Black and Latino communities unite in Los Angeles over racist comments from council members

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1. The theme to be highlighted:

The struggle of black Puerto Ricans

Afro-Puerto Rican communities have been among the hardest hit by Hurricanes Fiona and Maria, but are often the ones struggling the most to get help, according to activists.

Big Picture:

Experts say gentrification and discriminatory housing policies have forced many black Puerto Ricans out of urban areas and into coastal areas that are more prone to erosion from climate change, flooding, and hurricane disasters.

In detail:

The municipality of Loíza, where about 37% of residents identify as black, has seen heavy flooding in the last month from Hurricane Fiona as many on the island were still rebuilding from the destruction caused by Maria five years ago.

• However, Loíza was initially excluded from the list of municipalities that required post-Fiona emergency aid drawn up by Governor Pedro Pierluisi.

  He was added until later due to complaints about his omission.

Flood zones in Loíza, Puerto Rico, in September 2017 after Hurricane MaríaAlex Wroblewski/Getty Images

• After Hurricane María, many residents of Loíza had problems obtaining federal aid because they did not have the documents proving they owned a home, a problem that according to the Pulitzer Center affects mainly Afro-Caribbean communities because they know that their ancestors have been there for a century and only inherit the land without signing legal titles each time.

In her own words:

Jenifer de Jesús is the director for leadership and community initiatives at the Loíza-based nonprofit Taller Salud.

De Jesús praised the community's effort to prepare in advance for Hurricane Fiona, but said residents have still had a hard time recovering from the damage.

• "Those are areas (that are) more affected by the climate. There is also more concentration of black people and there are also a lot of concentrations of poverty there that endure with gentrification," De Jesús told Axios reporter Keldy Ortiz.

Despite the African and

of Puerto Rico, only about 11% of Puerto Ricans identify themselves as black because doing so still carries a stigma, according to specialists.

• "With their families people know they're black, but outside of the family, that's probably not something they talk about," says Hilda Llorens, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Rhode Island.

2. Black-Latino unity in Los Angeles in the face of racist comments

The secretly recorded audio of Latino councilors in Los Angeles making racist comments exposed the conflicts that can exist between the Hispanic and black populations in that city.

But the reaction has left the solidarity between the two communities in question beyond the Los Angeles halls of power.

Why It Matters

: How Black and Latino people work together as the United States diversifies, especially in its big cities, can shape the future and strength of struggles for civil rights and equity issues that affect both populations .

For a Latino activist in Los Angeles "it was very painful" what the councilmen did

Oct. 11, 202201:45

News Momentum

: Nury Martinez resigned Wednesday as a councilwoman in the face of pressure and protests from Hispanic, Indigenous and Black activists, protesters and political leaders.

Between the lines:

Martin Saiz, a political scientist at California State University Northridge, tells Axios Latino that comments from people like Martinez confirm some suspicions among black Los Angeles that Latino elected officials don't mind working together.

• "City politics is about building coalitions and if that coalition starts to fall apart" there will soon be widespread tensions, Sainz said.

General panorama:

However, a certain coalition has been seen in the protests in front of the City Hall after the publication of the audios.

People of Black, Latino and Indigenous descent have been rallying together to call for all of the councilmembers on the recording to resign.

3. Petro's strategy to go beyond the war on drugs

Colombian President Gustavo Petro is promising a radical change in the way drug trafficking is fought in his country.

And he may unexpectedly have American support to do so.

Why It Matters

: Counternarcotics operations are a cornerstone of the US relationship with Colombia.

• Petro, Colombia's first leftist president, takes a much more critical view of that aspect of the relationship than his predecessors.

• The United States has signaled openness to the new Petro approach.

  But the transition will not be easy.

Colombian Gustavo Petro (left) with US Secretary of State Tony Blinken, on October 3, 2022 in BogotáGuillermo Legaria/Getty Images

The Big Picture

: In an effort to combat cocaine production, the US and Colombian armed forces have historically coordinated to eradicate the coca leaf, the plant that is a precursor to making the illicit drug.

The Colombian military has also been ordered to capture, and sometimes kill, rebels and members of criminal groups.

• It is a strategy that has been criticized as inefficient by experts.

  Coca leaf crops are usually quickly replanted, and those who lose with the eradication are not directly criminal groups, but rural farmers who see coca as the only crop that can be profitable for them, analyst Elizabeth Dickinson told Axios Latino , of the group International Crisis Group.

• The arrest or death of rebel leaders or other organizations also does not have the desired effect of combating violence and drug trafficking, according to Dickinson, because someone else quickly replaces them or fights break out to control territory, since the conflict is more "atomized." now that the FARC is mostly demobilized.

A change in strategy runs into the problem

that almost all US funding as part of the cooperation is related to coca eradication.

• In budgetary terms, that leaves Colombian security forces almost handcuffed if they want to do other jobs like combating illegal logging or human trafficking, says Dickinson.

What's new:

Petro denounced the war on drugs in his speech to the UN General Assembly in September and reiterated his intentions to change the approach.

• Petro wants to reduce illegal cultivation but in its "industrial" phase, such as when the coca leaf is being processed in laboratories, not when it is grown by small farmers.

  The Colombian president has also asked Washington to support rather with investments so that those who substitute crops to plant something like coffee can receive profits.

• Petro has also asked the US to help rather with the confiscation of drugs and with the fight against money laundering, since the Colombian president indicates that this way they can hit the leaders of criminal groups instead of the " proletariat" that only grows coca leaves because they don't see any other option to get money.

Current situation:

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, said in Bogotá last week that the Joe Biden administration supports Petro's "holistic approach," including his call for collaboration in tracking drug traffickers and drugs shipped by sea.

• However, it is still unclear if or how that support could result in changes to US funding for the fight against illicit drugs in Colombia.

4. Reimagining

Aliens

With a new novel, science fiction fans will be able to learn more about soldier Vasquez, the character of a Latina member of the fictional US Colonial Marine Corps in the successful 1986 film

.

The Big Picture :

which will be released in the United States this November and was written by Violet Castro, is part of a wave of novels and products inspired by great science fiction and fantasy sagas that seek to expand the worlds portrayed in movies and series.

Violet Castro with her book cover Courtesy of Titan Books and Violet Castro

• In recent years, many of these works have been carried out by diverse writers and artists (black, Hispanic, of indigenous descent) who focus on secondary characters in the sagas.

• In addition to

  Aliens: Vasquez

  , for example, there's FC Yee's

  The Rise of Kyoshi

  about a character from

  Avatar: The Last Airbender

  .

  The novel

  Star Wars: Resistance Reborn,

  about the Star Wars character

  Poe

  Dameron, was written by Native American author Rebecca Roanhorse.

Background:

Violet Castro, a Mexican-American writer, told Axios Latino that she came up with the idea for the book a few months ago after thinking about the great influence Vasquez's character had on her despite being a small role in the 1986 film.

• "It was one of the few representations from that time that broke the mold of someone Latino as a domestic worker, a farm worker or a gang member," Castro said. "When I saw it, I thought 'wow, look at this brunette woman' who made it into space.

Yes, but:

In the James Cameron film, very little is said about Vasquez's life, other than to suggest that she may have been undocumented in earthly America.

• The character was not played by a Latina actress.

The intrigue:

Castro said that for his book he imagined Vasquez as a soldadera or adelita, those women who took up arms during the Mexican Revolution.

• In the book, Vásquez is also a believer in Santa Muerte and appeals to her when the alien begins to move around the ship.

5. Summary of key news in Latin America and the Caribbean

1. Up to 24,000 Venezuelans

will be able to enter via US airports as part of a new agreement between the Joe Biden government and the Mexican authorities.

• Mexico, meanwhile, will receive Venezuelans who are expelled from the US for entering illegally by land.

• The agreement was announced at a time when a record number of migrants, mostly from Venezuela, have tried to cross into Panama on their way to the US after crossing the dangerous Darien Gap.

• Venezuelans are fleeing their country due to political turmoil, food and medicine shortages and soaring inflation, as well as leaving other Latin American nations where they had been for a few years as the pandemic has made it difficult for them to have opportunities.

The United States announces new measures to control Venezuelan migration

Oct. 13, 202202:23

2. The Peruvian president, Pedro Castillo

, faces a constitutional accusation.

The Public Ministry accuses him of being part of a criminal organization to award public contracts in exchange for bribes.

• Charges were filed Tuesday night.

  A parliamentary commission will now decide whether to initiate a formal trial against Castillo that could mean his removal from power.

• Castillo denies the accusations and has painted the case, as well as five other criminal investigations against him, as a "new type of coup."

Pachanga Thursday

Claudio Gonzalez tells us that he is the first Hispanic to tour Iceland from north to south.

Incredible!

Claudio GonzalezPhoto courtesy of Holly Mee.

Graphics by Axios Visuals

• Claudio ran 211 miles (340 kilometers) in nine days in a race organized by a UK adventure group.

• He also ran a marathon at the North Pole a few years ago.

  Congratulations on the achievements, Claudio!

Thanks for following Axios Latino!

We will be back on Tuesday.

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