvira. Once out of this relationship through our VAWA program, Elvira prospered, developing her own catering business. She also is a teacher’s aide and has become a Permanent Resident.

Another client, Margarita, is our best example of the change that can take place in these women. When we first met her, Margarita could not look at us; her eyes and head were always downcast. But over the next three years she started to blossom. For some unknown reason, Immigration took longer with her case than any other. (We think they lost her file!) But over that time, she never lost hope. Her smile has become the most rewarding thanks we could ever get.

Like Margarita, many of our clients who have been approved through the VAWA program have jobs with local school districts, as home health care providers, or food service providers.

Nick: Sister Moira, thank you for this interview and for your work. I can see that your office is bringing legal help and hope to many people.

I began working with Riad Hamad, in 2004 and have been to oPt 5 times since June 2005.

The last time I spoke to Riad on the phone was a few days after the federal agents had descended upon him.

He told me that not only did they cart off more than forty boxes of papers, files, computers, CDs, his daughters childhood diaries, but also an ounce and a half of catnip.

I told him he sounds like the next Dr. Sami-Al Arian. He made no reply then, but i can imagine he had already decided he would not be locked away or PCWF shut down.

Riad had the best sense of humor of any activist I have ever known and he was a better Christian than many I have known who claim to be one. Riad did The Beatitudes; he blessed: did good unto the least among us; the poor and oppressed children of Palestine.

I personally met with some of the Bethlehem children PCWF served and also Husam Jubran; PCWF’s ‘boots on the ground’ coordinator.

I didn’t meet any terrorists in all my days in the refugee camps and travels through the West Bank. All I met were human beings suffering from injustice and a military occupation we American tax payers support with 3.2 Billion annually.

thanks for your Counterpunch article.

Thanks a lot for your article about Riad Hamad printed on Counterpunch today.

It looks like Riad death is going to go pretty much unnoticed and will be only lightly investigated.

Thanks for reminding everyone what kind of a man he was and in what kind of a world he (we) lived (live) in.

Best regards and many thanks.

that was a beautiful essay. thank you.

as a good friend and close colleague of Riad Hamad’s and his work over the years, this article is totally shallow, misinformed, exploitative and doesn’t get to any of the core issues that Riad was dealing with — whether he committed suicide or not. I was happy to see someone take on the issue, but your article is very sub-par.

Excellent piece. Thanks for doing it.

Dear Friends:

Writings from Ramsey Muniz commemorate Cinco de Mayo in pursuit of equality and justice for Mexico and all the world. Please distribute.

From his confinement, my husband shares that on this historic day in the 21st century we are experiencing a major Mexicano, Hispanic, and Chicano cultural, spiritual, and political movement of vigorous freedom and intellectual progress. Our time has come . . .

–Irma Muniz

Dear Friends:

Cinco de Mayo was part of a struggle that began on August 13, 1521, when our most powerful civilization was invaded by the Europeans – – the Spaniards.

As a people, we have been seized and dominated since that time.

During a later struggle in 1862, French troops, large in numbers and weapons, had attacked the capital of Mexico. Within the capital in
Chapultepec resided a military academy for young Mexicano soldiers who fought the French with valor, refusing to give up their God-given dignity as a nation and as a race.

Young soldiers were driven to the top of Chapulepec where they refused to surrender. Instead they wrapped themselves in the Mexican flag and leaped to their deaths as they shouted, “Que Viva Mexico!” At that very moment the French and the entire world knew that eventually Mexico would triumph and defeat the Europeans nations.

We commemorate these events seeking equality and justice for Mexico and all of the world. We who acknowledge the plight of our ancestors maintain an eternal spirit within our hearts that cannot be defeated, for it is based on
truth.

In exile,
Ramsey Muniz – Tezcatlipoca
www.freeramsey.com