Oprah Co-anchors with NAHJ lifetime member

Click here to see Oprah Co-acnhoring with lifetime NAHJ member, Gloria Campos, in the newscast of WFAA-TV in Dallas, TX.

Our next coming chapter has latino based news organization

The reason they are joining:

Raymond Ruiz said: “We believe that creating a strong NAHJ chapter at the University of
Houston campus is critical to developing the talented student journalists
UHELGATO.com needs to be an elite publication.  By working togetherand
enlisting local support, we will make UH the top Hispanic Journalism
program in the country”.

Here’s an article about their news organization and website by Sinai Tirado

Making Headway in the Journalism World

 El Gato, a Latino based news organization developed by UH students, seeks to make headway in the journalism world through its concerns of Latino issues and other ongoing current events. It recently launched its website-www.uhelgato.com-by providing articles and columns on matters of politics, literature, sports, romance, and culture thanks to a handful of staff members.

El Gato has come a long way from its initial publication of newsletters. Its members have built an organization that works along side the community and other media outlets to provide a wide range of publications and improve media coverage of Latinos while sustaining high journalism standards.

Members are guided to effectively deliver interviews and use proper article formats. This facilitates each member’s ability to follow a concise structure which they can build upon. According to El Gato Director Ray Ruiz, “we want to get the fundamentals down; then, be able to manipulate them to create something new that can be effective.”

One of the aspects that make the organization effective is its close ties with the community. In fact, many of El Gato member credit their success to the community. As one of the creators of El Gato, Edgar Veliz, sustains an important role in community events for he says, “we would not be here without other people having helped us.” Not only that, El Gato wants to be involved with the people and events it covers to better understand their mission and perspectives.

Members have also kept close ties with other media organizations. Some of these organizations include The Daily Cougar, Houston Association of Hispanic Media Professionals (H.A.H.M.P.), the D.R.E.A.M. Act Coalition, and Arte Público Press.

Although some students view El Gato as a competitor to the Daily Cougar, El Gato collaborates with the university newspaper and respects its accomplishments. “We hope to gain the number of hits that the Daily Cougar sustains on a daily basis,” mentions Ruiz “their following acts as a benchmark for what we want our numbers to reach.”

To ensure its success, members want to increase the number of events covered, involve students from other universities, aid high school students with an interest in journalism, and build on staff members. Ideas are constantly welcomed, whether they are from readers or members.

You can see more at www.uhelgato.com

Soy latino y después comunicador

Por: Jose Antonio Acevedo-Cuevas

Más allá de una simple letra que simboliza la unión de los latinos, la Asociación Nacional de Periodistas Hispanos (NAHJ) tiene el propósito de unir a estudiantes interesados en las distintas áreas de las comunicaciones con su símbolo de la ñ. Quedó comprobado cuando muchos de nosotros pudimos participar como testigos y cómplices para envolver, abrazar y reinventar el periodismo a través del Internet y los nuevos portales cibernéticos para juntos atravesar esta nueva era mediática. Todo esto, gracias a la vigesimoséptima  convención anual de la Organización celebrada en San Juan, Puerto Rico.  

Como una de las mejores experiencias obtenidas, puedo relatar que me siento muy orgulloso de ser parte de esta Asociación que ayuda a los estudiantes en su formación profesional como periodistas en prensa, televisión, radio e incluso como productores y directores. Desde el 21 hasta el 29 de junio de 2009 pude ser partícipe de los seminarios especializados, la feria de empleo y el  “Student Campus” cuya misión es introducir a los estudiantes en esta disciplina con distintos talleres, conferencias con profesionales, entrenamientos y trabajos especiales como reportajes escritos y proyectos audiovisuales. Fuimos nosotros, un grupo seleccionado de 23 estudiantes de distintas nacionalidades, quienes dimos la talla para trabajar en este proyecto gracias a la ayuda indiscutible de cinco mentores: George Ramos, Rosa Morales, Lourdes Lugo Ortíz, Jeannie Claudio y Nadesha Karina González. 

Fue a través de esta experiencia cuando pude volver a identificarme primero como latino porque es parte de mi identidad, de mi patria y de quién soy; es a través del periodismo y la producción audiovisual donde puedo forjarme como profesional, comunicador y humanista. Es ahora cuando cada uno de nosotros tenemos que preguntarnos sobre el futuro que le depara al periodismo, indagar posibles soluciones para continuar hacia adelante este quehacer y echar a un lado las incertidumbres. Son los periodistas, escritores, editores, directores y productores quienes tienen en sus manos el presente y futuro; y somos nosotros, toda una nueva generación, la encargada en mantener la vida del periodismo de ahora en adelante. 

Muchas gracias a todos los que colaboraron para que esta experiencia fuera de aprovechamiento académico estudiantil y profesional. Fue la fuerza hispana la que nos unió en un solo lugar y es la gratitud la que nos une como seres humanos.  

Totalmente agradecido,  

José Antonio Acevedo-Cuevas 
Estudiante 
Universidad de Puerto Rico 
Recinto de Río Piedras

Volunteers Go Abroad to Help Children in Need

By: Juliana Jimenez

Pablo could have had anything he wanted for Christmas – toys, clothes, money.

But he didn’t want any of it.

Angelica Suarez, 25, told 8-year-old Pablo, a boy from the slums of Medellín, Colombia, to ask for whatever he wanted, and his “friends” from the University of Florida would do anything to get it for him.



“I want a hug,” Pablo said.



Pablo’s answer changed Suarez’s life.



A year before Suarez met Pablo, when she was vice president at UF’s Colombian Student Association (COLSA) in 2003, she found she “had a very big problem,” she said. “I didn’t like throwing parties for no reason.”



COLSA was renowned for its parties, which attracted scores of people and raised hundreds of dollars. 



She decided to use this money for a good cause, and Children Beyond Our Borders (CBOB) was born.



CBOB started as a small committee. 


It then developed into a UF student organization. 



Now, six years later, it is a nongovernmental organization (NGO) planning its sixth trip to Colombia from August 8-22, 2009. 



Suarez, founder and now vice-president of CBOB, said in her first trip with CBOB she found the inspiration to keep working hard for the organization.



“It changed my life,” she said. “Pablo made me understand my reason for living.”



CBOB’s first trip was in the summer of 2004. 



Five UF students took 300 pounds of clothes and 200 pounds of toys to Medellín, Colombia, which they had raised during the school year.



The NGO carries out two annual projects in Colombia: one to Medellin, in August, and another in Cartagena, in May.



“I am debating who has more fun, the kids or the volunteers,” she said. “The kids teach us more things than we can teach them.” 



Musician and singer Sandra Esmeralda Rivera also started her own not-for-profit initiative. 



She created Más Allá de las Fronteras, or Beyond Frontiers, a traveling musical workshop in towns around Colombia’s borders for children who have been displaced by civil war. 



In 2003, Rivera traveled with her husband, John Triana, and other members of her band, to Puerto Obaldía, a Panamanian fishing town that can only be accessed by boat. 



The town was a ramshackle collection of about 50 huts, with no water or electricity, Rivera said.



“Many of the kids couldn’t read or write -some of them could barely speak right,” she said.

 

“These children were basically growing in the wild.” 



For two weeks, Beyond Frontiers taught children how to play different instruments, Rivera said. 



These instruments- guitars, flutes, tambourines, maracas, and others – they gave to the children as a present at the end of the workshop. 



            Though Rivera gives these instruments to the children, the effects of volunteering many times “are not tangible,” said Rew Woodruff, life skills coordinator and career counselor for University Athletic Association (UAA) student athletes at UF. 



Woodruff helps coordinate activities between student athletes and children from local schools.



“It’s more of an emotional thing,” Woodruff said. “You can always say you’re too busy, but in reality, there’s always time.”



Students who want to volunteer helping children abroad can register with CBOB in November for the May 2010 trip to Cartagena. 



Volunteer service can also complement students’ careers. 



At CBOB, students can work in public relations, marketing, program development and grant writing.



The level of involvement depends on the student’s enthusiasm, Suarez said.



“We try to see the person’s individual skills,” she said. “The experience is not only to go outside the country and see places; it also allows you to expand your creativity.”



Suarez said volunteers who travel undergo a transformation. Sometimes, the effect is more amazing in the volunteers than in the children.



This is especially true of Suarez, who decided to do her master’s degree in public administration because she understood this was the way to help children like Pablo.



“I know I can die in peace now,” Suarez said. “I know someone will continue helping these children.”

 Juliana Jimenez was born in Bogotá, Colombia, 22 years ago. She moved to South Florida in 2000, and is now a journalism senior at the University of Florida in Gainesville. There she works as a photographer for the Florida Independent Alligator, the largest student-run newspaper in the nation, and as a Spanish writer and photographer for UF’s multi-lingual magazine The Anole.

Emo: Movimiento cultural juvenil de las emociones

Por Mildred M. Meléndez Otero

 

 

Xavier de Jesús, tiene 17 años y hace cinco años comenzó su búsqueda de encontrar una identidad. Pasó por diversos movimientos: punk, heavy, gótico hasta como él dice “bajo de categoría” y comenzó a identificarse con los emo.

 

 “Cuando era pequeño me di cuenta que era el nene bueno, no tenía muchos amigos y cuando lo encontré (movimiento emo), me sentí bien. La percepción que la gente tiene it’s like a feeling of fear, but más de respeto. Muchos de mis amigos son cacos, raperos y de otros estilos y siento que hay un tipo de respeto, es como: Mira él es loco no se metan con él”, dijo el joven quien es admirador de programas, tales como L.A. Ink y Miami Ink; le gusta el dibujo y le interesa, luego de estudiar arte, abrir una tienda de tatuajes.

La cultura juvenil emo tiene un origen musical, en específico rock emocional – música que tiene cambios entre susurros y gritos intensos- para crear emociones intensas de nostalgia, romance, pero también coraje e ira. Este movimiento viene de los años 80, lleva más de 20 años  y empezó en Washignton DC, con unos grupos particulares de música. “Consumen una estética muy parecida a la estética punk, pero todos estos grupos tienen sus propias estéticas, sus propios espacios y geografías. Cuando analizas cuáles son los puntos de encuentro entre las diferentes culturas juveniles, podemos encontrar que todas tienen: su propio discurso, estéticas particulares, es decir, cada una de estas identidades culturales juveniles construyen sus propias prácticas culturales”, explicó la doctora María Elisa Santana.      

De Jesús, menciona, que entre las cosas que le gustaron fue el estilo del cabello, las pantallas y la ropa. “El estilo es cómodo. Somos expresivos, locos”, explicó y recalcó “me gusta cómo me veo, me siento bien. Cuando la gente dice ‘te vas a matar’ o ‘que es suicida’, eso no es verdad porque yo tengo un balance, el balance entre lo que tiene que ser y lo que no es. Para mí, aunque tenga problemas, soy laid back, me disfruto la vida día tras días”. El estudiante de escuela superior, quien escucha la música heavy, screamo, rock clásico, rock and roll y flamenco, enfatizó que no todos los rockeros, punks son iguales. “No todos somos iguales, no todos somos suicidas, ser emo es sólo algo que nos gusta”, subrayó.

Santana, entiende que el grupo emo “se presenta similar a otros grupos juveniles. Desde mi punto de vista tienen una estética particular, un discurso, al igual que los movimientos rastafarian, hip-hop, gotismo, entre otros y también se presentan como consumidores, en el sentido de que al igual que otras identidades juveniles son consumidores de prácticas culturales como por ejemplo, cierto tipo de música”.  Agregó que en Puerto Rico la gente tiende a confundir a la cultura juvenil emo con los punks e hizo énfasis que no son lo mismo. Asimismo, destacó que todas las culturas juveniles han sido señaladas por la sociedad por su estética, entre otros factores.  

Estos grupos representan movimientos alternos a la cultura dominante y todos empiezan para establecer diferencias, ser únicos, asumir una moda diferente y consumir prácticas culturales diferentes. La doctora enfatizó que “cuando empezó la salsa, ésta recibió el mismo rechazo que recibió el reguetón y el hip hop. Los grupos asumen esas posturas como protesta y se distancian de las prácticas que se deben seguir de acuerdo a la cultura dominante”.

Los emo son una tribu

El sociólogo francés, Michele Maffesoli, al hablar sobre las tribus urbanas,  especifica y dice, que los jóvenes se organizan en tribus,  tienen sus propios códigos, sus propias modas, sus propios discursos y estéticas y con ello se entiende el concepto de tribu.

Santana indica que la gente común y corriente piensa que son punks, pero tienen subdivisiones. “La literatura dice claramente que todas las tribus juveniles han sido criminalizadas, además de que todas estas identidades tienden o suelen ser patologizadas – dar características o definir como loco o loca a una persona o grupo-, pero la gente no entiende que su moda y su estética son un lenguaje, explicó. Agregó que lo que los diferencia es la música que escuchan. “Los emo evolucionan del hard core punk, si se entiende al punk, se puede mirar a la cultura emo. Siempre en la historia, ha existido grupos diferentes”.  

La sicóloga dijo: “Para mí es importante que se entienda que es un proceso de la cultura y que hay que quitarle el significado de que son sectas delincuentes o criminales y ver cómo evolucionan.  Ser emo es identificarse, no sólo lucir como tal, tienes que practicar el discurso que se propone”. Santana sostuvo que en el mundo capitalista, estos grupos tienen más auge por el consumo.

Bernie Maldonado, asistente del gerente en Hot Topic, tienda especializada en mercancía referente a la cultura pop, dijo que hace seis años empezó a ver el movimiento en Puerto Rico y destacó que las bandas representativas de este movimiento lo son: My chemical romance, The used y Chiodos. Al igual que hay un sub género que se ha unido al emo, como bandas cristianas que tienen la misma estética, entre éstas Devil wears Prada, For today y August burns red. Respecto a la apariencia de los jóvenes que son clientes de la tienda explicó que utilizan skinny jeans, camisetas de colores brillantes, el color negro en su vestimenta y el piercing, conocido como “lip ring”.

“El 35 por ciento de nuestra clientela son ellos. Muchos son por fashion y otros porque realmente tienen el ideal. Ellos tienen cosas nítidas, como el ser expresivos sobre cómo se sienten. La música de ellos habla de sus sentimientos y son efusivos para presentarlos”, destacó.

Góticos vs Emos

Según la disertación presentada por la doctora Santana titulada Imaginario social y culturas juveniles en Puerto Rico: 1980 al presente, el gotismo constituye un movimiento romántico surgido en Europa y los Estados Unidos a finales de los años 70 y principios de los 80 de rescate de los valores tradicionales. Ideológicamente, tienden a ser pesimistas, románticos y melancólicos como respuestas críticas a lo que estos llaman la pérdida de los valores propuestos en la ilustración. Por esta razón, muchos exaltan el aprecio por la música, la filosofía y las artes en general. Asumen una estética barroca en la que predomina el uso de vestimenta negra matizada de llamativas cadenas, crucifijos y otra parafernalia. En el gotismo, el color negro es una metáfora de la oscuridad y de la falta de luz que habita en los seres humanos del presente momento histórico; es una denuncia del estado de situación de la condición humana en la actualidad. Es, en cierto sentido una expresión de duelo ante el abandono de la “moral tradicional” ante una sociedad estrangulada por los valores propuestos por el desarrollismo.

Mientras, que en el blog radiocristiandad.wordpress.com explica que la ecología, predicar la falta de adicciones, como el tabaco, el alcohol o las drogas (aunque fuman marihuana), el vegetarianismo, difundir la No-violencia y luchar contra el maltrato a los animales son algunos de los temas que recoge su ideología. También este blog indica que los emo “luchan contra toda forma de discriminación en especial contra los homosexuales, aunque lo hacen de una manera más persuasiva, pacífica e individualista”.

Posee un bachillerato en Comunicación con una concentración menor en Lenguas extranjeras de la Universidad del Sagrado Corazón (USC). Ex becada de Student Projects en El Reportero Latino en el 2006 y perteneció a la Asociación de Estudiantes de Periodismo de la USC. Ha colaborado en revistas y periódicos como periodista independiente. Actualmente estudia en la Maestría de Creación literaria de esa  Institución y es colaboradora de Intercuento en el portal de Ciudad Seva. Mantiene el blog Desde las palabras desde Mayo 2009.

Circa 2009

Video por: Jose Antonio  Acevedo-Cuevas

 

Polémica por la ley 7 en la UPR

Conversations with Mary

By: Dalina Castellanos

Maria Moreno opens the door to greet her visitors. In her left hand, a string of beads hangs slightly from her grip. Walking through the entryway, a wooden figure of the Virgen de Guadalupe standing on a shelf can be seen with similar strings of beads dangling from her open hands. The necklace-like strings are in all different colors, some beads are plastic, others are glass or wooden. “They give me strength for the rest of the day,” Maria says about the prayers that accompany the beads. The seventy-two-year-old recent widow settles back down in to her recliner and finishes her prayers in a nonstop whisper.

            The strung beads make up a rosary, used mainly by Roman Catholics for counting certain prayers while praying their devotion to the Virgin Mary. The rosary encloses a pattern of beads on the string or chain. Each bead represents a Hail Mary, the prayer devoted to the Virgin Mary of the Catholic Church.  A set of fifty beads are separated into a group of ten, called a decade, by a larger bead which represents an Our Father prayer. 

            Maria’s husband Rene passed away in June after suffering a heart attack. The rosary she prays with every day was a gift that she received from him in 1953 when he entered the service. “It was like an engagement promise when I received it in the mail,” she said. The rosary itself is a silver chain, now tarnished, with fifty small crystal beads divided into tens by similar larger beads encased in a silver wire netting. “It came in a velveteen box with an embroidered pillow,” Maria recalls, “It was a big deal getting a gift like that back then.”

            After returning from his service in Korea, Rene brought home a ring to take the rosary’s place. “I would pray with it every day so he could return safe,” she said. He did, and brought other gifts along with him, but the rosary stayed a strong symbol of their relationship. She used her special rosary during her wedding, had it by her side at the birth of her eight children and constantly in her hands during hard times and illnesses. When Rene passed away, the crystal rosary was in his coffin during the wake. Before the pallbearers closed the casket, Maria politely asked to get it back.

            Usually after a death in a Roman Catholic family, there is a rosary prayer held in groups for nine days. Family and friends are encouraged to attend. Depending on who is praying the rosary and when, a “mystery” is announced before another decade of prayers are resumed. Throughout the nine days, or a novena in Spanish, the mysteries are alternated. According to Sister Diane Bridenbecker, a campus minister at the St. Thomas More Newman Center at the University of Arizona, there are four types of mysteries. The types may be confusing because they correspond to different days and may change according to the Catholic Church’s calendar and events, but they are represent the joyful, glorious, sorrowful and luminous events in the life of Jesus Christ. Luminous mysteries were proposed in October of 2002 by the late Pope John Paul II to focus on Christ’s public ministry, which had not been addressed in the other three mysteries, Sister Diane explained.

            “I thought she would just play around with it,” Evy Kory recounts her memories about her grandmother’s rosary. “I remember her praying with it all the time.” Although Evy eventually learned how to pray with the beads as a guide during an altar serving class in fifth grade, rosaries will forever be the beads that her grandmother held in her pretty hands with a strong grip.

            When her grandmother was diagnosed with cancer in 2001 and moved in to the Kory’s house shortly afterwards, Evy’s mother would go and pray the rosary with her grandmother frequently. Two short months after her diagnosis and the day after Christmas, the Kory matriarch passed on and left behind the crystal and silver rosary now held in Evy’s soft hands. The crystal beaded decades are worn and chipped; grime can be seen beginning to form in the bead’s mouth. Her thumb unknowingly rubs the medallion with a figure of the Virgin Mary which separates the loop containing the decades and the short beaded trail leading to the crucifix. 

            For many Catholic children, it is customary to have a First Holy Communion around the age of seven in which the child usually receives a rosary along with a prayer book and candle from his or her godparents. Margarita Castellanos remembers hers very well. Her crystal blue rosary is slightly different than others, it only has one decade, making it much shorter than the others she has around her house and with a small medallion recounting a mystery to separate the decades instead of a larger bead. She learned to pray using the rosary in catechism classes before her communion and has since felt a connection with it. “It’s petite; I carry it around in my purse to always have it with me,” she said.

            Miguel Lopez has his black wooden rosary everywhere he goes. Back in high school, while studying abroad in Europe, he bought the religious relic at the Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino in Italy. On a trip to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain he left the beads hanging over the van’s seat. When the group returned, they noticed the van was broken into, but nothing was taken and the rosary was still in place. Five years ago, while driving home, Miguel fell asleep at the wheel, causing his Jeep Liberty to crash into many trees and almost flip over. Nothing happened to Miguel and the rosary slipped off the driver’s seat and onto the door’s side compartment. “In a way it made me wonder,” Miguel said, “I believe it has something to do with my safety after all these years.

Sister Diane explains that the rosary is a means to have a conversation with Mary about the gospels. There is a common misconception, Sister Diane clarifies, that some people make; some think that those who pray the rosary are worshiping Mary, but in fact it is a way to have her as a companion and ask her to pray for us. Maria Moreno admits to the rosary brining a sense of peace and safety when she has one around.

Companions are a common factor when dealing with rosaries. While some people prefer to pray the rosary alone, others choose to pray in groups, alternating verses of the prayer between group members. “You hear this sound going back and forth, kind of like chanting. Like music,” says Sister Diane. Margarita admits to only praying the rosary when there is a group present. “I pray on my own, but I feel the rosary helps share your faith.”

Dalina Castellanos is a Journalism student at the University of Arizona and a Chips Quinn Scholar. She is completing an extended internship at the Tri-City Herald in Washington state.

OCTA Reduction Program for March 2010

By: Paulette E. Martin

Pualette E. Martin is a broadcast Journalism student from California State University, Fullerton

Mission Bay Triathlon

Here’s a sample of a project by Simone Aponte, where for a video production class this semestershe had to create a package with natural sound only, no track.

Simone Aponte is a graduate student at the Academy of Art University pursuing a master’s degree in Multimedia Communications. She also works full-time as a news producer at KFMB-TV, the CBS affiliate in San Diego.