Oaxaca de Juárez.- Este día y en conferencia de prensa el dirigente del Frente Indígena Oaxaqueño Binacional (FIOB) dio a conocer que el ex líder magisterial Ezequiel Rosales Carreño fue designado como su asesor.Este día y en conferencia de prensa el dirigente del Frente Indígena Oaxaqueño Binacional (FIOB) dio a conocer que el ex líder magisterial Ezequiel Rosales Carreño fue designado como su asesor.

Fue el dirigente del FIOB, Gaspar Rivera Salgado quien dio a conocer el nombramiento del otrora Secretario General interino de la sección 22 del Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (SNTE).

En entrevista con ADNsureste, Rosales Carreño dijo que su incorporación obedece a que el FIOB se reestructurará organizativamente y cualitativamente.

Se le preguntó si podría competir por un curul federal ahora que se ha unido al FIOB, a lo que contestó “No está en la agenda del FIOB la coyuntura electoral”.

El medio día de este lunes, la directiva del Frente Indígena Oaxaqueño Binacional (FIOB) lo presentó como su “asesor político”, de cara a la elección federal del 5 de julio próximo.

En conferencia de prensa, el coordinador general del FIOB, Gaspar Rivera Salgado, llamó a las distintas organizaciones de la entidad a conformar un gran frente para resistir la crisis económica y social en Oaxaca.

Luego de presentar al profesor y controvertido personaje sindical, durante y después del conflicto del 2006, descartó que los muevan intereses únicamente político-electorales.

Vamos por la defensa del salario, el rescate del campo, la defensa de la economía popular y en rechazo a las reformas estructurales planteadas y ejecutadas por el Gobierno de la República, anunció.

El dirigente de la organización con presencia mayoritaria en la región de la Mixteca anunció una gran movilización para presentar y entregar a las autoridades locales su pliego petitorio de demandas.

En su momento, Rosales Carreño dio a conocer que pondrá en práctica su experiencia al frente del Magisterio oaxaqueño. “Nuestra táctica será movilización-negociación-movilización”, detalló.

Dijo que se percibe un enorme rezago en el campo en materia de empleo, donde no hay ingresos, aunado a que persiste un atraso ancestral en infraestructura, educación, salud, vivienda, el tema hospitalario y demás.

Acompañado del coordinador estatal del FIOB, Bernardo Bautista Ramírez, el ex dirigente magisterial puntualizó que con la cobertura de la organización luchará por mejorar la condición de los pueblos indígenas.

Rechazó que su calidad de ex secretario de Organización de la Sección 22 del SNTE y asesor político interfiera en sus actividades docentes.

“Yo doy clases de manera normal allá en San Juan Trujano, Silacayoapan, en la escuela Daniel Delgadillo”, informó.

Y anunció que en breve llevarán a cabo talles, foros, simposiums y encuentros en las diferentes comunidades de la Mixteca, así como el Istmo, Cuenca, Cañada, Sierra Sur y Valle Central, donde el FIO tiene presencia.

Sobre sus aspiraciones políticas de cara a las elecciones federales de este año 2009, Rosales Carreño aseguró que ahorita no son una prioridad.

“Vamos a trabajar y después definiremos sobre mi futuro”, concluyó.

Oaxaca, Oax. 2 de febrero de 2009 (Quadratín).- Ezequiel Rosales Carreño, ex secretario de Organización de la Sección 22 del SNTE, fue presentado este lunes como asesor político del Frente Indígena de Organizaciones Binacionales (FIOB).

En conferencia de prensa, el profesor mencionó que este 2009 será un año crítico por la situación de crisis económica, ante lo cual se requiere un plan de acción y de exigencia al gobierno estatal.

Como asesor de esta organización, convocó a un frente estatal a todas las organizaciones con el objetivo de plantear demandas en común.
Esto, ante el panorama de rezago en infraestructura, de crisis en el campo, en el comercio, la falta de empleo, y en sí la carencia en las satisfacciones de las necesidades básicas.

Dijo que esta actividad social no contrarresta con las actividades de la Sección 22, toda vez que dedicará su tiempo libre al FIOB y no dentro de sus horarios en el magisterio.

Aseguró que no forma parte del Comité Ejecutivo Seccional, ya que después de terminar su función en la secretaria de Organización, retornó a sus actividades en la escuela multigrado “Daniel Delgadillo”, en San Juan Trujano, distrito de Silacayoapan.

En esa escuela, Rosales Carreño atiende a los grupos de primero, segundo y tercero. El ex dirigente de la Sección 22 dijo que a partir de ahora estará activo en las actividades sociales y también en la organización de movilizaciones, donde el FIOB entregará su pliego petitorio a las autoridades correspondientes.

Esta presentación la avaló la dirigencia binacional y estatal del FIOB, formada por Gaspar Rivera Salgado, así como Bernardo Bautista Ramírez.
La dirigencia de la organización coincidió en que la llegada de Rosales Carreño a esta será para fortalecerla y encauzar las demandas de los pueblos.

También rechazaron buscar alguna candidatura en este 2009.

SUMAS, Wash. — Catarina Lopez was born and raised in Guatemala and lived there for most of her 46 years, but she is not Latina, although many people think she is.

Lopez is Maya, a descendent of the inhabitants that populated Central America and parts of Mexico before the Spanish colonized the region in the 1500′s.

Her ancestry _ like that of thousands of other indigenous Latin Americans who have migrated to United States _ challenges and clouds the perception Americans have of the immigrants coming over the border.

The growing number of indigenous people _ especially as farm workers _ has caught the attention of the federal government, which has made changes to the National Agricultural Workers Survey to get a better picture of the indigenous population here.

“They’re indigenous, but they’re all not from the same country,” said Lourdes Villanueva, farmworker advocate for Florida-based Redlands Christian Migrant Association. “Each one of them is different. Each group comes from a different place.”

Most indigenous workers come from southern Mexico, although groups from Guatemala and other countries have migrated as well. Many speak limited Spanish _ some not at all. Various dialects and languages are spoken within the groups that have migrated north.

Between 10 and 30 percent of the farm workers in California are estimated to be indigenous, according to a 2008 study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In Washington state, indigenous workers have settled in the agricultural areas of Skagit and Whatcom counties. A bulk of Florida’s indigenous work force labors in the central part of the state south of Tampa Bay.

Like many other immigrants, indigenous people began migrating north because of economic hardship or war in the last 15 to 20 years, said James Loucky, a professor of anthropology at Western Washington University.

Their arrival has changed the makeup of communities, but often that change is hard to understand.

Latin American indigenous people are sometimes grouped with Latinos. Their last names and countries of origin lead people to think they’re Latino, but they have a distinct history and background.

Under Department of Labor and U.S Census Bureau data, indigenous Latin Americans are grouped with Native Americans and Alaska Natives, making data about them hard to extract.

“Indigenous workers have other unique characteristics that make them a difficult population to serve. Survey data, however, underestimate the size of this population,” a proposal from the U.S. Department of Labor, which administers the survey, said before the changes.

The survey’s findings helps steer more than $1 billion in federal money for farm worker health, education and other services.

An initial change to the survey that listed indigenous languages was made in 2005 after farm worker service providers expressed concerns that indigenous workers were being underestimated.

The new change is the addition of a question about the place of birth of parents, which aims at narrowing a respondent’s origin. Most indigenous workers come from certain areas of Mexico, and results can be cross-checked with Mexican census data.

One of the reasons for the change was that indigenous respondents often do not self-identify as indigenous for historical and cultural reasons, the proposal said.

That’s because of their history of being discriminated in their home countries. Indigenous peoples in Latin America often lie at the bottom of the social ladder.

“They’re trying to protect their self esteem, trying to avoid similar kinds of denigration directed to their children,” Loucky said.

An influx of indigenous workers has required adjustment from workers and farmers. Farmers have learned to negotiate with family or village leaders, while workers are learning Spanish to talk to field managers, said Bryan Little, director of Labor Affairs for the California Farm Bureau.

“Because of their tribal roots, they tend to be family oriented to a huge degree, what winds up happening is that the farmers end up employing family groups,” Little said. “The upshot of that is you wound up working with the same people one year to the next.”

Lopez and her husband, Isabel Mendoza, said it’s been a challenge adjusting to life in America, a country where people seemingly don’t know who indigenous people are, or don’t care.

“They tell us we’re Mexican, anyways,” Mendoza said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/26/AR2009012600257.html

January 20, 2009

Experts who have lived among and studied the Triqui people of Oaxaca, Mexico believe that what happened to a Greenfield family, who authorities say allowed their 14-year-old daughter to live with a man as husband and wife, is a tragic misunderstanding of an honored tradition.

The Monterey County District Attorney has charged the father with child abuse, including procurement for lewd purposes, and the girl’s would-be mate faces statutory rape charges.

Today, Marcelino de Jesus Martinez, 36, the father of the girl, is scheduled to be arraigned at 1:30 pm in Department 1 of Monterey County Superior Court on child abuse charges, including procuring a child for lewd and lascivious acts and aiding and abetting statutory rape.

Police initially claimed that Martinez “sold” his daughter for $16,000 and hundreds of cases of booze, soda and meat. But that claim has since been retracted because such exchanges are customary in Triqui unions and were misunderstood, police said.

And while one expert said Triquis in the United States must learn to live by U.S. law, another said the U.S. legal system should respect the Triqui culture and the decision of the couple involved as long as young women are not abused or forced into relationships.

Indeed, in a case in Washington state several years ago, a Triqui man was acquitted of statutory rape in a similar case involving a 13-year-old girl, according to Dr. Seth Holmes.

Holmes, a Pennsylvania anthropologist and physician who used to work at Natividad Medical Center and with Salinas Valley Triquis, said the Triqui in Mexico are considered a “self-governing” indigenous people, much like Native Americans are self-governing.

Holmes said such unions in Oaxaca are the norm among the Triqui and that in his experience girls are never forced into these unions but, like the male, are willing and eager participants in a traditional union of two people that is formally, carefully and very seriously overseen by both families and a trusted “ambassador” who acts as a go-between.

Who are Americans to say that their approach to the union of a man and woman is better than the Triqui custom, particularly when 50 percent of American marriages end in divorce, Holmes asked.

What resolved the Washington case, he said, was that the girl told the trial court that she was not abused or forced and entered into the union willingly and happily.

Also, the couple had lived together as husband and wife in Mexico and the girl was pregnant.

Closer to home, Andres Garcia, a leader in the Triqui community in Greenfield, said he has lived with two Triqui women, each time forming the unions in the traditional Triqui way. In the first union, he was in his 20s and the girl was 15, he said.

After all the arrangements were made, including cases of beer and a live goat for the reception party, they lived together for many years, he said.

Adam Sanders of San Benito County has helped Triqui there and in Monterey County deal with legal problems, some caused by language difficulties and misunderstandings.

He has shared housing with Triquis, knows some of the language and helps when he can, he said. He is similarly involved with immigrants from Laos, he said.

In this region, he said, the Triqui traditional ways are evolving, and that the age girls marry is getting older – more like 16 and older instead of 13 and 14.

And according to Sanders, a juvenile probation officer, it is legal in California for 16-year-old girls to marry – even to adult men – if they go through a civil procedure outlined in the state’s family law codes.

Beyond that, Sanders said it’s “hypocritical to look at these indigenous groups and get all self-righteous and say they are involved in some barbaric practices” when so many Americans girls are impregnated by adults and statutory rape is never charged.

Sanders estimated that half the underage girls who become pregnant in local jurisdictions have children fathered by adult men.

Christian DiCanio, a linguist in Berkeley who has lived among the Triqui in Mexico, said “There is no official marriage in the Triqui culture; there is the dowry agreement and then you live together.”

The money and food that is part of the agreement is meant to be used in the ceremony, much like a wedding reception, DiCanio and others said.

Contact Jack Foley at jfoley@TheCalifornian.com.

http://www.thecalifornian.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009901200303

January 15, 2009

The police in Greenfield, a Monterey County farm town, had heard the rumors before: Migrant workers from rural Mexico were marrying off daughters as young as 12 and receiving sizable dowries.

But no such cases were ever prosecuted — until this week.

Marcelino de Jesus Martinez, 36, is in Monterey County Jail, charged with crimes related to an alleged attempt to set up a marriage for his 14-year-old daughter. According to police, he complained to them when the 18-year-old would-be groom failed to come up with the $16,000, 100 cases of beer, meat and other items he promised as a dowry.

The case has generated headlines worldwide — “Man Sells Daughter for Beer!” — and raised the blood pressure of activists on all sides of the immigration debate.

In Greenfield, Police Chief Joe Grebmeier has been swamped, explaining to reporters from Australia to Croatia that his initial description of the incident as “human trafficking” was ill-advised.

“There was no force, fear or coercion,” he said. “What we’re dealing with now is a difference in cultures. All of this would have been perfectly legal where they came from.”

The people involved are Mexican immigrants from rural Oaxaca. They are members of a tight-knit indigenous group called the Triqui, several thousand of whom live in Greenfield, depending on the season.

But culture clash or not, Grebmeier said, he was compelled to enforce the law. He said he had appeared at community meetings to warn recent immigrants against pursuing underage marriages. And when his department looked into reports about the 14-year-old girl, finding a matchmaker and “documents used in the negotiation,” he acted.

“I’m tasked with protecting my community, and 14-year-old girls need a lot of protection,” he said.

Whether 14-year-olds can legally marry in Oaxaca — or whether young girls would have a real choice — is an open question.

UCLA sociologist Gaspar Rivera, a native of Oaxaca, said he believed the legal age of consent is 16, but he has heard of girls as young as 12 being wed. He doubted that underage unions in isolated communities would be prosecuted.

“There would be no legal ramifications as long as all parties are in consent,” said Rivera, project director for UCLA’s Center for Labor Research and Education. “The villages have a high degree of autonomy, with little or no intervention from state and federal authorities.”

In any event, arranged marriages are a fading tradition, he said, describing them as “very rare.”

However, Andres Garcia, a fieldworker who lives in Greenfield, said he knew of several arranged Triqui marriages involving 16- and 17-year-olds in the last five years. The food and drink included in dowries is generally for the wedding celebration, and cash is intended to support any children if the bridegroom leaves.

Garcia, a community activist who sometimes translates for local police, said the Triqui have struggled to adapt.

“Our people get discouraged because they don’t understand, they don’t speak English or Spanish, they don’t read — so they figure what’s the use?” he said. “Like my grandmother said, ‘You try to swim when the water reaches your neck, but it’s difficult.’ ”

Martinez’s attorneys contend their client had no interest in seeing his daughter wed.

“He was very much against it, he never arranged it, he never arranged for any payment,” said Miguel Hernandez of Salinas. The attorney said that Martinez will plead not guilty and that his defense will not be, “It’s cultural and please forgive him for having these customs.”

“The facts will show that our client is as much a victim as the girl in this case,” he said.

On Wednesday, an arraignment hearing for Martinez was delayed until Friday, when a Triqui translator will be available.

Martinez speaks no English and only limited Spanish, according to his attorneys.

He is charged with procuring a child under 16 to engage in a lewd act, aiding and abetting a statutory rape and child cruelty. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of eight years and eight months, said Monterey County Deputy Dist. Atty. Cristina Johnson.

Immigration officials are investigating his status, Grebmeier said.

Johnson said her office was weighing statutory rape charges against the daughter’s boyfriend, Margarito de Jesus Galindo of Gonzales, Calif.

The girl had moved in with him before her father allegedly complained to authorities about the dowry, police said. The age of consent in California is 18.

In the end, no marriage was performed, lawyers on both sides say.

steve.chawkins@latimes.com

Times staff writer Ruben Vives contributed to this report.

http://fiob.org/?p=1183 Organizaciones piden a Obama una reforma justa y detener redadas y deportaciones

LINK: http://www.impre.com/laopinion/noticias/2009/1/22/revive-el-movimiento-pro-inmig-104824-1.html

22/1/2009 – 01:11(GMT)

Los Ángeles, 21 ene (EFE)- El Frente Indígena de Organizaciones Binacionales (FIOB) exhortó al presidente Barack Obama a tomar las acciones necesarias para despejar el camino hacia la solución justa, humana y urgente del problema de la inmigración ilegal en EEUU.

En la misiva, enviada hoy al despacho presidencial, el FIOB -organización binacional que busca contribuir con el desarrollo y la autodeterminación de pueblos migrantes y no migrantes- refiere las acciones que considera decisivas para frenar lo que califican de “amenaza” para la comunidad indígena que reside en el país.

“Nuestra comunidad tiene una gran presencia en los estados de California, Oregón, Washington, Illinois, Georgia y Carolina del Norte, entre otros, la mano de obra indígena sustenta de manera determinante trabajos agrícolas, así como empacadoras de alimentos”, dijo a Efe Gaspar Rivera-Salgado, coordinador general del FIOB.

“Queremos sumar nuestra voz para que la reforma migratoria forme parte fundamental de la agenda del presidente Obama, sabemos que temas como las guerras y la economía son de alta importancia, pero ciertamente la inmigración también es un tema medular”, agregó en dirigente de la organización que congrega a unos 9.000 miembros.

El FIOB pide que de manera inmediata cesen las redadas y se invalide la decisión de la administración saliente que eliminó los derechos de los migrantes que están en proceso de legalizar su situación y que por errores de los consultantes y abogados de inmigración, ya no tienen derecho a una apelación.

De igual modo expresan la necesidad de suspender el envío a los patrones de las cartas de discrepancia conocidas como “no-match letters”, que ordenan despedir a los sospechosos de ser indocumentados, situación que ha afectado especialmente a muchos indígenas.

“La llegada del Barack Obama a la presidencia, su historia personal como hijo de un inmigrante africano, nos da esperanza de una mayor comprensión a la realidad que viven tantas familias que vienen a trabajar honradamente a este país buscando un futuro mejor, confiamos que nuestra voz sea escuchada y sea escuchada pronto, muy pronto”, concluyó Rivera-Salgado.EFE yr/ma

Terra/EFE

Eileen Truax | 2009-01-16 | La Opinión

Organizaciones que trabajan con inmigrantes indígenas en California iniciaron una campaña de información sobre los usos y costumbres que continúan vigentes entre algunas comunidades oaxaqueñas viviendo en este estado, y que generan casos como el de Marcelino de Jesús Martínez, dado a conocer hace unos días.

Martínez, indígena de 36 años de edad, quien se comunica en lengua triqui ya que no habla inglés y no domina el español, fue detenido en la ciudad de Greenfield al ser acusado de intentar “vender” a su hija de 14 años a la familia del novio de ésta, un joven también triqui de 18 años. De acuerdo con la acusación, presuntamente realizada por el padre del novio, el “precio” solicitado habría sido una dote consistente en cervezas, carne y dinero en efectivo.

Tan pronto se supo sobre el caso, algunos medios de comunicación difundieron que el hombre habría intentado cambiar a su hija por cerveza, hecho que ha sido negado por el acusado y su familia, y que busca ser esclarecido tanto por las autoridades de Greenfield como por las organizaciones de defensa de los derechos de los inmigrantes indígenas.

Ayer, a través de un comunicado el Frente Indígena de Organizaciones Binacionales (FIOB) y el Centro Binacional Para el Desarrollo Indígena Oaxaqueño (CBDIO) hicieron un llamado al público para que se considere la diversidad y las costumbres de las comunidades indígenas en este caso en particular.

El texto explica la práctica de la comunidad triqui que consiste en que al momento de que una mujer es pedida en matrimonio, los padres piden una “dote” a la familia del pretendiente que servirá para cubrir, entre otros gastos, la celebración de la boda.

De acuerdo con Rufino Domínguez, director ejecutivo del CBDIO, la familia del joven pidió a los Martínez la mano de su hija, tal como se acostumbra en las comunidades triquis. Se habló de la celebración de la boda y para tal efecto fue solicitada la comida y la bebida.

Por lo que respecta a la cantidad monetaria, Estela Ramírez, trabajadora comunitaria del CBDIO e indígena triqui, explicó a este diario que esa es una costumbre con la que se busca asegurar el futuro de los hijos que pueda procrear la pareja en caso de que el hombre decida abandonar a la mujer después de casados, situación que se registra con frecuencia en dichas comunidades.

“Los medios de comunicación no se han preocupado por abordar esta parte del caso y se han limitado a emitir ‘juicios aislados y malas interpretaciones’, dijo por su parte Domínguez.

La versión que sobre el asunto maneja el CBDIO es que los Martínez pidieron a la pareja esperar un poco dada la juventud de la chica, pero que los jóvenes se fueron a vivir juntos de cualquier manera. El padre de la joven presentó una denuncia a la policía; las autoridades detuvieron al novio por ser mayor de edad, y en respuesta el padre del novio hizo la acusación en contra de Martínez. Por el momento los miembros de ambas familias se han negado a dar declaraciones a la prensa.

“Nosotros creemos que se tiene que aplicar la ley, pero tiene que haber un entendimiento más minucioso sobre el contexto en el que se realizan estas acciones”, comentó Gaspar Rivera-Salgado, coordinador general del FIOB. “Hay una gran diferencia entre fincarle a un indígena triqui cargos de tráfico y trata de humanos, cuando en realidad se trata de un matrimonio arreglado, que desafortunadamente aún es una práctica común en esas comunidades y que, como indígenas, nosotros desaprobamos, pero que está muy lejos de ser una ‘venta’”, comentó.

Oaxaca es uno de los estados más diversos de México, en el cual conviven 16 pueblos y comunidades indígenas, cada una con idioma propio y costumbres distintas. De esas comunidades, grupos que han emigrado masivamente a California a partir de finales de la década de los ochenta son los mixtecos, los zapotecos, los chatinos y y los triquis, siendo este último grupo el de más reciente migración, y por tanto el que enfrenta mayores problemas de comunicación, ya que un gran número de ellos no habla inglés ni español, sólo la lengua triqui.