THE WEEK IN REVIEW
October 1, 2021
A proposal is coming to protect DACA beneficiaries… President Biden and his administration are taking steps to protect some 700,000 DACA recipients, the undocumented residents brought to the United States as children. A proposed rule is to be published this coming Tuesday, which would take effect after a 60-day comment period. Great news for those young Americans, also called Dreamers, who have been riding a politically manipulated roller coaster for a while, but who need to have their immigration status officially changed from in limbo to permanent residency. Come on already. ¡Ya basta!
Of caudillos and other demons that flourish in our hemisphere… El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele just called himself, on his Twitter bio, “The coolest dictator in the world.” Come on, give us a break. He’s the same guy that recently had that country adopt bitcoin as legal tender. Good luck with that. It’s all BS if you ask me, and promotional drivel similar to the one we had to put up with for four long, long years, when our own moron held the highest office in the United States. By the way, our beloved Western Hemisphere no longer has room for caudillos, for dictators, or for similar kind of asinine messiahs. Go away, Bukele.
Drought in Paraguay, lava flowing in La Palma… A severe drought that began in 2019 continues to affect Paraguay and its economy. The Paraná River has dropped to its lowest level in 77 years. Deforestation and climate change, we are told, are partially blamed for the drought… A molten rock river spawned by volcanic eruptions in La Palma, one of the Canary islands, is cutting a wide path of destruction across that enclave. So far, more than 800 structures and 30 kilometers of roads have been wiped out. The lava is now flowing into the Atlantic Ocean, adding to the devastation, and causing additional life-threatening concerns, as toxic fumes are being emanated from the plumes that are created as the lava flows into the water. My heart is with you, canarios. With you too, paraguayos, and others in Brazil and Argentina who are also affected by the drought.
Some good news for us folks, the ones christened by the U.S. Census as Hispanics… six out of twenty-five of this year’s McArthur Fellowship recipients are Latinos. Each one is to get $625,000 over five years, no strings attached. Wow. Congratulations. They’re all creative folks nominated for the award by their peers. These are their names and other pertinent info: Cristina Ibarra (Pasadena, filmmaker), Alex Rivera (Pasadena, filmmaker), Daniel Alarcón (New York, writer and radio producer), Daniel Lind-Ramos (Puerto Rico, sculptor and painter), Mónica Muñoz Martínez (Austin, historian), and Víctor J. Torres (New York, microbiologist).
They abuse immigrants, too… The news item said, “Low pay, long hours, broken dreams.” It was an article about a meat plant. My first thought was, “There we go again, Mexicans are getting the shaft as usual, as they go to the rescue, processing food so everyone can eat during the time of COVID.” But I was wrong. It was an in-depth report from The Guardian about a 30-year-old Romanian who answered a help-wanted ad in Facebook and then traveled from his home country to the Netherlands to work in Europe’s biggest meat company. A few days later he ended up unemployed and homeless in Boxtel, a town in southern Holland, sleeping and spending the nights at a railway station. The work, the pay and the perks weren’t as advertised. Where is Upton Sinclair when we need him? I guess the rich part of Europe isn’t as civilized as we’re told.
Oh, Madrid, you and your people were so nice in the seventies… But that was then; don’t know if it will be the same now that it has a crazy, loca lady running the Madrid region. Her name? Isabel Díaz Ayuso. She took an issue with the Pope’s apology to Mexico, for the role the church played in that country’s history. She was surprised by Pope Francis’s apologetic words. Díaz Ayuso, a rightwing nutcase, you know, a fear-mongering kind of psycho, like the one we had running our nation recently, also claims that the Spanish conquistadores brought “Catholicism, civilization, and freedom to Latin America.” Yeah, right. What about destruction, annihilation of half of the natives, the spreading of disease, slavery, and the centuries-old plundering of its natural resources? Well, regardless of you, Ms. Díaz, I will still return to Madrid someday soon, unless most madrileños are no longer as nice as they used to be when I lived there for three years.
Until next week…
AUTHOR: Pedro Chávez