Univision: As path to U.S. border gets tougher, more Central Americans seek asylum in Mexico

Categories borders, Central America, mexico
Univision: As path to U.S. border gets tougher, more Central Americans seek asylum in Mexico

In the first nine months of 2016, over 4,000 Hondurans, Salvadorans, Guatemalans and Nicaraguans opened asylum cases in Mexico, authorities note. That’s more than the total number of applicants from 2010 to 2014. MEXICO CITY – Mario Rodríguez, 20, is sorting donations at the Mexico City migrant shelter where he lives: toothpaste, pens and pencils, t-shirts. Friendly but soft-spoken, he wears a flat-brim cap, t-shirt and sweatpants. Rodríguez arrived in the city just a week ago, after fleeing violence in his hometown in the Honduran…Continue Reading “Univision: As path to U.S. border gets tougher, more Central Americans seek asylum in Mexico” →

CultureStrike: Global Beats, Decolonized Minds

Categories borders, hiphop, immigration, mexico
CultureStrike: Global Beats, Decolonized Minds

My profile of Mexican hiphop artists Bocafloja was published yesterday in CultureStrike, a magazine covering the intersection of arts and migration. Over a coffee in New York, Bocafloja talked about the origins of hiphop in Mexico City in the 1990s, how he built a collective that transgresses borders and his new album “Cumbé“. You can read the full piece here. “’It was almost accidental,’ says Bocafloja, on how he got into hiphop as a teenager in the 1990s. ‘Whenever migrant workers returned from the U.S….Continue Reading “CultureStrike: Global Beats, Decolonized Minds” →

Last Updated:

Hiphop, Transgresión y Celebración: Cumbé el nuevo disco de Bocafloja

Categories borders, hiphop, mexico, oppression and liberation

Salió en la revista cultural mexicana Yaconic mi entrevista con el artista de hiphop Bocafloja. Léen lo aquí. “Encontrarme con Bocafloja no es fácil. Poco después de su concierto en el Foro Indierocks! de la Ciudad de México nos reunimos en un café en Manhattan: el punto intermediario de los ‘boroughs’ del Bronx y Brooklyn. Cada quien llega a la entrevista desde los dos polos de la escena neoyorquina del hip hop. Estamos rodeados por personas que parecen competir por quién hace su plática más…Continue Reading “Hiphop, Transgresión y Celebración: Cumbé el nuevo disco de Bocafloja” →

Last Updated:

We Don’t Know What to Call the Millions Who Will Be Forced From Home by Climate Change

Categories borders, climate change, immigration

I published a feature on GOOD from Paris, examining the impacts of climate change on migration and displacement. Read the full article here. “Ousmane Badiaga, an undocumented immigrant living in Paris, was a rice farmer in his home country of Senegal. Speaking to an audience in a suburb of Paris during the United Nations climate summit, he told his story. ‘In 2010 there was a terrible drought, and we had to take on a very big debt to plant. This happened again in 2012.’ Badiaga told…Continue Reading “We Don’t Know What to Call the Millions Who Will Be Forced From Home by Climate Change” →

In Paris, Activists Challenge COP Inaction and Propose Solutions

Categories alternative economies, borders, climate change, climate justice, false solutions, immigration, social movements, Uncategorized
In Paris, Activists Challenge COP Inaction and Propose Solutions

My second dispatch from Paris at COP21 has been published on The Americas Program. “The Juarés Plaza in Montreuil, a small city to the east of Paris, is thronged with people, dancing, chanting and carrying bulky chairs above their heads. The procession winds out of the square to the applause of the audience. If I’d had time to count, it would have been 196 chair—all ‘requisitioned’ from area banks—to represent the 196 countries at the COP21 negotiations.” Read on to learn what requisitioned chairs, colonial…Continue Reading “In Paris, Activists Challenge COP Inaction and Propose Solutions” →

Migrant Shelter Sees Growing Number of Minors Heading North

Categories borders, immigration, mexico
Migrant Shelter Sees Growing Number of Minors Heading North

Please visit The Americas Program page to read my recent article on the rising trend of minors migrating north through Mexico. Based on my volunteer work and reporting in Ixtepec, Oaxaca, I discuss why minors are forced north and what conditions they face along the way. “On a recent day in March, Luis (name changed), a 17-year-old Guatemalan, arrived in the migrant shelter Hermanos en el Camino (Brothers and Sisters on the Road), in Ixtepec, Oaxaca. Standing just over 5 feet tall, he pulled his…Continue Reading “Migrant Shelter Sees Growing Number of Minors Heading North” →

Last Updated:

Oil and Natural Gas Frontlines: First Nations Lead the Way

Categories borders, climate justice, false solutions, social movements, solidarity, tar sands
Oil and Natural Gas Frontlines: First Nations Lead the Way

This post originally appeared on the blog of the Population and Development Program, based in Amherst, MA, which works at the intersection of reproductive freedom, environmental justice and peace. (However since then it’s made the rounds to Common Dreams, It’s Getting Hot in Here, and WeArePowershift.org. Perhaps my most cross-posted blog yet. I’m gratified to see this under-reported aspect of the tar sands issue getting some attention.) American environmentalists are declaring victory over the announcement that the United States will research alternate routes for the…Continue Reading “Oil and Natural Gas Frontlines: First Nations Lead the Way” →